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HER NEW LIFE BEGAN WITH A BANG as the dropship penetrated the Earth's atmosphere with a blazing spark, transient in its voyage to return home. Jinny's bones rattled and beads of sweat dotted her upper lip as she clenched the straps of her seat tightly. A couple of boys who had unbuckled themselves during the zero gravity interval slammed against the wall, cracking the pipes that lined it. Steam hissed out, sending a tuft of humid air into their faces. Several screams and cries of fear rang throughout the cabin when an electrical discharge suddenly surged overhead.
"Oh, God, we're gonna die!" Miller shouted beside her.
"There's only one thing we say to death, Miller," she yelled back, ducking her head low as more sparks erupted above them. "Not today!"
There was a sharp jerk as the parachutes deployed in time and the unmistakable blast of the retrorockets firing from the bottom of the ship uplifted them for a second. Jinny held her breath when she felt the deep lurch in her stomach as the ship plummeted to the ground in a rough landing. She braced herself for the shuddering jolts of the collision, wincing instinctively from the impact before they came to an abrupt halt. There was a brief moment as everyone looked around uncertainly at the now cold ship.
"Listen..." someone said out loud. "No machine hum."
Jinny felt the silence fill her ears with newfound magnitude and it electrified her veins. A sigh of relief punctured the air beside her then. "Holy shit, we're alive," Miller breathed out in awe.
"Congratulations," Jinny smirked back at him. He held his hand up and they gave each other a high five.
Her hands then immediately went to work unbuckling the various straps that had secured her in place. She threw them off and was the first to reach the hatch to the lower level with Miller close behind. The moment she jumped down from the ladder and her boots fell heavily against the hard metal, her heart came to a screeching halt.
There was a guard standing in front of the main door and for a split second, she thought her father had followed her down to the ground. Upon closer scrutiny, she realised that it couldn't have been her father at all and she frowned in confusion. The man was tall, with olive skin and black hair that was neatly swept back, curling lightly at the tips. His face was clean shaven, a soft cleft in his chin with a strong jawline, and—
"Bellamy?" A girl descended from the ladder and started towards him.
Jinny inhaled sharply as she retreated into the shadows, intermingling amongst the throng of teenagers that crowded the exitway. They were already starting to whisper in hushed voices about the pair in front of them but all Jinny could think about was how and why. Disbelief as well as dismay filled her to the brim.
A new voice suddenly interrupted. "Where's your wristband?"
"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." Octavia turned around, her tone laced with annoyance.
"No one has a brother!" someone shouted from the back.
"That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden under the floor!"
The slim brunette lunged forwards but Bellamy caught her in time. "Octavia! Octavia, no!"
Jinny felt cool metal as she bumped her back against the far wall. She could barely see what was happening by the door but Octavia's face was visible through a crack between the bodies, looking like she was about to cut someone. It felt like eons had passed since the last time Jinny had laid eyes on her; all the softness left in the girl had been carved into hard edges of steel and marble.
"Let's give them something else to remember you by," Bellamy suggested.
"Yeah?" She turned to him and shrugged his hand off her arm. "Like what?"
Jinny could see him smirk widely. "Like being the first person to step on Earth in a hundred years."
Octavia started to grin and he turned around to grab hold of the lever by the side of the entrance. The lock disengaged with a mechanical whir and steam flew out from the depressurisation, then they were engulfed in a searing white light. Jinny squinted her eyes at the intrusion, imagining her pupils contracting with distaste.
The teenagers started to shuffle about, each one trying to get a better look from the opening. Through the blinding haze, she could see a blur of vivid colour. Someone in front took a deep breath of air and a moment later, there was an audible crunch. Soles against rock, against detritus and crumbling soil.
"We're back, bitches!!" Octavia screamed into their new beyond.
