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Out of Sight (Progenitor Book 1)

Page 28

by Matthew S. Cox


  As the sun went down on the sixth day after her trip to the original lifeboat, she gathered the kids inside and secured the door as had become routine. In the pale blue glow of the ‘portable campfire,’ set on ‘light only’ mode, they sat in a circle munching on chicken slabs and fruit. To save protein gel, Sima only printed two slabs and cut them in half with an axe so everyone got a piece.

  In the middle of dinner, the Night Scratch jumped up on the top of the lifeboat, sniffing and clawing at the holes.

  Only Lissa reacted with fear. She clung to Sima’s side, trembling. Juan ignored the cat entirely.

  Austin pulled his axe closer. “Maybe we should move to the cave. This place is full of water too, and there’s lots of rooms there.”

  “There’s no door,” whispered Lissa. “The Night Scratch can just walk in.”

  “It’s only fulla water when it rains,” said Juan. “Where I used to live with my dad leaked, too. And the cave has a door. ’Member I touched the wall and it opened?”

  Sima thought back to the body parts littered all over the field by the large crashed lifeboat. That cat probably had a feast and it thinks there’s more here. The Auraks are smart, I wonder if the cat knows lifeboat means people.

  “If the bad kitty goes in the cave after us, we won’t be able to get away,” said Lissa. “The tunnel out is too slippery.”

  Austin made an ‘oh yeah’ face. “Duh. Forgot. We barely got out of there.”

  “Yeah.” Juan nodded. “It was fun sliding, but I don’t wanna die.”

  After another story about a boy made of wood who wanted to become real pulling a magical sword from a rock, they settled down to sleep. Sima stared at the ceiling again, her gaze tracking the weight shift of the cat padding back and forth. Despite death being literally feet away from her, she found herself thinking more about her strange new life where lounging around without clothing had become normal. Compared to being back home with Scathers, Pluggers, Blanks, and a dozen other gangs constantly trying to grab or kill her, living primitive didn’t feel so bad anymore.

  Come on, karma. I need you now. She closed her eyes, and tried to wish that all the ‘positive energy’ she banked up not breaking the law would protect her kids.

  25

  Day Trip

  The next morning, Sima decided to head to the lake, bringing the portable campfire along. Her bracelet had come up with a design for a spear, using one of the stiffer, rubbery branches as a shaft and some of the long razor leaves as a tip. She planned to go swimming, and, if any of the fish-like creatures in it scanned as edible, she’d try spearing one and cooking it.

  Sima carried the briefcase-sized portable campfire in one hand, her axe in the other, striding brazenly through the jungle with only her bracelet on. As embarrassing as it would be for other humans to see her, she’d decided to use her horrible luck against itself. Parading around asking for a mortifying moment sounded like a great way to cause a ripple in the universe and find more people. If it meant her kids had a better chance, she’d suffer ridicule.

  Even if it happened to be a man who found them, it’s not as if he’d do much more than laugh at her scrawny body. She had no illusions of being appealing in that way. Barely any shape, not much of a chest, bony hips… Back in the Crash, voices echoed at night. Other Outcasts often talked about who they thought pretty, and girls like her didn’t rate. It never bothered her though. Being thin helped her pretend to be younger so she could beg.

  Maybe I don’t miss Earth. She put thoughts of Outcasts and begging out of her mind and focused on staying alert for danger. The mile-plus walk passed without incident, and they emerged on the shore of the enormous lake.

  A trio of Auraks glided swan-like around the far side, scooping their beaks in the water and creating temporary, roaring waterfalls as they lifted into the air. Sima observed them for a while, noting that they appeared to lack the ability to ‘suck’ up water, and needed to tilt their heads back to pour it down their throats.

  The boys dashed straight into the lake. Lissa crept in more cautiously, squealing at the cold.

  Sima set the case down on the shore, placed the axe on top of it, and waded in up to her knees. Deciding to get the freeze-shock over with fast, she jumped in headfirst. Upon surfacing, she let out a gasp, shivering, and feeling more awake than she’d been in days.

  “Bracelet… can you scan these fish? Are any good for eating?”

  ‹Out of range.›

  “I know…” She rolled her eyes. “But I can’t talk when I’m underwater.”

  The bracelet chirped.

  She dove under and swam down to the bottom, gliding past multicolored lumps that varied in size from eggs to small boulders. They could’ve been rocks, mushrooms, crabs, or some other plant, but she dared not touch any to find out. Whenever a fish-like creature got close enough, she held her arm out so the bracelet could scan it. For as long as she could hold her breath, the largest fish she spotted hadn’t been as big as her fist.

