WORLD 4: AWAKENING
Chapter Nine: Beauty Can be Deadly

The morning continued on with all in camp radiating excitement.

Everyone in Med Lev had helped to set up our shelter. The walls and floor were made from a fabricated material, with an inner wall to separate the shelter into two sections: one for patients, and one for the staff to sleep. Science Lev had created a special canvas fabric to use as a roof. It was extremely strong, stiff, and could withstand any kind of weather.

“Man, this table is pretty flimsy, let’s hope it doesn’t crumble and take our supplies with it,” I said as I stacked various inventory. Our long, metal supply table against one wall wasn’t nearly as sturdy as it should have been.

Ty strode over from across the room. “Let’s hope not.” He wiggled the table a little to test its strength. “I definitely don’t want to have to explain any mistakes to Kai. If something goes wrong out here he might think I’m not competent enough to run my own Medical Level.”

I waved off his concern. “Don’t worry, he knows you’re the best we have.”

“Yeah, I know. But still.”

My forehead twisted a little as I glanced at him sideways; Baylen was definitely right about the whole arrogance thing.

As I continued to organize, I grabbed our one Drug Fabricator we’d brought along and heaved it up onto the table. The square box was large and white, with a compartment on the bottom and a glass screen covering the top. “This is charged, right?”

“Should be.” Ty stepped over to me and pressed the top corner of the screen. It lit up, waiting for us to type in the chemical formula of whatever medication we wanted. He nodded sharply. “Yep, it’s good.”

I slid my arm around his waist. “Of course it’s working. Like you said, you’ve been keeping us on task for weeks, right?”

He turned and stroked his hand down my face. “Yes, I have.” I smiled and he pulled me in for a kiss.

The door to Med Lev swung open and a black-haired green shirt came limping in. He was bent over, holding his blood-soaked leg. Ty immediately stood up tall and took hold of the man’s arm.

“Let me help you, sir,” he said professionally. “What happened?”

The green shirt’s dark skin pulled together on his face as he winced. “Oh, it was stupid. I just got carried away with the excitement, you know? Past the field there’s a bunch of rocks I was jumping off of and I slipped. On my way down I sliced it wide open on something.”

I helped sit him on one of our portable exam beds. “Probably a piece of broken rock,” I guessed. “And I don’t blame you for getting carried away, you’re not the only one dying of excitement!”

Ty took his place next to the bed and I brought him a hand light. He held the disc-shaped device in the palm of his hand and shined it onto the officer’s injury. His gray pant leg was soaked; Ty peeled it up to reveal a long laceration down the entire length of his calf.

“Get absorption pads, Mayla,” Ty said with a face as calm and stoic as my father’s.

I obeyed and brought them over, holding one of the pads firmly onto the wound to stem the bleeding while Ty stepped to the supply table.

“Sorry, I know it probably hurts,” I told the green shirt with a guilty look.

“No, it’s okay, it’s fine,” he said through clenched teeth.

Ceres came out from the staff section and took a short, thin, metal rod from the table. “Here, give him the good stuff,” he said and handed it to me.

I grabbed it from him. “I’m going to give you something to help the pain, okay?” The green shirt’s face froze in uncertainty. “Don’t worry! It doesn’t hurt at all, just uses a powerful burst of air to force numbing medication into the skin. Watch.” Pressing the rod against his arm, I pushed the small metal button on top and heard a very short puff of air.

Ceres smiled. “Think of it as an Air Burst Weapon shooting amazing medication into you.”

I pointed at him and chuckled. “Hey! Good comparison, Ceres. At least our mini ABWs here won’t kill anyone.”

The green shirt’s face relaxed as he laid back onto the exam bed. “Whoa, I should hurt myself more often…this stuff is nice.”

Ty came back over and pulled up a chair to sit by our patient. “I’m going to stop the bleeding using this instrument,” he said, holding up an object. It was a white, hand-sized oval with a short tube sticking out of one end. “It’s called a Thermal Arrester. What it does it use heat, mixed with a special medication to seal up the blood vessels.”

The green shirt barely mumbled. “Mmhmm.”

Ty kept up his official explanation. “After the bleeding stops, we use another special tool that emits a beam of super condensed skin particles —” Ty stopped, then leaned over and whispered to me, “Is he even awake anymore?”

The green shirt was snoring.

I giggled openly; I’d given him way too much medication. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Well, never mind then.”

Ty began his work on the leg, using the tools he’d spoken of in a very careful, precise manner. I watched him work and couldn’t help but wonder if Baylen had repaired them at one point. He’d always been so good at fixing things.

