STRANDED, 3000.

“Everyone in the school please go the roof top. I repeat. Please take all your necessary bags and go to the rooftop. The stairs will now be blocked with the metal. I hope all the students are all on the rooftop now.” While everyone was getting out of their rooms and running to the stairs, Paul ran to the right to the school bathroom. He was stuck in the middle because of all of his friends running to the opposite side. He pushed them away and he could hear them swearing but he pushed their shoulders and rushed to the 3rd floor where there was a bathroom. As soon as he passed the staircase of the 3rd floor, the metal automatic door was coming and dividing the space between the stairs and rest of the floor. The whole school seemed to be empty except the rooftop. He rushed and ran all over the place in a desperate that seemed like he was eagerly looking for someone. He kept screaming and the only thing he could hear was the door closing everywhere. “Come on… Where are you…” “Mom!!! Do you hear me? Mom?” He kicked all the doors of the third floor but there wasn’t anyone left. He finally pushed the toilet door hard there was an old lady cleaning the sink. “Mom, what are you doing? Everyone left. Stop cleaning! Let’s go!” Paul yelled. “No… I have to clean this.” Paul pulled her hand and took away the cleaning tools from her hands. He threw them away out the window. Suddenly, all the electricity turned off. The light in the bathroom was even turned off and Paul and his mother couldn’t see each other’s face. “Honey… Go to the roof now. I am staying here. Your sister is alone and she needs me.” “No. You are coming with me, mom.” He held her hand tight and rushed to the elevator. “Come on. Work. Damn it.” The elevator was not working. He ran to where the stairs were but the metal walls had made it impossible for him to go across it. “The stairs next to the windows!” There was a staircase in a snail shape surrounding the whole wall of the school which was made for emergency fire. If he could get out of the window and make it until the stair which was about 1m away, there was hope. Acrophobia didn’t matter to Paul at this moment. He looked out the window pulled out his neck to see the rooftop. There wasn’t any people outside which meant the spaceship was getting ready to fly away. “Mom, let’s go.” Paul opened the window wide enough so that his body could get inside. He carefully went outside, tried not to look down because it reminded of his childhood which was a sad memory to him. Paul was always smart. People used to praise him for his intelligence from when he was a young boy. “Wow… You 7 year old boy memorized all the periodic table and knows how to do calculus! You should work with the government and become a scientist when you grow up!” This was what everyone would say to him. And just as what people said to Paul, as he grew up his dream was to become a scientist and make a better world where everyone would be happy. He was not only good at math, but could also speak 8 different languages very fluently. However, his family wasn’t wealthy enough to support his cleverness. His father was arrested by the government when he was very young. He couldn’t even remember from when he was separated with his family started to only live with his mother and his sister: it was probably about 7 years now. He later heard that his father was a politician and he was held in honor by lots of citizens. His mother expressed him by saying “He was that kind of a person. A man who would share even a small loaf of bread with the poor people.” The truth and honesty his father thought was the most important, and his mother told him that it was this that led him become a prisoner. When his father was working under the government, he was very close with the president, Mrs. Brigitte. Then one day when the secretary of the president was absent, he was given a order to send all the tax from the citizens to one of the top A.I. robot companies in the country instead of following the tax plan and the constitution. At first, he didn’t know what was going on so remained silent. However, as time passed he witnessed more things he felt was wrong. 16th of April on 2891, this was the historical day the whole country cried. A group of high school students were going to a trip to an island near the country by riding a big boat. Above them, there was a flying A.I. robot that were up in the sky for estimating the weather. 1 single weather robot was more that 1 ton which was bigger than the boat. The students inside the boat were laughing and giggling excited about their first and last trip as a student and were having a small party for themselves. It was at 10:15 in the morning when Paul’s sister that was in the boat started calling Paul. However, Paul was taking a shower at that time and couldn’t answer the phone. 