Earth: Criminal Rehab

Chapter Four

Brendon

A lot of things in life have taken my breath away, but old artifacts and paintings, stars, and girls had nothing on Earth. We collectively breathed in and out a breath of fresh Earth air, something nobody has had a chance to do in decades. People started pouring out of the ship and onto the floor - no - the grass.

My body felt strangely heavy, like invisible weights tugged on my limbs. Gravity felt a lot different around here, although it didn't seem to be much of a problem for anybody else.

People around me shot looks in my direction. I'd figured they would recognized me for the crimes I committed. It wasn't uncommon for me to see those looks on their faces. But this look was not the look of fear. They weren't looking into my eyes, they were looking down lower.

Though it was tempting, I held back the snarky comment I would've pulled on the Legacy about staring at a man's junk. It seemed a bit too juvenile for this place. Besides, I was curious as to what the big commotion was about.

I placed my hands on my shins and pulled them back quickly. They were wet. Was I bleeding? Afraid of what I might find, I glanced down at my legs. My pant leg was torn and the skin underneath was scratched up pretty good. It didn't hurt too badly, I had hardly noticed it was there in the first place. The more I walked, the tighter it felt. If only I hadn't looked.

The pangs of pain reminded me of what had happened on the ship when we landed. Debris started raining everywhere and I had felt something graze my leg. Funny how memory works.

I blinked, waiting for my eyes to adjust. I hoped for them to reveal something to distract me from the growing pain. Trees. The word had glided so easily into my mind. Trees surrounded us on all sides. They weren't like the small trees we'd attempted to reproduce in greenhouse rooms on the Legacy. These trees were much bigger and thousands of times more beautiful. We'd landed in the middle of a forest.

A smile started crawling it's way up my lips, but I quickly wiped it away before anyone could take note of it. People were too busy rolling in the grass and running around like animals. Leave it to humans to make fools of themselves.

I rolled my eyes and turned around. I froze in my tracks. Four bodies laid broken and limp on the floor of the ship. They never got to see the beauty of this planet. A pair of guys had started to drag them to a corner.

That could've been me. I thought to myself. The worst I got was a scratch that would probably heal within a week or so. Maybe we'd have a little post-traumatic stress on our mental stability, but nothing like what those four had been through. Death was permanent. Death brought up far too many bad memories.

In front of the dead, a handful of people had crawled out of the ship. The were all wounded in some way and cried for help. A few more people stayed back to help them with medical supplies that the Legacy had provided for us.

I needed another distraction. My chest started to tighten and even with the infinite supply of oxygen on Earth, I felt like I couldn't breathe. It was as if my lungs had been sliced in half and I could only use half of the oxygen in my body. My palms started to sweat and my head felt hot. Desperate, I spun on my heel and scanned the crowd before making a run towards the trees.

Thankfully, I stopped just before running into someone. When I discovered just who it was, I wasn't so sorry about nearly plowing him over.

He wore a smug smile and had gathered up some people to follow him around. He gave them a glance before addressing me, "Hello Brendon."

I nodded at him, "Ryan."

It disgusted me to be in the presence of the guy. One bad move on him and he'd destroy your whole life. I was his best friend on the Legacy and he knew exactly where my weak spot was.

"Fancy seeing you here. I thought they'd have executed you on the spot after what you did," Ryan bit back harshly.

His minions cheered for him and gave each other high fives. I felt myself start to fume with anger and tried my best to keep my cool.

"I would've thought the same for you," I said as calmly as I could muster and walked away. 

I figured that I should put myself to good use. It didn't help to act like some of us had chosen to. I made my way towards the ship, avoiding pieces of wreckage in its wake. A girl was working on someone's arm, seeming to know what she was doing. I left her alone to do her thing and moved on.

I passed by a pair of guys that I recognized from the ship. They must've been pretty close, because as soon as they were both out of their seats they became inseparable. Both had been crying during their reunion. They'd been attached to each other ever since. I tried not to reminisce on the times I had someone like that. I walked silently past them to let them have their moment.

There were a pair of guys trying to carry a man almost twice my size. They didn't strike me as powerful, muscular men to be doing the job that they were attempting. One of them had short, dark, spiky hair and the other wore a beanie over his hair, so I couldn't quite tell exactly what it looked like. They were dressed in the same uniform we were all put in as confined criminals, a black jacket with a red shirt and black pants.

Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary just looking at them. I heard a few of their punny jokes that had been tossed around. I'd often overlooked those kinds of people on the ship. Maybe it was time to try something new.

"Hey, can I help you out?" I asked as they were setting down the man next to another corpse that they had previously placed.

They both looked at each other like they'd seen a ghost. One of them finally spoke up after a long and careful examination of me, "You're Brendon Urie, right?"

After the news of my crime went viral, everyone knew my name. It wasn't surprising. Word went around really quick on the Legacy. "Yeah, that's me," I answered and nodded.

"And you actually want to do this dirty work?" the other chuckled.

I shrugged, "It's something to keep me busy."

"I get it. It's like you have all this energy stored up in you and you don't quite know what to do with it. You have to occupy your mind to think straight," the spiked one explained.

I was taken back by how relatable his words were, "Y-yeah that's exactly it."

He smiled and wiped his hands off on his pants before holding a hand out to me. I shook it and smiled back.

"Hi, I'm Tyler and that's Josh," Tyler said and pointed at his friend, Josh. Josh held a hand up as a hello and the corner of his lips bent up into a sort of smile. He adjusted his hair under his beanie. I was surprised to find it dyed red.

"Um... Brendon, will you grab this guy's legs?" Tyler asked and pointed to a body. I nodded and did as I was told. We lifted him up and carried him off with the other ones.

"How did two guys like you wind yourself locked up?" I asked before the curiosity started to kill me.

Tyler turned his head to Josh, who began telling the story. The two of them lived on opposite sides of the Legacy. They became friends because of their interest in old Earth music. Tyler spoke about a room I hadn't heard of before. He described a room where you could see the ancient instruments through deoxygenated cases and listen to music. Tyler and Josh usually met up in that room to hang out.

At the end of the day, the doors connecting the sections of the Legacy closed. One day they were caught out of their rooms, past the curfew, in the same section and were tossed into separate cells. It seemed like a petty crime to me, but I was not surprised. Things got really strict after I was arrested.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear the stories that they had to tell. It made me feel like a part of the community again, like I wasn't so alone or different.

This Earth thing might just work out okay for me.