Looking back in the direction they had come, there was no sign of the bunker, only clouds of dust and debris blowing through the ruined city. The way forward was just as obscured and if not for Huey, they would have been going in circles.
Though the tangled remains of the fallen, they would catch glimpses of buildings that looked complete. Their survival, a combination of luck and design, a resilience that reflected the race that once occupied them.
Ahead of them was a maze of steel columns sticking out of the ground at all angles and Huey confidently guided them through and they were soon out the other side. One maze of obstacles was quickly replaced by another. It seemed that nothing had survived in one piece and with the constant wind tearing at the remains, there would soon be nothing to suggest a city had ever been here.
A tremor underfoot was followed closely by a low rumble, which cut through the constant sound of the wind. A huge wall toppled and disintegrated and for a split second, it revealed to them an otherwise undisturbed part of the city and just as suddenly its contents were ripped away by the storm.
Since everything here was in a state of flux, Huey had chosen a path through the buildings that he hoped would minimise their chances of coming close to anything unstable. Because of this, their route was not the most direct and Clom had noted these changes of direction and he wasn’t worried that Huey knew he was watching him.
This thing was armed to the teeth. One frayed circuit and they’d be history. Clom was making his feelings known, not that anyone had taken much notice of him.
Huey certainly had lots of neat gadgets at his disposal. Sometimes his eyes would glow really brightly like two stars plucked from the heavens and on this occasion, they were projecting an interactive holographic map. Clom’s eyes were nearly as bright as Huey’s, as he watched in awe. Maybe this RDU was slowly winning him over.
They could all see a red dot on the map, although the hologram that Huey was projecting looked nothing like any map they’d ever seen before. Just a wire cube made up of a network of glowing lines.
“Why is your map shaped like a cube?” asked Lim.
“This holographic map not only allows me to see in every direction but also what is under our feet and in the atmosphere above.”
“Is there a reason you keep checking it?” asked Joeum.
Huey explained that there was a strong possibility that those captured might be moved to another location and he didn’t want to be wasting time heading in the wrong direction.
“How can we improve our chances?”
“We can’t,” said Huey. “I believe we are heading into a baited trap. I’m holding my breath and hoping for a favourable outcome.”
Christ, this thing was beginning to sound more human by the minute and Clom was desperately trying not to react to it. Lim, on the other hand, was quite amused by Huey’s developing personality and could certainly see the funny side to some of his mannerisms and guessed that it was being in their company that had triggered them. Huey was a welcome distraction because most of the time his mind was awash with images of Miar. He kept reliving the moment she had been snatched from his grasp, but despite the facts, he desperately wanted to believe she was still alive.
Huey appeared to have no clue to the effect he was having on the group and satisfied with what he was seeing displayed on the map, he closed it and his eyes returned to their normal metallic finish.
There was no let-up in the weather and every now and then they would flinch upon seeing an approaching object, but so far their force fields had not been needed to deflect anything substantial.
They approached several large sections of wall and although Huey wasn’t giving much away, the slight increase in his energy output drew Laja’s attention. He was now aware that Huey had picked up something on his sensors and he moved up close to the RDU to find out what it was.
Huey directed Laja’s gaze through a hole in the wall, but even so, Laja was having some difficulty seeing anything, which was hardly surprising considering the conditions. Since Huey had an array of sensors, he could cut through the noise and there was definitely something out there that had raised a slight concern.
Laja’s voice came into their minds and reassured them that it wasn’t the Formless Ones. They had stumbled upon some resident life form and they couldn’t afford to get any closer or risk detection, so they backed off and were soon at a safe distance.
Their new route took them between the remains of two huge structures, which had been stripped of their protective layers, revealing a twisted metal support frame that stood defiant against the storm. Every surface had been reworked and most were never intended to be exposed to the elements and were pitted and distressed as a result.
Joeum imagined this city to have once been a very comfortable place to live and he wondered how long the Femesumma had held out here, hoping they would not have to leave. There were probably those that thought they could weather the storm and stayed on, only to be crushed by the might of the Formless Ones.
Had it crossed their minds that they might encounter casualties, survivors even, of this holocaust? The devastation was such that it looked as if the city had been bombed and it was hard to imagine how anyone could have survived. Most of the time so little remained of the original structure that there was no telling what the building had once been. Occasionally they would find themselves picking their way through the remains of someone’s life, scattered amid the twisted shell of a building. Objects partly obscured, littered this place, most as broken and twisted as the structures themselves, making it difficult to visualise what they might have been. Some of the smaller items looked complete. A set of brightly coloured blocks, a child’s stuffed toy; evidence of a childhood suddenly cut short.
Above them, the angry sky cracked with a flash of lightning and brought with it a few drops of rain, the precursor to a downpour, which was upon them in no time. Under normal circumstances they would have been soaked to the skin; however, they remained as dry as a bone, thanks to their force fields.
