Evacuated

He rubbed his nose as he thought through the rest of the family. "Pod four is my Cousin Tracy Allford aged twenty two and my sister, Claire Canford who is also aged twenty two. Then there will be Pod five my Aunt Lyne Trafford aged fifty seven and my uncle Todd Trafford aged fifty nine. Pod six will be Lisa's Aunt Silvia Turner aged fifty four and her uncle Graham Turner who is... now let me see I believe that he is now... fifty five?" He looked at Lisa who nodded quickly.

"Then there will be Pod seven my cousin Patrick Trafford aged twenty four and my cousin Paul Trafford aged twenty six. Pod eight will be Lisa's cousin Tania Turner aged thirty eight and her partner Tod Rollins aged forty two. Pod nine will be Todd's son Callum Rollings aged nineteen and Tania's daughter Cassandra Turner aged fourteen."

He paused to run it through his mind again. "Now let me see... who's left now... ah yes... Pod Ten will be Lisa's sister Laura Tenor aged thirty three and her husband Pete Tenor aged thirty five. Pod eleven will be my brother David Canford aged twenty five and Laura's and Pete's son Brad Tenor – that is Lisa's nephew, aged fourteen... and finally there will be Pod twelve Laura's Daughter Lucy Tenor aged fourteen and Pete's sister Charlotte Pettiford aged thirty two."

"Charlotte? Ah yes she was added on afterwards wasn't she?" Phil murmured referring to a note at the bottom of his chart.

Sean stepped closer and his voice dropped. "Charlotte was recently widowed, and she had not originally planned to come," he said softly. "But when the numbers hadn't matched up enough, and poor Lucy had looked to be either travelling alone or being forced to share as a third with another couple... well Pete had piled on every guilt trick in the book that he could think of onto his sister, and well eventually Charlotte had taken pity on Lucy and agreed to accompany her."

Phil looked across at the pale brunette. She was a tall graceful looking woman with such an air of tragedy about her that he was afraid she might break at any point.

He cleared his throat as he looked around at the people gathered. "We are nearly ready for flower one to take off, so can all of you who are registered for it, go through the cleansing routine now please."

As people stood up and began to move towards the showers at the back of the recently constructed building, he looked down at Lisa.

"Did you bring your doctor's certificate with you?" he asked a little awkwardly. "The other women all gave me theirs as they arrived."

A light blush filled her cheeks, as she opened her bag, and pulled out the paperwork there.

"Yes of course, here it is... he said the necessary page was the last one."

That page ran down a check list of Lisa's health, and concluded with the fact that a pregnancy test, and an ultrasound scan had come back with a negative result, and that he had given her, and witnessed her swallowing, a contraceptive pill, to ensure that no conception would occur whilst she was in her long term sleep status.

All women had been forced to do the test and take the pill, even women who were well into their menopause or beyond.

Lisa could well understand the precaution, and was more than happy to take the pill, but it still left her feeling violated in some way.

The shower was not the most pleasant experience of her life, with the sponge that she was given, scratching at her skin. The soap had an antiseptic smell to it, and the shower that sprayed down over her was cold and heavy, battering her with large drops of water.

Finally it was over though and she stepped out thankfully to wrap the thick coarse towel around her dripping body.

She moved through to the changing room to find a small pile of clothes neatly folded and sitting there as if waiting for her.

She patted her skin dry with the towel, and then rubbed at her hair vigorously before dropping the towel down onto the bench and then pulling on the clothes.

The white, cotton jumpsuit was soft and cool, and the papery briefs underneath did little to ward of the damp chill that seem to cling to this metal warehouse.

She brushed her hair out, and then quickly plaited it and wrapped it around her head to keep it out of her way. She was wearing a functional plain jumpsuit and she had absolutely no makeup on, but the plait made her look like she was wearing a crown, and she looked pretty and feminine despite the lack of adornments.

She gave a little shiver as she wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to ward of that chill, and she turned suddenly and walked quickly from the room, to go searching for her husband.

Sean was waiting for her outside as she left the changing rooms, and his anxious look melted into a look of hopeless adoration, and he tight mouth turned up into a reassuring smile as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into his embrace.

"So beautiful," he mumbled into her neck.

She sighed as his body heat took away the cold, and she knew that as long as Sean was with her, then everything else was – doable.

Phil was referring to a chart, but as her group assembled and they all seemed ready, he smiled and beckoned to them.

"Come on then let's get you all aboard your pods, you launch time is fast approaching."

He looked at Mike's group and spoke loud enough to catch their attention. "If the second launch party can begin their cleansing and preparation, I will be back to fetch you in... two hours, so try to be ready by then."

As he spoke there was suddenly an almost deafening roar. "That'll be the first of the supply launches," he declared cheerfully. "Two more will go up in quick succession, and then it will be the turn of the flowers."

