*July*

As the months progressed, Kyle and Ian did continue their search for the ship, or any survivors, be they from their ship, or any other. Over those five months since Kyle took Jared’s place in the journey, the two didn’t have any more pseudo-encounters with their still unseen companion on that planet, or any others, if those others did actually exist at all. Though those months did take them through many more miles of forest, and hills, and grassy plains, and more forests, which then turned to swamps, and now, what lay before them that day.

The two were approaching the edge of the swampy area that they had been passing through for the last two days when Ian stopped and both reached for a drink of the water they carried with them. After taking a large swig Ian just shook his head with a drawn out sigh as he looked off toward the nearing tree line ahead of them.

“Yes?” Kyle asked after wiping at his mouth after taking a large drink of his own.

“Why the hell does it gotta be so fucking hot?” Ian complained as he wiped at his brow.

Kyle glanced toward him to find that Ian was looking back at him, “I’m sorry, was I actually supposed to answer that?” he returned with his usual sarcasm that was second nature to him in any conversation with Ian, even after this long with only one another for company.

“I mean, seriously, wasn’t it cold as hell when we started this bullshit?”

“Cold as hell?” Kyle smirked, “Where to begin with the problems inherent in that phrase.” Kyle chuckled lightly.

“Shut up.” Ian scoffed, “You know what I mean.”

“Well, it was February when I joined in on this lovely adventure. And now it is July.” Kyle shrugged back at the twenty-four year old before taking another sip.

“July?”

“Yup.” Kyle allowed his own sigh.

Ian shook his head again and took another sip, “I don’t even know how you can even tell what friggin day it is after this long.” then he quickly added, “And so help me if your next sentence begins with the words ‘well I am a,’ I may go cannibal on your ass.”

Kyle surprisingly allowed another chuckle before responding, “Believe me, I am keeping very close track of what month it is. Remember, I turn eighteen in August.” Kyle reminded, though did so with a marked drop in his volume.

Ian shook his head again then his expression darkened slightly, “Though, there is an even more important birthday this month. And I’m not talking about Jared’s.” he added with a bit of quietness of his own, which in turn caused Kyle’s eyes to turn downwards.

“Think we should turn back or something? You know, just in case. I mean she was so scared of being alone when she had the baby.” Kyle asked weakly, almost as though he honestly wanted to hear Ian’s opinion, as odd an occurrence as that ever was.

Ian let out another sigh, “She’s not alone. She’s got the doc, remember?”

“Yeah, but still, I mean, it could belong to one of us, after all.” Kyle dared to remind, as unnecessary as that reminder most likely was.

“Which is why we have to keep trying to find the damn ship.” Ian returned a little too abruptly, then added, “Besides, it would take us so long to get back we’d still miss it, anyway.” he sighed quietly.

“So, you don’t even wanna try then?” Kyle asked for one more assurance.

“I wanna try to find the ship.” Ian told him more forcefully as he lifted his bag over his shoulder again and added, “Let’s go.” before taking another determined step towards that distant tree line.

After several more minutes of walking, the trees at the edge of the swamp did thin out, and there before them was yet another new discovery.

“Fuck me.” was Ian’s first reaction as he and Kyle stepped out onto the sandy ground that now stretched before them, and then gave way to an endless expanse of water that took on an eerie hue there beneath that planet’s gray sun.

Kyle swallowed hard as he too looked out at the slow waves and further, toward that horizon so far off that a human eye could not even fathom what that distance could truly be, “Well, we knew that this planet did have oceans. It was similar to Earth, after all.” Kyle attempted, though his voice did seem much weaker at that point.

“This is fucking bullshit, man.” Ian complained with another shake of his head.

“Oceans aren’t generally a bad thing, Ian.” Kyle attempted, though his argument was weak.

Ian just looked back at him and scoffed in disbelief, “They are when you’ve been walking endlessly for five friggin months and now, unless we think we wanna start deep sea-diving to find the ship, we’re kinda fucked into backtracking, oh, a few thousand miles.”

“Technically, the ship could have crashed in the ocean.” Kyle admitted with a slight biting of his lip.

