WORLD 4: AWAKENING

The four hours were incredibly peaceful.

After the initial excitement wore off, Baylen steadied the transport into a cruising speed and I focused on enjoying the ride. I knew I had to get the most I could out of the experience. I leaned my back against the seat, taking out my ponytail just to feel wind blowing through my hair again. It had been so long I’d completely forgotten what it was like.

Tendrils of blonde hair swirled around my face, tickling me as we sped across the land. Sunlight beat down onto my arm as I held it propped up on the side of the transport, almost stabbing into my skin with its intense warmth. The dirt churning underneath us sent plumes of grainy dust into the air. It was absolutely blissful. So much so that I didn’t feel upset about the situation with Athan anymore. If it weren’t for the ferocious animal attack, then Ty would have been on the expedition and I’d still be back at the Colony camp. On a normal day, I would have felt terrible for being happy at such a gruesome incident, but I couldn’t help it — racing through the wild on that transport was better than a dream.

The landscape changed every now and then from forest, to hills, to valleys. We passed a lake so gorgeous that I practically tweaked my neck from turning so hard to see it. The sunlight glinted beautifully on its surface; my face stayed glued in its direction until the lake was completely out of sight.

We came to our first stop in a valley. A wide stream wound its way through the floor of it, surrounded by a bountiful swath of vegetation that we drove into. Once out of the transports, Gabring began organizing us into teams.

“Here’s what we’re going to do, guys,” he said, stretching his back. “Baylen, I need you to go off with Brynn, while Mayla will go with Soren. I’ll stick with Aymin. Everyone has two hours, then return right back here to the transports.” He scanned our faces with a stern look. “Do not separate from your partner for any reason whatsoever, and make sure you get back on time. Got it?” We all nodded and smiled at each other in anticipation. Every single one of us was anxious to start exploring. Gabring turned to Wes and put on his most responsible-sounding tone. “Second Commander, will you stay here and keep guard?”

“That’s fine,” Wes answered in a short reply. He turned and began sauntering around the transports, checking out the scenery. I could only imagine how happy an outdoorsman like him must have been. Even if he wouldn’t let it show.

Soren grabbed my arm and practically dragged me off with him. “Let’s go, Mayla!” he shrieked cheerfully.

I trekked along with him away from our group, following the wide stream further down the valley. The water was clear and tumbled over rocks and fallen branches, making a sound like a tinkling song. I hadn’t heard anything like it for years. It was wonderful; I watched the stream in admiration almost like I was staring at a person I loved, adoring their every move.

I spent quite a while admiring the running water. Not paying attention to Soren, to what was ahead of me, to anything really besides how beautiful nature was. As soon as I came out of my stupor and back to reality, I turned around and realized that the transports were far out of sight. There was nobody around us — no people, no voices, no sign of technology anywhere…only an alien wilderness.

Soren was in his own little scientific world and didn’t seem to care, but I certainly did. It was like I could feel nature watching me from all directions. I inched my way a little closer to him and kept my eyes focused on the bushes and trees, watching for any kind of creature that could come rushing out at me. I kept one hand on the dagger’s handle at my hip at all times.

Soren had been babbling non-stop about science since we’d left. “And then I told Brynn I’d bet her my dessert for a month that we’d find out there are high oxygen levels in the water here,” he said and hurried on. “I mean, it was obvious from the scans but she wouldn’t believe me, so I reeeallly need to prove I’m right.” He gave a snort and looked to me for a response. I’d barely been paying attention to him. I lit up my face like he was hilarious.

Finally, we got to a pool in the stream. He pulled out an instrument of some kind from his vest.

“What is that?” I asked. For once it was something I was genuinely interested in.

He held it up; it was a hand-sized black box with an information screen on the front. A long, thin wire emerged from one end. “It’s a sensor we developed in the last couple of years on board.” He attached a weighted ball to the end of the wire. “I’m going to dip the sensor in the stream, and it will tell us exactly what kinds of things make up the freshwater here.” With a giddy look, Soren dropped the instrument into the pool and waited. Information began to light up brightly on the screen.

“What’s it saying?” I asked in a hushed voice, crouching down right next to him.

His face dropped in slight disappointment. “Oh, wow. Well, I was kind of right. It does have a lot of oxygen but not as much as I thought.” He held up a finger. “But! Brynn wasn’t totally right either…so I guess we just get to keep our own dessert.”

“If you want, you can both just give your desserts to me,” I joked. Soren pointed at me and chuckled with yet another snort.

While he stayed bent over his device, going over all kinds of information, I decided to wander around and explore a bit further. Just the immediate area; my courage wasn’t even close to being high enough to venture off by myself. Up ahead further, I spotted a tree. It was enormous and commanding, with rough, brown bark and thick roots breaking out from the ground. Its giant branches spread out in every direction and were covered in light green leaves.

