章 3: Finally Getting A Chance

"Are you alright?"

I felt like someone was shaking my body. In a reflex I slowly opened my eyes while feeling the bright sun blinding me.

"Ouch," I tried to stand to feel the pain assaulting my body.

"Easy there," another voice came, "you just fell all of sudden without warning. Are you alright, pal?"

I turned to see who was speaking in such an old language before I froze.

"What the hell is that?" I was in the middle of a group of high school students, it seemed. But that wasn't the part that shocked me, but that standing tall statue at the distance.

Without feeling myself I pushed them and ran towards the edge of that place where I was stopped by a small cement wall.

"At least say thanks!" I heard this angry shout from behind me but I didn't care at all. I was totally shocked with the grand, faint green statue standing miles away from me.

"This… is the statue of liberty… How the hell is this statue still standing?"

I always admired this statue like other ancient and beautiful buildings and landmarks of the old Earth.

That statue was destroyed! I could swear with my life on the bet that it was. I still had that poster image of that grand statue being flattened with the ground, while its torch was planted in the island there in my small room.

"What are you doing here? Is it your first time in New York?"

I turned to see a girl approximately around my age. She wore a pair of glasses while holding a few books in her hand. She looked kind of a hard worker, just like me.

"Excuse me," I said while feeling this girl could be someone trustworthy to ask, "I feel a little confused here. Can you tell me what day it is today?"

"Stop being funny," she laughed in a sweet way as if she considered my question as being a joke, "this is an old way to get to know me, but I'll let it go," she said before adding, "it's the fifth of June, do you also want the year?"

"Yes, please," I didn't know how she took my serious question to be this funny. However, just before she could say anything, I turned my eyes.

For the second time I felt a deep shock in my mind! That wasn't possible! Not possible at all!! The world around was a peaceful looking one, brimming with life and joy, a world that I never saw and only heard of.

And her answer came to confirm what I had in mind.

"It's year two thousand and thirty," she said before laughing, "what are you going to ask me next? The time perhaps?"

"Yes, please," again I looked at her in the same seriousness as before. However she took it as a joke again and laughed. Two shy dimples appeared on her cheeks, exposing her small black dot just below the right corner of her mouth that added more to her beauty.

Before answering me she flipped her long brown hair as if she was showing it to me, "It's two P.M. Is it suitable for a drink?"

I didn't know what to say! Two P.M.!! in the year two thousand and thirty… That couldn't be happening.

"Slap!" without any warning I slapped my face as I thought that old man did some silly trick on me using that red orb.

"Ouch, it hurts," however all I felt was pure pain.

"Hahaha, it's normal as if you just slapped yourself," she laughed before she eyed me with such interest as if I was an alien, "you look like a foreigner. Where did you come from? Are you here for the Expo? The world football cup? Or wait, you look like a high student like me. Does this mean you are here to attend the world student forum?"

I looked at her without knowing what to say. All of these events I heard about before. They were the reason why the US had such a variety of nationalities at the time of the apocalypse.

At the same time it was one of the main reasons why this country was hit with the brutalest attacks ever!

And now I was in the middle of New York, one of the cities that had it hardest around the US itself by the recognition of everyone.

I only had less than two hours till the apocalypse would hit! I couldn't believe it but now I was in such a place and time, just prior to the infamous event that rocked the entire world and wiped out the civilization people in my time heard about its tales.

From that moment of the apocalypse onward, new terms and laws would be applied. 'What the hell did you do to me, old man?' I couldn't help but clench my fists while feeling this wasn't funny, wasn't funny at all.

Who would be in his right mind to relive these dark moments again?

'Wait!' it suddenly hit me, 'if I was here, does that mean…' I turned around while feeling more enthusiasm which came out from god knew where, '... I can now have a class of my own?!!!… I can now change the dark life I lived so far and replace it for something new?!!! Something with a future and hope?!!!'

It was such a ground shaking realization for me, one that I always dreamt to have but never believed it would.

"Hey! I'm talking to you," a punch came from that girl all of sudden to jolt me awake.

"That hurts!" I complained while holding my arm, "why did you hit me?"

"You weren't listening," she said as if it was something sacred to be heard when she spoke, "where are you heading? Do you have a group you want to meet? Like your friends perhaps?"

"Yes, friends…" my mind instantly started to stir its wheels before I added, "I should be at the Central Park in less than two hours. Is it far?"

"The Central Park… it's not that far," she turned before pointing in a certain direction, "there is a subway we can take that will arrive there in no time."

"Subway!" I was inwardly shocked by this hideous name. According to what I read, subways were the most visited places by humans at the time of the apocalypse. They saw them as safe havens to survive the apocalypse.

It was common sense by this time and age. After all, the subways were strong enough to withstand the natural disasters that would befall the world.

However early in the game, the subways turned from safe havens into slaughter houses! I couldn't be there, not even if it would deliver me faster to the Central Park.

I didn't know if what that old man did to bring me here would have changed anything in the apocalypse I knew of. I couldn't risk my life like this.

"No, no subway please," I instantly said, "let's… wait a minute, are you coming with me?"

Her face beamed with a bright smile as she said:

"I have to be there for the grand meeting of the students from overseas," she said before adding, "alright, we can walk there. We still have around four hours before the meeting. We can talk and have some fun there until then."

Without taking my opinion she started to walk towards a certain direction. 'This girl… she has a strong personality,' I muttered to myself before she suddenly turned around without any warning, extended her hand as she said:

"Forgot to introduce myself, my name is Isabella Rocher, nice to meet you."

"Hye…" I paused in my words as my mind froze for a brief second there. "No f*cking way!" I couldn't help but exclaim in shock.

"Excuse me?!" she looked at me the same way I used to look at the old man; like I was crazy or something.

"Oh, sorry for that," I apologized while trying to control my inner rumbling thoughts. This name, Isabella Rocher, wasn't passed down in any historical records. However it was one of those names that the old man blabbered about during his crazy talks.

When I gazed closer at her, she looked exactly like what he described to me. She looked like a strong and powerful young girl, with such sharp eyes, pair of famous glasses according to the old man's words.

Even the small nevus on the right corner of her mouth were there! She was like a real embodiment to the old tale that crazy old man told me a couple of years before.

'Wait a second… Don't tell me… He wasn't making all this stuff up! He wasn't crazy!!' I was inwardly shaken while silently walking beside her.