A New Horizon | Teen Ink

A New Horizon

September 21, 2023
By Anonymous

Author's note:

I am not a huge fan of fiction, but I love non fiction and this is one of the stories I've written that I actually like.

The author's comments:

No thanks

A loud yelling summons a young girl to her employer. “Fix this” he snapped while pointing to one of the many gas bags in the bulk of the airship, “it's leaking, the air pressure is too high,” he said. She complies, working diligently, she gets it done within a matter of minutes, then anxiously looks up at the man, waiting for new instructions. He ignores her, the usual behavior of the men of The Orion. The girl was tired, she'd been up since 4 a.m., and only went to bed at 23:00 last night, her little brother, Nico, was crying half the time so even the sleep she got was terrible. She sits down on a storage bin while the man talks with another man over the intercom, she starts staring, and she can feel her exhaustion everywhere in her body.

 “SAM GUERRERO!” the man bellows. Sam jumps up, seeming to have dosed off while her boss is talking to the higher-ups. “Yes Mr. Nills?” she says obediently. “I need you to go down to the engine room and help Officer Hale with the fans, they’re spinning irregularly,” says Mr. Nills bitterly. “Yes Sir” she affirms. Hurriedly, she makes her way down to the engine room, being careful not to bump into anyone, Orion knows they don't respect children here, especially girls. As she makes her way down she sees a team of scavengers getting ready to leave- she can't help but look at them in awe and jealousy. If she had that kind of status, she could have anything she ever wanted. GONG “Dang” she mutters, that's the clock, it's now 16:00, That's when she was supposed to be down in the engine room. She runs, speeding down the stairs and ladders through the airship. She arrives, only 2 minutes late. 

“Miss Guerrero” an unfamiliar voice says. “Sorry Officer Hale, I tried to come as fast as I could”, Sam says sorrily. Officer Hale turns around to face Sam, and he smiles- “it’s all right! Now, how do you think we fix this?” he says, happily, almost as if it’s a test. Sam looks at the man, the smile still on his face, it's almost creepy how real and comforting the smile is, almost like her mother's. She looks at the fan, it keeps stopping, going, and slowing at random times- she's not sure. “May I turn it off sir?” she asks. “Sure, whatever you need!” he replies. She turns off the fan, it's a pale grey color, but as it slows to a stop she catches a glimpse of deep transparent green, clothing? She wonders. The fan stops, and she examines the fan fuel storage, it's leaking- green, it smells, like- she can't place it. She looks around the rest of the fan, the control panel, and the blades, but the fuel can't leave her mind. She thinks back trying to remember that smell- she has smelt it before. Hale walks slightly further away, less hovering than before, he has to talk to another officer. That's when it comes to her- it's Gasoline, why it's green, she has no idea. The Orion has been telling their people that Gasoline use was stopped in the 2040s. Are they lying? “Hale?” she asks “Yeah Kid?” he responds, “This is Gasoline, didn't we stop using that?” she says. 

Orion he mutters, “Follow me” he says, the smile has disappeared from his face, leaving an emotionless expression as he leads Sam to the Control room of the airship. They reach the area, “So, what do you want? Well, give you anything, as long as you don't tell anyone.” Says one of the Men in the room. “You're Bribing me??” Sam asks, the tone of her voice, quite sassy. “Look,” says the man, “We have a fuel shortage, we're figuring it out but we need you to keep quiet,” he says. “Put me On the Scavenge team,” she says assertively “I'm sorry??” he says confused, “You could die, it's very dangerous down on earth-”. BOOM a large crash- “FOR ORIONS SAKE” yells Hale. it's the Utopia, they decided 17:37 on a Wednesday is the day to attack The Orion.  The ship is rocking, moving recklessly around in the sky, “Meet us at the loading dock in 3 minutes, or you left behind,” says one of the other men to Sam. Nico- Sam thinks, she has to go get Nico-, She runs, faster than she could ever imagine herself running, CRASH, BANG the ship tilts, she falls, an older woman helps her back to her feet, she keeps running, She sees her room. Nicos Cradle, She can see it- she grabs a blanket, wraps him up in it, and looks at her watch, it's 17:39, and she has 1 minute before she's dead. She runs, somehow faster than before, this time with a baby, the loading doc, it is so close, she going as fast as possible, “SAM” Hale yells, She is only 50 feet away from the dock, Hale has a suit ready for her, the gas mask and everything. 

