16.01.2723

The sun had barely peeked out above the horizon when Bekah awoke, the leaves glistening with morning dew. She smiled at the sight: that something so often seen at home could still happen even here, on this alien planet. It was oddly reassuring, but after five minutes or so, she sat up, telling herself to stop smiling at condensation.

The boy, Calvin, lay sleeping on the ground. She and Charlie had taken turns keeping the kid entertained yesterday, swapping out duties like watching over Tanvir, working on Charlie's traps, and collecting water to drink. Someone had to keep a constant eye on Tanvir as he rested, and it was up to her to keep everyone busy for the time being, even the kid. She pressed a hand to Tanvir's forehead, feeling it. She'd done that all day yesterday, checking to see if he had a fever, but this time she was sure she wasn't imagining it. He was heating up.

Bekah eyed their supplies, wishing they had a blanket of sorts to cover him with. They didn't, so she dug through their medical supplies. Unfortunately, she didn't read Krakoshan, so she could only guess what most of them were. Maybe Charlie would know something. She glanced at where he lay in the clearing, slumped against a tree on the far side. He was supposed to have had the last watch, but it seemed as if he had fallen asleep. She didn't blame him, considering how tired he must have been from yesterday.

She straightened, stretching to work out the kinks and aches in her muscles. Her hair had originally been tied in a tail, but she'd lost her band after the crash, leaving her hair in a tangled mess. Raking fingers through it hadn't helped either. Holding her hair out, Bekah decided to try a different method, forming a comb of air between her fingers. Sweeping through her hair carefully, she took extra care not to pull too hard on her tangled hair as she straightened it back out.

Then, she focused on her clothes, running a pad of air inside and out to knock the dust away. The loose clothing was an aerokinetic's tunic, with the Dirga Academy's logo on the belt that cinched her waist. Designed specifically to avoid interfering with her movements, an aerokinetic's tunic was made of the lightest materials, as well as linings to cushion the user's joints. It was the last thing she had been wearing since her capture, and because it had no pockets, she could only wish she'd picked something more practical to wear. Not as if she'd had much of a choice.

Feeling a little better at having done something useful, she went over to wake Charlie up. The sky was just starting to lighten up now, so the earliest hours of morning were quickly fading away. She knelt beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder and lightly shaking him. He stirred almost immediately, squinting at her while he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his hand.

"Hey," she said. "I need your help."

"Hm?" he said.

"I need your help," she repeated firmly.

"Sorry for falling asleep," Charlie replied, as if he hadn't heard her at all. His voice conveyed the exhaustion she felt, but she didn't give in. "I just..."

His head flopped back down.

"Hey," she said again, shaking harder.

Charlie sighed, sitting up. "Okay."

She led him toward their spread of supplies, then knelt beside Tanvir. Resting a hand on his forehead again, she glanced back at Charlie. He knelt with her, feeling his forehead. As soon as he touched it, he pulled his hand away, muttering a curse.

"Fever," he said. "Okay."

They bent over the medical supplies, squinting at the labels. After a while, it became clear that Charlie had no clue which was the fever medicine. Bekah held up a tablet, squinting at it in the sunlight.

"How did you know which ones were the water purification tablets?" she asked. "Maybe we could-"

"Brand name," Charlie said. "Yaswaren, popular survivalist company."

"Hmph," Bekah muttered. That wasn't helping.

"They really should put translations on these things," Charlie noted, turning over a stack of shrink-wrapped tablets. "What if someone other than a Krakoshan has to use one of these?"

"Maybe Calvin can help?" she suggested. "Maybe he can read Krakoshan."

"Sure," Charlie agreed, standing up and walking over to the kid. Bekah watched him shake Calvin awake, and the two of them joined her. Now that the light was getting brighter, she could see both of them looked as if they'd been put through a shredder; their clothes were tattered and torn from the events of the past few days. Both boys rubbed at their eyes, their hair sticking up in odd places from getting too little sleep. Somehow, it was enough to make her smile.

"Morning," she said. "Calvin, you wouldn't happen to know which of these is fever medicine, would you?"

Calvin peered at the first aid kit, yawning openly. Then, he plucked out a disposable plate of tablets and handed it to her. When she took it, he crawled back to his spot, lying back down.

"Thanks," she said, not bothering to ask how he knew.

Within moments, the boy's breathing deepened, indicating that he'd fallen back asleep. She left him at it, deciding it was better to let him rest. Calvin was an unusual boy, but he was a good kid.

"Is Tanvir going to be okay with that fever?" Charlie asked, eyeing the tablets.

"Probably," she reassured. "But we've got bigger problems. Like I said yesterday, the Krakoshans already found the crash site. It won't be long until they find us."

"With Tanvir's fever and injuries, we can't really move," Charlie pointed out.

"We have to move him anyway," Bekah said worriedly. "Moving him is risky, but if we don't, we'll be caught. Maybe he can walk a little."