Huey knew their force fields would not protect them from a bolt of lightning and wasted no time in guiding them to some shelter. He explained that storms like this had raged on Vulsumar before the Femesumma modified it. They discovered that life on this planet actually drew energy from these storms and it was because of this discovery that the Femesumma had been careful to ensure a balance during the terraforming of Vulsumar. The storms were now back to their original strength and so was the wildlife.
The planet’s unusually high levels of natural energy had helped keep the Formless Ones prisoner here, but how this had been achieved was still a mystery.
The storm raged on and the air around them was so charged that they began to see what appeared to be sparks of electricity and one of these sparks landed on the back of Lim’s hand and left a tingling sensation.
“Is it safe?” asked Lim.
“Perfectly,” said Huey.
“Is this electricity?” asked Clom.
“No, these sparks are a life form, which has been brought to life by the storm and when the storm is over they will have completed their life cycle.”
“That’s a short life,” said Clom.
“Compared to the life expectancy of a human, it is a short life.”
“Is there a point to their short lives?” asked Lim.
“There is a point to all life. What you have seen here today is only a small part of a far larger cycle, a self-sustaining cycle. Other lifeforms rely on these storms to bring these sparks to life.”
“You’re talking food?” said Clom.
“Sort of, but it can’t be compared to the kind of food you are familiar with.”
“You see Clom, he knows the sort of rubbish you like to eat,” laughed Lim.
“Most lifeforms here are able to absorb food rather than eat it. Does that make things a little clearer?”
Clom nodded. “So that life form we avoided back there, it absorbs its food too?”
“That was a Qubaloo. Two in fact, and perfectly capable of absorbing a meal, but should it take down something large, it will either poison its prey or strangle it to death.”
“I wish I hadn’t asked.”
“Are we likely to come across any more of them?” asked Lim.
“This planet has become overrun again, so the chance of another encounter is very high.”
They had several days of travelling ahead of them, so God knows what they might encounter in that time.
The stormier it got the more active the wildlife would become and as Huey had tried to explain, everything was connected, so anything out of place was going to show up and become a target.
“We must stay alert while this planet turns itself inside out and be assured that any weakness will be magnified.”
“Is it going to get any easier once we’re out of the city?” asked Joeum.
“Marginally.”
The rain was still falling heavily and Huey was growing concerned that they had been standing in one place for too long and his concerns were well founded, as they were being observed. The storm had given away their position or more precisely, the sparks had. Upon touching their bare flesh, the sparks had reacted with excitement and this had created a chain reaction, which amplified the signal. It was a bit like someone ringing a dinner bell and the Qubaloo had moved into range.
It was hard to tell who made the first move, Laja or Huey and yet neither was quick enough to stop Clom becoming the victim of a vicious attack. He had been standing there wishing he was someplace else and on his next breath he was being dragged through the ruins.
Huey was on it and unhindered by ground contact, he flew like a missile, releasing a carefully aimed flare at the receding target. It had all happened so quickly and if it hadn’t been for Huey’s lightning response, they would have lost Clom for sure. Clom had been dragged about a hundred feet and was now lying motionless.
By the time everyone had caught up, Huey had already completed a scan of Clom’s body and confirmed that nothing was broken.
“Get the damn thing off of me.” Clom’s face contorted with pain.
Clom was referring to the thing that was still attached to his leg, the end of a tentacle, which the flare had severed. Huey needed some help and Joeum and Lim held Clom down while he began prising the fleshy appendage from his leg. Although detached from the animal, the tentacle had a life of its own and Clom yelled in pain.
Safely removed, they could see that the tentacle was covered in barbs, dripping with blood and Clom was shaking uncontrollably.
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” said Huey. “I must treat this before an infection sets in.”
Clom yelled out again, as the slightest pressure on his leg compounded the pain. Swiftly, but carefully, Huey began cutting into the bloody fabric of Clom’s trousers to reveal his leg, which was covered in puncture wounds and it was taking all of Lim and Joeum’s strength to hold him down.
Before Huey could begin treatment he needed Laja’s assistance too, because Clom was still moving about too much. Satisfied, the fingertips of Huey’s right hand began to glow and he moved in on Clom’s leg. Huey worked from the top of the leg to the bottom, his glowing fingers hovering over each of the wounds in turn, which were oozing a greenish liquid. Huey continued until he had treated all the puncture wounds and extracted the poison that the barbs had left behind.
Clom was squirming, but he wasn’t yelling anymore. His shirt was wet with sweat and his face was pale. He was mumbling something, but they couldn’t make out what he was trying to say. Huey knew he was becoming delirious, as the poison that was still in his body, worked its way into his system.
To try and reduce his symptoms, Huey attended Clom’s wounds again, in the hope of extracting more of the poison and by the time he’d finished, most of the bleeding had stopped.
