Chapter Two
In those first few days after the crash, nothing interrupted her sleep. The living horror movie that was Calyptra began to change than starting the second week.
Amber’s routine the following morning remained the same as it had since this death march had begun. Her shaky slumber ended and she broke the night’s fast with some of the tasteless nutritional paste which was all the food she had left. Well, that and coffee heated with a hand laser. Water was getting low; that last stream had been three days ago. She had to hope there’d be another sometime in the next three days.
Sitting on the folded up mattress just outside the entrance to the tent, Amber sipped scalding black gold, and again watched the death of the sky. There was really no better summary of the experience. This would be the fifteenth time Amber had seen it and it still made her shudder. No wonder it had infected her dreams.
At first, it looked little different than a sunrise. As she looked toward the ridge that held what she hoped was a sign of civilization, Amber saw the sky brighten. The orange brightened to yellow and the yellow to white.
Then the white faded to black. A circular ring of stars pushed up behind the mountain, dragging the larger one that was this system’s sun. Soon, patches of star sprinkled darkness were appearing in all quarters. Presently, the whole sky shed colour and depth.
Scoring this was the slow dying of the gasping wind. The latter had been a constant accompaniment of her every night, slipping into her dreams.
During the twenty minutes or so it took to happen, Amber kept expecting to feel the sickening sensation of suffocation as the last of the gases was sucked into the ground. It never happened.
At the very end, only plumes of orangey-yellow remained near the ground, looking like the djinn of ancient myth. One of them was nearer by far than any had been on previous nights.
Reason suggested there must be a hole where those coloured gases went. As the spot was near her intended line of march, Amber made note of its location, deciding begin the day’s trek by heading for it.
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It took all of ten minutes to break down the tent and pack everything up. Task complete, Amber strapped on her backpack and, walking stick in hand, started down the slope of the ridge.
For four days, the land had been a series of ridges, with broad valleys between. One valley, fifteen or twenty ridges back, had had a stream running through it. Six days into her march from the crash site, there had been one, too. She had subconsciously counted on there being more. Though Amber had enough water for three more days, the increasing aridity of the land was beginning to worry her.
Quiet overcame all worry during the half hour it took to reach the valley floor. There was not a hint of movement to the air. Amber’s boots made the loudest sound.
The trees looked like the corpses of huge crouching centipedes. The sharp-edged shadows of their branches made the blue greyish ground cover look crazed. The ground itself was relatively even.
There were no indications of animal life just here, though she suspected burrows would be under the patches of scrub. Over the last two weeks, Amber had caught glimpses of low, long things scurrying for cover during the ignition of the sky at evening. Doubtless these were the animals whose dislocated corpses she’d been seeing.
All the animal life on Calyptra seemed nocturnal, as if there was something about these black-skied days they feared. Amber’s traitorous mind again wondered if they had good reason to be afraid.
Amber approached the spot she was sure part of the sky had been drained into, and began scanning the ground.
Twenty minutes later, she was forced to admit failure. Nothing resembling an inlet did she find. The ground was just the smooth pasty blue ground cover, not even a mound to be seen. It was smoother than any of the ground Amber had covered to date.
Smooth as a tabletop, in fact.
Amber’s head whipped around, suddenly certain the dreaded hunters were finally upon her.
The stillness, the unseen predators, and the corpse-like feeling of this entire world brought the strong, crawling terror roaring back to the fore of her mind. Chills and shivers overwhelmed her. Amber’s face flushed and her heart hammered. Without realizing it, she found herself crouching, hands covering her head, feeling the urge to scream.
She fought it off, finally.
Lowering her hands, Amber raiser her head. Everything looked exactly the same. By an act of will, she stood and faced the dread. Calm slowly returned.
Taking herself in hand, Amber shrugged off the last of the feeling. The artificiality of this bit of ground had to mean something, but she hadn’t the water left to justify an exploratory delay. If she were frugal with her dwindling supply, she might just make the castle on the ridge before it ran out. She wouldn’t have to face vampires when she got their, either. Probably.
With a sigh, of annoyance and relief, she carried on toward the maybe castle.
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Another excerpt can be found here.
