That Which Devours

A hum rolled through the shuttle as John flicked a button, then the ramp rose until it closed. “Almost there, Greg.”

Greg sat down on the other side, facing me. There was enough room between us that our legs wouldn’t touch. “I’ll be glad to get back to my moonshine.”

“Moonshine?”

“I produce it in the mines.” Greg laughed. “Alexander the Ass doesn’t want it in the colony. Just think how much people would lighten up with a little drink here and there.”

I didn’t add anything, since I didn’t know why some adult beverages wouldn’t be allowed. All it could do was help with the morale of the community.

“Hold on to your seats,” said John. The humming got louder as the shuttle jerked upward, before the ride became smoother. “Let’s fly out of the valley.”

I could see the view from the front window and it was amazing. The sun was setting as we rose higher than the mountains on either side. Trees covered the land, leading to thick mountains that rose to the north and west. To the south was nothing but more jungle, a slash cutting through it which had to be the massive river John had mentioned in the past. Beyond that was more jungle, until rocks took over at the edge of the horizon.

The shuttle moved toward the west, and John’s head twisted every way. “Anyone see anything flying?”

The question hung in the air, and Greg moved closer to the front window. He hadn’t buckled in. “Nothing, we should be in the clear.”

“Should be doesn’t mean we are.” John did something, and we picked up speed. “Next stop, the compound.”

“Ugh, I hate that name,” said Greg, rolling his eyes.

“What would you call it?” my brother asked.

“No clue, but the compound just sounds weird,” Greg said.

“I mean, it's a few guys surrounded by a fence, crystals, and living out of the half-broken dropship, right?” John replied.

“Yeah, but they keep it safe.”

“They have more crystals set up than anyone,” replied John. “A dino isn’t approaching that fence.”

They had to be talking about the place we’d be staying tomorrow. It was the back half of the mining dropship. They’d had heavy losses before finding a cache of crystals. The front half had much better luck, though it had landed far enough away that the two groups didn’t even know about each other for the first few days.

“I thought it was a settlement?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t call it that.” Greg scratched his chin, near his beard. “I know Alexander does, to make it sound more impressive, but John’s right. It's big enough to land the shuttle, barely, but no one really stays there but the crazies.”

“Crazies?”

“Folks who refuse to leave,” added John. “Nice people, just something broke in them after the crash.”

“Yeah,” said Greg sadly. “So many died, they had only twenty people left when John found them.”

John nodded. “Yeah, only fifteen would resettle in the colony. The ones that stayed are still there.”

“It was rough at the other site too, wasn’t it?” I asked. Greg was from that one after all.

“In a different way. We at least had the mountain at our back.” He went quiet for a moment. “Then we found the crack in the rock. It saved us. We lost about half of our colonists, so about 100 people made it into the mountain. We lost some more after that.”

“Didn’t most of those head to the colony?”

“Eh, less than half,” said Greg. “Most of the people in the mountains want to do their own thing. We have crystals, safe homes, and a connection with y’all, but don’t need to listen to all of the rules.”

I shook my head lightly. “Just think, if we didn’t crash, we all were supposed to be one large colony working together.”

Greg chuckled. “Yeah, no matter how much they tried, I doubt it would’ve lasted long term. People are herd animals. They like who they like, but people who volunteered to start a new colony aren’t all going to be sheep. Right now it's easier to have all of us close together for survival, but if this had gone according to the original plan? I bet half the colonists would have run for the hills as soon as the dropships hit dirt.”

“So, you float back and forth with moonshine, then?” I asked, half-smiling, and knowing he wasn’t wrong. There had been a little talk of that even before we had left Earth.

“See, you catch on fast.” Greg grinned and turned back to the window. “It's a good trade. People will do a lot for a drink, especially when it's tough living like we’re doing.” Finally, he moved away from John’s shoulder and sat back down across from me. “I’m gonna nap, let me know when we get close.”