Almost instantaneously, the group of teenagers cheered ecstatically as they ran out of the dropship into the vibrant woodland. Jinny lowered her hand hesitantly as she adapted to the light. Her eyes darted around to take in their new environment, feeling her heart elate with wonder. She slowly ventured down the ramp, stepping onto dried foliage of different hues and curling her toes at the satisfying sound that her boots made.
The gentle breeze in the air brought the cloying smells of green verdure and the soft soil beneath her feet was an unfamiliar sensation to take in. Jinny dug her heels into the earth, marvelling at its malleability, so unlike the rigid metal her hands were used to tampering with. The sun speckled leaves swayed above her, with dancing branches that were interconnected in a series of networks that cascaded over them. She was surrounded by images that she had only ever imagined from looking at picture books when she was younger. The colours, so vivid and ethereal, smeared across her vision in a wild daze of transcendence. She took everything in at once with a sweeping gaze; the earth was habitable—there was life.
A sudden explosion startled her from her thoughts, sending a torrent of sparks and black smoke sizzling through the air. The ruin of the dropship stood high in front of her and reality soon seeped in with the dread.
"Shit." Jinny quickly ran back inside and anxiously climbed up the ladder to the top level. She stepped back into the cabin before almost stumbling over in surprise. "Holy crap, you scared me!" she breathed out, hand flying to her chest. "I thought everyone jacked out of here."
"What are you doing back in here?" The dark skinned boy raised a questioning eyebrow at her. She recognised him as the Chancellor's son; regaining her composure and making her way towards him with aplomb.
"What are you doing still in here?" she shot back and they exchanged knowing looks.
"The entire communications system is dead," he told her, pointing at the blank screen in front of them.
Jinny looked around and found another set of ladder rungs leading to the top of the dropship. She waved Wells over before climbing onto one of the rigid seats. "Let's check the panels out, maybe we can fix it."
The boy followed after her and they climbed up to the top hatch. Jinny managed to open the airlock with some effort and clambered out. She looked out at the empyrean sky above, an azure expanse interspersed with wispy clouds that billowed with the cooling breeze. Then she lowered her eyes to the anarchy unfolding below.
A sardonic smirk adorned her lips. "Adorable, aren't they?" she remarked.
"Sure, until they start tearing each other apart," Wells said as he moved around the hatch towards the lead casing at the aft nacelle. He bent down to inspect the circuit panels before letting out a sigh of disappointment. "We're screwed. A dozen panels missing and heat fried the wires."
"Perfect," Jinny responded sarcastically. "Of course. What else could possibly go wrong?"
"We also landed off course from the supply depot," he told her.
She turned back to him with a raised brow. "You're really on a roll, aren't you?"
He offered her a deadpan stare and shrug. "And you're the infamous Jinny Shumway. How are you even alive?"
"No idea what you're talking about," she responded before sliding down the ladder to the lower level.
Jinny re-emerged from the entrance of the dropship, meandering her way through the rowdy teenagers that ran amok. Excited laughter and shouts surrounded her from all sides. She remembered seeing the Griffin girl holding a map earlier.
"Jin!"
Jinny groaned inwardly at the familiar voice and a moment later, someone had enveloped her in a tight hug. Her body tensed instinctively before the arms pulled away and Octavia grinned up at her with exuberance.
"I haven't seen you in years!" the younger girl exclaimed.
"Really? Felt like twenty minutes ago," Jinny replied dryly.
"How've you been?" Octavia took her hands and swung them to the side. "I missed you so much!"
"We all did." His voice boomed like thunder to her ears, sending reverberations throughout her entire body that resonated in her very molecules.
Jinny reluctantly brought her eyes up to look at the man standing a few feet in front of her. He gave her a genuine smile, eyes bright and hopeful, an exact replica of how she remembered him to be in her still vivid memories. Bellamy Blake, the only person in the entire universe that knew all the delicate strings and intricate patterns in her configuration.
"Hey, Jin," he said. "Long time no see."
She almost wished she had been ejected from the dropship in midspace.
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