by Rishi Sriram
signified green. He began walking through the streets searching for his dorm,
and knowing his luck, the green section was the farthest from the landing
dock. So he was in for a long walk. It took him awhile, and he had to help
some other people with directions, but eventually he reached his room. The
dorms were built like apartment buildings, and there were multiple floors.
Nathan’s bracelet alerted him that his dorm was on the second floor. He
scurried up a set of stairs, and then he found his dorm. There was a scanner
beside the door handle in the shape of a bracelet. He assumed what it was
meant for, and placed his bracelet above the scanner. As expected, the door
promptly opened, and he entered. His dorm was small. The size of a
bathroom, enough space for a sink and a bed. That was all. He felt like there
was something he missed about that in the videos he didn’t watch, but there
was no use thinking about that then. He hadn’t even considered how he was
going to bathe on Mars. Where is the shower, the water from the sink isn’t
nearly sufficient to bathe? “How am I going to take a bath?” he asked out
loud. It hadn’t been a second since those words left his mouth, and the bed as
well as the ground sustaining it flipped over, making way for a small yet
ample bathtub.
Not expecting the sudden change, he stumbled backward, hit his head on
the wall and tripped over the marble edges of the tub, falling inside. “What is
happening?” he groaned, grabbing the sides of the tub trying to pull him out.
The shower head above him began to spray, drenching Nathan in clear water.
He screamed in anger, the shower was firing in his face and he couldn’t see
anything. He reached his arms out and managed to grab the sink handle,
pulling hard. The handle snapped off and doused him in more water, spraying
him in his ear this time. In a matter of seconds, the entire room was soaked in
water, and the pipes were still running; he could barely breathe.
He clenched his fists, at this point completely exhausted, and screamed,
“STOP!” The water from both the sink and the tub stopped spraying and he
climbed out. “Bed” he spoke in a lethargic tone, weary. The bathtub smoothly
flipped over and the bed appeared again. Unconcerned that he was drenched
in water; he jumped on the bed with a loud thud and fell asleep.
His mind was a swirl of thoughts, but he was steady asleep, getting as
much rest as he could. It was clear that he would need it if the events that
followed were as bone-tiring as the ones so far.
Day 2 on Mars:
The next morning, Nathan awoke feeling as good as new. The air bed had
soaked up all of the water, and he could hear the springs bouncing as he
hopped off. His shirt was less damp than before, but it was still wet. He
couldn’t wait until they were given more clothing like they had been
promised. There was a new brush and paste in a little container near the sink.
He brushed his teeth in the broken sink. The water came out in droplets, but
at least it wasn’t spraying at him in gallons this time—although a broken sink
would still be an issue for the rest of his time on Mars. He didn’t know how
he would explain that he had broken his sink in less than twenty-four hours of
landing on Mars. He had to confront someone, one way or another, it was
inevitable. He walked down the stairs, outside and roamed through the
streets.
Nathan looked off to the distance; he saw a horde of people walking
toward the research lab. He walked toward the nearest crop field and saw
others tending to the crops and writing down their observations. An attendant
helped Nathan access a digital notepad, projected via his bracelet, and
assigned him to the research crew of the tomato growing section. His heart
fell, of course; the research crew.
On the notepad, a procedure for maintaining the soil was written. There
was a young kid near his area who was filtering the soil through his hands
and tossing it around. Nathan decided this was his chance to make a new
friend; he stuck his hand out cordially. “Hi, I’m Nathan.”
The guy shook his hand, his messy brown hair shaking around as he
spoke. “Nice to meet you Nathan, I’m Nemiah.” Nemiah was African-
American, had childish features and seemed like the person you wouldn’t
want messing with your toys. His plaid shirt was torn around the edges; the
white stripes tinted a light brown. The jeans he wore were scrunched-up,
specks of brown dotting the entire area below his knees. His white sneakers
were untied, puffs of cotton stringing out of the laces, and a metallic pencil
peeked out of his chocolate-brown hair.
Nemiah looked at Nathan sideways. “Aren’t you the kid that was late to
departure and made a fool of himself on the shuttle?” Nathan shied his arm
away, afraid to confirm that yes, in fact, that was him.
Nemiah laughed, “No it’s cool, it was funny and I don’t think that the
colonists really took it in a bad way. It sort of lightened our uneasiness;
everyone was really nervous, and most of us still are.”
