by Gary Hoover
They had been flying for about 15 minutes over seemingly endless forest, and the sun was just coming up. Artimus found an opening and set the car down. The area was washed with a subtle orange glow as the sun was just starting to show over the horizon.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Jeff blurted out as soon as it was quiet enough to easily talk.
“You’re sorry?” Artimus raised an eyebrow.
“You know . . . about getting all of you into trouble . . . turning you all into fugitives.”
Artimus smiled. “That’s not your fault. We knew what we were doing. With or without you, we needed to get out . . . to do something. Doclotnury needs our help. If our government doesn’t have the . . . courage to act, we have to see what we can do . . . Besides, I’m the one who got you in trouble, remember?”
Jeff flushed. He had been annoyed with Artimus for hanging him out there, but that seemed ancient history now. “So what do we do now?”
“A friend of mine . . . an old war buddy . . . named Dave Kimble lives in the forest, but closer to Doclotnury. I haven’t talked to him for a while. He’s not big on telephones, but he’s a good guy, and I’m sure he’ll put us up and help us out. We should have enough fuel to get there.”
Jeff wasn’t sure if he liked the emphasis Artimus put on the word ‘should’.
“He’s a little . . . I’m not sure if ‘crazy’ is too indelicate a word, but that’s what he is. . .” Artimus caught Jeff’s concerned look. “But don’t get me wrong, he’s the greatest guy in the world. He’d give his life to help a friend without even thinking.
“Anyway . . . we should have enough fuel to make it to his place. It’ll take about . . .” Artimus looked at his watch. “3 hours to get there.”
Jeff did some quick math in his head and figured that would be about 7.5 earth hours.
“Once we meet up with Dave,” Artimus continued, “we’ll head toward Doclotnury and see how we can help. It seems that General Rasp - the pheerion warlord - is leading an attack fleet toward Doclotnury. I’ve been hearing some preliminary reports that sound grim. Things seem to be getting ugly very quickly.
“The pheerions have ancient technology compared to Humans. While they’ve always tended to be violent and warring, they’ve never tried anything this ambitious. They use potassium nitrate-powder cannons and pistols, wooden sailing ships. . .”
The mention of ‘wooden sailing ships’ struck a chord with Jeff.
“. . . No real match for modern technology, but it seems they’ve obtained some secret weapons - they have a modern force shield and some sort of huge energy cannon . . . well you saw that video . . . that could make them a real threat.
“The Doclotnuryians have been launching attacks against their fleet as it’s on the move, but they can’t penetrate the energy shield. I’m not sure what we can do, but I’d like to go and offer any assistance we can.”
Some shadows passed over them and Jeff looked apprehensively toward the sky. He saw several of the huge badger-headed bird-creatures that he had seen shortly after arriving.
“Oh, don’t worry about them,” Artimus said after seeing the fear in Jeff’s eyes. “They won’t come after us unless we appear sick or wounded.”
With that said, Artimus pushed a button that raised the roof. Apparently he wasn’t as sure as he sounded.
“So fill us in on you,” Artimus said. “I hope things weren’t too difficult for you.”
Jeff cringed. He didn’t want to be a whiner, but, yes things were pretty friggin’ difficult for me. Instead of being that blunt he said: “Well, first off, that Duanan is a complete ass.”
“I think he’s been under a lot of pressure since the start of the pheerion offensive,” Artimus said.
Jeff didn’t bother to argue or offer any details, but he did say: “I think someone tried to kill me.”
Artimus’ eyes widened. “What?!?!”
“They put me in a cell with some sort of . . . violent maniac.”
Artimus looked concerned, but remained silent as Jeff explained.
“He was chained up last night, but when I woke up, his chains were unlocked. It seems someone must have snuck in when we were both sleeping and freed him so he could kill me and it would look like an accident.”
Artimus still didn’t speak, but looked very concerned and thoughtful.
“How did you get through that wall?” Baldwin asked excitedly.
Jeff shrugged. “I just spent some time digging at the mortar, then pushed at the rock. I’m a little surprised myself that I was able to move it, but I did.”
Jeff realized now that all three sets of eyes were focused on him intently.
“Those stones are HUGE!” Baldwin broke the silence after a few moments. “I don’t . . . I don’t think I could even move one of those.”
Jeff shrugged again. He didn’t know what else to say. He was surprised when it moved also, but it did and that’s that. “I think my father’s here somewhere.”
Again he had all six eyes focused intently on him. “I’ve been having these . . . dreams . . . of a pheerion . . . I think it may be . . . General Rasp? . . . I started having the dreams before I even got here, and I think they’re . . . telling me something. I had one last night, and it was very clear and the pheerion was holding my father’s locket . . . one with MY photo in it.”
As the words came out of his mouth, Jeff suddenly realized he was a lot less convinced than he had been a short time ago. When he had just woken, he felt the dream was very important, but now - just as they didn’t seem as frightening in the light of day - they also seemed less believable.
“Where is your locket?”
“Last I saw it, Duanan had it in his desk drawer.”
Again Artimus seemed to be concerned and thoughtful.
