Survivors

 

Alex sat in his seat shaking. He looked over at Robert Charles, who was white. The nose of the "Moonduster" was buried in the sand. The shuttle was tilted down and to the right. Neither boy moved or said a word until Mike stumbled into the cockpit.

 

"Are you guys okay?"

 

"I think so," Alex said, his voice quivering. Robert Charles sat in silence, staring at the now blank viewport.

 

"Well, I think you might need some retraining in the landing part," Mike said with a thin smile.

 

"Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing," Alex said. "How is everything back there?"

 

"Everybody is shook up and there are some bumps and bruises. Matthew banged his head, I think he's..."

 

Ryan poked his head into the cockpit. "I think Matthew is hurt pretty bad."

 

Mike turned and re-entered the cabin and Alex followed him out. Robert Charles sat motionless in the copilot’s seat. Not knowing what to expect, the boys had put their clothes on before the landing. Now Robert Charles was looking down at a pair of wet pants.

 

In the cabin Matthew lay unconscious in the aisle. His head was bleeding and his left leg was at a strange angle. Scooter had a towel on the young boy’s head pressuring the wound. Alex looked sick; the last thing he wanted was somebody hurt. He cursed himself and his lousy landing.

 

"What happened? How did he get hurt so bad?" Alex asked.

 

"He unhooked his seat belt when we started over the mountains and was looking out the window," Jeremy said.

 

"The ship lurched and he went flying," Mike continued. "I had him and lost him. Jeremy grabbed him and managed to hold him for a moment."

 

"When we started falling, I started losing him," Jeremy said. "Then we hit the ground and he crashed against the seats."

 

"Why did he unbuckle?" Travis asked. "What a dumb thing to do. If he’d kept buckled, in spite of everything nobody gets hurt."

 

"Well, it happened," Douglas said. "Now we need to see how bad it is."

 

Scooter had received advanced first aid training. He was always thinking between medicine and astronomy as careers, but as much as he liked astronomy his heart was really into medicine. He loved his first aid courses, he loved health class. Now he was going to be called on to use what little he had learned.

 

 Matthew had shorts on and Scooter could see that he had a broken bone in his lower leg. The bone wasn't pushing out of the skin, but he could see it was off line. The broken bone was the tibia, the shin bone. He wondered if the fibula, the smaller bone in the lower leg, was broken, too. There was no way he could tell. He sent Ryan and Travis to the galley to get splints from the first aid closet.

 

The walk to the galley wasn't easy since the shuttle was resting at an angle.  The galley was a mess; that part of the bulkhead had a wide gash.  They could look right out into the desert and feel the heat coming in. In fact, the entire shuttle was starting to rapidly heat up.  They found the splints and brought them to the cabin.

 

Scooter worked to put the splints on. Matthew moaned in pain.  Mike was seated on the seat above him.  "It's okay little bro, just hang on."

 

With help from Ryan, Scooter got the splint on the leg. He didn't know if it would help—all the splint was going to do was keep the break from getting worse. What he really needed was a cast, and that wasn’t going to happen on a crashed shuttle in an empty desert. He bandaged Matthew's head. Scooter knew he had done about all he could do.

 

"You did great, Scooter," Douglas said. "Or is it Doctor Scooter now?"

 

"I don't know if I helped at all. I don't know how bad his head is. I don't know if he has internal injuries. I just don't know. I did the best I could."

 

"You were awesome."

 

Matthew moaned and opened his eyes.

 

"He's awake," Mike said.

 

Matthew looked at Mike. "Green," he moaned.

 

"What?" Mike asked.

 

"Green...green...horsey...green..."

 

"What did he say?" Brandon asked.

 

"It sounded like green horsey," Mike said.

 

Matthew pointed to the back of the ship, toward the mountains. "Green," he whispered.  "Green…horsey…green...it hurts." He passed out.

 

"There are pain killers in that kit," Scooter said. "We need to give him some."

 

"It's starting to get hot in here," Travis observed. They could all feel the temperature rising in the cabin. The climate control system wasn’t running.  The desert heat was rapidly raising the temperature inside the ship. The group was slowly realizing that they were all alone on an empty desert planet, millions of miles from where they had left the "Starkeeper", and that their chances of being rescued were beyond nothing. They had no idea what supplies survived the crash, since almost everything was below in the hold.

 

Even if all of their supplies survived the crash, there wasn't enough to live on for more than a year or so, no matter how careful they were, and to keep the food preserved, they needed electrical power.  There was also the issue of water, which was even more important than electricity. If they were going to survive, they would have to find a way to do it on what the planet had to offer, which appeared to be nothing.

 

 

Travis and Jeremy opened the airlock hatches. The heat outside was overwhelming, well over one hundred degrees. They needed to get power in order to get the HVAC started, or they would roast to death before they starved or died of thirst.  

 

 But at least the air was fresher than the muggy heat of the cabin. Travis and Jeremy took off their clothes and set them on a seat.  If they didn't need them, why wear them? was how they saw it. They would need those clothes at some later time and not wearing them would keep them in better condition.

 

The outer hatch of the airlock was about ten feet off of the ground.  Travis remembered seeing a rope ladder in a locker in the galley. He went aft to retrieve the ladder. He peered through the jagged metal opening created by the crash. Because the ship was nose down it was a long drop to the ground from the rear, plus it would be difficult for the bigger boys to squeeze through the opening. Travis decided it would be easier to get out through the airlock. He took the rope ladder to the open airlock. Then he connected the ladder to two of the handholds by the bottom of the airlock and let it drop to the ground.

 

Now the question was, who would be the first person to step on the planet?  After all, whoever it was would be the first human to ever set foot on it. The consensus was that it should be Douglas.  But Douglas said no, he thought the first person to set foot on the planet should be Alex. He was the one who had landed them safely. They instantly agreed with Douglas. Alex blushed and didn't say anything.

 

Robert Charles finally came out of the cockpit. He was happy that everybody was naked. Now he could walk out and nobody would see that he had wet his pants. He had used the dry part of his pants to wipe himself off. He went to the airlock where most of the boys were hanging by the open door.

 

"What's going on, guys?" he asked.

 

"Well, it's about time you came out," Alex said.  "You finally get your bladder under control?"  Robert Charles glared at him and wondered how much Alex knew. Well, it didn't make much difference because the first time Alex was alone he was going to establish who would be running the whole show on this planet. He’d had enough of Alex and his big mouth.

 

"We're deciding who gets to make history and be the first person to set foot on the planet. We all wanted Douglas, but he said it should be Alex. We all thought that was a great idea,” Mike told him.