As they walked across the field, Lisa could see the rocket that was rising almost majestically into the sky.

Miles away, she could see the glint of another massive rocket, and in another direction another one.

The roar was slowly decreasing, as their rocket travelled away from them, and she gave a little wobbly smile. "Is that how were are going up?" she asked nervously.

Phil grinned casually. "No the supply launches are different to the pods... much bigger and heavier, and more robust. They need some force to get them off the ground, which is why they are done separately to the people pods, also the main rocket will return to earth once it has released the supply station, it will return to the launch pad, and be used again tomorrow for another supply station."

He looked over his shoulder to her parents, and his gaze lingered briefly on Sean's sister, Claire.

Lisa knew that the two of them had seen a lot of each other over the last few months, and she smiled as Claire looked at Phil shyly, and then down at the ground. She sighed regretfully at what their budding romance had promised to become... but then again who was to say it could not continue?

*

Lisa recognised their pod immediately, since it had the great big, number one in a vibrant red paint, and then with a thick red circle around it, as if to emphasise that it was the first pod.

"Here we are," Phil murmured as he referred to his chart. "Sean can you assist your parents into pod three, while I help Lisa's parents into pod two."

And so the moment had come!

Lisa felt her eyes brimming with tears as she stepped across quickly to her parents. She hugged them both tight as she tried to say goodbye without it sounding so final.

"I'll see you both very soon!" she smiled tearfully, as her sister joined their small group to say her own goodbyes.

"Of course you will," he dad said gruffly. "At least it will seem like it, since we will all be sleeping through most of the journey."

It took perhaps ten minutes before Sean and Phil came out of the two pods. Phil had a quick discussion with Sean, and then climbed into the pod which Sean had just come out of.

"That's pods two and three taken care of, they are all locked in and already sound asleep," Phil declared with a satisfied little nod. "Now for pods four and five..."

Sean took care of his Aunt and uncle and Phil smiled across at Claire and held out his hand to her.

"Who will you be travelling with" he asked warmly, trying to sound casually interested even though he already knew the answer.

Clair looked over her shoulder at her cousin Tracey who smiled at Phil a little ruefully.

"Claire and I grew up together – and so it seemed a good idea for us to travel together... but now I am thinking perhaps that was a mistake?"

Phil laughed lightly. "No I think that was a very good idea, if you want to come with me I will get you settled into your pod."

Tracey climbed into the pod first and then Claire and finally Phil.

It took him nearly twenty minutes before he came back out, and Sean who had already emerged from the other pod, was about to stick his head in to see what the problem might be.

Lisa grabbed his arm.

"Give them a few minutes to say goodbye," she whispered. "I'll bet you any money that Tracey is already asleep and Claire and Phil are making the most of this last bit of privacy."

Sure enough Phil surfaced about five minutes later, and there was a suspicious hint of moisture around his eyes, and his expression was sombre.

"Everything all right?" Sean asked sympathetically.

Phil sighed and then shrugged his shoulders. "Yes I guess so... right then, lets tick them off – that's pod four – done and safely asleep and cocooned, what about pod five?"

Sean nodded. "Yes, pod five – asleep and cocooned too."

As they stood there, there was another ferocious roar, and the ground trembled as another of those huge rockets was blasted off, and way off into the far distance, the sun glinted on other metal vessels, which were also launching into space.

Phil looked at the rocket as it rose up close by, and then a flash of recognition lit his features.

"You see that purple band circling near the top of the cylinder, just below the cone head?" He said pointing. "That's our docking station control centre. My friend will be piloting that one."

He looked at his chart again. "Right then... pods six and seven – let's get you tucked in."

They took less that ten minutes this time, and Phil and Sean both looked at the chart.

"Pod six, asleep and cocooned," Sean said, before Phil could ask.

Phil nodded and ticked a box.

"And Pod seven – asleep and cocooned," he said as he ticked another box.

Pods eight, nine, ten and eleven were all done in quick succession. Although some of the farewells were emotional and threatened to drag out, Phil and Sean kept things moving, until there was just Lisa, her young niece Lucy who had recently celebrated her fourteenth birthday, and Charlotte.

"It's our time to go now," Lisa said softly to the other two. "Are we ready?"

They both smiled a little anxiously, and then the three of them hugged each other.

"See you both soon," Charlotte murmured tearfully.

"See you both soon," the other two replied.

"Are you ready?" Phil echoed Lisa without realising, and the three women giggled.

"Yes," Charlotte declared suddenly as she threw back her shoulders and draped a comforting arm across Lucy's young shoulders. "Come on love, let's take a ride."

