by Gary Gibson
‘He had a newborn son back home he’ll never see,’ said Ethan, ‘and a family. Under the circumstances, I can’t blame him for losing it.’
Sam stared after Kim’s retreating back in shock: he’d had no idea. But then again, why should he have known? He had no surviving family of his own, apart from a sister he hadn’t seen in nearly fifteen years. He thought about what it must feel like to wake up knowing you’d never see your own child again, and felt something shift painfully deep in his chest.
‘We all lost something when we woke up here,’ DeWitt muttered. ‘What makes him different?’
A shout came from the direction of the lander. Sam looked back that way, thinking Kim had decided to return and finish the argument. Instead, he saw Kevin running towards them.
‘Sun!’ he yelled. ‘We found her. We goddamned found her!’
16
THE FOREST
‘Where?’ Sam demanded, his heart beating a rapid tattoo in his chest.
‘No more than three kilometres from here,’ Kevin replied breathlessly. ‘We mapped out a rough route to where we saw her, and Karl’s flying the drone back towards us right now. Once it gets here, he’ll use it to lead us back to her location.’
‘Do you know if she’s still alive?’ asked Ethan.
‘Hard to be sure, with hardly any light beneath the canopy. But from what we can make out, it looks like she fell into a ravine. At first, I thought she might be dead, but Karl got the drone up close enough to see her move.’
‘If she fell,’ said Ethan, ‘she could be in a bad way.’
‘We should all go,’ said Irish.
‘No.’ Sam shook his head. ‘This only needs a few of us.’
‘I’ll go,’ Ethan said quickly. ‘You’ll need me to take a look at her.’
‘I’ll come too,’ said Angel. ‘The two of you can’t carry her back on your own if it comes to that.’
‘That’s three of us, then,’ said Sam. ‘I think that’s enough.’
‘So you’re going?’ Traynor asked Sam.
Sam regarded him with surprise. ‘Of course.’
‘For someone who used to run a refugee camp, you don’t seem too good at delegation,’ said Traynor. ‘You were seriously ill until a couple of days ago. Are you sure you don’t want to sit this one out?’
Sam looked around. ‘If there’s anyone here better qualified at running through a forest filled with dangerous animals, now is the time to tell me. Anyone?’ He looked around and got no answers. ‘Then I guess I’m going.’
‘There it is!’ Joshua shouted, pointing up.
It took a couple of seconds before Sam picked out the drone against the darkness, visible only by a red LED mounted on its chassis. It dropped towards them, and Kevin reached up, catching it in his hands.
‘Hey!’ A voice, crackly with static, emerged from a speaker mounted on the little flying machine. ‘Can you hear me okay?’
‘Is that you, Karl?’ asked Sam.
‘Thank God!’ the voice replied. ‘Yeah, it’s me. I wasn’t sure if the microphone on this thing even worked. Kevin told you about Sun?’
‘You’re leading us back to her, right?’
‘I don’t know how much more power’s left in this thing,’ Karl’s voice crackled, ‘so we’d better get moving. If I get too far ahead of you, yell and I’ll double back to where you can see me. Got it?’
Sam, Angel and Ethan shouted their assent, and they got moving.
* * *
The going was quicker this time, perhaps because the territory was more familiar the second time around, even with only starlight to see by. It probably also helped that they moved more quickly in a group, rather than spread out in a slow-moving line, and they could clearly see the bobbing red light from the drone’s LED as it flew ahead of them. It felt like chasing a will-o’-the-wisp through an enchanted forest.
After what felt like about thirty minutes they found themselves at the edge of a steep-sided ravine, the drone hovering over a void of air that stretched out beneath their feet.
‘We’re here,’ Karl’s voice crackled over the drone’s speaker.
‘I think I see her!’ Ethan said excitedly, pointing down into the ravine’s depths.
The ravine’s mouth was largely concealed by bushes and tall, grass-like growths. Sam would never have spotted it if the drone hadn’t been hovering there, waiting for them to arrive. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Sun to go tumbling over its edge in her panic.
