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I just realized that this website-- or more specifically, this forum-- is the perfect place to attempt something I've been yearning to do for a while now. Here's my idea:

Basically, you write a chapter of a story (via a message) based on all the preceding chapters. Please don't wrench the plot off its tracks. You can have a story about a hippie going into a fantasy-sci-fi combo dimension with his half-feline friend, but you should at least attempt to connect the plot lines smoothly so that it isn't a terrible hodgepodge of nothing that makes sense, it's a hodgepodge that actually resembles something along the lines of a story. Kinda reminds me of my D&D sessions...

But let's get on to ground rules. There's very few of them, so don't worry. Just don't write 2 chapters in a row, and always leave an opening for someone else to continue writing. Just because you're happy with the ending where everyone is joining the undead ranks of the evil necromancer doesn't mean everyone is.

I'll kick it off with a chapter of my own. Take it from there!

Grace stared out the window of the school bus. They were going to a neighboring school, as there had been a heat wave, and that school was the nearest one with air conditioning. They better crank it up, she thought. There's going to be so many people in there. But finally, something remotely exciting other than the typical rhythm of monotony in my life. "Man, won't they just get going already?" said an unfamiliar voice, jolting Grace out of her thoughts. "I mean, the school bus is even hotter than the school itself." Grace looked up to see someone with black hair and a smiling face. "I'm Skyler. May I? Everywhere else is full." Grace could already discern several empty spots other than beside her. Still... she could use the company. And there were worse people to sit with. "Sure." she agreed. On the drive there, she found out that Skyler was gender-fluid. "But I'm currently female." she explained. This was the most interesting person Grace had ever met! But there were far more interesting things to come...

After what felt like an eternity, the bus finally rolled to a stop in the school's parking lot. Sporting 3 floors and many modern amenities, this school is considered by many to be prestigious. As everyone was moving off the bus in a single-file line, Grace absorbed her surroundings. Compared to her regular school, which was severely underfunded and plagued with gang violence, this school was wonderful.

   Soon enough, the line moved enough for Grace to get inside the school, marked by what was perhaps the most refreshing blasts of air conditioning to ever be experienced. Like everyone else who was riding the bus, Grace wandered around the cafeteria with long lists covering the tables - should she be able to find her name, she would know which class she had for the day. After scanning through several lists, she finally found her name. She would be going to Dr. Merlin's class today. A strange name, she thought.

"Hey, what class did you end up getting?" She heard someone ask. She turns to the voice, which belonged to Skyler.

"Dr. Merlin's class," Grace replied. "What class did you get?"

"The same class." Skyler said with a small smile. Grace was happy to share a class with a newfound friend, but she couldn't fully enjoy herself, for her gut instinct is telling her something was going to happen...

And that's when the meteor struck. Roughly the size of Rhode Island and about three times larger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, the Earth hadn't suffered such an impact in 3.26 billion years. But in the wake of the planet-wide earthquake and the tsunamis it birthed as the skies burned and the very oceans boiled, that knowledge was lost in the centuries to come, along with everything else humanity had accomplished, both good and bad...




*****1491 A.I. (After Impact)*****


The wind howled and tore at Ruska as he struggled across the plain of barren stone. "Not too much further now," he grunted to himself. Soon, he would leave this cursed world.

"Shit," he cursed, as he heard the howling of hounds behind him, but it only strengthened his resolve.  There was no way he would allow himself to be captured again.  

As he hurried, the sound of the fetters on his ankles drowned out even the wind.  He was so close.  

Then an arrow bounced off the ground next to him.  There was no chance he could make it like this.     His pursuers soon caught up to him and he was quickly subdued and knocked unconscious.

 

Ruska floats in an endless void, a dark and terrifying, yet calm pool of-

The numbing cold slams into the back of his head, he gasps as the water covers his head, shoulders, and back.

"Uh." Ruska groans as he tries to move, he can barely feel his hands as he flails and shakes. The harsh leather cutting through his flesh and keeping him to the chair. The dread filling up his chest feels like he swallowed a cinder block.

The iron manacles slither and clatter off into some corner of the room, and Ruska rattles them to see how far the sound travels. Not far, this chamber cannot be as big as he thought.

Slowing his breath down, all he can sense is his body shaking, until he hears a slow and labored breathing behind him....

"Shit!" Ruska cursed again, ripping the visor from his face. Captured once again and dragged off to face the boss with no chance to prepare. He'd heard that same slow breathing what felt like a dozen times before, and it always ended the same way.

He'd never beat this damn game.

The simulation of the barren Earth's remains, the barbarians that had been pursuing him, and the echoing chamber with the pool had been replaced by the blank grey walls of his room, his navy blue blanket and a couple of drawings his little nephew had made for him in class the only splashes of color.

