It all started when I was little, about eight years old. I was the most athletic girl in my grade and I was never beat at any game. It was a pretty average day early in the year, we were playing zombie tag, and everyone else was it. I wouldn't let myself get tagged, and they were almost upon me and with no where else to go I took desperate measures and jumped from the platform I was on to a separate one about a meter and a half away. That was that day that I learned that I was terrified and exhilarated by the thrill of danger and a great many other things.
I barely made it across the gap and then I had to pull myself up with my arms alone. The other kids looked at me in wonder for a moment, they continued to chase me for the next ten minutes. Everyone was tired so I was declared the winner, that's when I noticed the Covenant corvette, they were glassing the planet. I pointed it out and told my friends "We should get to where the pelican is supposed to show up". We had been doing drills for this kind of situation ever since the destruction of Harvest. We ran towards the field where the pelican would come and pick us up..
About a minute later the pelican arrived, even though I was first in line I refused to get on till everyone else was on too. The last of the people were in and just as I was about to step in myself, I saw my crippled little brother, Jamie, trying to run towards us. Along the way he dropped his glasses and stopped to pick them up, knowing that there wasn't a lot of time left, I began to run towards him. In that instant the Covenant started glassing near the school. The pilot yelled, "We can't wait and any longer we'll be vaporized!" I was instantly grabbed by one of the marines and pulled into the pelican. I scratched, clawed, kicked, punched, every and anything I could reach to get to Jamie and help him. The marine was surprised, but he didn't let me go. The pelican took off and I started crying and screaming, tears were streaming down my face as I screamed even louder, the plasma was getting closer to him. Jamie was to far away to help and when he heard my screams he looked up, just in time to be vaporized by the hot plasma stream. I couldn't do anything but watch.
I stopped fighting and the marine put me down, I was numb, tears silently streaming down my face. I was too shocked and to stunned to even think about anything, I just stared at the place my brother had been just moments before, I just couldn't accept it. I sat there until I realized that any one of the teachers could have helped him. I became so angry that I looked at them and started screaming about how they could have saved my brother and they just sat there and suddenly they were very interested in their feet. That really pissed me off, I started hitting one then and I yelled and screamed calling them worthless pieces of shit, the marine seeing a clearly aggravated kid capable of causing some damage, grabbed some knock out gas and pressed it to my face. I tried to breathe as I felt myself getting light-headed, I tried to get it off my face with no success. My vision blurred and I just glared at the marine as I slowly slid into unconsciousness.
I awoke later the next day, we were on a frigate, and the other kids told me that when we got to the space elevator it had already been destroyed. So they had to seal the back of the pelican off, and we flew into space. We had met with the frigate in the lower atmosphere. We docked and the marine carried me out into the room I was currently in. The rest of them had gone further into the docking stations and met with all the other survivors from Biko most of the kids had been reunited with at least one family member, and a lot kids actually had all of there family survive. Some of the less lucky had no one left. I immediately asked about my family, they looked away. It hit me like a kick to the stomach, I was one of the unlucky, my whole family has been killed by the god damn Covenant, I was an orphan.
I started crying again but not as much as before, I was surprised at how little I was bothered by their deaths or the fact that I was an orphan. The only thing I cared about was how powerless I had been to help Jamie. I just sat in the corner, glaring at the wall, my friends tried to help me, but it was impossible. I relived the moment over and over in my head thinking of any way I could have saved him. I just couldn't find it. I was so certain that if I did, he wouldn't have died and he'd be with me at that moment. Every so often when I was sure everyone else was asleep I would go visit the windows and I would look out to see if I was truly alone, as if my family had a separate ship and were just waiting for me to realize it. It was hard for me to get through every day without someone who really cared about helping me. That was just the beginning of the hardship for me.