The Day We Left Earth

Leaving Earth

I ended up being right. We did only have a month. Everyone was on edge. No one knew where we were going or what was going to happen once we got there. In that month, the only thing anyone seemed to do was pack. It was chaotic. People were even skipping school and their jobs so that they had more time to pack, even though the only things that we were aloud to pack were clothes and one valuable. Asphero brought a picture of our family, and my mom and dad brought pictures of Asphero and I when we were little. I brought a memory chip, but I knew they would check our bags, so I also brought a picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day. We were set to go.

The thing I loved most about the whole event was that we had months to pack, but only a day to get on board the rockets. Now that was seriously chaotic.

We were all in these big lines, in the middle of nowhere. My family was separated. Asphero and I went on ship 2 while our parents went on ship 3. We never found out why, even when we got to the station. We never saw our parents again.

They crammed us into the ships like we were sardines, and left us there without any instruction. We all buckled our seat belts and waited. We waited for three hours.

Finally, a hologram appeared, the same one every five seats. It was the lady from the news that everyone knew.

"Welcome aboard ship 2. We are going to leave in a minute so I just need to tell you what is going to happen. The ship will blast off and you will be brought to a space station called 'Earth Resides'. Rooms have been assigned to you already, and if you are not married or engaged, you will be sharing a room with a sibling or, if an only child, you will be sharing with your parents. More rules will be set when you get there, so please, buckle up your belts and get ready. The ship will blast off in:"

Numbers started appearing, but with no voice. I was disappointed, and kind of wanted to say, 'Houston, we've got a problem', but no one would've gotten the reference.

Five
Four
Three
Two
One

With great force, our rocket left earth. I stared out the window and saw what I used to call home. I would never see it again. We broke from the atmosphere, and the grey skies were replaced with blackness and stars. Suddenly, metal was placed in front of our windows. We were passing the sun. It got really hot on board for a few minutes, and then it got cold again. We were almost there. The ship landed on a planet, Mars I think, right beside a station. Everyone picked up their stuff and got into yet another line. When we got into the station, I stopped. People walked around me, and I didn't care. This place was weird.

The soil from the earth was replaced with grey metal. Almost all the walls were covered in glass. From what I could see, it was just room after room, door after door. Had no one ever heard of open concept? I would have to explore later.

Asphero brought me out of my thoughts and dragged me to our room. The door opened up with a face recognition, and we walked inside our room.

The door closed behind us as soon as we stepped in. We dropped our bags down as we looked around the room. The room was like a big mirror, each side was exactly the same, just opposite of each other. On each side there was a small cabinet closest to the door, a bed in front of that, and two desks that were touching each bed and the other wall. The wallpaper was holo, so it was changeable. That's the only difference in the room. Connecting the two desks was a couch, and a comfy one, at that.

Asphero sat on it while I started putting my things away.

"What do you think we are going to do?" I asked him, putting my favourite blue top away.

"I don't know. This whole place, though, is just... Different. I don't think I will ever be able to call it home."

We never could call it home. Everything looked so cold and dark. Almost everything was metal, except for the windows, and that's when they weren't being covered by iron shields.

The day that we got there we all met in this huge common area, where we were briefed on rules and regulations. There was a curfew that we had to follow, and some areas that were out of bounds, but other than that, everything seemed okay.

Over the first few hours after the big meeting, Asphero had become friends with our neighbours. They were siblings, like me and him. Except instead of having brown hair, they had blond hair. The girl was nice, but me and her didn't really get along. It was also pretty obvious that she was tugging at Asphero's heart strings. The man, Lendich, was more my style. We didn't like each other to the extent that we wanted to date, but we were best friends.

Usually Asphero and Lendich's sister, Quentiya, would go to Quentiya's room and hang out there, talking for hours. Either that or go to the common area or restaurants and have dates. While that happened, Lendich and I would stay in my room and talk for hours, or explore Earth Resides.

He was so interested in hearing me talk about the very distant past, and I enjoyed hearing him talk about new technology. We were opposites, and just like magnets, opposites attract.

The one thing of how we really knew we were the same was how we were both curious; we both wanted to know more than what we were told. If that meant going into out of bounds areas or staying past curfew, that's what we did. Even though Asphero always yelled at me when I got back late, it was all worth it. We barely found out anything, but we weren't getting caught.

Deep down, I knew that one day, we would find something big. Something that maybe we would regret seeing. Honestly, I couldn't wait for that day.