Averi looked up weakly, a gash running across her chin. Adlai immediately felt a pang of pity. He should’ve been there with them. What kind of idiot falls into a sinkhole? No time for that. Adlai picked himself up, and walked over to the wounded girl, a bright smile pasted across his face.

“We’re going to make it back!”

Averi smiled back at him, her old energy returning to her face. “I assume you’re going to carry me over your shoulders?”

Adlai was hit with another moment of nostalgia. When she first began to learn how to use her prosthetic, Averi oftentimes would fall flat on her face.

She looked up at him, her lips puckering, and eyes starting to water. Adlai sighed again. He didn’t trust the other man to not come back, and hated her practicing outdoors, but he didn’t really have a choice. He picked her up by her shoulders, and stood her upright.

“Don’t cry, there’s no point.”

“But it hurts!”

“I know, but crying won’t make it stop hurting.”

Young Adlai painfully recalled his own parents, and the letter he had received only a few weeks back. Only two nights before, he had been crying himself, wishing that his tears could bring his parents back. He grabbed her shoulders, and stared into her eyes.

“You can do this okay? You just have to have confidence.”

Averi stiffened her lip, and sniffed the tear away. She took one step, then another, then another.

A massive smile broke through her face. “I’m doing it!”

Then, she fell. Adlai winced a bit. This was one of her worst falls, face planting directly onto the concrete. Adlai exhaled, expecting another outburst of tears. He walked towards her, but saw something wonderful. Averi pushed herself up, muscles straining, and with a stiff upper lip as her father would say, she began to walk again. She stumbled a few times, but never fell over. Adlai looked towards the sky. The purple-blue swathes through the smog told him the sun was setting, and they’d have to be home soon. He looked back towards Averi, staring at her legs.

“Do you want the crutch, or do you want to try walking home?”

Averi shook her head stubbornly. “I’m gonna walk.”

The two of them walked together towards the sunset, albeit one of them a little bit unsteadily.

Adlai couldn’t help but feel tears forcing themselves into his eyes. No time for reminiscing.

“I’ll be back with you two, I’m just gonna look for sticks and leaves for a sled.”

Shawna looked at him questioningly. “A sled?”

He waved her question away. “Just something that we can drag Averi on. We need to move, did you guys see that thing too?”

“You mean the floating alien? The one that ripped the one that ripped another alien to shreds in front of me and Averi? No, I don’t think we saw it.”

He couldn’t help but crack a wry smile. Shawna somehow managed to be sarcastic at the worst times. He didn’t mind it, but he still wasn’t sure why. Not the time.

“Alright, I’m gonna find the sticks and something to put in between them, I’ll meet up with you guys. You still have the rope right?”

Shawna nodded. “Rope, flint and steel, and the rainmaker.”

“There’s some water down that ridge, it’s good. Once I get back and build this, we’ll get moving. We have to hit-” Adlai checked the GPS function on his radio. “-West. West, so that way.”

Turning to face the two girls fully, he waved, and half ran down the sloping hill.Hatchet in one hand, newly acquired lantern in the other, he stepped down deeper into the caves, the blue-green glow washing over him. He still wondered how lucky he was to find signs of researchers all the way over here. He had found a lantern, a radio, and the remnants of some ripped up clothes. Based on the last discovery, Adlai didn’t have high hopes for the survival of that poor researcher. He felt a little guilty for taking the lantern, but he shrugged it off. Survival of the fittest or something like that. The little solar powered lantern puttered out a meager amount of light, but it provided him with some semblance of confidence. He wandered deeper into the surprisingly spacious caves.

When he had fallen in, he had expected to be trapped in tight corridors, not massive lush caverns. He hadn’t seen anything alive, excluding the plants, and he was thankful for that. Something caught his eye as he was walking, a sliver of light, with shadows breaking up its outline. Looking up, he saw a massive tree, blocking the gaps of what would be a huge ravine.

Where there were trees, there were branches. Adlai hefted the hatchet over his shoulder, and continued his trudge through the soft ground to the tree. The tree was enormous up close, about as wide as two Adlais head to toe. The branches were about as thick as him, and stretched straight up, blocking most of the light, as well as evaporating water. Adlai remembered the professor getting especially passionate about this.

“You see, these caves have essentially become self-sufficient, not needing to rely on rainfall to saturate them, all because of these matron trees. These trees form a sort of barrier to trap most of the water from escaping and rising to the desert. This trapped water then condensates, and falls back down into the caves, creating a new sort of water cycle. This water is the absolute lifeblood of the caves, and without it, we believe that most of the flora and fauna populations would crash tremendously. However, due to this amount of water, certain, more dangerous species of aliens will be more present underground. You should not be at any risk of course, no large predators!” The professor chuckled nervously, eyeing Erik who stood at the back of the class.

Why would the professor even lie about that? The answer was immediately clear upon asking that question however. Who would want to go to some predator infested alien world. Better to advertise it as a utopia for the colonists to live in, and build a new life for themselves. Not the time to be thinking about this. Chopping down two large branches, he awkwardly shimmied up towards the leaves. They were massive, and incredibly leathery, with porous undersides. Adlai, stretching from a branch, attempted to pull off the first leaf he could reach. He didn’t want to think about how high he was. A strangled giggle escaped his throat when he looked down. Adlai wasn’t the type to gauge distance, and he estimated that the fall was anywhere from 20-80 feet. Stop. Stop thinking about it. Gritting his teeth, his knuckles white, he pulled harder on the leaf. With a rip, the leaf gave out. Along with the branch he was on. In his last conscious moments before he began his unwanted descent, he wryly wondered what was with him and falling.