Page 1 of Tharn's Hunt
Chapter 1
HOW TO GET LOST IN 10 EASY STEPS (A SURVIVAL GUIDE BY JACQUI “SHOULD'VE STAYED HOME” PARKER)
JACQUI
The desert holds twenty-seven ways to die. Dehydration? Check. Heatstroke from the hateful glare of this planet’s massive sun? Oh, we’re well acquainted. Spontaneous combustion? Give it an hour. But today, I’m aiming for something more creative. Likecomposing a scathing one-star review in my head.'Ambiance is oppressively hot, and the staff is nonexistent. 0/10, would not die here again.'
It’s the petty victories that keep you going.
But hey, at least the view’s great. If you like sand. And despair. And more sand.
My sister, Justine, had vanished into this orange-hued wasteland weeks ago. I’d followed, of course, because that’s what I do. She’s the trailblazer; I’m the sarcastic cleanup crew. The rest of the crash survivors thought I was insane to leave the relative safety of the transport bus, but they didn't know Jus. Stubborn doesn’t even begin to cover it.
“Jus,” I croak, my voice scraping past a throat full of sand as I shade my eyes. The massive sun above continuously bakes the sky a permanent shade of bruised yellow, indifferent to my pain.“If you’re alive—and you better be—I’m going to strangle youwith my bare hands.”
I reach the rock formation she’d set out for and collapse in its shade. “Justine? Jus!”
Silence.
The only answer is the whisper of wind over dunes. Of course. Because why would my life be that easy?
My legs tremble. My lungs burn. The air is so thin and dry it feels like I’m breathing in glass dust. And my brain is too fried to think of anything except how good it feels to stop moving.
I scan the area, turning my head left and right, hoping to see Justine waltz around the corner with her usual “I’ve got this” grin.
“Jus?” My voice croaks out again. Still nothing.
Great. Just fantastic. I press my palms to my face, the sting of tiny sand grains making me want to scream. I do scream, but it's a silent, energy-conserving one, my head thrown back.
“Fucking COME ON! Why don’t you just fuck me and be done with it?!” I don’t know who I’m talking to. The sun? The planet itself? All I know is I didn’t walk all this way for more sand. At least give me a mirage. A hot alien with a water bottle would be nice. I’m not picky!
“Justine!” I shout for real this time, the name swallowed by the vast emptiness. The silence that follows is so absolute it feels heavy. Just me and the stupid desert.
I press my palms to my eyes again, forcing the tears back. Crying won’t help. Justine wouldn’t cry. She’d keep going. She’d find me if the roles were reversed.
So that’s what I’ll do. I’ll find her.
I push myself to my feet, legs wobbling like overcooked spaghetti. The shade of the rock formation is tempting me to sit back down and play dead for a while, but I can’t.
Then comes a dark thought. Justine’s been out here alone for weeks?—
Nope! Not today, Satan. My sister isn’t dead. She’s annoyingly resilient. Like a cockroach, but prettier because hey, we’re family.
I shuffle around the rock formation, scanning the ground for any sign she was here. But there are no footprints. No discarded ration pack. No alien skeleton with a note pinned to its ribs saying, “Your sister went thataway.”
“Cool. Love this for me,” I mumble, kicking a tiny rock that barely moves because even my kicks are pathetic now.
But then, something catches my eye. A tiny glint in the sand. I freeze, my heart thudding in my chest. It could be nothing. It probablyisnothing. But I’m desperate enough to investigate.
I drop to my knees, brushing away the sand with trembling fingers, and there it is. Tiny. Pink-and-gold.
My breath halts in my chest.
Justine’s earring.
The little butterfly one that belonged to Mom. The one with the impossibly flimsy clasp.
I clutch it in my hand and press it against my chest. Relief crashes over me so hard I gasp. She was here. She was alive. She made it this far. But the relief curdles into dread.Why would she leave this? She’d sooner leave a kidney.
