Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 19: Underground

They're dead.

Buried in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert.

The odometer flipped over every kilometer they crossed.

85...86...

Rey's mind wandered as the sand just went on for stretches and stretches. It was endless; no beginning and without an end. It didn't help that they had passed the graveyard of star destroyers long ago, and no other pertinent landmarks emerged from the desert as they sped by. The sun was beating down ferociously on her back which ached from clinging to the speeder without a single break. There was no fuel to spare for the engine to be needlessly restarted.

89...90...

The warmth was beginning to make her drowsy, and her thoughts lazily drifted to the previous night. Sore muscles all along her spine and the back of her neck still throbbed with a dull ache as they recovered from healing Kylo. Using so much of the Force in one moment had sacrificed all of her energy, and in her lethargy, nearly knocked her over. When he hauled her limp body to rest against him, she vaguely remembered a certain giddiness overcome her with a cheek pressed to the fabric on his chest. She recalled how his voice was a low rumble and almost alluring at this proximity; it wasn't helping the situation that one arm had looped beneath her to grasp at the curve of her thigh. In the haze of her sleepiness, the view of him from there wasn't anything to complain about, and the fullness of his lips were certainly something to behold.

92...93...

A chugging sound emitted from the speeder just ahead and to the right of her own; a black trail of smoke appeared to trickle out of the thruster as its rider tried to accelerate out of it.

Looks like we are out of fuel, Rey thought.

The speeder lost propulsion in that moment and died in the sand instantly. Hux managed to hold on for the rocky landing in the sand, his hood thrown back in the wind.

Rey's own speeder continued on up the steep slope they had only just begun to climb, and lurched suddenly as the engine hiccuped. Rey was now far enough ahead of Hux that she could not hear what he was suddenly yelling about.

She kept climbing the dune, pushing how much farther she could get on what she had left.

94...

Just as she crested the peak, an enormous slice of metal appeared, blinding as the sun reflected off it's broad side and obscuring her vision. She raised her hand to shield her eyes, realizing at the same moment that the dagger end of the debris would surely impale her at this speed. Her right arm turned the lurching speeder at the last moment, driving the end of it into the sand and throwing her off. The movement happened at such a velocity that she'd barely felt like she was flying through the air before she solidly hit the sand, rolling over and over on her side until she'd slowed to a rest on her back.

Bits of sand stuck to all the areas of sweat on her face that the goggles didn't cover, and as she gingerly rose from the ground, proceeded to rip them off her head and toss them next to her. A long trail was left where she had rolled and disturbed the smooth terrain, and she could see the piece of metal sticking out the sand, like some booby trap awaiting anyone who might venture up the hill at a similar speed she did.

The top of Hux's head slowly emerged as he climbed the way she had just come, and he made his way down through the trail Rey had made with her tumbling body.

"I tried to warn you" he told her as he passed the downed speeder, those pale yellow eyes looking her over for any injuries. "Are you all right?"

Rey nodded, looking down at herself as well, hastily brushing sand off the areas where it clung in creases.