The Future Is Closer Than You Think

by Zaslow Crane

  I pulled some tape from supplies and taped the place where I’d tucked my pants into my boots. Then seeing interest in the others’ eyes, I tossed the roll to Saint who did likewise.

  lll It wasn’t easy, but the quad-bikes found their way through the trees. Sometimes they had to back up for as much as a half-kilometer, but even though the progress wasn’t any faster than a man walking, bringing the bikes made it easier to bring a lot of gear. And Abbot was all about bringing gear.

  Birds high in the trees protested the intrusion and the minimal noise that the battery-powered bikes made, but we saw few land animals. We’d been warned about small, but ferocious ‘cats’ that were hungry for fresh meat, so each of us had a sidearm loosened in our holsters.

  Far, far above them I thought I caught my first glimpse of the rare and dangerous Mirren Roc. I’d heard a loud call that came from far above, and looked up through the spindly branches and pale green-yellow leaves to see a bird-like figure fly by, but the view was so transitory and the bird apparently so high up, with the trees as cover, that I wasn’t certain how much I’d learned.

  Pope noticed me looking up. “They’s big, cowboy. Bigger’n a Earther house, I’m told. Eat a lot, too, they says. Eat a whole man in one gulp…”

  Saint shouted from behind them.

  “Yeah, whereas it takes Pope here, a couple-three!”

  Pope flipped her off and rode ahead.

  I sniffed the air.

  Garlic. Very faint, but there for sure.

  lll Abbot sat brushing off crawling insects as he tried to eat. Land animals weren’t the real problem. There seemed to be precious few of them hereabouts, but insects, they were the real problem. As you walked, you went through pheromone nets, webs and so forth. Then, you got popular with the insect locals.

  “I think they’ve gotten worse in the last few minutes,” Deacon announced swatting another bug.

  “Yeah, the ones who found us first, went and tol’ their

  friends.”

  “They want to get into my eyes, and ears…”

  “And your nose and mouth and any other warm, damp place

  too.”

  “Any idea of how far away we are? In other words, how much

  more of these bugs we’ve gotta deal with?”

  “Yeah! I’m getting’ ready to just eat them along with my

  meal. They’re everywhere anyway. ‘Sides, they look nice and

  crunchy.”

  Saint looked up from her plate. The bugs didn’t seem to be

  drawn to her as much as to the rest of us. “I wouldn’t go eatin’

  anythin’ I wasn’t ab-so-sure of. I hear from natives that some

  of those buggies will give you a pretty serious case of the runs.” “So?” Deacon smiled quizzically.

  She smiled back, knowingly. “Out here, the runs can kill ya…” She let that information fall like news of a groom with venereal disease at a wedding service and quietly went back to eating. Eventually Abbot explained that the SatTrack and the map

  didn’t agree. He knew the direction, but not how far. Swell. I thought. How can that be? SatTrack can nail your position down to a meter most days…But not today.

  “Figure a week…Maybe a more…”

  Saint perked up, alarmed.

  “A week? And then the same back?”

  He looked over at Saint before answering her. “You know a

  way to teleport back?”

  “No…”

  “Well, walk in we do; walk out we do. Oh yes, you’ll be

  earning your payday. Assured. Assured.”

  After the food was put away, we were able to set up the bug repulser. It did weird things to food, so you want to be finished eating; drinking, too. But it does keep the bugs away. Ultrasonics. Never been so happy to have a piece of equipment.

  A few days later, early on, Saint slipped, fell and cut her hands on the rhino grass.

  “Damn!”

  Abbot looked at it.

  “Did I mention, I’ve been to Med School, I have. Almost made it to doc, but ran out of funds…Ages ago, it was. Still I can see the wound isn’t bad at all. Just annoying and bloody…First off, let’s get it cleaned, sterilized and wrapped; secondly, that blood scent will make things busy here in a few, so let’s move out. Away from here quickly, we should.”

  He looked at Saint as he hurriedly wrapped her hands.

  “Gloves. A life saver they might be. I provide. You wear. ‘Kay? ‘Kay!”

  We hurriedly left the bloody grass behind, the bikes making little noise.

