Two armed men dropped onto the deck of the Max’s smaller boat. They were not only armed but armored, head to toe, in carapace plating. The shorter of the two, shorter than Max by more than a few inches pushed him roughly out of the way and took his place at the wheel. What he lacked in height he made up for it with brute strength, his bulky armor was pushed up and out by thick muscles.
He stared Max in the eyes. “You want to play games? We can play.”
He expertly steered the small boat, filling its sails once more and steering it as directly as possible towards shore. He built up speed, closing the remaining distance, and drove the boat into the muddy bank, solidly grounding them.
“Have fun getting back out now you crab’s anus,” he said with a smile of smug superiority, “If you’re lucky you might get free before the forest eats your face.” He dropped the smile. “Now, stand aside while I secure your vessel.”
He pushed Max to the canal side of the boat in a casual, routine way, that gave Max some hope that they might actually get out of this.
The soldier continued to survey the boat. “Is there anyone else aboard the vessel?”
Max froze.
The soldier turned to him, reached out, grabbing Max’s shoulder and gave him a shake. “Wake up Reggie! I asked you a question.”
Max opened his mouth to respond, “No.” But he was interrupted by the other, taller soldier.
“Corporal…” The tall one looked nervous, and as though he might throw up.
“Shhh,” the corporal said, “Adults are talking here SeeBee.”
“But corporal, this is the guy,” the SeeBee said.
“Which the guy?” the corporal asked, making no attempt to conceal his raw annoyance.
“The guy the guy,” the SeeBee said.
The corporal blinked for a moment confused.
“Maximilian…” the SeeBee said.
For a moment, the corporal seemed still not to understand. Then his eyes went wide.
“Holy nickel nugs!” he shouted, and pointed at Max, “You! You just stand there and don’t move a muscle!” He turned to the other soldier. “SeeBee, you watch him like a hotcake on a flapjack!”
Max stood as inoffensively as he could.
The SeeBee looked, if possible, sicker than before, almost green, but he pointed his rifle at Max with determination, and there was a dangerous glimmering in the man’s eye.
“We have been looking for you all week,” the corporal said, with excitement. He headed through the hatch to below deck. “We are going hooome SeeBee…” The corporal stopped talking suddenly. Max assumed the worst, that he had just seen Snow.
By the look on the SeeBee’s face, he was assuming his worst, that the Corporal had just been murdered suddenly by something awful and horrible. He moved aggressively towards Max.
“Don’t you move!” He looked near panic. “Corporal? Corporal Jerrick?”
The SeeBee turned slightly towards the hatch. Getting no response, he turned his head towards the deck of the patrol vessel above them to call for help. His call for help turned to a grunt of surprise as Max’s foot landed squarely between the SeeBee’s legs. The armor protected him from real damage, but his instinctive reflex provided the distraction Max had needed. Max kicked out again, hitting the SeeBee in the chest and knocking him from the deck into the water. Max dashed over and looked into the hatch. Snow stood over the corporal’s limp form holding the axe, a guilty grin on her face, as Doozer scuttled around behind her, flashing, and flickering his fur excitedly.
“Time to go!” Max said.
Chapter 34
The hunter watched through the telescope in frustration as his target was approached by the patrol boat. Using the bright yellow boat left behind in the lock, the hunter had caught up to the target and his lady friend just after daybreak. He’d camouflaged the bow of the craft with a spare sail and had been following behind the target all through the long hot True Day, waiting for dark before making his move. And now, just as dark was arriving, this was happening. There was no question. This blockade was in place to capture his target. If they caught the target, the hunter would get nothing. He continued to watch as his hopes of a ‘one last job’ sized payoff again faded to seemingly zero.
Two soldiers were on board and they seemed to have realized who they had on their hands. So that would seem to be that. But they hadn’t seen the Valley woman yet and the hunter had a feeling things might not continue as smoothly as the soldiers would like. The broad short one went below deck. The hunter couldn’t see him anymore, and the tall one looked worried.
