The rain fell in thick sheets. The five men carrying Deimos were a blur only a short distance ahead. Wet strands of hair clumped around her face. She held one arm over her eyes, jogging to catch up. The roar of the rain was unbelievable, almost frightening. Or maybe it was the situation. She caught fragments of conversation as the five men shouted to each other.

The men rounded a large tree and Romy slowed to a stop. She watched numbly as Deimos was carefully loaded into what could only be. . . .

. . . an automobile.

Two of them.

A low voice spoke in her ear. “It’s a vehicle.”

Romy spun to face Atlas, heart beating fast. She looked back to the car. Her head was spinning as she attempted to comprehend all the impossibilities of the last few days. “But all automobiles were seized in 2047,” she whispered. In a desperate attempt to change the fate of the planet, the government bodies had systematically confiscated all vehicles. It was just before society erupted into anarchy. She rubbed her forehead. In that moment, she just wanted to go back to reading about Earth on her nano in her room on Orbito One.

It was too much.

Hands gripped her shoulders. Atlas dipped his head near hers. Romy avoided his gaze, closing her eyes to conceal her burning tears.

“I promise you,” he said, “I will explain what I can, soon. But right now, I need you to get in the car. You’re the only one who is keeping it together right now. I need you to lead your friends.”

This was keeping it together?

“Deimos needs help. Now.” He brushed his thumbs along her upper arm in a soothing gesture. “Can you do that, soldier?”

Romy studied his face. The situation was quickly spiralling into something she couldn’t cope with. There was an overwhelming temptation to stick to what she knew––her knot—and deny that everything else was happening.

“I need you to do this,” he said.

She looked away and nodded, Deimos once again influencing her decision. Atlas hesitated before dropping his hands.

He shouted to the men, wiping the rain from his eyes, and made for the second car.

The rest of her knot crowded around Romy, each of them attempting and failing to find some small protection from the rain. Romy had once read the phrase “soaked to the bone”. She remembered laughing, thinking it a cute remnant of Earth.

Romy had never before been so completely drenched that it sucked the life from her.

Thrym hovered to her left. Elara had taken hold of her hand on the other side. Atlas was right. Romy was in no way calm, but her friends were falling apart. She stood tall, aiming for nonchalance, hoping her knot would take comfort from it.