Lost in space floated another ship, Loric of origin, seven children had no idea where they were or how they came to be upon this floating vessel. The one thing they all knew was… Survive.
…
They walk down the sand covered highway, nothing in sight. Not a glimpse of light, other than the pale moonlight bouncing off of the translucent sand. The wind whips across the land sending a chill down Dawn's spine, she shivers uncontrollably now. They cannot stop to start a fire for that would surely give away their position. Her thin windbreaker is paper against fridge winds. She pulls closer to Felix his warmth gone, swept away by the icy straights. Both of the adolescents are improperly dressed for such cold nights in this deadly desert. Both are one of a kind but share the same ability telepathy, the gift to communicate through their psyches.
"I don't know how much longer I can stand this Felix." She pleads.
"Just a bit longer, you can pull through, I know you can."
No words are spoken, only through telepathy, for one word could raise an alarm. Dawn rubs her numb arms and cups her hands around her mouth. Heat is precious and too much light could spark into a fire, she starts a small flame in the palm of her hand and quickly demises to a smolder then extinguishes.
"The cold is effecting my Lumen, this isn't good you can't go on much longer Felix we have to find a way out of here." Her voice is frantic.
Dawn worries about Felix how much longer he can last in the subzero temperatures without a source of warmth. If they don't stop soon he will become a frozen corpse. She quickly throws that thought out of her head, she has just met Felix two weeks before yet has an attraction that feels like it has been there for an eternity.
"I am fine we just need to get to the edge of this dune, then we can stop."
Felix has been through a lot with Dawn, but never this; he has never been stuck walking along an abandoned highway in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Which was his idea to get away from their captures he has to make sure Dawn makes it all right, safe, especially after what she has been through.
Almost three months ago a rebel group know for experimenting on several aliens, Loric aliens, they captured Dawn and Felix; poking and prodding was least of their problems they underwent several torturous tests that left them scarred and hungry for revenge. Dawn was in particular interest for the strange combination of powers that consisted of Lumen, telepathy, and regeneration. No matter what they did she healed within the next hour; this peaked the interest of several head rebels. Wanting to harvest her power they almost killed her in the process. Felix had seen that she was taken into the experimental hall almost everyday and coming back in worse shape than the day before. Each day it took longer for the regeneration to kick in and heal her mangled body. Felix was the head of a secret group within the captives that would talk of an escape and he knew he would save Dawn from the hell she was going through everyday. He wanted his freedom but he wanted hers more than life itself. In a daring escape seven Garde tried to overthrow their captures but only a four left with their lives. Felix led the attack with Dawn by his side they escaped but now were top two on the most wanted list. They were posted everywhere, they had nowhere to hide, and every government agency was after them to harvest the power within each for weapons of warfare. Many had fallen in the struggle but various others had been recaptured and probably punished brutally for the escape.
Either way if they made it out alive they would have died in this hell of a desert it seems to engulf all that inhabit it even the plants have problems living and obtaining water or even keeping from frosting over during the freezing nights. As if the gods were watching, they stumbled upon a ghost town. This abandoned village was literally falling apart at the hinges. Buildings half burred within the everlasting sands of time, forgotten.
"Maybe we can find somewhere to take shelter" Felix was exhausted and he knew Dawn was as well they must find water and warmth or they will freeze to death without Dawn's Lumen. Felix ducked into one of the worn down buildings.
"This one seems to be in good shape, a ceiling that hasn't fallen in and some chairs to rest, this will do."
"Good. I might be able to start a fire." Dawn wasn't certain of her surroundings everything was so strange and different.
Hopefully, it will get better along the way. She thought.
…
Unknown to Dawn and Felix, two of the other Garde members escaped with their lives but had lost the others. Lurking around the corner Caldor turned invisible trying to flee with his newfound friend Kärlek, a Garde with super hearing, night vision, and persuasion. Hand in hand they snuck past a heavily armed guard with a hand to his earpiece, the guard slung his AK-47 across his chest with a displeased thud.
"How could they just disappear, there are four of them left, this is bull."
Caldor lead Kärlek behind the distracted guard and slid into the open desert. Caldor stopped dead in his tracks.
"Why did you stop? We have to keep moving!" Kärlek sneered under her breath.
"We can move faster if we steal a dune buggy, and you know we can't last long in the desert. I don't have any water to even defend us with, let alone drink, we are unprepared for this we need another plan." His voice was hushed but assertive.
"That won't work, we will attract too much attention."
"Not if we push it out for awhile then start it up, I bet it will have a first aid kit and supplies we need it." Even though Kärlek couldn't see Caldor's face she knew he was pleading.
"Fine, but you know you are going to have to do all of the heavy lifting."
Caldor looked over his shoulder, the guard was still arguing with the earpiece and lost his battle. He moved out toward the opening of the base.
"They'll freeze out there anyway!"
The couple moved back toward the base and searched around for a dune buggy and found their prize. Covered with a toupee colored tarp was a dune buggy, keys still in the ignition along with survival gear in the back.
"Perfect. Just what was needed."
"Doesn't it seem a little too perfect?" Kärlek questioned their streak of good karma. The dune buggy screamed a trap; Kärlek tensed hearing footsteps swishing on the sand. She squeezed Caldor's hand and pulled him to the side of the buggy. Another armed guard in heavy clothing for night watch duty. She looked at her hand it was slowly becoming visible; Caldor was to focused on the guard to not realizing his mistake. She quickly tugged on his hand with her hand held up to the moonlight. Caldor wouldn't look up; they were running out of time. Within a few minutes they would be visible and caught once again. The guard stopped looked around and glanced over the buggy.
"Hmm… Wind must have blown the tarp off, better cover this back up."
The guard slung his gun to the side grabbing the tarp off of the sand and moved closer to the buggy, inches away from Caldor's knee. Caldor looked down and realized he was nearly visible and glanced at Kärlek with a terrified expression, the quickly disappeared.
"There all done, better get back to patrol, wouldn't want the boss thinking I was slackin' off out here."
Unseen the couple let out a sigh of relief. Now covered by the tarp, they wondered how the guard would have acted if he had seen the bump of the crouched teens beside the car.
"That was too close for comfort, lets get outta here."
Caldor and Kärlek pushed the buggy out of the sight of guards but not out of earshot, they needed to be farther away to start it. Caldor did his best to turn himself along with the buggy invisible but he couldn't keep it up. Kärlek noticed and glanced back at the facility guards weren't walking around, the one seemed to have disappeared, odd. They were at least a mile away from the facility it had to be enough.
"Do you think we can start it now?"
"Yeah, I think that is far enough. I wonder how long it will take for them to notice the buggy is gone?"
ALERT, ALERT, ALERT!
"They noticed."