Hamadi's eyes were fixed on the animal tracks; he knew he was supposed to be afraid, but something—the thought of food perhaps—converted his fear to excitement. His days as a gourmet chef were over, but the instincts were still there. As his mind wandered through recipes of days past, his stomach began to protest. The loud yelp emitted from his grumpy stomach was loud enough to jolt Gabrielle, who was crouched to the ground beside him.

When she glanced up at him, her eyes may have met his, but he could tell she wasn't looking at him. Gabrielle was the quietest of the group; she trudged along with the rest of them, but she kept quiet. Every once in a while, when Hamadi would see her wipe tears from her eyes, he would glance at the others to see if anyone else noticed, and three pairs of sympathetic eyes would be peering back at him. Each one of them had lost family and sacrificed everything they'd known to be there, for the chance of mankind's survival. Everyone understood that they couldn't let pain interfere with progress, even Gabrielle, who sniffled when she thought no one was listening and let the tears fall when she thought no one was watching.

"Let's follow it," Chao suggested after a while. "Water and food are sure to be nearby."

"So is the animal," Anaya sighed. "I was so certain the scientists were right, but now I don't know what to think."

"We've come this far," Chao shrugged. "We have no food. No water and no other ideas. What else is there?"

Anaya and Raphael, as if sharing the same thought, both gazed up at the sky above them, but it was Anaya who spoke. "It's going to be dark soon. We don't want to go sneaking up on an unknown creature in the dark."

Raphael nodded in agreement. The sun was already dropping below the horizon, and he had already seen enough in the dark on Earth to scar him for life. "Let's just camp out here, where there a rocks to hide behind or throw, for the night. We can take off on an adventure tomorrow."

Gabrielle glanced at Hamadi's stomach, met his eyes absentmindedly, then turned to Raphael. "There's still a good two hours left of daylight. Do you know how far we can get in two hours?" Gabrielle pointed to Hamadi's stomach, and then to her own. "We need to make good use of time until we find more food. Then you can go back to sleep until one or whatever you did on Earth."

"You know nothing about me!" Raphael scowled. "You open your mouth once an hour and suddenly you know what's best?"

"Obviously I know more than you if you're willing to throw away two hours because you're scared of the dark."

"Knock it off," Chao rolled his eyes. "This isn't high school or a government meeting. This is our survival we're talking about—"

Hamadi nodded. "Yeah, we have to make decisions without ripping each other's heads off, otherwise we're never going to make it out here."

"We're like a herd now," Chao continued. "Or a tribe. We need trust and loyalty and friendship more than ever."

Gabrielle raised her eyebrow. "We need a plan." When all four sets of eyes glared at her, she waved them off with her hands. "I get what Chao is saying. He's right, but we really do need a plan."

So they compromised, instead of running off behind the phantom animal tracks or wasting the last two hours of daylight, they sat in a circle and began to formulate a plan.

Light blue drained from the sky as darkness fell, only to be replaced by brilliant shades of purple and pink interlocking streaks snaking across the sky. There was a full moon so large it encompassed at least a third of the sky. Unfortunately,—for now at least, it would be irrelevant, if they survived long enough to call the planet home—it was much dimmer than Earth's moon. As the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, the surface of the planet was left with only a faint glow about as bright as a quarter moon.

Landon gestured at the stars beginning to twinkle in the backdrop. "I wonder how many of those stars are the same ones we watched at home."

"You worry about that," Giles said gruffly. "I'll worry about where we're going to sleep and when the next meal is."

Landon waved off Giles' pessimism with a flick of the wrist. "We'll sleep under the stars of course."

"And the food?" Giles continued. "Perhaps Anaya was right. We should have at least taken supplies from the ship."

Dennis pointed behind them at the plume of smoke rising from the rocky terrain. It was faint now, barely visible, but each of them had seen it earlier; they knew what he was referencing. "Too late now. Landon must have really gotten under her skin. Looks like they set the ship on fire."

"That so petty," Landon quipped. "Mankind's fate is left in our hands, we don't have time or the resources to fight each other."

Theo shrugged. "What if it isn't petty at all. What if its an SOS?"

As the others pondered Theo's hypothesis, Landon shook his head adamantly. "Why would they send out an SOS? The ship already crashed. They have the food."

"Maybe someone's sick..." Dennis offered. "The SOS could be to signal other survivors too. To lead them to a central location."

Landon rolled his eyes. "To lead them to the desert when they should be looking for water? That's smart. Anaya might have done that." He shrugged apathetically. "None of us have any medical experience so I don't see no cause to go back."

"Food." Giles said gently, causing the others to erupt in laughter.

"It's gonna be ok, Giles," Sebastian offered. "We'll find food soon."

