Writer's Statement: My short story is called Just… A Little Suffocated. I named it this because it represents how many people in Quarantine are probably feeling at the moment. They probably feel suffocated because most people are trapped in their homes, unable to see their family, and unable to do the majority of the things that they love, like for example, sports. It’s just human nature. We are not built and do not do well when we are starved of the things that we love and the things that we live for. That is why quarantine is probably suffocating to millions of people, and hence, the title of my short story. My piece connects to the pandemic in multiple ways. At first glance, it may not seem that way, but you have to look deeper to see the connections. Milo is stuck somewhere without seeing her family, unable to do almost anything, and only has one person to keep her sane. This relates to the people stuck at their home right now because of the stay at home order, and only have a couple people to keep them sane (probably their family, or whoever they live with). Not only that, but the blood in the spit of the mutated mutts at the end of the story represents the people that are lost to the pandemic. It represents that in horrible situations like this, horrible casualties like this will most likely happen, and we have to carry on, to try to find a solution. That does not mean that we ignore these deaths, but we remember them, to give us strength to carry on, and to have something to fight for. Lastly, in my story, Milo did not escape the sanctuary on Pluto by herself. She had the help of multiple people. She had not only Milo, but also children from other planets that are also in other sanctuaries help them hack into the security systems and set them free. This represents that in a disaster or pandemic of this size, we need to work together to find a solution, not put ourselves against each other. Teamwork is the best way to find a solution quickly, and efficiently with the least amount of casualties and damage. I chose this type of response because writing is my strength, but I wanted to write something besides a poem. I wanted to write something that doesn’t easily show you the connection to the pandemic, but makes you think a bit before you find that connection. I think my inspiration was my love for fantasy/dystopian books and stories, and also my personal feelings on the pandemic. This pandemic has made me too feel suffocated. I have been feeling very drained and unmotivated recently because i am deprived of the things that give me life, and the people that give me life too. It is very tough, but I am pushing through it. I wanted to show that Milo did suffer a lot throughout her experience at the Sanctuary, because I am suffering too. I wanted to through Milo’s reactions and emotions, that going through something like this is never easy, but that does not mean you give up. This will not last forever. My hope is that when readers read this, they realize that they are not alone. They are not the only ones going though pain, and that they should not attempt to push through that pain alone. That is specifically why I made Milo a best friend. Why I always had Soona by Milo’s side. I did it so that people will see that it is so much better to have someone to lean on in times of suffering, and that they shouldn’t be afraid to lean on them. There will always be someone who wants you to lean on them, and all you have to do is ask. Because something this devastating is something that we shouldn’t have to go through alone.
Freedom. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. I like to write about freedom. Freedom has been something that I haven’t really had access to since the day I was born. The blood that connects me to my mother and father restricts me from having a normal life. You see, I don’t live on earth. No, I am not an alien. However, I do have 2 delinquent parents. That’s the reason I am here, on Pluto. Pluto, and a couple other planets, hold the children of major criminals that caused havoc on earth. My parents however, are rotting somewhere on Neptune. I don’t want to see them. I don't really want much in life. But it would be nice to have the words “criminal offspring: deemed dangerous” off of my ID.
4:02 AM. I stare blankly at the numbers glowing on the clock hanging above my steel, huge, very criminal proof door. Out of the 1,440 minutes each day, this is the minute I despise the most. I’ve probably added it to my list of things I wish didn’t exist thousands of times. It isn’t common that a mere 16 year old “criminal” imprisoned on Pluto loathes 1 minute out of the day so much, but I can’t help it. 4:02 AM was the exact time that my life was ruined. The following minutes after, I convinced myself that I had no parents. It kind of worked.
“Why did my mind have to be made to be so talkative? Shut up, will you?” I shoved my black and white striped pillow onto my face, as if it would stop my mind’s constant chatter about everything wrong with my life. Soon after, the darkness of sleep followed.
“MILO! Girl, you sleep too much! I know you are awake, so get your ass up!”
