Light

There's light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope you'll forgive the cliche; I'm in a somewhat unstable frame of mind. I followed the cave without stopping to rest. I've got one mouthful of water left, and I'm saving it. My throat is burning, but, honestly, I don't feel as bad as I might, under the circumstances. After I'd walked for a few hours, I began to see a glow ahead, different from the glow of the cave walls. As I got nearer, it brightened. I started wondering whether this was it, whether I'd finally lost it. I kept walking.

The cave I walked through opens into the cavern. The cavern where we lost the researchers. The cavern that is days of travel by Jeep from the furrow, and weeks of travel on top of that from Victoria. Time and space are different here. I knew that, in an intellectual sense, but now I feel it in my belly. Phillips, the lost researchers, and the thing that was chasing me must all have made similar journeys.

The stupid thing is that I'm now so much closer to the facility, but I might as well still be at the furrow. There's nothing here for me, and I don't have enough water to walk back. I'm going to die here, closer to the facility than I've been for weeks, after everything I've been through, everything I've survived.