Green World

by B. V. Larson

  “Good advice.”

  Della disappeared again, and I didn’t give her any special orders. As far as I was concerned, she’d done her job and then some. If a ghost could flush an enemy and not die—well sir, that was as good as it got in her line of work.

  For about ten long minutes, nothing really bad happened. The troops slogged along, with Natasha and Kivi playing sapper in the rear. They dropped a dozen mines before I told them to save the rest.

  Everyone began to breathe more easily. Sure, we were still looking around with wide eyes, but we didn’t have that icy edge of panic in the back of our minds any longer. It was beginning to look like the sea creature had moved on.

  After the tenth minute passed, however, we heard a crump behind us.

  A shockwave ran through the water, and it kicked up dust and sent a gush of bubbles our way.

  “Damn, that was close! Sound off! Anyone hurt?”

  Kivi answered—but Natasha didn’t. They’d been in the rear, and Natasha had been blown off the path and crushed.

  “Shit… Kivi, what happened? Did she screw up one of her bombs?”

  “No sir, I don’t think so. We were done with laying the mines when it went off. It should have been behind us.”

  “Oh… oh shit. Troops! Advance! At the double!” I shouted this last over tactical chat, so the entire unit heard me.

  If there’s one thing a Varus man doesn’t do after his first dozen deaths, it’s hesitate. They all kicked up the pace as one. Everyone began to jog, whether they were sipping water, playing with their dicks or chatting to a friend on their tappers. They all moved at once.

  I saw it a moment later. A metallic glint above us.

  “Look up! Watch out, falling mines!”

  That’s what it was. One of our own mines. The creature had somehow plucked it up without detonating it, and it was now falling into our midst.

  Screaming and rushing in every direction, the column tried to scatter. Some went to ground. Others went uphill, more still went back down again.

  But… then there were three unlucky souls. Maybe they’d been too freaked out to think. Maybe their training had kicked in at a bad moment, or they’d just gotten turned around somehow while they scanned the dark water above for falling death. Whatever the case, they stepped over the rails and died, jerking and flopping in the water for a few seconds like gigged frogs.

  “Watch your damned step!” I shouted, but of course, it was too late for some of them.

  The bomb dropped down into our midst—but it didn’t explode.

  “I deactivated it,” Kivi said, breathing hard in my ear. “It wasn’t easy, that was one of Natasha’s. But the codes are the same. We’re okay. The bombs are all deactivated now.”

  It was a good thing, too. That shadow over our heads was sweeping by, doing a long pass. One at a time, the bombs dropped onto the path harmlessly. I had to roar and curse to get my troops to stop lunging away from them.

  After a few minutes of this, the creature must have run out of bombs. We got up, reassembled and started climbing the hill again. Everyone was in a foul, fearful mood. We eyed the waters overhead like a column of ants waiting for a farmer’s boot to fall among us.

  -45-

  The tunnel of water seemed endless and without pity. Going uphill was much more exhausting than it had been going down. After a few hours, no one was talking or laughing. We were all saving our breath and gazing up fearfully now and then. It was all we could do to keep placing one boot in front of the other. The pace was hypnotic.

  “Don’t stop. No breaks. We’re going to keep marching until we drop, or we see daylight.”

  People groaned aloud when they heard this order, but they didn’t argue with it.

  Every ten minutes or so, the sea monster that haunted us pulled some trick or another. I was really beginning to hate the thing. It was sneaky, smart and as mean as cat dirt.

  Once it had figured out the bombs were useless, it began dipping the monofilament into our midst. Sometimes, it snagged a soldier by the ankle or dropped a loop around a man’s helmet. If the victim wasn’t quick, it would yank them off the path and let them die in the crushing depths.

  I got the feeling it was enjoying itself. Toying with us. We were entertainment for this thing—nothing more.

  Ideas surged in my mind, of course, one after another. But I couldn’t come up with a way of hurting it.

  At last, Carlos did the trick. He didn’t actually have an idea, mind you, but he triggered a thought to spark up in my brain.

