The Ground

Sasha clutched what her mother had given her in a closed fist against her chest, knuckles white. Shoulder to shoulder, bodies pushing into her as she tried to stay close to her mother.

“Come on,” her mother, Vivienne, spoke to her quietly but with urgency. She took Sasha’s arm and led her. They carefully slid through the mob of rattled, desperate people.

“Keep your head down,” Vivienne whispered.

Sasha felt the breath of the people she pushed by on her skin as they shouted or murmured to each other. Sasha’s own breath was slow and rhythmic, counting to four with each action to control her rising panic. She avoided the gaze of every set of eyes that threatened to meet her own, focussing on the dusty ground, rather than the raised voices as she dodged scrambling feet and bodies stumbling forward.

Cold metal met Sasha’s cheek as she was shoved into a rattling chain link fence. She allowed herself to glance up just long enough for her eyes to pass over the corrugated iron sheets tethered to the fence, blocking most of her field of sight. Beyond them were metallic structures and people in white jumpsuits that she only saw for a moment before she swiftly shifted her gaze to the ground again.

Her mother led her onwards, following the fence line to the thickest part of the crowd. Vivienne turned to face Sasha for the first time since their journey had begun. Wasting no time, Vivienne pulled a small, white card made of shiny plastic.

Still clutching the small object in one hand, she took the pass into the other and watched the cold sun glint in tiny holographic reflections on the thick plastic card. She looked up to see her mother’s eyes ready to meet her own.

“Your name is Julia Parker,” she told Sasha.

“Who are you?” Sasha asked her mother, “Shouldn’t I know your name? So I won't mess this whole thing up.”

Vivienne turned away from her, toward the people dressed in white on the other side of the chain link fence.

“Hey!” Vivienne’s voice was loud and desperate, joining the cries of the people around them. “Hey, over here! She’s meant to be on the ship!”

Sasha’s heart was beating so loudly that it drowned out the sounds of the crowd.

A man in white with huge boots and a baton heard Vivienne above all odds. Sasha watched as his gaze shifted to them. She was horrified and frozen, unsure of what he was going to do until the moment he reached them.

“Pass!” He shouted through the fence.

Sasha looked blankly.

“Your pass!” Vivienne muttered frantically, lifting Sasha’s hand to his eye level and taking the pass with it. “Here! Here.”

The man seemed to scrutinise the holographic reflections the way that Sasha had caught herself doing.

Without reaction, he turned away, walking over to one of the metal structures.

“Is he gone?” Sasha’s own voice surprised her. “Where is he going? Can you see him?”

“Shhh,” Vivienne replied, with urgency.

The man disappeared from Sasha’s sight. The moments that followed felt like an eternity until the man reappeared with three others, all dressed as he was. As they reached the fence, one started unhooking one of the corrugated iron sheets as another cut through wire.

A small opening formed and Sasha looked back at her mother as the man took her arm and pulled her through, slamming a sheet of corrugated iron between Sasha and the crowd. Sasha caught one more glimpse of Vivienne through the chain link as she realised what was happening.

“Go to that ship over there,” the man told Sasha, gesturing to one of the metal structures, “See her? She’ll get you boarded. You’re lucky we’re running late.”

Sasha forced herself to turn away from the crowd, trying her best to hide the dread forming in the pit of her stomach. She was beginning to comprehend what her mother’s plan had been.

Sasha found herself standing on a ramp before a woman in a white jumpsuit. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun at the nape of her neck and she was wearing a stern, tired expression.

“What’s your name?” The woman asked.

Sasha faltered.

“Quick,” she continued as Sasha hesitated.

“Julia Parker,” her voice was flat and strained as the pass up, clutching the small object in her other hand.

The woman’s harsh eyes met Sasha’s.

“Not anymore,” she told Sasha, “Welcome to the Salvation, PAR016.”

Sasha froze as a wave of something incomprehensible washed over her. She felt like she was walking in a dream as she turned to look back to the crowd, hearing voices crying and feet stampeding. She strained her eyes and ears, looking for any sign of Vivienne, but in the dimming light, she couldn’t tell anyone apart. Limbs stretched through the tall wire fence and seemed to move as one beast, with the eb and flow of agitated voices.

