https://everythingspeakstome.com/files/original/cacfbd4f33bdcca5f13c6665f7f0761a.jpeg 676395e3d296524b73a2309ee885aa58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource After The Rise ... Description An account of the resource Using elevations and water level projected on EyesOnTheRise.com, these speculative fictions explore the world that was Miami after sea levels rise 6 or more feet. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Administrator Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Please post your written submission in this field. The images you would like to include should be posted as attachments below. Jose and Esther were standing in the middle of the living room, the TV screen reflecting on their glasses, sirens wailing on the news, Esther crying, watching their baby girl getting arrested. At that moment, they feared for everyone's life, their daughter’s, and the others involved. A sinkhole replaced what was once their heart. Deep down, they were proud, she did the right thing just like they taught her...but was it worth it? It all started one sunny day; Arya was reminiscing on what she had learned in history about 2023.It aggravated her that not enough people cared about the sea level rise, and now she must live like this. It is now 2180 in Cutler Bay, Florida, and the sea level is around 7 feet. Buildings are half submerged in water, boats and jet skis are now more common. Cars have become a thing of the past, but she loved looking through her dad's car books, wishing she could have experienced driving one. The city had changed so much in the past years, the flooding forcing everyone to build higher and higher. Arya’s parents often worried about her, she was noticeably quiet but very observant. She always had a passion for writing and reporting, that was where she felt most at ease. Journalism always came easy to Arya, and she got a lot of attention for her releases. Esther and Jose were always very busy, very caught up in this chaotic life. Jose was a construction worker who was taking part in building a wall that would prevent the city from continuously flooding. While Esther worked at a floating grocery store keeping shelves stocked with essentials that became very demanding, such as life jackets, sunscreen, and other items to protect humans from such harsh weather conditions. Arya always found comfort in writing ever since she was a little girl. She would always read books, articles, and newspapers and never became satisfied. She wanted to know more, “why is this happening” “what could we have done to stop this” “what else can I learn” often were her thoughts after she finished reading something. She always had a dream of becoming a journalist and she effectively did so. As soon as Arya began getting the recognition she deserved, the government had other plans. In the presence of the flood, the government intervened within the media, banning journalists from publishing reports that were “counterproductive.” They claimed that such news would increase the rates of eco-anxiety within society, but Arya knew that was bull turd. She knew someone must have been close to releasing such extravagant news that the government was starting to fear for their safety. “What are they hiding? “Arya asked herself with high intrigue.That day, she knew that she wanted to take matters into her own hands and started to research rallies that would stand up against the government's new ban. A week later, on September 18, she decides to get ready, and attend a rally in downtown Miami.The city's name went along with the reality of the circumstances. The town was actually down...underwater. She wore a bright yellow raincoat with a matching hat to keep the rain out. Others also wore bright colored outfits with their life vests or wet suits. They all wanted to catch as much attention as possible... well most of them. She began feeling like she was at home, her skin full of goose bumps every time they chanted “Truth is not a crime. Silence will not defeat me!”. She began engaging with other people who had the same passion to uncover truths as her. These individuals wanted answers, just like she did.... perfect for what she had in mind. This rally persisted for a couple of days, and she continued going. During these encounters she kept seeing similar faces, such as David. He always had attention calling signs, one which said” Truth is not a crime” but his way of dressing piqued Arya’s curiosity even more. “Where do you get those face masks from? The last time I saw one of those was in a history book in 2020” asked Arya. David laughed, “I just wear it to protect myself, you never know what might be in the air.” They began talking and he shared that he was a freelance journalist who has been writing about government corruption for years. They shared contacts and began attending more of these events together. These movements began getting more chaotic, with groups of people shouting slogans and lifting hand-made signs. But they were reaching their goal, people were hearing their voices. All news sources started broadcasting what was going on. This gave Arya a sense of belonging, she already knew what she had to do. She carefully selected journalists whom she deemed to be trustworthy and shared her drive to find out the secrets within the government. They formed a small community of like-minded individuals and started meeting at different locations to discuss the next steps within Arya’s plan. Their first meeting was at a small café by Kendall islands. It was a warm and dimly lit café with instrumental music in the background. As everyone arrived, they were greeted by Arya with a comforting smile and a sense of relief. They knew they were not alone in this journey to uncover hidden truths. Arya’s fear hiding behind her smile, and her heart beating fast as she looked at the few journalists that gathered along her side, Jake, Erika, and David. As they sat around the table, they sipped from their cups of coffee and tea together. Arya began explaining her vision for this group. She told them that they would work