30 minutes when he got out of the bathroom, he was drying his hair and saw his phone releasing red light which meant there were things to check. While he was drying his hair and drinking water, he checked the phone and realized there were lots of phone calls and messages left by his sister. “Did she arrive already? Why is she calling me… She is supposed to have fun with her friends now…” He stopped drinking his water and tried to put in on the table but he accidentally dropped it and the glass cup broke into pieces. A part of glass went into his skin and started to bleed. He called his mom but she didn’t reply. She must have been sleeping and he went out of the room and headed to the toilet to wipe off the blood. While he went out, his phone rang again. It was his sister. 10 minutes later when Paul wiped all of his blood and cleaned the glass pieces, he checked his phone. He could see the previous messages with his sister. Yesterday when she was sleeping he sent, “Have a nice trip sister! Don’t forget to buy something for me!” And she replied that night “Fine…!!! Thanks see you in 3 days!” And today the message that arrived was “I don’t think I can go back with your souvenir… I am so sorry and I will say this just in case it gets too late… I love you. Please also tell mom that I love her too.” Paul said, “Cute, trying to scare me. I am not going to be a fool this time.” Under the message, there was a photo of something he couldn’t recognize and he downloaded it and went to his gallery. It was an image of inside the boat that didn’t seem normal. The students inside were holding onto something because the boat was too slant. Paul suddenly realized that the text message might not be a joke and called her but she didn’t answer. He went to his mother’s room and woke her up. “Mom, mom. Wake up. Yeri, Yeri. I think there is something going on.” His mother woke up immediately and Paul showed her the message that she sent him. She started to cry and asked him to call his father right away. His father soon answered and asked why they called him. Paul asked his father if he got any messages and he said he would check and answer. A few seconds later, he called back and asked what was going on. “Dad, go to the education region inside the main building right away and find out what’s going on.” He said yes in a very desperate voice. Paul’s dad had received the exact same message with Paul and ran to the education region building but the door was closed. A father, who was now too worried to find out what would happen went to the president who was in the meeting room and told her that there seemed to be a problem in the boat the high school students were riding. She said, “Yes, I know. The big robot that is in charge of the weather just crushed due to an error in the program.” She didn’t even looked surprised. “We don’t have such money to save the students who are trapped in the boat so just announce that the government will send the rescue robots to save the students and the teachers.” “Excuse me? Mrs. Brigitte. My daughter is inside there. You cannot do that. Please… Save the children… I am begging you.” He knelt down on his knees and started crying. “I am sorry. There are no exceptions for anyone. Go ahead and tell the broadcast cast company that we sent saving robots. I have to go for another meeting.” and she passed by him to go to the meeting room but he grabbed her arm. “This is deceiving the citizens. I won’t do that. Save the people or I will tell everyone what you had done all this time.” She said, “All the fathers want to be left as heroes to their children. But they might accept it differently.” They stared at each other for a few seconds. Mrs. Brigitte picked a cigarette and put fire. “Go on, let’s see who wins at the end.” Then a man in black suit with sunglasses ran and came to Mrs. Brigitte and whispered something in her ears. Very strange, Paul’s father thought. The man’s face looked very similar to him. He tried to recall where he had seen him and he remembered. He was not only the doctor of the president but also Paul’s friend, Aldwin’s father. Aldwin and Paul had been friends from kindergarten as well as the same science academy. “Mr. Kwan, I didn’t know I would meet you here.” and he pulled out his hand for a handshake but the doctor just looked at it and rejected it. The doctor talked with the president for about 5 more minutes and went out of the room lowering his head to the president as a sign of obedience and and respect. The president said “My sister just passed away. I must go to the funeral. Call the emergency helicopter, right now.” Paul’s father said, “What about the boat and the robot that is in emergency right now?” “We don’t have time to save the citizens right now.” and she left. It was that day. Paul’s father recorded a video explaining what the government members were doing for the last few hours when children including his daughter were dying. He got arrested when the president came back 1 week later from the funeral and he was executed in public, in front of his wife and his son who was only 10 years old. Paul called his mom.“Mom, come on! We almost are almost there!! Paul climbed all the stairs first and gave his hand to his mother. She gave both of her hands to him relying just on him. Finally, she also climbed all the stairs and both of them started running toward the spaceships that were about to start. While Paul held her hand and ran, he could feel the rough hand with wrinkles that he never thought of. The wrinkles proved how much she has devoted herself for Paul who was too talented.

