Lily nodded. “I think you did good. Let’s see.” She raised her hammerstone and struck it against the smooth, lavender stone.
A razor-sharp flake separated from the rock, and Alex leapt up, pumping her fist and dancing around the fire. “Yes. Yes. Yes!” she howled before collapsing on the ground again. She shook her head at Lily. “I was getting really sick of lugging rocks up here.”
Lily bared her teeth in an apologetic wince. “Now that we know what type of rock will work…”
Her grin faded, and she let out a groan. “You magic that into a knife, and I go back to the quarry.” Alex bit the inside of her cheek, breathing deeply, then lifted back onto her feet.
Lily tried to contain her laughter as Alex shuffled away, grumbling and cursing under her breath.
***
“You can’t be serious!” Lily wheezed and clutched her ribs.
Alex was laughing so hard, tears streamed down her face. “Why would I lie? It was terrible. I was in my room, and I thought Ray had come over and used his new key to surprise me, so I got completely naked, not one scrap of clothing, and I put a rose between my teeth like we’d joked about the night before, and…”
They both laughed harder. Lily’s head was pounding.
“Then this big, oozing, purple thing with spikes coming out of its head appeared. And for just a second, I thought it was Ray dressed up like some weird sci-fi monster.”
Lily sipped warm water from the piece of wood she’d hollowed into a bowl. “What did you do?” She handed the bowl to Alex.
“I took a beat and thought about whether I was into Ray enough to deal with his weird fetish, of course! That’s when it sprayed me. Thank God the thing had enough sense to pick up my clothes from the floor after it knocked me out. I’m thinking it’d already gathered other humans and figured out that we normally wear clothes. Could you imagine me running through this place naked?”
Lily erupted in laughter again, reveling in how good it felt. For the past week, they’d been miserable. Using everything she knew, along with some educated guesses and a ton of luck, they’d managed to find a suitable shelter, build a stable fire, and disinfect enough water to not die of dehydration anytime soon. They’d also taken a big risk and started eating red fruits from a nearby tree. Lily had been against it at first, but after days of hiking through dense forest without any food and without any luck catching an animal using one of her snares, she’d conceded the reward outweighed the risk.
She’d been relieved and overjoyed when the fruit had not only proven safe to eat but had also given them a burst of energy, hinting they were much more nutrient dense than she’d initially assumed. They’d still need to find other sources of food at some point, but at least they wouldn’t become malnourished in the meantime.
Eventually their laughter subsided and they sat in amicable silence, bellies full of the tart fruit. The cave alcove they’d set up camp in was warm and cozy from the crackling fire. Lily stared into the bright green flames as Alex used a small stone to etch something onto another perfectly round rock.
It seemed an eternity ago that she’d been relaxing in her own backyard in Portland, staring into another fire. Only, that fire had been normal and mundane compared to the flickering green flames of the one she’d grown used to building on this planet. It must be some chemical in the wood that does it.
After a good amount of trial and error, they’d finally found a type of wood that burned slowly, allowing the fire to need tending every few hours rather than every few minutes. And as an added bonus, the green fire also had an odd, crisp, minty scent to it. Both Lily and Alex’s morale had been greatly boosted after they’d taken their first smoke baths and gone to sleep smelling fresh and clean.
There’d been a learning curve, but Lily was coming to realize this forest was quite bountiful. The frayed vines she’d noticed on her first night here had turned out to be trees, oddly enough. Instead of dropping seeds, it seemed these trees had saplings that grew downward, then sprouted roots and burrowed into the soil when they were low enough. Lily had marveled at the different stages of tree growth while hiking through the forest their whole first morning here.
Although still much sparser than she’d have expected, she saw in the light of day that there were in fact many types of odd-looking plants growing on the forest floor, but they tended to swarm the bases of the trees. Most plants, in fact, appeared to feed off the trees in some way.
