Vitalis Omnibus

by Jason Halstead

  “Go back!” She said, her words containing the barest of slurring. “I’ll lead them away.” She shuddered, then stiffened her back and stared hatefully at Klous. Her next words sounded thicker, as though her tongue was swollen. “Pray I don’t make it back, Klous. Pray!”

  She swung her spear at them, slowly for her, but fast enough to make them both jerk back. Ling stared at her, looking below her fierce gaze and saw the cuts on her hips and legs. None were enough to cripple her by themselves, but he’d heard the toxin in the spitters’ bite acted fast.

  Klous grabbed Ling’s arm and yanked him after him, turning and running toward the ridge. Neither looked back to see what became of Kira, though they heard her let loose a primal scream of that echoed across the plains.

  Chapter 6

  “I’ve got better things to do than go hunting,” Elsa grumbled.

  “Gunny, wasn’t you the one telling me we all gotta pitch in?” Barry, her hunting partner, asked.

  “Yeah, but I should be helping out. With Ling and Klous missing this isn’t right.”

  “Tarn’s staying close too,” the large Marine pointed out.

  Elsa shrugged it off. “That’s his job, defending Treetown.”

  “And yours is running around in the jungle trying to find people who don’t want to be found?”

  “Why not, we’ve done that mission before.”

  Barry chuckled. “Yeah, guess we have. Current mission is find us something big and meaty to bring back.”

  Elsa nodded. Barry was right, that was what they were supposed to do. Before she’d come to Vitalis she’d have accepted that. Now she knew better. “Yeah, guess so. Let’s get this over with.”

  “Ain’t seen no critters yet, you think this is going to be quick and easy?” They’d already travelled miles to the north. If they went to the west another hour they’d be at the pits.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find something,” Elsa reassured him. “Nobody ever comes out this way too far.”

  They fell silent and moved through the woods. Elsa watched Barry out of the corner of her eyes, impressed with how well he’d adapted. His nickname was ‘Meat’ because he was right up against the edge of how tall and large a Marine could be and still qualify for service. He’d been the strongest in First Insertion Special Tactics team three for as long as he’d been a part of it. Now that they were on Vitalis Elsa was giving him a run for his money. He’d been working hard to regain the crown, she noted, and the bulging muscles on his upper body were a testimony to it.

  More importantly, to her, was that she was still “Gunny” to him. As far as Barry, Gresham, Jess, and Ben were concerned she was their boss, even if Captain Sharp was calling the shots in Treetown. Other than a wry smile when she stripped off her clothes and smeared the mud on her body for camo, he deferred to her the same as he always did.

  They split up, staying within constant visual range of each other but allowing a better chance of spotting game or spooking it towards the other person. They took care to avoid the infrequent beams of sunlight that penetrated the jungle canopy overhead, hoping instead to find something sunning itself in one of the shafts of light.

  The sunlight was a bust, as were the watering holes they wandered across. Even a small glade filled with flowers, insects, and some fruit bearing plants was barren. Circling around it Elsa understood why, she saw one of the Vitalian termite mounds. They made ready to head away from it when Elsa stopped and jerked her fist in the air, signaling a halt.

  Barry waited, his eyes searching the jungle around while Elsa studied the natural garden. She motioned him over after a moment, then waited for him to walk around the garden and join her. Rather than use words, she pointed into the undergrowth until she heard Barry gasp.

  “Watch that mound, those fuckers are nasty,” she hissed, then she rose and made her way onto the spongy ground. Barry stepped over to keep himself between Elsa and the termites, keeping a safe distance from it at the same time.

  Elsa felt the texture of the soft ground and the water that slipped between her toes as she stepped onto the balls of her feet. The grass tickled her sensitive feet, another reminder of how much more aware and alive she felt now than ever before. She reached her objective and knelt down. She brushed a few Vitalian insects off of the human skull before she pulled it out of the clinging grasses and weeds. This close she saw other bones from the skeleton, but all signs of clothing or equipment were long gone.

