Atlas Abandoned

Atlas' Dream - The Alarm (day of the crash)

"Happy Birthday, Atlas!" his mother beamed as she gave him a big hug, which he sheepishly and halfheartedly returned. His father was clearing the table from their traditional, extravagant "Birthday Breakfast" which consisted of whatever the birthday boy or girl wanted. This morning everyone ate spaghetti and meatballs with ice cream on the side. Atlas would rather have just had eggs and pancakes, but he was trying to keep the silly tradition going for his younger siblings.

"It's no big deal, mom! 12 is just another number!" Atlas tried to sound serious through his grinning. He knew Demeter, his 9 year old sister, and Pallas, his 10 year old brother, were probably exchanging jealous glances as they feigned playing with some old toys over in the living room. It gave Atlas an idea.

"Hey guys, wanna go play in the Wild before school?" Atlas was making an effort to bring his siblings into the awkward spotlight he was feeling, even though he usually won whatever games they came up with out there. When Pallas and Demeter jumped up in agreement he glanced over at his mom who in turn looked from his dad to the clock, back to his dad, and finally at the three of them with a defeated smile.

"Be back in 30 minutes!" she called to the trio as they ran out the door. Atlas glanced back at his parents over his shoulder as the front door slowly swung shut, but any acknowledgement the kids may have given was drowned out by the phone ringing. Atlas' father looked at the Caller ID and his mother's eyes widened as he gave her a ghastly look, picked up the phone, and shook his head in disbelief. It was as if they both knew some terrible news without needing to say anything.

Shaking off his confusion, Atlas joined Pallas and Demeter as they ran through the tall, wide hallways of the space station. With the sun behind them, the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hallway barely framed the well-lit Earth in its uninhabitable splendor. The planet was a cloudy tan color, with faded hues of blue and green where the water and land met. It had been more than 5 generations since anyone knew what life on the surface was like, so it was nothing more than a backdrop to these kids.

"The Wild" was their nickname for the numerous chambers throughout the space station that could be programmed to simulate different environments. People said it was as realistic as if you were in those same environments on Earth in the 2000s! They would travel to farther Wild chambers on their level if it meant they'd be able to play in more exciting environments that day, but they didn't have a lot of time this morning so they went to the closest one, which was set up like a forest. Their running slowed to a walk as they argued over what game to play, but when they got inside and found themselves facing a dense blanket of trees, Pallas took initiative.

"Hide and seek! 123 NOT IT!" blurted the middle child. Demeter immediately protested.

"No! You guys always leave me ou-" she started.

"Not it!" yelled Atlas, cutting his sister off, "It's my birthday Deemy, so let's just play this and we promise to find you too!"

"And don't worry," Pallas added, "if you get hurt climbing a tree we'll just call the nurse bots over." Pallas was lying. He had no idea if there were nurse bots in the Wild, but he wanted to get the game going so he could win it.

"Yeah right," Demeter knew there weren't any nurse bots in there, but she went along with it. She was always the cautious, reserved one out of the three of them. They made fun of her for it, but she'd kept the boys out of trouble more than they knew.

Atlas broke out into a sprint into the woods while Demeter counted to 30. Breathing in the "artificially fresh" air, Atlas smiled. He liked taking a break from the clean, boring, bright metal walls of their space station once in a while. He knew they'd be waiting for him, but getting just a little lost in the Wild was a thrill that embodied what it meant to be a kid having an adventure these days. Once he was sufficiently unsure of where he was, Atlas plopped down in front of a big rock to catch his breath as quietly as he could. It was no time before he heard the scuffling of dirt and sticks nearby.

"Boo!" Pallas popped out from around the rock and laughed as he got a reactive scream from Atlas. Atlas got up and tackled his brother. They wrestled until Demeter easily found them, and then Atlas was "it."

20 minutes later Atlas and Pallas, scraped on the arm and knee, respectively, joined a giggling Demeter and walked towards the door. Atlas, having beaten Pallas (but not without controversy), laughingly hit the "Open" button on the giant door from the Wild room back to the halls so they could all go get ready for school. The heavy vault-like door popped open with a hiss and the three kids immediately noticed an eerie, pulsating red light. It was coming from a track of lights lining the ceiling as far down the hallway as they could see.

"What the hell is that?" Pallas blurted.

"Don't swear, m-" Demeter was already planning on just how she would tell on her brother, but a couple of grown men sprinting down the otherwise deserted hallway distracted her. Pallas noticed they had Mammoth patches on their arms, indicating they were from the established military of the space colonies.

"...We should get home!" yelled Atlas as he took off running in the opposite direction as the soldiers. It wasn't 10 paces later that something strange caught his eye out the window. At the other end of the space station there was a ship dislodging. Never in his life had Atlas seen any of the ships attached to the space station move. He looked farther out. Another ship was already reorienting itself in a calculated way. Far off in the distance, where Atlas assumed another space station was, he saw a glimmer of white light. He was going to turn and ask the others if they saw it, when a bright white beam of light suddenly shot from somewhere on their station passed the ship and created what looked like a big portal, just sitting there in the emptiness of space a few hundred meters away from the ship. Just a second later an audible thud hit the window the kids were looking out of and shook the floor beneath them.

"What the hell!?" yelled Demeter. Atlas grabbed her hand and the three ran home as fast as they could.

The pulsating red lights blurred together in Atlas' mind as his dream-self ran down the hallway. He ran and ran down an endless abyss, his siblings fading away in front of him, yelling for him to catch up.

"Atlas! Atlas!"

As the dream faded the intensity and discomfort of the red lights lingered on the back of his eyelids. Reality was pushing its way in.

A burning sensation and violent shaking stirred Atlas. As his senses sorted themselves out, he knew. He tried to focus on his chest tightening, his lip quivering, and the slightly burning droplets hitting his hand, but he knew. Chemicals flooded his system with panic, confusion, and despair, and although his mind begged for an alternative explanation- a concussion, a nightmare, or a virtual reality game- Atlas knew exactly what had happened to him. He knew the space ship he was on had been crashing down onto this planet and his dad had kicked him out with AGS-9 to try to save his life.

"Atlas! We must move now, or you'll die. Atlas! We must move now, or you'll die," the AGS-9 android repeated, shaking Atlas' shoulder. Atlas' pupils dilated and he struggled to slow his breathing, but he was starting to hyperventilate. He focused everything he had on not breaking down in that moment. "Atlas! We must move now, or you'll die," AGS-9 was chanting, seemingly unaffected by the same rain drops that were burning Atlas' skin.

His dad had tried to save his life. Well, here he was, alive. With welling eyes Atlas drew a sharp breath, scrambled to his feet, and with the adrenaline of a kid trying find the ultimate hiding spot in a game of hide-and-seek, started running as fast as he could.

"Happy 14th birthday by the way, Atlas!" AGS-9 calmly spoke, sprinting alongside Atlas towards some cover.