by F P Adriani
So much incongruity was making my head spin, and all of the dust in the area began making me choke. Then, a moment later, the dust got sucked away from me—I felt it—a big wind pulling and collecting—the horse-thing had apparently done it, through the two, perfectly circular nostrils on its narrow green face. But it seemed the big-egg-being was instructing the big-horse-being to collect the dust: going on the way their faces/fronts were vibrating toward each other, they were having some type of conversation.
“Thanks,” I said loudly toward both of them, though I knew they probably had no idea what I was saying.
Still, I was desperate here, so I decided to take a chance. “My friend—his arm is broken and he might have a concussion.” I tried gesturing toward my left arm and toward the bend around the rocks, but neither creature seemed to notice my efforts; they were still having—whatever they were having together.
I glanced down the road yet again, in both directions, but moving along it was still too scary. I’d try another direction—after I checked on Chen again.
The two mammoth beings seemed quite enamored with each other now, so I quickly slipped away from where they were and ran back the way I’d come.
*
I was out of breath and my heart was pounding hard by the time I reached Chen again. Then my heart pounded even harder when I found him right where I left him but far too pale now and only barely conscious.
“Chen!” I cried, getting down on my knees and wildly looking around us for something I could use to help him. But there was nothing to use in this barren place.
Tears pounded behind my eyes, but my mind struggled to suppress them because shedding them would only waste the water in my body.
I remembered the blue water; quickly now, I removed my bottle, stuck the opening against Chen’s closed mouth and poured a little of the water onto there.
Chen finally woke up more, licked his lips and mumbled, “What’s goin’ on?”
“What’s going on is that you’re more badly injured than you think!”
“I’m fine…” he said, trying to sit up against the rock behind him.
But I held him down. “Don’t be stupid—what the hell are you doing?”
“Umohhh…” he moaned “…watch my arm….”
“I’m sorry!” I said nervously, glancing down at his crude sling. Then my eyes shot to my right; it was a direction I hadn’t gone in yet, but it didn’t look to contain anything except an endlessly long, flat red plain, which was where some of the creatures had disappeared down. “Shit—what the hell are we doing to do? Why isn’t anyone coming here to help us?”
“Lydia,” Chen said suddenly. But I didn’t turn back around to him till he said, “Lydia,” in an even louder voice.
When my head whipped toward him, his frightened dark eyes were staring behind me and to my left.
I spun around on my knees—and finally saw the big-egg-being standing nearby, watching us. “Oh!” I said, feeling relief wash over me. “That’s just a friend—sort of.”
“A friend?!?” Chen asked in an astonished voice. “How long have I been out—that you made friends….” His voice faded a little as if he were passing out, but when I whipped my eyes back his way, I saw that his chin was just scrunched up because he had been looking down at his sling and readjusting it.
“I wasn’t gone long,” I said to him now, jerking a thumb over my shoulder. “But that thing noticed me and made another thing notice me—it’s a weird story that I don’t feel like going into now.”
“It looks very comfortable there,” Chen said, glancing behind me.
When I looked at the golden egg again, it was resting on the ground, just like it had rested earlier. “Chen, I’ve been thinking that the road might be an entry to here, though it seems we didn’t get here that way.” I frowned heavily. “I wish I could follow it down—maybe it would lead to out of here. But I can’t see very far along it.” My eyes moved toward that long red plain again. “There seem to be weird distortions in the shape of the land here, or maybe just the heating from the sun’s doing it, as usual in many places—but how can I know which thing is responsible? We have no information and can barely communicate with anything here that might have any information.”
Frustration turned into tears in my eyes, which blurred my view of the plain even more.
“I really need some more water—or whatever it is,” Chen said.
Standing up now, I grabbed my bottle from the ground. “Take it.” I opened the top, but because I was still so upset, my hands shook and accidentally spilled a little of the blue fluid onto the ground. “Shit!” I said loudly as I handed the bottle to Chen. “Just what we need.”
“Lydia,” Chen said fast, “your friend is moving—toward us.”
I whipped around and saw what Chen meant: the egg-being was standing again, its golden body sort of rocking forward in our direction, which reminded me of its “discussion” with that odd reptile-horse.
“What—what?” I said, throwing up my hands.
The egg-being’s blue feet shuffled a little, till the legs and feet twisted around, but the golden body was still turned a bit in my and Chen’s direction.
Chen said to me now, “Does it want you to follow it?”
“Yeah, it seems like that.” My heart was galloping, but I wiped my hands against my thighs and remained where I was standing. “How do I know where the hell it will take me?”
“You don’t know,” Chen said. “But, it might be a better place than here.”
*
Chen was right: I decided to follow the golden egg and its spindly blue legs down the highway. The road had grown very quiet anyway, with only a rare crazy animal running down the highway’s length, which was the same direction the egg now took me.
The landscape in this area didn’t look any different from the area where Chen and I had been staying, but the air here seemed to be colder—or maybe that was the night coming in: the sun was no longer high in the sky.