“Shut up!” Ian returned angrily, then added, “Besides, don’t you think the amazing psychic boy might have mentioned that? He did see the crash site after all. And all he said was that it looked different from our nice little woodsy home back there. But I don’t recall him saying we would need scuba gear to find it.” he added sarcastically.

Kyle allowed another sigh, “I suppose that’s true enough.” Kyle agreed.

“Great, we agree, for once in our godforsaken lives, which means, oh yeah, we’re back to being royally fucking fucked.” Ian added bitterly as he shook his head once more before moving a little further down the beach to see if there was anything at all that even looked remotely promising for them at that point.

Kyle sighed again as Ian continued to scan their surroundings, shaking his head even more vehemently as he did, “Ok, so we gotta backtrack.” Kyle agreed with another sigh as he too cast a glance around them, “So, which direction you think we should head when we turn back?”

Ian scoffed once more, “You’re the ‘genius,’ and you have the map. Why the hell are you asking me?”

Kyle then just shook his head back at Ian and moved down the beach to take a seat on a large rock nearby to begin looking over what was done of their current map and develop some kind of plan for their next move. Once he reached the rock, he dug through his bag for the handheld computer and then took a somber seat atop that rock to look over all of their options, what few they even had.

Upon taking that seat, he moved his feet to brace himself next to the bottom of the rock, and that’s when that sharp, sudden, searing pain cut into his ankle like a bullet. He immediately jumped up from his seat, the computer falling to the sand as he did, “Fuck!” he exclaimed loudly, moving his hand toward the source of the pain just in time to see the multi-colored serpent slither away through the sand and completely disappear from sight.

“What?” Ian asked from his place several feet down the beach, his head turning back quickly at the sound of Kyle’s outburst.

“I got bit…or something…” Kyle responded, though his words were weak and his face drained of almost all color below the beads of sweat that had seemed to multiply tenfold in the last few seconds alone.

“Did you say bit?” Ian asked, barely able to make out the weakly spoken words as he rushed back toward the younger man. Though it was just as he reached his side when Kyle collapsed to the ground, somehow shivering and sweating at the same time, “Kyle!” Ian shouted as he raced to his knees next to him, “Kyle, answer me! Did you say bit? Bit by what? Did you even see it?” he asked frantically as he automatically moved his fingers to Kyle’s neck where his pulse was dangerously weak, but thankfully, still present, “Talk to me, Kyle. Don’t do this to me. Tell me what it was.” Ian continued desperately, though there was no response as Kyle simply slipped into unconsciousness without any more words even able to be spoken.

As Lili’s due date drew closer and closer, she only seemed to get weaker and weaker. It was painfully obvious to Jared that the food available to them most of the time was not nearly the amount or type that could keep both mother and baby as well-nourished as they should be, even in ideal surroundings. Though, Jared couldn’t do much more than try to provide her with as much of that nourishment as he could, as there weren’t a lot of options for any kind of medical intervention to help strengthen her and her child. Due to these facts, Jared’s anxiety levels were nearing those that were commonplace for Lili, even before she had entered her final months of pregnancy and had become too weak to even get out of bed on most days. Though, he kept a brave face when in her presence. After all, it seemed that now their roles were thoroughly reversed, and he was now playing the part of her anchor.

On that hot summer day he was outside preparing a recent kill for their lunch, thankful that at least in the hotter temperatures, food was a bit easier to come by than when he first had returned to Lili’s side that winter. He was skinning the deer, of sorts, when he was startled more than a bit by a shadow falling over him on that sunny afternoon. He turned quickly toward the source of the shadow, only to be even more thoroughly startled when there, barely five feet away, stood their mystery companion from his glimpses as well as from that day by the stream.

Jared’s eyes widened as he looked over the sparse animal skins that covered the sun-touched skin below that disheveled jet black mass of waves which fell to the middle of the young man’s back. Jared stood up slowly and cautiously, having since dropped the carcass to the ground below him. Once he was again standing up straight, his eyes still glued to the only slightly older man as he searched for any words at all, he realized that this young man was nearly the same height as Jared himself, which only made him appear more gaunt and fragile, despite how true that assumption of fragility may have actually been.

