Sarah Hirschi 5th hour English Mrs.

Shahin February 24, 2012

Memories

We run as fast as we can, but they run faster. We shoot as accurately as we can, but they shoot better. We are one against an unknown number. We are the only hope of our air-soft team. * * * Laughter fills the air at the annual family reunion. The traditional pie-eating contest has begun, and the sight is hilarious to behold: adults, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins alike show pie in their faces. The clock is ticking, and we are racing. * * * We are sitting on a couch. A movie is playing, and we are sitting close to a boy. Very close. And we like it. The touch of his hand and the warmth of his body next to ours make us happy. * * * These memories are not mine. I think to myself. The memories dont belong to me. They belong to two people. Which is not scientifically possible. Two people in one body, sharing memories? But then again, I dont remember anything. My name, who I am, where I come from, all of those memories are gone. The only memories I have are those of two people. Of course, I think, it was a dream. I realize that I cant move at all. Not even to open my eyes.

* * * Sir? Its awake. We think it may be a female. A young doctor is speaking. He has strange features: six eyes on his head, seven arms, and green skin. Is it? Excellent. A sinister figure rises out of the dark corner, as slowly as a cat waking from a nap. And it is in good health? Y-yes sir. The doctor stammered, and gasped as the figures face came into view. The men think it m-may be h-human, sir. What! The scarred face was monstrous to behold. A human?! The doctor gulped, breathed deeply and opened his mouth to answer, but it was too late. His scream echoed loudly through the building, lasting for several minutes. * * * I can open my eyes now. But all that I can see is a white ceiling. My body seems to be slowly coming to life again. From what I can tell with my limited senses, Im strapped down to some sort of hospital bed. Soft beeping noises, presumably from machines monitoring my condition, fill the air like the hum of a bee: somewhat comforting, and somewhat infuriating. Somewhere, a scream sounds, and lasts for a few minutes. As it echoes through the building, a curiosity is wakened in me. Who am I? Where am I? Were those memories, or a dream? Why am I here? * * * So. The last remaining human. My eyes fly open, and I immediately close my eyes again. The face above me is so mutilated that it is barely even a face. Or, should I say, the second-to-last remaining human. The words hit me in

the face like a ton of bricks. Second-to-last. I repeat in my head. Slowly, I open my eyes again. Oh yes. The face breathed. Youre not alone. There is one other. You two fooled us for a while. Clever, really, that little trick of yours. Going to a different planet, putting two human souls, so to speak, in one body. Exactly how long had you been like that? I closed my eyes again and remained quiet, letting the words sink in. And then, it all came flooding back. * * * Im sitting on a chair, facing another girl, who looks to be about my same age. Weve been chosen out of all the humans on earth. Known to only the leaders of the planet Earth, an alien invasion had begun. Trying to keep people from panicking, the governments of the world had, so far, been able to keep it quiet, but with civilian deaths quickly increasing, rumors were spreading, rumors that were not so very far from the truth. We dont know why the aliens have come, we dont know where they come from, we dont know what intent they have, and we dont know what to do. You two are okay with this plan? You understand, of course, if the experiment works, you two will become models for the rest of the human race. The President of the United States paced around the room as he spoke. I look at the other girl, and simultaneously, we nod. The risks would, of course, be many, and the chance of survival would be next to nothing. Excellent. The President breathed, as he rubbed his tired eyes with his left hand. Three of the other twenty men in the room were the best scientific minds the planet earth had to offer. After working in Area 51 for over 4 months, they had

perfected the art of placing two organisms inside one body, although it had never been attempted upon humans. We were to be the guinea pigs for the human race. Perhaps it would achieve nothing, to have two humans within one body, but the hope remained that if one were killed, the other could survive. Ladies, if youre ready, please follow me. It was the scientist they nicknamed Brains, due to his abnormally large head. I look at the other girl, and the look we share seems to carry a whole conversation; an are-you-sure-aboutthis? -Yes-lets-do-this look. We stand, and leave the room, going to our deaths, or our new life. * * * We wake up on a hospital bed. Our thoughts are one. We are the two that have become one. We are the future of the human race. We sit up, testing our body. Fingers and toes wiggle, arms and legs stretched, and our neck rotated. It seems to work perfectly. We stand, and walk around the room. There is no visible door. Even as we think this, a door is opened, and we walk out. The President greets us, and says a few meaningless words before we begin our new life. With the reminder to speak using the word I rather than we, we walk out of the building into the middle of the terror-stricken New York City. There will be no other humans like us. There is no time, the aliens are amongst us. * * * We are boarding a space shuttle, surrounded by hundreds of other humans, all hoping to begin another, safer life on a new planet. The memories of our family reunions we had, memories of the boy we loved, memories of playing

air-soft with our friends, they will soon be the only things left to remind us of Earth. * * * Sunlight. The warmth fills our heart with love for this planet with two suns, but also we feel regret that our time is almost up. We are the only one left of the humans who came over on the space shuttle. We know that they have found us, and it is only a matter of time before they track us down. Soon, there wont be an us. We will have to go our separate ways, fated to perhaps never reunite. * * * We have been captured. Sitting, with our hands tied, in a strange transport as we are taken to an unknown place. We probably go to our death, the last remaining humans anywhere. We put up a good fight, though. The big blue alien has bruises forming: our signature. We sigh, knowing that soon everything will go dark. * * * Tell me. Says the face. Tell me everything. Closing my eyes, I think of all that has happened to me. Then I remember. I cannot give up fighting. I must escape. I am the last remaining human with a body, and everything rests on my shoulders, because within me are the keys to the creation of a new human race. Word count: 1276