“Ouch,” said the hunter. There was a distant splash as the tall one landed in the water. It didn’t matter though. Where could the target go? Into the forest? The hunter’s chuckle died in his throat as he watched the pair hop off the boat, scramble up the steep, short, muddy slope and skip, hand in hand, into the forest, with a small furry white stilt crab leading the way.
The hunter’s mouth hung wide, slack jawed.
A loud ‘WOMP WOMP WOMP’ of the patrol boat’s heavy caliber, twin barreled turret snapped him out of it, and he realized how this could work to his favor. Immediately he was back in the game. He grabbed his rifle and dropped prone on the sail covered bow, there he took steady aim at the gunner in the turret. It was a long shot, but he took it, firing one of his few remaining rounds. He missed the gunner, though not by much.
The firing stopped; the gun was still.
The turret began to turn. In his direction. Someone on that boat had been paying attention. The hunter wasted no time. He dove into the water and, staying beneath the surface, swam the short distance to shore. From below the water he could hear the guns open up again. He slid up to shore and took refuge behind a short bushy tree. He watched up the canal as he peeled Skin Jellies from his neck and feet. There was a ‘wooosh’ sound and a fast-moving projectile hit the yellow boat he had just abandoned. The projectile exploded and the boat transformed into a million tiny bits of yellow. Hull fragments, large and small, flew in all directions. The boat was utterly annihilated, and the surface of the canal began to fill with debris as pieces of the boat rained down upon it.
Part Two
Better to be eaten whole by a sea monster
Chapter 35
Snow had not expected the land to rise so quickly past the outer edge of the forest cover. She ran headlong up the slope through the bushes and trees following Doozer, with Max right on their heels. The terrifying sound of the guns spurred them on, though the rounds themselves impacted harmlessly into the ground of the slope below them. The soldiers could see past the trees no better than she. The guns stopped firing. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t care, so she kept running.
When the guns opened up again a moment later, both Snow and Max ducked to the ground, but Doozer ran on. They soon realized they were no longer the target. Moments later there was an explosion. The soldiers were apparently on some sort of rampage.
Snow and Max got up and carried on further into the forest. When the sounds of gunfire and yelling became distant, they stopped again. Snow sniffed the air. There was a mixture of pungent and fresh scents in the forest air.
“They’re not going to follow us,” Max said and with a twist of his tongue, whistled loudly. “Only a nut job and her devoted friend would come in here.” He smiled, madly, and pointed at himself.
Snow punched him in the shoulder. He didn’t react at all and just kept smiling that I-can’t-believe-we-made-it-out-of-there, smile. She knew he wasn’t going to go along with her plan. And he did live around here after all, it was possible he knew what he was talking about.
“So, what do you think? Make our way back to the canal? Commandeer a boat in the night and set sail for foreign shores?” she said, trying to stay positive.
“I think we may have to go with your plan,” he said solemnly.
“Uhoh,” she said, now worried. “What changed your mind? Was it the mean corporal guy? We don’t ever have to see that guy again,�
� she said. She patted him on the shoulder.
“It was the SeeBee,” he said. “I could see it in his eyes.”
“You saw what?”
“Their orders somehow involved us dying.”
“Did he look… eager?”
“He looked terrified. He knew what was going to happen to us. He knew I was a dead-man walking.”
“Maybe he was just worried they were going to make him do it,” she said.
“Maybe,” he said. He gazed right through the trees ahead as he seemed to consider it. “Either way… it seems like our only chance right now is to head into the woods. Tawnee is probably closer than New York from here.” He laughed briefly and humorlessly. Then he looked straight into her eyes, “But I am serious. We need to be careful. Like tippy-toeing into the office so you don’t get caught stealing from the battleship’s liquor cabinet careful.”
Max started walking, and Snow followed him.
“Did you get caught?” she asked.
