"I saw something." Arya paused, almost forgetting that she was co-piloting the air cruiser with Benji.

"Um. Must be hailstorm, Ari." Benji watched the harsh hitting of what looked like ice rocks hit the shields in random directions. He nonchalantly pressed some buttons to manoeuvre the cruiser through the thin gap which looked clear enough to let the cruiser escape further hail-damage.

"No, it's not the hailstorm, I saw something!" Arya almost yelled.

"Jeez, Arya!" Benji snapped, "we are co-piloting, I almost slipped passing through that window. Alright, what is it, a dinosaur Archeopteryx?"

"No, I can't explain the phenomenon. It was weird. It felt like something flashed, or morphed, like some sort of transparent beehive of a lightning."

"Look, it wouldn't be weird if I said I saw the aurora borealis here. We are T-minus 13 into the eclipse. Gravitational conundrum remember? It makes us see all sorts of things." Benji tried to console Arya. Arya usually didn't get into her nerves, but when she had them, it was never easy to calm her down.

"I saw it. I swear." Arya nodded, sweat beading slowly over her brows. "Or is the cruiser cabin low on oxygen or something?"

Arya pulled down her thermo-suit's zipper and checked casually behind to see if Fiana was doing fine.

Fiana met her gaze and said, "saw."

"Aha!" Arya chuckled, banging her hand over Benji's seat. "Told you so, Fiana saw it too."

"I don't understand what you guys are talking about. Come on, Fiana can barely see my fingers, forget about that lightning you are talking about." Benji turned some buttons down. "Either way, we are almost into the Zoramaic dunes."

There was a bright light as they shot right out of the stormy clouds into the clear sky. The cruiser glitched due to the gravitational conundrum, they could see the daylight moon with ugly acne face slowly rising to block the sun for the next few hours.

"Prepare for the descent, AVAH has spotted the location of the valley. Zooming in and go." On Benji's cue Arya toggled some switches and moved the joystick for descent.

The cruiser moved jaggedly, owing to both of their crude training. Fiana held on to her dear life as the anti-gravitational stomach flips began.

The cruiser staggered down to pause before free falling again. Within no time, it had reached the sandy open grounds ahead of the valley. Fiana was the first one to unbuckle her seatbelt, even when she had struggled to put on one earlier.

"Home!" Fiana screamed as she jumped out on the sand, she took a long breath of dry and dusty air and smiled. She took an enthusiastic step forward, and with the next one she was already running toward her home.

"Surprisingly, the valley is quite this time. No acrobatics, no jump scares and Oja stares so far. Interesting." Arya squeezed her eyes to protect herself from the dust that had risen due to the landing of their air cruiser.

_________________________

"No!" Fiana screamed, scanning all around the valley. Only other voice she heard was her own echo inside the valley. "No. No."

"Where is everybody?" Arya looked around, AVAH scanned every crevice possible to pick up on any human sign.

"I don't understand, by now Oja would have pounced from nowhere with Syf and her other guardsmen." Benji ran over to the cavern they used for suppers, the community hall.

"What in the world...?" Benji gasped, looking at the disheveled place. All the clay platters and bowls, along with stew was broken into pieces and thrown all over the ground.

They noticed even trails of footprints of all sizes leading to the exit doors.

"That's an indication of brutal crowd crush, my god!" Arya bent over to examine footsteps of children and adults of the tribe, rubbed over and into each other.

Benji and Fiana ran into the exit door, walking in the darkness, the makeshift lanterns were all broken. Some were still intact, allowing them to see the pathways. Benji flashed open multi-tool into a torch, the same followed with Arya.

After several turns, Fiana led them to the cave where her twin sister, Rina was isolated and kept. She froze the moment she faced the door, as it was ajar. She took a hesitant step inside calling for her sister. "Irina. Rina!"

Arya and Benji joined in calling for Rina, "where are you Rina, look we brought your favourite game back, the skull game remember?"

There was a clink, a squeal and then nothing.

"Don't be scared, it's Fiana. Oja is in the community hall, pouring a hot bowl of stew for you. She'll be back in a minute." Arya lied, biting her lip in curiosity and fear, to an extent she had never felt before.

"Yes, the snake stew. It was delicious the last time. My mouth's watering." Benji recollected the stew from the previous time.

"Fia..." Irina's sweet voice cooed from the shadows of a corner, followed by an incessant bout of cough.

Fiana quickened to the source of sound within a fraction of a second, thanks to her super senses.

"Rina. Rina." Fiana cried, taking her sister's head on her lap as she lay limp on the ground. Rina's body was sweaty, trembling, cold and clammy.

Fiana sniffled her flooding tears, only to lift her hand and realise there was blood on her sister's body, as the iron slick from the blood irritated her senses. "Blood!"

