Gray Skies Read Online Free

sunshine or rain, but this was different. This fog was rich with a type of salt. People weren’t prepared. They didn’t know that their machines would choke on it, and die in the streets. Silent corpses of cars and buses and trucks filled the roads and interstate highways. All traveling stopped. Even travel by foot became impossible, especially on days when the fog only gave a few hands of visibility. Families were separated by both land and oceans. Back then, in the old world, food was brought to you. It wasn’t like it is now, where each Commune grows its own. In the bad days, food was scarce. Medicines were gone. Machines struggled, sputtered, and died, and eventually, all the metals pitted, then peeled apart, and fell to the ground, turning to dust. It was chaos and pandemonium. And it wasn’t just the people. The animals, suffered too. Birds stopped migrating; they even stopped flying, and began to die off. Thousands of species vanished. People thought that it was the end of the world. Murder, and torture, and…”
    Declan was gone. The details he struggled to remember were at the ready; his mind was racing like it sometimes did when he was writing. He recalled all the details of his research about what had happened after the clouds fell, and told the class all of it. He left none of the details hidden. As he spoke, he stared past the class. He didn’t see anyone; he only saw the words from his mouth forming in front of him. His mind was pulling and pushing them as the story told itself in a stream of thought. Pride warmed him as he uncovered the juicy details, and tied them together.
    “Declan!” Ms. Gilly yelled, interrupting him. “Declan, thank you, I think that is enough,” she spoke in a low tone, and motioned with her hand to the front row. The third and fourth year students sat with wide eyes, and mouths agape. Some had furrowed brows, and their lips were drawn down and trembling. Tabby stared, too. Her hand was to her mouth. Her eyes were filled with confusion and fright. Declan realized then what he’d done. It hadn’t been his intention to scare them. He found Sammi, then. Though her eyes were wide like those of the younger children, she had heard the stories before. Sammi raised her brow, and motioned for him to talk to them.
    Declan stepped forward, closer to the children, and then he knelt down onto one knee. He found a hard crease in the floorboards, and briefly twisted his expression. He pushed a smile past the discomfort in his knee, and looked into the eyes of each of the children.
    “It was an ugly time, and it is part of our history. But you know what? We survived. Sad stories don’t always have to have a sad ending to be good. Sometimes a sad story can have a happy ending. We are here. Your parents are here. Your family is here. We have food and school, and we still have some of the things from the old world. Not a lot, but some. We survived.”
    “Then why do we need an End of Gray Skies?” Young Rick Toomey interrupted. “Why do we have to change anything? Isn’t everything fine the way it is?”
    Declan turned to face Rick. His face was cramped with confusion. Between the story of what had happened, and what was planned for later that day, Declan wondered how many in the class felt the same way. The world today, as they knew it, was their home. Should they try to change it? Of course, he knew the answer. He’d seen the electronic photographs, and he would do anything to see them come to life. Declan stood, and a hollow pop sounded from his knee, making the kids nearest to him lose their frowns, and laugh as children do.
    “Why don’t we let Andie show us?” At once, the class straightened in their chairs, and chanted, “Andie! Andie!Andie! Andie!” Ms. Gilly smirked, and with the wave of her hands, conceded the suggestion. Unlike the rest of the class, Ms. Gilly was not a fan of Andie, the robot. However, the kids loved, and adored him.
    “Someone is going to have to get on