Tarn emerged onto the sandy beach soon after the confrontation. He slowed to a jog and looked around. He’d never been to the beach at night, only Kira and Fiona had attempted it. Now he could appreciate why. Several of the bear-like creatures roamed along the shore. Many stood still in the shallows, staring into the water. Tarn watched as one dove in, it’s face smashing into the water while its front limbs slammed together. It rose up a moment later, clutching a squirming fish in its mouth. A few quick chomps and the fish was gone, swallowed nearly whole.
“Guard duty,” Tarn growled to the Marine behind him. Ben “Shorty” Stevens nodded and made sure the arrow in his bow was tight against the string.
Tarn moved towards an open spot along the shore and waded into the water. “Bath time, beautiful,” he whispered to Elsa. Elsa’s lips curled slightly but her eyes were little more than slits. She’d lost a lot of blood and the run through the jungle had been anything but gentle. “Remember that you’re a Marine. You don’t have permission to die.”
Her lips moved but he couldn’t make out any words over the gentle lapping of the surf and the occasional splash made by the fishing pig-bears. One of them huffed from nearby, then shrieked. Tarn ignored the creature, instead he made sure none of the meat eating fish or crabs were nearby before he knelt down and gently placed Elsa in the briny water.
He knelt beside her, cradling her head to keep it above the swell of each wave. Tarn risked a brief glance and saw Ben yank his spear out of one of the pig-bears, then fall back while the creature thrashed on the ground. He stood with his spear poised, then lowered it when another of the pig-bears found more interest in the fresh meat Shorty had provided. Ben snatched up his bow and fit another arrow to it, then moved closer to where Tarn and Elsa were in the surf to stand guard.
“How is she?”
Tarn glanced at Elsa. The clear night sky made it seem bright compared to the dark jungle, but it was a cold light that offered little depth into the water. At best he could see the dark cloud of blood around her injuries. “She’s fucked up,” Tarn admitted. “We’ve had some bad injuries but none like this.”
“The way her luck runs all that blood in the water will bring in a shark. Do you have sharks here?”
Tarn shrugged. “I dunno. We don’t get much deep sea fishing in.”
Shorty fell silent and resumed making sure none of the animals strayed too close. Most seemed content to either fish or, if they were closer, to gorge themselves on the dead animal. Tarn went back to studying Elsa and watching the water for any curious swimmers. He glanced up when he sensed Ben moving. The Marine was waving towards the jungle.
Three figures ran across the sand, not stopping until they stood with the water licking their own feet. Jess plunged in, not caring that her hide sandals and clothing got wet. She yanked a strap attached to a hide pouch over her head and handed it to Barry, then she knelt in the water next to Elsa.
“Oh damn, what’ve you done this time?” She asked. She turned to look at Tarn and Coral. “I need some light!”
Coral shifted the sack on her back and pulled out a long stick. She strode to one of the rocks further away from the water and struck the head of the stick against it. The impact caused sparks to light. The sparks caught in the bundle of grasses and dried sap on the end, growing slowly into a torch. She hurried back to Jess and held the torch over her patient.
“I don’t know about the belly or the shoulder,” Tarn said. “I watched her give a prowler a knockout punch in the first round though. No weapons, she just jammed her fist down its mouth and ripped out its throat.”
Jess moved her hands over Elsa’s skin, rubbing away the dirt and the caked blood. She motioned for Tarn to raise her up so her injuries were above the water line, then she had him twist her enough so she could see the exit wounds on her back. “Damn,” Jess muttered. “She can’t do anything half-ass.”
“What’s that mean?”
Jess spoke while she studied Elsa’s wounds. “This woman’s got a bad luck streak about as long as the distance between us and the Desperado up in orbit. She don’t care about that, she puts herself in harm’s way anyhow. And what’s worse is that she knows how much we all look up to her. She’s our Gunny. She thinks we expect her to be able to beat anything and she wants to prove it every chance she gets so we don’t forget.”