“It’ll be a while,” said John.

“It always is.”

“Speaking of, this is a good time for you to learn some stuff, Alex. Move up here,” he said to me.

I quickly unclipped my harness and stood up before moving to watch over his shoulder. John motioned to the steering wheel and the various buttons. Everything had a label written in a black marker. “The wheel basically controls the direction of the ship, turning left or right.” He showed what he meant, turning it one way softly, then the other. “Up and down is controlled by moving it forward and back.” Again he showed raising and lowering the shuttle using the thrusters. “It’s easy, flying. Landing is hard.”

John flicked a button before unlocking his harness and stood off to the right. “Take a seat and give it a try.”

The shuttle kept moving in the direction that it had been set to go. I sat down in the seat and buckled myself back in.

“Make sure to flick that button,” he said pointing to the last thing he had touched. It said ‘AUTO’ next to it. “It locks the wheel into the current position.”

I flicked it off, and then set my hands on the wheel, not moving it.

“See, easy as pie.” He pointed toward a tall tree in the distance. Something flickered at the top. “Point us in that direction.”

I slowly turned the steering wheel to face the tree, and the shuttle responded. I only overshot slightly and had to correct a bit. “This isn’t so bad.”

“It’s pretty boring, which is a good thing. We’ll head this way for a bit before I’ll take back over. Landing at the compound is rough.”

John then left me alone and went to take a seat behind me.

After some time passed, a notification popped up in the green text.

[You have learned the skill category, Piloting]

The message suddenly appeared, making me jerk, but I only flinched a little. I slowly moved the wheel back into position. I had to have over 8 skills categories at this point. All of them were basic, and I couldn’t even use them, really, but at least I had them.

Still, unlocking access to my class and skills would be amazing, or at least I hoped it would. It didn’t take long for the excitement of flying to wear off. John’s rant about it being boring made much more sense. There was nothing to do but not touch the controls, and look at the tops of trees.

The sun was setting, which was pretty. Pinks and purples crossed the skies, highlighting wispy clouds. There was even some neon orange. The fading light made it harder to see anything but the dark tops of the trees. Nothing else moved, which was a good thing. John had learned the hard way about flyers. He’d been lucky to flee with only minimal damage to the shuttle the first time. Now, we knew that certain areas were dangerous, except at dusk and dawn. Unfortunately, that included the area around the colony, and then around the compound, plus the mining settlement in the mountains.

It extended the trip into 2 days. Otherwise, it would have been shorter.

The sky got darker and darker until it was hard to see. The moon would rise at some point, but I didn’t know when. Movement behind me startled me, and John appeared over my shoulder. “I should take over. I forgot you don’t have any night vision skills.”

I hit the lock and then unclipped. “Nope, I was just gonna say something.”

John sat down and clipped back in. “Get some rest, we only have a few more hours until we’re at the compound.”

Once back in my seat I clipped in and tried to get comfortable. Some shut-eye would help. Eventually, I nodded off.

***

“What the… Hey Alex! Look at that!” John’s voice woke me up, and I twisted to look out the front window, wondering how long I’d napped for.

A shooting star flew across the night sky. “Woah, I think that’s my first.” I needed to make a wish. The only thing to come to mind was to finally unlock my class.

“First what?” mumbled Greg.

“Shooting star,” I answered. The moon has risen at some point, and the sliver that was visible provided enough light to see the top of the jungle.

Greg stumbled to his feet to move closer to the window. He leaned forward. “There are so many.”

More appeared, streaking across the sky, lighting it up. Unease trickled down my spine. “Has this happened before?”

John was slow to respond. “No, though I bet it looks amazing from the mining outpost.”

“How much longer until we arrive at the compound?” asked Greg. “We have to be getting close.”

“Maybe three hours, though I might try to pick up the pace.”

The shuttle trembled a little.

“What was that?” I asked, fear filling my voice as my fingers clenched the armrests of the seat.