Burnt, charred, and otherwise damaged remains of what used to be food were scattered throughout the ship. Chao picked through the rubble, sifting out food that might still be edible while the others stared in horror.

"Don't give up yet," Chao pleaded. "Some of this might be salvageable. We should look for the seeds too; the sooner we plant something the faster we can harvest crops."

"Looks like we split up for nothing," Hamadi shrugged. "Guess it would have been smart to check the ship before concluding the discussion."

Anaya nodded in agreement. "Let pack up all the supplies we can find. Then we can try to catch up with the others." Anaya glanced at the smoldering remains and sighed. "If the smoke plume from the crash was big and pronounced like a normal crash, we'd have an easier mark for returning here."

Raphael shook his head. "No need dwelling on something you can't control."

Anaya 's eyebrow shot up. "No?"

"No." Raphael held his position as though he knew what Anaya was thinking, but the rest of the group continued picking through the food idly.

"If we fan the flames, just a little right before we leave—"

Raphael sucked in a sharp breath then expelled the air rapidly. "Why would we waste time doing that?"

Anaya shrugged. "Who says it'll take a long time? There's no way we flew across the universe with no weapons... I'm sure a grenade or two will liven that smoke up in no time."

Raphael shrugged, glancing at the others for support. Hamadi shrugged his shoulders neutrally while Chao, barely listening, continued digging through the food. Only Gabrielle spoke up.

"What if we need shelter? The plume of smoke would give us a way to find our way back, but what would we be coming back too?"

Anaya smiled devilishly. "It'll serve as a beacon, for all survivors; the 5 who left, and any others that might be out there. There's no animal life, so the worse case scenario is rain, right? We should be ok without shelter for a while. Don't you think?"

---

---

The desert sand was hard and compact; their weight left no impression as they wandered forward looking for the other survivors. The terrain was rocky, with ragged hills that made it difficult to see into the distance. While the others babbled about how to find their lost companions and plotted the next steps to ensure their survival, Gabrielle mused at her husband's insistence that she only pack sensible shoes. If it hadn't been for his stubbornness she would have been nursing her feet along with her heart now. Anaya didn't seem to be bothered by the footwear she'd chose, though Gabrielle couldn't imagine the cute ballet flats being comfortable on the rocky terrain. Perhaps it was age that made the difference.

Chao groaned beside Gabrielle. "We're never going to find them!"

Gabrielle nodded in agreement. "I don't think this was part of The Survival Plan."

Chao's chuckled unexpectedly. "I wonder what all the people who planned this would think if they survived?"

"They'd probably lie to us and say everything was under control." Gabrielle frowned, though the friendly conversation was succeeding at dulling the ache in her heart.

"Wait, did you see that?" Chao pointed to the ground nearby.  "It"s a trail."

Despite it's hard surface, the ground before them bore a trail of contoured markings in the distinct shape of some type of paw. The prints continued as far as Chao could see in the distance.

"Hey, I think Chao found something." Gabrielle called out to the others, who rushed to see what all the fuss was about.

Chao, now kneeling on the ground, was inspecting the tracks carefully. "I wish I knew something about animal tracks..."

Hamadi knelt beside him, running his fingers over the ground. "Any chance the other survivors made this as a trail back to the crash site?" Everyone, including Hamadi, shook their head no.

"Doesn't make sense, they would have started before now. Plus why make such an elaborate mark? A simple X would have sufficed." Raphael clarified. "This has to be an animal."

"There are no animals," Anaya and Hamadi said in unison.

Raphael pointed at the start of the trail and let his finger follow the trail across the horizon. "That says otherwise."

Five pairs of eyes moved from the trail to each other and back as each person tried to process the fact that perhaps they were not alone, after all. The prints were not excessively large, suggesting an animal about the size of a labrador, but that didn't mean anyone was in a rush to be face to face with the creature.

"Ok, I really wish I hadn't blown up the rest of The Ark now." Anaya's eye drifted to the plume of smoke in the distance. That was twice she had messed up in just a short period of time.  She couldn't afford to mess up anymore; it might cost them their lives.

If it hadn't been for the sound of other people, Gabrielle might have stayed in her pod until she wasted away. One thousand years may have passed, but it felt like only minutes had passed since her son and husband had been sucked into the mob of angry people and sentenced to death. Before boarding the Ark, she'd felt nothing sympathy for those being left behind—who were they to condemn these people to certain death while saving themselves? Now, she felt no remorse; they deserved to die, but she didn't feel better. Starting over without her family had never been part of the deal.