  Sima went up for air, doubting the lake would be a source of food. Again, she ducked under, paddling out deeper in search of larger fish. Over the course of diving and surfacing several times, she had no luck locating food. The fifth time she submerged, she somewhat got her wish: a shadow moved in the depths quite a ways off… but it looked big enough to eat her whole.

  Eep!

  Abandoning her quest for seafood, she swam back toward shore before whatever that giant thing was noticed her and got hungry. Austin and Juan stood in the shallows, the water a bit past their knees, darting around and splashing each other. Lissa floated on her back, smiling at the sky mantas. Once Sima got to a point where her feet could touch bottom with her head above the surface, she calmed. That enormous sea creature would likely not be able to fit this close to the bank.

  ‹The aquatic life forms have a gelatinous body structure with cartilage rather than bones. They appear to be filter-feeders subsisting on a diet of microscopic organisms. By my estimation, they would be edible, but I do not think you would enjoy the texture.›

  Sima pictured biting into a slime fish and gagged. “Yeah, no thanks.”

  She sat in the water next to Lissa, whiling away almost an hour helping the girl name various sky mantas. Juan dove under and came back up with a round, bright red disk. After studying it for a moment, he flung it toward Austin and it flew quite a distance before landing on the water.

  Austin rushed after it and threw it back to Juan. Sima had seen some Outcast kids play a similar game with wheel covers from gee-vees. She laughed whenever one of the boys took a flying leap trying to catch it and missed.

  With her dreams of a fish dinner shattered, Sima resigned herself to planning a lunch of more raspberry-rhubarb fruits. Though, she couldn’t quite help but wonder what the sky mantas might taste like, not that she had any possible way to take one down—or the serious desire to do so.

  “You missed!” yelled Austin.

  Juan laughed.

  The spongy disk flew way off out of the lake into the jungle. Austin ran after it, vanishing into the blue leaves. Lissa giggled at him, as did Sima.

  A few seconds later, he screamed in terror.

  “Austin!” shouted Sima, scrambling to her feet. She started running toward where he’d gone into the foliage, but skidded to a stop at an animal’s roar and doubled back to the lakeshore where she’d left the axe.

  Austin screamed again, though at least his cry didn’t sound in pain. A bestial snarl followed. Sima scooped up the axe and sprinted into the jungle, heading for the sound. Loud rustling up ahead accompanied the boy’s continued shouts and the growls of a large animal.

  Sima leapt an indigo vine as tall as her thighs, dodged branches, and swerved around trees. A few seconds past the edge of the jungle, she skidded to a stop on her heels, staring at a dark blue furry creature that resembled a cat almost as big as a gee-vee. Its size left her unsure if she faced the Night Scratch or something similar to it. The animal stood on its hin
d legs, raking claws at the tree Austin had climbed. A narrow tail, longer than its body, swished back and forth behind it, tipped with a pod studded in silver quills.

  The boy clung to the trunk, arms and legs wrapped around it almost thirty feet up, the ‘Frisbee’ abandoned on the ground nearby. Several silvery quills stuck in the wood not far below his feet. That the creature had stopped flinging quills at him gave her hope it couldn’t reach that high.

  Austin stared at her but didn’t say a word. Sima clutched the axe.

  Upright on its long hind legs, the creature stretched its slender, sinuous body, raking at the tree in a murderous parody of a scratching post. Sima’s head would barely reach its chest. Two pairs of glowing green eyes fixated on Austin as it shredded black claws into the rubbery-spongy ‘wood.’ The tree didn’t look like it would last too much longer before it—and Austin—came down.

  She shifted her weight back and forth, squeezing and releasing the axe. “Get away from him!”

  The creature emitted a noise part growl, part groan, and dropped down to all fours before turning toward her. Sima leapt to her left, pivoting sideways to put a tree between her and the monster. Sure enough, it flicked its tail up and, with a whipping snap, sent a cloud of pointy darts her way. One landed in her hair, though the rest hit the tree with a rapid fusillade of thok sounds.

  “Leave him alone,” shouted Sima.

  She ducked back behind the tree as a second wave of quills came at her. Instinct made her want to duck and curl into a ball, but she resisted. Upright, her body fit behind the trunk. For the first time in her life, she didn’t hate being thin.

  The critter roared at her, then turned back to rip at Austin’s tree some more.

