“After the Uprising, we had no choice but to go off-planet. My whole life was packed in a bag. I went to the bathroom after checking in at Port Orion. First time I’d gotten a chance to look at myself in days. My face was covered in soot and blood; I was so weak I could barely focus on my image in the mirror. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t muster the energy; the deadness I escaped weighed on me like an anchor. My heart still beating like I was in danger. Hell, until we’d land off-world, I guess we still were. I sat in the lobby, waiting for the calls for departure. I know there were other survivors there with me, but in every memory I have of that place, I was alone. I felt alone. My life as I knew it was over.”