We stabilized Cole's wound and got the two newly conjoined twins in a sitting position. Robert was an absolute fountain of foul language and Cole had passed out. Hopefully, not from shock.
"Claire, tell me the absolute worst that can happen," Aaron demanded. He looked more worried than I had ever seen him.
"Why would you care?" I screamed, rapidly trying to think of a solution. The only one so far was a rudimentary invasive solution that required surgical skills none of us high school freshmen could possibly possess. "I hope the blood types are congruent…" I muttered to myself.
"As much as you think I'm a monster, I am not," Aaron said. "And Robert's our only way off Mars."
Not anymore, I'm not," Robert said, sounding surprisingly dejected. "And besides, there isn't really an Earth to go back to. I destroyed it."
"We'll get all that straightened out right away," I assured. "As soon as we get Cole patched up, we'll be back on track."
Jack and Jason sighed. Aaron shook his head and walked out. Robert looked like he wanted to do the same, except his arm was still attached to Cole's shoulder.
"So what is the worst case scenario?" Robert asked.
I stared at him. "If we can't separate you and Cole, and you guys don't have the same blood type…" I trailed off, not sure if I wanted to continue that train of thought.
"You're saying we'll die," Robert clarified.
"No, but if your arm's intact–" I said.
"Stop. I get it," Robert said. "I won't stop you. Get on with it."
I sighed. I walked over and checked on Cole again. "Cole, are you awake?" I asked. "Hello?"
"I'm awake. Is that a good sign?" Robert asked.
"Um, yeah? I don't know, really," I said. "I mean, what am I supposed to do?" Honestly, I thought things couldn't possibly get worse when I burned Aaron's face, but I was wrong. Really wrong.
My writer was threatening to end this. And that was the worst thing that could possibly happen.
"Claire," Aaron called from the other room.
"Yeah?" I said. "What do you want?" I walked to the doorway.
"Plan?" Aaron asked.
"Nope," I said. I looked at Jack and Jason. "You guys?" They shook their heads.
"Come on!" Aaron cried desperately. "Cole's out there, unconscious, and Robert just lost his powers! What do you mean we don't have a plan?"
"Aaron–" I started.
"Don’t get me started with you," Aaron shouted. "You got us stuck here. You got us these powers. When are you going to step up and fix things?"
"I don't have all the answers!" I screamed. Turning, I stormed out of the room into the bunk area, climbing up and burying my head in my bunk pillow.
"Screw this. Why this?" I screamed into the pillow. "Why now?"
Calm down, my writer said. You know you can do it. I know you can do it. Aaron certainly thinks you can.
"How?" I asked.
Pressure. Gravity. Bonds. Friction. Force redirection. Unimaginable power, my writer reminded. You can do so much. Think of something. I know you can do it.
I took a deep breath and headed back into the kitchen area where Cole was still sleeping. Aaron and Jason were sitting in silence, and Jack was on the computer in the other room.
"Claire?" Jason said, looking up. "I have something I want to ask you."
"What do you want?" I asked.
"I have an idea about leaving–" Jason started.
"No," I said. "We're not leaving."
"You know Venus is still–" Jason stopped.
"Even if we could live on Venus, which we cannot, there is a more important task at hand," I said.
"You have a plan?" Aaron asked.
"Yes I have a plan," I said. Robert perked up. Well, it was the same rudimentary invasive solution from before, but I had a feeling my writer would back me.
Aaron smiled. "Now let's get started." 813Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP2d1265jeJ
