She was surrounded by swamp on all sides and soon she was going to lose sight of even that. The howls and screams from before became intermittent until they stopped altogether. Her ears filled with the quiet sounds of the evening as she lamely debated her predicament. The lullaby sung by those creatures was the only answer given.
She’d been on this alien world for less than a day—she hoped, not knowing how long she had been unconscious in her cell—and already she’d become a statistic of the stupid, split-up humans, scattered and awaiting a thousand different deaths from the different ways the unknown ecosystem could kill them.
I wish I had my gun.She shivered, took a step forward, then stopped.
When nothing pounced on her from the shadows, she moved again. Now that she had escaped one enemy, she had to deal with another.
The darkness.
The giant sun fell below and out of sight, and the last rays of light over her surroundings was all that remained. She turned back the way she came, hoping to find dry ground before her entire world was lost and her keenest sense became useless.
She stumbled and fell as she trudged, exhaustion taking over her limbs. The adrenaline cleared from her system. Her heart pounded and sweat continued to bead on her skin despite the decreasing temperatures. Yahiro shivered and sniffled, brought low by her circumstances. She was a shadow of what she once was. A grade-A cop with a record that could one day have landed her the title of sergeant.
Now she was a pathetic, frightened woman who wore one shoe and an inmate’s uniform, dripping brackish water and muddy in all the wrong places.
Yahiro flinched as she stepped on a sharp object, jerked her foot out of the water and fell back on her ass. Her suit refilled with muck and stuck to her body. The material slurped at her skin.
She took a hold of her leg and inspected the wound: a shallow gash ran up the curve of her instep. Her tears fell and she didn’t even try to stop them. Why bother? Why not add dehydration to her building list of problems?
Another problem, another screw you.Life had given her lemons, rotten from the inside-out and she hadn’t realized it until too late. Even with the boosters flowing through her veins, given by her cellblock warden to fight off illness, the likelihood of infection was high.
Her boosters and medication had to be taken daily, sometimes twice, the dosages higher than industry standards. Yahiro stared as her wound bled into the water, knowing if she survived for much longer the chill in her bones would be caused not by the cold, but by withdrawal.
What could Earth products ever do against an unknown, utterly different, alien ecosystem? She wasn’t an academic by a long shot, but she knew the limitations of her people.
TheConcordwas only a recent development by her species. A new habitat all in itself, regulated by international policies that were loose and vague. A place where the scum of her people could get away with all sorts of advancements and catastrophes without batting an eye.
She was one of the lucky few who hadn’t been experimented on. The scientists deemed her insane and an insane patient had no standard variable, no baseline, to know if the tests had been a success. In the past, she would have been fodder, but the scientists nowadays didn’t like the risk.
Yahiro didn’t think she was crazy, but she played what everyone else thought to her advantage.
A brilliant light caught her eye. Her gaze snapped to the source and away from her bleeding foot. The sharp object she stepped on glowed intensely beneath the murky water.
She scuttled back, keeping her focus on it, waiting for it to attack her and finish the job it had started. But when nothing happened and the pulsing light grew brighter, surrounding her in her own personal sunshine, she took a deep breath and moved forward.
Her jaw slackened and her eyes went wide.
Whatever it was, was brilliant, beautiful and bright. And it didn’t hurt her eyes. Yahiro was mesmerized and comforted as it fought back the encroaching darkness with an invisible forcefield. She could see her surroundings perfectly within its vicinity, including the swamp and the strange vermin that swam around.
She tentatively reached out, her hand moving slowly under the water to touch it, feeling already on borrowed time. If the lightstonewas venomous, at least she went to her death willingly.
Right as she was about to touch it, a growl sounded right outside her veil of light.
Yahiro stiffened, her fear returning. It was too late to run, to hide, and somehow she knew being near the glowing orb hadn’t helped. She had become a beacon.I’m practically waving a sign screaming: EASY PREY!
She closed her eyes and waited, too afraid to move, almost too tired to try. The growl heightened into a shriek as another wave of tears filled her eyes.
I don’t want to die.
Her hand fell onto the stone. The world fell silent.
She clasped the warm rock in her hand and lifted it to her chest without opening her eyes and as she did so, a flush of warmth careened through her, banishing her negative thoughts. Her senses heightened as she gripped the talisman—that’s what it was to her now—and a sense of severance and loneliness joined its comforting sunlit-warmth. It was better than a fresh rush of her prescription drugs, it was bliss, it was peace.
Yahiro no longer cried in fear for her life, but for the loss of something she’d never had.So much loneliness.It was a deeper pain than she had ever known and it stole her breath away. It hurt her soul.
She opened her eyes and her vision wavered but she caught sight of the monster that had stalked her sprinting away. On unsteady feet with a feeling of lightheadedness, she managed to stand and continue on. The night was kept at bay now that she had her own personal sun.
Ages seemed to pass, minutes morphed into hours as she searched for a sign of the other humans, but when her soles hit dry ground, she slumped in exhaustion, and refused to move.
