Page 54 of Leveling

Chapter 35

Beckett stood on deck, back to the wall, far from the railing, and stared at the Outpost. His former home. It seemed so foreign from this direction, looming over the ship, a behemoth. It also seemed lonely, stuck in the middle of the ocean, immobile, and trapped.

Beckett wished he could go up there and retrieve some of his stuff, send the zodiac down over the side, drive it, figuring it out (probably), pull to the port window, swim across the 118th floor, and climb the stairs.

He’d get to see his tent again.

He really ought to. He would never get another chance, but sadly he couldn’t actually bring himself to; he was incapable of movement, frozen with fear, as immobile as the building he longed to go up in.

The sails rose. Rebecca walked by and he asked, “Are we going somewhere?”

“Captain is trying to get ahead of the storm and away from the Outpost.”

“Oh,” Beckett looked up at the sky. A bank of gray clouds approached. The ship headed west.

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