The Ark was running out of air. This was no longer a secret. Chancellor Jaha had told the people of The Ark the situation, there would be no more secrets and hopefully, no more sacrifices. Logan had been brought up by a single mother and was an only child, his father Charles had been floated for hoarding items and taking more than his own share, and his mother Rose had sacrificed herself to give The Ark and her only son more time to survive. Logan had not stopped feeling depressed and upset for the past three days after that had happened, and now everything seemed to be getting worse. The young scientist had worked and lived in the Australian station for his entire 21 years of life. Before his parents passed, his father had been a previous member of the council and his mother had been a secretary, taking care of documents and logistics.
Swallowing, Logan bit back the tears as he tied his thick mousy brown hair into a bun at the top of his head and fixed the position of his glasses on his nose. He was starting to learn that death was a part of life, and even though it was difficult for him to go on without his mother who had always had his back, Logan knew that he had no choice. Rose would not have wanted him to give up hope or let his depression overcome him. Sometimes Logan was saddened that he barely remembered his father Charles, but the former council member had died when he was only 5 years old. It did not matter anymore – they were both in a better place – and Logan would probably soon join them. Since Logan was only an assistant scientist and worked more on the pathological side of research, he felt useless when it came to trying to fix the mechanical problems on The Ark. A call had gone out for the remaining survivors to go to their stations and buckle themselves in.
The Ark was going to the ground.
Logan could hear his breathing becoming ragged as his anxiety started to rise in his chest. What if this plan didn't work? Did the engineers know what they were even doing? Logan had already been through so much already in such a short period of time, but then again so had everyone on The Ark. Their only hope was to try and land on the ground. From what Logan had heard, there were not only the child prison survivors down there, but also savages and who knew? Of course, Logan was interested to see what affect the radiation had had on the environment, but he did not have time to think about that now.
Closing his eyes, Logan leaned his head against the metal wall behind him. He could hear Jaha's voice over the speaker, but otherwise he ignored everything around him. Logan knew there was no point in trying to pay attention as it would only make his fear worse. Tears pricked at his eyes underneath his eyelids, and the young scientist tried to blink them away. A single tear travelled slowly down his cheek, which Logan ignored. He was scared, and he did not have his mother to protect him. No, Logan needed to protect himself. The cold metal behind his head was hard and uncomfortable, but the young scientist did not dare to move. He listened to the countdown over the speaker, subconsciously holding his breath.
"3… 2… 1…" Thelonious Jaha said in his deep, gravelly voice.
Nothing happened.
Panic began to rise up in Logan's chest, his head swung around looking at those near him, several locks of hair slipping from his bun. Blue grey eyes with gold rims around the pupils flicked from the different faces around him, silently pleading them to explain what was going on. Why didn't it work? Then suddenly, a loud explosion seemed to shake the station. Gripping the straps that had buckled him in even tighter, Logan closed his eyes. Even though he had lived on a space station for his entire life, Logan had never experienced one moving. His stomach churned as he tried his best not to vomit this early in the trip. So it turned out that Logan suffered from motion sickness, well this was going to be fun. Now, all Logan could think about was getting through this alive. If he survived at all. Logan was such a small person, standing at a mere 5'0" in height, he looked like nothing most other occupants of The Ark. He was too nervous and scared to try and work out if this was a good thing or a bad thing, as he doubted that looking like an 18 year old would help very much.
Logan coughed a little, causing some vomit to spray out in front of him resulting in disgusted looks from the people he was sitting next to. His head swam from the strange motion sickness he was currently experiencing, only worsened by his rising anxiety. The station shook violently and Logan smashed the back of his head against the metal wall. Pain buzzed around his head as everything seemed to throb. Then, the station went black as Logan's eyes closed and his body went limp.
It felt like only a second had passed when Logan regained consciousness again. The first thing he noticed was searing pain coming from his left leg, blood oozing out from underneath a large metal chunk that had stabbed itself into his thigh. His vision was strained because the glass in his glasses was cracked, but they were still intact enough to see.
"Fuck," Logan swore, his eyes watering at the pain as he scrunched them shut.
A few seconds later, it hit Logan that the air tasted different. He was alive! Opening his eyes again, Logan looked around. Tall, strong looking trees towards above him, while a part of his station was to the left, smashed into a tree that was now collapsed. Smoke seemed to be everywhere from the crash, which stun his eyes and only made the tears worse. As Logan grew more used to the pain in his thigh, he blinked, trying to take in his surroundings. It seemed like he was in the middle of a forest, but from where he was lying, Logan could not see very much. Bracing himself, Logan used his arms to push himself up into a sitting position, crying out in pain as he accidentally moved his injured leg.
Everything here was so… Green. The trees were thick, brown and so tall that Logan could not even make out where they ended. From this distance, Logan could tell that the bark on these trees were rough like the ones he had read in his books back when The Ark was whole. The ground was covered in dirt, and Logan reached down with his left hand to touch the new substance tentatively. Once he rationalised that it was safe, he dug his hand into the dirt and pulled up a handful, watching with interest as the grains of dirt and bark fell from his pale hand to the ground. He had never imagined it being like this. The nearby wreckage seemed to be out of place, although he did not know where the majority of the crash site would be.
And then he saw the body.
Right next to him was the stiff corpse of the woman who had sneered at him back in space. Logan reeled, trying to hold in his vomit. However, when he turned his gaze away from the woman he stared right into the glazed, unseeing eyes of a teenager, whose body was completely torn in half. That was the point of no return for Logan, and he vomited to the side, coughing up some blood as he did so. That was not good. Not allowing himself to look at the dead bodies around him, Logan checked his leg.
The piece of lodged metal was fairly deep, but as far as he could tell it had not damaged any nerves so he could still feel everything. Logan was no doctor, but he did have some understanding of the human body, and he knew enough that if he removed the shard of metal he would most likely bleed to death. He then felt the back of his head and winced in pain, bringing his blood covered hand back. Shaking a little, Logan wiped his hand on his shirt, smearing blood over the mottled grey material. He most likely had other injured, but they did not pain him as much as his head and leg so they couldn't be that dangerous. If Logan was going to have any luck trying to find survivors at the main wreckage, he would need to stand.
Gritting his teeth, Logan looked around for the nearest tree, he would not be able to stand up without any aid. Using his arms and good left leg, Logan began to drag himself to a tree that was about three metres away. Logan fought through the pain, and once he reached the tree, grabbed onto it. He tried to use it to pull himself up, but there was nothing on the rough trunk for him to grasp on to. Groaning, Logan used the tree as something to lean on as he pushed himself up, wincing and crying out in pain whenever he moved his injured leg a little too much. Of course, Logan could always try and remove the shard of metal and bandage it himself, but he was too unsure about what could happen and did not know how deep the injury was. No, it was best to leave it in for now. It took him a good minute and a half to finally stand, his back leaning against the tree as he gasped for breath, keeping as much weight off his injured leg as possible.
Logan was lucky to be alive, but he wouldn't be for much longer unless he found some help.