Universe (ch.1)

Aiden wakes up. The dream he had was a nightmare. Scariest one, yet. He thinks, almost gleeful. At the same time he is determined to get the information into the computer and out of the way. Law enforcement was sure to take care of it.

Aiden always wondered why people of that century stuck with the old name, computer, for this very new and very improved computer. It had infinite gigabytes of storage space in a compact little hard dive the size of a penny.

He walks over to his station, intentionally going to write down what he remembers of his dream. He glances at the monitor, at subtle movement, it seems, but it has great impact. He takes a second look at the monitor. It has big, red block letters across the screen. ABORT, it says. Abort? Aiden, thinks.

“Hello?” He calls, knowing by the message on the monitor that no one is around.

“I don't understand...” Aiden doesn't feel the need to talk to himself in his head anymore. His mind was safe, for now.

He gets up slowly from the chair to walk across the room. Usually, people were sitting at the long white table stretched across the room.

“Hello?” he says again, but no one is going to answer.

Aiden runs back to the monitor, trying to look for the time the abortion was commissioned. Aiden gasps, looking at the lower part of the screen. It says “2/10/2483. 3:14:09:17”

“And they didn't wake me up.” Aiden shakes his head, horrified. “No. They wouldn't do that. Even in a state of panic.” he shakes his head again. “No!” he screams. No one would hear him ever again. No one would know he exists ever again. He can't make new life, and he can't put death to his own. It's illegal. But what law enforcement is going to arrest him?

Aiden shakes his head furiously. “But what happened?” He exaggerated, hoping by some chance something can give him an answer. A sign.

Aiden knows the whole superstitious “Give me a sign!” phrase that primitive humans liked to yell was illogical, improbable, and very, very transcendental. Still, Aiden hopes for anything at a time like this.

About six hours ago - he predicts that it was six hours ago anyway – Aiden had a dream about a tragic epidemic. Aliens from the galaxy Xeon decided to visit Earth for more than just the green and natural essence. They also wanted to make some negotiations on trading galaxies with the United Nations, otherwise known as U.N. – Aiden always wondered why they kept the U.N around. After the second largest terrorist attack in 2011, killing 1 million people in Los Angeles, California, it was obvious that the countries in the U.N were not doing a great job at “keeping the peace” - Of course the president of The United States of America declined the offer, so, the Xeon's set of deadly gas – which is not a natural or man made element of Earth – and it killed all 300 billion people of the world.

Aiden sits down on the floor, trying to piece everything together. His team only called Aborts when something really horrible is happening. But what could be that horrible? His dream couldn't have already came true. Unless he slept longer than he imagined. Was he dreaming this? But it felt too real.

“Impossible.” Aiden scoffs, shaking his head.

The Abort means a lot of things, but there was one ultimate purpose. All of mankind moved to another habitable planet. Somewhere safe. Which meant Earth wasn't safe. But what happened?

There was always the possibility that the other reason the Abort was commissioned was because all of mankind was already doomed. “But why would anyone here leave to go outside?” Aiden sighs. “We are underground. Its not like the gas leaked in here.” he sighs, again. “And obviously it didn't because I'm still alive. Plus the gas looked gray and thick. Like fog. So its not invisible.”

Aiden gets up in the next instant scanning the building quickly. Nothing was knocked over or sprawled across the floor, which meant no one was in a hurry, or panicked. “No signs of struggle or panic.” he states to himself. Obviously. He thinks.

He moved from the main laboratory to the hallway. It seemed more metallic than usual. Most of the time the metallic hallways made him paranoid. The walls of the hallway were made out of one-way-windows. He usually felt like he was exposed and he didn't even know it. The insane thing was, in fact, that he did know it. That made him even more paranoid now, walking down the deserted hallway in front of the one-way window-walls that no one was behind. No one was staring. He quickly assessed his nerves and grimaced. He isn't used to feeling like this. Ever.