From this vantage, he couldn’t be seen by the natives at the rear path, but he still felt exposed. An errant spear could impale him. Not that they had been throwing those lately, but they could start up again.
And rocks were still coming in, landing in the soft soil at a rate of four or five a minute. One of those wouldn’t kill him—not unless it was incredibly lucky—but it would still be no fun to get hit.
He glanced over at Rufus, who Eliza had ordered to move to the other side of the big tree and stay.
Surprisingly, he’d listened so far. He now sat, staring at the front gate which she had left from.
Cal turned back. Imogen and Eliza had reached the spot where they couldn’t move forward any farther without being spotted, and Imogen held out the flame she held toward Eliza.
Imogen had put on the carapace armor, which covered her torso, but which conspicuously left her buttocks and crotch exposed, her loincloth down at the stream with the rest of their clothing.
Eliza was still nude, but she didn’t need clothing or armor for this next part.
She placed her hand in the fire, which traveled up her arm then split, going up to her head and hair and down to her body until she was alight with flame.
Until she was flame.
Carefully, while there was still no breeze, she moved toward the rear path where the natives stood, assaulting their base.
Cal risked crawling over toward the rear where their water basket rested so he could watch. This was going to be interesting.
At first the alien natives looked confused at seeing fire move toward them.
Then they freaked out and diverted their assault on the base toward this new threat.
But the rocks simply passed through her harmlessly.
She kept moving forward, and Cal hoped a huge breeze didn’t stir up. That would be inconvenient.
The ground she walked on was mostly dirt near the stream, but where there were plants, they burned and smoldered, though didn’t catch fire, likely due to the humidity of the air and their high water content.
The natives thus distracted, it was now time for Imogen to play her role in this plan, and she popped out, bow up and drawn, and let loose right through Eliza.
The arrow didn’t catch fire, but the female it hit still screamed in pain as it pierced her naked abdomen.
One of the males saw this and roared as Imogen was already sending another arrow his way.
To Cal’s both amazement and horror, the alien male ducked at the last moment, the arrow sailing overhead.
He came up, already spinning his rock sling and let loose, the rock whizzing by Eliza and drawing out a wisp of flame before slamming into Imogen, who had no time to react.
Even from up here, Cal could hear it crack off her carapace armor, and Imogen stumbled back with a gasp, dropping the arrow she had been pulling out.
Now it was Cal’s turn.
He popped to his feet and ran to the rear gate, which was now unassaulted, aimed his own bow carefully, and released.
He missed, but that was okay. The goal was to distract the aliens, split their attention. They didn’t have to hit, only had to distract them from the other two.
Eliza moved forward toward the male who’d thrown the rock, allowing Imogen to get to her feet.
Apparently none of the aliens—nor even Eliza or Imogen—had noticed Cal’s arrow.
“It didn’t go that wide,” he grumbled to himself, and notched another.
This one also missed its target. Which didn’t mean it didn’t hit anything. Instead of hitting the male with the rock sling, it flew through a startled Eliza before slamming into the foot of a different native, one who was about to throw a spear at Imogen.
Maybe due to the arrow’s slower speed, this one actually did catch fire.
Cal saw Eliza turn back, her fiery eyes barely discernible, but he could tell she was looking at him.
He gave her a friendly wave.
She shook her head, looked back at the male who was hurriedly trying to pull the flaming arrow from his foot, back at Cal, then moved so she was in his line of fire.
Seeing what she was doing, he nocked another arrow and took again aim again, this time steadying himself, trying to remember what Mirabelle had taught him about aiming.
He fired.
He’d been aiming at Eliza’s center mass, but the arrow instead flew through her shoulder.
This was fine, as it still caught fire and though it didn’t hit any of the natives, it at least distracted the ones who hadn’t yet been distracted.
This gave Imogen—who was clearly a much better shot—time to cross to the nearby trees and take cover in them, while still unleashing arrow after arrow.
There were still eight of the natives left in the fight, though the male who had been throwing the rocks had now dragged the woman with the arrow in her stomach away, while the other seven—including the one who’d finally managed to get the arrow from his foot and now had blue blood oozing from the wound—sent rocks flying at Cal and Imogen, mostly ignoring Eliza—who could only move slowly due to her insubstantiality—until she got too close, at which point they would strafe around her, already having discerned her slowness.
Cal wondered, while he peered through the hole in the gate as rocks alternately pinged off or sailed over it, why they weren’t seeking cover.
That was when he noticed the large pile of rocks near the trees. If they got too far, they’d run out of ammo.
Then again, they didn’t really need to take cover, as he couldn’t shoot back anymore with their attention back on him and their barrage resumed.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. He leaned back from the gate to stare at rather than through the hole he’d been peering out.
It was large enough…
He put his bow against the gate, arrow pointed through the hole. This was going to be difficult.
He couldn’t peer out through another one of the holes while still drawing back on the bow, so he had to fire blind.
