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People milled around the doorway of the dropship, muttering and mumbling. The crowdwas jittery with a mixture of trepidation and fear for what they’d be greetedwith outside, and excitement at finally being back on the ground. Many of theteenagers watched Bellamy expectantly, waiting for the moment when he would pull down the lever and open the door to Earth.
When the moment finally came, they were assaulted by a breath of hot stuffy air and the smell of sand and eucalyptus. Red dust billowed up around the door when it crashed down onto the ground, and the people standing at the front shied away and covered their eyes.
Waving away the airborne particles, Octavia peered out. Her eyes were narrowed against the sunlight, but it didn’t stop her from taking the first tentative steps out onto their new home. Her original apprehension died away and a grin overtook her features. Throwing her arms out, she yelled a gleeful, “We’re back bitches,” and a surge of space-born teenagers emptied out of the dropship.
-
The first few days on Earth were hard. They’d been dropped down onto the ground during the worst part of the year. It was unbearably hot some days, and it hardly cooled off during the night. Most kids had taken to sleeping in the dropship just to get away from the bloodsucking bugs that buzzed around during the night. The sand managed to get into everything too. In every fold of their skin there were smudges of red dust.
Despite the uncomfortable nature of where they’d landed, it was still beautiful. Mild flowers sprawled across the ground, not bothered by the intense heat and apparent lack of water. They ranged in colours from bright yellow, to dark shades of violet. There were bushes and there were lone flowers sitting off to the side. Trees were covered in papery park and their leaves released a crisp and intoxicating smell when crushed or broken. Eucalyptus was all around them, stretching their branches high and wide, creating patches of much needed shade. Gumnuts were everywhere across the ground, and several of the boys took to pegging them at each other.
Clarke had been absolutely appalled when she realised where in the world they’d been dropped. Not only did they have no way of communicating, but they were on the completely wrong continent. During entry they’d veered so far off course that they’d landed in the middle of the Island Continent, Australia. That, or the higher ups on the Arc had completely misjudged the trip. Clarke had mulled it over and thought that the latter was more likely. It wasn’t like they’d done this before though.
-
Water had been first on the agenda after that. A small party had been drawn together and sent out to find some. It took them hours under the sweltering heat, trekking through bushland. Animals were a rarity, although they saw a few bear-like creatures lazing around in the treetops, munching on leaves. A large lizard spiky lizard with two heads slithered across their path at one point, and Clarke is ashamed to admit that she might have squeaked in fright. The ‘Princess’ nickname really caught on after that… Eventually they found a winding rivulet between the trees. It wasn’t full, barely a trickle in some places, but following it led them to a wider, deeper creek filled with glistening water. What they’d originally found was merely a single connection in an extensive water system.
The group were tripping over each other in their attempt to jump into the water, but Octavia entered first. The rest stood around at the edge for a moment, laughing and grinning, marveling at the fact that they’d finally found a water source. It really wasn’t that far from the camp if you knew where you were going. They’d just been ambling around in the bush for much longer than they’d needed to.
Their laughter was cut short when the water was disturbed by something other than Octavia. The group on the bank called and shouted, but by the time she’d realised what they were meaning, it had already latched onto her leg. A large fish, half the length of Octavia’s body at least, writhed just below the surface. The sun glinted off its dark green scales, and occasionally a flash of its creamy underside was visible. Octavia kicked and screamed, clawing at the fish and thrashing, trying to dislodge the creature from her leg.
Distracting or scaring it from the meaty morsel that the fish had latched onto seemed like the only solution. Swinging around, Clarke tried desperately to find something that she could toss into the water. Her gaze settled on a large rock half embedded in the sand and she called the attention of the panicking others to it. Together they managed to dislodge the rock and heft it into the water. The fish startled and turned tail, splashing off to relative safely, and a bloodied Octavia was rescued from the water. They clearly needed to be careful when it came to pulling water from this creek. If there was one vicious fish, there was likely to be a whole school waiting just around the bend.
-
The tree-bears were found to be harder to hunt than the teenagers had originally thought. None of the boys had particularly good aim with their make shift spears, and the trees didn’t look strong enough to hold their weight. Not to mention the fact that none of them were actually prepared to clamber up to the tops and come face to face with an animal they knew nothing about.
