(Note: This story was originally written for the Writer’s Jam 2026 on Newgrounds under a different pen name.)
“Green ground?! What’s next, yer tellin’ me the sky’s blue?!”
The old man chortled at the thought while calling out to his wife. “Can you believe these kids, Ana? The craziest shit they talk these days!”
Miss Ana quickly rushed out with a huffed expression. “Mind your tongue, Louis!” she scolded him. He grumbled affirmatively, acting as an apology for his transgression.
She turned to us. “Ignore him, dearies. Here, some biscuits for the trip.” From the back she handed us a small bin filled evenly with fresh biscuits, each tabbed at the top with a small square of butter that melted to a soft, moist texture.
I take them and wrap my old satchel blanket tightly to cover them. “Thanks, Miss Ana,” I nod as my brother and I head on to the rest of the group.
“You think still there’s green stuff out there like picture, Sumi?” my brother asked.
“Absolutely, Yoji!” I assured. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Everyone else don’t believe you.”
“Everyone else can kiss my ass.”
“Don’t talk that!”
I overhear someone mocking his way of speaking. That fatass Gil. I twist my head and give him a nasty stare. He shuts up and cowers near his pals who sneer back at us. Little bitches, all of ‘em.
No one believes in the green ground and blue skies. The only records left of them are in pictures from books that are well over thousands of years old by this point. Some even argue that the color is just due to artistic imagination. There were these ancient electrical machines called “computers” that are rumored to have tons of information tucked within, but a majority of them don’t work anymore. The few that do keep flashing on their screen “internet required”, whatever the hell that means. Even if they get this “internet”, there isn’t enough electricity to keep them powered for any more than a few minutes.
The picture I found while dumpster diving in the metal hills was different, though. It was newer. Not brand new, but it looked only a hundred or so years old. And if it’s that young, there’s a chance it’s still somewhere out there.
We all board up on the train. They had a car way, way in the back filled with a combustible, high-velocity powder mix, a ‘bastardized variant of gunpowder’ as old man Louis once told us. He loved studying old war tech for some reason. Yoji and I were smushed together with two others in the class of at least a hundred in one train car. An attendant with protective gear made sure we were tightly secured. He signaled an ‘OK’ to the man behind the back door, who gave a thumbs up. I saw him flick a match. In an instant and with a blisteringly loud pop, we were off.
I had the window seat. I gazed outside at the wasteland: gray, lifeless ground so dehydrated it cracked like peely, dried lips, and the sky was pitch black. The only clue that it was morning was the network of fire lights on the horizon. It was red in the daytime and blue at night, and a transition flash would happen to signal the change: a bright yellow for morning, and white for nighttime.
Our teacher, floundering over her mess of papers she scrambled tightly to her chest, somehow found her notes for today’s trip. She announced with a stammer, “S-So, now that everyone’s here, um… T-T-Today we’re going to visit, um…” She forgot the name for a moment and flipped to the back of a paper. “Oh, r-right! Rodinia! Let’s see… Yes, this was the original site of the first battle in the Crusading War, which was also the first use of electron weapons.”
Yoji raised his hand. “Is that war made sky black?”
“Hurr durr, dAt mAkE sKy bLaCk?” Gil spewed to make fun of him. “The sky’s always been black, derpy!”
“Don’t fucking call him that!” I curse at him.
“Make me, bitch!”
I hear the teacher begging us to stop, but I’m red as a beet and ready to beat this fucker down hard. I leap up only to feel myself weightless. I clung to my seat too late, and the train came to a screeching halt.
I tumble back against some other students as everyone yelps in a panic. The teacher’s already shot nerves were played like a violin and smashed over the event. She had dropped all her stuff and was frantically pulled between picking them up, checking on us, and seeing what happened.
“P-P-P-Please s-s-stay put!!” she stuttered, hopping on each leg once before jolting towards the front engine car where the brakes would be.
When I look up, the students were shocked but seemed fine. I wasn’t even in my seat and only felt a bruise or three, no different than a street brawl on the occasion. I did feel a hand where it shouldn’t be. I smacked whatever was near. Gil. Of course.
