"Hey, where are you going?" Cameron yelled. He was standing under a tree watching as Storm crashed through the old picket fence. He watched the boy stop just short of a garden shed.
Storm staggered under the weight of the motor and sheer exhaustion. He stared at the vegetable patch, breathing deeply and saw he was not the first to wreak havoc on the garden. The earth was a matted mess of broken vines and pulled roots, and all of it well-trodden under.
"Are you alright?" Cameron asked, taking the weight of the engine from Storm's back.
"Yeah," Storm said. He turned to the broken fence and wriggled his way out of the harness. He shook out the lines to collapse the sail and began pulling them in.
"No—wait!" Cameron hollered. "You're going to rip the sail."
Cameron ran over to the fence, carefully unhitching the material from the broken palings then gathered it up in his arms.
"What about Shaggy?" Storm asked Cameron when the man handed him the bundled chute. "He is in the gully a mile from here."
"Leave him be," Cameron replied quietly.
"He might be alive," Storm said.
"He's not!" Cameron snapped.
"How do we know for sure if we don't look?" Storm asked.
"Because I saw him go down too," Cameron said. He peered through the open door of the shed. "Let's stash the rigs in here."
Cameron went back through the hole in the fence for the rig he had left under the tree. Searing stabs of lightning shattered the sky, and the crash of thunder was relentless. He kept his head down all the way to the tree and all the way back to the shed.
Storm set his motor down on the broken concrete floor. The old shed rattled with the gusts. When he stood, he felt like a dam was breaking. He pinched the tears from his eyes, but they kept on coming. He sank to the ground and dropped his head in his hands.
The corporal placed his rig on the concrete and walked outside without a word. Outside the shed, Cameron leaned against the wall and listened to the boy sob. He turned his face to the sky and closed his eyes. The cold rain spattering against his face. They were both alive.
YOU ARE READING
May Day (The Erelong Trilogy Book II)
Science Fiction[WATTYS 2018 Longlist] For fans of The Atlantis Gene, The Hunger Games, and Red Rising, this high-suspense, action-filled, sci-fi novel continues the story of a teenager from the outback who finds himself fighting for his survival. In a race against...
