A Different Kind Of Home Prologue

So I'll stop writing Destiny for the time being, and start on something else. But do not fret, I'll contnue it sometime in the near future!

It started at noon, the eruptions. The ground was torn apart, roads split amd large gaping ravines were created as the ground tore itself apart, like this earth was splitting itself in two. Tremors rocked the whole planet, houses were wrecked and skyscrapers tumbled one after another like dominos. What came after was the magma. Yes, you read it right, magma. It surfaced from the ravines, slowly at first but then rising towards the surface with such speed it flew high into the air and spread across the land. Everything standing in it's path was disintegrated. It was a scene from hell, but I was one of the lucky ones.

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My dad worked for some pretty important people, people who had power to commandeer others with a single hand gesture and the power to make your life a living hell if they wanted. A few days before the actual eruption, there were rumors circulating around the government that there was to be natural disaster happening in a few days, and not any ordinary one either. But they were only rumors, and no one believes rumors. A day later, my father arrived home from work much too early. He was sweating in his suit even though it was pouring outside. The look on his face told me something was very wrong, my father was usually a very calm man and little could scare him, but this was one of the times I looked at him and saw fear emitted from his eyes.

He told us to pack everything we wanted to keep, and leave the rest here. The rest of us questioned him, but he gave no answers, only shaking his head in reply. We were given an hour to pack, and I took my most valuable belongings, including a family photo and my laptop. I left the rest as it was, and somehow wishing I could bring my bed along. My father remained anxious, he kept pacing up and down, fingers crossed nervously the whole time. He kept muttering something to himself, but I couldn't hear what is was, neither did I bother. Up till now I had never moved away from this house, and I was planning to stay here till my death. Things change suddenly when you least expect it, and you don't have much of a choice then.

A sleek limousine pulled up at our doorstep an hour later. We loaded our belongings into the trunk and set off. We kept quiet the entire journey, not knowing what to say. It was a terrible silence in our family which was usually full of life. My two sisters were weeping softly in the backseat. We all knew a disaster would arrive soon, strike the whole planet, and that not everyone would be saved. Our relatives and friends would perish along with whatever remained. It was a thought that crippled my mind and soon I found myself tearing.

We drove not to the airport but a deserted airfield miles away from civilization. There was a shuttle awaiting our arrival. It wasn't those huge space shuttles that were sent to space for missions. Instead it was about half the height and there's weren't any engineers around to ready the shuttle for flight. My dad rushed us into the shuttle but stayed outside to make a phone call. Meanwhile I explored the interior of what would be our new home for a day or so. It was pretty simple, a few beds that were attached to the shuttle itself. And a loo of course. Upon going further inside, I discovered the control room that occupied a large part of the shuttle. Dials and displays littered the panels and there were buttons and levers I couldn't make sense of. My dad stepped in behind me, he didn't bother to acknowledge my presence but instead told me to go and lay down in one of the beds. I wanted to stay there with him, knowing how he was feeling at that time, but I did as told.

My mum and two sisters had already quietly settled into their own beds and were staring blankly at the ceiling, lost in their own thoughts. I could see tears streaming down mum's face, and my heart was wrenched apart. Just this morning we were chatting over breakfast about our plans for the next school break, but now our lives were being torn apart bit by bit, and each piece was being shred into even smaller pieces. There was a gaping hole in my life that I desperately wanted to fill. I wanted to see my friends and relatives for one last time. I wanted to tell them I loved them, and that I should have treasured them more. But you only miss things when they're gone.

I slid into my own bed quietly, back facing up, expecting the shuttle to begin moving any moment. My dad worked at some space research center that was under the government. It was unknown to most people but for years the government of each country had been preparing for an event like this, a natural disaster that would affect the entire world. They had been monitoring the earth for years, at first the signs were minor and ignored, but then the temperature of the earth rose at an alarming pace. For months the earth got warmer, and many people died of dehydration. What was worse was that the earth's core was expanding outwards, meaning the magma deep underground was slowly making it's way to the surface. It was at that point that plans were made, and a few selected people were tasked with devising a plan to get certain people to safety. It was cruel to leave so many others behind, but for fear of causing wide spread panic and have people fighting just to save themselves, only those working in private sectors and their families had a chance of survival.

My father had been a valuable asset to his bosses, and they knew they needed him. So our family got saved, while others were left to burn to nothing. The shuttle was shaking now, quite violently too. I supposed the engines had been started and my father would soon join us once again. My dad had made sure to impart to me some knowledge of how spacecrafts worked and how gravity worked in outer space. He had sat me down one day and gone through a whole lot of stuff I didn't understand at that point. Now however, this information was proving to be pretty useful in such a situation. I knew for example, that we would pass out soon once the shuttle had reached the outer atmosphere of space, and that we would begin floating above our beds once that happened.

I had no time for further thoughts as my father joined us and lay in the last bed available. I wondered what had happened to the limo driver, and I guessed he was not coming with us. As the engines roared to life, the shuttle was lifted from the ground and I felt an immense pressure on my back, at first it was bearable, but then it felt like a stampede of elephants were tramping on me.

Shit, I forgot one of the things my father had reminded me of.

It hurt like hell.