 

"Why wasn't I asked about this?" Robert Charles asked.

 

"Well, we didn't see you around."

 

"I think as the leader of this group I should be the first one to set foot on this fucking planet."

 

"I think as the asshole of this group you shouldn't set foot on it at all," Alex retorted.

 

Robert Charles sneered at Alex. "You know something? Most people would go kick the shit out of you right now. But I have to lead and set an example, so I am just going to let that thing slide. Now, maybe you should just chill out little boy and let someone who has earned the privilege be the first person to touch the planet."

 

Once again Alex looked up at Robert Charles. "The only thing you’re going to put on the planet first is a big pile of bullshit.”

 

Robert Charles shook his head and walked to the open airlock. "So who is going to argue with me being first? I mean other than little Mr. Bigmouth. Mr. I Can Fly but I Can't Land, who would love to stop me?          "

 

Alex moved in on Robert Charles, but Mike grabbed him.

 

"Alex did an awesome job getting us down here and you know it, RC," Douglas said.

 

"Whatever you say, Dougie. Now, I'm going to walk down the ladder and set foot on the planet."  He walked to the opening and nobody stopped him.  He got on the ladder and climbed down. His foot touched the sand, and he screeched and pulled it back up.

 

"Looks like Mr. Brightboy forgot to wear shoes. It would seem that the sand is a little bit hot," Alex told Mike laughing. "Hey, RC," he yelled, "does that count as setting foot on the planet?"

 

"Get my shoes!" he bellowed.

 

"Get them yourself, big boy," Alex yelled back.

 

Robert Charles knew Alex was goading him into losing his temper. He was determined to keep that from happening. But he wasn't going to forget Alex’s behavior, either. Alex’s behavior was going to be dealt with soon. Robert Charles looked over the situation on the ground. The shadow of the wing wasn't very far away from the bottom of the rope ladder. He stepped down again, held his squeal in and took four steps to under the wing. The sand was still hot there, but it didn't burn. "The water's great, guys. Come on in."

 

"Boy, are those words going to go down in history," Alex said.

 

Robert Charles hopped quickly to the ladder and climbed back up to the "Moonduster".  "And now it's time to get ourselves organized," he said.

 

"That would be a good idea," Alex said. "What do you suggest first?"

 

"I don't know. We need to get power first I suppose."

 

"Stevie is already working on it," Alex said. "And Jordan and Brandon are helping him."

 

"I gave the okay to start," Robert Charles said. "And who put Stevie in charge?"

 

"We needed to get started," Douglas said. "We need the climate control working fast or we're in deep shit."

 

"Look, Dougie, I think we better establish that I'm in charge."

 

"I haven't challenged that. I agree that you’re the leader and I thought you and me had been working pretty good as a team. But you kind of disappeared and I thought we better quit playing around and get things started.  And Stevie knows electronics inside and out…he worked with the roadies when he toured with his father. Jordan has been taught a lot about how the systems work by his dad. And Brandon knows a lot about machines and systems from his mother. The temperature is climbing quickly in here in case you haven't noticed."

 

Douglas knew in his heart, just like everyone else did, that Robert Charles was a lousy leader. But he also knew that he still didn't want to be in charge and to be responsible. He had cooperated with Robert Charles as much as possible since the moment they found themselves lost in space.  Douglas understood that the entire group had to work together or they all would die. If he challenged Robert Charles it could tear their group up. Granted Robert Charles had no support, but by keeping him in charge he was less likely to sabotage what they were doing. The group didn't need any fights right now; the animosity going on between Alex and Robert Charles was bad enough. Douglas knew he needed to have a talk with Alex about curtailing his criticism of Robert Charles to help ease the rising tension between the two.

 

"Well, I think Jordan should be in charge," Robert Charles informed them.

 

"Yeah, like he was during the spacewalk," Alex said. "RC, he's twelve and is having some problems.  Stevie is a whiz at making things work, and Jordan can give him all the help he needs."

 

"You're saying that because he is your brother," Robert Charles said.

 

"Robert Charles, just let Stevie do it, okay?" Douglas pleaded, stepping in for Alex. "Let him try."

 

"What...ever."

 

 

Stevie was doing something he loved. He had handled a lot of electronics for their band, even when he was smaller. At age thirteen he knew more about electronics than a lot of college graduates. 

 

Jordan wasn't nearly the expert at working on things as Stevie, but he did know a lot about how the systems of a ship or shuttle were set up.  His father had shown him a lot about engineering systems.

 

Brandon loved science and knew a lot about astronomy and planets because of his mother. He’d got pretty familiar with the Moonduster’s computer systems looking for their position and getting them to the planet: now he thought he might be a real help. He had seen the gash where Travis and Jeremy had glued the heat tiles, and he knew that losing those tiles was a big factor in Alex losing control of the shuttle. But Alex and Douglas had both told then that losing the tiles wasn’t their fault and that if it wasn’t for their repair job they never would have made it to the planet’s surface without being burned to a crisp.

 

"There is a power chip under the control panel. It supplies power when the engines are shut down," Jordan said. "That's how we get power when we're drifting. The chips can be recharged when they run down."

 

"How?"

 

"Solar power. There is a solar panel on the top and bottom of a shuttle."

 

"But what if there’s no sun around?" Brandon asked. "How does it get charged then?"

 

"It can be charged by starting up a rocket, too, even a retrorocket. It keeps the charge for a month."

 

“Will the thrusters charge it, too?” Stevie asked.

 

“No.”

 

"Well, then we should be in good shape," Stevie said, “except that this control panel is a mess. It really got smashed up in the crash landing." He crawled back under the panel and did some looking around. He needed to get the computer running first, because the computer controlled everything else.  He could see that the board the computer was connected to was knocked loose from the control panel. He started working to get them reconnected.

 

While he was working, Robert Charles and Alex squeezed into the cockpit.

 

"You mean the miracle worker isn't done yet?" Robert Charles asked.

 

"Man, just shut up, RC, or I'll kick your ass right here," Alex said.

 

"Tell me about it, little man," Robert Charles laughed

 

Stevie hooked two wires into the bottom of the panel and the computer lit up. At the same time all the cabin lights went on. The HVAC did not start up, however.

 

"Looks like the miracle worker is doing okay," Alex said with a smile. They could hear a cheer coming from the cabin and a "way to go, Stevie!"

 

Stevie was checking the climate control system on the computer. The computer was telling him what the problem with the HVAC was. The problem was simple—it had come unhooked from the power chip. The question was where did it hook in? Stevie asked Alex if there were any manuals; Alex responded by entering his code into the storage box.

