Home - Writer's Cramp - 11-14

Home is where the heart is. Unless you're hungry.

Home

          I didn't think I'd win.

          Not really. How could I? Bill Burke, from a one-stoplight town in the middle of Iowa cornfields, population 977, win the Mars Initiative Lottery? Over seven billion people entered. Math said no. Hope, though... Hope said maybe.

          I was napping on the couch, the ceiling fan spinning lazy circles above me, when the call came. At first, I thought it was a scam. Some AI voice, polished and too clear, delivering the news like a weather report. "Congratulations, Mr. Burke. You have been selected to join humanity's first permanent settlement on Mars."

          I sat up. Sweat on my palms. My heart is knocking like a screen door in a storm.

          Then the news broke.

          Overnight, I wasn't Bill from Burketown Grocery anymore. I was Bill Burke, Mars Pioneer. The little guy with a big dream who actually won. CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera--they camped outside my trailer. My phone buzzed nonstop. Strangers sent gifts, death threats, and marriage proposals.

          I was floating.

          Then I met Jessica Davies.

          They introduced her at the pre-launch orientation in Houston. "Jessica is your final crewmate," said Director Cho. "Brilliant astrophysicist. Fluent in four dead languages. Top of her class at Cambridge."

          She smiled. Polite. Pale. Sharp cheekbones are like cut glass. Dark hair pulled back tight. She shook my hand. Her fingers were cold.

          "Lucky break for you, Bill," she said, voice smooth as oil. "Just a lucky draw."

          Something about her made my skin prickle.

          Training began. Simulations. Zero-gravity drills. Survival modules. Jessica aced everything. Too fast. Too easy. I'd catch her staring at the sky during breaks, not in wonder--but hunger.

          Then came the dreams.

          Not mine. Hers.

          I don't know how it started. Maybe during that neural sync test. Or the biometric scan that linked our vitals to the ship's AI. But one night, I woke up screaming.

          I'd seen red dust. Towering cliffs like cathedral ruins. A city--no, a civilization--buried under sand and time. I saw a ship falling from the sky. Flames. Screams. Then silence.

          And a girl. A woman. Alive. Crawling from the wreckage.

          She stood on a flat stone, looked up at Earth hanging in the dusty sky, and wept.

          I saw her face. It wasn't Jessica's.

          I confronted her in the quarantine chamber two weeks before launch.

          "Those weren't my memories," I said. "But I saw them. I felt them."

          She didn't deny it. Just sipped her tea, eyes on me like a predator sizing up prey.

          "You think this was random, Bill?" she asked. "You think seven billion names went into a hopper and yours just... popped out?"

          My throat tightened. "What are you?"

          She smiled. "I was born under twin suns. My people traveled between stars before your ancestors learned to farm. We came to Earth on the 15th cycle. Curiosity. Exploration. Then... disaster."

          "The crash," I whispered.

          She nodded. "Our ship broke in the atmosphere. I was thrown clear. The rest... died on impact. But I survived. And Earth... Earth changed me."

          "How long?"

          "Five hundred and seventy-three years," she said. "I've worn many faces. Eaten many souls to keep my form. I needed their strength. Their biology. Each time I took someone, I became them. But I never stopped looking for a way home."

          My blood ran cold. "You... ate them?"

          "Not like you think," she said. "It's a merging. A necessity. I don't enjoy it."           "Then the lottery... you rigged it."

          "A simple manipulation," she said. "A whisper in the right ear. A flaw in the algorithm. I only needed one ticket. One body to replace. And you--Bill Burke--were perfect. Unknown. Unremarkable. No one would question your sudden fame."

          I backed away. "You were going to take me. Before launch."

          "I will," she said. "But not yet. I need you until we land. The ship's AI only accepts DNA from all three crewmates to unlock the final descent sequence. Once we're on Mars... I won't need you."

"And then?"

          "Then I return to my people. Or what's left of them? Buried beneath the ice."

          I should've run. Called security. But something held me--curiosity, maybe. Or pity. She wasn't a monster. She was alone. For centuries.

          The launch came.

          I stood beside her in the capsule, heart pounding. Earth shrank below us. Three heroes waving to billions. I saw my face on every screen.

          Jessica leaned close. "Don't worry, Bill. It'll be quick."

          But I wasn't afraid anymore.

          Because I'd spent the last week in her memories. I knew where her people's city lay. I knew the password to their archives. And the ship's AI had synchronized to my neural patterns too.
          When we entered Mars orbit, she moved in for the kill.

          But I was ready.

          I locked the cabin. Activated the emergency protocol. "The AI only accepts a unanimous command," I said. "And I just uploaded a virus. It won't land unless both surviving crew vote."

          Her face twisted. "You don't understand. I have to go home."

          "You're not the only one with secrets," I said. "I've been dreaming of that city too. They're my memories now. And I won't let you erase me."

          Silence.

          Then, slowly, she smiled. Not cruel. Almost... proud.

          "Maybe you are more than you seem, Bill."

          Maybe I am.

          We're on final descent. Mars looms below--a world of rust and ancient secrets.

          She sits across from me. Watching. Waiting.

          And I wonder...

          When we land, who will be left to walk on the red soil?

          Human? Or something older?

          Either way, home is waiting.

          And it's hungrier than either of us realized.

Word Count: 942
Prompt: Write a story about a worldwide lottery to choose 3 people to join a Mars mission. Who gets to go? What happens next?