ABANDON

Chapter 18 -- The Door to Nowhere

Two hours into their journey, the vehicle began to make a grinding noise. It grew worse with each passing kilometre. All Jane could picture when she heard it was the gray dirt stuck to the wheels, interfering with the drive shaft. But then the dirt changed. It was still gray, but it was loose and soft, like sand.

The vehicle pitched heavily to the right. Jane turned the steering wheel full left and drove straight for a few seconds before the tires grabbed. Then she threw the wheel straight and felt the vehicle slide to the right again.

The terrain changed and now the sand came down in long finger-like bars and every time she hit one, it was a guarantee that the vehicle would pitch to the right. Six hours had passed, and they still hadn't reached the Holiday.

Michael had been silent most of the way. Jane couldn't decide if he was brooding, irritated, or if something was seriously wrong. He sat in the passenger seat with his body as close to the window as possible and watched the terrain pass by.  They had spoken a little, when they had run out of fuel and Michael had put the other fuel canister in, but about nothing of consequence. The only thing Jane could believe was Micheal was angry.

Three times the engine stalled, and it was harder to start the vehicle back up with each time. Jane suspected the fuel was bad, it was five times older than she was. She watched the fuel gauge dwindle, now they were running on nothing. With every ridge they came over, she believed the Holiday would be on the other side. The largest hill yet was up ahead. The wreckage had to be on the other side. Hadn't it caused a crater? This must be the outer edge. Jane was filled with hope.

The vehicle turned upwards, the engine struggled, the tires churned out dirt. Then the engine cut out, Jane tried to start it, it wouldn't go. She tried again, and then again. Nothing. She had to accept the fact that it wouldn't be starting again. She looked over at Michael.

"Now can I take a look at your arm." he said.

Jane nodded. She turned towards him. "That's as far as I can move it." she said

"It's broken." He said this like he had known it for a long time.

"How can you tell?"

"That part there." Michael pointed to a vein along the cuff. "It's yellow. Red means penetration, blue means temperature, yellow means you broke something." Michael sighed. "It's best to leave it in the suit. It's a better splint than anything I could come up with."

"Is that why it suddenly got so tight."

"Yeah."  Michael sighed again. "Something has been weighing heavily on my mind. I have to say it. I thought you were going to the transport. The instructions were if things went bad, to go back to the transport. That's what I was doing. Things went bad after I lost my comm." Michael's fists clenched and then relaxed. "I couldn't see with my helmet on, plus the space was tight, so I took it off. Then I kept knocking my head on anything and everything. I was trying to follow the wiring and I had to squeeze through this tiny opening. It was ridiculous. And then..." Michael's face flashed frustrated disbelief. "I lost my comm. It fell off my face and onto the catwalk a couple meters below me. I climbed down, and I'm telling you that was an ordeal in itself, and when I tried to pick it up, guess what? It slipped through! I got to watch it fall all the way down. Correction – I lost sight of the thing, I got to hear it crash into just as much poorly placed stuff as my head did. There was no way I could find it." An exasperated cry escaped Michael. "I was heading back to the transport to get another. I thought that's what you were doing too." Michael sighed a third time. "Heading back to the transport. That's what Faringoth said—if anything goes wrong, go back to the transport. I hope you realize that if you are wrong, if we don't find the Holiday, we're dead."