'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 41: Alone

Kate was blind. 

The world outside had been replaced by a vortex of sand swirling violently around her, tearing at her spacesuit and scouring the glass faceplate and metal dome of her helmet with a screech that set her teeth on edge. She rocked from side to side as the storm pulled her first one way then another and she felt sand building up rapidly around her boots and ankles. She kicked them free. If she didn’t move, she could be trapped - or worse - buried alive. There was no sight of Matias. There was no sight of anything.

“Matias, Matias - are you there?” she yelled into her helmet, but there was no reply and no reassuring picture of his face on her helmet screen. “Guys, can you hear me?” she tried again, but there was no answer from the ship.

She reached out with her hands in both directions, but felt nothing but the storm trying to twist her like a corkscrew. As far as she could remember, the rock face should be on her right, but it was impossible to know which way she was facing in the red darkness. Carefully, she shuffled to the right, not daring to lift her feet in case she lost her footing. After a few feet she had encountered nothing. But did she detect a very slight lessening of the storm? Was she closer to the shelter of the rock? She inched two more feet and this time the violence noticeably reduced. She extended her right arm - nothing. She tried a couple more feet and this time her outstretched glove touched something solid. It had to be rock. She moved closer, turning her body towards the rock until her left hand also made contact. She pressed her whole body against the rough surface and felt an immediate reduction of the storm’s pressure on her front, although it continued to whip and scour at her back.

If she was right about her orientation, the narrow end of the outcrop would be to her right. Matias - who had been just ahead of her as the storm hit - should be to her left, but there was no way of knowing whether he had turned back. The storm was so dark that two people could be only a couple of feet apart and still not see the other. She tried calling him again but there was no reply. Her eye was drawn to her helmet’s oxygen display. It had turned from green to orange and, even though she could not understand the alien symbols along the scale, it was easy to see that almost half her oxygen supply was now gone. Still, she thought, an hour left - more than enough to get back to the shuttle. But what if the shuttle were damaged? What if Matias was injured?

 Putting these thoughts from her mind, she decided to move slowly to her right. Once again she tried calling Matias and the ship, but all she heard was the screeching of the storm against her helmet. She inched slowly along and after about a minute she sensed rather than saw that the rock face in front of her was not as high as it had been and the pressure of the storm around her head had increased. She slid her gloved hands up the rock surface until - suddenly - she was touching nothing and the wind tore at her hands with greater force. Pulling them down, she was now confident she was back at the low end of the outcrop, but to go further would expose her to the full force of the storm. At least she now knew in which direction the shuttle lay.

All I have to do now, she thought, is wait for the storm to move on or subside. But what if it didn’t? What if her oxygen supply ran out first? Forcing herself to face up to that possibility, Kate made a decision. If the storm had not broken by the time her oxygen was down to the last quarter of the scale, like it or not, she would have to try reaching the shuttle.

“Matias, are you there?” she called, “Ship…girls - are you there?”

She called several more times, but no answer came back.

© Adriana Nicolas 2014