The crash site was pretty easy to find. The deep black rut scraped through the ground and the torn up trees were like a big neon sign screaming, "Hey, you! You're on the right track! Keep going, guys! Crashed ship ahead!"
The ship itself looked pretty standard, if you could get past the twisted hull and jumbled mass of wires and panels exploding out of its belly. Little gas fires popped up here and there, illuminating the deep gashes and charred burns coating every last inch of the metal monster. A brownish smoke cloud hung over the wreckage. Overall it was a pretty ominous sort of crash, but not sinister enough to keep the Marits away.
Kezk, a smallish green Marit, was first to the wreck. He scuttled up onto the battered hull, looking over the gaping wounds with glittering eyes. Shuffling around inside a nearby tear, his claws scraped up against something smooth and metallic. He was just easing the thing out as the rest of the scouting party arrived.
A Marit with a bright red frill folded onto the sides of her slender neck halted her jolting run a few feet in front of the wreck. Her red eyes traced over it, forked tongue jutting out as she thought. Instead she ended up getting a taste of the burning smoke and coughed hysterically.
"K-Kezk," she gasped between hacks, smacking the side of her fist against her chest. "Kezk, what do you think?"
"Dunno know, Sheki."
Kezk finally worked the object out of the hole and held it up. It was a squarish durasteel panel completely intact and barely scratched. Somehow this seemingly insignificant object had managed to survive a free-fall smashing into the earth. It didn't look like anything – or anyone – else had. Kezk blinked sharply as sunlight reflected off of the metal panel and right into his eyes.
"But if this thing's any indication, I think we'll get quite a bit of salvage outta this girl." He bent down and passed the plate to Sheki for her inspection.
She nodded almost absently, twirling the panel between her hands as she let her red eyes slide over the wreckage again. While she couldn't pinpoint exactly what kind of ship this thing used to be, going by the size of it the craft couldn't have held more than three people comfortably. Maximum. And every ship had to have some sort of pilot, sentient or droid. It wasn't likely that anyone could have survived a crash like this, but Sheki didn't take chances with this kind of thing.
"Alright, everyone, spread out and start dismantling this thing. A pile of intact items and a pile of broken ones like usual. Kezk!"
The Marit in question froze in a stoop, both hands buried in another hole, looking for panels or any other cool things he could quickly grab. There was a slight sinking feeling boring in his chest. A sixth sense tingling in the background.
I'm not gonna like what's coming, am I?
"You and Jio try to find the people who were on board this craft," Sheki continued as she dropped the panel onto the grass by her feet, starting the intact-items-pile. "Droid, alien, dead, alive, whatever. Find them. We don't need beasts coming after the corpses while we work."
It took a lot of self-control to hold back the agitated sigh in his throat, but Kezk managed it somehow. Great. While everyone else got to take the ship apart, he had to look for mangled dead people. That's the only kind of people you could find in the aftermath of a wreck like this. It was gross work, and he hated it with everything in him. Great. Just great…
But Sheki was Cebz's daughter. Plus she had been put in charge of this scouting/scavenging party. He had to do what she told him to.
Guess it's a cadaver-finding party now, too. Crud.
Without a word, he started picking his way across the twisted hull towards the cabin. At least he hoped it was the cabin. It was hard to tell, honestly. Another Marit, his best friend Jio, got there first, disappearing head first through a gaping hole in the glass. Kezk was just fine with letting him go in first.
Anchoring his claws onto the top edge of the shattered view screen, Kezk leaned as far over as he dared. The cockpit interior looked a bit more intact than the outside, but his view was upside down so it was difficult to be sure.
"Find anybody?" He called.
Let it be a droid. No animals will come after that, and we can use it for scrap.
"Not ye—oh, crud, yes!" Jio exclaimed from somewhere back in the cockpit. "That's disgusting!"
Kezk stayed right where he was. Seeing crushed bodies wasn't even in the general orbit of his bucket list. Besides, Jio was in there already. There couldn't be that much space left.
"What's disgusting? What did you find?" He wasn't even really interested in who those cadavers were or used to be. All he cared about was that they had found what they were looking for. In a few minutes they could return to help dismantle the ship with everybody else. That was far more interesting.
"Two Humans, I think. It's hard to tell. One's crushed under some kinda paneling, and the other doesn't even have a head anymore. Blech…"
Poor Jio. But better you than me.
"Great, so we found 'em." Kezk eased his head back up, rubbing his neck ruefully. "Let's tell Sheki and—"
Kezk froze in mid-sentence. He was looking over the ship's crumpled nose at the trees ahead. And at a black, twisted something lying only a few yards away. In spite of himself, Kezk could feel his curiosity piquing.
