[IC] The Journey Home, a Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Roleplay

[Vertical]

The hallway was long, dark, and damp. Fungus and moss hung from every crack and crevice. Water, rain possibly, dripped down from the broken metal ceiling. The walls were metallic and had no differences. It was a maze. A terrible maze that seemed to have no end. Puddles had formed in random assortments throughout the tunnels. A boot, fitted for a male of mostly average size, stomped into the puddle splashing droplets all around it. Another boot, a match to the other, slammed onto the ground. It was a man, dirty, tired, and sweating. He was running as fast as he could, breathing heavily, almost wheezing. Beads of sweat dropped from his brow onto the ground, some large and the rest small. Every few steps he would spin his head around to peer down the hallway. What little light there was behind him was being sucked away into a dark abyss. It appeared like a shadow was following him, but the shadow emitted a presence, as if there was a figure within the darkness that was chasing the man.

It was sickness. Thomas figured it out. The presence that was following him was the plague itself. "How are you even...?!" he yelled at it, not being able to articulate the last part of the sentence. What Thomas was trying to spurt out was something along the lines of how could the plague manifest itself as a person. How was this real, essentially. But it was happening, it was chasing him, and if it caught him, he would surely die. Thomas continued to run, and run, and run. The hallway twisted and turned, but it never actually ended. There was no door at the end, or window to jump through in true action movie fashion. It was just a disgusting tunnel with a monster close behind. That changed quickly however. Thomas heard a voice deep within the tunnel.

"Process ending. Awakening subject now".

The voice was robotic and monotone, but it was a welcome change. Thomas did not stop running, the presence was still only a few steps behind him. Suddenly the ceiling of the tunnel was torn apart, sending debris into a light grey mist above. "Oh fuck, oh fuck!" Thomas shouted, believing his situation to be worsening. The plague was closer now than it was at any other point, in fact, Thomas could feel a cold hand reaching out from behind. It was all over now, he was caught, he was dead. But something, without warning, happened to change that. The mist parted and toppled down onto him. Within seconds Thomas was enveloped in the light grey cloud. The sound of footsteps gave way to a loud, repetitive, beeping. The beeping grew louder and louder. A gust of air blew across Thomas's face, and then he blacked out.

The seal had been lifted for a few minutes before Thomas finally slung himself forward. With a deep breath, he filled his lungs with air once more. At first his eyes would not open, words could not be formulated, and he was weak. It was unreal. Thomas had no idea where he was. Seconds ago he was being chased by a monster and now he was somewhere else. Heaven. That is where he thought he was. As Thomas forced his eyes open, the only thing he could see was blurs. It was all a blur, everything. There were lights and shadows, and even other figures, but mostly blurs. Finally Thomas was able to articulate a sound, a loud shout. That was followed by tears. As the tears continued to fall from his face, his vision began to clear. Within two minutes, he knew that he was not in heaven, but in space. It had been 50 years. The dream felt like it had only lasted for a few seconds, but it was 50 years.

Thomas was not able to remove himself from the cryogenics pod at first, but when his strength returned, he stumbled to the window. It looked close kind of, but at the same time it was so far. Earth. It was just waiting for him, waiting for him to come home. It had been a long time but Thomas had cousins down there, they would hopefully be waiting on his return, older, but still his cousins. After thinking about his return for a few more moments, Thomas began to move around the large metal room he was in. All of the breath in his body left him when he returned to his pod to see the date plastered in green computerized words. It was 2230. Not 50 years, but 200.

Thomas felt himself become nauseous and did everything in his power to keep it down. He placed both hands on the pod and slid down, leaning his back against it until he was in a sitting position. There were no words, no thoughts, it was all just shock. Blank. His expression was blank.

[Whirlwind]

”Process Ending. Awakening Subject Now”

Echoed into Raina’s dark mind. She wasn’t sure if it was a dream or reality, she’d always had trouble telling the difference anyway. But it seemed like it was happening outside her mind. Like the beeping that was getting louder, and the rush of air against her face. Her eyes popped open and she coughed, lifting her arms weakly and rubbing her face furiously. Why she had no idea. Maybe to make sure she was truly awake, truly alive. And so she was. The brunette shivered, large eyes darting about without much expression on her face besides wonder.

