Page 3 of A Million Stars and Shadows

“Yes,” Mom said. “By being strong and grounded in something more powerful and stronger than they are.”

“How did Dad tried to fight them?” I asked.

“He helped build the Shelter. We knew we had to block the Monsters from feeding into our fears.”

“Mom, doesn’t fear and other emotions, come from the brain?”

“Yes,” Mom said. “And that’s how we triggered the security measures for the Shelter.”

She showed me how it worked and where it was around the Shelter.

“There is another thing you should know about The Monsters, which I realized your father knew, but the rest of us didn’t. They can evolve. Change shapes. When they solidify, we might be able to fight them then. So…”

We hit the martial arts gym Mom had set up. Instead of the usual mats and wrestling gear, now there were spears, archery, and other weapons. “What’s this for?” I asked.

“For when they solidify so we can take them down,” Mom said, gritting her teeth. “Because no matter how big they are; we will never go down without a fight.”

*****

“Wake up! Break over,” Sally’s voice woke me up from my brief nap.

“I didn’t know I fell asleep,” I said. “I must’ve been really tired.”

“You should be,” Sally said. “You’ve been walking for days, searching for your mother. Searching for the ship she had set out to find. You barely stopped looking.”

“Until just now,” I said.

“You slept like a rock,” Sally said. “A common activity for humans to recharge their bodies. And a must for a 13-year-old girl like you to grow. The teen years for humans are the crucial growing years where getting enough sleep is important.”

“Well, Sally, I don’t have much time for sleep,” I said. “I don’t know what happened to my mother. She left a month ago looking to find supplies from one of the ships that brought us to New Earth. She was supposed to return to the shelter, but she didn’t come back.”

Thinking about my mother almost made me tear up. She was the only person I knew on New Earth. My mother and I were the only survivors from Old Earth and now New Earth.

Now she was gone, and I was all alone.

I got up and looked all around me. How much further must I walk before I find something?

“Sally,” I said. “Can you scan around so we know where we are? How far is it back to the Shelter?”

“About five days’ worth of walking,” Sally said. “You have provisions on you for only one more day.”

I shook my head. “I can’t make it back to the Shelter now, can I?”

“There is an object in my perimeter,” Sally said, scanning ahead. “It is a larger mass, not indigenous to the area.”

“How far is it?” I asked.

Sally laughed. Actually laughed. “A hop, skip, and a jump away.”

“What?” I asked.

“Down there,” Sally said, raising my right hand to point down the cliff.

I gulped. “It’s a long way down there,” I said.

Swooshed. Again, there was that swoosh. Sally was inflating the suit until I was floating in the air like a human balloon. “We’ll float down.”

I didn’t have a choice in the matter. With a push, Sally was controlling the suit, floating down off the cliff. I almost closed my eyes, but I didn’t.

---