Chapter 29
CLARKE
It felt like forever but we finally arrived. Fortunately the ride wasn't as bumpy as I thought it would be. I really thought it would be terrible and Sansa would cry out in terror but God was on my side.
The pod automatically opened and I stared at Jack. I guess we were both nervous about removing our masks but someone had to do it. I slowly took off my mask watching him, if the air was toxic he would help me. I breathed in and out waiting for something to happen,when nothing happened I laughed out loud like a mad woman as I jumped out with joy.
"Ahahaaaaaa" I screamed out loud in joy.
Jack jumped out as well throwing his mask away and it got carried away by the waves. He joined me as he carried me with joy. I wanted to cry with so much happiness. This was like a dream, the sky was so beautiful and the sun! Jack put me down "AMAZING" he shouted "we actually made it!"
I ran towards the beach half falling because of the pressure of the water. I knelt down on the sand touching it. The feeling was amazing I closed my eyes thanking God for this blessing. The smell of the sand and the water was glorious. The heat from the sun on my skin was unbelievably soothing, it felt amazing.
Jack did the same, it was like a tradition to always say a little prayer for the good things that we get in life especially things as good as this. I didn't want this to turn out to be a dream. I wanted this to be real.
A moment passed and Jack broke the silence looking back at the pod.
"what did you do" he said narrowing his eyes at Sansa, her little head was poking out of the pod looking at us.
I swallowed hard. Well I knew this moment was coming but I definitely did not regret bringing Sansa here "calm down, you will scare her"
I ran back to the pod and helped the little girl get out of the machine "Come, come its okay you are safe with me. OK" I told her carrying her back to the beach
She was looking at everything, her eyes wide and curious. Jack narrowed his eyes at me, I knew he was very angry with me "what is this Clarke!"
"I found her alive and I saved her. Jack I couldn't let her die in front of me and I don't regret saving this child's life o..." I immediately went speechless as I spotted Arias pod behind Jack.
"what?" he asked looking behind him
We immediately walked towards the pod fast. Jack went in as I stood back with Sansa. I noticed their footprints in the sand, they headed into the forest. Jack came back with a straight face.
"did you find anything?" I asked nervously
"it looks like they are still alive, everything seems okay. They took their bags and some equipment. Good that they took the radio as well for communication" he said nodding his head, he was satisfied with that. I knew that he was worried about his son Tyler.
He still hadn't told him that he was actually his father, his worst fear was losing him without telling him the truth. For Jack to become the leader that he was he felt that he needed to have no serious attachments that could hurt him. He needed to have nothing to lose. After his brothers death, losing his wife and his daughter because of politics Jack decided to hide Tyler and I helped him.
Tyler was just a baby when we gave him to the church and Sarah took him for adoption. All Tyler knew was that Jack took care of him and that he was Jack's nephew. Jack had to lie that he was related to Sarah after paying her loads of amounts of money. The whole situation was complicated. Politics were a dangerous game, nothing was ever straightforward when it came to power.
Now that Agua was on earth, things could either get worse or better. "I see some foot prints," I said pointing at them "do you want to walk?" I asked Sansa as she got fidgety holding her doll
She nodded and I put her to the ground but I held her little hand. Jack followed the footprints, he was a great tracker although he had only done much of his training on Agua. After 5minutes he ran back. "let's get our equipment and everything we might need. We should also hide these pods underwater, if anything should happen" he said and I nodded my head.
I knelt down to reach Sansas height "stay here, okay. I will be right back"
I helped Jack take out all of our equipment especially the radio. After that Jack went to the kids pod and I stayed in ours. It wasn't hard at all controlling the pod. We had training for this, I drove the pod back a little further into the water until it was a few meters below but hidden deep. I got out of the pod and put it in sleep mode, shutting off every other controls.
I swam back to shore and I found Jack already standing with Sansa. He nodded his head to say that it was done and I nodded mine as well. "let's find our people but we should be extra careful, stay alert we don't know what's waiting for us"
I nodded as we walked into the forest, Jack was very good at what he was doing. Looking for signs and tracks. He stopped after we had walked for about 45minutes. I held Sansas hand tightly "what is it?" I asked
"look at these, wolf prints but they seem way bigger than normal" he said showing me large wolf prints. They were definitely too large, an abnormal size.
I nodded "anything could have changed abnormally after the red virus. But we can't be too sure let's keep moving"
There was rustling around us before we even moved and I moved in front of Sansa out of instinct. Jack took out his gun handing me one as well. I scanned the forest waiting for whatever was out there. I smiled widely as I spotted Sarah appearing with other members. Our people made it alive. More came out probably more than a hundred but I knew more were missing.
"Sir" commander Argon said as he came forward with a smile
Jack nodded his head "commander" they hugged for a second. I knew Jack was glad his friend made it. I hugged Sarah and Catherine. I knew they had questions about Sansa but they didn't say anything just yet.
Argon spoke urgently "we need to move, we will explain everything but there is a safe camp nearby. We were in contact with the kids." he said and we nodded. All I wanted was to get to Aria.
LILAH
It felt like forever waiting for our people to get here but when I spotted my mother my heart froze, it felt like a dream. I ran towards her so fast. She ran towards me and we hugged in tears."mom!" I cried out
Jack hugged Tyler with a smile. We were all so relieved that our family was here, honestly we felt safer now. After everything that had happened finally Agua was on earth.
My smile dropped as I spotted Arias mom, she was looking around waiting for her daughter to appear. I felt so bad for her. I looked at her with tears in my eyes, immediately she fell to the ground as if she knew something really bad happened. Sarah hugged her comforting her, they were best friends.
Everyone followed us to our safe place, there were so many people. It was just so good having older people around. They made tents and used equipment to make shelter. It felt even more amazing that we had security. Soldiers and weapons to protect us.
We all gathered around as Jack called us together. Right now he was our leader since Cohan wasn't here apparently they left him back at Agua but they assured us that he was coming.
"Tyler told us what happened and so did the commander. Unfortunately some unknown creatures attacked our people, killing most of us and capturing a few of our people" he announced. It looked like he didn't believe the part about these creatures being human and wolves. "We will set up camp here, make sure we are secured and safe. Then we will come up with a plan to rescue our people" he said nodding at Clarke who remained with a straight face not showing any emotions but I knew she was in pain.
The main leaders gathered around in the tent to plan and discuss properly. It was Jack his nephew Tyler was there, Clarke our doctor, commander Argon, Church leader Maria and John, Sarah, Tom, my mother- Catherine, Forbes the weapons man and Daniel our top engineer. Everyone in this tent was highly skilled and intelligent.
"why didn't you tell them the truth, they need to know what we are up against" Tyler said a bit angry and I agreed with him.
Argon sighed "You were probably hallucinating, we were attacked by people just like us. A lot of them, they seem to be a tribe or more hiding in the forest. We were lucky they were outnumbered but they took out some of our men with arrows and knives. They also seem like warriors, highly skilled"
I shook my head "excuse me but we were not hallucinating! There is a real threat out there and it is definitely not human. If you don't take this seriously this might be the end of us all" I said in anger. My mom held my hand, they needed to take this seriously.
Amara laughed sarcastically standing next to her father Forbes "if you think humans are the threat here then you we are all dead"