“I have a question,” Jeff said. “How did you know where and when to find me at exactly the right time?”
“Well the ‘where’ is simple.” Artimus held up the electronic tracker programmed to track the marker on Jeff’s tooth. “As for the ‘when’ . . . well Nahima just had a ‘feeling’ that we should head out when we did . . . and . . . well, that feeling paid off, didn’t it?”
“You should know by now not to doubt me.” Nahima said grinning.
“Well let’s see if we can do something to help the Doclotnuryians, and, hopefully, find your father in the process,” Artimus said as he started the car and eased it off the ground.
Chapter 41:
The scenery was spectacular, but Jeff was beginning to get restless. His seat was comfortable, but he wasn’t used to traveling this distance without at least being able to get up and stretch his legs.
He also wasn’t used to seeing so much land that hadn’t been paved, mined or dammed. He had seen a few scattered human ‘villages’, and there were some long paths that had been cleared of trees. He assumed those paths were what passed for ‘roads’. There were a number of interesting and unusual animals, but Jeff was too high up to get as good a look as he would have liked. The ones that seemed most plentiful were herds of deer-like animals that he saw grazing in a number of different clearings.
They saw great forests, plains, streams, waterfalls. Jeff felt privileged and almost embarrassed that he was getting a chance to see such unspoiled land. It was almost like being with Lewis and Clark, but without having to actually paddle the canoe or deal with the other difficulties they had to endure. He was able to just soar over all of it and view the splendor in pampered comfort.
“Oh, here.” Baldwin fished under his seat and pulled out a gun-belt. “I almost forgot. I modified it just for you.” He reached down again and pulled out Jeff’s baseball bat. He put it through a special loop on the belt and handed it to Jeff.
“Cool! Thanks!” Jeff said.
He turned the belt and gun over in his lap examining it closely. Under normal circumstances, he would have been absolutely thrilled to have such a device to call his own.
As it was though, it was a reminder
.
It wasn’t just a toy, but something that he might need to defend himself from . . . some absolutely horrifying creatures.
He thought it was funny that Baldwin seemed to think the bat was so important. Jeff had only grabbed it because it was the closest, easiest thing he could think of. Nothing like the gun he had now.
. . . Still . . . without the bat, I would have been dead when that snake thing came after me, so it did save my life.
He patted it appreciatively as he thought of that.
“You don’t know where you’re going, do you?” Nahima teasingly asked Artimus.
“Oh, we’re almost there. We should be able to see it any minute . . .”
At that moment, the car LURCHED downward and then stabilized at a lower level.
“We’re . . . uhhhh . . . we’re running a little low on fuel.” Artimus explained.
The car lurched down again, and this time rather than leveling off, Artimus pointed the nose down and toward a clearing that was visible . . . but a few miles away.
“What about your reserve?” Nahima asked.
“I started using the reserve about 10 minutes ago,” Artimus said a bit sheepishly. “I figured that would leave us plenty to get there.”
Jeff’s knuckles turned white as his hands clenched his seat-belt. They were moving fast now. Artimus seemed to still have control, and he seemed to be trying to get them into the clearing rather than putting efforts into reducing speed. Jeff wasn’t sure what good it would do to hit a clearing if they were going 400 mph.
Jeff tended to only be religious when it was convenient . . . and he found it very convenient at that moment. He was praying frantically, squeezing his seat-belt and sweating.
He glanced at Baldwin who seemed nervous . . . but not as bad as Jeff would have imagined. Baldwin had seemed somewhat timid prior to that, but he seemed more composed than Jeff at that moment.
Jeff closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. He hadn’t really had the time or presence of mind to think much about the fact that he was going to die when he was fighting the snake or hanging out of the hole in the jail wall.
Now that he was hurtling toward his death and had time to think about it, he was disappointed to find that it was a lot like not hurtling toward his death . . . only with a hell of a lot more fear thrown in.
He would have hoped that it would have been more poetic than that.
The ground was coming up . . . FAST.
When they had been higher up, Jeff really didn’t have a good sense of how fast they were going, but now that they were closer to the ground, the treetops were becoming a sickening greenish-brown blur.
Jeff saw some sort of movement out of the corner of his eye, and then he felt his spine compress and his stomach go from his throat to his ass.
He looked up, and, through a glass panel in the roof of the car, he could see a parachute deployed above them.
I guess it would make sense to have a safety parachute in flying cars, he thought to himself.
He tried to compose himself before anyone else noticed how nervous he had been.
“Everybody hang on. I think we’re clear,” Artimus said as they eased into the clearing.
After several more tense moments, they made a jarring landing.
“Everybody okay?” Artimus asked.
After determining that nobody had been hurt, they climbed out and gathered at the rear of the car to collect their supplies.
“It’s going to be a bit of a walk,” Artimus said as he surveyed the terrain, “but it shouldn’t be bad.”
He buckled a gun-belt around his waist, and slung a battered bag over his shoulder. He paused and seemed to studying their location very intently and calculating some details in his mind. “We should have at least another hour of daylight, and that should give us plenty of time.”
