Astrophysical (completed)

Chapter 10

Outside the ship, the planet's surface felt slightly spongy beneath Cassie's feet. She couldn't really see it however, because the fog that surrounded the planet was thick and grey as far as she could see. Everyone in the party turned their lights outside their helmets on and even though this helped everyone see each other more clearly, it did not do much to pierce through the thick veil of fog. The readings on Cassie's monitor inside her helmet warned that the outside air was without oxygen, and she swallowed hard fearing what would happen if she might get caught in it without the air suit.

One of Walker's men shoved her from behind and Cassie wandered forward fighting the urge not to turn around and fight. Dean was allowed to take a weapon with him, but they did not allow her to do the same because they didn't think she could be capable of handling it properly.

They went over their plan again of moving at least three miles away from the ship in hopes that it would draw out the enemy. They would stand at least twenty feet away from Cassie so that this enemy would hopefully target her. Then they would at least be able to see it and track her if they couldn't stop it from taking Cassie. She watched their faces as this was recounted and something told her they had tried a somewhat similar plan with Celia's teacher, and it hadn't been successful.

Dean was not allowed to give a plan and instead stayed silent. Secretly she hoped that he would break their rules, but she had no idea what he was planning. Still, she trusted him as they began to move away from her only security.

The travel was rough. The fog hid obstacles like buildings, carts, and plants kept springing up not even five feet in front of them making people trip, stumble, and even smack into things before they could change direction. Cassie had bumped into so many things she could only imagine there would be bruises all along her arms in the next couple of days. At one point she nearly fell into the broken remains of a cart, but Dean caught her and helped her stabilize again before moving away from the group. Walker and his men were grumbling and cursing all the while as they too encountered these problems while the fear began to creep ever more into Cassie's mind.

An hour passed and they were finally stopping. They must have been on the edge of town because there were fewer buildings here and more vegetation. Walker signalled for everyone to move out in a circle around her. She felt nauseous and dizzy, but Cassie stayed put looking all around her barely making out the lights of the other helmets.

Biting her lip, she waited as the minutes passed in silence. The monitors on her helmet were displaying the same warnings and slowly ticking down the percent of oxygen still left in her suit. A sound echoed through the mist that she could not identify. She opened her mouth to speak through the coms but hesitated, knowing it would do no good.

She tried to figure out which of the men out there was Walker so she could glare through his back, but the figures were growing foggier than ever. That's when she paused. The lights were fading slowly by slowly and she could start to see the fog encompassing more of the ground beneath her feet.

Again, the sound echoed through the air although it was eerily louder now. She pressed her communicator button and static echoed through her ears instead of a clear stream for her to speak through. She choked and went running but something caught her foot and she fell to the ground. Before she had time to turn over though something heavy overcame her and she remembered nothing more after her eyes closed.

Cassie smelled something foul as she began to come to. First, she could hear something dripping. It was just a small, tiny rhythm of drips from what was probably a faucet and nothing too alarming in her mind. Then she noticed she was cold. Goosebumps were on her arms, and she was suddenly aware that the smell of the room and the feel of it should not have been felt inside her spacesuit and so as she opened her eyes, she was not exactly surprised, but very frightened at the fact that she was outside her suit, and it was nowhere around her.