The New Earth

It was October 12th, 2201. It was her 16th birthday and she thought she would be spending it entirely differently. She was supposed to be with her family, with friends-even at home. Instead, she was alone. In the hospital with a group of doctors all wearing suits that were so puffy, silver and metallic that they looked like they were not people at all, but some weird metallic monster with a hose for a nose. They towered over her, firing questions at her. “When did you first notice the difference in your breathing?’ “ Did you eat something different?’ “ How do you feel now?’ “Are you dizzy?’’

Then there was the barrage of tests. The blood tests every hour, the almost constant monitoring of her oxygen, and her heart. Just when she thought it was over and the doctors were gone they would reconvene and return with more tests, more questions. They had asked her birthdate many times, but not one of them wished her happy birthday.

She wanted her mother. She wanted her there with her. It felt painful that she was not there.

She started to cry. She didn’t care. She covered herself with her blanket and just cried. She didn’t care who saw her. This alarmed them more. They started talking loudly, gesticulating wildly with their iron covered arms, and speaking in another language. “No. No, No, “ they said. She guessed they were worried that she would get sick, but she could not see as she could not see their faces. One of them gave her a shot, and she felt very very tired.

Day 1.

She woke at 2am. She felt groggy. Could it be her breathing? No, the number on her monitor said she was getting enough oxygen. There was a note. Could it be a birthday card? She opened it. It said “ tomorrow you will join others of your kind around 12. Please do not talk or exert yourself. When you see them. Do not talk. We have provided lunch.” This must be more observation, and she knew the doctors had a long night. Several of them were starting to have low oxygen when they were talking to her.

Others… She didn’t know there were others. She wasn’t alone.

At about 12:20 two of the doctors arrived to wheel her to the cafeteria. They each took turns wheeling her. She felt the impulse to walk, but they would be mad. She was the last to arrive. There were about 7 others there already. All the doctors were in the background holding note pads and writing. She sat at the table and glanced around. Her eyes widened. It was so strange to see everyone without their suits on.

Really she had never seen anyone’s faces so clearly except in a picture. Her eyes were drawn to a guy who also looked like he was a teenager. His eyes were brown, the color of root beer. He had full, sensuous looking lips. She could not take her eyes off of him. She found the shape of his lips and face just riveting. She barely noticed the others, except that there was 7 of them and 4 men and 3 women. There was another woman who appeared to be about her age, and she had light blonde hair and without her suit it was obvious that she was very curvy.

She had a hard time focusing on what the doctors said, but she did gather that they wanted everyone to not talk and that they were all going to be going through more tests, and each person would have a special day of tests. Hadn’t she been tested enough? Never mind, the sooner this was over, the sooner she would be returned to her family.

Brown eyes was staring at her intently. Or maybe she was just imagining it.

Day 2.

She awoke to receive a note that informed her that she would be meeting the others for lunch every day and have dinner alone every day. She was not to talk to anyone, and her day for testing would be the last day. As she was the smallest, she would be tested last. As she read that she felt a sickening thud in her stomach. Last… She was hoping she would be the first one tested, as she was eager to join her family.

This all happened because her suit had malfunctioned. She had been in school when one of the teachers began screaming, code blue! CODE BLUE! Without the suit she was not supposed to breathe more than 2 minutes. The ambulance arrived and she was still breathing. WITH HER SUIT OFF! All the students gathered around her with the teacher in the middle and stared at her- a group of metallic people with large plastic covered faces and oxygen tanks. They looked like one giant group of aliens. She had never gotten used to the new suits, even though her parent’s let her get a bedazzled one.

After that day she had to go to the doctor weekly for testing. The doctor kept testing her lung capacity. Then, suddenly, shockingly the oxygen levels on earth plummeted to dangerous levels. The suits did not work for many people. Every day more and more people died. Sometimes, 3,000,000 in a day. Other times 10,000.00. Lately it had even been around 4 billion per day. The very young, and elderly had no chance. There was not enough oxygen. Scientist scrambled to try to come up with a new suit, but none of them worked. Schools closed, hospitals were pushed beyond capacity and the food supply dwindled. There was no one to mix the ingredients.

Then one of the scientists discovered another planet. It was directly behind the moon and they were told that it might resemble earth the way it was many years ago- there would be plants, and animals, and oxygen. They called it panacea, andsaid it was a new earth. Many people had gone already. They were unable to hear from anyone after the first few people however, as the ozone layer had become so thick. Her parents had gone, and she was supposed to follow them a day later. After the doctors did a few tests. After she was tested then the doctors were supposed to follow her.