So, the freezing had worked? She looked down at herself. She looked exactly how she remembered. The same clothes, the same body. She would want to look at her face next time she could, just to make sure by some bizarre chance her face hadn’t aged 50 years or something. She wavered a bit as she stepped out of the tube, though she tried to look as in control and proper as possible. Clearing her throat, she tried to speak out a hello, but her voice was hoarse. It sounded more like a croak. She coughed and cleared her throat again, but before speaking again, her eyes did a double take at the year mark on her tube. Frowning, the woman stared at the number. 2230? That’s not right…

Panic began rushing through her, but it barely showed on her face as she rapidly ran to another tube, looking up at the date. It was the same. Breathing a bit quicker, she put a hand on her throat. ”Hello?!” she called out, looking around rapidly. That’s when she noticed another open chamber, and a man sitting against it. ”What… why…” she started, wanting him to answer all her questions. But she knew he would have no idea, so her lips sealed back shut, all emotion running through her eyes instead.

[DELETED324324]

"Fucking hell, what the fuck happened back there Bug?" Screamed Kodiak over the encrypted blue tooth device in his ear, "You have a traitor in your midst."

"No shit, whose the rat?"

"I don't know, but find out or you guys won't make it tomorrow." With that said Kodiak hung up and the group hit the safe house. The arguing was intense people pointing guns and fingers at each other Travis and Cecilia Andrews better known as "Cowboy and Harpy" just ignored it, this happened almost every week as sometimes money would disappear or something or other, it was just part of the game. As they laid cuddled together on the couch Kodiak walked in "Can i speak with you for a second Harpy?" Kodiak asked she nodded and they went into another room, about fifteen minutes the whole crew was called into the basement. Standing apart from Kodiak was Cecilia. "Shes the rat..." Kodiak said

"How do you know?" Jared asked

"She fucking admitted it when i grilled her." Cecilia nodded "I'm with the FBI." She said softly swallowing a lump in her throat, there was a collective swearing from the group but Jared didn't say anything he felt like he had been punched in the gut. "You fucking used, me you fucking nark!." Jared swore, "I didn't, i swear I love you Jared." She looked to him her eyes pleading with him to believe her. "Kill her Jared." Kodiak said non caring to the situation. Jared drew his revolver and pointed it at the girl he loved, but he hesitated on pulling the trigger, that's when she spoke up. "Just do it Jared, just know i will always love you nark or not." Right there his heart broke in two, "Fucking kill the bitch, Jared before i do." Kodiak shouted, "Fuck!!!" Jared shouted as he pulled the trigger, blowing away the girl he loved blood splattering the floor as the body hit the floor with a thud. Kodiak patted Jared on the back and muttered something but he didn't hear it, then Kodiak turned to the group. "This is what happens when you fucking nark." He said then he went on about their next job.

---

Four Years later

Jared sat in his office in his new house in Oregon, it sat on a cliff face and watched over Portland. The virus was in full swing and the city was rife with looting, smoke could be seen in the distance as they burned bodies of the infected and killed each other, his chair faced the wide windows so he could watch the city burn. "Doesn't look any different from any other day." He muttered as he turned and reached into his desk pulling out a lock box, taped to the underside of his desk was the key to the lock box pulled out the key he unlocked it revealing the revolver he had used in his heists four years ago and a picture of Cecilia, he began to talk to her picture. "I'm living the life babe, and maggots are eating your body. Doesn't seem fair sweetheart, but then again life isn't fair." He chuckled and continued. "You know all that nasty work feels like a million years ago, I went clean tried to help people and cure something that seems like a threat. I just fucking made it worse." He laughed manically this time his laugh echoing off the walls, "Guess i had this coming i should of just done it sooner. Way before i met the crew." He said and with that he grabbed the revolver and pulled the hammer back but before he could pull the trigger his phone went off.

He pulled the smart phone from the breast pocket of his suit and answered it. "Hello?" He asked, the voice on the other end was female and sounded pretty sexy. "Is this Mr.Miller Partner and CMO of Titan Pharmaceuticals?"

"Yes i am Sweetheart."

"Mr.Miller, someone with NASA is going to pull up momentarily to take you off of earth."

