Planet 49

Part3

It was getting dark as the group trudged back to the pod. They had decided to make camp underneath the tree, since that was the most familiar place to them. Jordan was cold, she was tired, and most of all she was thirsty. Nowhere in the jungle had they found water.

Nobody had said much after Luke had killed the giant lizard. Except Alex. She and Luke had been having a conversation for about an hour.

It was easy for Jordan to follow the way back, they had made quite a path of destruction running from the mountainous lizard, but she still had trouble concentrating. Every new thing she saw captured her attention and it sucked not to be able to study everything.

A few of them had picked up dead pieces of wood to make a fire at camp. That gave them something to occupy the empty void of bitter thirst. Jordan figured that the temperatures on Planet 49 were sweltering hot during the day, and insanely cold at night. The only good thing about it getting dark, was the sunset. It was beautiful. A vibrant blend of oranges, pinks, and purples that you just didn't get to see on the main ships.

They continued walking on for awhile. The sounds of the jungle were like background music. Nothing was extremely loud, but it was all right there on the edge, ready to spill out at any moment. The only distinct sounds were coming from Alex and Luke, but they were whispering to each other. Jordan looked up, only to see a bird. For once, what she saw wasn't huge. It was, in fact, tiny. It was perched on a small branch, looking out into the sky.

The birds feathers were a magnificent shade of blue with black trim. Jordan was so focused on the bird that she didn't notice the exposed root until she had tripped over it. She dropped the knife she was holding and it skittered a few feet away. She was a little stunned. When you tripped on one of the main ships, you were greeted by hard metal floors. Jordan wasn't used to soft dirt. It was cooling and felt nice under her palms. Not to mention the smell. She had thought mud would stink. It didn't. Mud smelled quite nice. Like she was running through a meadow in the pictures she'd seen on York.

Jordan became lost in thought about mud until a hand gently wrapped around her forearm "Here. Get up" grunted Charlie with his accent as he helped Jordan to her feet, "Lets get going again" he gave her arm a friendly squeeze before he began walking.

Jordan looked for the bird, but she couldn't spot it so she picked up her knife and quickly rejoined the group.

"So I was thinking," she said when she caught up to everyone, "These nutrition packs aren't going to last fore-"

"Don't remind us" said Penny coldly.

Jordan brushed off the comment,

"Anyway, I was thinking we could learn how to hunt? You know, like they did back on the original earth?"

" Good idea" Alex nodded.

" Yeah but the original earth didn't have giant creatures or anything else here," Said Luke. Jordan held out her knife. "We killed the lizard, we can kill something else."

" We can't be that lucky every time" said Charlie darkly.

" We just have to hope for the best" Jordan said, doing her best to sound encouraging.

"We're here" chimed in Penny. Everyone dropped their wood into one big stack. "A fire" said Charlie, "I can build one.. Give me some matches"

Alex unzipped her pack, fished out a box, an handed it to him. Charlie retied the top half of his hair back, and quickly went to work building the fire. He knew what he was doing, too. In a few short minutes he had built a teepee out of the wood and lit it on fire. Jordan stared at it in awe. This wasn't like normal fire back home. It was slightly purple. "Woah" said Luke, "Why-"