2 Chapter Two

I finally get home when the stars start to fill the sky. I hold my wrist up to the door and wait for the door to unlock. With a click the door slowly opens, I walk into my house. The moment I do, I am welcomed home with the smell of home cooking. I kick off my shoes and place my bag down by them. I follow my nose to the kitchen to see my mother with a bowl pressed against her side as she uses a lager wooden spook to mix whatever is in the bowl. Mother is a small woman with blonde hair that was often in some kind of bun. She turns and looks at me with a motherly smile. "Kyle." She wipes her hands on her blue apron, that she always wears when she is cooking. She pulls me into a hug and looks me over. "How was school, baby?" She asks as she fixes a piece of hair that fell into my face and places back to where it belongs.

"It was great, Mom. Like always." I tell her as I pull from her and grab a peanut butter cookie from the plate on the counter and take a bite. "It was school, really, mom. Learned a new move in combat." I inform her as she returns to her cooking.

"That's nice, sweetie. Mr.Holland called" Mom peeks over her shoulder as I push myself up on the counter and I peek back at her.

"Yeah? What did he say?" I ask, eating another cookie.

"He was giving me a report on you. He said you are doing good in combat, but he is worried about you not making friends." She says as she looks at her mixing bowl. She turns around and leans against the counter. There is a wrinkle between her eyebrows as they push together.

A sigh left my mouth. I hate letting her down."Mom. I'm fine. I'm good even." I reassure her. "I have homework to do." I jump off the counter and kiss her cheek. "Love you, Mom," I say, walking out the kitchen and grabbing my bookbag, heading up to my room.

I throw my bag onto my well-made, dark blue bed. My desk was against the wall in front of the window. I wave my hand over my desk as I walk by. The hologram screen lit up. "Hello, Kyle." A female's voice chimes in with the words in a thick black font slowly that spins around. "How may I help you?" the voice asks me.

"Yes, Ivy. Lookup: Great War." I tell her as I strip off my school clothes and get into something more comfortable.

"Looking up: the Great War," Ivy says as a circle comes up and spins around until Ivy finds everything on the Great War. It doesn't take long "The Great War started of protest gatherings that quickly escalated. The Great War started in 2090 and ended in 2100. Lasting ten years." Ivy says as she pulls up the website she reads it off of.

I nodded "Lookup year 2080." I tell her and she does it.

"The year 2080 was the year of the Monkey. The 55th state, Oakland, a small island on the coast of Beonea was added to the United States." Ivy tells me and pulls up the websites.

"Ivy, can you show me photos from that year?" I ask and she does. The photo range from newspaper clippings to full open lands with no wall. "Is there any formation on the rebels?"

"The rebels were the given name to those who were against the government and was one of the sides who fought in the Great War. Rebels were often seen with blue and green eyes. Some rebels had purple eyes." Ivy pulls up photos of the rebels that were taken.

The clothes they had on are similar to the boy in the photo in Mr.Holand's offices. They had combat boots on and weapons that haven't been seen in years. It looks like old tech. "When was the last group of rebels seen?"

"The last group of rebels was seen at the end of the war in 2100," Ivy says as a sideshow of the photos plays and I watched them go by.

"Ivy. What is beyond the wall?" I ask. Maybe she could find something online.

"The Wasteland is beyond the wall. Due to the weapon known to the public as the Warmonger, it whipped out everything of plant species and dried up most of the water supply." Ivy pulls up another website for more information.

I look through the list of websites, reading what I could before Mom calls me down for dinner. "Ivy, save, and turn off," I tell her.

"Okay. Goodbye, Kyle." Ivy shuts down.

I run downstairs and into the dining room. Mom had set the table with food and the plates for me and her when I came down. "Is dad not coming home tonight?" I ask as I take my seat and Mom takes hers.

"I don't know, baby. He has a lot of work to do. People still get sick in this day and age." Mom says in a soft voice. "He said he was going to try his best to be home tomorrow. He wants to be home for your birthday." Mom reassures me.

I give her a nod and I smile at her. Dad is often at the hospital, working. Mom doesn't seem to mind a lot about dad staying late.

I grab the green bean casserole and pile it onto my plate then pass it to mom. There are meatloaf and mashed potatoes and I pile both on my plate.

Mom looks at me with wide eyes. "Do you want more?" She asks with a chuckle.

I look at my plate. There is not an inch of free space on it, but there are always seconds. "I don't think so. But I always can get more." I tell her as I pick up my fork.

Mom rolls her eyes as she starts to eat as well. We talk about the day more and how things were. Mom talks about how she saw some clients about a house she was trying to sell to them. She thinks they will buy or rent the house. They must be from another wall. It was rare for someone to move cities.

At the end of dinner, I help Mom clean up the mess, wash the dishes, and put the leftovers into containers and the fridge. When all was done was I free to go to my room, but I had promised I would come down to spend time with Mom. With a kiss on the cheek, I made the promise and went to my room.

I wave my hand over my desk, and Ivy comes back to life "Hello Kyle." she says"Pulling up the last saved file." the websites Ivy looked up for me came up. I read through it.

After an hour of reading how the Warmonger killed all plant life on the other side of the wall, I rubbed my eyes. "Okay, Ivy, time to shut down and go to sleep. " I tell her.

"Do you wish for me to save?" Ivy asks.

I think it over. "No, Ivy. Good night."

The light from the holograph shuts off. "Good night, Kyle," Ivy says.

I make my way downstairs to spend time with Mom before bed. She is in her favorite chair, knitting something. The T.v is on. I know she wasn't watching it, she puts it on for sound. I joke with her that it is the only reason she had dad get it

"Hey, mom." I lean over the arm of the couch.

She doesn't look up from her project. "Hey, Kyle." She loops the yarn over the knitting hook. "You can change the channel. I only have it on for sound," she tells me, not looking up from what she is doing.

I grab the remote and flip through the channels until I find something I like.