”Process Ending. Awakening Subject Now”

"Wait, what?" He asked confused as all hell. "Goodbye Mr.Miller." And with that she hung up, she was right someone with NASA did show up momentarily and they explained everything. About how he could help rebuild humanity, and escape the plague. They didn't really offer him a choice, but he still accepted. When they loaded him on the craft he looked back at earth on last time and shook his head knowing that when he returns it will be different.

---

200 years later

Travis shot awake, slamming his head on the lid of his chamber, instinctively his hands went for his head to rub away the pain. "Fucking, Owww." He swore. The tube opened and he fell to the ground as soon as he got off his legs not quite used to having not been used in awhile. But like a baby calf eventually he stood wobbley, then he was back to normal. He looked around and saw two people already awake. But he said nothing to them as his eyes focused on the chamber telling him how long he had been asleep. When he saw the number he just chuckled. "Two hundred years huh? Hope you guys said your goodbyes." He said.

[Darcs]

The Earth.

Tyler was floating in space-- hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles above the earth-- and just looking at it. He wasn't some astronaut, he wasn't even sure he had his physical body. But he was observing the earth, surrounded by the deadly silence of space, being presented with a picturesque image of his home.

He was aware that he was dreaming.

Tyler had been asleep for some time now. Initially it was a nightmare, he traveled around the earth, completely robbed of a physical form, only able to observe the destruction brought on by the plague and feel absolutely worthless as he could do nothing but watch, that went on for what felt like years. Eventually, however, something changed and that dream gave way to this much more lucid one. He was aware that he was in cryostasis, in a satellite in Earth's orbit. NASA had placed him, and an innumerable amount of other individuals in this state for 50 years. With the hopes that they could fix it, that was certainly in line with his own...

But for all this awareness, he was here, in a subconscious recreation of high earth orbit. Dread and loss filled him, but it was because of his own thoughts, and not those forced upon him by the subconscious self. Space travel was never precise, what if something went wrong? What if it was something as simple as the cryostasis? The technology had been rushed... what if these were his dying thought? He'd been in this state for something that had the feeling of an eternity, but may have only been a few hours. What if everything HAD worked, but he was in a coma? What if he wasn't able to do anything to help with a cure, just like before?

The dream scape changed as Tyler let his mind fill with the doubts and concerns, he began to feel less intangible and more... physical? Was his vision blurring?

”...Ending. Awakening Subject...”

That was all Tyler heard. It was all he wanted to hear. His mind felt a small elation for the first time in what he knew had been some years. He was waking up!

Senses! It felt good to feel those slowly return, groggy as he may have been. His vision was hazy, both because of long period where his eyes had not been used, and that he was still behind the glass of the cryostasis pod. Feeling, that was good, he felt the suit NASA had given him to wear, his locks touching his neck, the taste and feeling of new saliva being made in his dry mouth. He smelled the sterile, recycled air and let out a noise akin to a yawn. Good. He could still make sounds-- and hear at all. His brain got to work rebooting everything for the physical world. The memories came rushing at him like cold water, he had JUST talked to his mother for the last time-- he had JUST gotten in this thing. Even so, all of his family was certainly dead, it had been 50 years!

The pod opened as he began to rediscover movement, starting small. His face, hands and toes-- no nerve damage, it seemed. He took his first step in (technically over) half a century and came falling clumsily out of the pod and onto his face. Good way to start the year, T. He waited on his hands and knees for his body to readjust to the shock and strain of movement. As Tyler took deep breaths in preparation for standing, he heard the voices of his... neighbors? The men and women who had awoken from Cryostasis nearby. A male voice had finished calling out something, 'A hello maybe?' a feminine voice closer to him, she seemed to be speaking to make sure she still could. As he finally stood, another, deeper male voice, closer still to where he was, gave him his first coherent sentence from another human being in over 50 years. "Two hundred years huh? Hope you guys said your goodbyes."

The voice let out a chuckle at this before dying down. Panic-- that was new. Not quite welcome, but refreshing. Tyler turned to check the date on the pod to confirmed was met with a horrible reality. 2230. It didn't strike him as hard on a personal level, but on a practical one. The plague was strong. Potential extinction strong. What would happen when they returned to earth? If everything was automated, they'd presumably return fine, but what about after that? Nothing? Was there even a NASA anymore? What if they landed in the fucking ocean?

