The adrenalin and the stimulants had blocked out the pain, but now he became aware of the terrible burning sensation again. Part of his shirt, the size of his palm, had disintegrated. It hissed and stank of rotting meat.
Acid! These damn creatures spit acid. If any more turn up, we’re screwed.
They needed to get away and to the depot. It was the only safe place far and wide. God knows how many more monsters he’d alerted with his shooting! He would have to tend to the wound later. Russell bent the fingers of his left hand and shook his lower arm. At least the injury didn’t seem to be too serious.
He was about to pick up his weapon when he noticed that the entire barrel above the magazine had melted away. The thing was useless. He cursed to himself. He had only taken along two magazines for the pistol, and he had already emptied one of them.
“Dad, I . . .”
Whatever Greg had wanted to say, he swallowed his words when another rattling sound came from the right. And behind them another sound.
Jesus Christ. How many of these beasts are there?
Russell grabbed his son by the arm and ran. They didn’t have a second to lose. At least the jungle was less dense here—it reminded him of the forests in the remoter parts of Connecticut. Then he realized why: they were moving up and out of the swampy jungle and onto higher ground.
They reached the foot of the little range of hills. If they continued to run uphill they couldn’t miss the depot, which was on the south side of Mount Fairweather. It couldn’t be more than half a mile away. The trees were more dispersed here, and the rays of the late-afternoon sun penetrated the treetops. Russell kept hearing the ominous sound of the greyhound-lizards behind them. It didn’t subside, so they must still be hot on their heels. Every time he turned round to look, there was nothing to be seen, but that could change at any moment. Russell was surprised that the creatures hadn’t caught up with them, fast as they were. Perhaps they were pack animals and still getting into formation.
“Dad, I can’t anymore,” gasped Greg, stumbling forward with little steps.
“We’re nearly there,” panted Russell. His lungs were burning like fire despite the painkiller. When the effect of the medication wore off in a few hours, the pain would be intolerable.
They had reached the crest of the hill. Here, there were just a few lone trees, and for the first time, Russell could see Mount Fairweather to the west, towering miles up into the sky. The lush grassland ended abruptly at a sheer black rock face, which made it look like a small volcano. Small white clouds drifted over the peak.
For Christ’s sake, where’s the depot?
Russell and Greg ran toward the southern slope. They had already left the last trees behind them. Up here there was no cover. Russell looked back more frequently—and then he saw them.
Two, no three, of the greyhound-lizards were emerging from the cover of the forest and running in their direction.
Russell estimated that they were nine-hundred feet away at most.
And they’re faster than us!
“Run! Run as fast as you can!” screamed Russell. He stumbled again. His chest was hurting and he coughed violently. He pressed the back of his hand against his mouth to muffle the sound. When he took his hand away, he saw a trace of blood and slime, which dripped onto the butt of his pistol.
They had reached the lower slope of Mount Fairweather and ran along the edge of the escarpment. The ground was still sloping upward slightly, and beneath their feet was soft, wet grass that squelched with every step they took.
Russell turned to look around again. The animals were now no more than seven-hundred feet away. The leader of the pack was running straight toward them, while the other two flanked it to the left and right, but a good forty feet behind, twitching their heads continuously to the side.
They really are pack animals. And intelligent, too. Jesus Christ!
Russell could see what they were up to. The next time they changed direction, one of the animals would break rank and cut them off. If they missed the depot, they were done for.
Dammit, where is the goddamn depot?
A copse of trees appeared in front of them. Russell couldn’t see what lay beyond it. Had they lost their way?
They ran through the trees and after a few seconds had already reached the far side. Finally, Russell saw the depot behind the next knoll. Hope welled up inside him again. He hadn’t got them lost. It was so close. They could make it. They had to make it.
He glanced around and saw the greyhound creatures running through the copse of trees, no more than a three-hundred feet behind them!
Russell simply couldn’t understand why the beasts hadn’t got them already; after all, he’d seen how fast they could run. Then he realized:
They enjoy chasing their prey. It’s a game for them. But for us it’s life or death!
Russell pushed his son forward. “Run!” he roared.
The final stretch seemed to drag on endlessly. Russell wasn’t sure if the effect of the stimulant was wearing off, or if he had simply reached his physical limits, but his head was spinning again and he lost all feeling in his legs. He staggered.
No! This can’t happen! Not this close to our goal!
With his last reserve of energy he reached the heavy wooden door of the hut. As he drew back the iron bolt, he saw from the corner of his eye that something brown was shooting toward him. With a thudding noise, the door was ripped out of his hand and crashed against the wall of the hut. The animal had wanted to jump at him, but had hurtled into the door as Russell opened it. The greyhound-lizard lurched backward as Russell pulled Greg into the depot. The animal was back on its legs and getting ready to pounce. But Russell was now also inside. He pulled the door shut behind them and slid the bolt across.
His knees gave way, and he slid down the wall of the hut to the ground. Greg sat down next to him, laid his little arm on his father’s shoulder and began to sob bitterly. Russell hugged him while still gasping for air.
We’re safe. At least for the time being.
Six feet away from where they sat, wrapped in plastic on a shelf, he saw the radio.
