2 weeks
Callisto held her head under the running water, kneeling on the ground. She brought her hair out slowly, then quickly flicked it back. Water splattered on her cloak and neck.
“Oooh, that is cold.” She shivered, shaking her hair with her hands. “That. Is cold.”
“How do you feel?”
“Awake.” She nodded. “I can walk for a little longer.”
“You’ve got to sleep soon. We can’t keep shocking you awake.”
She sighed. “And until I come across a place that won’t be our gravesite, I’ll sleep. Until then, we go on.”
“You also have to eat. It’s been too long. I have that data of edible plants from Asha.”
She continued combing her fingers through her hair, trying hard to separate the dark blue knots. “We make it back into the tree cover, I’ll sleep, and then we find food. Okay?”
He flicked around nervously. “Alright. Promise?”
She planted a kiss to the top of his shell, then pushed him into her hood. “I promise, now hide.”
They walked for about an hour into and through the trees before the cover broke again. She stood in between two trees on the edge of this next clearing, a wary eye towards the skies.
“Do you hear anything?”
Argo hummed. “No. You?”
“Nothing. I think we’re far enough away from the City.” She lowered her gaze ahead. “Haven’t heard a Cabal ship in what, a few days?”
“We still register as being on the City perimeter though.”
She raised her eyebrows. “What? How?”
“The outskirts of it, but we’ve basically been circling.”
“For 2 weeks?”
Argo gave the best impression of a shrug. “It’s not like we have a destination in mind.”
She sighed. “Fair.”
He transmatted away, and she stepped out of the tree’s shadows. A small hill stood in front of her, and just barely past its horizon, a little red light.
“Argo?”
His voice echoed through her helmet. “It’s not Cabal. That’s a City-made post.”
She excitedly started running up the hill, and her vision of the camp cleared.
Bodies were strewn about.
“Oh my god. No.”
The camp itself looked mostly intact. A few sleeping bags were on the ground, a small radio station was set up under an awning, but 5 people, very obviously lightless Guardians, had faced their final death here.
“It was a massacre. They had no chance.” Argo’s voice came very quietly. “Callisto...I don’t wanna stay here.”
“I’m going to bury them.”
“What? Cal, this just goes to show that we’re nowhere close to far enough away from the Cabal. We can't spend that much time here.”
She shook her head, even though he wasn’t physically there to protest. “I’m not going to leave them here like this. Risk or not. I owe them that much.”
His voice started up in obvious protest, but she cut him off.
“You said it yourself that we have no destination. I’m not going to be late anywhere. Please, Argo. Help me find a shovel.”
He sighed exasperatedly. “Alright.”