Angel immediately started working his way down the slope, pebbles and pieces of rock skittering out from under his feet. Sam followed, sliding and bumping down the steep slope in a barely controlled descent. There were a few heart-stopping moments when loose soil and rocks threatened to send him tumbling head-first, but he made it down.
Angel reached her first. Sam could barely make Sun out in the darkness at the base of the ravine. One of her legs was twisted beneath her at an odd angle.
‘Sun!’ said Angel, crouching over her. ‘Can you hear me?’
‘Easy,’ said Ethan, who had followed in Sam’s wake. He leaned over Sun from her opposite side, pressing an ear against her chest and listening. ‘She’s still breathing, but it’s shallow.’
‘Is it safe to lift her?’ asked Sam.
‘Whether it is or not,’ said Ethan, ‘we’re going to have to do it anyway. Okay, Angel, you get her other shoulder, and…’
Sam stepped back as, working together, the two men carefully raised her into a sitting position. Her head hung forward, limp as a broken doll.
‘Okay,’ said Ethan, ‘now all we have to do is figure out how to get her back up top.’
* * *
It took the three of them working together another fifteen minutes to lift Sun back up to the top of the ravine.
‘You know,’ said Ethan, panting hard, ‘I’m pretty sure we came by this way more than once, and nobody saw her.’
‘Same,’ said Angel. ‘Karl?’
‘Kevin says to get back pronto,’ said Karl, his voice emerging from the drone. The machine had dropped onto a boulder by the edge of the ravine. ‘Otherwise this thing’s gonna run out of juice before I can guide you all the way back.’
‘I’ll carry her first,’ said Sam, moving to lift Sun onto his shoulders.
‘Nope,’ said Angel, tapping his chest with a finger. ‘You’re looking at the Maine All-State Wife-Carrying Champion of 2045. I could lug her the whole way on my back and not even break a sweat.’
Ethan laughed, incredulous. ‘What the hell did you say?’
‘It’s a real sport,’ Angel insisted, his tone taking on a defensive edge. ‘You carry a female teammate over your shoulder in a long-distance race. The first prize is her weight in beer.’ He looked back at Sam and shrugged. ‘Not a bad skill to have, under the circumstances.’
‘There’s so much I want to ask,’ said Ethan, ‘and yet I’m afraid to.’
‘You’re serious?’ asked Sam. ‘You think you can carry her the whole way back?’
‘Sure as hell I can,’ Angel said proudly.
Ethan shook his head. He and Sam watched as Angel knelt and took hold of Sun’s wrists, lifting her up and over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry before standing again, moving his feet until he found his balance.
Sam saw her head move just then, her eyes fluttering open. She blinked and seemed to focus on him for a moment, then her head dropped back down.
Sam turned to the drone. ‘Which way?’ he asked, then watched as the machine rose back into the sky, ready to guide them back.
* * *
The howling started before they were even halfway to the lander.
‘Oh, that is not good,’ Ethan gasped, staring into the forest all around them as they ran.
Sam glanced over his shoulder at Angel. They had to run a little slower on the return journey so Angel, with Sun draped across his back, could keep up.
‘Think you can move faster?’ Sam asked him.
Angel nodded, his face glistening with sweat. ‘All-State Champion,’ he confirmed, his voice by now little more than a hoarse whisper.
Sam nodded. ‘Then let’s go.’
There was no time to worry about bungee-bugs or anything else that might be lurking in wait for them. They barged through the undergrowth, the drone leading. Sam tried not to think about the consequences if any of them twisted an ankle or had a bad fall amidst the lengthening shadows.
The howling sounded like it came from every direction at once—and getting closer. Sam remembered the tracks they had seen by the river and close by the lander and forced himself to move with yet greater speed. His feet slammed against the ground, hands pushing aside leaves and branches or grabbing hold of exposed roots before scrambling over them. By now, he could see the campfire off in the distance, its pale glow barely visible through the trees.
The drone, identifiable now only by its red light, wobbled suddenly, veering off course and crashing into a tree with a hollow thud. Sam slowed, wondering if the machine had run out of power; then something flew past his shoulder, embedding itself into the trunk of the same tree.
A spear, he saw now.
Then, from close behind him, came a cry of anguish.
