by Tracy Korn
"Oh! Sorry," I say, muffling a surprised laugh, then look toward the clearing after Ellis and the others as the unsettling feeling I had surfaces again.
"You'd think we couldn't sneak up on each other by now," Liddick smiles as he steps up and positions his tube under the water, but then my heart starts pounding and a prickling cold runs down the back of my neck.
"Something's wrong out there," I say, mostly to myself.
"Where are they going?" Liddick asks with a new tension in his voice, then seems to feel the same unease that I do. "No…Raj! Stay out of there!" he calls after Ellis, then sets out running. Dell and Cal pull up the sharpened sticks they stuck into the ground last night, and I take off running after Liddick. "Raj! Stop! Stay away from the clearing!" he yells again, and Ellis turns around abruptly to face us just as the most enormous alligator I've ever seen charges behind him. Tieg, Myra, and Avis stop in their tracks. "Look out!" Liddick screams as the alligator's jaws open, completely back-shadowing Ellis, then snap down just short of Ellis's legs. He jumps out of the way and falls, then tries to scramble to his feet as the alligator charges him again.
"Where did that come from!?" Ellis shouts as it snaps at him again, and from this angle, I can see that it must be at least 20 feet long. Flames shoot along Ellis's arms, but they don't seem to make a difference to the alligator.
"Hey! Over here!" Liddick screams to get the animal's attention. "Everyone run behind it and come back this way!" Liddick picks up a rock and throws it, hitting the alligator in the head as he starts yelling again. "Right here! Over here!"
"Liddick!" I shout when I see the jaws opening again as it turns to face us.
"Why did you follow me!? Go back!" Liddick yells over his shoulder at me as Ellis and the others manage to get behind the alligator, then run past it back toward our camp.
"Don't run! Don't run!" Cal yells from near Tieg and the others as Dell circles around to Liddick and tries to aim his sharpened stick at the alligator.
Liddick's arms move out to his sides, his hands spread wide…look bigger, and you'll be bigger…I remember from Ms. Wren's communications class, and know that's what he must be remembering too. He brings red flames to the palms of his hands, then aims them at the open jaws, but the alligator only jolts back for a second. It doesn't advance any more, but doesn't retreat back to the water even when Liddick starts running toward in a wide arc that leads away from me.
"Stop going toward it! Everyone is safe, come on!" I shout as the gap between us widens.
"Rip, go back!" Liddick yells without turning around.
"Come with me!" I call to him again, but he's apparently trying to use his fire to force the alligator back into the water, but it just turns away from him and starts advancing in my direction instead.
"Hey! Here!" Liddick yells, then pulls back his flames and picks up another rock from the ground. He hits the tail, which only makes the alligator run toward me more quickly. Dell runs in my direction as Liddick starts yelling again, and I start to see my own fire out of the corner of my eye. As I try to remember how to aim it, Arco flies past me gripping the long stick he used to dig the trench. Flames shoot up his arms as he slows, holding the sharp end out to the alligator and jabbing the air with it as he shouts, trying to drive it back into the water.
"Go on! Go!"
It opens its jaws even wider, then charges him. Dell throws his stick, but it just bounces off the alligator's lower jaw.
"Arco!" I scream, and in the second the alligator turns toward me, Arco drives his stick into the roof of its open mouth, letting go just in time to avoid the jaws snapping down on his arms. The stick shatters as Dell's fire explodes in front of us, and the sight of it helps mine light in my hands. Just as I raise them, the alligator retreats, finally, backing away with its jaws still open until it disappears into the invisible, grass covered water.
CHAPTER 44
Burning Down
I run to Arco, whose bandages have completely torn loose from his palms and whip in the breeze. Cal stands with Ellis, Myra, and Tieg on the far side of the clearing, and Dell stands between Liddick and me. I see the last snap of the fire in Dell's hands, and before I know it, I'm running directly at him and screaming.
"Why didn't you tell us there were giant alligators out here!? You said it was mostly water in the clearing! Mostly water! Not tree-length alligators!" I yell, shoving him as hard as I can once I reach him. He stumbles backward, and I shove him again. He falls this time, and I lunge at him.
