Lunar Rising

Ahead of me, Charlotte heaves Raven out of the hole where the window once was. I follow closely and pull myself out.

The blood from Raven’s wounded leg sticks to my own skin. Still, I don’t try to wipe it off of my shirt and pants. Instead, I focus on the most important thing here.

“We need to bandage this leg,” I mutter. Not knowing how else to get the cloth, I take off my shirt and tear it into strips. Charlotte holds Raven down while I securely wrap the makeshift bandage around his lower leg. Blood seeps through his pants and the cloth, but I keep going. Behind me, Neil emerges, coughing from some of the white Tylius dust that got into his throat from the climb.

We’re out in the open, somewhere beyond the city. The sky above us is so dark and full of depth that it feels like I’m falling into it whenever I look up. I turn to Neil and ask him where we are right now. Neil pulls out his watch and looks at our coordinates.

“We’re not far from the city. Come on, we can make it there quickly and tend to Raven’s leg.” He glances at Raven. “He was hit by a blast, not a solid bullet, so there’s nothing to pull out, thankfully. He will heal.”

Charlotte scoffs. “There’s no time to have his leg heal there, and it’s impossible for us to even sneak in. How are we supposed to get him through the elevators and security checkpoints? We’re all wanted by now.”

“Do you have anything better, then?” I glance at Raven, who has already passed out. “We need somewhere safe to go. We’ll need lots of things.”

Charlotte examines her hands and growls, “They took my ring…” Then she looks back up at us. “We can’t go anywhere right now. The government will be looking for us in the city. We’ll be caught immediately.”

“What if we went to the nearest foreign Tylius city?” I suggest. “Neil, how far is it to the Brazilian Tylius city A?”

“Um… not very far. Only about two hundred miles. Would probably take an hour for a normal transport to get there, and it would take a sixth of a second of time through a portal.”

I roll my eyes. “We don’t have a transport or access to a private portal. We’d have to walk.”

He looks annoyed. “How do I calculate walking time for two hundred miles?”

Charlotte ejaculates, “Wake up, Neil! We can’t walk two hundred miles.”

After a moment of hushed contemplation, we come to an agreement. We would walk back to the city, which was only about four miles away. We can even see the metal dome over the building right now, looming in the far distance. Once we got there, we would find a way to get inside and get somewhere safe to rest.

“Can Raven even travel one kilometer like this?” I ask skeptically. “He’s still unconscious.”

Neil doesn’t say a word. He just goes right up to Raven and begins to try lifting him up on his back.

“A little help?”

Charlotte and I hoist Raven onto his back, but Neil is smaller than Raven, so Raven’s legs would have to somewhat drag. I stand on Neil’s other side and help hold him up.

For the next two hours, Raven fights to stay awake so that he can somewhat limp on his own without so much of our help. We make some progress over the barren, dusty ground. Charlotte and I switch out at the end of the two hours so that she can help carry Raven.

Swinging my arms back and forth to let my circulation flow again, I breathe at my newfound energy and sigh. I’ve just noticed how slow we’re moving. At this rate, we won’t be able to reach the city in time to help Raven.

Another hour passes. Our watches beep. The day-changing hour has passed. It is now the next day, the next morning, and the moon should be rising soon. I can already see edges of pale light seeping into the dusty ground. It seems pretty bright for a morning.

Then, we hear a distant sound. A strange sound, like a huge zipper. I look up and see the city, gone from its place in the near distance. It’s in the air, sealed up like a disc! Speechless, all of us, even Raven, who has woken up a bit, stare at the air-borne city as it shoots forward. The zipping sound fades away after the city has disappeared into the horizon.

I rub my eyes in disbelief. Turning to my friends, I can see that the astonishment in their eyes hasn’t worn off either. They saw what I saw.

Raven speaks first. “Charlotte, I think I need treatment soon…”

Charlotte grips him tighter. “Hold on, Raven. We can make it! What’s wrong now? Is your leg holding up?”

“It’s not my leg…” Raven slowly puts the words together on his tongue. “I think I just saw… the city fly… into the air!”

“It wasn’t your imagination. We all saw it,” Neil replied. He stomps his foot down and punches the air in frustration and confusion. “What on Tylius just happened?!”