Tyler quieted the doubts. He could address them as they came, getting hysterical now would do no good. The hallway of pods was sleek and sterile, and his neighbors didn't seem to know anymore than he did. "So." He couldn't think of the proper thing to say in this situation. There was none. "200 years." he parroted, absolutely dumbfounded as to what he should do next. For a moment he clenched his eyes shut, opening them, he said the best thing to come to his mind, "How do we get down?" Were they even still in space?

[MatParker1711]

”Process Ending. Awakening Subject Now”

Jessica was relieved as those words echoed as if from a far off land. She had been asleep for so long that it seemed unreal but as the beeping grew louder and louder she prepared herself to awake from her dreamless sleep. As she awoke and felt the air rush against her face, she could not believe that her time in this enforced exile was finally over and to be honest she could believe that it was truly over. As the seal opened Jessica fell to the ground her vision blurred and her muscles weak from two centuries of a lack of use.

It took a good few minutes of blinking and coughing for the Marine to regain her composure and she got to her feet. She walked over to check herself over in the glass of her pod and was relieved to see that she was still in one piece. Looking up she saw the date on the pods calender and was shocked to see that two hundred years had passed and not fifty as had been originally planned. She couldn't believe this had happened the people on this ship might be the only humans left alive at this point and she had no idea when this thing would land.

It was then she heard other pods start to open and rounding a corner saw three men and woman on the floor. The four of them all had the same look of shock she had herself a few moments earlier when the error had been discovered and she decided to speak to them.

"Hello, my name is Sergeant Jessica Sinclair US Marine Corps. Do any of you have a clue as to why we slept an extra hundred and fifty years?"

[McHaggis]

Oscar was in a restaurant, a fancy but generic one; the type that made it difficult to remember the name. Red curtains and burgundy carpets and crimson napkins stained the otherwise white décor – that contrast he could recognise. The delicate clinking of cutlery against fine china filled the room, interspersed with the dull thump of a wine glass being placed down with a heavy, ungraceful hand. It was his own.

Lillian chuckled, her smile bright and genuine – had he said a joke? Probably, he reckoned, he did that a lot. Vibrant flashes of a line, 'I'm not a photographer, but I can picture me and you together,' swam into sight and his forehead creased in response. His wife was speaking. “So you know,” she started, catching his attention with just a few quiet words. “You and me are dead, right?”

Did he respond to that? He felt his lips moving and his breath coming short but no sound came out. She replied as if he did with another tinkling laugh. “Yeah, yeah, I know – I'm so morbid... but it's hard to be a war reporter without a teeny bit of all that.” Lillian's words lulled him into a false sense of security, as did the thought of her cherry-red lips. Had it been a joke he didn't understand? “But you don't remember, do you? Is it cloudy? Did it hurt?”

“I'm not dead,” Oscar said, hearing his own words this time. She reached over to him across the fine china, rustling it. It was then that she noticed her fingers were bare of any ring, not even–

Her voice this time was that of an old, dusty memory though Oscar knew it hadn't been in such an establishment that she had – left. “I just can't... I've been having an affair, but so have you.” This time the wedding band plopped into white wine instead of orange juice over breakfast. His jaw locked, his neck burned and–

”Process ending. Awakening subject now.”

His first breath was ragged yet devoid of any relief at all. How could there be any? It had – it had all been a dream... Cold hands shoving him into the tube to be packed away like frozen meat in a supermarket aisle.

Fifty years. Fifty years past his expiration date. He felt like sobbing or kicking something, and he chose the latter. His limbs were cold and unresponsive, fingertips barely twitching as in even his best attempts they failed to grab on to the side of the capsule to pull himself out. Rage flooded through him soon enough to heat him up, directed at the scientists, the world, fate, Lillian...

She was probably some dried up old crone by his reasoning. When they returned home, to Earth, he reckoned he should pay her a visit. Lord his youth over her. That was all that motivated Oscar to stagger outside into the rest of the ship. There were already folk outside, other subjects most if not all of them willing...

“Wait, a hundred and fifty?” Oscar barely managed to choke out, double checking the calendar of one of the pods. Two hundred years in the future. Even Lillian's tombstone would have rotted away in the wind by now. He clenched his fist – he didn't want this. “The hell's going on?”

