On December 2099, my life rotated 360 degrees. Bodies floated like plastics bags, people screamed. It felt like a horror movie. Boston was unrecognizable: trash everywhere, poop floating in disgusting water.
Everything started back in 2090.
We humans are rational animals, but we hadn’t acted like it. Every day, more and more cars were in the streets, more and more cows were becoming hamburgers. The Earth started to become hotter and hotter, the levels of the oceans started to rise, small islands started to disappear.
The day that everyone was afraid of came. August 1, 2099: the chaos. The Earth fell apart. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the raw ultraviolet rays destroying half the ozone layer. People died instantly, mostly white people, because their skin didn’t have enough melanin to fight the rays.
***
Carmon was the richest man in the world. I hated him so much because he had a lot of stupid thoughts and beliefs. We were part of only one hundred thousand survivors on the whole, destroyed Earth. Carmon wanted us to nominate him king of the galaxy because he was the only rich person who had survived. He wanted us to give up our rights, freedom of speech, privacy and our right to choose who to marry. He wanted to control our destiny. He called himself God.
We had no option—we had to accept it or die.
After everyone accepted all of his stupid conditions, he declared that all living things were moving to Jupiter, explaining that Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and could hold the human species for a long time.
***
Carmon took all the survivors, including me, and put us in a place with fake oxygen, fake trees and fake happiness. All that was a fake illusion. After two years of recovering from all the lost humans, I never recovered from losing my family. I missed my entire family. I missed my dog and cat. I missed everything that reminded me of how the world used to be.
***
We finally traveled to Jupiter on a Sunday morning in a giant rocket. That was the day I met the love of my life. She was 5’9’’ with big, black, curled afro hair, and she wore a ripped shirt and black pants. I was too shy to talk to her, but I couldn't hide my feelings. My heart was beating too fast; I was so in love. I stared at her for exactly one minute without even blinking my eyes. I didn't notice that she was walking towards me.
“Hi, I’m Luna,” she said.
“H-h-h-hi,” I replied, stammering, my entire body trembling.
“So, why were you staring at me?” she asked with a huge smile.
“Because I’m totally in love with you,” I replied.
I covered my mouth after realizing what words came out. She didn’t anything.
After a minute of silence, she kissed me, then walked away. No words could describe that moment.
***
We finally arrived to Jupiter. We had to use oxygen masks to leave the rocket. When we got out, I couldn’t breathe, not because of the lack of oxygen, but because of what I saw. I started to to cry. I missed my home, Earth. I cried even harder when I saw the fake plastic flowers with artificial smells.
There were a bunch of skyrockets with apartments. Each apartment had the name of the person who would live there. My apartment was on the 30th floor, so I needed to use the body transporter, which transports you anywhere in 0.5 seconds, but it made me feel dizzy and uncomfortable.
When I first saw my apartment, it was so amazing. My entire room was decorated white and black, but there were artificial flowers and artificial scents of the sea and flowers.
***
Jupiter was so crispy and weird; it was always night and always cloudy, with artificial clouds and artificial oxygen. When you inhaled the oxygen, it tasted like mint and candy. It wasn’t like Earth’s oxygen; everything was so fake that I couldn’t handle it.
It was always night on Jupiter because of its distance from the sun. I was so bored those first few days, even with all the technology and robots that I had at home. My robots didn’t let me do anything in the house because they were always cleaning and and cooking for me.
***
One day, I got bored, and I started to experiment with my scientific equipment. I used to create a lot of clones in my experiments, but that day, I ended up cloning a mix of an exotic cheetah and a jaguar. She was so cute, strong, beautiful. I made her really small in order to control her.
Suddenly, my body transporter beeped. Someone wanted to to face telegram with me, but I had to accept the friendship first.
Oh my God, it was the girl that I met during the trip, I thought. I didn’t know how to act, but I knew that I wanted to to see her, see that beautiful, lovely girl again. I accepted her request and immediately started chatting with her. She wanted to use the body transporter to come to my house.
