Homecoming

by Kass Morgan

  Concern flashed across her face. “What is it?”

  He tried to choose his words carefully, but there was no way to sugarcoat the shocking, disorienting information. “We’re not alone. Here. On Earth.” He said it quietly so no one around them could hear. He waited for her to process what he’d said before continuing. At first, she smiled, looking ready to make a joke about all the hundreds of other Colonists around them. Then she grasped the implication of his words, and her expression shifted.

  “Wells, are you saying…” Glass trailed off.

  “Yes. There are other people here on Earth. People who were born here.”

  Glass’s eyes grew large and round. “What?” She swiveled her head from side to side, as if expecting to see people watching her from the trees. “Are you serious? You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m one hundred percent serious. But it’s okay. They’re very peaceful and kind. Well, most of them. There’s a small group that broke off about a year ago, and they’re dangerous. But the rest of them are just like us.” Wells thought of Sasha and couldn’t suppress a smile. “They’re actually pretty inspiring. The Earthborns are good people, maybe better people than we are. I think we have a lot to learn from them. I just have to figure out a way to let the others know without scaring anyone.”

  Glass was staring at him, but it was no longer with confusion. “Wells,” she said slowly, a small smile forming at the corners of her mouth, “is there something you’re not telling me?”

  He gave her a sidelong look. “Yes, there’s obviously a ton I haven’t told you yet. There was this terrible attack, and a fire, and then people started getting sick, and you’ll never guess what happened when—”

  “No,” she said, cutting him off. “Something you’re not telling me about these Earthborns. Or maybe one in particular?”

  “What? No.” He was usually pretty adept at hiding his thoughts, but something about Glass’s tone made his cheeks redden.

  “Oh my god,” she whispered. “There’s a girl. An Earth girl.” Her voice was equal parts shock and delight.

  “You’re crazy. There’s no Earth—” He cut himself off with a smile and shook his head. “How could you possibly have known that?”

  Glass reached out and squeezed his arm. “You can’t keep secrets from me, Wells Jaha. It was the way you were talking about these inspiring Earthborns. You had the same look on your face that you got when you used to talk about Clarke.” Her expression grew less playful as her brow furrowed. “Does that mean you two broke up? What happened?”

  Wells sighed. “It’s a long story, but I’m fine.” He smiled, thinking about the previous evening, lying with his head in Sasha’s lap as they stared up at the stars. “More than fine, actually. I can’t wait for you to meet Sasha.”

  “Sasha,” Glass repeated, seeming slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a more exotic name. “Where is she?”

  Before Wells could reply, a tall boy in a guard’s uniform approached, carrying a small water container with one hand, his other arm bound in a sling. Glass’s face lit up at the sight of him, and she didn’t look away as he passed the container to her and waited for her to take a sip. “Thanks,” she said, smiling at him before finally turning back to Wells. “Wells, this is Luke.”

  Wells extended his arm and shook the guard’s good hand firmly. “I’m Wells. Nice to meet you.”

  “I know. I recognize you, of course, and Glass has told me all about you. It’s really good to meet you, man,” Luke said, grinning as he released Wells’s hand and clapped him on the shoulder.

  Glass hooked her arm through Luke’s and glanced back and forth between the two boys, beaming.

  Wells grinned. He had no idea how Glass had ended up with a guard, let alone one who wasn’t from Phoenix, but none of that mattered down here. Besides, there was something about Luke that Wells liked right away. He seemed solid, sincere. Nothing like the slimy Phoenicians Glass used to date. She was clearly in love, and that was all Wells needed to know.

  “Welcome to Earth,” Wells said with a smile, gesturing to the sky and trees and water all around them. As he did so, he noticed the blood covering Glass’s shirt. He inhaled sharply. Had she been hurt without realizing it? He pointed at her. “Glass, are you okay?”

  Glass looked down at her shirt, and her face paled. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said quietly. “That’s… that’s not mine.” Luke wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight.

