Adlai shook Averi’s shoulder, her eyes bleary with sleep.

“Mmmf.”

“Let’s get ready to go down. Avoid the sand okay? I’d rather you don’t get eaten.”

Shawna flicked her hair back. “ We’re going for the radio right? Any ideas on how to reach it?”

Adlai shook his head. “I’m still thinking about it, we don’t exactly have any sticks to reach it with. I was hoping I’d come up with something by the time we reach there.”

Averi, fully awake now, stuck her head outside the pod’s hatch. “ D’ya think the aliens will come back out tonight?”

“I think they’d be out by now.” He sighed. “We should probably try to catch some to eat, given that we lost our supplies.”

He licked his lips unconsciously. His throat was starting to swell, and he regretted not drinking any of the water before the alien had gotten to it. Why had the alien attacked them anyways? There weren’t supposed to be any large predators, and that very much was a large predator. No use in thinking about it, the field guide mentioned that water was plentiful below ground. He was uncomfortable however. If there was a clear predator above ground, where the wildlife rarely congregated, how many large predators would be below ground? He grabbed the hatchet pick, and handed the knife to Shawna. He gave Averi the remaining MRE’s and the flint and steel. The rainmaker had barely made a couple of drops during the day time, and he hoped that when they came back tonight, they’d have some water for the trip below ground. All three of them hopped out of the ship, the dark desert sands illuminated by the bright moon.

No aliens rose, and the trio trudged through the sand, dodging barely illuminated potholes. As they got closer to the ship, the smell of rotting meat permeated the air. Adlai was simply too thirsty to even want to throw up, and he guessed that the two girls felt the same. Apparently, the aliens hadn’t gotten to all the corpses. He tried to stop thinking of corpses, of the catastrophic amount of death ahead of him. It could’ve been him, or Shawna, or Averi. He thanked god for the fact that they both were still alive. He’d do his best to keep it that way.

Finally, they got to the ship, Averi gawking at the massive size. He pushed her up into the crevice they had entered the day before, and climbed in, pulling Shawna up into the ship. It was eerie, the emergency lights had simply died out, no longer bathing the hallways in comforting red light. Downwards, a faint blue and green glow marked the beginning of the biolum zone of the caves.

Shawna grabbed Adlai’s arm, and he could tell Averi was glaring at her without even needing to look. “Come on, it’s down here.”

Adlai slowly and surely stepped towards the section containing the radio, when he laid eyes on a loose pipe. Grabbing it, he tested the heft and length. Perfect.

“I found a pipe for the radio.”

“Perfect! Alright, now help me out here.”

He walked into the dim room, barely seeing Shawna and Averi’s outlines.

“The radio is right up there, hand me the pipe.”

Adlai passed the pipe over to her, and she reached out for the radio. Still too short.

“Let me try, I’m a bit taller.”

Even with his height, Adlai still couldn’t get the radio.

“Here, let me get onto your shoulders.”

Adlai heard Averi gag a bit, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t because of the smell. Ignoring that, he kneeled down, and Shawna clambered up his back. At that point, he wished he had taken gym a bit more seriously. Teetering precariously over the edge, Shawna fiddled with the pipe, smacking the radio towards them. The radio flew off the shelf, landing on the sloped floor. The momentum of that fall however caused it to start sliding down the shelf of exposed metal, down into the dark caves. Shawna and Adlai watched in frozen shock as the radio slowly slid down, only to be saved by Averi lunging for it. The only issue was she began to slide too. Adlai nearly threw Shawna off his back, and lunged for her foot. Again, he wished he had been a bit wiser about skipping gym class. Shawna once again saved the day, somehow pulling the combined weight of the surrogate siblings. The three of them lay on the less sloped floor, breathing heavily.

Adlai leaned over to Shawna. “Deja vu, right?”

She laughed breathlessly. “Sure.”

Averi tried to huff sassily, but the only thing that escaped was a wheezing hiss. “You all should be thanking me for grabbing the radio.”

Adlai laughed. “Thank you carrot top.”

“I still don’t get why she called me that?”

“It’s cause you’re a redhead.”

“I don’t even know what a carrot is!”

Shawna interjected. “It’s a vegetable, idiot.”

“As if I would know.”

“How do you know, Shawna?”

“Parents.”

“Ah.”

They all laid in silence. Adlai was first to rise, and the two girls quickly followed. They climbed up the angled passageway, heading back towards their own pod. They jumped out of the ripped entrance. Adlai enjoyed the solid footing he had on the ground. It was nice not to worry about falling through the floor. He took another step, and the weakened ground opened up, sucking him down a chute of solid rock.