Kailee forced herself onwards, keeping her eyes on the ground. It looked worse with each flash of lightning, leaving her wondering how long it was going to be before the mud started sliding in earnest. She looked at Abdul instead and saw him drenched, his clothes and bag soaked to the skin. He looked back at her and managed a tired smile, but nothing else. They were all pushed right to the limit. Even Barry seemed tired and drained.
They stopped when they came to a stream. Normally, Kailee suspected, the stream would be easy to jump across, but now it was a raging torrent falling down to the valley below. Austin hesitated, then forced his way across the steam and stopped on the far side. Gary followed him, looking more like a drowned rat than ever. If they hadn't already been drenched, Kailee realised, the tiny stream might have forced them to walk miles out of their way.
If we’re not already out of our way, she thought. Austin hadn't been looking at his compass when he'd directed them to higher ground. We might be retracing our steps.
She stepped into the cold water and shivered, then forced herself to walk across the steam. It might have been small, but the running water pressed against her ankles, warning her to be very careful where she placed her feet. The slightest misstep might send her falling down the stream to her death. On the far side, she waited for Samantha and the others, then resumed the trek after Austin. Lightning seemed to be flaring almost constantly now, as if the sky was ablaze with brilliant arc lights. She lowered her gaze as the rain – somehow, impossibly – intensified.
Darrin stumbled past her and caught Austin’s arm. “Shouldn't we find shelter?”
Kailee thought that was a very good idea, but Austin shook his head. “There’s none to be found,” he shouted back. Thunder blocked whatever he’d said next from Kailee’s ears. “We have to keep moving.”
The climb seemed to grow harder as they walked higher, the rain beating down against her exposed face. Kailee found it hard to care, now, that her shirt was clinging to her breasts, or that Barry and Abdul were behind her. All that mattered was somehow keeping going until the rain came to an end, if it ever did. It felt as if the entire ocean was being dumped on their heads.
There was a cry behind her. Kailee turned, just in time to see Samantha slip and fall down the slope. The mud moved beneath Kailee’s feet, forcing her to scramble away before she could be caught in the growing mudslide, but she couldn't take her eyes off Samantha falling into the darkness. A slap struck her buttocks, concentrating her mind. Austin pulled her up towards him, then shouted in her ear.
“Keep moving,” he snapped. “I’ll go after her!”
Kailee hesitated, then stumbled up the slope after Gary.
***
Darrin watched in horror as the mud started to slide down the slope, taking Samantha with it. The ground kept shifting beneath his own feet, as if he was about to fall too; somehow, he kept himself on his feet long enough to see Austin turn and head down the slope himself. He was going after Samantha! Darrin hesitated, unsure of what to do, then followed Austin down the slope. Halfway down, he slipped and landed on his bottom, then started to slide the rest of the way.
“Idiot,” Austin shouted at him. “Get back to the others!”
“I’m not leaving you here alone,” Darrin shouted back at him. He wasn't where that feeling had come from, apart from the simple desire to ensure that Austin – and Samantha – were safe. But Samantha had vanished somewhere in the darkness, while the mudslide was gathering speed. He had a brief vision of rocks, illuminated briefly by the darkness, waiting for him. Then the mud seemed to alter course and he fell ...
He struck water hard enough to make him cry out. He'd only tried to swim once, in the lake after they’d killed and eaten the deer, and he’d been naked at the time. Now ... he kicked and thrashed, forcing his way back to the surface. The pool seemed deep enough for him to drown, if he didn't manage to make it out. His clothes, utterly waterlogged, were pulling him down towards the bottom ...
A hand caught him and hauled him to the poolside. “That was damn stupid,” Austin’s voice said. Darrin was too busy coughing and hacking to take any notice. Austin slapped him on the back, hard enough to force him to cough up the remaining water, then helped him to his feet. “Can you see Samantha?”
