last meal packets, we didn’t bother letting it heat up.
Turned out it was pretty hot anyway.
Both of our test devices theoretically were working. The communicator would let us send a message, but all it picked up was static. We had no way of knowing if the message had been received.
If anyone was even out there, looking for us.
“I think we need to get higher,” Yasmin said, slumped against the cliff wall. She tilted her head back, eying the rocky heights above her.
I tore my eyes away from the delicate curve of her neck, thinking about what further modifications I could make to my sensors.
“Is it possible?” she wondered.
It should be more than possible. It should be easy to scale that cliff.
But I was getting worried.
I’d missed whatever had investigated our camp last night. And while I still felt like myself, I apparently wasn’t.
Would I be enough to keep her safe?
“Sure, if we need to.” I pulled up the sample of water I’d brought back from the trench. “The analyzer says the water is safe. Let’s have some first, then I want to see about those plants we so ungraciously evicted from their homes. Water is not the only thing we’re going to need to replace soon.”
Yasmin grimaced. “They’re going to taste awful, aren’t they?”
“Probably,” I agreed, then stiffened, jumping to my feet.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you hear it?” I snapped.
Her look of plain confusion made it clear she didn’t.
But I knew that sound, had been on too many dirt-side missions not to know it.
There was a low rumbling I could feel in my bones, a twist in my gut.
“Get away from the cliff!” I snapped. “Just head straight out!”
“What?”
“Argue with me later!”
I swung her into my arms, grabbed our prototypes, and dashed out of the shade into the middle of the desert.
“Stay here,” I commanded as I put her down and shoved the devices at her. The tilt of her chin told me I was in trouble, but there was no time for explanations.
“Please.”
She nodded once, and I bolted back to the cliff at top speed.
Our supplies, the scavenged components, everything except the two small devices we’d just crafted, was still at the foot of the cliff, but as I ran, I could feel the earth buck under my feet.
“Hakon!” Yasmin shouted. “Come back! It’s not worth it!”
Now she knew exactly what was going on.
But we needed those supplies.
As soon as I hit the cliff face, I started grabbing everything in sight.
I glanced up to see Yasmin running towards me.
“Get back, it’s not safe!” I yelled.
“Then you get out, too!” she snapped. But she stopped, backing away.
Another tremor, harder this time, as I swore up and down at myself.
Why hadn’t I thought to make some sort of carry bag for all of this junk?
What was junk? What would we need?
What would make the difference between dying on this rock and survival?
Screw it.
Everything that looked like it would survive the impact I started tossing into the desert, to Yasmin’s side.
But the delicate components we had so carefully harvested, that I’d planned more projects for, I couldn’t go tossing about haphazardly.
We were going to lose everything.
Another quake, this time strong enough to knock me to my knees, bringing a shower of rocks down from the cliff.
It was enough, it would have to be enough.
I’d make it be enough.
Yasmin had started dragging the sheets of metal I’d thrown further away, darting forward again to grab a new one.
“Get farther back!” I shouted to her. “I’m on my way!”
But I’d waited too late.
Before I’d taken three steps, the cliff face fell down on top of me.
Yasmin
“Hakon!”
I stared at the pile of rock before me.
He couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t.
Heedless of the small tremors that still rocked the desert floor beneath my feet, I raced back to what had been our little campsite.
Now, all I could see was a pile of boulders, large and small.
Our burrow and what was left of my ship were crushed.
Whatever supplies Hakon hadn’t managed to fling to safety were gone, pounded to dust.
And none of that mattered.
Because he was gone, too.
I grabbed one of the scraps of metal, cursing at the burning in my lungs.
I’d never be able to dig him clear, not with the stupid lack of oxygen.
But I sure as hell could try.
I started where I’d last seen him, his eyes fixed on me as he ran toward safety.
Faster than I’d ever seen anyone run.
But not fast enough, not soon enough.
Stop thinking, Yasmin, I told myself. All you have