1942664419 (S) (18 page)

The creature scampered forward, and I fell back, sliding down the side of the ship and landing in a pile of broken brush at the base of the window. Breathing heavily, I tore through the mangled foliage and looked back at the ship, sure the arachnoid minion of doom would be chasing me down, but nothing peeked over the minty aura surrounding the pod.

I breathed a sigh of relief and backed up, working my way down the path of destruction cutting through the forest. Nothing followed.

The trail of my escape pod went beyond my line of sight. I searched the sky, hoping for a sign that would lead me to David, but the avocado heavens hung like a dome above. Solid. Cloudless.

Which way should I go?

Twenty-five hours, three minutes
. How many movies had I seen where the damsel leaves the scene of an accident, only to miss the help that arrives a moment after? Then again, I’d seen an equal number of movies where the stupid damsel stayed right where she was and got eaten by something. I glanced back at the ship. A small dark shadow leaped to the ground and scampered into the trees. Staying here: not an option.

I adjusted the weird, clear bag around my head. It felt like living inside a balloon. But hey, I was breathing. I glanced back to make sure my stowaway wasn’t following. I hoped he found something to eat that wasn’t human flavored.

I picked up my pace. What if spidicus giganticus wasn’t the only thing out there that could eat me? The air was toxic, but that didn’t mean that nothing had evolved within this noxiousness. The trees sure seemed to be doing fine.

A flash lit up the atmosphere. I shielded my eyes from the sun as a black dot appeared, falling from the sky. My stomach sank as the dot grew larger, and one falling body turned into many.

Flames encircled the largest section, turning the object into a comet-like meteor.

It’s going to get hot, Jess. Very hot.

No! “David!”

The fireball throttled to the planet’s surface, disappearing over the tops of the trees. I screamed and ran, following the trail of smoke leading to the planet’s surface.

A flash turned the green sky yellow, then orange. The soil quaked beneath my feet. I stumbled, and my heart sank as another shockwave hit, and a mushroom cloud erupted into the sky.

The powder. Catastrophic heat could explode the powder!

“David!”

I sprang to my feet and ran toward the cloud. The ground rumbled once more, stopping my sprint. I struggled to hold myself up as the planet raged against a second, explosive alien intrusion.

Silence bled through the long path of cleared earth below me. I stared at the cloud. Lost. Drained. Hoping for a sign.

The sky darkened. A hail of black spots floated toward me. Dazed, I shielded my eyes as the ominous particles came within reach. A tickle trailed down my cheek, fluttering like the wings of a butterfly. Black wisps of different shapes drifted on the breeze, blanketing the soil in a veil of gloom.

Holding out my hand, I caught a floating particle. Like a black snowflake, it disintegrated between my fingers.

Ash.

All hope I clung to erased, replaced with a pain so deep part of my soul slipped away.

A scream launched from my lips. I scraped at my chest, desperate to free the swelling within my ribs. David was gone. I was alone. How could—

The mask tightened around my face. Gasping, I blew out what little air remained in my lungs, hoping to refill the bag. The material suctioned to my mouth. I buckled, pulling at the fabric, desperate for air.

But what did it matter? What chance did I have anyway, alone on a poisonous world?

Defeated, I lay back in the grass. Tears pooled in my eyes and dampened the mesh. The green above succumbed to black as the ash encompassed all. I closed my eyes and let the black whispers of death cover me.

20

Darkness.

I reached for my mask, brushing away the ash. A tint of gray shadowed the murky glow emanating from the trees.

But I could breathe.

My lungs relished the oxygen. One of David’s last warnings was not to exert myself, to make the oxygen last. Maybe running was too much for my mask to handle?

A lump formed in my chest. Part of me wished the gear had given out completely. David and I had come so far. And for what? For him to die senselessly?

I closed my eyes. The panic in his voice as he gave me directions would haunt me forever. But he wasn’t afraid for himself.

I regret nothing.

The tremor in his voice, the sincerity in his eyes. He knew he was going to die. He chose to save me.

