Reality became a whirlwind, twisting and shifting from one place to the next, warping my sense of self in a tide of light and sound that bent and distorted in ways that defied logic. It felt as though space itself were folding inward, stretching and contorting in some erratic, chaotic dance. My vision blurred, my stomach churned, and for a moment I couldn't tell whether I was falling, floating, or somehow standing perfectly still.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the madness ceased. The world finally snapped back into place, and solid ground reappeared beneath me.
Stumbling forward, I gasped for breath, dragging in a lungful of air after what felt like an eternity. Then, out of nowhere, a strange sensation sparked to life along my spine. It grew hotter and hotter until a searing pain flared across my upper back.
Hissing, my hands shot to my neck as if I could grab whatever was causing it, only for my fingers to brush against something foreign. It felt almost as though someone had burned a pattern into my skin.
But before my mind had time to make sense of that, another wave of nausea hit me.
I doubled over, barely managing to stagger a few steps before heaving up the remains of my last meal onto the golden sand below. My body trembled, sweat slicking my skin despite the lingering chill clawing at my flesh. Gritting my teeth, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and forced myself upright.
The moment I lifted my head, a wave of blinding light slammed into my vision. Wincing, I instinctively threw up an arm to shield my eyes, squinting against the overwhelming brightness. I adjusted my stance and turned slightly, trying not to stare directly at the sun.
…Wait.
No, that wasn't right.
There wasn't just one sun.
There were two.
The realization hit me like a sledgehammer, momentarily overriding my disorientation as I stared at the twin celestial bodies hanging high above, their combined radiance casting long shadows across the shifting dunes.
Slowly, I lowered my arm as my vision adjusted to the alien landscape around me.
Golden sand stretched endlessly in every direction, broken only by jagged rock formations jutting from the earth like the bones of some long-forgotten titan. Their sharp edges carved eerie silhouettes against the unnatural sky.
"This… this isn't Mars," I muttered over the gentle but ever-present wind.
But if this wasn't Mars, then where was I?
Just then, a groggy voice cut through the confusion.
"W-where are we?" Benjamin rasped from somewhere off to the side.
Turning sharply, I froze in stunned disbelief at the sight of the others sprawled across the sand. Some groaned. Some stirred. Others were only just beginning to regain consciousness.
Ella stood a short distance away, staring up at the twin suns in stunned silence.
Emily, on the other hand, couldn't stop shaking.
Exhaling slowly, I rubbed at the lingering ache at the base of my neck, second-guessing everything I was seeing. Really, who wouldn't? Nothing about this made sense. Two suns. Breathable air. And the strange marking.
My thoughts snagged on that last part as my fingertips drifted over the six distinct lines etched into my skin, spiraling inward like a twisted brand.
How did I get this mark?
And where was—
My heart skipped a beat as I reached for my Burst Rifle, only to realize I wasn't in my exoskeleton.
Oh crap.
Of all the things to lose.
I looked around, even though I already knew I wasn't going to find it. Yet some stubborn part of me still hoped it might have somehow landed nearby.
But it hadn't.
Still, a small wave of relief washed over me when my fingers brushed against the familiar hilt of my knife strapped securely to my side.
It wasn't my rifle.
But it was something.
And right now, that was better than facing the unknown completely defenseless.
As I glanced around, I realized we were all in the same predicament. Then my eyes landed on Amelia. Unlike the rest of us, she still had a handgun strapped to her waist.
At least someone was armed, I thought, though that flicker of relief was quickly smothered by the growing unease until Amelia's voice broke through the silence.
"Okay… we need to figure out what's happening, see if we can establish communication, and… if that doesn't work, figure out our next steps."
Rubbing my head, I let out a long sigh. There was no way we were getting in contact with mission control.
Not now, anyway.
Emily fumbled with her radio, and the panic in her voice only confirmed it. "My–my radio's just emitting static. Does anyone else have a communication device?"
Owen shook his head, his expression grim.