  Wells’s stomach plummeted as he braced for the terrible news he could already feel hovering in the air, as if Glass’s pain were radiating out from the dark place she’d hidden it away.

  Glass took a deep breath and tried to compose herself, but before she was able to form any more words, she crumpled and buried her face in Luke’s shirt. He whispered something into her ear that Wells couldn’t hear and stroked Glass’s hair.

  Wells stared in horror. Part of him wanted to wrap his arms around his best friend, but that clearly wasn’t his place anymore. So he stood, waiting, until Luke turned to face him. “It’s her mother,” he whispered. “She’s dead.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Glass

  Glass had never felt more out of place in her life. Not as a Phoenician visiting Luke on Walden. Not as the daughter of a man who abandoned his family. Not even as a recently freed convict back on Phoenix for the first time. She stood by the fire pit, shivering though the sun was high overhead, and watched the frenzy of activity around camp. Everywhere she looked, kids her age or younger were busy with crucial tasks.

  People darted in and out of the hospital cabin, bringing water for Clarke’s patients and carrying out bloodstained bandages to burn or bury in the woods. Some of the kids spilled into the clearing, carrying axes and firewood they’d chopped themselves, while others were laying the foundation for a new cabin. A few hours earlier, a group of grim-faced volunteers had headed down to the lake to start digging graves for the passengers who hadn’t survived. There were too many to fit in the cemetery on the far side of the clearing, and there was no point to carrying the bodies all the way to the camp.

  Although the new Colonists had left without much warning, the dropships had all been prestocked with enough basic supplies to make the first-wave kids act like they’d been given the key to everlasting life. One of the girls Wells had assigned to take inventory looked like she was going to cry while running her hand along a new hammer, treating it with the same reverence other girls showed toward a beautiful piece of jewelry at the Exchange.

  Glass was desperate to make herself useful, but she was completely out of her element. She was too afraid even to ask where—or worse, how—she was supposed to go to the bathroom. Luke had been called away with the rest of the guards, and although he’d been reluctant to leave Glass on her own, they both knew now wasn’t the moment for him to shirk his duty.

  A group of girls Glass’s age were walking toward the fire, whispering urgently, but as they passed Glass, they fell silent and stared at her warily. “Hi,” Glass said, eager to start out on the right foot. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  One of the girls, a tall brunette whose carefully torn shorts showed off her long, unbelievably toned legs, narrowed her eyes as she looked Glass up and down. “You were supposed to be on the dropship with us, weren’t you?”

  Glass nodded. “Yes, I was taken from the detention center, just like the rest of you.” It was the first time she’d voluntarily confessed to having been Confined. “But I snuck off at the last minute.” Snuck off was a somewhat inaccurate way to describe her life-or-death sprint onto Walden to find Luke, but she sensed that now wasn’t the time for a play-by-play of her dramatic escape.

  “Yeah, snuck off, okay,” a girl with an Arcadian accent said, exchanging glances with her friends. “Must be nice to know people who can call in favors.”

  Glass bit her lips, wishing there were some way to make it clear how much she’d gone through, that she hadn’t exactly spent the pas
t few weeks living it up on Phoenix. She had almost asphyxiated on Walden and barely made it onto the last ship. She had just watched her own mother die, the reality of which was still pummeling her chest with alternating waves of searing pain and suffocating numbness.

  “You should just hang out with the others,” one of the girls said, a little more kindly. She gestured toward a group of other recent arrivals who were clustered on the other side of the fire, staring at their shocking new surroundings in wide-eyed wonder.

  Glass nodded and watched the girls walk off, knowing full well she wasn’t welcome among the recent arrivals either. Most of them had seen her board the dropship with Vice Chancellor Rhodes, taking the seat the others had so desperately hoped would be filled by one of the friends and family members they’d been forced to leave behind. If only her mom were here. She’d had a special gift for making herself at home in any social situation and helping everyone around her feel at ease as well. Sonja might not have known how to light a fire or chop wood any more than Glass did, but her warm smile and musical laugh would’ve been just as valuable.

