I do not own Lorien Legacies or any of the characters.
Separated
My body burns. My left arm and ankle both scram in pain. Sand fills my mouth and the ground is so hot it hurts. I open my right eye, since it's the higher of the two, and my vision is too blury to make out anything, but judging by the color, my blaster landed at least near me.
I close my eye again, reaching out toward it. After a moment, my fingers brush it. I groan, dragging myself toward it. My ankle and arm flare, badly. I grab my rifle, using it to push myself up. I open my eyes, my vision swimming but slowly focusing. I look down. My left arm is covered in road rash from my shoulder to the tips of my fingers and my left ankle is swollen, probably sprained. I use my rifle to limp my way to the top of the sand dune that forms a bowl around me and look around. In front of me, sand. To the left, sand. Behind, sand. On the right, sand. Overhead, clear, cloudless blue skies and a blazing sun directly above me that leaves the air around me a hundred something degrees of suffocating dry heat.
I look down from the sky just as a figure climbs into view on a sand dune well over eight hundred meters away. Six. I raise the blaster, firing into the sand dune at her feet. She spins, hands up to defend herself but I wave the blaster over my head. After a moment, she waves back and starts down the dune toward me. I begin to make my way down the dune as well, going around them whenever I can. We meet about a quarter of the way from my spot to hers after about five minutes. Once we get there, I groan and sit down. Six sighs and puts her hands on her hips, bending forward.
"How'd you end up so far away?" Six asks.
"Did you land right on the big rock chunk?" I ask, not in the mood to talk about why I got spit out so far from Six.
"No," Six sighs. "Good point. But, what about the others?"
"Clearly Eight can only successfully teleport two at once," I sigh. "I would like to know where the others ended up."
"You mean you want to know if Marina is okay," Six corrects me.
"Yes Six!" I snap. "You caught me! I want to know if Marina is safe! I want to know that she wasn't left in that cave! Or dropped off in the middle of a Movadorian scouting party at another sight! Hell, if I'm being selfish, I want Telekinesis so that I can protect her for a change instead of relying on her to save my life every time we fight one Mog! I want to be able to protect her from my curse! But so far, that's proven impossible!"
"James, what are you talking about?" Six asks. "What curse?"
I groan, standing and turning away. Then, I sigh, staring at the ground again.
"Every person I've ever fallen in love with has died," I sigh. The first was merdered, begging me for help, but...I froze. I watched her die, even though I could have saved her. The second died in a car accident. And the last in a plane crash."
"That's why you got so mad before, isn't it?" Six asks. "And why you wouldn't make a move."
"I can't protect Marina," I mutter. "But...Eight can. I'm just a liability. Especially from wherever the fuck we are."
"I think we're in New Mexico," Six sighs, allowing me to change the subject. "So, we're where we wanted to go."
"Do you know where we're going?" I ask.
Six walks to the top of a sand dun, looking around. Then, she slides back down to me.
"There are some mountains in the distance but it'll be days before we get there on foot," Six sighed. "To my memory, the mountains should be north."
"Did you happen to see any water?" I sigh. "We'll need it in this heat."
"I wish there were something I could use to create a storm," Six sighs. "Wind, clouds, anything."
"We're out of luck it looks like," I grumble. "I don't suppose you can help me walk."
Six sighs and takes my left arm over her shoulder, careful not to touch my road rash. Then, we start to make our way north. With the sun direcrly overhead, there's no shade anywhere. In minutes we're starting to dehydrate. We continue staggering forward, checking the sky for clouds periodically for clouds. None. Ever. Finally we reach the top of a large dune and stop. There's a town in the distance. Still far, but closer than the mountains that remain little more than a slightly darker silhouette than the sky around them. Forget days. It'll take a week or more to get there.
"We'll rest in the town," I mumble. "Continue at night, when it's cool."
Six nods and we continue to stagger toward the town. When we get there, we stare. The buildings are ruins, all crumbling and reclaimed by the desert. We head into the most complete and sturdy ruin then Six leaves, searching around the town for water. I reach into my pack and pull out my canteen but it's empty. Besides that are a few knives, a handful of full magazines for my Tavor, and a couple of FRAG-12s. An idea occurs to me.
"No wells," Six sighs.
"Could you turn the concussion of an explosion into wind, and use it to make a storm?" I ask.
"Maybe," Six shrugs. "You have an idea?"
I nod, taking all of my bullets out and having Six use her Telekinesis to take the projectile out, pouring the powder in a pile with the FRAG-12s on top. Then, she and I make our way away from them and I sight in with the blaster. One shot later, a massive fireball demolishes several buildings, sending a wall of wind at us. Six raisez her hands and the wind slowly dies down. At the last second, however, it pauses and begins to strengthen again.
After a moment, clouds begin to form overhead. I pull out my canteen as it starts to rain. For a moment, it doesn't help. Then, I hear a zipper and turn around, seeing Six holding my back pack out. I remember that it's mostly waterproof and smile. After fifteen minutes, the storm dissipates, and Six sits against the wall, still holding the, now full, bag. I walk over, taking the bag and pass her the canteen. Then, I hold the bag open while she dips the canteen into the water and holds it there until it's full before taking it out and sipping at it.
I set the bag off to the side carefully and sit beside her, looking up at the again cloud-free sky.
"We'll rest and rehydrate for a few hours," I say. "It'll be easier to travel at night, and you can dig us shelter with your telekinesis when the sun rises, right?"
Six nods and leans back, taking another sip before handing it over. I sip at it as well, stretching out my injured leg and sighing. It's going to be a long time before we leave New Mexico.
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