Return to Earth
Near the end of World War III, in the year 2147, half of the world had been annihilated. Almost the entire South American continent had been nuked, plus part of Asia. Later in 2209, there was an incident where the Koreans bombed traitors of North Korea next to the Mexican border hitting the U.S. security house. The U.S. retaliated and fired back at Korea, starting the Continental War of 2209. During the war, nuclear weapons were released from all sides, and as these bombs skimmed the borders of neighboring countries, they got involved. It was just like a virus, it spread outward and everything was going downhill. As countries finally found some common sense, but by that time it was already too late to restore everything that had been damaged. However, the Cape of Good Hope was untouched, and there the world’s top scientists discovered a planet, called Xernon, that could sustain life. They said that luckily ten years before, they figured out the solution to hyper speed in order to get to Xernon that is located 1,786,508,907 kilometers away.
Approximately one million people went to Xernon. When they got there everyone had to learn to live together and forget their past troubles with each other. The remnants of the old governments got together and designed a new way of government that involved faction like communities. There was one community that worked on agriculture to feed everyone else, and then there is a technology and educational learning community that made everything easier for all of the other communities, last but definitely not the least important, the military, this community focused on defense from the planets predators and construction of many buildings and fences. Also the military, once every decade would have two volunteers or a father and son selected to go back to earth with food supply, technology to take tests on how ready the earth is for inhabitants again, and weapons to defend themselves. This is where the real story begins.
“Now James, calm down. If we are chosen it will be alright. I’m pretty sure that we won’t, but if we do it’s only going to be a year.” John told his son James.
“I know Dad, but what if we do, I don’t think I’m ready for it. We have been training and everything but I don’t know how to use the tools.”
“Look, you just turned old enough to go, 15, right? Yes, so just chill out. Plus they let us train with the tools for a week before we leave so we have plenty of time to figure everything out. Also you don’t even know that we will be the chosen ones. Now lets go before we’re late.” He chuckles and then walks out the door and James follows.
They arrive at the arena and take their seats while Mr. Buford does all of the introductions telling everyone why they must send people on the voyage. James tunes out thinking of all of the hunting strategies that he’s learned over the years. Then he zones back to reality when he catches Buford saying “… and now for the moment we have all been waiting for; Shelly, time to choose the names.” What seems like years pass for James as Shelly slowly and delicately puts her hand in the bowl of names, rummages around a bit, and then James jumps when she snatches one of the papers out of the bowl. She opens it, pauses to read it…, then walks over to the microphone, and pronounces the two names on the paper:
“John and James Morrison.”
James is astonished and turns cold with nervousness. John solemnly says “Let’s go.” He gets up and starts walking. James numbly follows him to the stage where they will be briefed on what to do and how to do it. They will also be given an itinerary and a study book of all of the plants and animals that have survived and are living on earth that have been recorded from the past voyages.
A week later, John and James begin to board and check off the list of what is supposed to be on the spaceship. A man walks up to them and says “Alright don’t forget the ship is on autopilot, the only time you are