Chapter Fifteen
The next morning is way more subdued. It’s not like the quiet of our first days, when we were exhausted from working out or still trying to acclimate to the new routine. It’s a quiet from knowing we failed, and now one of our own is gone.
“This sucks,” Angie says.
“Yeah,” I agree. “Big-time.”
“Now what are we going to do?” she asks, but I have no response.
Roman leans his back against the stove, staring at nothing. Scratch that, he’s staring at me. It looks like he’s expecting something, though what it is I have no clue.
He sighs, glances at Angie, then looks at me pointedly again. When I still don’t get it, he rolls his eyes. “Last I checked, we still had a library on the line,” he says.
I sit up at his words. He’s proving once again that he’s a team player and trying to encourage us. “Roman’s right,” I say. I was so caught up in my guilt over Simone—letting the personal affect the professional again—I wasn’t thinking of why we’re here in the first place. “We have to finish our tasks so we can get the money for the school and make Simone proud.”
“Okay Mr. and Mrs. Optimistic,” Angie says. “I’m pretty sure Simone would rather have won the money than settle for being proud of us, but I get what you’re saying. I guess we just keep going.” She gets up and heads for the gym.
Before joining her, I glance at Roman. He watches Angie leave, his face remaining stoic. When he looks at me, there’s that small softening of his features, and like a call and response, my pulse speeds up. Mr. and Mrs. Optimistic. I really shouldn’t like the sound of that as much as I do.
I don’t bother with weights in the gym. Roman and I will be going on our expedition to gather rocks. Rather than walking, we’ll be driving separate rovers. Since I’m not sure how heavy the rocks will be, I need to conserve what energy I can. From now on, I need to be at the top of my game, doing everything right and smartly to make sure we succeed.
After our workouts, we meet by the space suits. To save time, Angie helps me while Jordan helps Roman. I stand up and face Roman. When we make eye contact, my heart does a little kick. I try to tell myself the nervousness I feel stems from my worry that Angie and Jordan will run into trouble while we’re away and not that I’m nervous at the thought of being out by myself with Roman. As the girls at school would say, basically I’m being delulu.
Jordan’s voice comes over my earpiece. “Okay, I need you two to test your microphones.”
“Mic check, mic check, one-two, one-two,” Roman says, like he’s a real emcee, and I smile at his playfulness.
“Brianna? Can you hear me? I need you to check your mic,” Jordan says, snapping me out of my daze from looking at Roman’s smile.
I clear my throat. “Testing, one-two-three.”
“There we go. Remember, y’all are taking the rovers to the south to extract twelve pounds of rocks each. The location is already programmed into the navigation. We should be able to communicate the whole time y’all are out,” Jordan explains, his voice growing more and more excited as he goes on. I’m fairly certain he gets just as much excitement out of watching us do the task as he would doing it himself. He’s content to simply be here.
“Ready?” Roman asks.
“Let’s do it,” I respond.
“Stand clear. Opening the hatch,” Roman says, sounding so official.
We step out of the Hab and make our way to the two rovers. They’re able to fit two people apiece, but we’ll each take one so the extra weight of the rocks, combined with our own weight, doesn’t slow them down.
After removing the heavy tarp placed over each, I’m reminded of the rideable lawnmowers they use to maintain the school grounds. The engines start up easily and smoothly, and map displays show where we’ll be heading.
“Nice,” Roman comments. He twists half his body to look over at me. “Think you can keep up?”
“Pshh, I’ve been riding four-wheelers since I was a kid. Let’s see if you can keep up.” I don’t wait for his response. I step hard on the gas and take off. And barely move.
My rover doesn’t move very fast. In fact, I’m certain we could run at a quicker pace.
“What in the world is this?” I ask.
Roman’s answering chuckle in my ear makes me feel like a pet getting the best scratches.
“If we really were on Mars, we’d be traveling a lot farther than the length of a field,” he says. “The speed of our rovers are made to account for that.”
“Let me guess, you read it in the manual.” Ugh.
“God, isn’t that cool?” Jordan pipes up. “They thought of everything here.”
I huff and relax into my seat, knowing it’s going to take a while to get to the expedition spot.
“Should have brought a book to enjoy the downtime,” Roman says, and judging by the teasing in his voice, he’s not done. “Maybe something adventurous. I think something set in this world, but unlikely soulmates.”
I shake my head. I must have left my book out and Roman got to it. “Who knew under all that quiet machismo was the heart of a romantic,” I say. “I’ve figured you out. You may be a science teacher, but you missed your real calling as a literary scholar.”
