Earth Afire by Card Orson Scott & Johnston Aaron

Author:Card, Orson Scott & Johnston, Aaron [Card, Orson Scott & Johnston, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Age Range 2 Older Audience, War, Science Fiction, Fantasy
ISBN: 9780765329059
Amazon: 0765329050
Goodreads: 16059350
Publisher: Tor Books, New York
Published: 2013-06-04T07:00:00+00:00

Mazer coughed, a deep painful cough that squeezed his lungs so tight it felt as if they had shriveled like raisins. He was engulfed in black smoke. He couldn’t see. He had passed out. He was pressed in tight from all sides, squeezed in a world of balloons. Then the pain hit him, a searing, white hot explosion of pain in his lower abdomen. He cried out, coughed again. He was blind in the smoke.

“Reinhardt!”

No answer.

“Patu! Fatani!”

He heard the crackle and spark of flames, felt the heat of it near him, all around him. He fumbled with his hands, found his harness, unlatched it, coughing, hacking, desperate for clean air. He pushed at the balloons. They gave a little, deflating slightly. Airbags, he realized. He pushed at them again, scrabbling for the door. He couldn’t find it. The smoke was suffocating. His lungs were on fire.

The door came free. He tumbled out, falling to the ground. The pain shot through him like a knife, cutting him in half. He put his hand to his abdomen. It came away red, soaked in blood. He was bleeding in other places, too. No time to see where. He had to get the others out. He pressed a hand to the abdominal wound, and the pain was like a thunderclap. He held it there, his world spinning. He steadied, got one foot underneath him, pushing the pain to some other place, some place deep inside. It felt like a charcoal fire had been built inside his stomach. He fought it, focused his mind.

He got the other foot under him. He could barely stand. He saw Patu. She was slumped in her chair, head to the side. He knew at once that she was dead. There was blood and injuries. Her face was lifeless. He staggered to her, wincing, gritting his teeth, putting one foot in front of the other. The flames were growing. The heat was intense. Mazer ignored them. He grabbed the med kit from under Patu’s seat and tossed it out. Then he reached up and unfastened the latch on Patu’s harness. She fell forward into him. He wasn’t ready for it, didn’t have the strength for it. They both fell to the ground.

Mazer came to. He had blacked out again, only for an instant, but he had no time to spare and willed himself to wake. It was the pain. It teetered on the point where it was so unbearable that the body shuts down, like a switch has been flipped. Mazer pushed himself up into a sitting position. He grabbed the fabric of Patu’s shirt and dragged her toward him, scooting backward on his buttocks, pulling her away from the flames. She was dead weight, her limbs limp, her head lolled to the side, a trail of blood behind her.

The earth exploded to Mazer’s right.

A shower of dirt and rocks and heat rained down on him.

Mazer looked up. A skimmer flew by overhead, having just missed him with a burst of its laser fire.

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