“Wow,” I breathed as I came closer.

I realized that I hadn’t touched a tree in eight years. Although I’d been in one the previous day to hide, my mind had been so focused on escaping the huge creature that I’d barely even noticed the actual tree itself. The one ahead of me by the stream was so majestic it took a few moments for me to really take in its beauty.

Standing close to its trunk, I ran my hands over its hard, crunchy, scaly bark, even putting my cheek to it, closing my eyes and inhaling its scent: a heavy, rough smell, mixed with the odor of a kind of sap. A breeze whooshed a peaceful sound through its leaves that made my heart soar. It was a beautiful moment.

A sound coming from my left jerked me back to attention immediately. There was something coming out of the bushes. Right away, my dagger was drawn and ready; I turned to face the noise, body rigid with fear, preparing to fight to the death. I gasped in relief as I saw that the killer I’d prepared for was something quite smaller. It was gray, about the size of a baby, with enormous ears — the thing definitely came off as alien. It scurried its way past me and into another thicket of bushes without a second glance.

I exhaled loudly, my head hanging, my heart rate trying to recover. My dagger hand relaxed to my side. I didn’t put the weapon away, though — the animal may have been small and innocent, but all it did was remind me that we weren’t the only living creatures out there.

“Mayla!” I heard Soren’s voice from upstream. “Come here quick!”

I sprinted back to him, worried about more wildlife and wishing desperately that Gabring and his ABW were there to protect us. But Soren wasn’t afraid, he was astonished. His eyes were wide and his hands were covered in dirt from the small hole he’d dug in front of him.

“What is it?!” I asked through terrified breaths.

“I thought I saw something sticking out from the ground and I found this!” He held up the object in his hand. It was a short, skinny bone of some kind.

“Whoa!” I cried and threw myself to my knees next to him, fear replaced by wonder. I put my dagger back in its sheath. “Let me see!”

I turned over the dirty bone in my fingers, examining it in wonder. “This doesn’t look like it’s from a person, right?” It didn’t seem like a bone from any people we knew of, at least. But there was no way at that point to know what exactly had once inhabited the planet.

“It looks more like animal, but I guess we won’t know for sure until we find out more about this place.” He grabbed the bone from me and took a second device from his vest. It was another small black box, similar to the other one he’d used. “I can tell you how old it is, though.”

“Really?” I said and crouched closer to him. “How can you do that?”

Soren slid open the top of the box and placed it on the ground. Using his dagger, he began scraping tiny pieces of the bone into it. “I just put a sample of the bone inside, and the device will tell us the approximate age.” After a few more hard scrapes, he slid the box closed again and pressed a button in the top corner. The screen began to light up in a pulsing red.

“What’s it doing?” I whispered.

“It’s calculating.”

After a few more seconds, the top illuminated into a bright white and information began to come up.

“Wow,” he said.

“What? What does it say?!”

“It says this is three thousand years old.”

“Oh, wow,” I said, astonished. “That’s unbelievable.”

Soren stood with the box and shrugged. “I’m not sure, we had animal bones on our planet much older than this one, so I don’t know if three thousand years is significant or not.”

I rose as well and dusted my hands off on my gray pants. “Aren’t ones that old usually buried deeper than this?”

“Not always. It just depends on erosion and weather, that kind of thing. Once we get more information about the planet, we can piece things together and see if this bone is significant in any way.”

“Right,” I said. “Oh hey, our time is up soon, we need to get back.”

Soren looked disappointed. “Alright, but I’m taking this, Brynn will be so jealous!” He stuffed the bone into his vest with a giggle. I had to wonder if there was something going on between the two of them; she’s all I ever heard him talk about besides science. “Hey, can you hold this for me?” he asked and held out the little box he’d just used for the bone. “My pockets are too full of samples.”

“Sure.” I took it from him and stuffed it inside one of my lower vest pockets. “Let’s get going.”

I kept a tight grip on my dagger until the transports came into view. Wes was leaning against the side of one of them, in a conversation with Gabring. Baylen and Brynn were just walking in from the opposite direction.

Soren took off running to meet her. “Brynn, you’re gonna die when you see what I found!”

“How was your time with Soren?” Baylen asked as he strolled up to me, hands in his pockets.

“Good, we found a bone out there which was pretty interesting. What about you?”

He shrugged. “Just some leaves and dirt and things. You know, super exciting stuff.”

I smiled. “Wow, I’m so jealous, Bay.”

He pointed at my dagger. “I’m surprised you don’t have a death grip on that right now. I know you’re nervous being out here.”

