The sky is dark red, almost black. The world is on fire. As I walk up the ramp to the ship, I wonder where everyone is. I lost my mom and dad a while ago, in the sea of people, and I haven’t seen Xander at all. Xander’s my best friend, and pretty much my only friend. 

The world I’ve always known, that’s been around for billions of years, was ending right in front of me. The ship was cold, even though hundreds of people were all crammed into it, and it had no character. It was plain silver, along with a few red buttons and warning labels along the walls. It wasn’t meant to be packed with people, all wanting to survive, it was meant for a 200 year trip to a long lost planet. Since the trip was so long, it had cryo chambers which would freeze your body to such a low temperature you were practically frozen in time. That’s how the government had planned to preserve our bodies until this “apocalypse” was over. The only issue is, there’s 500 chambers, and 330 million people in America wanting a spot. There’s already 50 people who have a confirmed spot, the president, the ship captain and mechanics, and other important people. 

My mom is a Senator, so we have a pretty high chance of making it on, hopefully. We’ve lived in D.C for my whole life, and it just happened to work out that there was a world ending apocalypse while the ship was here in D.C when it started. I overheard some people talking about buying their way onto the ship, paying millions, just to be asleep for hundreds of years. In the crowd I hear crying, people calling for their kids, small conversations, but most of all, silence. People are barely talking because nobody knows what’s happening. Their fear has taken over and they don’t know what to do. They’re either going to be frozen for who knows how long, or burn to death. 

I was standing against a wall inside the ship when I heard my name being called, I stood up on a railing and saw my parents looking for me. I made my way over to them and they embraced me in a hug. 

“We thought we’d lost you,” said my mom. 

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I said. 

“Stay here, we’re going to go see if they’ve given us chambers,” my dad said before he walked away. 

The ship had security guards guarding the chambers, so no one could put themselves to sleep. They only have enough nitrogen to be used once. I was beginning to get worried, I hadn’t seen Xander at all since everything happened. I couldn’t call him because all the cell towers were down and there was no service. My mom said she’d seen him outside before she had gotten on, but hasn’t seen him since. I told her I was going to go look for him, and if I wasn’t back in 10 minutes, to go into the chambers without me. She obviously did not agree with what I had said and told me that if I didn’t get on, neither would she. I knew that I couldn’t let my mom die, so I gave her a hug and ran as fast as I could to try and find Xander. 

I was running and yelling his name, but there was no sign of him anywhere. I saw kids from my highschool, old teachers, “friends'' from school, but no Xander. My mom and dad didn’t have much family, none that lived close anyways, so we had no one else to look out for. We had tried to say our goodbyes but the cell towers went out before we could call. I hadn’t even begun to think about what other people are doing right now, people not in D.C trying to get on the ship. They’re all gonna die. 

I finally made it outside and felt the hard cement under my feet as I ran. In the distance I spotted Xander in a group of people talking to a guard. He came from a poverty-stricken family from the wrong side of the tracks, and though he had been a good kid, not everyone in his family was. I’ve known him since kindergarten. My dad’s a therapist and he was one of his clients. His mom had died when he was 4 and he didn’t have a dad, so he was left with his aunt and uncle, who weren’t good people. My dad thought it would be a good idea if he had some friends, so he introduced us to each other, and we’ve been best friends ever since. Xander heard me yelling for him and he walked away from the group towards me.

“Did you get a spot on the ship?” asked Xander.

“My dad’s going to check right now, did you?” I replied. 

“Obviously not, who am I to get a spot?” He said as his smile dropped. 

“They can’t do this, they can’t just pick and choose who gets to live and die.” 

I’ve never been without Xander, for as long as I can remember we’ve been together, my first soccer game, my first broken bone, everything. There’s no way they can just take him from me and let him burn. 

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. I’m glad that you’ll get to live on that freaky spaceship, even if you’re gonna be frozen for hundreds of years,” He said with a laugh, that covered up his fear.

He always pretended that he wasn’t scared of anything, even if he wasn’t good at disguising it. 

“Let’s get on the ship and go look for my parents to see how many chambers we got.” I knew that since there were only three of us in my family, and my mom was a senator and was pretty important to them, but we probably only got two chambers, maybe three. I had hoped that somehow there was a spot for Xander, but the possibilities were low. We made it onto the ship and we tried to find my parents. Xander has no idea where his aunt and uncle are and he hasn’t tried to look for them. We found my mom and she greeted both of us with a warm hug. Her hugs always make me feel better. 

“Hey honey, can I talk to you for a second?” My mom pulled me aside into a quieter area.
“They only gave us two chambers, and me and your dad want you to have one of them.”

“What? How can they do this? How can they rip apart our family and leave one of us to die?” I felt my throat closing up and my palms getting sweaty, as the room started to spin and go blurry I tried to keep my balance.

“Honey? Can you hear me? Octavia, can you hear me?” I could barely hear my mom, her words sounding faint. I reached out and felt her grab my arm to keep me balanced. I began to come back to my senses and realized what was happening. I was going to have to live without one of my parents, and Xander. I ran to go find my dad and Xander. I saw them talking to each other, laughing. They always knew how to make the best out of bad situations. I walked up to my dad. 

“Mom told me about what happened, how we only got two chambers,” I said as Iooked at the ground, trying to hold in my tears. 

“Yes, and we don’t want to lose you, and we don’t want you to lose us, but it’s for the best. We want you to live a good life, have kids, and grow old. We don’t need anything else, we’ve gotten everything we’ve wanted, which is why we’re giving you and Xander the chambers.”

“What? Sir, I can’t take that from you, you deserve to be with your daughter.” Xander said.

“No, you do. You’ve shown us that you love her, and we know you’ll take care of her.” My dad always wanted the best for people, it’s why he’s a therapist, and now he’s truly showing it. 

“Can I talk to Xander for a second, about all of this?”

“Sure honey, take your time, just not too much. The ship is leaving in 20 minutes.” My mom replied with a smile.

“Xander, you know they’re not gonna stop until we get into those chambers, and I’m gonna miss them, but I’d miss you even more. As painful as it is to leave them, we have to.” I had tears in my eyes now, realizing what was going to happen, I’d never see my parents again.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Xander said with a straight face. We walked back to my parents to say our goodbyes. 

“Mom, Dad, I’m gonna miss you guys so much. Thank you.” I tried to keep it short and simple so I didn’t cry too much, but the tears were dripping down my face as they gave me a big hug. I started crying hysterically at this point, and didn’t care. A guard tapped my dad’s shoulder. 

“It’s time.” He walked us over to the chambers, some people were already sleeping, the glass frosted. Their bodies frozen. We entered our names into the keypad the guard gave us and slowly got into the chambers. We layed down and the glass was closed over us. I saw my parents begin to cry, despite them trying to hold it together. I looked over at Xander, I’ve never seen him so scared before. He looked over at me and whispered one last “I love you.” As my eyes closed and everything went dark, I fell into a deep, 200 year sleep.