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Chapter 13: Astronomy

Chapter 13

The wretched sun is finally gone.

I never thought I would be saying that.

It's true, though, the forsaken sun is gone.

The dim yellow light hasn't quite faded over the horizon but, the star is no longer in my sights. I hear Amber whoop behind me, her face drenched in sweat.

"Yeah, sun! Leave, you bitch!" she hollers, sticking both of her middle fingers up at the sunset. "You're such a slut, sun! No one wants you here!"

Flora sits atop Dallon's shoulders, her grin faded into a disappointed and duress-filled frown. Dallon's hair is wild and his eyes are pale.

My sore feet stop with everyone else's. Our trek lasted for hours and we can finally rest. My legs tremble beneath my upper body. I'm so exhausted.

"This is a good place to camp," says Hendrix. He looks around at darkening edge of our vision.

"Well, it's like this for miles, so I guess everything is a bloody good place to camp!" retorts Coen, his nose scrunched with irritation.

"C'mon, let's just set up the tents," says Reagan, shrugging the heavy backpack off of her shoulders. I nod in agreement as I look to the ground, my shoes misshapen.

The heat from the ground melted the soles of my shoes. My suit's fabric feels the same way.

I wipe sweat off of my head, frustrated that I can't wipe my brow - which is beneath my oxygen mask. The heavy tank loops around my waist and rests at my hip; I never thought I would consider air as a burden - a hefty one at that.

I take a swig of lukewarm water from my bag through a tube and drop it to the dry, cracked ground below.

I bend down, my back literally creaking through the webbed fabric as I retrieve the rolled piece of cloth laying at the top.

I walk from my backpack to the direction of the sunset, the all of the yellow tints are completely gone and are replaced by graying clouds. The light dims in the sky and soon violet darkness comes over our heads.

I set the roll down and untie the knot of twine keeping the cloth together. The knot is complicated, many loops and bunches of string piled on one another.

My fingers fumble over the knot until my fingertips start to turn red. The darkness making it a lot harder than it should be. I groan loudly and look around at the others, their frustrated shouts mimicking mine. I toss the roll to the ground and rummage through my bag for more stuff.

No scissors, no knives, nothing sharp.

Do they think we're babies?

I frown as I try to find anything that can help me undo the knot. I just find a couple of blankets and supplies. I groan loudly.

I grab the roll furiously and chuck it into the pack. I look to Reagan, who is getting out her two blankets.

"What are you doing?" asks Gayle with a teasing voice. She laughs as Reagan eases the blanket up and down, creating a blue parachute as air fills the space.

"Setting up camp," she replies as she sets down the blue fleece perfectly. She smiles sweetly as Amber sets down her tent bundle and grabs her blankets.

I grab one of mine and soon we are all making blue parachutes.

We gently lower our blankets to the ground only a couple feet from each other. The dry ground that was once hot has know cooled. Thank goodness for that.