  A short while later, I heard grasses and bushes being trampled behind us. The sound was gaining on us.

  We bein’ tracked by somethin’.

  I pulled up the bike, setting the brake. I signaled to Deacon with my hand; fingers indicating what and from what direction we might expect followers.

  “We got comp’ny. Deacon, you and I should hang back. If you ride with your safety on, take it off.”

  Myself, I never use the safety. I want to be ready.

  Good thing, too. A huge dark glistening reptile with a long snout and lots of snaggle teeth emerged from the bushes behind us. It was obvious that he was gaining on us and had we not stopped he would have run down the hindmost.

  That’d be me…

  I shot. So did Deacon. Nothing much happened. He kept coming. We shot again and again but with little effect. He was closing now. He smelled a kill; easy meat to be had.

  Suddenly from behind me I felt the distinct prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck. It was a railgun warming up.

  Abbot stood panting and flushed, wearing the dull metal-colored half helmet that was required to use the damn things, aiming the cannon at the giant lizard.

  Then with a deep, and important-sounding pop, it fired and there was a distinct rushing sound. A split-second later, the reptile’s head opened up as if hit square on the top of its head with some massive meat cleaver; deep, deep reddish blood spraying everywhere.

  Then a gout of steam escaped the chamber. Hence, the helmet.

  I made a mental note to remind Abbot to replenish the H2O reservoir for his gun, so it’d be ready if we needed it again.

  Wouldn’t do to fry something so…useful.

  We stopped and looked at the monster in a kind of awe. “Must be over a thousand kilos…”

  “Three…maybe three and a half meters long…” “Now we know why we haven’t seen any small animals.” “Yeah.”

  Abbot took Deacon aside.

  “Deacon, surprised, I am that someone like yourself wasn’t

  better prepared. It shouldn’t happen again. If you’re stopping next time, I might not hear.” “C’mon, people,” I said. “If this guy was following the scent of blood, he might not be alone.”

  “And now there’s even more blood,” Pope chimed in.

  “Yes,” I concurred. “Now there is. More.”

  She looked at me and there was something in those eyes…I could fall into them and never come up for air. Time seemed to slow down and many of the important things in my life suddenly seemed over rated.

  Saint shouted from point, “So? We go now?”

  “I, uh, yeah…Let’s get out of here.”

  The next day was hell. We backtracked three times trying to find a way through the overgrowth. That night, amid the sounds of the nocturnal critters in this part of the forest, we figured that we had progressed less than three klicks all day.

  Abbot announced that we’d park the bikes. We’d discuss what was to be brought along and what might be left.

  If we bring everything…I thought, we’ll never be ready in time for another of those giant lizard things; if we don’t…

  I didn’t even know the rest of that equation; not knowing only made me more anxious.

  After we finished eating and putting food away, Abbot set up the bug repulser.

  I hurriedly untied my boots before doffing them and crawling into my little personal enclo
sure. It was a little thing of special fabrics and a network of little bended rods to keep the dew and whatnot off. You could wipe your hand on the inside and it would go from opaque to clear. I wiped it and watched the stars as I drifted off.

  Go to bed early; get up and goin’ early…

  I slept. At least I slept until sometime in the middle of the night, I felt someone slipping into my one person tent.

  “Who…?”

  “It’s me, Pope. I’m scared, and I’m cold…”

  “Darlin’…” I shook my head in the darkness. “I don’t b’lieve you’ve ever been scared once in your life, but cold? I guess I’ll b’lieve that one…”

  I confess, I felt like a kid again trying to nail my first piece of ass, tryin’ to be all quiet and still snickering…fumbling in the dark, two people in a decidedly one person space…Eventually though, we found a system that worked.

  Afterwards, she went to sleep before me. I looked up and saw a shadow. It might have been Saint, looking in the clear spot I’d created to watch the stars and night sky. It was full-on dark, but I’d swear she was watchin’ though it was even darker in my enclosure than it was outside.

  “I’ll loan her to you, but she’s mine. Don’t forget that.” Was what the shadow whispered before it disappeared.

