003 Light

Spoiler warning for my own novel? Yes. Nothing huge, but this scene would fit at the very end if it were part of it.
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For a long while, nobody spoke. The survivors stood a safe distance away from the enormous hatch they had come through, as though something might rear up from it and drag them back down again. The sun beat down on them from above, warming their backs and surrounding them like a mother's arms. That was something they hadn't been able to get right in the biosphere, Aster realized. It had been a convincing display, of course- state of the art ASPEN would not have settled for an imperfect subterranean atmosphere-- but there was just something they hadn't been able to get right about the warmth. There wasn't that localized heat where the photons glanced off your skin, it was just... altogether hot, or warm, or cool, or chilly. It had been enough to convince them all that they were above ground for quite a while, but now that they stood in the midst of nowhere, in a real, wild forest, the differences were obvious. The sharp smell of pine trees mingled with a low rich note of mud and leaf decay from the forest floor, blowing in on a perfectly imperfect, unsteady breeze. Wildflowers poked up from the remnants of a fallen tree, nestled in its broken boughs and scarred trunk. Somewhere nearby, a river ran, just loud enough for them to hear. And still nobody spoke.

Aster sat down in the dirt before her knees gave out on her, suddenly very tired, very weak. It wasn't long before the others followed suit in relative silence. Anselm sat beside her, threading his fingers through hers, and she gripped the sleeve of his labcoat with her free hand, feeling like if she wasn't holding on to something then maybe she would drift away.

There was an obvious void in the group, their number was too small, the gathering too quiet and too solemn. Worse perhaps than their deaths were the memories of each one that ran through their minds, and the knowledge that it was all because of ASPEN. That organization that the rest of the world looked so highly upon, that held the world on the end of a string and toyed with it however they pleased in the name of science and progress. This modern god who took as it needed and gave back just enough to keep itself protected, leaving the small weak-minded world to revel in the new miracle it had granted them while it stole their children from beneath their noses and ignored all lines of ethics, morality, and even sanity in its pursuit of something greater. It was too much. Aster wanted to cry, but she didn't have the energy. Still the group sat in silence.

"Well then," Caden mumbled, followed by a long sigh, and then the silence returned.

The sun drifted higher in the sky, drenching the clearing in pure white light. The idea that the sun still dared to shine after all that had happened seemed baffling; below them, thousands of miles of subterranean complex slowly burned itself to ruins, what was once the root of the world, the lifeblood of their society, was now a skeleton. The rest of the world would take a long while to adjust as the source of everything they relied on was slowly destroyed underground, but the sun still shone. There was still light.

Humans were resourceful, and they would find a way to make it by without their false idol like they had a million times before.

Nature looks after its own, and it would in time cleanse the cavernous ruins of ASPEN of all the evil it held, and reclaim it.

And as for the survivors, time would fade the memories into peaceful homages to wonderful people, slowly ebb away at the pain until there was nothing left but love and happiness.

There was still light left in this world, still good things that could be had.

"Well," Aster said quietly, "Maybe we should get moving. Find a town. Figure out where we are." The gravity of their situation slowly settled into the minds of the group, and the irony that after all they had survived, they still had no idea where they were or how to find their way home, was not lost on them. They were still metaphorical lab rats scuttling about under observation, even after finding the cheese at the end of the maze and breaking out of their cage entirely.

"We should follow the river downstream; most towns are built near water sources. It's our best bet," Caden said.

A few nods and stretches, and the survivors got to their feet, brushing themselves off and ready to move again. The river was close, gurgling along and reflecting the sun between two borders of glowing green canopy. A single green leaf fell from one of the branches overhead and landed in the water, flowing along the ribbon of light far ahead of them. Anselm slipped Aster's hand in his and matched her pace. Despite everything that had happened and everything they had just been through, she couldn't help the smile that sprang to her lips. She felt undeniably light in that moment.

The sun would still rise again tomorrow, she realized, and there would still be light. Even after everything, this wasn't an end, this was merely a course of events, winding like a river. There was still much more to come, and while the shadows of leaves overhead cast a shadow on the river's glass surface on occasion, they would always emerge into the light.

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want to be all "B'AWW IT'S TERRIBLE" but I really dunno. Light was sort of awkward to work with. And I wrote this earlier, and only just finished it now over twelve hours later. I went out today. I was going to write two today, but I probably won't seeing as how my day went.

Also; can you tell I haven't yet decided who will live or die? I tried to be vague about the numbers because most likely I'm going to change them, and I haven't even a full cast of characters to begin with.