Phoenix Arise: YA Sci-fi Thriller (From the Ashes Book 1) Read online

  Sam was worse. According to the device, his heart rate was too fast, he was losing fluids rapidly from his wounds, and his respirations were slowing. In other words, he barely clung to life.

  My medical kit included bandages, antibiotic ointment, a bottle of aspirin, and a few rolls of sterile gauze. Kids in my class had laughed at me when I packed it, calling my kit a relic. What did they know? Plain old ointment healed some wounds as well as fancy equipment, and aspirin had been used on Earth longer than anyone remembered. Old-fashioned stuff worked. It wasn’t like Administration would give me narcs or expensive devices.

  Turning to the Captain, I pulled out a bandage, wondering where to start. I stared at it for a long time before putting it away. Even if I applied all of them, I didn’t have enough to cover a fraction of her wounds. She needed a hospital’s supply of gauze for that.

  Tiff slumped on the ground beside me while I squinted at the diagnostic screen. “Bad?” At my nod, she held out her hand. “Want me to recalibrate it?”

  Ever the techie. “I doubt that’ll make much difference.”

  With her chin resting on my shoulder, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  I wrapped my arms around her waist, allowing my tears to leak through just this once. But I couldn’t allow myself to mourn long. People needed me. With a shudder, I sat back on my heels and wiped my face. I handed her the ointment I’d promised earlier. “Put this on your burn. It’ll take the sting away and help prevent infection.”

  “Thanks.”

  Trey stumbled over and lay on the ground beside Tiff, resting his head on her lap. She stroked his forehead, and moonlight glinted off her eyelashes.

  “Why don’t you two get some sleep?” I said quietly. “I’ll stay awake with the wounded.”

  Tiff yawned as she rubbed the cream onto her burn. “When they said to expect some stasis lag, I never thought it meant this.” Her eyelids drooped. “You want me to stay awake with you?” Her solemn gaze swept across Captain Blackmine. “I will if you need me.”

  “I’m okay. Thanks, though.”

  “Wake me in a bit, and I’ll take a turn watching them.” She nudged Trey off her lap. “I swear, I’m so tired I could sleep a week. Hell, make that two weeks.” She crawled over and snuggled into Mandy’s back. Trey joined her, sharing warmth.

  A short time later, Sam groaned. His eyes opened, and his gaze met Malik’s.

  Malik’s hand tightened on his friend’s, and he whispered, “You can do it, buddy. Come on. Pull through this. Please.”

  Sam’s lungs rose and released, rose, and released. The movement slowed and became shallow until no further breaths followed.

  Malik’s lips thinned as he closed his friend’s eyelids. Catching the anguish on his face stopped my pulse. He tipped his head back and stared at the sky, and a long sigh bled from his lungs.

  Blinking back tears, I dropped beside him. I slid my arms around his waist and pulled him into me. With a groan, he rested his face on my shoulder. His breath heaved, and his body shook. Seeing him this broken splintered my heart into a billion pieces. I wasn’t sure I could stand it.

  He leaned away from me, his dark eyes searching mine. Reaching up, he stroked the side of my face with his knuckles before sliding his hand down to cup my shoulder. I closed my eyes and savored the feel of his touch, something real and solid in a world that had fallen apart.

  “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “I’m sorry about Sam.” Useless words. Nothing could replace the loss of a friend.

  Malik leaned forward and placed his lips on mine. Tentative as if he feared I’d jerk away.

  I didn’t. I couldn’t. He felt good. Normal. I needed this, the touch of another human being. It was reckless. Wonderful. Wild. My lips parted, and I inched into his chest while his arms sheltered me from the nightmare around us.

  We pulled apart and blinked at each other. I wasn’t sure who was more surprised by what had happened, him or me.

  This wasn’t the time. We couldn’t. We shouldn’t.

  “We’ll talk later,” he said.

  At my nod, he turned back to Sam.

  I got up and settled beside the Captain with a water pack from my bag. Lifting her head, I trickled some onto her lips. The moisture slid down her cheek and dripped on the sand. Her eyes didn’t open. She didn’t move or make a sound. Only periodic quivers shook her frame. Moisture seeped from her wounds, stealing what little body heat remained. To live, she needed IV fluids, antibiotics, painkillers. In short, a miracle.

