Our planet is destroyed, after the nuclear wars it left the world in shambles. Making it next to impossible to survive. One program rose from the ashes to save humanity, taking all children left and bringing them to a compound. This was one of the ways they tried to rebuild humanity, training children for the chance to go to space and find humans a new home.  I snapped awake, the obnoxious sound of my alarm woke me from my recurring dream where I hear the compounds mission statement. My crisp white room is a gray color from the lack of light. I toss my sheets off the bed and head to my bathroom. As soon as my feet touch the cold hard floor the lights click on from the pressure sensor in the floor. As I open my bathroom door, I glance at the mirror. My eyes are a soft shade of brown; the same color as my hair. I double tapped the mirror to bring up my morning supplies. I selected the option for clothes for the day and the light grey uniform is beamed on me to replace my cozy pajamas, just like every day. Even though my morning is the same, the rest of my days are going to be different.
   Today we find out who will be the crew to go down in history as the ones to save the planet. Each crew has been trained since we were kids on how we are going to save humanity. After the nuclear wars happened, the compound sent out workers to find kids under the age of 12. I didn't remember when they found me because that was 17 years ago,and I was only 5. Everyone had been waiting for this day, waiting for the chance to be the heros. The only downside is there are 25 different crews that hoped to have that chance but only one crew is chosen. A loud knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Who is it?” I whisper shout because it is still early, and I don't want to be the person to wake up everyone.
“It’s Bri.” Of course it's Bri. Who else would come banging on my door at 4am? I open the door and she walked right in without an invitation. Bri has been my best friend since day one, always energetic and gets what she wants, she has tan skin and curly hair.
“You ready for today, Em?” Bri asked.
“Yep! 100% ready to see if we save the planet.” I said with a smirk, Bri laughed at my sarcasm. Bri stays and talks to me for a while until the bell rang, that told us that we need to get to the dining hall. I walk down the narrow halls with Bri until we get to the lunchroom and take our seats. After a while the rest of our crew came in. First one there is Jerry he’s tall and very quiet even after years of him being in our crew he still won't talk to us much. Next is Jim Jerry's twin. Jim is the opposite of Jerry, he’s loud and never shuts up.  We greet them with a smile but we all know the importance of this day. I expected Jim to crack a joke just like every morning but he didn't. When I looked at the two you could see that they felt the pressure of today. Without saying anything, I clicked the serve button on the side of our table. The breakfast screen popped  up with the hologram of a waiter.
“What would you like to eat today?’” it asked, then just like everyday a tab appeared with the choices for breakfast that day.  Just like normal we all got oatmeal and yogurt to start the day. A loading tab came up since the cafeteria is packed just like everyday. But today was different, the cafeteria may have been full but it was very quiet, I guess everyone felt the pressure of today.
Our food eventually beamed onto our table
“Bon appetit!” Jim said in a terrible french accent. We all began to eat and after my first bite I realized how hungry I actually was. Once breakfast was over everyone stayed in their spots to wait for the commanders of the compound to come out and tell us who will be going into space. It was very tense in the cafeteria. We wished the news would come quicker but we had no choice.
After what felt like an hour the commanders walked out. They all looked the same,  older men with white hair, mustaches, and some had scruffy beards.
“Welcome everyone to this very exciting meeting!” One of them began.
“I know you are all nervous to see who will be going to space, but this is an amazing opportunity. So let's not delay.” I was dying to hear which crew will go to space.
“The  lucky crew will be crew 285. Congratulations!”  My whole table gasped, all eyes were on us. I couldn't believe it, we were going to space! I turned to Bri in disbelief,  Bri looked like she was going to cry because she was so happy. I gave her a huge hug I was so happy. But I did not know what was in store for us.
After that day everything was different. We had 3 weeks to prepare for our trip to space. During these weeks we had many hours of hard physical and mental training. Then it was launch day, the day we had been training for. That morning I woke up and forgot how important the day was, and then it hit me like a train. Up until today the importance of this mission had not popped into my mind. Now it made me question if I deserve to do this.
There was a loud buzz in my bathroom, I dragged myself out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. The mirror screen lit up with a new clothing option for our mission. I pressed the option on the cold mirror screen and the new outfit is beamed on me. This outfit is different than my regular clothes. It's light and breathable with a small watch on my right wrist, but just like my old clothes it's grey with black shorts and my crew number on it. Now that I have my uniform on I walked out of my room and I knew it may be the last time I saw that room.
