Green Desert - Chapter 8.4.4 - Séara

Deputy Laparıpasamé breathed hard, brushed his hand through his dark hair. “Should we go back?”

Back to the crash site. Give up. Admit failure. I shook my head. “No. We must find Zhudıro.” Somehow.

Tépíto’s face fell and he started chewing a thumbnail, staring into the darkness. We’d be out here for Cycles before we found Zhudıro, and Tépíto knew that. But Zhudıro was my fault, my responsibility. I couldn’t let him kill any more people.

Bhanar. If the foreigner caught up with the fugitive, there was no way Bhanar would survive. I had let him run off and die. As good as shooting him myself. Pétíso take me now.

I rubbed my neck and groaned. I should hand in my badge, my gun. I should’ve been a teacher like Mom said. I was more harm than good out here.

Behind me, to the southwest, noises in the bushes, growing louder but still distant.

“Turn off your light,” I hissed. I clicked mine off, too, and we stood in darkness.

A person––or maybe an escaped farm animal––breaking through branches, getting closer but not directly at us. They’d pass us to the south, near the gully wall.

A cough. It was a person. A man, from the sound of it, breathing hard, running hard, not attempting stealth at all. I had to be Bhanar, running away from Zhudıro. I smiled, turned on my light, and jogged south to intercept him.