He Who Dares: Book One (The Gray Chronicals 1)

by Rob Buckman

  “Are you all right?”

  “That’s a stupid question, no! I’m not all right, you moron! Turn around and stop looking at me!” She hissed.

  That was hard, as his hand slide up her body as he helped her down, feeling warm female skin against the palm of his hand. Blushing bright red, Mike turned his back to her as she gathered her clothes and started to put them on, her smooth naked body indelibly stamp on his mind. She was everything the Jimmy Bettencourt said she was and more.

  “Damn! That imbecile ruined my bra! What is it with you colonials! All you seemed to want to do is strip a girl naked and beat her!”

  She kept up a diatribe of insults against men and colonials while she dressed. They included breeding habits, personal hygiene, ancestry, intelligence and parenting, or lack of it. Mike smiled slightly, despite the pain in his head, even naked, with her stringy hair, dirty and disheveled, mud splotches smearing her body from her struggle with the man, she was beautiful, yet she had a tongue like a rapier.

  “Will you please hurry up so we can get away from here?” He snapped irritably, getting fed up with her constant complaining.

  He was starting to see red around the edge of his vision as the pain increased, but instead of clamping down on it, he breathed easy and thought calming thought. That proved a little difficult with her constantly complaining, and he wondered for a moment if he’d been a little quick to rescue her. Maybe a few whacks with that switch might have proved beneficial.

  “I’ll go when I’m good and ready, Ensign, and not before, thank you very much!” She crouched, struggling into her wet, muddy flight suit, a look of distaste curling her lips.

  “Damn it! Hurry up. We can’t hang around here all flaming night. There’s no telling if he had friends with him.” Mike eyed the dense shrubbery around the clearing, expecting to see someone emerge any moment.

  “I’ll thank you not to use bad language around me, Sir!”

  “Oh, for crying out loud!” He muttered, and took off towards the stream again, in half a mind to leave her here.

  “What! Wait! Where are you going... wait for me!” She hissed hopping from one foot to the other as she tried to follow him and pull her boot on at the same time.

  He could hear her crashing through the underbrush behind him, but it was pointless trying to hide his trail yet. The girl had ruined any chance the searchers would stop looking for them around here now. If she’d stayed in the cave they might be fooled into thinking that they escaped in a ship or kept on running. She caught up with him at last standing beside a tree, looking across the stream.

  “Well, you might have waited for me!” She hissed, keeping her voice low.

  “Look, I’m getting sick and tired of listening to you bitch and complain all the time.” He cut her off before she could say a word.

  “You all ready screwed up any chance we might have had fooling the search teams. Now we have to run for it and hope we can stay ahead of them, so let’s go.”

  Saying that, he slipped into the water and swam across, then downstream, looking for a place to exit. He did after ten minutes and walking in the shallow places, finding a rock fall that came down into the water. The rocks were wet from recent rain, and hadn’t had a chance to dry before the sun went down, so there were no wet footprints to give them away. It wasn’t much, and a good tracker would soon find the spot, but not until sunup, he hoped. By then they should be several miles away. He helped the girl out, more as a precaution against her falling and leaving traces than anything. He got little thanks for it. The moment she was up the bank she snatched her hand away and wiped on her thigh as if she had touched something dirty. It was a calculated insult and he knew it, but Mike bit his tongue and said nothing. Thankfully, the pain in his head was receding and hadn’t turned into a full-blown episode.

  “Where to now, oh great and wonderful leader of the rescue party?” She asked in a sarcastic tone. Mike ground his teeth together and for a moment said nothing, just pointed off between the trees.

  “That way your Royal pain-in-the-ass Highness!” He snapped back, and went stomping off in the direction he’d pointed.

  He set a fast pace, but much to his surprise she kept up. She also kept up a constant string of petty complaints and general bitching, more, he thought, to make his life miserable than anything. He hated to say it, but it was working, his life was miserable. His body still ached from crashing through the window and the fall, his eye felt sore from the lack of proper sleep. On top of that, his stomach thought his throat was cut from the lack of food. All in all, totally miserable. So much for the gallant rescuer of the fair young damsel in distress, he thought. He stopped after half an hour for a ten-minute break, and to give her a short breather. He then upped it to once an hour after she started complaining about sitting around too long.

  “If I sit down when I’m working out, my muscle start to tighten up.” She sniped. “I would have thought that you tough Navy men could go a lot longer than half an hour before resting.”

  That’s how it went for the rest of the night, and much of the following day. He thought back to the moment he decided to rescue her in the clearing. He should have definitely waited until after the man had beaten her. He sighed in exasperation when he had to double back, knowing she was going to say something about that. There was nothing else he could do as they’d run into a cliff formation. Even after half an hour travel, he still couldn’t find a way around or up it. He tried to hide that they were doubling back, also to confuse anyone tracking them. He did all right until they happened to pass a particular tree, then she started again.