His chuckle is low, but it sends butterflies through my stomach all the same.
“You should be arriving within the next two minutes,” Jordan says.
As predicted, we soon arrive at the site. It’s on the edge of the large dome, but we can still see the Hab.
As we get off the rovers, Jordan sounds in our ears. “In the toolbox on the back of each of your rovers, you’ll find a shovel, which you’ll use to fill the box labeled ‘specimen’ with the rocks. As you fill up the box, the weight will be displayed.”
Our race didn’t end just because our vehicles are slow. Now that we’re stopped, we both rush to get to the field with our boxes and shovels. The ground is tougher, so we have to use the shovels to loosen it and dislodge the rocks we find. We set to work side by side. We’re grunting. We’re stealing small glances at each other to check the other’s progress, looking all the sillier, I’m sure, since we have to move our whole upper bodies. But the work is simple enough that we don’t have to put too much thought into it, and it’s fun.
By some miracle, I load up my rocks before Roman does and do a victory dance beside my vehicle. “Yes! Take that.”
Roman isn’t far behind. He sets his materials in the back of his vehicle and shakes his head. “I got way more rocks than you did.”
“Excuses, excuses,” I say as we get back into our seats. I’m not going to let a technicality taint this win.
“Hey, guys,” Jordan says. “Good news. Y’all got the specimens that we need, and once we inspect them, the task is complete.”
“If that’s the good news, I’m guessing there’s something we’re not going to like,” Roman says.
“Yeah…” I can hear Jordan’s grimace through the comms unit. “We just received a delayed message from Mission Control. An unexpected dust storm has developed and is heading our way.”
That’s concerning. What will happen if we’re still out here when it hits? How strong will the winds be? Thankfully, with the helmet, my braids won’t be full of dust (a vain concern, but water rationing won’t allow me to spend more than two minutes washing them), but will there be enough dust flying around to get us lost and off course? Will we get eliminated and have to leave it up to Jordan and Angie to win the library money?
“How long do we have?” I ask.
“About twelve minutes,” Jordan replies.
Riding side by side, Roman and I look at each other. I gulp, trying to do some mental calculations in my head. It took us about fifteen minutes to drive out to the spot. We must have been driving for at least ten minutes now. Unfortunately it’s been slow going, and with the added weight of the rocks, it feels like we’re moving at a crawl.
“What if we just leave the rovers and make a run for it?” Roman asks.
I nod. “Yeah. That sounds good to me. I’m pretty sure we can run to the Hab in half the time it would take to get there on wheels, even in sand and these big suits.”
“You can’t,” Jordan says. “Anything is liable to happen to the rovers and our specimens if left unattended. The dust could cause the wheels to stop working altogether. Or maybe they’d be buried in the dust. Without the rovers we’d have no hope of trying to complete this task again, and it’s one of the big four we have to finish. We must get the rovers back to the Hab, then cover them before the storm hits. But don’t worry,” he tries to soothe. “You two have plenty of time to make it.”
I would not put it past whoever was running the simulation to take the rovers out of commission if we left them. I take a deep breath. Okay. Slog over the red ground with an additional twelve pounds of rocks to slow us down, get the rovers covered so the dust doesn’t get into all the nooks and crannies and make them stop, then make it back inside the Hab before we get caught up in the dust storm ourselves. No biggie. Mission: Not Impossible. We got this.
I tighten my grip on the steering wheel, pushing my shoulders back. No, it doesn’t make the rover move faster, but it makes me feel like I’m moving with more purpose. I may have on a large space suit in lieu of some leather pants and kick-ass boots, but I’m a woman on a mission.
“Are you humming the Mission: Impossible theme?” Roman asks.
“Uh, what?”
I’m glad I’m not facing him. I forgot he could hear every sound I make. Anyone tuning in to our live stream can. Why didn’t I choose a Beyoncé song to hum?
“You don’t have to stop,” Roman says with a slight chuckle, but I ignore him. I don’t need the world to know I’m totally and utterly lame.
We finally make it back to the Hab. Roman and I park the rovers. I look around, trying to see if I can tell just when the dust storm will hit and how they’ll do it in the dome.
“Jordan, how are we on time?” I ask.
“Y’all are doing great. Three minutes left.”
A surge of victory begins welling up in my chest as I grab the box full of rocks and affix the tarp over my rover.
“How about I take that and you get the door?” Roman says as he grabs for my box. Knowing that now is not the time to argue, I give it freely and move to the hatch. I open it, and just as Roman is ten feet away, part of the tarp blows off my rover as if it were never secured.
