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Torn Into Pieces

The dark blue cover read, “The Trial.” He opened the book and began to read. It is

August 24, 2038, today marks one week before we leave for Mars. We have been in training for

the past 6 months, however, training is not like what one would expect.

Over the past 6 months, we’ve been given the opportunity to get to know one another, you know,

considering, the fact that we will be living on Mars together for the next 10 years. There are two

of us who are going during Launch A, and the other two will be leaving during Launch B. I’m

Alyvia, I’m the head of the group. I run the communication and technology portion of things. I

am a writer, a journalist, and an activist. I will be a part of Launch A, along with me is a woman

named Joslyn. She is in her early 20’s, and she is very smart. She is probably the smartest out of

the group.

In Launch B, there are two guys, one named Matt and the other, Zach. Matt is in his early

30’s and Zach is in his late 20’s. I haven’t really learned much about the guys as I have Joslyn,

mainly because of our opposite schedules. The guys train at night and we train during the day.

Surprisingly enough, I went to the same middle and high school as Zach. We never actually

knew each other, but, we were friends with the same people at one point during our freshman

year.

“All members of team A, line up for training.” says Sergeant Brown.

It’s time for training now, gotta blast, literally haha.

•••

The date is, Tuesday, August 31, Today is the day we leave for our Journey. It turns out,

Launch A and B are combined, just a part of different missions once we reach Mars. There are

two main shuttles and 2 sub shuttles. The shuttles will remain on Mars and will be used for our
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journey back after ten years. I am a little bit nervous, as I will be leaving behind family and

friends, but I am excited for what is to come. Okay, I have to sign off until we reach Mars, talk

then!

•••

I tossed and turned the first night, I kept thinking about my blog post. I had never lied

before in a blog post. The government is going through so much right now, and they don’t need

to know every intricacy of our mission. All four of us have blogs that we have to write updates

on. Joslyn and I had a very hard time lying to our families about what the “Journey” entailed.

The boys, on the other hand, they found it fairly easy, because they told themselves, “It is for the

greater good, they will be protected this way.” I hate that though. What the crew doesn’t know, is

that Zach and I left two kids behind. Our parents never knew we were together, nor did they

know we had kids. So, I guess lying isn’t always bad. No one really knows about our

relationship. We met after college, and we instantly fell face first. That may sound a little wonky,

but we seriously were so in awe of each other, that we have a little inside joke about how Zach

face planted on his way to bring me flowers after our second date. When we were finally ready

to make our relationship known to our families, there were too many things going on in the

World, so we just kept it between the two of us. A year went by, and the things around us only

got worse. When Zach and I were younger, we were both interested in all things science and

space-related. We both signed up for this mission with specific intentions, however, we did not

know when the time would come where we had to leave. To our surprise, we ended up leaving 2

weeks after I found out I was pregnant… again. I already had two babies who the government

had taken and used for experiments, and I wasn’t going to live through that again, so I hid my

pregnancy. I’m 7 months along, and only Zach and I know. Let’s just say Mars isn’t as
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“experimental” as they make it sound. Nasa ended up finding out I was pregnant, and they

provided us with the support I would need to raise a child on Mars. They were super chill about

my pregnancy, and they were very helpful during the journey.

•••

There is already civilization on Mars. Matt and I have been on Mars for 6 months. The 6

months we had to lie about “training” for Mars, is really how long it took to get here. Nasa is not

the company everyone makes them out to be. They’re way more equipped and intelligent than

they’re portrayed as. When we arrived on Mars, we were shocked to see it look completely

different from the pictures on the internet. It’s not just rocks and more rocks. There is actually a

community of people that live on Mars. Mars is so quiet, you could scream and everyone within

a 25-mile radius would hear. I definitely had to adapt to talking less loudly, Zach on the other

hand caught on very quickly. I’ve seen people that the world has classified as missing persons

here, people that are classified as dead, and even people who aren’t in the government’s system.

The sky is a tinted red and orange color all throughout the day. There is no night, so time doesn’t

exist on Mars as it does on Earth. Also, the area we live in is called a Suplex. It is a regulated

domain, that filters out the bad toxic things in the atmosphere, and replaces them with oxygen.

When we first arrived, it was like walking into the unknown, literally.

•••

As far as our blogs go, we wrote them while we were in the shuttle for several months. I

wrote enough for a year and a half of blog posts. Being in a shuttle for so long definitely can

spark a ton of ideas, because it is a guarantee that you will be bored after the first month of

traveling, especially if you’re pregnant.

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All four crew members have specific missions that we must complete and report back to

Nasa securely. My mission is to try and improve the efficiency of communication between Mars

and Earth. As time has gone by, Zach and I have grown closer to our neighbors, Matt and Alyvia.