[Vertical]

Though Thomas was now tuned out from reality for the most part, he did start noticing other pods begin to open. This was not surprising at all since that is what they were supposed to be doing. One by one they started filing out of the pods. Each of the people got oriented in their own way, eventually some began to speak. Thomas did not pay much mind to anything that they were saying because, at that moment, he did not really care. Everyone he knew, though a small number, was now surely gone. He was also positive that they would be returning to a desolate planet. It was a hard pill to swallow. The people were asking questions and just trying to figure things out, there was even a smart ass comment made. Finally Thomas grew weary and spoke up.

"It had to have been a technical malfunction or something" he said, addressing the two individuals that had asked about why they slept for so long. "I don't know what happened, or why, and I doubt that we're going to get an answer to that question. As for how we get down, I believe it's supposed to auto-pilot us down to the surface, but then again, that could have gone haywire when the pods did. I think a real good question we should ask ourselves is why are those pods opened with no one coming out?" Thomas pointed to the long rows of pods that were opened. "I know for a fact that there are supposed to be more people here" he trailed off as he wandered over to the nearest opened pod. Immediately the stench hit him. "Fuck" he muttered, "well that answers that. They're dead. They really shot themselves in the foot this time. Thank God there are other ships" Thomas said.

After speaking up, he made his way over to the large 'window' that was in the side of the ship. The scene outside was shocking and awesome at the same time. It was a vast expanse. Space. Earth was below them, it looked as it did in pictures before they left, maybe it was the same. Two things caught his eye regarding the ship. The first was the fact that there were no other ships attached, it was just the one he was on. The second was all the cosmetic damage to the side of the ship. It looked like something crashed into the vessel. Thomas decided not to speak up about that, it would be better to let the rest find out on their own. Thomas was not a scientist, an engineer, or a genius. He pieced together what he saw using common sense. It was obvious that something terrible had happened to the vessel during the sleep, he just could not figure out what it was.

"Well" he said, making his way back to the group. "The fact that the ship woke us up must mean somethings working. I guess we'd better just wait until something happens" he said. Thomas would wait to reveal that he was a test pilot until he knew that his skill set was needed. "I'm Thomas by the way".

[Darcs]

"Well that answers that. They're dead. They really shot themselves in the foot this time. Thank God there are other ships"

Tyler could only silently process all the information as it was given to him, he was having a hard enough time dealing with waking up. That he had apparently been in stasis for over 200 years was easy enough for him to swallow, but it did have horrifying consequences to life on earth, if it was true. Thrown on top of the escalating severity of bad news that was presented to him was now that apparently most of the people who shared his satellite with him in stasis, for whatever technical reason, and that only he and a select other few had even managed to survive. Still-- maybe this was the only pod that had any deaths? Maybe everyone else went back to earth 150 years ago? That didn't seem ideal, but it was certainly preferable to some alternatives. Maybe all the other satellites were okay? There were plenty of other satellites... right?

Seeing where the man went, and taking the cue to look out of window close to his Cryopod, Tyler observed what at any other moment would have been a majestic sight of a lifetime. After 200 years of dreaming he was above the 4th rock from the sun he could never imagine this vibrancy this... life... coming from it. But that was the earth. While he couldn't confirm the status of every satellite attached to theirs, he could clearly see the damage to the one he was in-- and the copious debris floating in the space between him and the Earth did not bode well for the others.

"...Christ..." Tyler found himself muttering as he processed the sight, another tragedy, more and more he wanted to just go back into his Cryopod and sleep until it ran out of power. He knew he couldn't, but he didn't want to feel this- this all consuming dread. No actions came to his mind that would relieve his despair, for now, he just had to feel it.

He made his way back his Cryochamber, right around where the newly formed group was meandering, he felt sapped. He leaned up against the glass and slid to the ground, cradling his head as he sat. Another realization came to him. Even if the function the to descend back into Earth orbit works-- it's been 200 years, the projected landing spot would be in a completely different place, there would probably be no operators to help with the landing-- this is assuming the heavily damaged can even survive reentry. And on top of all that-- it woke them up BEFORE going back! Were their bodies really prepared to handle those G-forces? They'd surly have atrophied much more than NASA had calculated.

Tyler sighed. He was over thinking things. He didn't need to do that now, he needed a plan, what should he do if the craft returns to earth? What if it doesn't?

The man who had been observing another satellite window returned to 'the group,' "Well, the fact that the ship woke us up must mean somethings working. I guess we'd better just wait until something happens" he said, "I'm Thomas by the way."

