A visible gas fell out as the hypersleep chamber began to open. I was groggy from waking up from the few years of hypersleep on my way to Mars. I walked down the halls of the spaceship, it's oddly silent. Am I the first to wake up? We should be entering Mars' atmosphere by now, right? The lights on the floor guide me to the command room and I see everyone standing there with blank faces. What happened that could make them like this?

"Enma, what's wrong?" I asked.

"W-w-w-we m-missed."

"What did we miss?"

"M-m-m-Mars..."

Silence filled the room, like seawater at the bottom of the ocean as the pressure breaks the window of a submarine and drowns everything out. Quiet. The air so still. It's like death was sitting among us and the first person to move would be killed by his scythe. But I am fearless. Not even death scares me.

"Well can't we turn around?" I replied.

"There's not enough fuel to do that, we only had enough to get to Mars." Enma said.

He looked so old when he said it, like a man who has just been told he has stage four cancer he looked dead on the inside. Soulless was the best word to describe his appearance.

"We're all going to die here in space. We barely have enough power to even keep the ship at room temperature. It's already getting colder and we might all just freeze to death." Enma hopelessly cried.

Is it cold? The tips of their fingers were so pale. Breaths visible to the naked eye. Cracked lips. The thermometer on the wall showed that it was 5°C. I have never known what feeling cold is like. I was born with ice powers, so the cold is really all I've known. After World War III, the Earth became so toxic that 90% of all Earth life died. Most of humanity died or left for Mars to try and colonize it as their last hope. Due to the intense radiation during the time my mother was pregnant, I wasn't exactly normal. I've never been normal, so I often felt alone. But now, I didn't feel alone. We all had that horrible feeling in our guts, the kind when you know that it's the end. But I had a sudden idea.

"What if we just stay in our hypersleep pods?" I said

Someone in the command room gave me a funny look and mouthed "why the fuck?"

"How would that solve a goddamn thing Yuki?" Enma aggressively replied.

"The hypersleep pods can store a human for as long as they have a charge, and they each have their own nuclear battery that can last for over 1000 years," I quickly explained.

"What the fuck is sleeping for a couple thousand years going to do?"

"Right now we're drifting in space, right? So if we keep drifting we'll eventually be pulled in by something with a big enough gravitational pull."

"That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard."

"But it wins by default, since no one else has a better idea, plus if we don't do something quick you're all going to get frostbite."

The temperature was already at -10°C and the tips of their fingers were beginning to darken due to frostbite.

"It is getting colder, and I can't feel my fingers anymore. This idea of yours is probably our only option," Enma finally agreed.

Everyone was dead silent, except for the shivering and teeth chattering.

"Alright everyone, I guess you should all go back into your hypersleep pods."

One by one everyone quickly walked back to their pods. One pod closed after another and everyone went to sleep. I stepped into mine and selected the options to wake me up when a gravitational force is detected. Then, a mist filled the chamber and numbers counted down from 10 to 1.

10

9

8

7

6

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5

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4

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