  She backed away just as cautiously, then motioned for Barry to come with her. They put a few hundred between them and the grove before she held the skull out and let Barry examine it.

  “Somebody you know?” He asked.

  Elsa shook her head. “Either someone from the research colony who was very lost or one of The Black Hole’s crew.”

  “Might be someone else,” Barry said. “Someone who found Vitalis before Sharp and his people? Or who says Earth’s the only place humans come from.”

  Elsa’s eyes narrowed. She frowned. “Bag it, we’ll take it back and see what Sharp has to say about it.”

  Barry pulled the hide satchel he’d slung over his shoulder open and shoved the skull in on top of a few ripe fruits they’d found. He cinched it tight and turned back, only to see Elsa was staring to the north, her entire body rigid like a hunting dog. Barry followed her eyes, squinting to make out what had her riled up. After several moments he saw something move between the distant trees. It stepped into a group of trees and disappeared.

  “What the fuck was that? Looked like it might have been a man? Dead guy got a brother?”

  “That wasn’t a human,” Elsa whispered. “I think it was one of the hybrids.”

  “What? I thought…are you sure?”

  Elsa nodded. “Yes, I am. I don’t know what it’s doing this far north.”

  “Makes me think we’re not the only humans here.”

  “That wasn’t no human!” Elsa insisted.

  “I believe you, Gunny. I’m saying maybe whatever other humans there was ran into another colony of them spitters.”

  Elsa turned to stare at the Private. She shook her head slowly, then turned back to look to the north. “Come on, we’ve got to find it!”

  “Gunny…”

  “Don’t turn into a pussy on me, Marine!” She snapped.

  Barry leveled a stare at her that told her what he thought of being called a coward.

  “Good, let’s go, five yard spread, I’ve got the lead,” she was off, moving through the jungle with a speed and stealth that left Barry swallowing his curses. She closed the distance to where they’d seen the hybrid then motioned to Barry to keep watch. She searched around, hunting for tracks like Fiona and Kira had taught her. She scowled, the ground was harder and covered with roots and stones.

  “Gunny!” Barry hissed.

  Elsa looked up and saw what had Barry’s attention. The spitter was watching them from a distance. It was on a fallen tree well over a hundred yards away, staring directly at them. Elsa rose up, eyes narrowed even as she reached for the bow across her back. The hybrid pointed at them, then it waved its arm across. Finally it pointed back towards Treetown.

  They stared at it, too stunned to speak. The spitter turned away and leapt off the tree limb, dropping out of their sight. Barry started forward after a moment but Elsa grabbed his arm at the elbow and stopped him.

  “No, we’re not going after him.”

  “What the fuck was that?” Barry blurted out.

  “That was a message.” Elsa stared at the log the hybrid had stood on for a long pensive moment before adding, “It told us this was our land, we need to stay here. They’re giving us this but they won’t be so kind if we try expanding.”

  “It said all that?” Barry snarked.

  Elsa nodded. “Something real close to it. Come on, we’ve got a couple of reasons to double time it back to base. Treetown’s between a rock and a hard place.”

  Chapter 7

  “Tarn’s a lucky man,” Bar
ry admitted.

  Elsa looked up from the stream she was washing herself off in. “What, you going to tell me you always had a thing for me?”

  Barry laughed. “You scare me, Gunny. I wouldn’t touch you with Tarn’s dick!”

  “Thanks Meat, you know how to make a girl feel good about herself.”

  “Shit Gunny, that’s not it. There’s not a one of us that you ain’t scared half to death at one point or another. We respect you more for it. Means the man that can handle you must be one hell of a guy.”

  Elsa looked away from him to keep her smile from showing. The timing was lousy, but it was nice to hear the praise. Then Barry had to go and ruin the moment.

  “Now hurry up, we’ve got to get word back about what we seen!”

  Elsa dunked her head in the stream and scrubbed her fingers through her hair. She missed the short hair she’d had before coming to Vitalis. Now it had three months of growth to it. Not regular growth either, but the Vitalis king of growth. Lizzie and Sasha had been experimenting with using the sharp edges on the crystals to cut hair, but it was a long ways from being a pleasant experience. So for now she wore it long. Another week or two and it would grow enough to pull back into a ponytail or a braid. Until then she dealt with it.