Once in the launch room I saw my crew for a split second before the launch crew had pulled me away. The launch crew had taken me to a room for briefing on what exactly will happen when it was time for take off. I had a hard time focusing on what they said. It was hard to focus because I knew that what will happen could possibly end your life.
“Em ….. Em… EM!” One of the launch crew people yelled.
“ I’m sorry. It’s hard to focus right now,” I mumbled, not really sorry. The same lady that yelled at me a second ago had given me a stern look. Then she told me about how I am so ungrateful for this opportunity. As she spoke I fell back into my thoughts and then I realized that I was now in the rocket and strapped in for launch. A new lady with silver hair walked in with a large needle to sedate me. The light reflected off of the needle as she injects my arm and I felt the pinch, then everything faded.
The darkness engulfed me as if it swallowed me up. All of my crewmates were sedated because of the speed of the rocket, with that one injection it could have kept me asleep for years or at least until we got to a planet to explore. In that small dosage of medication it has microchips that attached to the brain and takes control of the body until shut down. It felt like I had been asleep for one second then I was snapped awake. When I woke up I was surrounded by my crew in a small padded room with one metal door. The rest of my crew had also woken up.
“How long have we been in here?” Bri asked groggily.
“I have no clue,” responded Jim. We all looked at one another and got out of our seats. Once I stood up, sharp pains coursed through my legs. It had to have been a very long time since pressure was put on them. I was the first over to the door, the rest of my crew was behind me. I swung open the door and I did not expect to see what I did. The entire rocket was made up of a screen that projected the outside of the rocket. I had never seen so many stars in my life, towards the right I saw the planet that we would soon be on. This planet was known as OX23, the OX means it had breathable air. The rest of my crew were speechless at the sight of this place.
“ Well, if we get stuck in space I won't be too sad,” Jim said. We all nodded in agreement. The rocket began to descend onto the planet.
“Time for us to take our seats.” said Bri. We all went back into the padded room and strapped down. The rocket had begun to shake and it gave off a loud beeping sound that meant we entered the atmosphere. The rest was just a blur, it had felt like we sat there for hours but then there was a loud thud and all of the shaking a beeping stopped, we had landed.
Once safely on the ground we all got out of our seats and headed to find an exit from the rocket. I was the first to the door, it was just like any other door except for the fact that it had a small button on the upper right side. I reached up and pressed the button and a bright screen comes alive and scanned us.
“Accepted” said a robotic voice. The door opened and a bright light cut through the darkness. None of us have seen the sun since we were very young it burned our eyes every time we looked out the the door.
Eventually our eyes were used to the light and we slowly opened the door. The air was fresh, crisp, and clean. It felt amazing to have the sun on my shoulders. The planet was swampy and wet everywhere but no sign of a body of water anywhere near. Since I had not felt soft ground in years I kicked off my shoes and socks. The ground went between my toes and it felt nice to not be walking on a cold hard floor just like everyday back in the compound. That's when I knew what it's like to be free. Without knowing I had began to run, the rest of the crew was behind me they all felt what I was.
Later that day the air became thick and moist. The sky became a grey color and black clouds rolled over the horizon quickly.
“What do we do?” asked Bri in a concerned voice. I opened my mouth to respond but my words were carried away by a sudden strong wind. We had not been prepared for this ever. Frozen in fear we all watched as the storm approached rapidly. Before we knew it the clouds were over us.
“We should get in the roc-” Jim began to say cut off by a bright flash that made contact with the rocket. As soon as it touched the rocket bursted into flames. Everyone began to run then a second flash darted out of the sky. It hit one of my crewmates and they instantly fell to the ground. A dust of some sort began to blow making impossible to see where our injured crewmate was or where the rest of the crew was. With nothing else to do I ran. I ran fast not knowing where I was going or when I was going to stop. The dust pelted me in the face like little needles.
Eventually I couldn't breath,  with my lungs felt  like they were full of dust. I collapsed on the ground, alone. Then I remembered my watch, I tapped the glass and a hologram screen was in front of me. The light cut through the dust. The screen had all of my crewmates on it, including myself. Jim and Jerry had green surrounding their images, I had a yellow color and Bri was surrounded by a bright flashing red color. Bri was the one hit by the light. I had to find her, she needed me! I pushed myself up, instantly a sharp pain went through my lung. I fell to the ground barely being able to breath, each breath was harder and harder. Everything became fuzzy. Someone was in front of me.
