Unarmed

3: Spaced Out

3 months they had been living in that cramped shuttle. In only 3 months, the Final Fifteen were ready to give up. Things had been running smoothly with the engines and everything was going as planned, except for the attitudes. Every other day it seemed, someone got in a fight. The cramped living quarters and bland, dehydrated food packets were pressuring down on all of them. Everyone spoke in complaints and the minutes passed like hours. Traveling at almost light speed for 3 months can really do a number on one's stomach as well. There was a constant stench of urine and feces in the air, despite the fact that the toilets led straight into outer space.

"I'm tired of stars", stated Cassidy one day while she and Izzy were lying on the ceiling, watching the Milky Way go by. "Stars, stars, stars. It's all we've seen for the past 3 months and I'm tired of them. When will we get to see something rad and inviting out of these cursed windows?"

"Well I think I saw some blue cheese floating around a few hundred lightyears back" replied Izzy.

"Man would I kill for some real cheese right now"

Izzy scooted a little farther away from Cassidy.

"All this fake food is making me hungry. Do you think we'll ever get to have any real food again Izz?"

Izzy sighed and stared blankly out into the black void that was space. "They guesstimated that we could end up being on this ship for years and years. And we can't even make it through half of one."

Silence had overtaken the crew like a disease. No one really spoke anymore, there was nothing to talk about anyways. They all just sort of moped around, waiting now for meal time and staring out the window, dreaming of a new home.

After what seemed like days- well who knows it might have been seconds, might have been hours, maybe weeks, it was hard to tell without a watch- of silence, Rex expressed a thought.

"Hey do you ever feel guilty?" He said in his deep, 27 year old voice that was as smooth as his hair. This sudden sound of words took the crew a bit by surprise. Many looked up from where they were floating.

"What was that?" Asked Sunita, who was a beautiful and bright woman with skin the color of ur mom lmao, Izzy guess in her late 30's.

"Do you ever feel guilty." Repeated Rex. "About leaving."

There was more silence that followed. Everyone kind of looked down and avoided eye contact.

"Yes", piped up shy-natured Shannon. "Sometimes I wonder why it was me who got to go while everyone else had to stay and...die".

The silence grew more awkward. That was the feeling that had made Izzy hesitate before getting on the shuttle back on Earth. Guilt. It slowly ate them all alive. Feasting on their insecurities and their puny human emotions. They had all felt it but no one had mentioned it before now.

The awkwardness was then broken by Barry's muffled cry.

"What is it Barry??" A few people turned towards him, concerned.

"Guys. Radar. Look. Planet." Was all he managed to say, but it was enough. Everyone was up and crowded around the radar in seconds. Sure enough, the signals had detected a planet, full of vegetation, water and oxygen. It was their new home.