Dear Diary...

August 2nd, 2139

Dear Diary,

It is the second day on the moon now. I am sitting in my bunker, alone, while the others all go exploring this new place, but I just can’t make myself go with them. I assume that this awful dread in my stomach that feels so heavy I can't move is simply because I miss home, Earth, and the memories from there make me feel horrible with homesickness, despite the condition we left it in. I still remember those days when birds still sang songs to the morning sunbeams and trees swayed and danced to the music of nature. I am crying now: I can't even explain the regret I feel gnawing at my insides from how we killed our planet and our people and abandoned them. I can see Earth from here: a small orb that is dull blue and green with red and white stains smeared across its surface from the oil and pollution- and maybe the spilt blood from the War. I don't even know what to say here about the War, just that I don’t even remember it because my mind has refused to let me witness those memories again. What I know is that 75% of the 30 billion people were slaughtered in the wild rush for power and resources, when the Plague of Red had started claiming far too many people, and it had driven them all mad. The Plague of Red had arisen about 30 years ago, before I was born, when a radiation spill had killed everyone in Europe, and the Plague had mutated from the ruins and those who caught it were driven by a passion to kill. I was born into a world of slaughter and pain, so how am I not used to it? I can't say, but now, having just stepped off the Heart Shaped Locket, the last spaceship left on earth, I feel even worse than I did on earth. I should be grateful to be alive, to be one of those lucky refugees that got a pass to escape my waring planet, not even a full persent of the population, but I'm not: I am terrified because I feel like I've just stepped into something much worse. What is wrong with me?

August 4th, 2139

Dear Diary,

I finally went outside the base. It's actually quite beautiful, if you ignore the way you can’t hear your footsteps thumping against the dusty ground, or how it is all black and white aside from the Heart Shaped Locket’s bright pink colour that shines like a beacon to anything that may be out there. But there is nothing out there, so I shouldn't worry. Anyways, looking out at the frozen in time massifs that loom over the base like sinister guards and cast pitch black shadows in their wake, and at the long, cold desert completely devoid of all life, it is peaceful. Peace is something I’d never thought I’d ever find, even though this peace is like that that you would find on the face of a dead corpse being laid down in the ground for its final rest. I am a bit ashamed of my timidness from earlier, compared to Fox and Lily’s excitement and gratitude towards the whole situation, but as much as I try to ignore it, I feel just as awful as I did the moment I set foot on the moon. At least they've stopped teasing me for being a scaredy cat. They don't even know what a cat is, but I guess they say that so they sound older, like they have witnessed one before. Anyways, I have to sleep now.

August 8th, 2139

Dear Diary,

Some weird things are going on and I'm scared. Lily just laughed in my face when I told him that I felt something was wrong here, some great friend he is. Last night I woke up and saw this person standing outside the window and staring at me, but the silhouette was way too small to have been wearing any of the equipment...I guess I was dreaming but I am still rattled. Fox insisted that she had seen bare footprints in the dust by Commander Green’s window, but there are no footprints there and it’s unlikely that Fox would have gone outside at night to look in Commandr Green’s window. So why am I panicking? Maybe it's because I'm not even on a planet right now, I am on a moon, and that has to have some side effects. Our food and water had rapidly been disappearing, even though it is in a locked container, and I can see that the adults are freaking out. That is not comforting at all. I'm starting to feel that perhaps I'm right about that bad feeling I got from this place, and I am not happy at all that I may be right.

August 14th, 2139

Dear Diary,

It is midnight, but I need to write this down so that I can maybe get a chance to sleep tonight. Something is wrong with Lily. Just a few minutes ago, Fox found him standing outside with all of his equipment on, facing the mountains and not moving. I had come to see because of all the noise she was making, and I saw it too: in the darkness the white of his suit seemed to glow, and he was facing away from the base, his arms held out at his sides like he was embracing someone. Lily was reckless, but he would never risk his life like this and put on all the equipment by himself without checking to see if it was all correct. As Fox and I simply ogled at the sight, unable to get to him, he started to remove his helmet, his thick fingered gloves fumbling with the straps. I was thankfully able to get help in time, but when the Commander had dragged him back in, he was not moving or speaking, but was clearly awake, his eyes glassy and uncomprehending. I can't get the image out of my mind, and I think that writing this down may not have helped the nightmares to come. I hope Lily is okay.

August 15th, 2139

Dear Diary,

Lily is dead.

Later that day;

He was murdered in his own bed, and when they found his body, he was all suited up in his spacesuit, with his disembodied head lying inside the helmet. I only caught a glimpse of his body before someone pulled me away as I screamed and cried. What I remember though, as I lie here crying and shaking in fear, is the pink, heart- shaped locket that was our logo as the surviving humans lying loosely in his glove. I can't take this anymore.

August 25th, 2139

Dear Diary,

I fear this may be the last time to write. I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, but too much has happened and I just don't have time anymore for musing and worrying about nightmares, because the nightmare is real, and it's here. Everyone is dead, except me. I am hiding in the Heart Shaped Locket, praying that the nightmare doesnt find me...or should I just allow it to take me, because I am done, and there is no more hope. Despite the facts lining up so gruesomely, my instincts tell me to survive, to find another way out.

I see the nightmare now, just outside the window. A humanoid shape, a silhouette in the darkness with only the whites of the eyes showing, is scuffling through the dust towards me. I am so scared. Please, if anyone can help me...please...I just want to be back on earth again. I would replace this eerie hunter that stalks me with deliberate slowness with the chaos and hunger and war down on Earth in a heartbeat. Why is it so slow? Because it knows it doesnt need to run. I am easy prey to it. I found one of the pink and plastic heart- shaped lockets, and I am holding it to my chest, stifling my tears and bending its smooth sides from my tense grip. The nightmare is closer now, I can see it...it is horrible. Goodbye, dear-

The sad, plastic pen goes flying across the room before blood spatters the inside of the Heart Shaped Locket, and the nightmare carefully completes its masterpiece, picking up the head of the young girl and dragging the body to the american flag.

The body sits, propped up against its pole, and stares out at the far away planet below it, watching the sun rise over the rim of the Earth’s surface to begin a new day.