Short Stories

6

*mine, for short story competition awhile ago that had to include "The Earth we knew"*

2416

I wake, my pupils dilating to the sterile white light. My chest rises and falls several times before confusion sets in. Where am I? My bare body tries to curl up on the freezing metal, shivering, but thick bonds hold back my efforts. I strain and lift my head, slowly taking in the large chamber. Creatures in white lab coats and surgical masks surround me, and I have to hold back a scream. My heart pumps quicker in a panicked effort. One of the creatures lifts her mask and speaks, her voice resonating. "Welcome, Harnah, to 2416."

The creature helps me wash, cleansing my body of frail ice crystals. She takes me outside of the chamber, to a large balcony. She speaks out to the surrounding wasteland, not looking at me. "Do you know where you are, Harnah?" Her accent is one I do not recognise. I blink furiously against the harsh light.
"Your planet? 2416? Is that what it's called?" I reply, after a pause. The creature turns and looks at me, something close to pity in her inhuman eyes.
"No, Harnah," Hannah, I correct her mentally for the third time.
"This is your planet too. This is Earth."

My hands grip the slippery metal rail, head pounding. "No. This isn't Earth. Earth has trees and seas and animals a-and normal people. Normal human beings."
"Harnah," The creature lays a perfect hand in my shoulder, and I flinch away.
"Get away from me! Where's Alfie? Where's mum?"
The creature seems alarmed by my fury, and calls for help from her freakish co workers. They reach for my arms, and I thrash out.
"Harnah, " She continues sternly. "This is the future. The year is 2416. You are one of the only original human beings left."

The creatures inject me with some kind of alien tranquilliser, and strap me back on the bench. The she creature, who calls herself Maska, sits on a shiny bench next to me. "Harnah,  you agreed to donate your body to science in the year 2016, when you died. You and 15 other people were cryogenically frozen, and now, with our technology finally advanced enough, we revived you."
I feel extremely sceptical. "Why are aliens like you here?"
Maska smiles at me. "We are humans. We have changed very little over the past 400 years, apart from our major advances in science and other areas."
My head is hurting. "Where is my family?"
Maska goes silent.
I grit my teeth. "Where. Is. My. Family?"
A voice echoes from the other side of the chamber. "Dead."

The voice belongs to Sebastian Avery, another frozen teen from the year 2016, Maska tells me. She rolls him over on his bed. He's strapped down too.
"Hannah. Your parents are dead. Everyone you knew in that entire century is long dead."
"That can't be possible." I say, tears rolling sideways down my cheekbones.
"Listen to me, it is. Basically anything is possible now. We are both living proof."
"It's a wasteland out there. Where's the cities, the forests, the seas?"
Sebastian hesitates for a second. "There are still some of those in places, I think. But this isn't the earth you knew, the earth we knew."
"What happened?" I blurt out, gesturing towards the window-like hole at the wasteland beyond.
Sebastian hesitated again. "I've only been awake a couple days longer than you, but I think in the end we destroyed most of the environment, and each other." Sebastian studies me. "How did you die?"

"Hannah, listen to me! You can't do this." Mum grabs frantically at my jumper as I stride past. "I'm sixteen, Mum, I can do anything." I'm trying not to hurt her; I just want to get out of this house.
"Hanny? Where are you going?"
Tears stream down my face. "Go back to bed Alfie."
"Hannah, you can't just leave. I know the past few days have been tough but-"
"MY BOYFRIEND IS DEAD. I can do whatever I want!" I scream at her, the wound in my chest ripping open again. Alfie starts crying, and I pause to hug him tightly. "Alf, it's okay, I'll be back soon. Go back to bed honey."
"You're not his mother, Hannah. I can look after my son myself."
I almost slap her. "Well maybe you and dad should start trying harder."
"Don't bring Harry into this-" She starts, but I am already leaving.
"I'll be back in a few days."

I drive, furious tears streaming down my face and onto my shirt. I just wanted to get out, I didn't want her to catch me until I was gone. The street signs blur through my tears, but I don't care where I'm going anymore. My left hand grasps the locket Zach gave me. How could he leave me? Just keep driving until you run out of gas, I tell myself. Then tomorrow you can come back. The cars are suddenly right in front of me, a smoking pile of metal. I slam on the brakes, but it's too late. I scream, and then there's darkness.

"Hannah? Are you okay?" Sebastian's voice snaps into focus. He's staring at me from his bed. "How did you die?" He repeats softly.
I swallow. "Car crash, I think. You?"
"Suicide."
Maska reappears in the room. "Okay guys, time to meet the other survivors." People file into the room slowly. I catch the eyes of a few, a 20-something year old girl with red hair, and a guy who looks like he's in his fifties.
"You have all been selected to help rebuild the Earth, to its new glory."
Sebastian pipes up. "Why are there only fourteen of us?"
Maska's violet eyes turn sad. "The first few revivals were not successful."

Maska starts to explain in further depth about what we'll be doing. "You have been selected to help rebuild the Earth. You will be working alongside terraform robots, which you will be monitoring as well. You will spread out over the current earth in pairs, slowly rebuilding this planet to its new glory."
Sebastian pipes up again, and I shoot him a glare. "Who will we be paired with, and where will we live?"
"You will be placed with a member of the opposite sex who closest matches your age and personality. You will live in a den, which serves as the terraforming robots base. They have been constructed to closely model what we want the new Earth to turn out like. Your own paradise."
I feel sceptical at the sound of this, but Sebastian is smiling mischievously at me.
Maska's clear voice brings me back to present."Thomas Smithas, aged 22, you have been paired with Sophie Mckenzie, aged 21." The red haired girl I saw earlier moves next to a boy, looking happy. I shoot a nervous glance around the room. Who will I be paired with?
"Harnah Millar aged 16, you have been paired with Sebastian Avery, aged 16." Sebastian grins wider at me.

I run my hands lightly over the shiny surface of the terraformer machine's controls. My fingers stop at a familiar logo, and I chuckle, tracing its almost round shape. Sebastian touches my shoulder questioningly. "Isn't it funny what things from our age survived."

I watch Maska leave through the transparent walls of our sanctuary, sheltered by the canopy of
trees against the sun. I can hear the low hum of terraform robots in the distance. They have already begun reconstructing our planet into a perfect world. I turn and see Sebastian behind me, clutching my personalised equipment bag, confusion marked on his face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just I never knew your middle name until now."
I shrug. "So what? Evie's a common name where I come from."
"It's not that," He replies, pulling me closer, urgency in his eyes.

"Mine's adam."