For what? Twenty-six hours alone on this Godforsaken green planet?

I choked down a sob. He’d given me the only gift he had to give: a few more hours of life. And I was going to use it.

A weight constricted my chest as I tried to lean up. Nearly an inch of ash fell from my arm as I shifted. Leaves and branches covered me.

From what? Had another explosion happened after I passed out? I tossed the branches off, surprised as a cool breeze lashed my neck. I shivered. The debris had acted like a blanket, insulating my skin from the cold. Another chill rocked me, and I eased back to the still warm soil.

Shifting back into my indent in the grass, I pulled the branches back over my head. Warmth instantly surrounded me, as if the foliage itself emanated heat. I closed my eyes and thought of camping at Lum’s Pond with Mom and Dad. The temperature would always drop at night, and every time we went to sleep, it would rain. Dad would tell ghost stories and Mom would always try to scare me. It usually worked. A sweet serenity swept over me as I drifted off to sleep.

21

Sweat dripped down the side of my neck. My wet hair clung to my mask, but a drowsy stupor kept me from brushing the sticky tresses away.

I took shallow breaths, struggling against a weight on my chest.

Heavy. Too heavy. Tired.

Blinking, I tried to clear my vision of the crisscrossed sticks blocking my view of the sky.

Wait. Sticks?
I pushed at the branches and leaves covering me.

Waking up last night hadn’t been a dream. Why was I under a mound of—?

I rolled over and gasped, landing inches from three dripping fangs. Inching back, I froze, seeing my reflection a thousand times over within three golden, insect-like eyes.

The
grassen
.

I screamed as the bug jabbered and clicked its hairy mandibles at my face. Grunting, I heaved the rest of the branches off me. A huge pile littered the ground, but only where I’d slept. Had the giant bug tried to bury me like a dog bone?

I picked up a stick and swung at the hissing creature. It didn’t budge. I howled and flung a larger branch, slapping the hideous beast across the face. A piercing shriek echoed through the field before the huge spider scampered toward a patch of leafy bramble.

Puffing into my mask, I clutched another log, waiting until the ten-legged atrocity disappeared into the brush. Three glowing orbs seemed to stare at me from within the leaves before winking out.

“You better stay gone,” I muttered.

There was no way in Hell I was going to be someone’s dinner.

When the bushes stilled, I dropped my makeshift weapon and stumbled. The emerald sun encompassed most of the cloudless, green sky, leaving last night’s cold a dim memory. I tried to mop my brow, but my sleeve only met the transparent fabric surrounding my face.

Wisps of steam rose from the gouge in the planet leading back to my escape pod. On either side of the cleared path, a forest ten times my height reached into the sky.

It had to be cooler in there.

I grabbed my backpack and ambled into the woods. Years of fallen leaves and twigs crunched beneath my feet.

Swirling black vines crawled up the tree trunks. They twitched as I walked past, as if they could sense me. I really, really didn’t want to know if that was true.

The vines thinned and vanished as I picked up my pace. Deeper into the canopy, the leaves turned from deep green to burnt orange, similar to fall if the foliage didn’t seem so lush. Even here, minty green light shone from beneath the trees as if the bark gave off the glow shrouding the forest.

Squinting, I tried to see through the trunks, but the mist cloaked anything farther than a few hundred feet away. I tried to keep going in a straight line, hoping to find some sign of David’s ship. Maybe a distress beacon.

Sighing, I rubbed the back of my neck. Who was I kidding? The blast had rocked the planet. The ash had blanketed the sky. The chances of anything being left were close to nil, but I needed something to do, some sense of hope to cling to.

Tall, pink leafy plants cushioned me as I eased to the forest floor and slid my backpack off my shoulders. Old Reliable shifted in my bag.

That’s why I’d left Earth. To take pictures. I glanced around, smiling at the amazing plant life I could chronicle for the people back home.

But I wasn’t going home.

I wanted to be optimistic, but admitting the truth made it easier. Why take pictures no one would ever see?

Unless David’s people did a search and rescue, but would they even bother if they knew the ship exploded?

