For a while, Jacob and I talked, observing the steady stream of people enter the room. By the end, over a thousand people were in the room and it was beginning to feel uncomfortable. People's elbows were shoving me, their voices to close and too loud, each voice trying to climb over the other until it was a roar. I thought or a moment, this might be what it would be like if I could hear everyone's thoughts. I quickly pushed the thought aside, unaware of the irony of it. For a while the roar was constant. Then, suddenly, a tone played from speakers on the wall. All voices ceased.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen," the voice said, "in a few moments a person will be here to collect you and take you to the ship."
A murmur of excitement spread through the crowd.
"We hope to leave within the hour, for we have received intelligence that relationships between the USA and the East have worsened."
Tension within the audience was almost audible, the obvious tightening of muscles, clenching of jaws, silent gasps.
"Upon arrival, you will be asked to sign a form stating your consent," the voice, "and as soon as we have all of our guests, the ship will take off."
The fluidity of the whole operation told me we had no time to lose: within minutes we had all left the room and were faced with ten stalls, each with a person at a desk. We formed orderly queues and signed our consent forms. I stayed with Jacob, feeling quite lost and knowing that he would help me. Well, I thought he would help me.
"Edward," Jacob whispered, "I'm really sorry to leave you but…," then he raised his voice, "I CAN'T DO THIS!"
Everyone faced him as he ran towards the doors. Suddenly, others began running for the doors, until about a third of them seemed to have changed their mind. It was a little disappointing that they decided against leaving this planet, but it couldn't be helped.
Of course, as a gunshot rang through the cavernous room I knew I was wrong. Dreading what I would see, I turned around. There, lying on the floor in a rapidly expanding pool of blood was a young woman. Screams of outrage and fear erupted from the people, almost all of them turning to leave. A few more gunshots were heard, but no culprit. Silence fell.
"The human race needs to survive," the voice we had heard said, "we need all of you to board the ship. We regret having to restrain some of you."
"Restrain?"
"You fucking killed them!"
"Let us the fuck go!"
"However," the voice continued, "we assure you that we had no intention of harming you. It is only that we think that a quick clean death would be better than years and years of suffering upon this wretched planet."
The men with guns appeared from behind doors and ushered the people forward, getting them to sign forms with tears on their face, blood on their clothes. We signed the forms, all of us, and walked through a hallway with a window. People pressed themselves up against the window for a better view. I didn't care anymore. For out of all the people that signed the forms, Jacob wasn't one of them. And as we left, I saw them, the people who did this, dragging his body away. So I didn't look at the space ship, at its majestic wonder. We all shuffled forward, shocked and appalled.
However, whilst they looked at the space ship, there was an awful irony I did realise: violence has driven us into more violence. I realised the truth that day: violence is not the ruin of humans, humans are.
End of Part Two