It made sense the more she thought about it, considering the trees had the most access to sunlight. Vines with bright flowers, giant fuzzy fronds, and a plethora of other small greenery engulfed the trunks of the trees as if Mother Nature had gotten a little drunk and generous with her plant life Bedazzler. Even the young saplings, whose roots had not yet touched the ground, had small air plants and flowers attached to their lengths. Winged insects with fuzzy bellies and cheerful dispositions buzzed happily around the trees at all hours of the day and night. Lily enjoyed the lulling sound, while Alex groused about the noise nonstop, always swatting the creatures away, whether they were anywhere near her or not.
The large leaves that dominated the forest canopy were round and sturdy, almost the texture of leather. After examining a few decaying leaves, quickly being covered by bright green moss on the ground, Lily had used a thin sapling as a rope and inched to the canopy high above to gather more.
She pulled some of those leaves over to her now and stared at them, wondering how she could fashion them into shoe covers for her flats.
“I think it’s time we talk about what comes next,” Alex murmured, interrupting her thoughts. She peered at Lily over the crackling flames. “We’ve been hiding out here for a week now, and there’s been no sign of anyone coming after us.”
They’d avoided having this talk until now, and Lily understood why. She’d avoided thinking about it herself. After they’d traveled far enough into the forest to feel safe, and the adrenaline exacerbating her flight instincts had dwindled, she’d too wondered…Now what?
“You want to leave.” Lily took another gulp of water, stalling. “Where would we go? And how do we know we wouldn’t end up locked in a cell again?”
“Maybe we can find a small city on the outskirts of town that has non-psychopathic aliens.”
Lily chuckled weakly and raised her head to study Alex. She’d been slim a week ago when they’d left. Now, the hollows under her high cheekbones looked more severe than she remembered.
Alex wasn’t lying when she’d said she had no wilderness experience, but the girl was tough. Lily had tried to teach her as much as she could about surviving on her own, in case they got separated. After all, death in a place like this was only a small cut and infection away. Alex complained but never lost focus, not even when the sinister little bugs that nipped at her bare ankles drew blood, or each night while they listened to the sounds of unseen animals shuffling nearby.
“It’s not like I want to spend the rest of my life like this. But at least out here, I’m in charge of my life.” She crossed her arms, resting her elbows on her knees and settling her chin on her forearms. “I agree with you, but…”
Emotion expanded Lily’s chest like a balloon waiting to pop.
Alex crossed over to her and sat down, tilting her head and resting it on Lily’s shoulder. “I’m scared too.”
They sat together like that for a long time, not speaking until finally Lily whispered, “We’ll leave tomorrow.”
***
The next morning, she and Alex groggily gathered their belongings. Lily had lain awake the whole night thinking about the days ahead and what they might find. Judging from the dark circles under her eyes, Alex had done the same.
They set off as the sun started shining light between the dense leaves and had been walking for a few hours when Lily heard the telltale signs of rushing water. She knew from watching the small minnows in the stream that, although odd-looking, fish did exist on this planet. She listened to the loud rush of water and
deduced the river must be large enough to hold fully grown fish. She just had to weave a fish basket, and with any luck, they’d finally have some real protein.
“We need to keep heading downhill,” Lily called, hefting a bag Alex had weaved that contained their foraged supplies. “If you want to find a town, following the water is probably our best bet.”
They continued walking downhill and talking. Although she’d met Alex a week ago, she felt a strong kinship with the woman that she’d felt with only a few others in her life. They talked about Earth and the foods they wished they had at the moment. Both kept the conversation light and filled with humor to distract from the fear that at any moment they might come across a wandering alien.
They started discussing what a wild alien might look like, and Alex listed off fictional aliens from movies she’d seen. Lily hadn’t seen any of the movies she was describing, and a pestering voice in the back of her mind taunted that she’d likely never get the chance to see any of them now.
“I can’t believe you never saw Alien! I have to be in the right mood to watch sci-fi, but honestly, if it has Sigourney Weaver…I’m in,” Alex called over her shoulder.