Oh well, wild covering fire was better than none at all.
He released the arrow and to his surprise, someone shouted in pain.
He eagerly placed his eye to the hole.
One of the males was grunting, pulling on the arrow which had lodged in his buttock.
Cal laughed and, emboldened while the ones attacking him were distracted, popped up above the gate and aimed another.
It soared perfectly toward its target, and Cal smiled, having finally gotten the hang—
The arrow landed no more than half a foot from the feet of the male Cal had been aiming at, the one whose foot was already bleeding.
“Shit,” Cal swore as the man looked at the arrow, then up to the base, and roared.
He quickly ducked back behind the gate, due to the large number of flying rocks currently making their way toward it.
At least he’d distracted them from Imogen again.
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After several moments there was a scream and Cal risked putting his eye to the gate to see one of the natives on fire, Eliza having gotten close enough to strike while they weren’t paying attention by shifting her feet and lower legs back to flesh to allow her to move faster.
“That-a-girl,” Cal said proudly.
Imogen sent more arrows their way, and, their attention once again solely on the two women and not the gate, Cal popped up and unloaded, making them split their attention even further.
One of the natives slung a rock at Eliza and she screamed out in pain as it slammed into her foot.
She quickly shifted fully into her fire form and continued harassing the group. She was slow again, but now that they knew she could be fast, they paid more attention to her, ready to throw another rock if she shifted part of herself back to flesh.
It kept them occupied enough for one of Imogen’s arrows to land in one of the female’s chest. In her right boob, to be precise.
Cal grimaced.
She grunted and pull
ed it out, seeming no worse for wear.
Cal finally landed a shot in one of the male’s lower abdomen, and after letting out what sounded like a string of alien explicatives, the injured alien retreated to the trees, pulling the arrow out as he went.
Weren’t you not supposed to do that? Cal wondered. Oh well, better for him and his group.
Unfortunately this attack had the effect of enraging the remaining natives rather than frightening them, and they charged Imogen’s position, now completely ignoring Eliza as she tried to stop them.
Cal let loose arrow after arrow but he was just simply too far away and too bad of a shot.
He grunted in anger, notched another arrow, and pulled it back till he thought the string or even the bow itself would snap under the strain from his enhanced strength, then let go.
The arrow soared through the air and slammed into the buttock of one of the females, the one who had been shot in the breast.
She leaned forward, thrust her hips out, and let out a cry of pain, then spun to look at him.
He swore he could see the dirty look she gave him even from here.
She yanked the arrow from her flesh, looked at it, tossed it to the side, then said something to the others.
They all rushed the tree, ignoring the arrows Imogen sent their way.
“Run!” Cal shouted to Imogen.
She tried to keep firing, but she was outnumbered, and a bow was no machine gun.
They tackled her to the ground and though she tried to fight, she quickly went still.
Had they knocked her out?
The woman who had been shot in the buttock and breast stripped the armor off Imogen, putting it on herself.
Cal reached for another arrow, found air. After fumbling around for a moment, he removed the sling.
Empty.
He swore, looking around for more arrows, but they were all gone. There were some alien spears and plenty of rocks, but even with his upgraded strength and the fact that he’d be throwing downward rather than up, he didn’t think he could match the aliens and manage to launch either projectile that far.
Not one to give up just because of impossible odds, he grabbed a spear and tried, hoping he didn’t hit Imogen.
No danger of that. The spear landed well short of the group, and he watched helplessly as the natives picked up Imogen’s now-naked body.
A shout drew his attention.
It was Eliza. She was no longer on fire, standing near the edge of the stream about forty feet behind the group.
“Hey you cute bastards, come get me!”
They turned to look at her, saw she wasn’t a flaming wraith any longer, and two of the males not holding Imogen charged her.
“No!” Cal called out to her. What was she doing? He knew she was fast but—
Then she dove into the water, and he felt a smile creep over his lips as she abruptly disappeared.
The two alien males skidded to a halt in front of the stream, looking to either side.
He could tell they were bewildered. From where they were, they could see for hundreds of feet in either direction, and the water was somewhat shallow and totally clear, so it was obvious that Eliza wasn’t there.
Not that they could see, anyway.
Fifty feet downstream a shimmer slipped out of the water and onto the bank.
They didn’t notice.
The other natives, including the one now wearing Imogen’s armor, carried a naked and unconscious Imogen towards the forest in the direction the injured ones had gone.
Then one of the two males looking at the stream must’ve heard something, because he spun around only to be confronted with a floating mass of water surging toward him.
It slammed into his chest and threw him into the stream, sputtering.
The other male swung at Eliza, his fist landing with an audible slap against the side of her head that sounded like someone doing a particularly painful bellyflop.
Unfazed, Eliza spun toward him and slammed her own fist into his face so hard that he was knocked unconscious.
“Behind you!” Cal shouted to her.
