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.