A small twinge of annoyance shot through Lily again. Alex, as it turned out, was a movie buff; more than that, she’d been a movie reviewer back on Earth. Lily, on the other hand, hadn’t started watching movies until well into her teens. Unsurprising, considering TVs—and electricity, for that matter—weren’t commonly available in the middle of the jungle. “No, Alex. I haven’t seen Alien or The Shawshank Redemption or Titanic or any of the millions of movies you’ve mentioned so far,” she called back sarcastically.
“Alright. Alright. If we never make it back to Earth, just know I’ll be starring in and directing live-action remakes of all of them so you can truly experience them,” Alex vowed with a crooked grin.
Lily chuckled and slid down a slippery area of the hill before stopping herself. “I’m looking forward to your performances.”
Gradually the “slope” turned into a muddy, rocky descent that required all of their focus to navigate. Lily’s muscles burned, and she could feel the skin on her heels peeling and oozing as her one-size-too-small flats rubbed against the area over and over again. But they’d been on sale and out of my size, she mocked, annoyed with herself for being impulsive enough to have thought they’d be fine once broken in.
The next time they stopped, she’d need to fashion a pad or wrap to protect her heel. Until then, she’d have to ignore the annoying sting and focus on the distant sound of rushing water. The trees had thinned and the cloud-filtered sunlight illuminated their path, but the wet, mossy rock was still slippery and treacherous. One wrong foot placement, and you’d go tumbling down.
Although fit, Alex was obviously not used to traversing this type of terrain. Lily winced in sympathy when her poor friend’s leg slipped and scraped against rock yet again.
“I think we should stop and take a break,” she called down to Alex, who had paused while gripping a rock face in an awkward position.
“But the river sounds so close! No, I’m—” Alex lost her footing and slid the rest of the way down the rock to a patch of mud below. Blood trickled from an abrasion on her cheek.
Drops of water began to fall from the sky, and Lily had to stifle a laugh. From this position, Alex looked so pitiful sitting sprawled in muck and glaring at the sky through squinted eyes.
“Just stay there,” Lily called through her grin. She made her way down the rock face.
When she finally reached the bottom, Alex was back on her feet and glaring. “How did you do that so easily? You aren’t even wearing real shoes, and you’re carrying the bag!”
Lily gave a quick shrug and grinned.
Alex attempted to wipe the dirt off her faded blue shirt but only succeeded in smearing the mud and coating her hands. She held her palms up toward the drizzling rain. The small droplets bounced off the thick clay. “Fucking alien mud,” she cursed under her breath.
They continued forward, their soles growing heavy from the accumulating sticky mud clinging to their heels.
“It sounds like the river must be just up ahead,” Alex said, following a patch of relatively dry ground around a large rock face.
Lily followed behind but stopped to inspect a path of trampled vegetation. This could be a game trail. Hope and anxiety made her pulse quicken. A game trail meant animals that could be trapped and eaten, but it also meant alien fauna. Lily scanned the damp ground, looking for tracks. She’d come across a few tracks over the past week but hadn’t had any luck catching anything.
A piercing shriek rang through the silence, and Lily’s body erupted in pins and needles. She sprinted around the corner to the source of the scream. Her stomach plummeted.
Alex was hanging over a ledge, scraping at the mud for purchase. Without any roots to cling to, she was slipping away quickly. Lily dove, gripping Alex’s wrists just as she was about to fall. She held on with both hands and pulled, digging her elbows into the thick mud. Through gritted teeth, she said, “What the hell happened?”
“The ground gave out under me!” Alex kicked at the wall of dirt before her, trying to find a foothold, but she only managed to pull Lily through the mud until her head hung over the edge and Alex was dangling from her wrists. Tremors wracked Lily’s body, and her mind blanked for an instant as if wanting to retreat.
She tried to lift Alex’s weight, but the ground was too slippery. The earth below her torso sagged. They were going to fall. The weight of Alex was slowly dragging Lily over the edge, and she had nothing to brace against. She forced herself to calm and assess the situation like her mother had taught her.
