Quite alone. And if her knot hadn’t . . . survived . . . she was quite possibly the only person, or being, on the planet. A numbness set in so deep that Romy could no longer feel the harness. Her head drooped as she struggled to regain her calm. She had to find her friends. That was an absolute. They were alive. She had to believe it was true.

She waited, willing her shaking hands to still until eventually they obeyed.

Inhaling sharply, Romy looked around once more.

The question was: How far did her section of the craft land from the others?

If it were a matter of hours, that would be okay, but anything more and she would require food and water. A post-global-warming Earth meant the food and water here wasn’t safe. The yellowed plant life confirmed that. The battler held supplies, but did she have any in her part? And how much oxygen was in her suit? Romy’s heart began to quicken once more, and she forced the unfamiliar fear away.

First priority was getting to the ground. Under normal conditions she would take the chance and jump the three metres, but the injury to her ankle and the extent of the damage to her head caused Romy to hesitate. If only she could take her suit helmet off . . . but the air conditions had to be terrible. She wouldn’t last five seconds.

No, she decided. She’d pull herself up onto the back of her seat and see if there was an easier way out from the back of the smoking wreckage.

She sighed in weary exhaustion, not sure she had the strength to move a single finger. But that wouldn’t help her friends.

Romy released one half of her harness. Holding tightly to the strap, she released the second half of the harness—

Something gave. Not the harness, but whatever it was attached to, or attached with. For a moment Romy thought she might be able to salvage the tatters of her plan and still climb up. Until, with a loud ripping, the harness tore free from the rest of the chair.

It only took seconds to remember where she was when she woke this time.

The white-hot pain in her ankle helped.

Romy lay flat on her back, staring up at the remnants of the battler.

It took longer to realise the cracks in the visor of her helmet were larger. A hole the size of her thumbnail was directly in front of her mouth. Her eyes widened, though she lay unable to move.

She’d been breathing the air since she fell unconscious! And there was nothing she could do.

Would she feel it? Death? Or would she just slowly succumb to the lack of oxygen in the air?

Romy waited.

And waited.