  Glass wrapped her arms around herself and glanced up at the dizzyingly tall trees. Swaying in the wind, they almost seemed to be looking down at her, making her feel like a little kid lost in a sea of oblivious grown-ups.

  She watched as Wells stepped out of the hospital cabin, and even from a distance, she could tell his expression was grim. He ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his temples. Despite the gravity of the situation, Glass couldn’t help but smile at the familiar gesture—the same one she’d seen the Chancellor perform nearly every evening she’d spent studying at Wells’s flat. A pang of regret washed over her as she thought about the Chancellor, left behind on the dying ship. He’d never get the chance to see everything his son had accomplished on Earth.

  Glass had always known Wells was a natural-born leader, and it made her heart swell with pride to see how much everyone seemed to rely on him, though she felt a wistful twinge of sadness. It was a selfish thought, but she missed the days when Wells belonged to her most of all.

  “Watch this,” Glass called over her shoulder to Wells, who lagged behind her on the gravity track. She looked around to make sure the fitness monitor wasn’t watching, then ran over to the control panel, grabbed the lever, and pushed it up a few notches. She felt immediately lighter and giggled as she pushed off the floor and hovered in the air for a moment before floating down slowly.

  She bent her knees, pushed off with more force, extended her arms out, and rotated them through the air one at a time. “Look! I’m swimming!” She pinched her nose and puffed out her cheeks, before letting out a sputtering laugh. “That’s how Earth kids got to school when it rained.”

  Wells bounced toward her with a grin. “How about this one?” he asked breathlessly, raising his left arm out in front of himself, pushing his right foot behind him, then switching his arms and legs in midair. “I’m skiing!”

  Glass did her best imitation of an ancient Earthborn. “I’m just skiing over to the grocery store,” she singsonged in a fancy old-lady voice, “where I will pick fresh vegetables from a tree and then drive my vehicle to the beach for a picnic.”

  “With my pet bear, Fido, and my six children!” Wells added.

  Glass and Wells collapsed onto the track in a fit of laughter so loud it brought the fitness monitor hurrying out of his office. “What do you think you’re doing?” he scolded. “You know you’re not allowed to touch the gravity settings.” He strode to them, his face stern, but it was impossible to take him seriously when every angry step sent him bouncing into the air. As he got closer and realized that Wells was the Chancellor’s son, his anger subsided slightly, replaced by the stiff smile most adults gave Wells when he caught them unaware.

  “Young lady. Mr. Jaha.” He turned from side to side, scanning the fitness center for a guard. “I won’t write you up this time, but don’t test me again. The gravity track isn’t a play area, okay?”

  They nodded and watched him turn around with as much dignity as he could muster while floating above the ground.

  Glass and Wells pressed their lips tightly together, snorting sharp breaths through their noses until he was far enough away. When he was safely out of earshot, they burst out laughing until their sides ached and tears streamed down their young faces.

  Glass wandered over to the edge of the clearing and sat down on a log. If she couldn’t be helpful, at least she could stay out of the way. The only thing that made Glass feel like she wasn’t a complete waste of space was the fact that Luke had quickly been recruited to the Vice Chancellor’s personal guard, which was why she had barely seen him since they landed. He was off somewhere at a briefing about setting up a security perimeter around their camp.

  Glass caught another glimpse of Wells at the far end of the clearing, this time walking with a girl who had to be Sasha. Wells threw his arm around the girl’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. It was startling to see Wells so outwardly affectionate and even more startling to think that his girlfriend was an Earthborn. All the questions Glass hadn’t even thought to ask bubbled up to the surface. Did she speak English? Where did she live? What did she eat? And, more important, where did she get her clothes? Glass looked enviously at Sasha’s tight black leggings, which seemed to be made of animal skin, and ran her hands along her own torn, dirty pants.

