We have Hope

I was nine when the world around me began to crumble. I never understood what lead to wars when I was younger, and as I grew up I learned about taxes and the mistakes people would willingly make. Everything my mother and father tried to protect me from unraveled. More and more wars were being fought, and thousands of people were dying each day of disease. America changed because of debt and foreign influenza. Tuberculosis spread throughout many men and woman in the country. Most left untreated because of extreme debt and lack of medical supplies. America was falling apart. It lost every war after the war of 2045. Adults everywhere were afraid of what will happen.

In the year 2056, nine years after the war of 2045, America had lost another war. Along with losing the war it lost many territories and most of the land was in ruins.The American population dropped over ten million people. On the fourth of July my family died. I was eighteen years old, and we were on our way to watch fireworks for the Fourth of July celebration. My older brother, Jake, was driving the family bus. We were reaching the beach when a large plane flew over us. At first none of us saw much of it, but then we heard a sound come from under the plane, and a large bomb fell right onto our bus and exploded. Too much happened at once after that, but I remembered seeing my mother reach for me and grab my hand. My dad and brother followed her movement, and i closed my eyes afraid of my death. Something hit my head knocking me into unconsciousness.

A few hours later, I opened my eyes and saw myself staring at an endless, blue sky full of white clouds. I sat up hoping that I would see my family around me. Is this what it looks like in an after life? I thought as I looked around. Soon I saw a road on my right, and I was standing on a hill. The illusion of the beautiful sky disappeared and left me with the remains of my family's bus. I looked back at the bus and the man beside it staring at me in awe.

"Did you... Were you a part of this incident?" he asked.

I nodded.

"But you.. You should be..." he paused.

"Dead?" I helped. "Yes, I should. So why don't you explain why I am not. Are you a detective?"

He shook his head.

"Police?"

"No."

"Then what are you? Who are you?"

"I saw what happened. My name is Clark Emmins."

"Well, can you explain how I'm not dead?"

"I can't actually. You should be."

"I should be."

"Look, I'm more concerned at the fact that you have no sign of ever being near this explosion," he looked at me from head to toe.

I looked at myself. He was right. How is that possible. I looked back up at Clark. "How?"

"I don't know..." he stopped and got wide eyed. "You're Hope!"

"No, I'm Sophia."

"Well, that's your name. But you are Hope. Oh my God! This is amazing!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm going to leave you with that thought," I turned and started walking down the hill.

"No, wait!"

"What?!"

"You have to come with me."

"I don't want to," I kept walking.

He did not call after me, but I knew he wouldn't give up. What did he mean by Hope? I was too afraid to find out.

It took about an hour for me to find my way back to my street. When I got there I took my usual route back to my house. At the stoplight I turned to my right and walked up the steps to the door of my house. I bent down to get the key from under the welcome mat and stood up to unlock the door. When I tried to unlock the door I realized that there was no door. Then i took a better look and saw that there was no house. They bombed our house too. This means that the car accident was meant to happen. Why?

I was on my way to a diner on 64th street. I had no money, but I figured that Luisa will at least give me a slice of pie and some coffee. I walked into the diner, took my usual spot at the corner near the side window that shows what used to be a fountain, and waited for Luisa.

"Hello Sophia. It's a surprise that you are here. I thought you and your family would be on your way to the Works," Luisa said as she walked out of the kitchen. I had an opportunity to work in that kitchen over the summer of 2050, but my father thought it was not a good idea. I was angry for two weeks.

"We were..." I began, but the Channel 8 News went on as I tried to explain the story. It explained how the plane dropped a missile on a family bus, and how it was an accident. In my mind I knew that this was no accident because my house was bombed too. I looked up at Luisa to see her reaction as the news reporter said my family's name as the victims and showed photos of each and every person that was in the car. Including me.

"Y-you couldn't have survived that. I mean, you are unscathed. Th-that's not possible," Luisa said.

"I don't understand it either, Luisa. I honestly don't know why or how. I just know that it happened," I replied.

"But that's not possible. Unless you were..."

"Unless I was what?"

"Nothing . It's not possible."

"Luisa, do you know what the Hope is?" I looked at her.

Her eyes widened, "Yes. The Hope is an old story. They say that a baby will be born on the year of the Fall. On a specific day, no one knows which, and that person is our Hope. The strongest, most powerful, indestructible human that is born from the daughter of Ornious and the son of Rowana. The two most powerful gods in the world, unknown to any country except America. And this child will not be able to know that he or she is the Hope until he or she believes it. When he or she does believe it they will know. He or she begins to develop incredible powers that at times can be uncontrollable. Now every country knows about the Hope legend and want to put a stop to it. Even the American government wants to put a stop to it."

"Why?"

"Because the Hope is supposed to be the power to save all of mankind. And there is a chance that he or she will bring us back to the 1700's. Other countries do not want that..."

"Because America will be on top," I whispered.

"Yeah, and America wants the Hope dead because the government thinks he or she will want to take over the country and rule the world."

"That's insane."

"Well everyone thinks stupid things."

"That's true."