Beyond Our Stars by Marie Langager

darkness, waiting to swallow me up.
    Suddenly Chance climbed onto the hovering bar, and I silently blessed him for not making me argue about leaving me down here.
    Then arms pulled me up, and Chance pressed my body to his as the floor under my feet disappeared. My feet dangled above the stars.
    I could feel his heart hammering in his chest.
    He adjusted his arms slightly, getting a tighter hold around my waist. But he couldn’t do this forever. None of us could.
    We balanced precariously there for only a minute, but I could feel the desperation of the group, the hopelessness. I heard one of them whimper.
    I felt Chance press his cheek to my head.
    Then pitch-blackness enveloped us before the lights flashed on.
    And we were back in the Stack.

Chapter Seven
    Chance let go of me after a few moments of stunned waiting. So it was over? It’d been fast. The doors to our Stack slid open.
    We walked outside, still completely stunned by the last few minutes. A Local took us back to the elevator and we went through the tunnel back to the landing site. We were the first ones back, but fairly quickly the other Specs started to arrive. Apparently the children had been in a session with all the lights turning off for a few seconds, then back on, then off. One of the youngest kids had gotten scared but they all comforted her. The old-erly were back as well, though more shaken.
    They’d also been in a session that dealt with darkness, but theirs had been a total blackout the whole time, with strange noises and the feeling of things crawling on their skin.
    I didn’t know if I would’ve liked that one much better than ours, but at least they weren’t running for their lives. Why did we seem to be doing that so often?
    The adults were the last to arrive, and they were completely shell-shocked. None of them were talking yet and a few looked confused and lost. I finally managed to get Celina to talk to me. She was in her fifties, a calm and generous sort of woman. I think she’d been a housewife before, which meant that she’d probably had children. None who were with her now. I’d never asked and I never would.
    â€œWhat was it?” I put my hands on her arms softly, forcing her to look at me.
    â€œI, I don’t know if they’re okay,” she said in a quiet, muted voice I could barely hear. I glanced back at the other adult Specs. One, two …there were only eight of them.
    This had never happened before.
    â€œCelina, where are the rest of them? What happened? Tell me... Celina? Look at me, I need to know what happened, okay?”
    Her eyes finally focused on me. “They fell,” she said, sudden terror sweeping her face.
    And I knew. They’d had an identical session to ours. “Where are they?” I asked, my pitch elevating despite my best efforts. Whatever had happened to the two missing could happen to any of us.
    Celina was crying silently now, watching me. I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be one of the strong ones. An example. Many of the survivors had begun to notice we were back early and were gathering around us.
    â€œI’m so sick of these cruel games,” Celina murmured softly.
    I rubbed Celina’s hand soothingly and made sure I had total control over my emotions. We were standing inside the Site. If they wanted, they could lower the force field and we’d be cut off from the Stacks with our people left inside. If they were…no, of course they were alive.
    â€œI want us all in that tunnel, right now,” I said loudly and confidently. I motioned to the entrance to the Stacks for the adult group. I was met with surprised and fearful looks and no movement. I looked to Chance for support. He shook his head slightly, but gave me a questioning look. Okay, so some convincing was in order.
    â€œListen, they’ve still got two Specs. If it were you, would you want us to leave you inside? I’m saying we make a stand right now. They