Primo stood beside his friend Harry at the
base of the launch pads, watching the
towering interplanetary ships standing before
him.
”Amazing what we‘ve accomplished… as a
race I mean”, said Harry.
The cheering from the crowd made his voice
almost inaudible.
”Yes Harry. I first thought of that on October
15, 2412 at 9 o‘clock with 33 seconds. The
moment I was activated”, Primo‘s distorted
voice overpowered the noise around them.
“Humanity’s accomplishments are many. Like
me”
The smell of candy and hot dogs made Harry‘s
stomach grumble and made his mood lighten
up. He placed one of his hands on Primo‘s
metallic shoulder.
”I‘m going to miss you”
”I will miss you too Harry”
”I have to go now”
”I know Harry”
A small tear formed on Harry‘s eye and he
looked to Primo‘s face, to his bright luminous
blue eyes.
”I know you think I don‘t feel like you Harry.
But I do. It is just that I cannot form tears. I
will miss you friend. But you will not be
forgotten. You are forever stored in my
memory and I will come to you in the future”
”Last call for all passengers of the Exodus 2.
Please proceed to the boarding area”, the
announcement was being made. Harry had
decided to wait as long as he could. To keep
Primo company. To see the blue skies of Earth
for as long as possible.
”Thank you Primo. I‘ll be waiting for you”,
Harry hugged him and he was hugged back.
”Go now friend. We‘ll see each other soon”
Harry let go of Primo and waved a last
goodbye. He walked towards the boarding
platform. He felt strange, leaving the place
where all of his ancestors had been born. All
the people on Earth. Moving to another planet,
to start a new generation, to begin a new life.
He thought of everything that was
accomplished, he thought of his parents. Long
gone now. Before the cure of old age had
been found. They‘d be proud of him. They‘d
go with him.
”Sir please, this way”, a uniformed man
signaled Harry to a large door on the side of
the Exodus.
”Thanks”, said Harry, not caring if the man
had heard him. Thinking of the trip to Mars.
Thinking of ship‘s takeoff. Thinking of the
future of man kind.
A distant rumbling sound began to make its
way to the ship‘s location. Barely audible, a
thunder, a trembling, a sound too deep for
humans to notice. Primo‘s head turned
immediately to the its source. The sky.
It was the Moon. Primo saw as it cracked in
two colossal parts and an infinity of smaller
pieces. Earth‘s satellite, the source of so many
legends and tales, a giver of life, destroyed.
The terraforming activities on it must have
gone wrong. Very wrong. The monumental
pieces of rock began to succumb to Earth‘s
gravity.
Primo‘s reaction was instant. He raced
through the crowds at superhuman speed,
throwing people out of his way when
necessary, jumping them, going through them.
Blood stained his metallic body as he
smashed an old woman’s frail one. Screams
reached his ears but quickly faded as he sped
away from them.
Chaos set in as the robotic AI sped through
the people with no care. Police began to
shoot, but Primo‘s agility was too great for
human aiming. He ran through the park, then
through the security post, screams and radio
chatter reached him barely.
He arrived at the Exodus 2′ entrance. Eight
security guards aimed their guns at him.
”Halt right there!”
Primo stopped and without delay said, ”Look”,
the voice from his body erupted echoing
through the platform as he pointed to the sky.
Some of the Moon‘s smaller pieces were
shining brightly as they entered the
atmosphere. The larger ones steadily came
closer.
Panic overcame the guards and everyone
around Primo.
”Shut the boarding doors! We‘re leaving!”
People ran into the ship as soon as they
realized what was happening. Emergency
procedures were activated. A small child was
cut in two as the Exodus‘ door came down
upon him. Screaming engulfed the platform.
Primo knew he had done what was necessary,
and he knew that he could do nothing else. He
stood silent on the spot were the security
guards had been waiting for him. People ran
around him. Trying to force the ship‘s door
open. Shots were fired to prevent it. People
began to fall, to bleed, to die. The smell of
iron and flesh began to fill Primo‘s sensors.