Then Ethan let out a shaky breath and dragged a hand over his face. "Okay… okay, so maybe the radios are messed up too." His voice was strained, like he was trying to convince himself as much as the rest of us. He looked out over the endless stretch of golden dunes, then up at the two suns hanging above us. "Maybe there's an explanation for this. Some kind of… I don't know. Some kind of system failure."
His breathing quickened.
"We were just at the colony," he said, more to himself than anyone else. "One second we were there, and now…" His voice caught as he looked around again. "Now we're here."
He laughed once, but there was no amusement in it. "That doesn't even make sense."
His gaze started darting from one face to the next, then back to the endless dunes. "No, seriously, how does that make any sense?" His voice rose. "You all saw it too, right? We didn't just… imagine this."
Ella stepped forward, keeping her tone calm. "Ethan, breathe. We don't know what happened yet, but we're not going to figure it out if you start spiraling."
"Spiraling?" he snapped, his head jerking toward her. "You want to call this spiraling?" He gestured wildly at the dunes, then jabbed a finger toward the sky. "Look around, Ella. Were in the middle of nowhere, standing in some alien wasteland under two suns. Two. Suns. What part of that sounds normal to you?"
"Ethan—" Amelia started.
"No, seriously, tell me what I'm supposed to do with this!" he shot back, his voice cracking. "You want me to calm down? Based on what? We don't know where we are, we can't contact anyone, and for all we know, we're already dead!"
"Ethan!" Amelia snapped, her voice cracking through the air. "Panicking won't help us."
He laughed once. "That's easy for you to say."
Amelia took a step toward him, her stare unmoveable. "We can breathe the air here. That means we still have a chance. So right now, I need you to calm down."
"A chance?" His voice wavered between disbelief and hysteria. "Do you have eyes? Look around?!"
But when Amelia's stare didn't waver, he faltered slightly.
"We can breathe," she repeated, slower this time. "That means we are not dead yet. So get your shit together and move on."
For a tense moment, everyone went quiet, unsure whether Ethan would push any further. But when he finally scoffed and turned away, Emily spoke up.
"My bag made it through with me, so we've maybe got a couple days' worth of food and water." Her voice was quiet, almost apologetic. Then she glanced up, and for the briefest second her eyes caught mine before darting away again. "B-but with the temperature this high, the water won't last that long."
She swallowed and rubbed at her sleeve. "If we don't figure something out soon, we're going to be in trouble."
Nodding, I watched as Amelia lowered herself to the sand, her brows furrowed while she worked through our options. Truthfully, we only had two: stay put and hope for a miracle, or start moving through the desert and pray we found something before it killed us.
Then, finally, she spoke.
"It's clear we can't afford to stay here and wait for the slight chance of rescue." She stood and brushed the sand from her hands, determination hardening her features. "So… we need to get moving."
A sharp scoff broke the moment.
"Oh, really?" Ethan's voice dripped with venomous skepticism. "And where exactly do you suggest we go?"
Something inside me snapped.
"Well, what do you think we should do, Ethan?" I turned on him, frustrated at how petty he was acting. "Sit here and bake under the sun until we die? You got a better plan?"
Glaring at him, he matched my stare, and for a second, I almost hoped he'd say something so I could bash some common sense into his head. But he didn't, and before it could go any further, Amelia cut in.
"Alright, gather everything we can. Atlas is right. We won't survive by standing still, so we need to figure out our surroundings and make the most of it."
Nodding, I eyed Ethan for a beat longer before turning away. But his eyes lingered on mine for just a second more, the fire in them dimming enough to reveal the exhaustion beneath his bravado. He exhaled sharply, shaking his head as if trying to rid himself of whatever thoughts threatened to surface.
Then he huffed and turned away, rubbing the back of his neck.
That was when I saw it.
Something was engraved into his neck, right where my mark was.
Though as if sensing my gaze, he shifted his stance and picked up a random shirt that lay partly buried in the sand, draping it over his neck to hide the mark.
Did he always have that?
