Off Planet (Asterism Chronicles Volume One)

Heal

Sitting up I noticed my lack of pain. My side was not pulsing and my head didn't hurt at all. Looking down I saw my side wrapped in a bandage again. A sigh of relief escapes my lips as I looked to Jack. He was asleep on the bed beside me, his back to me. I leaned over him and shook his shoulder softly. He shot up and looked to me. As he was about to speak he fell off the edge of the bed. He hit the floor with a bang as I leaned over the edge laughing.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep. Are you okay?" He asked rubbing his back.

"I'm fine." I said patting my side.

"That's good! The doc used these dissolving stitches so we can leave when you're ready." He walked over to the door and pressed a button, calling the doctor.

He entered the room and immediately walked over to me. He felt my forehead and handed me a small bottle. I looked in and saw a bullet, but it was discoloured.

"It was corroding inside you, that's what was poisoning you. I gave you some medicine so you'll be fine. Pay me and get out." He was quick and to the point.

"Thank you." Jack and I told him as Jack handed him the credits.

We left the doctors and made our way to Eskran. As we walked I remembered the tickets. We had the tickets, but did we miss the flight? I looked to Jack and asked him.

"Yeah, we did. It left an hour ago."

"I'm sorry, I should have told you before."

"It's fine." He draped his arm over my shoulders. "At least your safe, while you were asleep I re-sold the tickets. We can buy more."

We kept walking in silence until a question popped into my head. "What about Martha and Alex?"

"They left. We'll meet up with them when we leave. But... they went to Joislin."

Hearing the place my dad went caused a hint of anger to hit. As I thought of the planet I told Jack "It's a big planet. We won't see him."

"Dont you want to see him? Tell him how you feel, or what happened to you?"

"I'm healing now, by the time I see him again this will just be a scar. I don't need to tell him anything." We walked the rest of the way in silence.

We entered the house and Jack placed cans of food on the counter. He started the fire again and started to cook tomato soup. He told me the doctor threw in the food because I got the operation without anaesthetic.

"You need to eat at least twice a day. He said your malnourished and that caused you to get sick so fast."

"You need to eat more too. We eat the same but your bigger than me." I told him as I looked up. He was about five inches taller than me.

"If you keep getting better, I will." He handed me a bowl of soup taking one for himself.

We sat there eating as we watched the sun set. Martha and Alex are on their way off planet, but Jack and I are left behind. Every time we get ahead, we are knocked a couple steps back. With the soup gone Jack and I moved to the bedroom. He handed me another pill and told me to take it.

"It will keep the swelling down and help you heal faster."

I swallowed the pill as I asked "What about the tickets?"

"Jun comes once or twice a week, all we need to do is wait. I'll make sure we go to Martha."

I smiled at the reassurance that we will meet again and covered up on my bed. Looking around the room I thought about all the things he collected and about Erin. What if she comes while we are leaving? Thinking these thoughts I looked to Jack. He was piling up all his drawings in a box. Asking the question he responded calmly.

"I thought about that. If she does come, then... I don't know. I want her to come but we won't have a ticket for her. Her adopted parents were rich, so she could buy herself one." He lifted up one of the drawings and handed it to me. "This was her when she left. It was my first drawing of her."

It was not as good as the others, in fact it was half the quality. Even though it wasn't as good, you can tell he put care into it. "Why don't we buy an extra ticket? If she doesn't come then we can sell it."

He shook his head. "We need the money for food."

He put the image back into the box and sat on his bed. He laid down on top of the covers and looked out the hole. It was clear outside, you could see stars. We laid there until boredom caused us to sleep.