by Jack Porter
“Ouch,” said Uma.
I couldn’t disagree. If it weren’t for my subdermal mesh, I might have been in serious trouble. As it was, the panther’s claws had raked a series of slashes over my torso and shoulder. They weren’t very deep, but there were more of them than I would have liked, and they weren’t exactly comfortable.
“Give it to me,” Uma said, gesturing for my shirt. I handed it over, and she used it to clean away the blood.
“Not that bad,” she announced when she was done, but I wasn’t entirely sure she was saying it for my benefit or hers.
“I’ve had worse,” I said.
She looked at me. “Not when you didn’t have your backup in easy comms range, I’d wager,” she answered, and I had to agree.
Still, I mustered my usual grin. “I’ll be fine. I heal quickly, and that antiseptic cream from the med kit should take care of any infection issues.” We hadn’t brought the kit with us, preferring to travel light, but I wasn’t worried about that so much. We would be back to it soon enough. “In the meantime, maybe we can rip my shirt up into strips, and use them as bandages.”
Working together, we did as I’d suggested, and wrapped the makeshift bandages around the worst of my injuries as best as we could.
At the same time, I was thinking about this world and how dangerous it was. The wastelands were bad enough, with our little group having to fight for their very survival more often than I was comfortable with, but this jungle was taking it to a new level.
If I’d been surveying this world for the Company, I would have labelled the jungle wildlife “extremely hostile,” and added a warning that habitation was not recommended.
But we didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.
“It’s not ideal, is it?” Uma asked, her thoughts apparently echoing my own.
I couldn’t lie to her. “No, it is not. Unless we can find something to mitigate this jungle’s dangers, then setting up a base in here would be suicidal.” I shrugged. “Maybe our best option is to set up just outside, and go on regular excursions for water and meat.”
But even as I said it, I knew my suggestion was a poor solution at best. We would effectively be splitting the party every time, and whoever went in would be exposing themselves to danger.
Yet there didn’t seem to be any choice.
Uma didn’t reply, but her expression conveyed her dissatisfaction. She finished helping me with my makeshift bandages. “So, back to the others?” she said with a sigh. “Give them the bad news?”
I nodded.
However, before we had taken more than a few steps, we found ourselves in trouble again.
This time, it wasn’t a single animal, but a swarm of them. Not ants or anything so mundane. But an insectoid thing as big as my fist, covered in shining red armor, and moving like a single coherent creature.
When I first saw them, they were quiescent, just a huge, shapeless gathering in the form of a boulder.
But as we drew nearer, the boulder seemed to shimmer, and I paused, my club at the ready.
Then the shimmer repeated, and all of a sudden, the boulder disintegrated, becoming ten thousand, twenty thousand individual insect-like things that were heading right for us.
If we had been facing half a dozen or so, I would have simply crushed them with the heavy end of my club. But we weren’t. We were facing a swarm. And the only thing that had stopped them from swarming all over us already was that they didn’t appear to fly.
Instead, they marched at us with grim determination, at a speed that was frightening. And it was clear that their intent wasn’t friendly.
We had only one choice.
“Uma, run!” I cried. I grabbed her by the hand and took off, doing my level best to keep ahead of the insects.
We ran.
All of a sudden, the other dangers hidden among the trees became less urgent. For all either of us knew, we could have been plunging directly into the maw of some hidden monster, one of those fungus things, or whatever it was that had attacked the giant herbivore.
If that happened, then we would deal with it or not when the time came. In the meantime, we had to focus our efforts on staying ahead of the swarm.
Uma voiced a steady stream of curses even as we clambered over fallen trees, forced our way through undergrowth, and dodged around boulders and other obstacles.
The bugs were matching our pace, and both of us knew that a single misstep, a stumble or fall might be all it took for them to catch up.
And the noise!
The bugs made a chirping sound as they scurried along and their chitinous armor clattered as well. It was like ten thousand castanets clattering against one another on an ongoing, discordant basis.
All by itself, it was nearly enough to drive me mad, and I saw from Uma’s expression that she was impacted the same.
Perhaps that noise would have put off other prey, but for Uma and me, it provided additional motivation. We wanted to get away from it as fast as we could.
We charged through the forest with the swarm close behind us, and when I glanced behind us once more, I hesitated for half a beat.
“Do you see that?”
Uma turned back to look. “See what?”
“That bush. They’re avoiding it!”
It was a low, shrubby plant covered in blue flowers, and the sea of bugs could have plowed through it like they did with most others. Instead, they took a detour, like a river flowing around an immovable obstacle, leaving quite a gap around it.
I kept running as I looked, and my foot caught a root. I stumbled, almost falling, almost taking Uma down with me.
But the Commander was resolute. She used my grip on her arm to support me for just the few moments I needed. I righted myself and carried on.
“So?” Uma demanded.
I scanned the foliage ahead and spotted another of the plants. “This way!” I called, and crashed toward it, looking to repeat the experiment.
