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...