Darrin looked around. The ground was muddy; for an insane moment, he wondered if he’d somehow been moved far from the pool because he couldn't see it. And then he realised that the pool was covered with a thin coating of mud, enough to make it invisible to anyone who wasn't looking for it specifically. He could have walked right back into it without noticing. But, in the gloom, there was no sign of the girl.
“No,” he said, softly. Had he distracted Austin from looking for her? “Where is she?”
“I wish I knew,” Austin said. He started to inch forward, testing each footstep as he moved. “I think she will have been pushed down the gorge, but I’m not sure.”
Darrin winced. In the half-light, they might be utterly unable to find the missing girl; she might be stunned, her body buried under the mud, or she might be dead. They’d be better off waiting for daylight, except that leaving her alone for so long might ensure she was dead when they finally found her. He found himself praying as he followed Austin, praying that they found Samantha alive and that it wasn't his fault that Austin had been delayed. But he knew that the latter prayer was unlikely to be granted.
The rain seemed to lessen for a long moment – long enough for him to hope that it was over – then started to cascade down, heavier than ever before. Visibility shrank to a bare metre or two ahead of them, whenever the lightning flashed. Austin almost fell down the gorge when the ground moved beneath his feet; Darrin barely caught him in time. The mud was covering very nasty-looking rocks, he realised suddenly. They were in danger of falling and breaking bones.
“This is useless,” Austin shouted at him. “Where is she?”
Darrin looked up. The slope was hidden in the darkness – and so were the rest of the party. He wondered, briefly, if Steve and Li had been rescued, before deciding that it was unlikely. Surely, even if only one aircraft had been assigned to the search, they would have heard something and fired off the flare. He looked back down the gorge and caught sight of something red. His blood ran cold when he saw it. Samantha had been wearing a red shirt when she fell.
Austin glanced at him, then led the way down to where Samantha’s body was lying. At first, she seemed merely stunned, but up close it was clear that her neck had been broken. Darrin felt a chill running down his neck as he saw her sightless eyes, staring at nothing. She was dead.
He shuddered. He’d barely known Samantha; like the other girls, she had tried to keep herself to herself, or at least away from the boys. And who could blame her, really? But he knew almost nothing about her and that felt wrong. Had she liked the same bands he’d liked? Had she had dreams for the future, like Kailee and Gary, or had she thought that she could just drift through life like himself? He wondered, helplessly, if she’d had a boyfriend or a protector – or if she’d tried to keep herself pure.
Her death bothered him. But, oddly, not having known much about her bothered him more.
She’d been attractive, he knew. He’d certainly stared at her. He’d ...
He shook his head. She'd been more than just a pretty face and excellent body. But now she was dead.
“I'm sorry,” Austin said, quietly. The colonial boy hadn't known Samantha at all, but he sounded broken up too. “She deserved better.”
Darrin wondered, absently, why Austin felt that way. Had he talked to Samantha, even though the girl wouldn't have willingly spent time alone with another man? Or did the locals place more value on life than the Earth-born? The latter was probably the answer; Darrin knew, as well as anyway, that life was cheap on Earth. Rowdy Yates CityBlock alone had more residents than Meridian. But here ...
“I know,” he said, understanding – finally – all that had been stolen from the children of Earth. Yat
es had tried to tell him, but Darrin hadn't really understood. Not until now. “She deserved much better.”
Austin reached down and closed Samantha’s eyes, then looked back up the gorge. Darrin followed his gaze. Water was cascading down, heavier than ever. Climbing back up, Darrin realised, was likely to be hellish, but what other choice did they have? If they followed the gorge down, wherever it went, they would wind up miles from the rest of the group? He looked over at Austin and saw grim resolve written over his face. The colonial boy, apparently, had no intention of giving up.
“We may have to wait here until morning,” Austin said. “God alone knows where the gorge will come to an end.”
Darrin winced. Night was coming on rapidly. Even if the storm came to an end and the clouds faded away, they would still be trapped in darkness. There wouldn't even be any flickers of lightning to guide their footsteps. They would have to wait until morning before trying to find the rest of the party. Darrin wondered, suddenly, if the rest of the party would survive the night. They were with Barry, while Darrin and Austin were somewhere else. Barry would have his chance to take over ...
