Sticks and Stones

The Forest

Amber was bouncing in excitement. It was deployment day. Everyone waited for this moment their entire lives.

She was literally bouncing like she had springs on the balls of her feet. There were nine others due for the annual deployment. That was always exactly the number of people put down each year. Usually five or more vanished or died on earth, leaving five or less to be picked up.

Everyone was dressed in their black cargo pants and green shirt with a brown jacket and brown bag slung over the shoulder. Next they went through the line to have the final touches of their descent attire. Then it was to the port room for all of them.

Amber was special. She had beautiful caramel like amber eyes. That's how she got her name. She had a beautiful cocoa bean color skin tone that made her eyes pop and her light colored hair she kept pulled back in a ponytail. She had sharp calculating features with a healthy muscular figure same as the others.

She looked at the boy at her side. His skin was a light caramel and his eyes were a beautiful dark brown and his hair was black. It was constantly falling in his face. He was thinner than most. But still strong, he was considered the, runt of that particular group. He was still rather handsome though.

The boy, who was called Benjamin, was trembling with fear, "Amber, how can you be so excited? No one knows what's really down there accept the adults, and they aren't allowed to even tell us! No one even knows what's beyond this door for us!"

An adult walked through the door, "Benjamin?" He became white as a sheet and joined the woman on shaky legs through the door with a final look at his best friend in the whole world.

Benjamin was the third person called in, and Amber was the fifth. Amber jumped up and eagerly went to go through the final stages of preparation.

When she arrived in the preparations room there was not a word said. The clock on her arm that told them all she was thirteen received a new chip that allowed her many things. Among which was a clock that told the time of day, also all her vitals readings.

Then in her other arm they injected a tracker, "If the tracker is removed, if your heart stops for more than three beats, or if the tracker is damaged, it will stop transmitting. And that means you won't be returning up. You will be stuck." They made sure the tracker was active and sent her in with the others.

She waited in the room still bouncing and getting looks from Benjamin.

They waited and waited until finally all ten of them were in the room waiting to be transported. They all were lined up.

Then in a brilliant flash of light, they were in the forest. All ten of them. Finally experiencing the planet for the first time.

All ten looked around in shock and awe. Amber reached into her bag with the biggest grin possible. She pulled out a hat and could hardly speak, "Alright..." She pulled the hat on and looked at the hand tugging on her arm. It was Benjamin, so she took his hand and grinned as she pulled him into the forest eagerly.

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Eli was huddled down on her bloody knees, trying to start a fire. She finally started a small fire with some brush and checked the screen on her arm. She was sixteen years and two hundred ninety four days old now. Her heart was beating fast, she was loosing blood but would survive. She was cold. Her tracker was still active. She sighed with a deep breath and started warming up by the fire.

Her name was Elizabeth, but Eli was easier, shorter. She had dropped off the side of a cliff scraping up her knees and palms. She was thankful nothing else had happened to her.

Eli had green eyes and long, beautiful brown hair that she had tucked up in her hat. She had become thinner since her thirteenth year mark. She was still tall and her features were rounded but in a way that made her seem pretty. Her skin was an even creme as well.