Manifest Destiny

         There are only five of us left now.  Winslow died last night.  He just closed his eyes and died.  We wrapped him in his sleeping bag and put him outside because nobody has the strength to dig any more graves.  He must be frozen solid by now. 

         I can hardly remember why we thought we wanted to come here in the first place.  I know there were big plans and high hopes.  There were going to be cities here.  We were pioneers going to blaze the trail.  Now here we were, stranded far from Earth.

         I can see the Earth tonight.  The sky is blue on the outside, too.  The whole eastern hemisphere is bathed in sunlight.  It’s beautiful!

         I know it now, I am of the Earth.  The atoms that flow in my veins, beat in my breast, the atoms that think and know and remember, they are the atoms of Earth. 
My dust will not return to the Earth.  My atoms of Earth will be scattered on this lifeless place.  I want to go home! 

         We were going to spread the races of Earth to the Solar System and beyond.  Cities on Mars,  cities on the Moon.  Mankind’s new Manifest Destiny.

         But the supply ship missed the mark and must be way out in space by now. We can’t get home or even let them know what happened.  It’s almost over.  This isn’t how I thought it was going to be.


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