The Sun Rises

Chapter Three

For a moment everything seems to move in slow motion and Dave is trapped by what he sees. Then it snaps back to normal and he sees a shockwave racing towards him. He dashes towards the nearest crater and dives in, narrowly escaping it. He presses against the edge as the shockwave blasts above. Rock and metal rain down as it passes.

He drops to the ground and just sits there in the crater under its veil of shadow and cold. He doesn't know what to think after what just happened. But to his surprise, the pain in his head relents ever so slightly. Then he starts trying to make sense of what he saw. They're... dead? He shakes his head. Renna had a plan. But what was it? Could she have made it out in time? Sunlight slowly filters into the crater. How long since she called me on coms? How long have I've been running?

His little sanctuary starts to warm up and his symptoms return. He thinks over what few options he has left. What happened to them? Sade and Jonlin... I don't want to find out. The sun creeps over the far edge of the crater. He watches it in awe. His condition worsens as the light grows and violent coughs shake him. He knows that his suit can only take so much heat before it fails. He's counting on it. I won't... end up... like them. I refuse. His visor beeps as the sun continues to rise. He doesn't bother moving or looking away. Now it's just a matter of time.

He waits. The seconds seem to stretch into hours. He slips in and out of consciousness waiting for the inevitable. But it doesn't arrive. The light has crept down to his chest but moves no further. He drifts back awake and can't believe what he sees. There the sun sits motionless in the sky. He shakes his head, unsure if he's started losing it, but the sun remains unchanged. What? I can't... Even the sky has... stopped making sense...

Thoughts struggle to connect in his mind. Pain courses through his head like lightning. Fearing the worst he prepares for what he believes is his last option. He reaches up to the base of his helmet and starts unlocking the manual release latches.

Before opening it he takes one last look at the sky. Then, in what he believes are his last breaths, he watches the sun start to glide back across it.

For a moment he's in shock. For a moment he forgets to breathe. His hands fall to his sides as the sun slips back below the crater's edge. His seat is covered by shadow again and the pain in his head fades. A single thought races through his clearing mind.

"Perihelion!" He says. The sudden realization and all that it carries catches him off guard.

He can feel his mind clearing, like fog lifting from a view. The pain in his body recedes in pace and both following the return of the cold. He's surprised at first but then realizes that it's been happening the whole time. Whenever his core body temperature increased so did his symptoms. They were warm in the base... And Sade took a hot shower before she collapsed! He could stay alive, and stay sane, by staying cool.

Renna! He realizes that she's probably still alive. She figured out what was happening, some kind of virus, some kind of infection. And that heat affected it! She tried telling him but he couldn't make sense of it between the broken transmission and his broken thoughts. Getting outside would certainly have stopped her symptoms because the hab was still in the night then. And the rover wouldn't have warmed her up much if at all. There's something else. Something working its way through his reawakening mind. Our only chance... The rocket!

He jumps to his feet while securing the latches on his helmet. Then he scrambles up the side of the crater. The rocket is to the north quite a distance and he doesn't know how much time he has left. Would she leave without me? Anyone of us would if it came down to the wire. If there was no other choice. But she knew I was still lucid. I would wait as long as I could if the roles were reversed. A sudden realization shakes his hesitant hopefulness. What if she got caught in the blast? His plan is the same in either case, but he hopes with all his being that she made it out. She didn't tell him what happened to Jonlin and Sade but with those noises, and how messed up she was... The others were already gone. He sets his mind and prepares to run.

The last of the sunlight drifts away as he climbs over the crater's edge. He watches as twilight fades to night around him. He only makes it a few paces before a bright light emerges from a crater just a ways north of him. He stands still as it approaches. The one light becomes two as it gets onto level ground. The rover! She made it! Relief washes over him and he tries to call her on coms. No response. He checks radiation levels on his panel to find them very high but unchanged since earlier. The rover should be in range. Dread starts to build as he thinks over the possibilities.

It could be the infection. We have no idea what it actually does to you. Or what it did to... It might not be her at all. Or the rover was damaged in the blast. He sighs and prepares for just about anything. Only one way to find out.

The rover pulls up and stops a few meters in front of him. It just sits there for a few moments without any sign of anything. He tries looking inside but the lights block everything out. All he can see is the rover's silhouette in the now lifting gloom. The first light of a second dawn glows on the horizon behind him as the sun returns to its course. Then the driver door opens and a single figure steps out into the fading night.