The Debate

The Debate

 

Chapter 1

 

It was a dark and stormy night; this terrible weather’s arrival was absolutely shocking as it was the middle of May! Although, in England the weather was utterly unpredictable, it shocked majority of the people living there.

 

On my way back from work, I finally got time to think of situation not related to the documents I was working on at work and occupied my mind with rising family issues. Overloading with so many thoughts my mind couldn’t possibly digress to this sudden change in weather. Just as I was about to step out of the car; I noticed a hooded figure standing motionlessly at the edge of the forest, it sent me into a sort of trance that took away any control on my senses… noticing this I fought to get back my senses. Too preoccupied with my fight I didn’t notice the figure moving towards me. A boost of adrenaline that shot through me made me grab my handbag and car keys as quickly as possible, and shoot out of the car to the safety of my home. With the key half turned, I sneaked a glance back and immediately regretted it. What I saw was a pair of bloodshot eyes and what I smelled was indescribable. It was a mixture of all the worst odors one could possibly think of, I couldn’t help but wrinkle my nose in disgust. As my nose adjusted to the terrible smell; my eyes grew weaker by the second as they stared into the bright red eyes. No other part of it seemed to show any sign of colour, as it was draped in some sort of jet-black cloak. For a moment I thought that this was just a twenty nine year olds imagination taking over his stressed mind, but a malicious growl from the source of the odor said otherwise.

 

Thereafter my instincts caught up to me; not looking back once after my previous encounter with the creature, I threw the door open and within ten seconds I was inside my tiny home and was with all my effort slamming the door shut on the hooded figure’s face. I bolted all the possible entrances including the windows, and flopped into my bed fully dressed, ready to run, as if deep down I knew that trapping myself inside the house would in no way prevent the creature from entering! As if I were a child scared of darkness, I peeked out from the edge of my duvet. My mind registered all the otherwise familiar things as something unusual, making me doubt the safety of my own house. The door to the room’s handle turned silently, and there in the doorway stood… the hooded creature.

 

I screamed… as loud as I could but half way through the scream I realized that no sound had left my mouth! The creature’s shadow seemed to be creeping up closer to me… it wasn’t like it was walking more like it was drifting toward me. I couldn’t imagine a creature so hideous moving so elegantly. As if in answer to my question the creature very steadily lifted his hood, and there standing in front of me was the most beautiful face I had seen, this could definitely not be the creature I had confronted earlier. Mesmerized by this face I didn’t even realize when the creature effortlessly took me in her arms and before we disappeared, unknowingly I had taken the last glimpse of my normal life.

 

Chapter 2

 

The next time I woke up I was in a bed surrounded by golden curtains and through a gap in them I could see sunlight streaming in through I tiny window. Then something shifted at my feet, a tiny women with the face I had been mesmerized by earlier was now staring at me as if I were a long lost friend who she’d met after a couple of years! Then she spoke, in a voice so melodious, she sang “Dear Amy, I’m sure you are wondering why exactly I’ve brought you here all of a sudden but as time will come by you will understand what the consequences would have been if you had stayed back in that torturous world of yours.” “You see we are not the only people who are hunting you down… we need people like you to keep our precious human civilization intact.”

 

I had lost her when she had said ‘people like you’… what did she mean? Curious to see myself being precious to unknown people I asked her, “Um… what do you mean when you say ‘people like you’?” She laughed, “Well… it just means that you are one out of hundreds of thousands of people who have been chosen to convince humans to leave that endangered planet of theirs and inhabit their moon. After all you are a very successful lawyer!”

 

My mind was stunned… I had to convince the WHOLE world to move to the moon?! I think my face gave away my denial because her face turned into a frown. Ignoring this I thought of the pros and cons… after a good ten minutes I counted them up and to my pleasure the pros were larger. So then I grinned towards her now hopeful face and said “Let’s go talk to the world shall we?”

 

I had thought that this was going to be just us talking to the world but to my dismay I heard of the opponents. The creature that I had slammed the door at was part of that team. I was given two days for preparation, before I had to speak to the people of the world. When I had asked how the important inhabitants of earth were to be assembled together for this meeting, I had been told not to worry about things besides the work given to me. And I was happy with that… I already had the stress of so much workload to deal with!

 

I was oblivious to the fact that the two days given to me for preparation had expired so quickly! I had been pushed to the brink of exhaustion but still had kept going. Nothing had stopped me, I had pushed myself; kept going; kept searching for facts to prove my fight to not only be about logistics but also of the emotions behind it… and alas the day had come to show my results…

 

Chapter 3

 

“The fact that the human civilization will find it difficult to move to the moon at such short notice and the fact that they will need to start afresh might not be such a great start to so call saving the human civilization, I say we stay at home and fight instead of fleeing.” This was how the opponent had ended his part of the debate.

 

Now it was me who had been called to speak, my hands quivering and with my knees nearly buckling under me, I made my way to the center of the hall, and cleared me throat at the podium and started my speech.

 

“Good Morning everyone present here. Have any of you ever wondered what would it be like to sacrifice something so important to yourselves and start afresh someplace else? Well… starting afresh does have its cons but has anyone of you yet thought of the positive factors of such cases? Starting anew not only gives us a reason to explore but also a reason to push ourselves to our limit to settle in a new environment. Doing this correct the first time makes us stronger and allows us to get through such a change easier the next time or even fight the next time round. Similarly if anyone anywhere has hopes of fighting the next time a phenomenon like this occurs we need to get stronger first! Get all your strength back and then use it to prove to whatever stands in front that you were not running away… you just wanted to find your power again. Those evil creatures that want us to stay back and fight are the ones who will be the first to destroy our planet, so then why should we die with the planet! Therefore sacrificing our precious planet will even give us a reason to fight next time. This change will bring difficulty I agree, but it will give us the reason to live, instead of looking back later and desiring revenge against those who endangered our homeland. Again, don’t think that by leaving for the moon you are fleeing, your doing what you think is the best and what you think will give you what you need to fight tomorrow! Thank you.”

 

At the end of my speech I couldn’t help but smile at the abundant pairs of eyes looking at me in awe and determination. And assuring the feeling of victory inside of me, a huge applause broke out, stating that the ball was in our court. We had won! But the war was not over yet… they would destroy Earth and then come for us… but they’d have to be careful ‘because we’d be ready for them.

 

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