Free A Cold Black Wave by Timothy H. Scott Page A

was hot.  The burners had run all night, and her body was matted with sweat.
     
    Still unsure whether or not she had a dream, she sat still for another ten minutes and listened for the sound.  Just silence.  She put her boots on, grabbed the machine gun, and decided she had to take a look for herself.  She cracked the door only a little, and saw just a hint of metal sticking out of the blanket of snow on the ground.  The early morning sun was out and the sky had cleared entirely, leaving a clean serenity where no wind was present.
     
    She felt it’d be best to eat something now and then try and wake Josh.  After she finished eating, she tended to him.  Sweat dripped off his face, so she pulled some of the blankets back and took a moment to examine his bandages.  They were spotted with blood but not soaked, so the bleeding definitely had stopped.  The wraps would need to be changed either way.
     
    The food looked unappealing as she fixed a combination of packages together into a meal, but Leah did what she could with it to make it look palatable.  The smell of heated faux eggs, hash, pancakes, and sweet syrup that had an after smell of chemicals filled the shuttle, and she hoped it would help rouse him.  She put the plate down next to him and pulled a strand of loose hair behind her ear as she knelt next to him. “Josh.  It’s me, wake up.”
     
    She gently touched his clammy face, cupping his chin in her palm and brushing his oily hair back.  For such a tortured soul he appeared very calm and peaceful, but for all of the wrong reasons.  Still, she felt sorry for him.  They were both too young to have such a burden placed on them.
     
    H is eyes flared open, and he viciously grabbed her arm as if to break it.  She pushed away and pleaded, “Stop, it’s me!  You’re hurting me!”
     
    The pain in his body shot through him like an electrical charge and he loosed his grip. “Where is it?” he gasped as he search for his gun.
     
    “It- it’s gone.  Outside.  You killed it.”
     
    He looked around with blood shot and alarmed eyes, still wincing with pain. “Gone?  Where ... the gun, give it to me.”
     
    She held her hand up to try and calm him. “Josh, you’re okay!  You’re okay, he’s gone.  I checked.  He’s still in the snow where you left him.”
     
    Josh wiped the sweat stinging his eyes and looked to the closed door.
     
    “It was real,” he whispered aloud as if to convince himself it wasn’t a dream.  “Where is it?” he asked again, still in a fog.
     
    “I told you outside, I checked.  It’s dead.”
     
    He glanced her over. “You-you okay?”
     
    “I’m fine.  I need to change your bandage.”
     
    Josh looked down at his bloody wrappings. “Jesus.  I feel like I’m on fire.”
     
    She picked up one of the needle-like projectiles on the ground and showed him. “You were hit with these.  Dozens of them, and they were hot.  You’re lucky they weren’t longer or they would have killed you .”
     
    Josh eyed the bandages on her fingers, and she said, “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
     
    “Is it bad?”
     
    “It could be worse, hey, here.  Eat some food,” she slid the plate closer.  “When you’re done I’ll get you cleaned up.  Okay?”
     
    He picked at his plate but didn’t have an appetite as the pain coursing through his body made him nauseous. “This isn’t good.”
     
    Her countenance turned to disbelief that he would be so picky over his food at time like this. “You got to be kidding me ...”
     
    “No,” he gestured towards the door.  “The machine.  Out there.  The intelligence required to create such a thing is ... it’s incredibly advanced.  It was humanoid.  Fingers, toes, everything except the head.  But still, the design is human.  I don’t get it.”
     
    “I told you, we’re back on earth.  It’s the only explanation.  You said we were out there a long time, so, maybe the earth recovered and the