The Choice

It had been thirty-five days since they landed in the southern steppe of Kazakstan. It was time to make a choice whether to stay or hike. Communication has been down. It doesn't appear that anyone is coming to save them. The crew on Ana's pod were at odds with each other. This is. not supposed to be how this mission ended. If they left now, they could stretch the food for a week. It was hard to walk, since their mission had been so long.

Ana was staring at the manuals on board. To open the hatch, they'd have to reset the password, but if the reset didn't work they could be locked in the pod permanently with the only chance then is to have a rescue mission. After reseting the password, then they'd have a long code to input to reboot the pod's computers.

Allen sat in a corner of the room watching Ana. He was in awe of her confidence and self-determination.

"Allen, we got to do this! I don't see any other out. They are not coming for us. Our parents and David's parents may not be able to walk the distance we need to walk to find help."

"With your father's compass, we can find civilization and bring back help for them. We can gather berries on the way to eat if we need more to eat."

Allen put his hands in his head, "Ana, we have never been to Earth before! How can you be so confident? We only know the people from the space station. There has been wars going on down here. What if we meet with combatants? We don't know how to fight. They won't believe who we are. Nobody cares about us. They given us up for dead."

Ana gets up to leave the room to talk to the others and Allen follows her.

"This is it everyone. We are out of time. Allen and I are stronger. We'll hike out. The radios are working. We can radio back to you with questions. We'll be careful." Ana explained her plan.

Ana's mom spoke up. "Ana, you have literally never met a stranger. You can't know how they'll react to you. It's not safe. You can't know that you can find help. You've never been off the space station. You've never been in nature. You are not prepared for this."

Allen's dad then spoke up, "Guys, I'll go with you. I'm sure I can walk."

"There is no way to know how far we'll have to walk. We don't know what the infrastructure is like because of the wars. It's not safe for you to accompany us. It's better to keep the team small. We need to leave now before everyone starves. We'll bring back help."

"No, no, no! Ana's right everyone. This is are only hope. Ana you have to go. We knew there would be a day we'd come back to Earth. This is not how we planned, but you and Allen are smart adults now. Ana you have studied nature for years. Allen you have studied histories and cultures. You are a good team and this is a good plan. If you two think you can do this, then I for one support you." said Ana's father.

Then, Allen's mom spoke up to agree to send the younger people out.

Allen's dad warned them to be observant and to watch out for traps. There could be landmines or people looking for trouble.

Ana's mom still thought it was a bad idea and wanted to think out other options, but she was willing to go along with the plan if everyone else thought it was best.

The whole crew gathered around the control panels computer. Ana's hand hovered above the password reset button...