Shaking off the thought, I bent over to pick up a backpack that was partly buried nearby. Inside were a couple of freeze-dried rations, a single half-drunk bottle of water, and some random tools and a dirty cloth.
Next, Ella took charge of the rations, gathering whatever had made it through with us, from half-filled bags of random gear to small portions of food and water.
The water containers, our most precious resource at the moment, were divided between Amelia and Benjamin, each securing them tightly to their packs. Still, I caught sight of Ethan keeping one for himself.
Henry, on the other hand, managed to salvage what little equipment had survived the journey—a notebook, a few pencils, and a handful of other odds and ends. None of it was useful in the moment aside from the small medkit and the last of our communication devices, which Ella insisted we carry.
But personally, I thought the comms were pretty useless given our situation, but since I wasn't the one carrying them, I didn't dwell on it for long. So when Amelia gave the order, we started our trek, clinging to the hope that somewhere ahead there would be something to keep us going.
But for a long while, there was nothing.
Golden sand stretched endlessly in every direction, all shimmering light and rolling hills. Each step sank just enough to steal a little more from our legs. Time blurred beneath the heat. The sun climbed higher, then higher still, and before long, the air had turned brutal. It pressed against us in heavy waves, baking the sand beneath our boots and turning every breath into something dry and punishing. Sweat clung to my skin, my throat felt raw, and the straps of my pack only seemed to dig deeper the longer we walked.
The only thing ahead of us that promised any relief was the stone formations in the distance. At first, they had looked small against the endless dunes, just dark shapes jutting from the horizon, but as the hours dragged on, they grew larger, their jagged peaks rising into the sky like the ribcage of some long-dead titan.
But by the time we finally drew close enough to make out the shadows gathered beneath them, the heat had become almost unbearable.
"We should rest," Amelia finally said, her voice carrying the same exhaustion the rest of us were already feeling.
"Ohh, I completely agree," Henry huffed, already jogging toward the embrace of the shadows before us.
Noticing the alcoves carved into the massive rock formations, Amelia nodded toward one large enough to keep us shaded even when the sun reached its zenith. "There," she said, pointing. "Looks like a good spot."
Nodding, I followed Henry into the shade and let myself enjoy the breeze drifting through the pass. Noting the strange scent it carried with it, something almost like lemon, though not quite, like everything else in this world.
But the moment I collapsed into the natural alcove in the stone, I let my mind drift from that to the blissful relief of air that didn't feel like it was trying to kill me.
Oh… I could stay like this forever, I thought, slouching further as my gaze drifted up toward the towering formations above us.
For a while, time seemed to slip past without my noticing. The heat lost its edge little by little, and the twin suns sank lower across the sky while the stone around us held onto its cool silence. The massive formations loomed overhead like ancient sentinels, their weathered surfaces untouched by our presence, unmoved by time itself.
Then, as the last stretch of daylight began to thin, everything seemed to slow.
The twin suns dipped toward the horizon, their once-blazing light softening into deep gold and ember-red. Their final rays caught along the tops of the towering stone, and for one quiet moment, the formations burned like molten rock, glowing against the darkening sky in a brilliance that felt almost unreal.
Then the light faded.
The glow slipped away from the stone, leaving the great formations to sink back into shadow as dusk spread over the desert in waves of violet and indigo. With the sun's gone, the cold began to descend, slow and certain, replacing the day's brutal heat with a chill that crept through the air and settled into the rock around us.
Leaning back against the rough stone wall of the alcove, I let my thoughts drift with the last of the fading light. As I stared out over the endless stretch of desert and jagged stone, I couldn't help but wonder if this was really all there was to this world. Just sand, rock, and emptiness stretching on forever.
No… that couldn't be all of it.
If there was oxygen, then there had to be plants of some sort. Otherwise, we'd already be dead.
At least… I was pretty sure that was how that worked.
That was what they taught me, anyway. Or at least part of it.
With a quiet sigh, I found myself resenting, not for the first time, how little school I'd actually gone through before it all went to hell. Which only made it all the more frustrating whenever my mind drifted back to those years.