She spun just as the male she’d knocked into the water leapt from the stream and charged her.
Much faster now in water form than she had been in fire, she easily sidestepped the attack, putting out her arm and clotheslining him. Then she turned her attention to the remaining natives, retreating into the forest with Imogen and almost out of sight.
She dashed after them and had no problem catching up this time.
As Cal glanced back into the camp to check on Mirabelle, his attention was drawn to Rufus, who was still roughly where Eliza had told him to stay, though had moved enough around the tree so that he could now stare at Cal. “Don’t worry boy, they’ll be all right,” he told the dog, then shifted his gaze to Mirabelle.
Still unconscious.
He wanted to go down and help, but he wasn’t going to risk leaving her alone up here.
Then he looked again at Rufus, and got an idea.
60
Cal cheered as he watched the natives run away, and he hoped Eliza wouldn’t kill him for putting the alien dog in danger.
But Rufus was fine.
The combination of a massive, angry alien dog and a wrathful and apparently indestructible woman made of water assaulting them had caused the remaining aliens to drop Imogen and retreat with their injured.
Rufus, however, apparently wasn’t happy with this, and Eliza—back in her human form and holding Imogen in her arms—was now yelling at him to stop chasing them.
Rufus finally listened, stopping his pursuit, but continuing to send that diesel-engine growl after them.
A few minutes later, they were all back inside their base, safe once more.
For now.
But they hadn’t gotten out unscathed. Mirabelle was still unconscious from her injury, and Imogen was unconscious for no reason Cal could discern.
What had the aliens done to her? Again. Some kind of drug?
Rufus was wagging his two tails excitedly, jumping on and trying to reach Eliza’s face to lick.
She laughed, pushing him down. “I’m fine.” Then she looked at Cal and her smile turned to a glare.
Great, here it came. He was all ready to defend himself for letting Rufus loose, but her glare faded and she smiled again. “Thanks. Even if you did risk my child.”
“Your child?” he groaned.
She nodded at Mirabelle. “She’s still out.”
He sighed. “Yeah. I—”
Rufus suddenly began growling again.
“What is it boy?” Eliza asked the dog.
Then they saw.
Cal and Eliza looked on in confusion as the natives ran from the woods.
Where was the one whose foot had been bleeding?
Cal ran around to the front gate, checking to see if they were being ambushed.
But all was quiet. He dashed back, the group having now reached the bottom of the path. The ones that weren’t limping were helping the injured ones. They seemed more injured than when they had left.
Cal looked at his bow, then all the arrows littering the ground down below. Should’ve picked those up, he chastised himself.
“Let’s get this gate shut,” he said.
“Wait,” Eliza told him. “They’re hurt.”
“Yeah, and we hurt them.”
They’d now started up the steep path.
Eliza began to object again, when one of them simply disappeared.
“What the hell?” she said in confusion.
Was this some kind of trick? Cal wondered. They had proved they were smart, but how could one disappear like that?
Then he had his answer as another one was taken and he caught a glimpse of a creature he’d thought they’d never see again.
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It had four long, hard-looking limbs which it ran—skittered really—on at extreme speed. The head was elongated and lacking eyes, red and black and mottled, a larg
e mouth filled with razor-sharp, shark-like teeth.
It was one of the spider-like creatures from Earth. The kind that had killed Imogen’s brother.
“Shit,” Eliza cursed.
Cal looked again at their dismal weapon stores.
Back on Earth, Isak, Imogen’s brother, had managed to kill one of these creatures, but only with a fully automatic rifle.
And that had taken what seemed like an entire drum of ammo.
All they had now was a bow with no arrows, spears, and a bunch of rocks.
The female and the injured one she was helping reached the top, the rest still a good distance behind them.
Cal had been so distracted by the monster that he hadn’t even noticed and indeed almost forgotten about this now much-lesser threat, the gate still wide open.
Another scream and she glanced behind her, saw the now empty spot where the last remaining members of her tribe had been only moments ago.
Then she snapped her head back around, her and Cal’s eyes meeting. She looked up at him imploringly and said something in a language he didn’t understand, her voice high-pitched and delicate.
“Fuck.”
Other than the armor, she was naked, and so clearly had no weapons, nor did the injured woman she helped, the one who Imogen had shot in the stomach when their battle had first begun.
Maybe they weren’t human, but they were alive and they were still people and they needed help. He couldn’t leave them out there with that thing.
Not that it would be any safer in here. But he couldn’t live with himself if he let her get slaughtered, even if they had been trying to kill each other just a few minutes ago.
Because the monster they now both faced was something else. It wasn’t human, it was a devourer. It had no compassion, no humanity.
Cal urged the woman and the one she was carrying in then quickly closed and braced the gate behind her.
Rufus sniffed at them but didn’t attack, and the woman didn’t seem particularly afraid of him despite having just been chased off by him.
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