  “It’s like being a fish and having some kind demented fisherman after you. I hate this thing so much, I wish we could electrify that wire or something.”

  Pausing, I grabbed him. He looked up at me curiously.

  “The wire…” I said. “That’s the key.”

  “Uh… sure it is, McGill. If you say so.”

  He trudged ahead, and I sized him up. He was plump, loud, and useless. The perfect bait.

  “Kivi? You got any more mines on you?”

  “Yessir, but I don’t recommend dropping any more behind us. The creature deactivated them and dropped them back onto our heads.”

  “Right, right, I’m well aware. What I’m thinking of is something a little more direct. I’m thinking of bait, and hooks. Like fishing.”

  “Um… what?”

  I pointed at Carlos. “He’s the bait. The fishing line is that monofilament the monster keeps dropping down into our troops. The hook, though—the thing that’s going to catch this fish—that’s where your bombs come into the story. Rig a few of them so they’re deactivated, but they’ll go off with a signal.”

  “Oh… that’s evil, James. Will you even tell Carlos?”

  “Nah… bait has to act natural to catch a smart fish. Besides, he might argue if he knows what’s coming next. Get together a sack of bombs, and set them all to go off when they get a signal from you.”

  Kivi began to work on it, and she was done fast. “I don’t feel good about this, James.”

  “I know, I know. Look, here he comes. Play along.”

  “Hey!” Carlos said, bobbing as he hopped downhill to where Kivi and I stood together. We were at the very rear of the group now, as everyone had been walking by us while Kivi worked. “Are you hitting on my best girl again, McGill? Are things really that hard-up on Green World for you?”

  Carlos had been Kivi’s boyfriend now and then for years, but lately that’d been more off than on.

  “Hey Specialist. You’re just the man I wanted to see.”

  “Um… what? Oh jeez, no way. Don’t tell me—”

  “That’s right, you’ve been volunteered. Take this sack of bombs to the rear of the column and wait until you see the monster come by again. Then, you start planting them one at a time, about ten meters apart.”

  “Ah come on, McGill. You know the bombs failed miserably last time around. I don’t deserve this. None of us do.”

  “This time will be different. Trust me.”

  Carlos narrowed his eyes, and I could tell it would be a cold day in Hell when he trusted me during a campaign. But, as I was the centurion and all, he didn’t have much choice.

  Grumbling, he followed the long column. Immediately, I saw him bend over to plant a bomb like an Easter egg.

  “Hey, hey! Not yet, Ortiz. You wait until it comes back again.”

  “I don’t get it,” Kivi said to me privately. “Is Carlos the bait, or is it the bombs?”

  “A little of both. I know it had a lot of fun dropping those on us earlier. Maybe it wants to do so again.”

  Several long minutes passed. During that time, we peered into the gloomy ocean and kept trudging uphill. Now and then, I thought maybe I saw something, but it could have been the shadows. The ocean was full of dark, distant shapes. Usually they were just rocks.

  “McGill, it’s back,” Kivi told me, whispering for no reason at all. “I think it’s stalking Carlos.”

  “Okay. Don’t say anyth
ing. Just let nature take its course. “

  “He looks so forlorn back there, all by himself. This is going to be harder than I thought.”

  From my point of view, it was pretty damned easy. The monster darkened the water overhead, and the dark patch became larger every second. Finally, even Carlos noticed.

  “Holy shit!”

  “Place a bomb, Specialist!” I shouted back to him as he began to run. “You’re slacking!”

  Hurriedly, Carlos dropped a bomb. Then he took ten hopping steps and bent over to place another.

  That was it. The creature apparently couldn’t take being mooned by Carlos any more than the rest of us could. He dipped down that long silvery wire, with a loop tied into the end. Carlos spotted it, and he dodged, whooping. He began to run uphill, and no amount of orders from me to stand and take his medicine managed to slow him down.

  “Carlos is really moving,” Kivi said.

  “Yep. People think he’s a potato with arms and legs, but he can get up and go when he wants to.”

