Cylinder

The Final Chapter

The USS COMMITMENT only had an hour left. Anthony looked at the mirror, admiring his image. He licked his hand and slid it up his scalp to spike it upwards. If he were going to die, he'd want to look good.

"Anthony, we gotta go. It's gonna happen any minute now," said Lucy. Anthony looked at Lucy's short and rather attractive red hair. He can tell that she also wanted to look good in case she dies too. Anthony walked up to her, smiling at her beauty.

"I'm not leaving without you," she said. Anthony kissed her, hoping it to be the best last moment of his life. The announcement was obnoxious enough to ruin the moment however.

"Pod 804 will be launching in five minutes. We ask passengers to please go to chamber 3 and meet with your captain."

"That's us," said Lucy, upset that the moment was ruined. They ran over to chamber 3 where they found their pod. It was a lot smaller than they thought it would be, only about 25 feet high. There were only three passengers that seemed to be getting on, one black man and a blonde woman. There was also a scientist wearing his lab coat and aging around his late 50's.

"Alright, when I call your name, just say here. John?"

"Here," said the black man.

"Olga?"

"Here," said the blonde woman who apparently was Russian. The man called Lucy's and Anthony's names and they replied with "here".

"Alright then let's begin. As you all know, the USS COMMITMENT has run into some serious trouble. Unfortunately, a comet has been seen that is coursed to hit the Earth, which we have finally fixed after so very long."

They knew what he was talking about. Humans were very careless with pollution on Earth to a point that we couldn't live on there anymore. The air became so filthy that it became poisonous to inhale, which caused a huge amount of casualties. It began in Eastern Asia and worked its way to the States, and finally Western Europe. Fortunately, the countries were prepared, and when they saw that Eastern Asia was slowly dying off, they opened up there new plan to the world. The United Nations apparently created enough ships to not only fit everperson, or most of everyone, but also most of the animals and enough enough food, oxygen and supplies to last for about 12 years, just enough time to clean up the Earth while everyone is up in space safe. Well, it is year 11 and they finally cleaned it all up enough for everyone to be able to live on it.

Unfortunately, the comet came. After all the hard work, the UN decided that they're not going to just let it go to waste. So, they decided to let the ships get in the path of the comet in hopes that it will stop it or at least slow it down to make it nothing lethal (but knowing the size of that thing, slowing it down would be near impossible). Not only are they sacrificing the ships that saved our live, but also the captains piloting the ships, just to give them time to evacuate.

"In order for you to be able to fly in these things at all, you must wear you're safety suit which thankfully you all have on at the moment. This will help you to travel through turbulence and will give you enough Oxygen to last you for a while. But don't worry; you're not going to be wearing that the entire trip there. The pod has enough Oxygen to last you about 3 hours, which should be plenty of time since you're trip should only last you about 2 hours." Everyone was still worried despite the comfort the scientist tried providing.

"I heard something about our pod not being strong enough to withhold turbulence," said John. The scientist didn't want to worry anyone, but had to tell them the truth.

"It is true that this pod is only a test transport, but it should be able to withstand turbulence. It may not be the best, but it's by no means bad. Putting you in a bad pod would be criminal." No one was really comforted by his words but it's not like they would be comfortable staying on the ship.

"Alright, everyone in. We don't have much time." All four of them went into the pod and sat down on the metallic floor. The timer got everyone's attention.

"That's to tell you how much time you have until the Oxygen provided in the tanks above run out," he said pointing at the air vent up above.

"Like I said, you should be able to reach Earth in about 2 hours which means it's open; you get to breathe in the clean, fresh, new air of Earth."

"What if it opens up and we're not on Earth?" asked Olga. Everyone already knew the answer. The scientist was upset that she had to ask.

"That would be a worst case scenario, but if it does happen, the masks on your suits should provide you Oxygen."

"But only for so long," said Olga who kept pushing it. The scientist avoided her by closing the door of the pod and locked it outside. It was pitch black in the pod until the two dim lights on the side lit up very dimly. An announcement came on once the lights turned on.

"Good evening and welcome aboard. We ask you to please keep your suits on the entire time you are aboard your pod." It was one of the most robotic cheesy female voices they've ever heard. A different voice came on

"Once the pod launches, you will have no way of communicating with anyone outside of the pod until it lands." It was the scientist they heard

"This is it,' said Lucy who was holding Anthony's hand.

"Also, there was one other thing that we didn't announce," said the person on the intercom. All four of them were waiting for what they were gonna say.

"We would like you to not remember this whole incident with Earth. We want you to start a new life. One where you make things right." Everyone was confused. They didn't like the sound of that.

"I'm pretty sure we've all learned our lesson," said John.

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple. We want you to completely start over." They still didn't like where this was going.

"What do you mean?" Suddenly, the vent made a hissing noise. The air smelled foul and made them very tired.

"We want to start a new life without technology and anything else that does harm to our planet. And in order to do that, we must start a whole new generation." Lucy tried to scream but found herself too weak to do so.

"I'm sorry I have to do this. But I hope you understand. When you wake up, a whole new life shall start, and we shall make life even better on Earth."

Everyone fell asleep. With his last bit of strength, Anthony hit the wall as hard as he could, only to join the others in their coma.

888

Anthony suddenly remembered everything after staring at Lucy for awhile. He teared up after realizing what he had done to his girlfriend.

"Lucy… I'm… so sorry," he said. Lucy gave him a big slap in the face. But doing so made her shoulder hurt.

"Hey, don't strain yourself. You're already hurt enough."

"You've earned that."

"I've earned more than just a slap." Lucy looked at him, angrily.

"But you've earned this," said Anthony as he leaned in for the kiss, finally having their moment in a bright green valley with clean air. There lips parted away.

"I'll punish you later. But for now, we need to figure out what to do." Olga and John came out of the pod towards the couple.

"You remember now?" asked Lucy.

"Yeah… I remember," said John.

"Well, what do we do then? How can we survive?"

"Humans have survived plenty of disasters. I'm sure we could live again in a place like this."

"Hey!" yelled someone from another pod close by. It was a younger girl, with black hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing the same suit as them and looked nervous.

"Do you know what's going on? Where are we?" asking all of them. All four of them looked at each other, each thinking the exact same thing.

"We must start a whole new generation."

"When you wake up, a whole new life shall start, and we shall make life even better on Earth."

Lucy looked at the young girl eye to eye.

"I have no idea."

The End

Just a few notes, About a year ago, I had been thinking about this idea, but I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with it at the time. And then I took a trip to the Philippines. I remember my cousin wanted to take a jog outside over there. By the time she got back, she was panting heavily. I thought she just had a good workout, but she told me that the air was unbearably filthy. Over there, they burn all there trash in the streets and do little to nothing to recycle or clean. I remember having a hard time just to find a trash can over there. And that really disgusted. I wasn't really a clean freak or environmental friendly person, but after going there, it really changed my view. And once I went there, I realized what I wanted to do with this. Hope you liked it, and feel free to review! Thanks for reading.