  “Why are we talking around in circles?” Her voice had taken on the snippy tone he hated. “Have you lost your little map, OR JUST FORGOTTEN HOW TO NAVIGATE?” She almost shouted the last part.

  “Will you keep your voice down!” He hissed.

  “Why, you think someone might hear me! What does that matter, you are leading us right back to them!”

  “Oh, for Christ sake, I’m doubling back because there isn’t a way around this bloody rock formation that way. I’m also trying to confuse the trail for anyone following.” He looked up at the heavens, as if pleading with God to give him a break, and thankfully, he was facing away from her so she didn’t see it.

  “You are confusing someone. ME!” She brushed imaginary dirt from her hands. “If this rescue operation was led by a competent Officer, I’m sure I would be half way home by now, instead of wandering around in this bloody jungle.”

  “Grrrr! Just follow me and keep your voice down.”

  They crossed their own trail and took off in the opposite direction around the rock face until they ran right into a swamp. Mike didn’t hesitate, but plunged straight in. This was just what he needed to throw their pursuers off. Once in the swamp there would be no tracks to follow. All he had to do now was find a place to exit where they’d leave no trace. He then realized that her Ladyship wasn’t following and looked back.

  “You don’t seriously expect me to swim through this muck, do you?” Mike turned, up to his neck in mud, slime, and water, looking back at her. She stared at him, her left eyebrow raised in question.

  “You want to stay here to the tender mercies of the skinny guy back at the Hacienda, or that other guy’s friend, you go right ahead.”

  “But… I’m going to get filthy in there!”

  “Stay or come with me your Royal Highness, your choice.”

  “You wouldn’t dare go off and leave me here!” He was about to point out that she was filthy anyway, then thought better of it. That would only provoke her further.

  “Milady, at this point in time, I don’t give a flying fu… pinch of bat guano if you do or don’t.” He amended.

  She shot him a look of pure venom and slowly climbed down into the muck. Now she started muttering under her breath, and Mike could only catch a word or two. Something about making sure he paid for this and several forms of torture. In the end, he ignored her and pressed on throu
gh the swamp. As they walked, their feet stirred up the muddy bottom and the stench of rot and decay wafting up from the bubbles bursting on the surface. At first, it was just random direction, first this way, then that, deliberately break twigs or scuffing the moss on the side of trees.

  That of course brought an instant response from her Ladyship.

  “I thought you said that this was supposed to lose the people following us?”

  “It is!”

  “Then why are you deliberately leaving them a trail to follow!”

  “Because, I don’t want them going in the same direction as us, that’s why.”

  For a moment, she was speechless, as what he’d said didn’t make sense. At that moment, the sound of something splashing into the water near them jerked both their heads around. Something was swimming towards them, something long and scaly. Then it vanished under water. Mike pulled his knife, waiting for an attack.

  “Don’t move, don’t even breath!”

  “I’m frozen!” She hissed back.

  Whatever it was must have changed its mind, as it just brushed by Mike. A moment later a large reptile pulled itself out of the water onto a half submerged tree about twenty feet ahead, turning to observe them with large yellow eyes. Mike looked at it a moment, then slid his knife back into its sheath, smiling to himself. Slowly he started walking towards the giant lizard, muttering soft words.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing?” The girl snapped a note of panic in her voice. “Are you crazy?”

  “Just going to introduce myself is all.”

  “Introduce…” she breathed, “that thing will rip your arm off… not to mention what it will do to me once it’s finished with you.”

  “Lizards are territorial. It’s just checking us out.”

  “For dinner maybe.” She muttered, eyeing the creature’s impressive length.

  “No, not really. She would have attacked us by now if she was serious.”

  “How on earth do you know it’s a she?” The Lady Ann snapped.

  “Oh… um… I’ve had a little experience with lizards before.”

  “Yes, probable sleep with them in your bed, or some other strange practice. Just what I’d expect from a colonial.”

  Mike gritted his teeth and said nothing, but she never knew how close to the truth she really was with her comment. He moved slowly and gently up to the large reptile, making sure his head was lower than hers. How he knew it was a female he couldn’t explain, at least not to an off-worlder, or someone who wasn’t from Avalon. He came up slowly, almost nose to nose with her, and as he did, her long tongue flicked out and licked his face. The tongue vanished, and a moment later, she hissed softly to him. At that, Mike stood up, reaching out to scratch along the side of her crest ridge. At this, she cocked her head to one side and her eyes half closed.

  “What are you doing? Are you completely crazy?”

  “No. They get small insect in the ridge alongside the crest and it itches. They have no way of scratching there.”

