Page 25

I couldn’t help tearing into the candy and the ice cream before I ate some fruit pieces. When I felt better and stronger, I opened the silver packet.

Tiny microchips fell into my hands.

My eyes lit up. “Microchips!” I yelled. “I can build anything now!”

Then I saw the note inside the silver packet.

Evie, I knew you would make it to this part. I packed what was left from the ship into this backpack from the pantry I went looking for. I did find food, but there was so much more. We first saw signs, and that’s when left the Shelter and went looking for people. They weren’t on the Red Genesis, at least that ship. Perhaps the other 2 ships. But, I’ll keep looking for them until I find them. It is my mission as the surviving leader from the Red Genesis settlement. You must stay put and maintain the Shelter for those people I am bringing back. I am counting on you to keep the Shelter going. The database of humankind is kept there, and now that you have the microchips, we can rebuild New Earth as it once was. I love you, Evie.

Mom.

I felt better knowing Mom had discovered there were more people alive. Humanity has a chance. I also know now how much more capable she was than anyone else. I witnessed how the love and will of a mother can drive Mom to do anything to make her way back to me. Witnessing everything Mom did with the Red Genesis and this Shelter gave me confidence that she would succeed.

Most importantly, having faced and fought the Monsters, then being saved, despite facing them head on, gave me hope that we humans can overcome the Monsters. Every footage and report I’ve seen of the Monsters from Vintage Earth’s archives showed that whenever a human encountered a Monster, the human perishes.

But reading Mom’s Journal proved otherwise. We can fight the Monsters. She did. So did Dad. And I did. I should have perished, if I believed the news that were reported back from Vintage Earth. But I lived and was saved. I was saved by a higher power than humans. God. That gentle but strong voice that intervened right when the Monsters reached me.

Mom said to stay put and wait for her while maintaining the Shelter. She’s given me enough seeds for me to grow in our Shelter’s gardens to last for years, and packets of freeze-dried food that would last up to 25 years. I was set.

As I got up to walked over to the Control Center of the Shelter, I felt a breeze flash by me before a heavy blow to the back of my head. My eyes rolled back as I felled to the ground, spilling everything in my backpack and Mom’s journal.

My eyes went blurry before everything went black.

How long was I in this position? How long was I sleeping on the ground?

I looked around me. Everything was in place as it should be. Nothing was amiss. But a suit was missing, the latch cover to the opening of the Shelter was opened, and there was one tiny microchip on the ground.

Where did that chip come from? As long as I inventoried everything in the Shelter, there was no microchip which was incredibly precious.

And the latch door. How did that get opened? The last time I went outside was when I saw Mom leave the Shelter to go look for missing people after receiving a signal. That was a month ago?

“Mom?” I called out. “Mom?” Did she return?

Did something happen when I fell asleep?

Somehow, I couldn’t remember. I couldn’t remember going outside of the shelter.

I reached up to climb up the ladder to close the latch door, only to feel an intense pain in my shoulder. I walked over to the nearest mirror and looked behind me. There was a large bruise from my neck to the back of my shoulder. I ached all over my body as well. What happened?

Did something happen here? Was there something in here that went missing? I couldn’t remember. But I knew something was off. Mom wasn’t back. Where did she go?

As I put healing cream on my back, I noticed a movement at the corner of my eye.

God help us. I am not alone in here.