Chapter 2
Fiona and Elsa stalked the creature through the jungle, circling around the colony they’d dubbed Treetown but still heading to the south. Eventually they’d leave the jungle behind and find the hills and ridges that separated the jungle from the plains beyond. The plains hosted the mound that the spitters called home.
The spitters had a queen, but they weren’t organized in a traditional hive. They weren’t even insects, though they did possess some similarities to the garden variety bug. Kira knew the most about them and from what she’d shared, only the queen seemed to reproduce. Dissections of the few spitters they’d killed showed immature sexual organs.
Where the spitters differed from every other meat eating animal on Vitalis was their intelligence. The average spitter was only a few IQ points above a dog, but Kira had made sure everyone believed her when she said the queens was smarter. Possibly even as smart as a human. And that meant if the spitter they followed made it back it was only a matter of time—hours or days—until the human survivors were wiped out completely.
Fiona stopped. She looked about, eyes narrowing. The jungle had grown darker as they’d moved. Elsa looked to the scratched moss on the tree root Fiona stood next to, a chill running down her spine. The scuff marks implied that the footprint had grown even as they’d been tracking it. The human-spitter variant had grown nearly double its birth size, assuming the body grew in proportion to its feet.
“We’ve got half an hour, maybe more, until it’s too dark to track,” Fiona said. She looked around again, this time looking up into the thick jungle canopy. The shadows danced from tree to tree as smaller animals, birds, and insects moved high above them. Even the occasional beam of light that broke through the tropical foliage during the day was redirected by the angle of the setting sun. With the looming darkness came defeat.
“What then? We know where it’s headed, can we try to beat it to the passes and stop it?”
Fiona frowned. “I may have to.”
“You? No. Us.”
Fiona shook her head. “In time you’ll be more dangerous than I am here, but it’s not your time yet. You don’t know the jungle or the land around it. You don’t even know how to use your weapons.”
“Any other time I’d force you to prove that,” Elsa snapped.
“And I would,” Fiona replied with a faint smile. “I don’t doubt your strength, your skill, or your heart. The jungle is deadly at night…and that’s without the threat of this mutant spitter.”
“So what am I supposed to do, just sit here and wait for you?” Elsa’s tone communicated what she thought of the plan.
“Go back to Treetown and warn the others. Tell them to get what they can and leave. There’s not enough of us to fight the spitters off, especially without real weapons. If Kira and I can’t stop these things from getting back to their mound we only have a couple of days until they find us.”
Elsa scowled at her. She opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t find any words that weren’t pointless or argumentative.
“I know, it sucks,” Fiona agreed. “If I don’t make it back tell Jeremy…well, tell him I’m sorry I didn’t make it back.”
“Are you two back together? Kira said you were having problems.”
Fiona shrugged. “He blames himself for a lot of things and can’t get past it. He thinks he deserves all the shit that keeps happening to him and to people around him. He’s hot and cold and it’s really confusing. If I wanted someone with mood swings I’d have gone for one of the girls. Maybe even tried to make a move on you, since you’re new and haven’t had a chance to hook up with anyone yet.”
Elsa smirked at the offhand compliment. “You’ve been hanging around the wrong girls,” She said. Fiona leveled her gaze at her until she relented. “Okay, maybe I’ve had a few hot and cold moments. But never with my team in the field.”
“You’re elite, most of the people here don’t have that training or mental toughness.”
Elsa scoffed. “I’ve only been here a few days but this planet has a way of making a person pretty tough.”
Fiona nodded. She glanced down at the track and sighed. “All right, get going. It’s late enough for some of the nocturnal predators to be out already. Good luck.”
“Good luck to you,” Elsa said. Fiona nodded then recoiled slightly when Elsa stepped into her and gave her a surprise hug. “Take care of yourself, there’s plenty of planet for us to relocate to if we need to, but there’s not many of us.”
Even in the false twilight of the jungle Elsa could make out the blush on Fiona’s cheeks. “Thanks,” she muttered. “I will.”