  “OH! That's why you are risking getting your hand bitten off, to scratch an itch.” She hissed sarcastically.

  “Come and say hello. She friendly.

  “Like hell I will.” Lady Ann crossed her arms protectively across her chest in defiance, but the gesture lost something of its impact as they were underwater at the time. Mike leaned down, hissing softly in short bursts. Then straightened up and waded back towards her.

  “We can go now. She knows we aren’t a threat to her or her babies.”

  “Oh really, that’s nice to know we have permission to pass through here.” She meant it in a nasty way, but Mike just smiled and led the way.

  Ten minutes later, he suddenly reversed direction in the middle of a clearing. Now he headed back towards the cliff, but careful to leave no trace of their passing. At one point, they heard voices off to their right on the other side of some dense vegetation. The occasional flash of light pointing up that someone was tracking them. Someone good if they were this close. His double back maneuver hadn’t slowed them down at all. Thankfully, darkness was falling, and in one way helped them, and in another hindered them. It meant that the people behind couldn’t see how close they were, but made it doubly difficult for Mike to see where they were going. Mike took a compass bearing and pushed on. He was thankful he did twenty minutes later, as it was pitch black.

  “There’s a light behind us.” The girl hissed.

  “I know I saw it, and it's going in the opposite direction.”

  “Oh, I see.” She didn’t sound happy that he'd seen the light before she had, probably thinking to use it against him.

  All at once, Mike felt movement in the water around him, and the bottom started to firm up. Somewhere up ahead water was flowing down the cliff into this swamp, and probably created it in the first place. All they had to do now was stay in the main channel and follow it to the cliff. That was easier said than done in the dark, as the flow seemed to wander back and forth. In the end, Mike used his feet, as he found when he checked the compass and discovered they were going the wrong way. He set them in the right direction and trusted what he could feel the bottom under his boots, and it worked. The bottom turned from slimy stuff to spongy, then firm sand, then rock. They also started climbing, and soon the water was only up to their waist, then thigh high, until they were splashing along in ankle deep water and clambering over wet rocks. Mike kept them in the channel, as this would leave fewer traces for the tracker to follow. Just them a commotion broke out somewhere in the swamp behind them. Someone screamed and they heard sounds of blaster fire.

  “Looks like the trackers ran into a little trouble.” The lady Ann looked over her shoulder then at Mike, seeing his smile. What the joke was she didn’t know, nor was she going to give him any satisfaction of asking. Mike knew they’d run into his lizard friend and she was pissed.

  “Thank god we are out of that swamp, though I doubt that your leadership had anything to do with it.” She hissed in his ear. “It's a wonder they didn’t find us what with you blundering around in the dark like that! How on earth did you manage to get thought the Naval Academy?”

  Mike suffered in silence as answering, or bating her only made it worse. The dark bulk of the cliff loomed ahead, the sound of a waterfall getting louder until it overwhelmed everything. Climbing a rock shone incline, they literally fell in the pool at the bottom of the falls. The girl came up spluttering and choking.

  “Of all the hair brained idiots in the Navy I had to end up with you… you… idiot!”

  “You said that already your Highness! Now shut up and swim for the falls!” He shouted back. Starlight sparkled off the white water falling down the cliff, filling the air with mist, and the sound of thunder.

  At any other time Mike would have stopped to appreciate the beauty of it, but now wasn’t the time. Mike swam around the edge of the pool with the spluttering girl in tow, glad the sound of the waterfall drowned out anything she might be saying. As before there was a cave cut out of the living rock behind it, and were soon safe behind the curtain of falling water. Mike switched on his light and surveyed their hiding place. Centuries of falling water and pounding rocks had undercut the wall, forming a shallow cave, but it wasn’t what Mike needed. He swept his light upward, then steadied it on an opening about twenty-five feet above their heads.

  “There, if we can make it, we’ll be safe.”

  “Up there, you have to be kidding!” She yelled, wringing water out of her sleeves.

  Mike ignored her and looked around to find a way to climb the slippery rock face. Over the years, water had cut its way down through the wall on one side, forming a natural gutter like channel, and if they stayed to the side and used the roots of the vegetation growing up the cliff they could pull themselves up without much trouble, so he thought. The gap between the falling water and the rock face wasn’t large, about three feet, but it could be done. It was worse than he thought. Mike didn’t have much difficulty climb
ing, but a quick look back found the Lady Ann sitting on her backside, having slipped and landed hard. With a sigh, he climbed back down and used a long, tough root to fashion harness. Looping it under her arms, he started climbing again, literally dragging the spluttering girl behind him. In a few places, he had to hang on to some roots for dear life and reach down to pull her ladyship up. If it wasn’t for his 1.6 gravity muscles, he doubted he could have done it. At last, he made it and fell, gasping for breath in the entrance of the cave.