Super Sonic   +  writing challenge

The Muse Wars- Challenge Six

Mushi mushi,

The Muse Wars is back!

Originally the brilliant idea of Melissa at The Things I'd Tell You, christened the Muse Wars by the MadMother when she set Challenge Two. Challenge Three by was set by the Menopausal Mumma, Challenge Four by yours truly. Challenge Five was set by the muchly awesome Gemma at Sometimes You Just Need To Vent.

And this one, Challenge Six, was again set by Kakka at Menopausal Mumma. Could you tell I couldn't be arsed doing all the links again and just copied and posted that whole last paragraph off my Challenge Five post? Thought so.

Anyway, your mission, should you chose to accept it- 500 words (ish) on this picture. First one in picks the next challenge. Anyone can play- just pop a comment up on Kakka's post when you're done.

And away we go...

La Lotteria

A whole new world.

It was a phrase you heard all the time. "A whole new world of this, a whole new world of that". Very few people, he thought, understood the true meaning.

At least, until now.

The air here was warm. As was the water. Always bath temperature, smelling of sulfur. It was midday and this planet's sun was at it's brightest. Yet it looked like twilight.

Could they really live here? All of them? For how long?

There were now 15 ooo inhabitants on this previously un-colonized planet of Zantaria. All of them were winners, so to speak. Winners of La Lotteria.

Earth was dead. That was an irrefutable fact, had been for the last 200 years. There was nothing left there, no food, little water. Earth's sun got hotter and hotter.

People were dieing. Slowly at first, then famine ran through countries like wildfire, eating up entire cities.

That was when they announced La Lotteria.

There was a planet, they said. One they had been sending missions to, manned but top secret, for years now. The atmosphere was air, breathable. There was water, drinkable water, more water than land. The geography of Zantaria consisted of millions of tiny islands, connected by water just deep enough to run a boat on.

But there was a catch. The trip there took years. The earth would simply not survive that long. And there was only enough space vessels for 15 000 people.

And so, La Lotteria, the random selection, began.

It took a week. Numbers drawn every day, families split apart, people left in desperation when their number was missed by one or two digits. A winning number for an adult allowed them to take one child, and one child only, with them.

It was at that point Ben began to thank the gods that he and his wife had stopped at just one.

Chaos. Anarchy. The world, falling apart. Ben's number is drawn. His wife's is not.

Ben, and his young son, stand ankle deep in the warm water of Zantaria. They can hear people in the distance, proof they are not alone, as much as it feels like it.

Other winners of La Lotteria. More of the lucky ones.