It's not a want. It's a need.

Copyright © 2012 Rochelle London

All Rights Reserved

Prologue

I stood, my neck craning back looking up at the big TV screen in the centre of the city. My mother’s hand tightened around my own. People on the screen were waving to us as they boarded the Exalted Spacecraft, some were crying in happiness and sadness, others were laughing and smiling. As they reached the head security, two needles were placed in them, one inserted a new found chemical the allowed them to breath in space without masks. The other was a shot that prevented a disease that had killed the first group of people that died within the first month of landing on mars. Five hundred people boarded five planes, one hundred on each.

I saw my own father and my older sister wave as that walked slowly up the manmade slope. As my mother caught sight of them she burst into tears, sobbing her hand clutching mine even tighter. I cried too, I would miss my family, having my sister Tammie by my side day and night, she was fifteen this year, we would miss her birthday but I knew even at my age of ten that she would have a better life on mars.

I snivelled again as they got their shots thinking of how much I was going to miss my family. My father was a scientist who had a minor part in helping with the planets, but he still had connections to get a spot on the Exalted Spacecraft, the only problem was he could only take one other person with him, it wasn’t that hard of a choice for him since I wasn’t his biological daughter and my mother refused to leave me, so he took Tammie. My sister Tammie was the exact opposite of me in looks but in personality we were more than similar, we were identical. When they told me she was going I threw a few tantrums, but the first one wasn’t because my sister was leaving me it was because I wasn’t getting to go.

Earth died more and more every day, slowly deteriorating over the years, after many years of research people began living on Mars, the first shuttle went up in 2120 the second shuttle went up in 2132, it was now 2148 and the third shuttle was going up. There were also scientists on Jupiter and Saturn, looking for any way to live there, the most recent update said that water and some plants were found on Jupiter. Even at the age of ten I knew that everyone wanted off earth, including me. And I was determined to get off this plant, the moment my sister boarded that plane, my whole world changed, I was still sad to see her go but I knew the only chance of the life I deserved was also boarding one of those planes and I was going to get on one whatever it took. It wasn’t a want. It was a need.