Outside the bubble of misery she allowed to fill the pod, she could hear the sound of chaos. People shouting and screaming as though they had gone mad. It took a few minutes to compose herself,  but eventually, Gabrielle exited the pod to see what the all commotion was.

"What's going on?" she asked the first person she saw, a boy perhaps in his mid-twenties.

"They're trying to agree on what to do next," the boy shrugged. "To bad none of the elected officials made it."

"This is it? All that's left of humanity?" Gabrielle stared wide eyed at the people before her. There was exactly ten of them (including herself), and only one other person was female. "Looks like this is the end of the line for mankind, huh?"

The guy responded with silence. There was nothing left for them to do but survive; he had made peace with the seemly inevitable demise of mankind long ago. Now that it was a reality, he only wished hadn't given up the party lifestyle so soon—what good would a career and good health do for him now?

Most of the people were huddled together ahead of them, although there was a young man standing near his pod surveying the terrain and a teenager, tinkering with some electronic gadget. Gabrielle followed the young man's gaze toward the horizon for a second, then proceeded toward the "crowd." She could worry about the scenery, or lack thereof, later.

"I think we should look for other parts of the ship," one of men was saying. "There could be more survivors, and more supplies."

"And when you get lost on this little expedition?" another sneered. "No thanks, I'm staying here with the food."

"You're going to have to leave this spot eventually," another joined in.

"No need to cross that bridge til' we get there."

"Look I'm probably the oldest person here, so I think I should be in charge," the first man said.

Gabrielle studied his face, he didn't look that old. In fact they all seemed like children to her. She wrinkled her nose at the idea such immature companions. She wasn't going to follow him anywhere.

"And what exactly are you going to be in charge of?" she asked. "There's no way we repopulate this planet with only two women, especially when I am in my mid-thirties and nearly past child-bearing age. We're basically here to pass time until we die. If anything you should be standing here at the ship rationing food."

"Precisely," someone agreed. "We need to be concerned with the basics: food, water, shelter. Right now, not much else matters."

The man who had nominated himself as leader scowled—Gabrielle was now certain she was older. "I say we map the terrain. We can do a little, day by day, circling back to places we know. If we find more survivors we increase the chance of our own survival. Plus the scientists claimed there was vegetation, so there may already be food scattered across the planet."

The other female was the first to respond to the suggestion. "That may be true, but there's no need for all of us to go."

The boy with the large afro shook his head vigorously. "Don't you watch movies? The first rule is never split up. People always die when they split up."

A few people chuckled, but the young girl responded with a serious tone. "We're the only living creatures on the planet. Splitting up is probably the safest thing we can do. There's no chance of someone trying to become The Last Supreme Dictator if we're miles and miles apart."

"Fine. Do what you want." It was obvious in both his tone and the way his lips curled, trying to mask his frown; he was upset that the survivors had not unanimously elected him leader. He continued speaking as though she were there only nay-sayer in the group. "Those of you who agree with me, we can talk about strategy. The rest of you can go die a slow meaningless death."

I rolled my eyes at his melodrama as the crowd began to disperse. After a few moments had passed, half of the crowd had disappeared, following the so-called leader, and the other half had stayed with the pods. None of those who had stayed behind was speaking, until a young man with black hair and Chinese features broke the silence.

"I guess we should introduce ourselves..." He shrugged stretching his hand out for a handshake with no one in particular. "I'm Chao."

The other female returned his handshake and smiled warmly. "Anaya."

"I'm Hamadi," said the tallest man, his long hair swaying as his head bobbed.

"Raphael,"the other guy said.

"Gabrielle."

"Looks like its just us and the food." Chao said enthusiastically.

"Those idiots didn't even take supplies!" Raphael interjected. "Looks like our survivor count just got cut in half."

"Should we try to catch them?" Hamadi offered.

Anaya scoffed. "Landon said he was in charge and that he knew what he was doing. If they're dumb enough to follow him, let 'em." She pointed to the main part of the ship, which was still smoking and covered in scorch marks. "We have more important things to worry about."