 

“Where the fuck did you get that code from?” Robert Charles asked.

 

“It pays to know people in high places,” Alex grinned.

 

Stevie and Brandon traced the circuits and found a broken circuit board.  Stevie then checked to see if there were any spare circuit boards. The computer didn't show one of the kind he needed, just generic ones that had to be set up to work in the area for which they were chosen.  It was a task a master crewman could do quickly, but it took Stevie almost five hours to figure out the circuits and get the HVAC circuit connected. While he had a manual for the shuttle, most of his work was by trial and error. As he worked to connect the circuit board, the cabin, the lower deck, and the cockpit became unbearably hot. Everybody was sweating rivers and some of the boys sat outside in the shade created by the shuttle. Even in the desert, the heat was cooler than the hot stuffy shuttle.

 

Stevie had all kinds of wires and cables hooked up to the circuit board. The board was sitting on top of the instrument panel since it would never be used again. He touched the start icon on the computer screen for what seemed like the thousandth time and suddenly he heard the hum of the fans coming on full.  He touched another icon so that the system would use outside air instead of the recycled air of the life support system. Pretty soon cool fresh air was blowing through the shuttle. The boys who were outside boarded the shuttle and shut the airlock hatch, cheering for Stevie and hugging and kissing him.

 

Stevie's next job was going to be getting the radio going.

 

 

While Stevie had been working on getting the climate control functioning, some of the other boys were busy, too. Douglas decided it was time for him to talk to Alex regarding Robert Charles.  They met at the rear of the cargo hold. Basically, Douglas told Alex he now had a responsibility almost as big as piloting the ship. Alex did not like a lot of what he was hearing and was more than willing to express his opinion to Douglas.

 

“We need to work together, Alex,” Douglas pleaded. “We can’t survive otherwise.”

 

“We can’t survive with RC leading us, either. It’s time for you to quit kissing RC’s ass and fucking lead us.” Alex glared straight at Douglas. “Look, I may have missed a lot of school at times, but dammit I still know some shit. I kinda like history and I remember reading about this English president or somebody way back in some olden days war who kept giving in to this dude named Hitler. Doing that ended up not getting him shit.”

 

“We were just studying that at my old school. The guy’s name was Chamberlain and what he was doing was called appeasement.”

 

“Yeah, well, whatever, you’re appeasing him. You sit back and let the asshole treat us all like shit while you stay in the background doing all the hard work. That’s not working together either, because sooner or later there’s gonna be a revolution to get rid of the bastard. Talk to Mike if you don’t think so.”

 

“The way I see it, Alex, is that we’re better off having him doing his stuff with us watching him than having him stabbing us in the back when we’re not looking.”

 

“I’d rather get stabbed in the back than watch you saying, ‘Yes, Robert Charles, whatever you say Robert Charles.’ Fuck, you even have Mike doing it—at least for now.”

 

“Look, Alex, I can see your argument, but for right now we have to stay with what’s been working for us.”

 

“Well, I don’t think it’s working…at least that’s my opinion.”

 

“Look, how about doing me a favor.”

 

Alex said nothing, waiting to see what Douglas wanted. Alex loved Douglas and respected him, but right now he felt Douglas was letting the whole group down by not assuming leadership.

 

“Just give it a week,” Douglas went on. “Give things a week to settle in. I mean we’ve just survived a crash landing we shouldn’t have survived. This isn’t the time to be making decisions—we need to get organized first.”

 

“Okay, Douglas, you get your week and I guarantee you that in a week everybody will be ready to elect you leader whether you want it or not.”

 

“Or, they could elect you, Alex. After all, you’re the one making all of the noise.”

 

“I don’t want to be leader,” Alex sputtered. “I wouldn’t make a good one.”

 

“And right now you’re saying the same things you complain about me saying.”

 

“You know, you can really piss me off at times,” Alex huffed. He turned and walked away, leaving Douglas wishing he’d never heard of the word leadership.

 

Up above in the cabin, Scooter was trying to make Matthew comfortable. Matthew would go unconscious and then wake up. Scooter had undressed him and was wiping his head and body with a wet cloth to keep him cool.

 

"Water...thirsty....green green horsey green...horsey green..."

 

"What's he talking about?" Scooter asked Douglas, who was still fuming from his talk with Alex.

 

Douglas squatted down next to Scooter and Matthew. "I have no clue. I just wish we could make him more comfortable. I hope Stevie gets that A/C going."

 

As soon as Douglas and Alex left the hold, Mike and Ryan went down to check on supplies and see what damage the crash did there. When they got down the ladder they stepped into water.

 

"Shit," Mike said.

 

"What's going on?" Ryan asked.

 

"I think we have a water leak somewhere," Mike said. "There are three water tanks down here. The water recycles through one of them. One holds drinkable water that has been recycled, and the other holds the water that we can't drink. I'm hoping the last one is the tank that is leaking. And I'm hoping the recycling system is working. It's part of the life support system, which isn't working right now."

 

Mike walked across the wet floor to the tank. The water was about an inch deep and the bottoms of his feet were wet. The deck was bent and warped from the crash. He looked at the main water tank and saw water dripping out of the side. They were losing their potable water.

 

Mike and Ryan searched for a shutoff valve.  He thought he read the water tank was in sections like the fuel tank was for safety, but there appeared to be no valves. Maybe they were on the life support control panel that was on the wall. The panel was dark. There had to be a way to close off the bottom part of the tank, Mike thought. The water wasn't leaking very fast, but if they didn't get it stopped they would lose all their water.

 

Travis, Warren, and Jeremy left the hot cabin and went out of the airlock and down the ladder.  They walked around the shuttle, amazed that they had survived the crash. They silently thanked Alex for getting them close enough to the ground to land safely before the fuel ran out. The only boy who was badly injured was Matthew, and that was because he had unfastened his seatbelt.

 

 Jeremy and Travis saw where their patch had blown out. That had been the cause of the shuttle running out of control. The "Moonduster" had gotten them this far.  They wondered now where they would go from here without it.

 

As evening came they got more and more things fixed. After Stevie got climate control and life support going, Brandon was able to get the bottom part of the water tank shut off. While they hadn’t lost a lot of water, what they had lost was irreplaceable. They also lost some food; some of the boxes on the floor had been soaked.

 

The sleeping bags that had been on the floor had gotten soaked as well. Mike, Ryan, Alex, and Douglas carried the wet items outside. They hung what they could on a broken wing to dry.

 

Mike cooked up dinner—single helpings only. Only one of the microwaves was damaged. It had broken loose from the wall and was smashed. But there were plenty of microwaves left to cook meals for the thirteen of them.