“Hell was that for?!” he yelled.
“Freak!” I spat.
“I’m just gettin’ up! And I ain’t the one who jumped over everyone, asshole!”
I blew a raspberry and immediately swept towards Yoji. “You okay?”
He nodded nervously. He was clearly still spooked by the affair. I wrapped my arm over his shoulders to help comfort him a bit.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a light across the horizon line. It wasn’t the morning flash. That passed already. It was another light, far in the distance. White. Flashing three times short, then three times long, and three short again, in that pattern repeatedly. An S.O.S. I only knew from old man Louis, where he told us he signaled with a fire once. But this couldn’t be a fire. It was more like a dot, and it was fading gradually whenever it was off.
“Let’s get some air,” I tell Yoji. We pry open the door and step outside. Some of the other students stepped out to stretch or be nosy about what happened to make us stop. No one else seemed to notice the odd S.O.S. light.
Curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to check it out. I signaled to Yoji about it. He pointed to wait, rushed back into the train car, and fetched the satchel filled with biscuits for the road. We slipped out when there was more of a crowd outside, keeping low to the ground and staying the darker spots.
Yoji and I got about halfway across the field and saw the front of the train. A few yards ahead of it was what looked like a… crater? No, more like a bullet skewed across the ground and left a gap between the tracks. I wondered when it happened. The city was usually alert about when there were train problems since that’s basically how we are even able to do trade. If it happened earlier, we wouldn’t have even gone on our trip in the first place.
Before I knew it, we were at the edge of a mountain pass, getting about a mile opposite from the train. I scouted for the light, which flashed from deep within a crevice on the other side.
When we turned the corner, the flashing stopped and dimmed to a cool blue at the entrance of the cave. It was still enough light to traverse inside the cavern with no lamp. Yoji stayed close to me as we followed the winding path inside. It was strange; the walls looked like they were carved by hand. Our footsteps tapped from dirt to metal at some point, as did the walls, trading the dampness of the cavern air to an even colder, sterile feel like a doctor’s office. The now-steel hallway opened up to a dome-shaped room. There were machines and towers of computers, old and weathered by time much like back in the metal hills. Only the lights on these were on. The screens embedded on them were lit up with tiny text that scrawled so fast it was impossible to read. Ten rows of these machines pointed towards the center of the room, to the source of the light: a large, cannon-shaped device with a point like a pencil at one end and enlarged rings on the back end.
We stared at awe at it, unable to even process what it actually was. But that amazement was jolted out of us with a voice behind us.
“WHO DARES ENTER HERE?!”
I flip around, tucking Yoji behind me to protect him. My stance loosens after seeing the stranger. “God fuckin’ dammit, Gil!” I shout through gritted teeth.
“Heh heh heh! Scared ya good, Sumi!” Gil guffawed. “You’re gonna be in so much trouble when we get back~!”
“Then piss off, snitch-ass!” I hiss. “Why’d you follow us, anyway?!”
“‘Cuz I got bored! And I have an alibi with my buddies!” His head turned all over the place, soaking in the environment. “What even is all this crap?”
“They’re called ‘computers’.”
“I knew that, asswipe, I mean what do they do?” Dumbass goes over near one and starts pressing buttons and tapping the screens.
I pull him away. “Hey! Don’t just go messing with—”
A voice spoke through static on the machine. “Thank you for selecting Urban Tech, funded by *KRZZZZZT* Please provide a sample.”
A thin tray pulled out. All three of us had no idea what to do. I reached out slowly with one finger extended. I gently poke at the top and quickly snatched it back. It felt like a bee sting on the edge of my index finger. I checked on it and saw a little red dot.
“Sample collected. Please wait…” the computer’s voice said. The tray retracted and the screen scrolled with a rainbow of letters that made no sense to any of us. After a few seconds, it flashed white, and the voice came back. “Sample recognized as *KRZZZZZZT* descent. Now locating…”
The needle whirred and began to turn, shaking the whole place. Yoji and I huddled together as Gil dug behind both of us.
