I knew The Junkyard was big, but I didn't think it was this big. Certainly not big enough to get lost in. And yet--here I was, three days in on the search for the Galiban Gear and I was hopelessly, pitifully lost. I was hungry, I was tired, I was dizzy from the heat, and I couldn't see any way out. Old spaceship and hover car pieces were piled up in stacks, forming an endless labyrinth.

Sometimes, I would come across a skeleton, bones bleached dry from the sun. I wondered what they were looking for. Maybe an old, out of service part. Maybe the mythical Mercader Coil. Or perhaps one of the remaining copies of the Galiban Gear, like me. I always checked their rotting, dusty bags for some kind of prize, something that I might be able to bargain with back in the real world, but there was never anything useful.

Willie was probably worried sick about me. She's the reason I wanted to find the Galiban Gear in the first place. See, Willie's my younger sister. Not much younger, like she always says, but the gap is enough that after mom died, I took care of her and not the other way around. She's a cyborg (who isn't these days?), but her cybernetic part isn't something as simple as an arm or a leg. It's her heart. And she wears through gears faster than most people wear through shoes. But the Galiban Gear is made of the strongest material in the world-- a material so strong that they don't even make it any more out of fear that it'll last forever. If Willie were to use the Galiban Gear, she could live a life without being afraid of her gear wearing out. Also, we were running out of money for a replacement gear. I had to take the risk.

Willie did call me stupid for searching through The Junkyard. It's a 500 miles of rusty old garbage-- why did I ever think I'd find anything? Professional Junkyard explorers, or Junkies, as we call them, get lost in The Junkyard. How would a stupid kid like me ever make it out alive? And that's not even mentioning finding anything.

In the afternoon, I hid under an old car to avoid the heat of the day. I could see the water mirages coming off of the ground as if someone was boiling the path itself. Oh, how I wished it were actual water instead of heat induced mirage. My canteen had run dry, and I knew that without water, I wouldn't last much longer.

I stayed huddled under that car until the sun went down. I crawled out to the first night breezes and continued along my path. I was completely, hopelessly lost. For all I knew, I could be going around the same corners over and over again, circling around and around the same tiny part of The Junkyard so far away from the exit that I couldn't even fathom returning. I imagined how Willie would feel in a couple of weeks, when they'd send her my death certificate. She'd cry for a bit, but then she would have to face reality. Without me, Willie would have to take double shifts at the glitzy bar she worked at to afford a new gear, but the extra work would wear her gears out even more quickly than they already went. It would be an endless cycle of work and replacement until she simply couldn't do it anymore. And then she would die, her cyborg heart mangled beyond repair.

I couldn't let that happen to Willie, but there was no way out. No escape. I crawled up on top of an old freighter to look at the stars, hoping to see some kind of sign. For a couple of moments, there was nothing unusual... until a bright flash of light appeared at the horizon. What could it be? It flashed over again, bright and glitzy as a bar in the city... the city! The stupid city, with it's horrible flashing light shows and distasteful light pollution was my very savior. I couldn't believe it.

I stared at the flashing light. It could very well be coming from the bar where Willie worked. I could picture her there, wiping down tables and taking orders and fussing over every little detail. Forget the Galiban Gear, I needed to be there for her, to help her. I couldn't do that if I were dead. I had to stay alive.

Keeping above the ground, I crawled from the freighter to a hover, and then to a car. They were rickety, but I kept my balance. Once I got high enough, I could see the exit, hardly a mile away. It took me the entire night to crawl that mile. I had to crawl from junk pile to junk pile. Some of them fell to pieces when I touched them. Others wobbled like tops. But I kept my eyes on the bright lights of the city tower, on the bar, and on Willie. Somehow, by the time the morning sun overtook the artificial lights, I was at the exit.

Willie was there, just off of work, asking exiting Junkies about me. They all shook their heads. I slid down from the last stack, I pile of rusty tools, and called to her. Willie ran to me. As I hugged my sister, I could hear the ticking of the gears buried in her chest, slowly wearing down. I hadn't found the Galiban Gear. I couldn't save my sister, not yet at least. But I did save myself, with a little bit of help from the obnoxious city lights. And there would always be another chance to explore the Junkyard, now that I had discovered the secret to escape. Maybe then I would find the Galiban Gear. But in the burning sunlight, with Willie by my side, I was just happy that I had survived.