Tarn smirked. “Sounds like every Gunnery Sergeant I ever met.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I like patching her up every time she picks a fight with something she shouldn’t be able to beat.”
Tarn nodded. He remembered watching Elsa take on the four baby shriekers that had each been bigger than she was. He’d bailed her out after she’d killed three of them. Then she’d showed no fear when they ran through the field of spitters. And now this, killing a prowler pack leader with her bare hands. “She’s one tough bitch,” he conceded.
“She thinks she’s got to be the best at everything,” Jess confirmed. “Best on the range, first and last one on the ground at a new drop, best at sports during R&R…you name it, she’s got to be lead the way. Even when it comes to getting hurt I think.”
“Occupational hazard,” Elsa managed the strength to whisper.
“Shut up,” Jess snapped at her. “Just shut up and lay there. I’ve got work to do. Meat, where’s my bag?”
Barry stepped next to her, splashing her in the process. She scowled but made no mention of it. “Read those bottles, I need Trancylasetadine. Kind of like fishing with hand grenades but after what she’s been through we’ve got to kill as much bacteria as possible.”
Barry pulled out a few vials and tried to read the titles in the flickering torchlight.
“Wait,” Tarn said. “Killing bacteria? From what I heard the bacteria is what helps fix us up. You kill all of that and you might be killing her.”
Jess hesitated. “Bacteria helps? Wes mentioned something about that before…” She shook her head to free it of the memory of Wes having one of the new spitters chew its way into his body and eating his lungs and heart while he was still alive. “Bacteria is good and bad, depending on the type.”
“Nothing but good here, so far as we found. Nobody’s been sick one day and you know as well as anybody that the longer you’re here, the healthier you get.”
Jess nodded her head in slow motion. She glanced down at Elsa and saw the women staring up at her. Her eyes seemed clear and bright. “Stitch me up, I’ll be okay,” she whispered.
This time the medic shook her head, but she was already turning back to her impromptu assistant. She called for the string and needle and a moment later, she reached in to the gash in Elsa’s belly to probe for the damage done internally. She shook her head again, then the muscles in her cheeks flexed as she clenched her teeth and started working.
Elsa stared up, her eyes catching Tarn’s and holding them. He marveled at how they shined with an inner light and seemed to pull at him. Her eyes weren’t just a muddy shade of green, they seemed alive with their own life. He noticed that her hand had found his and she clenched it tightly while Jess sewed her up from the inside to the outside.
Chapter 5
“Can we get her out of the water?” Jess asked after over an hour of stitching had taken place. The material would dissolve over time, if Elsa survived her injuries.
“You patched her up but she got plenty in her, I ‘spect its okay.” Tarn reached under Elsa and picked her up carefully, then turned and headed up onto the beach beyond the rocks before laying her down.
“You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet,” Elsa whispered.
“Yeah, well, don’t let this turn into a habit,” he muttered.
“We headed back tonight?” Coral asked, staring at the dark jungle. It seemed alive and ominous, with dark spots between trees and bushes that seemed more like toothsome mouths than safe paths of travel.
“We should wait till morning, keep her stable as long as we can,” Jess said.
Tarn nodded
. “Coral, make a shielded fire. I’ll get something to eat.”
“Her small intestine was slashed open in a few places, she’s not eating anything!”
“Didn’t say she was,” Tarn snapped at her. “I’m hungry.”
Tarn felt Elsa squeeze his hand. He looked down and chuckled, he hadn’t realized she’d put her hand in his again after he’d put her down. She let go, allowing him to rise up. Tarn pulled the spear off his back and looked around.
Most of the porcine bears had returned to the jungle after their feast. What remained of the bear that Ben had killed was little more than bloody scraps of hide and bones. He turned and looked at the ocean again. All that blood might have brought some bigger fish in.
“Not going to strangle something with your bare hands?” Coral called out to him. She was scouring the beach for driftwood to burn.
Tarn grinned. “I ain’t that stupid. Learned my lesson watching the new girl try that.”