"No," Charlie said. "I mean, you're right that we have to change locations, but I'm not sure if moving him is such a good idea."

"I wish we had someone who could Heal," Bekah muttered.

Charlie nodded in agreement.

"Alright," she said. "When Tanvir wakes up, I'm going to make him eat and drink, and take some of these meds."

She started portioning out their food, handing another food packet to Charlie.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered, but he seemed suddenly apprehensive.

Bekah tore open her own food packet, wondering what had gotten into Charlie. He was sitting stiffly, a touch of wariness in his posture.

"What's your brother like?" she asked cautiously.

Charlie didn't move, but he seemed to relax a little upon hearing her question.

"His name's Peter," he said. "He's smart."

Bekah raised her eyebrow.

"Doesn't he go to the Institute?" she asked. "I thought all the kids in the Institute were smart."

"I guess," Charlie said, "but he's smarter."

Bekah swallowed some of the paste from her ration pack, grimacing at the taste.

"We'll find him," she assured him. "Who knows? Maybe we'll find Peter before we leave this place."

Charlie didn't look convinced, so she decided to switch the topic.

"What's your life like back at home?" she asked.

"It's okay," he said. "Not too bad. What about you?"

She sighed, lowering the food packet from her mouth.

"Charlie, that wasn't really an answer," she said. "Look, this is my third day stuck on this planet with you, and all I know about you is that you have a brother and you go to the Institute."

Charlie hesitated, then broke into a grin.

"And all I know about you is that you're aerokinetic and you go to the Dirga Academy," he countered.

She smiled. "Fair point."

"What's it like, going to Dirga?" Charlie asked. "Do you really train from sunup to sundown?"

Bekah held back a laugh. That was a stereotype most people seemed to hold about Career schools.

"Of course not," she said. "We have classes. Math, science, language. Electives too. Like painting, music, dance. We're a normal school, but our days are longer. There's a training class every day, and the best among us are entered into sporting competitions, like gladiating."

Charlie nodded. "I've seen some of the competitions. Pretty tough."

Gladiating was the most popular sport in Kingsfield, with variation upon variation of the sport played everywhere by Kinetics. The biggest gladiating matches were often televised and watched nationwide. During a match, combatants would face single, multiple or teams of opponents, wielding their powers with speed and ferocity, fighting on numerous types of battlefields. She, herself, had been on her school's gladiating team, and each of the matches she'd participated in were extremely fast-paced, forcing her to always be moving, dodging, attacking, and counterattacking on the fly.

"It's as tough as it looks," Bekah admitted. "And it's definitely not for everyone."

Charlie nodded thoughtfully.

"What about your school?" Bekah asked. "The Cadmus Institute? I know a few people who've gone to school there, and they're all incredibly smart."

"The campus is nice," Charlie said, "but I guess you could say I don't really belong there."

Bekah sighed at the answer, thinking to herself that Charlie was the most guarded person she had ever met. Something about him seemed off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Maybe more than one something.

"I've been there twice before," Bekah said. "I know exactly what you're talking about."

"You've been there?" Charlie asked, sounding surprised. "Why? What for?"

"My dad dragged me along," she said. "Business trips."

"Business trip to the Institute?" Charlie wondered. "What for?"

"Donating to the school, funding a student project," Bekah said. "Stuff like that."

Charlie frowned at that. "Is your dad rich then? What about your mom?"

She shrugged.

"I was raised by my dad," she said dismissively. "What about you?"

He put a hand to his jacket pocket, something he'd been doing more and more often lately. A nervous tic of some sort.

"My mom raised me," he said at last. "Not my dad."

Judging from the expression on Charlie's face and his tone of voice, Bekah decided she'd strayed into a bad conversation topic. She switched topics immediately.

"Charlie," she said. "What do you think we should do?"

Both of them were silent for a long time, eating without saying a word. Finally, Charlie spoke, the words coming out slowly as if he was unsure.

"If we stay, we'll get caught," he mumbled. "But if we leave, Tanvir's gonna suffer."

He grimaced, then shrugged.

"No good options, but we need to leave," he agreed.

Bekah nodded, setting aside her finished meal packet.

"Okay," she muttered. "You go check the traps for food. I'll wake the other two and make sure Tanvir takes his meds with his breakfast."

They both stood up, and Charlie started walking toward the brook. He stopped at the edge of the clearing, hesitating.

"We should scout the area a little," he suggested. "You know, before we break camp. Maybe find a good place to settle in for Tanvir and hide out from the Krakoshans."

Bekah nodded again. "Good idea. Since you're going out, could you do that? Scout ahead?"

She watched him disappear into the jungle, then made her way to where Calvin lay sleeping. The boy was really exhausted and she felt awful about waking him up again, but she had no other choice. She gently shook him awake, helping him sit up.

"Sorry," she said gently, handing him a meal packet. "We need you to get up now. Eat this."

