Coming Home

I'm looking out the window at earth. It's so beautiful from this height that I almost forget about the terror that's happening below us.

I clutch the heart-shaped locket around my neck. It’s the last thing that I have from my mother before she passed. I don't know one family who hasn't lost someone. I'm in the only safe place for now.

But even up here, out of the atmosphere, I can feel the pain of what's happening below.

Before we all came to the space station a plague worse than any other took over 70% of the world's population over the past five long years. Our efforts to stop or even slow the virus only created new strains. That is why I'm here looking down at our dying planet. But, there is no way to escape the horror.

We’re the “lucky” ones here. Because our natural immunity keeps us safe from the virus, we were sent to safety in hopes of us being the key to finding a cure. But after 23 months of poking and prodding, a cure is no closer and the space station is failing. Everyone up is being sent back to Earth.

Tomorrow, it’ll be my turn to climb onto that tiny space shuttle to go home. Two thousand of us came up here. Now we all must go home and try and survive exactly what we ran away from.

I see my dad come in - a large strong man with a scruffy face. He always wears dark t-shirts and cargo pants. He is incredibly hairy and has to shave with is pocketknife twice a week just to keep his scruff manageable.

He pats my back and makes small talk about how nice it’ll be to see the blue sky again.

Suddenly, the announcer’s voice tears through the nervous tension on the boarding dock telling us to board. When the voice stops, it releases a hollow silence that is even worse than the startle. The static of the radio coming from the open door of the shuttle is the only sound.

We climb aboard the shuttle and I slowly drift off to sleep.

I awake to a scream echoes through the spacecraft. I look around for my dad but he is no longer standing behind me. A giant, dirty man has replaced him; the kind that you would have crossed the street to avoid. His clothes are torn and too big. He is slouching under the weight of his colossal shoulders. His eyes are so dark that they appear black. And, he is looking at me as though I am a meal.

I run but he is close behind. I scream but nothing happens. He reaches out his long shrouded arm and grabs my shoulder, yanking me to the ground. I let out a blood-curdling scream and jerk my head up to see him but he is gone. I realize that all the passengers giving me a strange look. I guess I must have been dreaming

"How close are we?" I ask trying to cover up my embarrassment.

"About ten minutes away," replies someone on the transport.

A silence followed her statement. That same eerie silence from before.

I can now see the landing platform through the small, triangular window behind me.

Surrounding the platform are ruins from the city that used to be here. I think it was some place in Canada, but I honestly can't remember for sure.

The shuttle starts to get bumpy. A jerk to the left sends my hair flying in front of my face. I try to lift my hand up to move my hair but my hand remains pinned to the seat. We are going down so fast that I can feel my stomach in my throat.

Suddenly I slam against my seatbelt so hard that I need to take a second to catch my breath.

We have landed...

The transport's door slowly opens. A gust of freezing air hits me, and immediately I shiver runs through my whole body.

I stand up turn around and grab my duffle bag. All of my belongings are this one bag.

I remember back when my parents and I were first leaving home, my mom insisted on taking every photo album and picture, that by the time we left we had six bags. Eventually, we had to leave those bags behind.

When I look up after undoing my seatbelt, I see that familiar, towering guy. I close my eyes shake my head and he disappears again.

I feel like I'm going crazy but I am too embarrassed to tell anyone. I'm scared.

Slowly, I walk off the transport into the woods, looking back every few seconds to make sure that the strange guy wasn't back.

Cold is seeping through my clothes, as my dad and I slowly make our way through the dirt, to the shelter. We split off from the other three people on our shuttle. They are heading for some family and my Dad and I are going to the shelter. My teeth are clattering as I breathe in the crisp air.

"Just one more step," I tell myself over and over again. We cannot even see the shelter. It is supposed to be a four-mile walk away from the landing pad, but it feels like we have walked a lot farther.

"Are we close?" I ask my dad.

"We should be about there, but I don't see it." he responds in a concerned voice.

I look around us and just see the same piles of debris that have been all along our path. As we pass each one, I look to see if I can tell what it used to be.

The gangs must have come through here. They steal everything of value and destroy the rest to keep it out of the hands of their enemy tribes. They’ve killed almost as many as the virus at this point.

We come upon a pile of rubble with a sign sort of intact.

