The Sky is Falling

Aida

The desert was always quiet at night.

The woods were abundant with the sounds of life. The cracking of twigs and rustling of leaves as creatures stalked through the undergrowth; the voices of singing birds and the growls of hungry predators. The movement of the wind as it danced around the trees, and the constant chirping of insects hidden from sight.

But here, the desert was silent. There was no life among the towering sand dunes and barren scrubs. Here, there was only the crackle of a small fire for company. I sat on the soft sand and stared at the flames, transfixed by the movements and colour. The little heat it offered had saved me during the cold night.

My body was rigid from sitting for so long and I turned my head, loosening the stiff muscles. Further in the distance I saw the dark sky had begun to lighten. The sun was rising. I would leave soon.

Then I heard a sound; a soft rumbling far away. I turned to look behind me, towards where the woods began, a hundred miles away. The sound was coming from the sky. A meteor was falling; surrounded by flames as it spun towards Earth. It was larger than any I had ever seen, and I watched captivated by its decent.

A second of worry flickered through my mind. The giant space rock was heading towards the forest. But, I reasoned, the forest was hundreds of miles large, and the chances of it landing near her were small. I shouldn't worry – my sister would be safe.

I had left so that she would be safe.

I continued to watch the spectacular fire show performed by the meteor. It would have been fascinating to watch the rock collide into the Earth, smashing into a thousand pieces. Perhaps I would still feel it from here.

Something came away from the top of the rock as it burnt up on its decent. I expect it to detach and melt away but to my surprise it opened up forming a large parachute. I quickly stood up, staring at the thing in amazement. This wasn't a rock. It was something man-made. My flicker of worry returned in large drowning waves. The Mountain Men were attacking.

I continued to stare at the object – no, weapon- in the sky as the parachute slowed its decent to the ground. It floated down, twisting slightly, and disappeared behind a large sand dune before me.

Then it was silent again. The only sound was my pulse, beating quickly from my heart to my ears. I waited. I didn't know what to expect. A loud bang, perhaps? Or a large ball of fire expanding from the weapons landing.

Adrenaline was speeding through my veins and I couldn't stay still any longer. I grabbed the bag that had been lying beside me and slung the long strap over my shoulder. I also picked up my quiver from the sand, slipping it over my head and across my back, and my bow, holding this in my hand ready to be used.

Once all my possessions were secured to me, I ran. The sand was soft and slipped underneath my feet, slowing my speed. I began to climb the large dune that had offered me shade yesterday afternoon. Although it was not yet hot, I was soon sweating from the effort.

As I finally reached the dune's peak I paused and looked out at the barren landscape before me. Miles and miles of sand covered the earth, broken only by a line of mountains in the distance. The sun had risen now, and glowed orange across the earth. There was no sign of fire or smoke from the trees, a good sign.

I began my decent down the dune, slipping in the sand. What could the object have been, I wondered. Surely not a missile. The destruction would be clearly evident, even from this far. Perhaps it wasn't the Mountain Men. Maybe it was someone else, someone from another place…

A memory from my childhood slipped into my mind; a memory of a man falling from the sky in a metal box. Could that be it? Was it another sky stranger? No, I answered myself; this one had been far larger than the container from my memory. Therefore, it must be the Mountain Men, and I had to return.

I was returning to save my sister, I persuaded myself. Not because I wanted to go back to the forest… back to my home.

I continued to walk through the Dead Zone as the sun rose higher in the sky. It sent rays of heat down on me, drying out my mouth and burning my face. I saw nothing but the sand move underneath my feet. Anything that may be living among the dunes had since hidden from the rays of the afternoon sun.

The desert was always quiet during the day.

Lincoln

My breathing was deep and rhythmic as I focused on the deer in front of me. My spear was gripped tightly in my hand, ready to be thrown with fierce strength and accuracy. I raised it above my head to strike.

Suddenly the deer lifted its head up from the grass and bolted from the clearing into the mass of trees. Cursing, I let my arm fall to my side.