I didn't know when it had started, but every time I tried to really think about my younger days, it all got so foggy, like something in my head kept slipping away the second I got too close.
And the more I pushed at it, the more it felt like my own mind was keeping things from me, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.
It was enough to make me want to punch something.
So instead, I looked for a distraction. Anything to keep myself from losing my mind.
Restless, I bent down and picked up a small silver rock shaped almost like a seed, then tossed it lightly against the opposite wall.
Clink.
The stone struck the rock and bounced back into my waiting hand, only to be thrown again, and then again, over and over, until I finally managed to wrangle my thoughts enough to notice Ella glancing at me from the side.
"Atlas," she said softly. "That rock isn't helping."
Catching it, I frowned, "What's wrong with my rock?"
Ella gave me a look. "You know what I mean."
I let out a quiet breath, a small smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.
"Yeah… I know, I know." I pushed myself up, brushing the dust from my hands. "So, what do you suggest?"
"I think we should take this chance to travel at night," she answered. "It's cooler, and we won't need as much water this way."
She had a point. The night air felt like a balm after the brutal heat of the day. Traveling now might give us an edge, even if only a small one. Though… would that really save us? Without much direction, we could be walking for months with no end.
Amelia nodded in agreement. "I've been thinking the same."
Ethan, on the other hand, wasn't one to sugarcoat things. "Not like that will save us," he muttered.
Did he always have to be so pessimistic? There wouldn't be…
Stopping myself, I realized how hypocritical that was. I was thinking the exact same thing. I just wasn't saying it out loud.
So instead of dwelling on it, I pushed myself to my feet and held out a hand to Ella.
"What do you say we get a head start?"
She looked up at me, exhaustion plain on her face, but after a moment she gave a faint, tired smile and took my hand. I pulled her up, and one by one the others followed, rising from the shelter of the stone alcove despite how little any of us wanted to leave it behind.
Then we started forward again, moving out across the vast sea of dunes, farther and farther from the refuge of the rock formations and back into the open emptiness.
Even with the doubt hanging over us, we kept going. The cool night air wrapped around us like a small mercy, easing the brutal weight of the day's heat and making each step just a little more bearable.
As we walked, our breaths began to spill out in soft puffs, faint at first.
That was when I noticed the haze.
It clung low to the ground, so thin I almost missed it entirely.
But the farther we went, the thicker it became.
Mist curled around our ankles and drifted over the sand in slow, twisting patterns, shifting with every step we took. It clung to the ground in a way that felt unnatural, almost as if it were alive.
And yet, for all the unease it stirred in me, there was something strangely comforting about it too. Like the world was softening around us, dulling the desert's harsh edges and cushioning our steps through the endless dunes.
Pulling my attention away from the fog, I found myself staring up at the night sky overhead. It looked like a tapestry stretched across the heavens. With no clouds or artificial light to dim them, the stars burned brighter than any I'd ever seen, almost rivaling the moon itself. But when I searched for anything familiar, like Orion, the Big Dipper, or any constellation I knew. I found nothing.
Not one of them belonged to my sky.
At that realization, a hollow feeling settled in my chest, but I pushed it aside. There were more immediate concerns than unfamiliar stars. Like getting through the night without collapsing.
But with every step, fatigue sank deeper into my bones, a dull ache spreading through my limbs. The cool air helped, but it didn't change the fact that we were exhausted. My eyelids grew heavier with every stride, and from the looks of it, the others weren't faring much better.
"We need to rest," I finally said, glancing over the group. Ella looked like she was running on sheer willpower, and even Amelia's usual determination was beginning to fray.
More than ready to agree, Henry raised an exhausted thumbs-up, then promptly dropped into the sand right there and passed out. The rest of us followed soon after, too drained to do much else.
But the peace didn't last.
Night gave way to day, and before long, it all began to blur together.