  It was also incredibly disorienting to see Wells kiss anyone but Clarke. Last time she had seen her best friend, he was still so head over heels in love with Clarke that he could barely talk about anything else. But then again, if Glass had learned anything over the last couple of weeks, it was that people can surprise you. She had even surprised herself.

  Glass laughed to herself before blushing and looking around to see if anyone noticed. She had to remember to tell Wells that she’d actually spacewalked, alone, along the outside of the ship. Not to mention her several suffocating trips through an air vent from Walden to Phoenix and back again. He’d never believe me, she thought. Then she corrected herself. He never would have believed me before. But now we’ll both believe anything.

  With a sigh, Glass skimmed her eyes across the clearing again. She needed to find something to do. Her eyes fell on the hospital cabin. She gathered her courage and started across the clearing toward it, taking care to steer clear of two boys who were carrying something large between them. At first, she thought it was another injured passenger, but then she realized that what she’d taken to be two skinny arms and two long legs were actually four legs. And they were covered with hair, not skin. Glass gasped. It was an animal, a deer, maybe. She shuddered as her gaze landed on its enormous, lifeless brown eyes, and felt a pang of regret that the first animal she saw was a dead one. Earth was nothing like she’d imagined. It was cold and strange, and instead of dazzling Glass with its beauty, it only seemed to be full of death.

  Glass turned away and walked up to the infirmary cabin, pausing at the door for a moment before taking a deep breath and stepping inside. From the first instance, she was overwhelmed by the efficiency of the operation, even in such a small space. It was a swirl of activity: Felix and Eric zipped across the room, handing off bandages and rummaging through a bin with small vials and bottles of medications. Octavia tilted a water container to the lips of a boy about her age, who lay on a cot with his leg propped up on a hunk of repurposed plastic from the wreckage. Crash survivors crammed the cots, sprawled across the floor, and even leaned on the wall. And at the center of it all was Clarke, who seemed to be in three places at once. She gave Octavia instructions without looking in her direction, passed Eric a shard of metal they were using to cut bandages, helped an older woman sit up, and pressed her hand against the forehead of a little girl nearby, all without seeming the least bit flustered. Glass had never seen Clarke looking so in control—so in her element.

  “Hi, Clarke,” Glass said. The greeting felt humorously inadequate given that it was the first time they’d come fa
ce-to-face on Earth, but now wasn’t really the time to say, Hi, Clarke, I hope you’re doing well, and that you aren’t too upset about breaking up with Wells after a traumatic journey to Earth. And, oh yeah, sorry for being such a bitch to you when we were kids.

  Clarke’s head shot up, a flash of suspicion crossing her face, then disappearing behind her businesslike demeanor. “Glass. Do you need something? Are you hurt?”

  Glass tried not to bristle at Clarke’s curt tone. They had never been particularly friendly—Glass had always found Clarke a little too serious for her taste. Glass was always more concerned with tracking down pretty accessories at the Exchange, while Clarke was preoccupied with learning how to save lives. But they had always shared a deep affection for Wells and a concern for his well-being. And at this point, any familiar face seemed like a friendly one. Glass had nothing left to lose.

  “Oh, no—sorry. I’m fine. I just wondered if you needed any help,” Glass stammered.

  Clarke stared at Glass for a moment, as if trying to determine whether she was being serious. Glass waited awkwardly, until Clarke finally said, “Sure. Definitely. The more hands the better.”

  “Great,” Glass exhaled. She cast her eyes around the room, searching for a task that needed doing. She spotted a teetering pile of dirty metal bins and cups. She pointed at them. “I could clean those.”

  Clarke nodded before turning back to the woman in front of her. “That would be great,” she said to Glass over her shoulder. “Just be sure to take them to the south stream, not the one we get our drinking water from. But they need to be sterilized over the fire first. You just have to use a stick and hold them over the flame for five minutes or so.”

  “Got it.” Glass scooped up the first few items from the top of the stack and moved toward the door.

  “Glass,” Clarke called after her. “Do you know how to get to the south stream?”