The Colony

by Rishi Sriram

  situation as her anyway, making it all the more worse. The only things they

  had left were some bandages, disinfectant and a couple of old antibiotics, and

  she was grateful. It was much better than no treatment; however, it wasn’t

  enough. What she needed was a trip to the emergency room, in an actual

  hospital. That was the only way she would have a chance to ever walk again.

  On Mars, the closest place to a hospital was the eerie laboratory in the

  research lab. And there was no way she was ever going there again,

  especially since the whole “strong girl” act she was putting on was a total

  facade. There were many things that scared her down to the core: loneliness,

  deathly pain, and her worst nightmare…the loss of a near one. Her

  expressions didn’t portray it, yet she was ghastly worried for her father. He

  could have been dead for all she knew. The last memory of him, separated in

  a massive crowd reverberating with infinite calls of names—they weren’t the

  only one’s split apart from family.

  Acting fierce was her only fail-safe to prevent her from spiraling into

  despair. It was a simple assumption that if she acted stronger, it would give

  her strength and she would feel indestructible. In a sense, it worked. The

  impression surely came across to everyone else, and it fell out nicely when

  they encountered the massive beast.

  In total honesty, her thought process was to distract the animal with the

  bullet. How she managed to truly hit the lion, no one would ever know. The

  only thing that mattered to her at that moment was that she contributed—it

  made her feel needed, like her presence meant something. The worst thing

  that could happen was being cast away and the others refusing to take care of

  her sister. Deep down she was well aware that it wouldn’t happen, yet she

  couldn’t help but be worried. Then was the matter of Nemiah. Man, had she

  misjudged him. At their first encounter, what she wanted was information,

  and for him to leave her comfort zone. She took evasive action and in return

  got punched in the face. That turned out for the better, since he took her to

  her sister, filling her with mixed emotions.

  The pain had soon spread across her entire left leg, leaving it entirely

  immobile. Words couldn’t express the horrific shooting pain she was

  experiencing. It was clear that she felt like she was bringing down the rest of

  them. The last thing she wanted on her conscience was their deaths as a result

  of her condition. Nathan could tell that Emily felt guilty about the entire

  group having to stay in one place because of her.

  Emily called Nathan over, and spoke softly so that no one else could hear

  her: “Leave me behind, I’m bringing you guys down, and I don’t want you

  guys to die because of it.” Her eyes were watery and she looked at him with

  remorse.

  Nathan’s response was down to earth: “Listen, Em—can I call you Em?”

  She didn’t care, and nodded, allowing him to continue.

  “I know I’ve said this countless times but I’m serious. Wherever we go,

  we’re going together. Whether that means we die together, or we live

  together, it doesn’t matter. There is no way we are leaving anyone behind.

  Believe me, I understand more than anyone where you’re coming from, and

  you might not know it, but we need you. The very presence of every single

  person in this group is enough; sticking with each other is the only

  contribution that needs to be made. No one is asking of anything more. We’re

  all friends in this, and friends don’t abandon each other. I hope that convinces

  you enough that we aren’t sacrificing anyone, and you surely aren’t dragging

  us down. In fact this gives us some down time to relax. That’s all. Relax and

  don’t worry about a thing.”

  Not having the energy to respond, and pretty convinced, she just nodded.

  Nathan might have disagreed with Emily, but he still listened to her. He

  understood where she was coming from. Nathan agreed not to tell anyone,

  but he was still against her approach. Not having a choice, Emily agreed to

  his terms. It wasn’t what she wanted, but he had managed to convince her,

  and if it was what Nathan wanted, then fine.

  Nathan rested his back against the cement walls, a serious cramp in his

  neck. The past few days had been hard on him, it wasn’t an easy life. He had

  lost some weight, his skin was losing color, and he hadn’t had a good night’s

  sleep in a while. It wasn’t just about the food or water. He was constantly

  worried about how things were back in Minneapolis. He hoped his parents

  were safe. It was interesting to think of what the news would have been

  telling the people on Earth. There was no way that they knew what was going

  on, or else someone would have come to help them. His brain went crazy

  thinking about it, there were so many possibilities, so many things he didn’t

  know, so many things he still didn’t understand.

  Out of curiosity, he pulled out the blank book and the pen Parker had

  found. There was a small button on the back of the pen, he clicked it with his

  forefinger and it shone a light out of the top. He had an idea. He flipped open

  a page in the book, turned the light on, and shined it at the page. Words

  appeared under the light as he moved the light around; it was written in

  invisible ink. He laughed, finding it childish to write something down in

  invisible ink. Yet to be fair, had Parker not picked up that pen, there was no

  way he would have figured that out. He turned back to the first page, and

  began to read.

