The Sinking Ravine

By day ten, the situation had deteriorated from dire to catastrophic.

The acid storm had passed, but Jax’s wound was deeply infected. The Stalker’s bite had carried a necrotic bacterium. Jax was running a raging fever, unable to walk, slipping in and out of consciousness.

Orion had reverted to his human form to conserve energy, but his body was a wreck. The sudden, massive shift had drained his caloric reserves. He was half-starved and exhausted. He practically carried Jax into a deep, claustrophobic cavern system known as the Sinking Ravine. It was unstable, prone to cave-ins, but it was the only shelter from the freezing winds.

Orion laid Jax down against a damp cave wall, frantically trying to bandage the leg with strips of his own clothing.

“You need… the med-evac,” Jax wheezed, his skin pale and clammy. “Pop the distress beacon, kid. The trial is over. Let them pull us out.”

Orion reached for the emergency beacon clipped to Jax’s belt.

Before his fingers could touch the metal, a heavy boot kicked Orion squarely in the chest, sending him flying backward into the dirt.

Orion gasped, looking up.

Vance and his three cronies stood in the entrance of the cave. They looked ragged and starved, their eyes wild with desperation. Vance was holding a heavy, scavenged kinetic rifle.

“Look what we found,” Vance sneered, stepping into the cavern. He walked over to Jax’s prone form, reached down, and ripped the distress beacon from Jax’s belt. “The big, tough lone wolf. Bleeding out in a hole.”

“Leave him alone!” Orion screamed, trying to stand, but one of the cronies slammed a rifle butt into the back of his knees, dropping him back to the ground.

Vance laughed, examining the beacon. “Command only evacs the squad that pops the beacon. We’ve been freezing out here for ten days. We’re done. We’re taking your beacon, and we’re going to the extraction mesa.”

“He’ll die,” Orion pleaded, tears streaming down his dirty face. “Please, Vance. He needs medical attention.”

“Not my problem, freak,” Vance spat. He looked up at the unstable, cracked ceiling of the cavern entrance. “And just to make sure you don't follow us and try to take this back…”

Vance raised the kinetic rifle and fired three high-explosive rounds directly into the load-bearing obsidian pillars at the cave’s mouth.

The cavern groaned. Dust rained down.

“Run!” Vance yelled. The bullies scrambled out of the ravine.

A second later, the ceiling collapsed. Hundreds of tons of black rock slammed down, completely sealing the entrance. The booming echo faded into absolute, suffocating darkness.

Orion crawled through the blackness until his hands found Jax’s cold skin.

“Jax?” Orion whispered.

Jax’s breathing was a shallow, wet rattle. He didn't answer.

Orion sat in the dark, the crushing weight of the earth mirrored by the crushing weight in his chest. This was it. The Dark Moment. Vance was right. He was weak. He was a freak. He couldn't save himself, and now his weakness had killed the only person in the universe who actually cared about him. Orion buried his face in his hands and wept, a hollow, echoing sound in the black tomb.