 

Matthew refused to eat, and fell asleep. The rest of the boys ate, and after dinner the long day caught up with them. They were all sound asleep before it got dark.

 

 

 The sun was up before any of the exhausted boys awoke.  Scooter awakened with a start and looked at Matthew, who was laid out in the aisle.  He couldn't see him move and got scared.  Scooter had slept in the aisle head-to-head with the ten-year-old.  It was the first night since they got blasted from the "Starkeeper" that he and Douglas hadn't slept together.

 

Scooter put his head on Matthew's chest.  He felt the young boy’s heart thumping and Matthew's breath on his cheek.  Scooter's heart slowed down.  His fear left him, but not his worry.  Matthew's head wasn't bleeding any more, his leg was in a splint, but he was never fully awake and was often delirious.  He kept talking about the green horsey—Scooter pondered what he was seeing in his mind.

 

Once everybody was awake, Mike and Ryan fixed breakfast for them. The boys ate in the galley and in the cabin.  Scooter tried feeding Matthew, but Matthew wouldn't wake up to eat or drink.

 

After breakfast Robert Charles called a meeting.  It was time for them to talk things over about what to do next.  They seated themselves in the front of the cabin. Because of the angle of the shuttle, some of them fastened their seatbelts to keep from sliding down their seat. Scooter was worried about Matthew, and planned to go back to look him over often.

 

"I guess we better figure out what we're going to do to survive," Robert Charles said. "It looks like we're going to be here for a while…this place is going to be our home for a long time."

 

Warren was sniffling a little.  He was worried.  His father had put two weeks worth of allergy meds in his pack, which he had with him.  They were about to run out and he was afraid of what was going to happen when they did.  He didn't want to be on the floor next to Matthew.  Plus he really was lonely and missed his dad.

 

All of them were feeling the sadness that came from being alone and lost.  All of them wanted to feel safe again and knew it might never happen.  They were all afraid they were going to die alone on this planet.  Ryan called the planet Inferno and it stuck.  It was boiling hot in the day, and while it cooled off at night the temperature remained warm.  They were all afraid that Inferno would be the last place they would ever see, that they would die alone there.

 

"Why do we need to stay here?" Douglas asked.

 

"That's kind of a stupid question isn't it, Dougie?"  Robert Charles asked.

 

"Come on, RC," Alex said.  "Let's make this a meeting and get things done, and stop attacking people."

 

"Thanks, Alex," Douglas said, "but I can stand up for myself.  Let's just get things done and not argue."

 

"Gotcha, Douglas.  Sorry."  Alex smiled and Douglas and Douglas smiled back.

 

Douglas looked at Robert Charles.  "We can’t stay here, Robert Charles, because we will never be rescued here.  It will be just like when we drifted in space.  If we’d stayed in one place we would have died.  We have only so much water here, only so much food, only..."

 

"First, you don’t know we would have died where we were…we just might have been rescued there. In fact, I’m willing to bet we would have been rescued.

 

“Second, we have climate control here with temperatures we can live with.  We know how hot it gets in the daytime.  We have water here.  Have you seen any water on this fucking planet?  We have food here.  Have you seen any farms anywhere?  A supermarket?  A McDonalds?  A trace of life?  Get real, Douglas. There is nothing here.

 

"And we already listened to you about coming to this planet.  That sure doesn't look like such a bright idea now, does it?  We've gone from possible rescue, to no chance. And even you admit that."

 

"You want to tell him Scooter?  You are the one who told me."

 

"Well," Scooter said. "It's the atmosphere."

 

"What does the atmosphere have to do with it?" Jeremy asked.

 

"Think about it.  How do you get an atmosphere you can breathe?"

 

Brandon slapped his head.  "Of course.  How could I be so stupid?  I mean this is what my mom was an expert in."  He paused and shook his head.  "I mean IS an expert in.  Sorry."

 

What Brandon said hit everybody.  Because as much as they worried about themselves on the planet, they kept forgetting that they didn't know what had happened to the "Starkeeper."

 

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Robert Charles asked.  "This hellhole has an atmosphere.  So what?"

 

"It means there has to be life here," Scooter said.  "You can't have an atmosphere like Earth does without life. We talked about this before we decided to land here, but we all seem to have forgotten because it’s so hot and dusty."

 

"There is no life on this planet.  You saw it from space, there isn't even any water.  We saw no oceans, no seas, no lakes, hell, not even a fucking mud puddle. Your thinking is fucked, Scooter."

 

"Chill out, Robert Charles," Douglas said.  "There are two ways this planet can get an atmosphere like this.  One is a biosphere like Earth with lots of plant life to make oxygen and animals to use it and make carbon dioxide."

 

"Well, that sure isn't here," Ryan said.

 

"Exactly.  And we all know the second way it can happen.  Because it is the reason we can go live on a planet like Alpha Orion IV—the atmosphere was man-made," Douglas said.

 

"That's even bigger bullshit than the biosphere crap for two reasons," Robert Charles shot back.  "First, we are light years from any planet we've put a colony on.  Second, to make the whole planet like this you would need to cover most of it with farmland and get an ocean started.  I mean even I know that.  It can't be done."

 

"Let me answer the second one," Brandon said.  "Right now we need big domes on planets like AO IV to hold the atmosphere in until we get the planet terraformed.  So far there is only one planet where the domes are completely gone, and I guess a second one is close.  My mom was working on Mars on a way to create an atmosphere years before the planet is terraformed.  Mars never worked well for an atmosphere because it is small and far from the sun.  The way things were it would always need domes.  But Mars already had an atmosphere so all she had to do was change it so humans could live in it. That project is started and AO IV was going to be the next big experiment.  So creating an atmosphere without domes and terraforming can be done."

 

Scooter thought, Wow, I've known Brandon for years and that is the longest speech he has ever given.  He was impressed and smiled at his friend.

 

"Which brings us right back to these facts: your mom's system hasn't been used on an entire planet yet, and we haven't even explored this far out into the galaxy. So just who would be creating an atmosphere?" Robert Charles asked.

 

"You know something, Robert Charles, you're right," Douglas said.

 

"Huh?"  The ship was quiet except for the hum of the climate control. Robert Charles stood in front of the group with a stunned look on his face and finally uttered, "Shit."

 

"Yeppers," Douglas said.

 

"I don't get it," Jordan said.

 

"Think about it," Douglas said.  "If this planet doesn’t have a natural biosphere like Earth, and humans haven't ever come this far, and this atmosphere was created by somebody, well then, who created it?"