Hour after hour of walking revealed nothing but more dunes and scattered rock formations jutting from the sand. It became a never-ending march, one that took more than it gave, each step wearing away what little hope we had left.
The few scraps of it we still clung to started to wear away. Every time our eyes caught on some distant shape and dared to believe it might be something real, the desert stripped that hope away again, leaving us a little emptier than before. At this rate, it felt like sooner or later there'd be nothing left of us but hollow bodies stumbling through the dunes, still searching for an escape that didn't exist.
But no matter how much I wanted to believe that wasn't going to be the case, the endless sun beat the thought into me with its scorching rays, as I desperately tugged at the collar of my shirt, trying to keep the fabric from sticking to my back, but it might as well have been glued there. My skin felt like it was being slow-roasted beneath the furnace of the twin stars.
Eventually, I'd had enough.
Falling back a few steps, I pulled my bag around and dug through it until I found the dirty rag I'd scavenged earlier, before tearing at the sides until I managed to split it wide enough to wrap around the base of my neck, where the sunlight had done its worst.
The moment I finally got it settled, an audible sigh slipped out of me, only for it to catch in my throat when I noticed the commotion up ahead.
"Hey, man, slow down with that," Henry stressed, eyeing Ethan's water bottle like it was the last lifeline in a sea of despair. "We need to conserve what we have."
Ethan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned. "Are you really doing this right now?"
Henry shrugged, but it was forced. "I'm just saying, we need to save what we have."
Ethan let out a short, humorless laugh. "Right. Because a couple of sips are gonna make the difference between life and death?"
"Out here?" Henry snapped. "Yeah. They might."
I stopped fiddling with the cloth and looked between them, but stayed quiet.
Ethan turned fully now, his jaw clenched. "You want me to dehydrate on your schedule?"
"I want you not to be an idiot," Henry shot back. "We're rationing for a reason, Ethan."
"Well, maybe if we weren't wandering in circles in a goddamn oven, we wouldn't be worrying about rations."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had a map etched into your skull," Henry barked. "Got any better ideas, or just more complaining?"
Ethan took a step forward, canteen still in hand. "You know what? If I run out, I'll just take yours. That work for you?" he said, pointing it into his face
Henry stiffened. "Back off, man. I'm serious," Henry warned.
"Serious about what? You think you can make me back off?" Ethan shot back, getting right in Henry's face.
Damn it, Ethan, not now…
We were hanging on by threads as it was, and this might very well be the thing that pushes us over the edge.
I started forward.
But before I could step in, Henry shoved Ethan back, only for Ethan to come at him, swinging wildly. His fist cracked against Henry's jaw, sending him hard into the dirt.
Before I could fully process what was happening, Ethan was on top of him, raining down punches like a madman. I lunged forward and yanked him off Henry before he could do any more damage.
"Piss off!" Ethan snarled, throwing a desperate elbow back at me.
I blocked it, kicked his leg out from under him, and locked an arm around his neck, wrenching him into a chokehold. "Calm down!" I barked."
He thrashed against me, panic and fury burning through him like a fever. For a few long seconds, it felt like he might keep fighting no matter what, but eventually the strength went out of him.
"Let me go," Ethan choked out. "I'll be calm."
I held him there for another second, just to be sure, then released him.
He dropped to the dirt and sucked in air, coughing hard as the reality of what had just happened seemed to crash down on all of us at once.
What are we doing? We're barely a day into this hell, and we're already falling apart.
Sucking in a lungful of scorching air, I turned to Henry and helped haul him back to his feet. "You good?"
He coughed and spat blood onto the golden sand. "Just give me a second."
A moment later, Amelia stormed over before slapping Ethan, stunning not just him but all of us. "What the hell were you thinking?" she demanded, her voice cold enough to freeze the desert.
Ethan rubbed at his cheek and scoffed, but said nothing.
That only seemed to make Amelia angrier. She stepped closer, her voice dropping into something sharper. "If you don't start talking, I'll take your supplies and leave you here to die!"
That got his attention.