Soona was right. I was awake, but I didn’t move a muscle. I didn’t feel like having human interaction so early in the morning.
“It’s too early to be yelling so much, Soona. Take a chill pill.” I groaned, engulfing myself in the luxury of my 2 striped pillows and matching blanket. Silence filled my room, and I began profusely sweating.The only reason Soona would be this quiet for this long is because I either fucked up, or I was being so idiotic that her brain could barely handle it. Either way, it wasn’t a good sign. I finally was able to make out lots of disappointed sighs from the other side of the door.
“It is 11:30, my dear Milo.” Soona exclaimed (a little too camly) from the other side of the door.
“What?!” I screeched. I flopped off my bed in about 0.16 seconds. Maybe that should be put in the Guinness World Record for-
“I’m coming!” I howled. Tying my turquoise hair up into a messy bun, I grabbed my nearly deceased black backpack from my closet, and rushed out the door. Soona was already 10 feet away from the door when I swung it open, it's hinges groaning in pain. She’s experienced many of the fleeting moments of my life that I am less proud of. She sprints after me.
“Good Morning sunshine! I will have you know that you are an hour late for your first class of-”
“Thanks for the notice, Soona. I was totally unaware of that.” The amount of sarcasm in my voice was enough to drown a whale. Sarcasm is my passion.
I attempt to rip the door of my English classroom open, but it is made of pure steel and 3 feet wide, and I have noodle arms. Hence, I slowly open the door, creeping towards the back of the classroom, slithering into an open seat. Soona plops into the seat on my right. Thankfully, the teacher was too stressed out and drained to notice. The rest of the day is just as colorless and bland as the day before, except today is filled with a bit more yellow, but also a little more blue than I am comfortable with. Out of the window of my mathematics classroom, you can see the tiny dot we call Earth. In normal windows, the earth is much too far away to be seen in the naked human eye, but our windows are special. They’re called hyper zoom diamond windows, which zoom in on outside objects 5,000x more than regular windows, and are also 1,000x harder to break. They’re specifically like this to torture us by letting us see our home planet, but know that we will never get there. Also, on occasion, to stop us from having suicidal outbreaks that make us want to kill us and everyone else in the room by breaking the window, because we are stuck in this hell.
“Holy mother of-” I yelp, and nearly jump out of my hard, uncomfortable chair when something hits the side of my shoulder.
“Is there a problem, Ms. Nightlo?” my vulture-like teacher croaks. I don’t dare respond, but instead plaster a 100% natural smile with no artificial flavors in her direction. The frown that is plastered to her wrinkly face deepens, but she soon returns to the lesson. I slither my hands into my bag, and slowly take out my Echo headphones. ( designed by my mother, and I had to literally swallow them to get them through security when I got here)The tiny, wireless earbuds mold into the shape of my ear and connect a little wire to my brain, (it’s harmless- at least that’s what the box said.) and smile kindly towards Soona, who also has her echo headphones in.
“What were you thinking? I almost got beheaded back there.” the thoughts going through my brain cross the room from my earbuds to Soona’s. She smirks. She actually has the audacity to smirk when she could have been attending my funeral because she decided to scare the sh-
“Sorry, your highness, but the message that I had to urgently tell you was more important than you getting a few glares from Mrs. Notel. We have a couple new members. From Saturn.” My jaw drops to the floor, and I would have screeched out in excitement, but I wanted to be able to live another day, so I kept it inside. I stop my very mature representation of joy and stare Soona straight in the eyes. I don’t blink.
“Do they know what they need to do?” I wait for Soona’s response, my heart begging to be ripped out of my stomach. (I’m kidding, chill.) She finally turns her head and meets my eyes, the darkness of her jet black curls reflecting off of her cerulean eyes.
“Have some faith, child. We aren’t the only one who wants to get out of this shithole.” I smile at her response, but it isn’t full of joy. It is full of madness.
4:02 AM. In the darkness, I stare at my dungeon door. It is the thing that keeps me confined at night, but I have become quite attached to it. It has experienced many of my beatings, and it did not fight back. What a gentleman. I hope this is the last time I see it. I slip my echo headphones on, making sure to not be seen by the cameras watching my every move.
