Returning to the Earth
The air in the dull classroom always smelled like copper and rust.
Only Aurora could smell the surroundings and she was always the first one to find out if the filter system was about to crash again.
“Sit still Aurora.” Madame Kiera snapped under her respiratory helmet. Aurora never wore one.
She never needed it. Everyone around her was always whispering behind her back about it.
Later that night, Aurora lay in her sleep pod staring at the ceiling. The silent hum of the facility never stopped. Her bunkmate, on the other hand, was already fast asleep.
Then the door creaked open. A shadow slipped in. The footsteps were too nimble to be a teacher’s.
“Don’t scream,” a voice whispered in her ear. “I came for you.”
Aurora slowly sat up, “who are you and state why you need to talk with me.”
The mysterious figure pulled down her hood, moonlight flooded onto her face, revealing her shiny black hair and thin scar along her high cheekbones. She also didn’t wear a helmet.
“I’m Marrissa. I used to work for the Environmental Services. I found your files a while back,” Marrissa said. “You’re marked for lung disposal tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Aurora whispered back surprised, “but why does that matter?”
“Well, you’re different. Your lungs work without filters. And there’s more children like you out there,” Marrissa said, pulling out an old tablet. “The government decided to hide it. They called people like us defects or mutants. But we’re something much more important. We are the next evolution of humanity. We are the next generation.”
They escaped through a secret passage before the sun rose. As they continued, the poison became stronger and more blinding.
But as they reached the surface, Aurora felt the air become warmer and fresher than ever.
Then, they saw light.
Real sunlight poured down on them. The skies were blue, not brown as Aurora once learned in school. Clouds drifted lazily through them. Moss was creeping onto the junk left there hundreds of years ago.
Aurora followed Marrissa to a nearby village. There were a couple dozen children. All of them had smiles on their faces, dancing around in the sunlight.
So a new human species emerged: the Homo Respiratus. They would lead the world one day.
