The Geonauts

Chapter 3: The Journey

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

I could feel the heat escaping my body already as we took the runoff in our Earth Pod.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

My fingers, which were heavily padded inside my earthsuit, were partly frozen.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

I took a quick glance at the rapidly disappearing Zone.

~~~

A blast of cold air rushed in. In fact, cold was an understatement. The wind bit through our helmets and cracked it mercilessly. The moisture on our skin was wicked off till it felt like it had never experienced heat. Even my friend's bright face paled as she looked weaker every passing second. But this was all happening just a thousand kilometers away from the Zonal Launch Pad. Our training had prepared us for these unyielding conditions. Yet, we faced what felt like the coldest climate the earth had ever seen since the Ice Age.

The entire atmosphere was blindingly bright. We had arrived at a mountain range, but the only way we could tell that there was any vegetation was the short, stout trunks that fought to stay alive.

What really fascinated us, though, was the sun that shone on this area which was otherwise constantly in the shade. It was a bright red, angry, older one which was nothing like the sun before the Major Change. Even with our safety goggles on, we were still at a risk of eye damage. Our surroundings felt like a living paradox; it was so cold that our skin seemed to melt off.

At last, we reached a clearing where we found a boulder the size of an old-fashioned car. After careful inspection we found that it had markings carved into it. Others took samples of freshly fallen leaves. I recorded the shapes and patterns in the stone, while Aurelie tried to decipher it using the translator that was used by Geonauts of years gone by. Every year, the translator was meticulously updated to precision. Just as we were about to decrypt what appeared to be the first phrase/sentence, a thunderous force shook the surface we stood on. And we knew it could only mean one thing- a deadly avalanche, roaring with the force of a hundred thunderstorms, was approaching.

~~~

When I came to my senses, I could barely breathe. I was in extreme shock and my chest burned terribly. I had lost my helmet and oxygen mask, which now meant that my blood pressure was declining rapidly. But I had no time to worry about that. If I was lucky enough to survive this disaster, then I had to have some hope that my crewmates would be holding on too. I struggled out of the ice, fighting the screams of my frozen nerves.

Suddenly, in the distance, I heard a shriek. I hoped with every inch of my soul that it was another surviving member of my team. Gathering my will, I trudged towards the source of the sound. Every step was more difficult than the last, but I did everything I could to find the cause behind the sound. I saw a single dark patch in the endless snowscape, a patch I recognized as the dark blue suit that our crew wore. I traipsed across the ice but collapsed. I realized with increasing horror that we hadn't encountered any wildlife yet, and that we had no idea how they appeared in the sun.

The last thing I remember seeing was a pair of piercing yellow eyes and the distant, high-pitched voice of my companion yelling my name.