Nick landed on the alien hillside, lost his footing and slid downhill for several yards before he could stop. Everything was plunged into near-total darkness. He looked around wildly, blinking hard. His eyes stung a bit from dust or whatever.

There's got to be an exit, right? There's got to be a way back, right?

Nick fought down fear that was trying to turn into panic. I do not have time to panic, figure this OUT, Nick!

He squinted, trying to look back uphill. The first order of business was to figure out exactly where the portal had been, so he could be ready if and when it opened up again. Gradually, his eyes adapted to the darkness.

The stars were bright and plentiful; while there wasn't enough light to see in color, Nick could soon make out the shapes of rocks and the hillside. All right. That's a start. Think, Nick, think. Solid footing—get solid footing. Don't go sliding down the hill again.

He moved around cautiously, feeling the ground through his sneakers, finding a spot that was almost level. He took a couple of deep breaths. Don't panic. Work the problem.

Look on the bright side—at least you can breathe. The air's got oxygen in it. There must be something like plants around. Nick looked this way and that, but couldn't make out anything he recognized as trees, grass or bushes. The hillside seemed barren.

Maybe there's like, some super-moss or something that breathes really heavily? Oxygen doesn't just sit around, right? Oxygen eats everything; if it doesn't burn it, it rusts it. So the only way there's oxygen is if there's a supply. So don't panic. One less thing to panic about.

Nick felt a tremor in one leg. Nerves. Not now. He did his best to ignore it.

Either that portal is going to open right back up, or it isn't. If it doesn't, or doesn't soon, I need to keep myself alive in the meantime. I should stay right here, and plan, so I'm not wasting any time. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Nick found himself starting to hyperventilate and held his breath for a few seconds to counter it. Not now. Panic once I'm safe. Look on the bright side, he urged himself. Look on the bright side. What's the bright side?

Nick looked up at the star-filled sky and took in the majestic sight. He took a slow breath. It was...amazing.

I'm on another planet. I'm actually on another planet. I am the first human being ever to set foot on another goddamn planet! Eat your heart out, Neil Armstrong! They're gonna remember me forever!

Nick clung to that for a few moments, even though he worried that nobody might ever hear of him again or know what happened to him. It helped, a little, to remember that he should feel awe. This was an incredible, impossible situation, but in a way it was like a miracle, too.

His thoughts were running all over the place and he struggled to focus. He thought about a science fiction movie he'd watched a while back. It was actually kind of similar to his situation now, come to think of it. One guy, alone, on another planet, working his ass off to survive. What did he say, again? “That's it, I'm gonna die here...so you work the problem. You solve the first problem in front of you, then the next step, then the next step...”

It went something like that. Nick didn't have a fantastic memory. He didn't have a lot of wisdom, either, but he did know some movies and books. He reached for any advice he could think of, anything that would help him right now. Every survival adventure story he'd ever seen or read.

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I should mark this spot, in case I have to leave and come back. I'm maybe fifteen feet downhill of where the portal appeared. Twenty feet, maybe? All right, thirty feet on the outside. Just remember that. This is the flattest spot, so make some kind of symbol with rocks.

Nick bent over and started cautiously picking up loose rocks. Just my luck if a space spider bites me or something. He hadn't seen any sign of movement by anything except him, though. Small mercies. Stepping carefully, he gathered a couple of dozen fist sized rocks and arranged them in an arrow pointing uphill. Then he rethought that, and rearranged it so that the arrow pointed downhill. If I have to move away from here, and someone somehow manages to open the portal and come looking for me, I should leave a trail. Just like a castaway on an island.

Nick tried to think of the next good thing to do. What do I need? Oxygen, food, water, clothing, shelter, internet, a spaceship... Nick cut that meandering list short and tried again. What do I need the most?

He felt the chill in the air and realized that shelter was probably a fairly high priority. Maybe I can find a cave or something? He wasn't sure what else would work. The wind was picking up, and it was fairly bitter.

He was running out of ideas. All right, try it another way. Nick reached for another movie memory: “What are our assets?”

Nick took a breath. He felt a tiny bit better to have a specific question to work on. Right. What ARE my assets? Nick mentally took stock of himself; unfortunately he did not randomly carry around a lighter, fishing line, a loaded pistol or all the other things the heroes in stories just happened to have on them when the shit hit the fan. He didn't even have his backpack; he had set it down each time he changed position while he was directing traffic, and it wasn't with him when he got blown through the portal.

“If only we had a wheelbarrow, that would be something!”

Nick recalled the sight of half a car tumbling down the hill. Double checking that he probably could find the arrow again, Nick turned and started carefully stepping and sliding downhill, looking around. There was a faint yellow glow off to his left. Nick squinted and steered for it.

It turned out to be the back half of the car; the cut edge looked perfectly straight, razor-sharp, and white-hot. Well, yellow hot, fading to orange. Half the back seat was there, the edge a bit molten and smoldering.

Something squished underfoot as he stepped and bent down to peer inside. Nick jumped back, wondering if he had just found a native critter, but nothing was moving. He reached down, squinting, and picked it up.

It was an apple.

Eyes wide, Nick stuck his head in, looking in the back of the car, and found luck was with him for once. There were five bags of groceries. Half the contents had spilled out, and everything was a mess. But it was food. And a messy bit of shelter, to boot!

“Yes!” Nick was excited, but stifled his own voice out of instinct. He realized that there was basically nothing making noise around, beyond the wind whistling a bit. He was the loudest thing in the area. That might not be a good thing.

He just stopped and listened for a while, until he was a little more confident some alien monster was not stampeding towards him.

All right. What else have I got to work with? He thought back.

The girl alien had thrown something to him. Maybe it would help, if he could find it. He hadn't gotten more than a brief glimpse. It just looked like a rock to him.

Nick climbed back out of the car, looked around and picked up a rock about the size of the one the alien threw at him. He faced downhill and mimicked the underhand toss he had seen, then watched the rock tumble downhill until he lost sight of it.

Well, crap. It could be anywhere. Hell, it might even be the remote control to turn the portal back on or something! I've got to find it.

Nick headed back uphill to start at the highest spot it could possibly be. He had a couple of minutes of panic when he realized that he couldn't find the arrow he had made out of rocks, but eventually he literally stumbled across it. He kicked a few rocks out of place doing so, so he crouched down to put them back.

Maybe it was because his eyes were better adapted to the dark, or maybe the sky was getting a little brighter, but this time he noticed that one of the rocks he had picked up looked and felt a bit different from the others. He pulled it close to his face and squinted at it, then felt along its surface. It was smoother, and maybe a little bit warmer than the other rocks.

This is the one the girl alien threw at me. Like she was apologizing, or something. Maybe she said in alien, “I'm sorry, but this is the best I can do for you!” And then she threw me this. I could have used a communicator, or a ray gun, or hell, even a sword... but no.

I got a rock.