Chapter 23
I almost didn’t want the door to open.
The dusty, scrub-covered landscape looked nothing like my northwestern home state. There were no trees, no big moss covered rocks or mantle of fog lingering in the distance. But it was home.
Familiar in a primitive way that settled the pitch of my stomach the longer I soaked in the view. This might not be where I was used to living but it was still my sunlight, my atmosphere filtering away the stale scent of the pod, my terra firma waiting for me to roll around on it.
I’d gotten enough of a glimpse as we descended to know we were in North America.
Somewhere southern based on the heat waves I could see rising from the cracked dirt.
But we could be in Oklahoma or Mexico as far as I knew, and the aliens hovering behind me weren’t going to be any help figuring that out.
It hadn’t even occurred to me that we could have ended up anywhere on Earth. For all I knew, the turochs we were searching for could have been camping on the Great Wall of China.
“Are you going to open it?” I choked out. Gigi shook himself and punched a button on the control panel, the whole pod shuddering as the door slid up and a gust of fresh, Earth air filled the small space. Along with a cloud of dust and heat.
I coughed out a laugh, halfway to crying as I let reality wash over me. I was back, on Earth, where I belonged. We’d made it.
It only took a few minutes for us to gather our supplies and leave the pod behind. The sun was high in the sky, and even as the glare made my eyes water, I soaked in the vitamin D like an addict.
I knew kids who’d wanted to be astronauts, explore space or set up a colony on Mars.
It had never appealed to me, and after spending a brief, wildly-unpleasant vacation without sunlight, I knew nothing would ever convince me to give up this planet.
I needed fresh air, I needed dirt, and I had a whole new appreciation for every little speck of dust blowing into my eyes.
Carn was basking even more blatantly than I was. His eyes scanned the landscape like a kid in a candy store and he kept sucking in huge lungfuls of air.
Gigi looked similarly awed, but he wasn’t handling the sun as well. After we’d picked a direction and started walking, he’d covered his head with a spare uniform and I could see him blinking his watering eyes like he was in pain.
I figured I’d give him a day to adjust and see if he still needed some sunglasses, and maybe a hat.
“You doing okay?” I asked.
He licked his lips. “I’ve never been off Cruiser Four. I didn’t realize how big it would look from down here.” A grimace twisted his features as his makeshift sun shade slipped. “Or how hot it would be.”
“You’ve never been on a planet?” A whole new level of sympathy swept over me. Spending your entire life on that awful cruiser sounded like a space version of hell to me.
“It’s not this sunny everywhere. I’m from Washington, much farther north, and it’s mostly rainy and overcast there.”
Gigi tied the arms of his spare uniform around his head like the ties on a bonnet.
“I may be better suited to that habitat.”
***
I PEERED THROUGH THE tinted glass of a bank’s front door, not sure if I was hoping for supplies or proof there were still humans on Earth.
The airlock was dark, deeper in the building a computer was hanging off a desk, papers and chairs scattered across the floor like a receptionist had thrown everything and ran.
My knuckles made the glass shiver when I knocked but there wasn’t any movement from inside. I sighed and leaned back. It's not like I expected to find people hiding in a bank. They’d be where the food and water was, but it was eerie to see so many empty buildings.
We were tired, thirsty and lost, finding humans shouldn’t be my priority.
Carn and Gigi were still in awe of being off the cruiser, their shocked silence just making the barren quiet that much more unbearable.
I turned back toward the sidewalk and a glint of silver caught my eye.
Whirling back to the door, I plastered my face to the glass and gaped at the treasure I’d just discovered.
“Carn!” I squawked, bouncing in excitement. “Break the glass, now! Hurry!”
I couldn’t contain my excitement as my mate’s giant fist shattered the upper pane of the door and I lurched forward, shoving my hand through to turn the lock.
“What is it?” Gigi asked, craning to see over my shoulder as I flung the door open and lunged for my prize.
“Crutches!” I crowed, cradling the familiar silver and gray poles to my chest. “Freedom, speed!” A slightly hysterical laugh escaped me.
I’d been mourning my leg, but this was almost as good.
The odds of getting another custom-fitted prosthetic in the apocalypse were pretty much zero, but I didn’t need custom crutches to be a speed demon.