  It was a diary. On the front page, was written largely in bold, “NOT A

  DIARY.” And below it was written, “Evade your eyes and return this book to

  678 Land Morrow Dr.” Nathan’s eyes swelled, he recognized that address. It

  was just down his street, and he had passed it numerous times as a little kid.

  That didn’t make sense, why would someone’s diary from Minneapolis

  be on another planet, inside a laboratory? The date on the front cover read,

  “June 18th, 2064.” He turned through the pages. For the most part it was

  about the life of a young boy. From what he could tell, the person was in

  middle school. He continued to read until his eyes fell upon a certain date:

  “September 27th, 2066.” That was strange. That was the exact date the

  second Pangea occurred, the day every mass of land realigned with one

  another, forming a supercontinent. That day, the world was in a great state of

  disturbance; in complete turmoil. However, as time passed, it brought people

  together. It brought together people of different ethnicities, languages, and

  religious beliefs. It was around this time of uncertainty when a certain man

  rose to power, sparking order in the world. It was the rise of The Chancellor,

  and his fight to rally the hopes of humanity, to trust him to keep them moving

  forward.

  He continued reading the entry.

  “I was resting on my bed, when the earth suddenly shook. I could hear

  the sound of bookshelves rattling against the wall. There was a loud clatter in

  the kitchen; things were being shaken out of place. I stepped off my bed to see
>
  what was happening, when the roof above me collapsed, and I was crushed

  under a dense mountain of wood. I couldn’t move from my knees down, stuck

  under the massive pile, and I couldn’t feel a muscle in my body. My sight

  began to go dark, until my father arrived at the scene. He was worried sick,

  and after great struggle, he managed to help me out and took me to the

  nearest hospital. I could hardly use any of my senses. I didn’t want to think

  about it, but a small part of me worried if I was even still alive. In short time,

  I had been admitted to the emergency room, and taken good care of. I’m fine

  now, and here I lay, awaiting plenty of surgeries and other procedures. I’m

  definitely grateful to my father for everything he has done. And it is with

  great strain that I write this sentence, but I still don’t believe I will make it

  out, so lastly a word for my—”

  The sentence closed off with a scribble. There was nothing written

  beyond that. He desperately turned pages, back and forth, to see if there was

  anything else written. There was nothing, till he came to the final page of the

  book. He couldn’t believe his eyes. In the top right corner of the page, was a

  name written in red handwriting: “This book belongs to Samuel Crane.” He

  dropped the book. For the past ten minutes, he had been reading the personal

  journal of Samuel Crane. The son of the CEO of Crane Enterprises; the man

  the colonists had identified to have been behind the extermination plan.

  Thoughts ran in his mind, and he swallowed. He stroked his hands through

  his hair nervously; this notebook supported his beliefs all the more. It wasn’t

  something he wanted to accept, but it made sense. It was most likely the case

  that Isaiah Crane had been the man who had planned to kill them all.

  That still didn’t explain much about Isaiah’s actual motives. Was it

  actually because he wanted to get rid of overpopulation? Or, was it because

  of something else, something connected to his son’s death? There had to have

  been some link, but he couldn’t come up with anything. He sat back and

  pondered the logic behind it. It all came down to the issue of overpopulation,

  and in every respect, Nathan agreed that it was a critical matter. However, he

  knew that killing large amounts of people was not the solution. Humans were

  an intuitive species, adaptive. With no doubt they could have come up with a

  better idea.

  The dome sputtered, making a rapid clicking noise, it was the man he had

  been thinking about.

  “I’m assuming that most of you are curious to know what everyone back

  home thinks about this special expedition. So here’s your answer, let me

  show you a couple news channels and their reports on this successful start to

  a progressive journey.” The man laughed an evil cackle, betraying all

  innocence. Nathan considered it; the man could very well be Isaiah Crane. He

  didn’t want to believe it, but it was quite likely.

  There was a soft noise of something shaking. From the overhead of the

  dome, multiple black circular objects lowered down, projecting thousands of

  images and clips. Screens flashed across the dome, countless stations

  reporting the “great progress” colonists had been making, and word of the

  shuttle getting ready to return to Earth. There were at least one hundred

  different digitally enhanced pictures and videos of the colonists, which

  seemed entirely realistic. The quality of the images nearly made it

  authentically convincing. His eyes wandered around the place until he found

  a picture he was in. It was a fake image of him plowing the soil, a wide grin

  on his face. What a sham. The world was full of fraudulent information, and

  people believed whatever was on the Internet. As ironic as it was, at least this

  reassured him that things were going well back home, and that his family and

  friends were all safe.

  The screens flickered, and then disappeared, the circular objects rising

  back into the overhead compartment.

  “Well, that’s all the information you’re getting. I hope that helped.” The

  fizzing noise ended. Nemiah yawned and stretched his legs out. “Would you

  believe that? The world is so full of junk,” he said. “There is nothing you can

  believe, no one you can believe, and to be frank, we can’t say any better.”