What's that?
As quickly as he dared, the young Marit swung off of the craft and carefully moved towards the whatever it was on the ground. It didn't move as he snuck closer. That was a good thing since Gaftikari forests were crawling with all kinds of carnivorous, poisonous, and all around terrifying wildlife. He tilted his long head as he neared. The black thing – whatever it was – looked almost humanoid.
No. Not "almost." It definitely was humanoid.
Back at the wreck, Jio popped his tan head out of the shattered viewscreen, a bit more pale than when he had gone in.
"Kezk?" He called worriedly. "What are you doing?"
His friend didn't reply immediately. He crouched down right beside the humanoid lying facedown on the ground. It looked like it had been dropped right out of the sky and into this very grotesque, undignified heap. Like bloodied sentient laundry. Another agitated groan rumbled in Kezk's throat.
Dropped from the sky…
Punishment for not going in with Jio. I have to find my own corpse. Wonderful.
"Found another one," he replied. "He must've been thrown out the viewscreen."
"Dead?" Jio bent over the body with red eyes narrowed.
"Sure, why not?" Kezk shrugged and stood up. "Let's tell Sheki and get back to doing something actually worthwhile. We did our job here."
But Jio didn't agree. Reaching out a hand, he gently turned the creature over.
And it breathed.
Both Marits froze reflexively. Anyone else might have thought it was just the wind passing over a branch or something. But these two knew better than that. It was breathing. Hoarse, scrapping, hushed, but definitely breathing. It made Kezk's heart drop into the soles of his feet.
This couldn't be happening. They had found the crew. They should be going back to pull wires, unbolt panels, find cool treasures buried under tons of steel. But now this thing was alive, however barely. They'd found it. They'd have to take it back to the camp, find someone to try to heal it, and answer a million and one questions. There went any hopes that he could rejoin the scavenging party.
It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.
Jio was staring at him, slitted eyes very obviously widened. The humanoid creature was a wreck. Every square centimeter of its face was coated in drying blood. Some of its joints were bent in an extremely unnatural way. It even made gross crunching, grinding, and squishy sounds when Jio had turned it over. Neither Marit could even tell which gender it was, much less what species it was.
But it was breathing and breathing pretty steadily. They could leave it and it would pass in a few hours while still unconscious. It wouldn't know, and no one else would have to know either. There wasn't even a guarantee that the thing would even survive if they brought it back to camp. You didn't have to be a trained doctor or nurse to be able to see that.
But it was alive. It was breathing. That was the only deciding factor.
And it made Kezk fume.
"I'll get Sheki," he growled. "Stay with it, Jio."
He sprinted towards the rest of the group before he could do something incredibly stupid. Jio let his eyes slip down to the strange creature's broken, battered, unconscious face. Like Kezk, he wasn't exactly sure what gender it was through all the gore, but unless his eyes were deceiving him it looked kind of like a female. He put his scaley hand on its smooth, fleshy one.
Maybe it could hear them. Maybe it was thinking now even when it was very obviously unconscious. Maybe just a friendly touch would reassure it, encourage it to hang on to every ounce of life left in it. Maybe it would fight harder now.
"Hang in there, miss. We're gonna help you. We're gonna help you," Jio whispered.
AUTHORESS' NOTE: Heyo, guys! Thank you so much for reading this first chapter, and I hope you'll enjoy the rest to come.
Survivor is a story I've had rolling around in my mind for a little over a year. It was actually quite different when I started writing it, but its new incarnation (what you'll be reading) is much better than what it used to be. I'm very excited about this, and fingers crossed that you guys are at least curious about where it's going.
Updates will be a little random. I'm a full-time college student who's got a lot of stuff on her plate (read: part-time job, various volunteer work, and keeping up with my blog, among many other things), but I'll be finding when it works to both write and post the new chapters. So, long story short, please bear with me in this area.
Also, I would really appreciate any reviews you can give me. The only "rule" I have is that I ask you to please refrain from swearing, crass talk/jokes, and anything inappropriate in your reviews and messages to me. All ages read things on this website all the time, and I would like this to be a safe place for younger kids to look at. Otherwise, have at it!
If you're interested, I also wrote a one-shot suspense story that I think many of you might find interesting (Comforter is the title). I also have an idea to expand its plot into a full-length story, but I'll only do that if you all would like to read it. So if you're interested in that, please let me know. Majority will win on this issue.
Whew, that was a long note! Future notes from me will definitely not be this long. I tend to go a little bit overboard in these introductory ones, just so everyone's on the same page.
Anyway, thank you, again, for reading. I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed rest of the week, and I'll see you soon! God bless you all!
- Phasma Scriba -