The sky has turned a dark, deep shade of purple.
It's almost completely dark. The sun has basically set, and the stars are out, but I can barely make them out through the trees.
They seem so much further away than normal.
I don't know if I'll ever get used to that.
The weird sense that the stars are further away in this world than they are on Earth.
I hope that I don't have to. That I can just go back to looking at them from a college dorm room, nothing more than harmless lights in the sky again.
The thought makes my stomach tighten painfully.
...Will I even ever be able to go home after all of this?
It's been...
Probably months.
I'm nowhere nearer to getting home than when I landed here.
Is it even possible to get back?
To see the stars as pretty lights in the sky again, and not an existential threat?
Even if I make it home, will I be able to handle planes passing by, even headlights flashing in my window? What about low flying helicopters, or flickering street lights at dusk?
...Will I ever feel comfortable again?
Or will I spend the rest of my days waiting for another spaceship to show up, terrified that it might be another group of aliens coming for me?
...But that's.
A luxury.
Wondering if I'll live in fear at home presumes I'll be at home again. I can't afford to worry about that now.
I need to focus.
Because I'm not sure how to survive here.
The campfire is burning in front of us. We have no blankets or pillows or anything else to help us stay comfortable during the cold night, and we don't have anything to sleep on, either. We're just sitting on the ground.
I can feel every rock and root poking into my skin. I can hear the sounds of the woods, too. They're loud and unsettling. Bugs chirp and buzz, birds call, and animals screech and scurry in the distance.
The guard has moved away, and the older woman is sitting next to us. She seems to have no problem with the cold or the discomfort, or even with the bugs crawling around us.
"...You're all going to freeze to death if you don't have some way to keep yourselves warm."
Mia frowns at the older woman. She looks over at the older woman. "We've got a fire."
"Not enough." The older woman says. "The temperature drops significantly here at night."
"Got it covered." Eric says from behind us.
I turn in my seat, just to see him setting up...
Are those lean-tos? I don't even know the right camping, survivalist words for what I'm seeing. But they're clearly some sort of shelter. Something that'll keep the elements off of us, at least. He's built several of them already.
"...How do you even know how to build these?"
Eric grunts. "...Had to survive for a bit off the grid. Easiest to do that in the forest, if you can make it." He shrugs. "Not that hard. Just some basic shelters."
...What kind of life has he lived where that statement makes sense or sounds reasonable?!
He's only a year older than me. I guess that must mean at some point he was a runaway?
It's the only thing that makes sense to me given his age.
Well.
It's for the best, I guess. That way it's not just Mia carrying us all in this survival test.
...Because I'm still utterly useless.
Well, so is Hestia. But that's not fair. Hestia shouldn't need to.
"Eric, that's really impressive." Mia says with a grin. She looks at him with admiration in her eyes. "Thanks."
He shrugs again, looking a little flustered by her praise. "...Yeah. Well. Let's hope it keeps us from freezing to death in the middle of the night, right?"
"...Is it going to...?"
Mia seems to approve of it, Eric looks confident in it.
But it looks like a pile of leaves and sticks to me. Multiple ones, but still. It looks like it could blow over if a stiff breeze hit.
"It'll be fine." Mia says. "We'll stay warmer sleeping in these things than without, and it's the best we've got."
I guess that's true enough.
"What about the predators?"
Eric huffs. "If we keep the fire going all night it should be okay. It'll also keep us warmer."
"Is that why you had us get so much extra...?" I murmur, eying the extra large pile of wood and kindling near the fire.
"You have a plan for keeping the fire going that long unattended?" Mia asks, voice skeptical.
He sighs and clicks his tongue. "Sleep in shifts." He suggests, gesturing at us. "It won't be comfortable, but we don't know what to expect here. If there's something that's not deterred by fire, someone should be awake anyway."
"...Yeah, alright." Mia says.
"...How are we going to decide who's awake when...?"
I'm familiar with this practice of sleeping in shifts. Obviously. But I've never done it before.
And there are four of us to choose from. So...
Who is going to do what?
Eric rubs his neck. "...I guess I'll go first." He shrugs a shoulder. "Four and four hours?"
"Three threes gives us more sleep." Mia says. "So three hours?"
He nods. "Works for me. Who's second, then?"
I don't want to go first or second.
But I should.
Right? That's the right thing to do.
"I'll do second."
They both look at me in surprise, and I shift a bit in my seat, frowning at them. "What? It makes the most sense, right?"
Mia shakes her head. "...If you're okay with that, yeah. It makes the most sense." She nods. "...I'll take third."
Isn't third basically just getting up extra early?
I'm pretty sure it's something like that. And I'm terrible at the morning. Being the awkward middle child in this situation seems like the best option.
...But I also can't help but think that somehow. Some way. I'll still mess up the middle timed one.