Chapter 2
two
. . .
Emily
“She’s got a pulse.”
“Oh thank God. Emily, can you hear me?”
Something tapped my forehead, and I shook my head, trying to brush it off, but the tapping followed. I lifted my arm to knock it away. Bennet knew waking me up wouldn’t get him breakfast any sooner.
“Come on, Emily, no sleeping through the fun.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Ground control to Major Emily. Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
I tried to inhale but choked instead, and someone forced me onto my side as I vomited up what felt like Jell-O.
I groaned and tried to roll over, but instead of being twisted up in blankets, it felt like fighting through mud. My head pounded worse than a hangover, and I just wanted the lights to turn off.
The voice came back with whispered intensity. “Listen here, Emily, you don’t get to die on me. You have to help me figure out how to keep these women alive out here because I refuse to be the leader of this nightmare.”
Slowly, so slowly, I cracked one eye open. Pink. A pink tracksuit and determined eyes filled my vision. Everything came back to me in a rush, and I carefully closed my eyes.
“Count me out, fearless leader. I think I choose death,” I said.
“Oh no, you don’t. Come on. Sit up.”
“Ouch.” I felt bruised all over, but that didn’t stop Jen from putting an arm under me and forcing me into a sitting position. The girl was strong, or at least very determined.
“Anything broken?” she asked.
“I don’t know, everything is spinning.”
“You’ll be okay.” She patted my shoulder and moved away.
Wincing, I forced myself to look at where we had landed. It was all dark and light blobs of purple and blue. I rubbed my eyes but almost gagged at the thick goo covering every part of me.
“Here, use this,” someone, Harper maybe, said and handed me a bundle of leafy fronds.
I carefully used them to remove as much goo from my face as I could before they were hopelessly coated.
I blinked again, and this time the world was a little clearer.
We were in a forest. Tall, dark trunks surrounded us, rising impossibly far into the air, with a dense canopy sheltering us from the sky.
But everything seemed a little off. Could the goo be affecting my vision?
The bark of the trees seemed deep indigo, and the canopy was definitely a purply blue.
The trees were thick and all-encompassing, but the crash path of our pod left a clear trail of broken branches, destroyed trunks, and scarred earth, revealing a pastel purple sky.
Right. Alien world.
The escape pod we crashed in was behind me, cracked open like an egg, the goo and us women splattered out across the forest floor. Everyone seemed reasonably okay, if not disoriented and bruised. Jen and Cassy bent over Willow, whose face was screwed up in pain.
“This is going to hurt, okay?” Cassy said. Willow nodded, and then with a quick motion Cassy and Jen tugged hard on Willow’s leg. Willow let out a deep, guttural scream that ended in a shuddering inhale.
“I think it’s straight now. Just rest, okay?” Cassy said.
Jen turned from Willow and wiped the grimace off her face as she observed the others. We made eye contact and I offered her a small smile. She nodded and straightened her face smoothing back into that determined look I was learning to expect from her.
“Okay, ladies. Water, food, and shelter. Those are our priorities, but water above all else. We won’t last long out here unless we find it.
” She glanced around. “Let’s use the pod’s crash trail as our north point.
” She pointed 90-degrees clockwise. “That makes that east, south, and west. Anyone who can walk, pair up and we’ll scout for water, okay?
Break branches or leave torn ferns in your path so you can find your way back.
Harper, you’re with me. We’ll head east. Who’s going north? ”
There was a long silence. Jen met my eyes with something that looked like pleading.
“I will,” I called. “Who wants to be my buddy?” I looked around, and Cindy caught my eye. She nodded. “Okay, Cindy and I will go north.”
“Bonny and I will go south,” Olive said after a tense moment.
“I can go west,” Morgan said softly.
“I’ll join you,” Sarah said.
“What should we do?” Isabel asked.
“Cassy, since you have medical training, how about you stay with Willow, and everyone else can scout this area for anything of interest? Someone should probably dig through the pod just to make sure there aren’t any hidden compartments with supplies.”
They talked for a little while longer but slowly broke up and headed off to their tasks.
I took a few minutes to stretch and make sure nothing was actually hurt, but other than some definite bruises, I felt okay.
Cindy came over and I stood, a little shaky at first, but it felt like walking would help.
My headache was a firm presence, but the sharp throb had eased, and it wouldn’t be any more of a bother than my other aches.
“So how should we mark our path? Maybe breaking the ferns?” Cindy asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe we find walking sticks and drag them? Let’s try it and see if it’s clear enough.”
Leaving the goo spill from the escape pod, we hunted around for decent branches.
I found one and worked on breaking off smaller twigs, using them to wipe more of the goo off myself.
Cindy was still working on her branch, so I took a few moments to wring as much goo out of my hair as possible.
The stuff had gotten everywhere: in my ears, nostrils, even inside my pockets.
Once I started trying to remove some of it, it felt like it multiplied.
I pulled off my zippie and wrung it out before draping it over a branch where I could find it later.
It was warm enough for now. I thought about taking off my shirt and wiping myself down, but Cindy finished with her branch and watched me expectantly.
I shrugged, and we set off along the crash path.
Once we reached where the damage to the ground ended, we tested out a few techniques. Dragging our sticks, while a little awkward, left a clear enough trail that we didn’t think we would get lost. We set off with a little more confidence, picking a not very straight path through the trees.
The forest was quite lovely. It was warm, but not humid, and the plant life was both familiar and very alien.
Ferns in every shade of blue and purple, with the occasional green or yellow flower, covered the forest floor.
The trees’ rough bark, similar to a redwood apart from the indigo color, was adorned with patches of mauve moss and delicate climbing plants.
Chirps and squeaks from small, fluttering birds accompanied the constant susurrus of the trees slowly moving above us.
