Anton 1

Anton woke up with a start. Everything seemed quiet. It was his turn to stay in the small guardhouse outside to keep watch. There never was much to watch out for but it gave everyone a sense of tranquility. It made it easier to sleep knowing that someone was watching over the crops and animals. But what woke Anton was a small noise in the usual silence. It had sounded like someone walking towards the guardhouse but everything was quiet again. To make sure that no one was around out to steal some extra food or that any wild animals were lurking around, he got up and walked outside. Seeing absolutely nothing, not only was he still half asleep but it would have been too dark to really notice anything, he returned to the small dirt house. As he entered he noticed something in one of the corners that had not been there when he left. Grabbing a large stick he cautiously moved closer, he raised his arm as to strike but stopped when he heard giggles. Surprised he moved even closer and saw that in the corner was a very small person, with bright blue eyes and giggling with its hands on its mouth. It was Mika, Anton’s little sister.
“What are you doing here, in the middle of the night?” asked Anton.
Mika replied, still giggling “You should have seen you face! What did you think I was?”
“Mika, you know better, you have to stay inside, no one can go outside at night, it could be dangerous. You never know what could have attacked you, or who could have seen you and thought you were going outside to steal food.” Anton said getting irritated.
“Humph, your too serious sometimes, you know that? There haven’t been any wild animals seen around here in month! And everyone knows me; I barely eat anything, why would I go at night to steal food? But anyways, I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I would come here. I was cold and bored, and dad snores horribly. And well I was a bit hungry too, could I eat a little something, you know nothing big, just enough to last me until tomorrow?” She said this all very fast, and without stopping to breathe.
“No, Mika, you know I can’t give you extra food. I know you don’t eat much but you should eat what you have while you can. Save up some bread or something next time.”
Mika looked at him with sad little eyes and clutched her stomach.
“Ok, you can have my piece of bread from dinner.”
Anton could rarely refuse anything to his little sister. That night Mika stayed with him. He told her stories of old and they played games. After a few hours Mika fell fast asleep. As the dawn rose, and people started to come out to start up on the days work, Anton took her in his arms and started to walk back towards the main entrance of Kirabo. She felt so light and tiny in his big arms. She was eight years old yet so small for her age. She had barely grown in the last few years, and could easily be mistaken for a toddler. Her sickness was the cause of her lack of growth or strength. One day when she was four years old, she had wandered far from home by herself while everyone was working. She had fallen into a pit filled with toxic water, east of Kirabo, their settlement. Anton was the one who found her that day, barely alive and looking green. She had survived, but had not grown much since then and was often weak. No one knew along she would be able to make it, and thus was treated like a princess by everyone. Though she was treated like this, she was far from acting like a princess, she was the cutest little tomboy, she had a great spirit, but her health enabled her to do the things she loved. Many people would expect her to be a spoiled eight year old brat, but she was far from that. Anton loved her so much, he was always trying to find a way to heal his little sister, he felt responsible for her and what had happened to her, thought it was not his fault.
Kirabo was one of many settlements in Zaheba, the new earth. Most of the earth’s population had perished thousands of years ago during what people called the Apocalypse. Many wars had been going on all around the world, everyone had turned against each other, there had been natural disaster one of the other, and it had all ended when the colonies on the moon had sent a bomb to earth. They had underestimated the power of the bomb, and the whole world was wiped out. Every city was in ruin, every human, animal, and plant life had perished, and the earth was dead for over one hundred years before life started to come back. The colonies of the moon had died out, having destroyed their main life support, the earth. But in this Apocalypse hope had spring up in different places. People fearing for what would happen, made under ground shelters and found ways to preserve life, under the earth. After two hundred years living underground people started to work their way back to the surface, and tried to heal their lost world.
Now a thousand years later, most people lived as nomads trying to survive as they could day after day. The earth was mostly covered by deserts, with a small oasis here and there. Most people traveled from one oasis to the next, but there where some permanent settlements like Zaheba all around the world. All settlements where like large underground cities. They were the remains of the underground shelters that had saved mankind. In these cities you could find technology from the old world. Computers and different machines could still be found in some of the settlements and helped people survive. The cities now where a little closer to the surface than they had been when they were first built. Every city was similar.