by Jodie Kobe
So here I am, sitting in the middle of a large, white room. White chairs have been placed in rows throughout the entire place. Words and laughs and the scraping of chairs all fill the room, but all I do is listen to them and fiddle subconsciously with my fingers.
Rian sits next to me. Fox, the guy who I learned will be coming outside with us, is sitting on my other side. Piers is somewhere in this room too; I just don't know where. The many people who have been invited to the meeting only wear lab coats, except me, of course.
The rest of the “regular” people don't know about the meeting. I remember Mr. Welds saying he doesn't want them finding out and getting their hopes up. Because what if the project is a failure? What if we'll never be able to go outside? Why tell the people there could be hope when easily, the program could collapse on all of us?
At the very front of the room stands Mr. Welds along with his brother, Russell Welds. Janelle is seated in a chair right next to them. Rob isn't here, and I haven't seen him in a while.
Mr. Welds clears his throat and his voice echoes through the speakers spread around the room.
The noise of the crowd ceases, and Mr. Welds steps forward, nodding at his audience as he pulls something out of his lab coat pocket. I can't see what it is as I'm too far away.
Mr. Welds presses the tiny object against the wall and a large projection screen materializes out of the air. Black letters appear on the screen, but the font is too small for me to read. I'm sure the people in the back can see it worse than I can.
A tall man sits in front of me. As soon as the projection screen appears, he straightens up in his seat, bringing his head right in front of me to block my view of the screen.
Damn it.
I lean to the right, careful not to lean right into Fox. He casts me a glance, but does not say anything.
I slump back in my seat and reach out to tap the man in the shoulder. He turns around to look at me.
"Yes?” he whispers. The room is dead silent so I don't know how loud his whisper is.
"Could you move your head a little?" I ask him as politely as I can. "I can't see the screen."
"Oh, sorry." He ducks his head. "Can you see now?"
I tell him yes.
Mr. Welds has started speaking.
"I'm very happy you were all able to make it," he says. "As you may have guessed, this meeting will cover a few questions you may have. We will go over our project and plans also. Dr. Janelle?" He points a finger at Janelle, who has already stood up from her seat. She holds a thin tablet in her hand.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." She glances at the tablet, and I think her entire speech is written on there.
"We have finally selected the three people who will heading outside to place our machine in its proper spot. We have been working on this machine for over five years, and now, it has been completed. We are hoping this will work and we are grateful for everyone's support. I would like to announce these three courageous people who have volunteered for this mission.”
I hadn't volunteered. Mr. Welds chose me.
"These courageous people are," Janelle begins, "Rian Callum, Vivian Clancy, and Foscet Manson." I'm caught by surprise at Fox's full name. I didn't know he has one.
There is a short round of applause. Fox has a grin on his face as he waves at the crowd of scientists.
I only shrink further into my seat. They don't need to applaud me. I'm probably headed to my death anyway.
Janelle sits down and Mr. Welds takes over. The noise ceases and he starts speaking. "Once again, for anyone who has helped with this project, thank you for your support. Without your help, we wouldn't be where we are.
"We're here today," he continues, "to inform you about our plans. So if you are staring off into space or dozing off, please wake yourself up."
Laughter sounds throughout the room, but I only look around, easily keeping the smile off my face.
Mr. Welds clears his throat. The projection on the wall next to him switches to a different slide. This new slide is green, containing the words: PROJECT EARTH.
There is a picture next to the text, but I can't see all of the details. The image appears to be of some kind of machine. Maybe the one that's supposed to convert the poisonous air into breathable oxygen?
Mr. Welds says, "This is an image of the device that we have been working on. Don't be fooled by the size in the picture. It's a fairly large object. It will need two to three people to move it."
The slide changes and a few more pictures appear. There's an image of the same machine from the previous slide and two other images of what appears to be a small blue chip.
"What you see here," Mr. Welds says, pointing to the two new images, "are a few pictures of the item that will need to be inserted into this machine. The chip is what activates it. After the machine is activated, signals will be sent to our system. From there, we will begin the conversion. If this machine works flawlessly, Earth's air should be converted to breathable air in about...one year."
Murmurs fill the room. Someone near me says, "I thought it will only take a few weeks to clear the air."
I snort to myself. Were they really expecting it to happen that quick? In a world so vast?
“As most of you here should know,” Mr. Welds continues, “Protective suits will be provided for our three volunteers. They are especially made to keep the toxic air and chemicals away from human skin.”
The slide changes and it's filled with text and no pictures. Again, the words are too small for me to read. Fox mutters something about not being able to read the text as well.
I shrug and focus back on what Mr. Welds is saying.
“...in a week, as you all may know by now.”
The screen changes again, and this next slide holds three images of a suit. One from the front view, one from the back, and one from the side. The suit seems to be made of some sort of light, brown material. It's baggy, I notice as well.
The very top of the suit has a place to fit a human head. It also contains a pane glass for the face. It almost looks like a hazmat suit, but brown.
“These are the suits Mr. Callum, Ms. Clancy, and Mr. Manson are required to wear for this mission. Their hearts will power their bodies so they will not freeze from the extreme cold, while the material of the suit prevents the toxins from making contact with their skin. But just to be clear, the heart only powers the human body from the extremely low temperatures. Any questions?”