Abdul will stop him, Darrin told himself. But he didn't really believe it.
“There's nothing we can do about that now,” Austin said, when Darrin told him his fears. Somehow, falling down the gorge together had removed the last barriers between them. “Tell me; why do you tolerate such people on Earth?”
Darrin shook his head, wordlessly. He had no answer. They’d been lectured, time and time again, on the importance of not discriminating between people, but the whole series of lectures had just seemed a waste of time. Wasn't there a difference between picking on someone for something they couldn't help and picking on them because of their actions? Barry could have been taught the error of his ways long before he’d become a hulking brute, if someone had cared to try. But no one had bothered.
“It just seems stupid,” Austin confessed. “What does Barry have to offer the world?”
“I know,” Darrin whispered.
Barry had nothing to offer ... but he could do damage. Gary had been broken by him – Darrin shivered when he remembered just how little resistance Gary had offered, even when he'd been humiliated – while the other boys had just been glad it wasn't them who had been targeted. And he might damage the girls too, given half a chance. Darrin was sure that most of his boasting was nothing more than lies. No one had time to have that much sex, not when he was also spending time bullying the weak, but being forced into sex had to be bad for the girls. Maybe that was why his mother spent so much time drunk out of her mind. She had no real freedom and independence and she knew it.
From the outside, Earth had to look like a nightmare, a place where common sense had been forgotten and the strong were allowed to run wild, bullying the weak. Maybe it had all made sense at one point, but it didn't now. How could it?
And yet, how could it be changed?
“I’m sorry,” he said, unsure of just what he was apologising for. Not stopping Barry from using a gun to vandalise a car? Or for not taking Austin seriously at first. “I didn't know.”
“Learn from the experience,” Austin said. he clapped Darrin on the shoulder, then motioned to a rocky overhang. “We’ll hide here until the sun rises, then start looking for them. They can't have gone that far.”
Darrin privately hoped that he was right. He certainly wanted to believe it. But if Barry had decided to act up, the group might have scattered into the darkness. And then they would be impossible to find, even in broad daylight.
But they had to try. After all they’d been through, Darrin no longer wanted to give up.
Chapter Thirty-One
Furthermore, the Empire had few scientists who were pushing back the boundaries of research and development. There were relatively few minds willing to question and fewer societies and universities willing to assist them.
- Professor Leo Caesius. Education and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
Gary pulled himself to his feet and looked around, wearily. They’d climbed through the darkness until they'd finally found a clearing, just as the rain had finally come to an end. The ground had been muddy, but they'd just collapsed anyway, even Barry. They’d been too tired to do anything else. He felt a dull pain in his stomach, reminding him that none of them had eaten since yesterday lunchtime, as he moved. And then he looked around. There was no sign of Austin or Darrin.
He felt his blood run cold as he looked at Barry. The bully was asleep, but that wouldn't last – and when he awoke, who knew what he would do. Barry wasn't the type of person to learn from experience, no matter how harsh; Austin convincing the others to follow him would be something to avenge, not something to accept. Gary felt the gun at his belt, wondering if he dared shoot Barry now. But experience had taught him that the forces of law and order were never on his side. He could kill Barry and no doubt he would be punished for it.
Shoot him anyway, a voice insisted, at the back of his mind. It was the safest course of action, wasn't it? But what would Abdul do? Or Austin, when he finally caught up with them? Gary refused to believe that the colonial boy was dead. Austin, whatever else one could say about him, was a survivor. It wasn't true of anyone from Earth.
Gary pushed the thought aside and opened Kailee’s pack. The girls had been tasked with carrying the food, giving them a lighter load than the boys. Inside, the cooked meat seemed to have spoiled. Gary took a sniff, then shook his head firmly. The exposure to water probably hadn't done it any good at all. He took the meat out of the pack and eyed it dubiously, then froze. Barry was awake and looking at him.
