Wrong Place, Right Time
Chapter II
Jo:
Duel suns. What the heck?!
In that moment, it hit me that we were not on earth and why it was so hot in the D.
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," I said.
"No, I don't think we are."
Aaron sighed and sat in the sand.
I followed suit. No point in continuing on if the leader wasn't leading.
Aaron's expression was blank, and I wasn't sure what to say.
"Aaron?"
He kind of whined like Frank Burns does on M*A*S*H.
"Aaron?"
After a couple more minutes, he stood up, wiped the sand from the butt of his tunic and started walking again.
"If we're not gonna get home, we still need to survive. Surely, there isn't just sand. Some kind of civilization must exist."
"Aaron, it's the Shepherd luck to end up on just such a dust bowl planet."
"Maybe so, but we have to try."
I only nodded and followed him across the dunes, making sure to leave a few paces between us.
While we were trying to conserve our water intake in the heat, it was very difficult to resist the temptation. Sweat was pouring off of us and the suns were relentless. With no concept of how long a day was, we were lost. I checked my phone as often as I dared, wanting to conserve battery.
The phone said it was 8 A.M. on Earth. 8 A.M.
Here, the suns didn't even look like they wanted to set. They had hardly moved.
"Aaron, we've been at this for like nine hours. In this heat, we need a break."
"If we stop now, we may not find civilization."
"No, we'll be dead from dehydration."
He seemed to consider that, and then he consented. We set up the tent and anchored it as best as we could. As soon as we hit the shade, both of our moods improved.
I handed Aaron an apple, a carrot, and a potato.
He looked at me funny.
"We need our strength, and I figured we should save our fun foods for when we find civilization. We will have to cook the chicken breasts when we stop for the night. The insulation won't keep it cool long enough. The ice pack is already warm."
"Okay, okay."
Glad that wasn't a fight.
"Good."
Grudgingly, Aaron bit into the raw potato.
"Hey, you know when you're hungry, it isn't that bad."
I bit into mine and agreed.
We decided to rest for two hours to try and track the movement of the suns.
They did move, ever so slowly. The shadows were longer when we decided to pack up and keep going.
We hadn't quite figured out the whole "bathroom in nature" system yet, but Aaron had it easier. It was so weird. Thankfully, we didn't need to go often because of the sweat.
I was bored, too, and I did try to read a book and follow Aaron, but it was too easy to fall behind. So, to pass the time, we talked a little bit, and I hummed to myself.
"You know you're wasting energy by humming the Spongebob Squarepants theme for the hundredth time?" he finally snapped.
"What would you prefer me to sing? It's Cold in the D but change the words to It's hot in the D to remind us how hot it is?"
Aaron briefly considered the alternative.
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" he started us off.
It was finally dusk when my screaming feet and ankles could go no farther. It was 2 P.M. on Earth.
Aaron must have been feeling the same, because he sat down. I followed his lead, and my knees joined the pain party, followed by my back, shoulders, and neck.
"How far do you think we went today?"
"No idea, Jo. Too bad we don't have pedometers or something."
"Or FitBits. I know it was more than 10,000 steps."
"At least twice that. Anyway, it's probably best we stop. I know we aren't on Earth time, but it's a fool's mission to try and do this in the dark. Plus, we haven't seen any sign of a moon yet."
"And no wood. We need to cook that chicken tonight. We need the protein."
Aaron yawned.
"We'll think of something. Let's just rest."
My body was exhausted, but my brain was still wired and ready for duty.
The light faded and we were able to see millions of stars and three moons.
Three.
One was larger than Earth's moon and the other two were smaller, but they were all beautiful (I've always been more of a moon child).
I was so engrossed in the moons, I was not looking around, and Aaron hit my leg.
"Ow. What do you want."
"Jo, look out there. What do you see?"
My glasses were filthy and needed cleaned, but I could make out a nice healthy looking glow on the horizon.
"You mean that orange glow?"
"Yeah. I think it's fire."
"You think it could be some sort of village?"
"I don't know, but I propose we try to find out," Aaron said while he forced himself on his feet.
"Now?"
He sat back down.
"No. Tomorrow night. We'll keep an eye on that area 'til then. We're both exhausted. If it's a volcano or something, we wouldn't be able to run."
I was relieved.
We set up the tent, and Aaron managed to get a small fire going with a bag of Dortitos. I used a skewer to hold each individual chicken breast over the small flames. I let Aaron have the first one, which he ate rather quickly considering how hot it was, but I ended up doing the same.
Our bellies satisfied, we went inside the tent.
Aaron took off his boots and faced the toes toward the "village" fire.
We both laid on top of our sleeping bags, dreading how sore we knew we would feel in the morning.
We both slept through most of the next day. I didn't hear my alarm, nor did I hear Aaron's. I think we were both dead to the world
As I awoke, I noticed the pains. My legs were stiff, my feet were sore, and my ankles cracked with every small movement. It was dim inside the tent, but I could tell it was daylight outside. Aaron began to stir, so I went ahead and decided to jump on the chance to try and "go" behind the tent before he came to.
Once I came back inside, Aaron was sitting up.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey."
"We should probably take inventory and start packing up."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because we slept so long...and we need to get a better idea of what is what and what we have. I know we just did it before walking yesterday, but we also had to drink a lot of water to balance out how much we were sweating. I'm sure my initial estimates are all wrong."
"Okay, okay," he grumbled.
We already drank more than a third of the water. No way we would be able to last a week out here. We had food, though, and we still agreed to eat the veggies first.
By this time, it was again dusk, and we just make out the faint flickering of the fire.
"Ready?" Aaron asked.
"No. But, here we go."
And go we did, Aaron leading the way over the sand, with only the light of the moons to guide our steps.
We walked for a couple of hours- for certain. It was definitely further away than we had hoped.
My stamina was much diminished from the previous day, and I was running on fumes. Aaron seemed to be doing much better than I was, though he had a very physical job as a welder, and I worked at a desk job, sitting for most of the day.
As we got closer, we could see it was not a village, but a camp, and that the voices coming from the camp were not human.
We started walking slower, quieter, and more alert.
Once we got close enough, we could see that the beings were wearing similar tunics as us, but they had on masks and were wielding clubs.
Then, in the light of the fire, we could see humans, huddled, tied up, and obviously afraid.
"We need to help them," Aaron said.
I swallowed, deciding to allow Aaron to lead in this effort.
END CHAPTER 2
