Lost

Chapter 2

Thora snapped awake with a gasp, her head pounding, and nausea rolling in her stomach. She groaned, shakily lifting her hands and unbuckling herself. She stumbled to her feet, her entire body feeling like a bag of bricks. Nearly tripping over a bag at her feet, she fought to steady herself. She shut her eyes tight to dispel nausea.
The other kids started to wake up as well, eyes lidded as they stumbled around. Once she was feeling better, she walked back to her seat and picked up the bag that she had tripped over earlier. Glancing around, she saw that there was one sitting under everyone's seat. Before she had the chance to open it, there came a commotion and she looked up.
Kids were scrambling out of the dropship as the door lowered slowly. She bit her lip. Running out there screaming and shouting didn't seem like the best idea. They had no clue what kinds of animals and plants there were just lying in wait to catch them. Eventually, curiosity won out.
She walked down the slope and stopped just before her boots touched the ground. They had been dropped in a spot with densely packed strange trees. Much to her surprise, the leaves were different shades of yellow and orange, even though the air was biting cold. The ground was mostly bare earth and the sky above, flecked with fat white clouds, was a deep, rosy shade of pink. A red sun burned brightly in the sky. Along with clouds, she spotted four celestial bodies in the sky, probably moons but possibly planets. Since the sun was red, which was weaker, the planets would have to be closer together to stay in orbit around it. A tear rolled down her cheek. It was... beautiful. She had no other words for it.  
"If it isn't the Commander," a guy's voice jeered, jolting her out of her thoughts of the new planet. Their new home.
She turned to the voice, eyes narrowed. The owner of the voice looked to be around eighteen. His brown hair was gelled back, making her wonder how he had managed to find hair gel since waking up. He had dark, sharp eyes, a slightly hooked nose, and the way he set his jaw and crossed his arms across his chest told her immediately that he was the cocky, sarcastic type, otherwise known as trouble for her.
She jutted out her chin, brushing her hair out of her face. "Did you need something?" He shrugged, but in that nonchalant way that made you want to grind your teeth. 
"Just wanted to know why they put you in charge. What makes you so special?" he asked. The way he said it hinted at underlying aggression. He was jealous.
"I don't know. But I didn't ask for this," she told him, pointing to the Commander patch on her jacket.
"Well, if you don't want it, I'll gladly take the job off your hands." He held out his arm as he leaned his body against the side of the dropship. She glared at him.
"I never said I didn't want it." His jaw tightened but he innocently raised his hands, offering her a thin-lipped, insincere smile. She whipped around, turning her back on him.
As she walked out into the space where the others were gathering, he called out to her again. "Shouldn't you be telling us what to do, Commander?" he mocked. "Set up camp? Go hunting? Pick out scouts?"
She ignored him, even though his ideas were good ones. She just wanted to check out what was in her backpack. The soil was spongy under her feet as she picked a tree to sit by.
Leaning her back against the bark, she found it was smooth, unlike the rough tree bark on Earth, and was a lighter shade of brown. She found she almost preferred it. Setting the backpack between her knees, she unzipped it and riffled through the contents. Before she could tell what anything was, though, she heard a faint sniffling and lifted her head.
Sitting against another tree was the girl Thora had sat next to on the ship, her knees brought up to her chest and her arms gripping her backpack like a lifeline. Her head was buried in the fabric so she couldn't see the girl's face but she knew she was crying. Thora pursed her lips. The poor girl was terrified. How could the Imperial send someone so young and fragile down on a mission like this? She got to her feet and made her way over the girl.
"Do you mind if I sit with you?" The girl lifted her head, wiping her nose on her jacket sleeve. After blinking a couple times, she nodded and Thora settled down beside her. "What's your name?"
The girl sniffed. "Dell," she said, her voice so soft she could barely make out what she had said.
"Alright, Dell. I'm Thora."
"The Commander," she whispered and Thora nodded, forcing a smile to her face.
"Yeah, the Commander. But you don't have to call me that, okay?" The girl hesitated as if wondering if it was a trick, before giving her a slow nod. She was still shaking. "Don't worry," Thora said softly, wrapping an arm around Dell's shoulders. She didn't know why but she felt like she had to protect this girl, at all costs. "I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise."
Dell looked up at her with wide, silvery-gray eyes. Then, she cracked the tiniest of smiles. "Okay." Thora grinned at her.