“The city started flying and left…” I’m lost for words. We’ve run out of options. We can’t go anywhere now.

Neil is tapping away on his watch.

“I can’t seem to get any GPS signals here,” he grumbles. “You know, this is one of those times when I wish humans didn’t have that huge centuries-long gap of knowledge.”

I chuckle grimly. “Yeah. Not a single new invention for centuries.”

Charlotte cuts in. “We wouldn’t be on this planet if it weren’t for the gap. During that time, humans were building Tylius. All the scientists and engineers had to work on this project. It was government rule for nearly all the countries.”

“Yeah, but I’d be glad if we used those resources to build a better planet.” Neil kicks away a cloud of white dust. “This planet is junky.”

“I don’t think we should complain about everything now,” I point out. “If we can’t get any GPS signals, how can we find the nearest shelter?”

Raven raises his head and nods towards the right. “What is that?” he grumbles.

Charlotte squints. The morning light is bright, and mirages are a danger.

“I think…it’s a building,” she says, eyes wide.

That building is our last chance.

We begin our trek once more. The building gets closer and closer. It seems so close that it surely would only take a few more minutes to get there…

Raven screams suddenly in pain.

Charlotte and I set Raven down to the ground.

“Shh…” Charlotte whispers. “You’ll get us caught if you’re too loud!”

Raven writhes in agony, struggling to not make a single noise. Neil and I inspect the bandages holding his bullet wound together. It is falling apart.

“Let’s get to that building, fast.” I narrow my eyes at the building. The morning light has gotten so white that the sight of the metal building hurts my eyes. “Why is it so bright out here?”

Neil gasps and points at the horizon.

The tip of someone huge, round, and white emerges over the dusty ground, illuminating the planet in a bath of light.

With a jolt, I remember today’s date. It’s the 9th of December, and today is the lunar rising.

“Run! RUN!” Neil and I grab Raven’s arms and we begin to sprint towards the building. The moon rises rapidly. The air begins to turn warm and dry, like an oven. Our shoes skid on the ground as we run.

Charlotte runs steadily, leading us on with her confident voice.

“This way! It’s a greenhouse!”

The building is an open greenhouse, shaped like a saucer, small with just one large room filled with potted plants and flowers and crops. One circular part of the wall is missing, and this is our doorway. Our survival depends on us getting through that door.

Raven huffs and clenches his jaw tight. Sweat beads on his brow. “Stop…” he whispers painfully.

“We have to keep running!” Charlotte reaches the door of the greenhouse first. “Get him in! Hurry!”

“Neil,” I pant. “Hurry up!”

The moon, risen about a fourth of the way, shines brightly. My skin tingles. We keep running, ignoring the aching pains in our stomachs and legs. The greenhouse comes even closer to view. Now that we’re this close, I can tell that the greenhouse is protected and will be safe.

I don’t know what comes over me. But we don’t have enough time for me to hesitate.

We’re about to reach the door. The air gets hotter and hotter, making all of us dizzy. I can barely see. That’s when I realize that at the pace we’re going, we can’t make it on time. We’re only getting slower as the heat intensifies. I release Raven suddenly, and I place my hands on him and Neil. Then I push them, hard, a boost just enough to get them through the door, just in time.

I stumble over myself and land face-flat on the ground. The door is only a few meters away, but to me, it looks like forever.

“John!”

The world spins around me. I lift my head, but the ground is too bright and hurts my eyes. I struggle to get up, but I can’t. My limbs feel like swimming through oil, thick and unrelenting, paddling useless movements. It’s so hot…so bright outside…

The radiation of the lunar rising can vaporize a human…

I chase my looming thoughts of death away, but they return again and again. The air sizzles around me. Pain. The first searing bits of pain begin to sweep through my body.

A single note pierces the fabric of light. “John!”

I can’t tell who is shouting. If they had shouted again, I can no longer hear.

I’m glad Neil and Raven and Charlotte are safe. They’ll do good for our planets…

My vision swims in darkness and I slip away, like a shadow melting into the morning. I can’t feel the pain anymore. I shut my eyes and let the bright light fade into oblivion.