Eighteen year-old Freyja Orpheus sat at her window and looked out sadly at the destructed, polluted, chaotic Earth. "Grandmother, why does our world have to be such a terrible place?" she said to the old lady that sat beside her.
Lili, who was really Freyja's great-grandmother, sighed and turned to the teenager. "I don't know. Man has destroyed our world and it's too late to change it... if only there was a way,".
Freyja had lived in this destroyed world all her life, she'd always known it like that. Yet her great-grandparents had lived for over a century, they remembered the world back in the late twentieth century when, although there was pollution and war, it was nowhere near as bad as now. But throughout the twenty-first century, they had seen their world get worse and worse...
The Earth was one big mess. Global warming had caused climates to change dramatically, so extreme weather ruled the skies; thunder and lightning frequent and heavy rainstorms happening daily. It was often dangerous for people to go outdoors.
The rise in temperatures had caused the ice caps to melt, flowing into the oceans so low-lying areas like Florida were now under water.
Smoke from cars and factories had made rainfall very acidic, causing erosion and pollution in water. The lakes and oceans on Earth were now so acidic that very few sea creatures survived, almost all fish extinct.
It was not just sea life that were endangered. In the skies above Earth hung a thick smog that poisoned birds. Animals in the forests and jungles were also becoming extinct due to the destruction of their habitat. Nowadays, most animals lived in zoos, but many of those animals had dies, when some of the zoos had been destroyed in war time.
War was one of Earth's biggest problems. Counties were fighting with each other constantly, it had been going on for decades. Powerful weapons were being used which had ruined whole cities where the battles took place. Due to the terrible fighting, people stayed indoors to stay safe. It was dangerous to travel too far, in case you were to step over a boundary into forbidden territory.
The wars had made the pollution worse, the nuclear weapons destruction the earth and causing permanent gray skies and oceans. Everything was gray now, no more blue skies and seas.
Overcrowding was a problem too. The Earth's population had risen so much that artificial islands had been built in oceans to house people. Most people lived in compact apartment-type buildings called house-blocks.
Despite the terrible world she lived in, Freyja was a positive-thinking, fun-loving girl. But this was unusual for her time. Teenagers of the twenty-second century didn't go to school. 'School' no longer existed; students had their own robo-tutor, meaning they learnt from a computer at home. These new, more efficient methods meant that schooling was usually over by the age of twelve. After that, people went straight to work, everybody working from home on their computer. Every computer in the world was linked up by an advanced internet system. This was the way that most people communicated now, rather than going out. Teenagers just sat at their computers all the time, meeting people that way. Very few went out, due to the dangers of being outdoors. They didn't believe in romance; it was considered out of date.
Freyja disagreed with all this. She had been brought up by her great-grandparents who had both been born in the late twentieth-century, so she had their 'old fashioned' values. She disliked the way people thought nowadays. She wished people could be caring and have a sense of fun like the teenagers in the time of her great-grandparents.
"What are you thinking about, love?" Lili asked, concerned.
Freyja managed a weak smile. "I was thinking of how nice our world would be if people went back to the ways of your generation, like things were a hundred years ago,".
Lili nodded. "The world was a nicer place a hundred years ago. I remember the year 2000 clearly. I was twenty that year and I had just met your great-grandfather,". She paused. "It wasn't perfect back then, oh no. There were troubles in the world. But on the whole, it was a lovely time to live in. I only wish I'd got into the whole Earth campaigning stuff. Maybe if I'd tried to help, this world would be a better place,".
"I know you were into that kinda stuff," Freyja said to her great-grandmother. "But why did you give it up? You've never given me an explanation,".
Tears welled in Lili's eyes. "I was too heartbroken. I was just getting interested in campaigning for pollution controls and peace when something happened...".
"What was that?" Freyja asked curiously. "Grandmother what is it? Look if you're too upset to talk about it you don't have to...".
"I'll tell you, Freyja...".
They were then interrupted by Freyja's great-grandfather Joe entering the room. "Almost done!" he said with a smile.
"When are you going to tell us what your secret project is?" Freyja quizzed. Joe had been working on something top secret all by himself for the past few years and wouldn't tell anybody what it was. He was a retired scientist, so they knew what he was working on must be a new invention of some kind.
"I'll tell you both as soon as it's complete," he said. "I'm hoping it will be less than a month. After all, I'm not going to live much longer,". he went over to the house-block's computer system and tapped in a command. The robo-maid fixed him a snack and handed it to him instantly.
Freyja smiled. One thing about the world she liked was the technology. Computers were so advanced they were extremely fast and powerful. One small handheld system could hold several million megabytes. Screens were touch-sensitive so there were no more mice. TV's had been combined with computers so people used their computers for entertainment too. The science of medicine was also good, as cures for almost every disease had been found and people could now love until one hundred and fifty. Not that Lili and Joe would, they didn't agree with the artificial treatments of growing new body parts and using robotic organs. They both agreed they'd die naturally of old age.
"I'll book us a vacation soon," Joe said, sitting himself wearily in a chair. "We went to the moon last year but it was a little boring there... how about going to Sunken Miami, our old home?".
