Before, when I remembered Mars and my mom there and how she and my friend Rawling McTigre were millions and millions of miles away. Before, when I hoped and prayed my dad was okay wherever he was. But before, even at my loneliest, at least I had my best friend, Ashley, nearby. And now she isn’t. Or at least she won’t be when her parents take her away. In the darkness, I stared at my computer screen and rubbed my face. I had been given a standard sleeping room somewhere in the depths of the military base. Two soldiers stood outside in the hallway to guard my room. It felt like I was in a prison cell again. I kept seeing Ashley’s stunned face and feeling the grip of her hand on mine. What would it be like, I asked myself again, to meet parents you didn’t remember? When she’d left the room with them, she’d stared back at me with a sad and scared face. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. As a result, I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I’d decided to add to my journals. These had begun when the dome on Mars started to run out of oxygen.