  We watched as the one-sided contest went on. In the final moments, the wire caught up to him. Deftly, the sea creature slipped a knotted teardrop-shaped loop around his middle, and he was snatched upward.

  “Dammit! He dropped the sack of bombs! Kivi, hit the detonator!”

  She slammed her palms together, depressing a switch she’d held at the ready. The signal went out, broadcast to the bombs.

  “Everyone, get down! Throw yourselves flat!” Following my own advice, I dove onto the seabed. Behind us, the ocean lit-up with a flash, then a shockwave of bubbles and water hit us in the butts like a runaway truck.

  Several legionnaires were caught off-guard and tossed into the field that protected us. I could hardly blame them for that. We hadn’t discussed our plans with anyone. Doing so would probably have spooked Carlos and blown the whole plan.

  As it was, no less than seven people lost their lives in the next thirty seconds, including Carlos himself.

  The creature seemed stricken. He was still up there, I could see him as a darker patch of water, but he was drifting off to the right side. He was coming lower, too.

  “Sargon! Leeson, get your weaponeers back here, on the double. We’re going to fry up some calamari tonight!”

  The five remaining weaponeers staggered to their feet and came walking down toward me. They were all the biggest men in the unit. Hulking figures with massive powered armor and belchers on their shoulders.

  “Over there, to the right. You see it? He’s hurt, I think.”

  “More than that,” Sargon said, “I think he’s dead. He’s not moving, sir.”

  “Let’s make sure. Light him up.”

  They set themselves in a row, and as one they began beaming the monster’s side.

  This was the closest I’d ever gotten to the thing. I took photos with my tapper, and I did some guesstimating. The body was ropy, as if it was built out of a bunch of thick tubes of meat. Each tube was the size of a massive tree trunk. And the whole monster? I don’t know… I couldn’t see all of it. Gray skin, mottled with white and pink splotches. Whatever it was, it was big, and it was sinfully ugly.

  After that single, long glimpse, I lost sight of it. This was mostly because Sargon and his sidekicks had done as I’d ordered. They’d all released a long blast at once, like a firing squad.

  As a result, the water between us and the creature turned into bubbles and super-heated steam. The water seemed to burn in spots, and that was weird.

  Criss-crossing lines stitched into the creature’s hide. That much I was sure of. They were burning it, and they were burning it good.

  “All right, ceasefire!” I shouted. “All these bubbles are getting in the way, in any case.”

  “Is it dead?” Sargon asked. “I think it’s dead, Centurion. Nothing could have taken a volley like that.”

  “You’re probably right. Give the water a chance to clear and—”

  That’s when something came out of nowhere. It was big, it was round, and it was as thick as a column on a Roman temple. The arm, or stalk, or whatever it was, slashed violently into our midst. It came right through the field that surrounded us, and it struck Sargon squarely.

  He didn’t have a chance to do anything about it. One second, he’d been boasting about his kill, and the next he was knocked ass-over-teakettle straight backward.

  Although he scrambled for a grip on the seabed, it was hopeless. He was knocked over the rail and into the open ocean. A moment later, he was doing that gulping, spazzing dance we’d all seen before.

  “Burn it again!” I shouted, angrily. I picked up Sargon’s belcher, and I fired it with the rest of them. The water went white with all the bubbles and released energy.

  When it all cleared, we were down low, panting and gripping the seabed.

  “Do you see it? Do any of you see it?”

  “No, Centurion. There’s nothing there. It’s gone.”

  I cursed up a blue streak. Who had played who? I was sure it had been hurt, but maybe it had pretended to be more hurt than it was…

  “Dammit. Let’s go before it comes back.”

  We hustled up the slope, leaving more dead behind us. I had no idea if it was mortally wounded, pissed off, or just toying with us some more. Whichever was the case, I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

  My unit—the half of them that were still breathing—climbed for the surface in a near-panic. No more urging to speed was needed by me or anyone else.

  When one man slipped and fell, the rest were as likely to tramp over his back as lift him up and set him on his feet. It was a battle for time, now. We were low on air, power and nerves.