  The next day, Pope was gone before I woke up.

  “Hmmm,” I wondered if I’d seen and heard what I thought I had, or was I just dreaming?

  I looked at my boots again before putting them on again. The slanted light accenting the striations and micro rips in the boot’s uppers.

  They seemed even more worn than yesterday.

  How can that be? I wasn’t out walking in my sleep. Could the grasses contain some degenerative chemical? Something that eats the boot materials? They’re made here. FOR here. They can’t be ignorant of this happening…how will we walk back if our boots are thrashed? Shit.

  My blood ran cold.

  “Abbot. Look at my boots.” He did. I held them out for him to see.

  “You’re showin’ wear already? That’s weird. Not good weird. You been rubbin’ them with tincture of rogue horned beetle?”

  “What’s ‘tincture of rogue horned beetle’?’”

  Abbot looked disgusted. Went, you did, and bought boots, the best you could find, yet no one did tell you to wipe the boots down? Each night, that is to be done. Each night. Shameful! Shameful!”

  He reached into his pack.

  “Here is Priest’s supply. Guessing that he’ll not object…”

  Three more days of trudging, carrying far too much gear (and two more nights of having an exciting visitor) and we were…there.

  I guess. All I really knew was that Abbot called a halt. He had an air of: ‘This is it!’ about him.

  I’ll admit, I was tired lugging all that gear, so I was glad to have arrived.

  The air felt…odd. Like there were vibrations happening just out of my ability to sense them. It seemed to make everyone edgy, especially Saint.

  Abbot wanted to talk, but after we ate, no one wanted to do anything but bed down.As for myself, I thought about how comfortable I was on the maglev train just a short while ago.

  Was it really so bad on Mirren? I wondered. I feel like complete crap now…

  Then, I noticed a smell: Garlic again.Burnt garlic. Faint, but definitely there.

  Damn.

  Garlic? I thought. Garlic is too expensive to bring out here to waste. It won’t grow anywhere but Earth…Garlic costs…out here… It costs a fortune!

  A giant bird-shape glided above brushing the treetops and screeching like the end of days. He’d not made a sound as he approached, and erupted while just above us, this thing the size of a small Earther commercial air transport.

  “Damn!” I looked up.

  Deacon was already pointing a large gun into the sky, but not sighting yet.

  The ‘girls’ were hastily digging through their packs. Pope for a gun; Saint for a bomb she could throw, I’d bet.By the time each had something in their hands that comforted them, the bird was gone. We all, well almost all of us, stood, shaken and flat footed, looking resolutely at the sky, waiting…waiting for the bird’s return, frowning; panting in fear or excitement.

  Abbot stood there, gun in hand, his eyes burning, as if daring the bird to return.

  The bird didn’t come back that day. That was ‘Tuesday’… Mirren-time, I think.

  Now I know where that smell came from. The stories I’d heard while wasting time in a bar were true. And that’s not good.

  ‘Wednesday’ was the day things started to really go sideways…

  lll The forest got unexpectedly chilled each night, but moreso that particular night. From hot and dusty in the daytime to, ‘Damn, I need a coat,’ after the sun retreated.

  Abbot turned up the central heating emanator sitting in the middle of our campground. We’d used weed-eater to clear the ground of grasses right where we were bedding down and each of us had personal light sources.

  “We can have the emanator or we can have the repulser; we can’t have both,” Abbot announced.

  The repulser sets up a field that while making it uncomfortable for bugs, curdles milk in a heatbeat, spoils food in a hurry and completely fucks with most other foodstuffs. So Bugs, no heat; or…heat with bugs. We voted and opted to be cold, but without bugs.

  Big surprise.

  We had questions; wanted to plan our campaign, but Abbot begged off until “Tomorrow…‘Kay? ‘Kay!” I slept alone that night, though I thought I could hear Pope and Saint arguing, whispering, fighting.

  Dissention.

  I shouldn’t have slept with her. I know better, but hormones win out most times. They did the last few days, that’s ab’so’sure. Damn.