 

"Well, um, um.....oh shit," Jordan said.

 

"Do we all get the picture?" Douglas asked.  "Do we see that maybe there really is other intelligent life?  And do we understand that they could be our only way home?  We have to find them."

 

"How do we know they aren't dangerous?" Travis asked.

 

"We don't, but we don't have any choice."

 

"We have the radio," Jeremy reported, “Stevie got it working”.

 

Stevie took over from Jeremy. “The locator is working and the signal seems to be pretty powerful, but none of us knows enough about radios to be sure. We can send messages, so if anybody is nearby they should be able to hear us. I think we're safe here.  Like Robert Charles said, we have food, water, and air conditioning.  And besides, it's a big planet and we saw nothing that looked like civilization from out in space.  We don't even know where to begin looking."

 

"I've been thinking about that too," Douglas said.

 

"God save us all from thinkers," Robert Charles groaned, “they are dangerous. You just happen to have a place figured out?"

 

"I kind of do, yes."

 

"Where, up in those mountains?  Do you think aliens are sitting up there staring at us right now?"

 

"Maybe, but there is something to the other side of those twin peaks we flew through."

 

"I suppose you saw it," Robert Charles sneered.

 

"No, but Matthew did."

 

"Fuck, I've had enough of this bullshit.  Matthew has been delirious since we landed."

 

"Hear him out," Alex said.  "What he says makes sense."

 

"Scooter and I talked about it during breakfast.  It's the green.  Mike, how did Matthew come unstrapped from his seat belt?"

 

"He was looking out the window just as we were coming close to the mountains," Mike said.  "He saw something and unbuckled to get a better look.  He was looking out the window when we lurched and he got thrown across the aisle.

 

Douglas went on.  "I think he saw something green, like farmland through breaks in the clouds and dust."

 

"What about the horsey?" Jeremy asked.  "He keeps saying green horsey."

 

"I don't know.  I mean we were too high up to see any horses.  We haven't figured that part out yet."

 

"Well, if the horsey is from his imagination, then so is green,” Robert Charles stated with certainty. “But let's say he did see something, Dougie, what do you say we should do about it?"

 

"Simple.  Head over the mountains and find the green.  If there is green then there is water.  And we not only lost a lot of our water yesterday, we lost a third of our storage capacity. The entire environmental system was damaged, so who knows how long we recycle the water.  It might be nice and cool here with the climate control going, but no matter what, we can't live here without water."

 

"But don't forget the radio.  They have to send some kind of signals.  And we can radio them," Jeremy said.  "We can't leave here because of the locator."

 

"Tell them, Stevie," Alex said.

 

"Tell us what?" Travis asked.

 

"Like I said, the radio is in good shape and I think it makes a strong signal ", Stevie said, “But the transmitting equipment is in the nose of the shuttle and the nose is smashed.  So is the main transmitter.  What we have can broadcast maybe 20,000 miles up and around with the transmitter built into the radio according to the manual, but that’s about it. When I said somebody has to be nearby I meant nearby.”

 

“Can’t you just build another transmitter?” Robert Charles asked. It was a question that said everything about how much respect Robert Charles now held for Stevie.

 

“It would take me weeks, even if I had the parts, and I don’t have the parts.”

 

The cabin was quiet, with only the hum of the HVAC disturbing the silence.  Scooter went back to check on Matthew.  The boys sat quietly in their seats, teary eyed.

 

"What should we do, Robert Charles?" Jordan asked.

 

"Sit here until something happens, I guess. Douglas can       go find Matthew's imaginary green patch with a horse in it.  Anybody volunteer for a suicide mission?"

 

"We can't split up," Douglas said.  "We gotta be together on this no matter what we decide.  We split up and we may never find each other again."

 

"What about Matthew?" Travis asked.

 

"We find a way to take him with us.  But we can't stay here.  We will end up dying here if we do nothing," Douglas said.

 

"So if we vote ten to two to leave, it means we stay?" Jeremy asked.

 

"What it means is, we don't go unless everybody goes, no matter what the vote."

 

"Then let's vote," Robert Charles said.  “After the vote, we stay here since my vote will be to stay."

 

Scooter came into the galley.  "He ate a little bit."

 

"Did he say anything?"  Alex asked.

 

"Same thing as always."

 

"See.  A kid who is out of it talks about a fucking green horse, and Dougie here wants to go trekking across the desert and mountains in 110 degree heat.  What a brilliant idea.  Let's vote now," Robert Charles reiterated.

 

"I think we should vote tomorrow," Scooter said.  "We need a night to think about it.  Whatever we decide it won't be easy."

 

"And if we decide to stay," Travis said, "we can always change our minds."

 

"Well, there is one more thing," Scooter said.

 

"What's that, my love?"  Douglas looked at him with love in his heart.

 

"All I did was bandage up Matthew.  If we don't do something for him, I don't know if he will live much longer."

 

And one more time there was no noise but the fans.  None of them wanted to think of somebody dying.

 

"Guys, what it comes down to is this," Douglas said.  "We can sit here in 72 degree temperatures with nice microwaved food and fairly fresh water, and wait for all of that to run out hoping somebody will find our ship in the middle of a desert planet.  Or, we take a risk, we fight, we do something to help ourselves, and find the farms across those mountains."

 

"Right," Jeremy said.  "The farms that might be there.  And every time we've moved to supposedly help ourselves, we've just gotten farther and farther away from our…our…home."  Jeremy fought back the tears that he saw were flowing down Warren's face.  "I vote we stay here.  If we die, we die being comfortable, not dying of thirst and hunger and from the heat and being lost and miserable."

 

"I agree with Scooter," Brandon said.  "Let's vote tomorrow."

 

"I don't think it will change a thing," Robert Charles said.  "I'll agree to waiting, though.  Now you guys go wipe off the tears.  For now, this is home, and we don't need to all feel sorry for ourselves.  I'm going to assign jobs to keep you babies from thinking too much.  We are going to be here for a long time."

 

While he didn't agree with how Robert Charles stated it, Douglas agreed that they needed to be kept busy.  They even talked about having a guard at night, but Stevie said since they would be keeping the airlock closed he could rig up an alarm so nobody would have to stay awake all night.  Rigging the alarm now was his newest job.

 

Douglas wasn't surprised when Robert Charles assigned him to cleaning duty on the "Moonduster".  In fact he liked it, because he could move around the ship dusting and picking up garbage while he talked to each person about his vote.

 

 He was totally convinced that they would have to leave their comfortable ship and walk to the other side of the mountains—that they had to fight in order to live. Not everybody agreed with him—in fact it was beginning to look like the next day’s vote might be a close one.

