Thirty-two.

That's how many seats were left open. I already knew that a lot of students hadn't made it out in time. I'd barely made it out in time. But just the fact that more than half the people in my grade hadn't escaped was disturbing to think about. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about it.

Harris.

Where was he?

And that didn't even include any of the other grades in our school. Maybe there was another ship for everyone else. Maybe they all didn't actually die.

There had to be another compartment or something. This couldn't be everyone from the school.

Maybe I was just desperately searching for hope in a situation where there seemed to be none. But at least trying to think of nameless faces I'd passed in the hallways was easier than even considering what might have happened to my parents. Where they were now. If they were lying dead somewhere, eyes staring eternally upwards at the sky that we were about to fly away into, forever watching over me from their deathbed on the ground.

I had to focus on what was important.

And according to the sandy-haired boy, that was getting this machine running.

I was in a seat now, staring across at the people on the opposite side. People were chattering anxiously, trying to figure out what to do next. After a few seconds, someone mentioned something about pressing the buttons. There was a button on my arm rest. I pushed it down.

A loud rumbling came from beneath my feet. My eyes swerved around in anxiety, as I felt my heart begin to beat faster. None of us had ever been in a space ship before, not even a simulation of one. None of us knew how this was going to work, or what was even happening. I was guessing it couldn't be a real space ship. That sort of technology didn't exist right?

Well, this sort of technology wasn't really supposed to exist either.

My theory was it was more of an airplane or a helicopter. That this thing would take us up a few miles where we could wait out the heat wave and hopefully, head back down again. Maybe they had finally found some solution, some way to stop the limit. That the government had created this to save us all and save the Earth.

Maybe this was just a temporary adjustment to keep us alive a moment longer.

As the engine revved to life, an automated voice seemed to speak directly into my ear, and I realized that the seats all had speakers in them.

"Please make sure you are buckled in. It is necessary that the strap is firm against your chest. Take off will begin shortly. Please make sure you are buckled in....," the voice said, and then repeated the same phrases, not stopping until every single person glanced down and tugged on their own straps to make sure they were ready. I sighed and shakily grabbed my own, clicking it into place at my left side.

"Thank you for cooperating. Please do not move. Stay put. Please do not move. Stay put. Please do not-" A girl screamed out from across the cabin and I looked up frantically, suddenly wanting to get out of the seat. Her face was just as frightened as mine, but as I watched the syringe that had come out and stabbed into her arm retreat, I realized what was happening just slightly too late. The needle pricked my upper arm, and I winced at the pinch of pain.

"Relax. The ride will be over soon." The automated voice didn't repeat the instructions this time. But as the seconds passed I noticed my anxiety slowly fading away, as my eyes began closing. It reminded me of when I had been nearly dying not too long ago, except this was so much more peaceful. So much better. Like suffocating in a pile of warm, comfy pillows. My mouth curved into a smile as my brain stopped functioning and my thoughts trailed off.

"Take off in 10....9......8..................7....................6............................................"

________________________________________________

Breathe in. Out. In.

A subtle noise...a hum.

In. Out.

A flicker of light.

In. Out. Innnnn.

Ouuut.

"...She's alive..." The voice came like a bullet to the brain, so much louder than the darkness. So painfully loud. My eyelids were so heavy, I couldn't even imagine opening them. But something inside of me was telling me that I had to. "He's alive, too," the voice added as it shifted slightly farther away to my relief.

Light was the first thing to filter in through my pupils, in a disorienting array. White fluorescent light. Where was I? My mind struggled to remember what had happened before this...but everything...everything about me was faded, like a worn out picture after years of aging.

My name was Tara. Tara Becker. My mom was...where was she? I knew my dad left...a long time ago for...for something.

My eyes flew open as my worry jolted me back into reality. The cabin. The lights. The people. There was a boy sitting next to me with sandy hair that I remembered, but I had no idea from where. The voice that had brought me back to life had came from a girl a couple feet away now, with startlingly gold hair and shockingly light green eyes. A color that reminded me of some ethereal gemstone from a fantasy book. As the only person who seemed fully conscious and aware of her surroundings, I turned to her.

"What's going on?" My voice was soft and hoarse, barely audible. My eyes widened in surprise. I opened my mouth again, repeating the question until it came out as an actual sound. She turned her magnificent eyes on me and looked confused, just as much as I was.

"Oh....well we don't really know. All of us kind of just woke up. Not everyone yet.....but.....," the girl replied, just before glancing down at another sleeping figure. "I'm pretty sure the bathroom's open if you'd like to use it," she suggested, pointing a finger in the direction of a metal door between two seats.

A bathroom....

Where was I again?

I just nodded my thanks and quickly went inside, not really having to go, but needing some privacy. There was a mirror on the wall and I jumped back.

How...

What...

For some reason...it was like I could barely remember my own face. Not just because I looked absolutely different but because...my thoughts were all blurred. The door clicked shut as a second set of lights flashed on and I stared back at the tortured face of a girl who had been sedated for who knew how long.

My body looked frail and my hair was a mess. It's tangled waves fell about my shoulders and back in a heap of red. It was...long. Much longer than I remembered...although I wasn't sure. I was pretty sure I used to keep my hair short and never too much longer than my shoulders. My hazel eyes stared back at me, tinted with worry. My usually olive skin was abnormally pale.

For some reason, we'd been asleep for a while.

I didn't really want to know that long. But I did recall the needle, the prick of something entering my arm.

And seeing as my thoughts were all blurred and everything felt like it'd happened decades ago, I had a bad feeling about all of this.

By the time I gathered myself and returned to the main room, most of the others were awake, including the sandy haired boy who I kept trying to remember. A faint image of his face above mine and him explaining something came to mind. Now, he was talking to the green eyed girl as the rest of the students roamed around with blank eyes, looking shocked that they were alive. We were alive.

I walked towards the sandy haired boy and golden haired girl, hearing their conversation increase in volume as I neared. Everything was so much louder, likely due to all the time I'd spent in a noiseless environment.

"We had to have been asleep for a while," the boy stated and the girl nodded her agreement.

"Yea...that's what I'm afraid of.....," she muttered.

"Shouldn't we be doing something? Or what are we supposed to do?" I asked, releasing the first questions that came to mind.

"I would just keep waiting," the boy replied with a shrug. "Seemed to work last time."

I wished I could remember what he meant by last time.

But we didn't have to wait much longer for an answer to my question. Actually, it almost felt like his words had triggered it.

The door that I vaguely remembered being dragged through at one side of the cabin slowly began to open. Blinding light, a thousand times the brilliance of the fluorescent light, shot through the crack, forcing me to close my eyes. The boy reflexively shot up his hand to block it as the girl watched in curious awe.

Slowly and with screeching intensity, the metal wall between us and the unknown fell down. At first, all I could make out was an endless wall of light, but as my eyes began to get used to it, more and more shapes appeared. I watched, lips slightly parted, as a light breeze fluttered through the cabin, cooling my skin.

Tan. Dirt. Sun......and something else. A larger unfamiliar object hovering far away in the sky. Endless, endless land.

A world that the people of Earth had never stepped on before. A world that I knew immediately was not even a part of the same galaxy.

Subconsciously, I moved closer to the opening, feeling mesmerized pure emptiness of the planet. The lack of life. A blank slate.

I looked down at my feet, noticing only now that I stood on the edge, inches away from the sandy ground. The new world. 

There was only one thing I had to do.

I stepped forward, onto the new planet.