We came after they did. They’ve been here for around a year, however, they have doppelgangers

on Earth that learned their ways and studied with them for a year before they left. They learned

their personalities and habits, and have been portraying them ever since they left for Mars. It

sounded crazy when I first learned that they have doppelgangers. But, nothing seems crazy once

you reach Mars. I wonder why Nasa didn’t find us doppelgangers, I guess we weren’t important

enough haha.

•••

Zach and I live in a fairly large home, we have 27 rooms in our home. Each room serves

a different purpose. We have 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 offices, 2 gyms, 4 living rooms, 1

indoor pool, 2 outdoor pools, 4 rooms solely for communication with Nasa, and lastly 2 safe

rooms in case of an attack. Back home, this house would cost a fortune, but luckily the money

system on Mars is very simplistic and equally distributed between citizens. Each person has a

fair opportunity, which is very beneficial to the liveliness of the population.

•••

Even though we had to lie to get here, I’m glad we did. We did what was best for our

family. Mars is the best place to raise a child. There is no crime, no violence, and there are plenty

of kids in the community for our children to grow up with. We are planning to have more kids in

the future, but luckily the cost to raise a child is relatively nothing on Mars. We learned that very

quickly after I gave birth to our son, Levi. On Mars, giving birth is a huge deal. All the neighbors

gather for support, and the baby showers are immaculate. I received everything I needed for our
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son. The money system is a little wonky, however, I didn’t even have to bother spending any

money, because so many people were kind enough to buy things for our son. Our son has been so

spoiled, it is insane. We had so much stuff, that he could have whatever he wanted, whenever he

wanted it. He will grow up to be such a sweetheart though.

•••

Escaping the government and living on Mars, has been a journey. You would think, one

wouldn’t want to travel outside of what they’ve always known as home, but Zach and I wanted a

better life, and we were tired of being taken advantage of by the government. We were living like

we were impoverished because the government demolished our money system. We had to report

to the government like a person in prison had to report to their cells. The news became

unreliable, as well as books. Libraries began to shut down, and everything became digital. The

world looked to be coming to its ruin. People began to flee to islands and all around the world

were secret safe houses, only accessible through a new form of internet. Only the highly

intelligent were able to decode the messages that were sent through email. Technology was

advancing faster than ever before, and as it advanced, the government grew unable to control and

decipher a majority of the thoroughly encrypted messages sent between nonregulated internet

servers. Before Zach and I left for our trip, we got in contact with a virtual lawyer, to see if we

could regain custody of our two children. The process would’ve been long and hard if we went

through the government’s typical process of obtaining custody again. I arranged a deal with

Nasa, if I vowed to use my blog to document my journey to Mars, I would be allowed to have

custody of both of my children. Unfortunately, they told me they wouldn’t be able to send my

kids to Mars until I reached Mars. So, the first thing I did when I reached Mars was communicate

my arrival to Nasa. I signed a contract that stated in the event, my children pass away during the
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journey to Mars they would not be liable. Reluctantly, I took the risk and signed the documents.

It was the worst thing a mother could ever have to do, however, it was also the only logical

option. The conditions back home were not fit for raising children. I probably wouldn’t have

even had custody of my children if I was back home. The contract I signed also gave Nasa

control of my social media posts as well as any other forms of communication. I never did ask

what would happen if I didn’t honor my contract, I guess I didn’t want to find out. Back home I

was a journalist and well-known activist, so when I found out I had to lie about the details of the

trip, I wasn’t too thrilled because I always promoted honesty and truth within my blogs. I was

never a liar, but I did what needed to be done for my kids.

No one said it was going to be easy. Adjusting to life on Mars has been hard on my

family, but we’re all here. My two kids made it safely, and it took less time than they had told us

because it turns out my children left for Mars a month after Zach and I did. They’ve made

friends with Matt and Joslyn’s kids as well as other kids around the neighborhood. I hope that

life on Mars is like how things were during my parents’ childhood. I hope things will be like how

those who lived in the early 2000s were. Life back then was free. I’ll be signing off permanently

now. I’ve completed all of my blog entries, and I don’t want to waste another second writing in

my journal. I have my family now, and they’re all I need.

•••

“If anyone ever finds this book, long after I’ve passed, just know it wasn’t all that bad, it was

worth it.” The young boy smiled as he read the last line of the book.

He ran home, with his book in hand, and asked, “Grandma do you remember anything about

Planet Earth?”
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She snatched the book out of the boy’s hand and sent him off to play with his friends, as she

began to rip the second forbidden book of knowledge to pieces.