Crais(14)

Chapter 4





Death.

My first impression of Crais was death. A dead land without a single living entity. I don’t know about the other three, but I couldn’t hide my shock and interest as I stared around wide-eyed, taking in as much of the red expanse as I could. Luckily we had the glasses, because even through the dark lenses it was out-of-control bright.

A quick glance either side assured me everyone was just as stunned as I was by the landscape surrounding us. Lucy opened her mouth, but then probably remembering Josian’s warning slammed it shut again. We’d decided not to talk; we needed to conserve our oxygen. I couldn’t replace it, only prolong the amount that was in with us at the time.

Through my shield I could feel the intensity of heat, although it wasn’t directly affecting me. Visible heat waves shimmered off the cracked red dirt and bare rock-faced cliffs. The two suns seemed to be on opposite sides of the red sky at this point. The smaller one was so bright I couldn’t look directly at it, even with the sunglasses on. The other was larger but less intense.

Talina caught my attention as she pointed toward a huge set of cliffs close by. Josian and Lucas’s information was that there were many entrances to the underground and our best chance of finding one was along the cliff faces. At this stage I felt no discomfort or fatigue from the shield, but I needed to keep a close eye on it. I’d managed to hold one for hours while practicing, but according to the Walkers the heat here was like a direct attack, and I would be expending much more energy than in practice. The moment I noticed it starting to drain, we had no more than an hour of shield time left.

Moving as one, we crossed the cracked, parched land. It was so leeched that there wasn’t even a layer of dust to kick up as we walked. Instead it was as hard and compacted as cement. And through the insulated boots I could feel the heat. My protective sphere did not cover the ground under our feet. It sat flush with the red dirt in a dome shape, and was about fifteen feet in diameter. Luckily it was adaptive, moving and shifting as we walked and the land changed. The gravity here was similar to First World and Earth so we could walk without burden, my pack light enough I forgot it was there.

Once we reached the shade of the first craggy cliffs, I felt an ease on my shield, a reprieve from the suns’ deadly embrace.

Lucy pointed to the right and the rest of us followed in a single-line formation. I had no idea what we were looking for, some type of crevice or trap door. There was no way to know how intricate or well hidden their entrances were. My eyes skimmed the expanse, the dark glasses making it difficult to judge the shadows. I wanted to lift them up to rest on my head but I was worried that the light would blind me.

A loud screech froze us to the spot.

I spun around, searching for the cause, but beside the suns the red sky was empty. We’d had no indication that anything lived on the surface of this planet. All I could see was the cracked red land, craggy cliffs and maybe some withered tall tree in the far distance.

The screech sounded again, but it was further away this time. With another quick glance over my shoulder, I indicated that we should start moving. We didn’t have time to waste.

We had no luck with the first set of cliffs, our quick circumnavigation finding no entrance. At that point we stepped back into the sun, and I almost dropped at the sudden weakening that flowed through me. The heat was brutal.

Lucas touched my arm, his eyes questioning. I shook him off, before straightening and nodding. I was fine; I just hadn’t been ready for that.

We continued along, searching, braving the sun, stopping only for food and drink from our packs. I felt a slight lift in energy at these moments, but I knew our time was growing shorter.

We traversed about five miles in the direct sunlight to reach another set of cliffs. It took us an hour and I finally found some Crais life, a few small lizard-looking creatures scurrying around. They were much more scaled and spiked than anything I’d seen before, but seemed to have no problem in the harsh suns’ heat.

Lucy waved a hand in front of my face. Shaking my head, I focused on her. Had I just zoned out for a moment? She raised her brows, her expression holding concern, and lifted her hand with one index finger raised: was I in the last hour countdown?

I shook my head. Once we stepped into the shade I’d be okay.

Lucy moved her hand again, reaching over to wipe at my face. Small droplets rained off me before disappearing into the hot land. I hadn’t noticed but beads of perspiration were dotting my forehead. I shook my head, glad I’d tied my curls back in a braid. Right now I didn’t need any more heat on my neck. Actually the air was starting to get a little stuffy in this shield. Josian had shown me how to purify particles, but it was only slowing the gradual breakdown of oxygen.