by Liam Scott
“We don’t have to, there are other places we can go.”
“Like where, Atlas?” Helene replied patiently. Her face grew soft, “I know you’re trying to protect me and I’m really okay with it. I’d like to know what’s so important down in those caverns that my parents were killed over it.”
He couldn’t argue with that. Grace was sleeping with her mouth open against Saros’ thigh when the dunes finally narrowed and the rover slowed to a crawl. In the headlights, the deep crevice of the Valles Marineris was barely visible. Clouds of dust rolled eerily over the beams of light and for the first time, Atlas feared what might lurk in the dark.
Helene activated the manual override and drove the rover to the rise of a hill that seemed to slope into encompassing darkness. The vehicle bumped over the terrain as they maneuvered down into the canyon.
Atlas surmised that a snaking river must have ran through the canyon floor in ancient times, though the ground beneath the rover was stiff and dry now, catching on the continuous track of the tires.
They halted on an even-terrain valley, it’s ground worn smooth. The sky, high above them, appeared starless behind the thin clouds. Atlas threw his rucksack over his back for the hundredth time and activated the atmospheric bubble attached to the rover, so that they could at least remove their helmets and conserve their air. Saros started a small fire from the synthetic kindling in the rover’s safety kit, less for warmth and more to ward off the night. Grace settled in, sitting cross-legged inside the open rover and facing the dancing flames. Helene pulled a few packets of freeze-dried fruit from the stores and a canteen of water, which they all shared.
“What now?” Saros said. “We can’t stay here, I need to find my crew. They need me.”
While Atlas admired his loyalty, he doubted that his crew were still in the Colony, never mind alive.
“Now we rest,” Atlas said, nodding at the rover. “And tomorrow we’ll head down to the caverns and see what all the fuss is about.”
There was the sound of a vehicle approaching, suddenly, Atlas jumped to put out the fire.
“Don’t! They already know we’re here, the fire will help us see them,” Saros said, grabbing his arm before he could kick sand into the flames.
“Stay inside the rover!” Atlas snapped, looking back over his shoulder. Helene and Grace ignored him, of course, they were standing at his back, flanking him in a matter of moments. Grace held her gun in her right hand and Saros brandished his knife. Helene her fists, rearing for the inevitable fight. It wasn’t the Alliance, Atlas realized. A lone figure walked across the sand, his arms full of unknown items.
“Don’t shoot,” Axel’s voice called. Grace sighed behind him.
“Why not?” Atlas called hotly. “Why shouldn’t we?”
“Can I stab him?” Saros murmured under his breath, eyes gleaming in the firelight.
“Not yet,” Helene answered, looking regretful.
Axel reached the circle of warm light that glinted off his helmet, and his countenance came into clear view. He was carrying a myriad of supplies, from water canteens to kindling, to freeze- dried meat and synthetic coffee. He stepped through the atmospheric bubble and dropped the supplies to the ground slowly, raising his hands in surrender. He wore no insignia on his jacket, not even that of The Alliance.
“I’m not here to turn you in,” he said.
“As if we’d ever believe you,” Atlas snorted.
“I know,” the sergeant conceded. “I failed all of you and I know what my betrayal did to you.” He looked pointedly at Grace, his stern face crumpling.
“Not me,” Saros said, yawning. Everyone ignored him.
“What are you doing here?” Atlas said. “Why did you follow us?”
“I don’t expect you to forgive me, Atlas. I wouldn’t if I were you.”
“Okay, and?”
“I know where you’re hiding the samples,” Axel said, glancing quickly to his rucksack and back again.
“And you told my father, yeah I get it. When should we expect him?” Atlas had never felt so defeated.
“I didn’t,” he confessed. “I didn’t want to tell him what I did but he threatened my job, Atlas, and I didn’t know you before. I left as soon as I could- stole a rover from the main bay.”
“How did you get away without their knowledge?” Grace called, her voice strong and sure.
The sergeant peeled off the coat he was wearing over his suit away from his ribs, revealing a spreading red stain over his side, “I didn’t.”
“Oh, Axel,” Grace cried, hurrying over to him. Atlas let them pass. Helene and Saros lingered by the fire as Grace tended to his wounds. Atlas could tell she was resolved to trust him again and Atlas was almost inclined to feel the same. Helene shrugged when he asked her and Saros looked at him like he was an idiot, “I don’t know him, Atlas. Like, not even a little. Move along.”
