Free Tears of Glass (The Jana Darren Saga Book 1) by Jessica Cole Page B

managed to ask, voice weak and hoarse.
    “We’re on E-1, don’t you remember?” Memories flooded her brain. Ship. Crash. Fall. Blood. Gun. Metal. Bodies. Darkness... she bolted upright, gasping. Pain shot through Jana’s body like an electric shock.
    “Take it easy, Jana. Look at me.” Doubled vision made it difficult, but she managed to make out Gordon’s image. “How many fingers am I holding up?” she squinted, trying to count.
    “Three?” she guessed.
    From somewhere else, another voice sounded. “Wow. She’s really messed up.”
    “Yeah, thanks Lexi.”
    “What? I’m just saying...”
    “Be quiet.”
    “Jana, what happened?” Her vision started to come into focus. The others stood around her.
    “Aeronth?”
    “He’s in the ship.”
    Oh no. “Alive?” she whimpered.
    “Yeah, he’s alive. We’re all alive.”
    Gordon pressed a cool, wet rag against her forehead. “Why does it hurt so much?”
    “You’re pretty banged up.”
    “How bad?”
    “Well you’ve got a bad concussion, you cut your head and your leg, and from what I can see, you have at least a few broken ribs. You’re lucky you didn’t puncture a lung, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. What happened?”
    “Thirsty.”
    “Get her some water.” Gordon handed her a canteen. She tried to grasp it, but her hands were largely unresponsive. I am pathetic. “Let me help you,” he said, holding it for her while she drank.
    “We weren’t where we were supposed to be. We came in hot. I put the flaps down. There were just trees everywhere.” She swallowed and licked her lips, tasting a hint of blood and salt. “We landed in the treetop, but the weight shifted and we fell to the ground, belly side up.” Jana started to lose focus again. Her eyes fluttered, and she fought to stay conscious. “I tried to pry open the ramp because the door was blocked. I did all I could.” The last sentenced was mumbled, head down.
    “It’s okay, Jana. Everyone’s okay. Go back to sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
    “Okay.”

15. Trudging On
     
    The sun’s light was barely creeping over the horizon. Standing up was a challenge. Her limbs were sore and stiff. Jana’s legs gave out, and she fell onto her hands and knees. Around her, the others slept around a burnt-out campfire. A hundred yards away lay the wreckage of the skiff. She made it to her feet once more and approached the ship warily. A lump rose in her throat, and Jana leaned against a tree a comfortable distance away. There was no way they’d be able to salvage it. I’m in for it when we get back.
    “You should be lying down.”
    Jana looked over at Aeronth. Though she’d heard them say it earlier, seeing him alive and well eased her mind. “Hey,” she said as he stopped beside her, not taking his eyes off the ship. Her voice was raspy and weak. She cleared her throat.
    “So what happened?” he asked cautiously. “It wasn’t your fault,” he said after she’d explained, following a rather long pause. “It sounds like you did everything you could.”
    “I guess,” she replied offhandedly. Sympathy? That’s a new one for him.
    “Look, about what happened before we boarded the speeder—“
    “I’d rather not talk about it,” Jana said quickly.
    He nodded curtly. “Okay. Then what DO you want to talk about?”
    “I don’t know,” she murmured. “You know...when I was pulling everyone out of those stasis compartments...I started thinking about this poem I really like.”
    He eyed her skeptically. “What?”
    “This poem...by Dylan Thomas. He’s a Pre-Fall poet. He wrote this piece called ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’; it’s to his dying father. It’s telling the old man to ‘rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
    “What the hell does that mean?”
    “It means that you can’t just give into death. You have to fight it. You have to want to live, and live life to the fullest.”
    “So...it’s about