  Something we were fresh out of.

  My eyes met Malik’s, his filled with sorrow. I shook my head, and he nodded, his gaze moving across the Captain. What a crappy wanna-be doctor I was. My first real patient and I couldn’t do a damned thing for her.

  After draping one of my t-shirts over her chest, I tipped my head back and stared at the stars, wishing there was something, anything I could do to make this better.

  She never woke.

  Chapter Eight

  Sometime later, Malik knelt beside me, his face cratered with grief. “Gone?”

  My lungs shuddered, and I nodded.

  “You know,” he said. “Captain Blackmine saved our lives. Those who made it out of the ship, anyway.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Her unit had no clip,” he said. “Remember? She joined us in the mid-chamber after she piloted us to the outer atmosphere.” He shook his head. “Imagine setting up your own stasis induction. Must have been tricky. When we crashed, she got me out. I could see right away she was burned, so I helped her to the door and came back for you and whoever else I could find.”

  She’d saved us, only to die herself. “What should we do now?”

  “Bury her and Sam.” Our green moon shone down, highlighting the ash on his face. He coughed, a deep, rattling sound that echoed in the gully. Someone mumbled and rolled over.

  “We can’t bury them here.” I waved to the others. “One, it will freak everyone out in the morning, and two, we’re in a desert. If deserts here are like Earth’s, they’re cold at night and hot during the day. We can’t have them rotting nearby. We’ll get sick.”

  “Agreed.” He squinted up the hillside. “But we won’t stay where we are. We’ll go back to the ship at first light and wait for rescue.”

  I perked up. “You think the colonists will be here soon? My dad is with them.” If only they’d swoop in with blankets, food, water, and most of all, reassurance. We’d be okay, assuming okay was possible any longer.

  “They’ll be here.” Confidence filled his voice. He leaned back on his hands and stretched his legs out in front of him. “Our ship must have notified them we made it. You can bet the homing device implanted in the hull will bring them running. By morning, if not sooner.”

  “Assuming we see morning here.”

  He waved toward the dunes. “Plants need light to grow. The sun will rise.”

  “I’ll hold you to it.” His words relieved some of my tension until I remembered seeing no lights when we walked. Where was the colony? Not anywhere near our current location, that was certain. “What’ll we do if no one comes for us?”

  He coughed again. “We’ll figure something out. No matter what we decide, it won’t include hanging out in the desert.” He waved at the Captain. “Can you carry her arms if I get her legs?”

  “Let’s wake some of the others to help.”

  He grunted. “Let ‘em sleep. You and I can handle it.”

  “Okay. But let me check on Joe and Mandy first.”

  He nodded.

  My muscles protested when I moved as if they knew what I planned to ask of them already.

  I dropped down beside my brother and was reassured by his even breathing. Mandy also slept, and I was grateful they could escape in their dreams. I rose and returned to Malik, holding back my groan. Taking the bodies for burial meant carrying them uphill. My legs still trembled from my previous efforts, but I guessed I had some oomph left in m
e to help a friend.

  He extended his hand, and I let him haul me off the ground.

  “Okay.” He moved around to the Captain’s feet, and I grabbed her arms. We trudged up the dune, heading away from the ship. The slide of my feet in the loose gravel sent stones clicking down the hillside.

  We trudged along the ridge for a few minutes before lowering her to the ground.

  Moving away from her body, I slumped on the sand and rubbed my eyes. They stung from smoke and lack of sleep and wouldn’t stop weeping. My breathing created white clouds in the air that dissipated in seconds. Exhaustion hovered in a pall around me. I wanted to lie back and drift off, catch some shut-eye like everyone else did. But the steady breeze slapping my damp clothes against my body told me I’d be a shivering wreck in no time.

  Malik stood nearby, feet spread, hands at his sides.

  A twig snapped. With my heart bursting up into my throat, I leaned around him, but saw nothing but endless desert. It must have been a creature scurrying in the other direction. Like a rabbit or a mouse. If Eris had creatures like that.

