Pale Blue Dot

• Callum Davy, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2015

My back aches, my feet are blistered, and I’m faint from dehydration. But I can finally see the front of the line. It’s not what I expected – the difference from what they aired on television is shocking. What may have once been a towering, spotless steel gate, is now stained with the smog of the poisoned atmosphere, and the marks of thousands passing through it each day. Watchful guards stand to each side, weapons in their hands and strapped across their backs. And now that I’m here, I’m more nervous than ever. For every step I take a new doubt is shunted to the front of my mind: They won’t let me enter. I left it too late. They’re going to be full. As much as I try to ignore them, the worries crowd my mind as much as the hundreds of people around me do.

Despite my doubts, I don’t regret the time I spent outside; savoring what little time anyone had left instead of sitting in some processing facility. I tell myself that, even if I don’t get inside, that time alone will have been worth it. But I still find it impossible to distract myself from my gnawing fears, and desperately I find myself remembering how these events began.

When the announcements were first aired on television, the reaction was not what you would expect. Panic and hysteria were definitely emotions that were felt, but the overwhelming feeling was one of disbelief. People simply couldn’t process the reality of the situation. We had finally gone too far – our world was dying, and we had killed it. We were, for once, struck silent. It didn’t even phase people when the consequences of what we had done began physically manifesting. The thin atmosphere, which allowed us our perpetually starlit sky, meant it was easy to see when it was consumed by large, violent clouds of purple and orange. Natural disasters began occurring at an almost mechanical rate, and wildlife began abandoning us as fast as they could, to whatever hole might keep them safe. Plant life, genetically modified as it was, lasted the longest, but it soon disappeared too – and our planet was devoid of all life forms save our own. It was then they began mass evacuation. The last desperate attempt to ensure our survival.

Really, I’m a coward, remembering the events of the past instead of facing reality. But it worked – I’m finally at the gate. I hand my papers to a guard, who lets me pass after a methodical inspection. I walk into the facility. The crowd doesn’t even bother to protest as the guards follow, closing the gate. I board the ship and lie down in a pod as a rumbling noise starts from somewhere deep below me, and we are fleeing.

As cryogenic air slows my heartbeat, I look out of the porthole next to me.

At Earth. Already so far away. A pale blue dot.

And I think, ‘We should have stopped it’.