Out of the Fire

Day 1

I was supposed to be on that spaceship, the one carrying my parents and friends far away from this dying planet. It was one of forty massive ships transporting the remnants of humanity to a newly discovered inhabitable planet in a far off solar system with a younger sun, unlike our sun that was at the end of its life. It started with the usual power outages and electromagnetic disturbances disabling cell towers and television signals. All of this had happened before. But then the air started rapidly heating up, the atmosphere giving warning that something new was taking place. The government had been preparing for this for some time, building ships and planning our evacuation. But they hadn’t yet finished their plan by the time giant solar flares began bursting through the atmosphere and burning up cities around the world. It was time to leave – immediately.

In the chaos ensuing, my parents thought I was coming with my best friend Dee and her family as I had been spending the afternoon with them at a concert before the abrupt siren warnings called us to leave. I had been trying to drive myself home when a blinding ball of fire came flying through the air, colliding into the road only a few hundred yards ahead of me and blocking my way. Thankfully, it was a smaller blast that only impacted its immediate surroundings, but I had no way to get around it in my car. The road was too damaged to drive any further. I was stuck, with no way to call my parents to arrange to meet them. The loading docks to the ships were nowhere near where I was; it was all I could do to trudge carefully back home, avoiding other sizzling holes in the ground. After a few hours of walking, I had made it back. But it was too late. To my terror, I realized I had been left behind with no way to escape.

Day 3

Even worse than realizing my parents were gone, I soon discovered no one in my town had stayed. I had no way to know what was happening in the rest of the world with communications down – seemingly permanently at this point. For all I knew, I could have been the only girl left on the planet. Me, Alex Anderson, only seventeen years old from Pennsylvania, who hadn’t even graduated high school yet … and who knew if I ever would?

I didn’t panic though. The solar blasts had stopped striking the nearby area the day after the ships left, and my family had previously stashed away plenty of canned food and cases of water in case of emergency. I figured I had about three weeks’ worth, maybe over a month if I was careful. There was a grocery store a few miles from home which I could visit to stock up on nonperishable items once I started to get low. An underground well was still pumping water through the pipes, but a lack of rain for months had me worried I shouldn’t be wasteful of my supply. The temperature had steadily risen even in the past few days, and I was aware that going outside without the proper protection would be dangerous. Thankfully this was another thing my family had prepared for before all this happened, purchasing some state of the art clothing that reflected heat away from the body and kept you cool in extreme temperatures. It included a long-sleeved shirt and pants with a face guard, which seemed like it wouldn’t make sense in this ridiculous heat but without which I would no longer be able to go outside without my skin blistering immediately from the sun. I knew I would have to stick to walking in the dirt and dead grass to get anywhere, as the pavement would have burned through my shoes.

Day 15

I have quickly settled into a daily routine, caring for myself and my basic needs the best I can. My home has rare spurts of electricity, but I mostly have to just deal with the heat that is nearly as bad inside as it is outside. Eating the same types of mostly uncooked foods out of cans quickly gets old too, but it keeps me halfway nourished at the very least.

I’ve tried to keep my mind sharp with recalling words to songs I loved jamming out to with Dee. I also write poems expressing my feelings and write detailed records of each day should anyone come across them one day if the planet was miraculously saved. It is a good way to pass the time at the very least.

The hardest part is how much I've missed Dee and my parents, too. I wondered if my mom cried when she realized I wasn’t there with them. She wasn’t usually one to show her emotions. My dad, on the other hand, probably would have cried enough for the both of them. He was always the more sensitive one. I accepted my burden of being left with a strange sense of calm.

My ancestors from the South had gone through their own troubles, fighting for freedom when the odds were against them. One relative from several generations back had even risked everything helping slaves like she once was escape from bondage through the Underground Railroad. No, her name wasn’t Harriet, but I’m sure they crossed paths. Her name was Eugenia, and though I only knew her through stories passed down through the years, I felt connected to her spirit of bravery. My dad had found a tiny black and white picture of her when going through some old family heirlooms stashed together, and he had put it in a silver heart locket and given it to me for my 16th birthday. I wore that locket around my neck every day and felt she was with me, giving me strength to continue on.

Day 39

My water supply has greatly diminished in the past few weeks. I am down to a single gallon size jug and a few small bottles that I must use not only for drinking but also for cleaning my hands and wiping down my body to cool down, which is as close as I get to a shower (as the pipes no longer produce enough water to bathe with, much less anything over a trickle at a time). I find my energy levels much depleted from the insufferable heat that I just can’t escape. Without electricity, I can’t run any fans and I always seem to be covered in a layer of sweat. While it once seemed like an option to walk to the store, I now doubted I’d be able to muster the strength to make it past my driveway.

Much of the day I would sit and just try to remember how things were before, holding on to precious memories like a life raft. But more than just thinking about people, I also began hearing voices of my family in the moments I’d drift in and out of consciousness when weakness overtook me.

My mom whispered gently, “Baby, it’s gonna be okay. Don’t give up on us now.”

And I’d hear my dad choking back his tears, saying, “We love you so much. I know things seem hard now but you’re gonna make it through real soon.”

There was even a fleeting moment I saw Miss Eugenia standing before me, looking even more radiant in person than the old photo in my locket. She took my hand in her rough, strong hands, eyes gleaming as she looked into my weary eyes. “You keep on fighting now, you hear?” she ordered me. I wanted to tell her I was trying but didn’t know how much longer I could make it, but the words didn’t make it past my lips. She acted like she understood though exactly how I felt even if didn’t tell her. She nodded once, willing me to keep pushing with everything in me. Then she faded from sight.

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I had closed my eyes and wasn’t sure how long I was asleep – was it hours or days? A soft beeping noise registered in my consciousness that I couldn’t place. Slowly I came to and opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was a cool stream of air hitting my face. “How is that possible?” I wondered to myself. Soft sheets surrounded me and I noticed my body was wrapped in several places with white bandages below a thin gown I was wearing. Just then, a woman passing by the doorway noticed me and rushed in with several others in white uniforms. “You’re awake, honey!” one of the women exclaimed. She could read the confusion on my face. “You are in a hospital, Alex – you’ve been in a coma for the past 40 days. It’s a miracle you’ve come back to us.”

“What happened?” I managed to get out.

“You were in a terrible car accident when you were headed home from a concert. Your car caught fire and you suffered major full-body burns. You also hit your head pretty hard which put you into a comatose state.”

Another nurse chimed in, “We’ve called your parents, sweetie. They were at home for the night, but they’ll be on their way over soon.”

It took me a moment to process what they were saying. My parents were coming and I’d see them again soon! It was all just a terrible nightmare about the world ending, although my body must have felt like it was ending in the accident.

“We’ll give you a minute to yourself,” she continued as she took my chart and they started out the door. “Welcome back.”

I glanced over to the table next to the bed I was lying in and caught a glimmer of silver. My locket was sitting there neatly unclasped, still in pristine condition, despite coming through a fire. I remembered pieces of what happened and felt sorrow at being away for so long. But as I picked up the locket and held it tight, a feeling of relief washed over me. I had made it through the fire as well, and it was the love of family shaped by all who came before them that brought me through to the other side.