When Shiloh opened her eyes, all she could remember was the sensation of falling. She remembered the sound of all three of her engines failing as the planet’s gravity began to pull her in for an embrace. Wind howled outside the fuselage. Fire and smoke were all she could see as she fell.
Down.
Down.
Down.
The sound of the atmosphere roaring against the ship’s hull ended abruptly in silence. The ship’s movement stalled, and Shiloh was thrown against the controls. Her body would have broken against the metal if not for the safety bags, ending the crash with the sensation of being thrown against a mattress.
It crossed Shiloh’s mind briefly that she might be dead. Perhaps a violent death wouldn’t be painful. Maybe pain was something only the living felt.
After a moment of contemplating whether or not she was dead, Shiloh concluded she was not dead. She was, instead, someplace rather dark and silent. She opened her eyes to find that every safety bag and impact protection device had been activated.
Shiloh sat in the small cockpit of the solo ship without so much as a broken finger. Sure, her chest was bruised in a few places, and her temple felt sore to the touch, but she was remarkably unharmed. Her heart still raced from the sudden descent and the realization she was going to crash-land.
I’m alive, she told herself, hardly believing her luck.
The reality of reconnaissance patrols like hers was that the ships she flew were always sub-standard. Often, when they crashed (and they would inevitably), there were rarely survivors.
Unwilling to waste any more time in the broken ship, Shiloh disengaged her seatbelt. She crawled across the controls and out through the busted windshield. A shard of glass cut through her pants, slicing into her shin. She winced but continued onward, pulling herself out of the destroyed airship and out into a foreign landscape.
Stumbling on weak legs, Shiloh stared at the ship. A large grove had been carved into the ground from where it came skidding to a halt. One wing had fallen off entirely. Every window had been shattered inwards.
“Shit,” was all Shiloh could utter to herself as she assessed the immense amount of damage.
Pulling a radio from her pocket, she attempted to contact her commander, Flint. The contact failed to connect. She let out a stream of curses at the radio, the ship, and her own stupidity. The desert landscape around her offered nothing in response.
Shiloh fumbled through some of her belongings for a moment before she found a recording device. It was old, something that had been out of date for some time. However, the old technology, much like the radio, had become an important tool after the war began.
“This is Shiloh, pilot of Patrol Ship Nine,” Shiloh said into the recording device. “I am recording this message to be sent out when I reach a point of signal. I crashed in an unknown location.”
She squinted into the sunrise, noticing that she was in the middle of a sandy wasteland. Likely, she was somewhere east of the Ripsaw Mountains.
“I am currently in a vast desert, east of the Mountains,” Shiloh continued to speak into the recording device. “I will update this recording when I have more information.”
Shiloh ended the recording and found herself staring at her ship with a combination of disgust and irritation. It was busted beyond repair. “Flint is going to be pissed when he finds me.”
Shiloh eventually gathered what she could from the ship, including freeze-dried meals, a water purifier, a solar charger, and a backpack. She packed everything into the bag and set off across the desert landscape. She planned to head towards the highest point she could find in an attempt to secure a connection to contact Flint and the rest of his crew.
In the western horizon, Shiloh had spotted a cluster of what looked to be mountains. She was fairly certain that the peaks belonged to an arm of the Ripsaw Mountains. However, without a map, she couldn’t be certain.
Despite not having a map, Shiloh figured that at a higher elevation, it might be easier to contact her commander and the rest of Scal. If she wasn’t able to do so, she would have to return to the wreckage and hope to be saved.
Shiloh hated the idea of having to wait around for help. Going to a higher elevation was more appealing. At least the hike would make her feel like she was doing something.
With her pack full of supplies, Shiloh set off into the desert. A cool breeze kicked up small spirals of sand as she began to cross the barren fields. The sun was now well above the horizon. The temperature was already increasing exponentially.
Midday, Shiloh realized just how hot the strange desert could be. Sweat dripped down her back, and she could already feel a sunburn becoming scorched across her face. She had to ration her water, which only made the heat feel worse.
The land had transformed from barren sands into a slightly more complicated ecosystem. Small brushes of sage sprang up from the rugged terrain. Alongside the sage, cacti, and desert wildflowers thrived. Shiloh only recognized the flora from books; she had never seen anything like it in person. Despite the heat, she was fascinated by the land she found herself in.
It quickly became apparent to Shiloh that the desert wasn’t as bare as she initially expected it to be. Lizards bathed on rocks, and insects hid in the fallen remains of dead cacti. The scorching hot desert was anything but dead.
Taking her recording device out of her pocket, Shiloh turned it on and cleared her voice. Her throat felt drier than ever.
“It’s midday,” she spoke into the recorder. “The mountains are further than I initially thought, but I’m not going to change my plans. After leaving the ship, I’ve begun to see more signs of life–things I’ve never seen before.”
She paused and watched as a gopher popped its head out of a hole in the earth.
“There’s a variety of desert vegetation as well as small mammals, reptiles, and insects.”
In the far-off distance, Shiloh stared at the mountain peaks. It likely would take a few days to reach them. At this point, it was still a better option than returning to her broken ship. Despite knowing that, it felt intimidating to set off with so little.
“I have less than a gallon of water and very little hope of finding more. I’ve been rationing it the best I can, but…my best hope is that Commander Flint comes searching for me.”