Sean helped Lisa into their pod, and waited whilst she climbed out of the cotton jumpsuit. The papery briefs and crop top were thin, but good enough to protect her modesty, and she was thankful for that – more for the other women, who would have had to undress in the presence of Phil and Sean, in the little space that the pods offered.

Sean waited until she had folded the overall up, and stowed it in the pouch under her seat.

"Sit down, and I will hook you up," he said trying to sound as impersonal with her as he had with all the others. He had quickly realised that a calm assured tone did much more to sooth and reassure, than an emotional familiarity tone.

Lisa was having none of that however, as with a little cry she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down so that she could kiss him almost desperately on the lips.

"Hey now!" He exclaimed after enjoying it for a few seconds. "Don't you start getting me hot under the collar now!"

"I just want you to know," she said as she held onto him tightly. "That no matter what happens... you were and always will be the love of my life!"

He smiled crookedly at her. "Thank you, and that goes for me too. This world or any other – it has nothing to offer me if you are not there by my side."

There were so many things that Lisa suddenly wanted –neededto tell him, but Sean sighed and pulled away as he shook his head.

"We will have lots of time to talk, about anything and everything, we will spend hours talking – just you and me... but now Lisa, now it is time for you to go to sleep."

He gave her one last hug, and then gently pushed her down onto the chair.

He had become almost an expert at this by now, and he talked calmly to his terrified wife as he hooked things up, and she did not even realise the moment when she became drowsy, although she gave a sleepy little sigh as the plastic covering slowly wrapped around her, and her eyelids fluttered and then closed.

He was just taking off his own jumpsuit when Phil's head appeared in the small hatchway.

"Everything good in here?" he asked carefully.

Sean looked across at his sleeping wife, now safely cocooned like the rest. "Yes I am just about to get in the other chair," he said emotionlessly.

"Here, I'll help you," Phil waited for him to sit in the seat, and then he climbed fully into the pod.

"Thanks, Phil, I never thought about having to do it for myself."

"It's a pain, but not impossible... I had to do it a few times myself before they trusted me to supervise everyone else."

"Yes, I can see that, and I know exactly how it works - of course," Sean sighed as he lay back in the chair.

"It's just easier for someone else to do it for you," Phil grinned as he picked up the central control pad, and slipped it into the arm rest next to Sean.

"You will wake up a good half an hour before everyone else in your flower, but only ten minutes before your wife, and then each of the others will stir in five minute intervals after that; but it is all automated, all you will need to do is be there – for her and the others, where you can."

"Okay that sounds straightforward," Sean nodded as he felt the plastic rippling around him. He looked up at Phil and even as his eyelids become heavy he grinned. "That was sneaky," he slurred.

Phil waited until the cocoon was completely sealed and then he pressed a button which sent the two chairs into the imprints on the floor of the pod.

"That's Pods twelve and one asleep and cocooned," he murmured into the silence as he ticked the boxes on the clip board.

He looked around the now smooth and seemingly empty pod, and gave a shiver as the eeriness washed over him once more. The pod seemed as abandoned as this planet soon would be

"Best of luck, my friends," he muttered as he stepped back and then turned to the hatchway.

**

He stood and watched as the twelve pods all latched on the huge circular engine piece – a pod and living area in its own right... and lots more besides.

Phil was still in awe of what man seemed capable of when the need cropped up. The imagination and ingenuity that led to what was probably man's greatest achievement. The ability to leave this world and survive in space... to travel to another world eventually, and to survive and flourish there too.

A loud whirring noise suddenly started up, as the pods began the rotation that would lift the flower off the ground.

In the distance he could see another flower rising up into the sky, and as he turned, he faintly heard, and then saw another.

The whirring got faster, and the flower – slowly and almost clumsily at first, began to lift of the ground, but then it was as if it suddenly became lighter, and it rose up into the air.

He could see it as it stalled for a moment, and the spinning petals of the flower began to tilt inwards, and Phil was reminded of the petals of a flower – closing for the night. These petals did not entirely close though; they came together to make a point, as the centre spun around faster and faster, until suddenly the flower cone, shot up into the sky, going higher and higher until it eventually disappeared from sight.

Phil gave a little sigh of relief that it had achieved orbit safely, and then turned around to go and find the next lot. The sooner he got them off the ground and into space, then the sooner he could get his own flower up there, where he could join up with his friends once more, where he could join with the pod that carried Claire.

**

Within months, hundreds of thousands of those flowers had left the ground, taking with them the population, it took months – years to achieve but at last – at long last, there were no flowers left to fly, no people left to take.

It had been difficult – no seemingly impossible at first – it had taken over a decade to achieve, and then the actual departure of the citizens, in the end it took years more in total; but they did it, they managed to safely remove almost the entire population of the country.

Other countries managed to find their own ways as well, and so enough humans would survive, would live on, to remember a time, a time when an entire planet had been evacuated.

The end