“Targets of *KRZZZZZZT* descent found. Warming up…”
Two and two suddenly came clear to me. The ‘bullet wound’ on the tracks. They were fresh.
The students. The teacher. The train workers.
They were next.
I jump towards it and start mashing buttons.
“What are ya doin’?!” Gil shouted.
“This thing’s gonna kill everyone!!”
A small orb of light formed at the tip. Shit, shit, shit. Gil scrambled to another computer, mashing buttons, but nothing was working. Yoji went to the first machine Gil messed with and tried to open the tray back up. I tried to help him out with it and eventually got it back open. Now what?
“Let try!” Yoji said. He pulled out a biscuit and sanded it into the tray before slamming it in.
“Sample collected. Please wait…” the machine said, but the needle was pointed and still charging up. “Sample collected. Please wait…” it kept saying, repeating it over and over with more distortion.
“SampE COLLEccted. PleaSe wAit… SampLe cOlleCteD. Pleaaaaase…. waiiiiiit…”
Suddenly, the needle started moving upright. The energy buildup, though, didn’t stop. It wasn’t aimed at the train anymore, but it was still raging to fire.
“Data read error… dAtA rEaD eRrOr…”
Fuck.
Gil, Yoji, and I hit the ground. The needle’s rings burned brighter than any light I’ve ever seen, like a million flares going off at once in your face. Even with my eyes covered, it was damn too bright. I hear a weird, high pitched pulsing sound and the sound of metal and rock crushing. The whole earth shook in its wake. I felt Yoji at my arms, and I swiftly tucked him underneath me more to protect him from any debris. I didn’t know where Gil was. I couldn’t see. The rumbling continued, the light kept going.
I thought this would be it.
“Eradicated…” the computer voice spoke one final time. “Thank you for supporting *KRZZZZZT* God will pray for them…” The voice slowed at the end, and I hear a loud ’thonk’—I think it turned off. The whirs of the machines stopped when that sound popped.
My eyes still hurt. There was still some bright light coming from something. I feel someone helping me upright. “Sumi! You better be alright!” I hear from Gil. Glad he’s okay, asshole as he is.
I rub my eyes hard. “What the hell was that? Is it off? Why’s it still so bright?”
Yoji tugged on my shirt. “Sumi! Look up!”
My eyes slowly adjusted and I saw the busted walls of the room where the needle carved out a gaping, perfectly round hole. But more than that, I saw light.
Light.
I step towards the new opening and was back outside. I look up. Whatever the needle blasted, it carved out the black sky in a disc shape. I saw blue. A deep, rich blue I’ve never seen before. I couldn’t look for long, because there was something in the sky that hurt to look at. Was that what the needle shot? No, it stayed up there. But my God, the sky was blue! Blue!
“Look! Look!” Yoji pointed. The ground was green. The green ground! I collapse on my knees and felt it with my hands. The green was prickly, shaped like blades, but they didn’t cut. In fact, they felt kinda funny. I quickly took my shoes off and stepped onto the green proper. It tickled my soles, but it was soft and warm like a fresh blanket out the dryer. As my gaze turned up, I saw the rest of the field of green with other colors of violets and reds. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I soaked in all the imagery. It became too much, and I started to feel dizzy. Too dizzy…
“Sumi! Sumi!”
I snapped upright. I was outside; not in the field, but a bit halfway across the bleak valley, closing in on the train. I saw I was being carried by Gil, with Yoji close by.
“You’re okay!” Yoji exclaimed.
“Cool, then she can walk,” said Gil. “She’s too damn heavy!”
‘Go fuck yourself,’ I would’ve said had I not felt so groggy. I felt something in my hair. I pulled it and saw a white, flowy… thing. It had six pronged blades that felt like cloth, and fluffy yellow strings from the middle.
“Like it?” Yoji asked. “I got it for you from field! Gil said it cute you!”
Gil’s face turned away, but I saw his ears flush red. I just smile gently and put it back in my hair. I twisted my head to see the blue disc in the sky shrink more.
I hope we can see it again.