Personal Narrative: The Raft

Everything you will ever perceive is fabricated. Every quote about happiness in life is simply not true. There are empires and they decree the nation. Only fifteen years old and I have been in the vicinity of the Raft for almy choate life. Centuries ago the Earth was decreasing every single resources it obtained. We could all see that trees were scarce and animals were no longer. Human race was running out of time at a nimble pace. Fear quickened and heart rates of every human had spiked higher than the mountains of rubble containing the Earth’s oceans. Desperation lurked around the atmosphere we all began to look to the sky. Building a vicinity to house mankind in space was pinned as imaginable. The questionability if space could hold half

the human race was what everyone desired to obtain. Silence fell upon the whole nation, including my household.
Geniuses of society were strategically planning the design of the structure and for every step my mother brought me along.

Octagonal pods was formed with cylinders underneath for support. The black metal gleamed from every angle holding a uption society dream inside it like a cage. It was built in a secluded surrounding where fences rose as high as the hopes of creating the structure itself. May 25, 2025 the structure was going to take flight into an innovative mankind I knew I would be destined spot on the Raft. My mother worked in the translation department for days on end. Coffee rings formed on the magnoy wood of her desk and bags under her eyes looked as if someone had socked her. I felt as if everything began to fall into place for once.

The black combat boot crushed every single bone in my hand and I knew I was far off from everything falling into place. My arms were ripped across me from different angles. Whipping my blond hair around only to see my mother being ripped away from me. Every dramatic moment they say is played through your brain in slow motion, mine was being acted out in front of me. The black combat boot whirled around sending my head into a violent daze. Hours later I returned to see my mother marooned upon

Earth.
The stomp of the sole of the boot pounded next to my head. The sergeant stared down and yelled “take this prisoner to her pod”. Walked with my hands behind my back led by two guards, I read the sign for the prison ward. It was a rectangle white walled pod. Sliding glass doors was the way in and furthermore out. Happiness cannot be present in a rectangular pod for fifteen years.
The sixteenth year would come as an epiphany. The Raft was losing oxygen due to a miscalculation. The little life savers of tanks were detaching cord by cord from the Raft itself. In all the glory of its built no one could see this coming. People were in need to leave faster than we could obtain oxygen. I was being released to Planet 61. Planet 61 was Earth’s twin but the decision on stability was questionable. The crimson planet was no mere distance from the Raft but could be obtained. It was decided among the president of the Raft to release the death sentence prisoners to the planet, including myself.
Unconscious and aboard a space shuttle to Planet 61 was how my day started.

You know the same old same old. Octavia rolled in her seat adjacent to mine and whispered with fear in every word “ Clarke, there is only one outcome to this situation and we both know what it is.” My pupils dilated and my muscles tensed. I gulped and silently nodded back to her. Goosebumps appeared all over me like tiny white mountains. We are going to die I told myself. Knowledge is the most deceiving power you will own. Metal bands were anchored to our arms to monitor how fast we would survive on Planet 61. We all looked around at each other, everyone was fighting to life, we were all their test rodents, fear was our auto pilot right now, and this was the last time we would see each

other.
The shuttle descend slower than ever. Landing gear sprung out with a clang jostling everyone. Seat buckles flew back into the assigned spots for the next group of rodents that would eventually replace us. The knowledge of our situation was so scare no one uttered a word. A straight lined formed by the exit marching us to our death. The door shot open and alarms sounded throughout every single crevice of the shuttle. The crimson soil flaked beneath us like dust. It swirled around us. I saw my mother standing there waiting for me. My steps shifted back and forth lazily. What little knowledge I had left my head completely, the planet swirled. Swirled with dust, swirled with my peers, and my dreams. Lunging over a body to my mother I had made it. This was her I thought happily to myself. We had survived. My head banged against the soil and my wrist band attempted to signal cerebral hypoxia. I thought that was wrong, I had never felt better. The oxygen was snapped off to my brain. I began a downward descent. My eyelids dropped as everyone else had made contact with the surface. Happiness must be only real when it was shared because 257 prisoners had just left planet 61 to join happiness.