Free The Other Side of Nowhere by JN Chaney Page A

Terry. Of course John didn’t think he was lucky. He was probably hurting as much as Terry.
    “It’s okay,” said John. “And happy birthday, by the way.”
    “Thanks,” said Terry. “Is it yours today, too?”
    “Sure is. Me, you, and everyone else in our class.”
    “Really?” asked Terry. “Seems like a lot of birthdays.”
    John paused for a moment. “Actually, yeah, it kind of is.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “My brother told me before I got here everyone starts school on their birthday. But he also said when you get here, your class is already going on, because different kids are born at different times. The classes are based on what time of the year you’re born in.”
    “So?”
    “So if all of us have birthdays today, isn’t it kind of weird?”
    Terry shrugged. “All my mother said about birthdays was you went to school on them.”
    “It’s weird, though,” insisted John. “My brother said kids get here at different times, not all at once. It doesn’t make any sense if we’re all on the same day, does it?”
    Terry thought about this for a moment. “Maybe a lot of mothers just had babies all at the same time. Maybe our class is smaller than the other ones.”
    “So many maybes.”
    Terry sighed and leaned back against the wall. His feet dangled off the side of the bed. “What happens tomorrow?”
    “Orientation,” John said. “And we start our classes. That’s what they told me earlier.”
    “Nobody told me anything,” said Terry.
    “Probably because you were late,” said John. “When we got here, they lined us all up and explained it. Tomorrow’s orientation, then our first class.”
    “Anything else?” asked Terry.
    “Dinner,” said John, pointing to a clock next to his bed. “Ten more minutes until we eat.”

Chapter 2
     
    Documents of Historical, Scientific, and Cultural Significance
    Play Audio File 109
    Subtitled: Re: Cheer Up
    To: SE_Pepper
    Recorded February 20, 2174
    CARTWRIGHT : I wish I shared your optimism, Sasha. I really do. But the sad truth of the matter is that there is no going back. We’ve spent the last two decades trying to figure out a way to fix what’s happened, to pull ourselves out of this tomb, but we still have nothing to show for it.
     
    We need to accept our fate. We’re never leaving this city. It’s been decades since the gas came, but nothing’s changed. There’s still no word from the outside, no responses to the hundreds of transmissions I’ve sent out into the void. The six hundred surviving humans in this cave of a city are all that’s left. No one else is out there. No one here is leaving. As far as our species goes, this is it. We’re at the end of the line. The planet’s dead and rotting, and the rest of us are waiting in the grave.
     
    End Audio File
     
    April 14, 2339
    Central
     
    Mara boarded the platform and waited for the train to arrive. Now that Terrance had been dropped off, it was on to the mothers’ lounge. A few minutes on the A line and she’d be there. Can’t be fast enough , she thought.
    Metal clanked against the rails, echoing through the station, followed by a veil of dust that seemed to cover everything. It was coming from a set of vents nestled high above the train line. A group of contractors dangled nearby like puppets on strings, shouting and laughing as they worked. One of them kept hitting the side of the vent with his wrench, scattering wave after wave of dust with each loud smack.
    Everyone called it the purifying season, though it was hardly a season at all—more like a month of air purification coupled with manual routine maintenance on several of the major systems. The whole process used to only take a week or two, but thanks to recent problems in other parts of the city, including an ongoing quarantine over in the slums, the contractors were spread pretty thin.
    Still, the purifying season had its silver lining. Most of the mothers rarely had a chance to meet any men, especially when it