  I hope that’s them trying to work out who’s supposed to be where and when. Don’t jerk up the mission…Damn. She was so pretty, so sexy, but all I had to do was say: “Get lost, girl. You b’long to someone else.” I didn’t.

  I didn’t sleep well that night. Prob’ly ‘cause of the vibrations. They seemed to get stronger the closer my head got to the ground.

  I didn’t like the feeling I got the next morning when I joined the others, either. Maybe the vibrations kept the ladies awake, too.

  lll In the morning, Abbot was up cooking; cooking for all of us. Unusual. He was nearly finished by the time I rolled out of bed and rolled up my tent.

  I got dark looks from Pope and Saint; Deacon seemed oblivious, nursing his hot caffeine.

  It was all meals ready to eat stuff, but cooked instead of just heated and someone else did it for me.

  Nice.

  I checked my boots again. I didn’t like what I saw. Then I thought about the tires on the bikes. I’d seen wear on them as well.

  The tires were manufactured specifically for work on this awful rock,and the boots were the best I could buy.Unfortunately, the grasses were winning. I hoped salving my boots each night would slow down the progress of the deterioration.

  I got no other way outta here…

  “Listen up. Today, reconnoiter we shall. No progress, only see the lay of the land. ‘Kay?”

  “Why, Abbot? We’re here, right?” Saint was impatient to get in, get out and be gone from me, I gathered.

  “Oh yes. Here we are, but we are careful going in, yes?”

  I pressed my lips together slowly figuring out a few things as the fog in my brain evaporated.

  “So, this giant Roc…It’s just a bird, but near an ancient temple, is it? – And, it’s got something to do with this weird vibration; this feeling I have, right?”

  Deacon stopped nursing his liquid stimulant. He was suddenly interested in our conversation.

  “Ancient, it is. Yes, yes…”

  “Is it a native temple?” I pressed on.

  Everyone was paying attention now.

  “No. No, it is not…Though it is ancient, quite ancient…”

  “Is this the thing that the MirrenGov was trying
– and failing

  – to keep under wraps? That weird something that was recently found in this tan-green hell…by the surveying sats?”

  Abbot looked at me as if I’d spoiled the surprise.

  “It was all hush-hush, but someone leaked a few details… then a few more…no one had the complete picture…Until us, right?”

  Abbot frowned. Clearly he wanted to dole out the information, not have all of it dumped in our laps at once.

  Well, hell, I’m a professional. I thought, looking at his sour face.D’you expect me to not read the pubs? There’s all sorts of valuable information there for free every day.

  As Abbot was about to explain, the damn bird appeared right above us – screeching again. It scared the crap outta me!

  A few of us started shooting in the air, but the Roc was already gone. The air stunk of garlic. The Roc…this bird’s musk must mimic that smell naturally.

  Weird.

  Then I looked back at him after the excitement quieted, “And let me guess…the vibrations attract these giants, so they are essentially guarding this…alien artifact, right?”

  “Yes, and yes…Alien it is, they think.”

  “So, there’s no treasure?” Pope was angry now; before she had just been simmering, at me I guess, or Saint. Who cared? Now she was hot!

  Abbot’s hand reflexively went to the sidearm at his waist. I wondered if anyone noticed besides me. My hand rested on my sidearm in case things spun outta control.

  Abbot talked fast, “Oh, yes! Treasure is there. Scanned and catalogued from space, it was. Made from terranium… Treasure…Yes, more than you can imagine. This is why the MirrenGov tried to keep it under wraps; to keep it for itself, but also alien tek as well likely there is. There for the taking, if we can get in.”

  That brought me up short.

  “Whoa! Wait. If we can get in?”

  Abbot nodded to Pope.

  “She’s the best in the Four Worlds. I checked. “She will find the booby traps, solve the puzzles, prevent ambushes, snares… She is here so that we can go forward.”

  “So that’s why all the detection devices. You expected to have trouble getting in. You knew from the start that this was no ancient caveman shite; you knew that we were dealing with true ancients who pro’bly crashed and some survived. They built this…as a monument? A beacon? What the hell is it, Abbot? What else do we need to know? What the fuck else should you have told us in that cheap hotel before we committed?”