"Yes," Lili agreed. "Freyja, would you like that?".
Freyja agreed. Her great-grandparents had live in Miami in their younger years but now that area had flooded so it was underwater. But tourists could still visit it, in submarines.
Freyja ate a nutro-bar, the new form of food which she liked a lot. Plants were hard to grow now so most food was made of artificial products made in laboratories. Although unnatural, they were full of vitamins and minerals so they kept people healthy.
"Shall I put some old music on?" Joe asked.
Freyja nodded. "Yes, grandad! I know my friends think it's uncool to listen to music, but I love it,".
"You should tell your friends to try listening to it some time," Lili said. "I can't imagine living without music. It's sad to think that music is dying out nowadays...".
"I don't like the way youth are today," Freyja said sadly.
"When I was your age, my friends and I used to hang out at the park, by the ocean, in our back yards...". Lili said. A sadness was in her eyes as she spoke, sad that days like that were no longer. "...We would listen to music and talk about guys. It's a shame young people aren't like that any more,".
Freyja nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I've never been to the ocean. It's all polluted and black now. And we can't go outside for very long without being in our travel-capsules, because we get the poisonous air in our lungs. But most of the people I know don't care- they like staying in their house-blocks looking at the world through their computers, but I'm not like them,".
"Maybe you can see a better world soon," Joe added.
"What do you mean?". Freyja was puzzled by the comment.
Joe smiled slyly. "You'll soon know," he hinted.
Later when her great-grandfather had gotten back to work on his secret project, Freyja turned to her great-grandmother. "Grandmother, carry on with your story about getting your heart broken,".
The old lady sighed and closed her eyes. "I haven't talked about him in a long time as it hurts. Don't get me wrong, I love Joe. But my first love was a great guy. He was everything I could ever wish for. You'd like him, I know you would. He was a singer, the same age as me. Well, he would be if he was still alive...".
"What was his name?" Freyja asked.
Lili swallowed hard. "Nick," she managed to say. "He was a singer in a group called the Backstreet Boys when I was a teenager. I loved him so much, I still do,".
"How did he break your heart?".
"He died," Lili said, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. "It's almost a hundred years ago, August 2000. I was so devastated about it, I didn't get over it for a long time. It was like my whole world stopped. Like I said earlier, I stopped my plans of campaigning for a better Earth when he died. I thought I couldn't go on. I eventually got back to getting on with life, thanks to the help of Joe. But I would do anything to go back and stop him dying. He had such a bright future ahead of him. he was only twenty at the time...".
Freyja almost cried too. This was so sad. "I'm sorry, it must have been awful for you,".
Lili nodded. "It was. I've got many programs of his TV appearances saved on my computer if you want to watch them, see what he was like,".
"I'd like to, thanks," Freyja answered.
Lili opened some files on the computer. "There you go. Look, I'm going to bed now, goodnight,".
"'Night,".
Lili went to bed and Freyja stayed up to watch the programs.
She pressed the screen to bring up the index of programs. The first on the list was something called 'Millennium Tour 1999'. Wondering what it was, she ran the program, to bring up the picture on her huge screen on the wall.
Freyja smiled when on her screen appeared five guys in blue armor-type clothes surfing over a huge audience onto a stage, girls screaming. They then went into a song called Larger Than Life.
Freyja sat through the whole concert video, enjoying it a lot. She wished she could go and see a show like that! The music was great and the guys seemed so nice. But which one was Nick?
She then ran another of the programs. This was 'Backstage at the Set of Larger Than Life'. She watched the guys goofing around while shooting a video. She laughed along, loving their humor. In 2100, people didn't laugh as much.
From this video, she learnt the guys names. Brian was the cute one with a square jaw who had an amazing voice. AJ was the cool funky one who wore ugly hats. Howie was the sweetie who winked a lot. Kevin was the sexy sophisticated one. But Nick was her favorite already. He was the tall one with longish blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. He was so... she couldn't think of the right word to describe him. He took her breath away!
She eagerly loaded the next video, wanting to see more of them, especially Nick. She could understand why her great-grandmother liked him!
The next was an MTV interview from February 2000. She could help thinking Nick looked cute in this one. He was wearing a yellow sweater and his hair was spiky. Her eyes were glued to Nick the whole time.
It was late by the time Freyja had finished watching the programs. The last one was a VH1 programme from 2005 called 'Behind the Music- Backstreet Boys'.
The program made Freyja cry. It was a documentary on the group, from start to finish. The part that upset her was when Nick died. The narrator told of how it was August 2000 and Nick was driving to a TV appearance in Orlando when his car was involved in a pile up where many died, including Nick. The group had been very upset and had tried to carry on as four but it didn't feel right so they disbanded before the end of the year.
Freyja reached for a Kleenex and wiped her eyes. Nick didn't deserve to die. He had so much ahead of him, such a bright future.
She switched off her computer and got into bed. She couldn't sleep, thinking of Nick. She shook her head in amazement. She was falling in love with a guy who had died a hundred years ago!
.