Page 98 of Blightfall

Part Five

Thirty-Three

Sadie

I sat in my ship with the canopy open, staring ahead at the dimly lit trees. Twist had tucked my ship safely in the underbrush, while Nedd had snagged in the branches above and had to climb down out of a nearby tree. Together, we’d listened while Gilaf and Arturo tried to fight long enough to get a second hyperjump out. And then…

I wasn’t sure what happened then, honestly. The radio was silent, and I didn’t dare send a message for fear Ivy would use it to triangulate our location. I didn’t know if our teammates were dead or alive. When the radio went silent, Nedd had stalked off into the woods, and I wasn’t entirely sure where he’d gone. The slugs were finding comfort by fusing themselves into one giant cuddle pile in the hammock by my seat, completely wedging themselves into the small space.

For some reason, that only made me feel more alone.

As if she sensed my distress, Nope slithered out of the pile and slid up my seat, tucking her blue-and-green body into my lap.

“Aw,” I said. “Thanks, Nope.” I scooped her into my arms, then climbed out of my ship and glanced around, waiting to see if any of the trees were going to start reaching toward me with their long, twisting branches.

The sky was quiet. No shots rained down through the trees. No ships patrolled over my head.

“Nedd?” I called.

“Nedd?” Nope echoed.

There was no response. The only sound was the wind blowing through the trees. Nedd’s parachute hung from a tree, his ejector seat dangling upside down from its ropes.

I walked past it in the direction Nedd had gone, my feet sinking into the soft ground. I found him sitting on a log a few dozen meters away, his back to me.

“Nedd?” I asked.

He didn’t turn around. I hovered behind him, not sure what to say. Maybe I should have let him be, but I wasn’t great at being quiet at the best of times.

“They might have survived,” I said.

“Survived!” Nope said helpfully.

Nedd continued to sit silently. He didn’t even turn around.

“Arturo had Naga,” I said. “He’ll have gotten away, and taken Dayan with him too. And Gilaf was going to run and hide. Maybe he made it.”

“Made it!” Nope added. Behind me in the ship, the other slugs echoed the sentiment in several octaves.

More silence.

“Nedd? Say something.”

“Something!” Nope chimed, squirming for me to release her. When I did, she slid over the forest floor in Nedd’s direction.

The silence was really starting to get to me. Obviously Nedd wanted me to leave him alone, but we were stranded here in this forest together, and we needed to make a plan. So against my better judgment, I walked around the log to face him.

And found his eyes puffy, his face, still red in patches from broken blood vessels, tracked with tears. Scud. Nedd was crying.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry. I can go.”

I probably should have been doing that rather than saying it. I stumbled back, but Nedd held up a hand.

“It’s okay,” he said. His voice was choked and hoarse and not at all Nedd-like. “Sorry for ignoring you.”

“No, it’s fine!” I said. Stars, his best friend might have just died, and here I was, upset that he wouldn’t talk to me. He probably wasn’t mad at me, just heartbroken by the situation. But it would have been easier to see him angry than so broken.

I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t want to make it worse by forging ahead. So instead I sat down on the end of the log, about two meters away from Nedd, and waited for him to speak.