Terror. That was the only word, the only sensation, she could think of to describe the events of the last half hour or so. Running frantically through the corridors of the transport shuttle with other frightened people; somehow being shoved into an escape pod and being confined in it, alone; that had been frightening, confusing. Reentry in the escape pod had been terrifying.
But now, standing on the gentle slope of a low mountain on the colony planet she had been traveling to, but nowhere near the colony, terror truly set in. It was no longer an emotion, it was a fact. And the terrible truth was that the colony could be completely on the other side of the planet.
Her knees gave out and she sank to the ground. She was still shaking and she couldn’t make it stop. There was no way she could survive this. She didn’t know anything. She didn’t know what had happened on the ship, or how to gut the pod to make something to call for help, or how to survive on the planet. Did the pod have a radio or transmitter? She couldn’t find one. And her expertise was reading. Teaching reading. She was a teacher, and a brand new one at that.
So here she was, Rayli Lindsley, in the middle of the most terrifying experience of her life. She had imagined worse things happening, if that were possible, and she had always imagined handling the situation with grace and wisdom. She never imagined that she would cry, utterly in a panic.
It took a while, but she finally stopped shaking and crying. She stood up and looked around. The mountains to the west were low compared to others she had seen, and a large, sloping valley separated them from the mountains at her back. The whole area reminded her of the basin and range terrain back on Earth, particularly in Arizona.
The familiar settings reminded her of her Arizona home, and a small amount of fear left her. The rule for surviving in the Arizona desert, she knew, was to stay put and wait for the rescue teams to come. But were the rules the same for another planet? Was there a search going on for her? Probably not, she decided, and made up her mind to set out in the morning.
The sun, more orange than sol, was setting, and it made peculiar combinations of colors appear in the sky. Rayli curled up in the escape pod for the night, but she didn’t sleep well. Nightmares of dieing alone or being attacked by some horrible alien creature woke her several times, and strange sounds made it hard for her to fall asleep again. During these times she prayed, and she shivered, more from fear than cold. So she was up early preparing to start walking.
She had decided to head out across the valley and see what was on the other side of those mountains. She picked up the small survival kit, stepped out of the pod, and froze. Standing a few feet from the hatch was a man carrying what looked like high tech prospector’s equipment. His worn cloths were covered in dust.
“Wow,” the man said, concern and surprise on his face. “Were you in there when it crashed?”
“Yes. Oh, you don’t know how happy I am to see you! I didn’t think there was anyone out here. I was just going to walk over to those mountains to look for the colony. How far away is it?”
“Oh, ten miles or so, but not that way. There’s nothing over there. The colony settlements are east, just over these foot hills. It’s a good thing I came along. You probably would have died if you had gone west.”
“Thank God,” Rayli sighed, genuinely meaning it as a prayer. How close her nightmares had been to coming true! “Will you lead me to the colony?” she asked the man.
“Of course I will. You know, you must have been praying yesterday, too. An Angel must be protecting you.”
Rayli nodded. She almost didn’t know what to say. The feelings of terror and shock from the evening were being replaced by wonder. But there was also a deepening feeling of non-reality. Everything had happened so fast. She felt that there was some detail she was missing or forgetting.
“This way,” the man said, “It should only take us a few hours to get there; maybe three or four at the most. I’m Michael, by the way. You can call me Mike.”
“I’m Rayli Lindsley.”
“Oh, you’re the new school teacher. Everyone in the colony is talking about you.
“Small colony,” Rayli said, smiling for the first time since the panic began on board the transport.
“You have no idea. But more than that, they all think you’re dead.”
“What? Why? What happened to the transport?” Rayli stammered the questions, almost unable to breath.
“Well, from what they know so far, there was a fire, or a malfunction of some kind. Section-D was sealed by the computer and depressurized. The escape pods malfunctioned too. Everyone in Section-D died. They said you were in that section, and they’re upset about losing you.”
“Yes, I was in that Section. How did you hear all of this?”
“Breaking news last night on the local channel,” Mike pulled a Palm-TV from his pocket. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Did you have friends or family in that Section with you?”
“I made some new friends…there were hundreds of people in Section-D…”
“It’s a miracle you survived.”
Mike chattered now and then for the next few hours while they walked, but Rayli couldn’t remember most of what he said. She was in a numb haze that protected her from feeling. She just walked. The terror had not been hers alone.
Finally Mike stopped. “Follow this dry stream bed around that hill and you’ll find the outskirts of the settlement. I have to get back to work.”
“Thank you.”
-
“I’m sorry Miss Lindsley, but we don’t know who you’re talking about. We can’t find anyone else named Michael in the whole colony, not even considering nick names or middle names. You’ve met them all. I don’t know who could have been out there wandering around in the desert, but you sure are lucky you found your way here.”
She had been in the colony for two weeks, and she was beginning to believe that she had imagined Mike. That night as she fell asleep, she prayed, “Lord, who was he? How did I escape when so many died?”
-
It was a dream. Thankfully she realized that immediately. She was reliving the whole thing, but this time she was calm and could see it all clearly. There was no distortion from fear to make her miss details.
Everyone was running around frantically trying to get out of Section-D. But hatches, airlocks, and even escape pods would not open. People yelled, cried, and screamed at each other as they tried to escape. Rayli was running with the rest of them.
Then she saw one man out of place. He stood calmly, hands in his pockets. It was Michael, dressed like all the other travelers. But he wasn’t a traveler. He was there for her, waiting next to a malfunctioning escape pod hatch.
Rayli hadn’t noticed him the first time. And as she ran by him, the hatch to the escape pod opened. Mike pushed her inside and closed the hatch. Rayli looked through the small window on the hatch just in time to see him activate the pod and disappear.
Copyright © 2005 Jamie Beck
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Page created: April 2, 2005