Api Biru Pt. 1

In 2036, the conversion took place and all of humanity took refuge under the surface of the Earth. Many people died from the effects of Y2K but to call it an apocalyptic event would be an exaggeration. Almost four billion human beings still remain and the quality of life for most, not only remained unchanged, but for a lot of people, it became better. The issues of homelessness became a thing of the past and although technology and recreational activities have become rather limited, nobody seems to be suffering from any serious ailments.

Some would argue that we traded our luxuries for the peace of everyone. Whether or not this was the right way to live life was still heavily debated amongst philosophers in universities, but it didn’t change the fact that anyone could make a good living.

The scavengers worked tirelessly to figure out how to bring humanity back to the surface. With a world as united as ours, all we needed was our planet back and we’d become unstoppable…

That’s what they all say anyway. The truth is, as the conversion happened, a few select individuals were allowed to be sent to Mars. Mars became habitable by the year 2030 with the entire world focusing on colonizing the solar system. The world wasn’t made aware of the humans that had the opportunity to live life on a whole other planet. If the people on Earth knew about this, they would riot and demand to be taken to the planet where surface life awaits them as well.

Years of rebuilding society into the peaceful place it is now would be lost. That’s why it would go down in history as one of humanity’s most shameful secrets. As billions of people lived life underground, a mere few hundred got an entirely new planet to themselves.

Now, that I think about it, this must have been where my hatred for everything came from. At six years old, in the year 2050, they silently re-opened the Mars conversion program to those rich enough. When my father told me that my mother was selected to live on Mars, I was ecstatic. Her family owned a climate research company in both the old world and this one. They made millions upon millions so it was no wonder why she got selected for this program. I would ask my father when we’d be joining her all the time. My bags would often be packed, and they consisted of two shabby outfits and a toothbrush. My action figures would also be packed on the rare occasion I remembered to bring them.

In my dreams, my mother would hold my hand and we’d run out onto the surface of Mars at night and count the millions of stars soaring across the infinites of space. My mother always told me that the stars they saw on Earth were dead stars. They died millions of years ago, but humans could only see them now because of how far away they were. The speed at which light travels changes the information we perceive at any given moment in time.

If we lived on Mars we could grow closer to certain stars and further from others. As a kid, the idea fascinated me. We would be living in a whole new reality with different perceptions of the universe, but at a certain point in growing up, I realized that more or less the stars would appear the same.

My anxiety began to develop by the time I was thirteen. Everyone around me had a mother and I was still waiting to see mine. From then it didn’t take long for me to put the rest together.

This world is built off of sacrifice. Peace is built after losing billions. Heroes are only made when there are villains. Purpose can only come when accepting futility.

My mother’s happiness could only exist if she left me and my father. My father never held any ill will towards her. In fact, it seemed like he supported her decision to leave us. I wanted to hate him for it, but soon it became another part of him that I grew to admire. This was the woman he loved more than anything in the world, I’m sure of it. He speaks of her so fondly that it’s almost annoying how many happy memories I have of her purely from his recollection… To let a person like that go, so they can be happy… My father is a greater man than anyone I know…

(Edwin)

I felt sick. Looking at my son brought upon a stew of emotions that were unbearable. My prayers to God begging for my son to not turn out like them went unfulfilled. Was the world still punishing me for my sins? How much longer do I have to repent until this is all over?!

Bane was furious. To say he was lied to all his life would be a severe understatement. The things I’ve told him had only been for his own good. Had he just not inherited those genes, everything would have been fine.

