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I don’t remember touching the pad, but my eyes are glued to the screen when it starts.

After a while, I simply lay it down because I can no longer see it through the tears in my eyes.

As they crammed me into what felt like a coffin, I knew they were doing their best to prepare me for the real possibility of what we would face upon awakening, but I am …

was in complete denial. My heart knows the truth.

Everything I’ve ever known, loved, or dreamed of has been erased, reduced to nothing but particles floating in space.

Now , only a few of us are left, and I know some would say that we’re the lucky ones, but at this moment, I don’t believe that at all.

I feel misplaced, thrust into a situation my mind can’t grasp.

When the rumors of a planet-destroying storm were announced, our world seemed to collapse in on itself.

All the preparations, conversations, and disasters happening everywhere made it hard for me to comprehend the final results.

I felt powerless when my parents left me, powerless when Papaw put me on that bus, my face glued to the window as I left him standing in the rain, and it feels like I still am.

Papaw told me to look at it all like this: ‘ Just pretend you’ve gotten a new job and are leaving the area to rebuild your life somewhere else.

In my day, most of the girls I grew up with moved halfway across the country with their husbands; this is no different.

This is just one of many new adventures you will get to experience, and few are going to be blessed enough to receive. ’

“ I’m trying, Papaw . I promised I wouldn’t cry, but I can’t seem to stop these tears.”

When the door suddenly slides open, I wipe my face on my sleeve. Briar enters carrying a plate. She crawls up the ladder, and I scoot over so that she can sit down next to me. Her bright blue eyes are a stark contrast to her pale skin and solid black hair.

“ Here , I thought you might be hungry. Everyone in line was quiet, and there were lots of swollen red eyes and tear-streaked faces. I knew this was going to be hard, but hell, I reckon in the back of my mind, I thought that all the preparation to leave was going to be for nothing. The warnings and things would all be proven wrong before I ever had to get in that pod.”

She stares off as I rearrange myself in the bed, picking at the food she brought me.

“ We were sitting at the table eating dinner when the call came; it was days early and to say the least, I was not ready. I’ll never forget the look on my dad’s face when he hung up the phone.

Mom and I were both a mess within a matter of minutes.

They’d already made me pack my bags, and I can remember standing numbly in the yard, watching as he loaded them into the trunk.

When he turned toward me, I ran, fighting him the entire time he was trying to get me in the car.

Nothing either one of them said would soothe me as I begged them not to send me away.

In the end, Dad had to physically pick me up and put me in the pod they had bought for me.

Tears flowed down his face the entire time he kept telling me how much he loved me and that I had to be strong and all that shit.

” I reach up, wiping a stray tear off her face as she relives the last moment she had with her family.

“ Damn Lacie , I wish I’d never watched that video.

I wonder now if I should’ve fought them harder.

Would it have been better to stay behind with them?

Why did we make it when so many others didn’t?

My mother’s hugs and my father’s strength are what I’ll miss the most. I don’t know how to be alone.

Even though I drove them nuts most of the time, I always knew they’d be there. ”

“ I’m as torn as you are, Briar . Maybe we should pretend this was a video clip from an action movie or something.

I simply can’t comprehend that there is no going back.

I mean, we’re in space Briar , on a real live spaceship with …

aliens. Our families, friends … everything is gone.

I don’t believe I’m even capable of understanding or reconciling those facts entirely.

All that’s happened is making me question everything I’ve ever known.

Why me? So many innocents and others who were more worldly or knowledgeable than a little girl no one wanted, but her papaw.

And now he’s gone too. Am I grateful to have woken up?

Absolutely . But I don’t think I’ve ever felt more lost.”

“ Lacie , Lord knows the more I think about it, the worse it gets. All we can do now is take it one step at a time. We were told what was going to happen, and I hate to admit they were right for the most part. They would tell us that now it’s our job to make the best of this.

I don’t think we have any other options, to be truthful.

While we were at dinner, they announced that we would be leaving this ship soon to stay on another one. I feel like a stray with no place to call my own. Qwin came in just as I was leaving, saying that a doctor would arrive shortly to give us permanent translators.

Lacie , we are soooo out of our league out here.

Humans couldn’t even make it to the moon without issues.

How are our simple minds going to figure all this out?

The remainder of our race is now completely dependent on these aliens.

God help us and our ignorance. The few things we were good at won’t make a difference here. ”

“ Briar , my heart is truly broken, and I know you feel the same way, but we’ve got to find a way to stay …

or find something positive about all this, or it will rip us apart inside.

I mean, we’ve lost everything, and at this point, we have two choices …

wallow in our pain or move on. Personally , I’m not a fan of crying; it’s always made me sick, so I need to stop these tears and decide how I’m going to cope with all these changes without falling apart every time my mind realizes this is our only option.

My grandfather’s dying wish as he sent me off on that bus was for me to survive and live for both of us—a wish I plan to fulfill.

I’m not going to sit back and hide in the corner, weeping in despair and waiting for others to make all the decisions that will affect the rest of my life.

We have an opportunity to be more than we were, and I intend to be a big part of it. ”

“ Give me a few more days to cry and possibly wallow a little more in self-pity, Lacie , and then I’ll stand beside ya, girl.”