Last Girl Alive | Bangtan

130: Earth

The eight of you stand in the cockpit together.

Blue.

He was right. Shining blue, warm blue, blue that represented water and sky and good things. It was a blue that popped colour into the blank darkness of space, a colour that was alive and inspiring, a colour that had never looked so prominent and foreign; it pierced through your eyes into your hearts into your souls, a blue that has come to save you, a blue that is...

Planet Earth.

Your eyes water up at once. The feeling was indescribable. It was one of when you looked out the airplane window to see home but here the view was bigger. Because this wasn't just simply a city or a country or even a continent. This was s planet. It was Planet Earth. You couldn't mistake it.

Blue. That's the first thing you saw. A huge blue ball, one that exceeded the horizons of what your eyes enabled you to see. White swirls protected the planet, making it look precious and vulnerable and soft. Yet it was strong, a fiery core boiling from within. Expanses of green, large brown hues mingled with a forestry green ran in odd shapes over the huge ball as if they were pasted into its skin. They looked like scars, like patches or wounds to hide the bleeding of blue.
Your vision became blurrier and blurrier as tears fell ceaselessly from your eyes like water from a tap. You wiped them away, eager to see Earth as if you didn't cherish it, it could disappear.

Earth. Planet Earth. There were people there ... On that planet. Almost 8 billion people inhabited Earth. It seemed like nothing, a harmless number compared to the huge sphere in front of you. Humans were as comparable as 8 billion bacteria on a the tip of a globe. But it made all the difference. Because on Earth ...

There was life.

Apart from animals and vegetation humans lived here. People who could speak and interact and whose little own busy lives were so insignificant. People had so many worries, so many dreams, we're weighed down pasts and presents and were pulled about in this thing called life. Looking at this gigantic planet from up here you can't help but laugh a little. It felt like a joke. Compared to this huge expanse of universe ... Those little things that made up life were almost invisible.

You snort. It was incredible, euphoric. A serendipity of emotions you never knew ever existed washes over you and if you weren't uplifted by anti gravity you would have fallen forward in astonishment.

At the brink of death ... You were saved.

Perhaps it was a miracle. Perhaps it was fate. Whatever it was that led you this safe to the end, you were deeply grateful to it. And beyond reaching home, beyond the death that had lingered by your side all this while ... You were with them.

Together, you'd made it.

Someone inhales shakily behind you. You turn around, hardly able to manage your own breathing to see Jin has broken down. His cheeks flush red, pupils shaking in disbelief. He buries his face in his hands, sobbing heavily into the palm of his hand. Namjoon holds him from behind, whispering words of encouragement despite his own red eyes. "We did it, hyung. We did it."

Seeing everyone collapse one by one like a sandcastle you hear shatters. After this countless amount of time ... you were going home. You were finally all going home. You were going to be safe, happy, protected. You could finally ... live. Lips trembling, you want to say something but you can barely speak. You don't even know what to say. You look back to the view and it hasn't vanished. It doesn't seem real. It looked like a mirage. Maybe you'd all gone insane from the anxiety, the fear, the ignorance that you were all halluncinating. Were you really seeing Earth? This was ... Planet Earth.

Taehyung can't peel his eyes away from the view. He presses his helmet eagerly against the glass, frozen at the sight. Your tears form bubbles behind your screen, persisting to break free. You let out a shuddered sigh, heart beating so fast.