“PAR016,” the woman’s voice brought Sasha back to earth as she sealed her fate, turning to walk up the ramp and taking another slow breath in through her nose and out through her mouth.

In… one, two, three. Hold.. one, two, three. Out… one, two, three. Hold… one, two, three.

PAR016 stepped inside the ship. Lights flashed, people shouted, nothing looked familiar. People in white jumpsuits spoke in frantic voices, some seemed to file off into another room.

“All aboard Salvation, strap in, get ready for take off. Three minutes,” a deep voice broadcasted throughout the ship.

The woman in the white jumpsuit was suddenly beside PAR016. She heard the ramp withdraw and something heavy and metallic slid shut behind her. PAR016 followed the woman’s motions, revealing the room to be a seating area. She doing her best to look as natural as possible, imitating her every movement, save for pausing for a moment to shove the contents of her shaking hand into a pocket.

PAR016 leaned firmly against the back of her seat, looking up as she gritted her teeth. She felt the deep vibrations of the ship rattle through her core, trying to focus on anything but the voiceover.

“Four… three… two… one.”

For a moment she felt weightless, then suddenly as if an immense force pushed against her from above. She steadied her breathing and closed her eyes, trying to accept she was no longer tethered to the earth.

___

“I need you to understand something,” Sasha’s mother had told her, sternly. “You need to keep this on you at all times. In case we are separated.”

Vivienne reached out her closed fist towards Sasha, who took the contents into her hand without looking.

“What is it?”

“A last resort,” Vivienne smiled sadly at her. “Don’t worry, we’re going to be fine. I have our passes and I’ll hold onto them both until we get there.”

“Can’t I… just carry mine? What if we ARE separated?”

Vivienne looked at her with an emotion that Sasha couldn’t recognise.

“I sold the house for these, the earth is dying. There are people who will do anything for these and it’s just safer if I carry both. Understood?” There was an authority to Vivienne’s voice.

Sasha frowned, then slowly nodded.

___

PAR016’s face pressed against the window as she watched the earth below her. Clouds swirling, tiny dots of light sparkled and glistened, destroying her home. Her fists clenched, knuckles white, a silent observer of an unreachable world.

PAR016 wasn’t alone, but her thoughts were so far away she might as well have been.

“PAR016,” a smiling man in a lab coat spoke to her, bringing her out of her trance.

She looked up as he pressed something on a panel, opening the top of pod-like contraption, not dissimilar to a sarcophagus, gesturing for her to get in.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt. You’ll wake up groggy, but you will be feeling yourself again in no time.”

She looked the contraption over with suspicion but she’d come this far and there was no backing out, she reluctantly climbed in. Lying still as the man stood over her, he pressed wires against her and secured them with sticky, white circles to her skin.

The pod lit up registering her pulse and a screen displaying vital signs caught her attention.

“Now this will feel a little cold but you’ll be fast asleep in no time.”

PAR016 settled her arms beside her body and flexed her hand as a glass-like lid closed over her. Her hand passed over a mass in her pocket as her steady breathing choked over panic she was holding back.

She reached into her pocket, remembering what her mother had given her. She manoeuvred carefully, lifting it up to where she could see it. She braced her neck and took it in both hands to look it over properly.

An antique heart shaped pendant on a delicate chain glinted gold in the lights of panels and screens. She made out swirling engravings across its surface. The tip of her finger traced over them as she noticed two unusual shapes on its side that didn’t seem to fit into the design of the pendant. She squinted, realising that she was holding a locket. Moving her nail between the two sides of the locket, she popped it open.

Inside she found a tightly folded strip of white paper. She wedged it out and began to unfold it, letting the locket fall to her chest.

A sharp sound along with a cool burst of air flooded over PAR016.

It was a fortune from a cookie. She let her eyes take in the words, “Home is where the heart is.”

As the chamber filled with something that made her eyelids feel heavy, she turned the paper over to reveal her mother’s handwriting, “Don’t forget who you are.”

Sasha allowed her tired eyes to close.