  Not that we had much to fear about anything bigger than a rabbit. Drones had surveyed each world in advance and sent back information the project leaders used to select habitable planets. Small stuff lived on Eris. Only a few deer, they’d said. No people other than us, they’d said. No big predators to swoop in and drag us away. So they’d said.

  I needed to stop this channel of thought immediately. If I gave in, fear would snatch me up and haul me into the desert. “Can we bury her here?”

  Malik lowered himself beside me. “Sure.”

  We stared into the night. Even this high up, I couldn’t see a thing. No lights. No movement that meant rescue was underway. Only our two moons shone, plus a ton of new stars streaking across the heavens, like I’d tossed a handful of diamonds into the air and they’d stuck.

  After resting some more, we moved Captain Blackmine beyond a large pile of rocks, where the ground was extra soft. We dug a deep depression in the sand with sticks, flat rocks, and our hands, and then lowered her inside. Returning for Sam, we lowered him into the same hole. Somehow, it seemed kinder to bury them together, even if they hadn’t known each other in life. At least they wouldn’t be alone in death.

  I leaned back on my heels, staring at the mound. Lungs tight, I could barely breathe. My poor fellow colonists, buried in an unmarked grave on a planet far from home with no one but us to mourn their passing.

  “We need rocks.” Malik interrupted my sorrow. “To keep animals from digging them up.”

  Like Eris’s version of rabbits and mice?

  My fingers twitched. Rocks. Yeah, we definitely needed rocks. The idea of predators, even small ones, made my sweat dry in a flash.

  Malik settled the last one over the bodies. I wrapped my arms around my waist, hugging my belly so nothing could leap up and gut me. I darted my eyes around but didn’t see anything I needed to worry about. “Do you think something could come after us?”

  Malik straightened and wiped his hands on his thighs. “I haven’t seen tracks, and I looked around after we settled for the night.”

  My teeth chattered. “Bbb…but how could you see? It’s dark.”

  “My eyes adjusted and…I just had to, you know?”

  I nodded. “I know I already said it,” I said. “But I’m sorry about what happened to Sam.”

  Malik twitched. “Thanks.” He dragged one boot-clad foot in the sand. “Losing buddies seems to happen to me too often.”

  Secrets there, for sure. I wouldn’t pry. I kept plenty of my own wrapped snug inside. Why shouldn’t Malik?

  I turned and started back to our encampment, and Malik caught up and walked beside me.

  Poor Captain Blackmine and Sam, left behind in a sandy grave.

  Sixteen had survived our ship’s crash, but now we were fourteen.

  Chapter Nine

  I opened my eyes a while later, unsure what had dragged me awake. Joe or Mandy having nightmares? Tiff’s burned arm must be painful. Or it could be the strangeness of our new world messing with my mind. Hardly surprising after all I’d been through.

  But they slept on, locked in stasis lag. Joe twitched and his breathing picked up, but then he relaxed, swallowed by his dreams.

  Damn, I had to pee. The green moon had followed its brother below the horizon and darkness filled the void left behind. Grabbing my glolight, I raced up the hillside in the opposite direction from where we’d buried the bodies. At the top, an icy breeze raised goosebumps. After flashing my light around to make sure no one hovered nearby, I tugged my durasuit off my body.

  Ugh. Nothing like doing it out in the open or sharing my butt with whoever wanted a peek. Not that I expected peekers, but still. I dressed with stiff, aching fingers. As I headed back, I flicked my light around, hoping to pick up signs of human habitation, anything to prove the colony was near, but I found nothing.

  The fire in the ship had died back to a dull glow. Only an infinite canvas of stars walked with me. Two whizzed by, followed by another. Like I’d heard they did on Earth long ago, I closed my eyes and made a wish on the falling stars.

  Let rescue come soon…keep us safe…keep Riley in the desert forever. Three wishes for two stars, but who was counting?

  Sitting beside my brother, I went through the clothing I’d packed. I laid my jacket over Joe. Mandy got a long-sleeved shirt, as did Malik. I pulled the third over my durasuit. Cold had sunken so far into me, my jaw rattled. Tiff got one of my tees. Not waking, she sighed and snuggled it into her chin. Lying down, I pressed my back into Joe and tried to recapture the sweet spot of sleep.