'What did you do?' Emii asked, coming to stand beside me. She was shorter than me by nearly a head, but her body was lean and strong. She looked like a true warrior, with her dark hair tied back in a braid and black paint around her green eyes. There was a bow in her hand and a quiver across her back. She had been watching the woods for Reapers while I hunted for our dinner.

'I did nothing,' I responded to her question, looking back at the spot where the deer had been. The sun had only just started to rise, sending small streaks of light through the tree leaves. A thin mist clung to the earth, wrapping its self around the trees. It was a sign of the cold and the approaching winter.

'Do you hear that?' Emii asked suddenly. Instinctively I turned to the woods and raised my spear, searching for the source of the sound. Then I heard it, a low rumble in the sky, not a Reaper in the woods. I turned my attention upwards.

Far away among the dark blue dawn a star was falling. Only it wasn't a star, I realised as it drew closer. It was a metal box.

My stomach sank at the sight of the thing hurtling towards the woods. It looked so beautiful, leaving a fiery trail behind it. But as a child I had seen this before, and knew what was coming. Emii, who had no knowledge of my past, gripped my arm tightly in fear.

'What is it? A missile?' She asked. Although we had never seen a missile in our lifetime we had been told stories - long weapons that flew through the sky and blew holes in the earth. But I knew that this was no missile. I had seen this before.

'The Mountain Men are attacking, Lincoln. We need to warm the Commander,' Emii continued.

'I don't think it is a missile, Emii,' I said.

'Then what could it be?'

'I don't know,' I lied. We both stood there for a moment staring at the thing fall from the sky. Something came away from the top of the box and opened to form a large parachute. It jolted sharply then began to slowly float down to the trees, disappearing from sight. Silence followed. All I could hear was the fast beat of my heart.

'We need to go,' Emii said, pulling on my arm.

'We should find it,' I said. Emii looked at me, amazed.

'Why?' She demanded.

'So that we can tell Anya what it is,' I said.

'No,' Emii said, shaking her head. 'We should tell them what we have seen, then let our leaders decided the next move.'

Emii was right. We needed to return to the village for weapons and warriors, tell our leaders, and let them decide if we should return. But I knew that this wasn't a weapon, as Emii thought. It was people from the sky. And if we told our leaders I knew they would kill them. So I said,

'You go. I will stay and find it. I warn our people if there is danger.' She considered my words for a moment.

'No,' she said. 'I will come with you.'

I wanted to tell her no; tell her I would go alone. But Emii was stubborn. So I simply nodded.

I was running through the trees, jumping over fallen logs and twisting between branches. Emii followed closely behind, her heavy breathing matching my own. The ground was soft under our feet, still damp from the frosty night, but the fog that had clung to us that morning had subsided. The sun had risen higher in the sky but was currently hidden by greying clouds, darkening the forest. It would rain tonight.

As our surroundings became familiar I began to slow. Ahead the trees diminished and were instead replaced by the grey sky. I looked back and Emii, who nodded at me. Together we walked out from the trees.

We were standing on a high embankment overlooking a wide river. Before us, connected to each side was an aging bridge. The structure was made from a seamless rock which, over the years, had become green with moss. But the structure was strong and sturdy, and had been a safe passage for the Woods Clan for generations. Despite the shallowness of the river it was filled with dangerous creatures, and here was the securest place for us to cross. It also signified the end of our territory.

Pausing at the start of the bridge I looked across the treetops in the distance searching for some sign of the fallen object. I had expected a line of smoke to rise from its landing point, but, if there was any fire, it was not large enough to be seen at this distance. Finding the object would be hard.

Sharing my doubts Emii said, 'Where do you think it landed?'

I shrugged and replied that I did not know. We decided to cross the bridge and head in the direction it had been falling. Hopefully we would stumble upon something that might direct us further.

We ran across the bridge in silence and into the forest on the other side. Although the forest had not changed, I instantly felt more apprehensive being outside our territory. Emii must have felt the same because her pace began to quicken, and her grip on her bow tightened.