Again, the bugs avoided the plant, this time bending around it mostly to one side. They didn’t seem to want to get anywhere near it.
“How does that help us?” Uma said.
“Find others!” I replied. I had vague ideas of plucking some of the flowers or rolling in the plant like a dog in the hope that what I thought was happening proved true. That there was something about that plant that put the bugs off.
But there was too much going on to express that thought completely. It was enough that we just continued to run and keep our eyes open.
The plant proved irritatingly rare at first, but the more we looked for it, the more examples we found. Each time, the insects avoided it as if it was toxic, and I began to notice that other things seemed to do the same as well.
As we passed the plants by, I let go of Uma’s hand to snatch at it, coming away with a handful of leaves and flowers. I was at the point of turning and brandishing my makeshift bouquet like a weapon when all of a sudden, the jungle opened up.
Chapter 30
Both of us came to a complete stop.
“What the hell?” Uma breathed next to me, her words echoing my own thoughts exactly.
The two of us looked at each other, breathing hard, neither of us quite believing what we were seeing. A quick glance back the way we’d come showed the bugs, but they were no longer charging after us. Instead, they seemed hesitant, as if they were unsure what to do.
Together, Uma and I stepped further into what had once been a village.
The shrubby plants with blue flowers were everywhere, thick enough that the air was heavy with their delicate scent. It wasn’t unpleasant at all, at least to us. Yet the bugs didn’t seem to like it one bit.
My instincts said they were planted deliberately for protection. By whoever it was who had built the village.
There were perhaps half a dozen hut-like structures arranged haphazardly in a circular pattern. It was obviously long deserted. There were trees and vines growing amongst them, but not as many as everywhere els
e in the jungle, and those that were there were smaller. The shrubby plant with the blue flowers grew on the ground, on the trees, even on the huts themselves.
Those huts were dome-shaped, some of them broken open like eggs, and all of them covered in moss and other growths to go with the shrubs with the blue flowers.
Most of the huts were smallish, about the size of a decent bedroom. But one, the best preserved of the lot, was much bigger, twice, nearly three times as large.
In a state almost of disbelief, Uma and I drifted toward the largest of the huts, and my athletic companion reached out to touch one of the walls.
Yet we couldn’t stop thinking about the bugs. Even then, it seemed as if they were starting to drift away. As if the scent of the plants created a barrier through which they couldn’t pass.
“Do you think we’re safe here?” Uma asked.
I looked all around, using my augmentations to get a clear picture. “The insects have given up,” I said. “But that’s not all. Listen. It’s quieter here. Like there are fewer creatures about.” I held up my handful of leaves and flowers and sniffed.
It smelled like fresh mango.
I examined it with my sensors, and found nothing of any concern. Not to us, anyway.
Yet the bugs’ reaction was undeniable.
“Do you think that plant…” Uma began. “Do you think it might keep other things away as well?”
“Like the forest predators? Yeah. I think it might.”
She nodded, not quite willing to believe it, but hopeful. As was I.
With half an eye on the forest, we continued to look about.
“Who built this?” Uma wondered out loud. “How did they build it here? Where are they?”
I didn’t have any real answers. “Whoever they were—the huts aren’t made of any natural substance. It’s almost like a ceramic material. Abandoned long ago.”
Uma nodded, but she had seen something else. “Is that some sort of water feature?” she asked.
Together, we headed over.
“Look, it’s more than one pond. It’s an interconnected series of them. A complex fountain of some kind?” I said. “Is this a public bath?” I said.
Uma looked at me, but she wasn’t convinced. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s just decorative. Like a water garden.”
I could see that as well. Either way, there was something wrong with it. Some of the taller ponds—drinking fountains?—still held water, but the wider, shallower, bath-like pools did not. I didn’t quite understand why the water no longer flowed between them.
“I wonder how old it all is,” Uma asked.
“I don’t know. Decades. Maybe hundreds of years, judging by the decay.”
As I had been speaking, I was scanning the part of the water feature that still held water. I couldn’t see why…
Then I saw it. There was a way for the water to move from one pond to the next, but it had been blocked.
Without hesitation, I reached in and tried to work the blockage free. But I couldn’t.
“Give me your knife,” I said to Uma. I’d given it back to her after the fight with the panther.
She offered it over without hesitation.
As knives went, Uma’s machete was completely lacking in elegance. It was a jagged edge, a shard of metal torn from the transport itself. Yet it was narrower at the point than a normal machete, and I figured it would be good enough for what I had in mind.
I used it to dig the blockage out, and in seconds, water was pouring from the drinking fountain into the pool.
Nor did the drinking fountain seem to be emptying. I figured it might have drawn its water from an underground reservoir rather than the rain above.
It looked like the pool would take only a few minutes to fill.
I looked at Uma and offered her machete back.
“You requested a bath?” I said.
I could see her thinking through the implications. Could see her looking closely at me, and could even see her hunger. She wanted me. I knew that she did. And I’d just removed one of the barriers between that desire and acting upon it.