  Insects chirped, and the cooing of what I hoped were night birds echoed in the distance. Small creatures rustled somewhere nearby, but rather than scare me, the sounds were soothing. Eris called to me like a living being, enticing me with its endless promise. I drifted along the crest of a wonderful dream filled with Dad’s hugs, unlimited food, and rivers of clear, drinkable water. Pretty much utopia.

  A short howl shocked me awake. Fear prickled my skin as I scrambled for my glolight. I rose onto my haunches and slashed the beam back and forth like a blade, but the night swallowed it whole. Fight or flight urged me to run.

  I couldn’t tell if the sound had come from close by, or if it had been carried across the desert on the wind. If it was the colonists or Dad, they’d holler loud enough to wake us, which meant it had to be something else.

  While Malik hadn’t seen signs of anything big, he hadn’t checked the entire desert. With his military background, he could be a great tracker, but no one was infallible.

  What should I do? Realizing that my anxiety must be groundless, I inhaled. Counted to three. Exhaled. I had nothing to worry about. The sound was something benign. But that pesky voice inside me shouted I could be wrong. Dead wrong. In my life, I’d learned security was a mirage. Safe places harbored hunters, and I had become the hunted.

  Silence reigned until the insects resumed their whirring chorus. I lay back down, facing Joe, determined to put this aside and get some sleep. He mumbled. Tiff snorted and yanked my shirt over her head. The bodies huddled around me drifted through their stasis-induced dreams, oblivious to my fear.

  A sharp crunch plunged down the hillside, sending my heart into overdrive. Rolling over, I rose to a crouch. I clicked on my glolight and shot the beam in wide arcs.

  Nothing. Again.

  Go back to sleep, Lesha.

  Jumping at every sound would only lead to exhaustion. Besides, if there was anything out there, it was a rabbit-ish thing. Or a mouse like Joe’s, creeping along the sand. Hungry. Looking for a bite to eat. My stomach growled. Yup, like me. Hungry. I clicked my glolight off to preserve the juice. When the sun came up, the solar battery would charge. I didn’t want to waste what little energy remained.

  A third crack came from the dunes above us. My yelp choked off in my throat, wedged in place by dread.

  “All right,” I whispe
red. “Why don’t you trot up the hill, check it out, and prove there’s nothing out there? Then, you can go back to sleep.” My fellow survivors snored around me. Someone mumbled as if they agreed. Exhaling some of the tension I’d trapped in my lungs, I stomped from our camp, grumbling about stupid creatures disturbing my much-needed rest.

  Hey. What if I nabbed one as it ran by? We could cook it for breakfast. At this point, a roasted rabbit sounded yummy.

  As I huffed, my mind screamed I was wrong to do this by myself. If I wasn’t careful, I’d wind up dead like those expendable girls in Tiff’s horror vids who had to see what was over the next rise.

  I ignored the voice. Nothing here but Eris’s version of bunnies.

  When I reached the hilltop, I couldn’t see anything. I snapped my light on and dragged it across the dunes.

  “Here, bunny, bunny, bunny,” I said. “Come play with Lesha. I’ve got a tasty game for you.” No bunnies. No mice. No nothin’. With a shrug, I strolled along the crest. Pulling my knife, I clicked the blade free and tightened my fist around the handle. “Here, bunny, bunny, bunny.”

  Ahead of me, something shifted. A low shriek made me jump. The scrape, like a feral cat’s claws on tile, spiked tension down my spine.

  Crunching brought me to a complete stall.

  I squinted, trying to place the sound. My mind flashed through creepy scenarios, complete with bodies stomping my way with their arms raised and their teeth dripping blood.

  Recognizing my location, I directed my beam toward the grave. Green circles reflected back at me.

  What the…? My heart leaped against my ribcage. My brain screamed RUN.

  I shook off the impulse. Talk about scaring myself. What if it was something shiny, like mica or glass? If Eris had mica or glass. No need to run from something like that. Perhaps the wind had blown the sand off the bodies, and my light had reflected off a durasuit zipper. That had to be it.

  My stomach churned at the thought of Sam and Captain Blackmine exposed to the weather. A decent person would do the right thing.