Jeff buckled his gun-belt and looked around. The clearing was only a few hundred yards in diameter, and they were surrounded by trees. After Jeff’s experience right after he had arrived, he wasn’t real anxious to have to go through the woods on foot. He wanted to raise the subject . . . but also didn’t want tip everybody off regarding just how nervous he was.
“Are there any . . . roads . . . or anything we can take?” Jeff asked as coolly as he could manage.
Artimus shook his head. “We may be able to find some paths. Dave has cleared some trails and areas, but mostly we’ll probably be cutting through trees and brush.”
Artimus began walking with long strides and a brisk pace with the others doing their best to keep up. He seemed to recognize that Jeff was a little nervous. “There are some dangerous animals out here, but keep your wits about you and we shouldn’t have any problems. Make plenty of noise so we don’t take anything by surprise . . . if anything takes us by surprise . . . well . . .” Artimus paused as he scanned the tree line just ahead of them. “. . . We’ll just have to deal with that as necessary.”
When they arrived at the tree line, Artimus stopped and drew his gun. The others did the same. . .
. . . And then they crossed the threshold.
Chapter 42:
“Keep your safeties ON. If you shoot, make damn sure you know what you’re shooting at before you pull the trigger. Not only will that help to make sure none of us get shot . . . but there are some things around here . . . well let’s just say that if you shoot them, you probably won’t hurt them . . . just piss them off.”
After his last comment, Artimus looked at Jeff who was cringing. He lowered his voice a bit as he addressed Jeff directly: “Sorry. Don’t want to scare you . . . but I do want you to be prepared.”
Artimus slowed down as they came to some heavy brush. He holstered his weapon and pushed the tall weeds out of the way. The others followed him single file. Jeff, then Baldwin, and Nahima bringing up the rear. The rest of them kept their guns drawn.
After about 5 minutes they had made their way through that particularly thick patch, and Artimus drew his weapon again.
“Just keep your eyes open.” He scanned left to right as they walked.
Jeff looked up. He remembered the blob-like thing that had fallen out of the tree. “Uhhh . . .” He looked at Artimus. “When I first got here, I saw some shapeless . . . thing . . . fall out of a tree . . .”
“Ah . . . a jelly-wart. Don’t worry about them. They’re not very common, and won’t attack anything as big as us . . . particularly if we keep moving. If one hits you, try to shake it off as quickly as possible before it gets a chance to do too much damage.”
Jeff noticed that Artimus had assured him they wouldn’t attack . . . before offering advice for what to do if one did attack.
Jeff cut to the bottom line in his mind: So yes, one might attack.
He took another quick look up.
Chapter 43:
They had been walking for about two of Jeff’s hours (less than one of Artimus’ hours), and Jeff was starting to relax and enjoy himself. The largest animals they’d seen had been some squirrel-like rodents. They had also seen a few lizards and birds, but nothing that seemed to present a threat.
The sounds of the forest were becoming hypnotic. The rhythmic chirping of birds and insects blended with crunching of the four sets of human feet on soft dirt and twigs and Artimus’ humming - which he had been doing to keep some noise going whenever he didn’t have enough to say.
Jeff froze.
Baldwin bumped into him, and Artimus turned when he sensed something was going on, and then he also stopped.
Jeff held up a hand and looked around. He had a strong sense of . . . something, and he wanted a moment of silence to see if he could hear anything.
“Something’s not right.” He said after about 10 seconds.
The four of them scanned their surroundings.
“I don’t hear any birds,” Artimus said.
Jeff realized that, yes, there was an unusual lack of bird sounds which they had heard steadily ever since they had entered the forest.
“Well . . . I don’t see or hear anything. Should we continue?” Artimus asked.
“I guess so,” Jeff said.
Artimus began walking again, and after about 6 steps, Jeff saw something. “Hold it,” he said quietly but urgently.
Jeff pointed to some movement he saw through the trees approximately 100 feet away.
It was something BIG.
All four of them readied their guns and took positions that would ensure they wouldn’t hit each other if they had to fire.
They were all looking in the direction of the movement, but whatever it was had stopped and now they couldn’t see anything but trees and other vegetation.
Jeff squinted. He knew there was something there, but he couldn’t distinguish anything.
Then he saw it!
Through the trees, he could see something that looked similar to a HUGE praying mantis - about 8 feet tall - but with some differences. Its head was proportionately larger than a scaled up mantis head would have been, and there were some other differences in its shape and proportions. It also had a rough, mottled-brown exoskeleton as opposed to the green of the ones Jeff had seen in his mother’s gardens. The color and texture gave it the appearance of a tree, and Jeff realized that’s why they didn’t see it clearly until it started to move.
Artimus fired, and that was the cue the others had been waiting for. All four opened fire, but the shots seemed to just hit the exoskeleton without doing much more than slightly annoying it.
“Run for it!” Artimus shouted and the four of them took off in a panic.
I guess this is one of the ones that just gets pissed off, Jeff thought to himself, realizing that Artimus hadn’t followed his own advice.
Artimus let the others get ahead of him, and he fired a few shots over his shoulder as he brought up the rear.