Arya immediately crouched down and undid her backpack and started retrieving things. "AVAH, a little light here. Do I even have to tell that to you?"

"My priority list does not contain this Human." AVAH stated, before buzzing into the scene and throwing a beam of light to the spot.

"Okay, easy now." Arya approached the girl to examine. "Where do you think the blood is oozing from?"

"Shot." Fiana sobbed, her face distressed.

"Shot on the abdomen, probably a lazer shooter. Multiple times." Benji rolled the girl's shirt upwards, careful enough to not pull on wounds. "That's infected."

"Lazers?" Arya poured the antiseptics on the wounds for dressing. "I don't understand, nobody knows about the tribe's location and habitat except us, right?"

"It's self-explanatory." Benji squeezed his lips in, "this was bound to happen. They did a successful strike this time. Silas is a monster."

"Silas is a lot of thing, but he is not 'this'." Arya paused mulling over what Benji had said. "I don't believe you."

"Believe it or not," Benji chuckled, "nothing's gonna change now. Look at her, she is literally dying. Is this the 'cure' we promised Oja? Wipe her out? Totally?"

Fiana wept louder than ever listening to the conversation between Arya and Benji.

Arya grabbed Benji's hand, which was holding a roll of bandage, and squeezed as an indication to shut his mouth, in other situation she would have had her elbow into his ribs, but now she wanted to keep it compassionate.

"Who? Di...did... Th. Thi-ss?" Fiana struggled and stuttered to form a complete sentence for the first time ever since they had come to see her.

Arya felt her stomach flip in all the directions possible, given the chance she wanted to puke real bad. "I don't know, we don't know."

"Silas?" Fiana ran out of breaths in between while sobbing, "is i-i-itt?"

"No," Arya pressed on her shoulder gently, "as I said, Silas will never do this. Trust me, I know him better than you think."

Benji sighed, got up and walked outside of Rina's chamber in contempt.

"Who. Then?" Fiana caressed Rina's thinning bald hair. "She, live?"

"I can't say anything, right now. I have given her a dose of antibiotic."

Irina took a long breath before holding her breath, her mouth hung open, visibly in some sort of discomfort. Rina's finger slightly rose to touch Fiana on her cheek. She struggled to turn to her and say something but couldn't.

"Rina, Rina." Arya slapped a couple of times on Irina's cheek. "Hey, stay with me. Don't do this to me. Stay. Benji! Benji. Arrest!"

"Move over." Benji pulled Fiana aside and laid the girl's head flat on the ground. He held his hands together and started giving chest compressions, as Arya fumbled to fix an epi-pen and punch it into her arm.

Momentarily, within a minute Rina regained the consciousness, prompting them to stop the resuscitation. Irina gently loomed her eyes over to Fiana's face. She whispered something, "so...sorry. Lo...love. Yo.."

The voice faded into nothingness as her consciousness floated away in waves along with the whistling of evening winds.

Fiana fell to the ground, tears flowing like rivers down her face. "Mother?"

Within a minute or two, Fiana wiped her tears away with a look of determination on her face. She got up lifelessly, carried her twin sister in her arms and started walking slowly toward something, the weight swaying her unsteadily.

Arya and Benji saw that she didn't fall, supporting her when necessary.

After taking several turns, Fiana reached the chamber of garden, only to notice the vandalism that had taken place. The fruits, vegetables and flowers were plucked away and strewn accross, mainly most of them were missing, probably stolen by whoever attacked the place. The central wheel was broken at places, microgreen was plucked in patches.

Fiana laid her diseased sister down near the Tezun plant's section and jumped into the water canal over which the hydroponic system for Tezun was grown. She walked, pushing her legs ahead in the knee length water, fertile silt slowly raising and clouding otherwise clear water.

"Fiana what are you doing? We are a little lost here." Benji went over and hopped into water, following her.

Fiana bent into the canal, pushed aside the straws of Tezun flowers away from her face, water splish-splashing everywhere. Her hands searched for something.

After a few attempts and struggles, she pulled at something with all of her strength. There was a ear numbing clank and a scrape.

The floor of the inner circle, which held the wheels of microgreens at centre, started to crack and open up slightly from an edge. The opening was squarish, like a trapdoor of some sort, only so much that it could accommodate a person or two to pass through at a time.

Benji looked behind to give his signature glance at Arya and shrugged his shoulders in confusion.

"Temple." Fiana did her religious gesture looking down into the trapdoor. A circle on her heart and a touch on her forehead.

"A temple?"

"To bury your sister? For rituals?" Arya asked, "But is it safe in there? That's been closed for ages if I'm not wrong.