When Colin planned a trip to the grocery store, he didn’t expect to find himself standing in a puddle of lemon juice. Nor did he expect that the lemon juice would be dripping out between his fingers through the flattened lemon between both his hands.
But before we get into why Colin had crushed the lemon, allow me to introduce you to the town of Goldcrest and catch you up to speed on the happenings of this town. Although the town was not particularly regal or crested with riches as the name implied, the town seemed to glint like gold with its perceived perfection. Then again, all the towns on Earth 102 were constructed to suit the needs and expectations of each individual who was fortunate enough to have been selected from the lottery pool. Every day, the residents thanked their lucky stars that they had been able to leave the polluted, politically tense Earth 101, the original Earth, and instead lived in a peaceful utopian town on the new Earth that Terra Corporations had created.
Terra Corporations and their charming billionaire founder, Cassie Terra, admittedly weren’t too ecstatic about the government implementing a lottery program rather than allowing people to pay for a spot on Earth 102. Then again, transportation was on the government’s dime, so they couldn’t complain too much.
Now, let’s talk about our hero, Colin Manaog. Colin had short, jet-black hair that stood out against tawny-brown skin. You probably wouldn’t remember him if you saw him walking down the street. He usually wore what most boys his age wore: a pair of loose shorts, a worn-out hoodie, and a pair of ragged sneakers, usually Converse.
After taking the town compatibility test, Colin was selected and assigned to Goldcrest. He had excitedly packed his bags, shoving his figurines and colored pencils into his backpack. He’d boarded the spaceship and looked out the window on the twenty-hour flight as he marveled at the glittering silver stars, imagining what his new life at Goldcrest would be like.
He’d left behind his family, his friends — who he had promised to stay in contact with, no matter how many new friends he made in his new town — and everything he had been familiar with for the chance to start a new life, one where he could finally be everything he wanted and have anything he wanted. It wasn’t a choice that was hard to understand; after all, if you could, wouldn’t you also choose to move to a place claimed to be the most perfectly suited living area for you?
And, for the first few months, Colin got exactly what he wanted. He was surrounded by people who shared the same interests as him, who supported his homemade movies, and who seemed to shower him with the love and adoration that he wished people on Earth 101 had given him. For the first time, Colin felt like a star.
He found himself quickly falling in love with everything about the town: the pale yellow houses that uniformly lined the streets and the pastel blue skies (or, more accurately, the imitation of the blue skies that were familiar to everybody who came from Earth 101). And without even realizing it, he stopped talking to his friends back at home, leaving them to wonder what had happened to the Colin they knew, the Colin who never broke a single promise, the Colin who was respectful and enthusiastic and wanted to learn everything there was to learn about the world.
Colin was too occupied with his newfound popularity amongst his neighbors in Goldcrest to have time to connect with his old friends on the other earth. Sure, his popularity came with a few drawbacks and obstacles, but he was young. He still had time to learn how to take the right steps without faltering. Everybody made mistakes. Some were just more unforgivable than others.
The chaos started when Harmony was evicted. You heard that right. Harmony was removed from Goldcrest. Not metaphorically. A girl named Harmony was physically evicted from the town of Goldcrest, and, ironically, the town had erupted into chaos not long after her departure.
Evictions were uncommon in Goldcrest, as it was in most towns on Earth 102. The residents of each town were specifically organized so that everybody in the town would get along and live in undisturbed harmony. But occasionally, there were a few mistakes made and residents could be evicted from the town. On the rare occasions where the majority of the people in the town agreed that someone should be evicted, the expelled person had to pack their bags and leave on a shuttle back to Earth 101.
Colin hadn’t known Harmony well. He’d heard of her, the way you might hear about a celebrity’s name briefly in the news and recall what they’re known for without remembering much else. But since Harmony didn’t live in his part of the neighborhood, Colin never knew her on a personal basis. And, as Colin read the exposé on Harmony, he found himself feeling extra grateful that he never did.
Exposés were the most effective way to ensure an eviction. They were usually posted around the town and spread around like newspapers for people to read and gasp at the horrible actions accused within. Only a few people had been evicted from Goldcrest in the first half-year of its establishment, which was relatively normal for establishments during the settling-in period, and exposés had largely been responsible. Some people who had been targeted for an eviction managed to avoid it, but their lives had never really returned to normal.
Around the time of Harmony’s exposé, Colin had, coincidentally, been getting closer to the author of the aforementioned exposé, Mac. Now, at first glance, Mac seemed relatively reasonable, but don’t be fooled like Colin had been; Mac would soon prove to be a villain. Well, one of the many villains in this twisted story that Colin found himself getting dragged into.
Through Mac, Colin met Nathan and Kayden, two best friends who were practically inseparable. Nathan was bold and honest while Kayden was humble and nonconfrontational. When Colin first met Nathan and Kayden, Nathan had been cracking jokes about a TV show they were watching together and Kayden had been cheering Nathan on, adding quips here and there to help build Nathan’s jokes. They were perfect contrasts yet mirrors of each other, and that’s what made their dynamic work.
This next part of Colin’s story gets a little more complicated. D-Day is a complicated story, but it portrays the absurdity of human nature in a small bundle of irrational actions fueled by fallible emotion. Instead of telling you what happened, I think I should bring you directly into the story. Now that you have a vague idea of what Goldcrest was like pre-D-Day, I hope you’re ready to live through the events that catalyzed the fateful day that the residents of Goldcrest would never forget.
