A bright flash came from the left, followed by the telling boom of a storm. I jumped from a gale that unsettled my footing. Flora bent beneath the wind’s wrath. The humidity cooled in an instant. Another flash came, so bright that my visor blackened to protect my eyes. The following thunder sounded like a crash.
“Roys, this storm is closer, and I am not picking anything up from the satellite. I can’t even ping it,” I said urgently. The air-con in my suit shut off from the rapidly descending temperature. I went from sweating to shivering.
“How? Yours should work fine above ground,” Roys replied.
“Don’t know. Don’t care, but,” I bounced from another resounding crash far too close for my liking. The wind sped up, making the flora creak and crack. “I suggest we get the fuck out of here. The storms we’ve seen on the scans weren’t pretty.”
And were rare along the equator, the north had them worse. The Planet had been under watch for five years, and they noted an average of three equator storms a year. However, I assumed the storm was why my visor glitched. The satellite had to be attempting to contact us but couldn’t get through.
“Returning now,” Roys said.
I rushed to the rover where I could yank them out on the weyline if necessary. The wind became so strong that it ripped smaller flora from the soil. Lightning struck the forest one after the other. Sparks caught in the gale and the forest took to flames.
“Shit, hurry up!” I shouted, ears ringing from the thunder rattling through my bones. Then the rain came, a deluge that rid us of the fire, but made everything worse with the lightning closing in.
The rover’s headlights flicked on. I inched the rover closer to the manhole while tugging in the weyline to prevent any slack. Korb ascended first, followed by his colleague, shouting, “The captain said to leave the set up!”
“I was planning on it,” I shouted, fingers twitching on the handle of the weyline.
Ryker came up next. The abrupt rain plus the sludge created by the scanner made the area unstable. He stumbled forward, detaching himself from the weyline to grab the geologists by the arms. They were too busy watching the storm, and taking damn notes of it, to save themselves.
Ryker forced the scientists into the back of the rover. “The captain is coming up now!”
Roys’ hand grasped the ledge. He crawled out, feet half sunk in the mud when the ground gave way. He fell into the pit. I cursed, and yanked the weyline lever, bringing Roys up manually. He appeared out of the ruckus, covered in mud. Chunks of earth collapsed, dragging him down a second time. My visor shrieked, pulse rate accelerating. I pushed the lever all the way back, a speed that was not recommended, but he couldn’t bitch at me if he was dead.
Roys tumbled out of the pit to roll across the ground toward the rover. He lurched onto his feet, ripping free of the weyline. I dove over the console to throw open the passenger door. The wind growled, a living entity of such force that the door slammed shut and sent Roys clear off his feet.
“What’s going on up there?!” Ryker called over comms.
“Roys can’t get his stupid ass in the rover!”
Roys lay in the flora, caught among the stalks that hadn’t yet snapped in half. Those that did were billowing around us, creating a deadly storm of debris. One hit the windshield, not strong enough to break, but the lightning could ruin us. The rover should withstand a hit or two. Breaking through the material wasn’t a problem. The power would be. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to move after a strike; then we would be sitting ducks. We had to get out of there and Roys…
He clung to theflora, incapable of exiting without being whisked away by the storm. The wind shook the rover, making the sirens blare and mechanisms creak. If the storm worsened, the rover might be thrown, risking all our lives. We had to go.
We had to leave him.
I backed up as fast as possible. My visor flared red. Roys became nothing more than a dark splotch stuck in the flora. He may survive the storm if he stays there. If not… that was part of the job. I wasn’t dying out there because idiots wanted to look at rocks. I wasn’t dying for him, just like I wouldn’t for Arana or Lilea… or Maddy.
Roys never spoke over the commlink. He said nothing when he should have witnessed the rover speed off. My foot lay heavy on the accelerator, taking us further from the storm. From him. And all the while I waited for his voice, for him to call out, ask where I was going, what I was doing, to come back, but nothing came.
Nothing ever would if I kept going.
He wouldn’t survive the storm no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise. We’d return to find a body. He’d be gone. No more annoying captain; a new one would arrive, likely worse than him—no—definitely worse, and life would go on. I’d get over what happened.
Like I did with Maddy?
“Fuck!” I swerved.
Shouting came from the cargo bay even without the commlink. I brought Roys’ tracker up on the rover's screen. He had moved, either from the storm or of his own will, making it further into the flora.
You’re going back for him when you wouldn’t do the same for your sister?
My teeth gnashed against my cheeks. I shoved the rover through debris, one of which hit my door and sent the rover creaking sideways. Wefell into place with Ryker cursing over the commlink. The rover settled with the passenger side pointed toward the forest. Crawling over the console, I pushed open the door, having to keep my full weight against the mechanism to keep it from closing.
“Come on!” I screamed.
Roys’ tracker moved. I couldn’t see him, and it was then I realized he was crawling. The wind couldn’t yank him off his feet when he was below all the debris, using the flora as anchor points to drag him closer. Unfortunately, the rover couldn’t get closer.
