Beyond The Dying Light

Chapter 5: Steel and Breath

They had what they needed. Food, water, and enough medical supplies that Aria could wrap Natan's back and take the worst edge off the pain. Not healed — not going to be healed for a while — but he could breathe without his vision going dark. That was going to have to be enough.

Then the voice came through every wall at once.

"The spaceship will be launching. Please secure yourself and fasten your seatbelt. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven..."

Aria's head snapped up. "W-what is that — are we leaving already?"

"Yes." Ben was already moving. "Aria — find something soft. Anything. Put it behind Natan's back now."

She was up immediately, pulling crates open, hands moving fast. Natan tried to shift himself into a better position and his back said no. He stopped and breathed and waited.

"Hurry, Aria."

"Six. Five. Four—"

"There's nothing." She shoved another crate aside. "Natan there's nothing soft in here—"

"Three—"

"Aria." Ben's voice cut flat. "Behind him. Now."

"Two. One."

The ship moved and the weight hit all three of them at the same time.

Not a shake. Not a rumble. A force that came from everywhere at once and pressed them straight into the floor and held them there. Natan's chest compressed. Breathing took effort. His back stopped being something he was managing and became the only thing in the room — deep, locked, running through everything. He pressed his teeth together and didn't make a sound. Aria was behind him, her body braced against his, and it helped. It helped enough.

Outside, the engine heat tore through the ground around the ship. The crater the ship had carved out of the city scorched and cracked under the force of the launch — the surrounding roads, what was left of the buildings nearby, the earth itself blistering under the exhaust. The sound was massive. Even through the hull they could feel it in their bones — that deep continuous roar of something unimaginably large forcing itself off the ground.

The nose hit the atmospheric shield.

It didn't slow down. The impact shuddered through the entire hull — a deep metallic groan that ran from the tip of the ship all the way down through the floor beneath them. The shield didn't give easily. For a moment the whole ship vibrated against it, two enormous forces pushing against each other in the dark. Then the panels cracked. One first, then the next, then several at once — splitting apart under the hull, breaking outward in every direction. Three hundred years of artificial sky, the thing that had kept an entire planet alive, tearing open from the inside like it was nothing. The pieces fell away and dropped back down toward the city below — massive chunks of it tumbling through the night, crashing into streets and buildings that were already in ruins. Above the broken shield, the real atmosphere waited — the actual sky, raw and unfiltered, the way it had always been before any of it was built. The ship tore through the gap and kept climbing.

The ship turned slowly to fight the planet's gravity and the force kept building. Aria was shaking against his back — that fine constant tremor of someone holding a position their body wasn't built to hold. Ben was flat on the ground to their left, unable to get any closer, unable to do anything.

Then the weight started lifting.

The ship leveled out. It circled Aurelia once and then stopped circling. It went straight — out into the dark — and the force dropped away completely.

None of them moved for a while. The floor was cold. The ship hummed through every surface, steady and low.

"Are you okay, Aria?"

Ben's voice was quiet.

"I can't move my body." She exhaled. "Natan is so heavy."

Natan still hadn't said anything.

Aria turned toward him. "Natan?" Her hand found his face. The stillness was wrong. "Natan — Natan!"

"Wait." Ben checked his pulse. His breathing. "He's unconscious. The pain got to him." He looked at Natan. "How weak can you be when you have a cushion that soft."

Aria stared at him. "I'm not a pillow."

"Yeah."

She turned back and kept her hand on his shoulder. Ben said nothing else.

They lay down. Natan was breathing. There was food. There was water.

They slept.

Ben's eyes opened and he was already still, already listening.

Footsteps. Right outside. Two sets.

He was up and shaking both of them before the sound reached the door. "Wake up — now—"

Aria was up immediately.

Natan was halfway through a sound about his back — Ben's hand came down over his mouth. Natan froze. Ben held up two fingers at the door. Natan nodded.

They moved to the far corner — behind the last row of shelving, backs against the wall. The guard they'd dragged in earlier was already there, exactly where they'd left him.

The door opened.

Two guards drifted in. Motors on their backs, built for zero gravity. They moved between the shelves without hurry, not looking for anything they didn't already know was there.

"What does the boss want again?"

"Food and liquor." A short laugh. "The old man really has time for this."

"Bread's somewhere in the back—"

One of them drifted toward their section. None of the three breathed. The guard's hand came out and grabbed a loaf from the shelf directly in front of them — one row short of where they stood — and he turned back.

"Got it. Liquor?"

"Right here."

The door closed.

All three of them let out a breath.

"If we'd been caught right now," Aria said quietly.

"We weren't," Ben said.

He was already looking at the corner. At the guard — lying in the same position he'd been in for hours. Through the launch, through all of it. Not a single shift. Eyes closed. Breathing too evenly.

Ben crawled slowly across the floor toward the guard in the corner. Aria watched him. "Is he awake?"

"He's been out since you put him down," she said. "Never moved once."

Ben pointed the gun directly at him.

"Ben—" Aria sat up. "What are you doing?"

"You awake?" Ben's eyes didn't leave the guard. "Stop pretending to be asleep or I'll kill you right now. Five. Four. Three. Two—"

"Ben!"

The guard's eyes snapped open. Hands up immediately. "Please — please don't kill me — I'm just working here, I swear—"

"You shouldn't have pretended," Ben said. "Were you waiting to spy on us? Report back to your boss?"

"No — no, I was just scared." His voice cracked. "I didn't shout when those two guards came in. I could have. I didn't. Isn't that enough?"

A long moment. Ben lowered the gun.

"Then tell me who your boss is." He tilted his head. "Is it President Luise G. Hirdo?"

The guard swallowed. "The president is dead. He was betrayed." He looked up. "Our boss is Jourdan. I don't know anything about him — I just follow orders, I swear. Please spare me."

Ben pointed the gun at him again.

"Thanks for the information."

"W-what are you going to do—"

"Step away, Aria."

Aria was already between them. "No." Her voice was steady. "He's not fighting anymore. You don't have a reason."

"I do," Ben said. "If those guards come back and he screams — we're finished."

"Please." The guard pressed back against the shelving. "I promise. I won't do anything — just spare me—"

Ben looked at him for a moment. Then he put the gun away.

"Fine. But if we get caught because of him—" He looked at Aria. "I'm leaving you both behind. Whatever he does is on you."

"Okay," Aria said. "That's fine."

"Fine," Aria said.

The guard said nothing. Ben turned away.

Aria exhaled. Then she stopped.

"Jourdan." She said it slowly, like the name had caught on something. She looked at Natan — unconscious, still, completely unaware. "That's the name of Natan's father."

The room went quiet.

Ben didn't move. The guard didn't move. Aria kept looking at Natan.

Natan just breathed. Slow and even. Unaware of all of it.

The ship moved on through the dark.

— End of Chapter 5 —