“Hey!” I cried in defense. “It’s not like you’re any more comfortable than I am. You went through a pretty traumatic experience, too.”

He just laughed in response and kept his eyes on me.

“Let’s get moving!” shouted Gabring.

Everyone present began to gather up supplies we’d taken out. Wes jumped over to help me, very relieved to get away from Aymin who’d caught him and been describing his findings in great, boring detail. We then climbed back into our transports and got moving again.

Our two hours to the next spot were just as pleasant as before. Once in a while, Baylen and Ty would sneak their way into my thoughts which drove me crazy; I shut my eyes for the last part of our trip, relaxing and trying not to think about anything besides how good the breeze and sunlight felt.

Baylen poked me as soon as we crawled to a stop. “Wake up!”

I swatted his hand away. “I’m awake, you idiot!”

“Relax, it’s okay to sleep on the job sometimes.” He looked to Wes and laughed, then jumped out. “Let me help you, May,” he said.

“I can get out myself, it’s fine,” I said and avoided looking at him. I knew if he touched me it might start to get weird again. He grabbed onto me anyway, holding my upper arm while I eased myself to the ground.

“You’re stubborn, you know,” he said. I couldn’t stop myself from making eye contact; he was looking at me in that way again. I gave a very short smile, then turned and walked away as fast as I could without making it too obvious.

We spent the next couple of hours setting up camp and organizing supplies. Each of us had our own personal shelter, spread out equidistant in a circle. The shelters were really just beds on the ground, with four flimsy, white walls made of fabricated material that went up a couple of feet on each side. Science Lev had lined each bed with several layers of the same cloth as our warming shirts, including a blanket to huddle under. Our main source of heat was a warming box that Tech Lev had invented: it was a large, foldable cube that emitted as much heat as an actual fire.

After a bland fabricated dinner that resembled some kind of gray vegetable stew, the sun dipped low and the air chilled rapidly. It wasn’t too bad — in fact, it was fun to be able to wear actual coats. Up until the night before, nobody had needed one for eight years, so being able to wear one out in the wild made everything feel even more real than before. Soren actually choked on his water, he was so excited when the time came.

Eventually, everyone made it into their beds and disappeared behind their shelter walls. But not me. The darkness was making me too anxious. I sat up just like I’d done on the boulder the previous night, arms around my knees and my mind lost in thought. The warming box glowed a soft white as it emitted heat that I could just barely feel. I stared into it with way too much on my mind.

Soren and Brynn were across from me with their heads poking out from their shelter walls, sneaking in a quiet conversation. I could hear Wes snoring lightly a couple of beds away.

“You okay?” Baylen asked casually from the bed next to mine. His head stuck up from the low wall.

I startled. “Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry if I was keeping you up at all, I’ll go to bed now.” I tried to flash him a smile.

He carefully stepped out of his shelter, then crouched down by mine before I could lay down. “You’re scared of being out in the open because of what happened to Athan, aren’t you?”

My silence confirmed it. Although it was only partially true — I was also having a hard time with sleep because of my stupid, complicated personal life.

“I’ll stay with you,” he said and stepped over my wall before I could argue.

“What?” I said and held up my hands. “Seriously, it’s fine, Baylen. Please don’t.”

He squeezed himself into my shelter and pulled me to the ground next to him. “It’ll help me, too. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to sleeping out in the open, either.”

I grumbled a little bit; I couldn’t have him lying next to me if I wanted to avoid another situation that might lead to kissing. But I also didn’t want to be alone. Hesitantly, I turned over to face away from him as he settled himself underneath the blanket behind me.

I shut my eyes and finally admitted the reality of the situation: I had feelings for Baylen. They were strong ones and definitely confusing. I really didn’t know what to do with them, but whatever they were, the easiest thing was to figure out how I could simply get rid of them and go back to normal.

We were close together in the single bed. He put his arm around me and leaned his forehead against the back of my head. I clenched my eyes even more tightly as my heart beat faster with his touch. I hated that I liked how it felt.

His hand moved to my arm and he grabbed hold of it gently, stroking it with his thumb. “Mayla, we need to talk about this,” he said quietly in my ear.

“We can’t, not yet.”

“But —”

I grimaced in guilt. “Please, Bay. I promise we will later, just not tonight.”

He paused, then let go of me, pulling his arm back to him.

Frustration practically made me scream out loud. The guilt was unbearable — guilt for loving the way Baylen’s arm felt around me, and guilt for pushing it away and hurting him. The situation was hard, no matter which way I went with it.

However my brain was leaning, I couldn’t stand the thought of making Baylen upset. Reaching back, I grabbed his hand and pulled it over me again, lacing my fingers through his. He pulled me in closer to him, and I involuntarily smiled at the comfort he brought to me. Finally, I felt safe.