One Visitor

Prologue

He slowly floated through the compressed air. Of the few noises, seemingly
only out of science fiction movies, he heard none, lost in thought as he was. There seemed to be too many things on his mind, yet not enough, for he thought of everything he had ever known, which was now all gone. He had let his body drift, float through the air, for a while now, his breathing being the only sign he was even still alive, and even that was subdued. One of the windows was still damp and smeared from where he had pounded on it, tears coming from his eyes, what seemed like years ago…

He pulled into the driveway, late into the afternoon. He smiled, seeing his wife and daughters
waiting on the porch for him. He was barely able to get out before his daughters were already to him, pure joy written on their faces as they eagerly told him about their first day at school. He did his best to pass out responses to them when he could until his wife finally called them all in for dinner. Life was great, the bills were paid, and he was a lucky man.

A slight bump against one of the walls was what brought him out of his memory.
He looked around, and once again was he drowned in despair, loss, grief. As much as they had already, more tears came to his eyes once again, threatening to leave them. He tried to clench his eyes shut, but as many tears were let out as were kept in. They seemed like the only thing he had left to lose, now.

He clinked his glass against the others’, saying, “Cheers!” with them, and taking a sip afterwards.
They had made much progress on the escape pod, and were getting very close to finally finishing it, granting themselves the large pay the government had offered for it. It would be the last resort of the world, should a large crisis ever happen, a last hope for humanity.

Over the little noises there were, another emerged, slightly yet noticeably louder
than the others. A little light streamed through the window, some of it distorted by the tears that had remained on it. He just tried to block the noise out just like all the others, balling up into a fetal position, trying to stay inside his own greater memories…

He could still hear the siren blaring. Someone had a TV they usually had out in the visitors’ room, and they turned it on as it started to display a message:

“We interrupt our programming; This is a national emergency. The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States government. This is not a test. A nuclear attack is occurring against the United States. One hundred eighty nine nuclear missiles have been launched from unknown locations, and are expected to strike the United States within the next two hours. Due to the uncertain tracks of these missiles, all residents of the United States should seek out, and prepare to take shelter immediately-”

“Stand by for a message from the president of the United States…”

The president started giving a speech after that, but only once he had stopped listening.
He was too busy thinking, wondering about his family, what he was going to do, and he knew he had to think fast. His co-workers had been talking about how chaos had taken over, there had been widespread looting, and that the United States wasn’t the only one that had to worry. A seemingly invisible barrier or line between all the countries had finally broken, after years and years of pressure slowly being pushed on it.

He started to panic, more and more, nearly hyperventilating. His life had been going so well, him being the leader of such an expensive project, he would have been a multi-millionaire afterwards… until this happened… He found himself unable to grasp the fact that it was all over, that he was going to die, yet the sentence kept repeating itself in his mind. He finally couldn’t take it anymore, it being shouted throughout himself. He got up and headed for the project chamber.

The beeping had stopped, being replaced with a louder, lower pitched hum, knocking his concentration off. He put his hands over his ears, as if it was the very voice that shouted throughout his mind that he was going to die…

He strapped himself into the seat in the pod, looking over the layout of levers and
buttons he had mostly designed. He knew exactly what to do, and started pressing and pulling them. A robotic voice finally said, “Lifting off in 5… 4…” He thought over what he was doing , feeling suddenly somewhat.. empty… “3… 2…” But it was only then that he was able to remember. “1…” His family. He looked out the window beside him, screaming the word, “NO!” but he couldn’t even hear himself saying it once the engines were activated. The chamber above quickly opened, as he was thrust straight through the air and sky. He frantically pounded on the window beside him, tears streaming from his eyes.

It was too late, though. Once he was finally up in space, the tears on his face old by then, he slowly unbuckled, his face up to the window. He looked back down at Earth, at where he came from. There was a small, slight movement he saw, then what looked like a miniscule cloud…

He realized it was an explosion.

“Life forms detected,” said a robotic voice. He jerked his head up, still for a moment.
He pushed off of a wall over to the seat. “Recalculating trajectory…” said the voice. He could feel subtle changes in the movement of the pod. Then was when he got his first look out the window since earlier. He saw a sun, seeming much more beautiful, younger, than the one he had once been used to. It felt as if he could even just look at it without hurting his eyes. As he looked more, he noticed one planet, off a distance away from the sun, in the way the pod was headed. Life forms…. He thought, wondering what was in store.

He watched the planet, which looked strictly made out of the brightest of colors, as the pod slowly approached it...