Bellamy shot the first one. Birds gathered up in the sky above them, feathers ruffled by the frightening bang. The sack of fur fell from the branches and landed with a thud in the sand. Looking it over revealed the creature to have long claws and disfigured muzzle. But the fur was soft, there was plenty of meat on it, and later someone recognised it to be a koala.
Later on they hunted the koalas by throwing stones at them, hoping to make them fall. Otherwise it was reliant on luck to see who would actually be able to hit their target with their weapon. There were a few boys who were progressively getting to be more accurate though. Murphy seemed to be one of the best and fastest learners in the hunting party. He almost seemed to enjoy knocking down the animals. But he helped feed the rest of the camp, and Bellamy didn’t think twice about it.
-
One of the worst encounters they had at the camp were the spiders. They were sometimes the size of a person’s head, and Murphy had the displeasure of meeting the first one of that size. He wouldn’t say the arachnids had scared him originally, but waking up to see a giant hairy creature staring down at him from the top of his tent had ripped a shout from his throat, imbued with fear. He’d never moved faster in his life, scrabbling out of the tent without even standing.
The commotion caused several others to run out of their tent. Bellamy almost laughed at Murphy’s panicked state, until he realised that it couldn’t just be some awful nightmare. Sticking his head into the tent briefly had the colour draining from his features and backing away to stand beside the other boy.
“We have to get that thing out of my tent,” Murphy squeaked, eyes wide. He had picked himself up off the ground, arms folded tightly against his chest. After acting so tough since they’d landed on Earth, he really wasn’t coping with this spider very well. “I don’t care if we have to burn the whole thing to the ground. We need to fucking kill it.”
It was an unexplainable terror that had iced Murphy’s veins. Something about the glossy black hair, the eight legs and beady eyes. Perhaps it was the blood red stain along the back of the spiders back and the massive pincers that had snapped together during the split second he’d stared at it. Murphy racked his brain to try and think of the name for the creature, and his horror only increased. It was a redback spider, one of the most venous arachnids across the country. Information from earth skills floated back to him. ‘The bite can prove to be fatal and is extremely painful. Most males are tiny though, and the females aren’t much bigger. Their abdomens occasionally grow to the size of a pea, but that’s it.’ His horror intensified. The spider’s abdomen was likely to be closer to the size of his two hands clasped together. Along with the legs, it had been almost the size of his face. Dread rippled down his spine and had his stomach flipping uncomfortably. His next thought hit him like a slap in the face, and Murphy actually stumbled and staggered, losing the ability to hold himself up properly for a moment. What would the size of a tarantula be now after the radiation?
Bellamy steeled himself, painfully aware of the state that Murphy was in at that moment. He wasn’t going to be any help in getting rid of the spider. Bellamy swallowed hard and sourced a weapon, the longest one he could find too. Spear in hand, he carefully pulled back the tent flap again and met the beady eyes of the redback once more. His mouth pulled back into a hard line and he stabbed at the creature. It scuttled away at across the tarp, letting loose a chattering hiss. Bellamy left several puncture wounds in the material of the tent as he continued to slash and jab at the spider. It crawled down the side and came straight at him, pincers clicking together loudly and hair bristled. It readied itself to jump at him, drawing back the venomous fangs, but it didn’t get a chance to move another muscle. The tip of Bellamy’s weapon pierced its abdomen and it was all over after that.
Pulling out of the tent, Bellamy brought his prize with him. Murphy shied away from the spider impaled at the end of the spear, mouth twisting into a horrified grimace. “Keep it the fuck away from me,” he rushed out, backing away several paces. He glanced away, not wanting eye contact as he pushed out the next two words. “Thanks, Bellamy.” It was barely above a whisper, and Murphy turned on his heel and hurried away after that.
“Australia really isn’t fucking around,” Finn commented with a nervous laugh. He’d been one of the many spectators and wasn’t the only one who kept shooting apprehensive looks at the spider. It didn’t matter that it was dead, it was still a terrifying looking creature.
“No… It really isn’t,” Bellamy agreed with a pained smile. “Someone should go check on Murphy whilst I burn this bloody thing. He looked like he was about to puke, pass out, or both.”