Saturday, July 16, 2016

De-ac-ti-vated

De-ac-ti-vated [#Wattys2016]

I was in Biology 101 when the sirens went off.

We were herded in single file to the buses that escorted us to the loading docks twenty miles away. Once there, I got dislocated from my group and watched as they boarded the space pod I was meant to be on. Several minutes later, airborne and on their way to space, the white pod exploded into a ball of flame and ash.

Lost in the whims of guilt and relief, I joined another group on a separate pod. Ten minutes later, I looked down upon the Blue Planet for what could very well be the last time. It was not sorrow that I felt for her, but fear.


De-ac-ti-vated tells the story of how Earth perished and its inhabitants were forced to flee into the black unknown of space. But leaving Earth was only the beginning. No one could have fathomed what the deep black of the cosmos held for them.