Goodbye Earth

Aiden

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Chapter 8

I was in the soldier's barracks when the alarms went off.

After dinner, I had parted from Faye and her younger brother and gone the opposite way with the rest of my comrades. As I walked into more classified areas of the ship, the only people that were around were crew members, researchers, important officials, and soldiers. I had navigated my way through the main hall, then left to the elevators. There were many elevators running along the hall, and when I entered one, it was spacious- about the size of a bedroom. Still, it filled quickly, and I found myself standing awkwardly and uncomfortably close to other bodies.

It went upwards first towards the research deck, dropping off all of the USS Utopia's researchers, astronomers, and scientists. Then, it made its descent down to the military deck. I, along with all of the other privates and sergeants, had gotten off here, leaving behind the crew who would make the last stop at their quarters towards the bottom of the ship.

This was the second time I had seen the military deck. I had been here once before for training, when the ship was still going through its final polishing and double-checking stages. It still looked as cramped as ever, with harsh fluorescent lights trimming the steel walls, floor, and ceiling. The military deck commons- a large, tiered room much like the dining hall, but on a smaller scale- was bustling with soldiers. Men and women around me were busy chatting away, which I couldn't understand at the time because how could anyone have that energy? It seems no one was as tired as I was.

I took two sharp lefts and a right to my barracks. Thankfully, it was on the first floor of the military deck. It was the same style as the passenger cabins, except theirs were a lot nicer, of course. I shared a room with Ryder and a couple other privates from our E-1 troop, which included privates Ryan Weber and Simon Banks. We were the highest ranking soldiers in our division- Division E- but that meant nothing, considering all of the colonels, sergeants, and other divisions that there were.

No one from my troop was in the room yet, so I took it as a blessing to catch some sleep. There was no doubt that we would be called up early tomorrow. I didn't bother changing or getting myself washed up. I entered an immediate stage of unconsciousness as soon as I fell on my bed.

It was only 10:34 P.M. when Ryder woke me up. I knew we had to wake up early, but not this early.

"Come on, evacuation drills are starting. The hallways are full of our men to help the citizens out, but Sergeant Lee wants us to get to Escape Pod 14. Just so they don't do anything crazy when they get there."

I had completely forgotten. How could I let this slip by? The first day of service and I had already begun slacking. Come on Aiden, I thought to myself.

With my uniform still on me, I shrugged the drowsiness off and sprang out of the bed. The two of us dashed for the elevators which were constantly being filled. The military deck looked emptier than it had before. I felt a sense euphoric freedom as I walked across the near empty halls. Ryder marched on a few feet in front of me. We were in the last bunch of soldiers heading upstairs to the pods. It was loud in the elevator, mostly because of the young privates who couldn't shut up.

Once we got up to the floor with many of the escape pods, Ryder and I quickly dashed to our escape pod before any passengers could get there.

When we got there, there were already a couple other soldiers in the escape pod, so the crowd wasn't too crazy when we arrived. Each pod seemed as if it could hold about a hundred people. There were seats set up in rows with belts that would cross over the body on the side. At the front of the pod was a huge control pad on an elevated platform, so citizens couldn't just storm in and mess with any of the controls. The pods were already set on auto pilot for wherever they were supposed to go, but all of the soldiers had been trained to fly one in case anything happened.