“Has she gone?” Danny asked, only just managing to utter the words through the shower of tears that had formed from his eyes and that were making his nostrils bubble.
“Yes” Auton replied after a few seconds, “She is safely in the craft”.
The others still weren't sure, but they had no options left. Auton removed the needle and looked over to wait for the next volunteer, while asking them to move Monique's lifeless shell from where she had been sat. Brandon and Mike duly walked over. Mike gave her a kiss on her cheek, before they carefully placed her body away.
“I'll go next” Gina said, “I'm not brave; I'd just like to get it over with”.
She darted over to the craft and sat in the same position as Monique, the same heavy nervous breathing taking over.
“But please guys; don't look at me until I'm gone. I don't want you all looking at my face in case I look funny, like my tongue rolls out or something weird” She said, looking around at them all, making sure to catch eye contact.
“Okay” Jarrah replied.
“Promise?”
They all nodded and turned away. That was the cue for Auton to reach once more for the needle and then move it towards the base of her skull.
“I love you guys” Gina said through a few sniffles.
Then there were more deep breaths, followed by shallow breaths, followed by silence. They all waited for Auton; for his prompt that it was all done. Another thirty seconds later, the silence was broken by his confirmation. Mike and Brandon moved her body to the side, placing her gently next to Monique. It was getting easier for them now, easier to drag up the courage to take the leap, but not easier to accept what it was they were doing. Jarrah was next, followed by James and then Samir. In the far distance they could see more bombs, far, far away, but large enough to just about make out. The landscape nearest to them was still as lush as ever, so far untainted by man's stupidity, but the bombs were getting closer.
“We need to hurry up guys” Sheryl said, aware they were thinking too much about it, “We don't have much time”.
As soon as she said that, they heard another bomb, louder, closer. The ground below them rumbled again, as if an earthquake was rising up and rippling around them. This got their attention focused and Emma ran over to the craft, settling herself down at the patch of trampled grass in front of it. Another forty seconds and she was placed carefully aside, giving Mike his chance to go digital. The sound of bombs was getting increasingly louder, and the vibrations more intense. It was now getting critical. Everyone took deep breaths, waiting their turns patiently. Mateo was next, he joked about how he would take longer than forty seconds, his whole life, knowledge and experience was more than forty seconds, he was sure of it. He kissed Mariam like it was the first time he had ever seen her and reassured her that they would be together again soon, words that left her weeping uncontrollably. She just couldn't help it, doubts still pressed against the corners of her mind, she couldn't shake them off.
Mateo was wrong, forty seconds was all it took before he had been 'crafted'. Mariam ran over and kissed his body one more time, before he was respectfully moved aside, and she instantly took his place. She didn't want to spend another minute here without her love, and forty more seconds was all it took to be reunited. Mike was next, followed by Olivia, each of them reassured by the others who had gone. It didn't look painful, no one cried out, so even if it didn't work, it was better than being roasted by hydrogen isotopes.
The process was getting quicker, more work-like, the urgency bearing down on them, the sounds of bombs filling the air. Emma followed, then David, followed by Brandon. It was still only forty seconds for each of them, the amount of time seeming crazy to those left, but in the age of super-fast processing, the amount of information that was transferable was astonishing.
“Okay, just you and me” Sheryl said to Danny, after they had managed to finally pull Brandon aside, boy was he heavy they thought.
“I should let you go first, it's called chivalry” He said managing an uneasy smile, to which Sheryl shook her head.
“No. You are my team. I brought you all here, you must go first” She replied.
Danny objected a few times, but Sheryl told him to stop, they didn't have time for this. He finally sat down, taking the same position as the others, his turn to anxiously breathe deeply. He said goodbye to Sheryl and the process began, his eyes eventually looking blank before closing. As he closed them, he distinctly thought he heard another louder explosion, and the ground thunder underneath his lightened body. Then he was pulled away, as far from that sound as he could ever imagine being. Sheryl looked back across the valley, the force of the last blast nearly knocking her off her feet.
“I have an alert on my systems” Auton shouted, “A missile is heading this way; we have less than a minute”.
Sheryl ran towards the craft, and then stopped dead in her tracks.
“You have to launch now” She told him.
“But what about you? We need to get you on-board” Auton replied, knowing that every moment they wasted discussing this was derailing everything they had been working to accomplish.
“No, we don't have time to get us both on, you know that. You're the crucial part of all of this, go now” She said, “You have my DNA, just make