I pulled out my camera and tightened the lens. Was it possible someone from Earth would find me someday? Maybe, in another thousand years when someone invents warp drives, or someone figures out hyperspace.

But unless the Erescopians decided to share technology, stuff like that wouldn’t become reality for a very long while. At least not in my lifetime.

I picked up my cell phone and keyed in my code. My lifetime had an expiration date, and mine ended twelve hours, three minutes from now.

My jaw tightened. My hands formed fists.

No. I would not freak. I refused to spend my last few hours sitting there, crying.

I set my camera down, snapped open the silver case David had given me, and pulled out a shiny black bag. Green leaves spilled out as I ripped it open.

Salad. I should have known. Was it too much to ask for a bag of potato chips for a last meal? I fiddled with the leaves. They should be reasonably edible, but how could I get them through the mask? I fingered the bag attached to my face. David said not to remove it no matter what.

So how was I supposed to eat?

I tried to smell the greens … also fruitless through the mask, but as I did, the fabric pulled from my face toward the food. I brought the leaves to the plastic, and the material somehow absorbed the plant. I stared at the small, circular leaves, now within my mask. I guessed eating wasn’t going to be all that hard after all.

The plant tasted like spinach, but with a hint if ginger. It reminded me of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie.

I’d miss pumpkin pie. I’d miss holidays.

No. Stop thinking about it, Jess.

The sun crept through the trees. A single beam shone on a brown moss-covered rock. I grabbed my camera.
Click.

A smile burst across my lips. If they found my body a thousand years from now, at least they’d find some great Jessica Martinez original photographs.

Beside the stone, a small orange flower tipped in green reached for the light.
Click.
The canopy above sparkled with ebony dewdrops.
Click.
They reminded me of the liquid waterfalls that had cascaded from the Erescopian ships the night David’s people landed on Earth.

I hit the video record button as one of the droplets fell to the dirt. Instead of splatting or sinking into the soil, the bead bounced twice and rolled beside the stone. The tiny opal sphere traveled up a slight incline before meeting up and merging with another droplet, becoming one.

Whoa.

My eyes drew back to the glistening orbs clinging to the treetops. Pieces of David’s ship. They had to be. Was I that close, or had the detonation spread the debris over miles of alien terrain?

I sipped at one of my water canisters before packing the supply case back into my bag. The camera I slung around my shoulder as I passed farther into the woods. My stomach fluttered with each step. Was I getting nearer? If I was getting nearer, was I ready for what I might find?

Maybe I was more afraid of what I wouldn’t find. My imagination went wild, imagining the woods opening up to David sitting beside a perfect, flyable ship—cooking up bacon, waiting for me. Okay, maybe the bacon was pushing it, but it was a nice image.

You are the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.

Every girl dreams of the day when she’d hear words like that. My friends had heard them. Sometimes more than once, but was it real for them?

Before all this happened, I didn’t care. I couldn’t imagine ever meeting someone I would want to hear those words from. I didn’t think I was even capable of love. Not in the real sense of the word. David changed all that.

The pressure built in my throat again. Mom. Dad. David. All gone. Grandma was the only one left. Sure, I had a few more relatives that I never met, but no one that knew and loved me.

Visions of Dad, Mom, and David blurred together and melted into the odd-colored trees. Real love was something you shouldn’t be able to take away. It shouldn’t just snuff out.

But it wasn’t snuffed out. Not really. I loved them all, and I would love them until this stinking bag ran out of air. Longer.

I picked up my pace. David’s last words were that he had no regrets. I wouldn’t have any regrets either. His name would be on my lips when I took my dying breath. I owed him that. I would get to the crash site. If I was going to die, I wanted to lie at rest beside him, where people who love each other belonged.

The brush to my left rustled. I checked over my shoulders. Wind?

My pulse inched up a notch as the blue-green leaves of one of the bushes turned a few at a time, showing their burgundy undersides. Weird. Very, very weird.

The sky brightened, but the green haze deepened as if the lights and coloration of the forest didn’t coincide with the sun. Freaky.