Page 119 of Blightfall

“Stay alert,” Nedd said. “Maybe we can figure some way out of this.”

I didn’t see a way out, but it was probably a good idea to take stock of our surroundings anyway. I lifted my head as far as I was able, trying to see what was happening down near the portal. The warehouse floor buzzed with activity. Several varvax wheeled in racks with armor and weapons as others managed a set of cryopods. As the pods opened and disoriented humans emerged from the fog, robed varvax busily equipped them for battle. “They’re waking up their army,” I said.

“It appears that way,” Nedd said.

At first the people emerging from the pods looked pretty unsteady, but that wore off fairly quickly. They didn’t appear to find it odd that the varvax wearing robes were thrusting weapons into their hands and strapping armor on their bodies.

The first ranks of the newly wakened soldiers lined up and marched through the portal to Blightfall. I could hear Ivy’s voice echoing over the loudspeaker outside the windows. “This settlement of humans has been corrupted!” she said. “They are in league with the aliens! You must destroy them!” They looked more like rank-and-file soldiers, trained to work together as a unit, rather than specialized fighters like those from Blightfall. Which made sense—Ivy wouldn’t want to send the humans she’d collected on this planet out to attack their own kin.

I strained against the light-lines that held my wrists and ankles, but they were fastened tight. Whatever agent the varvax had injected into my body didn’t seem to be a full paralytic. I could still move, so I tried jerking my whole body, but only succeeded in bashing my gurney into Nedd’s, jarring us both. “They’re marching on our friends,” I said. “And there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” We’d come here for answers and resources, but now we were trapped with even more questions while the only available resources were about to be weaponized against us. Not to mention that all those humans who had been promised a mission to save humanity were now being tricked into fighting against their own interests. “Well,” I said, “I don’t see how this can get any worse.”

“You sure?” Nedd asked. He turned his head toward me, his bio hand resting at the edge of his gurney centimeters from mine.

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, we got into the nowhere! But now we’re prisoners here with no way to reach our friends. Our radios won’t work. Our sidearms have been confiscated. And we’ve been left here to watch while our friends are wiped out, if we even remain conscious that long.” At least my head felt clear, and I could still move my limbs, though they felt heavy and sluggish.

“Good point,” Nedd said. “We can’t possibly make the situation any more terrible. Right?”

“I guess that depends,” I said. “What were you thinking of doing?”

Nedd stared at me. Hoid’s illusions had faded, revealing his bloodshot eyes and bruised face. “It doesn’t matter, right? Because no matter what I do it can’t get any worse.”

“Nedd Strong,” I said. “You’re scaring me. What are you planning to do?”

Nedd sighed. “If we had any chance of living through this, would you want to go out sometime?”

My brain stuttered. I spoke a bunch of syllables, but they didn’t add up to a single word.

“Um,” I said finally, “did you just ask me on a date?”

“Yeah,” Nedd said.

“While we are in mortal peril?”

Nedd groaned. “I knew I wasn’t reading you right. I am terrible at signals. I always get it wrong.”

A thousand butterflies exploded out of my chest. “Nedd,” I said. “This. Is. Awesome!”

Nedd’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes!” I bounced a little on my gurney, knocking it repeatedly against his. My whole body buzzed with excitement. We were clearly never going to get out of here to have that date, but just the fact that he wanted to was—

Something horrible occurred to me. “Wait, are you only asking me out because we’re going to die? Are you taking pity on me because you hope you’ll never have to follow through?” My mind raced away from me, finding one terrible conclusion after another, and I barreled after it, barely able to keep up. “Are you hoping to die here rather than have to go out with me?”

“What? No!” Nedd looked appropriately horrified about this idea. “I’m asking because I want to, and you said I couldn’t make things any worse, so this seemed like a good time. Did you…Did you say yes?”

“Yes!” I said. “Yes, yes, yes. Oh, scud, now we definitely have to live through this.”

Nedd grinned. “Yeah, I’d say we definitely do.” He looked sideways at me. “Did I make this awkward?”

“A little! But in the best way.”

“All right,” Nedd said. “I’ll take that.”

Nedd wanted to go out with me! I was a little confused as to why, but this wasn’t the time to ask questions. This was the time to find a way to get out of here.

“What do you think would happen if I started screaming?” I asked.

“You’d make yourself hoarse,” Nedd replied.