Children of the Ark ✔️

Chapter Eight

We had been floating for what seemed like forever when suddenly the main thrusters came to life and started to direct us to where we would land. Everyone was sitting in silence, the only thing you could hear was the thrusters that were leading us to our potential deaths. I look over at my sister and took her hand giving her a reassuring squeeze. She gave me a small smile, but did not take her eyes off the seat in front of her. I look out one of the porthole windows that occasionally lined the sides of the shuttle and saw that we were getting quite close to Earth. Just as I was about to nudge Amelia and tell her to look out the window, the shuttle suddenly jerked, earning a few screams.

After a few seconds, the shuttle began shaking again, but this time it wasn't just a jerk, it was constant and was getting stronger by the second. More people started screaming and shrieking, a few people were even crying. I couldn't look over at Amelia and I could tell she was scared because she was one of the people screaming and she also had a death grip on my hand. The harness was digging into my stomach as my body lurched up and down then side to side. I was starting to get nauseous from all of the shaking when I heard someone lurch and a rancid and acidic smell filled the air. Someone had bet me to it. 

The smell of vomit, all of the shaking and the noise also set off a few others and soon the rancid smell was stronger. I looked out the window again in hopes of it calming me down, but all I was met with was flames. The windows were threatening to crack under the heat of the fire and the pressure of Earth gravity. I look at the seat in front of me and held onto my seat for dear life. It had been a few seconds before one of the windows cracked and suddenly a piercing wail had filled the shuttle, and soon the other windows followed suit making the wail louder. The loud noise forced me to let go of the seat and clamp my hands over my ears, but that didn't help all that much.

There was a deafening crash followed by a thud that sent ripples of pain through every bone in my body and we had stopped moving. Everyone was sitting in a stunned silence. We had all made it onto the ground. We heard screams from above us and people started flowing down, coughing and spluttering which made everyone else get up out of their seats. There was a sudden panic as the door to the shuttle was not opening and smoke from the floor above us started billowing into ours. The smell of sweat and smoke was getting stronger by the minute when we heard a whirring noise.

With a loud hiss, the door slowly opened. All of the smells of sweat and smoke were completely forgotten. There was a mixture of new smells. There were sweet smells, and some smells that smelt what would be called 'Earthy'. Even though we hadn't stepped out of the shuttle yet, we could already feel the heat from the sun on our skin, and we could feel a light breeze flowing through the shuttle. The colours of the trees and the sky and the ground were amazing. It's not like we hadn't seen it before, but this was a first for us all being on Earth. We could also hear the wind rustling through the green leaves on the trees, though we were told that we would be able to hear birds chirping, but I guess that that was before the war. We had never felt, seen or heard anything like this before. 

Once the door was fully open, everyone rushed outside, not wanting to be anywhere near the shuttle in case something bad happened. You could see the joy, fear, excitement in peoples faces. All of us ignoring what might happen in the future, and what had just happened to us. You would think that they would be able to make sure that the shuttle's didn't get filled with smoke the second we landed on Earth. A group of people had located and opened up another smaller shuttle that had landed before us and were grabbing the crates from inside and calling out the names of the people who's crates they were. Luckily, it hadn't caught on fire and all of our stuff was safe.

I took this time to take in our surroundings. They were beautiful with vibrant colours. Lots of trees surrounding us, except for in the area that we have landed in. This must be the popular spot to land in seeing as the open area that we are in has no trees, yet we are surrounded by them. The only thing that looked out of place was the shuttle that was producing a lot of smoke from the fire that had started. The fire shouldn't last too long, even though we aren't going to stay near it for too long.

I was actually surprised by how everyone was acting. I'm not going to lie, I had thought that the second we were on the ground, people would start fighting for things, beating each other up just so that they can take their stuff, but now, they were handing out everyone's stuff. I heard my name being called out, so I walked towards the shuttle and took my crate from a blonde haired girl who I smiled and thanked when I grabbed my crate and walked back to where Amelia, Jett, Zoe, Jess, Uriah and Asher were sitting. Amelia, Jess and Uriah all had their crates, and we were waiting for the rest. 

The crates were light grey with a black top that we had to pop off. Inside was all of the stuff that I had chosen to put in there. I took everything out and laid it in front of me so that I could see everything that I had. I saw that I had a new jacket, so I took the one I had on now, and switched them around. I saw on the inside of the jacket were six slots to keep my knives. Three on the left side of the zipper, and three on the right. I opened the backpack and found six bottles of water and nine cans of food. I also found the rope, matches, fire starters the pocket knife and the medium sized first aid kit. I packed everything back in except for one water bottle which I slid into one of the side pockets in my bag since it would be easier to get to from there than having to get it out from inside my backpack.I also took the pocket knife and put it into one of my pants pockets and I shoved my jacket inside my backpack, but now it's very tightly packed.

I looked at the things that weren't going to go inside my backpack. They were my dual pistols, my throwing knives, the gun holsters and... my spare ammunition... I don't have enough room in my pack. I'll worry about that later. I stand up and clip my gun holsters onto the left and right sides of my belt, making sure that the knife slots were on the outside so that I could reach the easily. I slid the guns and two of the knives into place, kinda feeling like a bad-ass from those old movies from before the war that temporarily made the Earth uninhabitable for humans. I also slide my remaining six knives into the pockets on the inside of my jacket and zip it up. I hoist my backpack onto my shoulder, grunting under the weight. I thought it would be a bit lighter than this.

"I see that you got the knives instead of the bow and arrow." Jess says hooking her quiver around her shoulder. 

"Yeah I thought it would be easier to use in close combat than a bow." I reply walking around in a small circle testing out the weight of the backpack while I'm walking.

"Yeah, but I can do long distance stealth shots." She snickers.

"You make it sound like you're a master assassin." I laugh.

I take a quick look around and see that half of the Chosen have disappeared off into the woods. It was around 1 to 2 PM when we landed on Earth. I get a fluttering feeling in my stomach. I guess that I am both excited and nervous about being here. It's a new start, even though there was nothing wrong with my life on the Ark, it was still a bit boring. I look around our group and see that everyone is basically ready to go.

"Is everyone ready to go? We should probably find a good area to camp for the night, then we can go over all of our supplies and stuff." There are a chorus of 'yes's and 'yup's in reply. I take a another quick look around and I can't seem to find Jacob anywhere. I had completely forgot about him wanting to kill me until now. 

"Has anyone seen Jacob?" I ask the group.

"I was just wondering the same thing." Jess says. She hasn't seen him either.

"Maybe he was too caught up in being on the ground and getting our gear that he completely forgot he wanted to kill you." Zoe answers.

"Yeah maybe." I trail off. Amelia comes and stands next to me before holding my hand, so I look at her and give her a sad smile. I have to be alive to protect us both. Even if I die, I'm sure that the others will protect her for me. 

"Let's go." I say and we all start walking into our new lives.

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A/N: Hey! Sorry that this chapter is shorter than normal, I didn't really have many ideas for what could happen in this chapter, so I guess that it is kinda like a filler chapter. But they are finally on Earth!! YAAAAY!! Time for some survival instincts to kick in! Anyways, hope you liked this chapter! I also used the chapter from The 100 book, to aid me in writing the part in the shuttle, so please excuse if parts seem very similar because they probably are.

Remember to vote if you like my story, and comment things that I could improve on or things that you liked! Follow me if you want to get updates for the story whenever I post a new chapter and hopefully I will be posting more during the next two months or so!

-FlatMatesForLife