He had smelled that before, during the war.
Another rumbling began, this time the engines
of the Exodus 1 began to roar. Crowds of
people were thrown into the air by the sheer
pressure, others were instantly incinerated,
and the unlucky ones were set on fire and
were running mad with no set path.
Exodus 1‘ monstrous body began to rise
slowly into the sky. The chaos and panic in
the ground did not diminish the breathtaking
view Primo was experiencing. A hundred
thousand people being lifted in a flying city. A
true marvel of human accomplishment.
An explosion.
A rock from then deceased Moon came down
with terminal velocity burning bright and
struck the Exodus 1. A fireball that
encompassed half the launch platform erupted
from it and the mammoth came down and
crumbled to the ground. Killing in an instant
half of the people meant to populate the new
colony on Mars.
“Captain we must take off now! The moon is
about to come down on us!”
Deafening alarms in the command center of
the Exodus 2 blared, people screamed orders
and Captain Otis scrambled to get the ship
ready for takeoff.
“Sol!”, the Captain grabbed him by the shirt
and brought him close, “I don’t care what your
Job is, find my son and let me know when you
do. Go now!”
Sol nodded through the chaos and ran outside
the command center. The Captain checked the
ship’s systems status and realized that
despite the alarms in the room, the ship was
ready for takeoff.
The Captain looked outside through the large
window in front of him, it was raining fireballs
and the moon’s largest remains were getting
closer. He grabbed the radio, “Sol! Where the
hell is my son? We must go now!”
“I can’t find him sir, I don’t know where he is!”
The Captain shot up from his desk and ran
towards security on the other side of the
command center. Fifty screen showed the
multitudes of people outside banging on their
doors and running in a frenzy. He began to
look through them.
“Sir, what are you looking for?”
“Eddy, I think my son is out there, help me
look for him”
The Captain began to grind his teeth as he
became increasingly anxious. If they didn’t
take off soon, he’d be responible for the death
of every human being left.
“There!”, exclaimed Eddy, “I think that’s them”
“Yes! Open the door Eddy, let them in. Once
they’re in close it. Close it no matter what,
we’re taking off in one minute!”
“Yes sir!”, Eddy executed the commands on
his console as the Captain raced back to his
chair.
The Captain grabbed the microphone and
began, “Take off in T minus sixty seconds.”
Primo watched as the doors to the Exodus 2
reopened and a sea of people flooded the
gates. It seemed endless, women, men,
children. He couldn’t belive the Captain’s
decision, they had to take off soon. He looked
up at the sky and saw a large part of the
moon at a dangerous distance.
He jumped to a flagpole near his position and
looked at the crowd of people stuck in the
entrance of the the Exodus 2 and suddenly the
gate began to rise. Hundreds of people began
to scream in unison. Bodys exploded from the
pressure as the gate made its way to the top.
Blood drenched the ship and when the gate
was a few feet from being closed it stopped. It
jammed, the flesh of a hundred people
clogged the rails of the gate.
“No!”, Primo’s voice resonated through the
platform. He jumped back to the ground and
ran to the entrance, throwing people off his
way as fast as he could. They were as good
as dead anyway. He reached the gate and
began to grab handfuls of the red pulp from
the rails. People pulled at him, screamed at
him. But he had no choice, he could no let
Harry die. His hands went in and out,
grabbing, pulling, ripping the corpses of the
people in his way.
The gate began to move again and Primo
jumped off the top and began to walk away.
The Exodus 2 started its takeoff and Primo
watched from below the enormous power it
generated to free itself from its planet‘s pull.
He watched as it reached the upper layer of
the atmosphere. Humanity‘s last hope. But it
was too late. As the ship struggled to exit
Earth the Moon crashed down on it. Erasing it
from existance. Killing in a second everyone
and everything on it.
Primo watched the Moon come down into the
atmosphere. Covering the sky with a red fire.
Incinerating it.
”Goodbye Harry. I suppose we will not see
each other soon, after all”.
THE END
