AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Finally, he was there. Elian surged forward, scrambling over the debris, heart pounding in his ears. He slipped through the doorway, eyes wide, breath rasping in his throat.
Most of the screens were off. The ship was running on backup power, only showing the essential panels. The flickering emergency lights cast an eerie crimson glow over the bio-readings of the cryopods.
Hundreds of them, all in a list.
And they all read the same thing: NO LIFE SIGNS.
No.
He didn't know how long the word echoed in his mind, hollow and numb. His legs felt like lead, rooting him to the spot. But the acrid stench of smoke soon stung his nostrils, jolting him back to reality. A curl of black vapor was drifting lazily from a ruptured console, the first tendril of flame licking hungrily at the plastic housing.
Elian's heart stuttered in his chest. He spun on his heel, shoes skidding on the deck as he fled back the way he'd come. Smoke now billowed in thick clouds, stinging his eyes, clogging his lungs with each ragged gasp.
He couldn't think, couldn't process. His mind reeled in terror and denial. It couldn't be real, it just couldn't. Not when he'd finally dared to hope that there was a place for him—
No. Stop it. Don't go there.
Focus. Survive.
The words were a lifeline, pulling him back from the brink as he scrambled over the twisted wreckage. Pain blossomed in his palms, in his knees, but he barely registered it. Just keep moving. Don't stop. Can't stop.
There! The emergency lights led to what he needed: the emergency exit. It was just ahead of him, a thick, circular hatch built into the bulkhead.
Elian lunged for the manual release, yanking down on the lever with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Please don't be broken, too…
Please don't let me be trapped in here!
Finally, with a shudder and a groan of protesting metal, the hatch cracked open, a sliver of harsh light bleeding in from outside. Elian grunted, bracing himself as the hatch swung wide, the effort pulling the breath from his lungs.
Then he froze, eyes widening in shock at the sight that greeted him.
Not the lush, verdant fields of the colony planet that he'd been promised. Not rolling meadows and full blue lakes shimmering beneath an alien sun.
Just… desolation.
A vast, empty plain of rust-red rock and dust stretched out to the horizon. The sky above was a bruised, mottled canopy of sickly greens and burnt oranges, roiling stormclouds flickering with silent lightning.
Elian's breath caught in his throat, a hollow ache blossoming in his chest.
But there was no time to stare. The ship gave a violent shudder, the squeal of tearing metal echoing from somewhere deeper within its mangled interior. Smoke billowed through the corridor, stinging Elian's eyes, forcing him to turn away with a ragged cough.
He had no choice. No alternative. Staying meant a slow, choking death as the fire consumed what little remained.
Out there… No matter what it looked like, at least he had a chance.
With a grunt of effort, Elian hauled himself through the hatch and tumbled down the short distance to the planet's surface. Loose gravel skittered beneath his boots as he fought to keep his balance, the howling wind tugging insistently at his pathetically thin sleeping clothes.
All around him, the wreckage of the starship lay scattered in a wide debris field. Twisted shards of metal glinted dully, the flickering flames casting an eerie crimson glow over the devastation. A thick plume of oily black smoke billowed skyward from the ruptured hull, roiling and churning in the biting wind.
Elian turned in a slow circle, heart pounding as he scanned the blasted landscape. Nothing. No movement, no signs of life or civilization as far as the eye could see. Just endless miles of that flat, rusty plain fading into the murky twilight. In the distance, it climbed into sharp, jutting hills, covered in a forest of thick, skulking trees.
What planet was this?! Where in the universe had their journey taken them? Elian raised his gaze to the bruise-colored sky, squinting against the biting wind.
No familiar stars or constellations. No shining moons to offer even the faintest sense of familiarity or comfort.
Just that seething, storm-wracked void stretching endlessly overhead.
