Atlas' 08

N E W B E G I N N I N G

The five years I've spent on this space station have all been the same. The same boring way of living that everyone is lucky to have. Atlas'08 provides a new lifestyle that everyone's adapted too. There are only 700 people living on this space station and a range of different ages. Back home I used to recall the older generation telling us we were the face of the future, quite ironic thinking back about it.

The space station provides everyone here with a small single bed room followed by a small bathroom with a shower and toilet. I have also been required to attend "school" here, something I thought I could've escaped from for a while. Me and a selection of others get taught by the salvators. They teach us about space and basic botany required to maintain human life. They pass all their knowledge down to us. As well as education they provide us with meals and healthcare. We eat three meals a day and get checked up on every two weeks. I still question what time did these strange men have to store and prepare meals for up to 900 people that have lasted us for 7 years, what are they apart of? Sometimes I wonder where did they come from?. In fact these men definitely aren't strange or weird, I know I may be using dehumanising words to describe the saviours of the human race but all they are is a mystery to every single living being on Atlas'08.

People have learnt to enjoy it here, surrounding themselves with new friends that they bond over education and meals with. In my time on Atlas'08 I've made an approximate of let's say 3 friends. Not much but that's all you need when you live in space with the same daily routine. Bertie was my first friends in the experience I've had since earth. We met in the bunker, on the second day of surviving down there. He was someone I could talk to about my family and what was to come, and I was the same for him. He sadly passed three months later due to radiation poisoning which had affected him long term. After Bertie I laid low for a while because I believed everyone I had ever been close to was dead or was going to soon die. Quite stupid of me to even think but when everyone around you starts to die your mind does things to you that you could never imagine.

Bringing me to Kathy, we were put on the same launching ship which got us up to Atlas'08. We were seated next to each other and bonded over our frights about take off. She was nice but as soon as we started getting educated she found herself a bigger group of friends, I don't hate her that's for sure but I'm definitely a lot lonelier since she left me to struggle by myself, I have no one to share the experience with.

You could say loosing two friends in a short span of one year brought me to one of the absolute best people I have ever known, her name is Veronica. We met one day at mealtime and instantly clicked. We began spending more and more time together and she made me realise that there was more to life on this damn spacecraft then learning about how to grow tomato's in space. She isn't the most normal person up here but then again after what happened who is. She's very outgoing and rebellious. Traits I weren't sure were appreciated by the salvators. She taught me that I should forget the past and learn the future. I refer to her as V.