“Oh no!” I yell. “I need to fix the tarp. I’ll be right back.” Before Roman can get out anything other than a “ What? ” I take off back to the rovers. In ten seconds, I manage to get it on, this time ensuring it won’t come off.
But when I turn to head back inside, everything goes black.
I don’t panic. I blink, my breath sawing in and out, loud to my ears in the confines of my helmet.
“There’s something wrong with my helmet,” I announce as calmly as I can. “I think the sun visor or whatever is messing up. I can’t see anything. I don’t know how to make it back to the Hab.”
“Roman, can you get her? We’re down to one minute,” Jordan says.
“I’m already on it,” Roman says.
Knowing that this part of the ground has loose rocks, some big and some small, I stand perfectly in place so I don’t fall over anything.
I feel cut off from the world. With my helmet so dark, it’s hard to tell if my eyes are even open, so I continuously blink. In the space suit, I can’t feel any wind blowing against my skin or playing with my braids. I’m not afraid of the dark, haven’t been for years, but it’s lonely and vulnerable as I stand there.
The last time I was in the dark this long has to have been when I was a little girl. There was a storm, and my parents weren’t home. Maybe they were on a date, I can’t remember. But it was just me and my siblings at our home in the woods. A storm had come, knocking out all the power, but I wasn’t scared. My brothers came to check on Camille and me, my oldest brother, Tay, marching in with a flashlight and shining it on us. Once everyone’s good health was confirmed, Tay had the idea to play tag. I loved all my siblings, but I especially looked up to Tay and the way he could turn the worst circumstances around.
I feel a tug on my hand.
“Come on, we need to hurry,” Roman says, pulling me along.
I have no choice but to blindly follow, taking smaller steps than normal in case I accidentally slip on a rock. After a few seconds, I feel the shift from the hard ground to the thin flooring of the Hab as Roman directs me with his hand on my back. I hear the clang to let me know the hatch has been shut, and I let out a sigh of relief. Roman removes my helmet, and I look up into his handsome face, which is marred by a slight frown.
“It looks like you’ve been crying,” he says.
I stare at the helmet he still has on. The reflection staring back at me is a melding of his handsome face and my puffy eyes. Even though I wouldn’t consider myself a pretty crier, our reflections look good together.
“That’s because I have been crying,” I say. More often than not, thinking of Tay causes a breach in my already faulty floodgates, even if they’re happy memories.
“Were you scared out there?”
“No, I was thinking about my big brother, who passed away a while back. Good memories.”
“Maybe you can tell me about him someday.” Roman’s voice is a soft caress in my ear as it comes across the comm.
“I think I’d like that,” I respond, just as softly.
He holds his hand up like he’s going to brush the wetness from my face, then looks at his glove, which is caked in red dirt.
He looks from his hand to me, and I recoil slightly, not wanting to get that all over my face. We both laugh, the air grows warmer, and I can’t help but marvel at our change in circumstances. In this too-small, peculiar habitat where we could be at each other’s throats, there’s affection. We planted those dandelion seeds, but it’s genuine friendship now blossoming between us.
I don’t want to question what I’m feeling too much, but I can’t help but wonder, could things stay like this when the simulation is over? When we’re back at school, passing each other in the hallway, could Roman’s eyes soften when they land on mine? Could our relationship continue to grow and this friendship turn into something more?
I bite my lower lip and shyly look away. These are not the kind of thoughts a vice principal should have for a teacher. They’re the kind of thoughts that invite scandal, though, curiously, that word doesn’t flash through my mind as sharply as it did before.
Once the pressure has stabilized in the tunnel, the inner door to the Hab swings open and Angie comes rushing out, straight to me.
“Oh my God, you made it!” She wraps her arms around me, hugging tight. “I was so worried you were going to get caught up in the dust storm.”
I can’t even move my arms because of how tight Angie’s grip is. I look over Angie’s shoulder to meet the gaze of an amused Roman.
After a few more good squeezes, Angie lets me go and takes a step back. “I’m so glad you made it. I don’t think Jordan and I would have lasted long without me killing him. Then I’d be eliminated on principle, and it’d be a whole thing. I mean, I could have been in Cancún, but now that I’m here, I may as well get that money, right?”
Without another word, Angie turns to go back in, nodding at Roman and patting him lightly on the shoulder.
“What just happened?” I ask.
“Your best friend just said she was worried about you.”
I don’t argue the best friend part. I’m touched Angie was so worried about me.
Roman walks to the doorway but stops before he goes in as well. “For the record, she’s not the first person you’ve won over.”
And I’m left speechless.