To The Moon And Back

Chapter Nineteen

"Mole calling John, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Virgil."

"I'm in position and ready to start tunnelling, I'm honing in on your signal so be prepared."

"F.A.B.," John replied. "We'll be waiting, but keep up the progress reports."

"Sure thing," Virgil assured him. "I'm starting the drill now, you might feel an increase in vibration as I get closer, so keep an eye out for shifting rock."

"Will do," John confirmed. The last thing they wanted was to be buried in a rock slide when they were so close to escape.

"Drill descending," Virgil reported, his voice loud in the silent tunnel. "I'm coming in from the other side of the moonbase where there has been no mining activity previously, Brains said it would be a safer option to tunnel through fresh rock rather than old."

"Makes sense," John agreed, turning his head to smile reassuringly at Selene when he saw her shifting nervously out of the corner of his eye, and mouthed, "Not long now."

She nodded her understanding but didn't look too comforted. She'd wrapped her arms around herself like she was cold, hugging her backpack to her chest. But he could see the subtle trembling of her hands as they gripped her elbows, as well as the tense set to her jaw and the slight widening of her eyes.

"Down one thousand feet," Virgil's voice intoned over the radio, but John was more focused on Selene.

"Are you okay?"

Selene nodded, but he could tell she was lying.

"You're not, are you?"

Biting her lip, her eyes averted, she slowly shook her head. "No."

He reached out a hand but she either didn't see or chose to ignore it. He tried not to take it personally. "Talk to me?"

She shrugged, not knowing how to put it into words.

"It's okay to be scared, but I promise you, there's nothing to worry about. Virgil will be here in no time and then we'll be out of here."

"How can you be so calm?" she asked, hugging herself tighter even though she'd much rather it be his arms wrapped around her. Yes, she was scared, he and his friend had just talked about the possibility of the roof coming down on top of them, but if she was being honest with herself, that wasn't the real reason she felt the need to put a little distance between them. Because the sooner his friend came the sooner she would be shipped back to Earth and away from him, and she really didn't want to think about that.

She believed in fate, in connections and soul mates and all the supposed rubbish that she'd been teased about her whole life and, while she wasn't deluded enough to think that she'd just met the love of her life, she knew that he was someone very special that she felt a connection with, a connection that wouldn't go any further than this. She knew that people came into your life and went out of it just as easily, but there was always a reason for it, they were always in the right place at the right time, some predetermined destiny that meant they were the person you needed most. And she knew without a shadow of a doubt that John was one of those people. She just wished he could stay, because thinking about saying goodbye was making something inside her ache with sorrow.

"Years of practice and complete trust in my team," John said, taking a tentative step closer. "Something which you don't have and I wouldn't expect you to. You have every reason to be scared, you've gone through more in the past forty-eight hours than most people do in a lifetime, I'd be worried if you didn't feel this way."