My New World

My New World: Day 1

I live in a world called Earth. It is not the way it is described in the Old Books. In the Old Books, Earth is beautiful. Full of green, blue, and nature. Tall trees, soft grass, fluffy white clouds, clear blue skies. Amazing animals, both adorable and dangerous. The sun shining against the blooming flowers, the moonlight shining bright with the stars at night. This is Earth in the Old Books. However, the Earth I know is nothing like this. Earth is dull and grey, dark skies filled with black clouds. Humans are the only animals. There is no light, there is no grass, the roads are our grass. The buildings and skyscrapers are our trees. The busy lights of the city's are our stars. There is no sun, no moon that we can see. It is night all day long because there is no light. 
       Today, April 22, 2100, is Earth Day. Today, 8 of the people inhabiting Earth will be removed and placed in a newly discovered planet called Hope. I, Flora, am one of those people. We have been selected to go to Hope to see how it is there and to see whether or not us humans can survive in Hope. The Earth's condition has worsened over the years to the point where we all feel it is impossible to live in Earth. I have said my farewells to my family and friends and I am now waiting for my turn to be scanned. I don't know how I feel about being removed, there's nothing in Earth that I'd miss besides my family and friends. However, I won't be gone forever. We'll all come back and meet with our friends and families again. Once I've finally been scanned, I boarded the rocket launching us out of Earth, the place we've always known, to Hope, a place that there are only pictures of, but the people haven't seen the pictures. The pictures are being kept by the government and they are not for the public, and I don't know why. The people going to Hope sat in a circle in the rocket. I looked at all of their faces and their expressions were all the same: scared. Of course we're scared, we don't know what Hope looks like, what's in it, what it feels like. Anything can happen and we'd all have to deal with it on our own. We'll all be on our own with no one to save us if something bad happens.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1... Lift off! With a loud shake the rocket fired up into the dark sky and entered space, heading for Hope. I've never been more amused. Above all the smoke, all the clouds of dust and pollution, were stars. Big, bright, shining stars. A large, glowing white moon. A giant ball of fire, our sun. They were all here, but we just couldn't see it. The Old Books were right. How could we have messed up so badly? What had we done to the one home we had? It was a beautiful world, and we've crushed its beauty. Everyone looked equally amazed. How could they not? This is the most beautiful thing we've seen in our lives.
       The rocket landed with a big thud that shook everyone in their seats. We all looked at each other. Everyone's eyes read, this is our new world. But, what could possibly be worse than the world we already lived in?
We all hopped off the ship, and looked at our surroundings. It wasn't so bad. There was nothing and the sun was out and pretty bright, but not bright enough to block Hope's four moons. The ground was hard with a ground similar to dirt, and it had a blue tint. The sky was a blank cyan canvas, making the four moons all the more noticeable. "This place is... Not in the best conditions but, but I think it's definitely more beautiful than Earth." Someone said in the silence of the rest of the chosen inhabitants. I agreed with that, Hope was beautiful. We all took out our luggage, food, tools and tents. It was freezing, we had to make a fire with rocks and some rope from Earth after setting up camp.
We sat around the fire, the same way we sat in the ship. The cyan sky slowly darkened and by the time we finished setting up it was a nice indigo. I looked at their faces. The whole time we spent setting up, we had slim to none conversation. I don't even know their names, and we're all going to have to work together to survive here. I mustered up my courage and spoke up. "So, this is where we'll all be living for a while." They all looked up and set their eyes on me. Wonderful, I have their attention. "We'll be with each other everyday, helping each other out. We'll face many hardships together, but we will care for and protect one another. We have to have each other's backs no matter what. We're all a team now." They attentively listened to my speech and never took their eyes off of me. "Well... Since we're all a team now, we should get to know each other. I'll go first. I'm Flora, I'm 17 years old, I lived with my mother and father and I have two little brothers. I believe there is some good in everything, and everyone. I know we'll be able to give great news back to Earth." I'm really on a roll here, they're so focused on what I have to say. I really do believe we can complete this mission successfully.
A kind of young looking man with blonde hair and crystal clear blue eyes began to speak. "You're very right. We have to be together as a team no matter what." He looked so serious telling them that I was right, but he then turned and smiled at me. "Nice to meet you, Flora. I'm Jake, I'm 20 years old, I grew up on my own and I know we'll get through this together."
       A very young girl with her dark hair covering half her glasses timidly spoke up. "Um... I'm Kiana, I'm 14 years old and I'm an only child and I lived with my dad. I don't know how much of a help a little girl could be but I'll try my best."
       "I'm Alex, I'm 19 years old and I lived in my own apartment but I visited my parents and my younger sister. There's not really much else to say about me, but you guys can count on me." Alex seemed like a pretty relaxed guy even on a new planet!
       Another young boy began to speak. "Hello, I-I'm Daniel. I'm 15 years old and I was taken care of by my older sister, Karen, who I... Already miss. I'll do anything and everything I can to help us get through this and go back home." Although Daniel started off shaky, once he mentioned his sister he became serious. He must really love his older sister, how could he not?
       The rest of the people here told us what they had to say. After Daniel there was Emily who was also 17, Peri who was 18, and Connor who was 21. The Court chose pretty young people to go on this journey, but I didn't think someone as young as Kiana and Daniel would be here! We all felt tired so we headed back into our tents to sleep.
       I couldn't really sleep. I was tired but I just stared up at my tents' ceiling, thinking. Tomorrow is a big day, we're going to look around at the place, setting up camp as we go. Who knows what we'll find? Who knows what lives in this planet? What if nothing is here at all, we just don't know. Anything can happen.
                         *******