Green Desert - Chapter 7.2.4 - Zhíno

The dirt tumbled away under my feet and hands, sliding me down with it unless I kept scrambling upwards. So I kept climbing, digging at the soil, so dirty I felt like a worm.

In the distance, a gunshot sounded.

I kept clawing the dirt, slowly gaining height. Whatever they were shooting at, it wasn’t me. And that’s all that mattered.

My left hand snatched at air and I slipped down the hill before I caught the ground, my legs still churning. The top. I reached out and grabbed the sand and pulled and kicked and slithered up onto the flat ground.

I rolled over onto my back, breathing hard. Deep breaths. Stars twinkled down at me. They looked the same as at home, on Earth. Same constellations. Except that bright star in the west. I rolled over and pushed myself to my knees. No, that star didn’t fit at all.

Earth. That was Earth. That was home, a tiny blue-white light in the evening sky. But Earth wasn’t my home anymore. I came to Rívorí to start a new life. And I’d promptly fucked it up. So what else is new?

I stood up and started walking west, towards Earth, towards my old home. Never again would I see Rívorí’s orange pinprick in the night sky. I was here now and there was no going back.

Without the gully trees, the starlight was bright enough to see by. If either moon rose, it’d be like daylight out there.