 

The boys spent the day doing the busy work Robert Charles assigned along with needed work like helping Stevie rig his alarm for the hatches. Douglas had to give Robert Charles credit for finding ways to get everybody’s mind off of their predicament. He knew busy work wouldn’t help them beyond a day or two, because it would simply become boring and nobody would want to do it.

 

Douglas talked to everybody making a joke or telling them what a great job they were doing while he went about cleaning. Everybody worked at something, except Matthew, who was hurt and sick, and Robert Charles who sat in the galley writing things down and giving orders.

 

As Douglas did his cleaning job, he decided he needed to find out how everybody felt about their future plans, about staying with the “Moonduster” or leaving. He was coming to the realization the choice of leader was going to be more important than who the leader was on the "Moonduster".  In reality Alex had been the leader on the “Moonduster” because he was the pilot.  All Robert Charles had been was a big mouth who thought he was the head honcho.  Now he was a big mouth with a big ego pushing people around when they needed to make some hard decisions that could affect whether they lived and died.  In his own way he was beginning to think that maybe he really was the right choice to lead the group. But they didn't need a mutiny, they needed to be united, even if it meant following Robert Charles.

 

Scooter told Douglas he agreed with him—that they had to leave.  Staying here where it was comfortable probably meant dying here. Their supplies were limited, their equipment was broken, and it wouldn’t take long for the things Stevie had been able to fix to breakdown permanently.  Splitting up the group would probably mean they would never see each other again.  He told Douglas he would follow him anywhere, which Douglas knew would be true no matter what was decided.

 

Warren told Douglas he wanted to stay with the “Moonduster.”  He said that without his medication he that he would be too weak and sick to travel in the heat and dust and he was certain to run out of medication soon.  He also said that they needed a strong leader. Since Douglas kept saying he didn’t want to lead and because he favored leaving the “Moonduster,” he couldn’t support him.

 

Jeremy couldn't see trekking across the desert and the mountains to try to find something that probably didn’t exist.  Nobody knew what it was Matthew saw and he wasn’t risking his life to find something imaginary.  Douglas pointed out that the mountains were not that tall, more like bare hills with tall rocky peaks.  Jeremy said they would still have to climb.  He agreed they needed to stick behind one leader, and as much as he didn't like Robert Charles, he had been making decisions.

 

Mike and Alex were behind Douglas all the way.  They agreed that staying with the “Moonduster” meant they would die with the “Moonduster.” They needed to get out of the desert. 

 

Douglas discussed a few ideas with Stevie.  Stevie liked them and said he would talk it over with Travis. But Stevie also told Douglas that he hated Robert Charles, but RC supported his idea that he could fix the radio transmitter to send their signal far enough to attract rescuers. Douglas knew that Stevie was so wrong in so many ways, but he didn’t argue—right then he just wanted an idea of where everybody stood.

 

Brandon was positive there was some kind of life on the planet.  Life meant water and food.  He thought Matthew did see something green and they had to trace their flight back and investigate.

 

Jordan said he just wanted to be left alone, which meant staying with the “Moonduster”. He was behind Robert Charles all the way.

 

Travis wanted Douglas as leader, but wasn't sure yet what he thought about leaving the shuttle.  Ryan said he felt the same way.

 

Douglas already knew what Robert Charles thought.  And Matthew wasn't saying anything now, not even about green horseys.

 

Douglas had only three positive votes plus himself, giving Robert Charles an eight to four edge. Douglas was surprised by the amount of support Robert Charles had—he was stronger than he had been on the “Starkeeper”.   Douglas called for another meeting after dinner.  Robert Charles announced that he was the leader and called meetings, so Douglas said then he would call it a party instead of a meeting.

 

At the "party" Douglas asked if they could put the vote off another day. It wasn't like they were in a hurry. He told them he wanted to investigate a few things and needed another day for that.  Robert Charles and Jordan didn’t attend the get-together .  The ten who did attend voted 10-0 to put the vote off. Robert Charles was furious when he found out what was decided.

 

“You said you were having a party not a meeting, so your vote doesn’t mean shit,” he fumed.

 

“It will be hard to have a vote if nobody votes,” Brandon pointed out.

 

“That just means Jordan and I will be the only votes and we will win two to nothing.”

 

“Don’t you need to have something like a quorum for a vote to count?” Mike asked.

 

“Maybe we don’t need to have a vote at all…maybe we just stay here because I said so.”

 

“And maybe we  have a vote because we’re all in this together,” Travis asserted.

 

What Robert Charles didn’t know because he hadn’t bothered talking to anybody was that he was actually in a position of strength. While Douglas had the group agreeing to put off the election for a day, the majority still favored supporting Robert Charles and staying put with the “Moonduster.” The mutiny was starting whether Douglas wanted it or not.

 

 

The next morning Robert Charles started assigning jobs.  One of the jobs that had been assigned the day before was to get the water out of the lower deck.  It was dry now.  Robert Charles assigned Jordan, Ryan, Douglas, Mike and Jeremy into making a special area for him.  He told them that as the leader he needed his own private area for his planning.  He gave them their instructions, then watched as they cleared out a corner of the hold for him.

 

When Robert Charles talked to Alex, Stevie, Brandon, and Travis about their tasks, they said they already had a list of things to do.  What they didn't say was that it was an agenda that Douglas had asked them to work on. 

 

Scooter was watching over Matthew, who would sometimes wake up and drink water. He still wasn't eating, however.  Scooter was getting very worried.

 

Warren's meds were gone and all he did was sit in the cabin on a seat waiting to get sick.

 

Douglas did the task Robert Charles had given him because right now wasn't the time to stand up to him.  He needed Robert Charles to lay off of the others, so he went along with him—for now.

 

 

That evening Douglas had his group meet him outside.  After the sun went down it was still pretty warm, but much more tolerable than the daytime heat.  They sat on a tarp that they laid out in a flat area of sand. Douglas had a deck of cards that he’d found in an overhead bin full of games. If Robert Charles asked them what they were doing, they could say they were playing cards. All of the boys knew it sounded as phony as the “party”, but at least they had some kind of excuse for being together.

 

Stevie, Alex, Scooter, Travis, Douglas, Brandon, and Mike sat and talked.  They each told what they had found out during the day. 

 

Stevie was able to partially retrace their route.  They knew they had come out of the mountains between the twin peaks on the horizon.  He had used the computer to trace them back as far as the middle of the mountains.  From that point back the only thing he knew was they had entered the mountains from the west side.  Where the spot that Matthew thought he might have seen the green fields was he couldn't tell.  But at least they had a direction in which to travel.