“Mayla!”

My head snapped to the side. Ty was staring at me.

“I said can you hand me the Skin Repairer please?”

“Oh! Sorry, here it is.” I quickly shoved it into his waiting hand. “I can do that for you if you want.” The hope in my voice was obvious.

“No, I’d rather do it. You could wash and wrap it after I’m done, though,” he said and flashed me his beautiful smile.

I frowned; Kai would have let me do those kind of procedures in Med Lev, even if it was under his supervision. Bandaging was the boring job we usually assigned to the brand new assistants like Ceres.

When Ty was done, I did what he’d asked and cleaned up the leg, washing it with a special solution and wrapping it in clean, white bandages.

We let the green shirt sleep it off while finishing the final set-up of our beds and portable bathroom. After lunch at the newly running Food Shelter, Ty was called back for a jammed finger that he claimed he could do on his own as well. Since he seemed to want to do every single act of medicine himself, I decided to wander to Tech and replace Baylen.

Their shelter was pretty empty. I found him in the corner bent over some kind of dirty tech piece, completely oblivious to the footsteps coming up behind him.

“Hey!” I shouted and grabbed his shoulders from behind. He jumped and dropped the part he was examining.

“Mayla!” he shrieked as he spun around. “Geez, you scared me!”

I burst out laughing. “Sorry, it’s just so easy to do.”

Right away he grabbed me for a giant hug and spun me around a couple times. I chuckled at the unexpected display.

“Sorry!” he said and put me down. He sighed loudly. “I’m just so happy, you know? It must be all this disgusting fresh air.”

“Or maybe it’s the ugly blue sky,” I quipped back.

“I was actually going to come replace you.” He leaned back casually against his table. “To tell you I was right and you were wrong.”

“What?! How?”

“I told you this planet would work out and yet you still doubted me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well I doubted everyone, not just you.”

“Still…”

I smiled. “Fine, you were right and I was wrong.”

“Thank you.” He bowed formally. “Want to get out of here?”

“Yeah, what are we thinking being inside?!” I exclaimed, grabbing his arm and yanking him along with me through the shelter. We both took in huge, glorious deep breaths as we stepped outside again.

I closed my eyes, tilting my head upward, welcoming the dusty breeze. “I swear this place smells better than anything I’ve ever smelled in my life.”

“I know,” said Baylen. He took in a slow breath through his nose. “I think this must be what freedom smells like.”

“That’s got to be it.”

We spent another couple of minutes outside the shelter, paralyzed with pleasure, soaking up the sun and taking in the planet’s glorious scent.

“Mayla?” said Ty curiously. He was coming up from behind me, hands in his pockets.

I spun around. “Ty! What are you doing here?”

“Am I not supposed to be here?” he said and furrowed his brow. He looked Baylen up and down. “The better question would be, what are you guys doing?”

My mouth curled up into a smile. “Did we look crazy, standing there doing nothing but enjoying the outdoors?”

Ty pulled me in close and gave me an abnormally long kiss, almost borderlining on inappropriate. “Honestly, a little bit.” He laughed. “But it’s okay, I definitely understand.”

“I thought you were dealing with that one red shirt’s finger?”

“I did most of the work; Ceres is just finishing it up.” He had to hold in a chuckle. “Which means it’s probably the best day of his life.”

“Ha! Probably.”

Ty stroked my back and motioned his head toward the field. “I’ve got my personal communicator just in case he needs me. Let’s go on that walk we talked about.” He turned to Baylen, one arm tightly around my shoulders. “Thanks for keeping her safe for me, Bay. We’ll see you later.”

That twinge of annoyance rose up in me again. Not just from Ty using Baylen’s nickname — acting like someone had to keep me safe at all times bugged me even more. I couldn’t stand him talking to Baylen the way he did.

Baylen’s eyes moved uncomfortably between me and Ty. “Alright, I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Come with us!” I blurted out just as he was turning around.

Ty’s face broke out in surprise. “Hold on, I’m sure Baylen has things to do.”

“Uh, yeah. I’ve got things I can do back in Tech Shelter, it’s okay,” he said quickly.

I could just barely hear Ty groan as I grabbed Baylen’s arm and pulled him in line with us. “Nope, you’re coming with us. I know how much you love the outdoors so don’t even argue.”

He hesitated a little but quickly gave in. “If you insist, ma’am.” Chuckling a little to himself, he took his place at my side with Ty on the other. We made our way to the open field.

