Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (best mystery novels of all time .txt) 📕

a century. Despite the freezing temperature I could still smell it, the dusty scent rising to meet me. Some instinct within me registered the smell as pleasant but anxiety roiled in my stomach. The urge to treat dirt with fondness was a hundred thousand years old, back when humans had some idea of their environment and how to survive. I was stepping into a world wholly unlike any I had ever seen. Blue sky and green grass be damned, I was a mouse stepping into the den of a predator. Gabriel might as well have tied a bow around my waist.

The steel of the staircase cut into my skin and I hissed. It was studded with small triangles that jutted upwards, meant to provide additional grip to boots as you climbed. My feet warmed as the cuts leaked warm blood over the soles. I had a suspicion that it was going to be the last warmth I was going to feel for a while. When we reached the top of the staircase Gabriel wrenched the lock open and pushed. Outside the wind howled, the pre-dawn light starting to peak through pale clouds. Gabriel tossed the duffel bag into the darkness.

“Do me a favor, sunshine. Go ahead and step right there. Right there in front of me.”

“What, you want to give me a goodbye hug?”

Gabriel said nothing and took my bag from me, heaving it out onto the ground behind me. “Something like that.” He positioned my body in front of him and smirked. I barely saw the punch before it sent me spinning to the dirt. “Good luck, asshole.” He hauled the door shut with a slam. The wind whistled across the plains. It cut through me as if I was wearing nothing at all. I grabbed the duffel bags and hauled them around the opposite side of the cylinder housing the shelter’s outer door. The metal was freezing under my fingers but at least it provided a modest wind block. I unzipped the bags and ripped through them. My rapidly numbing fingers closed around a length of cloth and spread it out. It was just enough to wrap around my head and torso. Not exactly a functional garment but any air that got trapped between my body and the fabric would serve to keep me alive through the night. My disinclination towards religion was starting to wane as I wracked my mind for gods to pray to. Though dawn was a few hours away, I had doubts that I was going to see the sun again if I couldn’t keep warm. The thought crossed my mind that I could set up the tent, but the light was so poor that I couldn’t make sense of the interlocking rods that made up the tent’s structure. Being careful to not put a tear through the fabric, I pulled out the material for the shelter and pulled it over my head into a cocoon. Thankfully there was enough to cover my body. The remainder of the material formed a thin layer between me and the frozen dirt. I pulled myself into the fetal position and held on.

Fear gnawed at the edges of my mind as the gale continued to blow through the remainder of the night. More than once I was tempted to peak out from the tent; I couldn’t always tell if the noise I heard was a gust or a wolf. Peeking out from the tent would be a death sentence either way. I couldn’t afford to break the delicate bubble of barely warm air keeping me alive. Better to play dead and hope that nothing came sniffing for me. After a couple of hours my bladder’s quiet protests became impossible to ignore and I cringed as I urinated on myself, hot liquid pooling around my crotch and backside. The momentary relief of the warmth would come to haunt me later. The urine would dry and pull heat from my body as it did so. The salt and waste from my kidneys would irritate the skin and compound the likelihood of wounds opening. Come morning I would need to track down a water source. Even unclean water would be better on my skin than leaving myself soaked as I was. I hoped that the stink of my body wouldn’t attract any predators. Being eaten alive was probably one hell of a way to go and I had no interest in experiencing it firsthand.

My jaw ached from Gabriel’s punch and I probed gently at my mandible, hoping that he hadn’t knocked any teeth loose. The taste of blood lingered in my mouth. Sticking out my tongue I felt two small wounds along the side of it. The area was numb and I surmised that I must have clipped my tongue with my teeth on my way down. I tried to spit into my hand to assess whether or not the wounds were still bleeding but my mouth was too dry. It was hard to tell if the copper tang was because of the adrenaline coursing through my veins or the pool of dried blood that had gathered in and around my mouth. I decided to believe it was adrenaline, my body cheering me on to live another day. Just one more day.

After an eternity of waiting, I could feel the air starting to warm around me. The smell of the earth started to reach my nose, as did the stench of the urine, now dry and clinging to my thighs. As light started to creep through the fabric of the tent I risked a look. The sky was a multicolored spill of colors, pinks mixing with reds that overlapped with yellows and purples, the like of which no rendering could come close to replicating. I bundled the tent fabric around me and watched the sun rise. Though it was unlikely I’d see another, the majesty of it all made my imminent demise almost worth it. I shut my eyes and tipped