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There were many evil men in the world with greed blinding them. These people wouldn’t have conceived the light at the end of the dark even if they tried. They would’ve consumed themselves, biting into their skin until nothing was left but their chattering teeth, still insatiable and determined to consume when there was no fat or muscles to support them.
It was a terrible job and a horrible choice to condemn a person to death, but care for human rights had to be put aside for the mission to save every living being on the planet. Stratt had to be the one to make the tough call. There was no one else who could do it but her. She had the right intentions, the right direction, right morale, right everything to ensure that humanity would not be doomed.
That meant she had to send her right hand man to space.
There were nights she would wake up shivering, her heart thumping hard as she remembered the close moments she had with him. She had led him behind her, discussing and elaborating all the ways humanity could be saved. It wasn’t the outcome she had wanted, but her desire didn’t matter when the livelihood of billions balanced on her shoulders.
It had been a few days before departure was scheduled, and in that moment, Stratt had drunk herself in so much caffeine to try and forget what she was condemning… a colleague into.
“That sucks, but at least they signed up for it, right?”
Stratt nodded to the dialogue of a familiar voice by her side.
“They’re brave souls.”
“They knew the risks. I thought you’d really go since you understood such…—,” Stratt slowly turned her head to witness a dawning of a tender face she had sworn would only appear in her dreams, “Ryland Grace, what are you doing here.”
He scrunched his face and adjusted his glasses, “What do you mean, ‘What am I doing here.’ I’m here to see my friends go off to space!”
Stratt gulped and reached for her radio to tell them to come to the café and to pause sending anybody into space.
There wasn’t time! Her thoughts were broadcasted onto the radio in the voice of opposition of the scientists who were determined to give a go-ahead for the launch.
Of course she knew this was a pressing situation, but the only scientist up for the job somehow escaped his comatose state to have appeared before her eyes! Sure, she had lots to drink (coffee), but it couldn’t explain the realism of the man in front of her!
She poked his cheek.
Fuck! It was Ryland Grace.
“Uh, what’s happening,” the oblivious Grace laughed.
“Is there Grace there with you,” Stratt restrained her desire to yell over the radio as cars arrived outside of the café building.
Grace was confused and he tried to diffuse the situation, “Woah, woah, I guess I shouldn’t have come. I was just passing by and I recognised you and so I rushed in. I should’ve guessed you needed your… professional time. I should just go.”
A group of men in suit came out, centring the middle man that was Carl who asked him to keep calm, using his friendly and soothing voice.
Grace yelped and jumped like a cat, figuring out something terrible had happened.
Stratt forced him in the car and watched the men inject a drug into Grace’s body.
“What happened, Stratt,” Carl asked bluntly as he cradled Grace in his arms at the back of the car.
“I’d asked Grace— not Grace,— to go to space. He said no, but I told him he was the only one up for it. He tried to escape, telling me we got the wrong person. We subdued him against his will when he threatened to sabotage the mission. I had no choice!”
“And?” Carl stabilised the sleeping position of Grace against the bumps of the car rushing to the takeoff zone.
“And we got the wrong person! He wasn’t lying,” Stratt sighed, closing her eyes as she leaned against her seat in pure embarrassment and unfathomable regret in realisation of what this meant, “We readied Ryan Gosling to get sent to space.”