Sam whirled around to see that Angel had collapsed onto his knees in the mud, Sun sliding bonelessly from his shoulders and onto the ground. By now, his eyes had adjusted well enough to the darkness that he could see a second spear, protruding from between Sun’s shoulder blades. He saw her lips part, her hands grasping at the mud beneath her, and then she slumped forward and became still.
Sam stared at her where she lay, and at the spear that had killed her, his mind caught in a whirlwind of sudden denial. Angel meanwhile dragged himself back upright, dazed and shocked, but seemingly unharmed.
Ethan grabbed Sam by the arm and pulled him away from Sun’s body, Angel stumbling along in their wake. ‘Come on!’ Ethan shouted at them both, his voice full of desperate urgency.
Sam tried to shake Ethan loose, a fit of terrible anger building up inside of him. ‘We can’t leave her there,’ he insisted, ‘we have to—!’
‘She’s dead, Sam,’ Ethan shouted. ‘Move or you’ll be dead too, the both of you. Move!’
No, Sam wanted to shout. He wanted to find whatever had done this and hurt it, badly.
A roar born of nightmare ripped through the night air from somewhere behind them, transforming his anger into terror. He began to make full use of the lean and powerful legs with which he had been gifted, running after Ethan in great swift strides.
Instinct made him glance to one side, where he saw a dark shape keeping pace with them and moving swiftly from rock to rock. He had a fleeting impression of hard muscles moving under thick dark fur, and eyes that glittered like jewels: it leapt in the next moment, a shadow against shadows, moving through the air towards them with extraordinary grace.
Even though it was dark, enough starlight trickled through the canopy that Sam could make out some details of the creature’s form. It looked like the unholy fusion of a centaur and a panther and ran on four powerful-looking limbs with—if his eyes did not deceive him—a pair of arms on its upper body. Its snout was foreshortened, its eyes green and brightly glittering.
For an instant Sam’s gaze met the creature’s, and instinct told him what would happen next.
Sam threw himself at Ethan, who was running just ahead of him, slamming him face-first into the dirt before throwing himself down on top of the other man’s squirming body.
Ethan let out a shout of terror and Sam felt more than saw the centaur-creature pass directly over them. Looking up, he saw the creature crash into a tree, roaring with pain and anger.
Ethan and Sam scrambled back upright and resumed their flight, Sam discovering reserves of energy within himself he had never imagined existed. The light from the clearing grew stronger as they ran and then, impossibly, they were running past the deserted campfire, the dropped ramp of the lander beckoning to them. A few silhouetted figures stood near the top of the ramp, shouting and beckoning to them.
Ethan grabbed Sam by the arm and yelled something as they ran, but he couldn’t make it out. Hands grabbed hold of them as they ascended the ramp, pulling them both up and inside.
Sam collapsed across the deck in an untidy sprawl as the ramp lifted behind him, cutting off the shrieks and howls of the pursuing beasts.
‘Angel,’ Ethan gasped, standing with his hands on his knees, his mouth wide as he sucked in great lungfuls of air.
Sam looked around, but there was no sign of Angel. He must have…
He stared at Ethan, his heart thudding.
‘It’s just the two of you,’ said Irish from across the bay, her eyes round and scared. ‘The Howlers must have got him.’
Sam stared at her in befuddlement. ‘The what?’
‘Had to call them something,’ said Jess from beside the ramp controls, her expression unreadable. ‘I guess you didn’t find Sun.’
‘We did,’ said Sam, his voice full of frustration and rage, ‘but one of those things killed her right in front of me.’
Irish’s skin paled. ‘Piper, Sun, and now Angel,’ she said, her voice low and querulous. ‘We’re down to twelve.’
Sam tried to sit up and felt a tearing pain in one shoulder. He reached behind himself and his hand came back stained red. He stared at it in stupefaction.
‘Holy shit,’ said Ethan, stepping over and peering at his shoulder. ‘Let me see.’
‘Wait,’ said Sam, struggling to stand. ‘Just let me—’
He doubled over, wracked by pain of an intensity he had never before experienced and collapsed to his knees. He was only dimly aware of hands taking hold of him.
