The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (37 page)

             
Okay
, I mused,
Whatever he brought on-board with him to smoke, I want some.

             
Despite the terror that was still meandering about inside of my chest, I couldn’t help but
chuckle softly.

             
“What?” Alice asked m and her voice was steadier now.

             
“Nothing. These people are funny.”

             
“
Crazy
is more like it.” She replied. “How did we get stuck in the freaking psych ward?”

             
“Maybe they saw your pissed-off face and assumed that you
were a sociopath.”

             
“Okay, smart-ass, then why would they put you in here?” She asked, and I could hear in her voice that she was smiling. I grinned, too.

             
“They assumed I must be delusional given my association with a sociopath.”

             
“Shut up!” She exclaimed
, “I will hand it to you, though, babe. You do always manage to make me laugh even in the worst possible situations. Even after we almost died...”

             
“That’s my job.”

             
The intercom beeped and the familiar gravelly voice of the pilot came through.

             
“Sorry
about the rough touch down, ladies and gentlemen. We have arrived on Pangea. Someone will be by shortly to remove your restraints.” The man paused for a moment, perhaps unsure of what to say next. When he finished, it was with a statement said in unthinkab
le relief and vast disbelief:

             
“We did it, folks. We survived the end.”

Violet

             
“Just hurry up!” I shouted at the man unstrapping me. Brynna had passed out in the midst of the ship's collapse from the air. After learning that she had almost suffered hea
rt failure on take-off, I was more than a little alarmed. My anger at her still burned inside of me but that didn’t mean that I cared for her any less.

             
I would hate myself for the things I had said if anything happened to her now.

             
Once my arms had been f
reed, I shot up and forced my shaking hands to hurriedly undo the
restraints on my ankles. Elijah was furiously unstrapping James and Brynna, looking as terrified as I felt.

             
“Does she have a pulse?” Maura demanded as she held Penny’s head against her shou
lder so she couldn’t see Brynna. I couldn’t imagine how badly that would scar Penny, seeing someone she held so dearly lost after such chaos.

             
James was cradling Brynna in his arms, his fingers pressed to her wrist. He nodded and let out a sigh of relief a
s he put his hand on her face.

             
“She just passed out.”

             
“I’m surprised I didn’t pass out. What the hell was that?” Elijah asked as he looked around the room with his hands rested on top of his head.

             
“I guess it was just a rough landing. They said we’re he
re.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose for a minute as I tried to calm myself down. “I just want to be clear about one thing…”

             
“Come on. That’s it.” James was sitting Brynna up as she came back around.

             
“…I will never get back on this ship.
Ever
.”

             
Elijah
put his arm around my shoulder and said, “You know I’ve always said that if the opportunity came up to travel through space that I would. But I agree with you. I don’t ever want to see the inside of this thing again.”
             

             
“After two and a half weeks of being
stuck here, no one can blame you for that.” James replied absentmindedly as he kept Brynna’s chin cupped in his hand. He was observing her eyes, making sure that she was truly awake and not miles away in some quiet, crazed stupor. After the panic attack s
he had, temporarily going out of her mind would not have been the unlikeliest of scenarios. It had happened to her before.

             
Brynna nodded before forcing her trembling legs to support her slight weight. Instantly, she stumbled back, only to be caught by Eli
jah and James.

             
“I just need a minute. I’m fine.” She blurted out a little too loudly.

             
When she slumped back onto the bed, Elijah sat down beside her, took her hand and looked at her only until she held her other hand up close to his face, ordering him wi
thout words to look away.

             
“She’s fine.” Elijah assured us with a grin.

             
Her gesture was a certain indication that she was returning to normal. My eyes met Maura’s for a moment after I looked away from James, who had rested his hand on Brynna’s back. My he
art jumped at the sight of the anger I found looking back at me. It was beyond the fury she felt at the things Brynna had said to her. It was also not channeled towards one recipient. It was channeled towards two.

             
Maura knew everything.

             
“Where are Penny
and Violet?” Brynna's voice was quieter than normal not only because of how weakened she was from passing out but because she was talking to the floor. Her head was down between her knees.

             
“I’m here.” I told her gently. It was the first time I had been ab
le to speak to her kindly since I had found out about our parents. I sat down on the other side of her and grasped her other hand in both of mine. She squeezed mine tightly for a moment which took me by surprise. That was, in Brynna’s case, a show of love.
It required the same amount of affection a normal person would need before they threw their arms around their loved one and cried in happiness at finding them in one piece after believing they were dead.

             
But after that momentary squeeze, she slipped her
hand out from under mine.

             
“Alright. I am fine.” She stood up and swayed on her feet. Elijah and James grasped both of her arms to steady her. “We have come this far. Let’s go see this planet.”

             
I grinned now, excited trepidation brewing inside of me. This
was it. This was the moment every person on the ship had prayed for, theorized about, and imagined in luminous, intricate details.