“Thanks, that sort of makes me feel better.” Nathan tucked his hand
inside his pocket, ignoring the bustle of light emitting from his bracelet. This
isn’t what he came here for, but he was going to have to live with it. Better
being alive and helping humanity, (boring or not) rather than staying on Earth
where his life was endangered. He just needed to take a brisk walk around the
colony. It was clear that he had to take things easy and have more patience if
he wanted to get anything done. He wanted to have a role that felt important,
something with direct benefit to others, not staring at the ground and making
observations. A strange uneasiness clouded his thoughts, the air around him
seemed to thicken, and he couldn’t help but feel that something bad was
going to happen.
The dome seemed to crackle, a wave of feedback exploding across the
colony. A rather low voice greeted the colonists: “Hello, colonists. I hope
you’re having a wonderful experience here on Point A, Mars. Well, wake up,
people, because you’re in for quite the shock. Let me start by enlightening
you with some ‘earthly’ facts. For starters, there are roughly 13.4 billion
people living on Earth, many of whom who do not have the luxury of food,
shelter, or any water to quench their needs. As you know, two of the most
important reasons this expedition began are overpopulation and an inadequate
available amount of resources.” To this point, the colonists had reasonably
agreed, they were true facts, truer than dirt, but things they already knew.
The distorted voice continued, “This is why the easiest way to balance
this excessive population is by eliminating people, little by little.” There was
certain unstableness in his voice, he sounded almost excited, psychotic even.
People dropped whatever was in their hands, saliva squeezing down their
windpipes. They shuffled around anxiously, but the speaker continued,
“Don’t act so shocked, you had it coming. Now to your knowledge, there are
thirteen different colonizatio
n points, which is great and all but that’s not the
complete truth. In reality, there is only one dome, call it Point A. The twelve
other colonies you believed existed are not real. Once everyone on this
colony has been killed, the SS Noah will return to Earth and pick up the next
group of colonists. And that group will go through the exact same process all
of you did, from departure to landing to execution. From there the process
will cycle. In the same colony, millions of people will die and they’ll never
see it coming. And I’ll enjoy watching it all fall out. It puts a smile on my
face knowing that each of you will suffer. I’m helping myself and the world
at the same time, you can call me a philanthropist.”
Nathan was furious, yet at the same time disappointed. The voice of the
speaker sounded as if he was doing this out of an act of vengeance. Nathan
thought, But for what cause? He didn’t understand why they had to suffer for
something they weren’t responsible for. His heart sank: this was worse than
having stayed on Earth. He couldn’t help but feel like a mouse crawling up
the side of a lion’s dinner plate. He ran back to his working area, Nemiah
wasn’t there. Neither were more than half of the others. They had run off to
their families in shock.
“Moving on, I’ll briefly explain how this process will work. Over the
course of the next three days, two hundred of your fellow colonists will be
drugged and transformed into ruthless killing machines. They will all be
armed with their own specialized gun; a single shot from it will instantly
paralyze you. And then, the electricity-induced bullets will slowly puncture
your body system, and kill you. I would have killed you on the shuttle—
although, what is the fun in that? Humanity must suffer for what it has done
to me.”
“Guns? We’ll be up against armed people?” Nathan was devastated.
“They also have energy-enhanced equipment. I’m sure you’ll find out
more about those yourselves. Although, don’t underestimate their strength,
even without the equipment. Their fighting instincts have been manually
tampered with, and their brains are armed with a sharpshooter’s eye, and the
ability of a trained fighter. I am sending only two hundred of them, as I want
to test the parameters of their abilities, and I don’t want that much of a
bloodbath. That’s messy stuff. It will also grant you a useless strand of hope.
You’ll cling to that hope like dogs, weeping for mercy, only to find that
there’s no leaving this place. It’s already over for you. The two hundred
drugged colonists will act only to kill everyone else, their sanity no longer
existent. Consider me a bringer of peace, someone to keep the balance in the
world; a diplomat. The drugged colonists will be the angels to do my bidding.
I’ll call them…” He paused to think for a name, and there was subtle
excitement in his voice, “Rava. I can call them Ravas, short for the demon
king Ravana. Yes, that sounds right, ‘Rava.’ The voice laughed in a senile
tone.
“Take heart in the sense that this is for the better of humanity. Humanity
will directly benefit from this. You have three days to prepare, stocking food
and resources, whatnot, pathetically trying to survive. While I do my share of
the bargain and complete the hands you will die from. Remember, we’ll be
sending out the ‘Ravas’ in three days. I bid you adieu and wish you the best
for the next couple days, since they’re going to be your last.” The crackle
ended in a long silence. It was deep, dark silence.
CHAPTER 5
CHAOS
Fact: While the soil on Earth is varied and can grow countless fruits and
vegetables; Mars’ natural soil, which has little organic material, so far
has only proven to be somewhat possible to grow tomatoes, peas, and rye.
