The silence
was deafening. Tears trickled down peoples’ faces. Desperate citizens crossed
their fingers and stood on the tips of their toes. The head of NASA gulped and
slowly removed a small slip of paper from the lottery box. I never thought I would
ever enter a lottery, but this was life or death. The situation had gone from
bad to worse. The main supply of water had already been transported to Mars. As
had 75% of the food. We were running out and the weather was almost impossible
to live with. By 2055, Earth would be unable to survive. It is 2054 now. We
only have a few days ‘til the end starts. This is the last lottery. This is the
last chance at survival. The head of NASA unfolds the paper and his voice rings
clearly through the microphone. “Laura Agnes…”
I feel faint. That was my last chance at survival. And I got it…
The whoosh
of the preservation station makes me jump. I’m nervous that something may go
wrong. After all, dad told me not to trust technology. That was before one of
them saved his life. Now he’s probably at home, on his TurnTab, waiting for the
end to start. The voice of my station jolts me back to reality: “Miss Agnes,
please prepare to be preserved”, its robotic tone says, “you have already been
briefed about what you should do when you reach Mars in 7 months. This machine
is here to keep you alive for the journey…”. It drones on and on but I’m not
really listening. I know all about the ship’s food shortages. We won’t be fed
for 7 months so the station will keep us in a coma-like state. As soon as we
wake up, there will be food waiting in a small fridge to the side of our
stations. There! Easy enough. I see the other lottery winners enter their
stations, so I follow their lead. I hold my breath as the lid slides over my
head. I feel like I’m trapped in a coffin. The last thing I hear is a hissing
sound as ParalyGas (sleeping gas) surrounds my body.
The faint
beeping noises of the ship ring in my head. As I open my eyes, I’m blinded by a
bright light. It takes me a moment to remember where I am but when I do, a
horrible pain explodes inside of me. Hunger.
The lid’s open to my coffin so I leap out of it and yank open the fridge. I
snatch a chicken sandwich from a rack and ram it into my mouth.
After
finishing my feast I noticed no one else was in the room with me. Their lids
were shut and my heart dropped. Did I
wake up too early? Did we crash and I’m a ghost? Are we even on Mars? I
shakily walk over to the first station and knock on the lid. “Hello? Are you in
there?” I try to pull the lid open but it’s sealed shut. Then a light-bulb goes
off in my mind. The vital screen! It has a button on it in case the lid gets
stuck. If I press it, the lids will open. I walk to the end of the rows of the
stations and found the screen containing vital information. At the top of the
list was a man called Michael Fandacho. I checked his levels and saw a bright
red mark on the life support section and my breathing stopped. I checked the
next woman down: Mandi Norsan. The red mark was there too. All of them had red
marks. All of them apart from mine. My mind was racing and I lift my hands up
to my face. I feel a trickle of water as tears spill from my eyes. What the heck is going on?! Then those
words aren’t just in my mind “What the heck is going on?! WHAT THE HECK IS
GOING ON?!” I sprint to the door and slam my fist against it, screaming to be
let out. The door opens suddenly and I’m thrown to the ground. A woman is
standing in front of me and she looks down disdainfully at my tear-streaked
face. She sighs and speaks in a posh voice: “you have a lot to learn”.
I wake up in
some sort of hospital and the first thing I see is people staring down at me. I
sit bolt upright and my immediate question tumbles out of my cracked lips:
“what happened to everyone? Why were their life support sections red?” The
woman I saw earlier rolls her eyes: “you ask a lot of questions.” I glare at
her and prop myself up against the head of the hospital bed: “well what do you
expect me to do? In case you hadn’t realised, I’m supposed to be on Mars…”. Then
the reality hits me “Wait. Where am I? Did the plan fail or something?” The
woman sighs irritably. She looks around cautiously and I realise that the other people who were in the dull
room had disappeared. “Look, I'm gonna explain all of it to you but only once.
No questions about any of it when I'm done. Got it?” I nod innocently and I open
my mouth to ask a question. She narrows her eyes and I quickly shut it before
any sound comes out. The woman drags an old, wooden chair next to my bed and
perches on the very edge of it. “To answer your first question, your 'friends'
are all dead.” I feel a sinking feeling in my stomach but I don't try to to
speak. “We, meaning our government, have made it a mandatory requirement that
whoever wants to cross our borders and enter our perfect civilisation needs to
have pure genes.” I feel my eyes widening and my head nearly explodes because
of all of the questions swimming around. “Your comrades that came up here with
you did not have the 'mandatory requirement' that was needed. You, however, do.
And to answer the question of where you are: we are currently residing in The
Dome. A civilisation created to give humans a final chance to survive. You're
on Mars, yes, but not the Mars that NASA intended to send you to. You are on
the new planet Earth, a place where we can survive without having to worry
about things running out.” She didn't explain anything else, she simply turned
on her bright red high heels and tottered off out of the room. I closed my eyes
and hid under the covers. I don't remember anything after that...
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