  She shook her head once she pulled it out of the stream, causing Barry to yelp as droplets of water flew his way. She climbed out of the stream, wiping the extra water off her skin with her hands. She moved past the sputtering Marine, air drying as she went. She reached into a hollow at the base of a tree and pulled out the scraps of hide she wore when in Treetown. Barry gave her a soft wolf-whistle of approval once she’d tied the knot on the loin cloth, earning him a finger gesture of appreciation.

  “I don’t know why you bother,” Barry said as they closed the distance from the stream to Treetown. “It’s not like everybody hasn’t seen you already.”

  “I don’t care who’s seen me,” Elsa retorted. “I do it because of Tarn.”

  “What?” Barry blurted. “Tarn’s a man – he’d love the thought of you prancing around naked!”

  Elsa stopped and glared at him. “I don’t prance. Ever.”

  Barry held up his hands defensively, then nodded in approval.

  “And it’s not that Tarn wouldn’t like it, it’s because even thinking about that man gets my juices flowing. This planet has done nothing but good things by me, and one of those was taking my sex drive into overload!”

  Barry’s cheeks had a deeper shade of red than normal, prompting Elsa to grin at him. After she turned and started walking he said, “Yeah, seems to do that to everyone.”

  “So that’s why I wear this in Treetown,” Elsa reached back to pat that flap of hide covering part of her butt. “Don’t need anybody slipping after I sat down next to Tarn somewhere.”

  She glanced back and saw the Private’s eyeballs ready to fall out of their sockets. She smirked and thought about torturing him some more when she heard a distant rumble that reminded her of thunder. She glanced up but the jungle canopy was too thick to let any light through. Even with the dark leaves overhead it wasn’t dark enough for thunderclouds to cover the sky. She doubled her pace. They had important news to share and something felt off. The sex-talk was just what Marines did to keep the implications of what they’d seen from gnawing away at them when there was nothing they could do about the situation. Now it felt like a new situation had developed.

  Elsa climbed up the rope ladder and asked everyone she passed for directions to Captain Sharp. She found him with Gresham, her Corporal and comm. specialist. They weren’t alone, Eric, Ling, and Klous were present and all of them looked upset. She noted that Klous and Ling had been found, but the strange expressions they wore made her wonder if that was a good thing.

  “What’s going on?” Elsa thrust herself into the conversation.

  “Too much,” Sharp muttered. He turned to look her up and down, then nodded for no particular reason she could discern. “Elsa, you’re in charge of scouting and hunting now. I wish I could say congratulations.”

  “In charge….what happened?” A hole opened up in the decking beneath her, making her feel weightless. She reached out and grabbed onto the side of the tree, supporting her balance.

  “Kira’s gone,” Sharp said. He turned and looked at Klous, the muscles twitching in his cheek as he stared at the man.

  Klous met his gaze for a moment then dropped his eyes. He raised them quickly, turning to focus on Elsa. Ling stood silent beside him, sweat drying on his bare chest and face. “We were trying to forage more parts from the shuttles,” Klous ventured. “The spitters set a trap for us. We were about to be overrun when Kira showed up. She…”

  “You fucking idiot,” Elsa growled. The lead weight in her stomach caught fire and burned hotter than the Vitalian sun. She took three steps towards him before anyone could react and slammed her open hand into his throat. “They set a trap the first time we went there too! We brought back those infected Marines!”

  She jammed him into the side of the tree and watched his face turn purple. “What did you do to her?” She demanded, squeezing harder and preventing him from answering.

  “She told us to run!” Ling answered for him. “She said get away!”

  Elsa turned her head to stare at the haunted expression on Ling’s face. She narrowed her eyes, studying him, then decided he was telling the truth.

  “Elsa, let him go.” She heard Tarn speak and knew that he must have joined them, but it only reminded her that she could deal with Klous with an easy squeeze. A twist of her hand, perhaps. Either way, he would pay for what he’d done to Kira.