Chapter 14
“Those are wotans. A whole pack of them. What are they doing so close to the edge of the forest?” Marlene Wolfe lowered her binoculars and shook her head. Over all the years they had been here, she had never seen more than one or two wotans at a time.
“I told you so,” said Ben Hawke. “Something’s not right. Today wotans and a few days ago that sniper attack. And the hyenas.”
Marlene nodded. “Something is driving them out of the forest. They can’t get up the cliff, so they’re moving toward the pass and the observation post.”
“We need to increase the number of lookouts on duty.”
Marlene raised the binoculars back up to her eyes. The monsters did not seem to be moving in their direction anymore, but rather to be waiting. Suddenly, there was a roaring sound from the forest, not unlike the sound of a stag, and the wotans stormed in a southerly direction along the edge of the forest. A few seconds later they were out of sight.
“Something frightened them,” murmured Marlene.
“Or lured them.”
“But what? I’ve never heard a sound like that,” murmured Marlene.
Hawke did not respond. “I told you, we need more lookouts.”
Marlene pursed her lips. She was not officially the military commander, but as the elected head of the colony, she was in charge of allocating jobs. “I’d really like to avoid that if possible. The harvest is coming up and we need all hands in the fields.”
“If a whole herd of wotans is heading for the barriers, we’re all screwed. Visibility just isn’t good enough—especially at night. We should have strengthened the barriers a long time ago. Wooden fences with barbed wire aren’t enough to withstand a concentrated attack. We should have built a solid, ten-foot-high stone wall to seal off the canyon. As I’ve been saying for years!”
Marlene had to
admit he was right. It would have been a lot of work and sucked up countless precious working hours—they had voted against the idea again and again, especially as the animals had increasingly kept their distance from the observation post. Nobody could have predicted that the situation would change so suddenly. Or could they? She had been a good company commander for many years. Back then, safety and security had been her top priority, regardless of the amount of work involved. Hawke was right; they should have built the wall, but now it was too late. If she called an emergency meeting and the colony voted to build it, it would tie up so many of the colonists that they could say goodbye to half their harvest. And she didn’t want to go through another winter like the third winter they had spent on the planet. The best compromise solution was to bring in reinforcements.
“Okay, we’ll increase the number of lookouts to five.”
“Starting when?”
“Starting next week.”
“Fine,” said Hawke.
“I would like to speak to your wife,” said Marlene casually.
Ben swiveled his head in Marlene’s direction and scrutinized her through narrowed eyes. His sharp nose, raised in the air, looked like an accusatory finger pointing in her direction. “Why?”
Marlene was surprised by the aggressiveness of his reaction. She knew that Ben saw himself as the boss of his wife. And she also knew that Ben liked to be asked permission to consult with her. Marlene had never understood why Drew continued to live with Ben, and his jealousy attacks were getting worse all the time. Quite apart from the blatant beatings! “I would like to ask Drew her opinion about the strange behavior of the animals out there.”
Ben stared at her for another moment, before turning to gaze in the direction of the open grassland beyond the barrier. “Fine, I’ll order her to find you tomorrow.”
Order? Marlene looked at him askance. He didn’t even seem to notice.
She decided not to say any more on the subject, but she couldn’t let this go on indefinitely. She also decided to talk to Dr. Lindwall about Ben.
“I would have thought that you . . .”
Marlene didn’t get any further, because Igor was shouting something. She turned around and saw him running toward her from the barrack.
“What is it?” She leaned over the wooden railing and saw that his eyes were ripped wide open.
“It’s Russell! It’s Russell!”
Marlene raised her eyebrows. What was the man talking about? Her friend had gone away in order to die, and she certainly hadn’t expected to hear from him again.
“Calm down! What do you mean it’s Russell?”
“On the radio. I just finished repairing it, and it started making a noise. It’s Russell! He needs help.”
Marlene shook her head. Lee had sent Igor with her to the observation post so that he could check out the radio. No doubt somebody had just been waiting for it to be working again in order to play a very sick joke. It couldn’t be one of Russell’s friends.
“Nonsense. Russell didn’t take a radio with him!”
Igor made a confused gesture. “He called from the old hut on Mount Fairweather. He needs help.”
“Russell doesn’t intend to come back. Whatever’s happened to him, he doesn’t need any help and he wouldn’t ask for any.”
Igor grabbed her arm. His slim hands were surprisingly strong. “He has Greg with him! His son got on the whale without anyone noticing!”
Holy shit!
Shortly before making her way to the observation post that morning, she had heard that Russell’s son had gone missing and that people in the colony were looking for him. Christian Holbrook assumed that the boy had hidden himself somewhere because he was mad about his dad going away. It hadn’t occurred to anybody that he could have fastened himself to the whale. Obviously Russell had forced the animal to land and made his way back to Mount Fairweather with Greg. But without backup, the two of them didn’t stand a chance of reaching the next post.
Marlene hastened to the barrack, where the radio stood in the corner. The thing didn’t work half the time because components were constantly conking out. Not that they needed it to contact Eridu; they had a cable phone for that. But they needed the radio for the upcoming trip to the refinery. Igor had worked on the device for hours, cursing all the while, and Marlene had been doubtful he would succeed in fixing it. She sat down on the wooden stool and picked up the mouthpiece.