When Paul graduated WSA high school, he had to choose which university he should go to. Despite everyone’s guess, he said he would end his academical studies here and become a miner. There were 2 clear reasons why: His mother didn’t have enough money to pay his school expenses and he hated the government after his father was killed from them. He always thought his father did the right thing for everyone. Because his mother knew how talented he was and didn’t want him to give up his dreams, she decided to use anyway to send him to that school. Paul already had an IQ above 170, his mother called the Mr. Brigitte and begged him to accept her child. “Please… I will do anything. I will give you our robot. I will pay you back all the money after he just graduates… I want him to use his clever brain for the world.” The school president already knew that Paul was the son of the betrayer of his wife and therefore wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t tell his wife because he was sure she would never let him come into the school. Because Paul who was 1 year younger than the other students had the best score in WSA, not picking him would mean losing the most talented student they were looking for. The school president ended up having a meeting with the vice president of the school and they both agreed they should allow Paul to become a student without letting the president know. However, there was a deal. Paul’s mother would have to become the cleaning lady without getting paid. A cleaning lady was something that had disappeared more than 100 years ago. All of the robots would go around the whole school from 4 pm to 6 pm making everything absolutely clean. Becoming a cleaning lady meant that she was now controlled by the school and couldn’t be free out of them for her whole life. One day, when Paul was studying about the planet Kepler-186f as extra work, he went out of the room to take a walk. The entire school was asleep and he wanted to as well but couldn’t. He was too tired to keep focused but knew that the teachers would torture his mother if he didn’t do what they wanted. All of the lights for rooms except room 101 was off and he could hear someone screaming. A high tone of a woman’s voice and laughing of men. There weren’t a lot of girls in this school. No female students existed and there weren’t any professors doing research until this time before. Room 101 was the main office for Mr. Brigitte and Paul didn’t know if he should open the door to just pass by. Then he just opened it. Someone looked at him. His mother. She was lying down on a bed naked and the school president was in front of her in the nude as well. Not only him, but 4 more male teachers were surrounding his mom. “What are you doing to her?” Paul screamed at Mr.Brigitte. “Well, I just hit her a bit with my whip since she didn’t really look beautiful today.” “Paul… It’s nothing… Just get out of here…” She looked so weak for the first time in front of her son. “Are you raping my mother?” The president drank a cup of beer and said “No. How could I?” and he laughed. “Hey!” he shouted at her. “Go on your knees.” And he walked toward her and hit her with her whip. He kicked her with her feet and she fell down. “Get up.” “How dare you try to lure a man that has a wife?” He poured the alcohol he was drinking on her face and pulled her arm trying to make her stand. “Stand up, I said.” She tried to get up but fell down again. Paul was crying just as his mother was being raped but just looked what was going on without stopping. He wanted to kill himself. All he could do was pray to god he wouldn’t be her son in his next life. He looked at his mother’s body. It was filled with blood and bruises that proved this wasn’t the first time she had been tortured by them. Paul looked around the room trying to deny what was happening in front of him: his mother getting raped by the male teachers in the room and a son that remained silent in front of everything and to everyone. On his hand, he was holding the book “The little prince.” His bookmark fell from the page where it said “In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them, I shall be laughing.” Paul ignored what happened this day and studied harder obeying the professors and Mr. Brigitte. He wanted to believe if he studied harder, they would be nicer to his mother. However, they were not nice as Paul thought. Every night, he could hear his mother screaming in room 101 with the men laughing. This was why Paul had to take his mother to planet Kepler-186f. He was too guilty and sorry for living in silence not protecting her because Paul himself was scared as well. Paul ran as fast as he could still holding his mother’s hand on the left hand. He reached the rooftop and just 1 spaceship, his spaceship SS Andromeda was left. Mrs. Brigitte came out and said firmly, “She cannot go. There isn’t any space for the slaves. Get in. We lost track of the schedule because of you.” Paul felt antipathy against the government once more. All this time he tried not to hate them because he thought there might have been something he didn’t know which might make the whole story different. “Then what about the other people who are not from our school?” Paul pointed at Kayelin that he saw for the first time. “They paid the price.” “The price?” Paul opened his bag and threw all the money into the air. “We have money as well. Let my mother in.” “Sorry. She cannot go. What can you even buy with money now? There used to be the world when the richer one would be the winner. Now it’s not. The more clever one, the one who can survive more is necessary. And you, get in.” Paul looked at his mom. She was closing her eyes just as when his father was arrested. Tears came out of Paul’s eyes. Suddenly someone lifted Paul’s body and took him into the spaceship.“Let me down. Let me go.” he screamed and tried to go down but he couldn’t. As he screamed and shouted for his mother, she was crying and started to sing a song. “Paul, Paul my boy… I used to sing this to you when you couldn’t fall asleep. Now, I will sing it to myself.”