"Rip!" Liddick shouts, then holds up his hands as he runs toward me. "Calm down! He didn't—Rip, stop!" he says, but I push past him and shove Dell off balance just as he gets to his feet. He falls again, and as I try to jump at him, an arm reaches around my waist and pulls me off my feet. I try to pry it loose, then just start kicking.
"Put…me down! They could have been eaten by…that thing! Put me down!" I yell.
"Rip, stop! Stop! We need to get away from the water! Do you want another one to come! Stop!" Liddick shouts.
"Let me…go!" I say, blind with violence to everything except hitting Dell as hard as I can. Dell gets to his feet again, his eyes wide in amazement as he pushes his hair out of his face. I see a flash of his long scar, and for some reason, it just makes me angrier. I kick harder and elbow Liddick's shoulders and arms behind me, then his jaw, but he won't stop dragging me away from Dell.
"Damnit, Rip!" he shouts, and I hear a long, guttural scream fill the air, then vaguely realize that it's mine.
"Jazz…Jazz!" I hear Arco's voice as I swing both of my legs back, then kick them out at the same time like I did when Cal was training me in the circle arena. The momentum breaks Liddick's hold around my waist, and I start to run at Dell again, but this time Arco intercepts me, gripping my arms and lowering his eyes to mine.
"Get out of my way!" I scream at him, crashing my shoulders into his chest in an effort to move past him, but he just pulls me into him, his arms locking behind my back as I struggle against him, hitting his chest with the sides of my fists as fire starts to blaze all around us.
"Get out of here!" Arco calls to Dell over his shoulder. "Take them all back to camp!" He looks at Liddick next, then nods adamantly. "Just go, I'll handle it!"
I watch Dell moving out from behind Arco through the curtain of flames and try to lunge at him again, but I can't break Arco's hold.
"Let me go!" I scream again so loudly this time that I feel something pull in my throat.
"Come here…come here…listen to me…" Arco says, burying his face in my hair. "We're going to be standing here naked in a second if you don't breathe, OK? Breathe or this fire…" he laughs, "…this fire is going to burn everything up," he says laughing again, and the sudden absurdity of it all makes me stop struggling. "OK…there. Take a breath," he coaches, then meets my eyes and nods. One of his hands moves to my face as the side of his thumb brushes my cheekbone, and I watch the remnants of bandage evaporate in the flame that catches at the end of it. His hands…I take a deep breath, then another until the fire all around us starts to dissipate, and then is completely gone. I reach up and move his wrist outward so I can see his palm, which is better, but still not completely healed, and there are now a few fresh cuts, no doubt from the stick he'd just shoved into the alligator's jaw.
"Your hands…" I say, my words cracking and broken from screaming. He smiles and shakes his head, then thinks better of it.
"You can fix them up again," he says with a small nod. I laugh, then feel the sob rising up in my throat and the tears burning my eyes. His brows push together, and I wrap my arms around his neck, the convulsive sobs catching in my throat and choking me, but I don't care. His arms tightens around my waist, and I try to take a breath.
"I thought…first Pitt and then Joss…it almost happened. It almost happened, again, Arco," I stutter through the sentence, squeezing my eyes shut when all the words won't come out. The floodgate breaks with this final frustration, and I cry so hard I can't get ahead of
it. The silent convulsions come in one continuous wave that just keeps crashing as his arms pull me tightly against his chest.
"It's OK, I know. I thought the same thing. It's OK, we're OK," he says, resting his cheek over my head as he talks into my hair. "Can you walk? We need to get away from this water. Can you walk with me?" he asks, but I can't get enough of a breath to answer him, so I nod. "All right…all right," he says, and I don't fight him or feel embarrassed or stupid because there's no room inside me right now for any of that. Not with the sudden deluge of everything else spinning out again. I've spent my whole life preparing to get into Gaia only to learn the whole thing was part of a conspiracy to experiment on people, which I still don't fully understand, then we lost Pitt and almost Arco, all this with being torn about Liddick—of needing him, but knowing he's not what I need, and then Joss…crite, Joss…the insect attacks, new worlds that shouldn't even exist…
"What's wrong? What's wrong with her?" I hear Jax's voice, and it pulls me out of the tossing sea inside myself.