Though, Jared did not have to continue his struggle to find words, as it was his companion who spoke with a hoarse voice and seeming more than a bit unsure of his words, despite the force behind them, “Come, now.”

Jared was shocked once again by that statement and quickly swallowed before finding his own voice, “Come….where?” he stammered, still looking over the other man in disbelief.

“Must come now.” he repeated as he took a step toward Jared, which did cause him to jump slightly, his hand clasping the skinning knife even more tightly in his fingers.

“Wait…what do you even mean?” Jared asked in the same stammer, despite his only slight relief that this young man actually seemed to want to continue to communicate, this time, however cryptically.

“Kyle…” he began, seeming even more unsure of the name than he was of any of his other words, “Hurt.”

“What? Hurt? What happened?” Jared quickly pressed, his concern for Kyle’s safety already exceeding that of his own upon hearing this young man’s most recent words.

“Dying. Come now.” he repeated more desperately.

Jared swallowed painfully as he felt his eyes burn slightly at the statement, “How? Where?” he managed, “How could I even…” he began, choking a bit on the words.

Though, before Jared could force his way to the end of the sentence, the other man took another step forward and firmly grasped Jared’s arm, causing the soon-to-be-nineteen year old to jump even more, but at that same moment both of them seemed to vanish, simultaneously, and without a trace.

Inside, Lili awoke to the sound of a faint voice outside the shack and rubbed at her sleep-filled pools of turquoise, “What did you say?” she managed to call through the wall of the shack, her own voice weak and hoarse for more reasons than just her recent slumber. She waited a moment for a response from Jared, but heard none. She struggled to push herself upwards from the covers with narrowed eyes as she called out to him again, “Sorry, didn’t hear you. What did you say?” she repeated, trying to force more volume into her voice this time.

Still receiving no response from outside the shack, Lili was about to try calling out one more time when Jared’s handheld computer beeped loudly from it’s place a few feet away from their bed. She swallowed again as she awkwardly made a marked effort to push herself into a standing position despite the headache and the dizziness that she had been plagued with for nearly three long months now.

She swallowed a bit as she felt a weak kick as she reached the computer, and took another moment to compose herself before lifting it to check to see what message that Kyle was sending to them that afternoon. Only, when her eyes fell upon the message, she knew it wasn’t Kyle who sent it. It simply read: “Kyle got bitten…he’s unconscious…I don’t know what to do.”

Lili’s breath caught at the words as tears immediately rushed to the surface as she let out a much louder yell, “Jared, get in here, now…Kyle’s hurt!” her eyes then moved toward the door as she waited to see Jared rushing in, or at least to hear him call back to her. Only neither of those scenarios came to pass, even after she called his name even more loudly, more desperately, “Jared! I heard you a minute ago! Answer me!” she commanded, her breath coming in shorter bursts as she continued to receive no response, “Jared!” she yelled one more time as she forced herself to begin toward the door of the shack, her mind racing with a million possible reasons why she was receiving no response of any kind, especially when placed next to the current situation as well as her current condition.

She continued calling his name as she forced her feet to awkwardly move her to the door where she pushed it open, taking one more step outside and looking around frantically. Of course, her eyes first fell on the half-skinned animal carcass that Jared had been preparing, which only worried her further. After all, he had been more than insistent on getting her to eat as much as possible, so why he would leave in the middle of preparing a meal made even less sense to her. Though, she wasn’t sure that ‘leave’ was the right word, after all, she had heard his voice only moments before. That was actually what had woken her in the first place, and now he had seemed to have completely disappeared. And Jared leaving that quickly, with no explanation, no warning, and in the middle of preparing a meal for them, on top of the situation that still flashed across the screen of the computer in her shaking hand, that made no sense to her in any way, shape or form. Not only did it not make sense, it terrified her more than a bit.

When that terror set in is also when her anxiety attack started. And when that anxiety attack started, considering her condition and how emotionally and physically worn down she was, that was when that first labor pain tore through her, bringing her to her knees with an agonizing scream, there in this place…all alone, after all.