INKWORLD

CHAPTER EIGHT

June 26, 2091

When we lived on earth, the inks were either black or a dark blue colour but now, as I looked out, I could see different colours; yellow, red, green, orange and several others. It was fascinating, like a world of colours. It covered every surface. Strands of colourful ink floated everywhere.

As we slowly descended, we were all quiet, looking around at our first home. There didn't seem to be any living soul around but that might have been because we couldn't see anyone or anything this far, with the ink covering our vision.

We made a rough landing a few minutes later and it felt like we were being sucked into the ground. I was just about to ask what was going on when the sucking movement stopped.

"What was that?" Wunmi asked.

"The ground seems to be imbedded with ink," one of the flight crew staff said.

I bit my lip, wondering how bad it was. We went back to the room to gather our stuff. Everyone was quiet but I could feel the nervous energy humming around in the room.

Prof. Thomas seemed to be chewing at his nails in anxiety. I would have laughed, since that was ironic with the tough personality he was trying to portray, but I was afraid my laugh would come out shaky.

"Where are we?" Marcus asked.

"At Angela Cassey's camp. The place where we took off from years ago," Wunmi answered.

"So, where are we going now?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Nigeria," I answered. "Lagos, Nigeria. We will leave the space ship and go around in the hovership."

They nodded. I passed around our changing wear. I had gotten us protective suits in the hope that it will protect us from the inky infection. "We have to wear this and make sure our skin doesn't come in contact with the ink. Also, nose masks similar to the ones given on Inkwell when we first arrived are inbuilt into the suit. Remember, the oxygen on Inkwell is a bit harsher than the one on earth. It will take a while getting used to this oxygen again so let's put this and hope for the best."

We separated into different rooms to change. When I came out from the changing room, I stared at the others. We looked like quarantine officers. I felt a giggle bubbling up in my throat and when I heard the others chuckling, I knew I wasn't the only one who found our look funny.

We went into the chamber where the hovership was parked and settled in. I was about to signal to the officers to open the door of the spaceship so we could fly out when I heard patters on the spaceship. It wasn't too loud but as I stepped out of the hovership, it became louder.

I rushed to look out and realised rain was falling, a very colourful inky rain. I felt the others as they joined me in looking out. It looked like rainbows were falling in liquid form. If I was an artist, watching the rain would make my hand itch to grab a brush and paint. I wanted to stay and watch the inky rain but it raised a lot of emotions in me that I had to suppress.

"This is not going to be good. There's going to be so much ink on the spaceship and we'll be going back with it," Marcus said, his voice muffled from the mask on his face.

"We will land it on one of the unclaimed lands on Inkwell and use the ink for research," Wunmi said, as if it wasn't such a big deal.

While the others talked about how that seemed to be a good idea, I retreated to a corner.

Wunmi joined me a few minutes later. "Are you alright, Ivy?"

"I don't know if anyone would still be alive on earth," I confessed. "I know I heard Tobi contact me but what if it was a mistake or something recorded like you said."