"What if there isn't any food left? Did anyone check that it didn't all burn on impact?" Gabrielle watched the gray smoke drift upward and mix with the blue sky.

Perhaps they had split up for nothing.

Janelle gasped as she exited her pod slowly; the colors swirling in the bark of the trees were breathtaking. She reached for her Mini-Me—a computer-phone-medical hybrid device that adapted to its owner over time—to take a photo. As the image came into focus on the screen, Janelle wished she could use the device to make a phone call. If cell phone companies hadn't been so greedy, perhaps they would have invested more time in making communication between devices possible without the cell towers.

"How am I going to find everyone else?" Janelle muttered to herself and then shouted, "Hello! Anyone else out there?"

After taking in the silence, Janelle rummaged through her escape pod for something that might help. If she stayed put she had shelter, but she still didn't have any food or water. She wished she had been able to sneak something useful into her pod, but by the time she had given any thought to the pod, they were plummeting toward the planet about to die—temporary survival had been her only concern.

She sighed, debating internally if she should abandon the pod in search of food and of course, other survivors. As she turned away from the pod, she heard the sound of leaves rustling. Searching for the source, she spun around until she noticed the trees shaking gently to her right.

"Hello?" Janelle called out. "Who's there?"

A girl, a little taller than Janelle, with long dark hair and a bright smile emerged from the rainbow of turquoise leaves. Excitement radiated through her expression as she took off in a sprint toward Janelle.

"I heard you calling out earlier. I was worried I'd picked the wrong direction." Her accent was strong, and recognizably British, although her features suggested she might have been from an Asian country. Janelle pushed the observation to the side; it didn't matter. What mattered was that she wasn't alone anymore and the two of them could begin the search for food.

Winded, the girl came to a stop but didn't hesitate to embrace Janelle in a warm hug. "I'm Bethany."

Janelle went stiff at the breach of her personal space, but realizing that they may be the only two humans left in the universe, was overcome with emotion. She held back the wave of emotion she felt crashing inside and returned the friendly squeeze. "I'm glad you're here. I'm Janelle."

"I'm terrified." Bethany admitted, her shoulders slumped as she leaned against Janelle's pod. "Fiddle sticks! What are we supposed to do, now? How are we going to survive?"

Janelle shook her head. "I don't know. I guess we should find some food or something. The main ship and the commander pods have food, so if we can find one of those... Or maybe, there are some berry bushes in the woods... I don't know."

Bethany nodded in agreement. "No, I think you're on to something." Her eyes lingered on the multicolored bark of a nearby tree and she shuddered. "We should look for a commander pod. The berries here might be poisonous."

Just as Janelle started to agree with her, she heart a faint sound, similar to a mother humming a lullably. The notes were full and well pitched, but there was an odd quality about them that Janelle couldn't place her finger on. Instinctively, she turned to Bethany, who was leaning closer to the sound to get a better listen.

"Do you hear that?" she mouthed.

Janelle nodded. She took a long gaze at one of the taller trees nearby. Its branches were strong and sturdy, strong enough to support her weight, she surmised. She glanced at her nails, freshly manicured a painted just before she left Earth. She'd known it would be the last one she ever had, and she'd hoped it would last her more than her first twenty minutes on their new planet.

"We need a better vantage point to see where it came from." Janelle pointed at the tree and gave in to the fact that her days of manicured nails were officially over. "There's no use wandering blindly, right? I'm going to see if I can climb it."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Bethany's eyes ran the length of the tree; a fall from even one of the lower branches was not going to be pretty and they didn't know if any doctors had survived the crash. Bethany turned her eyes to Janelle and studied the stranger carefully. She didn't look like she could climb a tree—her nails were perfectly done and string of fancy pearls hung from her neck. "I don't think—"

"Well? I'm open to other ideas. I'm not ready to mess these nails up!" Janelle flashed Bethany a view of the orange and yellow swirls that decorated her nails. "What do you suggest?"

Bethany sighed, she didn't actually have another idea. "Fiddle sticks," she muttered. "I don't know."

Janelle shrugged and took her shoes off. "I won't go too high," she assured Bethany. "And I'll be extra careful."

The grass was soft like blades of silk tickling her toes as she made her way to the tree. She laid her hand on the rough magenta bark of the tree with the lowest bottom branch and sighed before hoisting her self up. It had been a long time since she'd needed any upper body strength and she could feel her arms shaking as they tried to support her climb. She couldn't give up, though. The tree was solid, all she had to do was keep her balance as she made her way higher.