collaboratively to expose the government's secrets and continuously asked if they were sure that they wanted to do this. Each journalist nodded and shared their own experiences of being censored by the government and how stressful it was. Erika, a middle-aged woman with long curly blonde hair, spoke up “Hi lie-busters! My name is Erika, and I am here because I am so tired of being held quiet in the media. We need to tell the world the truth about our reality.” Another man, with a long beard and braided hair, spoke up after Erika and applauded her for courage. “Hey everyone, I am Jake. I usually investigate the role of the constructions industry in increasing the sea-level rise, but my articles seem to not get any recognition ever since the government restricted our publishments.” Arya began feeling a sense of intimidation, “what if this all goes wrong, oh God”, she said in her head, but she knew she had to share too. “Hi everyone, thank you for joining me in this journey. I am passionate about uncovering the secrets within the government and knowing more. Ever since I was a little girl I was never satisfied with my knowledge and was hungry for more. I have a feeling that government is hiding something from us, and they feel threatened.” David looked at Arya and thought “If only she knew...” As they continued the meeting, they talked about the best ways to gather evidence and publish their findings. They had to use a platform that worked against the government. This platform allowed journalists to continue publishing their works, but it was only released to other journalists. It required private security passwords to verify identity and had the ability to help them remain anonymous. It was created by hackers and coders who ensured the system was very hard to crack into. Over the following weeks, they continued meeting at different locations, such as abandoned boats, empty floating stores, and different cafes. Frequently switching locations helped them remain undetected by the government. They also dressed in comfortable clothing with plain patterns, as they did not want to get much attention. On the 4th meeting, David stayed after it ended and told Arya that they needed to talk. He asked her “Are you sure you want to uncover the secrets that are being hidden from the world?” Arya looked at him puzzled and said “David, of course. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have formed this group....why are you asking me this?”. David replied, "how open-minded are you?”, “It depends,” Arya said. “Well, what if I told you that I might be able to get us into one of the riskiest places in the country where secrets are definitely hidden?”, asked David. “Who even are you, David? Are you on drugs right now?” questioned Arya. At this point, Arya was afraid, but she knew she was close to discovering something, little did she know that this discovery would take her down the path of danger. “Listen Arya, what I am about to tell you might freak you out.” he removes his mask as he says this. A huge white scar lies on his right cheek, all the way from his cheekbone to his chin. “What is that?!” exclaimed Arya. “I am a former secret agent for the government. When they found out that I no longer wanted to cover up their dirty work, they marked me. Told me to run and hide but that they would find me. I can't stay in Miami for too long, but I will help you if you let me” explained David. “David, I need to think this through. You can't just expect me to give you an answer right away. How can I know what you're telling me is the truth?”. David opens the right side of his sweater and reaches into the pocket; he grabs an ID from there. “I am not even supposed to have this on me right now, if I get caught, they’ll torture me, but I knew you wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t bring this along. Here’s my ID form when I was a former agent. I was known as “ghost”, one of the best agents the U.S has had.” Arya grabbed the ID and looked at it while David talked, “My last mission was to go into Area 51 and discover the things that those people are hiding, but I couldn’t do it because I was already fed up. I needed to regroup and take some time off, but they didn't like that, so they marked me and dismissed me.” said David. “Wow, well thank you for sharing this with me, but I really need to think this through, David. This is too much to process." replied Arya. “Of course, I understand. Please let me know when you're ready to keep talking about this. I might have a plan,” said David. “Yeah yeah” said Arya. That day, Arya went home and all she could do was think about her conversation with David. “Why would he lie?” she asked herself. “But why would he tell ME out of all people, this is too confusing?” She went on about her day but still thought about their conversation. As the day ended, she messaged David “Lets meet tomorrow at La Carreta to talk about this over some croquets. Be there at 9:00 am.” The next day came, they sat down on the hard wooden chairs, and ordered 2 ham croquets and 2 cheese croquets. They also ordered two coffees to go along with it. “Okay, we’re here. What's your plan?” asked Arya. “Well first, I think that these scientists have an organism in there. I think they know something that we don’t, but we need to be mentally prepared for anything. I have some contacts, some of these people owe me big time. I will make some calls to get us a private plane and two custodian outfits shipped." explained David. “Wait... are we going to tell the rest of the group about this?”