Leaving Earth

My parents never planned on moving to any where else on this earth, much less another planet…but that was all before the third World War. Ten years before I was born contries turned against one another; brother against borther. Everything was left in devastation. Whole cities crumbled to the ground, so many countries fell. They inevitably destroyed themselves and everything around them. About three billion people died in the war, leaving the survivor to put the pieces of civilization back into order. There were few places, horever, that were not affected. Australia and New Zealand were among the handful of places that were actually livable.

My mom always lived in Australia, while my dad lived in England his whole life, but during an attack on London-a city nearby his own hometown-he barely managed to escape with his life. He left and sought refuge in Australia, and that’s where he met my mom. They were married four years later-exactly a year after the war ended. After that millions of survivors flooded to Australia, because there was less radiation than other places because of their neutrality in the disastrous war. My older sister was born two years later, and my twin and I, one year after that. I was born right after the war ended, so I didn’t know much about what it was like before. I was always content where I lived, never knowing anything else besides it, and never dreamed that one day I would be leaving it for good.

A few years after the war, a survivor, a genius by the name of Alexander Thompson, discovered a way to travel faster than the speed of light and cross miles upon miles of space in just under a second. No one really cared about this…until a young man discovered a life sustaining planet a few galaxies away. People were amazed and marveled at the fact that they might be able to move to another planet where there was no war or disaster.

Some of the survivors were against venturing off into the unknown and decided to stay on Earth. Others were pushing for the construction of a spaceship that could transport them to this ‘new earth.’ There was another problem though, the journey alone would take fifty years and to some people that was too much. The remaining scientists soon perfected a way to put someone in ‘suspended animation’ with a 100% success rate. Comparable to an animal hibernating during the winter, we would be put on the ship and twenty years later, would awake as fresh and as healthy as if only a day had passed. With all these things falling into place all at once, people took it as a sign that they should go, and the first ride to this new earth was sold out, with another ship already in the works, bigger and better than the first one.

This all happened when I was only five years old. My parents were among the survivors of World War III. When I first heard of traveling to this ‘new earth’, this planet ‘Nueva Vida’ as it was dubbed I wasn't too sure about the idea. My parents never wanted to travel to the new planet, but seeing that there was barely anything left for them on this earth, and that there was a whole world of possibilities on ‘Vida’ for them, they finally decided to leave when I was only twenty.

There was still matters to take care of when they decided to leave, so I volunteered to stay behind and settle all the matters of the estate and money. We agreed that I would catch the next spaceship after I’d taken care of everything, which would be six months later since the spaceships left earth only twice every year. It took less time than originally expected to organize my family’s affairs on the earth, so I booked an early ticket aboard the ship and one crisp morning in February I prepared to leave the earth.

I stood at the door of the ship and looked out at the home of humanity for the last time. We’d all lived here for so long. For millenniums upon millenniums, but now we were leaving the only home we’d ever known to explore new places. It was bound to happen eventually, right? Digging up our roots and moving our restless feet to an unknown place. Like the Pilgrims in the 1600’s, we were just regular people looking for a better life somewhere else. We didn’t know what awaited us, nor did we know what to expect, but we were going anyways, because any future looked brighter than the one of remaining on a war-ravaged earth.

“Attention passengers, attention passengers, please leave your luggage at the gate to be transported to the main holding area. You will not need any electronics, games, or phones inside the ship.” A voice crackled over the loudspeaker. Of course not, what use would they be to us once we were asleep? I thought to myself as the line moved forward. I passed through a metal detector and passed through to the inside of the ship. It was plainer than I expected it to be, but what did it really matter? We wouldn’t notice once we were put in our Hibernation Chambers.

We were all ushered into a large room filled with what looked like changing rooms you would find in a clothing store. We waited in a line for our turn and once we were inside we found a futuristic looking space suit. Once we removed all our clothes we pressed a button on the wall and a hologram appeared, showing us what the spacesuit would do and how to put it on.

They told us it was specifically designed to catch the bodily fluids that would leave our body while we were asleep, so we had to put it on a specific way so it would serve that purpose. It took a few minutes to figure out all the straps and zipper but I finally had the spacesuit on and stepped out of the dressing room feeling very awkward, with my small heap of clothes clutched tightly in my arms.

I filled out a nametag and put my old clothes in a bin before being led down another long hallway. I finally came to a wall of what looked like coffins stacked on top of one another that went up to the ceiling. The ceiling reached at least forty stories high, if not more, and the last remaining Chambers were being loaded up with passengers.

“This way Ma’am,” a Space Attendant told me, ushering me onto a elevator. “Name, please.”

“Colette Anderson,” I answered. He looked through a clipboard in his hands.

“Aha, here you are,” he said before turning to a lever at the back of the elevator and pushing it up. “You’re on the top floor.” Within a few minutes we were at the top and he was pulling open my Chamber. It opened out like a drawer and looked very comfy for something that looked so much like a coffin. There was blue velvet on the bottom and a blue pillow at the top. As soon as he opened my Chamber he held my hand as I stepped inside and laid down. He crouched down and pulled out a needle that was connected to a tube from inside the Chamber. He grabbed my arm and stuck the needle under my skin. I flinched as I felt the fluid coursing through my veins.

“This is your Food Tube, it will give you food and water during the twenty years while you are asleep,” he told he as he taped the tube to my arm. “Ok, I’m going to close your chamber now.”

With a strong push on his arms the velvet tray I was on pushed back into place and I heard the distinct click on a lock turning into place. I took a deep breath and looked around. My container’s walls were gray except for a small window above my head, looking up at the sky. It would be a nice view from outer space if I remained awake the entire ride, not that I would want too. The container was big enough so I could sit up if I wanted too, but not stand, and I could stretch out my hands from side to side. For something that was only holding a sleeping body it was pretty roomy.

I glanced to my right and saw a window that allowed me to see the Chambers on the other side of me. It showed a middle-aged man with graying hair. When he saw me staring through the window at him he turned and waved. I waved back then turned to my left and saw a man about my age, maybe a few years older laying down in his Chamber. He had his hands behind his head, despite having a Food Tube in his arm. He crossed his legs and smiled, looking more relaxed than most people I’d seen on this ship. Since his eyes were closed I couldn’t wave or anything, so I just laid back down and waited for the ship to take off. Within ten minutes a voice came over an intercom above my head.

“Attention passengers, we are preparing to take off. At this time we will activate the Hibernation Chambers. Please remain calm and in a few minutes we will be taking off. Have happy dreams!” The woman’s voice was cheerful. She must have done this a few times. I knew that as soon as we broke through the atmosphere the Captain and Pilots would go into their own chambers for the journey, and would awake a week before we were due to land so they could land the ship safely.

Suddenly the walls and floor became ice cold and a thin mist came into the Chamber. I shivered as it touched my skin. Maybe I should have brought a sweater for this. Within a few minutes me eyes were becoming heavy and I struggled to turn or move at all. I managed to force open my eyes one last time to see the stars out in space before drifting off into a deep sleep.