Hope is a Waking Dream

Chapter 11

As soon as Sheppard could, he turned and fled, racing blindly through the trees, hoping that the pine needles covering the forest floor would hide his trail. His limbs still felt rubbery from the device Jenar had implanted, but they gradually loosened as he ran and soon, he felt normal again. His shoulder throbbed from where he had been shot earlier. It appeared the bullet had passed straight through, but it still caused his right arm some stiffness. The adrenaline from the fight and the stunner's effects had hid the pain until now. As it only seemed to be bleeding sluggishly, Sheppard felt that he could afford to keep moving and not spare the time to bandage it.

He was sure that ten minutes had passed but continued running. This was no time to hide. If what Jenar had said was true, they'd be able to find him no matter where he hid. He ran faster than he had ever run before, racing through the trees, fuelled by adrenaline. It was only when the trees began to thin into shorter, scrubbier bushes and he saw a white expanse beyond them that he realized he had reached the desert.

Cursing, he hesitated at the thin line of dry trees that stood at the edge of a rocky expanse. The desert looked as though it used to be a giant lake bed, strewn with boulders and large rocks. There wasn't much sand, and the rocks would provide some cover, but Sheppard knew he was in deep trouble. His capture only half an hour ago meant that he was now without weapons, food or water.

There were mountains in the distance, but Gorav had told him the desert would take five days to cross at a good pace. Daytime was no time to travel in a desert, and he knew that he could never cross without water.

To stay and find water, or go?

Sheppard struck out into the desert, picking his way among the rocks. They were going to find him anyway.

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It was nearing noon, with a full sun overhead, when Sheppard heard his first sounds of pursuit. It had been nearly an hour since his capture. He had managed to keep to the shade, moving at an easy jog between the giant boulders, but knew that if he didn't find water by the end of the day, he was dead. His tongue was already dry, and he had stopped sweating a half hour ago. Thirst was beginning to become an obsession, and the heavy gravity of the planet made his limbs feel thick and slow. His shoulder wound had stopped bleeding, but he was sure that it was partly what was contributing to his dehydration.

Dry scrambling a hundred meters behind him caused him to stumble under the cover of a boulder just before a shot rang out, ricocheting off of a rock near where he had been standing seconds before.

There was a wordless shout, then a man's head emerged from behind a boulder fifty meters away. The man leapt across the tops of the boulders effortlessly, with no need to hide. He knew Sheppard was unarmed, but Sheppard was desperate.

The man jumped down a few meters away from where Sheppard hid, knowing his prey was close.

The Genii only had to turn his head a fraction before Sheppard was on him, silent and deadly in his quest for the gun in the man's hand. There was a short struggle, with Sheppard wrenching the man to the ground, his arm around the man's throat as the Genii desperately tried to lift his gun. Sheppard hit the man's gun arm again and again with his free hand until he was forced to let go. Grimly wrestling the shorter man to the ground, Sheppard's knee pressed against the young man's chest and his hands locked around his throat. The man had grabbed his wrists, trying to pry Sheppard off of him in order to breathe, and Sheppard shook off his weakening grip to grab a nearby rock and slam it against the man's head. Once, twice, before he went still. For a fleeting moment, Sheppard thought about finishing the Genii off, but decided against it.

Moving swiftly, Sheppard disarmed the man, transferring the pouch of food and water at the man's belt to his own. He didn't have time to tie the man up. If there was one hunter, there were bound to be closer by. Over the past few weeks he had observed that the Genii mostly hunted in pairs, so this one's partner had to be close by.