Earth: Criminal Rehab

Chapter Two

Gerard

I like to call myself brave.

At times, I was really good at putting on a strong face when I felt broken. Overtime I began to really fool myself. I would bury my feelings inside and wear a smile for the eyes of my friends and family. It was easier that way. I kept my dark and twisted thoughts to myself because it was much easier than trying to explain them.

"Be brave," my mother's voice echoes in the back of my head. It was all I needed to keep going.

"Be brave," I would repeat to myself. I ordered myself to stay strong.

"Be brave," I told the shaking boy in my arms when the guards were inspecting neighboring rooms out later than usual.

It's so simple for people to tell each other to be brave, but not so simple to actually be a brave person. We need bravery. We need people to remind each other to be brave because that's all we can do. It may help for a minute, but that two-worded phrase was not enough to prepare me for the life ahead of me.

Telling myself to be brave while everyone around me was suffering was incredibly selfish. Thinking or saying those words out loud would do nothing for me until I tried to be brave myself.

"Be brave" my mother told me again. I closed my eyes and tried.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at the straps over my body. They were pulled tightly over my leather jacket. I took a deep breath and tried to loosen them, but it was no use. I figured I would be grateful that they were tied so tight for our landing.

Judging by a quick glance around the room, people were getting claustrophobic. They had packed 50 of us into a tiny escape pod that our ancestors built decades ago. This ship was not intended to fit so many people and especially not in this condition.

The Ascendant stood up straight in front of us, rocking on the balls and heels of his feet. A million questions danced like wildfire through my head. I imagined that the other 49 people were thinking the same.

What are we supposed to do when we get there?
How do we know that the radiation isn't going to kill us immediately?
Will we even land properly?

The last question that came into my mind took me by surprise. I'd never been afraid of dying. I'd come close many times in my life and death was always strangely peaceful. It almost became something that I had longed for, it was a way to escape my problems.

But I needed to stay alive and I only did so because of one person, one boy that was probably still snoring softly under the covers of his bed. I smiled at the thought of him. I thought about how awful his life was, but how strangely positive he stayed. We had both been through a lot of crap in our lives, but he never changed a bit. Sure he grew. He grew like a weed. He was much taller than people his age.

I had been tempted to quit when he had been found. Staying brave and alive didn't seem anywhere near necessary anymore. My main purpose in life was to protect him and I failed. What was the point?

The Ascendant's lips started to move and I pulled myself back into the present. Whatever he had started to say would be vital if any of us were planning to survive this.

"I know you must have a lot of questions about this... spontaneous trip. As much as I would love to stand here and answer them all for you, we are pressed for time," he explained rather sarcastically. Ascendant Askari hated people like us, all convicted criminals awaiting our torturous deaths. He must be joking if he thought we'd believe any of his sympathy.