He straightened slowly, eyes hard. "You want an explanation?" he hissed. "Fine. I drank because I had to. And if you expect me to say, 'sorry'" he mocked "then I'm sorry to say this, but it's not happening."
A smirk tugged at his mouth. "Now, if you want my supplies, take them," he said. "But don't stand there pretending you'd choose the group over your own throat when your mouth starts drying out."
Amelia's jaw tightened, but she turned away before the argument could flare back up. "Benjamin," she said sharply. "Bandages. Now."
Benjamin nodded and moved quickly to Henry, while Amelia looked over the rest of us with the expression of someone trying very hard not to let things get any worse.
"Find some shade," she said. "Once we find a place, we'll stop for a few minutes. Cool off, breathe, and get our heads straight."
With that, the argument finally died, and we started toward the rocks.
But as I fell into step with the others, my fingers tightened around the hilt of my blade. Amelia had gone too easy on him. You could see it in the way Ethan looked at us, like we were somehow the problem.
And yet she seemed so willing to let him off easy. I knew that might have been the right choice, given our situation, but it didn't sit right with me.
Frustrated, I tried to shake the feeling and followed the others into the shade of the rocky outcropping, but my mind refused to settle. Doubts gnawed at me, curling through my thoughts like a parasite.
So I forced my gaze to the horizon, trying to focus on anything but the uncertainty drilling into my skull, only to find clear skies stretching from horizon to horizon without a hint of relief in sight.
Rain…
Was that really too much to ask for?
For a moment, I let myself imagine the heavens breaking open, rain hammering into the parched earth, washing the heat away and cooling this miserable, forsaken land.
But no clouds came.
There was only the sun, and…
Moving dunes?
I blinked and straightened, squinting against the glare. The movement had been subtle, like the rolling pull of some unseen tide, but I knew I'd seen it.
Hadn't I?
I rubbed my eyes and looked again, only to find… absolutely nothing.
Groaning, I shifted onto my side, already starting to doubt my own sanity.
Great. Just great. On top of everything else that's been happening, now I'm losing my mind.
Shaking my head, I reached for my canteen and took a slow sip, letting the water steady my nerves. It helped, if only a little, but with nothing left to do until nightfall, I let my head rest against the stone, closed my eyes, and drifted off.
By the time night came, the long, arduous journey began once more, accompanied by the ever-present mist that wove its way through the land like it had a mind of its own—seeming to appear from nowhere and everywhere all at once.
Yet even that couldn't soothe our battered bodies as we trudged forward, step by step, growing a little more hollow with every passing mile.
Well… except for Ella.
She kept herself busy, waving a strip of cloth she'd torn from her suit, forming a makeshift catcher to gather whatever moisture she could pull from the air.
It was commendable, but with how much energy she spent chasing those meager droplets, I wasn't convinced it was worth it, I thought. Still, as I turned away from her, my attention slipped elsewhere as a faint buzz prickled along the back of my neck.
So subtle I almost ignored it.
But as the sensation grew, I felt the oddest urge to look up, and when I did, I caught sight of something half-hidden in the fog, just at the edge of my vision.
A cat?
Or at least… something like one. With its small, dark silhouette, staring in my direction as if it had been watching me.
But the moment I tried to focus on it, the shape came apart. Its outline thinned, blurred, then slipped back into the mist as if it had never been there at all.
Leaving me wondering if I'd even seen anything in the first place.
Even so, the image stayed lodged in my mind. Every time I glanced toward the fog, part of me expected to see it again waiting just beyond the veil.
And without really thinking about it, I drifted off course, moving toward where I'd last seen it, until a familiar voice pulled me back to consciousness.
"You see anything?" Henry called, quickening his pace until he fell in beside me.
"Oh, I got a little distracted…" I muttered, only to be cut off by a sudden gust of wind that slammed into us out of nowhere, carrying thick billows of smoke that swallowed the ground and turned the world into a shifting white blur.
"Wow. Where did that come from?" Henry laughed, extending his hand to feel the strong currents of mist that wrapped around us like a veil—obscuring not just us, but everything beyond.
