The warm wind gently blew her short, chocolate hair as if every strand of it enjoyed dancing with the air. She ran with full speed to catch-up with the adults that were about to get on the train 'till she gasped for air. Her tutu dress fluttered, synchronising with the bending of her knees.

          'Wait for me!' Nicholas, a friend of hers, exclaimed between heavy breaths. He pulled his long and tight pants to let them loose, allowing him to run faster. 

          She turned her back, waving his hand back and forth at him. 'Hurry! It's only a few minutes before the class will begin. We might not get there in time!' More adults came in the way, blocking the area between Rhabis and Nicholas.

          Her friend halted, releasing a deep breath before speaking. 'Your father would never want you to leave the NCS building. I'm sure you know that, right? We'll be in danger so let's go back before he finds out we left!'

          The little girl swam across the crowd and pulled his hand. 'It's okay. He will never know that I left." They continued walking whilst holding hands.

         'But you're his limelight. It's not like he wouldn't know,' Nicholas shrugged his shoulders. Rhabis extended her right arm, bending her elbows at a right angle ahead of her. Her gauntlet appeared with a hologram elevating in the air. It showed the blueprint of the location where they were in and dots that represent people and androids alike.

          Rhabis smirked, 'He's not even withing the perimeter of the Titus Street. He wouldn't know, I promise,' she convinced him, showing her full set of teeth. Often much, Nicholas feared the recklessness of his friend but he couldn't do a thing to stop her. She's high spirited ever since they were first met.

          Nicholas' gauntlet started to vibrate. He rose his arm to see the caller and saw their other friend, Maxine. He swiped above the screen then accepted the call. 'Hey, Max! How's it doing?' 

          Maxine's brows furrowed. 'You two have been dating in just...' She pressed her screen and a digital clock appeared on both screens, '10 seconds?' she continued.

          Rhabis giggle, on the other hand, Nicholas' face turned into scarlet. 'Of course not! We were running all the way from the previous tunnel up to here.' 

          'Yeah, because not everyone has a hover board, 'Rhabis whispered. The crowd grew more. Now filled with parents with their kids. They pulled their jacket's hood to their forehead.

          Nicholas rolled his eyes at Rhabis then faced Maxine. 'You're lucky you're not coming with us to visit the "shrine" that Rha's been talking lately,' he said. He noticed that they were only a few feet away from the paying area so he pressed random buttons on his gauntlet. 'That should work.'

          Suddenly, a billboard flashed at their side. It showed how a scenery of landscapes that they used to see in books. The scene was filled with the things they called trees and animals. The trees are a part of the Kingdom Plantae whilst the animals and humans are part of the Kingdom Animalia but sadly, the only species that survived in Kingdom Animalia are humans.

          Rhabis' gasped from Nicholas' hand tightened. She halted from walking, eyes glued at the billboard. 'I wish I'd witnessed them before their extinction. If only I was there to change the pattern of events. How cruel...'

          Maxine and Nicholas faced their friend. Nicholas began worrying. What if Rhabis realised that the life the world once had was now gone? Like nothing is left? That humans destroyed the one that gave them life? What if she began to question everything? What if she even risks her life to get what she wants?

          'Oh, shoots! About that shrine thingy! I'll try to hack the system and add your information to the list. Talk you later!' Maxine left from the screen. Nicholas lowered his arm then patted Rhabis on her back. 'Maybe they still exist and surviving until this point. Don't lose hope, Rha. I'm sure you'll see real one one day.' Rhabis smiled and nodded. The two followed the crowd and fell in line to get in the Hyperloop.

          Hyperloop was a transportation device existed during the early 21st century and still used to this day. It was composed of the tunnel made of aluminium and a pod in where people and resources were transported.

          'You kids only?' a man beside them asked. The two looked at each other then smiled. 'My mother wanted me to visit my grandmother at least once a month since she's not allowed in the NCS,' Rhabis explained.

         The old man nodded in response. Rhabis slammed her hand to the scanner on a table. She felt the warm laser moved under her palm as the screen scanned her chip within her skin. The tiny screen said scanning in red coloured font then beeped. It turned green with word on the screen that said accepted.

          Nicholas followed what Rhabis did then the two went inside the Hyperloop. In this time, there were no guards. No, guards weren't necessary anymore. Everyone is connected to everything. That's the motto in the Sphere.

          They stood beside the entrance and watched as the pod moved at an incredible speed as it passed through the tunnel where it was assigned, The pod was like a medicine capsule but without a division in the middle. It was plain white and it made it a look like the cleanest and relaxing place to stay yet, unfortunately, due to its extreme speed, the longest time one can stay in the pod is half an hour and the destination is from one side of the Sphere to the other.

           In around five seconds, they hopped out of the Hyperloop and went to a wall unnoticed by most of the passersby. Rhabis started pressing random parts of her gauntlet then a sliding door appeared. 'Ladies first,' Rhabis winked at Nicholas then opened the door for him.

          'You're so gentleman, huh?' Nicholas joked and they went inside. The gateway behind suddenly glitched, showing tiny squares of light vibrating then gradually vanishing in the air until it became a thick wall. 

'Woah,' Nicholas dropped his jaw.

          'Come in now.' They wander inside the long hallway with no ventilations or any accessory on the wall until they reached a scanner on a wall. She released a deep breath. 'The thing behind this is the only thing existing in its species. What every you do, never touch it.' She faced him then smirked. 'But those were what pops said not me anyway.'

          Rhabis took a few steps near the scanner. Her sweats started to roll down to her collar. Her nervousness conquered her insides. Slowly with caution, she waved her hand in a scanner then the final door opened. 'It's safe,' she murmured as she gradually opened the door. 

           There was nothing but a glass and a green object inside.

           They tiptoed as they went inside to prevent disturbing the cameras around inside the room. Maxine called again to see what was the thing that the NCS workers had been hiding for decades. Nicholas accepted the call and aimed the screen at the thing inside the glass.

'Is that...'

         Rhabis smiled. 'They call it... a plant.'

---

For those who don't understand the story, it's about a dystopian future that we all feared to happen. The fuel, food, resources and human power were all scarce during and after the last war, infecting more than a 2/3 of the world's population. (I mean, why not?) Animals and plants combined vanished due to the effects of this said war.

The Earth dies forcing humans to make a floating city since radiation was high (around four grey) on the ground because of wars composed of radiation bombs and such.

But before this war even happens, humans made the Sphere. It was a self-sufficient structure in which they planned to use to survive because of the threat of climate change. The Sphere is an elevating structure with the help of quantum mechanics.

Rhabis and her friends were born decades after the said war so they weren't aware of what had happened before and that's outside the Sphere itself since no civilian is allowed to leave unless they are a Traveller.

So the love in this one shot is the first time Rhabis and the gang saw in their entire life a living organism aside from their own species giving them a reason to fight back and restore the Earth that once died because of humans.

We should also follow this an example in our lives. Do we need to wait till the things we feared the most, the death of the Earth, happen before we realised that it is important to us? Till when do we have to wait before we actually act on our own? 

It's not us the one that will suffer the most. It's the one that's after us.

Robert Swan once said, 'The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.'