How many people were left on earth? She felt painfully, achingly, piercingly lonely.

At lunch she felt distracted. She could barely look at the others. She could breathe, but it meant she was separated from her mother. Her parents left in such a hurry they did not even give her a gift, Actually, she was not sure if they remembered to buy her one.

On the way out Brown eyes briefly touched her hand and placed something in it. She looked up at him. Without understanding why, she knew he did not want her to say anything. She kept her hand closed and tried to act as if everything was normal, or as normal as it could be. She could not wait to get back to her room. The doctors were extra slow today, but they were also running out of oxygen. They had to attach several tanks of oxygen from several of the old suits. At best this could last only two weeks. It was surprising they were delaying the tests as much as they were.

He had placed a locket in her hand with a note in it. It was in French. Her grandmother had taught her French luckily. The note said. “ My name is Mark. I’m hoping you can read this. If you can send this back to me. I need to talk to you. Please don’t let anyone know we are writing.”

Strange.

She looked around the room and found a pen and wrote “ My name is Violet. I can read this.”

Day 3.

They found out at lunch that the first person to undergo testing, the largest one of them had died during testing. She felt like her heart stopped when she heard that. She assumed that this new found ability to breathe would last. Was she ever going to make it back to her family?

She passed the note to Mark. She could have been more careful, but everyone was so sad, that she didn’t even think they noticed.

She wondered if her parents had arrived in Panacea yet? She tried to look out the window, but it was pitch black as it always was. On extremely sunny days they could see a light shimmer through the blackness, but not today.

Day 4.

There were now 6 of them and 11 doctors. On of the doctors had become sick and they postponed the next test after what happened.

Mark passed her the note. It asked her to meet him in the cafeteria after 9, when the doctors were sleeping and refilling oxygen. They would have 30 minutes.

When she arrived, he was already there. He stood close to her, whispered in French, as none of the doctors speak French. He smelled unlike anything she had ever noticed before. She wanted to touch his lips, to run her fingers through his hair… He spoke quickly, asked her to meet him again. Said that the doctors spoke to each other in Spanish. He had heard there was a small patch left on earth nearby where it was light, and people could live. Some of the doctors wanted to go there. Could that be true…

Day 5.

They heard at lunch that the doctors had changed the plans. They were now going to perform tests on 2 people per day. She was going to be tested in 3 days, Mark was going to be tested in 2 days. Diana, the blond girl, would be tested the same day as her. Mark kept his head down and did not make eye contact with her.

When they met he told her that he heard that the other person didn’t die. The doctors said that the people being studied had adapted to the inhospitable conditions on earth. The doctors were not really testing them, instead they were going to do lung transplants. That’s what they were all there for. The doctor wanted to stay on earth as they didn’t believe the other planet was truly safe and they were going to kill the people that could breath and transplant their lungs into their own bodies.

She felt frozen. His words so horrible, so sickening and evil that she could not even process them. What? Was he lying? She looked in his eyes and she saw fear. She wanted to hold him, to comfort him.

Day 6.

Only 9 doctors were there, and 5 of the patients. Mark was very distracted. She didn’t know if he would remember to meet her.

He did, but would not look at her, and did not talk. Finally, he said “ We have to run away. I’m scheduled for surgery tomorrow. We have to do it soon. Meet me here in the morning before the doctors are awake.”

Why not now?

They will be awake after the oxygen. They will still be sleeping in the morning. He leaned in and kissed her. She had never felt anything so pleasurable, and what she felt was intensified by the pain of everything she had been through. She would go with him.

Day 7.

She got up early, and met him. He was there. They walked out of the hospital easily enough. She was still shocked she was doing this. It was pitch black outside, and very very cold. Their suits kept them warm however. They followed the directions Mark had heard about and when they got there she could not believe what she saw. Through the clouds she saw a stream of light. It felt a little warmer and on the ground were green plants. It was an explosion of color. She reached down and touched one. She had never touched one before. It felt silky.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps. It was the blond girl and one of the other men. They had followed them. They all stared at each other with a tacit knowledge of that they had escaped. The sense of relief was palpable. They talked about what they were going to do. The man wanted to get on the space ship. The blond girl said there were many theories that people never made it to the other planet. Violet looked on the ground and saw something small moving. It looked like a little furry animal. She had heard that the earth had many animals at one time. She never saw one in person.

She was going to stay.