She makes it, and she looks at her watch 17:41. Hale hands her the suit, he sees the baby and grabs an additional mask, and suit, sam puts her suit on, and as it conforms to her body she puts Nicos on, they have a strange ability to shrink and conform to the body of their user. The mask doesn't fit Nico though. She urgently searches for another. Hale hands her one, and a parachute. Holy- she thinks, she doing this- a Woman- on the scavenge team- Sort of.  She throws her parachute on, and Men start jumping off the loading dock, “Once you ready, jump off, pull it around when I pull mine” Hale says, He is talking about the parachute. Sam finds a harness, she uses the straps to attach Nico to her, she holds on tight to Nico with her right hand, the left at the ready to pull the parachute. Hale Jumps off. She walks up to the edge. You can do this she thinks to herself. BOOM the ship tilts- she is dumped off the ship- she spirals through the air. She's screams- she sees the ship above her, she's alright now, moving around less, she can see Hale, he deploys his parachute- 3, 2, 1 she thinks, and she pulls the strap. She's safe- She's okay.

The author's comments:

no

Two Months later…

The Scavenge team is stable, they have been on earth for a little, its the most amazing thing Sam has ever seen- Orion always said that the earth was barren and dry, how very wrong they were. It's beautiful and green, and luscious. They've been trying to find contact with an Orion ship but no attempts have succeeded. Sam just wants to go off on her own- she has learned all the ways to gather food safely, eat, and stay out of nature's way. Why weren't their ancestors happy enough with this? It's unexplainable how much she wants to just run away from her group, find others, and make a life for herself. Within the past 2 months Sam has figured out many things- but most importantly, The air, isn't toxic, and you won’t die- the Orion had lied to them to keep them in Line, and somehow, the men still want to go back. She's running away tonight. She wants Hale to come with her, he has become an older brother to her. Like the father she barely had, “Hale-” she says “Yeah kid?” he responds, the two are walking further back in the group, “would you ever want to run away? Like, go off, make a life for yourself on earth?” she asks “I don't think I could- the Orion means too much to me- I couldn't.” he says. They both go silent, Sam will be running away alone tonight.

Its 23:30, there all asleep, Sam packs up her stuff silently, grabs some rations, leaves a note, and is careful not to wake Nico. As she walks away from the camp it hits her. She's free. Free from society, from the misogyny of men, the stupid expectations, and the economy. Shefinds a nice valley about 7 miles away, a different direction than the scavengers were going. She sits down and the sun begins to rise- It is so beautiful, probably the prettiest thing she's seen in her life. It's March 13th, 2178. As the sun rises she sees an airship in the sky, one of the Utopias, in the other direction, an Orion ship. More ships start lining up on either side of the sun- the battle that is approaching will be detrimental. She counts 32 Orion ships, and 55 Utopia ships. Cannons at the ready. It's 5:00, the ships begin. Sam watches the sunrise, as the ships battle for stupid reasons, they don't realize what they could have had if they didn't listen to the propaganda, and lies they've been told. She almost begins to feel bad for the two companies, but she thinks back. They never treated her or anyone with the respect they deserved. Why had she ever wanted to trust this company? Why did she want to be a part of it? The ships continue to battle, gorgeous explosions going off in the sky, and almost no ships are left intact. The largest ship on the utopia side blows up. It falls, and the others follow one after another. They land on the earth, they make the earth shake- Sam sees a large wave of fire on the horizon, at this point she’s okay with giving up, She's seen the most beautiful things in the world, precisely what the ships hid from them. The wave of flames gets closer, and closer and closer. She catches a glimpse of the amber sky. Beautiful.



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