Protection Officers had warned all Levels to stay out of the forested areas until they could be explored more fully, but of course I wasn’t going to listen to that. I felt like the woods were calling to me, just waiting for us to enjoy their beauty. Baylen felt the same way; the thrilled smile on his face hadn’t budged since we’d taken off from camp. We waited until the red shirts were looking the other way and ran into the forest.

Ancient trees towered above us and spread themselves out in an almost continuous natural canopy. Small pockets of sunlight streamed down through the branches to the forest floor, sending quick moments of warmth as shafts of sunlight hit my skin on and off. The smell of dust swirled up through my nostrils and left a gritty feel in my nose. After only a few minutes, Ty pulled back on my hand.

“This is probably far enough, guys, maybe we should go back,” he said, tense and a little unnerved. “The field by camp is beautiful, too.”

I pulled him back in with us. “Let’s just go up ahead to that clearing and then we’ll turn around.”

A small grassy field could just barely be made out through the trees ahead. Ty hesitated and sent me a look that said he didn’t want to cooperate, but after a minute, he reluctantly agreed.

We kept quiet through our few minutes of walking. I didn’t really want conversation; just listening to nature was good enough for me. But as for Ty — I was fairly certain he was too anxious to be able to speak anymore.

The clearing finally began to open up in front of us. It was smaller than the one Colony Four had landed in, but much more breathtaking. The grass moved in waves with the breeze, soft and fluffy, dotted with flowers.

“Flowers!” I gasped and took off running.

I’d only seen actual flowers a handful of times on board, and that was just at the very beginning. Seeds of all different types had been brought along from our world, but hadn’t grown very well in space. I’d heard from somewhere that Science Lev just decided to freeze them for future use instead of risking their loss permanently.

Throwing myself down in the middle of the field, I plucked one of them up from the ground. They were tiny and purple; a color I hadn’t seen very often in the Colony. I pressed it to my nose to take in its aroma, but there wasn’t any. Disappointed, I sat back and picked a few more. The petals were soft and fuzzy against my cheek as I swept them across my skin just to feel their touch. The wind picked up a little bit and I shut my eyes, enjoying the cool sensation it created against my neck and face. It made a gentle swoosh through the grass that sounded more beautiful than any music I’d ever heard before. Maybe it was stupid, but sitting there in that grassy field was probably one of the best moments of my life.

Reaching down to pick another flower, something in the dirt caught my eye. Parts of the soil had been disturbed by my feet, exposing an object buried there. I dug my fingers in to pull it up. It was a ball the size of a small fingertip, with a tiny hole through the middle of it. I tried to wipe away as much dirt as I could. At some point it may have been colored, but years had turned it into a cloudy, faded silver.

I stared at in in dumbfounded wonder. Obviously, the object wasn’t natural; it had been made by some kind of person or thing at one point. Tearing my fingers through the dirt, I revealed five more.

A replace like that was exactly what Science Lev Officers lived for. I shoved the orbs in my pocket to bring back for them, excited at picturing how crazy they were going to get. I turned my head to call Ty and Baylen over to me, then paused. Both of the men were desperately waving their arms, signaling me to come back. I squinted and was about to shout a question as to what the problem was when Baylen pointed furiously behind me. I gave a big, curious shrug and Ty began to point as well.

Something wasn’t right. Slowly, I turned my head.

A large creature, walking on four legs and almost as tall as me, stood at the opposite edge of the clearing. Its face was down to the grass, sniffing. Tiny ears sat on the top of its head and its eyes were small and extremely dark. It was covered in short fur and as it took a step closer, I could just barely make out enormous, undoubtedly sharp claws.

My head whipped around in a panic. Baylen held up a hand as a signal to stay calm, and motioned for me to slowly get up. I did so, clutching my hands into tight, terrified fists, rising slowly and backing away. My pulse was racing at three times its normal rate. I kept my eyes glued to the alien creature, begging it silently to keep its head down.

Halfway back to Ty and Baylen, a rock appeared behind me from out of nowhere and I tripped, falling onto my back and crying out in reflex. Immediately my hand went to cover my mouth but it was too late — the animal startled and raised its head.

I scurried backward, panting, my terrified eyes on the creature, finally getting myself up and running into Ty’s and Baylen’s arms. It wasn’t a good move — my quick flight only seemed to aggravate the creature. It let out an enormous, guttural sound unlike any I’d ever heard before. Without stopping to think, all three of us took off in an absolute panic back to camp. The idea that we could outrun such a large alien beast was probably ludicrous, but sanity isn’t something usually present in a situation like that.