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere

With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey, hey

She acts like summer and walks like rain

Reminds me that there’s a time to change, hey, hey, hey

Since the return from her stay on the moon

She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey, hey

Hey, hey, hey But tell me, did you sail across the sun?

Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded

And that heaven is overrated?

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star–

One without a permanent scar?

And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

Now that she’s back from that soul vacation

Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey, hey

She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo

Reminds me that there’s room to grow, hey, hey, hey

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere

I’m afraid that she might think of me as plain ol’ Jane

Told a story about a man who was too afraid to fly so he never did land

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?

Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day

And head back to the Milky Way?

And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?

Was it everything you wanted to find?

And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken?

Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you’re wrong

Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, five-hour phone conversation?

The best soy latte that you ever had and me

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?

Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day

And head back toward the Milky Way?

And tell me, did you sail across the sun?

Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded

And that heaven is overrated?

And tell me, did you fall for a shooting star,

One without a permanent scar?

And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself?

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

And did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day?

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na

And did you fall for a shooting star, fall for a shooting star?

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na

And now you’re lonely looking for yourself out there.

When he opened his eyes again it wasn’t the morning like it used to be in the past. He was now already inside the spaceship and the door had been locked. “Mom” he screamed and tried to run to the windows but Mrs. Brigitte stopped him and made him sit. Regan shouted, “Everyone put on your seatbelts. We are getting away from earth. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” The spaceship pushed the ground powerfully and flew into space. As the spaceship pushed the ground, Paul’s mother was getting smaller and smaller. And soon when they were out of the earth, he couldn’t see her. “Mom…” “She paid the price Paul.” said the president. Paul was surprised for a second because it meant Mrs. Brigitte knew whom his father was. This time Jin announced, “Everyone, we are now in space. If you look at the right through the windows, you can see the earth slowly getting sucked into the black hole Cygnus X-1.” The spaceship stopped moving for a while and everyone got up and went to the windows to see how it looked like. There was a giant round black circle and it was sucking the earth in which made it look like the earth was moving towards it. It got closer to the hole then slowly, the perfect sphere shape of blue, green, white, brown changed into a form like liquid and was sucked in. Nothing was left. All the goods humanity have created wasn’t there anymore. Everyone knew that they had prepared for this but still couldn’t believe what they have just seen. Even Jin and Regan lost their minds and didn’t know what to do. Everyone just stared at the black hole slowly closing and moving to another universe. Mrs. Brigitte opened her mouth first. “Human beings were born on earth but they were meant to die somewhere else. Jin and Regan, we will head to the space station. We are going to have a meeting with the people in the other spaceships.” The spaceship started heating up again and the A.I. robot said: “It will take 3 hours to get to the space station.” There was absolute silence for 3 hours. Paul and Kayelin kept staring out the windows and Mrs. Brigitte was phoning Mr. Brigitte. After 3 hours, everyone in the spaceship could see they were almost there because of the giant flag of the government that was on top of the roof.