We ran through the forest for some time before deciding to stop for a break.

'How much further do you think it is?' Emii asked, drinking from her water skin. I shrugged.

'We might be heading in the wrong direction.'

'Do you think we should change course?' I considered this for a moment.

'We should change direction – head south instead of east,' I decided. Emii agreed and, after taking another gulp of water, we set off again.

We were running for only a short time when Emii stopped and pointed to a trail on the ground. I bent down to examine the marks. They were only an hour old and definitely weren't animal tracks.

'Boots,' I concluded. Emii's eyes widening slightly.

'Mountain Men?' She asked.

'Maybe,' I responded, looking up at the direction the prints headed. They were trekking downhill towards the river. I stood again and followed them for a moment, counting.

'Four of them, I think,' I told the girl as she watched me patiently.

'We're no match for that many,' she said. 'We should leave.'

'Emii, I don't think it's the Mountain Men,' I said. She frowned.

'Who else would be in these parts of the woods?' I turned away from her and stared back at the prints. I knew I was right about the sky people, which meant they were in danger. I wanted to lie to Emii to protect these strangers from my people. But it was too late. I needed to prepare her for what we might find; who we might find.

'I think these prints belong to whoever was in that falling box.' I finally said. Emii's frown deepened with confusion.

'How could people be in there? Did the Mountain Men put them in there?' She paused. 'Is that why you wanted to come out here, because you thought there were people?' She asked me angrily.

'Emii, listen,' I began, but she cut me off.

'This is dangerous, and we should not have come,' she stated. 'We should go back to Tondc and tell Anya what we have seen. She can decide our next move.'

I understood the girl's anger. I had dragged her away from the safety of our territory for no reason other than my own curiosity. But I had to know.

'Emii, we are here now. We should find out as much as we can for Anya and the Commander.'

She hesitated, considering my words.

'Fine,' she agreed.

We began to move downhill following the tracks. One set was uniform, walking straight and determined, leading the group. The rest moved around carelessly, apparently running, jumping and swinging around trees. These were not consistent with tracks made by the Mountain Men, reaffirming my previous theory. I didn't not say this to Emii.

We had been following the tracks for some time when I heard voices. I stopped and signalled to Emii, who followed my lead. The voices were coming from further down the hill. Silently, we began to move forward, using the trees for cover. I stopped when we saw them, and Emii gasped.

Ahead of us walked a small group of people. They were young, around Emii's age, and dressed in the same blue jackets and pants. At the front of the group walked a girl with long blonde hair flowing down her back and a frown on her face. I knew instantly she had left the straight tracks in the ground. The rest of her people did not walk with such determination.

Behind her were four others; three boys, none of which looked threatening to me, and a brunette girl. Although we were some distance away I could still make out her smile. She was spinning around and grabbing branches from the ground, her soft long hair flying around her. I watched her, intrigued by the strength of her voice and the shape of her body.

'Lincoln, who are they?' Emii asked me, pulling my eyes away from the laughing girl. I looked at her, noticing the fear in her eyes.

'They're not Mountain Men,' I responded. Mountain Men wore masks that covered their faces and suits that concealed their whole bodies. These people walked freely and touched the earth with their bare hands, something no Mountain Men could ever hope to do.

Emii stared at the strangers, frowning slightly.

'You think that they came from the sky?' Emii concluded.

I did not know what to respond. Emii did not believe me and she could not understand how people could fall from the sky and survive. Even I had trouble understanding such a thing. But these people were dressed like the sky man from my childhood. They were clean, and looked at the earth as he did. I knew they were his people.

But to Emii I simply shrugged and suggested we follow them.

It was not long before we reached the river. The brunette girl had run ahead of her group and was looking out across the water. I watched her as she slipped the jacket from her back, revealing strong arms and a thin waist, and pulled her pant off. I was focussing on the curve of her body when I realised what she was doing. Too late, she jumped from the rocks and into the river.