But there were others. Uma glanced about at the trees, and I knew what she was thinking.
“Is it truly safe?” she asked.
I gave her the best answer I could. “I think that if we were standing in any other part of the jungle, we wouldn’t last five minutes before half a dozen different predators caught our scent.”
She studied me closely. “And yet, here we are,” she said.
I nodded. “And yet, here we are,” I repeated.
Slowly, as if coming to a decision, Uma nodded. Then, showing not the faintest hint of shyness, she leaned her machete against the side of the pool, then crossed her arms in front of her as she reached for the lower edge of the top.
In one smooth movement, she pulled her top up over her head, and off.
Of the five women, Jayloo and Kia were both built small and slim, although Kia had certain assets Jayloo lacked. Deeve was tall and athletic, Sydney shorter and stockier, and Uma was the biggest.
Yet even she didn’t have any excess on her at all. She was just built along a different scale, with strong arms and legs, and a torso that spoke of feminine muscularity.
She had a set of abs that were almost as defined as my own, but I had to admit, that wasn’t where my eyes went.
I found myself staring at a truly magnificent set of breasts, heavy and even, with nipples that matched Uma’s lips and seemed to be staring straight back at me.
“Like what you see?” she asked, a hint of mockery in her voice. It wasn’t aimed at me, exactly, but rather at men as a whole. It was as if she couldn’t quite understand the male obsession with boobs.
I realized that I was staring, but had no intention of doing anything else. I grinned at her.
“Last time I checked, I have a Y chromosome,” I said. “Along with all of the associated inbuilt responses that typically implies. So, yes, I do very much like what I see.”
Uma barked out a laugh, but she seemed more than pleased with my response. Still without any hint of shyness at all, she stripped out of her pants and boots, and within a very short time, she was standing naked in front of me, her lower half a spectacular match for her top
With no further ado, Uma Reynolds climbed into the pool, which by then was filled nearly to the top, and settled herself in with an expression of a bliss on her face.
She sat there, enjoying the pool as if it was an oversized tub, and I wondered if I should keep watch, just to make sure, or if the universe had indeed conspired to finally allow me to indulge in a more enjoyable pastime with this spectacular woman.
Apparently, the same thoughts had occurred to Uma as well. She cast another glance around the trees, but apparently couldn’t see any immediate threat.
“Well?” she said. “Are you going to just stand there? Or do you want to come join me?”
It was my turn to let out a laugh. “I can fight naked just as well as I can with my clothes on, if I need to,” I said. With that, I took Uma’s lead and stripped out of what was left of my clothes.
Moments later, I stood almost as naked as Uma had been, with only my metal cuffs and bandages remaining. I did my best to maintain the level of the same degree of unconcern as the Commander had displayed, but a certain portion of my anatomy was already betraying me, and it was more than clear that Uma had noticed.
Her gaze was fixed just on that part of me, and she did not look displeased.
I clambered as gracefully as I could manage into the pool and glided toward her, accepting that my bandages were just going to have to get wet and doing what I could to ignore the sting of my wounds.
It seemed completely natural for me to wrap my hands around the Commander’s waist, and we studied each other in the dappled light of the jungle, with raindrops making their way through the leaves above.
“I’ve never done it under the trees before,” Uma murmured. “Especially not in a place where everyt
hing wants to kill us.”
I smiled at her and brought her close enough that I could feel the skin of her breasts against my skin. “There’s a first time for everything,” I responded, then bent to kiss her on the lips.
Chapter 31
Uma responded with considerable passion, pressing her body against mine in the water before finally breaking away, her cheeks slightly flushed. I kissed her again, first on her lips, then on her cheek, her jaw, then the side of her neck.
In response, Uma leaned back in the water and loosened her grip on me so that she was partially floating, her magnificent breasts breaking the surface of the water.
It seemed to be an invitation, so I obliged, kissing the wet skin of her breasts, working my way down to her nipples, which I teased and sucked until Uma’s breathing quickened and she let out a quiet moan of pleasure.
I doubled down on my efforts, holding her in place in the water as I teased and sucked.
Uma soaked up all the attention, just enjoying herself, holding onto my arms even at as her legs bumped into mine, half floating, not really under control.
Then, as if waking up from a dream, Uma pulled herself back upright, wrapped her legs around my waist, and kissed me a dozen times on my face, my chin, and my neck.
She was a flurry of activity, and it was all I could do to enjoy it, holding her close in the water, my hands drifting from her waist to her rounded yet muscular butt.
All at once, Uma broke away and studied me closely. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes full of desire.
Nevertheless, she hesitated. “What about Deeve?” she said.
I looked at her. “Deeve?”
“Do you really think I couldn’t tell what you two were up to? During the sand storm, when I was on watch?”
I couldn’t help it. I had to laugh. So much for keeping it quiet.
And I had to admit, she was right. There was a connection between me and Deeve. But there was a similar connection between me and Uma. And then there was Kia. Speaking of whom…
“Does that mean you don’t know about me and Kia?” I asked.