Shiloh wanted to end the recording on a more positive note. However, there was little else to say. Besides, her lips were dry, and her body begged for water.
When nightfall arrived, Shiloh was as prepared as she could be. She was no stranger to camping out in the open desert. She was no stranger to being alone. What was new to Shiloh was the sounds of this desert.
Unlike everywhere she had ever been, this desert was loud. Insects sang loud, endless songs. What Shiloh could only guess to be an owl interrupted their chorus with an occasional hoot. In the distance, she heard something that could only be described as screaming. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what kind of animal that sound belonged to.
Shiloh made camp just as she had done countless times before. A fire, a tarp, a sleeping bag. With the fire started, she began to boil just a bit of her water. She was careful to only heat enough to rehydrate a meal-pack. She tried to focus on the crackle of the fire and not the strange, distant sounds of animals.
When the water had boiled, and her meal pack was rehydrated, Shiloh was elated to have a warm meal. Despite the heat of the day, the evening was cold–impossibly so. She ate under a sky full of stars, watching as her breath turned to vapor in the air.
After satiating her hunger, Shiloh lay back on her tarp. The fire crackled idly, and she stared up at the cosmos above her. The Milky Way was brilliant and bright. A speckling of stars was splattered diagonally across the sky like an artistic choice. She thought about the stories Tapu used to tell her.
The old woman was so full of stories, weaving them into everyday life as they worked together. Shiloh had always felt like she was in the presence of real magic when she was around Tapu. The desert wasn’t just sand; it was stardust. The skies weren’t just dark, they were full of distant lifeforms.
Shiloh figured that if Tapu was there beside her, she wouldn’t have feared the distant howls of coyotes. She would have told some story about something to make it all seem better. As Shiloh watched the heavens, she couldn’t help but miss her old friend.
When Shiloh awoke, the sun was just making its way into the sky. It sat as a sliver of pure gold on the horizon. The stars were fading from the sky, replaced by a myriad of pastel colors. Not a single cloud could be seen, just the vast, painted skies.
Shiloh sat up, picked up her camp, and set off without so much as a swig of water. She knew the day would soon be hot, and she wanted to make it as far as she could. It only made sense to press onward quickly.
The desert rose and fell around Shiloh. Rocks became boulders, and the sandy soil turned red. The brush grew thicker until it was hard to walk through. Shiloh had never seen such a lush variety of vegetation in the desert. Despite the irritation it caused to walk through, she was impressed.
After an hour of walking through brush that grew thicker and thicker, Shiloh pulled out her recorder.
“I camped in the desert last night. There were animals–ones I don’t know much about. Owls, maybe coyotes. I woke early and continued my walk to the mountains. Now, I’m finding vegetation as I’ve never seen before. The contaminants that poisoned our lands must not have affected this area.”
Shiloh paused. It didn’t make sense.
“I don’t know how it’s possible, but things here are…alive.”
She ended the recording and found herself thinking about the implications. Alive. Things were not alive. The only thing that had truly survived was a handful of Human settlements. Plants were sparse and often carried disease. Animals were no better. In fact, Shiloh rarely saw more than a cockroach or a particularly sturdy beetle in years.
Yet here, in this desert, the world was alive and untouched. How?
Much to Shiloh’s surprise (and pleasure), the sage and desert brush was not the full extent of the vegetation that the lands had to offer. Wherever Shiloh had crash-landed was not simply a desert. Around midday, was when she began to see her first trees.
Real trees.
They were a bit gnarled and scraggly, but they were trees. Much like the brush, the trees quickly grew thicker. What started as a tree here and there soon became a full-on forest.
Soon, Shiloh was no longer in a desert, but rather an alpine forest.
Retrieving her recorder, Shiloh explained, “It’s not just a desert. There are trees here, and they are alive. I’ve never seen so many living trees all in one place. Their needles are green and vibrant. Most show no signs of disease. This is…incredible.”
Shiloh wasn’t sure what else to say into the recorder. She turned it off as she gazed in awe at the forest around her.
Beneath her feet, the ground was rocky, and the soil was mostly clay. Needles and decomposing trees covered the ground. Sunlight poured in through the pines, yet up ahead the forest looked only darker.
Not just darker, she thought, denser.
As Shiloh walked through the forest, she thought about everything she had been told as a child. She thought about her parents’ stories of what the world ‘used to be’. She thought about Tapu’s tales of getting lost in a forest near where she grew up. Shiloh had never understood how someone could get lost in a forest. Now, however, she understood completely.
Without as much of a view of the sky, Shiloh had to be more intentional about her direction. Additionally, there was so much more to walk around. Upturned trees, large rocks, and thick groves prevented her from walking in a straight line.
“It’s been about an hour since the forest began,” Shiloh recorded. “And I see no signs of it receding. If anything, it’s gotten thicker. There is a larger variety of trees as well. In addition, thick plant life is sprouting from the ground. From what I can see, the soil here is healthy. I’ve seen no signs of chemical attack or disease.”
This is inspired by The Martian of Andy Weir, correct? It has a similar beginning with a guy being lost in space and using the extraterrestial environment to survive.
This felt very cinematic. The atmosphere was handled with real restraint, especially the silence and the pressure around Shiloh after the crash. I could feel the emptiness of the place without it being over explained. Thank you for sharing this story.