 

Brandon had grabbed Mike from Robert Charles's "castle" building brigade, saying he needed a pair of strong arms.  He and Mike worked for two hours moving boxes and cases that had collapsed in the landing.  They found the three sleds that Commander Benson had told them were stacked in cases toward the stern. 

 

Since the cases had been stored in the tail section, the cases were damaged as were two of the sleds.  Brandon thought they could fix one of the damaged sleds by using parts from the other one. That meant they would have two sleds with which to carry water, food, and miscellaneous supplies, as well as Matthew strapped to a stretcher.

 

The sleds were powered by electric motors fueled by solar chips.  With the intense sunlight in the desert, they wouldn’t be in danger of running out of power.  Each sled had two seats. That meant three of them would be riding, and Matthew would be hauled along on his stretcher. The other eight would walk alongside the sleds. It was agreed that their leader would need to set up a schedule for rotating the walkers with the riders.

 

They also found more water bottles.  Mike had saved a lot of the leaking water in bottles, and now they had more. They found boxes to put food into, more first aid stuff, a compass, radios to communicate with each other and the sleds.

 

The sleds had runners that could slide along the sandy surface or even dig through small sand mounds.  The runners could be raised and then the sled would run on tracks like a tank had for operating on harder ground.  Whoever invented the sleds seemed to think of everything.  The question was, how would they get the sleds out of the lower hold?  The cargo hatch was jammed shut by sand and debris.

 

Later in the day it was Travis who came up with the idea of using the space welder to open a wider gap in the tail section.  They could then maneuver the sleds through the new hole.

 

One of the cases was packed with tents.  There were twenty small four man tents.  They wouldn't need all of them, but they now had shelter.  They found adjustable hats, winter gear, which they didn't need, sunscreen, which they did need, and cooking gear, including four small microwaves that could run off of the power chips in the sleds. 

 

The sleds were each about eight feet long and built to be as light weight as possible.  They had storage boxes on the side and a flat bed.  One sled could carry most of the gear the thirteen of them would need. The other would carry Matthew and whatever didn’t fit in the first sled.  The trip wouldn't be fast, but it wouldn't be as difficult as it had seemed when Douglas first came up with the idea.  Even Jeremy admitted later in the day that the idea didn't seem as crazy as it did when Douglas first came up with it.

 

“Don’t the sleds seem kind of strange to you?” Mike asked Douglas later in the day.

 

“Strange how?”

 

“The ‘Moonduster’ has seats for 60 passengers, plus two crew seats in the cockpit, and enough seats in the galley for maybe six more crew members. But if all of the sleds worked, there is only room for six. That seems weird.”

 

“Maybe they were meant to carry crew members on a trip to find rescuers,” Douglas speculated.

 

“Just like us then,” Mike mused.

 

“Except in our case, we’re taking everybody.”

 

Scooter worried a lot about Matthew, but he knew they couldn't just let him lie on the floor of the shuttle and die.  They would have to try something. They were all trying to convince Douglas that, if needed, they should split up the group.  And they were trying to convince Douglas that he should be the one to lead them.  He was the person coming up with the ideas and giving them important things to do that might help them survive.  All Robert Charles was doing was giving out busy work, most of which was for his own comfort.  He was already talking about having an outdoor shelter built for him and whomever he wanted with him.

 

They sat there quietly saying they were ready to make a good argument for going before the vote took place.  And then they drifted to their boyfriends, Douglas making love to Scooter, Mike to Alex, and Brandon to Stevie. Before they finished, Travis had brought Ryan down and joined them, giving Ryan pleasure too.  They thought about sleeping out there on the tarp, but the eight naked boys were starting to get a little chilly.  It might be scorching hot in the daytime, but the air in the desert got cold at night.

 

The boys folded up the tarp and shoved it under the fuselage.  It was too heavy to carry back up the ladder.  They climbed up, found a place with their partner and fell asleep.

 

 

The next morning Matthew woke up Scooter saying he was hungry.  Scooter smiled and woke up Mike to cook up some food.  Mike microwaved pancakes figuring they would digest easily.  He hoped he was right.  Matthew ate and drank with help, but didn't say anything.  Scooter asked him once after he finished eating about what the green horsey was, but Matthew drifted off to sleep and didn't say anything.

 

Douglas went down to the hold to find Robert Charles.  It was now time for Robert Charles to “shit or get off the pot,” as Alex put it. Douglas found their leader asleep in his little "castle" with Jordan lying next to him. Douglas woke them up.  Robert Charles complained, but he crawled out of the sleeping bag, telling Jordan what a great girl he made.  When they got up to the galley, Robert Charles made a big deal of rubbing and kissing Jordan, who seemed to be embarrassed by it, but didn't say anything.

 

“Don’t ever wake me up again, Dougie,” Robert Charles commanded after they finished eating breakfast.

 

Douglas ignored the command and gave close to one of his own. “It’s time for our meeting, Robert Charles. We’ve got a lot to get done before we start our trip.”

 

“There ain’t gonna be no trip,” Robert Charles smirked.

 

“Just call the meeting.” Robert Charles had gotten so out of touch he hardly realized that the power in the group had slowly shifted from him to Douglas.

 

After everybody finished breakfast, Robert Charles called the meeting.  They agreed that it was time to take a vote to see who wanted to stay and who wanted to go. It was agreed that a secret ballot would be used.  Mike had already cut up twelve ballots.

 

Douglas and Robert Charles each gave their arguments about whether they should stay or leave.  Douglas reminded the group that he felt they shouldn’t be split up—either everyone stayed or everyone left. He said that just because they voted to leave didn't mean they had to depart right away.  It meant they could start getting ready to go, that they could be prepared.  He thought Matthew, who used to be a Boy Scout on Earth, would like that idea.  Then they voted, writing either yes, no, or abstain on the ballot.  After they voted they would drop their ballot into a box on the microwave counter. Once again the group voted, only this election was far more important than the one on the "Starkeeper".  And there would be no cheating on this one. Yes, meant go.  No meant stay and the vote would most likely determine if the group would survive or die.

 

Jeremy and Warren counted the votes, but everybody watched them do it. The vote ended up much differently than Douglas’s poll: nine yes and three no.  Only Robert Charles, Jordan, and Warren had voted to stay.

 

Robert Charles gave his immediate opinion of the result. “That is total bullshit. Nobody is going anywhere, not as long as I am the leader of this group.”