"Tyler," he responded to Thomas, from his sitting position, 'just wait?' Something occurred to him. What about being cryostasis 150 years longer than expected? He spoke up, "Is everyone here feeling okay? The muscle and bone atrophy might be much more than NASA accounted for... Don't stand if you don't need to." He closed his eyes and leaned against the Cryochamber, "We need to conserve our energy. Especially if we'll be experiencing normal gravity soon."

[jel2658]

”Process ending. Awakening subject now”

What? Sarah thought sleepily, coming out of stasis. There was a buzzing in her right ear that wouldn’t go away. She slowly lifted her hand up and tried smacking her ear, but it didn’t change anything. She tried ignoring the buzz. ”Where…” Sarah began, before coming to the realization that the cryostasis had probably worn off. She was 50 years in the future, behind a glass case that should have opened by now.

She tried peeking out of the pod. She wasn’t sure how it worked… did she need to press a button inside? She pushed on it, with no luck. Is it broken? she wondered knocking on it. Panic began to set in, making her start banging on the case. ”Hello? Is anyone there? I need some help!” she cried, smacking on the glass as hard as she could. Had the 50 years without working caused it to break down?

[Whirlwind]

Raina looked over as a man announced they’d better have said their goodbyes. ”I believe we did… just not for 200 years,” she said with a weak smirk, licking her lips and eyes blinking rapidly. This was not in the plan at all. A rather fit looking black man awakened next, seeming much more quiet than the other man, and asking how they got down. ”Umm…” Raina breathed, looking confused. Were they supposed to do anything? Obviously something had gone wrong and made their pods change to 200 years, but would the ship also not guide itself down? It did awaken them eventually, so something was working. It was all just rather odd.

A female voice finally interrupted her thoughts… a Marine. Raina just looked at the girl with a bit of a side eye, considering she though most of those in the armed forces were barbaric, and stupid for blindly following orders. She put on a very convincing fake smile though, and shook her head. ”No sweetie, we don’t,” she said, her tone still managing to be just a slight bit condescending.

And oh great, another one. He looked particularly angry, as was his tone, and so she avoided even interacting with him. Instead she looked to the first man she’d approached, who had apparently woken first. No one else seemed to know anything after all.

He didn’t really, but at least he said something besides What happened? for the fiftieth time. Raina’s eyes flickered to the unopened pods, shrugging ever so slightly. They had no idea if those in those pods had thawed and died along the way, or were still frozen and would not be awakened properly for another 200 hundred years… either way, the prospect didn’t appeal to her to go messing with them. She didn’t have to wonder long before the man said that the ones in those pods were dead, making Raina portray sadness, as she figured that was appropriate, shaking her head mournfully.

”Wait until something happens?” Raina repeated, looking at the man like he was just a bit off his rocker. Tyler introduced himself after Thomas and she shook her head at his suggestion. She felt too energized. Like she’d been asleep so long and now all her body wanted to do was be awake. ”I can’t just sit around doing nothing after doing that for 200 years… apparently,” she mumbled the last word.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Raina spun around on nimble feet, looking down the rows of pods. The thudding came again with a muffled voice and she walked briskly towards it. She came to a pod where hands were smacking the glass and she frowned, studying the outside of the pod. ”Hmm… calm down, calm down,” she muttered irritably, before finding an emergency red button on the pod, and pressing it. The glass slid up rapidly and a fairly average looking woman was within. ”There, better?” Raina said with a bit of a chuckle before walking back over towards the rest of the group. ”Oh right… intros… I’m Raina Long.”

[Vertical]

A few introductions were made, not everyone was quite as willing as Thomas to reveal their name. It did not matter much at this point. Thomas had been pondering the question of the ships return and if it was even functioning well enough to bring them back. That is when he had a thought, and it was not a good one. "Okay bear with me on this one. The ship was supposed to return to Earth after 50 years, right about the time we were supposed to awaken. I'm assuming that the fallback plan was to have us go back, regardless of if we were awake or not. If we did, someone would probably have met us, and if we were still in cryo, they would have brought us out of it. So I'm thinking that the status of our return is currently 'not gonna fuckin' happen'", he was not done talking but he wanted the group to sit with that thought. "So regardless of if this ship is bringing us down or not, here is what I know. One, I am a pilot. That being said, I was not trained for this specific vessel. Two, these vessels usually have two smaller shuttles in the bay and that I can pilot. Three, if we are not being brought home by this, then we are essentially just going to wait until we die. I am willing to risk flying down to the surface in a smaller shuttle..." Thomas, again, trailed off. He was leaving the suggestion open for the rest of the group to comment.

