To the Escape Pods

"ALL PASSENGERS AND CREW MEMBERS TO THE ESCAPE POD DECK!!!"  The loud voice of the ships computer rang through my sleeping chamber.  The large red bulb at the front of my chamber flashed dramatically in warning, telling me that I better get my butt moving.  Hopefully this was just another drill, though I hadn't been notified the night before that we would be practicing drills.  Usually they do so the young crew members in training can prepare. 

I flung my tired legs out of bed and nearly collapsed.  The automatic door to my chamber zipped open to reveal my best friend Ayu; he face completely twisted in fear.  Passengers frantically ran passed my door behind her.  With shaky hands she reached over and grabbed my wrist.

"Quickly Yu-weii, we need to get to the escape pod deck right away!"  She pulled me along behind her.  Fear began to boil in my gut.  I wanted to ask Ayu what the flapjack was going on, but panic glued my lips shut.  Little children were crying and asking their frantic parents why they were panicking.

We passed the long hallway that had been our school for so many years, and deep down I felt that this was my last chance to see it before something terrible prevented me from ever seeing it again.  This was nothing like what drills are supposed to be like.  Normally the children and parents are just calmly running.  Sometimes young passengers will laugh and carry on the entire way.  But not now.  Sadness and fright was thick in the air.  It was smothering, and I felt like vomiting.

"What's going on!?"  I finally screamed at the back of Ayu's head, as we scrambled our way down the seemingly endless hallways of the space ship.  Maybe if I got the story out of Ayu, I would see that maybe what was going on wasn't so bad, and was only a simple computer malfunction or something.  But no, of course not, the words that came out of Ayu's mouth nearly made me hurl.

"One of the main engines has a jam and part of it has burst.  there's a back up in some of the nuclear energy and the Engineering captain says if we don't get out of here fast-" she cut off.  My head spun and my ears seemed to fill with liquid.  It sounded like I was listening to screams underwater.

"Yu-weii?"  Ayu looked over her shoulder at me, "are you ok?" I said nothing.  Without stopping she looked over her shoulder at me.

"Everything is going to be ok..."

I hardly even heard what she said.  This place is my home.  I was born here in this very ship, and now I was supposed to be finishing my last course in the exams.  (Being 16 in the school on our spaceship - Fuego - meant that you need to take a lot of exams.  Today I was supposed to take the last exam.  I had had big plans for today!  Not to mention my future on this ship...)  A cold sweat broke over my forehead and made my long black hair stick uncomfortably to it.

All of this, everything we all had ever known... lost forever?! 

Tears made my vision all foggy.  We kept on running, my feet and knees aching.

Just in front of me a teenager, probably around my age, tripped.  Still blinded by tears I fell over her.  My forehead hit the back of her head, and my knee came down on the back of her thigh.  Ther was a gut wrenching snap that followed the impact.

The girl screamed in agony, and she began to scramble underneath me, trying to reach back and hold her leg.  A small trickle of blood ran down my forehead.

"Oh my God!"  I felt Ayu's shaky hands on my shoulders as she hurried to get me on my feet.  The girl rolled over and grabbed her limp, awkwardly bent leg, crying hysterically.

Forgetting about my own pain, i bent over and tried to help her up.  She belted out another scream and fell back on her butt.  Ayu began to cry as well.