"She's OK," Arco says as Jax moves in front of me and meets my eyes, pushing my hair from my face.
"Are you hurt?" he asks, but doesn't wait for my answer. His eyes soften, and his lips press together as he takes a long breath and lets it out slowly, then folds me into a huge hug. He kisses the top of my head, then whispers down to me. "One thing. Just remember our one thing, OK?" he adds, and I nod against his chest as more tears come, but these are not as violent, and suddenly, I'm so impossibly exhausted.
"Dell didn't know about the alligators out there," Liddick says from somewhere, and I imagine he must be talking to everyone. "I asked him why they didn't tell us what was in the water when he came out there, but they just didn't know."
"Neither of us ever saw them when we came through the Rush before," Cal says. "We're just going to have to operate on the knowledge that if something could be somewhere out here, it probably is. At least we're almost halfway to the mountain. The Bog isn't a big biome, so we'll be through it soon. We'll all needs spears, and we'll stick to higher ground."
"And no more small groups," Dell adds. "Everyone stays together…that was too close."
I open my eyes and turn from Jax, then wipe my face and see Ellis, Myra, Avis, and Tieg, who look pale and rattled. I clear my throat, which sends a wave of pain through my ribs.
"We're going to be all right. We're going to make it to the mountain…all of us together," I nod, trying to convince myself as much as I am them, and with each word, I believe it a little more. "We just need to focus on getting there. On getting home."
"Let's walk soft and carry some big sticks, then," Zoe says with a decisive head bob. "Well, come on, I'm not fetching the mess of them," she adds, winking at me and waving me to her. I step out of Jax's arms and look back over my shoulder at him. He nods and smiles, claps his hands once, then rubs them together.
"OK, then," he says, holding out an arm to Fraya, who moves to his side. Liddick is standing right next to him, and sends me a stiff-lipped smile, then touches his ribs.
Sorry if that's because of me…he thinks, and I realize the pain in my own again, as well as a throbbing in the far corner of my jaw.
Sorry for elbowing you, I think, bringing my hand to my cheek. He smiles to the opposite side of where I hit him.
Remind me never to clip you off, he answers. I laugh, knowing there is more that is unsaid between us, but I don't know how to start that conversation, and neither does he. I turn back around to find long sticks with Zoe, then see Arco standing just a few steps from me. I stop, then motion for Zoe to go on without me.
"I'll catch up; I just have to do something first," I say to her, then get the Avo paste and another bandage out of my pack. Zoe nods and crosses to walk with Avis, Dez, Tieg, and Myra, and I hold out my hand for Arco's wrists, then pour water over his new cuts. This time, he doesn't wince.
"Sorry," I say anyway because I know it hurts. "And thank you…nothing would ," I say, dabbing the Avo paste into his cuts, then wrapping the bandage over them just before I look up to find him watching me. He doesn't say anything for a long time, and it almost makes me self-conscious. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask, looking away, but then meeting his eyes again.
"Because I think I believe it," he answers, and I raise my eyebrows at him in confusion, "Maybe there is something I can give you that he can't…" he raises his freshly bandaged hands to my face, then leans in to kiss me softly before resting his forehead against mine.
"Does this mean you do know how to be with me now…knowing what he can do?" I ask.