”Em!” Then everything went black. 
When I woke up I'm was alone just like when I passed out, this time I'm was in some sort of thrown together tent. I sat up but a tube of some sort was in my arm. Attached to the tube was a machine that I saw inside of the rocket. I tugged on the tube and almost instantaneously the machine made a beeping noise and I felt a liquid injected into my veins. Then everything went black once again. I came out of the darkness, this time and someone or something was next to me. I glanced over and it had the outline of a human but the skin on its head was a red pink color with what looked like burnt hair. This figure was breathing but very shallow breaths, whatever it was it was hooked up to over five machines. Then I realize that tube was no longer in my arm so I stood up and a sharp pain shot through my lungs, enough pain to blur my vision but nothing like what happened during the storm.
After standing and trying to walk off the pain I turned to whatever was next to me and I noticed it had a face. Then it hit me, that burnt up figure is Bri.
Her eyes are closed and it looked as if she's was dead but you can just barely see her shallow breaths. I fell to the ground in shock and sadness just as Jim walks in.
“Em Bri’s going to be ok.” he said in a serious tone.
“NO SHE'S NOT DON’T YOU SEE HER!” I shouted  hysterically. Bri’s my best friend. Without her, I loose my other half. Jim tried to calm me, but it wasn’t going to happen.  I'm not dumb. I've seen injuries like this in my training, and she's not ok. Jim gave up on trying to calm me, knowing it's not happening anytime soon. After I sat with Bri for a while I got up and walked outside. The rocket was the first thing I saw. The top was black and destroyed, and there's no way we could get home in it. The bottom half of the rocket was still ok but without the top where most of the electricity was stored and also where the pull panels were, we would not be going home.
“So looks like you recovered from your full mental breakdown.” Jim said interrupting my examination of the rocket. Changing the topic I said back
“Where’s Jerry?” Jim looked at me concerned.
“I haven't seen him since the storm.” I tapped on my watch and the screen appeared everyone is on there except for Jerry, his photo wasn't even on the screen.
“I think the storm took him.” Jim said sadly. I didn't disagree, I also didn't say anything. What do you say to someone who just lost their brother. I opened my mouth to speak but there was a scream from the tent. I rushed over to see Bri, her eyes were glazed with pain.
“What do we do!” I asked Jim.
“We can't do anything, I gave her all of the medication we had.” He said in a small voice, he knew Bri had been going through a lot of pain. Later that day nothing had happened. Bri was in and out of sleep, every time she stayed awake longer than others. Jerry still hadn't appeared and each second made us even more sure that he was gone for good. Days went on we tried and tried and tried to contact the compound until we broke through to them. I was asleep when it happened. Jim was the one to contact them, and he told me they will send a rocket to get us, but we were going to have to survive on our own for a month. This was going to be impossible if the soil wasn't fit to grow plants. On my watch I had the option to test and take samples of the soil. I clicked the option to test the soil and almost instantly a result came up. The probability of food being able to grow was 40% and that means this next month we would be starving. The next few weeks were terrible. Food rations got smaller and smaller and my stomach felt as if it was eating itself. Bri was in and out of sleep every time she was awake we made her eat, she was the one taking up all of the food.
Finally the day came where it was time to go home. I had become so weak it was next to impossible to stand up. Bri was finally able to stay awake but she could not stand up. The minutes dragged on each one longer than the other until there was a grey shape in the sky. The shape came closer. I tried to yell to Jim, but my voice came out as a whisper. The grey blob came closer and closer until the rocket features were visible. It was just like our rocket except this one had a huge top. The rocket landed with a thud and dirt flew everywhere. I tried to stand up but my legs were to weak. I fell to the ground, Bri was also trying to stand and she fell with a thud. The rocket doors opened and a man with grey hair and a mustache came out and approached the tent. We were saved. The rocket took us home, or what was left of us. Jerry was never found, Bri’s burns healed but she still has patchy hair. Jim has been very quiet since what happened, and as for me I still have hopes of saving everyone and escaping our ruined planet.