             
It was the end of the journey and the beginning of the beginning.

Part Two: The Arrival

Brynna

             
By the time they opened
the doors, everyone was silent. We were all aware of the tension in the air. The doubts that we were safe radiated through that uncomfortably thick silence. I could almost hear the collective beating of several thousand hearts.

             
There were too many questio
ns to be asked. There were too many uncertainties. The journey there had been fraught with peril; some of us, myself included, had almost suffered fatal heart attacks from the drug, the ship had almost plummeted out of the sky twice, and as people had grow
n more restless, the possibility of violence increased more than we could ever have been comfortable with. Finally, there we were, arriving at what we had been told was our salvation. But how could any of us believe that we were truly safe after that long,
treacherous odyssey?

             
A buzzing noise sounded from the intercom and the doors began to open. Here it was, the moment of truth. A stream of light blinded us all, even those standing far back in the crowd. Violet, at Penny’s behest, pushed us through so tha
t we were standing near the front of the group.

             
“She wants to be the first to see it.” Violet had explained to me.

             
“Well, we’ll be the first to die if the air is toxic. So pump your brakes.” I had replied irritably. Was I the only one who considered the
potentially dangerous outcomes of any and all situations?

             
I had overheard so many groups shouting that they wanted to be the first out. But the ominous burst of light seemed to have silenced even the most willful of those brave explorers. Since, thanks to
Violet, we were so close to the front of the crowd, people behind us pushed us forward slightly. It became apparent that our proximity to the exit made us the guinea pigs. If we walked outside and burst into flames or fell over clutching our throats as we
suffocated, they would know not to follow us.

             
I pictured us standing there for the rest of our lives, all too afraid to take the first step. There were too many different horrendous scenarios playing in each of our minds. We would be reduced to skeletal
remains, each and every one of us, as the years of inertia passed. We would never know how it would have begun and ended on Pangea.

             
“I’m going for it.” I heard Elijah say behind me and I whipped around, my eyes wide.

             
“I am stunned that you would even con
sider such lunacy!” I spat at him in a livid whisper. “You have no idea what is out there!”

             
“Go for it, man.” A guy behind him urged. There was a rumble of assent through the crowd around us. The glares I shot in the direction of those people encouraging
him actually silenced them; they probably feared being set aflame if I decided to turn the heat-intensity of my look up just one more notch.

             
“Brynna, come on. We’ll be the first people to set foot on Pangea!” He said to me urgently as he gripped my hand.
“We’ll be the first people
ever!
”

             
“I am very worried about your fascination with fame and momentous accomplishments. It  seems both pointless and foolhardy.” I replied after my eyes had locked with his. After hearing this strange, intricately-worded sente
nce, a woman standing just behind Elijah looked at me as though she were witnessing a hydra regenerating one of its recently severed heads. I could not help it that I saw no need to edit myself for the sake of bystanders feeling uncomfortable in the presen
ce of such genius…

             
“I’m going to do it.”

             
I could see in his eyes a resolution that would not be undone with any snippet of wisdom, sly insult to his intelligence, or even a reminder to use common sense. His resolve to be the first man to walk on this pla
net would not be shaken by the threat of death or dismemberment or even one of my elaborately formed warnings. I knew that.

             
I also knew that I could not let him go alone.

             
“Let’s do it.” I sighed in resignation. His goofy grin emerged and I frowned. “Don’
t make me
slap that ridiculous smile right off of your face.”
             
James grasped my hand and when I looked up at him, he nodded.

             
“Keep Penny back,” I told Violet, “If anything happens…”

             
“Don’t say that!” She whispered back in a trembling voice.

             
A few more p
eople stepped forward. I suppose their guilt at allowing two young, reasonably attractive, obviously quite intelligent kids and their strapping older chaperone to face what could be certain death was winning out over their own survival instincts. I couldn’
t fault them for that. Either that or they had overheard Elijah’s musings on being the first people to set foot on Pangea and wanted their own slice of the immortality that such an accomplishment would bring.

             
On one side of us, a single man strode forward
. The pupils set right in the middle of his large, unbelievably bright blue eyes were contracted to the size of pinpoints. He stared forward, his hands trembling as potent, petrifying fear coursed through his body. It was not his trepidation that was pulli
ng him forward. It was not a need to know what awaited us outside. He was a slight man bearing a strong resemblance to a fly searching for something that would sustain his very life; he was of the group who desired the endless fame that came with being “on
e of the firsts.”

             
The woman walking beside me was shaking only slightly and grasping the cross necklace that hung around her neck. Her husband was muttering a soft prayer as he locked his arm around her shoulder. I would have been moved by their show of d
evotion to both each other and a  higher power if it weren't for the fact that every aspect of them (their appearance, their body language, the way the woman was closing her eyes and looking up to the heavens) screamed “performance.”