The Last Rose Pedal

Chapter Two

There he was, onthe floor. His face and body bruised colors of purple and green. It triggeredmy mind, it was the virus. Everyone was in shock, I mean so was I. How is thatpossible? We evacuated a whole planet just to run away from a virus that isstill following us. But guess who was targeted. Not surprisingly, it was Mark.This was a homicide, everyone could understand that. He was disposed into spaceand left to rot. The airships still went along with the plan, leaving almostfour thousand passengers left on the aircraft. We were told to stay seated,seatbelts on. This was nothing like an average plane ride. You could feel therumbling and vibrations of the airships engine; the seats had seatbelts thatcrossed your entire body. I was nervous, we were about to discover a whole newplanet. The airship was close to hitting the atmosphere; I felt the pressureagainst my body. I held my mother's hand tightly and hoped for the best for allof us. Moments later, the airship landed. Trying to regain conscious, all Iheard was groaning. I felt so dizzy trying to study my surroundings. Soon, weall left the airship just for the sake of our curiosity. The doors open and Itake a long deep breath. I look around me, surprised. It looked just like home.The airship landed just on the cliff; from here you could see from so far away.The pine trees scattered all over the land, the waters, and the air. I was soamazed. It was just like home without the buildings, the polluted airs, and thetons of garbage in the waters. At that moment it felt like another chance forus, this is what we've been waiting for since the virus. There was no way thevirus could have followed us, Mark was poisoned by someone who must've took asample from home. But now none of us are safe. I admire the sky as the otherairships arrive. Soon, we all came together and built camp. It triggered thethought of Jen and Ally; we were supposed to make it here together. But it'sstill too early to say that they aren't going to make it, there is still achance. After grabbing wood for the fire, I decided it was time to talk to mymom. She had to explain, there was no way my ID had access to the airships. Isat right beside her and looked at her while she was admiring the view. It wasjust silence; you could only hear the pieces of wood fall on each other as theothers were building the fire.

"I still need you to explain how you got us here" I said

"Laylah, if I didn't do this, we both would have been rotting up there counting the days we have left. It was the only option"

"How did our IDs pass through the system? I still need you to explain. I still don't understand. Who helped you with this?"

"It's very hard to explain right now, I can't. It's just not the time to be speaking about this"

"Then when is the time to be speaking about this?"

Only silence grew from there, I could tell something bad happened. I was so eager to know but I needed my mind to be focused somewhere else, I needed something to distract me. I decided to help out with the camp, I headed to the airship where the packed all the boxes. They took food from the aircraft; there is nothing left up there. Attempting to grip my fingers on the box, I struggled trying to keep up. This guy came up to me to help. I didn't know who he was but he was obviously one of the important people that were specially selected to come to ground. Thoughts raced through my mind, what if he asks why I was selected. Oh, because my mother probably went on a suicide mission just to get us here. I thank him for his help and he looks into my eyes, I felt him hesitate. But before the both of could say anything, we heard ringing bells.

"As many of you know, we no longer have President Mark by our side. May he rest in peace, but from here we need someone who could carry on his legacy. We have our best politicians ready for your vote"

This announcement was planned, I'm sure we all knew somebody wanted Mark dead. It was an inside job, nobody else knew we were going to take off and leave 4,000 people for dead. Nothing made sense after that alarm was pulled.

"What's your name?" I asked

"Call me Johnson for now"

"For now?"

He gave me this light smile and walked away. But now I'm even more curious about who he is. The elections are being held right now. People are scattered everywhere, trying to listen to the candidate's speeches.

Ashley Ford, John Barrett, and Amy Miller were the candidates for the president election. Ashley has a lot of secrets, but she's friends with my mom, that's the only way I know her. Rumours were spread that John and Amy had a little something on the side. None of them deserve to run the whole camp; none of them can be trusted. I came back to the shuttle, now they are making us learn survival skills. We should have been taught survival skills before we landed but Mark was such an unreliable president. He reminds me of my father, someone who said they would do this but didn't. His death was followed by a bad father-daughter relationship. Never wrote for me at birthdays, never came to see me at bad times. Where was he? I questioned myself all the time, so eager to know what held him back, but soon after the urge to know wasn't as strong. I went to the shuttle where I was forced to learn about survival skills. We were set out into groups of four, trying to practice how to use a bow and arrow like we don't have guns lying around. My group had Marcus, Jacob, and Mariah. It seemed like they already knew each other but yet I was all new to this. We moved on from unit to unit, we did things like fighting tactics, how to start a fire, and you know the rest.

"Are we really doing this? Who are we really going to fight? The bears? There's nobody out there" said Marcus

"We should be fighting the system, who the hell leaves four thousand people in space to die out?" Mariah responded

"You knew that was going happen when you signed the papers" said Jacob

Once again, silence grew from there. I studied everyone's face, their gestures.

"How do you guys know each other?" I said

They all were staring at me like they just seen a ghost and at that very moment I regretted ever speaking a word.

"Through the parties on the aircraft. When they actually believed 'there's strength in unity'" said Jacob

They all explained to me how they got to the ground; how the system thought they were suitable for becoming guards. We began practicing again before one of the guards came yelling again. Punches and kicks were thrown everywhere, there was sweat all over my face and just before I was about to head in again. Somebody tapped on my shoulder, I felt nauseous as I turned around. It was Ashley.

"Laylah honey, it's been so long. You haven't come to visit me. How's your mother?" she asked

She threw a number of questions at me, about how everything is like she cares. I know she isn't innocent but my mom trusts her. I know she had to do something with my neighbour's murder back in the day. There was this married couple, Derek and Marina. They moved in and Derek started to work at the same office Ashley did on Bay St. Ashley got too flirty, tempting Derek and they would always try to hide it. I would always see them in the streets talking, but according to Ashley it was business talk. They made it obvious that they had more than just "business talk". She got all crazy about him and threatened him if he didn't leave Marina; about a month in he was found dead at the side of the road. Ashley always acted so innocent when she went on camera; she fooled the cop's big time. After her long set of questions, she left to go see the vote results. I followed with Mariah, Jacob and Marcus. They aren't with the politics I could tell but Mark pissed them off. It was also announced his death was not a murder, who really believes that death was an accident? The system is too complex for Ashley to handle; she has too many secrets up her sleeve. We'll just have another election in two weeks if she's president.

"... we finally totalled up the votes and we are ready to announce Endeavour's new president. Congratulations Ashley Ford!"

I rolled my eyes listening to those words but when she looked at me, I had to act like I was proud.