Alone Together

The Ground

Naomi runs to the ship, having been preoccupied with something else. She flops down into
the captains seat, “Sorry about that” She pulls the lever that closes the door, in a hurry, and straps
herself in, “Everyone ready to see the ground” Some of us nod but she doesn't look back to see who.
Our trip to earth was uneventful, that until we entered the atmosphere. We hit turbulence.
“Naomi, what the hell was that?” Luna asks when we hit a really rough patch.
“It's just turbulence, we should be fine…” She assures us, “Shit! It knocked off course”
“And that means?” Ryan asks, clueless.
“It means” Naomi shouts, pressing buttons and flipping switches, “It means” She stops moving, and
thinks for a second, “It means I have to turn off autopilot.”
“You can do that?” Sam asks, looking surprised.
“Oh dear Sam, is that doubt I hear?”
He shakes his head but she doesn’t care. She hesitates before pressing one last button and gripping two handles that seem to steer the ship. Were dropping fast. Naomi pulls the handles to the right, drastically. We start falling in the opposite direction, flames erupt on the outside of the
window and ash is covering the view of the ground. My anxiety is overwhelming, I can’t stand it, I
jerked my head towards Ollie, his eyes flutter and he blacks out, “Oliver!” I shout, “Ollie! Wake up,
Ollie”
I reach for his hand but its too far and the rocket is shaking too drastically.
“Shit!” Naomi yells, “Shit shit shit shit shit” She screams as we hurtle towards the ground. We crash,
onto the ground, leaving what must be an extremely large dent in the earth. Pieces of the ship are
torn off and most of the windows are broken. I tear at my safety straps, practically ripping them off
before rushing to Ollie. Who is passed out, “Oliver” I whisper softly, a tear rolling down my face. I place my ear to his chest and hear his heart beating fast. Thank god, he’s alive.
“Is he ok!?” Sam yells from a few seats behind me.
“He’s breathing...” I sniffle, wiping the tears from my face. “Help me move him”
Ryan and Sam, who had already unfastened their seatbelts, headed towards me. They grab
underneath his arms and legs, and lower him to the ground.
Naomi stares at the door, she must be in shock.
“What is it?” Luna asks, approaching her.
“What if we die?”
We give her confused looks and she shouts, “What if we open the door and die?”
“There's only one way to find out” Caleb wrenches the door open, pushing it with a heavy force.
I walk towards the door, breathing in the sweet smell of earth. We’ve been in space for almost a month, not knowing if we would be able to return. Seeing the evergreen trees, and mountains in the
distance, was something we only hoped for. We have no idea why no one is left on earth, we only
know that we’re alive. Caleb is the first to step on the ground, seemingly hesitant at first but then fully embracing the scorched ground. The engines gave way a few meters before we hit the ground,
but it still burned a 15 foot circle into the ground surrounding the ship.
After scaling the field we landed in and a few steps beyond the treeline, Sam, Ryan, and Caleb started gathering firewood, while Naomi worked on communicating with Noah, who had stayed on Levrania. I on the other hand, hadn’t left Ollies side since we arrived, there was no sign of him waking up. But without Genesis here, we had no way of knowing. I'm terrified of losing him, he is the only one I have left anyway. Him and I are in one of the tents we found in the drop ship and setup. I watch as the light from outside slowly disappears, becoming tangerine orange and pink until darkness takes over. The tent is empty, besides a low to the ground dark green cot, that Ollie is resting on, and some extra blankets for when the night gets cold. The day has been long and my
eyelids are heavy, a short nap can’t hurt anyone. I drift off, my head laying on the side of Ollie’s cot,
and my hand in his. My eyes flutter and shut, sending me to sleep.
I wake to the sound of Ollie’s voice, soft and sleepy. I lift my head from its resting place, quickly, “Are you ok? I was afraid… you wouldn’t wake up”
“I’m fine”
“Are you sure cause Luna was saying all this stuff about what we could do with your body if you
didn’t die and-”
“Im, fine” He reaches his free hand up and runs it through my hair, “And, really?”
“No but I could tell that's what she was thinking,” I say, urging him to laugh.