Dean climbs off me, sputtering and coughing. “Go!”
I’m on my feet before he can help me up. Soldiers are shrieking and yelling behind us. More poison bombs drop from the raiders, all over the hillside. Soon the whole place will be drenched in burning vapor.
I run as fast as I can into the forest, stumbling in pain, trying to escape. I’m blinking back tears, and I can hardly see. I trip over a rock and fall to my knees, then pick myself back up, gasping for air. The whitish gas is seeping through the trees ahead of me. The raiders must’ve dropped bombs everywhere.
My safety suit was designed to protect me from a particular kind of toxin—the moon’s acid. Whatever this poison is, its particles are able to seep through the fabric. I bet it’s some new chemical the aliens devised, a weapon meant to destroy us.
I pump my legs even faster. The trees are growing closer together, and the slope of the hill is steepening. I don’t know how much farther I can make it. I’m losing energy with every step. How much more vapor can there be?
I don’t see the fallen branch in my path, not until my ankle catches on it and I fall, tumbling over sticks and rocks down the side of the hill. After only a few feet, I ram into a tree trunk and stop, groaning.
The vapor still surrounds me, but I’m too exhausted to move. So I lie there. Rain patters on my helmet and on the forest floor all around me.
I slowly become aware that my skin isn’t burning anymore, though vapor still clings to my clothes. I frown. When did the burning stop? While I was running, maybe. I feel sweaty under my clothes, a little feverish, but I’m wide awake.
The forest seems quieter than before. There’s still the soft sound of the rain and the wind rustling the branches, but I don’t hear anyone screaming anymore, not even far away. I don’t hear anyone running behind me, either.
Wincing, I push myself off the ground. My legs are unsteady; I grab on to the tree to hold myself upright.
“Dean!” I call, not too loudly, but loud enough that he should be able to hear me if he’s close by.
When he doesn’t answer, worry settles in the pit of my stomach. He should’ve been right behind me. The poison must’ve slowed him down. I have to go back and find him.
I take a few tentative steps forward, moving into the vapor that’s slowly clearing up, bracing myself for pain. But there’s still no burn. The poison seems to have suddenly stopped working. I have no idea why, but I’ll take it.
Gritting my teeth, I start back up the hill in the direction I came. I don’t know how far away I am from the hovercraft. The silence doesn’t comfort me. It makes me think the battle must be over. What will I find if I go back to the crash site?
I can’t help picturing the worst: Everyone else is dead. The Mardenites poisoned all the soldiers and set their bodies on fire.
I shake the thought from my head. There’s still a chance Beechy made it off the hovercraft, and others could’ve escaped into the trees. First I’ll find Dean and then I’ll look for survivors.
I pick up my pace, trying to stick to the same path I took to get here. It’s difficult, since I could hardly see where I was going. At least I know I’ll eventually reach the top of the hill.
“Dean!” I call again.
The low hum of a sky engine reaches my ears. I press back against a tree trunk as a raider passes by overhead. It’s moving a lot slower than I’d expect, hovering over the treetops and beaming a light down into the forest. Looking for something—probably bodies of the people the poison knocked out.
I hold my breath as the light skims past me, waiting for the Mardenites to spot me. But the light doesn’t reach me in my hiding spot, and soon the hum of the engine grows fainter.
I keep scrambling up the hillside. “Dean!”
A couple yards ahead, I nearly trip over his body. He’s lying in some underbrush. His eyes are closed and his skin shines with sweat. When I check for a pulse in his wrist, it’s barely there at all.
I drop to my knees beside him and shake him. “Dean, wake up.”
He doesn’t respond, no matter how many times I shake him and say his name. More of the vapor must’ve entered his system than mine, or the poison affected him more than it affected me.
I look around helplessly. If the raiders are searching the forest, I can’t stay here in case they come back. Dean should stay safe in the underbrush while I go see if there are others alive. But I can’t risk getting closer to the hovercraft until I know for sure the raiders aren’t still there. I need a better vantage point.
On my feet again, I quickly pick out the tallest tree in the vicinity. I pull myself up onto the lowest branch. The bark is coated with moss that’s wet from the rain and slippery to stand on. I make sure I have a firm grip on the branch above me before I climb higher.
I’d forgotten how wonderful it feels to climb up in high places. I used to escape to the tops of buildings all the time when I was growing up in the work camp on the other side of the Surface. It wasn’t a true escape, not really, but it was something that was mine. Officials couldn’t bother me as easily if I was up high. The only danger was falling, and I wouldn’t let that happen.
It doesn’t take long to reach a branch that gives me a view of the hilltop. Pushing the leaves aside, I can see smoke rising from the hovercraft wreckage. It’s maybe fifty yards away.
Two of the raiders have landed in the crash site. Three more circle overhead like monstrous krails.
An alien stalks into view through the smoke. It’s walking on two legs, but it’s much taller and leaner than any human I’ve ever seen. It carries a weapon, a huge black gun similar to our missile launchers. There’s a strange, translucent quality to the alien’s skin—or maybe what I’m seeing is armor.
I hadn’t given much thought to what the Mardenites would look like, but I never would’ve imagined a creature like this. So alien, yet there’s something strangely familiar about it—not just the fact it’s walking on two legs. There’s something else. Something I can’t place.
The alien turns away and disappears into the smoke before I can make out more of its features. Anyway, it’s too far away.
One of the raiders lifts off the ground. The second follows, and the third. The raiders still up in the air lead the others to the north, and I watch the swarm grow smaller and smaller until it’s lost in the moonlit clouds.
I hurry down from the tree. Maybe I should feel relieved the Mardenites are gone, but I don’t, and I won’t until I find more survivors. There’s a tight wad of fear in my chest, a worry that I might be the only person left.
I refuse to believe it until I’ve scoured the crash site and checked every part of the forest.
I go back to Dean in his hiding spot and find him stirring, swimming back into consciousness. “What happened?” he asks.
“The poison gas knocked you out. How do you feel?”
“Horrible,” he says, groaning. He tries to sit up and I help him. He’s sweating so much, I can feel it through his glove. But he has enough strength to ask, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say. “A lot better than you.”
“Good. I had a feeling you would be.”
I’m not quite sure what he means. But I brush the comment aside. “The raiders took off. I’m going back to the crash site to look for survivors.”
“I’m coming with you,” Dean says, struggling to his feet. He looks like he might pass out again. All he’s going to do is slow me down.
“You should stay here and rest. I’ll come back for you.”
“No, I have orders and I’m following them,” Dean says, grabbing his pulse rifle from the grass. He cocks it so it’s ready to fire. “Lead the way.”
I can see there’s no arguing with him, so I don’t bother trying. I turn in the direction of the hilltop and Dean follows, wincing with every step.