It took Tarn another half an hour before he returned from wading through the waters. He held a long eel in both hands, water dripping off its shimmering scales. “Think you can cook this?” He asked Coral.
She nodded and took it from him, then pulled out a sharpened rock and worked on slitting the eel open. He watched for a moment as she cleaned it, then turned away to check on Elsa. Jess waved him away, then pantomimed laying her head on her hands. Elsa had fallen asleep. Tarn nodded and walked the small perimeter to check with Ben and Barry.
The sky was beginning to lighten in the west by the time the eel was cooked. Coral laid out strips of the white flesh on a flat rock and motioned for the others to come. Tarn ate first, then replaced Barry. Barry returned a few minutes later to take over for Ben. Jess ate last, her movement rousing Elsa from her healing sleep.
When Jess returned she smiled down at her patient. “How ya feeling, Gunny?”
“I’m feeling, I’ll take that as a good sign.”
The medic’s smile widened. “Fuckin-A. You’re not out of it yet, there’s all sorts of things that could go wrong. Surgery by torchlight isn’t the best option.”
“You leave a needle in me or something?”
Jess snorted. “No! But it’s possible I might have got a stitch in the wrong place.”
Elsa groaned. “What if you did?”
“They’ll dissolve in about ten days, but if it’s bad enough I’ll have to open you back up.”
“Using a stone age scalpel. Great.”
“Beats the alternative.”
Tarn made his appearance, returning from his station and towering over the two women. “We had a man get hurt bad. Stabbed in the back. Jeff should have died but we took him to that stream. He made it, but we found out the ocean water helps a body recover even faster.”
“No way she should still be breathing outside of a combat trauma ward,” Jess said, shaking her head. “I’m good, but I’m not that good!”
“I’m hungry,” Elsa admitted. “Is there any of the snake left?”
“Eel,” Tarn corrected.
“Yes – no! Your intestines were chopped up, you can’t risk eating anything! I had to rinse a lot out and that wasn’t clean water.”
“Cleanest water you’ll ever find,” Tarn said. “Least as far as making a body feel good’s concerned.”
Jess frowned but kept her response to herself. “We’ll rest a bit longer, then head back when the sun’s up an hour or so.”
“Tarn…thank you,” Elsa said. “We need to move sooner though. We split up. Kira took off after one of them and Fiona and I the other. It got late and Fiona made me come back – she was afraid we wouldn’t be able to track and find it in the dark. If those hybrids get back Treetown’s fucked. I’m supposed to get everybody to pack up and leave.”
Tarn scowled. “A lot of work went into Treetown. We’ve got a lot of training and defenses too. Primitive, but they’ll hold up.”
“You seen how many spitters there are. More now, if enough of the assault force survived and were used as hosts,” Elsa pointed out.
Tarn scowled as he thought it over. Finally he shrugged the decision away. “That’s a decision for Sharp to make. We’ll get back as soon as it’s safe. Since there’s nothing trying to eat us right now, we’ll wait till the doc says you’re good to go.”
Chapter 6
The wait was shorter than expected. Several people emerged from the jungle and hurried over to join them on the beach. Elsa recognized Captain Sharp, Klous, and Eric, but she had no idea who the tall man with almond shaped eyes was. She propped herself up on her elbows, then pulled herself further until her back was to a rock. Jess scowled at her but Tarn held up his hand to stop the medic from talking.
“Kira or Fiona come back?” Tarn asked the approaching group.
“No,” Eric said. His pinched eyebrows let them know he wasn’t happy about it either.
Captain Sharp took over, redirecting the conversation, “Figured we’d check to see that you’re all right. That and Klous talked the Navy into dropping some supplies for us.”
“Supplies? They can’t! They’ll be trapped here just like us!” Jess blurted out.
“Orbital emergency drop. No bodies this time, just supplies.”
“Oh!” Jess clamped her mouth shut.
“Mineral scanners and tools mostly,” Klous offered with a grin. “We can get some things set up properly!”
Tarn snorted. “They’ll break.”