I told him my story. “By the time 2030 came around, the government decided that working on people who could resist fire was no longer worth it. It officially became outlawed to harbor any individuals with these capabilities. In turn, all the remaining subjects were put down against their will. Your mother was one of these subjects. Due to her familial connections, she was able to slide under the radar and continue living a normal life. We met at Vance Inc. The company that belonged to her grandfather. I was a mere researcher there, but it didn’t take long for us to fall in love. I didn’t know what she was at the time. The years we spent together were phenomenal. A love so pure that it eclipsed every other part of my life… When the conversion began, a lot was going through our heads. She never wanted to go out onto the surface even before the flames got to everyone. I took it as a sign of paranoia. Her mind slowly dissociating from reality. Every time I urged her to come out onto the surface, she became almost feral. It’s not to say she lost it completely. When I chose to indulge her, she was kinder than ever. It seemed like she wanted to enjoy every second we had left together as if the underground didn’t exist. We made love far more often and those nights we spent in bed for days on end were magical. Hearing her talk was enough to satisfy my entire soul… That’s why it became all the harder to hear her shrieks and cries as I dragged her out of the house. We needed to go underground or I’d lose her and you forever. She was sobbing uncontrollably by the time we got to the front door. I had no idea what to do. I packed everything, moved everything, and even when I called for friends and family to help us, they were all too busy sorting out their own conversion journeys. It felt like I was completely on my own and your mother didn’t want any of us to live any longer. I asked her if she wanted us to die. If she wanted our child to die. She did her best to convince me that she didn’t want any of that, but her actions were desperately proving otherwise. It’s unfortunate and my heart hurts just remembering it, but I had to force her outside. She fought and clawed at me but the second the sun graced her skin, she pushed off of me and instantly combust into flames. To say I was terrified was an understatement. I thought she was about to die, and I made a horrible mistake. She continued to cry but her tears would instantly evaporate. After a few seconds, I realized she was okay… I was terrified, but when she explained what was going on, I accepted it and we decided to head to Milona together. Luckily for us, she wasn’t the only person on fire as everyone was running around the surface. Many people prematurely went up in flames and although they would end up passing from their injuries, nobody could tell that my wife was resistant. They’d see someone on fire and immediately avert their gaze. After making it to the first underground checkpoint, her flames dissipated as the sun was no longer in contact with her skin. We looked around and still nobody seemed to notice. From that point onward, I was able to successfully get us a property in Milona. She stayed there while I would travel back to the surface and gather all our belongings. The final time I came back down to Milona was such a relief. I cried endlessly in her arms. It felt like everything was my fault. She comforted me, and knowing I had her to rely on became my only saving grace… As I shot up the ranks in scavenging, they told me about how they were thinking of reopening an old government project. This project would be experimenting on humans in hopes of making us fire-resistant. I was openly against this idea. Truthfully, I didn’t put much thought into it. I just knew that if they started to dig in older records, they would find her. You were six years old by now. Raising you has been one of the best experiences of both our lives. So when the knock came on the door calling for your mother, I was terrified. They told us that she would have twenty days to ‘resolve any prior engagements’ before coming with them to be experimented on. She was the only sample left alive from the older experiments. Her value was immeasurable… Those twenty days we spent together were some of the best times of my life, do you remember them, Bane? We went to so many lavish restaurants and explored different parts of the city. I even took your mother to Ylvona for a couple of days. At the time it wasn’t suitable for small children to live there. Not with the technology they had at the moment. We left you with a sitter and I think that’s how you found my old VHS tapes. On the nineteenth day, your mother and I talked about this fascinating story about a man living on Mars. This man had the entire planet to himself and could see the stars in a whole new light. She told me to tell you that story and to have her take the place of the man instead. According to her, the experiments would never go anywhere meaningful, but if they managed to get a hand on her or anyone else who exhibited signs of fire resistance, the suffering would never end. To that extent, we enjoyed the rest of our night with an amazing dinner and many rounds of love-making. With only a couple of hours before they would come to get her, she made me promise a couple of things. To never feel guilty about any of this. She assured me that none of this was my fault. I know that’s not true, but she made me promise to not feel that way. Knowing I was the last person she’d see, she wanted me to be the one who put her out of her misery. Holding a gun to her head was the most harrowing feeling. My nerves were all rushing against my body, begging me to not do it. I shivered so much that if we weren’t at point-blank range, I’d have undoubtedly missed. But she wanted me to promise… So I did. The second thing she made me promise is that if you were to ever exhibit any extraordinary abilities like her… I would do my best to kill you as quickly as possible. If the world sees you for who you are, they’ll do everything they can to take you in and not only torture you but restart a process of torturing hundreds of innocent people…”