“If you want to stay, there are some ground rules,” Axel nodded gravely. Grace was bent over him, wrapping a sterile gauze over his gun shot where he had unzipped the suit, and she patched the hole in the fabric over his ribs. “You’re not allowed to use the comms at all times, you’re to stay within my sister’s sight. Got it?”
The sergeant nodded lethargically, “I think I can do that.” He leaned back against the interior wall of the rover and promptly fell asleep. Grace pillowed her head on his thigh and closed her eyes.
“Think she really forgave him?” Helene asked. She and Saros were moving the supplies from Axel, into the back of the rover. Saros closed the hatch and went to stand by the fire, warming his gloved hands.
“She did,” Atlas replied confidently. If he understood anything, it was his sister’s willingness to forgive those she thought worthy of her mercy. “I know she did.”
“I don’t know if we should trust him, Atlas,” her voice betrayed her worry. She was on edge inside the canyon, though she tried to hide it, and Atlas pressed a hand to her cheek.
“Nothing is going to happen, I promise,” Atlas said, pulling his hand back after a moment. “I’ll take first watch.”
After Helene and Saros both found a comfortable spot to fall asleep in, Atlas sat down cross-legged by the fire and relished the soft warmth it emitted. He peered at the walls of towering rock above him, his gaze unfocused. The darkness and the looming cliff faces seemed to surround him. He considered for a moment. He knew that close by, there were caverns hiding strange discoveries and his curious side yearned for him to wander out into the black and seek them out. After another second of thought, Atlas tapped Saros on the shoulder and asked him to take watch. He locked the seal on his helmet and grabbed a lantern. Saros rolled his eyes at Atlas’ bathroom excuse and waved a hand, letting him leave.
The round beam of the lantern bounced over the sand and soft pockets of dust clouded the air with every footstep Atlas took. The navigation inside his suit told him to continue east, moving along the nonexistent ravine bed. He knew that the precarious cliffside that had crushed Helene’s parents was nearby, but he planned to stay far away, in respect to Helene and their memory. He must’ve walked for half a kilometer before his suit alerted him to the close proximity of his destination.
Atlas lifted the lantern high into the air. The light shone over the yawning mouth of a cave. The darkness inside choked out his lantern and he squinted around, unsure of where he was headed. He shuffled his way across the floor of the cavern and the echoing sound of his footsteps was deafening. His proximity alerts warned him suddenly and before he realized it, Atlas had caught his foot on the raised edge of a chunk of rubble and he tumbled headlong down a steep slide of rock, into the unknown.
Atlas opened his eyes slowly, blinking at his surroundings. He’d fallen into a pocket of air that had formed a chamber, long ago, beneath the top layer of the cavern. The lantern was lying upside down in the sand and Atlas rose slowly, bracing his hands behind him. He pulled the light toward him and gasped at the sight before him, spread out over the cham
ber.
“Wow,” he breathed, raising the light high.
The entire wall of the cave chamber was covered in smooth, strange stone. The color of the rock varied as he stared, wavering from dull grey to soft purple, pale green, and back again.
“Helene will never believe this,” he said to himself. He couldn’t wait to return to the surface.
Atlas walked the edge of the smooth rock face, following it’s progression around the chamber until he ended up right back where he started.
There was a strange, persistent thought in the back of his mind, urging him to reach out and touch the cave wall. It stretched high into the endless ceiling, and Atlas lost track of it as it advanced. Atlas turned to leave, holding the lantern. He stopped as the thought in his head grew louder, imploring him to turn around and make contact with the stone.
Atlas tugged one of his thick gloves from his hand and the suit sealed over his wrist. He reached out hesitantly as he shuffled closer. He dropped the lantern into the sand, where the light flickered away, and the darkness seemed to pulsate around him. This was what they were looking for- what was inside the soil samples. This could end everything. Without another thought, Atlas reached forward again. The tips of his fingers brushed cold stone. The pitch-black chamber burst into brilliant light and Atlas was thrown back against the wall knocking him out…
ATLAS ARISING
Stay in the Loop
Don’t miss out on Liam Scott’s next book
Join our email list at:
LiamScottBooks.com/Subscribe
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 Liam Scott – All rights Reserved
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.