by Amanda Boone
His heart pounded against his chest and a hot, earsplitting whine cut through the air. A hysterical laugh leapt out of his mouth because right in the distance, on the edge of the monitor sat the first real mass of land he had seen in months.
No sooner had he reveled in this sight than he feel the pull. The craft lurched from under him, dragging him straight down. A sinking feeling gripped his gut, wrenching it out through his legs.
His strong hands began to tremble, the wheel violently shaking back and forth within his grip. He had to get a hold of it, and quick.
He flipped a switch, cutting the exhaust and the engine before lifting the craft out of free fall. Dry air cut at his nostrils. The screech of the craft begged for mercy as the plummet turned into a dive
Dust rose all around, the space craft breaking apart piece by piece to reveal the new planet—a place he had only ever studied every once and a while and from afar. Earth, a faint whisper that had suddenly become the face of the future.
***
Sarah shuffled through the thick woods, her boot-clad feet slamming one step in front of the other. She hadn’t had a sip to drink or a bite to eat in over four hours, but she couldn’t stop now.
Her heart thudded in her chest, her olive skin slick with sweat, her eyes red and swollen with tears. She had been hiking for the better part of the day and still could not figure out if she was running towards something or away from it. Her long, auburn hair stuck to the back of her neck and her shoulders. She reached up to push it out of her face, but as her arm fell back onto her side. A tree toppled; the ground shook.
A gasp slipped from between her plump lips. She stopped. A cloud of dust and dirt puffed into the air before her, but she just stupidly stared, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. She clenched her fist and her jaw and summoned from within her the very thing that ripped her apart from herself and everyone else. She lifted the tree without touching it, the crack of wood breaking and new roots forming filling the air. It stood tall and strong as if nothing had happened.
Sarah turned back around and forged on through the forest. Her legs burnt from the strain and the incline only got worse but she kept up with it. Weeds sprouted from the slick mud. The energy fall out of her like water out of a glass.
She felt herself arrive. With one glance up, she knew this is how she wanted to spend the rest of her days. A light clearing in the forest emerged, just large enough for a tent, but not large enough to draw attention. A University had set up a preservation center just two miles east and she didn’t want them to find her on accident. She didn’t want to be drawn into their plans, or questioned about her presence.
She just wanted to be alone.
***
Coel had been so preoccupied with his arrangements that he hadn’t eaten since the landing. He needed nutrients and fast. All that he had read about planet Earth had sent him on a wild hunt for something called a deer. A small calculation told him the animal would last him four days. He had already engineered his own fridge from rewiring some of the circuits in his old ship.
He crouched behind a tree, a homemade bow and arrow resting on his lap. He could hear it from at least five hundred feet away. It trotted through the woods, completely unsuspecting.
He shot up and pointed the weapon all in one movement. His finger flexed, the arrow ready to be released, but then—
His breath stopped halfway up his throat and his eyes flashed wide. He couldn’t believe what he stared at: a woman with long auburn hair, olive skin, but eyes the color of sapphires… Kaharan eyes.
He could hardly move being so transfixed with her: she, who had her arms wrapped around what should have been his dinner.
This saintly creature tilted her head, her cheek pressed against the side of the deer’s nose. Sweet song drifted from her pink lips, leaking into the air around her. She lifted her head, glancing up at Coel before he had a chance to realize that he had been exposed.
He dropped the bow and darted behind the cover of a hefty tree trunk, swiping a bead of nervous sweat off of his dark green forehead. He internally kicked himself for not engineering his disguise sooner. He didn’t know who this woman could be… but she had undoubtedly seen him.
***
Sarah couldn’t have been sure of what she had seen. Her eyes flashed open to the quiet darkness of the inside of her tent. The black air pressed down on her like a cold blanket. She flipped her flashlight on and slipped the small canvas out of her backpack.
Her hands moved, guided by the vision in her head of that strange creature she couldn’t have even been sure that she had seen. When he gazed at her with those emerald eyes, she had never felt more transfixed. His stare wrapped her in its hold as her fingers flickered across the page.
A thin tear slipped down her cheek as she tried to convince herself that this godlike being could not have been real.
Chapter Two
After three days, Sarah couldn’t resist the curiosity bubbling in the pit of her belly of that preservation sight. She slipped on two pairs of socks and her favorite parka, then took the short trek to the excavation site, a hidden city that had just been uncovered 50 feet underground.
She stood on the ledge, watching the University researchers and assistants bustle around amongst the ruins. The sight of all of that faded rock, the evidence of a whole lost people being rediscovered like new, filled her with a sense of purpose that set her insides on fire. She scanned the small cell below her, filled with people rushing around, and found a set of temporary stairs just half way around the ellipses. But when she took her first step, she felt something grip her arm.
“I apologize if I startled you.”
She hadn’t even flinched.
“That’s quite all right,” she said as she gazed up at the man nearly six and half feet tall. His eyes drew her in, sharp and emerald. She swore she had seen them before.