Then she was moving on to Tanvir, checking on him. He was asleep, but when she laid a hand on his shoulder, his eyes snapped open. He turned his head to stare at her, blinking away the fog of sleep. Bekah reached a hand under his back and tried helping him sit up.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"T-t-terrible," he said. "Cold and hot."

"You're running a fever," she told him, tearing open a food packet. "You have to eat to keep up your strength."

She moved to feed him, but he took the packet from her and propped himself up on one elbow, feeding himself. Bekah moved away long enough to fetch a canteen and the medicine, holding them out one in each hand. Tanvir eyed the medicine tablet, squinting his eyes in distrust.

"Those are labeled in Krakoshan," he observed. "How do you know what you're giving me?"

"Calvin does," Bekah said.

"No thanks."

"Tanvir," she said, trying to sound threatening. "Don't be stupid."

He sighed, swiping the medicine and the water from her. He fumbled with the tablet's packaging, summoning a knife of aethereal matter to cut it open when his fingers couldn't tear the seal. After making sure that he downed the medicine, Bekah got up, packing their supplies into Charlie's backpack. The extra knife, string, medicine, remaining water purification tablets and meal packets all fit neatly inside, as did the flares.

Her attention was suddenly diverted when Calvin shot to his feet, dropping his unfinished meal on the ground. Without a word, he scrambled closer to both Tanvir and Bekah, turning and putting his back to them and slipping into a defensive stance. Bekah and Tanvir exchanged a glance before Bekah spun around, keeping the injured boy between her and Calvin. She took a deep breath, emptying her mind of distractions and dropping into a stance that kept her half crouched, ready to push off the ground.

Something moved in the trees, flashes of dark green amidst the thick red leaves. Bekah thrust her hands forward and back, propelling a wave of air that brushed the leaves aside and revealed the dozens of Krakoshans surrounding them.

"Charlie!" she screamed.

That was all the breath she had for screaming before the Krakoshans let loose with their energy rifles, blasting through the space she was standing just moments before. They moved too slowly; her instincts had kicked in and she had already jumped off the ground, floating into the air and spinning, forming miniature cyclones that she sent hurtling among the Krakoshans like shuriken.

When she landed on the ground again, Bekah was as light as a feather, the slightest gust of wind pushing and pulling her side to side. She was vaguely aware of Tanvir calling the shadows to life, spearing Krakoshans using tendrils of aethereal matter even as he lay prone on the ground. Calvin was barely visible, dodging in and out of the trees as he cut down one Krakoshan after another. They may have been Kinetics, but the Krakoshans had them outnumbered and outgunned. On top of that, two months in cryosleep had left her badly out of shape; there was no way she could keep this up forever.

Bekah pushed forward, condensing the air into a solid translucent substance in her hand, like trapped mist. It formed the shape of a spike, which she used to slash at the nearest Krakoshan. The trooper flinched, holding his rifle close to his chest as if to ward her dagger away from him, but she dropped into a smooth slide that took her between his legs. A slash to both ankles severed his hamstrings, and then she was backflipping off a tree, tugging at the air to form a local cyclone.

"Charlie!" she shouted again, ducking behind a tree. She perched on a thin branch about ten meters off the ground, twisting nimbly to take advantage of the thick foliage as cover against the energy bolts. For a frightening moment, her footing slipped, but she caught herself and pulled back behind the tree, just in time to avoid a sudden barrage of energy bolts as the Krakoshans concentrated fire on her.

"Charlie!"

Somehow, he was nowhere to be found. Bekah cursed, doing her best to ignore her suddenly sore body. She was flagging. She had to end this fast, before reinforcements arrived. Risking a peek from behind her tree, Bekah summoned a new cyclone directly on top of the Krakoshans taking potshots at her, taking slight satisfaction at their cries when a twister slammed directly onto their heads, but there was no time to stay still. She leapt from her hiding spot, hoping that Charlie was alright, and continued the fight.

Tanvir had been struck by an energy charge, easily noticeable because the shadow constructs had long since faded away, and Calvin seemed to be moving a lot slower than before. Bekah sent focused blasts of wind flying everywhere, sending a dozen or so Krakoshans flying into the sky, but there were too many. More poured into their clearing, moving in faster than she could throw them away.

"Urvosh!" the Krakoshans shouted. "Urvosh!"

Bekah swirled and ducked, dodging with every ounce of skill she had. It would only take one glancing hit from one of their energy bolts to take her out, and any hit at all would knock her unconscious. She had to keep moving, she had to hold back the Krakoshans and-

Something blurred out of the trees, slamming into her side feet-first. She gasped, collapsing to the ground and curling up as she tried to force air back into her lungs. A Krakoshan loomed over her, twice as wide and a head or two taller as the other Krakoshans, pointing an energy rifle at her. He was joined by another, stick-skinny and hunched over, with a longer tail that stuck straight up into the air as if for balance. Then, the energy rifle barked, sending a wave of energy coursing through her.

Everything went black.

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