This Side of Paradise

Chapter 2

Aspen stepped onto the ground and took in her surroundings, allowing her eyes to adjust to the brighter, clearer light that the sun gave off.  Her eyes squinted as she looked towards it, something she only did for a moment before the pain it caused her made her look away. She turned her head trying to see if she could find Murphy, she thought that he was still behind her even when she moved to the front of the drop ship, but now she couldn't find him.  She was sure that he would turn up soon, knowing that odds are he was just exploring Earth. The girl still couldn't believe that she was standing on the ground, she had always wanted to see the trees. Her feet moved towards one going to touch it, to feel bark under her fingers for the first time. 

Until she heard Clarke, "Mount Weather, there's a radiation-soaked forest between us and our next meal. They dropped us on the wrong damn mountain." Crap. The girl thought, no one that was on the drop ship has ever probably walked that much let alone carried as much as they were going to need to. Aspen walked over to the spacewalker, Finn and Clarke. Soon to be joined by Wells and a few others.  

"We got problems. The communications system is dead. I went to the roof. A dozen panels are missing. Heat fried the wires." Wells told the small group that was surrounding the map that Clarke was holding.  

"Why would we want to communicate with them anyway? Sorry but they sent us down to earth to die, they really can't care that much." Aspen snarled towards the son of the man who killed her parents, it made worse knowing that he did it to his friends.  

The darker-skinned skin mans face twisted to one of anger and sorrow, probably trying to figure out when his once friend turned so against the Ark, but if he couldn't put it together now he probably never would be able to.  That and he was too involved with his puppy love for Clarke to notice anyone else's feelings.  "You might not want to be able to talk to them, but others probably want to speak with their parents-"

Aspen cut him off, "Not all of us have parents anymore Wells, your father made sure of that."

Before he could respond Clarke butted in, "Well, all that matters right now is getting to Mount Weather. See? Look. This is us. This is where we need to get to if we want to survive." 

Aspen could have sworn she saw Wells' eyes turn into hearts when he said, "Where'd you learn to do that?" The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes too, she knew where she learned how to do it, it was the same person who taught her how to do it too. 

"It was her father, ya know the man you got killed." She might have felt bad in that moment looking at the expressions their faces held but it was quickly changed by goggle head butting in. 

"Ah, cool, a map." He turned towards Clarke smiling, obviously just trying to have a good time now that they were on the ground.  "They got a bar in this town?" His attention turned toward the other girl standing in the trio, "I'll buy you a beer." Aspen grinned up at him, the boy standing almost a foot above her.  

Before she was able to respond  Wells cut in, "You mind?" His right arm gripped the boy and started pushing him backward away from the map and the two girls.  Aspen went to grab Wells when she heard a familiar voice yell, " Hey, Hey, Hey, hands off of him." The voice belonged to John, so that's where he had gone. 

"Relax. We're just trying to figure out where we are." Of course, once there was more than one smaller guy Wells started to back down, Aspen looked at the group that had started to form, cutting in front of a boy she knew to be Nate Miller, and standing between Clarke and John. 

"We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?" Bellamy called from a few feet away, his sister standing to the left of him, all Aspen wanted to be doing was speaking to her friends about how cool the earth looked, how green everything was. "We need to find Mount Weather." The chancellor's son started walking closer to the brother and sister, turning his back on the other group.  "You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority."  The group had moved closer in, Murphy standing behind Aspen, while she stood a little behind Clarke, she didn't like where this was headed.