While Giles and Sebastian continued to discuss the possibilities for food, Landon decided to call another vote. "How much longer should we keep walking? The farther we push, the closer we are to finding something, but we can't walk all night."

No one disagreed, but no one was willing to be the one to admit he was tired either. So they kept walking, making small talk about how far they'd already traveled. Ten minutes later, they were overjoyed that no one had spoken up about fatigue. Growing out of the clay like sand was a sprinkling of short blue plants. They were solid and round with penny-sized yellow berries sprouting from the surface.

Giles was the first to run toward the plant. His hands waved in the air wildly, like a little body on a playground, but he wasn't concerned with what the others thought. "Food!" He exclaimed.

"Wait! What if its poison—" Landon's concern was too late. Giles was already swallowing a plucked berry and raiding the tree for more.

"They're sweet—like blueberries—and velvety like honey," Giles reported.

Sebastian shrugged. "There's nothing else to eat, might as well give it a try."

He joined Giles, rapidly plucking off the berries until they had cleared a whole side of the plant. They grinned at each other sheepishly. Sebastian lifted his hand to his face to wipe the juice from his mouth but was shocked to find his hand dripping wet.

"The tree! It's like a cactus. It stores water!" Giles called out to the others.

Sebastian's eyes went wide. "Looks like we hit the jackpot."

---

---

The five of them slept in a circle, with their heads in the center. Sleep hadn't come easy, but eventually, all but Theo were sinking into REM. Landon was convinced they didn't need to post a guard to stand watch, but Theo didn't feel safe, and he couldn't sleep if he wasn't sure of his safety.

He tried to distract himself by watching the stars for familiar constellations. Astronomy had never been his subject of choice, but he was certain if he could find one star he remembered, he would feel more at ease. As he scanned the sky unsuccessfully, an orange light caught his eye. It was a small light—about the size of the smallest star he could see‐but it was moving across the surface of the moon.

Water was all around Carine. It began pouring into the pod as soon as she forced the door open—she should have known there was something wrong when she had to use her shoulder to move the door on its hinges. Carine told herself not to panic, took a deep breath, and slipped into the water. Luckily, it was midday and the light of a sun illuminated the surface of the water above her. She was certain she could make it that far without needing to breathe. Carine propelled herself upward as quickly as could, parting the vast waters with each stroke. Her lungs strained as her throat began to tighten. She told her self not give up, to hold on, because she was almost to the top. She couldn't allow herself to wonder how far from land she would once she was above the water.

---

---

Janelle and Bethany collided with Stefan and Noah within fifteen minutes and had barely gotten the introductions out of the way when Ramón appeared just as confused the rest of them.

"Was that you guys?" Ramón asked before bothering to introduce himself. "The music I mean."

Noah shook his head and his read hair whirled around viciously. "No way, I was gonna ask you the same thing."

"This is getting creepy. I mean what are the odds that we're hearing the same music when we started out so far from each other?" Janelle pondered on her own words as she surveyed the area. "Do you think it's coming from multiple places?"

"Maybe." Stefan admitted. "But I think we should should concentrate on finding water and food, not chase phantom songs."

Noah's eyes went wide as though he'd just remembered something, then he reached out to Stefan and sked, "How's Ralph doing?"

Stefan placed the tiny turtle in Noah's hand gently and  shrugged. "I don't know how long he can hold out."

"Is that a turtle?!" Bethany exclaimed.

"Wait,  you found a turtle on  the planet?"

"Yes and no," Stefan proceeded to explain how he snuck the turtle on board.

Janelle and Bethany exchanged glances as if they were asking each other's opinions, then shrugged simultaneously.

"Food and water would be nice," Ram&oactue;n agreed.

"I wonder how much time we have until sunset," Janelle pointed to the sun looming in the sky. "This we'll be ok without shelter?"

"Guess we'll find out," Noah shrugged. "Unless you have a tent handy."

"Wait—why don't we have tents?" Ramón asked. "What nutjub planned this?"

"You're right," Stefan scratched his head. "The pods have to have tents hidden in them somewhere. Maybe food too."

"So?" Janelle raised her eyebrow in Stefan's direction. "Are we going to a pod, or to find water?"

"I say we vote," Stefan shrugged. "Majority wins."

---

---

Carine broke the water's surface and gasped desperately for air. At first, her mind was too preoccupied with replenishing her lungs with the thin air around her to search for land, but once her heart rate began to slow, and her breathing became steady, her eyes began their 360 of the horizon. In the distance she could see a rocky shore, along with five women waving frantically in her direction. Carine wondered if they were in trouble or simply trying to get her attention.

Her body was tired, but she couldn't stay in the water forever. Besides, she'd seen fish—small, but alive‐swimming beneath the soft gentle waves. The scientists were wrong, there was life, and Carine was no longer sure she was safe in the water.