Clom was unconscious, his breathing, irregular and Huey knew he was in need of more treatment than he could give him in the field. All Huey could do for now was monitor Clom and keep him as stable as possible, until they’d reached a facility that could give him the help he needed.
A casualty was the last thing they needed, but this was the hand they’d been dealt and Huey scooped Clom up in his arms and they moved out. There was a risk that Clom could slip into a coma and they couldn't afford the time it would take for him to recover. The poison that had been used as part of the attack would have eventually worn off had the victim been a Femesumma, but this was a human, so there was no telling what the outcome might be. Normally the poison, part sedative, would have given the predator enough time to turn its prey into a meal.
The encounter confirmed this place was as hostile as Huey had warned and it was making Shalasing look quite tame in comparison.
They still had to get out of this ruined city and seven hours of daylight had sounded a long time, but they had eaten into half of this and were still winding their way through its broken remains.
Huey was in full surveillance mode and he’d picked up a bunch of targets and of these, at least half were a major concern. It was like someone had left the cages open at the zoo and it was feeding time.
In all the excitement they had barely noticed that the storm was loosening its grip. The wind had dropped and the clouds were lifting. It was the sort of break they needed and it meant they might actually get out of the city without further incident.
They finally reached the city limits and ahead of them now were only hills and mountains. They continued at a steady pace, following a rough path up to an elevated area, where they stopped to look back over the city.
The clouds had lifted, but the storm that had given them so much trouble still lingered in the distance. The dark rolling clouds reminded them of huge ocean waves; only these waves were thousands of feet high and reached right down to the ground. Anything caught beneath them was going to get crushed and they knew first-hand what that felt like.
It appeared that the storm was heading away from them, on a path which would take it east, across a vast open plain. The plain stretched off all the way to the horizon, its emptiness broken by a wide river that snaked past the ruined city on its way to god knows where.
A rugged mountainous terrain rose up in front of them and they wondered if the flat open plain might offer an easier route to their objective.
“That would be suicide,” said Huey, flatly. “They don’t call it the plain of pain for nothing.”
“What about Clom, surely we can’t cross those mountains with him in this state?” said Joeum.
Huey didn’t answer immediately. “The place I’m looking for is only a few miles from here and it should have everything we need.”
“How do you know?” asked Lim.
“There are still a few satellites orbiting at this time and I’m taking advantage of them. As well as potential buildings, the satellites are also telling me the type of hardware we’d expect to find at these locations.”
There were good views over the plan and the river as they climbed into the mountains. Huey was setting quite a pace and everyone was noticing it, but darkness would only bring more worries and they already had one casualty.
It was dusk by the time they reached the edge of a wood and Huey assured them that they were close. Entering the wood made it feel even later than it was and what they saw in the fading light would best be described as different, some would say odd and neither would be wrong.
The trees alone were a sight to behold and nothing like they had seen before. Instead of one trunk, these trees had multiple trunks that erupted from the ground in a circular formation. They then ballooned out to form a huge, round, frame-like structure, before they met again and continued up as one. Finishing in a mass of foliage at the top. It looked like they were walking past huge empty cages, which was a little disconcerting.
They approached a tree that had something at its centre and this Huey informed them was where they would be spending the night. Their accommodation was an ol
d hide, built sometime in the past for those interested in the local flora and fauna.
The only thing preventing them from approaching the hide was the circle of tree trunks, but it was soon clear that one of the trunks had been modified.
Huey handed Clom over to Laja and then began interacting with the trunk. He placed his left palm over a natural looking imperfection and a section slid away, leaving a gap for them to walk through. Now on the inside looking out, they felt like the ones that were caged, but they didn't dwell too long on this fact, because their attention was drawn to the old hide. A domed building, about a hundred feet in diameter.
Huey’s presence was all that was required this time and an oval door revealed itself. A blue light traced its outline, followed by a hiss of escaping air. An electronic zip thought Joeum. The door moved in a few inches and then slid up to reveal a dark interior, lit only by a ring of blue lights set into the floor.
They followed Huey into a small circular chamber, which turned out to be an airlock.
The outer door closed with a sudden rush of air that left their ears popping and then the inner door opened to reveal what looked like a small circular hanger. Lights were minimal, recessed strips outlining the basic structure of the place. Their presence brought with it more light and Huey made a beeline for an unremarkable area against the wall.
What had been a plain looking wall a few moments ago was changing into a well-equipped medical bay. Walls slid seamlessly out of sight to reveal a bank of monitors. Equipment hummed to life and a number of intensive care capsules rose silently out of the floor. Choreographed to perfection. It was like watching the opening scene of a ballet.
So much for spending the night in the woods. This pad looked very comfortable.
One of the capsules opened and Huey gestured for Laja to put Clom into it.
“This should help speed up his recovery,” said Huey.
Without taking his focus off of what he was doing, Huey directed everyone’s attention to the far side of the building, where they could see a number of glowing doors.
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