Terra Firma

First light

Luna felt the cold air stinging against her skin as she leaned onto the dusty broken concrete waiting for Theo. Her eyes opened and closed every time she heard a noise.

The flames were now low and dark black and grey clouds filled the area blowing in large clusters across the sky.

Luna wrapped her arms around her broken and burnt body trying not to fall asleep, she had no energy left. The sky grew dark and Luna must have nodded off at some point as her body shouted at her for rest, like a computer it needed to reboot and recharge.

Theo had been searching for at least two hours but couldn't find Eli or any other droid. They must have evacuated the rest he thought to himself.

"Luna" Theo gently tapped Luna trying to wake her.

Luna blinked and sat up straight realizing she had been asleep for a while as it was now pitch black outside.

"Did you find him, Theo?" Theo looked down to the floor in the darkness "I didn't, Luna" There's no one here anymore, the ones who survived seem to have been evacuated"

Luna felt pain across her chest "They can't have gone far?" Theo nodded "No, I agree. We will continue our search at first light if you are up for it Luna?"

Luna nodded quickly "Yes! I will be fine"

Theo helped Luna back to the place they were before with the paintings on the ceiling so they could rest.

Luna couldn't settle, she tossed and turned thinking about Eli and his sister. And she wondered what had happened to the boss lady. Eli's eyes seemed to haunt her every time she closed hers.

"You ready Theo"  Theo opened his eyes blinking slowly and then rubbed them "is it light yet?" Luna looked out the window
"Just about. I can't sleep anyway"

Theo was shattered, after days of no sleep all he wanted to do was close his eyes. But looking at Luna how she couldn't wait another second he dragged his tired body up and put his boots on.

The sun could hardly get through the thick fog today making visibility very hard. The two of them walked back to the droids nest but there was no trace of anyone. They looked for signs around the area to see if there were any tracks or traces left.

Nothing.

Luna spat the dirty toxic air out of her mouth in anger. Her body was in pain and all she wanted to do was find her friends.  The ground rumbled loudly making Theo and Luna almost fall over.

Loud noises came from above them. It was a spaceship, something they had never seen in a very long time. They watched it for a while and started walking in the direction of where it had landed.

"Who do you think it could be Theo?" They whispered and walked side by side. "I have no idea Luna, but I'm hoping they are here to help us."

"What do you think after all these years they would come back for any humans they left behind? they must be desperate" Luna thought of all the possibilities as they walked her mind going crazy.

Theo was worried.

The ship was enormous, landing where the airport used to stand years and years ago which was just empty space now. Luna and Theo stayed hidden behind the old buildings as they got closer trying to see if anyone was near the ship. They had done this for so long it was like they became part of the broken landscape.

Luna couldn't see much from so far away "We need to get closer" Theo didn't like the idea but he knew they needed to if they wanted any more information.

They were both like animals of the night quiet and fast, you would never hear them coming. Luna was so close now she could still feel the drum of the engine in her chest as it slowed down. The engine finally went quiet and a ramp came out of the ship along with ten or so people in uniforms, they wore masks like astronauts in space.

They had machines in their hands and talked pointing in different directions.

"Hello, you can come out, we come in peace" Luna held her breath as she looked at Theo who seemed to be in shock too. How did they know they were even there?

Theo had this feeling in his gut that these people were ok, and they knew they were there anyway. He took Luna's hand and stood up and walked towards the people with their hands up.

The man closest to them let out a little laugh "It's ok you can put your hands down. We are here to help you. I am honestly in shock that you two are alive! that anyone is on this planet"

Another man came over to them running some kind of machine over their foreheads.

"Are you feeling ok? The man looked at Luna worried "I will be, I was caught in an explosion yesterday" The man looked serious "Come over here please and have something to drink and eat. You need to be resting, your stats are not looking so well at the moment. How are you even breathing this air?" Luna nodded and agreed, she felt like she could pass out at any moment.

"Here you go" Theo took the water and food and passed it to Luna "Where have you come from?" The man smiled at them both.

"Eden, the planet Eden"

Luna felt like she would pass out at any moment, her injuries and now this.

It was too much.

"Commander, we have found two humans. Alive!" The commander walked from the ship and looked around at the landscape and quickly covered his face with a mask.

"Alive you say?" He came over to meet the two humans they had found.

Theo carried Luna onto the ship, the commander insisted she get some medical help. They walked down a narrow corridor with windows until they reached the medical room.

There was a doctor on board with technology that seemed so advanced to Luna and Theo, they had no idea what any of it even was.

Theo chatted to the doctor while he treated Luna "So where is this planet, Eden?"

"Well, it was a long search! Humans had always thought there were 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy, but boy was they wrong. In reality, it was only a handful of planets.

In the end, we found a planet twice the size of earth in the constellation of Lyra. They found it years ago with the Kepler Space telescope. They called it Kepler-442b back then but we renamed it, Eden, our second chance. It's completely different to earth, with not as much plant life, time is different and very rocky. But its our new home"

"How long have you been there now?" The doctor leaned back as he left the machine to do its job on Luna.

"It must be about 5 years now in your earth time" It seemed to take forever to find the planet and get there with all our ships"

Theo sat down on the metal chair behind him taking everything in "Wow"

The doctor looked at the results on his machine "Ok your friend should be right as rain in no time with our machine's help, I can take you to the canteen for a coffee and you can bring her one back, you can tell me all about how you survived"

Theo nodded and followed the doctor.