Ren's mind was a haze of fragmented thoughts and fleeting images. She found herself drifting in a state of half-awareness, the pain in her body ebbing and flowing. Her eyelids fluttering open to reveal a blurred view of her surroundings, blinking away the dizziness. Ren tried to gather her bearings, feeling disoriented after the crash, and the separation from Noey added to her growing panic. She needed to find her, no matter the cost.
Heart pounding in her chest, Ren realized she was alone, stranded on an uncharted planet. Noey could be anywhere, injured and in need of help. Ren refused to accept the possibility that Noey might be dead. Pushing through the haze of pain and mustering up her strength, she managed to sit upright and survey her surroundings. She found herself in the midst of a dense, alien jungle. Towering trees stretched towards the sky, their branches intertwined like a canopy shielding the ground below from the harsh glare of two suns. It struck her as funny that the trees, while being obviously alien, were still green like the trees of her motherworld. The air was thick with their bizarre scents, but something about their familiar color soothed her.
With a groan, Ren tried to stand, testing her legs and wincing at the pain that shot through her body. She needed to ignore her injuries for now. Clutching her injured arm to her chest and with no real sense of direction, she began stumbling through the dense jungle. Every rustle of leaves, every snap of a twig sent her heart racing. She desperately wanted to call out Noey's name, but caution held her back. She was consumed by a sense of unease, feeling lost and blind without her crawler.
As the twin suns heated the air to stifling temperatures, Ren began to pour sweat. With each step, she began to feel her physical condition deteriorate further, combining her desperate search for Noey with a battle against her own body's limitations.
As the suns began to dip behind the horizon, her initial injuries, though severe, began to pale in comparison to the ominous signs of infection. Fear clutched her as she digested the fact that there were no medipods or even basic medical supplies. Her determination was pushed to the limits as she grappled with the intensifying pain and the gripping symptoms of a fever as it began to overtake her.
The fever, a blazing fire within her veins, brought with it a delirium that blurred the line between reality and hallucination. Vivid mirages of salvation flickered on the horizon, only to dissipate into the humid, unforgiving expanse of the planet. Several times she believed that she heard Noey calling out to her, only to rush in that direction and find nothing. With each passing hour, the fever worsened, sapping her strength and clouding her judgment, making the act of placing one foot in front of the other an act of sheer willpower.
Due to the fever ravaging her mind and body, it took Ren a long time to become aware of a haunting presence lurking within the shadows, stalking her every step, its motives as obscured as its form. The stark reality of her injuries and the creeping infection that threatened her life blinded her to the nearby danger.
However, as Ren trudged through the blackness of the incycle, the sensation of being watched grew stronger, making her more aware of every sound of the surrounding jungle. Eventually, she did catch a glimpse of movement in her peripheral vision, but she couldn't tell if it was yet another figment of her imagination or reality. Whenever she turned to confront the shadows, she found nothing but the desolate darkness stretching out into infinity, leaving her to question just how deep into her fever she was.
The creature, if it indeed existed beyond the fever-induced nightmares, seemed to be toying with her, maintaining just enough distance to stay out of sight. Its presence was often suggested by fleeting impressions: a rustle just beyond the edge of hearing, footprints that vanished into the foliage, a fleeting shadow that raced beneath the trees, a hulking figure at the edge of the darkness that blocked out the stars of the alien sky. Each sign increased Ren's fear, feeling more tangible than any of the other hallucinations. The fever raged within her, making it impossible to discern the hallucinations from the reality of her predator's pursuit.
In her moments of lucidity, she considered the possibility that the creature was a manifestation of her fears — a physical embodiment of the infection ravaging her body and the isolation that was swallowing her. Ren's mind became a battleground, torn between the primal urge to survive and uncertainty that the creature might merely be a harbinger of her impending demise. Yet, the fear remained. It pushed her to the edge of her endurance. The ambiguity of the threat stalked her as relentlessly as the creature itself, compelling her to keep moving despite her failing strength and the labyrinth of the jungle that seemed to entrap her further with every step. Whether the creature was real or a figment of her fevered imagination, it propelled her forward. It reminded her of the fragile thread by which life hangs in the face of the unknown and the unfathomable.
********
Ren walked heavily on through the incycle until the suns began to peek through the canopy of trees once more. The terror of being stalked in the blackness was only slightly lessened by the arrival of the suns. She could still sense something watching and following her, waiting for her to falter, and her strength was waning. Something gleamed in the distance, metal reflecting light. She had made it. She had found the ship, or was it another hallucination? Her steps quickened as she raced for the ship. The front half of the hull was wedged tight between two trees and half impaled on a third tree approximately six meters up. The ground under the ship was littered with debris, but there was no sign of Noey. Ren spun frantically, scanning the area.
"Noey!" Her resolve to remain silent and avoid detection in the unknown jungle melted away in the face of despair. "Noey, can you hear me? Noey!" She sobbed, her last reserve of strength vanishing, "Noey, I'm here!" She sank to the ground and was unconscious again in seconds. Ren's fever raged on, and her wounds worsened.