Into the Eternity Vault Chapter Four

Seeing nothing useful in the vicinity, Maddy finally decides to explore this hostile-seeming planet.

 

Chapter 4

555,557,797 AD

Maddy immediately banged her head upon awakening within her narrow container. At first she didn't recognize her surroundings, and it took the pain in her back to jolt herself back into the nightmare. She held up her arms, and saw an uneven band of scab tissue ringing her wrist where the cuffs had dug into her hands overnight. But with no key, she seemed doomed to remain like that for quite a while.

Her clothes clung to her skin with sweat, trapping the heat within her body. But she was still unable to remove her blazer or shirt, and would feel too vulnerable removing anything else. Which was stupid, Maddy supposed. There was no one there to see her.

Peering through the window, she saw the same desert as yesterday, with nothing new to speak of. Then she looked up at the sky, and realized that something was very, very wrong.

High up in the atmosphere was a rounded lump of ugly greyish rock, several times smaller than the moon, hanging in the sky like a bad omen. An asteroid caught in orbit, most likely. A new celestial neighbour. A new moon. A second Luna. Lunar A, for asteroid.

Maddy studied this new phenomenon for a few minutes, her eyes scanning each individual crater. She couldn't really estimate the size, but guessed it was much closer than the moon of the twenty-third century had been. It was smaller though, that much was certain. If it had been bigger, then its own gravity would have pulled it into a sphere. But it looked only a little smaller than the usual Moon from where Maddy stood.

She looked away from the bizarre sky and took out her water for a quick sip. Then she tore open her pack of gum. She vowed to make each piece last as long as possible. She would only dispose of it when it was as tasteless as the sand around her. And even then, she would probably swallow it out of sheer hunger. Not that it would do her much good.

Chewing her gum, she considered the few choices she had. Three realistic options presented themselves to her.

She could put herself back into stasis and remain there for as long as the cube continued to function. Perhaps the situation would have improved by then, although it seemed unlikely.

Or she could simply hang around and slowly die of dehydration. But the idea of just giving up without a fight was unacceptable.

That left only one final option, which was also the scariest.

Maddy would walk out into the desert, and see what she could find. There was little else to do. She was leaving nothing behind, nothing useful, nothing sentimental. Any attachment Maddy might have once had towards the cube was gone. She hated it. It had brought her here.

She spat on the ground and turned her back to the cube. She set out towards the dunes and trudged away from her landing spot, never to return.

There was nothing new to distract her, and so the climbing was a much faster ordeal. She swore as she stumbled over the hidden rocks that sat half burried under the sand, yet she didn’t slow. When she reached the top of the hill, she immediately began her descent without even looking back.

As Maddy trekked, she realised that whether there was anything out there or not, leaving the only shelter behind may have been a grave mistake. The sun beat down onto her face with no sunscreen or hat to defend her filthy skin. Even where she was clothed, the spears of light slapped against her back and cooked her like a turtle in her shell. The handcuffs cut relentlessly into her wrists, making them raw and dry. Her damp ponytail clung to the back of her neck, to the point where she considered tearing it off with her bare hands. Sweat dripped endlessly down her spine, pooling into every fold of her clothing, making the fabric heavy and uncomfortable.

She took another sip of water, which became a gulp as she found herself unable to stop herself from slurping it down. Half of the liquid was gone now. Her stomach rumbled, but there was nothing to eat. She looked over her shoulder for the first time, and realised that she could no longer pick out the path she’d taken through the identical dunes. Her journey was final.

Maddy felt herself grow exhausted but didn't want to stop. She couldn't. Her hours were numbered, her time slipping away like grains in an hourglass, and she was losing the chance to see whatever there might be in this dead world.

She shaded her eyes and saw mountain peaks on the horizon, something to aim for perhaps. Maybe she could climb them and take another look around. But she wouldn't stop.

Above her, the sun reached the highest point in the sky. While the heat was unbearable, she was safe in the knowledge that it wouldn't get any hotter that day. But it was little consolidation when she was already this hot and this thirsty.

The scenery did not diverge. Sand, followed by dust, followed by desert. The distant hills grew closer, but that was all. Occasionally she thought she saw pools of water, but didn't fool herself. They usually disappeared after a few blinks anyway. Her bottle of water was still half full, which helped. It was nowhere near the correct amount for a day in the desert, but it would keep the helpless desperation at bay for a while.

To distract herself from the thirst and the heat, Maddy fumbled around in her bag to retreive the phonedisk and her two pink ear-buds. She turned the buds on and plugged them into her ears, letting her phone connect with them wirelessly. It wouldn’t be too bad to waste a little bit of battery since, well, she wouldn't be needing it much longer.

The holographic screen popped up, and she pressed the music icon. The song she’d been listening to last time played from where it had been, a happy melody with a catchy beat. Maddy allowed herself a momentary smile, and closed her eyes to feel the rhythm. With the music in her ears, the time slipped by just that little bit faster.

Maddy soon entered a state of mind where the music controlled everything, allowing her to exist for a while within a less depressing realm. She ignored the sun as it hovered over her head, drifting through the sky and eventually starting to set. Three more strips of gum were quickly used up, replacing the taste of dust in her mouth. The water went down to just below a third, leaving Maddy still unable to throw off the crippling thirst that would only worsen. And her phone battery had dropped down to twenty-six percent, despite every effort to conserve it. She begrudgingly turned it off, and stowed it away.

As the sun glowed red on the horizon, Maddy finally stood at the base of the hill she'd been chasing, the one that stood tall amongst the dunes. So much so in fact, that she realized any attempt to climb it was impossible. Just to drive that point home, she reached out to grasp what looked like a fine foothold, only to have it crumble in her fingers. As she wiped the sand off on her blazer, she decided that there was nothing more to be done for the day. Maddy sat down with her back against the wall of loose sandstone, shading her eyes from the glaring sun. Her eyes glanced back up at Lunar A, which had already moved a good way across the sky at a rate somewhat slower than the hour hand of a clock. Maddy realized that despite everything, she felt curious about this world. She was sad and lonely and knew she would die soon. But before then, she wanted to see just a little more of the desert.

Her forth piece of gum was swallowed, and she fished out yet another strip. She opened her mouth to accept it, but instead tasted something grainy. Maddy shivered in a sudden breeze, and realized that the sand around her was stirring in a new wind. Her eyes started to sting, compromising her vision and blurring the landscape. The ponytail which had clung so uncomfortably to her neck peeled away, flapping in the wind. She jumped to her feet and held her sleeves over her eyes, spitting out another mouthful of dust. The wind blew more fiercely now, pushing against her chest and threatening to blow her onto her back, where she probably wouldn't find the strength to stand again.

Maddy stumbled her way around the mountain in blind search of shelter, but found nothing except useless handfuls of sand. She wanted to scream in terror, but kept her jaws clamped shut. The sandstorm raged around her, blinding her, deafening her, throwing her around. Without warning the floor gave way beneath her, and she found herself plummeting, tumbling downwards, finding herself at the mercy of a void she couldn't sense. The entire world became the colour of sand, and then when she hit her head the world was no colour at all.