Alex’s eyes were wide and panicked. “Don’t let go!”
Lily turned her focus to the river below and swallowed. Rapids. “Alex, look at me.” Alex’s wide eyes kept searching around her for something to grab onto. “Alex!” Lily shouted, drawing her attention. “I need you to listen carefully.”
Alex nodded, and tears leaked from her brown eyes.
Lily tried to keep her voice even and calm, but it trembled all the same. “We’re going in the river. There’s no way out of it.”
Alex released a quick sob but kept listening.
“When we hit the water, you need to flip on your back and float. Make sure your feet point downstream. Do you understand? If we get separated, don’t wait for me. Remember what I taught you and find a town. Keep heading downriver.” The ground below them dropped a few feet, and Lily yelled, “Don’t try to stand up or swim! If you go under, try to float on your back until you surface again! I won’t let go of you! Don’t—”
Before she could finish, the ground gave out and they were falling.
After they hit the water, everything was a blur. The ice-cold rapids sucked them under and buffeted them around. Lily managed to keep hold of Alex’s hand for longer than she’d have thought, but then they were rammed into a boulder and Alex was wrenched away from her. The sudden lightness on her shoulder told her she’d lost her bag as well. Lily stifled the urge to kick upward and instead rolled until her body was flat. Eventually she felt air on her face and gulped in a deep breath before being sucked under again. Each time she surfaced, she tried to tilt her head and look for Alex.
At last she spotted her a little farther upstream, floating on her back. Relief made Lily cry out just as she was sucked back under. When she emerged again, she lifted her head a fraction and spotted a large downed tree jutting into the river about half a mile downstream right after a relatively calm stretch of river.
Each time her face emerged above water, she screamed and pointed at the tree, hoping Alex would understand. Once the menacing undertow of the rapids lessened, she turned on her belly and swam across the current, positioning her body in the path of the tree. Chancing a glance over her shoulder, she saw Alex was doing the same. They might make it through this, after all.
As the tree drew near and the current picked up speed
again, she braced for impact. Her feet hit first, sending shockwaves through her ankles and shins. Instead of being caught by the trunk, her body was dragged underneath it. She thrashed her arms, reaching out for any limbs she could grasp before the current swept her away, and clutched a sapling vine. She pulled on the vine until she surfaced again, then flipped onto her stomach and dragged her body halfway out of the water and onto a tangle of branches still clinging to the trunk.
She turned her head just in time to see Alex coming toward her. “Grab anything you can!” she screamed over the roaring sound of the rapids.
Lily’s stomach flipped when she realized Alex hadn’t swum far enough over to catch the tree. She scrambled as fast as she could up onto the trunk itself and shimmied toward the jagged edge sticking out into the river.
Alex managed to grab a single branch hanging from the tip of the tree, but the current was dragging her back toward the middle of the river. Lily crawled up the trunk as fast as she could; the broken nubs of lost branches cut into her inner thighs, but she barely felt the sting. All she could think about was the despair and sheer terror in Alex’s eyes. When Lily reached the edge of the trunk, she stretched her arm toward Alex as far as it would go. Alex kicked and thrashed against the current, trying to get closer, but it was no use.
The branch cracked near the base. Lily stretched, cantilevering herself over the rushing water toward the branch, just out of reach. She saw the moment Alex understood. Her eyes hardened like they had on the first night at the edge of the forest. Just before the branch broke off completely, she rolled onto her back.
“No!” Lily’s scream rose above the roar of the river as Alex’s dark brown hair disappeared under a swell.
Chapter 2
One Week Later
Verakko’s gaze raced over the multitude of screens in front of him, unbelieving. He knew of the Insurgents and their plan to abduct and experiment on humans. He’d even heard first-person accounts of their treachery from the humans themselves, but a small part of him had clung to the unreasonable hope that no member of their supposedly advanced society would stoop so low as to cage sentient beings in such a vile way.
Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 Page 2