  Nathan stood up, and crept around, surveying the area. They were near a food

  reserve, and there was a construction site down the street. He heard a scream

  nearby, his ears twitched. Turning his head to the right, he found a small

  group of people being chased by a vicious Rava. Nathan exchanged glances

  with Kara. She understood that he wanted to try and help them. He didn’t

  want to stand there knowing that he could help. Kara flashed him an

  accepting smile, saying, “Go ahead.”

  Nathan looked at Emily. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

  “Don’t overwork yourself.” Nemiah gave him a wide grin. “And don’t

  worry about us, we’ll be fine.” Nathan grinned back, and sprinted in the

  direction the Rava had left, with a sudden burst of motivation. He lifted his

  legs up and down, puffing air out of his mouth into his nose. After a while, he

  had caught up, and could see the Rava running ahead, but he couldn’t see the

  people it had been chasing. From behind the corner, someone grabbed him

  from the back and he almost let out a scream. He turned around in a split

  second; it was the group of young people he had seen getting chased. They

  were all a head shorter than him, but had fierce looks in their eyes. There

  were four of them, two of them were guys, and the other two were girls. One

  of the guys spoke in a soft voice, “We happened upon the Rava a while back

  and he has been chasing after us ever since. We narrowly managed to slip

  away—although thanks for trying to help us, anyway. We’re fine now.”

  “Yup, we really appreciate it,” said a girl who was rapidly chewing gum.

  “Well, we’ll be off now, thanks.” They quickly ran off, leaving him alone

  in the street. He was slightly embarrassed. A hand on his shoulder had scared

  the living wits out of him. He was stressed; he needed to calm down a little.

  He could still see the Rava ahead and decided to follow him for a while.

  The Rava endlessly ran through the streets, arriving at the research lab.

  Nathan was a little hesitant to follow any further, and hid behind the wall of a

  dorm. It didn’t make any sense—the Ravas only returned to the research lab

  with bodies, never empty-handed. The Rava looked around, confirming that

  the coast was clear. He pushed the button that was connected to the door.

  There was a subtle creaking noise as the entrance slid open. The Rava walked

  through and the door closed behind him. Nathan had followed the Rava for

  no reason. He had to hurry back to the others. He turned back—it was getting

  dark outside, and for an unknown reason he had a strange feeling that

  something was going to happen.

  CHAPTER 11

  SANDSTORM

  Fact: Dust storms are not limited to Earth; Mars has the largest dust

  storms in the solar system. They can last for months and cover the entire

>   planet.

  The air outside the dome seemed to be building up, beating against the

  strong barrier. Nathan had returned with an idea—they could help Emily

  travel around faster by giving her something like a stilt, a board attached to

  her calf for support that would keep her leg straight at the same time.

  They looked around to find anything that they could strap around her leg

  —something that was stiff, but not restricting.

  Nemiah shot up with an idea: “We could use the Litracon edges of the

  dorm roofs to make the stilt.” It seemed like a good idea.

  Nemiah placed his hands in front, palms facing up, “Here, Nathan. I’ll

  give you a boost.” Nathan placed his foot in the hold, and sprung up,

  grabbing the roof by the tips of his fingers. He heaved his legs up, and rolled

  over, lying flat on the flat roof. Closing his eyelids, he rested still for a

  moment, and then he sat up straight. He activated his gloves, and punched a

  small hole in the roof. Large chunks of material split apart from the

  foundation. Gripping a chunk of the roof tightly, he ripped off a large stick of

  Litracon. The piece was around the preferred size they needed for her leg.

  The only thing they needed now was something that would hold the wooden

  plank in place.

  Nathan grabbed the edge of his shirt, and forcefully ripped off strips of

  cloth. He held the cloth toward Emily, who took them in her hand and

  reached for the piece of Litracon. Nemiah lifted the plank into the air, as if to

  say, let me help, but she shook her head.

  “No, it’s fine—I got it.” He didn’t bother arguing, and promptly handed it

  to her. She softly rested the plank on her leg, avoiding contact with the

  wound, and then stretched out the strips of cloth and pulled it over her leg,

  holding the Litracon taut. It didn’t seem to hurt, but Emily didn’t look

  convinced.

  “Are you sure these straps will be enough—what if they tear?” Emily’s

  face was worried. She eyed her leg peculiarly.

  Nathan nodded. “I’m sure it should be fine,” he said. “The cloth is quite

  elastic, and to the extents I’ve messed with my shirt in the past, it hasn’t

  shown me any issues. Then again—” No longer looking too sure of him,

  Nathan looked away.

  There was a soft chuckle. It was Nemiah. “Try to stand up and walk with