Up the hill

“We should get up onto that hill first” you suggest.

“You sure? We’re gunna have to carry Becka” argues Maya

“She’s not that heavy, and it will be safer than down here.”

You start to pack up the first aid kit into your rucksack again, and then notice that Maya never collected her emergency pack. You reach into the back of Becka’s pod and grab out hers, passing it to Maya.

“Take this. It’s got a tent and some rations in it.”

She puts on the rucksack and motions for you to help her lift Becka. You both take an arm, placing it over your shoulders and place your own arm around her back. Your hand ends up slipping down a bit further, grabbing at Becka’s bum. Luckily, she appears to be fading in and out of consciousness, you doubt she can feel it.

On the count of three, the two of you lift Becka and slowly make your way up the hill. It’s not a long trip but there is foliage in the way, and the trees cast dark shadows on the floor making it hard to see where you are going. You do eventually make it up without too much incident.

You place down Becka up against a tree, and start clearing some room to place down your tents with your machete. You keep your gun strapped to your back. Maya tends to Becka, giving her some water and some rations. By the time you have cleared out enough space for both tents, she is looking much healthier.

You grab out the tent from your bag, and then grab the one from Maya’s. They look simple enough, just a pop up tent which you need to peg down. You set them up next to each other, and then fasten them to the forest floor. You then return to the girls.

“What’s the sleeping arrangements? Boy and girls?” Becka asks.

You look at Maya. It seemed fair enough, you almost looked forward to getting your own space.

“No, you should get your own space. I don’t want to kick your leg in the night.” Maya protested.

On the other hand, if Maya really wanted to be with you, who were you to complain?

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.” You agree. You look up and see the sun has almost completely set behind the trees.

“We should get some sleep, and figure out a plan in the morning.” Maya suggests.

“Sounds good. Think you guys could carry me to my tent?” asks Becka

Both you and Maya nod and lift her up, slowly carrying her over to the closest tent. You take Becka off your shoulder and unzip the tent, crawling in. You gesture for Maya to hand Becka over to you, and you slowly pull her in, careful not to catch her leg on anything. You then climb out over her and zip up the tent and get into your own with Maya

There are no sleeping bags or roll mat, so you know this isn’t going to be a comfortable. Luckily with two of you in the tent, it shouldn’t get too cold.

You lie down on the left side of the tent while Maya zips up the tent.

“Night” you say as she lies down next to you.

“Wait, before we go to sleep, we should get to know each other” she responds, rolling onto her side and resting her head on her hand.

You sit up and look back at her. “What do you want to know?”

“What were you doing before you were selected for The Journey?”

“I was an engineering student at uni. Wanted to get into bridge design, that sort of thing. You?”

“I was just about to start a fashion degree.”

“What would you do with that? Journalism? Or more design?”

“I wanted to be a model, but that seemed like the best thing. Of course, The Lottery tends to ruin plans.”

Maya, despite her amazing looks, seems like a nice person to be stuck with. Most of the other pretty girls you have met are stuck up or would bully you, but Maya seems different. Of course, you are the only male around. It’s not like you have any competition. You couldn’t see how her fashion interests would help you build a home here, but there wasn’t a lot you could do about that.

“I miss home.” Maya said, lying back down on her back. “This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. We were meant to land with hundreds of others. Build a huge colony on a nice planet. But now we’re basically screwed.”

“We can do this.” You say. You push back any doubts for your safety to the back of your mind. “Sure, this wasn’t how it was planned, but we’re smart. We can figure this out. And who knows who else we’ll find!

Maya smiles at you, and you almost melt. “I guess you’re right.”

“We should get some sleep. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow if we want to start setting up more permanent buildings.”

Maya nods her head and closes her eyes, her body slightly leans over, facing you. You couldn’t help but glance at her cleavage through her top. She had decent size breasts. C cups if you had to guess, but you didn’t exactly have a lot of experience in this department. You could see her nipples poking through the thin sky blue t-shirt you had all been given, with matching trousers. Her long, slender legs stretched out, almost touching the edge of the tent. She was probably a few inches taller than you, but you were average height, so it was nothing new.

You rest you head back onto the ground and close your eyes, remembering back to the day your name came up in The Lottery. It felt like yesterday, even though you had been in cryo-sleep for the last hundred years. Everyone always crowded around the radio, listening intently to the two hundred names which were read out every month. Those two hundred would have to report to the National Launch Pad in one week to board a ship and go on the ominously named ‘Journey’ through outer space to a planet, and attempt to establish a colony. The point was to try and preserve the human race, and a few other species of domesticated animals such as dogs, and cows etc. Two hundred people would be chosen at random from the entire population, regardless of skill set/race/gender in order to preserve as many genes as possible. Some people hoped to be taken, to start a new life with new people. Others feared it, and would do anything they could to not have to make The Journey. Of course, there was nothing you could do. They would find you and take you kicking and screaming into the ship. Or kill you.

Yours was one of the final names read out that month. You remember going around and hugging your close friends and family, knowing that you would never see them again. The next time you woke up, they would be long dead.

You remember turning up to the National Launch Pad, being taken away from your crying parents by armed soldiers. You remember taking the copious number of medical tests to make sure you were fit to travel in space. Of the two hundred names read out, just over one hundred would make it onto the ship.

You remember lining up along side the other future colonists. Receiving your induction, your clothes and your pod number. All your personal belongings had been taken off of you. The clothes were made to make sleeping in the pod easier, but you realise you were still wearing yours. You hadn’t had a chance to change.

You remember walking to your pod. Looking out the window one last time and getting your final look at the planet Earth. The one you used to call home. You climbed into the pod, the door hissed shut, and a foggy mist was dispersed sending you to sleep.

You open your eyes. The tent was lit up by the sunlight fading in. You look over and see Maya curled in a ball in the corner of the tent. She looked so calm when she was asleep. You sat up, and started unzipping the door to your tent when you heard a voice behind you.

“Good morning” said Maya, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“Morning. How did you sleep?”

“Awful. There was a rock right under my back” she replied, massaging her spine.

“Ah sorry. I didn’t check before I set the tents up.”

“That’s alright.” She starts laughing to herself.

“What’s so funny?” you ask.

“You were talking in your sleep.”

“Wha? What was I saying?” You worryingly say. I hope I didn’t say anything about her.

“Not much. You mumbled something about The Lottery, and some other stuff that didn’t make any sense.”

You breathe a sigh of relief. Certainly could have been worse.

“We should go and check on Becka.” You suggest, and you both exit the tent.

Becka was propped up on her elbows when you unzipped her door. She looked like she had been awake for a while. You pull her out and prop her against a tree as you had done last night. You share out some rations with the girls, and start talking about what you should do today.

“We should start trying to build some more permanent structures today. I found a supply drop yesterday with some wood in it. We should try and bring some of that up here and start laying some foundations” you say.

“No, we need to find some more basic supplies first. A source of fresh water. A food source, like a lake with fish in it. Some fruit from trees maybe? The tents will be fine for now.” Becka argues.

She had a point.