Oceania: The Underwater City by Eliza Taye (novels for teenagers .TXT) 📕

a special exhibit going on to celebrate the quincentennial of our nation’s Declaration of Independence. Supposedly, the exhibit has a virtual portion that can send you to anytime in our history over the last 500 years. It’s been hailed as state-of-the-art and a must-see for any visitor to San Francisco this year.”

 “Could we?” Dylan’s eyes shot over to me, with genuine elation and curiosity burning within them. “Would you be all right with that, Allie?”

My mouth already hung agape. I had no idea there was such an exhibit going on. Seeing the smile in the corner of Gran’s lips, she’d meant to surprise me with this. “Of course! We have to go to that!”

The hover car decelerated to a stop in front of the single line of cars being admitted into the city. Due to overcrowding issues, only a certain number of tourists were allowed into San Francisco at a time. I hoped that we had arrived early enough to be accepted in.

We waited patiently until it was our turn to enter the city. At the kiosk stood a humanoid robot dressed in a navy blue uniform that included a captain’s hat with an anchor emblem on it in golden thread. It took note of the number of people in the car and our basic information.

“Hello, and welcome to the magnificent city of San Francisco. How long will your stay be?” It asked.

“Only over the weekend,” replied Gran with a small smile.

“Do you have your lodgings already set, or would you like a free brochure code for your omniphone that denotes all of the available lodgings in the area?”

“No, we’re set. Thank you.”

“Very well, enjoy your time in San Francisco.”

“Thank you.” Gran nodded and instructed the GPS in the car to take us to the museum.

The car led us through the city, staying several feet above the wide streets that had transitioned from being for cars to walkways for humans. Footbridges linked the streets separated by large patches of water, allowing the overwhelming number of pedestrians easy access to the entire city. Lamp poles lined the streets illuminating the dark paths untouched by the sunlight above due to the height of the skyscrapers. Numerous drones flew through the air as mandatory police officers like in every major city, some carrying additional lighting.

I’d been to San Francisco once before when I was very young. My father had brought me to the city while on a photo assignment. We stayed for quite a while, but we didn’t have long to visit locations that weren’t part of his subject.

The people strolling on the streets below us were very different from those back in Sunnyville. Solid colors of white, gray, and black seemed to be the norm in this technologically advanced city. Robots roamed the city picking up trash, delivering packages to apartment buildings, policing traffic, and other things they were programmed to do. The only way to tell the difference between them and the humans they walked amongst was by their mechanical strides.

The hover car maintained its height as the terrain below it gave way to water once more. Glancing out the window down at the footbridges, I noticed the stationary path in the center was boarded by rolling treads. Closely, I examined every walkway, bridge, and structure as we continued on to our destination, not wishing to miss a thing.

Passing tower after tower of silver structures, we finally arrived at what I assumed was the museum. The building had to be the most outdated structure in the city that wasn’t considered part of Old San Francisco. Clean white-painted bricks bordered identical windows on either side of the quadruple-wide doorway. Columns stretching from the bottom of the third-story down to the ground were reminiscent of the pictures I’d seen of the Capitol building in D.C. Above the columns, linking the two innermost ones was an ornate overhang that draped down to nearly the top of the first story. From end to end, the building took up almost half of the block.

Opening the door of the car, so Dylan and I could get out, I kept staring at it in awe. In gold letters, it said, “San Francisco City Museum” large enough that it could probably be seen from two blocks away.

“All right, you guys. I shouldn’t be gone for more than a couple hours. If you guys want to leave early or decide to go somewhere else, call me and let me know.”

“We will, Gran, don’t worry.” I grinned and gave her a small wave.

“All right, you kids be good.” Gran pressed the button on the control panel and the car hovered off down the road.

 “Come on, Allie, what are you waiting for?” Dylan dashed up the front steps encompassing two levels and beckoned me to come on.

Mimicking Dylan, I ran up the steps to join him, hardly able to contain my excitement at the exhibit we were about to see. By the time I got there, Dylan was already holding the door open for me, still urging me to move faster.

Entering through the doors, we passed another set of doors into the main part of the lobby. Inside, a slightly musty odor greeted us as if the building really was as old as the exterior suggested. Based on what I’d experienced in immersion movies, it could have been any 20th century lobby. Feeling engrossed in history, I stepped forward toward the ticket stations eliciting a creak from the floorboards.

Dylan was already flying to the ticket station, getting in a reasonably long line. Joining him, we chatted about the list of things we couldn’t wait to see.

“We should go to the beginning of the nation in 1776 and then experience everything from then on,” suggested Dylan eagerly.

Laughing, I responded as we reached the robot ticket master. “That’d take much longer than we have in a lifetime, let alone