Elsa turned away and started to the west. Treetown lay less than a mile away. She glanced back and saw Fiona head off again, her bow now resting across her back while she held her spear across her body with both hands. Elsa waited until her sister Marine disappeared into the darkness before she turned back to the west and began her own journey
Only a few minutes into the trek she stopped without even so much as a curse escaping her open lips. One of the multi-jointed creatures she’d seen when her screamer pod had been knocked off course was staring at her. It was clinging to the side of a tree, its hide a perfect match for the color of the smooth tree bark. It blended in almost without fault in spite of the incredible size of the creature. Only her training to look for things that were out of place saved her life.
Her path would take her directly under it as she passed the tree. It was a predator, a natural hunter that would lay in wait until she was in range and then pounce on her. The way its legs were drawn in and the size of the muscle groups served as evidence to support her theory. Elsa moved forward, veering slightly to cross on the other side of the tree. Assuming it wouldn’t want to move until the last minute, that would make its attack more complicated.
Each step seemed a descent into chaos. She tensed her body, preparing to leap out of the way. Her head stayed forward but she might as well have closed her eyes for all the attention she paid to what was in front of her. She was focused on hearing the jungle around her, in particular the spider-like hunter above her.
Something small fell in front of her, nearly making her jump. It hit the jungle floor and splashed, drawing Elsa’s eyes up in spite of herself. A few short strings of alien saliva hung from its open jaws, proof that the Vitalian predator thought Elsa would make a tasty meal.
Almost before she registered the slavering jaws coming closer she heard the sound of its clawed feet tearing the bark of the tree. Elsa threw herself forward, rolling off her left shoulder to keep her bow from hanging her up. The ground shuddered behind her from the impact of the monster, but she felt only the trunk of the three that her hip and side slammed into.
She swung her spear with one hand, batting aside one of the long forelimbs that stabbed for her heart. The dew claw on the limb speared into her side, jarring her and pinning her to the tree. Elsa entire body jerked from the shock of the attack. It reminded her of the time she’d tested out a modification to the feedback system on her FIST armor and it had overloaded her entire nervous system with a low grade voltage.
She grabbed onto the creatures leg and pinned her arm to her side to keep it from ripping the side of her belly out. The other three taloned toes on the foot curled, gouging into her side but not digging deeply enough to be life threatening. She reversed her spear in her other arm and stabbed her attacker in the leg, jamming the wooden point into the first joint above its dew claw.
It made a shrieking noise with just enough rasp in it to keep it from making her spine curl out of her back. The noise reminded her of the other time she’d encountered a creature like this. It had been a happier time for her, she’d had her X109 rifle to ionize its brain into mist.
The beast yanked its leg away from her, jerking her away from the tree and sending her sprawling half a dozen feet away. She rolled with it, her spear still in her hand, and started to rise when the other forelimb slammed into her shoulder and crushed
her back to the ground. Elsa tried to spit the dirt from her mouth but it only served to force her lips to be crushed between the soil and her teeth.
Her body went into action, operating on years of training and drilling when her mind couldn’t conceive of a way out of her situation. She pulled her legs up, dragging her knees across the dirt until they were under her. She shoved her hips up, arching her back with a flexibility she was sure she didn’t have a week ago. First one foot then the other found position on the ground, and from there she used her powerful leg muscles to force herself into another roll.
Elsa screamed as she rolled. The claws tearing through the flesh of her shoulder mixed pain with the primal cry of victory she let loose. The monstrous beast lunged at her, its jaws open to snap and tear her head off in a single bite. She met it with her spear, thrusting it up into its open mouth.
The creature jerked back, nearly yanking Elsa’s arm out of its socket as it took her spear with it. It scrambled, its multi-jointed legs hindering it as it tried to escape. The creature dug as its mouth with its claws until fresh blood flowed from its jaws and cheeks. It kept backing away, using two and three of its legs to drag itself away from her. It backed into a tree and continued to gouge at its own mouth for another moment before all signs of life went out of it. The spider-monkey slumped forward, smashing its head into the ground and letting a stream of mixed drool and blood pool on the ground beneath it.
