We where taught in school that all living things breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, but it’s 2100 and things have changed. After the blast that almost destroyed the world most of us where put in cryosleep and transported to earth 2.
I am one of the few surviving humans of the 20th century and this is my story.
I thought that earth two would be our fortress and safe haven but it turns out to be unsafe and wild, beyond imaginations. It’s sun down and I am walking through the garden with an oxygen tank attached to my bag-pack because somehow the air here during most of the day and evening hours does not contain oxygen and there are other beings here but I don’t know if I could categorize some of them as humans, seeing that they have human features and look human but they do not breath in oxygen, instead they breath in carbon dioxide. That is not the least of the weirdness here, there are also plants that can eat us and there are monsters that come out the dead of the night and are capable of harm.
I try my best to go out often and see this new place, to search for a more safer area, but it’s day 102 since we got here and I have found nothing of help yet. I fear that one day we might not be able to get oxygen in our tanks and this thought drives me further in my search. There has to be something here, something for us. As I continue my walk a memory slams into me, a memory of my past, when everything breathing was as simple as coming outside and inhaling the beautiful air in and out. That memory seems so far away like a dream, a tear slips down my cheeks and I quickly lift my hands to swat it away.
No luck today, tomorrow I will try again. I head back towards our residence called The Space. I wonder why they called it that but I guess it’s because here, it’s just us no other earth two beings. The food we have to eat is bland and without a single taste, the agriculturists and nutritionist with us could not come up with anything to improve the food, they said it only had the smallest nutritional value of what we needed, but still we eat and we try to survive.
Days go by, and I am outside again in search of a better place. I check my log, it is day 1001 and I hope I find it. All my time being here I have not seen one animal, but here I stand a thousand kilometers away from The SpaceI see one looking at me, although it is weird and has two heads with one giant eye connecting them.
you might wonder how I walk back the thousand kilometers back, but I don’t, I packed up a few tools and food and set on this journey, I will radio back when I find a place.
I take a step forward, away from it and it moves chasing me, i run as fast as my legs will carry me, risk looking back a few times and the animal is hot on my tail, so I continue running until I get to a place that has glowing red and blue light from the ground up. I am scared is this how my story ends, is this how I go, hot tears stream down my face. But when I look behind me and see the animal’s face it almost looks sad for me and it comes to me urging me to go through the light. And when I do, I see a whole different world, and people, humans I thought where lost, that they did not make it to earth two, and they where not using oxygen tanks so I took mine off and I could breath. I smile happily and radio back to my people.
“I have found it, I found our place. Our fortress.”
My name is Alchemedes and this is my story.
The end!
Thanks for reading. This story was inspired by the January prompt -fortress