WHERE IS ELYSIUM?

Chapter one

"Where is Elysium?" Her head moved slowly from one end to another, the ship was completely wrecked, she could vividly hear screams of her comrades. What was I thinking? How could I, just a mere scientist, heh! Scratch that, just a mere mortal be the one to lead humanity into Salvation? Now that I have seen how harsh outer space is, maybe Earth won't be that bad after all... yes! That's right, Humanity is for Earth as Earth is for humanity, who are we to go against the natural order of the cosmos? Come to..."

"Dr. Mala! DR. MALA!" He shouted. The young man hastily made his way to where Doctor Mala was lying and gingerly helped her up, her abdomen deeply lacerated, had stained her garments.

"What is it that, Cisco?" she asked.

He took off the shirt he was wearing and ripped it in half. He then wrapped it around her, ever so careful to not cause her any more pain.

"I'm so glad you're still alive," he said as he embraced her tightly, shedding a single tear from his right eye. "With you alive, there is still hope! We can still do it, right, doctor? We can still find Elysium. However, we need to get you healed up quickly, and we need to escape before they come back."

"No," she said.

"Dr. Mala, what do you mean?"

"You can leave me here, Cisco, go do whatever you want from now."

"B...but doctor, you can't just say that, you are the savior of humanity! If you give up, then what are the rest of the disappeared to do? We've already lost too many lives, or impact land, now you want to give up too? Do you not feel any guilt, doctor? I won't let you, I won't!" He edged forward, his mouth came closer, and his gaze tightened, his eyes unwavering on Doctor Mala's image.

"Tell me, Cisco, do you think we deserve to live? Do you think humanity deserves a second chance? I have always disliked the disingenuity of people from the moment we are born; we struggle to get to the top, never minding who we have to step on to get there, we lie, we corrupt, we kill, we seduce—never once feeling any contrition," she paused momentarily as she coughed, "some of us truly are good. Nonetheless, the bad of humanity far outweighs the good. We have lived that way for millennia, and finally, when our home was about to die out, we fled. Perhaps this is retribution inflicted on us by the universe itself for our actions."

The scratching of metal could be heard. Cisco's gaze shifted as he looked at the dark corridor. The sound was getting louder. His heart palpated vehemently as he prepared for the inevitable.

The creature emerged from the corridor, barely making it through the eight-foot ceiling. It stood tall on its two furry legs as its arms grabbed onto a gun-like object. One of its antlers had broken off.

"CREATURES FROM XHALOM!" Its guttural voice reverberated across the entire ship, slowly its arms raised and pointed the nozzle at the humans.

Cisco hurriedly stood up and charged at it. "This is not it. We do not end here," he thought as he rushed towards it.

"CISCO..."

*****

"The moons sure does look beautiful tonight, don't they, Alegna?" he asked.

"I couldn't agree more, Namor."

The desert wind blew strongly as the two turned their gaze to the distant sky. They sat on the sand as they always had. The sand dunes of Desertia were tall and permanent, the shortest one at least a hundred feet high. They spanned across the entire zone of Desertia.

"I can't wait to start working." Her eyes widened, and her face lit up. "I will work very hard, and slowly, I'll get promoted until I become an Upper Class Deserath. Then I—" she said ecstatically before being interrupted.