"It's not so bad," Janelle called down to Bethany.

Bethany chewed her fingernails nervously. "Just be careful."

"Absolutely!"

Janelle smiled to herself. The higher she climbed, the more she could see and it was beautiful. In the canopy of teal colored leaves, she could see that the forest was much larger than she expected. There were mountains in the far distance, but more importantly there was a clearing between the trees and the mountains.

"I think I found water," she called out. "It's kind of far though."

She continued surveying the terrain, hoping for a closer option. As her eyes swept the horizon, she noticed a section of the forest where the trees leaned haphazardly and many of the tops were doubled over. Her eyes strained to make out the steel gray of familiar metal, and she could feel her heart begin to race.

"I found a pod!" she exclaimed, excitedly. "It looks too small to be a commander pod, but maybe thats where the music came from. It's pretty close."

Bethany perked up at the sound of more survivors. "Can you see anyone?"

"No." Janelle focused on the area where the pod, disappointed that her discovery hadn't borne any fruit—of course all of the pods made it to the ground, that was how gravity worked. But something caught her eye, something red, something that was moving. "Wait, I think I see someone..."

---

---

Stefan and Noah debated which direction the music had come from.

"It must be another survivor, right?" Noah said shakily. "They have to be near by."

"I don't see what else it could be," Stefan shrugged nervously, he was certain the sound had come from Noah's pod. "Which way you want to start looking?"

Noah's expression told Stefan he was equally confused. After a few seconds, he pointed to his left at random. "That way maybe?"

Stefan nodded. "We should be on the look out for water, too."

"Yeah. Good plan."

The two guys snaked over and under the fallen tree's from the wreckage before disappearing into the forest. Noah's red hair bobbed wildly as he sped walked forward. Stefan kept the pace, absentmindedly petting Ralph as they rushed toward nothing. At least two was better than one...

Stefan waited for the jolting to stop, but even with his escape pod snuggly planted in the planet's surface, his mind told him he was still spinning. His senses were confused, and his limbs were tense. He scolded himself for tensing during the plunge, knowing each second of tension would cost him hours of muscle pain later. As he waited for his brain to catch up with the stillness of his body, Stefan surveyed himself for injuries. When he found none, he sighed and closed his eyes.

The visions behind his eyelids were tangled fragments of memories that didn't belong together... His mother encouraging him to board The Ark, her dark eyes hiding the painful truth that she would not join him. The smell of soot and ash as the cinders from Yellowstone's eruption rained down for days upon days. The red and green shell of his pet turtle, Ralph—

Ralph!

Stefan spun around in his seat, his eyes searching for the fragile companion he'd snuck on The Ark. Luck had been with him that turtles could enter cryosleep and that he had been able to sneak Ralph in his chamber without the scientists noticing, but he was doubtful the escape pod had kept Ralph free from injury. In the sloping corner of the pod, the bold red design of Ralph's shell caught Stefan's eye. Stefan bent slowly to scoop up the baby turtle and whispered calmly, hoping that inside the shell, there was still a living creature able to hear him.

"Its ok Ralph. I have you." Stefan stroked the shell of the turtle and sighed. "Don't worry, we'll find you a pond to live in and everything will be ok. Ralph?"

Perhaps Ralph recognized Stefan's voice, that's what Stefan wanted to believe, or perhaps Ralph had finally recovered from the shaking and spinning of the crash. Either way, the unmistakable green and black stripes of his head slowly emerged from the brightly colored shell. Once his feet appeared and he began walking across Stefan's hand, Stefan knew his little friend was uninjured.

"Time to get moving, Ralph."

Stefan used the weight of his shoulder to pry open the escape pod's door, flooding the two Earthlings with a welcome burst of golden light.

From the sight of the planet from The Ark's windows, Stefan had doubted the scientists' assurance that there was a small amount of vegetation on the planet. He had expected a vast expanse of sand, like the dunes of the great deserts back on Earth. Instead, he was greeted with the lushness of alien grass and alien trees. The blades were not straight like the grass on earth, but rather twisted and turned in spirals, like a curly fur enveloping the ground. As he took his first steps, the grass was soft beneath the soles of his feet. It sunk beneath his weight, then spiraled upward again without the slightest trace of his footprint.