His wide shoulders lifted in an exaggerated shrug as he looked out on the site. “Came across this place on accident.”
Sarah nodded. She struggled to think over the sound of her heart pounding. Her eyes watered because she couldn’t understand the sensations happening inside of her. She could feel the ebb and flow of water rushing up the tiny tunnels inside of the shrubs around her, but she couldn’t make sense of the fluttering in her own stomach. “Me too. I was, um… hiking.”
He nodded. “I just love these mountains.”
Sarah furrowed her brow. The sentence sounded like he had been carefully crafted. “I come here to get away from everything.”
“Are you from around here?” He asked, his voice as smooth as silk.
She shook her head, her eyes glued to the activities in front of them. She feared if she glanced at him, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to look away. “No. I’m from New York. I came out here after the—”
She stopped herself. She could hardly think the words, let alone say them out loud to a complete stranger.
She felt him glance down at her, that calculating stare reaching deep down into her. “After what?”
“Have you ever thought of volunteering?” She asked, struggling to change the subject.
They both glanced back out into the clearing. “Precisely why I’m here,” He said.
“Are you from the University?”
“No, I live around here.”
Sarah raised a brow. She hadn’t felt a disturbance on her way up. The woods were seamless, virgin. This huge research site was the first sign of an apex she’d noticed since she got off the plane. “Where?”
“West?” He made a vague gesture to his right.
“And you’re just hiking.”
He looked past her. “This site strikes me. I read about it somewhere.”
Sarah’s eyes flashed wide. “Tell me what you know.”
He stepped away from the ledge and deeper back into the shrub.
She subconsciously followed.
“It’s an ancient city built by a group of… well, they disapp
eared.”
Sarah pressed her palm against the trunk of a tree to steady herself, but as the bark began to rearrange itself with her touch, she drew her hand away. She found it difficult to hide herself from him and yet, at the same time, a small part of her didn’t want to try. “What do you mean? Disappeared?”
He shrugged as if it were the most nonchalant thing on the planet. “People have their theories.”
“Tell me yours,” Sarah said, taking a deliberate step towards him. She wanted to see exactly how he would respond.
He opened his mouth once, but then shut it. Again. And again.
Sarah shifted her feet.
“It is said that they were a mystical people,” He stepped towards her.
Sarah took a waft of his scent, something like sweet metal. She felt it trickle down into her, settling in the pit of her stomach and radiating out to all of her extremities. “How mystical?”
“No one can trace their lineages, geographical or other wise to an origin. It’s like they simply appeared here. They were physical spectacles of the time: large, just as large as the average human today, which is strange considering the fact that they were ancient.”
Sarah found herself leaning into him, her whole body, from her cells upward, drawn to his presence. “So what happened to them?”
“No one knows.”
She could have been in a steam bath, she felt so warm. Goosebumps sprouted onto her skin, that sinking feeling pulling her out from under. “How tragic—.”
“Who are you?”
Sarah shook her head, jarred by this sudden change in subject. They had been discussing an ancient people and now, somehow, she had become more intriguing to him.
He stared at her with eyes wide, crazed almost.
She couldn’t decide whether to be excited or afraid.
“I’m Sarah Martin. A painter…”
He gave a short nod, his hooded eyes trained right at her. “Coel. Archeologist.”
***
Coel barged into his raider, shutting the door behind him. He sat down on his makeshift cot, slipping his boots off all in one fluid motion. He swiped his notebook off of the side table and started furiously writing. The ruins were exactly what he had come to earth looking for… but they were nothing more than just that: ruins. And only Sarah had led him to them.
It’s true. A human woman had managed to derail Coel so far off that he had spent the better part of his first full day of research following her around. And yet, as much as he wanted to berate himself for it, he couldn’t deny that thing inside of her begging to be explored.
Those sapphire eyes. What human that ever existed possessed such? He noticed the way that the entire forest seemed to bend to her movements. Trees swayed back and forth when not a gust of wind blew. She possessed something of his home planet. She might have just been the Kaharan he had searched for all along. He mapped out an elaborate plan to study her and her world, determined to complete his mission, even if it meant using her.
***
Sarah positioned her camera so that it would grab an image of her from her shoulders up, then perched herself in front of it. A short laugh leapt out of her mouth. Every time she did this, she felt as if she walked the line between feeling completely foolish and insanely important. These were her final days. This was her chance to decide how she wanted to be remembered. She cleared her throat and began.
“I found something interesting today…I was looking for a place to move my camping grounds when I ran into this huge ruin. I mean, it was amazing! There were a bunch of researchers running around cleaning off what looked like old stone walls. It was a maze of stuff. I don’t know. I’ve just never been this excited about anything.
“And then there was the best part. The man. We ran into each other while I watched the researchers… strange... He made me forget about the cancer... I dreamt about him once, which doesn’t make any sense because I just met him today. Coel. I already miss the sound of his voice. I want to hear it again as soon as possible.
