Ascension

Elijah

I gather August out of his bed and we head outside of the ship.

"You want to explain why you dragged me outside of the ship at 0300?" August asks miffed.

"I figured out where Lorelei is." I explain.

"Why didn't you say so?" August asks.

We run off toward the hills. I wonder for a second. Which hill was it. Then I remembered. It was the hill in front of the mountains. We race to the hill and search for signs of people.

Glowing figures sit behind the hill. We round the end of the hill. I see Indiana and two Brights sitting in front of a fire. They all look at me. Indiana shoots up and hugs me.

"Elijah! Oh man I missed you so much!" He yells.

I hug him tightly.

"Where is Lorelei." I ask.

"Lorelei is somewhere between here and Headquarters." Indiana sighs.

I don't understand what he is saying for a few seconds. Then it sinks in and the feeling is like the impending doom I've been dreading for a while now has finally arrived. Lorelei isn't here. For all we know she could be dead or worse, captured.

"She isn't here?" I manage to squeak out.

"No. We were planning on looking for her after you found us." Indiana explains.

Right.

"We need to get moving though. She was injured on the way out." Indiana explains.

"August get these two back to the Commander and tell her we have gone looking for Lorelei."

He nods and takes off towards the ship. Indiana and I start running west. My adrenaline fuels my run. Sure I don't get tired very fast while running but I feel absolutely no exertion. Indiana, however, does.

We have to stop every few miles for Indiana to rest. It grates on my nerves that Lorelei is out here in pain somewhere. I start searching.

"Lorelei!" I call out.

We have been wandering for hours.

I realize now that a search party of two is not ideal when it is a time sensitive search. However I decided that we couldn't wait.

"Lorelei." My voice is beginning to feel strained.

I feel like I am beginning to fail her. The defeat sinks over me and I become more and more discouraged. My steps begin to slow and I can't move very fast.

"Indiana have you found anything?" I ask through my com.

"Nada."

I try calling her after that. She actually picks up. Or so I thought. Her com had answered but all I heard was groans of pain coming from Lorelei's lips.

"Lorelei are you okay?" I ask into my com.

She responds with more groans. She yells out with exertion and I can tell she is moving. Or trying to.

"Indiana how badly was she injured?" I ask him.

"What do you mean?" He asks me.

"I just called her and she had answered or something but she was in a lot of pain."

"She told me that she had a sprained ankle."

"Either something has happened to her from the time you guys talked to now or she is one good liar because the sounds she was making was definitely not ones of a just a sprained ankle." I explain.

Indiana stays quiet. My search for Lorelei is the only thing I am thinking of at the moment.

"Lorelei!" I yell out.

Only my echo replies.

"Lorelei where are you?" I whisper mostly to myself.

That's when I heard something. Maybe it was just rustling in the grass but something in the distance grabbed my attention. I dismissed it as wind on this very not windy morning.

"Lorelei!" I continued yelling.

Then I heard it again. Rustling to big to be wind.

"Lorelei!" I yell.

She moans. I sprint after her. I grab out my com and com Indiana.

"Indiana get over here I found her."

I don't give him time to react before I shut off the come again. I slide in the dirt next to Lorelei. She looks like she has been through hell and back. Her face is covered in dry blood and her leg is burnt.

"Ahhh!" She groans.

"This is going to hurt." I whisper into her ear.

She braces herself. I scoop her up into my arms. She groans. I start walking and she shivers. The air around us isn't cold but Lorelei is shivering.

I pull of my coat and give it to her. She gladly takes the coat from me and I wrap it around her. She falls asleep in my arms.

"Indiana! Get over here, we are leaving." I explain.

Indiana comes when he hears that.

"Did you find your girlfriend?" He asks.

I show him the sleeping lump of a person in my arms.

"Oh. She isn't looking so hot." Indiana tells me.

"Oh you think?"

We walk back to the ship. By the time we get there it is 1400. Lorelei slept mostly the whole way. Except for the occasional time when she would stir or shift in my arms. Lorelei was out like a light. However what worried me more than the excessive amount she was sleeping was the warmth radiating from her.

I have her pressed up against me and I can feel the heat from her body pulsating. That would be normal but the heat is to hot to be normal. Lorelei however was shivering. Indiana piled his coat on top of her as well.

The last few miles of the hike were brutal. We were trying to keep Lorelei sleeping and warm but we were freezing in the process. In the last few hours the temps dropped and the wind picked up. I felt cold but Indiana's teeth were chattering so loudly you could hear them from a long ways away.

When we finally arrived back to the ship every member of our mission was standing outside of the ship. Every single member. When we reached them the medics didn't waste any time getting Lorelei the medical attention she needed.

It felt weird standing around without Lorelei in my arms. They still feel the ghost of Lorelei in them.