Free Yesterday's Gone: Season Six by Sean Platt, David Wright

causing trouble. Nothing too serious but annoying to the teachers — and charming to some of the girls. Emily was surprised he’d been among the students chosen for the tour. Not only was he always getting into one thing or another, he was obnoxious like most overly aggressive boys were.  
    Why is he even on this trip?
    It was easy to see why the others were there. Sutton was pretty and popular — her father was a big shot at one of the mainland factories. Kenny was one of the smartest kids in class. And Emily, well, Emily wasn’t sure why she was picked, either. She didn’t think of herself as especially smart. Perceptive, yes. But she’d never been particularly interested in learning history, remembering facts, or anything having to do with math. And nobody knew about her gifts.  
    Last year, Mr. Pace had called Emily’s father in for a conference because Emily was “daydreaming,” as he’d said, too much in class. She didn’t see it so much as daydreaming as much as thinking up songs she planned to write when class was out.  
    If there was one thing Emily missed in this world, it was that nobody would ever make another song, at least not in her lifetime. Emily remembered when she was a child and her mother would sing while rocking her to sleep. She’d sing in the car when they were going to preschool. As Emily grew up, she started singing in music class, plays, and church choir.  
    Nowadays, she sang only to herself, when she was alone.
    Emily didn’t feel comfortable singing to her father. He was always so logical and wanting to discuss facts, history, and other stuff she had no interest in. The few times she did try to sing, he gave her a polite, “That was nice” but didn’t seem to appreciate it. She often wondered if her singing reminded him of her mother.
    Dad hated talking about her.
    Sure, he’d answer Emily’s questions, but he always cut the conversation short. For a while, she thought maybe her father didn’t like his wife. But then one night, following a fight she had with her dad, he’d drunk too much wine and said something she’d never forget.
    “I wish the plague had taken me instead.”
    He got up, went to his room, and they never spoke of it again.
    Emily would always remember the words, and how much they hurt, but she wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said it, or what he’d meant. But the part of Emily that kept her awake at night suggested that her father was mad at her mother for dying. For leaving him with a burden. For having to take care of Emily.
    “What is that?” Chris asked, voice raised in enthusiasm, yanking Emily from her Memory Lane.
    She looked out the window and saw a huge parking lot. In the center of the lot, where the store — or perhaps a mall — should be, lay a block-wide crater in the earth, maybe ten feet deep, filled with what looked like vegetation-peppered rubble.
    Mr. Pace said, “That’s one of the impact spots from our mothership’s lasers.”
    “Wow!” Chris and Kenny said in unison.
    The crater gave Emily chills, reminding her of everything the aliens had robbed from the world — and her. She hated how Chris and Kenny seemed to be in awe of the aliens’ destructive powers. Such boys. She wanted to throttle them.  
    Don’t you realize you’re oohing and ahhing over aliens killing our people? What kind of insensitive jerks are you?
    Instead, Emily kept her mouth shut.  
    See, Dad, I do listen to your advice, sometimes.
    She wished she’d come on the trip alone. While Sutton wasn’t being her usual bitchy self, Chris and Kenny’s enthusiasm over every sign of destruction got progressively worse as the field trip continued. You’d think they were touring enemy territory, not the place they’d all called home before The Fall. Surely, the boys had lost loved ones, maybe a parent or two, to the plague or aliens.
    A sudden bang outside rocked the shuttle, causing it to shudder violently back and forth, sending the kids stumbling.