After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

Chapter 8

It's been ten weeks so far and the group has mostly been sleeping, talking, eating, sleeping and making up mindless games to entertain themselves with the whole duration of the journey.

For example, Riley and Anna came up with a game called "M for Meteorite." Where whenever a person spots a Meteor, he/she has to punch whoever's closest to them in the arm after yelling "M!". Unfortunately, Nila didn't listen much in her Constellations, Galaxies and Occurrences classes and her arms now feel like they are going to drop off any minute now.

"Entering Earth's atmosphere in approximately one minute," the ship's A.I warns, in the same robotic female voice as the one Nila would wake up everyday to on Mars, however, no one gives her any notice of recognition. They're far too busy sitting and chatting away as they play "I Spy". 

The ship's temperature noticeably starts to suddenly increase and Nila notices that tongues of flame begin to engulf the sides of the spacecraft. There's a sudden lurch and Riley, who was not sitting in his seat, buckled up responsibly at the time is thrown toward the front of the pod. Everyone hears a loud smack and the group goes silent to hear if Riley is hurt or not.

"Riley?! Are you okay?" asks Nila.

"Ow, uh..yeah. I'm fine...wait! Guys, you might want to see this!" Riley yells breathlessly, his voice full of surprise and wonder.

The rest of the group throw worried glances around the room and cautiously unbuckle the many seat belts that hold them in place and get out of their seats. Due to space having next to no gravity, everyone floats and they slowly make their way to the front of the pod which has a large window for people to look out of.

"Is something wrong? Oh wow," Kaitlyn starts but when she rounds the corner her eyes turn into the size of boulders.

Everyone else pretty much holds the same expression.

Directly in front of them, is Earth. In all of it's peculiar beauty and glory. It's atmosphere is a blurry mixture of gold, red and brown but it is still enchanting. They seem to be heading directly into what used to be called "America" but half of it seems to have been flooded off the face of the Earth, hiding under the ocean's surface. All that remains is North America but it's looks out of shape. Probably because the continent of Australia shifted and merged right into America causing the country to now look like a messed up blob. Places like Antartica are non existent due to the heat and after effects that the nuke had caused which explains why Greenland now looks like a miserable, barren wasteland. Oh well, at least it fits in with the rest of the world.

But amongst all the rot and ruin, there is supposed to be a place that has been not affected by the disasters of global warming and radiation. Supposedly, it's called paradise. It's called "Eden"

Africa now sits at the bottom of the world, claiming what used to be Antartica's spot. Most islands and smaller countries like New Zealand, Malaysia, Philippines, Hawaii and hundreds of the smaller countries in Europe have vanished into thin air. Europe is still Europe, to an extent but many countries have been lost. Oddly enough, there's one place in this miserable world much greener and lively than the rest and that's where the pod seems to be heading to.

Eden.

The front of the pod starts to catch fire and the glass gets unbearably hot to stand by.

"We've entered the Earth's atmosphere. We should get in our seats. It's gonna be a bumpy ride," insists Brice and the group pull themselves back into their seats against the great force of gravity pushing them towards the ground.