This pair was old, dented, scuffed on the bottom half and the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
They were also about six inches too tall for me, so I leaned against the doorframe, hands shaking with excitement as I quickly adjusted them.
Seconds later they were snugged up in my armpits and I felt like I’d won the lottery.
Hopping around on one leg was fine if you were running to the bathroom before your next episode started, but it really sucked when you were hiking through the end of the world and wearing a boot three sizes too big.
Poor Carn had been hauling me around on his back half the time to give my knee and hip a break and the last two nights had been an agony of cramping and blisters on my overused foot.
Gigi and Carn watched me, amusement clear on their faces as I careened a few quick laps on the sidewalk, loving the balance and speed I could achieve now.
“This is going to make life sooo much easier,” I panted. “All I need now is a shoe that actually fits.”
Carn swaggered toward me and tapped the nearest crutch with his knuckle, his forehead wrinkling as he inspected it.
“It’s far too light to be a decent weapon,” he grouched. I laughed, too thrilled with my find to be offended.
“If you find a way to weaponize these babies without ruining them, go ahead.” I balanced on one crutch and mimed stabbing with the other. “Maybe we can add spikes.”
“Fearsome tools for a fearsome female,” Carn offered with a smile.
We did eventually find a shoe for me, and I stashed a couple of extras in the backpack I’d scrounged up to replace the makeshift bag I’d made in the officer’s lounge.
There wasn’t a proper grocery store in the small town we’d found, and it looked like most of the snacks had been scavenged from the small convenience store, but I found some candy coated peanuts and a few cans of dog food.
I prayed we didn’t get desperate enough to eat it, but it was there, just in case.
Gigi had what looked like a smart watch he kept checking to make sure we were heading in the right direction.
Or what he guessed was the right direction.
Earth was big and I didn’t know how precisely he’d been able to track the stolen shuttle.
There was a good chance we’d be wandering around for days, if not longer, searching for the other turochs.
So we walked. And walked. And walked.
Carn and Gigi pointed out various plants and animals and I did my best to tell them what everything was. It was a lot easier to identify a rabbit than what kind of bushes we came across but neither of them seemed to care that I was almost as clueless as they were.
We passed a billboard advertising tropical cruises and that turned into a long conversation trying to convince Carn that oceans were real. Apparently Oska, his home planet, only had rivers and small streams. He couldn’t wrap his head around a body of water bigger than all the land mass combined.
I couldn’t wait until he found out about sharks. That made me wonder what was happening to all the animals in zoos and aquariums and I spent nearly an hour imagining them all wasting away, completely unaware of the crisis our planet was currently having.
Pandas were so screwed.
It was dusk when we came across a small gas station.
The front door was a mess of scratches and deep gouges and Carn’s tail started flicking wildly as he inspected it.
“This looks like percer talons,” he traced the marks and cast an uneasy glance at the darkening landscape behind us.
“We should take shelter inside for the night,” Gigi said, following Carn’s gaze. “It looks like the door held whenever this happened.”
“What’s a percer?” I asked.
Gigi shuddered. “Hope you don’t have to find out.”
“Percers are a large predator the sytos breed to fight in the arena.” Carn explained. “They’re very dangerous and very hard to kill.”
He opened the door and I immediately decided we weren’t sleeping in here, no matter how big percers were. The whole place smelled of rotting food, the stench was so thick I couldn’t even force myself to walk inside.
I gagged, “Nope, I’m staying out here.”
Gigi’s tentacles writhed as he took in the odor. “It’s not safe out here.”
“I don’t care, we’ll build a fire or something. There’s no way I could fall asleep smelling that.”
Carn sighed and shoved past Gigi, “I’ll see if there’s any food that’s not spoiled, we can burn the rest for fuel.”
“I’ll find a spot to set up camp.” I hitched my backpack higher on my shoulders and escaped the rancid smell as fast as I could.
***
CARN SMILED GENTLY up at me as I lowered myself beside him and set my crutches to the side.
My hand lingered on the smooth metal, and I resisted the urge to stroke them like a beloved pet.
I was proud of how well I’d managed without my leg the last few weeks.
I’d survived so much, and I felt like a total badass.
Not to mention Carn had been more than willing to help me when my good leg just couldn’t handle my weight anymore, never treating me like a burden or like I was fragile.