Once the announcement system went off, colonists from all directions
charged toward the resource storages. Nathan turned to his right, there
was a group of people running at the food storage, and he was in the way. He
turned to the left and there was another crowd running toward him, what
luck. There was nowhere to go; people were running everywhere, driving
past him, shoving him aside. Some for resources, and others were just
scrambling for a safe place to hide. He was being carried away in one
direction, then the other way, and then back to the same direction. Elbows
were in his face, arms swinging around, slapping him in the chest, then
whacking him forward. He felt like he was in the middle of a Black Friday
crowd, and the latest piece of technology had been released. They all started
storming around, grabbing food and water for themselves while pushing each
other to the ground. Someone kicked him from behind and he fell forward, he
got back up and squeezed himself out of the crowd.
What was humanity being driven to? The composure and solicitude in the
colonists seemed to dramatically disappear once their lives were on the line.
Their survival instinct was kicking in. He was distraught; did that mean
Isaiah Crane, the CEO of Crane Enterprises, his idol, had planned their
death? It was hard for Nathan to accept that the man he had adored so much
could have been behind all of that. Isaiah Crane was a major role model for
the people, he had created countless inventions that bettered people’s lives—
it made no sense why he would try to kill so many people. Regardless, that
didn’t necessarily identify who was speaking on the announcement system, it
could have been anyone else, or it could have been Isaiah Crane himself. He
did his best to remain calm, and freaking out wouldn’t help the situation. He
needed to get to Kara.
Nathan glanced to his right, spotting a sign on the street and nearby, a
building; he sprinted toward the sign, climbed up, and landed on the top of
the building. The other dorms were adjacent to the building he was on top of,
making it easier for him to travel across the roofs of the buildings. The only
problem was finding Kara herself among the pertinent chaos. The rampant
chaos was a mere precursor to the “Ravas” who would actually hunt them
down, and he expected them to be no less than ruthless mercenaries.
Nathan just continued running, leaping from roof to roof, something he
had done as a child. It brought back innocent memories, but he didn’t have
time to reconcile. Sooner than expected, he found Kara standing far from the
crowds; alone. Her cheeks were pale and she seemed a little shaken, but for
the most part she seemed her usual self. Nathan didn’t bother asking her any
questions about what happened and decided to take it slow, asking, “So do
you have any ideas what we should do from here?”
Kara frowned, “No, not yet. But our chances of getting any food or water
are rather slim, considering the mobs attacking the storages. There is little
time to think methodically. One thing I’ll say is that we have to be prepared
for anything. But having read some dystopian novels where things go down
like this, I have some basic ideas of what we need to do. Most people are
probab
ly going to get some resources, and return to their dorms as soon as
possible. They are going to seclude themselves from everyone else, as a form
of protection. So we must act quickly.”
Some part of him was relieved that she could still think straight after that
announcement. But the other part of him was still worried about the fallout
that would be going through in her mind. Most importantly, her father could
be part of the opposition trying to kill them all, but he tossed that thought
aside. Nathan nodded, his mind still a little scattered but he felt more together
now that he had another person to work with. Kara leaned her head against
her shoulder and began to think, closing her eyes for a minute.
Kara seemed as if her mind was clear, although Nathan couldn’t quite
tell. She spoke confidently, “I have a feeling that we don’t need to be in any
rush to get resources.”
Nathan didn’t understand.
“Let me put it this way, I have a feeling that some way or another, we’ll
end up with enough resources for ourselves. To begin with, everyone is our
enemy, so we need to be willing to do anything to save our lives. While most
of the others are ravaging to get whatever food or water they can get their
hands on, we can stay completely relaxed. Everyone will pit themselves
against each other, we can form an alliance with someone who already has
the resources and from there we can plan how to get out of this alive.”
Nathan sighed, “Sounds simple enough. So, where would we find
someone like that?” He didn’t really believe in fate or destiny or anything but
some things he knew were just meant to happen. Out of the corner of his eye
he noticed something running at him. Before he could react he collided with a
smaller figure holding packages in his hands. Nathan tumbled over onto the
ground; the impact had knocked the air out of him. He assumed that he had
found the person they were looking for…
The kid lent his arm, helping him up. He looked concerned, “Are you
alright?” It was Nemiah, the kid Nathan had met earlier, right before the
announcement was made. The look in Nemiah’s eyes flickered, recognizing
Nathan. He was thinking, and he knew he didn’t have the time to sit there and
socialize. He evaded his eyes and started walking past Nathan, saying,