Remote Learning
The morning air was still. Out of all the days I had been on this planet, this morning seemed to be the calmest, but I knew that it wouldn’t last. Day 30 I’ve been told always brings some twist that you can’t prepare for, some deeper message that they want you to take away. This being my first lecture, I didn’t know what to expect.
“Lex, you still alive in there?” A concerned face opens the door to my room. “Thought you might have left us last night, heard you coughing a lot.”
“I’m all good Jack, thanks. Just a slight cold, that’s all.” To be honest, I wasn’t sure it was a slight cold. The cold had been eradicated for almost a hundred years now and the only knowledge I have of it was from what I read in my intro to diseases course from high school. I wish I could go back to classes that were like that, normal ones. But then again, when else am I going to get to experience Earth?
“Well hurry up and get dressed then, we are going scavenging this morning.”
“Don’t we already have enough supplies?” I look around at shoebox of a room complete with just enough to keep me alive for the time I was supposed to be here. “And it is day 30 so not like it matters really.”
“Everyone wants to try and keep the authentic feel for one last day, come on!” He darts out of the room. “Meet us by the subway stop when you’re ready!”
Groggily I got up from the grey twin mattress I had and got ready for the day. The clock read March 6th, 2021. I chuckled. I got up and started cooking breakfast, but stopped half way through because of a stomach ache. “I knew I should have cooked that chicken longer last night,” I scolded myself. I had never actually cooked or eaten chicken before last night as they were not brought with humanity during the Move, so I gave myself a break. I decided to skip breakfast and got dressed. My clothes seemed to be nothing more than rags at this point, but luckily, I had stumbled across a thick winter coat on day four so the cold winter air was somewhat bearable. Some of the others hadn’t been so lucky and we lost two to hypothermia last week in a bad storm. I assume they’ll be starting again tomorrow, day one. Day one is always the worst.
I went downstairs and outside to the subway stop, but the group had begun moving down a street named 5th Avenue that was adjacent to a large park. Even though I was surrounded by tall, concrete towers, I still was able to catch a slight scent of pine from park, something that I have only smelled artificially before. The breeze and sun felt so fresh, so natural, something most people can only dream about where I’m from. I walked behind the group for a while, feeling no need to catch up. Along the way we passed many familiar sights: abandoned cars, broken windows, trash covered sidewalks. “No wonder we left,” I thought to myself. Ahead, I could see that the group had stopped so I ran to catch up to them. Running felt, different, though and I wasn’t quite sure why. “Must be the cold,” I thought so I kept going. As I got closer, I could see Jack arguing with another member of the group.
“We can’t go in there, it’s too dangerous. We need to stay authentic, people here would never had dared go past that.”
“Who cares its day 30! What are they going to do, fail us for taking a slight risk? Maybe people had to risk going into these places in the past.”
I wasn’t sure what they were arguing about until I got closer. Ahead of us on the road was an abandoned army medical facility. I remember having heard about these makeshift hospitals from a local. Apparently, they were brought in by the old US government to try and alleviate the hospitals, but most just ended up turning into morgues by the time they were set up.
“Screw it, I’m going in.” The young man who had been arguing with Jack darted ahead of the group, laughing as he went. We all looked around at one another and shrugged.
“Well, alright I guess. In we go.” Jack said.
The inside of the camp was not a pretty sight. Most vital supplies were taken when the army pulled out and fled to the South where it was warmer and safer and the rest was likely already taken by other groups who had been left. The one thing that had not been taken was the sheets off of the beds. They were covering things that no one wanted to see. As we continued walking through the tents, I began to feel weaker and weaker and my cough was getting worse. I sat down to try and catch my breath.
“You sure you are ok?” asked Jack.
“I think so… but I’m not… sure…”
Then everything went black.
I woke up back in my bed, Jack sitting next to me. I felt cold and weak. I guess this is what people used to call getting sick.
“You passed out in the tents so we brought you back here,” said Jack. “Thought you weren’t going to wake up.”
“I’m not sure what’s happening, but I think I have it.” A local I had met on day twenty-three called what happened, “Ano” but never said exactly what it was. Maybe people hadn’t figured out what it was before it got severe. “You shouldn’t be near me.”
“It’s a little late for that, some of the others are already showing symptoms,” Jack said. “Shame, we almost made it. Looks like we might be going back to day one.”
“Hate for it to end this way,” I said through a cough.
“I’ll grab you some water,” said Jack, but before he left the room I shut my eyes again and drifted off.
I woke up again, slightly dazed, but quickly came to my senses. I immediately noticed I was no longer in my shoebox of a room. “Shit. This can only mean one thing,” I thought to myself. I reached up on the top right of my head and removed the small circular disc from my temple. As I did, I caught a glimpse of a clock that read: March 6th, 2221. A voice came across the PA system.
“Colby, Alexa. Please report to room 102b of the administration hall for your debrief.” I got up from the bed I had laid down in 30 days prior. I was still in the learning center and had to go to the pod over where administration was. I left my room and made my way down the silver, bare hall, past the other ninety-nine student rooms. Some rooms were empty, some were not. “At least I made it farther than some others,” I thought. As I left the learning center and entered the hallway to go to administration, I saw the red landscape for the first time in thirty days. It had been over a hundred and fifty years since humanity abandoned Earth, but we still couldn’t figure out how to live outside. The hallway smelled like pine trees, but I knew it wasn’t real.
I entered administration and went to room 102b where a woman sat waiting for me.
“Take a seat,” she said with a smile. I sat down and before I could open my mouth she said, “How did it feel to be sick?”
“Not great… do I have to go back?” I asked, this being the only question on my mind.
With a smirk she said, “Why? You completed the lesson entirely.”
“I did? But I died?”
“Yes, but what did you learn?”
I pondered this question for a moment. “I learned what being sick is like?” I said unsurely.
“Yes, you did. In fact, you died from sickness. Remember on day twenty-three you met a local man and he told you of the Ano virus?”
I shook my head yes in response.
“Well, that was what you had. This was the first of the seven illnesses that caused humanity to abandon Earth. The purpose of that lecture was to teach you what being sick was like and why we cannot allow new sicknesses to appear.”
“You mean that there are six more of those situations I have to go through?”
“Yes, in fact you are scheduled to begin another lecture tomorrow with the other students who passed.”
I thought of Jack and how he was likely slowly dying of Ano right now.
“Once you complete those you will be done with History 101.”
I sat back, mixed with emotions. Another six times I would have to go through this. I couldn’t help but think if this was all worth it, but beyond that, if humanity had made the right choice; running away from these illnesses instead of trying to cure them. Was this trapped lifestyle on Mars really worth being free of sickness? Maybe I could find the answers to these questions in my next lecture.
The woman across from me studied my face as I pondered these questions. After a minute of allowing me process what was going on she asked, “Ready to start again?”