The wind circled around them like a pack of howling wolves, biting into them with each ice-filled blast. Sleek held the controls firm as he negotiated each gusting push and shove that slammed into the machine, until he finally landed on the damp, rock-strewn ground. Sleek took the goggles Harrison offered him and gave a sombre nod of farewell. A farewell, he knew, that may be their last. He adjusted his goggles before taking off into the sky, reaching his oscillation speed and disappearing seconds later. Harrison looked around him at the gloomy horizon and pulled his overcoat tighter across his chest. A white mist whipped up from the freezing waves of the Atlantic Ocean smacked into him, leaving him cold and stinging. ‘So this is where you live?’ His lips moved slowly in the biting cold. From over the horizon a four-wheel drive vehicle with thick, all-terrain tyres drove into view. It bumped over the gnarled and stony landscape before coming to an abrupt stop. ‘Kronch. Of course,’ Harrison murmured.
