Last to Fall - Book cover

Last to Fall

B. Shock

Check Your Bags

ALITA

I sat nearby, watching the alien closely. He seemed to be ignoring me completely, without much, if any, curiosity.

He must not care for humans and he obviously knows of our kind, otherwise he’d show more hostility or interest in me.

He was sitting in the shade of the tree, leaning against his spear, keeping an eye on our surroundings. I also found him glancing up at the sky.

I was still confused and unsure what to do in this situation. He did save me, but I didn’t think it was completely intentional. He just wanted his knife back.

The man who attacked me was no doubt a criminal who was exiled here to die. I wasn’t sure if I should be surprised about the fact he had been surviving on this planet or not, but he was definitely insane.

My stomach churned at the idea of just how many other people he might’ve eaten while here.

There was an awkward silence between me and the alien. If I wanted his help, I had to try and communicate with him somehow…

Peeking around the tree to look at him, I could get a better look at his body.

He had armor-like scale plating running down his spine to his tail and a few white paint markings all along his collarbone, chest, and arms.

It was clear they were some kind of tribal markings, meaning there were others like him, right?

I looked at his spear and noticed the spearhead was made from what looked like obsidian, and the wooden staff was gray in color.

The fact he had tools and other accessories meant that they were intelligent to some degree, and his attitude supported that theory.

If he were some savage caveman, he would’ve bashed my head in already. Instead, he just ignored me like I was just some minor annoyance, so he must’ve seen I wasn’t a major threat to him, right?

He glanced over at me without moving as if knowing I was watching him. I turned my head away so it didn’t seem like I was staring…

Even now my shyness is getting the better of me. The only reason I was brave enough to follow him was because I’m less scared of him than I am of this wretched forest…

I heard some rustling and looked back to see him standing up and walking off. Panicking, I quickly put the spare fruit in my bag and got up to go after him, staying a short distance behind.

It didn’t take long for him to acknowledge I was following him once more. He merely glanced at me, then mumbled to himself. He continued to travel through the forest terrain, determined to get somewhere, and fast.

Through all the trees, I could see the sun was going to set soon, and I gulped, hoping shelter was somewhere in the books tonight. I hated to think what might come out at night in these forests.

My leg was sore, and I swear it felt like the forest would never end. My mouth felt dry, and I glanced at my bag debating whether I should drink what little water I had in the flask or use it to clean my injured hand.

Looking up, I stopped in my tracks and fear crept into my heart. The man was just gone. I frantically looked around for any kind of movement or sign of where he might’ve gone, but there was nothing.

I wanted to call out for him, but what use would it do when he didn’t speak my language and didn’t care about me?

I ran forward in the direction I thought he might have gone, but once again saw no signs of him, not even tracks. He couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air, could he?!

We had been walking for hours and were no doubt far from where we started. I doubted I could retrace my steps back to the pod or safety of the hole. Feeling helpless, I sat under a large tree and hugged my knees.

Now what do I do? I had no weapon to defend myself if something came crawling out of the woods, and my food and water were limited…

I squeezed my eyes and buried my face in my arms. I’ve never felt so pathetic… How could I just lose a hulking seven-foot-tall alien?! Stupid, stupid!

Looking up at the never-ending forest, I thought about where Varin might be or what he would think… He’s probably worried sick…

Listening to the sounds of the forest, my eyelids grew heavy, and before I knew it, I fell asleep underneath the large tree.

HOURS LATER

Opening my eyes, I could hardly see anything in front or around me. I rubbed my eyes in hopes of seeing better, but I quickly realized it wasn’t my eyes that were the problem. It was nighttime.

I fell asleep out in the open, and now night had fallen?! I stood up, looking around, but all I could see were the shadows of trees and other plants around me. Hardly anything was being illuminated by the moonlight.

There was no way I would be able to find shelter, and walking blindly through the forest at night was a death sentence.

Looking around, I picked up a large stone that was easy enough to wield and backed up against the tree I had been sleeping under before slumping back down to the ground.

I thought I could see shadows moving in the trees around me, and I clutched the large stone in my good hand, ready to bash it at anything that came near me. This truly was a place of nightmares…

Throughout the night, I sat there, silently paranoid of all the moving shadows and slight noises around me. All I could do was stay quiet and hope nothing came close to me or smelled me.

By the time morning came, my eyes burned, and I was exhausted from staying up all night. I hardly cared at that point that the sun was rising. I was too tired.

So many noises and movements in the forest made me paranoid, and sleep was practically impossible.

My injured hand burned, and I glanced at the poorly wrapped cloth around it and sighed.

Standing up, I looked around the area, seeing nothing but the forest—no landmarks, no signs of life anywhere—so I did the only thing I could and tiredly walked forward.

If I’m lucky I’ll find some kind of shelter or water… My leg stung as I continued forward in search of something…anything…

Soon enough, the forest seemed to thin out some, and I noticed the sunlight reflecting off something just up ahead.

As I approached, I realized it was a pond of sorts. I had never been happier to see a big puddle of water before in my life.

Moving closer, I kneeled down next to the edge of the water and set my bag down. Taking out my flask, I drank what water I had, and then started filling it with water from the pond.

Once it was full, I unwrapped my injured hand and tried my best to wash it off with some of the water. Putting my hand in the water soothed some of the pain, and I sighed in relief.

After cleaning off my hands, I moved away and sat under a tree. Now that I found water, some of the stress of my situation dissipated. My stomach growled, and I looked over at my bag, where I had stored some fruit before.

Biting my lip, I decided I would eat one and save the other for later. Setting the bag in my lap, I opened it up.

A small rat-like creature screeched from inside as soon as I opened the bag, and I screamed before throwing the whole thing away from my body. I hardly got a look at the thing, but it had sharp teeth and four red eyes.

I scooted away and quickly stood up as the bag moved around and the creature inside squirmed to get free.

Looking off to my side, I grabbed a branch off the ground and moved closer to the bag slowly, flinching each time I thought the thing might jump out at me.

Once I was close enough, I gathered my courage and hit the bag with the tree branch four times.

At this point, the thing inside of it had stopped moving and my heart felt like it might beat out of my chest. Using the stick, I opened the bag from a distance to see if anything would come out, but there was no movement.

Grabbing the bag, I dumped it out on the ground and jumped back as the little alien thing fell to the ground unmoving. Both the fruits I had were completely chewed up and the small rodent was dead.

I was both relieved and revolted by the fact I had killed it. Its fur was mangy and dark in color. The thing was quite thin with eight long, slender legs and a long snout with sharp teeth poking out.

It was a bit bigger than any rat I had seen before, and it had a long tail with needle-like protrusions. I didn’t dare touch it in case it wasn’t dead or it was poisonous.

The animal must have crawled into my bag when I had fallen asleep yesterday.

I quickly grabbed the rest of my items, threw them in the bag, and moved over to another tree to sit down, away from the dead animal.

My stomach growled, and I sighed, accepting the fact that lunch just wasn’t an option today, and I wasn’t going to eat that…thing…especially not without a fire to cook it.

I leaned back against the tree I was under and held my bag close.

“Things just keep getting better and better, don’t they…”

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