Refuge 2 by Crystal Candy

Author:Crystal Candy [Candy, Crystal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-11T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 04

Jax sighed and shifted slightly.

“Can’t sleep either?” Signy asked, startling him. He really thought she’d drifted off.

“No,” he replied. “Something’s bothering me.”

“Me too. I don’t know what it is.”

“Really? Fuck, I’m glad it’s not just me. Something’s been chewing on me all day long and I’ve got no clue what.”

They’d been laying there for an hour already. He was tired, exhausted really, but his brain wouldn’t shut the fuck up.

“What are we missing?” Signy asked softly.

He thought about it, began running things through his mind. Was it something in the outpost? He didn’t think so. What did that leave? The desert? The ship? Maybe the ship. Was he forgetting something at the crash site? He’d been over it twice, and at this point all that was really left was twisted metal, sand, and several dead bo-

“Fuck,” he said, sitting up.

“What?” Signy replied immediately.

“I know what’s bugging me. The bodies. They’re just sitting there...they deserve a proper burial,” he said.

“...you’re right,” she murmured after a moment, slowly sitting up. Her shoulders slumped. “I hate to sound like a whiner but...fuck I do not want to go back out there right now.”

He sighed and thought about it. Practically speaking, there really wasn’t a whole lot of point in doing it. But it wasn’t right, it didn’t feel right. Burying the dead felt right. He didn’t consider himself a religious or spiritual man by any stretch of the imagination, but some part of him at least believed in paying your respects to the dead.

He had recognized a few of those faces, while searching the bodies.

“I’ll handle it,” he said, pulling the blanket back and getting to his feet.

Signy sighed softly. “No, if you’re going out there, I am, too. I’m definitely not letting you do this on your own. And I saw some shovels in the basement. Also a few stakes, perimeter markers. I guess we’ll have our own little graveyard,” she murmured.

“Yeah.” He glanced at the window. The sun was gone, and an eerie light blue light was now cast down from the skies. “It’ll be better to do it at night, anyway.”

“There is that.”

They pulled their clothes on and headed into the basement.

…

Ten minutes later, he and Signy were walking back across the packed earth with light packs on their backs, each containing two canteens of water, a telescoping shovel that collapsed in on itself, and two metal stakes. Although he was bone tired and still kind of miserable from having to get back up, Jax felt better.

Doing this was the right thing to do, he could already tell.

Although it sure wasn’t going to be easy. But the right thing was rarely ever easy. And he’d buried corpses and dug graves before, so he at least knew what he was doing. It was ghastly work, but it was at least simple work.

They crossed the distance beneath the cool blue light of the planet’s two moons. It was a bit eerie, but it was also extremely beautiful. Blue was his favorite color, after all.

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