Creak.
"That's not good" I said.
The spotted brown rusty metal beneath me cracked and shifted and dropped downwards slightly.
"Shaye!... Shaye!" I yelled, not receiving a response.
An awkward silence surrounded me as the bridge crackles and falls a bit more. The beep of my wrist communicator broke the silence. A muttered voice came through in between the static.
"Reuā¦ Enā¦ Ubenā¦ Reuben! ā¦ Fallingā¦ Run!" Shaye was panicking.
A large bang sent shiver's down my spine as the bridge beneath me separated in the middle. The bridge snapped and crashed to the platform underneath. Losing my footing complete, I rolled down the newly downward planked bridge. My wrist communicator hooked on the edge, stopping my body from falling. Only inches away from falling to my death, I swung my arm up and grabbed the edge. I unhooked my wrist and tried to pull myself up. The bridge shifted and fell down slightly more, forcing me to dangle by one hand again.
"Reuben!" Shaye yelled from the bottom shaft.
"Shaye! Get out of here!" I yelled back while grabbing the edge with both hands again.
Looking back down at the bottom shaft, the tiny spec that used to be Shaye was gone. Now she listens to me. The middle of the planked bridge cracked and begun to separate. As the bridge begun to slid, I pulled my feet up to my chest and pushed off of the wall. Flying blind on where I was going to land, I launched myself into the air.
My heart was pounding in my chest as I fell over a story and a half. Not being able to land my feet on the platform, I stretched my arms out in front of me. They catch the edge, stopping my fall. My left arm popped. I quickly pulled myself up onto the platform. My arm was dangling from its socket as I sat on my knees.
"Reuben!" Shaye yelled while running through the doorway to the platform.
"Shaye, I thought you left" I said.
"I couldn't just leave you here to diā¦" her sentence was cut off from the bridge above us crashing down to the bottom shaft. "Die" she said finishing her sentence.
She reached over to my left arm to help me up. A sharp pain blazed through my arm on contact.
"Aaaaa" I screamed in pain as Shaye jumped back.
Leaning back over my shoulder. She gently placed one hand on the top of my shoulder and the other a few inches above my elbow. Before I could ask her what she was doing, she pushed my shoulder back into its socket. I screamed in pain as she stood up and looked over the edge.
"Jez, that looks like you beat your record again" Shaye said.
"Really? How far would you say it was this time?" I asked in a soft voice as I stood up and joined her.
"Um, maybe a twenty to twenty-five-foot gap" Shaye said.
I backed away from the edge, holding my shoulder. Shaye followed me. Walking slowly toward the doorway, both our halo maps beeped. Looking at each other for a split second, we opened our maps. A red dot popped up half a mile from our current spot.
"We've been out here all day and they want us to go to another spot?" Shaye asked.
"Yeah, but it looks like we can hit it on the way back to the base" I said, pointing to the path on the map.
"How many times are we going to nearly die on these runs?" Shaye said with slight anger in her voice.
"Shaye, we are nothing but property to them" I said, walking through the doorway.
High tailing it to our bikes, we raced to our last location. we slammed on the brakes and our bikes came to a quick stop. Looking around I could see anything for us to scavenge near by.
"Are we at the right spot?" Shaye yelled.
I checked my halo map again. We were in the right spot, but there is still nothing in sight. I hopped off my bike and walked over to Shaye, who was still sitting on her bike.
"Yeah, this is the right location" I said in a confused voice as I continued to scanned the surrounding area.
Shaye pointed at a skinny line of smoke coming from the bottom of a steep hill. She hopped off her bike and we walked over the edge. Peering down we could barely see a small newly crashed ship covered in dust and sand. The skinny line of smoke coming from the cracks in the engine compartment. Taking a small jump, I slid down the hill, Shaye close behind. Shaye stumbled and did a somersault before landing on her feet.
"You alright?" I asked her.
"Never betterā¦ I can't believe we get to search a newly crashed ship" she said.
I whipped the dust off the pilot window and looked inside. Jumping back, I fell on my butt crawled back slightly. Shaye walked over to me and helped me up. She looked over at the window and I could see her heart drop.
"The pilot is still in there" she said.
I ran back over to the window and tried to free the manual unlock. It was to jammed to be freed like this. Shaye grabbed her lightning torch and started to cut away the lining of the window. She removed the entire window as I unbuckled the pilot and pulled her out.
"Is she alive?" Shaye asked.
I checked for a pulse. "No, she's dead" I said.
"Okay then let's get what we can from her ship and get her body back to base" Shaye said while checking out the engine compartment.
We searched the ship and took everything that we could. We slipped a few small components and energy cells into secret compartments in our bikes before hooking the engine to the back of Shaye's bike. The pilot was going to be riding back with me. I made sure to call the base and inform them of situation. It wasn't long after that we were on our way back.