“Ah ... the meat isn't edible,” Gary said, before he could stop himself. He cursed inwardly a moment later. If the meat was definitely no longer edible, Barry eating it would solve a great many problems. “It stinks.”
Barry pulled himself to his feet and stamped over to Gary. Like Gary, his clothes were damp and covered in mud. There was no point in changing, Gary knew. There was nothing to change into. All their other clothes were dripping wet too.
“So it would seem,” Barry growled. He took a long sniff of the meat, then dropped it on the muddy ground. “Go look for plants we can eat.”
Gary obeyed, surprised. It was such a reasonable order. If the meat was inedible, they would starve if they couldn't find enough edible plants. Austin had warned them that plants alone wouldn't keep them going, but there didn't seem to be any choice. This clearing didn't have a stream, let alone a pond. Pushing the thoughts aside, he worked his way through the forest, picking up plants he thought were edible. Some of the mushrooms tasted lovely when cooked, he knew, but he didn't dare take chances. Austin might be able to tell the difference between poisonous and safe mushrooms; Gary knew better than to take the risk. He simply couldn’t say for sure about anything.
When he returned, he discovered that Barry had managed to light a fire and start drying their clothes. Abdul and Kailee were awake, both watching Barry carefully. Gary met Kailee’s eyes and saw the same fear he felt himself written on her face. They both knew that it was only a matter of time before Barry reverted to type.
“Not good enough,” Barry proclaimed, as he examined Gary’s findings. “Go find some more.”
Gary obeyed, glad of the chance to escape. He considered, briefly, just walking away completely, but he knew he didn't have the nerve – or the survival skills. Austin would have been fine on his own, Gary was sure, yet he knew that he didn't have the skills to remain alive on his own. He walked through a different part of the forest, picking at edible leaves and plants, silently praying that he would hear Austin coming towards them. Even Darrin would have been welcome. After Darrin had stood up to Barry, Gary had realised that there was something worthwhile hidden under the boy’s skin. But it had been very well hidden.
He stopped as he saw something moving under a bush. Curiosity led him to take a look; he peeked under the bush and saw a small animal struggling, its head caught
in a vine. A rabbit, if he recalled correctly. He caught the animal and pulled it free, then held it firmly against his chest as he walked carefully back to the campsite. Barry laughed, then took the rabbit from Gary’s unresisting arms and snapped it’s neck like a twig. Gary looked at Barry’s face and shuddered. He’d enjoyed killing the helpless creature.
“Cut this ... thing up,” Barry ordered. He nodded towards the pack holding the knives. “And then cook us breakfast.”
Gary forced down his disgust as he started to work. He hadn't had much luck slicing up the crab, or taking pieces of meat from the deer they’d killed, but the nasty look in Barry’s eye told him that he’d better do a good job. Barry was striding to and fro, his gaze moving from Gary to Kailee. Somehow, Gary was sure that things were about to become much worse.
“We can survive out here,” Barry said, as Gary hung the strips of meat above the fire. He was painfully aware that Austin would have done a much better job. As it was, he had to stay close to the fire, just to make sure that the meat didn't fall into the flames. “Why should we go back at all?”
He'd cracked, Gary realised. The experience of finally being balked, of finally being told that he would be held to account, had shattered what remained of Barry’s common sense. Gary knew that they’d been immensely lucky to get the rabbit – he wasn't sure how the creature had managed to trap itself – but they couldn't survive out in the wild indefinitely. Sooner or later, they would eat the wrong thing or injure themselves and then they would need medical attention.
“Civilisation,” Kailee said. She hunched slightly, her damp clothes clinging to her skin as she leaned closer to the fire. “Everything we need to survive.”
“Everything we need to survive is right here,” Barry said. There was an unholy confidence in his voice that sent chills running down Gary’s spine. “Food, drink, fire ... why go back to the city, let alone back to Earth?”
“You can stay here if you like,” Abdul said, as Gary started to divide up the rabbit. “I want to get back to the city.”
The Empire's Corps: Book 07 - Reality Check Page 28