An Infinite Sojourn

IV

   After long discussion, we decided to investigate the smoke in the morning. It was pretty late and we were all exhausted and wanted to be safe, especially after what happened earlier. It may be there in the morning, it may not but we needed to be safe.

   I laid out our specially designed sleeping bags. They kept us warm and a little more comfortable while we remained in our thin space suits. The suits were cushioned but definitely not ideal to sleep in.

   No one slept that night. But I doubt anyone would be able to sleep after crashing onto a different world and seeing someone you crashed with's mutilated body. I felt bad for her but I was more glad it wasn't me.

   I sat up and whispered "I think I'm going to check out that smoke. There's no way I'm going to sleep tonight."

   "Yeah I really wanna know what's over there." Oswald immediately popped up responding. He seemed a little fired up.

   "I will go." Began Aarav, " I doubt I'll be sleeping tonight either. We are in a bad situation here maybe they can help us."

   "I don't know. If they are hostile we don't have any weapons and could be outnumbered. It seems like an unnecessary risk." Daisy protested, still lying down. But eventually, as everyone else began leaving she hesitantly decided to come along. Out of fear of being along I presume.

   "Come here." I told the group, gesticulating my hand as I told them. I brought them to the ship, right outside the cave entrance. "We need to be prepared just in case." I explained, " I have a few weapons in my bag."

   I brought out my bag and pulled out a few cool weapons. I remember, before we left, they let me pick out a few super cool high-tech things from their arsenal.

   "Honestly, I don't know how most this shit works but it should be effective for defending ourselves." I admitted. "There should be another bag with stuff we can attach to our space suits. To modify them." I remembered the director of our mission, Mr.Hugo, I think it was, provided us with gear we could mod our spacesuits with.

   Thinking about the mission... what was the point? They sent a random group of people to this place and then cut contact. Not to mention this must've cost an insane amount of money.

   But we needed to find out what that smoke was from, there was no point in me searching for answers where none could be found.

   I discovered a pair of sleek, dark grey boots with a blue up arrow on the side. They were made of a lightweight, durable material that was similar to a mix of titanium and carbon-fiber. Based on the arrow, I assumed the functionality of these boots had something to do with enhancing jump height.

   "What's that?" Oswald points at my boots curiously.

   I stand up with them on and feel the same, "I'm not sure." Then I jumped, lingered in the air for a second, and then slowly fell back down. I didn't jump any higher. Were the boots useless? Surely not right?

   But then I looked back in the bag and found a pair of gloves. The gloves were also dark gray with blue up arrows. I started connecting dots. I had seen my fair share of super-hero movies and I could only hope this did what I thought I did. I picked up the gloves and a long, thick chords fell out of each one. I looked on the shoes. Each shoe had a port that the chord could possibly fit into. I slipped the gloves on, they were slim and felt almost like a second skin. Then I ran the chords through the inside of my suit all the way to my boots, and connected the wires to the boots.

   Both the gloves and boots had large circles of some sort of technology on them. On the bottom of the left glove, there was a band that wrapped around my wrist, comparable to a wristwatch. And there was a dial on it, along with a few buttons. I turned the dial slightly with my right hand and I hear my boots and left glove start making a low humming sound as  they began emitting a small jet of smoke and fire. I move my right hand to my side and it does the same. Somehow the right glove can detect when being nearby the dial, automatically turning off as to avoid harming me. I felt small propulsions from my boots and gloves and considered how these could be very useful. But I turned the jets off. This could be amazing for offense and maneuverability. This was amazing but I wanted to learn to use it before anything else.

   "Yo guys check it out." Oswald had found a gun. It looked like some sort of advanced automatic rifle, along with a vest that was the same black color as our suits. Looked like it would be very protective.

   "Why must we assume the worst. Is bringing all these weapons really necessary?" Aarav asked, concerned.

   "Of course it is. What if they have something worth taking?" Oswald chuckled.

   "We shouldn't go starting any fights. Especially in such a vastly different place. We will only attack them if they attack us first." I explained. I didn't want to take sides, although Oswald was so obnoxious, part of me wanted to see his head shot off.

   "Yeah I agree. But I think someone should probably stay and watch our ship and supplies." Daisy explains.

   "I think two people should stay behind and two should go find the source of the smoke. No one should be alone after what happened today. I would like to be one of the people to find the source of the smoke, if that's okay." Aarav shares.

   "Yeah that makes sense. But I don't think you should be going with us. You won't even pick up a weapon. Same for the other bitch. Let them stay behind." Oswald states, glancing at Daisy.

   Daisy immediately retaliates, "What the hell did you just say? I'll get a weapon if I need a weapon I just think Aarav makes a lot more sense. We should go talk to them before running in fully armed."

   "Okay that's enough. We need to worry about the dangers of Theodon and not bickering between each other." I calmly tell everyone. "I think Aarav and I should go, and Daisy and Oswald should stay. There should be one armed person in each group."

   "What the fuck dude? Your gonna take that pussy with you?" Oswald shouts harshly. "Whatever, but if you die out there it's your own damn fault." He calms down a little and rolls his eyes.

   I look up at the sky. It is now a dark violet shade, with a full red moon in the middle of the sky and a smaller, dimmer moon west.

   "There it is." Aarav points up at a distant portion of the sky. I squint my eyes and can make out what appears to be smoke.

   We begin our pursuit. As we get further from the ship the shorter trees from earlier start to become a rarer sight, and we begin to see immense amounts of taller, thinner trees. They had thin orange trunks and huge dark turquoise leaves. They were over half the height of the other trees.

"Woah." Aavar stops and looks up at the tall trees. "Otherworldly woods... this is beautiful."

I agreed. "You're right. Most people will never see this in their life. I know we're trying to go back home and everything but this is certainly an outstanding opportunity. Learning about a new environment is truly interesting and exciting."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." He replies, smiling.

We continue walking on, following the smoke. After what I guessed was around half and hour the smoke was gone. Whoever was there must've put the fire out. But we continue ahead where we saw the smoke.

   A few more minutes in, we stumble upon something baffling. There, in front of us, is a ship. The same type of ship we arrived on.