Page 3 of Rebirth

“I must remain on the ship.”

Dri’ro clicks. No words. Only a sound. One of understanding…and pity.

“It will only be for a short while.”

My attention moves from the convoy of arriving vehicles, and I slip back into my mind’s space once more. The control panel disappears. The lights. The walls. And once more, I stand at the brink.

I had one goal for surviving this long. One reason for embarking on this journey across the cosmos.

And I have realized that purpose.

There is nothing left.

“Very well,” I say.

It has all…come to an end.

CHAPTER TWO

SOPHIE

Inhaling deeply, I release a breath as the vehicles head toward the camp. Pop-up buildings, structures, and tents appear in the distance, the first signs of a thriving settlement in what is still a damaged wasteland.

There are people there. More than I can count. More than I’ve seen in what now feels like forever.

Glancing at the males seated alongside me in the transport, their hard faces don’t reveal much, but I can tell they’re all thinking the same thing.

It’s the singular thought that ricocheted in my head after I braved it outside my bunker. The singular thought that struck me in the aftermath. That silence.

Is it really over? Is Earth really…saved?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of those towering machines. Heard the bone-chilling sound they make as they traverse the landscape, crushing everything beneath their feet.

The silence says it’s over. That we’re saved. But we couldn’t have done it alone.

And now I know we didn’t.

“Looks like that’s the place,” one of the men says, long hair whipping in the breeze as we jolt over the uneven ground.

I don’t know any of these men. Long ago, I came to terms with the fact that everyone I know is either dead or safe somewhere. The latter being highly unlikely.

I am alone.

These men and I have only three things in common.

We’re human. We’re survivors of the end of the world.

And we saw the flyers.

Ones that spoke of a brand new home. A settlement where all was welcome. A new place called Unity. Where humanity was beginning to rebuild.

“See any of them?” the guy that spoke continues, eyes pointed as he searches what he can see of the camp set out before us, right before his gaze returns to the heavens.

“Nah,” another answers.

Because that’s where all of our gazes have been pointed ever since that…thing became visible.

Hundreds of feet above the camp floats a vessel unmoving. As if in suspended animation, it sits there, everything about it looking inhuman. Unreal. Because it is.

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