"What'd you get in your pack?" Dell unzipped the bag and held it out for her to see.
Inside, she found a packet of matches, along with some tinder, a single change of clothes, shorts this time (plus extra socks), a Swiss Army knife, a pack of dried jerky and fruits, a single water bottle, and a sleeping bag. Thora paused at the knife. She didn't know if she liked the fact that a group of teenage criminals all had weapons. 
"What's in yours?" Dell asked, reaching for her bag. The girl seemed to have forgotten that she had been completely terrified just a few minutes before. Thora happily obliged her.
Just like Dell, Thora had also received water, dried jerky, a sleeping bag, matches and tinder, and spare clothes. But they had added in a tent, and a shiny, old-fashioned, black pistol, which Thora made sure was put on 'safety' before tucking into the waistband of her pants. She figured that was the last of her supplies when Dell gasped and plunged her hand back into the bag.
"An 'EN-pad!" the red-head exclaimed, holding it up. An 'En-pad,' or Electronic Notepad, was exactly what it sounded: An electronic notepad, although there were added bonuses. You could send video messages, and make logs, which was going to be indescribably useful down on the ground. The things had been incredibly expensive and durable and Thora guessed that she was the only person to get one. She also figured that it was hooked up directly to the Albatross' database. Dell was happily scrolling on the screen, even if there was almost nothing to do on it. Thora thought she was probably just happy to see something normal down here.
With a glance around, she noticed that there seemed to be one tent for every two kids.
"Two kids to a tent!" she called out and almost immediately regretted it. Why she felt the need to speak up was a mystery to her. To her surprise, most of the kids nodded in agreement and began to set up their tents. Getting to her feet, she told Dell to stay where she was with the 'En-pad.' The girl happily agreed.
The group needed to find water. Their resources wouldn't last long at all and when they were diminished they'd need fresh water to drink.
There were only four people who weren't helping to set up tents, Thora and Dell included. There was a tall Asian boy around seventeen who was crouched over a medkit pulled from his backpack, and a pretty blonde girl taking small sips of water.
She approached the boy first. He looked up when he heard the crunch of her shoes against the ground.
"Hey..." she trailed off when she realized she had approached him without knowing his name.
"Kenji, Commander," he greeted as he got to his full height, which was several inches above her. She pursed her lips at the title but didn't comment on it.
"Thora," she told him. "I'm setting up a search party to look for water. You in?"
"Couldn't you just order me to come along?" he asked with a straight face, eyebrow cocked. After a moment he grinned, which she considered a welcome sight, especially after the kind of day she was having. The kind they were all having. "Sorry, I had to. When do we leave?"
"Now. I just wanted to get another person along just in case and there's no way I'm taking Dell," she told him, gesturing over her shoulder to the girl. "She deserves a little break."
"What about Fisher?" he suggested, pointing to the boy who had confronted her about the Commander Patch earlier. He was struggling to stick a tent pole in the ground. Now she knew his name at least.
She shook her head quickly and he gave her a confused look. Before he could ask her about it she cleared her throat and asked, "Is he a friend of yours?"
He considered her question for a minute before nodding. "Yeah, you could say that. We were stuck in a bunker for a few months together back on Earth. He was the only one who would talk to me."
"A bunker? I didn't know they let in citizens," she said, her eyebrows furrowed.
"They didn't. It was the Imperial's bunker and my mom was the Imperial's Right-Hand." She was speechless. How had this boy, whose mother was basically the Vice President, gotten arrested? And that begged the question, how had Fisher got in there?
She hummed in response, still recovering from her shock. Kenji glanced over his shoulder at the other girl who wasn't working. "What about her? She's not doing anything and besides, it looks like she's gonna run out of water pretty soon." She saw he was right. The girl's water bottle was already half-way empty.
Before she could take a step in her direction, Kenji was making his way over to her. Her jaw tightened and she jogged to catch up to the long-legged boy.
Kenji offered the girl a smile. He seemed to be full of them. "We're gonna go on an adventure for water. Wanna come?" The girl's eyes flicked from Kenji's face to hers, before falling on the Commander patch. She nodded, getting to her feet.
She held out her hand to her and Thora took it, grasping it tightly. "Aeryn," she introduced herself, licking her bottom lip. She could see the shimmer of a knife blade in the girl's pocket. Thora introduced herself and then, after telling Dell she would be back soon, left their make-shift camp, backpacks slung over their shoulders.