Explorer

Another Wednesday, another flash fiction. Enjoy the story!

Leaning against my speeder, I stared at nothing as static filled my earpiece. He did not just say that. “What do you mean your speeder is hiccupping and you can’t join me?”

“I mean, hiccupping. I need to get it checked,” Cooper said. There was a strange tone in his voice, one I hadn’t heard before. “I don’t want to get stranded.”

I snorted and kicked at bone, dry dirt ruddy in the sunset. “Yes, because I’m likely to just leave you out here alone. You know, like what you’re pulling now.” I looked over the rock fins stretching into the distance.

“It’s not like that, Jess.” Still no hint of anger in his voice. It was exactly like that. Why was he pulling back from this exploration?

“Fine,” I said keeping my voice flat, so he knew it wasn’t fine at all. “Just don’t expect me to credit you when I find the amphisbaena.”

“Jess, I think you should–” whatever he was going to say cut off as I threw the headset on the bike and sling my pack over my shoulder. What he thought didn’t matter. Coward.

I set off across the desert switching my flashlight on and watching the ground for tracks. The moon was up when hissing stopped me in my tracks. Spinning I caught movement and eyes watching me from the dark, flashing like lightening from six feet above my head. The ground rumbled with it. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so adventurous either.

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