Before heading into space, Thomas was a test pilot. The vehicles he tested were the smaller versions of the vessel he was on, and he knew he saw them put one aboard before he boarded. The chances of him bringing the ship down safely were about 60/40. But, Thomas knew that if the vessel was not functioning right, they would have a zero percent chance of surviving. Food would run out, if there was any. Same with the water. There were those who were dead and in cryo but Thomas did not relish the idea of cannibalism. Even if he did chose to wait it out and eat the dead, they would eventually run out of corpses, and each other, and then they would starve to death.

The group really had two options, wait and see if the ship would bring them home or risk flying back in a smaller craft. Thomas was all for flying back in the smaller ship the more and more he thought about it. Neither option was a good one. The group had to choose between a bad idea and a worse one. "You know, I'm not guaranteeing that we get back safe my way, but we're shit outta luck if we stay up here and this thing isn't bringing us back. Plus, I haven't heard any type of communication from the surface since we awoke, so I think that the chances of us getting help from down there are minimal.". That last statement slipped out of Thomas's mouth without much thought. But then he started thinking about what he had just inferred. If there was no communication, that meant that either NASA had given up hope a long time ago, or there was no NASA. Both were about equal on the scale of 'this is fucked'.

[DELETED324324]

Jared sat silently after his joke, he wasn't shocked or scared like the rest as a matter of fact he was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Everybody i know is dead, a clean slate." He thought as he sat there leaned against his tube. As everyone went about introducing themselves he sat quietly not saying a word but still there was a smile on his face, yes there were no cigarettes up here and no booze otherwise he would of been throwing a fucking party. but then the thought hit him of how they were going to get home, and almost like the guy was psychic one of his companions spoke up about being a pilot and being able to fly them out of here.

Jared stood up and looked to everyone. "Seeing as flyboy can get us out of here, then let's go already." Jared said, finally joining the group. "I mean if he wants to take the risk anyways." Jared continued, he looked out into space staring at the planet they hadn't set foot on in two hundred years. "I hope she hasn't gotten dusty, or cob webs in her crotch." He thought, 200 hundred years later and it was ripe for the taking again. Hopefully the company had done well and he could use his old stash of shares in his lock box to take over or sell out and get rich and tell these ass holes to fuck themselves.

[Darcs]

”I can’t just sit around doing nothing after doing that for 200 years…”

Tyler chuckled at the brunette, Raina's, response. He couldn't help but let it out, it was absurd and also completely spot on. For Tyler, it wasn't personal reasons that made the miscalculation so heavy, but the implications, both medically and in regards to society itself. Would he still be able to have the family he promised his mother and father he'd start one day? Would he even make it back to earth? So to hear someone disregard his advice, quite logically when viewed objectively, so casually-- because they'd done nothing for 200 years. It helped put a smile on his face.

"That..." He replied to Raina in his accented voice, "...is fair." Still, joking aside, he realized what NASA had sent him up here for, he'd need to evaluate everyone as soon as possible, they barely knew what 50 years in cryostasis, while in low gravity orbit-- 200 years, plus having to experience re-entry while awake... He'd need to do his job.

But he couldn't do that up here.

Thomas explained that he could get them down. That was all Tyler heard, for more reasons than doing his job too, he had been asleep for two centuries and the curiosity wouldn't stop biting at him. He gave a sigh as Thomas explained the risks and proposed that they vote. The thought of slowly starving to death in space didn't appeal to him, neither did burning up on re-entry, or perhaps simply landing wrong, but he felt the choice was a clear one. God had placed him here for a reason, he had to trust he could get back and continue doing good, find a life. If that meant trusting this pilot, who was essentially a stranger to him, then so be it. Jared interrupted his thoughts.

"Seeing as flyboy can get us out of here, then let's go already." Crass, yes, but in no way wrong.

Tyler, always the pragmatist, answered Thomas simply, "The sooner we get down, the sooner I can get a read on our vitals."