“ 1, 7, 4, 2, 8, 1, 1, 0, 5, 2, 8, 6, 2, 1, 9, 1, 2, 3.” The thoughts in my head slither out of my room, down the hall, and squeeze under the door of Soona Oakly. These are the numbers that I have been collecting, memorizing, one at a time, since I was 12. The numbers that ruined my life at the age of 6. The code to the control room.
“I’m in. You are so fucking lucky that I learned to be a pretty darn good hacker before I was sent to this shithole.” Once Soona’s thoughts are transferred from her Echos to mine, I let out a small gasp, and then disguise it as a yawn. The security guards wont suspect a thing, because they already think we’re fucking insane. Us making sounds in our sleep is nothing new to them. I wait for more thoughts from Soona, but I still jerk when I hear them in my head.
“Once I unlock your door, the backup lockdown system will go berserk. I’ll hack through that system too, but you have 3 minutes to get down to the escape ship. If I don’t get there by then, leave me, no questions asked. If you don’t, I’ll haunt you when I die, you emotional bitch.” Soona’s thoughts go quiet, and a smile spreads across my face. A real smile. I haven’t smiled, really smiled, since I was 6 years old. It might be the last if I don’t make it out of here. Being caught trying to escape this place is punishable by death. Two seconds later, the security alarms burst through the walls. At that moment, I don’t think about anything. Not about death. Not about failure. About freedom.
I walk to the door, and it swings open upon my arrival. I smile madly, my last thought traveling from my echo’s to Soona.
“Soona, you are that bitch.” I fling my echos on the cold, cement floor, crush them with my boots, and sprint out of the door. The sanctuary is like a maze, but I have long memorized these halls. The door of the escape ships has always been my most visited location, so I have no problem getting there, counting the minutes. My hand reaches the cold handle, but also reaches the hand of a security officer. He is huge, vienty, sweaty, and really fucking angry. In the past, I would have made some sarcastic joke and huck my ass out of there, but now, I don’t move a muscle.
“Prisoner #12245, head back to your headquarters immediately. Any resistance, and you will be met with death. Not the pretty kind, kid.” She snarls, splattering hot, gooey spit on my face. Her grip tightens by the second. I step back, trembling.
“You’re quite the comedian.” I whisper, and laugh escapes my throat, full of nothing nice. I lift my head, smiling tooth to tooth, hissing.
“Your death will come soon. And it will be much, much worse than mine.” I giggle, and slam my boot into his crotch, stomach, and head in 3 swift kicks. He crumples up, groaning and stumbling, and not wasting a second, I whip out a handkerchief from my pocket, sprinkle on some of Soona’s secret perfume, and shove it to his mouth. I am through the door before he falls to the ground. Soona rushes in about 10 seconds later, limping and bleeding from multiple areas that I would rather not say.
“They were much angrier than I had anticipated.” she gasps. She stumbles into the ship, and I secure the door shut. Had it been a second later, the disgusting, mutated mutt on the other side of the ship’s door would have had an early breakfast. I look it right in the eye, as it screeches, blood soaked spit covering the window on the ship’s door with the blood of multiple prisoners. This is the first time I am happy to see it. That means that the higher-ups are scared. My body is thrown to the side of the ship’s floor as the ship detaches from the sanctuary, and hauls ass to its destination. To earth.
My legs tremble as I struggle to stand. Once I get on my feet, I realize my whole body is trembling immensely. I am dripping in sweat, my clothes are filthy. Slowly, I stumble to the only camera in the corner of my eye, it's little probe head jerking around. Once it’s in arms reach, I stroke it’s little head. I focus my eyes on the little red dot in the middle of the camera’s beating eyeball, and give the higher-ups on the other side of the screen a big, beautiful smile. I sigh.
“ Sorry. I was just….. a little suffocated.” I rip the cameras face off. Let's see how they like the darkness.