Searching Through The Debris

First things first. Jax needed to land.

He was still on the falling container, aiming for the grassy clearing. By his estimate, it should only be about ten minutes left until he crashes, so he still had time to decide.

He could either stay with the falling metal container, still being on top during landing, or he could jump off and aim for an open section of grass to fall into. Both would leave him with bruises at least and maybe an injury at worst, but which option would minimize his risk? Jax couldn't seem to decide between either.

"Whatever, either I'll jump or I won't, can't decide till the time comes."

Moving aside from probably the most important aspect of Jax's survival, he began deciding his next course of action. Checking the containers for anything worth keeping or using would be most important. Especially since Jax would start getting hungry soon. After all, the only thing he had eaten this today was a single fruit before his shift. He desperately hoped that some sort of food survived the fall. Any tools or items he could use as weapons were also high priorities if he wanted to hunt for food later.

For water, he could probably move south towards the lake he saw earlier. If it was fresh water, then he could use it for drinking, as well as cleaning himself. Lord knew he needed a bath.

Also, the lake might have fish in it. The thought of catching and grilling fish over a fire made Jax's stomach rumble. He regretted not eating a larger breakfast when he woke up for his shift. So what if he was going to be late? It's not like he had to deal with his supervisors' yelling again.

Close to the ground now, Jax did a quick stretch before looking back at where he would be landing. His container was in a direct course for a wreck of another container.

"Guess that means I'll be jumping off," said Jax looking at an empty grassy patch near the wreck below him.

Pumping himself up and steeling for the pain of landing, Jax waited until the container was around 30 feet from the ground, before giving a running leap for the grass. A loud crash could be heard behind him, but Jax paid it no mind as he fell straight towards the ground.

Landing onto the ground with a tumbling roll, Jax left a streak of flattened grass behind him. The tall grass helped slow his momentum, but the pain of his less than graceful landing arose from all over his body. He should be considered lucky, as most of the pain was only superficial bruises, especially considering he just survived a fall from orbit. The most painful part was where his head had hit a small rock during his tumble. Rubbing his head, Jax felt a small bump forming on the back of his head, and a minor headache brewing in his head.

Taking a second to lay in the tall grass, Jax let his adrenaline subside and his body recover from the fall. Frankly, he could be the very first regular human to survive a sudden drop out of orbit, not that Jax cared to verify this achievement.

"It's more embarrassing that I got stuck in a container being thrown out of the ship," Jax thought, not knowing that no one would ridicule him for his miraculous survival.

Sitting up and slowly standing out above the tall grass, Jax began to survey his surroundings. There were around a dozen containers scattered in various parts of the grassy clearing. Some were in near pristine condition, while others were metal heaps on the ground. The container that Jax was on was a crumpled mess, wrapped around the wreck that it had been aiming for.

Starting to walk over to the now wrecked container, Jax saw that much of the contents had spilled out. All over the ground and leaking out of the warped container, were copies of the same book with a group of people in front of a yellow background on the cover. Picking up one of the books, Jax read the title.

"Sensual Adventures: Life With My Five Smoking Hot Alien Wives"

…...

Nothing of value seemed to be lost from the fall.

Moving on from what was essentially fire starters, Jax began searching through the various containers that had fallen nearby. The first he recognized as the empty container with only a card game in it, although the cards had been flung around and the table it was sitting on was now missing a leg. The overall container had survived fairly well all things considered though. Another container had wooden furniture, mostly consisting of chairs, benches, and a few tables. Funnily enough, hidden behind one of the chairs was a small drawstring backpack filled with snacks from the cafeteria. Crackers, cookies, and candies filled the small bag, all clearly chocked full of sugars and preservatives.

Jax gladly put the drawstring backpack on, but not before taking a small bag of crackers out to satiate his growing hunger.

Moving forward, most of what Jax found was either completely ruined or junk to begin with. A crate with some clothes survived, allowing Jax to quickly change from his dirty and ragged jumpsuit to a pair of thick brown canvas-like work pants, and a gray wool-like long-sleeve shirt. The only thing he kept was his mostly black harness, but not before removing the white reflective tape that made it stand out from a distance. He had lost his hard helmet earlier, letting his short coarse brown hair out in the open, and only his work boots stayed with this new outfit.

Jax ripped some of the other thinner clothes into makeshift bandages and continued through the rest of the debris. Another container was filled with crates of collector figurines of famous people in the galactic society. In fact, Jax saw a few figurines of the company's owner, Dong Wei.

"Hopefully he will forgive me for my sudden involuntary resignation" Jax joked.

Looking through the last few wrecks, the only thing Jax could make use of was a shipment of kitchen knives, which he figured was better than having nothing else, and some cartoon collector editions lighters. He managed to choose the least embarrassing design, which featured a blonde man wearing a red trench coat holding a large gun.

Finishing his search, Jax checked the location of the sun and from there, figured which way the lake from earlier was. Planning to return, Jax stored some of his gear in what used to be the card game container and made his way south.