Time stands still in cryo-sleep. One moment, you are being hooked up to tubes and wires, and the next, you awaken. It's a disorienting experience, like waking from a deep dream you can't quite grasp. It’s nothing like you feel as you normally wake up. You’re extremely groggy, nauseous, and most importantly, very confused.
If you want me to delve into the story of why I’m standing on the bridge of a highly advanced and heavily armed starship, I’ll have to start at the beginning, or it’ll make very little sense. My name is Avery Marks, or at least, that's what it used to be. I’m one of less than five hundred individuals who survived the destruction of Earth. One of the survivors is a historian and is compiling all of our stories in the hope that they will serve as cautionary tales for future generations, so they do not make the same mistakes again.
I was brought into this world on March 23, 2251. Despite all the technological advancements of Earth, some things never change. Wars, poverty, corruption, power-hungry leadership, and rampant crime were just part of everyday life. Going outside at night? In the rger cities, if you valued your life, you didn’t dare. What’s worse, we had become desensitized to it all and accepted it as the norm.
Remember 24-hour stores? They're a thing of the past now, believed by most people to be nothing more than a legend. Travel is almost unheard of in this day and age. Airports have long been shut down, with only a small number that are funded and used by the the wealthy elite. The current state of the world makes the Great Depression seem like a Golden Age by comparison. Unemployment rates have skyrocketed to a shocking 42%, and most jobs avaible don't pay enough to survive on. Why should they when they usually have more than a 100 highly qualified people competing for each position. Most people are forced to rely on guaranteed basic assistance provided by the government just to get by.
World leaders cim they are taking action to address these issues, but it's all empty promises as usual. The news is filled with stories of terrorist attacks by various groups with their agendas. The worst of them go by the name, ‘Harbingers of the End,’ which seems fitting given their destructive methods and goals.
Like many terrorist organizations, they started small, so they were discounted and overlooked, which only emboldened them. Their actions were initially minor: failed attacks, vandalism, and preaching on the streets. That was until the great bckout of the upper east US and the riots that came from that. That was the spark that made them the rgest and most dangerous terrorist group in the world. They have gained notoriety for their ruthless actions, which include: nuking Los Angeles and turning it into a radioactive wastend, dirty bombs in many rge cities around the world, setting off a nuke in the Gulf of Mexico that created a tidal wave that wiped out most coastal cities in the gulf, and stly, using chemical weapons that have made much of middle Europe unlivable for the next century. The death toll easily surpasses a billion people in just the st decade. So, it should be no surprise that they are the most wanted group on the pnet.
Like millions of others, my family and I have been watching the world come apart at the seams on our television screen. I realize now that I should have been grateful for living in the peaceful town of Glendive, Montana, far from the madness that is spreading throughout the globe. In our tight-knit community, neighbors always look out for each other and strangers are watched like a hawk until they show they aren’t a threat. My family consists of my parents, Debra and Evan, as well as my twin younger sisters Kay and Katherine, with me being the oldest sibling.
My sisters look like my mom, and everyone says they’re all beautiful, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. I look a lot like my dad, tall, muscur, somewhat handsome, with brown hair and blue eyes.
For the past 17 years, my life has been rather routine and boring. I find it to be ironic because my 17-year-old self craved excitement and adventure, not realizing that peaceful and uneventful are something to be valued. I couldn't wait to leave my small town for somewhere more thrilling. My mother worked as the head waitress at the most popur supper club in the area while my father served as a Colonel in the Space Force. They were always on my ass about setting goals and figuring out who I wanted to be, but at the time, my only goal was to get my girlfriend to sleep with me. I resented my parents for not understanding me and saw my younger sisters as nothing but distractions that I had to watch while our parents worked hard to support us. The ungrateful little bastard that I was hated every second I had to spend away from my friends.
Little did I know that this seemingly unremarkable existence was about to come crashing down. As it turns out, I was one of the lucky survivors when everything fell apart. The Harbingers of the End had come up with a pn that was their final solution, and they were just about ready to execute it.
So, why did I make it through when so many others didn't?
It's a long story of how I went from being on the brink of the end of the world to where I am now. I’ll do my best to recount it as best as I can from my perspective.