Shadows of the Swarm by Sean Fletcher

Author:Sean Fletcher [Fletcher, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Epic Worlds
Published: 2017-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

13

Desert Survival 101

Sand dunes are not as soft as some would lead you to believe.

This is especially true when the flaming remnants of your spaceship careen into one, blow through a couple more, and cut a quarter mile swath into the ground. Impressive, I know. It should be a record or something.

Raz, on the crest of a sand dune ahead of me, whistled. “That’s one impressive parking job, Alyx. I can even see the divots where we skipped a few times! Nice!”

“Glad I could impress.”

I picked myself up off the ground. I had a nice sized bump on my head and blinding sun seared my eyelids. Raz had dragged me under the tipped edge of the T.R.A.S.H’s wing the second he’d been able to move. The heat was unbearable. Breathing in baked my throat and lungs in one go.

The contents of our ship had been scattered in a ring around us. The wings had been ripped off. The main fuselage was intact. The glass canopy was shattered where we’d been thrown through on impact. Judging by the distance some of the ship parts had been tossed, I was surprised it wasn’t our brain matter strewn along with it.

Raz slid his way back down to me. He adjusted his dew rag so that his neck was covered from the blazing sun.

“Feel okay?”

“I feel alive. Is that the same thing?”

“In this situation, yes.”

I looked past him, up into space where the Angel’s Star and the StarKillers still were. I hadn’t gotten off much of a warning to the others, though it was obvious there was trouble. I was confident that between my team and Studs’ command of the ship they’d be able to fight off any attacks.

Even so, my stomach lurched painfully at the thought of Jess in battle up there. Without me.

“Alyx!”

Raz snapped his fingers in front of my nose. He stared at my eyes and waved a finger a couple times in front of it. I followed. “You get a concussion? Your pupils aren’t dilated. You feel like vomiting?”

“Just hoping they’re okay up there.”

Raz looked up over his shoulder. “I managed to give Studs the coordinates of our landing point. They’ll be here soon.”

“Unless the StarKillers find us first.”

It may have been the intense light, but Raz’s skin seemed to pale slightly. “That man was one of the EA’s StarKillers?”

“Aaand because of that reaction, we need to move,” I said.

Raz grunted an affirmation as he gripped my arm and helped me stand. He grunted. “When’d you get so big?”

“A while ago, dad. It’s called growing.” My legs wobbled a bit, but solidified after a moment. I cupped my hand over my eyes to look around. Blood red triangular shapes rising out of the sand stuck out to me. “Those mountains look like our best bet. Studs’ll figure we went for cover.” They couldn’t have been more than ten miles away, but I knew distances, especially in this heat, could be deceiving. Burne had said there weren’t many colonies on the planet, so going any other direction could have us wandering to a slow death.

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