Homecoming

Dozens of heads snapped up, the flickering flames reflecting on their faces. A chorus of whoops and cries—and a few curses—rang out in the clearing as everyone jumped to their feet. The ships were low in the sky now, descending rapidly, picking up speed as they approached Earth.

“My mom is coming!” a young girl named Molly said, bouncing from side to side. “She promised me she’d be on the first ship.”

Two Walden girls clutched each other and began squealing, while Antonio, a normally cheerful Waldenite who’d grown quiet in recent days, started muttering to himself. “We did it… we did it…”

“Remember what my father told us,” Wells said, shouting over the noise. “About our crimes being forgiven. From this point on, we’re regular citizens again.” He paused, then grinned. “Actually, that’s not entirely true. You’re not regular citizens—you’re heroes.”

There was a smattering of applause, but it was quickly drowned out by a piercing screech that suddenly filled the air. It seemed to emanate from the sky itself and grew to a deafening volume, forcing everyone in the clearing to cover their ears.

“They’re about to land,” Felix shouted.

“Where?” a girl asked in response.

It was impossible to say, but it was clear that the ships were coming in fast and hard, with no detectable control over their approach. Wells watched in helpless shock as the first vessel passed directly overhead, just a few kilometers above them, so low that showers of burning debris singed the tops of the tallest trees.

Wells cursed under his breath. If the trees caught on fire, it wouldn’t matter who was on those dropships—they’d all be dead before morning.

“Great,” Bellamy said, loud enough to be heard over the din. “We risk our lives to prove that Earth is safe, just so they can come down and set it on fire.” His voice had its usual careless, mocking tone, but Wells could tell Bellamy was scared. Unlike the others, he’d forced his way onto the dropship—and gotten the Chancellor shot in the process. There was no way of knowing whether Bellamy would be forgiven for his crimes, or whether the guards had orders to shoot him on sight.

As the dropship moved past the clearing, Wells caught a glimpse of the letters on the side—Trillion Galactic, the company that built the ships generations ago. His stomach twisted as he realized that one was flying on its side, at a full forty-five-degree angle to Earth. What could that mean for everyone inside the cabin? It passed over the clearing, disappearing behind the tops of the tallest trees, continuing its descent out of their line of vision.

Wells held his breath, waiting. After a tortured moment, a flash of light and fire exploded far out beyond the trees. It was at least a few kilometers from their camp, but seemed as bright as a solar flare. A millisecond later came the delayed sound of the crash, a deep thundering that drowned out all other noise. Before anyone could process what they’d just seen, the second ship passed directly over their heads and landed in the same catastrophic fashion, sending up more light and noise. A third ship followed.

Each crash shook the ground, sending violent vibrations up through Wells’s feet and into his stomach. Was this what happened when their ship crashed? Their landing had also been terrible—a few people had even been killed. The frightening noises stopped abruptly. As Earth grew quiet again, flames shot into the sky, coloring the darkness, and smoke began to curl upward. Wells turned away from the trees and back to the others. Their faces, illuminated in the orange light from above, asked the same question that was repeating on a loop in his own head: Could anyone have survived that?

“We have to go to them,” Eric said firmly, raising his voice to be heard over the chorus of gasps and nervous murmurs.

“How will we find them?” Molly asked, trembling. Wells knew she hated being in the woods, especially at night.

“It looks like they might’ve landed near the lake,” Wells replied, rubbing his fingers in circles against his temples. “But they could be much farther.” If anyone even survived, he thought. He didn’t need to say it out loud. They were all thinking the same thing. Wells turned back toward the crash. The flames rising above the trees were subsiding, shrinking down into the woods. “We better start moving. Once that fire goes out, there’s no way we’ll be able to find them in the dark.”

“Wells,” Sasha murmured, placing a hand on his shoulder, “maybe you should wait until morning. It’s not safe out there.”

Wells hesitated. Sasha was right about the danger. There was a violent faction of Earthborns who’d rebelled against her father and were now roaming the woods in between Mount Weather and the hundred’s camp. They were the ones who’d kidnapped Octavia, who’d killed Asher and Priya. But he couldn’t bear the thought of the injured and scared Colonists waiting for their help.