Earth: Criminal Rehab

Chapter Five

Pete

I could not get over the beauty. Even hours after landing, I was awestruck. We'd learned about the colors and scents, but not the feeling. The sun warmed our skin. It was a feeling none of us had felt prior to the moment. Like children, we basked in the glory of discovering something new. We lifted our heads to the beautiful blue sky and spread our arms out wide. Some people stripped their black jackets to the ground. They shrieked and danced around. They found their friends and celebrated with them. Even complete strangers hugged onto each other tightly and cried tears of joy. We did it. We made it.

I walked past a pair of guys kissing and smiled. My eyes stopped on Patrick, who was laughing with a guy who had badly broken his arm. That smile, his laugh, his charm was something he'd always had. He might not have studied medicine or therapy on the Legacy, but he was a healer at heart. If he hadn't found himself in jail, he would've had the opportunity to make his gift a profession. He could have been helping a lot of people. Instead...because of me...he was here risking his life with the rest of us in this science experiment.

Sheltering my eyes with my hand, I looked up at the sky where we had come from. The smokey trail in the sky was starting to disappear. I traced it back as far as I could see. Somewhere up there, people were watching us.

A shrill scream erupted from a woman a short distance away. She was looking down at her arm in fear. I jogged over to her to see what the problem was. If you couldn't tell she was afraid, you could tell by her eyes. Her bright blue eyes were electric and wide. I looked into those eyes questioningly. She held out her arm towards me where a single drop sat on her pale skin.

The people around us started to shriek as well. The drops were beginning to appear on everyone. It didn't seem to be coming from anywhere.

"Does it hurt?" I asked hurriedly. There was no time to waste.

She shook her head, the worry started to melt away, "What is it though?"

"Rain!" Patrick shouted the answer above the nervous murmurs. He laughed and jumped and frolicked around in the grass as the drops started to wet his clothes. Gradually, people joined him. The rain cooled our skin.

I held my hands out in front of me and watched the red blood drain away. It was such a foreign concept to us. We'd learned about rain as children in school. We learned about how water dripped from big, white, puffy clouds. It was like a giant shower. The rain went from being something absolutely terrifying to a blessing. It washed the blood and dirt from our skin and the tears from our eyes.

"Pete!" Patrick squealed before tackling me to the ground. I gave into his cheer and laughed with him.

"Isn't this great? We're free now! We're on Earth!" he smiled.

I nodded, "We're free."

***

The rain poured heavier as the day went on. It didn't seem to bother most people. They worked and searched for supplies while the water soaked them from head to toe. Clouds covered the sun, which was beginning to set. The sky returned to the color we remembered from the Legacy, midnight blue. I smiled, knowing how safe everyone felt. I strolled into our dead ship. People who didn't care for the shower stayed inside. They sat, chatted, and some even slept. I envied people that could sleep through noise. I sat on the ramp, just under the shade of the ship.

Patrick set down the wood he dragged from the forest and sat down next to me. He leaned his head on my shoulder and sighed. His eyes were closed when I looked down at him again.

Two guys came to sit down beside us. I didn't recognize them at a first glance, but they smiled and acted like they knew who I was. They saw Patrick dozing off on me and tried to stay quiet.

"Hey Pete," a guy with curly brown hair said and wore a smile that almost looked like a smirk.

"Hi," I answered back and stared harder at them to see if I could remember.

The two guys looked at each other for a moment and then back to me. The quieter one moved closer to me. He was the one from the ship. He had the knife that cut off our seat belts. I remembered his slick, dark hair. But there was something else about the two of them...

"Andy? Joe? Ring a bell?" he asked, "We were in Earth History class together."

It clicked. I felt so stupid. Of course I remember them.

"Oh my god, yeah I remember! I'm sorry. You guys look so different!" I laugh.

Andy and Joe took off their jackets and revealed sleeves of inked tattoos. Different shapes and words were traced into their arms and up to their necks. I guessed they probably had some on their legs. Joe chuckled, "Yeah we've changed a bit."

"It's been a long time!" I smiled and sifted my eyes through the shapes on their skin.

Andy nodded, "Yeah, you didn't even get to finish school before they took you away. They didn't waste any time."

I swallowed my growing guilt and looked into the grass, "No they did not."

The silence between us felt like it was physically hurting me. They knew what I did. I'm sure they thought it was stupid. I was surprised they were still here, knowing who I was and still taking the chance to get to know me again.

The pitter-patter of the rain softened and eventually went away. Joe stood up and walked out into the open. He turned back to us, "Stopped."

Andy got up and joined him. People gathered around a guy who was trying to start a fire.

"You coming?" Andy asked me.

I looked down at Patrick. He was completely knocked out. I didn't want to wake him up at a time like this.

"Go on without me. I'll see you guys later."

He smiled, "You're a good guy, Pete. There aren't any Ascendants or guards to tell you you're not."

It warmed my heart. I smiled back and him and waved. He winked at me and chased after Joe.