Klous nodded. “You’re probably right, but if we can identify some local resources first we can try creating our own equipment. Hard work but it seems that’s the lot we’ve drawn.”
“How are you?” The unknown man asked. Elsa’s eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at him. “Oh! Sorry, my name’s Ling. I was the engineer on the Black Hole.”
“My ship,” Klous said, jabbing his thumb into his chest.
“I don’t know. I think I’m going to be okay,” Elsa said. She glanced up at Jess but received only a shrug in return.
“Heard you were pretty messed up,” Sharp said. “Also heard you tried boxing with a prowler?”
“Shit, that’s nothing,” Tarn said. “She knocked it on its ass, reached down its throat, and torn out its gullet!”
Elsa shrugged, then glanced at her shoulder. The pain from the movement had been minimal. “One of those spider-monkey-chameleon things jumped me earlier. Tried to rip my guts out. Everything on this planet is so anxious to eat everything else, I figured maybe that’s the weak spot. Jammed my spear in that thing’s throat.”
“Good for you,” Sharp said with a nod. “Kira might have a run for her money.”
Elsa shook her head. “No Sir, I’m too damn stubborn to die. Kira’s so good she doesn’t even get hurt. Kira’s in another league.”
Tarn scowled while Eric smiled his appreciation for Elsa to see.
Sharp chuckled. “She’s something else. Well maybe you could teach Tarn a few things then. He’s plenty thick headed too.”
“Hey!”
“That’s just because he’s a man,” Elsa offered.
Sharp laughed again, then turned when Klous cried out. The former pirate captain was pointing into the sky at a fiery streak that crossed the heavens. It seemed to be headed straight for them as they watched it.
“I think we should take cover,” Ben suggested.
“They said they’d drop it on the beach,” Klous said. He frowned as he noticed he was standing in the middle of the beach. “The jungle might be a good idea.”
Sharp scowled at him. “Didn’t say where on the beach, did they? Come on, let’s go! Tarn, grab your girlfriend. She might be tough but nobody’s catching that.”
Tarn scooped Elsa up in the two armed carry that she’d grown accustomed to. His action was so smooth and quick she didn’t have a chance to protest Sharp’s choice of words. Tarn, for his part, just grinned at her before he started jogging towards the tree line.
They’d barely settled in, hiding behind trees or ducking i
nto small ditches, before the thunder of the incoming supply drop roared over them. It grew silent a few seconds later as the wings deployed and slowed it to subsonic speeds. Then they heard the whistling as it sliced through the air. Moments later it exploded and slammed into the ground hard enough to allow them all feel the shockwave from the impact.
Elsa pulled herself up and stared around some bushes that were swaying with the winds from the landing. “A screamer pod?” She asked aloud.
Tarn swore and jumped to his feet so he could see better. The beach had a trench nearly sixty feet long dug in it. Water was slowly seeping into it from the ground. At the head of the trench a screamer pod rested, looking for all intents and purposes as though it had been correctly deployed.
“Thought they weren’t sending no more people?” Tarn growled.
“They didn’t,” Elsa said, pulling herself stiffly to her feet. Her hand covered the stitches in her belly, but it didn’t stop her from stepping out onto the beach and staring at it. “Emergency supply drop. Screamers have the best chance of getting through. They’re fast and small.”
“Hey, you shouldn’t be walking!” Tarn yelled at her. “Sit your ass down or I’m picking you up again.”
“Now there’s a pick up line,” Jess quipped. Tarn gaped at her but the medic ignored him. “Gunny, you sure you’re okay? You really shouldn’t be walking. Hell, you shouldn’t be breathing!”
Elsa shrugged. “Yeah, a little stiff and some pulling, but I’m fine. I know, better than I should be and I won’t push it. If it starts hurting I’ll ride my stallion here.”
Tarn jerked his head back and forth between the two woman. His scowl faded at being called a stallion. He shook his head and headed towards the fallen screamer pod. Elsa followed him, albeit at a slower pace. Jess walked beside her, hands out to catch her if she fell.
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