Page 50 of Crash Landing
I should have been offended, but the way he touched my mouth made it hard to even hear what he was saying.
“You were the snarky one,” I shot back.
“No one’s ever called me snarky before.”
“I doubt that.”
He chuckled again and I realized I could listen to that sound forever.
“You should sleep.”
“I can’t.”
“Well, then just lay down.”
I nodded and crawled onto the bed beside him, resting my head on his shoulder. We were both lying on our backs and staring up at the ceiling as glowing specks and faint flashes of light from outside danced across the stone.
“I’ve never been incredibly outdoorsy,” I confessed. “But honestly, this place hasn’t bothered me as much as I thought it would. With the exception of that clap of thunder, obviously.”
“Nah, this is nothing. In the military, we’re required to spend an extended period in a hostile environment to polish our survival skills.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. Being alone is something we all have to learn.”
“I don’t think I could do that. Not alone. If you weren’t here, I’d have broken by now.”
“You’d be surprised what you’re capable of when you only have yourself to rely on. And I absolutely believe you’d survive.”
“Well, I appreciate your faith in me.”
“I’m not playing with you. You found your way here for shelter. You dragged my ass here. We survived because of you.”
“That was all luck. And if you hadn’t killed that big creature, I’d have died long before I could haul you here.”
“It was determination and resilience, Sam. Not luck. And I swear to the stars, if you keep talking down to yourself, I’m going to have to be more creative in showing you how much you’re capable of.”
I was too scattered to argue. And I had to admit that I didn’t want to. I liked hearing someone praise me for once. I loved the way he talked about me like I meant something. And deep down, I did know that we’d have probably died in the woods if I didn’t find the will to drag him down the river to the compound. I had to be proud of that.
Before I could say anything else, I felt Saleuk’s fingers in my hair again, and instantly, my muscles relaxed against him. I took a deep breath and let the gentle strokes of his fingers on my scalp lull me closer to sleep.
“I never minded taking care of you, Sam,” was the last thing I heard him whisper.
The next day passed without much excitement. I subtly found ways to avoid Saleuk while I contended with the embarrassment of having a panic attack because of thunder. I found myself staring up at the mountains as soon as the storm clouds cleared enough for me to see past the clearing. It was so quiet on that moon. So peaceful. I would have liked some simple luxuries like a change of clothes, a hairbrush, and some toiletries, but all that aside, it was like some twisted tropical vacation… without the hot tubs and bars.
Saleuk spent most of the day toying with his instruments so I took to the lakeside nearby to hunt for new specimens and things I could study while I still had time. After everything, I was at least going to leave that moon with the experience I wanted. Maybe more than I wanted, but I was trying to look on the bright side.
On the lake’s bank, I found plenty of little plants in all kinds of shapes and photographed each one with the remaining battery life on my data pad. While I was doing that, my wrist cuff kept a very detailed record of the terrain so I didn’t have to worry about getting lost. It was kind of freeing and for a few hours, I was so content I forgot I was stranded.
While I was snapping an artistic angle of a little tree with tiny yellow berries on it, I saw something moving amongst the blackish leaves. I stopped breathing, backing away a step in case I was about to encounter some kind of poisonous critter, but instead, I saw thin, blue fur creeping along a narrow branch. Itwas no bigger than my head with a long, thick tail that coiled around the branch as it moved. An oversized head with giant, round eyes twitched from one side to the other as it climbed with little hands toward a ripe cluster of berries.
When its head snapped toward me, huge ears turned like little antennae, showing off thin glowing veins.
It was adorable. It was like a little nocturnal monkey and the stupid little girl in me wanted to try and touch it.
“You’re not going to sprout spikes and jump on my face, are you?” I muttered.
The monkey sat down with the cluster of berries and started to eat, careless of my presence. So, with the last of my pad’s battery, I took a photo of the little critter as a reminder that not everything on that moon wanted to eat me.
