Charles Leeno died just before the sun began setting.

As the cadets were escaping, the helicopter had taken off with the sniper. Her vulture was seen flying next to the aircraft, while on the ground Reiner and Bertrand got rid of the soldiers chasing them.

And now, what was left of the Interversity squad perched on an enormous log they had found on a grassy clearing. They sat by the side of a steep road leading down to the valley. The sky was getting darker and more shrouded as the sun waved another goodbye to Earth-Terra. Orange rays struggled passing through the thick clouds as the temperature started its gradual dropping.

Cold was the air among Hades and his two remaining friends.

Hades gazed on the horizon. The grey and green hills decorated the view, and as mist descended upon the cold soil, the purple sky stretched brightly from the east. A most beautiful scenery only a handful of places could offer spread before his eyes. He knitted his fingers, his bare face caressed by the wind, and he inhaled as much air as his lungs allowed.

Next to him Reiner was praying. The Dutch from Earth-Veles muttered a prayer to the same deity with a cross that most Earths had. And beside Reiner, Bertrand’s eyes seemed to focus on the sun as she cradled the cracked and empty helmet of Suwarni’s, the one she returned for after making sure no more soldiers were behind them. And on his left, leaning on the log, was the dead Leeno.

“Maximillian,” Bertrand called Hades. Her voice was heavy, scratchy even, and it showed how much effort she mustered to begin speaking after the day they had. “Have you checked your tablet?”

Hades sighed and reluctantly looked away from the view. The tablet’s screen was still dark, lifeless just as Leeno and Suwarni were. The slick frame pasted on his forearm had burnt marks. And the coupler on tablet’s upper side, a miniature Waveguide that was responsible to coat the cadets, was not radiating the warm blue light like it should. The kompanion had destroyed their tablets by overloading the Waveguide couplers.

“Hades,” Bertrand called again. “How’s–”

“Staman is praying,” Hades said lowly. And I’m trying to enjoy the view. As an afterthought, he added, “Yeah, my tablet is also dead.”

Bertrand only nodded. When Hades glanced at her, she was hugging Suwarni’s helmet with her own still shut.

We are fucked was what Hades thought looking at the state of this team. They have lost not only two members but also their tablets, and thus, their vibrational coating. Not to mention, the conditions of their package was getting worse by the second they spent admiring the nature.

“Amen,” Reiner whispered.

“Alright,” said Hades. “Let’s go.”

“Are we just going to leave Leeno here?” said Reiner, his voice rising immediately. “After what we did to Suwarni?”

“Are you going to keep asking me questions I can’t answer?” said Hades. Again, Hades’s rage quickly mounted hearing Reiner’s pitched voice.

“Guys, stop it.” Bertrand stood up. “Maximillian is right. We should go, we are too exposed.”

“Exactly,” said Hades. “Can you guarantee the stringcrosser won’t come back before we manage to escape, Staman? She’s definitely coming back, with even more artillery.”

“Come on,” said Bertrand. She placed Suwarni’s helmet on the log, then gave Leeno a last pat on the shoulder. “The stringcrosser isn’t the only problem now. We’re on Terra, who knows how quick entropic effect will eat our atoms here. And we have no way of communicating with the instructor.” She pointed at their busted tablets.

Hades chose not to focus on the problems Bertrand listed. As they prepared to leave, he instead remembered Leeno’s last words.

It was on this small meadow, Leeno’d stopped breathing and Hades dropped the body and sat on the log. Hades could still visualise the moment Leeno said his last sentence. He’d told Hades, with whatever bravery he had left in his breath, “I thought I wasn’t going to die.”

#

“What the fuck you mean you can’t coat us?” Chaleed’s was a voice Hades didn’t want to hear at the moment. “What the fuck you mean your tablets are broken?”

The package still sat nicely in the shabby hut Hades found. And silently, he had agreed with Haz that he could’ve found a better place to hide.

Upon a better look around the house, he noticed the place was missing a wall and on the verge of losing another. The west wall needed only one strong blow of wind to have the woods fly away from the structure. The kitchen wall at the back was all but wooden splinters and metals protruding from the concrete base. Only the front and the roof still remained intact.

But at the very least, fresh water was available and the toilet still worked. Hades finally had the chance to relieve himself, not to mention a little bit of throwing up.

“Never mind us,” Haz said. “What about you?”

“On any other Earths, we won’t have to worry about ourselves,” said Bertrand.

“Then, don’t!” said Chaleed. “Worry about getting us to safety. Alive!”

Hades walked to Chaleed and flinched in front of the man with his fist raised. Chaleed shut his mouth up.

“Like I said,” Bertrand continued, her eyes glancing at Hades. “On any other Earths, any stringcrosser without proper coating won’t show signs of atomic deterioration or DNA decay on the first day. But here, we can never know. You guys have been here for sixteen days without a kompanion or a coupler to shield you and the effect just began to show. But we’ve heard cases where someone just exploded into dust the moment his coating disappeared here.”

“Isn’t your boss going to look for you?” asked Haz. “Surely, they put a timer on you.”

“We were given twelve hours to get you to Beira,” said Reiner. “They won’t check on us until those hours pass without notification or a distress call. So,” he looked at his watch, “we have five hours we can kill while waiting.”

“Yeah, or we can get killed in the next hour,” said Hades.

“What about the entrance to the underground caves?” said Haz. “Found it?”

“We didn’t have enough time,” said Hades.

“So look for it now,” said Haz. “You have extra time, I see. I’m sure you need not another telling that taking us to safety isn’t your only task.”

“Can’t risk searching for it now. Our attackers might still come back,” said Hades.

“Coward,” Chaleed muttered to Hades, without forgetting to give Hades a murderous look. At this point, Hades thought giving energy and attention to this man was worth nothing.

“Then what is the plan?” Haz said. Despite the grim situation and all the pain he was holding, he still managed to smile, and Hades wondered which part of Haz’s body was having its atoms disintegrated right now. “Are you going to let us, and yourselves, die?”

Hades opened his mouth. Buoyed by impatience and the urge to talk back, he was about to shout at Haz when a speeding missile cut the air and hit the house next to them.