Kayelin thought she would see this flag again. This flag was the first thing the children had to memorize when they were 6 years old. They were tested on this on their 6th birthday and if they didn’t make it, they would be punished by the government which was officially legal. Those who passed memorizing got a small gift, a poster of the flag which could be hung in their own rooms. The flag had 4 colors which were white, black, red and yellow. The rectangle was half white and black. In the middle, there was a red cross. On top of the cross, there was a yellow pair of swords that was crossed by each other. The children not only had to know the flag but were tested on how to draw it. Not only in their rooms, but the flag was everywhere. It was even one of the basic law, ‘Flags have to be in every building, in a place people can see well.’ The children never knew why but they would always see adults praying in front of the flag. They didn’t ask why they were praying but just copied what they were doing. After that, they would put their hands together and close their eyes trying to think what they were supposed to think and this would happen whenever they saw flags. They never found out the true answer why people would always pray but assumed it was for the unity of the whole world. Later when they got older, they would pray without thinking and others would follow them as just as they did when they were young. Kayelin looked around and everyone in the spaceship was facing their body toward the windows where it was near the flag and were praying as they just did before. Even Mrs. Brigitte looked very serious praying and was muttering something very small and fast that others couldn’t even understand. A few minutes later, everyone in the spaceship opened their eyes and they were almost there. The spaceship was slowly preparing to land on the rooftop of the space station. The spaceship landed safe and everyone who was in the spaceship got off. They took off their helmets and hesitated in front of the main gate. All of the 4 students stood in a row and held their hands together tight and looked at each other. All of them nodded their heads as if they were trying to say everything would be all right. They took their first step then Mrs. Brigitte who just jumped out the door stopped them and she put on her black ray ban sunglasses even though it was dark. “Stop marching!” All the students stopped their steps and looked at her face. The black sunglasses was covering her face and the students could see their faces reflected on the lens. On her right lens, the whole shape of Kayelin and Jin was reflected and on the left lens while Regan and Paul were reflected on the left lens. She walked to where they were and broke the line by getting between Kayelin and Jin and walked at the very front of the line just as if she did everything by herself. Now Kayelin was holding Regan’s hand and Jin was holding Paul’s hand. Jin gave Mrs. Brigitte a hand but she refused it and started going down the stairs. Kayelin and Regan followed just behind her and Paul and Jin was walking behind them. Now they went through all the stairs from the rooftop to the door of the biggest room, the meeting room which was on the 4th floor. Regan said, “Remember, we are one team and will make this happen.” As they were standing in front of the meeting room door, 5 small A.I. robots that looked like a spider on the wall came down to where they were standing. Each of them started moving very fast and climbed on each person’s head. Students started screaming as soon as they saw this little thing getting inside their clothes and moving around. The students were jumping and shaking their body to make them fall off. Then they realized Mrs. Brigitte was the only person who was very calm and didn’t move at all. She said, “Calm down. They are checking if you are allowed to get in. It is trying to detect if there aren’t any harmful germs that can affect everyone here. It will also give needle shots except for Jin who has been here for the science experiment before. He already did it before and see, he is fine. It won’t be that painful, it is just trying to give the level of immunity you will need to stay out of the earth. It will also milk your own blood just to have a test on your health so do not panic. Those who move will get bitten by them so don’t move.” The students still looked scared but tried not to move while the little thing was going through their whole body. Kayelin was closing her eyes the whole time the robot started scanning her body. She was easily frightened by a lot of things including cameras and needles. Jin that could see this from her frowning face went up to her and held her hand. As soon as Jin touched her hand, Kayelin grabbed on it tighter. Kayelin’s hand was warm and soft. Then the robot climbed up and stayed for a while on her neck. Kayelin could feel that as well and she was about to cry but couldn’t because of what the adult said to her. It was pulling out its long needle to put the needle in her body. Jin looked at the robot carefully that was resting on Kayelin’s white neck and realized something wrong. He looked at it carefully and it had the 4 letters YOLN on the hard body. Before, when he came here he was never tested by a robot. His body did go over a robot for the purpose of a camera but it never went inside his body. He looked at Mrs. Brigitte trying to ask what was going on but she put her index finger on top of her lips, telling him to be quiet. Jin was now confused as much as the other students. Before he came here, he thought that everything would be just as he imagined but he realized something was stopping them. The needle was now sucking Kayelin’s blood and Jin was holding on her shoulders so that she wouldn’t move or fall down. Mrs. Brigitte then gave a hairy eyeball looking at Jin trying to protect her and Jin could feel her looking at him but he didn’t stop. He even whispered in her ears, “If something happens, I will stop it.” The metallic needle was quite thick and long as time went, as the small robots sucked more blood it turned into red. After they sucked all the blood in, now a black liquid was going in her body from the robots and this could be seen outside since the needle was a little transparent. After a few minutes later, the robot turned perfectly red and put its needle back into the body quickly and climbed back to the wall it was before and disappeared into the dark shadow. All of the 3 students opened their eyes and the metal gate opened slowly making a loud noise. As the door opened more, the students were trying to look inside the room and the first thing they could see through the little gap from the floor was the flag of the government that was flapping inside.