The Mars Experience

Chapter 35: Donna's POV

My pain is unbearable but I don't have the courage to tell anyone. It's pointless anyway, it'll do nothing but make them worried. It's not like they can take me to a hospital, stop the trip, or even drive me back down. It will take too long. Plus, Athena and Zac are already incredibly paler. I let my eyes shut and try to fall asleep.

A few seconds later, Jedrek frantically wakes me up by shaking my shoulder. "Donna? Donna!" he practically yells.

My vision feels misty and I can barely see anything. "Yeah... I'm up. What do you need?" I moan.

"Oh, ok. Sorry. I was just making sure you were okay."

I nod, then fall back asleep. The car rumbles gently and I can feel my head smashing on to the seat and window. It's uncomfortable, but I have to suck it up. The car starts moving... differently. I don't know what's going on. Except it feels too soft and comfortable to wake up. I finally resign into a deep sleep.

I wake up to the sound of frantic screams in the car, plus the subtle feeling that we're not moving forwards.

"Jedrek, how do you change into park? We're falling!" Hugo panics.

I peek closer into the front seat and see Athena red and breathing shallowly. In the backseat, Zac does the same.

"Open the window!" Brianna screams.

"That's not how you park!" Hugo screams as the car picks up speed. I brace myself by grabbing on the back of my seat and shielding my head with my elbow.

"Type it into the map!" Jedrek commands, then copies my brace position.

Hugo reaches over Athena and presses a button. "State your command." A calm, out-of-place female voice speaks.

"Shift car into park!" Hugo shrieks, grabbing on to his seat as well.

Everything comes to a halt. I take a deep inhale, only to realize I had been holding my breath. In front of me to the left, Athena's face is nearly overtaken by a light shade of baby blue. Hugo notices and once again reaches over into the driver's seat. This time, he presses the buttons on the left of Athena, and all the windows open.

Athena's eyes practically bulge out of her head and she takes a long, loud, audible breath. Her breathing picks up from extremely fast, gradually slowing.

"Guys... guys..." Brianna squirms, while poking Zac. "Zac isn't breathing," she shivers.

"No... no... yes he is. Right, Zac?" Emma gently nudges him.

"Well, does anybody here know CPR?" Jedrek yells impatiently. We look around but no one seems to.

Athena gets out of her seat into the freezing cold and snow to open the door to Zac's. She holds his limp, thin wrist in her hand and masks her crying for a cough.

With a voice more rigid than ever, she declares, "No."

She moves over back into her seat without mentioning the cold once. Without speaking another word, she fastens her seatbelt and stomps on the gas. I feel my head jerk backward as we take off up the nearly vertical mountain.

The trip takes a whole day. When we arrive, the air feels shallow and hard to breathe in. Athena parks on the edge of the peak and we all hop off, beginning to walk slow and clunky steps, bulked up in our heavy winter outfits. Zac stays behind in the car.

We stumble upon a large, wooden, apartment-like structure. Athena steps forward to knock on the door, but she stops her knuckle. There awaits a note made of pen on scratch paper, that looks as if it's been ripped right out of a notebook.