A Long Night

The rain didn't stop all day long. The water continued to pour, wearing down not only the travel pod, but also myself. Even though the lights were on, I was warmed up, and my seat was comfortable, I couldn't do anything or enjoy doing nothing. As if a sickness was slowly coming, I felt a certain restlessness, without being able to actually move. I was frozen, and on the inside, burning up.

Everything was gray. The trees around were a smear, the ground outside mud. Even the power lines were only slightly visible, and I wasn't sure that they wouldn't just suddenly end.

Lottie rumbled, sputtering. And just like every time today she did it, I twitched, my heart racing with worry. Was Lottie truly fixed? Or was there some new problem that could leave us stranded?

But every time, she continued to move again, slowly but surely. By now, I didn't care how fast we were going, I was just hoping that we would move forward. And that the rain would end.

It shouldn't bee too much to ask, but the weather didn't change. Minutes melted into hours, and then those hours melted into something that I couldn't even describe. Was it still day, or was night approaching? The clock told me it was barely after six, but that didn't feel right. Nothing felt quite right.

Lottie rumbled again, and stopped.

"That's the fifth time this hour," Em remarked.

"You counted?"

"I did."

"Huh. That's... bad."

"What's so bad about counting?"

"No, I mean Lottie."

I still stared outside, waiting for Lottie to sputter back to life. Nothing happened.

"And for how long has she stayed like this during the last four times?" I asked.

"Around three to five seconds."

"This is longer. Much longer, Em."

"I know."

Still, she didn't seem to be bothered.

"Could there be another problem with the connector?"

She shook her head. "I restored it perfectly."

"But..."

I looked outside. The weather hadn't improved. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it had worsened. Now, the rain was the only thing moving.

"This is wrong. Something is going on."

It had gotten darker. That much I could tell, by the fact that even if I squinted, I couldn't see anything outside. Not even the light that shone from our warm little haven seemed able to penetrate the veil of water. It was a whole different world out there.

And I certainly didn't want to go out there again. For a moment, I endured the silence - was it seconds or minutes? - but Lottie didn't do anything.

"Lottie, status report."

I dreaded the pod's answer, or worse, no answer at all. But finally, the familiar image popped up.

"Blockage detected ahead. Manual removal is required," she chirped, too cheerful for this situation.

"Something is blocking us?"

I inched closer to the window, but I couldn't even make out what could be out there. Nothing. I saw only smears of gray, unmoving against the dance of raindrops. Somewhere, thunder rumbled.

"Well, I guess there's nothing we can do," I said, falling back.

"Lottie said to remove it, right?"

"Well, yes." I glanced at Emelyse. "But I don't want to go out."

Getting drenched once had been bad enough. But twice in a day? There was no way I wasn't getting out of this with a big cold at the end of today. I shivered just thinking about stepping outside again. No, thank you.

"But..."

I closed my eyes. In this moment, I didn't want to see her pondering face. She probably had some really good reasons, like the fact that we didn't know when the rain would end or that we really should continue our journey. I knew. I was just too exhausted by this point, so exhausted that sleep wasn't even an option. I didn't want to do anything at all.

"Blockage detected. Please remove the object to ensure a safe continuation of our journey." It was Lottie, her tone much more artificial than usual. "Please remove the blockage."

"We should look," Emelyse added.

"I know," I grumbled. "I know, Em. But... urgh, fine. Let me just change my suit settings."

My suit was low battery, so we didn't have much time. But for this weather, I put on the 'winter' mode I had only used once or twice in my life. Suddenly, the pod was too warm, too stuffy, and I shook my whole body. It wouldn't shield me from the rain, but at least, it would keep me warm.

"Then let's look."

I grabbed a little repair bot as my companion, turning the brightness all the way up. But even with its help, I could barely see outside. The rain blurred my vision, the water burned in my eyes. My soles sank into the mud, so slippery that I had to steady myself on Lottie.

Emelyse followed me. Her suit looked oddly naked to me in this horrible weather.

"Are you cold?" I screamed against the storm.

"No, I'm perfectly fine." She smiled as if this was a calm and sunny day.

I blinked at her. "Uh, well, great."

To me, this felt more like a fight for my life. I had to fight the rain, the ground, Lottie, myself, the whole universe. One step after the other, I managed to get forward, until I finally saw what had been blocking us.

"A tree? Really?"

In the storm, a young tree must have fallen on the powerline, small enough not to cause any damage to both the line and Lottie, but big enough to be a disturbance to the sensors. And even though it was a young tree, it didn't look like it would be easy to remove.

Especially when the rain made it hard to grab anything.

"Alright," I muttered.

I was already soaked through, and my cheeks were burning with the cold. The least I could do was get that tree off the line, so we could continue our journey. With Emelyse next to me, I grabbed a branch and started to pull.

"Hnnngh!"

Nothing happened. Only the ground under my feet seemed slippery, while the tree was glued to the line. I huffed. I wasn't that weak, was I? I pulled again, ramming my feet into the muddy ground.

"Get off!"

A creak, and a crack, and then I was on the ground, pain shooting through my back and with the remains of the branch in my hand. I cursed, and got up again.

The suit kept my body warm, and anger warmed my soul. I grabbed at the deep ridges in the bark, while Emelyse did the same on the other side. I didn't know if it was sweat or rain that ran down my face. My fingertips burned with pain. I screamed, only for the sound to be swallowed up by the storm.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the tree moved. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't do anything but try and get that tree off the powerline.

It was miserable.

"Aaaah!"

And with another forceful pull, the tree came loose, sliding off to the side.

"Yeah!"

This time, it was a victory scream, not one born out of frustration, that left my soul. And then, all energy left me. It was cold. I was wet. And the mud was pretty disgusting. I shivered, and looked at Emelyse.

Even she looked exhausted, but she managed a smile. I smiled back.

"Let's get back inside."

I shook my head. There was no way that I would have done this if I was by myself. And as bad as the day had been, I couldn't wait to finally wrap myself in my warm blanket and fall asleep.