She came into my house and started talking and talking. I was confused about what she was trying to tell me.
“Calm down, speak slowly,” I said.
“Ok, Carmon started with his s*** again, he signed a new f**** law that prohibits relationship for gays and lesbians. He’s so homophobic and stupid,” Luna explained. “The problem is that I fell in love with you the first day I laid my eyes on you,” she added.
I should’ve been happy because the woman that I fell in love with had the same feelings for me, but at the same time my heart broke, just like a wrecking ball destroys houses.
“Are you saying that we can’t be together?” I asked with a broken heart.
“Yes, that’s what Carmon’s new law says. It doesn't mean that we need to follow it. I won't give up on being with you. Just because we are two girls and we choose to love each other... I won’t give up on you,” she added in an angry voice.
Of course she was right. I wouldn’t give up the love of my live just because someone doesn't want to mind his own business. After I calmed her, we talked for two hours about how much we missed our liberty and how much we missed the Earth.
***
Suddenly, two of Carmon’s police robots knocked at the door. They broke into the house, and in less than a minute, they handcuffed Luna.
“You've been arrested because you broke the law 590 page 888 for trying to create a movement against the leader and trying to change people’s minds,” the robots explained.
I couldn't do anything because they were four giant robots each at least six feet tall. I told Luna to not worry. I would try to get her out of jail. Immediately, I contacted Carmon.
“Carmon, why did the f*** did you arrest Luna? Why did you involve her and other citizens in our problem?” I asked, expecting the worst and most hilarious answer ever.
“Everyone knows that God created Adam and Eve, not two Eves or even two Adams. Why would we accept it?”
“First of all, God does not judge people. Even Jesus saved a prostitute before being stoned by the civilians,” I interrupted him. “Who are you, a simple man that likes to play God? Just because you fell in love with me and I didn’t respond to your love because I’m gay, now you want revenge and to hurt people that don’t have anything to do with this? This is our problem,” I added.
“If you can’t be mine because you think you’re gay, then you can’t be anybody else’s,” Carmon said.
“I don’t get to choose who I am going to love,” I disagreed. “And I definitely wouldn’t have fallen in love with you. You are pathetic, cruel and incapable of loving,” I added.
“In order to let your lovely girlfriend out of jail, you need to marry me first,” Carmon said.
Of course, I didn’t agree, but knowing that my love was in prison, there was no way to say no. I felt like a robot that had been controlled by a human, with no freedom to move, a slave to my feelings.
***
Carmon quickly organized the wedding the next day, and invited people with the same disgusting personality as him. I didn’t choose my wedding dress. I dressed up like a boy because I wanted him to be really angry with me, to show him I wasn’t happy at all. The wedding was in his house with a lot of scrupulous people. When I stepped in, everyone turned their heads with surprised faces. I was prepared for that. Carmon, as a light-skinned man, was turning purple. I could see how mad he was, but I didn't care, that was my point. I was laughing inside proudly.
The ceremony started and the priest was starting to speak when a giant black portal opened in the middle of the house. It was Luna. She was holding a gigantic object that looked like a witch broom.
I didn't even ask anything, I ran towards her and jumped in the portal. Inside was cold and black. Memories passed by.
I hugged her immediately. Feeling her warm and lovely arms was the best thing. She kissed me with her soft, sweet lips. It felt like nothing could destroy that moment. Suddenly, I saw a green, blurry landscape. They looked like trees, but they were big and shiny. A weird and intense light blurred my vision because I was looking straight at it. I heard children's voices from all directions. I thought I was dreaming. It had to be a dream, but it wasn't.
Those were real trees, real birds, real children. The shining light that I couldn’t recognize was the sun. How could that be possible?
“I just created a time machine, with micro intelligences that I found in the jail and someone helped me,” Luna said. “But don't ask me how,” she added.
I couldn’t believe it.
“We are in California, back on Earth. The date is December 6, 1865,” Luna concluded. “I’m giving us a second chance to change the world, a second chance to change people’s minds about gays, and a second chance that can shift all the racism and destruction in this world.”