“But even as I say this now, I know that one day soon, I won’t be able to hear his voice. I won’t hear anyone’s voice. I won’t be able to paint, or drive or read. I won’t be anything.
One day soon. I’ll be dead.”
Her voice broke at the end of that last word.
Chapter Three
Coel had reached a dead end with his research. It didn’t take him long to realize that the excavation would hinder his attempt to study the ruin and the hopes of being able to trace any of the remaining Kaharans. He had his disguise, but that could only do so much. He couldn’t justify taking any samples to his raider for testing without drawing attention to himself and the human research facilities at the excavation site were barbaric and outdated, like using a radio, or one of those Morse code machines.
But Sarah had become a real lead. Even though he hadn’t made out just who and what exactly she was, their week of light banter and quiet adventure had convinced him that she was hiding something, something more than human. He sat on the edge of an oversized rock and watched her work. An easel had been erected in front of her. Her bun of auburn hair bobbed up and down as her gaze shifted from Coel to the painting. A giggle drifted from her lips.
“What?” Coel asked. He had become pleasantly accustomed to the sound.
“You’re so still,” She said, swiping a stray lock of hair out of her face.
Coel furrowed his brow, his lips folding into a smile. “Isn’t that how I’m supposed to be?”
He shook his head as he said this, a completely unrelated gesture. He should have been taking note of her mannerisms, recording any disturbances in the organic matter around her, but her eyes, her plump lips, that sharp furrow of concentration in her brow had veered him off course yet again. He struggled with the balance, following his only hope without letting her derail him.
She smiled, the gesture lighting up her entire face. It was an overcast day, but one could hardly tell by looking at her. “No. I told you, I just needed you there so I could contrast the colors right. You can move around as much as you want.
Coel nodded, but remained still anyway, too transfixed by her to mimic a normal human range of motion.
***
I need to tell him.
Sarah could not get the thought out of her mind. How absurd, the idea of telling someone she had just met that she would die before Christmas. And yet, how could she not? How could she go on staring at him over that canvas through eyes always seconds away from tears? She wanted him to know.
She tired of being the only one burdened with the information, tired of being forced to pretend that maybe one day she might be willing to take him back to her apartment in New York, the one she sold because she knew she had planned to live out her days as far away from human sympathy as possible.
“What is it?” Coel asked.
The sharp question demanded answer.
“How did you even know something was wrong?”
Coel hopped off of the rock and approached her. “You look frightened.”
Sarah gazed up at him, her eyes wide and expecting. For every step he took, she wished he would take another. “I’m just thinking.”
A knowing smile stretched across his face. “You’re a good liar.”
Sarah tried not to make a show out of taking a whiff of his scent. “And you’ve got a lot of confidence.”
“You’re easy to understand.”
Sarah flinched at this sharp statement she had become accustomed to hearing from him. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
He blinked. “I—.” His eyes went wide, “Forgive me.” He bowed his head.
Sarah shook her head at the warring combination of confusion and brilliance so inherent in Coel’s every word. She went out on a limb and placed her palm on his cheek. “It’s okay.”
He wrapped his hand around her wrist, meeting her gaze. “It’s just that I feel like I know you.”
All at once, Sarah wanted to
vomit and hug him. She couldn’t bear the all-consuming pressure to tell him. So, she ripped her hand away from him and turned her attention to the canvas in front of her. “I have cancer.” The words leapt out of her mouth almost of their own accord.
She glanced back at him to find him staring at her with an even gaze, as if she had never said a thing.
So, she tried again. “I’m going to die soon.”
He narrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
A lump lodged itself in Sarah’s throat at the question she had already asked herself so many times before. What did she mean? What did the Universe mean? How could she be dying? She had mere months left and she still couldn’t be sure if she understood herself. “I have liver cancer. It got really bad, so… so now this means that I have to die.”
A fat raindrop plopped itself on her cheek.
“Why don’t you just go to a healer?”
Sarah cocked her head to the side. “A healer?”
He shook his head. “A doctor, I mean.”
She could almost laugh at his undue naivety. “I did. That’s how I know.”
His dark stare grew even darker. He set his jaw as he hunched over, staring right at her, his bushy brows having collided on his face. “Unacceptable. How can a doctor just leave you out here to die?”
Sarah pursed her lips, wondering if this had all been worth it in the first place. She felt selfish for burdening him with her own dredged up tragedy. “He didn’t leave me out here—.”
But she could see that something had begun to bubble up in Coel’s gut. His hands clenched into fists on either side of him and his chest swelled with his every breath. “I will not accept this.”
Sarah pressed her palm onto his chest. “Coel, calm down.”
But he wrapped his hand around her hand, squeezing far too tightly for comfort.
She winced. “Ouch. Coel, you’re hurting me.”
“You have to demand treatment!”
Sarah ripped her hand out of his grip, shaking it to drive away the ache. “There is no treatment for me!” She said with a heavy voice. For all the thinking and adjusting she had done, she still had not come to terms with it.
