Beyond

ᑕᕼᗩᑭ丅ᗴᖇ 丅ᗯᗴᑎ丅Ƴ-SᎥ᙭

𝓢𝓾𝓹𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓼 ✶༄ ‧₊˚

"Eddie?" Sophia coughed out, straining her eyes to see who was standing through the smoke. she cautiously advanced into the wreckage, almost tripping multiple times on metal scraps. "Hello?"

"Sophia?" A strained voice replied, choking through the smoke of a graphite engine exploding.

"Eddie!" She ran into the wreckage, barreling into Eddie, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "Oh my god, you could've exploded!" She cried, dropping her space helmet to the ground, clattering when it hit the metal beneath them.

"Wait hold on," He pulled away and quickly panicked, hurriedly scooping the scratched helmet off the ground. "What are you doing?! We haven't tested the atmosphere!" He struggled to fit it into the tracks on the suit. Sophia placed her hands over his and guided it gently onto the space suit, sighing happily when she was no longer breathing in the smoky air.

"You're okay." She sighed, hugging him lightly again, he wrapped his arms around her as well- both sharing a much-needed embrace. After a few moments had passed, Eddie grinned and pulled away.

"You were worried about me." He gazed into her eyes. She blushed a furious shade of cherry red and turned away, crossing her arms.

"Nope," She tried to hide her grin as she looked down, kicking at a random piece of steel blue scrap.

"You were all like 'Oh Eddie! Are you okay? I was so worried!'" He imitated a high-pitched voice, using air quotes for emphasis.

"For the record-" She cut herself off by laughing hysterically. "I didn't say any of those things that you just listed."

"Uhm yes, you did!" He smiled and shook his head squinting behind him and seeing a multitude of silhouettes emerging from the smoke. He turned around fully and stepped to meet them, Sophia following closely behind.

"Everyone okay?" Sophia asked, straining her vision to make out the four forms approaching through the hazy skies.

"Yeah-" Sylvia called back, cut off by a hacking coughing fit, soon discovering her helmet had a crack in it, causing some of the smoke to filter in. "We're okay,"

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

The eleven sat peacefully inside their makeshift camp. Discovering that days on this particular planet were much shorter than the ones on earth. Averaging about 8 hours of sunlight and 10 of darkness. Three moons were visible in the sky, all shining at different brightness and distances. After clearing the wreckage they decided to set up camp next to the working pod, using a special box they had found in the cargo hold. It was labeled Shelter (Iron) #4972.

A simple click of a button on the side of the large box induced a building process, it built a dome shape out of almost scale-like textures. It was rather spacious for being previously condensed. All eleven fit comfortably inside.

"The plan is, tomorrow we'll look for water. We have limited resources as most were stored on the other pod. So our goal is to find drinkable water." Sylvia spoke as she leaned around a blue lantern in the center of the dome. "The atmosphere does have breathable air, but it does have trace amounts of ammonia, so look out for that. . ."

"How are we supposed to 'look out' for a random gas in the air?" Sophia asked, sass evident in her voice. A small wave of laughter rose up from the surrounding kids, and Sylvia rolled her eyes and Leo grinned.

"Ammonia isn't deadly in the small amounts that are on this planet. But it could cause coughing, sore throat, watering eyes. . . you get the idea." She sighed and laid back, pulling a thermal blanket over herself and extinguishing the lantern. "Let's get to bed, hopefully the temperature won't drop too low in the night."

Willow laid back, turning away from Sophia, who was lying beside her. She buried her face against the steel wall, a shiver running through her at the touch of the sleek metal. She sighed inwardly when tapping was felt on her shoulder.

"Willow," Sophia whispered, tapping her shoulder repeatedly. Willow continued to ignore her, pretending to be asleep. "Willow, they're no way your sleeping. We just turned the lights off like two minutes ago."

She rolled over annoyedly, electric blue eyes meeting Sophia's chocolate ones. "What do you want." She whispered, annoyance lacing her words.

"Are you okay?"

There was a long pause before she sighed and turned back around, leaving the heavy words lingering in the air.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

"C'mon," Leo whined, failing miserably to wake Sylvia up from her neverending slumber. "Get up!" He yanked the thermal blanket off her causing her to shoot up in alarm, before laying back down and closing her eyes. "Sylvia," He dragged her name out annoyingly. "We only have eight hours, let's go!"

He stumbled out of the tent, only to find everyone waiting impatiently for further instruction, Sophia fiddling with the hem of her T-shirt.

"Alright everyone split up into groups of two and go search in different directions. Our compasses won't work because this planet doesn't have as strong of a magnetic field as earth. So remember where you're going." Leo gestured to the surrounding woods before going back inside the tent.

"Willow!" Sophia shouted, jogging up to her. "C'mon let's go," She grabbed her by the wrist and led her toward one portion of the woods.

"Wouldnt you rather be with like, Eddie or someone?" Willow finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"What?" Sophia stopped and faced Willow, whose head was downcast, raven hair creating somewhat of a curtain around her face. "Why would you say that?"

"I dunno, maybe because you're basically replacing me." She replied, kicking at the dirt with her tan combat boot.

"How!?" Sophia asked, looking at her incredulously. "You're being ridiculous,"

"Oh, so I'm ridiculous now!?" Willow shouted in annoyance. "You're the one who barely even talks to your childhood best friend!"

"Do you have selective hearing or something!? I am trying my best to make you feel better after what happened, but you don't seem to be putting in much effort either!" Sophia turned lifter her head, now seeing face to face. "Friendship is not a one-sided concept, it takes two to maintain it. And it's really hard for me when you're not even trying!" Sophia sighed and calmed herself down. "You just seem really emotionally confused right now."

That choice of words was a big mistake. Willow looked up with anger glaring at Sophia with fiery eyes. "I'm not confused!" She shouted. "I lost everything I've ever cared about less than two days ago and you expect me to be fine!"

Sophia looked up at her with red-rimmed pupils and spoke in a barely audible voice. "I thought I was your everything."

Willow took one glance at her, turned, and then ran into the woods. Disappearing in the green vastness.