. asked Arya. “Let's tell them that we are going on a mission to discover something big, but that they must stay close totheir phones at all times. We will call them once we have the results of our findings, so that they can publish the article. Just in case worst comes to worst." suggested David. David made some calls and managed to get the private plane. They left the next morning and flew to Las Vegas and spent the night at a boatel there. “We have to wake up early tomorrow to go over the rest of our plan” David told Arya. The next day they woke up at 6:00 am and got ready to continue their trip. They had breakfast, but Arya’s nerves did not let her finish her waffles and scrambled eggs, so she took it for the way. They got on the plane, adjusted their seat belts and got comfortable. “Are you nervous?” asked David, as he saw how worried Arya seemed “Yeah, a little bit, but I am trusting that this will be worth it”, replied Arya. Hours passed, they had deep conversations and got to know each other even more. They had to stop to refuel a couple of times and stayed at another boatel for the night. They left at the same time again and this time they were less nervous. As they flew over the desert, the sun began to rise. Arya looked out the window and felt at ease as she looked at the view. They got closer to an airstrip that was near area 51. One of David’s colleagues owned the airstrip and even got them a rental car. From there, they drove through the desolated terrain with many rocky hills and valleys. They finally got to the fences of the facility, after driving for many hours. Arya was intimated by the barbed-wire fences. They already had their custodian outfits, with their personalized fake IDs that one of David’s colleagues sent him when they were at Las Vegas. They also had a device that would deactivate the sensors of the fence for 40 seconds. They quickly climbed over the fence at the same time and fell onto the other side. Luckily, David had intel to go through the back of the facility, where there would barely be any guards guarding the fences. His friend managed to distract two guards while they climbed over the fence. Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. They had to pass through some guards and swiped their custodian Ids to verify their position at the facility. Thankfully, the IDS went through, and they proceeded through their mission. The facility felt like a maze full of identical white doors. They all said, “Do Not Enter”. Arya began regretting her decision while they walked through the dimly lit hallways. But they finally found what they were looking for. They walked into a high-security laboratory, deep into the left wing of the facility. They found themselves in front of a glowing tank... when they looked closer, they couldn't believe what they saw. There were Mer-people inside the tanks and seemed to be heavily injured from the research being done on them. Arya got her camera and began taking pictures of all they saw. David looked inside the drawers to see if there were any files that talked about this project. Then they heard footsteps approaching and they quickly hid inside the storage closet of the room. “Well, let’s get back to work. These Mer-people don’t need to rest. We need to keep finding ways to use them to our advantage” said one of the scientists, not knowing Arya and David were hiding a couple steps behind him. Arya gasped so loud that she got them caught. The scientists pressed on an alarm button and the sirens went off. All they could hear were the booted footsteps and the wailing sirens. “Quickly, step on this stool and get into the vent” scram David. They got into the ventilation system and crawled through the tight and narrow space. The guards began speaking over the radio and announced a code orange. This code was used to let personnel know that imposters were in between them. David’s friend had already told him how the ventilation system worked and how it led to the back of the facility once again. They crawled and crawled until they reached the end. David deactivated the fence quickly but got cut by the sharp blades surrounding the top of the fence. “Hurry! Get into the car quickly. Call Jake and send him the drive so that he can publish it,” said David. They could hear the helicopters getting closer and closer to them. To their luck, they were able to lose them for a couple of minutes and managed to get back into the fully fueled plane. “Hi Jack, we found it! Please upload the story as soon as you can! I will get rid of this phone and USB Drive as soon as the documents send” said Arya over the phone. “Will do boss! Thank you for risking your lives for this discovery”, replied Jake, not knowing that they had been to area 51. He also did not even know what he was about to see once he opened the documents. Escobar8 “Arya!! Mer-people?! Are you serious??” questioned Jack. “Yes Jack, we don't have time. Please upload the document I sent you along with the pictures. We’re running out of time. Goodbye now”. answered Arya. She proceeded to break the computer, phone, and drive, with a hammer they had in a toolbox. Unfortunately, Arya and David were caught before they could even leave the city. They were held in custody and tortured for questions. n The next day, news sources started reporting on the release of the article Jake released through Arya’s account. “Are mermaids' now part of our reality” said the news anchor. The article created chaos across the country. Many people became shocked and ashamed by the government's actions and wanted answers. The news reported that Arya and David had been arrested for trespassing unauthorized areas. The rest of the journalists who had been part of Arya’s team, were being investigated by the authorities. As the days passed, the public remained in awe and couldn't believe what was going on. They started demanding justice for Arya and David as well as for the Mer-people. Many petitions were signed, and the charges eventually dropped for this duo. They were hailed and honored for their brave actions of uncovering the truth. Arya hugged her family very tightly after release, and they filled her with kisses. They knew that despite the trouble she had been in, she had discovered something incredible, making a difference. This was not Arya’s and David’s last mission together. This was the beginning of many adventures to uncover lies. Nothing could stop them now. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Quest for Answers Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emily Escobar Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 04/17/2023