 

This was the opening Douglas had been waiting for. The group had put up with Robert Charles as leader on the “Starkeeper” because he had the backing of adults and because they thought he had won the election. They had put up with him on the “Moonduster” because it was easier than deposing him. But now the moment for the mutiny or revolution or whatever anyone wanted to call it had arrived.

 

"Then maybe we need a new leader," Douglas said. There was a long moment of silence as everyone took in what Douglas had just said.

 

"Who?  You?"  Robert Charles asked.  "The only solution you have to problems is tears.  You couldn't hack it on the “Starkeeper” when it was easy.  What makes you think you can do it now when the going is tough?  I mean you're the guy who was assigned to cleaning out the toilets.  At least I found the right job for you."

 

"RC," Alex said.  "You're so full of shit.  Douglas was the one who organized the scavenger hunt to find the crap we needed.  He’s the one who told Stevie to use the computer to back track as much of our landing route as he could.  Douglas has led us since we landed here.  You've been a bunch of hot air trying to get people to build you your own private castle to make your sorry life easier.  You know why you want to stay here?  Because leaving would be hot dirty work. You'd rather die here in your air-conditioned castle with people kissing your ass than work up a sweat to live.  I call for an election. 

 

“Fine, tomorrow morning—first thing. You guys better think real hard if you want somebody with balls or somebody who can’t figure out which hand to use to wipe his ass.”

 

"It has to be settled once and for all, RC.  I can live with any vote.  Can you?" Douglas said.

 

Robert Charles told them they would all be sorry if they voted for Douglas and went down the metal ladder to the lower deck. After he left the group formally decided they would vote for their new leader after breakfast the next morning. Nobody had any doubt how the election would turn out and almost all of them called for the election to take place right then.

 

“We’ll do it right,” Douglas said. “Robert Charles gets his say and his vote just like anybody else who might want to run.” He looked at Alex as he said that.

 

After they all split up, Warren came up to Douglas.

 

"I voted no to going.  I'm sorry."

 

"It's okay, Warren.  You have to vote the way you feel is right."

 

"I just wanted to say that if we go it's okay with me. I’m not going to stay here with Robert Charles and Jordan.  I voted no because I'm afraid of being too weak and sick and I won’t be able to do the walking."

 

Douglas said, "I think you will be very strong.  And don't worry, we will look out for you.  How do you feel now?"

 

"I feel fine.  I haven't missed my meds yet."

 

Douglas gave him a quick peck on his cheek and asked him if he could help sort out things they would need when they decided to go.  Warren smiled and went downstairs.

 

It had now become not "if" they would leave the shuttle, but "when" they would.  Douglas's being prepared changed the vote from what it would have been when he took his poll to the final result.  The extra day for him to prepare helped.  Douglas was confident he would beat Robert Charles in the morning election.  He was not confident that he was capable of doing the job. He was only thirteen, he thought, and no thirteen-year-old should have to make decisions that could cost the lives of his friends and of himself.

 

But if he were elected he was prepared to do everything he could to somehow get them to Matthew’s green area safely.  He just hoped what he did was good enough.

 

 

 

That evening the boys were all outside after the sun set.  Inferno had three small moons.  They could see two of them, one full and one a crescent.  The sky was full of twinkling stars, and they even saw a few meteors streaking across the sky.  They were out in the cooling desert, naked.

The boys started wandering into the “Moonduster” as the air cooled down.  After a while only Alex, Robert Charles, Douglas, Stevie, and Mike were left.  Stevie motioned to Douglas and Mike to go up the ladder.  They understood and climbed up, with Stevie following them.  Robert Charles and Alex were the only boys left outside of the shuttle.  They stood there looking up at the night sky, saying nothing. Finally, Robert Charles broke the silence.

 

”Well, little boy, you're pretty quiet.  You usually have some smart ass comment to make.  Are you a little nervous because your friends went and left you all alone with me? Because let me tell you something, asshole, we're gonna settle things tonight.  Tonight I'm going to make you pay for all the shit you've said to me.  I've been waiting for this for a long time.  After tonight there will be no doubt who has the power here and who will keep leading, because you will end up doing everything I tell you to do.  Don't expect your buddies to help, because they won't.  They all went up that ladder scared and they aren't coming back. They just hung your ass out to dry—I bet they’re as tired of your act as I am—from your crappy singing to your fucking potty mouth. What do you have to say to that, pecker head? "

 

Robert Charles brought himself up close to Alex and looked down at Alex. While both boys were fourteen, Robert Charles was six inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than the mop-haired boy in front of him.

 

Alex gave Robert Charles a bored look, stifling a yawn.  He was tired of Robert Charles's bullshit.  He knew Robert Charles was waiting for an answer.  Well, here is your answer, RC, Alex thought.  Alex cocked his arm and slugged Robert Charles hard in the gut.

 

"That was for me, asshole."

 

"You cheated," Robert Charles croaked.  "I wasn't ready."

 

Before he could do anything else, Alex slammed him again, and Robert Charles doubled over from the pain.  "That one is for Ryan on Mars."

 

Alex brought his foot up and kicked the doubled over Robert Charles in the gut.  "That was for Matthew in the elevator."

 

Robert Charles was staggering.  Alex yanked him up straight and hammered him again.  "That was for molesting Matthew."

 

Then Alex raised his fists, hitting Robert Charles in the bottom of the jaw.  Robert Charles stumbled backwards. "That was for Stevie."

 

That brought Robert Charles up enough that his belly was exposed again and Alex rammed his fist into it.  "That is for cheating on the election and working to make Douglas and everybody else miserable, and for just being an all-around asshole."

 

Robert Charles groaned and leaned over and puked into the sand.  Alex got behind him and kicked him so he landed in his own puke.  Then Alex rubbed his face in it.  "That's another one for me and for you thinking your shit doesn't stink."

 

Alex rolled Robert Charles on his back and kicked him in the balls. "That's for making guys build your fucking castle when you should have been finding ways to make things better for everybody."

 

Then Alex stood over him and started peeing.  He peed up Robert Charles's belly and to his chest, then with his full stream hit him in the face and hair.  "That's for you being a piece of shit leader and to remind you how I will vote tomorrow.  Don't talk to me about your fucking power, because after tomorrow you won't have shit for power." Then he spit in the older boy’s face. “My friends didn’t abandon me, you moron. They left me alone with you because they knew I’ve spent my life fighting and you’re just a soft, weak, whiney piece of crap nobody.”

 

With that Alex climbed up the ladder into the shuttle. Robert Charles watched him disappear with hate-filled eyes.

 

Next: Chapter 23 Into the Inferno