“Russell. Is that really you?”
There was a lot static, but she could hear his voice. “Marlene? Yes, Russell here. I’ve got Greg with me, otherwise I wouldn’t have got in touch. We’re at the old depot on Mount Fairweather and are stuck in a trap.”
“Copy that. Are you hurt?”
“Not badly, no. But we can’t get away. The hut is surrounded by animals.”
Marlene nodded. The area around Mount Fairweather was swarming with wotans. That was where they had nearly lost Lee on their last expedition. And there had been fifteen of them, armed to the hilt.
“Russell, we’ll get you out of there. It might take a while, I need to get reinforcements first. Have you spoken to anyone in Eridu yet?”
“No, I couldn’t get through to the colony. I don’t know how long we can last. They’re pacing around the depot like they’re plotting something. Be very careful when you come. I’ve never seen these monsters before. They’re fast and spit acid from a distance of forty feet.”
“We’ll come as quickly as we can, but it will take a few hours. Hang in there!” Marlene replaced the microphone on the hook and turned around.
Ben Hawke had slunk in quietly and was standing next to her. Igor and Donald Bell were leaning against the door. Outside, Jack Neaman and Eliot Sargent were at the fence. The regular lookout team of four men, plus Ben and herself. Was that enough people for a rescue expedition? Drive there, pick up Greg and Russell, and get out again.
“I think it’s a mistake!” Ben interrupted her thoughts.
Marlene pinched the bridge of her nose. “You don’t even know what I’m planning.”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I still don’t think we should risk anyone’s life to bring back Harris. He made his decision when he flew off this morning on that whale.”
“He has his son with him, for Christ’s sake!” Marlene flew into a rage.
“His problem,” replied Ben gruffly.
Marlene shook her head, at a loss for words. Ben hated Russell, she’d known that for a long time. But the boy was another matter.
“I say we get him out of there,” said Jack Neaman from the door. In his right hand, the eighteen-year-old was holding a rifle with a scope. Chris’s son was one of the generation that had been born here and he was good friends with Greg’s brother Jim.
“You should stay out of this, boy!” Ben snapped at him.
“So should you!” the young man retorted. “Eliot is in charge of the observation post today.”
Ben’s face flushed red and he opened his mouth to speak. He was about to blurt out a nasty retort, but Eliot got in before him.
“He’s right. The team leader is in charge during lookout duty. And I say that we can’t simply abandon our man and his son out there.”
Ben scowled and stepped into the background. Eliot pointed at a map that was hanging on the wall. “We’re here at the bottom end of the pass. Russell and Greg are here, about twenty miles away. The first five miles won’t be a problem, if we take the route past the oil springs. The gravel track is in good condition, and as long as we take precautions, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. For the last fifteen miles to the foot of Mount Fairweather we at least still have the old path that we hacked through the jungle five years ago on our last expedition.
“We don’t know what condition it’s in. The path won’t exactly have improved over the past five years,” said Marlene.
“Better than nothing!”
Hawke pushed his way back to the front and tapped on the map. “The route to the oil spr
ings is dangerous. It was dangerous even before the attacks on the post. The twelve miles to the old supply depot are sheer suicide! And all that for a man who’s going to die anyway!”
“He has his son with him!” shouted Eliot in frustration.
Hawke looked unimpressed. “Tough luck!”
“What would you do if it was one of your daughters out there? If Dana or Catherine had got onto Russell’s whale? Would you be so indifferent then?” asked Marlene icily.
“I’ve brought up my children properly. They wouldn’t dare do something that stupid!”
Donald Bell shook his head. The former scientist and astronaut had never liked Russell much. After the destruction of the sphere, he and Allison Hadcroft had been stranded for some time on Summers Planet—a bare lump of rock without an atmosphere. When Ellen finally turned up in her space suit weeks later, the air inside the research module was thick as soup and they had already decided to commit suicide the next day. No, he wouldn’t bend a finger for Russell. “Kids are kids, and they do things that nobody reckons with. And the same goes for your kids! If there’s one thing worth protecting on this damn planet, then it’s our children, and in my view it makes no difference whether they’re mine or someone else’s.”
“You want to risk your life for someone else’s child?” asked Hawke in a tone of voice that left no doubt as to what his own answer to the question would be.
The chubby-cheeked scientist glared at Ben. “I’m almost fifty years old and so are you! If we’re not prepared to risk our lives for the next generation, then everything we’ve achieved here will have been for nothing.” He looked at Marlene. “And if we carry on wasting our time debating, we might as well leave it altogether!”
“Quit bitching. Nobody is going anywhere until we’ve planned this properly.” She turned round to look at the map again. “We need about forty minutes to get to the oil springs, and—depending on the condition of the tracks—two to four hours from there to Mount Fairweather.”
“There’s no way we’ll make it back to the post by nightfall. It’s another four hours until sunset; we won’t even make it to Mount Fairweather in daylight,” said Ben. He turned on his heel, as if there was nothing more to discuss.
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