“That’s what you get, fucking with a Marine,” Elsa whispered. She glanced down at herself and saw the blood and dirt that smeared her side. She clenched her teeth and rolled over, fighting against tears of agony that were only now beginning to rush through her.
“Have. To. Warn. The. Others.” She panted the mantra while forcing herself back to her feet. Her left arm hung limply, blood trickling down her back and her chest to join the blood that ran steadily from the wound in her side.
She knew her time was limited. Vitalis or not, she’d been stabbed through and through twice. One in the meat of her shoulder and traps and once in the abdomen. Even if her guts weren’t shredded the dirt from the wounds promised nasty infections.
A vision of the supplies she and Fiona had retrieved from the crashed shuttles popped into her head. A strong course of anti-biotics could kill off just about any infection! Jess, her medic that had survived the failed insertion of Marine FIST team 3, could patch her up. Jess had saved her ass from worse in the past. She just had to make it back to Treetown.
Elsa looked around. Her spear was in the mouth of the creature. She used her good arm to pull her bow off and, using it as a cane, staggered one agonizing step at a time to the west.
Chapter 3
Elsa stumbled and fell into the stream bed. Her progress had gone from a turtle to snail as the pain intensified. It was too dark to see more than a few feet, forcing her to focus more on her injuries. Elsa also felt chilled, something she could never remember feeling. It was blood loss and shock, but stopping to deal with it wasn’t an option. Her only chance was to get back to Treetown and the medicine. She refused to let herself consider how each passing second made the odds longer.
But even a long shot was better than none, and that required her to drag her tired ass out of the stream. Her left arm had been numb for the last ten minutes. It jarred against her, causing fresh agony when she crashed onto the wet rocks. She picked herself up with her good arm, forcing herself onto her hip. She cursed, a sharp edge scraping her naked buttock, then shifted her weight forward to get her legs under her. Her curse turned into a hiss of agony from the torn muscles in her stomach and back.
Elsa’s bow had been swept downstream a few feet. She looked at it then looked at the far shore. Treetown was less than ten minutes from the stream. Even in the dark she could recognize the landmarks. She was upstream from where they’d found the Marines that served as hosts for the new breed of spitter she’d been tracking earlier that night. She took in a deep breath, shuddering as she did so, and forced one foot ahead of the other.
The sharp rocks bit into her feet. Her feet had toughened in the few days she’d been on Vitalis, but not enough to spare her. She grimaced and pushed through the additional pain to climb onto the opposite shore. “I’m a fucking Marine,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “and I ain’t dead yet!”
A snort from behind her made her twist around. She’d reacted without minding her injuries. The sudden movement brought them back, making her head swim with pain induced nausea. She stumbled and went down, falling on her useless arm and rolling onto her back. A small pack of three prowlers were gathered on the far edge of the stream. The lead one looked up from where it had followed her blood trail. It snarled at her, displaying sharp teeth that promised even more pain.
“Come on!” Elsa shouted at them. “What are you waiting for?”
The middle prowler shook its head, almost as though it was denying her words, then it stepped into the stream. The others advanced, each spreading out to their respective sides to prevent their prey from escaping. Elsa scooted back, finding a tree to put her back against. Her fate was sealed but if she could at least hurt one…
The middle prowler came close enough to extend its head and sniff at her left foot. She pulled it back, goading it closer, then she kicked out and smashed its nose. The pain from the explosive movement stole from the breath from her but it was worth it. The prowler snapped at the air and snorted repeatedly, spraying droplets of blood across the ground and even her leg.
Elsa drew her legs under her. She felt suddenly weightless. Her pain didn’t matter anymore, it was a restraint. A limitation. It was something that tied her to failure, not to her success. She let it go and pushed with her legs, leaping into the prowler and twisting to let her battered arm smash into the prowler’s open jaws.
