It was dark, darker than Eli had ever experienced. His ribs hurt, and his wrist was definitely broken. He groaned and sat up. The immediate cold was bone chilling. Eli had always been cold. Thill was an ice planet, but this was an entirely different chill. His muscles immediately ached. 

The panic of pitch blackness threatened to engulf him but he swallowed it down. He was alive, and he was no longer being chased by the border authorities. No one was stupid enough to go over the wall, no one except him. He couldn’t understand what had made him choose this, perhaps he’d wished for death. He tried to get his bearing and figure out what hurt exactly. He did as his mother had taught him and assessed his body from the top of his head down. He didn’t feel hazy or lethargic, that was good, no head trauma. His ribs hurt, they may be broken, but they weren’t making it hard for him to breathe, so they weren’t puncturing his lungs, at least not yet. The main concern was his wrist, it hurt, and he could feel that it was out of place. 

Eli listened quietly, not making a sound. Nothing came back. He was alone, but he knew of the creatures on this side of the wall. He slowly pulled his pack off his back and opened it, using his good hand to search around. Deep in the pack his hands felt something metal. His hands clasped around the laser light as he took a steadying breath. 

He lit it only briefly, to look at his wrist properly. It wasn’t bad, no bone was showing, only a bad angle. He looked in the back again and found what he knew would be there, bandages. He turned off the laser again and listened quietly. He was still alone, but who knew for how much longer. 

The pulled his gloves off, the cold biting into his skin, he knew he had to get his gloves back on quickly, minutes was all it would take for the frost to take his fingers. He put the gloves in his mouth to keep from screaming and bit down hard, breathing through his nose. He pulled his wrist into place with a sickening snap, swallowing down his vomit and his cries. Grunting at the pain as he wrapped his wrist tightly and put his gloves back on, his hands burning from the cold. He pulled his mask up high and stood shakily to his feet. He wasn’t sure what he could do, but he knew he had to move. He couldn’t stay in one place for too long, his muscles would freeze and he was more accessible to predators. 

He held the laser light in his good hand tightly and held the other hand against the wall before he began walking. All he could do was walk until it was no longer possible, and then he’d have no choice but to lie down and die to the frozen night. He continued walking, reaching his hand out on occasion just to feel the wall. Perhaps he could find another crack in the wall, even if it didn’t go to the other side he could at least hide in it. 

That wouldn’t happen though, the chances of finding another hole in the wall were slim to none even if he could see where he was going. But he was trapped in darkness instead. He hadn’t expected to die like this, but perhaps it was a better alternative. He wouldn’t have to experience the decay set in. He wouldn’t be shot down by the authorities. He would simply freeze to death. 

He thought for the first time about his mother, getting shot down. He hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye. He hadn’t had a chance to stop even for a moment to mourn her death, all he could do was run and be thankful it came quickly. She didn’t have to suffer, and she’d never experience the worst parts of decay now either. Her body never had to give out on her, she simply stopped living. Eli wanted to cry for his mother, he ached to cry for her, but it was too cold. His tears wouldn’t come. 

He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he’d fallen onto this side of the wall, maybe hours, perhaps less. But he was getting tired. He would’ve be able to continue much longer. He’d die soon too. He could find the most comfortable space to sit against the wall and just close his eyes. His mother should have just let him be taken, at least then she’d be alive. Now they would both die. 

Squelch.

Eli paused his thoughts to listen. 

Squelch. Squelch. 

The largest of predators on the planet of Thill is the Miom, the heat seeker. They are one hundred meters tall and weigh almost five tons. They are very dangerous because they have endless energy and can survive a very long time without nutrients. The miom captures its prem by engulfing them in its large blubbery body and suffocating them before converting their body to goo and eating their heat. Mioms lived off of heat energy alone, the added nutrients passing through its body quickly. 

If this was a heat seeker, it was important to know where it was coming from. Eli slid the laser light into his hand more firmly. It would have already picked up his thermal sense. It couldn’t move any faster than it already was. Eli flicked on the light and pointed it around the wall. 

The miom was huge, even from two hundred meters away it was huge. He took a few steps away before deciding what he could do. Mioms chase heat, there is no avoiding being chased by it now. Whether or not he wanted to run further along the wall where it was safest and so was he or try to venture out into the tundra where its body couldn’t preserve as much heat but he would certainly die once away from the wall. 

His feet were racing away from the wall before he had made a decision, his flight instinct taking over. He began to run, his breath coming in hot as he pointed the laser light out in front of him. 

Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.  

Eli turned and looked behind him. The miom was only fifty meters away from him now. He underestimated just how tired his legs were. He began moving and cutting suddenly in certain direction to try and slow the beast. It did little. Heat seekers were not fast, but their energy was endless, you could only outrun a miom as long as your energy could withstand. 

Eli pointed the light in front of him, if he could find something large enough to climb up he could possibly save himself, but there was nothing, just flat ice as far as he could see. He looked back again, the heat seeker wasn’t getting closer, but he could feel his own legs scream, desperate to stop running. He was going to die no matter what. His legs started to slow of their own accord as he searched around the area. 

Squelch. Squelch. 

He started running again, not ready to be consumed by the huge creature. He looked out again at the landscape, barely visible with his small light reaching into the void. He had no choice but to keep running until his limbs finally gave out on him. 

He gave it his all, sprinting as fast as he could, putting as much distance between him and the heat seeker as he could. His breaths were coming in short bursts, his feet scraping against the ice. He tripped over something, falling to the ground. His foot was caught in a hole. He yanked it out only to see the hole had expanded with his foot. It was a hole. He looked up as the Miom got closer, only about one hundred meters away now. He began banging his laser light against the hole, it broke apart easily, clearly something had created this. 

The squelching was getting closer but he didn’t look up. He dug his hands into the hole until it finally gave way enough for him to shimmy inside of. He shoved his pack down first before sliding into the hole himself. 

He had expected the hole to end just below the surface, but he kept sliding down until finally dropping out into a huge cavern. He lost his footing and fell directly onto his back, his ribs screaming at him from the pressure. He took a few deep breaths before his limbs finally lost their strength, his mind started to go foggy with exhaustion. He knew he wasn’t safe, he shouldn’t let himself pass out, but his body demanded it. 

Eli blinked a few times, blurry lights going in and out of his vision before finally he was forced to succumb to the darkness, sure he would never wake up again.