Written ca. 1998 for 9th grade English class.

September 5, 2063

My name is Blaine and the worst trip on Earth just ended.  It all began in the year 2013 on the twenty sixth of October in the bus depot in West Jordan.  I was with my two best friends Icarus and Aaron.  We were about to get on the bus heading for the airport in Salt Lake.

We put our luggage in the compartments on the bottom of the bus.  Then we got on board the bus.  The trip was going fine, until after the first mile that is.  At that time the engine exploded.  Everyone got off the bus.  Then the whole entire bus exploded.  Flames burst everywhere.  However no one was hurt.  We waited for about a half hour until another bus came to pick us up.  The rest of the trip to the airport was fine.  Except for the fact that our luggage blew up with the first bus so we had none.

After paying for our tickets for the plane, we got on board.  The plane took off and after ten minutes of flight I realized something was wrong.  Icarus was gone; he had never boarded the plane.

Then came the worst part.  A message came over the plane’s intercom saying alien hijackers were taking over the plane.  They changed the plane’s course to straight up, in a heading towards mars.  I knew that the aliens didn’t realize that the plane would explode after a certain elevation.  I had to stop them.  It tried to get up but I fell to the back of the plan and fell through a door into a room filled with parachutes.  I told everyone to come back there and put on a parachute.  They all did.  I strapped mine on and jumped along with everyone else.  All of their chutes opened.

As I pulled the cord to my chute nothing happened.  I saw the Earth coming close, closer, and closer.  In that instant I remembered the emergency cord.  I ripped it out.  It tore off but he chute did not come out.  I screamed, “NO.”  Then this bird came and landed on my chute pack and it opened it.  With my chute open I felt safe but I was still moving fast.  Was the chute working?  Then I felt myself slow down.  Son I hit the ground, hard.  I met up with Aaron down below.

After walking for an hour Aaron and I found a road.  A jeep passed us by.  We flagged after it and it stopped.  Icarus was driving it.  He picked us up and we drove forever, and ever.  We never found civilization again.  We had somehow gotten sucked into an alternate dimension with no life forms.  For fifty years the three of us have searched this strange earth for any sign of life.  Eating only fruits and vegetables we manage to live.  I can write no more on this journey.  I hope to see civilization again.