"Shelter For The Ones In Need"

The shelter, our only beacon, is destroyed.

"Wha-w-how did this happen? The last landing party didn’t radio. Is your map current." I stutter.

"This must have happened very recently." replies dad with a false calm, "None the less, the next shelter is a four-days walk from here so let's get a move on."

It feels like we have been walking for hours, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep. "One more step, just one more." I say over and over again until it's almost foreign not to. Right foot, left foot, right again. It's almost like a rhythm. I wish I could think of a song that I could hum along to my steps – I desperately need a distraction.

"Let’s rest here," says Dad

Without a moment’s hesitation I drop my pack and flop on the ground. It is hard and bumpy, not ideal but right now I don't care I just wanted to sleep.

My eyes slowly closed. I just lie there in silence until I finally fall out of consciousness.

I look around and don't recognize where I am. There is finally a roof over my head and a real wooden floor! I turn my head to the right and see my family’s old pictures frames but the photos are gone, replaced by torn, grey canvas. The lights above my head, rather than lighting the room, flicker and fade out, leaving me in a dim grey lighting as if there is a tired sun shining behind torn blinds. I look to my left and there is the sullen man. I try to shut him out like I did on the transport. I close my eyes, shake my head and open them to see sun shining right on me.

I sit up and look around. The day before slowly comes back into focus. I stand up to go wake my dad - I see his duffle, daypack, and jacket - but not him.

"DAD!" I yell, "DAD!" No response. I look at the ground. I see footprints in the dirt, but the dirt only goes for about ten feet before what used to be a road starts.

I wait for hours for him to return. He’s got the map so I have no hope in figuring out which way he would have gone. After about 10 hours, I start losing hope. I wanted to do something but I felt helpless.

Alone, I am now all alone. Three years ago, my Mom died. Last night my dad disappeared. I am alone.

I want to just curl up and cry but I know that to survive I must keep moving.

I am walking to nowhere. I grab onto my locket and pray that I’m going the right way.

My stomach begins to rumble. I need to find something to eat soon or my rations will be gone well before I reach the next shelter.

There seems almost no point in walking. There are no signs of water or food or anything even alive. I decide to just sit down on a rock and see what happens. I keep running last night through my head, wondering how I didn't wake up when dad was leaving. I wonder if he is alive: was he taken by a gang? Did he get lost?. I wonder if I will ever find him. I wonder if he and the people like him are suffering.

I must have sat on that rock for hours just thinking, because when my mind brought me back to reality it was almost dark. I find a semi-circle of rocks where I can spend the night. I take off my pack, grab half of a bread crust, take a sip of water and go to sleep.

I awake to the tall man.

"Well, finally you're up, I mean, for crying out loud, you sleep like a log." He has a raspy voice with a tinge sarcasm. It reminds me of something from before this whole mess started. But nonetheless he scares me.

"Who are you, did you see my Dad, why are you following me?" I blurt out

"Don't you remember?” he responds.

“Remember what.”

“I used to look out for you at school back when you were in second grade. You were really shy and rarely talked, so all the other girls would try to push you around. But you luckily did something nice to me once, and whether you knew it or not, I looked out for you.

"How would I remember that; it was over ten years ago?"

"Well, I still remember it!"

“Just leave me alone! I’ve had a long day” I blurt out.

"Well, I can’t do that. Don’t you realize? I'm not real. I am only here because you made me be here."

"Come on," I huff in disbelief.

"Well, are we going to get going or what, you know that it is getting dark fast these days and you already slept through a lot of light?"

"Alright, alright we'll go." I grab a bite of bread and take a sip of water.

"I am going behind that rock to change clothes. Don’t Follow Me!"

"Ok, ok I wasn't going to anyway - who would want to" he teases.

I slowly walk behind the rock. My legs ache and feel weak so every step is an adventure. Once I'm behind the rock, I sit down and kick off my shoes, then my socks. The cold bites my feet without shoes on, but it feels good to let them relax. I take out my winter outfit and am relieved by the warmth.

I turn the corner in my clean clothes and see that the boy is still standing there waiting for me.

“Better?”

“Better.” I answer.

"Ok then, let's go."

I set off into the vast unknown. Praying that I can find some help before it’s too late.