Silas's Story

When Sin was arrested, her one solace was that she would get to see her brother again. She probably should have known that wasn't going to happen, but honestly, the thought hadn't occurred to her. In all her time locked up in the Sky Box, the only time she'd seen him was when he was being carted off to solitary. She didn't know what he'd done, but she assumed they didn't want the two of them to be seen together; or maybe he'd attacked another guard. Whatever the reason, it ticked her off.

Needless to say, as soon as she woke up on the drop ship, she started scanning the area for Silas. She barely paid any attention to what the Chancellor was saying on the screen. They were going to the ground, and that was all she needed to know. If they were lucky, the Earth would be survivable a hundred years or so early. The more likely end would be that they'd die from the radiation or choke on poisonous air, but even that was preferable to being sitting around in prison waiting to be floated. At least here they had a chance. At least this way, if she was going to die, she would die on the ground, and she would be with her brother.

Only trouble was, that wouldn't happen if she couldn't find him. She couldn't see a lot of the drop ship, and with everything shaking around it was getting harder and harder to tell the difference between faces. Sin took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact of Earth. Judging by the noise and the blinking lights, she was almost certain it was going to be a crash landing; and she was right. She ground her teeth to keep from yelping when the drop ship lurched and crashed.

Everything went silent; it was quieter than anything she'd ever heard. The electrical hum they'd all lived with for so long you didn't notice it anymore was gone. In a strange way, it almost seemed like the silence was louder than the crash. After taking a couple breaths, the excitement caught up with her, and she hurried to unbuckle herself. As soon as she was free she pushed through the crowd, heading for the door and scanning the area for her brother's face on the way. Unfortunately, all she recognized were the Chancellor's daughter and a guy in a guard's uniform, both of which she scowled at, and a few other delinquents she'd seen throughout her imprisonment. Why would they risk sending a guard down with them, anyway?

Then she saw that someone had already made it to the door. She came to a stop right behind the guy, and bounced from foot to foot. Of course, he would have to go for the dramatics. Sin grinned lopsidedly, and rolled her eyes. "Well, go on then. Open the door already." Initially, she thought that was a bad idea, but she soon realized that it didn't matter. If the ground wasn't survivable, they could stay in the drop ship but they would die anyway. At least out there they had a chance. The odds weren't good, but it was something, and she wanted to see the ground before she died. Besides, maybe if the crowd dispersed outside, it'd be thin enough and she could find her brother.

Silas hadn't had a chance to tell his sister what their father found out, but he knew. One of the perks of having a lifetime's experience hiding in the wall and eavesdropping: he knew everything. He'd been left with the other prisoners for a while, but it wasn't long before they put him in solitary to keep him from telling anyone. Of course, it wasn't really something they should have worried about. Silas was used to being alone, and he wasn't one to open up to anyone other than his sister. He probably would have stayed quiet anyway, just because it was natural for him to be quiet.

On the one hand, being cooped up in a room all by himself was almost comforting, in that it wasn't that different from what he was used to. On the other hand, he craved the freedom of the ground; yet still, being stuck in such close quarters with a hundred or so other kids with all this shaking and blinking and noise? That was far outside of his comfort zone. He grit his teeth and tried to shrink into himself, away from the others to keep from making contact. He didn't even know his sister had been arrested. He thought he'd never see her again. He didn't want anyone to touch him. He just wanted this to be over with. He wanted out of here.

As much as he hoped the ground was survivable, he was absolutely terrified it wouldn't be. He didn't want to die. He'd listened carefully to the Chancellor's message, trying to drown out all the other excitement so he could hear anything that could possibly help them. Unfortunately, the Chancellor seemed to be sending them to their deaths. Silas recognized the Chancellor's own daughter among the prisoners, and he couldn't help but wonder how the Chancellor could send his family to die. Losing one's family was the worst possible pain Silas could imagine; and he'd been through it twice. As much as he hated the Chancellor and everyone else that had floated his parents and locked him away, he wouldn't wish that sort of pain upon anyone.

The drop ship crashed and he gasped. It was dark, and silent, and for a few seconds, Silas thought he was dead. He thought they were all dead. Then he heard shuffling, voices- people alive and moving around, rushing the door. Slowly, he opened one eye, then the other. He flinched away from the crowd, tucked his legs in as much as he could to keep from tripping anyone or even touching anyone. When most everyone was gone from the area where he'd been buckled in, Silas undid his straps and teetered to his feet.

He was nervous about opening the doors. He really thought the air was going to be toxic and he really didn't want to die from exposure. However, he also wasn't one to speak up. So, he hung near the back and watched nervously, but didn't make a sound until he saw a girl that looked oddly familiar. That mass of blonde hair kicked his heart rate up, but it didn't make sense. His sister shouldn't be there. "Sin?"

