“And she forgave you.” Clay hooked the pistol to her belt. “But then, I guess she’s a better person than I am. Me, I like to harbour a grudge for a good long time.” She turned to Preston. “You,” she said, as if addressing a marine recruit, “look in the emergency locker. We’re going to need as much food and water as we can carry.”

The young man squirmed to his feet. His hand fluttered, unsure whether or not to salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And no, before you ask, you don’t get a gun either.”

“W-why not?”

“Because you’re a fucking idiot.”

* * *

We debarked the shuttle via the main cargo ramp and started walking. The floor of the canyon was smooth and hard like polished rock. Preston carried his medical bag slung over his left shoulder and a wilderness survival kit over his right; Clay’s rucksack held spare ammunition clips and additional weaponry; and, because my exoskeleton gave me added strength and increased stamina, I had been saddled with a bulky crate containing three days’ worth of water and two days’ worth of dehydrated ration packs. We wouldn’t starve or die of thirst. If all went to plan, the Trouble Dog would be back to collect us in a few hours; if not, we were dead anyway. Whatever downed the heavy cruiser would be back to finish us off long before we started to get hungry.

Clay took point, her pistol clasped in both hands, ready to respond to the first hint of danger. Preston shambled along a few metres behind her, looking hunched over and scared, his head turning to interrogate every patch of shadow. And I brought up the rear, clomping along with my robotic gait, the crate held out before me like a sacrificial offering to the god of lost causes.

I didn’t know if it was emotional exhaustion or a side effect of the painkillers Preston had given me, but I realised that I felt strangely and unexpectedly calm. There was a good chance I might die in this pitiless canyon, and yet I couldn’t seem to get worked up about it. If it happened, it happened. I was out of that sweaty hellhole of a jungle, and nothing else seemed to matter much any more. My whole adult life felt like a distant dream, and now all that was left of me was a raw, slightly disconnected civilian who was wondering how everything had collapsed around him with such rapidity, and whether he could build anything from the wreckage.