Chapter 3-The Flight

I went through check-in, baggage check, and security as fast as possible and got on my 7:00 flight to New Seattle. Because of the heavy security levels and the long lines, I almost missed my flight, but I ran fast enough to catch it before the doors shut. I found a window seat and plopped down on it, still out of breath from my rushed morning. Thankfully, nobody sat next to me, so that meant I could contemplate things in peace. We took off, and I felt a rush of excitement for the future in the past. As I watched Kansas slowly shrink away and move behind me, I looked down at what I had known my whole life. Horrifying. Once we reached cruising altitude, I got up to use the small bathroom. I didn't even need to use the toilet; I just needed to splash some water on my face to calm myself. Once I sat back down, the flight attendant began to hand out the small, mildly disgusting snacks. The only options were a small pack of generic raisins or wheat crackers. I politely passed on the offer when she reached my seat. The sun was just beginning to rise behind the plane, and I could now see the ground well. Out in the distance, I saw the ruins of what used to be Denver and the beginning of the Rocky Mountains behind it. I remembered learning about all of the destroyed cities in school, some of them left to crumble after the destruction was brought upon them, some rebuilt, some relocated and renamed, such as New Seattle. New Seattle was formed after a majority of original Seattle was drowned by the ocean due to rising sea levels. No one could exactly confirm how it happened, but a chain of nuclear explosions went off in Antartica, where thousands of missiles were stored, melting nearly all of the ice on the continent. The aftermath was devastating, flooding many nations. Amidst the chaos of the war that resulted from the crisis at hand, the USA, who had been brought to their knees, struck Denver with a ballistic missile in a last effort to stay afloat as a nation. Denver was one of the cities left to stay in ruins and remain abandoned until the end of times because of the nuclear waste and the cost to rebuild such a city as this. I tried to catch up on sleep for the remainder of my flight, but I couldn't help but wonder about the meaning of those chilling words the woman told me earlier.