Homestar Saga

Chapter 85: The Longest Night

The surge of adrenaline hit her a quarter of a second after she realized what was happening. The ground hit her a quarter of a second later. Yvian's attempt at a panicked yell was cut off. Then she was tumbling. Bouncing and skidding along the hard surface of the crystal road. There was no thought, or even feelings. Just jolts and impacts and gut wrenching changes in inertia. After an eternity that was several seconds long, Yvian skidded to a halt.

She didn't feel anything after the stop. She lay gasping, but unharmed. A miracle. After three breaths, she tried to sit up. She immediately fell back down, vomiting. Fire lanced through her body. She twisted onto her side as bile filled her helmet. It was choking her. She scrabbled at her neck, trying to release the helmet's seal. Only one of her arms was working, and some of her fingers were broken. Yvian panicked. This was not the way she wanted to die.

She couldn't break the seal. She was drowning. She kept pawing at her helmet. Her desperate writhing sent shockwaves of pain through her chest. Her shoulder. Her head. She kept at it, but her damaged fingers refused to move like they should.

The helmet came off. Yvian got a mouthful of air. The coughing fit that followed hurt more than anything she'd ever felt. When it was over, she curled on her side, panting. Whimpering. Her face smushed into the mess on the ground, but she was too tired and too hurt to change position.

"Yvian? Yvian!?" A voice dimly registered. Lissa. Concerned. "Yvian? Are you alright?"

The pixen decided not to risk nodding. She waved her working arm in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. Lissa persisted. Yvian saw her out of the corner of her eye, hands hovering. Lissa wanted to touch and check and reassure her sister, but she was afraid to do so. It was a smart call. One shouldn't move or touch a broken person until their injuries had been assessed or there was no other choice. All pixens knew that. Her species was no stranger to blunt force trauma.

Eventually, Yvian had enough of her breath back to reassure her sister. "Not..." she croaked. "Not a miracle."

Lissa blinked. "What?"

Yvian ignored the question. She had one of her own. "Mims?"

"Mims?" Her sister's face scrunched. Realization hit. "Mark!" Lissa disappeared from view. Yvian didn't have the energy to turn and keep her eyes on her. She listened as the Captain dimly responded. She let her eyes close.

"Yvian!" The shout snapped her back to consciousness. Lissa knelt over her. One hand gently clasped her upper arm. It was not comfortable.

"Don't touch," Yvian mumbled. "Hurts."

"You've been out for twenty minutes," a voice behind her spoke. Mims. "You've got a broken shoulder and I think your collar bone's popped. I'm also pretty sure your concussed."

"You can't sleep," said Lissa. "It's dangerous."

Yvian frowned. "How come I'm the only one that got hurt?"

Mims snorted. "We just fell out of the sky at forty kilometers an hour. Everyone's hurt."

Lissa grimaced. "Mark made me undislocate his knee and his shoulder. Not fun."

"Your sister got off lighter," Mims continued. "Bruised ribs and sprained wrist. Basically a miracle."

"I hate miracles," Yvian grumbled.

"Me too." The Captain rustled around behind her. "It's another two kilometers to the big building in the center. I don't think you should walk in your condition, so we're putting a litter together."

"We're still going?" Yvian didn't like that idea.

"No choice," the human told her. He stepped into view and pulled out his pistol. He aimed for a building and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. "Whatever killed our jetpacks took out every piece of tech we have. Our weapons. Radios. Everything. We can't call for help, and Peacekeepers couldn't come here if we could." He glowered at the spire, grim. "Either we find a way to fix this or we die."