In spite of its greater mass and six legs, the prowler fell back with her on top of it. The other two spun to face her, but hesitated. They were shaken by the sudden turn of events. They watched, looking for a chance to leap in and tear into Elsa’s flesh as the human and the prowler grappled.
Elsa rammed her right fist into the mouth of the prowler, forcing it past the hinge of its jaws and where her left arm was being lacerated by the meat rending front teeth. She felt the skin on her hand tear as the sharp molars impeded her progress. Then it gave way as two of its teeth were torn free. She forced her fist in deeper, aided by the blood and saliva lubricating her hand. The prowler struggled, pushing against her and the ground to try and escape. Elsa pushed back, forcing herself onto and into the vicious beast until her arm was buried to the elbow in its throat.
Elsa felt the spongy slick tissue. She ignored the claws gouging into her breasts and abdomen. Her life was already forfeit, all that mattered was doing the impossible once more before her time was done. She hooked her fingers into the flesh and pulled, relying on the strength of her genetic enhancements and the boost that Vitalis had given her. She felt the viscera tear slowly at first, then faster as she pulled her bloody arm free.
Blood, bile, and chunks of flesh spewed out of the mouth of the prowler. A hissing noise accompanied the gore, followed by burbling as the fluids rushed into the beasts torn windpipe. It snapped at the air and spun around, trying to run away to safety. It stumbled over the prone body of one of the other prowlers, then rolled on the ground for several more seconds until it lay quivering and desperately trying to pull air into its lungs.
“Hope you don’t mind, we killed the other two.”
Elsa stared up. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Yellow and red flickering torch light painted the figure that towered over her. It was a man. Not any man, but a god among men. She smiled. She’d thought that the last time he’d saved her too.
“S’ok,” she wheezed. She wanted to say more but spasms passed through her that stole the control of her lungs for a moment. It didn’t hurt anymore, she just couldn’t control her breath long enough to make words come out.
“You’re a fuckin’ mess,” Tarn observe
d. He shook his head. “The stream ain’t gonna do it, you need more.” He turned to the two other people that were behind him. Elsa couldn’t make them out, Tarn the Titan blocked her vision. “Barry, go get Jess, then have Coral show you the way to the beach. Run, don’t walk, you got it?”
“Sir!” Barry said. Elsa wasn’t sure if she should have been amused or pissed off at how her man treated Tarn like an officer.
“Shorty, those stumps of yours better keep up. You cover our ass if you want to see your sergeant make it through the night.” Tarn squatted and picked Elsa up easily. His arms felt like steel lifters on a robo-loader.
Elsa tried to speak. She had to warn them to pack and get ready to evacuate. If she failed they might all die.
“Shut up,” Tarn growled at her. “I didn’t save your ass just to get your killed a couple days later. Save your strength, you’re arm is broke and half chewed off, I’ve got to push your guts back in to keep them from spilling out of your belly and I can see a couple of your ribs under your right boob.”
He didn’t understand. Her life didn’t matter, there’s did! If she could just talk she could tell him!
“Every life matters,” Tarn growled. “We don’t sacrifice no one, even if it means everyone else is safe. We live together or we die together. You focus on staying alive. You’re fucked up and even the fighter I saw tear the guts out of that prowler is going to have a rough time with this fight.”
Elsa felt the wetness on her face. She was crying. Why, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t deny it. Tarn cradled her tightly against him, then he turned and launched himself into a jog.
Chapter 4
The majority of the jungle nightlife fled at Tarn’s approach. A few smaller creatures were either too hungry or stupid. The first, a creature that looked like dog-sized salamander was kicked into a tree hard enough to make its bones crack. The second was a short haired four legged animal that had a snout with a pig’s nose, but otherwise had a faint resemblance to a Terran bear. Shorty put an arrow into its side then followed it up with a couple of jabs to its neck with his spear. Whether it was fatally wounded or not, the creature fled into the jungle and they heard no more of it.
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