We sprinted through the trees to escape our killer. I screamed forward a couple of times for Ty to get someone on the communicator, but he didn’t respond. It probably wouldn’t have been possible anyway. Digging into your pockets for an object isn’t an easy task when your legs are moving as fast as ours were. Somewhere behind us, I could hear the animal’s heavy, angry growling and knew it was closing in. Adrenaline pushed me faster than I’d ever run before.

Finally, I could just barely make out our camp’s field. I cried out in relief — there were Protection Officers stationed in that field, officers with weapons. Hope spread through me knowing that my gruesome death might not happen after all.

Suddenly, a tree root seemed to jump out of the ground and caught my foot, sending me crashing and rolling into a bush. Right away I tried to push myself up to running again but I was stuck; the bush’s long, sharp thorns had a tight grip on my blue Med Lev shirt.

“Ty!” I cried out. “Help me!”

He wasn’t very far ahead and turned at my pleas. Lurching forward, he began to start his way over to me, but froze. The beast wasn’t far behind. Looking frantically from me to the creature, he spun and sprinted away from me toward Colony Four.

“TYLENIAN!!!” I screamed.

Immediately, Baylen was at my side. He skidded to a crouch in the dirt and pulled at my uniform top. I grabbed hold and helped him shred it away from the thorns. My shirt ripped apart halfway up my belly. Finally free, he yanked me up onto my feet.

“Mayla, RUN!”

But we weren’t going to get far. The creature was almost upon us and there was no way we would make it to the clearing alive. Digging into any lesson his survivalist father had taught him, Baylen scanned our surroundings for a solution.

He pointed to a tree up ahead. “There!”

We sprinted the few steps to it and he launched me up to the first branch in one swoop. Just as the animal made its last strides to us, Baylen managed to swing up as well.

I heard voices coming in faintly from the field and knew that Ty must have been alerting Protection Officers to our situation. My panic finally began to subside a bit.

“Up! Go up, May!” Baylen screamed.

My head swung back down again to see the animal’s claws swiping at our feet, able to reach our branch. I climbed higher. My belly, exposed from my torn-up shirt, scraped along the bark and added to the blood already seeping out from where thorns had torn my skin. An oozy kind of sap stuck to my hands as I pulled myself up the tree. My hair, half out of its ponytail, caught on the rough bark.

Finally, I stopped. Baylen balanced on the branch right next to me and put a sticky hand on top of mine. We let our bodies relax a bit and stared into each other’s terrified faces, heaving great breaths of both exhaustion and fear. But the respite was short-lived.

Our heads snapped back toward the ground as we heard it happening: our alien beast had dug its massive claws into the tree trunk. It began to climb.

“It’s climbing!” I screamed. My voice was desperate. “Baylen, what do we do?!”

I turned to him in a panic, but the same fear was spread all over him. I knew it was bad if someone like Baylen didn’t know a way out.

Suddenly, the animal stopped and perked its ears to the side. Its head turned and I followed its gaze. There were flashes of red shirts in the distance, running through the trees to us, their shouting voices growing louder. With a terrifying snarl, the animal unlatched its claws from the tree, charging full-speed in their direction.

“There they are!” shouted Baylen. He pointed happily and cupped one hand over his mouth. “Over here!”

A powerful blast sounded. I smiled knowing it was an ABW and the quick damage it would inflict. But right away, I heard screams. Terrible screams, mixed in with the creature’s roar. Several more blasts came, another roar, and then the shouting of desperate voices.

I looked to Baylen. “Do you think we can go down?”

He focused his ears to the field. “I think so. I only hear people, so it’s got to be dead.”

We eased ourselves carefully down the branches and trunk. Baylen made the final long jump to the ground and held onto me as I came down to join him.

“I think something’s still wrong,” I said as we jogged toward the shouting. The voices sounded frantic.

As the group came into view, I started to piece everything together. The animal laid on the ground in a heap, rasping its last, noisy breaths and bleeding from its torn-up neck. I stared at it as I walked slowly by, hypnotized by how large it was. It was so terrible and frightening I couldn’t look away.

“May!” shouted Baylen. I turned my attention toward the group again and cried out in horror. Trace was there with another from Protection Level, leaning over one of their officers on the ground. Blood seeped out from the red shirt’s abdomen all over the dirt. My breathing quivered at the gruesome scene.

But I soon realized that wasn’t the worst of it — as I got closer I could see exactly who the victim was.

It was Athan.