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The sun is beginning to disappear. They still don’t have water, but at least
it’s cooling down. Elise and Colley don’t know what they’re meant to do
here. She has no sense of direction. She was able to think about her people,
and teleport to them, but that doesn’t mean she knows where they are. They
could be on the other side of the planet right now. Walking in any direction
could be taking them farther away. The maze could even be directly under
their feet, perhaps several meters down, or several kilometers.
“I didn’t hear, did Miracle say how your power replenishes?” Colley asks.
“No. She said temporal energy was really just time, so maybe I only need to
wait until it recharges on its own,” Elise replies. “Before you ask, I can’t
tell it’s there. It’s not like I feel a surge of electricity throughout my
body, which is now missing. I couldn’t even tell that I could do what I
did.” She sighs and sits down. “I don’t know if I should keep trying, or if
every time I do, even if it doesn’t work, I drain my battery again.”
“Logic says to wait.” Colley sits down across from her. “Before ambient
wireless charging and nanofusion reactors, electronics had to be recharged
by leaving it attached to the wall. You weren’t really supposed to use it
while that was happening, especially not with older models. I say we sleep
on it and try again in the morning.”
Elise shivers. “If we survive the night. I’m already missing that sun.”
Colley nods solemnly. “Yeah, it’s gonna get colder. This pink and black
jacket is nice to have for extra covering, but it’s not going to be enough,
not for the both of us.”
“We obviously need to share and conserve body heat. Pull your shirt over
your head, but don’t take it off. We want to minimize the insulation between
us, but we still want insulation around us.” Elise demonstrates what
she means with her own shirt, which is difficult with her wings, but she
makes it work. “Take off your pants, but keep the belt in the beltloops.
Drape the pants behind your back and rebuckle the belt around your waist.”
She pulls her adventure shorts off entirely. The same trick won’t help her
that much, so she decides to do something else with them. She starts to
giggle.
“Oh, funny prank.” Colley’s pants are tied behind him like a low cape. His
shirt is stretched behind his neck like a gun holster, but in an awkward,
almost sexual way. Elise’s shorts are on his head like a hat since he
doesn’t have as much hair.
“No, it’s not a prank,” Elise insists. “It’s funny, but this is what we’re
working with.” She opens her wings and quivers them to generate some heat.
She lays the extra racing jacket on the sand and lies back on it. “Get on
top of me. Come on.”
Colley hesitates, frowning uncomfortably.
“I studied survival,” she reminds him. “I know what I’m doing.”
Colley reluctantly lowers himself upon her and hugs her. He’s gentle at
first, but quickly tightens up when his instincts react to the increase in
warmth.
Elise envelops him in her wings to complete the seal. She continues to
quiver them as they hold each other. It’s working. It’s actually working.
They still may not make it through this, but it will not be for lack of
trying. The temperature continues to drop.
Colley starts to breathe heavily, which is okay for now. But then he
suddenly stops. “I’m sorry. I normally program a governor switch for
certain, uhh...physical responses, but this temporary one comes with the
standard hardware.”
Elise smiles kindly, but realizes that he can’t see it. She reaches into the
extra jacket’s pocket and retrieves the homing beacon, which has a dim light
on it. She lays it on her chest and switches it on. “You don’t have to
apologize. It’s perfectly normal, and we should be comfortable enough with
each other to not feel bad about such things.”
“It’s not that I feel bad, it’s just.” He starts breathing too heavily
again.
“Hey,” she whispers. “It’s okay. Shivering can warm you up, but it can also
strain your muscles. If you don’t relax too, you’re probably gonna end up
with neck pain.”
“I’m sorry,” Colley replies. “This is just a tough situation. Because...you
know, with you... I, uh—if it were anyone else on the team, even Miracle, I
would still...”
“I mean it,” she tries to comfort, “it’s okay. You can tell me anything.”
“I think I might be falling in love with you,” he finally admits. “And I
don’t want you to think it’s about your body, or how we’re situated right
now. I’ve been developing feelings this whole time. I mean, we work so well
together. We complement each other’s skills, and while we sometimes argue,
we don’t fight. I’ve never gotten mad or annoyed at any of you. When I
thought you were dead, I was heartbroken. I was worried that even if we
found each other on the other side of this, if we didn’t remember
any of what we went through, we wouldn’t be able to recapture the
magic. We’ve put so much effort into surviving, there’s been no time to
really sit with my thoughts, but in this moment...”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Elise tells him. “Not in so many words,
but...” She pauses and considers it. She didn’t exactly give up on love, but
she has definitely been deprioritizing it for most of her life. It’s no
surprise that feelings have sprouted amongst them. Rage eventually explained
that she spent months locating the team, and vetted dozens of candidates
before settling on the five of them. One of her criteria was a lack of
attachments. She didn’t want to take anyone away from a family, because that
would become the driving force of their actions, rather than the goal
itself. That was probably the right call, but it’s complicating things now.
“Let’s ignore the words.”
They kiss. They can’t help themselves. In the movies when people have to
share body heat like this, it always happens, and that’s because it’s
totally plausible. You can’t be intertwined with someone and not feel
something. Hugs release endorphins and other pleasurable chemicals.
That is an evolutionary fact. Group that with skin-to-skin contact and a
pair of sexy wings, and you have a recipe for a powerful love scene.
They keep kissing, and it starts to feel like this could go even further.
Elise unwraps her wings and rolls Colley over to his back so she’s
straddling him now. Before anything else can happen, though, a light begins
to shine in her face, and it’s not from the beacon that fell in the sand. It
looks like a headlight, it’s so bright. She sits up and tries to shield her
eyes from it while also trying to discern the shapes behind the light.
“Lower that, Zelda,” Rage instructs. “Jesus. Actually, just put it in
lantern mode.”
Zelda does as she’s asked, so now the whole area is illuminated. The entire
team is back. They look dirty and exhausted, but they have all survived.
Jolanda steps closer with a canteen as Elise is climbing off of Colley, and
they’re both standing back up.
Elise takes a few sips first before handing it to Colley. “So you made it
out of the maze. Was there an actual monster, or was it something more
complicated?”
“Oh, it was a monster,” Minotaur replies. “It was a minotaur. I reasoned
with it, and we found our way out. The exit is not that far from where we
are now.”
“You thought there might be an interim prize?” Elise goes on. “What was it?”
The other hunters exchange looks with each other. “It’s not exactly a
prize,” Rage answers. “It’s more of a challenge which could lead to a
prize. It’s a ship. A spaceship.”
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