He slid off his bed, briefly running a comb through his hair before stepping out into the hall and making his way to the kitchen. The concrete of the entire habitat was mixed of the same native lunar basalt. Habitat 3, or Castle Maria as the inhabitants all called it, had been considered a grand achievement once. Same went for most of the habitats and facilities. Each had a story of hardship and triumph.

Ruska had seen the old flatvids of how the original Lunarians had lived. He knew he certainly had a more comfortable life than the Stranded 201 who had started out in their little inflatable dome habitats, strictly rationing food and unable to even breath the air outside. Even once it became clear contact would not be restablished with Earth and that the temperature extremes and tectonic changes caused by the meteor impact had rendered most of in unviable, they hadn't given up. Through careful planning and meticulous care they had worked out a plan for survival and taken the first steps to create the stable society Ruska and the others all lived in today.

Maybe he was ungrateful, but even knowing all that he couldn't help but think of life on the Moon as painfully dull. Earth constantly consumed his thoughts and he'd played every game, seen every thridvid and read every theory he could find about how other humans could've survived and continued on unseen these last fourteen centuries, even inventing a few of his own.

The cooker chimed and he took his bowl of oatmeal out, still lost in his thoughts as he seated himself a short ways from where some of the others he shared Castle Maria with were chatting.

"Ruska?"

He glanced up to see one of his cousins eyeing him. "Yeah?"

"Daydreaming again, are you? Don't you have work duty today?" she asked.

"Huh? I...yeah, I think so."

"Well you're already twenty minutes late!" she told him with a chuckle.

"Shit," he muttered for the third time that morning, scraping the rest of his breakfast in the recycler and hurrying out the doors.

*Bump*

Castle Maria is a large place, but Ruska manages to go to his designated work area in only a couple of minutes. As he has feared, the supervisor of the Lunarian Workforce is waiting for him upon his arrival.

"You are late again, Ruska." The supervisor scolds.

Ruska glances at his watch, 0558. 28 minutes late! "Sorry about that. I just came across some very interesting research, is all."

"Negative. You have been assigned to perform maintenance on these temperature modules. Whatever crazy theory you are dwelling on now is not of any importance. I will have to notify a superior regarding your delay in getting to work..." The supervisor's droning continues on, but none of that matters, because what he sees outside the window may very well be the key to his deepest desires...

The endless barren wasteland of emptiness was visible through the reinforced glass. Distant stars, millions of light years away blinking in the sky. Ruska noticed something peculiar about the starlight, it was bending...bending in space...almost as if...

“It’s a wormhole!”  He exclaimed in his mind. His eyes widened, still shocked too see light being sucked into it. Ruska knew, he knew this was the key to his dreams. Schrodinger’s wave theory proved it possible. He thought it was impossible, that such a thing could not physically exist outside the realm of theoretical mathematics. “Yes!”  He thought. “At last, I can experience it! I can experience earth!” 

The dark void was advancing towards the stained glass. It was like a depression in the vast black emptiness. A depression that was slowly but surely expanding in size. Everyone around him  were frantically running back to their room. “Idiots,”  he thought “running away from a once in a lifetime opportunity.”  

Crack!

Ruska felt the glass pane being pulled by the enormous force. Without warning, it broke. Ruska felt pressure on each and every cell of his body. He felt like he was being ripped apart. The beating of his heart, the screaming of people, ceased. Then everything went dark. Darkness enveloped around him from every direction...

Heat, scorching heat and sweat.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky. Suddenly Ruska heard a loud screeching noise behind him. He I instinctively turned around and saw...

“What is this? Oh yes, I remember seeing this on one of those earth documentaries. It’s a...what was that word? A...a bus! Yes it’s a bus.” 

 

A young woman stepped out of the bus. 

“Hey there stranger, we were just heading to the nearby school to escape this horrible heat wave. Come on in, it’s not safe to be outside at this time. My name’s Grace by the way, pleasure to meet you.” She said holding her hand forward.

 

 

 

 

 

"Wait..." said Ruska. "Am I... on Earth?" Grace laughed. "Of course, silly! Where did you think we are, the moon?" Ruska turned pale. "You okay? The teachers have been getting ice packs for many people. I can see if I can get you one." "No... that's okay." Suddenly, a black-haired person came down the aisle of the bus. "I'm Skyler. Any room?" Wait... this must be the Grace and Skyler! The rulers of the civilization on Earth! But... Everyone thought it was just a myth. Now I can prove them wrong! That is... if I ever get back... "Are you sure you don't need that ice pack? You look queasy. "I'm... fine."