The Chosen by Bob Stegner

Author:Bob Stegner [Stegner, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bob Stegner
Published: 2019-02-10T22:00:00+00:00

***

The next morning Shee had contacted one of her old friends from the maintenance department on R-131. She knew he was someone that she could trust. He helped her get enough life suits for all of them and two rovers that they could use.

By early afternoon, all of them had their suits on, were climbing into the vehicles, and were headed for the Sharp Mountains. For a few days, they were going to hide out in the survival cave that Brit and Shee had terraformed – the one that they’d taken Rad to just before he’d entered the second level of Fawn’s Room. A group this size could live inside the cave for about a week before they would have to leave. That’s about how long their food and the oxygen inside would last.

They reached the cave by early evening and settled in, and if not for the circumstances, they would have been in awe of the work that Brit and Shee had done to create the oxygen rich atmosphere inside the plant encrusted cavern. It was warm and bright from their spheres, and the air was soft and luxurious to breathe. But…the mood was heavy as all of their thoughts were on Simon, especially Tal’s. He hadn’t said a word since the night before.

The next morning they communicated with Fawn and Landree to let them know what had happened. Then they put their suits back on and headed out to the rovers. They wiped a thick layer of dust from each of them, climbed in, and proceeded to search for Simon’s grave. They owed that to him. They had to say goodbye.

They found nothing the first day. At least they knew the general area where the guards had buried Simon, but it was still a needle-in-the-haystack sort of search. Then nothing the third day, and nothing the fourth.

Gareth talked to everyone that night, and they all agreed that they would try one more day. If they didn’t find his grave, they’d come back to the cave and decide what to do next. Tal said that he wasn’t going anywhere until he found him, but even his protestations were beginning to get weaker.

In the morning, they all woke up and noticed that Tal was not with them. Rad put his suit on and ran outside. One of the rovers was missing. Tal must have left during the night. He had to be out looking for Simon. They quickly ate some food, and then Rad, Zeer, and Vella went after him. Luckily it was a calm morning on R-131. They could easily follow Tal’s tracks from last night.

They’d been driving for about seven kilometers, when they noticed that his tracks had turned right and dipped down into a long, low valley. As they entered the valley, they saw him. He was kneeling down.

They drove up alongside, got out, and Zeer and Vella again wrapped their arms around the huge man’s shoulders. He shook from the deep sobs coming from his chest. Rad knelt beside him and helped him move the rocks away.

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