k_a_webb | AU Thear: Evelyn: A Planet Outside the Window (part 2) (Reply)

“Lil…” Evelyn started, before shaking her head. “No, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does matter, and no, I didn’t believe a word they said.” Lilith smiled. “I still don’t.”

“Why not?”

“It didn’t make sense. We were put on a spaceship that was set to land in a specific place at a specific time, as though that was actually possible. Finding Thear, if it is Thear, was purely down to luck. Of course if I said that to anyone else they’d either get angry or just ignore everything I said, because who would want to believe that our Government put us on this spaceship to get rid of us.”

“Father always said that it was nothing more than a way of dealing with the problem of having too many people on Earth.” Evelyn sighed. “If I’d thought for a moment that they were being honest I would have been the first to offer, but I never did and then I got the letter that gave me the happy news. Now there really is a world that we’re going to land on, which could be inhabited by people who don’t have any idea that we’re coming, probably don’t have anywhere near the same technology as us, and this is wrong.”

“None of this was our choice, Evie.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to survive whatever happens when we go through the atmosphere of that planet and land.”

“True.” Lilith looked out of the window. “We need to plan, as best we can, for whatever might happen.”

Evelyn nodded. “We’re going to land in the sea, so we just need to be prepared to swim for it.”

“Actually…” Turning, Lilith’s eyes met Evelyn’s. “Landing in the sea would be our best chance of survival, but I doubt more than a quarter of us will make it.”

“If we land on land?”

“I’d would put money, if money was of any use right now, on this ship being unable to land, because there would have been no reason for it to.” Lilith shrugged. “How many of us survive will all depend on how we hit the ground and how hard.”

“So we have to hope that my prediction is right?”

“Pretty much.”

“Now I feel even less happy about this whole mess.” Evelyn glanced out of the window at the planet that kept getting closer. “There are a couple of people I want to talk to.”

“Same here. How about we all gather here in about an hour?”

“Okay.” Standing, Evelyn ran a hand through her hair as she tried to tell herself that everything we going to be fine. “See you later.”

Lilith squeezed Evelyn’s hand and then left the room, while Evelyn found herself staring around the small room that had been hers for the last three years. When the ship landed she would never see it again and she couldn’t stop herself from feeling a little sad, even though she’d hated it when she first set foot in it. Finally, breathing deeply, she left it behind, knowing that she didn’t have the time to be emotional.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.