Unarmed

2: Escape

Izzy tried her best to shut out the sound of crumbling planet and focus on the task at hand. She took a sip of her frappuccino and made a face. It didn't taste as good as it usually did. To her right, one of the co-pilots, Cassidy Boton, noticed Izzy's reaction.

"I'll drink it if you don't want it" she offered, "I got zero sleep for the past 48 hours thinking about this."

Izzy gave a halfhearted nod and Cassidy took the drink, draining it in seconds. She shuddered a little, digesting the sudden intake of caffeine and turned back to her control panel. Izzy took a deep breath and pulled her monogrammed headset over her ear and started going through the motions of starting up the ship's engines. A bunch of scattered voices echoed through her head, all the crew members were rushing around trying to get to their positions or take a last bathroom break before they entered zero gravity. Finally Captain Franklin's voice was heard, strong and loud, through the crew's headsets.

"Ok crew, prepare for t-take off", the Captain's voice faltered for a moment, as if unsure, "T-minus 10...9...8..." Hundreds of switches flipped, fingers flying across the dashboard. Izzy looked over at the rest of her crew members. Eric had his hands to his chest in prayer, his lips moving slightly. Cassidy was bouncing up and down, eyes wide from her caffeine intake. Barry was twisting his head around, trying to get a last glimpse of Earth out the tiny porthole window by his seat. A few others were still pressing buttons and flipping switches in front of them. Scott, Rex, Shannon and Jeffery stood behind them, observing, biting their nails, etc.

"...3...2...1......BLAST OFF"

Sunita, who sat in the middle of the control panel, pulled the throttle, and Izzy felt her internal organs droop to the back of her body as the shuttle lifted off the ground. She felt the force of gravity slam her to the back of her chair and the skin on her face grew tight, reaching towards the ground, exposing almost all her teeth. In a matter of seconds, they were out of Earth's atmosphere and hurtling into space, towards Mars. Finally the rocket slowed and it was safe to get up. Izzy sat up in her chair, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and tried to process the fact that she would never see her home or family again. Suddenly she felt something moist drift across her neck. Yelping, she reached to undo her seatbelt. Izzy floated up towards the ceiling and swatted at her neck, twisting around trying to see what had touched her. A stream of foamy brown liquid drifted through the air. She followed it back to it's source: the Starbuck's cup. The undrinken latte floated around the room, catching many off guard. Eric leaped from his chair, screaming something about a space slug. Cassidy giggled and removed her headset so that a sat around her neck. Then she started bouncing off the walls, flipping in slow motion before she hit the next one. The feeling in the air was one of joy, relief and a dread, all balled up into one. No one really spoke, but they moved around the control room, exchanging awkward smiles and no-gravity high fives, which was sort of more like patty cakes.

"Guys," said Scott, who was sitting by the window, "our planet". Everyone froze, eyes wide with fear and realization. The crew nearly trampled each other trying to get over to the windows. By the time Izzy got to the window, she could just see a bunch of chunks of rock flying in different directions from the place where Earth used to be.