"No," Arco says, which empties the breath in my lungs. "But I'll figure it out because I don't want to know how to be without you," he answers, then kisses me again for a long time before abruptly stopping to announce random thoughts that seem to have just come to him. "And did I mention there are things I can do that he can't?" he asks, quirking an eyebrow. "I'm taller than he is, which helps with leverage for starters, and I'm funnier too, both of which are damn convenient when my girlfriend is so clipped off she's burning down the world because a giant alligator tried to eat me. Who knew those were the winning skills?" he says, nearly straight faced until I start laughing. "You'd have been elbowing Liddick in the face totally naked," he says, then kisses me again, talking against my lips every few minutes. "And then you'd have to wear…a leaf bikini…which, down here…would probably come to life…and try to eat you…"
I start laughing so hard as he growls and pretends to take a bite out of my neck that I can't even keep my eyes open. He starts laughing too, then pulls me into a hug, and I wish everything could stay like this. Remember our one thing, I think, hearing Jax's words, which help me find my way again as my laughter subsides and I hear Zoe calling to us.
"I love you," I say against Arco's chest, which expands as he takes in a deep breath and pulls me in more tightly, then whispers into my hair.
"I love you back, Jazwyn Ripley."
CHAPTER 45
Tanglebush
Dell walks near the front of our group, but not as part of it, and every time I look in his direction it feels like I'm stepping into a damp basement, the air heavy and cold. I need to apologize to him. It wasn't his fault about the alligator, and I know the pressure of being responsible for everyone has to be weighing on him even more now.
"I'll be right back," I say to Arco, who picks up the long tree limb he's using as a walking stick with each step, then puts it down again. I catch up to Dell, and as soon as I get close to him, my stomach twists and my chest tightens. If I had any doubt that he's beating himself up over what almost happened with the alligator, this feeling chased it away for good.
An old, white handkerchief tied over his head keeps his hair out of his eyes, and I try not to look at the long scar over his eyebrow. He looks older somehow with his shaggy, straight brown hair pulled back like this. Maybe it just makes his dark eyebrows more prominent, or the set of his full mouth, always seeming like he's either about to say something or trying to keep himself from doing it. He grips the two leather straps across his broad chest, one holding his pack in place, and the other holding his machete. Veins run up his forearms, weaving through the muscles and random scars, and I remember that he came through all seven biomes by himself.
"Look, I just want to—" he starts after several tense minutes walking side by side, but I interrupt him.
"Dell, I'm really sorry for attacking you," I say, and he looks over at me, surprised. "It wasn't your fault about the alligator. Everything else just caved in on me then," I explain. He presses his lips into a line that almost turns into a smile, then nods at the path ahead of us.
"Losing people is a lot to handle, then this place. It has a way of finding you," he says. What could he have gone to arrive at a philosophy like that?
"Zoe said you've been with the Vishan for a year, but you made your way through six-and-a-half biomes before that. I can't imagine being on my own out here…" I say, letting the senten
ce trail off as the full weight of the accomplishment settles over me, and I shake my head.
"Sounds more impressive than it is," he answers like he's giving me the solution to a simple math problem—basic, obvious. "I wasn't going back into those labs, and the only other option was waiting for something to end me out here. Didn't make much sense to go through all the trouble of getting free just to give up on the other side," he says, then angles his spear a few feet in front of me. "Watch yourself," he adds, pointing to a big puddle in my path, which I jump over.
"Thanks," I say, noticing the fine white scars over his battered knuckles as he grips the spear. "But for all you knew, it wouldn't end. You didn't know about the Vishan, did you? How long did it take to find them?"
"I just saw another mountain in the distance. Figured I could make my way topside, but found out otherwise once I got in there with them," he says, and now a grin does pull at the corner of his mouth. "Can't really say how long the coming through took—I didn't have a Cycle stone, so the days and nights were random. Long enough that I looked born wild by the end of it, or so they told me." He aims his gaze at the ground as his eyebrows push together just long enough for me to notice, then he resets his expression. "That was a long time ago, though."
"Zoe said it was a year ago. You're brave," I say, struck with admiration for him and everything he must have gone through, first in being pulled down into the labs by the tunnel shark in the first place, then enduring the experiments…the gill they put into his side, which is healed over now, then navigating the Rush on his own.
"You just get through. The other options weren't too appealing," he says with a chuckle.
"I mean, you came back out here for us. You must have demons around every corner, but you came back out here to take us into those same labs you risked your life to escape. That's brave. I don't know if I could do it."