  I tried to keep discipline, of course. I shouted at the worst offenders and threatened to toss men off the tracks and into oblivion. This had an effect, but it was muted. In order to keep them from losing it entirely, I kept them moving, rushing uphill.

  A lot of us were on all-fours in the steep areas. Climbing over rocks and weeds with churning hands. I—”

  “Hey!” I shouted. “That’s a weed! I saw seaweed! Look, troops! We’re almost there!”

  With blank faces, they stared upward and panted. It was true. Patches of underwater growths were everywhere now. Each meter we struggled upward showed us more of them.

  “But it’s still dark above us,” Harris complained, staring up and gaping.

  “Sure is. Check your tapper. It’s damn near midnight.”

  “Holy shit…” he said, “you mean we’ve been climbing all night long?”

  “Yep,” Leeson told him. “You got a problem with that, Harris? If you want, we could set you up with a nice sandy spot to curl up and take a nap.”

  “Shut up. We’re getting out of here. Come on, boys, we’re less than a kilometer from the surface!”

  It was true, but there was still a long way to go. Another ten minutes passed, and that stretched into a half-hour. We were all taking stims and those who had run out of power were begging for others to let them leech. Somehow, we all made it to the point where the waves were just overhead.

  There, I stopped and paused, sides heaving. All my troops passed me by. They were clapping me on the shoulder, grinning tiredly.

  “You got us the hell out of that hellhole, McGill,” Leeson said. “I hereby thank all that’s holy and your mama too for whelping your giant ass.”

  “Thanks, Leeson.”

  The group slogged the final hundred steps, but I lingered behind. I was looking downslope. Looking for something special.

  I stood there for a long time. In fact, I was the very last man to walk out of the sea.

  But behind me, way down there at the edge of darkness, another being lingered. He was watching me, just as I was watching him.

  He was big, impossibly big, but he had some respect for us now. He was staying well back, just watching.

  What was so interesting to this monster? Why had he followed us into the shadows without attacking? Was it becau
se he was afraid… or was it something else?

  Thinking about it, I became concerned.

  Maybe—just maybe—he’d let us go. Maybe he’d toyed with us all along, then decided to follow us, to see where we went.

  To see where we’d come from.

  With a shudder, I turned and walked out of the water, into the surf, and up onto a rocky beach. The stars were out overhead, and I opened my visor to catch a fresh breeze. I didn’t think simple sea air could taste so good.

  -46-

  Graves was all frowns and grumbles, but he couldn’t argue that we hadn’t given it our all during our undersea adventure.

  “So you never got a real look at the thing chasing you? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “That’s right, Primus, sir. The damned thing was big, and smart, and natural to water. It had gray and pink skin—I think. There were hints of suckers and maybe some tentacles, or arms… or something like that.”

  Graves gave me his patented stare of disgust. I was so happy to be back on dry land I barely cared. No wait, I don’t like to lie to myself: the cold truth was I didn’t care at all. Not one whit.

  “So we have an unknown enemy capable of driving off a full unit single-handedly. That’s just great. What a waste of time.”

  “Hold on now, Primus, I’d say we learned a great deal of critical info. For one thing, I’d say that creature is water-bound. He can’t come up here and mess with us. The pressure change alone would probably kill him.”

  “Maybe, and maybe not. My xeno people are telling me that some creatures evolve their own biological systems for dealing with massive pressure changes. Such animals exist on Earth.”

  I shrugged. I was already bored with the conversation. All I could think about was a hot shower and some hot food.

  Playing dumb was one of the keys to keeping a debriefing short, and I employed this tactic to the fullest. Eventually, Graves figured out he wasn’t going to get anything else useful out of me, and he let me go.

  The legion had decided to camp heavily on local islands, having nowhere better to go. Three full cohorts had landed and deployed from an equal number of lifters. This was good news for me, as they’d had plenty of time to set up some prefab amenities. Less than an hour after climbing out of that cold, dark green sea, I’d showered up and found the mess tent.