The egg and I walked for quite a long while now, but I began tiring of the same-old view—and I began worrying about Chen more.
“Where are you taking me?” I finally shouted at the golden egg. But it didn’t seem to notice me. Had it forgotten my existence the way all the other beings here tended to forget me? Maybe I had followed the egg for nothing!
I felt like screaming, but I decided to remain with the being for a little longer; then I would hightail it back in the other direction….
The egg finally slowed down, and I spotted something different in the distance—it stuck out of the landscape because it was such a bright clear blue.
I began running now; I had a good feeling…which totally paid off because when I reached the enormous blue area, I realized it was a watering hole—which “water” looked exactly like the bottled blue stuff The Keepers had given to me and my crew.
A myriad of colorful lifeforms filled the area around the waterway—including the lifeforms I’d been watching running by all day. I spotted a relatively empty area along the edge of the watering hole; I ran there and stuck my right hand in the water. When I lifted my wet fingers and took a sniff, the water smelled the same as the bottled water. Should I risk it? I had no choice. Right now, Chen needed water even more than I did, so I had to test it on me….
I took a lick of the liquid off my palm—and still noticed nothing different.
I sighed in relief, hoped for the best, and quickly filled my bottle all the way up.
As I drank, I stared around me; the golden egg had parked itself pretty close to me on the watering hole’s edge. And I realized then that the egg did have other body parts, including a mouth: it had been retracted or hidden on the bottom of its body, but now an enormous, blue, tongue-like appendage projected out and down off the golden skin and lapped at the blue waterway below.
If I wasn’t so frightened and tired and confused still, I would have loved to stay here for the rest of the day and night, so I could watch all
the wacky lifeforms drink and bathe and play. But, that “night” word was the problem: the sky was getting progressively darker.
I refilled my bottle; then I straightened up and began walking back the way the egg had brought me. When I passed behind it, I hesitated, wondering if it wanted to come with me. But it was still busy drinking, and, considering how much fluid it would need to fill its enormous body, it would probably be here for a lot longer than I could stay.
*
I walked back quite fast toward where Chen was; the highway was almost totally empty now. I saw only one other being rushing down it as I neared that familiar area of big rocks, but the being was smaller than I, so I was able to easily avoid it.
As I approached where I’d left Chen, I lifted my bottle high and shook it. “I found more of that water, Chen!”
“Great,” he said, trying to smile—and “trying” because the motion didn’t exactly work. Normally he had a great open smile, but pain was still evident in his face now, which tightened his motion.
And now I felt my face deflate. Finding more water had seemed like a big victory, but it really wasn’t a win in any war for survival here; the water was just a small battle won.
“How are you doing?” I asked Chen as I quickly knelt down to him and handed my bottle to his good arm.
“I’m hanging in there…but hasn’t it gotten a lot colder as it’s gotten darker?”
He was right. Before, I didn’t want to think about the temperature change that much, but now I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The orange suits were all we had for warmth. So far, we’d only been in warm spaces while wearing them; I had no idea what they would do for us in cold spaces….
Chen had been drinking from the bottle, but now he pulled it away from his mouth to say, “Look who’s back?”
I didn’t need to turn around to know who he meant, but I turned around anyway and immediately saw that the egg looked different now against the darkening landscape: there was a yellow glow around its body, almost as if it had a light source inside.
The four blue eyes seemed to be fixed on me and Chen, and the two legs were moving quite slowly as the being came closer, which was still scary because the egg was so large. Both Chen and I flinched, and Chen tried to get up, apparently afraid of being crushed against the rocks. But the egg suddenly slowed even more, its legs bending a lot as it moved, till it was practically crawling.
It finally stopped several feet from us, and when it did, I felt something new coming from the egg: a flowing warmth.
I couldn’t help smiling. “Now ain’t that something: being warmed by an egg.”
I heard Chen’s light laugh, and when I turned around, I saw that he had finally managed a smile through his pain.
*
The night fully came and the golden egg wound up being the only source of light around. Its light did grow dimmer, maybe because it had fallen asleep: its eyes had lost their luster and they just stared in my direction now. Though I hoped the loss of luster wasn’t because of death….
I didn’t like to think of that word; I was still so worried about Chen. We were both lying on the ground beside each other, within the warmth of the golden egg, which heat bounced off the rocks and came back our way again.
But, when I tried moving from that small area, it was freezing cold outside. I’d been needing to pee for hours, and I didn’t want to do it in front of Chen.
He finally fell asleep, which sleep he needed, but it still made me nervous because maybe he wouldn’t wake up again….
I moved toward where the edge of the warmth seemed to be; then I unsnapped the connectors on the hips of my worksuit, pulled down the pants and underwear, and squatted over the earth. My face felt flushed: I hoped all evidence of my piss would be gone soon, so Chen would never notice it.
