Page 13 of BuK
Once the tarps are up, it doesn’t take long before BuK starts pacing inside the small area we are now temporarily calling home. His eyes are constantly scanning the area outside the main viewer. Especially when the snow started since we haven’t even seen rain yet, I thought that was odd, but I swear I can feel the temperature drop with every flake that lands. If it had been under different conditions, watching the once-vibrant, beautiful green landscape turn white might have been picturesque.
For a while, I walk behind BuK, but when I can no longer feel my feet, I decide to get off the floor. Since then, I’ve curled up in the chair, my arms tightly wrapped around my drawn-up legs. My body’s so stiff that I’m hurting all over. My lips are chapping, and my fingers and toes are so cold that it’s starting to hurt to move them. Conversation has become nonexistent as breathing in the frigid air seems to make me cough.
When I hear BuK growl, I glance up at him. “Something has to have happened. I know MeK would have sent that cargo bot by now.”
“You can’t go out there, BuK.”
He turns his head toward me, as if now realizing how tightly I’m curled into myself. Instantly, he lifts me, settling me onto his lap, and I swear the heat from his body actually hurts mine. Thankfully, after a little bit, the heat he’s able to share with me starts loosening my joints up a bit.
“You should have told me you were already this cold, Briar.”
When I tuck my nose into his neck, he hisses. “Sorry, I didn’t want to worry you worse than you already are.”
“Frack Briar, you are the reason I am so worried. I will not deny this cold is affecting me too, but you are my main priority right now.”
“You are just as important, BuK. I don’t want to be in this world without you in it.”
He pulls me close, and I swear I feel him kiss the top of my head, and that’s something he’s never done before, but to be fair, this is our first snuggle session too. But even with him holding me, I’m still shivering uncontrollably. Suddenly exhausted, I close my eyes and I must have dozed off, because I jerk awake feeling him raise up with me still in his arms.
“What?”
“I thought I saw movement out there for just a tic.”
Even though he’s still holding me in his arms, I can feel his body shivering now as well. Then I see it … a blinking red light. “I think I see something.”
“Where?”
“Just past that last tree, something is blinking. There it did it again.”
“Frack, I wonder how long it’s been there, stuck in the snow?”
“BuK, what are we going to do now? We need those supplies.”
“I am going to go out and get that crate.”
“The hell you are!You won’t last two damn minutes out there. At least the wind is being blocked inside the pod, but out there, you’ll be subjected to all the elements.”
When he starts to set me down on the small, what we would’ve called a daybed, I refuse to let go of him. “BuK, there is nothing you can do.”
“I will not sit here and watch you die when I might have been able to save you.”
“So, you think solving this problem means sacrificing yourself?”
“Neither of us will survive the next few risings without the gear inside that crate, and you know it, Briar. I wish there were another way, but there is not.” He unwinds my arms from around his neck and walks away before I can say another word. The next thing I know, he’s loosened the side of one of the tarps and is ducking under it.
“Shit, damn, hell!! I really wish the cosmos would stop trying to kill me!”
Gritting my teeth, I force myself to get up, making my stiff legs move. I hadn’t realized how much cold the tarps were holding back until I stepped to the other side. The entire interior of the pod is covered in a thin layer of frost, making it easy for me to clearly see BuK’s footprints leading down the stairs to the lower level. Because I don’t trust my footing, and I’m a little scared that if I fall I might shatter like glass, it takes me slightly longerto maneuver down the stairs, only to find him tearing apart a panel next to the main cargo door with his bare hands.
“BuK, whattt arrre you doinggg?” My words stutter as my entire body shakes uncontrollably.
“MeK was trying to tell me how to override this door when we lost communications. He said something about a blue wire, but I do not know what I was supposed to do with it.”
“Well, it’s nottt a bomm, so just cccut the damn thinggg and see what happpenns.”
The second he cuts the wire, we hear a whine, and the door starts opening. I have to turn away and close my eyes because it feels like the cold is trying to freeze the inside of my head. BuK is out the door before I can say another word. Forcing myself back up the stairs, I head to the viewer. My heart lurches in my chest when I see him struggling to get through the knee-high snow, his bare arms up, trying to block the wind from his face as he slowly pushes forward.
He falls several times, and I’ve never felt so helpless. Finally, BuK makes his way to the cargo bot, but the crate seems to be stuck. I see him kick at the machine’s main lifting arms, and I wonder how he even has the strength to lift his leg, let alone try to force the arms to release the crate.