[McHaggis]

“I'm Oscar – but call me 'Oz'. Almost everyone else does,” Oscar said eventually through numb lips, his eyes staring at the ground rather than at the void outside. He nearly choked on his words by the end. “Did. I mean did.” Being bitter about his fate was allowed, right? Assuming that the group in front of him was absolutely all of those that survived, it didn't bode well for this little 'experiment' he had been forced into.

He forced his face into as genuine a smile as possible – shoving the red-hot anger to the back of his mind – as he noted down the names of those who felt like sharing. Tyler. Thomas. Jessica. Raina. “Forgive me for bein' a bit... pissed off, but I didn't exactly sign up for this.”

Oscar ran a hand through his red hair, counting down from ten. “And I'm in agreement with – eh, him over there. The sooner we get out of here, the better. Maybe we can see what a horrible mess the government and that 've all made of the Earth while we've been gone. Who knows? Maybe they discovered the secret to immortal life.” He waggled his fingers, eyebrow twitching involuntarily. Though he doubted he would be able to with every inch of his being, not seeing his family seemed likely to send him over the edge.

[Vertical]

It seemed that, for the most part, everyone was in agreement that the group should leave the vessel and start the descent home. Even though he was a trained pilot, Thomas had reservations about piloting back to Earth. Many, many, times he had practiced in the simulator and he had even flown the craft, but that was on Earth. Not once did he actually venture out into the great dark beyond. This would be his first time in space, and the situation was not ideal. His crew was made up of strangers, he was 200 years older than he planned on being, and to top it off, he had absolutely no idea what he was flying back into. In his mind there were two distinct possibilities regarding Earth. Civilization was still intact and they would return to be greeted by a new, advanced, civilization. Or, they would return to a desolate planet. Obviously, the latter was not preferable to Thomas, but he was leaning towards that. To him it was very strange that the only communication they seemed to have received, was the "wake up call". Best case scenario, they have simply forgotten us and will get in touch once we enter radar range. Thomas thought. The second option was very grim. If they returned and were the only people left on Earth, Thomas decided that perhaps it would be best to try and find some kind of sharp object, or a gun, and just end it there. He stopped thinking about that.

"Well I'm more than willing to fly us out of here. Unfortunately, I was ushered into my cryo-pod quite quickly and I didn't get much of a layout for the ship. I'll go look for the bay, that's where the shuttle will most likely be" Thomas looked around the large, cavern of a chamber that they were in. There were rows and rows of unopened, silver, pods. Each of them had a thick glass panel that had fogged up, distorting the face of the person still inside. The black panel on the side of each pod gave general information, including vital signs, but that would be up to a doctor to figure out. The pod chamber was on one side of the ship, and consisted of a majority of it. All along the right hand side, closest to the group, was a large set of thick windows. The scene outside of the ship was magnificent. Earth was visible, in all of it's glory. There was much more though. Slowly, as the group had been talking, debris had floated in front of the windows. The debris was part of the other vessels. It would be easy for someone to rationalize that the rest of the ships had been destroyed by something, perhaps the floating meteorite chunks. The chamber itself, save for the pods and a few computer consoles, was devoid of life. It was barren, empty, it was a shell. "In movies", Thomas cracked a brief smile at the thought of watching a movie, "they, the group, usually doesn't separate because of some dangers, but to be honest I don't really think there's anything up here that'll be dangerous to us other than ourselves. So I'll go alone to find the shuttle, unless anyone cares to join me". Thomas gave a brief shrug as he finished his last sentence.

Walking through the rows of pods eerily resembled walking through a long row of military coffins. In fact, it was almost the same. The whole situation gave off a bad vibe, but Thomas had never been one of those people who lived their lives based on vibes. Thomas was at the doorway now, it was open. He placed his hand on the frame, turned, and took a last glance at the chamber. It had been a tomb that had closed him off to the cold grasp of time. One last thought regarding that came into his mind. He wondered if they would have been better off not waking up. With that, he took his first step into the hallway and looked around. The dream he had been having before he had awoken suddenly rushed to him. The hallway, though not covered in fungus or damp, was very similar, almost identical. Something made him turn around, to see if he was being chased. There was nothing there. A sign on the wall pointed Thomas in the direction of the bay, he began heading towards it.