I knew I was being stupid; I had bigger problems: Chen and I still had some of my crackers left, but then what? The watering hole was nice, but I’d still seen no plants around. Maybe there were some plants in an area I hadn’t seen yet, but I despaired that maybe the other animals here didn’t need food to gain nutrients, so this planet hadn’t been equipped with any plants to eat. The animals here seemed to be peaceful and nonviolent; I knew some species in the universe could indeed absorb nutrients directly from soils and atmospheres, and even from space….
I sighed as I stood up; a cold gust of air hit my bare ass, making me spastically shiver. I whipped up my pants and closed my suit, then rushed back to where Chen was.
I hovered over him for a moment, placing my hand above but not quite onto his slightly open mouth, and feeling a rush of relief as his sleeping breaths touched my skin.
When I finally pulled away from him, I fell back onto the ground—and almost immediately fell asleep.
*
Once again, I woke to heat on my face. This time, I immediately sat up; I exhaled in relief when I saw Chen was sitting up too, his good arm sticking cracker-bits into his mouth.
He lowered his head in a little rueful motion. “Sorry, I had to take them from your stash—I’m starving.”
“Don’t apologize. You need it more than I do.” No matter that I’d said that, I knew I wasn’t being realistic: I felt lightheaded, and I suspected the heat wasn’t the only thing responsible.
My head turned to look around me, but I couldn’t locate the golden being. “When did the big egg go?”
Chen shrugged and shook his head. “Dunno. It was gone when I woke up.”
“Have you seen any entertainment along the highway?”
“Actually, no. It’s been quiet. I wish it wasn’t so hot though. It seems hotter than yesterday.”
I looked right at him. “Do you think you’re up to walking? We could go to the watering hole. We’re probably both dehydrated. We really should go.”
Chen quickly ate the last of the cracker bits in his hand. “I agree. I’ll be fine.” He started to rise, but I grabbed at him to help him. “This feels strange,” he said. I frowned in confusion and glanced at his face. “We’ve never been in a position like this. I feel bad that you’ve got to nurse me here. It doesn’t seem right, Lydia—Captain.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please don’t worry about who I am and who you are. I know you’d do the exact same thing for me.”
He nodded at me fast, and I patted him on the back as he finally stood.
*
When we got to the watering hole, it was as busy as the day before. It seemed the highway had been quiet today because the heat was keeping all of the lifeforms around this area.
As soon as Chen and I reached the waterway’s edge, I bent over and stuck my whole head inside the cool blue liquid; then I helped Chen do the same. When I lifted him back up, we sat down on the ground near the water.
Our wet heads dripped blue down our necks and into our worksuits. And my long hair held even more water than his short hair. As I spoke now, my fingers kept trying—in vain—to keep my hair out of the neck of my suit. “When you have access to the basics all the time, you don’t appreciate how damn much they matter. I wish I had a towel.”
“I definitely know what you mean,” Chen said. “My arm doesn’t feel as comfortable anymore—I think I need to adjust the sling. Could you help me, Lydia?”
“Of course!” I moved closer to him—and watched him grit his teeth at the pain I was causing him even by just gently pushing the sling along his arm to a different spot. His arm still looked really bad: it was just as swollen and the bruising had darkened, though that tended to happen with bruises. “I wish I knew medicine. That temporary crewmember—Nellie—she used to be a medic. I wonder where they all are now.”
“I’ve been trying not to wonder,” Chen said in a grim voice.
I looked at his face, saw his twisted expression. Getting close to people and losing them was a particular problem of Chen’s: his younger brother had died of an illness when Chen was ten, and then when Chen was twenty, both of his parents died in an accident while on a Space Force
mission. Chen had already been living on his own by then, but that hadn’t made the loss hurt any less; he had been close to his parents. And now there was his marriage to May….
I was still looking at him. I sat up straighter suddenly and said in a firmer voice, “I’m going to get us out of this.”
His dark eyes snapped right to my eyes. “How, Captain?”
“I…I don’t know,” I said, instantly hunching back down, in defeat. “It’s so frustrating and, again, it’s all because of that damn stone. It’s still there in my pocket. I feel like it’s mocking me.”
Chen sighed, his good hand gesturing toward the water. “Maybe we should drink up, then fill our bottles and go back to—to whatever it is we have there. If we wait there, maybe someone will come pick us up.”
*
No one came to pick us up.
Chen slept, and I paced; then I took a long walk down the red plain—where I finally located a large copse of trees with strange red fruits. They were covered with spiny, pinchy hairs, but, thanks to a sharp pebble I found on the ground, I was able to cut open one of the fruits—the juice that shot out was an icky, rusty yellow color, and I almost threw the fruit on the ground.
My good sense got the better of my limbs: I lifted the fruit to my nose and took a whiff. As far as I could tell, it didn’t smell rotten; then again, it didn’t smell good either. Then again again, I had no choice but to try eating it.
When I finally got back to where Chen was, he was still sleeping. A jolt of nervousness shot through me at seeing him lying there on the ground, but it really did just seem to be the heat making him sleepy, because I also felt sleepy now and I didn’t have a broken arm.
