by Theresa Kay
“They’re good kids,” I say.
“Yeah,” he says, studying his hands. “I listened to what you said out there. I do need to be the leader here and I’m trying. You have the knowhow. I have the loyalty of the others here. Neither one of us can do this without the other, but I can’t believe that going out in search of the signal station right this second is the best decision. And if you put aside everything else and stop to consider the reality of right now instead of worrying about what might be, you’ll see that, on this, I’m right.”
Is he? I rest my hands on my lap with my palms facing up. There’s still a subtle tremble in my fingers. Am I so stubborn that I’m willing to rush off by myself? I curl my fingers inward. “I’ll wait. Only long enough for me to recover and make a plan.”
“Thank you. I’ll call a meeting so we can discuss the plan with everyone.” He rubs one hand down my arm, stands and walks out.
I let out a long, slow breath and hop down. I don’t like it, giving in to him— giving in to anyone really— but I made the right decision. I make my way out of the supply tent and back to the one where I’d been resting before. I crawl onto the cot and pull the blanket up over myself. Exhaustion slams into me and I close my eyes. I’ll just rest for a little while. Anxiety still swirls in my head, but it’s gentler now and I calm myself by pulling up memories of the good times with my friends. They’re okay. They have to be. Because if they’re dead, I swear to God I’m going to kick their asses.
True to his word, Alex gathers everyone up about an hour later and explains that we’ll be leaving to find the signal station in a few days. Until then, he sets up a watch schedule which mostly consists of he and Brett until I speak up and offer to take my share of shifts and Kyle volunteers to join me. Alex considers it for a minute, biting his lip and glancing between Kyle and I, before agreeing to the plan. The only other watch team we’ve got is the one made up of the two big guys I’d ordered to patrol the perimeter before and considering how well that went… they won’t be the most reliable people in a true crisis and I actually prefer Kyle’s company to theirs.
The dizziness from my injury has faded until it’s nearly gone and Stasia thinks it was brought on more from the stress of being ejected from stasis than from a concussion. I haven’t mentioned the occasional black spots in my right eye or the ongoing weakness in my fingers and legs. I think it’s more of an anxiety thing anyway and I’m keeping that information to myself. I’ve always been the strong one, the decisive one, the spitfire…and now is not the time to lose my edge.
My worries have settled a little— or I’ve managed to push them far enough into the back of my mind that I’m able to ignore them— and I’m marginally comfortable walking around the camp. I’m still avoiding most of the others, but Kyle follows me pretty much everywhere, blathering on about guns and ships and Greesers. It’s almost endearing. Still, for most of the day, it’s all I can do not to snap his head off. Were my boys this irritating as teens? I don’t remember any of them being this talkative. Well, except maybe Harvey.
Much to her brother’s consternation, where Kyle goes, Liz follows. Every time we cross paths with Alex, the two teens wave and I just shrug. It’s not my fault they’re following me around and maybe some part of me enjoys the distraction. This way, I’m no longer alone with just my fears for company. By late afternoon, Liz has wandered off on an errand for Stasia and I’ve nearly reached my breaking point with the taller of my two shadows.
“D’you think that maybe you could show me some of those new blast guns they were talking about on the news when we get back? I mean, if you have the time. And…uhh… if you want to. My dad—”
I plop down on a small bench beside one of the tents and he sits beside me. “Kyle, can you please stop talking for a while. My head is killing me.” The eager look falls off his face and I sigh, rubbing one hand over my face. “Fine. I’ll take you to my training station and show you the blast guns.”
He perks right back up. “Great! The corps always has the coolest weapons, but my dad doesn’t want me joining up. He never lets me do anything.”
I cringe. If his father doesn’t want him joining up, I can’t imagine he’d be too thrilled with me dragging his son off to corps central just to show him some blast guns. “Look, if your parents have a problem—”
“Parent. It’s just me and my dad,” he says sharply and then looks away.
“I’m sorry.” I pat his shoulder. “I’ll figure out something, but I won’t go against your dad’s wishes.”
A scowl twists his lips and he crosses his arms over his chest. “It’s my life. I should get to do what I want with it. I mean, you’ve done alright in the corps. I bet you’ve done tons of awesome stuff.”
He’s not wrong. I enjoy the corps life and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself without it. But I also haven’t ever known anything else and I never had much of a choice in the matter. “I grew up corps, though. And my experience with it is not the normal one. I’ve never been sent to the front. I got into flight school. I had a few solid friends that helped get me through it. Most people don’t get breaks like that. Your dad is probably right to prevent you from joining up.” My lips curl into a sad smile. “At least you have a parent who cares, mine never much gave a damn what I did.”
“Really? That’d be cool.”
I shake my head. “No. It’s really not.”
He gives me a skeptical look but doesn’t argue. We lean back until we’re resting against the outer wall of the tent. And there’s blissful silence for a few beats before he mumbles something that I barely make out. “We’ll get out of here right?” My head jerks toward him and a blush creeps into his cheeks. He presses his lips together and blinks rapidly. “My dad’s a pain, but I miss him. I don’t want to die here and just leave him wondering… I’m all he’s got.”
