The Day Earth Died

15. Sweet Birdie

"Where were you?" Amell inquired, sat on the bed he was assigned to.

I gave him an embarrassed laugh.

"I don't really know, I got lost in the crowd."

"I reserved that bed for you." He pointed up at the one over his own.

"Cool, thanks." I threw my bag on it.

As I was climbing up the ladder, Amell spoke again.

"Look what they gave me. It explains everything. This was meant to be a secret group test." He handed me a brochure. I got back down to floor level and looked down at the piece of glossy paper.

I locked eyes with Amell, not uttering a word.

"What?" he said.

"I can't read that, you know," I deadpanned.

"Fuck, I forgot. Let me read it for you." I faked a giggle at him.

"Sure." I sat beside him. He showed me the first page that displayed an asteroid belt.

"They call it The Milky Way To Atlas, sounds fancy, doesn't it?"

"It does." Amell flipped to the first page. On it was an itinerary through galaxies from ours to Atlas'.

"They say it's to give the 3000 best officers and the governors a break. It takes a little more than 4 years to get there. They need to drop some merchandise on Atlas and prepare IMOGEN again for departure so we'll stay put for a year. 9 years total."

I frowned.

"That's a lot," I commented.

"Well, we're stuck here now. Oh, and you won't believe it!"

"What?" I asked, returning him his grin. He pointed to the second page of the brochure. There was an apple, a piece of bread, a corn cob, some eggs, a piece of steak and potatoes printed on it.

"They feed our whole families! All my siblings and my parents too, they won't have to fight anymore. And also your mom, isn't it great?"

What a horrible thing to promise people who've unknowingly lost everything.

"Yeah..." I forced a smile at him.

These assholes really did make this fabricated hope sound like a flawless deal. Amell overturned the brochure to its last page. On it was officers cooking, washing dishes, cleaning a room, harvesting and working machinery.

"The workload is reduced to 5 hours and we'll be able to pick different jobs too. How lucky do we have to be to accidentally end up in here?"

"Very, very lucky," I replied. Amell threw himself on the bed and sighed happily. He seemed so relieved. There was no way I'd ruin that for him.

I looked around the room. There were two bunk beds of the best quality, a closet and a desk. The two other bunks already had stuff on them. The dorm was plain but clean, without room for anything superfluous. Good enough. For now, I'll take the time necessary to analyze how things work here, and where this new system's weaknesses lay. Maybe I'll need a month, or 6 of them, or a year, or 4 of them. Whatever will be required until I'm ready. Ready to do what, I wasn't sure yet.

I'll allow myself some time to let things sink in. My brain is too fuzzy right now.

"Do we have roommates?" I asked, head turned towards him.

"Yes, I met one of them earlier but he left as soon as he could get his and his sister's luggage down. He had work, he said."

"Work? Were we meant to be assigned tasks today?"