“So, do you think there’s any chance of us surviving this, like, really?” Cindy asked, breaking the small sense of peace the beauty of the forest had begun to wrap me in.
“I don’t know, but does it matter? We have to act as if we will survive. If we don’t at least pretend like we have a chance, then we won’t.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right. I’ll just focus on manifesting a hunky alien man to rescue me.”
“Now that’s the spirit,” I told her. “The forest looks lighter over there. Let’s see if the trees thin out.”
Cindy shrugged and followed as I pushed my way through the ferns and stumbled over a high root. The trees were definitely getting thinner, and I sped up.
“Wait for me, I’m not outdoorsy enough for this!” Cindy called.
As the sky began to show through the trunks, my heart sped up and so did my feet.
A few moments later, I burst past the last of the trees onto a rocky ledge overlooking a great ravine.
I took a deep breath and held it, the sight before me was stunning.
A massive forest stretched out as far as my eyes could see, deep smoky-blue trees kissing the softly lavender sky.
Carefully, I moved closer to the edge, stepping across the large stones that made up the cliff overlook until I stood close enough to peer down into the ravine.
Trees and stone surrounded a sparkling river that wound through the bottom of the crevice hundreds of feet below.
I smiled, relieved to see there was definitely water somewhere on this planet, though hopefully it wasn’t the only source.
It could take us days to find a way down to the bottom of the mountain.
“Oh my gosh, maybe step back from the edge?” Cindy’s voice held a note of panic, and I glanced back at her.
“Are you not great with heights?”
Her face twisted. “No, definitely not great with heights.” She stepped back until she was leaning against a tree, her eyes diverted from the edge of the cliff.
“What if the hunky alien has wings and wants to take you on a mating flight or something?” I asked.
“Pass.”
I snorted. “Okay, you don’t have to come any closer, but I feel stable and not at all dizzy or anything. I just wanna get a really good look.”
I took another deep breath and pushed away my awe at the stunning vista, focusing on the details. Trees, so many trees, and occasional rocky outcroppings, but nothing that looked like buildings or a city. There was no smoke or flashing lights, just miles and miles of wild, untamed land.
I tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. That meant nothing. Earth had plenty of places like this where you could look out and not see anything touched by humans. Just because I couldn’t see any cities didn’t mean there were none.
“Did you get your good look yet? We should start heading back,” Cindy said, her voice tense.
“We have plenty of time, and this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing, scouting.”
“Okay, so what are you scouting out there?”
“Trees. Lots of trees.”
“No buildings?”
“Nope.”
“Shit.”
“Yep.”
Yeah, I was starting to lose a little hope.
It was still possible this was a populated planet with people who could help us, but if this was a planet capable of intergalactic space flight with people who could get us back to Earth, wouldn’t it be more densely populated?
Wouldn’t there be flying cars or rockets in the distance?
But then something lifted off from a ridge to the left.
It was large and fast, maybe a craft of some kind?
Its path was jerky, like a bird’s. Maybe a man-made glider, I hoped.
Yeah, not exactly a realistic hope, but it was the best I could do in the few seconds it took for the large object to cross the ravine, swooping out of sight far below.
Carefully, I took another step forward and looked over the edge, trying to see what exactly it was. One more careful step forward, and I got a hint of movement. I leaned further, wary of my footing. Something large and powerful swept up from below. I gasped, and then I was airborne.
I screamed as air streamed around me and closed my eyes tight, not wanting to see the end, but I wasn’t falling.
Instead of a steady plummet, I rose and fell in abrupt waves, something tight clamped around my waist. I carefully opened my eyes, and sure enough, something horrifically large, purple, and feathered held me tight in its claws.
I screamed again, then forced myself to stop.
We were flying crazy fast over the treetops, and if it dropped me now, there was no possible way I’d survive the fall.
I glanced around, but what could I possibly do? Hanging sideways from a monster bird was somehow not an improvement from being trapped in an escape pod filled with goo. If I lived through this year, my next bingo card was gonna be a lot more creative.
The creature flew for maybe another five minutes or so, but honestly, keeping time while quietly sobbing in terror was a bit difficult.
Eventually, we reached another rocky outcropping, and the monster set down on the edge, keeping me stuck solid under one of its massive talons.
It made what I could only assume was a pre-dinner victory shriek, then lowered its terrifying head.
Beady red eyes and rows and rows of teeth were the last thing I saw as its mouth opened wide and its long, thick tongue wrapped around me, its rounded jaw encasing my upper body.
Several points of sharp pressure closed down, and I cried out, bracing for the end.
The monster froze, then all at once pulled back.
The creature seemed to retract in on itself and gagged.
It straightened and shook its head, its massive tongue flopping about.
It stretched out a feathered wing and wiped its tongue along its feathers.
After a moment, it leaned down toward me again.
Small, sniffling puffs of air ran along my side before it straightened up, gagged again, and then kicked me off the rock ledge.
I gasped and rolled, falling about five feet before hitting another hard stone. I groaned and rolled onto my back just in time to see the massive monster huff and take off into the sky.
The fuck.
Now I wasn’t even good enough to eat? Wait, no, that was a good thing.
I lifted a shaky hand and tried to cover my face, but my arm protested with a sharp pain in my shoulder. I took a deep, stuttering breath and only barely kept in the whimper that tried to escape. I couldn’t lose it now.
Okay, new game plan. Stand up, try not to fall over, then try to figure out what direction I came from, and then walk, what, maybe a hundred miles and try to find my friends?
That thing had flown so far, so fast. Was there any chance of making my way back to the others? Using my other arm, I successfully covered my face, blocking out the oddly green sun, and attempted not to break down.
“Fuckity fuck fuck.”