"I… don't know," I mused, slowly looking around as the strange burst of wind faded, leaving behind a dense stream of mist that clung to the ground until it flowed so thickly it felt like we were walking through a river. It rolled over our feet, completely hiding the earth beneath us, to the point that it almost looked like we were walking on clouds.
Then, as if reading my mind, he chuckled. "Looks like I'm walking on clouds…"
But then he paused, as if an idea had just struck him. A massive grin spread across his face before he suddenly dropped to his knees.
"Wha—what are yo—"
He cut me off with a raised hand, motioning for me to wait.
"Watch this," he chuckled.
Before I could react, he stretched out flat on his stomach, letting the mist flow over him in a steady stream until he was completely hidden, leaving behind nothing but a large lump beneath the rolling fog.
Then his voice drifted up from within it. "Can you see me?"
Smirking, I nudged the shifting mass with my boot as it tried to crawl forward. "You look like a giant blob of cloud," I said.
Snorting, Henry popped his head out, wearing a new kind of grin. "Too bad. I was thinking of sneaking around a bit," he said, then added, "But I've got to say, it feels great down here. With all this mist, it's like taking a shower."
"A shower?" I mumbled, " That sounded incredible right now.
But just as I was about to try the same thing, a voice cut in.
"What are you two doing?" Ella asked, eyeing the single head sticking out of the mist. "You look ridiculous, Henry," she added with a laugh.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Henry shot back before diving under again, his laughter muffled beneath the haze.
Rolling her eyes, Ella turned her attention to the path of the mist, watching as it crested a distant dune and flowed down into the valley.
"Looks like a river, doesn't it?" I muttered, studying how it all seemed to come from a single direction. "And if it's anything like one, then it has a source… which means…"
"…a possible way out," Ella finished for me.
"I'd say it's more direction than we've had since we got here," Amelia said as she approached.
"Should we follow it?" Henry asked, popping his head up once more.
Smirking down at him, Amelia gave a small nod. Beside her, Benjamin added, "I believe that's a wise choice."
Feeling a little better knowing most of us were on the same path, I searched the mist once more, hoping whatever I'd seen would reveal itself.
Yet nothing stood out against the hazy surroundings, and with everyone already moving ahead, I had no choice but to leave the thought behind and follow.
Hours bled together as the night deepened around us. Step after step, silence and exhaustion wore away at me until, eventually, it caught up to all of us.
With the mist wrapped around us, the second day in this world passed. Night went with it, and one by one we collapsed into sleep until there was nothing left but darkness and that faint, almost irritating feeling of something poking me.
It was honestly pretty annoying.
I was trying to sleep, and someone was poking me.
No, not poking. Jabbing.
Almost stabbing.
...Wait.
Who stabs someone in the ankle?
I jolted upright with a strangled gasp, my heart hammering, and looked down just in time to see a tiny ball of fury and far too many legs latched onto my ankle, its circular maw ravaging it with a ferocity that felt absurd for something so small.
Then, the second it fully registered that something was actually attacking me, I kicked the thing loose, sending it skittering across the sand. Yet instead of running, it spun around and came right back at me.
Cursing under my breath, I grabbed a handful of sand and threw it in pure desperation, just hoping the thing would leave me alone.
But when it leapt aside and darted back, I was ready.
The next thing it knew, my bag came slamming down with enough force to crush any normal bug back on Earth, smashing it into the ground, where it lay utterly still.
For a few moments, I could only stare at my bag in awestruck disbelief. "I… I did it. I actually got it—"
Yet my celebration died the moment the thing crawled out from under my bag and hissed at me with one last burst of fury before finally scurrying off into the dunes.
Leaving me to just stare after it, too caught off guard by the whole situation to move.
Then, almost without thinking, my hand drifted to my leg where it had been chewed through, only for my attention to drift to the place where the creature had vanished, my thoughts struggling to catch up with what had just happened.
There was life… Like actual life!