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“I trust him,” I tell Sayer firmly.
He grins from behind his mask.
“Magnastrikes,” someone growls from farther away, making me jump. My eyes lock with the wild ones of Draven. “They’re explosive radiation strikes. You may encounter them near or within a geostorm.” He mutters out a few more technical things about these terrifying things before backing away.
Before I know it, Calix is ushering me into the vehicle and Hadrian throws up what I now know are “rogcow horns,” to bid us goodbye.
Definitely no turning back now.
I want to turn back.
Calix whips across the dunes in what I’ve not-so-lovingly named the dust-mobile. It cuts over the dunes of red-orange sand with ease, but leaves thick clouds of the stuff in its wake. The heat outside is a relentless onslaught and bakes me inside the tight-fitting minnasuit. I’m reminded back to the hazy lesson that Aria gave me not long after I’d awoken. The R-levels, they’d called them. Or radiation levels. Made worse by the intensity of the sun. Aria’s face had darkened at the mention of how easily both humans and morts could burn from exposure.
If I thought it was hard to breathe inside the facility, it’s almost impossible outside.
I can’t tell that to Calix. The look of determination on his face behind his mask snaps my jaws together. I got us into this and I’ll survive. For Calix, I’ll do what I have to do to make it to the other side of that mountain.
“Do you travel outside the facility often?” I ask through our comms units that are located inside our helmets. The sound of wheezing between the words echoes back through my headset, but I ignore it and pray Calix will, too.
“No, unless it is required. I am of more use in the lab. It is rare a mort volunteers to go outside the facility because it can be so dangerous. The R-levels are a big problem,” he explains. “And then, there are pathogens in the atmosphere that cause The Rades.” The deadly disease he’d already mentioned that had wiped out most of their numbers some years ago.
My chest tightens. “You won’t get it, will you?” Swamped with despair, I reach over and squeeze his thick, muscular thigh, hoping for some comfort in the touch. Selfish. You should have thought of this before you made him leave the safety of the facility.
“Do not fret. I have taken every precaution. As long as we wear our rebreathers under our masks when we travel, we will both be protected.” He pats my hand reassuringly.
“How far away is Bleex Mountain?” The landscape is mostly obscured by the murky dust clouds that seem to hover a few feet above the dunes, but what I’ve seen is identical in every direction. I’m glad he’s driving because we’ve only been traveling for a short time and I’m already lost.
“Three, maybe four solars’ travel.”
Sector 1779 is probably a pipe dream and I know that. If we survive the journey, it may be damaged beyond repair. The tools Calix believes are there could be destroyed or lost. For once in my life, I’m being selfish…I just hope it doesn’t cost Calix his.
“Are you sure we can make it there safely?” I shift in the seat, unable to get comfortable. It’s not for lack of the dust-mobile, its seats are surprisingly nice.
“Worry not, lilapetal, I am not going to let anything happen to you.”
I blow out a breath. I’m starting to annoy myself. “Remind me again how it will go. Just one more time.” I’d had Calix explain the trip to me several times before we left, and several more once we got on the road.
“We will travel as much as we dare during the daylight hours. The weather conditions are too unfavorable at night to risk it. Then we will set up camp with our portable vacuuroom.”
Even though Oz hinted at it and Jareth bragged about it, I still don’t get it.
“Tell me more about the vacuuroom.” I rest my head against his shoulder and wish I weren’t wearing the helmet so I could inhale his comforting scent. I’ll have to settle for the memory, at least until we camp for the night.
He humors me, explaining how the portable tent-like structure is a mini-version of the facility in the way that it has a decontamination area and impenetrable walls, which will allow us privacy and protection against the elements and predators as we travel. Aria already filled me in on the horrors of sabrevipes and I am in no hurry to run into one.
We travel for an eternity and I rest in fits. At first, I try to take in the wonder of the foreign landscape surrounding me, but the uniqueness only lasts so long when we’re surrounded by barren, towering dunes and scraggly mountains as far as the eye can see.
