ESCAPE FROM PLANET TEZ

-Part two of the story-

Soana

Empty, flat faces, completely devoid of emotion. Artificial smiles, staged just to keep
everything seemingly normal. An emotional void like a soulful hell threatening to
explode. One day, but not just yet. More inner rage needs to accumulate. Fortunately,
and with a necessary dose of hope and desire, I will be long gone by the time it
happens. I would like, however, to check in every now and then when I’m a bit older
to see what my planet and the life on it look like. I will be far away, happy and
fulfilled, watching events unfold here with perhaps a touch of nostalgia. And I know
that this cocoon will shatter at some point. I feel sorry, and yet I don’t. I’m sorry if
violence breaks out, which is almost inevitable. I’m not sorry because my fellow
planetarians will wake up and come to their senses. Perhaps my very escape will
trigger those events.

Today I intentionally spilled a little liquid on a paper belonging to my classmate. I call
her a friend even though we aren’t friends, but lacking a better word, I’ll use that one. I
did it in a way that made it look like an accident. Tena, left without paper to write on,
looked at me, smiled, and said that everything was fine and not to worry, she wasn’t
angry. It fascinated me how there wasn’t a single sign of dissatisfaction, anger, or
anything on her face that would show me she disapproved of what I did. Her smile-
fake, of course-didn’t conceal bitterness. It concealed emptiness. And I didn’t even
apologize for my mischief.

Today I found a new planet. Distant, already dying, at the end of its strength. It has
perhaps a couple hundred of our phases left. I don’t know how they calculate time. I
didn’t want to find out any details; I just wanted to admire it. Still, my restless gaze
did pass over the name of the star. It’s called Earth. What a splendid name for a planet.
It’s a pity it doesn’t have much time left. Otherwise, our three-member gang might
have gone right there.

Dear reader of this text, wherever you are while reading this, do not worry.
Everything will be clear to you in the end. This is just an introduction that we won’t
drag out. The reason and the need to explain why. We will get to the how as well. An
important note: There is, of course, a possibility that we won’t succeed in our
intention. If the Authority catches us before the finish line, all three of us will choose
destruction. There is no doubt about that. Captivity won’t change anything; only the
location of our existence will be different.

I know that these writings of mine are a bit chaotic. I jump from topic to topic, from
event to event. I’m not much of a writer, more of a recorder.

How did I realize that Rol was just like me, a seeker of freedom and a life worth
living? By the sighs. It is very hard to remain absolutely calm while dissatisfaction
boils inside you. You fight to keep all the negativity within yourself. You wait to be
alone to let it out, so no one sees you, thinks you’re strange and suspicious, and
reports you to the Authority You can learn to live with that. What kind of life that is, though, is a good question. There comes a moment when you decide you can no
longer function that way. You come to terms with the fact and the consequence. And
you sigh. When it happened to him for the first time, a fairly long time ago now, I
looked at him in surprise. I asked him if he was okay. He said everything was fine, but
that he had some internal issues. I already knew him quite well back then. We lived a
few minutes away from each other and saw each other every day. I dropped the
subject, not insisting on further clarification. After a while, he sighed again. I noticed
it happened when events that irritated me were taking place. Someone says something
stupid yet appropriate. Someone laughs artificially. Praises the Authority Talks about
false, arranged communities of adult lives. I didn’t dare ask him, in case I had
misunderstood his inner rebellion. And then, one day, relatively close to the present
moment, I sighed in front of him. That was the first time I saw him laugh completely
genuinely, freely, without restraint. He realized at that moment that he had found a
like-minded person—someone who doesn’t accept things as they are served, someone
who wants to live life to the fullest. We waited for the next sigh, for a new comrade-
in-arms. And we didn’t have to look for long. I won’t speak here about the day
Mremor joined us; I’ll leave that to him.

I would like to add a couple more minor notes. There is a clear plan on how to escape. A specific spacecraft, the guard who will be watching it at that given moment.
Excuses for why we leave the house at night. Exactly which things to bring and which
to leave at home. Which route to take to reach the ship, how to trick the guard. The
only thing we haven’t decided on yet is the destination. We agreed to let it be
spontaneous. Though, that spontaneity will have to be very brief. We will have only a
few minutes to decide before the guard realizes something strange is going on. We
won’t explain the whole plan to you or write it down as dry text. We will tell it
through the events that will follow from the moment we wake up that day all the way
to the decisive moment, the one that will determine and, hopefully, change the rest of
our lives.

The day when my parents will announce to whom I have been promised is
approaching. When a girl completes the first sixteenth of her life, her parents inform
her with whose family they have made a deal, whose son they have designated to be
her life partner. The very idea of that day brings nausea to my stomach. Another layer
of this very complex and multi-layered prison we live in here. Of course, I won’t live
to see that day here. I will either be very far away or I won’t be alive. And that’s just
how it is.

I now hand the pen over to Mremor, who will briefly tell you the introduction to his
story, and then we move on to the main thing: the realization of the plan and the
escape from this beautiful, yet so cursed planet.

It isn’t easy being an outcast.

-End of Part 2-