The Stolen

Chapter 1

SONG OF THE CHAPTER: The Final Countdown by Europe

  “Is the ship ready?” the tall man asked.

  “It is.” the old man answered. “Do we really have to do this?”

  “Of course we do!” the woman standing next to them shouted. “If we don’t do this, it will be the end of the human race.” She closed her eyes “The ship must leave.”

  Some of the people in the ship started biting their nails. They all looked really scared. I wasn’t, I just felt a little nervous, but also curious: what would my new life be like?

  The old man put his trembling finger on the red button. He didn’t press it, not yet, not just yet. He just stood there, biting his lip. I could hear every single one of the people in the ship breathing in and out, in and out.

  “Press the button!” the woman screamed, not being patient at all. “The ship must leave!”

  “Fine” the old man muttered. “Goodbye, Opportunity”

  Opportunity was the name of the ship. The trainer had told me that it was because the ship itself was the opportunity the human race had to survive.

  It sounded pretty dramatic said like that, it was simply an escape pod for five hundred people or so.

  The trainer had a forced smile while saying that. Of course, the trainer didn’t leave the Earth on the ship. Her duty was just to teach me what I should do when I was finally on the ship, but she would stay on the planet and die there.

  Suddenly I felt an earthquake. My first instinct was to get out of the ship and protect myself somehow, but the seatbelt stopped me. I didn’t have to protect myself, it wasn’t an earthquake.

  The old man had pressed the button.

  When a feminine voice started counting down from ten, I started regretting everything. I wanted to get out of the ship, stay on Earth, even if it meant dying.

  It was too late.

  Opportunity started going up, and I held on to my seat, closing my eyes so hard it hurt.

  I was one of the youngest people in the ship, I was just nine years old. I was brave though, I didn’t know fear. But just because, since I was a baby, my parents had taught me that there was nothing in the world that could hurt me if I believed it couldn’t.

  When I was five, I got a tattoo of a four-leaved clover on my hand. My parents told me it would bring me good luck. I wasn’t afraid of the needle that was used for the tattoo. I wasn’t afraid of anything at all.

  Since then, my clover reminds me that everything will always be fine for me, because my own hand is my good luck charm.

  That’s what it’s supposed to remind me, because now I know that, in space, surviving is not a matter of good luck. Our society has to survive working hard. If we don’t, the odds of making it aren’t big.

  Anyway, Opportunity kept going until we were out of the atmosphere. Then the motors stopped and a big screen appeared out of nowhere. Everyone stared at it and a smiling man started talking.

  “Congratulations to everybody on board of Opportunity” the smiling man said. “We have reached our goal: we are now getting away from the Earth so its explosion won’t hit us. The explosion will happen someday next week. At least, that’s what our experts think will happen.”

  Everyone clapped and smiled. For me, it just didn’t feel right, clapping because I had escaped a place but left at least eight billion people to die. So I didn’t clap.

  “During the explosion, we don’t know exactly what will happen, but we expect lava flowing out of every single volcano, massive earthquakes… It will be terrible. But do not fear for the people back in the Earth. A poison will be distributed to every person moments before the explosion goes off. They won’t feel pain, and they won’t see anything.”

   I blinked. His smile didn’t wash off his face. He was talking about a big suicidal event with that awful smile. Made me sick, everyone choosing to die like that. But well, the alternative was even worse.

A/N: Heyyyy!

Serenity here. I've decided to do the Song of the Chapter thingy, tell me if you want me to do more! I'll do more for the next chapters, kay?.

I don't know if you can see the banner I designed for the book properly, can someone tell me? I'm new on Wattpad and I'm having problems understanding everything.

Also I picked a cast for the story. I know you still don't know who Emma is, but you'll find out soon, don't worry.

Thanks for reading! Ily!