  Klous collapsed to the floor, coughing and gagging. He gasped in air between retches, which only caused him to cough more. Elsa turned to see Tarn standing nearby, his stance proof that he was ready to grab her if he needed to. Any other time she’d have enjoyed the opportunity and considered it foreplay. With her blood boiling in her veins she almost dared him to try.

  “There’s more,” Sharp said, ignoring Klous.

  “You’ve got no fucking idea how much more there is,” Elsa snapped. “Meat and I ran into one of the hybrids. To the north. It communicated with us.”

  “It spoke to you?” Sharp asked.

  “No, it was too far away. He saw us first, I think. We tried to follow him but he hopped on a log and pointed at us, then motioned for us to go back.” Elsa stopped as Klous let loose a jagged coughing fit. She turned, a sneer on her face, and fought back the desire to smash his head into the wooden floor until he was unconscious.

  “How far north?”

  “We were west of the pits, another hour or so to the mountains. Has anybody ever been up there?” She asked.

  “Just Kira and Fiona.”

  Elsa swore. She turned to Ling. “Are you sure Kira’s gone? She’s not like you, she can do just about anything.”

  “She fought them off so we could escape, but she’d been bitten more than once. She stumbled and when she called out to us she was having trouble speaking.”

  Elsa felt the blood in her palms from where her fingernails dug into her skin. She could hear it drip on the floor, so silent was everyone. She turned to look at Klous and, before anyone could stop her, she kicked him in the side. Air exploded from his mouth before his body slid across the floor until he rolled to a stop a few feet from the edge of the platform. Another kick, Elsa judged, and she could send him over the edge. The thirty foot drop would probably kill him, if she were lucky.

  “That’s enough,” Sharp reprimanded her. “We’ll deal with Klous and Ling. We just had another talk with the Terran Coalition fleet.”

  “Wait, there’s this too,” Barry said, pulling the skull out of his satchel.

  Sharp’s frown at the interruption faded as he stared at it. “Where’d you find that?”

  Barry kept going, seeing that Elsa was red faced and incapable of speaking without causing the wood around them to splinter and burst with her choice of words. “The
re’s a break in the jungle to the north. It’s small, but the humidity of the jungle and the sunlight coming in keep it wet and well lit. Flowers, fruits, berries, and lots of bugs, including a good sized termite nest. We found the skull there.”

  “No way one of the research colonists could have gotten there without us seeing them,” Sharp muttered. He took the skull and looked it over, then handed it back to Barry. “Definitely human though, not one of the hybrids.”

  “Are you sure you’re the first humans on Vitalis?” Barry asked.

  Sharp glanced at him before stroking the stubble on his chin. The crystals had proven invaluable. They could be weapons, faint lights, or razors. Sharp had taken to shaving with a crystal once every few days.

  He nodded. “I thought so. Big planet, so I can’t be sure, but between what we know and what everybody we’ve talked to, including the fleet in orbit, told us, there’s no industrialization or sign of intelligent life on this planet.

  “Still isn’t,” Elsa muttered, glowering at Klous.

  “Brand,” Klous wheezed. One hand was at his throat and the other holding his side. “The skull might be Brand.”

  “A brand?” Barry asked, confused.

  “Brand was one of our crewmates,” Ling offered. “He was in charge of security. When we first landed he went into the jungle with everyone else, but they got scattered by a chickasaurus. Nobody ever saw him again.”

  Barry turned the skull and stared into the empty sockets. “I guess you could be a Brand,” he said.

  “All right, spitters to the north and the south, but they didn’t attack you?”

  Elsa’d calmed down enough to speak. “Seemed to want us to stay away is all. They were giving us our land and in return they want their land.”

  “We need to know more,” he muttered. He sighed and looked at the comm. gear that Gresham was standing next to. The man watched them all, looking as though he’d give the world to be anywhere but where he was. “That reminds me, the other major issue we’ve got is they sent down a shuttle. They had volunteers that understood the risks. They want to join us and help with the research.”