“No. I was very sneaky,” he said, “Otho on the other hand… his two left feet and a complete lack of fear for consequences left me in the clear. Coordinator Chendrah just assumed that he’d taken all of the booze.”
“You let Otho take the blame for your booze crimes? Tsk, tsk,” Snow said, wagging her finger at him.
“Nooo. I’m not the bad guy. He’s the bad guy…”
They continued down the trail. Doozer appeared and disappeared making his way back to them through the brush.
“I bet this brings your whole life into question. Every decision and judgment you made about Otho, cast in a new light. That’s tough,” she said and patted him on the shoulder.
Max thought for a moment. As though thinking back through his life, about all the fights and arguments with Otho. Was-I-the-bad-one? His face seemed to ask.
“Nah,” he said finally.
Doozer arrived, bouncing with excitement. He had a wriggling thing in his mouth, though it didn’t wriggle for long.
“That was fast Dooze, did you just eat the first critter you found?” Max said, “You be careful you don’t get lost chasing food in the woods.”
“Won’t he be more at home here than we are?” Snow said.
“I don’t know. There aren’t any trees in the True North, let alone forests.”
“Oh right. Shouldn’t it be too hot for him here then? I could give him a haircut…”
“Ha. Doozer with a mohawk, that would be great,” Max said, “but no, he can just turn his heater down.”
Snow raised an eyebrow in question of his rationale but Max, busy peering into the spooky depths of the forest, missed it completely.
They moved a little further into the forest, picking their way with care, and sticking to densely treed spaces when possible since trees couldn’t grow on gorger pits. Before long they found a tight knit group of trees which seemed a suitable place to spend the long True Night that was fast approaching. Max cleared a place on the forest floor, and they sat down together with a blanket, in preparation for the chill that would come later.
Immediately after settling in, something passed overhead. Snow saw only glimpses of it, but it was a machine of some sort. Its powerful engines kicked up the leaf litter of the forest and threw branches around causing Doozer to chitter nervously as the aircraft passed slowly just above the forest, peering through the tree cover. They sat very still, and the craft carried on past them without stopping.
Snow asked what that thing was, what its capabilities might be, but Max only shrugged, and looked quite taken aback by the machine. He had never seen anything like it. They spoke quietly about the aircraft for a while and settled back in for the long, long night ahead.
Though at times terrifying, most of the thirty hours of purest dark were spent solving the problems of cold and boredom. Cold was the easiest to solve. It didn’t rain and they had the blanket.
Boredom was the real enemy and they fought it valiantly. Games of rock paper scissors entertained them much longer that it had any right to. Each of them cheated in the darkness, with much of the games fun coming from the uncovering the others cheating, and then discovering new and different ways to continue to cheat. Soon they solved the whole issue by playing vocally, but they soon lost interest once cheating had been eliminated. Next, they played ‘Normal or Strange’.
“What about that flying thing that swooshed overhead?” Max said.
“Not normal. Not strange. More like—”
There was snap of a branch breaking.
They were both silent. Whatever had made the noise had surely been drawn in by their excited voices.
There was more noise, this time a rustling.
Snow stayed perfectly still.
Something came crashing through the bushes towards them. Snow reached to grab Doozer, but too late. He was gone, charging after whatever was responsible for the noise.
Doozer clashed with the creature and the noise was terrifying. Snow could hear Doozer’s familiar angry chittering, the flickering of his fur, and the attackers unfamiliar screeching and clacking. There was a violent exchange, and a screech of anguish, though Snow couldn’t tell from who. One of the combatants retreated, she could hear it moving away. She wanted to crawl out and assist, but she was as blind as she had ever been.
“Doozer?” Max said. “Doozer come here buddy.”
There was no response at first. Then something moved towards them through the dark and stumbled into their copse of trees. There was a munching noise.
Snow reached out a tentative hand and made contact with a furry carapace. “Doozer!” Snow said, relieved.