But Stefan's eyes could not focus on the grass. The trees were unlike anything he could imaging. The leaves were neither green, nor blue, but a beautiful blending of the two--some closer to green, others closer to blue. The canopy of teal leaves swayed above trunks of various colors and sizes. The bark of each type of tree was cloaked with streaks of beautiful color. Most of the trees were a single color, but a few boasted as many as three shades tattooing the trunk. Stefan admired the beautiful trees, running his free hand over the smooth bark and taking in their scent. As the thought creeped up on him that the bark could be poisonous, he drew back his hand and began his search.

There has to be water around here somewhere. He thought to himself. What did Grandpa say his grandparents use to do?  Stefan shook his head, his ancestors would be ashamed to know that he didn't know any of their customs or traditions, but more importantly, Stefan was ashamed to know that he hadn't bothered to learn.

He took a deep breath and let the sound of the planet fill his ears. Stefan froze, hoping for the sound of rushing water—there would be no animals to lead him to their secret watering hole, and GPS was some thing they might never have again. There was the faint sound of wind ruffling the blue-green leaves above him, and the muted sound of his and Ralph's strained breathing. Everything else was silent.

After a few unsuccessful minutes passed by, he continued walking. Tree after tree, rock after rock, the forest seemed to stretch on forever.  Of course, Stefan knew that wasn't the case, but he couldn't help marvel at the how much he had underestimated the scientists.

Stefan stopped again—he thought he heard something. As he stood still again, he heard a faint melody to his left. It was just a few notes, barely audible, sporadically dancing in and out of silence. Stefan knew it wasn't water, but the scientists' had reported that there was no animal life, let alone intelligent life, on the planet.

Where is that music coming from? Stefan wondered. It has to be another survivor... 

Temporarily putting aside Ralph's need for water,—while holding out hope that this direction would also lead him to water—Stefan set out in a light jog toward the sound. He hadn't stopped to think about the possibility of being the only one to survive the crash, and now that he'd found hope that he wasn't, it was all he could think about... The thought of dying on a strange planet all alone hit Stefan like a wave. He hoped with all the strength he had, that his ears had not betrayed him, that just beyond the trees, there was at least one more person.

It didn't take long for another pod to come into view—it was wedged between a large tree with lavender bark and a gray rock, that reminded Stefan of granite. The door of the pod was slightly ajar, caught by the rock. A thick arm could be seen through trying to force the door open to no avail.

"Hold on." Stefan called out. "I'm coming to help."

There was a loud exhale and the arm disappeared. "I have no idea who you are, but you're my new best friend."

Stefan chuckled. "I'm Stefan."

"Noah."

"Well, Noah, your door is wedged on a rock. I think I can move it though." Stefan inspected the rock for a moment, looking for the flattest section of the surface. When he found a semi-smooth place, he set Ralph down gently, then slid both hands beneath it. As he began lifting the stone, an involuntary grunt escaped his lungs. "Whoo...maybe I should call this a boulder. It's heavier than it looks."

Noah swore. "Don't tell me I'm stuck in here."

"Nope." Stefan sucked in more air, "Almost..." more air, "got..." and more air, "it." Still heaving, Stefan retrieved Ralph while instructing Noah to try the pod door again.

This time the door swung open easily and out stepped a stocky red-head with piercing blue eyes. He was older than Stefan, but not by much. His shaggy hair bobbed around his face and a wide smile spread across his face.

"Thanks man. I thought I was a goner." Noah started to give Stefan a brotherly hug but stopped when he saw Ralph in his hand. His eyebrows twitched upward as his eyes moved from the turtle to Stefan. "You found a turtle? I thought there wasn't any animal life."

Stefan shook his head. "This is my pet Ralph. I snuck him on The Ark when we left Earth."

Noah stroked the turtle's shell. "Hey Ralph, how does it feel to be the only known turtle in the universe?"

"I was started to think I was the only human left, then I heard you singing."

"Me singing? Man, I can't sing to save my life." Noah scrunched his face in confusion, then shook his head. "I heard the singing in the distance and then you showed up so I figured it was you."

"Definitely not. I followed the sound to your pod."

The two guys searched the area with their eyes, then looked at each other nervously. "So where'd it come from then?" they both asked.