Crash Landing

crazy

Witnessing it in person was a whole nother experience.

My breath caught in my throat and my eyes widened with wonder even as the tears that burned my cheeks were still fresh as day when the ship rumbled once more, the docking station that we had arrived at within mere seconds locking onto the ship and soon, the airlock that would lead us onto the space station opened just like a pair of sliding elevator doors.

The passengers rushed out like animals that had just broken out of a zoo and I stood in the back, waiting until everyone was gone before my feet cautiously propelled me forward with Collette in my arms into the space station.

The walls of the station were tall and massive, towering over me like the whole place was a giant, steel box but the ceiling was amazing.

It was made completely out of glass, showcasing the natural beauty that we as humans still didn't understand even to this point now.

My jaw dropped open as the stars beyond twinkled brightly, like they were putting on a show just for me to see.

"Wow…."

"Yeah, it sure is amazing, isn't it?"

A girlish voice just a few feet off to my side spoke and I jumped with a squeak of surprise, my sister letting out a whimper of shock as well as my eyes met those of a girl who looked to be around my age but was dressed drastically strange from what I was wearing.

Most of the passengers wore gear that protected them from the toxic air outside back home but she didn't wear a mask, there was only a blue and white polka dot hospital looking gown that hung off her skin like a flimsy sheet of plastic.

The gown was too heavy on her body, weighing down the girl whose bones were poking through the sheet and whose skin was grayer than the ocean back on Earth.

Her hair was completely gone, her head bald and shiny as if there were never hair follicles there to begin with and there were sunken in eye sockets where her vibrant energy would've restored her skin back to normal.

She was sick, sicker than Mama and the IV pole that she held onto with her left hand for dear life proved that point.

She reminded me of a ghost even though she was still alive.

But despite the mysterious illness plaguing her body, the young girl still smiled brightly as if she had no care in the world and extended her hand out even though we were quite a few feet away.

"It's a big place so maybe we should stick together for now? I'm Indigo, by the way, but all my friends call me Indie."

My eyebrows raised upwards as I frowned with confusion behind my mask at her friendly gesture, why was she being nice to me?

I was a total stranger, I could be a stowaway for all she knew but then again, that wouldn't exactly explain the fact that we were some of the only younger generation aboard this weird ship.

But I still hesitated on shaking her hand, something that Indigo must've found to be amusing because she giggled as she shook her arm a few times playfully.

"Come on, you're not really gonna make me walk all the way over there and shake your hand for you, are you? Because these new meds make me really tired and I can only hold this thing up for so long."

She held up her arm using the assistance of her opposite hand with a dramatic sigh and it forced a giggle out of my chest which in turn made her smile.

She was kinda funny in a weird way and it reminded me of how Mama was funny too.

Walking forward, the clunk of my shoes on the steel, grating metal floor, it felt like I had walked several miles just to get to where she stood but when I was finally in front of her, Indigo shook my hand with wholehearted enthusiasm.