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| photo credit: We are Fires in the Night! via photopin (license) |
As
far as her eye could see, all she saw were rocks and short mountains.
Members of her team had gone out on many treks this past year and
that's all they ever found, more rocks and more mountains. A cool
breeze tickled softly past her neck, blowing her short hair back ever
so slightly.
She
shivered. This whole planet gives me the creeps!
Sure, they found water here, but you had to dig a well to get to it. As for
light, the one essential thing for plant growth, the cloud cover was
dense enough to block out most of the light here. The team resorted
to using artificial light sources to help break up the perpetual
twilight. That is, when the daily solar flares weren’t interrupting
their power sources.
Just
a few more months! I’ll be happy to get off this rock!
"Have
you seen them yet?" A colleague asked, striding up behind her.
"No,
Alexi, I haven't. Any word on the radio?" Nellie asked.
"No,
the radio is down again." Alexi answered.
"Ugh,
go figure." Nellie rubbed her hands over her sleeves vigorously
to fight off the chill.
All
of their clothes were made with built in thermal materials designed
to keep Earth's arctic winds out. Yet here, where the temperature was
barely below 65, a slight breeze could chill you to the bone in no
time.
What
I wouldn't do for a hot summer beach and a margarita right now!
"Go
on in and warm up, I'll keep watch." Alexi suggested.
Nellie
turned to walk toward their base camp. She’d only made it half way
when the breeze came through again. This time, she thought she felt
icy cold fingers brush past the side of her neck. She whirled back
toward Alexi in shock.
She
saw him, at the bottom of their little hill, right where she left
him.
“Um
Alexi,” She called out.
“Yeah,
what is it?” He called back without turning towards her.
“Nothing,
I just...”
The
breeze came again.
This
time Nellie could have sworn it felt like she had been shoved. She landed on her
backside, rocks skittering away from her.
“Nellie
quit fooling around!” Alexi groaned.
“I’m
not. I...” She stuttered.
Nellie
stood and brushed herself off.
This
time it was Alexi’s turn to be knocked off his feet.
But
how could Alexi be knocked down by the wind and she didn’t feel
even a breeze this time?
Wispy
streams of light appeared between them, seemingly floating on the
wind. As Alexi stood up the streams of light bowled him back to the
ground. He sat up wide eyed and waved at Nellie to run.
“Either
this planet doesn’t want us here or something is here with us!”
This post is part of the 52 week flash fiction challenge on facebook
Week 50 word prompt: Haunted
Word Limit: 20- 500
Yep I started the challenge late but it looked too fun not to jump right on in.
This one tops out right at 497 words.