Kyle’s big hazel eyes meet mine and I give him my best reassuring smile. Why did I have to be the kid magnet? There’re about a million things I should say to him, but not a single word makes it past my lips. I can’t bring myself to give him false hope, but I can’t destroy the trusting expression on his face either. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
That must be just vague enough since he smiles softly and looks back down at his hands. “Thanks,” he says.
Internally, I release a sigh of relief. I don’t know what the hell I would have told him if he’d pressed me any farther than that. His head turns as he scans the edge of the woods. In this moment, he looks so much older than he is and it surprises me that I don’t like seeing his brow furrowed and strain on his face. He’s just a kid and he doesn’t deserve any of this. All my irritation with him flees and I bump him with my shoulder to get his attention.
“Have I told you yet about the time I was on planet after boot camp and my friend Harvey decided it would be a great idea to put ziggers into our commanding officer’s bed?” I return the grin that takes over his face and clear my throat. “Well, around a year ago, a few months before I started flight school, I was stationed on Epyson and Harvey got it into his head that—”
“Liz!” Alex’s frantic voice brings Kyle and me to our feet right before he comes running around the corner. His widened eyes dart between us. “Have you seen her?”
“She went off about thirty minutes ago to bring something to Stasia in the medical tent,” I say. “What happened?”
Alex tenses his jaw and runs one hand through his hair. “She never made it there and no one knows where she is.” He clenches his hands into fists at his side. “I can’t find her…what if…” His gaze roves over the woods.
I step forward and pull his face to look at me. “We’ll find her. She’s probably taking a nap or something. It’s going to be—”
“Alex!” Brett jogs up from behind the tents, pale and out of breath. “Jenson found a pile of bandages discarded by the tree line…and this too…” He holds out a hand to show the jagged piece of purple fabric resting in his palm. The same
color Liz was wearing this morning. “Something must have taken her,” he says in a hoarse voice.
Chapter 8
Alex doesn’t even need to ask. He simply sends me a plaintive look, the worry for his sister clear in his eyes, and I nod. I give a few quick instructions, tell Alex to meet me at the tree line, and then run off to grab some supplies.
Two full backpacks later, I return. Looks like Alex managed to wrangle up a few others to help. Stasia and Paul are waiting by the tree line, two more backpacks sitting on the ground by their feet. I am, however, a little surprised when I pass the last tent and see Kyle waiting just on the other side of it with his blast gun pointed into the woods.
Can’t complain. The kid knows how to shoot. Good to know I won’t be the only one with some form of training out there. I approach the small group with a hesitant smile in place. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask Stasia why she’s going with us, but Alex comes running up before I have a chance.
I gesture for everyone to follow me as I walk along the edge of the woods. “Okay then. Looks like whatever it was entered the camp here and maybe pulled something along behind it when it left.” Looking up, I study the trees trunks. “It doesn’t look like it came from the trees like the last…thing…we encountered, but keep your eyes up just the same. I’ll walk in front. Paul, you bring up the rear and we’ll hike until the sun sets before setting up camp. That doesn’t give us a lot of time so I need you all to follow my instructions and to keep up the pace. Let’s go.” Without another word, we head out.
It’s clearly not a corps unit. We sound like a herd of animals moving through the brush and only three of us are armed, but it will have to do.
Deeper in the woods, the insects become more obvious. Tiny gnats buzz around our heads and other animals call out from the treetops. Hopefully just birds.
Alex ends up stomping along behind me and running into all the spider webs that miss me. It’s after he sputters and spits through what must have been a rather nasty one, that he finally breaks the silence of the group. “Does someone else want to walk up here for a while? Normally the leader would be the one taking out all these stupid webs, but Eva’s too short and I’ve hit every damn one since we left.”
“That’s quite the sticky situation you have there, Al,” says Paul.
“Oh shut up,” says Alex.
Kyle giggles, a strained noise but enough that his mirth travels on down the line until everyone is chuckling, even me. The shared laughter helps to relieve some of the tension, but the undercurrent of fear for Liz remains, driving us forward in a silent march.
As the hour wears on and as the trail gets harder and harder to follow, I decide that whatever took the kid is not simply an animal. Which, in my book, is a good thing. What’s better is that we’re headed directly toward where the signal station should be and, even more than getting Liz back, that’s what I want. Right?
Whatever it is probably isn’t looking to eat her and in the spots where I’ve come across her footprints, it doesn’t look like she’s struggling. Must be cute and cuddly or something because Liz seems more to be following it at this point. It’s doubled back a few times and made other attempts to cover its tracks. I can tell it’s bipedal but I doubt it’s human. It could be some type of large ape-like creature. Something with just enough of a brain to lead us on this chase, but not quite enough to lose me.
The signs are small. A broken branch here. A scuff mark there. But I’m able to follow the trail right up until we break out of the trees and into another roundish clearing a few hours later. As I expected, it’s very similar to the one we have the camp set up in. If nothing else, terraforming patterns are fairly predictable.