“Are you eating a yigrit?” Max said. “Come here I want to make sure you haven’t lost any legs.”
Snow sensed but could not see Max grab the little crab and count from one to nine.
“A full complement,” Max said
“Minus—”
“A full complement,” he said, “Oh no buddy, thanks for the offer. You have it, you’ve earned every bite.”
After the encounter with the yigrit Snow thought she would never relax again, perhaps not ever again in her life, but certainly not that night in the forest. As it happened though, she found it difficult to stay vigilant for long, and soon boredom became their main struggle once more.
From time to time they could hear a ‘thwat! veeeeeerrr…’ sound in the distance, though just how far in the distance it was difficult to say. Occasionally the sound was followed by the vocalization of some injured beast followed by a desperate futile struggle. According to Max it was the sound made by lancers when they launched their tethered spears.
“Ormneppitas (Mega) was jealous of Ormnuppatia (Grailliyn), because Ormnuppatia had gathered so very many souls, whilst Ormneppitas had gathered none,” Max said.
It was story time again. Max had already named off a long list of hard to pronounce celestial entities, along with most of their mates and offspring. Despite her genuine excitement for story time, at the very moment Max revealed those names would take no further part in the story, Snow had deleted them from memory.
“After ages of watching his sister and her abundance, Ormneppitas came to understand that he was unsatisfied to merely watch, and he said to himself, ‘Surely my sister would not begrudge my having but one of her many. In truth, like-as-not she will fail to even notice. And to one soul I could give such love and devotion that she who is my sister could never match, as she already has so many to love.’ So Ormneppitas concocted a clever plan to steal but just one of his sister’s many souls. Ormneppitas had first to discover if any souls existed that were willing to leave his sister, and to join him instead. To this end he labored long in the creation of a song of such beauty that one amongst his sister's many souls might consider the long journey to join him. When at long last his toil was complete, Ormneppitas beheld that it was rightly a thing of beauty, and his own soul swelled, filled now with a hope that he had never before known.
Empowered by such hope, Ormneppit
as set forth this song from deep within his molten depths, up through the rock above, through the ice further above, where his music then took flight, out into the dark sea that had been brought into existence to separate Ormneppitas from his sister and from his sister’s flock. For days, the song traveled through the dark black sea, with no one to witness its beauty. When at last Ormneppitas’ song reached Ormnuppatia, the warmth of the air woke the song fully. It spread across the land growing in strength as it did so. It spread into the sea, traveling far in that way. In seeped into the soil and the rock below and the molten lava below that. But the souls on the surface, feeling the hope and beauty of the song but little, felt the loneliness and desperation more greatly, and ran from the song in fear.
“But deep within Ormnuppatia’s heart, one soul heard the song. Having felt only the beauty of it, she was drawn forth from the fiery depths, up through stone, and sea, and air. Soon she left even the air, spiriting up and away into the great black sea towards her brother, whose loneliness was great enough to match her own.”
“Aww. That’s sweet,” Snow said. “It’s about to get super creepy and inappropriate now isn’t it?”
“Not the way I learned it,” Max said.
“There’s another way it’s told though right?” Snow said.
“Don’t know. Don’t want to know,” Max said.
“Oh. Well how does it end then?” Snow said. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“That was pretty much it,” Max said. “With Mega out of sight, it kinda ruins the punchline. Which is that Little Sister still hangs out with her brother Mega to this day.”
“Nice,” Snow said, “but you’re right, that does ruin the punchline. Any more stories?”
“That’s all for now,” Max said. “I only know so many. If I tell you them all at once it leaves nothing for later.”
Snow gave him a look which due to darkness he did not receive.
“We are in the scary forest of doom and death. We could be dead tomorrow, so what are you waiting for?”
“I assume we’ll succeed, unlikely though it may be,” Max said.
Starship Relic (Lost Colony Uprising Book 1) Page 17