Over the noise of the crowd, Sin couldn't even hear her brother when he called to her. She rolled her eyes at the girl that rushed the guy after she did, really did she need to try to out-attitude her? She also glared at the guard and the chancellor's daughter when they neared the door, but as soon as the door was actually open, her attention was taken away from them.

Earth was... beautiful. The air was so clean, fresh, not recycled and tin smelling like on the Ark. One guy went cartwheeling right into the world. She had to smile at that, but it definitely wasn't all she had to smile about. Soon, Silas was pushing his way through the crowd until he could throw his arms around his sister. Sin stumbled back a step in surprise, and almost punched the poor guy in the groin before she realized who it was.

"What are you doing here?!" Silas's voice was muffled in her shoulder.

Sin chuckled quietly and pat his back, then turned to curl an arm around his neck and ruffle his hair with her free hand. "Couldn't let you have all the fun, could I?"

After a short time celebrating their reunion, Silas settled down to looking around in awe. They had actually made it to the ground. He didn't feel sick or anything. So far, this was looking to be a whole new world he'd never expected, and he was beyond relieved. He wanted to make shelter, a home, to settle in and never have to deal with any of the Ark's stupid rules again. Sin, on the other hand, was looking farther ahead. She also really wanted to explore.

The guy from the door went back into the drop ship just as Sin was starting to look for things to construct a bow. She'd probably need Silas's help with that if she didn't want it to fall apart, but they needed food, and they had no idea how much damage radiation had done to the wildlife. If she happened upon an animal, she needed to be able to hunt it for food in case they didn't find another for a while. She gathered belt and scraps, broken off pieces of metal and anything she could find that she thought might be useful. She was a bit impressed that the guy seemed to be doing the same, but because he was talking to the snobby girl from before, she steered away from him.

Silas was wandering around the camp with the others, but he wandering in and out of the drop ship because he wasn't comfortable letting his sister out of his sight for more than a couple minutes at a time. Really it was probably more like a few seconds each time, but they didn't exactly have clocks all over the place, so he wasn't sure. Anyway, it wasn't long before he heard a "Silas!" reverberating out the drop ship door, and he was running in there like he thought she was dying. Instead, he found her with a... what even was it?

Sin had tried to construct a backpack, and put most of the stuff in it, but while she was trying to put together a bow, it fell apart and everything spilled out. While the others left, Silas helped his sister put everything back together, far better than it was before and more importantly in a way that would actually hold. He even made her some new weapons, knives and the like, that she hadn't entirely figured out how to sharpen or anything before. After finally making enough arrows to fill a makeshift quiver, Sin handed the pack off to her brother. Silas looked at her with wide eyes as she ran off, but after that delay he hurried after her.

Now, Sin hadn't paid any real attention to the Chancellor's speech, but Silas had. She seemed to be wandering off on a separate path to the other group, but it still wasn't the right way. Silas hurried to catch up with her, and caught her arm. "Wait, sis.." He looked around. "There's supposed to be a supply station, remember? Where are we going?"

"What?" Sin turned around and lifted her eyebrows questioningly, but kept walking backwards toward the woods. Just then, a male voice called out, and they both looked back toward the others.

"Hey! You’re going the wrong way. We need to get to that mountain."

Silas faltered, looking where the guy pointed. He certainly wasn't liking the authoritative tone the guard boy was taking, but Silas was pretty sure he was right. Assuming the guard guy was right, though, that meant they'd been dropped on the wrong mountain. Of course. The Ark just couldn't stop messing things up for everyone. Silas grit his teeth.

Sin, on the other hand, rolled her eyes. No way was she going to be taking orders from pretty pretty princess and her prison guard boyfriend. The next guy to step up definitely got on her good side with that "You're not in charge here" comment, though. The girl irritated her at first, but by "Collecting supplies for the journey isn't too irrational, is it?" Sin had decided she quite liked her.

Once it seemed clear that no fists would be flying, Sin sighed, and against her brother's judgement, stepped back toward the group. Despite the egotistic power struggles and general abrasiveness of most involved. "It's too late to make it there by nightfall," she interjected evenly. "We have no idea what radiation has done to the flora and fauna on the ground so we should probably split into teams to make shelter here, and explore the surrounding areas in search of food and water. Hopefully we can find something to hunt that will prove life is actually possible down here and we aren't just dying off slower than anticipated."

Silas tensed behind her, as this wasn't something that had occurred to him. His hands twitched at his sides. He really needed to start doing something or he might crack under the anxiety. "Earth studies was my best subject, if there's anything out there I can track it, and I can kill it...at least in theory," she added that last bit quietly, and reluctantly, then nodded her head back toward Silas. "My brother's good with his hands, he can help build things, make weapons and tools."

Sin was a bit disappointed she was going to have to deal with the others so soon, considering how easily annoyed she was by most of them, but she knew working together was their best option. Silas really didn't want to be separated from his sister again. Sin started off in the direction Alex had run off in, and Silas followed her looking hesitantly, looking more than a little uneasy.