‘Think you must have caught a spear after all,’ he heard Ethan say, as if from a thousand kilometres away. ‘Now sit the hell down and let me take care of this.’
17
THE MANIFEST
‘Just keep in mind,’ said Ethan, feeding Sam another sip, ‘that this is the last of our water.’
Sam coughed violently, then leaned forward to let Ethan probe the gauze wrapped in a thick wad around his left shoulder. They were still in the cargo bay, where Sam had slept most of the night. The ramp had been lowered, and outside it was a warm and sunny day. The fact the creatures only seemed to come at night did little to reassure him.
‘Where did you even find bandages?’
‘Yeah, well, you can thank Irish and Kim,’ Ethan muttered. ‘They found a few bits and pieces digging through the fire-damaged bays including, you’ll be delighted to know, a couple of rolls of gauze and a box of painkillers.’
Sam leaned back against a wall once Ethan had finished his investigation. The dried-in bug blood in his jumpsuit had started to stink. ‘They find anything else?’
‘I have no idea.’ Ethan sat back and studied him with a concerned expression. ‘You’ve been through the wringer, haven’t you?’
Sam regarded him grimly. ‘Haven’t we all. How much blood did I lose?’
‘You’re still walking,’ said Ethan. ‘I count that as a win. But if you want to stay in one piece, try to take it easy for once. There’s only so much abuse your body can take, whether it’s ninety years old or nineteen.’
Sam glanced to the side, hearing voices from inside the access shaft. Kevin appeared at the inner bay door, then stepped forward to let Amit exit into the bay. Kim soon followed, and lastly, Karl.
‘How are you feeling?’ asked Kevin, looking down at Sam’s bandaged shoulder.
‘I’ve felt worse. A little sore, maybe.’ Sam motioned with his head at Ethan. ‘I’m under orders to get some rest.’
‘Not a bad idea.’ Kevin gave him a long, contemplative look. ‘I’m sorry about Sun.’
Sun was the last thing Sam wanted to talk about. ‘Thanks,’ he nodded.
It was obvious Kevin had something on his mind. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I’ve asked everyone to gather outside by t
he campfire. I’ve got an announcement to make. Think you’re well enough to join us?’
‘I’m not an invalid,’ Sam replied testily before levering himself upright. ‘What kind of announcement?’
‘You’ll see. But I think everyone needs to hear it at the same time.’
Sam made his way cautiously over to the ramp, blinking at the bright sunlight touching the not-grass past the shadow cast by the lander. ‘Good news,’ he asked, looking over his shoulder at Kevin, ‘or bad news?’
Kevin gave him a heartfelt smile. ‘Sam, it might be the first genuinely good news we’ve had since we woke up here.’
* * *
They made their way over to where everyone else was sitting in their usual places all around the campfire. ‘All right,’ said Sam, carefully settling down onto the grass and wincing at the pain in his shoulder, ‘let’s hear it.’
‘Before anything else,’ said Ethan, ‘you need to eat.’
Sam noticed Wardell had set the roasting stick back over the flames. A blackened, potato-like object had been speared on it.
‘What’s that?’ asked Sam.
‘One of the edible roots Kim and Amit found,’ Wardell replied, wrapping a broad green leaf around it before sliding it off the roasting stick. ‘They both ate one each without any problems.’
He handed it to Sam, who unwrapped it before looking around to see the rest of them watching him.
‘So how come no one else is eating?’
‘That’s all we have,’ said Kim, ‘until we can find more. They’re not easy to find.’
‘You put your life on the line for Sun,’ said Joshua. ‘Ethan, too. You lost blood, and that means you’ve got to eat.’
Sam glanced across the fire, seeing the look of contempt on Traynor’s face as he looked back at him. He blames me for what happened to Angel.
If it had been up to Traynor, Sam knew, they’d never have gone looking for Sun. And the brutal truth of it was that if he’d got his way, Angel would still be alive.
Sam unwrapped the leaf and tentatively tore a small piece of dark brown flesh from the root it contained. It was still hot enough to burn, but he pushed it into his mouth and chewed stolidly, finding it had a gristly, sandy quality.