I wanted to run to her, scream at her to get out of the water. Instead her friends rushed forward, yelling fearfully. But instead of fishing her out as I expected, they began to laugh when they saw her in the water.

'What are they doing?' I hissed.

'Looks like we won't have to worry about them; they're going to kill themselves,' Emii scoffed.

Right on cue, one of the boys began to yell at the girl, pointing to something in the water. Through the tree branches concealing me I saw a long creature sweep through the river towards the sky girl. She didn't even have time to react before it pulled her under.

The rest of the group became silent, staring around for their lost companion. Suddenly the surface of the water broke further downstream. The girl was fighting the creature, trying to reach the riverbank. The others began to throw rocks into the water, drawing the serpent's attention away from the brunette.

To my surprise it worked, and the thing spun back towards the rocks. One of the boys, taller than the rest and wearing strange goggles on his head, jumped into the water and pulled the girl out. From afar I could see that her leg was hurt, but not badly.

I suddenly realised that I had stopped breathing during the ordeal, and quickly took a small gulp of air hoping Emii hadn't noticed. But she too had been engrossed by the previous events. In fact, she seemed to find the whole thing hilarious.

'They're so weak,' she laughed. She was no longer fearful of these people. She could see that they were not warriors. I had seen it too.

'They are not threat to us,' she continued happily. 'We need to tell Anya.'

I nodded silently. I did not want to tell Anya, or any other Trikru. I did not want to hurt these people simply because they were here. But, like my father, I knew Anya would want them dead. And I knew that I would have to lead her to them.

The sun had fallen low in the sky. It would be dark soon, and I did not want to travel through the woods at night. But I did not want to leave the sky people by themselves, especially when they had no idea about the dangers around them.

They were carrying the girl away from the river now, heading up hill to a small clearing. Emii and I were now close enough to hear them.

'We should rest here for tonight,' the blonde one said. I felt Emii hiss beside me. The sky people were speaking Gonnasleng, the language of our enemy.

'They are Mountain Men,' she whispered.

'Then how do they walk so freely,' I shot back, frustrated that she did not agree that they came from the sky. She did not respond.

'What do you think is at Mount Weather?' The brunette asked.

'The Chancellor said supplies,' the blonde responded. She was examining the wound on the girls leg.

'Yeah, but what kind of supplies? I mean, food doesn't last 100 years, does it?' She winced from the pain of her leg.

'Bellamy isn't going to be happy when he sees this,' the blonde said. The other shrugged.

'Bellamy can suck it up.'

'Lincoln, we should go,' Emii whispered. 'It will be dark soon, and Anya will need to know what has happened.'

I knew she was right, but I wanted to stay. I wanted to listen to the girl talk. I wanted to make sure she was ok.

'Lincoln,' Emii insisted, sensing my hesitation. Begrudgingly I nodded. Keeping silent, we moved away from the strangers and headed towards the bridge.

'They said they are heading to Mount Weather,' Emii said as we ran through the trees. Dusk had set in and the forest was dim.

'They said they were looking for supplies,' I said.

'More supplies. They must have come from there, Lincoln.' Suddenly she stopped walked and stared at me, her eyes wide.

'Lincoln, if they are Mountain Men it means that they have learnt to walk in the forest without their suits and mask. It means that their one weakness is gone.'

She did not wait for my reply, instead choosing to run again, desperate to tell our people of a threat I knew was false.

Thank you for reading! Please review; all you're comments and feed back is welcome, even if you hate it.

I've got so much planned for this story and I really thing it will evolve into something very interesting. Survival and the things we do to survive is a main theme in The 100 and I want to continue that in this story. But, from the perspective of those who have grown up on Earth and have been raised in a culture that is all about fighting to survive. I also want to explore the reasons why the grounders are who they are, and the reasons why some of them, such as Lincoln, challenge this. Further, I want to explore how the 100 might change the grounders through my own character, Aida.