Walking around the perimeter, I carefully search for the next leg of Liz’s journey. It takes me two trips around before I finally find the small patch of trampled grass. The sun is much lower in the sky than when we started and it won’t be long before it’s too dark to track anything. Hopefully, whatever it was that took Liz won’t be interested in traveling in the dark either. I gesture for the others to follow and head back into the woods.
Clouds roll in and cold rain starts pouring down on our heads. Not much to do about it, though. The storm only lasts a couple minutes, but it leaves the entire party drenched. Our boots squish and squelch along in the mud. Any levity has left the group, but no one’s complaining yet, so I just keep leading the way.
Another two hours later, the sun is reaching the last stages of its descent. I keep my eye out for a suitable place to camp and am happy to locate a suitable spot quickly It’s a small space under an overhanging rock, big enough to provide shelter without being too cave-like. I learned my lesson back in boot camp about rummaging around for shelter in unknown caves. Plus, it gets bonus points for providing an overhead barrier so we won’t be surprised by any visitors from the treetops.
No matter how I say it, this isn’t going to go over well. I toss my backpack to the ground. “We’ll camp here for the night.”
“Camp?” Alex glances around with a startled look. “We can’t stop. We have to get Liz.”
“It won’t do her any good for us to go bumbling around in the dark. I can’t track with no light and we need rest anyway.” I sit down and rest back against a rock. Defiance is taking over his features and I’m not interested in yet another argument with the guy. Especially in a situation like this where I have tons more experience than he does and he practically begged me to help. “If it wanted to hurt her, it would have done so already. At this point, she’s been walking on her own for a while. She’s obviously not too afraid of whatever it is or she wouldn’t be following it. We’ll catch up in the morning. You’re going to have to trust me on this.”
Alex’s eyes narrow and he takes a loud breath in through his nose. “Why didn’t you say anything about Liz being safe before now? How the hell do you even—”
“I didn’t say she was safe. I just said whatever it is hasn’t hurt her and I don’t think it will. She’s still out there in these woods somewhere and I highly doubt she has any idea how to get back to camp.”
Kyle glances back and forth between us before meeting my eyes and dropping his pack beside mine. “She knows what she’s doing,” he says.
The two others follow suit while Alex just gets tenser and redder. I rub my hand over my face and meet his eyes. The storm brewing there is not going to be swayed, so I stay silent.
His gaze darts to the others, getting narrower with each person until he’s back to glaring at me. “This is stupid. I’m not just going to sit around here while my little sister is out there.”
“If you think you can do a better job, feel free.” I rise to my feet and step forward. “But remember what you said to me when I wanted to run off half cocked. It wasn’t the best decision for me and it’s certainly not the best one for you. You don’t know anything about surviving out here. Or tracking. Or the pitfalls to expect with this version of terraforming. Hell, you didn’t even know this planet was terraformed until I told you about it.”
He pulls his shoulders back and his jaw tenses. “I know enough to go find my sister.”
“And if you get lost in the process? Or hurt? What then?” I point to the right. “Which way would you go? This way?” I fling my arm out to the left. “Or that one? Do you know what the change in the tree line over there signifies?”
His lips press into a white line and he doesn’t respond.
Who is this guy to debate with me when he’s the one who argued against me leaving the camp to find the signal station? My voice comes barreling out of my mouth, stress and irritation bringing the volume up until I’m yelling. “That,” I jerk my finger toward a stand of trees in the direction of the setting sun, “means we’re about to change regions. Less than a mile from here, it will start transitioning into a marsh area. One of the most dangerous regions in terraforming even when it’s light out and you want to go tromping through there in the dark?”
He tilts his head
to the side. “If it’s the way my sister went then, yeah, I do.” He spins around and stomps off in the direction I just indicated.
My mouth drops and it takes a moment for me to gather my thoughts enough to go after him. I wasn’t kidding about the marshland and the stubborn asshole is going to get himself killed.
Kyle starts to follow, but I jam my finger under his nose. “Stay. Here.” He slinks back and I turn to Stasia and Paul. “It’s dangerous. Stay. Put.” They nod and I turn back toward Alex’s quickly disappearing form. Stupid fool is moving so fast he can’t possibly be paying any attention to where he’s going. I run after him.
His legs are much longer than mine so I have a hard time catching up since I have to wade through the gradually denser undergrowth. And then there’s the fact that the black spots in my right eye are growing with the exertion and the dizziness is starting to return. I curse him with each step and press on. If this bozo gets me killed I’m going to—There’s a loud cry from ahead and I speed my steps until I’ve finally overtaken him.
I find Alex calf deep in a squishy, smelly mess and sinking faster each time he attempts to pull his feet out. Leaning back against a tree, I cross my arms over my chest and raise an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to get out of it like that.”
“Shut up.” He grabs at his thigh and tries to yank his leg up, ending up slightly crooked with his other leg now stuck up to the knee. Thrashing around only makes him sink deeper.
“Stop struggling. You’re only making it worse.”
He scowls. “How do you figure?”
