Taming new wilds

Touchdown

When Mika woke up it was 10 years later, but it felt like only a few hours. The air around her was still cold and her capsule was still shut. She pushed on the glass in front of her and the capsule popped open. She fell out of the pod and landed on her stomach.

She got up looking around, eyeing the other pods near her. Most of them were open, but a few stayed closed and she was afraid they would never open again.

"MIKA!" A voice called her from the front of the ship. An excited Roy came running at her in full tilt "you're awake! Thank everything. You have to come see this!" he tugged her arm running towards the door of the ship. He waved her out the door practically bouncing, "go look go look!!!"

He pushed her out the door, she shook her head with a rueful smile and turned around.

Stepping off the ship was an amazing experience, this world was so... clean. The air was fresher than anything Mika had ever breathed and the ground was covered in grass, not false grass or astro turf. But real, actual living grass. In the distance trees blew in the fresh smelling wind, birds of some sort flew over head. Then she knew, this world would be theirs. Till each person died this would be their home. Forever.

Mika laughed for the first time in years and touched the soft dirt. This world, scientists said, was almost exactly like earth in the time before humans were human. They warned of giant beasts and harsh weather, of alien life and deadly vegetation. But right now, none of that was going through Mika's mind, all she could think about was the beauty of the world around her.

Michal, Roy, James, and a few more people unloaded the rations. Mika grabbed the books, discovering they were laminated against the weather. Mika then started scouring the ship for anything of use, wires, scrap, anything. However, all she found was a large screen in the very back of the ship where very few people had been. As she got closer the screen flickered to life.

"T minus 1 minutes to launch, please evacuate the ship." the voice from before said sweetly. Before the screen flashed to a large countdown clock.

Mika ran for it, practically leaping off the ship as it started up. People started running away from the ship trying to put distance between them and the flaming jets. The world was wet from a recent rain so lucky for them nothing caught fire.

From now on they were on their own. They had to build their own shelter, make their own tools, they had to create an entire civilization from nothing. It was exhilarating to think about. Mika had started life out as a street dancer, hoping to earn a little money in her quickly dying world and now she was just like the pioneers she read about as a child. Now she was free from the bindings of her old world.

It was hard for her to believe it, that 4 weeks before her cryosleep she had been scraping by with nothing. That she'd been kidnapped, and now? It was the best thing that had ever happened to her, she was sure of it.

They quickly discovered they did not have enough hands to carry all of the rations, and with no equipment to carry it people started getting worried.

James took charge of this quickly, "You 10 with me, were gonna go get some wood from that forest to make something to carry all of this. We can't risk losing even a little bit of this food. Who knows when winter hits here." he muttered the last part with irritation.

Just then fish piped up "we need shelter and water don't we? What do we do here? They told us how to clean water, not how to find it!" He sounded a little panicked.

Mika spoke finally, "Come on, let's calm down. James go ahead and take 10 people to get wood, I'll take another 10 to try and find water. We need to get to that forest by days end to build a shelter. A few of us should stay with the food to fend off predators, so just us 20 should leave." her voice rang clear over the crowd.

James chose 10 of the strongest people to go with him, and Mika 10 of the fastest, including Legs. Both groups headed for the woods. They headed straight for a long time, trying to avoid getting lost in the dense underbrush. Mika wondered at the many beautiful sounds of animals around her. Something buzzed just out of sight and chirping and whistling could be heard all around them.

James picking up long branches with the people he grabbed. Finding vines he would lash the branches together into a kind of litter. Eventually turning back when they had 5 together.

Mika meanwhile just kept going straight with her party, hoping to hit water just by walking and never turning. She didn't want to get lost.

She and her group walked for 3 and a half hours before they heard water. Another half hour brought to them a river that wound lazily between gentle hills on either side of the water. They all cheered, excited that they had actually done what they came to do.

Mika grabbed a large jagged rock and looked it over. She had found something that she might be able to shape! She had watched at least a dozen videos on flint knapping and thought she might be able to do it herself.

"Everyone grab a couple of these smaller rocks and follow me, it's time to head back and let them know what we found!" She sounded almost giddy, these were the ultimate life line. Their tools, their shelter, their food, their everything. It all starts with a few rocks.