“—but that is only the beginning. The next stage is about to commence. After the Hatch nothing will be the same. And it will all come down to you.”

I coughed out a laugh. “What are you saying? It’s up to us or everyone’ll die or something?”

“Not ‘or something.’” He leaned forward, his grip tightening around my arm. “If you fail in your mission, everyone on the planet will die.”

I had no idea what to do with that information. Not right now. There was too much to consider. So many ramifications.

He continued, “You cannot fall into the hands of the Harvesters.”

“Or what?”

“You cannot imagine what they will do to you.”

After what I’d seen already, that sent a chill up my spine.

“Be careful whom you trust with this information,” he said. “Anyone who knows about you will be tortured if captured. Now that the Harvesters have landed, they will be looking for you and your brother everywhere, to stop you before you can carry out the plan. By now they will have used your adult male population to map your entire planet. They know every inch of your terrain. They had to inspect it to see if it would work.”

“If what would work?”

“The Hatch.” The Rebel’s breathing grew more labored. The glow guttered, then glitched. It seemed he was shorting out. “They had to know that they could habitate here.”

“Why?” I asked. “Their planet is dying?”

The mask stared at me blankly for a moment. “No,” he said. “They just want more.”

I was shocked into silence.

The wind carried the sounds of marching boots, the Drones taking to the hills.

“Please listen to me now,” he said. “There are others like me, searching for you and your brother the planet over. Of course we concentrated our efforts here near your place of birth, but we could leave no stone unturned.”

“How many are you?”

“Now we number merely in the dozens. The Harvesters took over our planet as they are trying to take over yours. They nearly succeeded in destroying us all.” The glow fizzled out, then came back online. “They are stronger. But we are braver.”

The screeches grew closer.

“I will relay to the others that you are intact and viable,” he said. “That there is still hope. They will find you. Or you must find them.”

“Why don’t you just stay with me?”

He tried to lift the hand from his stomach, but his arm slid limply to the dirt. “I am going to expire soon. My landing was not successful. I was injured in the crash.” A glitch appeared in the rendering lines in his mask, then intensified. “We are not well suited for this environment.”

“Then why did you come? Why did you all come?”

He reached his other hand forward weakly and set it on top of mine. “To find you.”