  Sima pulled the quill out of her hair, tossed it aside, and stepped into view, brandishing the axe. “Come on. I’m right here on the ground!”

  “No!” yelled Austin. “It’ll eat you!” He let out a wail of fear as his tree swayed to the side, the trunk fraying into fibrous strands where it the animal had ripped at it.

  “What’s—” Lissa let off a shrill scream right behind her.

  Juan stopped short beside her, gawking.

  Sima, both hands on the axe, used her body to push Lissa into Juan. “Go back to the lake. Hide.”

  The pair ran a short distance away and shimmied up a tree like Austin.

  I’m completely crazy. She advanced on the beast, raising the axe. That thing’s claws would tear EGSF armor apart, and I don’t even have clothes on. Austin yelled again, true fear shining clear in his scream as the tree bent even more to the side.

  Sima forgot all care for her life and charged.

  The large cat-thing pivoted toward her as she ran in shrieking a war cry. Desperation and panic driving her, she swung the axe downward, slashing at its side. Pearlescent blue blood sprayed across her chest. She barely had time to think before an angry paw swipe caught her in the shoulder, swatting her hard to the ground and sending her sliding several meters away.

  “Sima!” yelled Austin.

  She sat up, head spinning, dimly aware of a burning sensation on her left arm. The creature leaned forward, rear end in the air, tail wiggling.

  “Yaaaaaaah!” shouted Austin as he leapt off the tree at the beast. He landed on the tail a few inches south of the quill pod and wrapped himself around it.

  Burdened by the boy’s weight, the flailing appendage couldn’t whip fast enough to make quills fly. The creature growled, spinning in place chasing its own tail, swiping at Austin. The length kept the boy out of reach of claws. The faster the quill cat tried to go after him, the faster he moved away from the deadly paw. He wailed in fear, but refused to let go as they whirled around and around.

  Sima wobbled to her feet, but before she could charge in, a deafening screech shattered the air. The intensity of the squawking cry nearly knocked her over and caused the clawed horror to freeze still. Austin yelled as the tail swung around to the other side. Crashing and thundering came from the foliage, growing louder and louder. The great cat backed away, the hair on its shoulders fluffing up. It continued flicking its tail in an unsuccessful effort to throw Austin aside. He clung desperately to the furry noodle as big around as his leg, despite the creature repeatedly slapping him against the ground.

  An Aurak charged out from the trees, flapping its wings and shrieking at the quill cat. The much smaller furry creature backpedaled, making a chittering click-click-click sound deep in its throat before whirling around and dashing away. Austin let go and tumbled into the undergrowth. Still flapping and screeching, the Aurak thundered off after the cat. A good distance from where Austin fell, the huge bird caught up and ran the cat over, deliberately stepping on it. The feline monster howled as the huge bird picked it up with one foot and threw it, flailing, into the trees. The quill cat bounced and rolled into the underbrush. Furious, the Aurak leaned forward and screeched with enough volume that several leaves disintegrated.

  Sima ran to where Austin lay sprawled on his back, staring at the blue canopy overhead.

  “You’re bleeding,” said Austin, calm.

  “I… umm…” Sima looked at her left shoulder. Four shallow claw wounds had coated most of that arm in dark red. “Yeah. Are you okay?”

  “Forgot to wear a helmet before riding.” His belly caved in and expanded with a series of deep breaths. “I think I peed.”

  “I can’t believe you jumped on that thing. What were you thinking?” She grabbed his hand in both of hers and squeezed.

  “It was gonna shoot you.” He sat up, examining himself. Other than smudges of dirt and a few scrapes here and there, he appeared to have escaped serious injury. “I didn’t want it to poison you. They whip their tails to throw darts, but it couldn’t throw darts if I held on.”

  She grimaced in pain while raising her left arm to embrace him. “That was really brave of you… but I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  Austin grinned up at her. “Brave? I didn’t run at a monster with an axe. You’re brave.”

  Rustling approached from behind. Sima twisted her head around, preparing to run, but the noise came from Lissa and Juan walking around gathering up giant feathers that had fallen from the Aurak’s threat display. The kids appeared enthralled by the beautiful blue-violet luster, but Sima had another idea.

  Hmm. I wonder if I could make a skirt out of those? The smaller ones would be about down to my shins. They probably won’t bend much though.

  Fluttering came from the bracelet typing. ‹Wash out your wound and go back to the lifeboat. There is a medical kit there you should use.›

  Sima looked down at her chest, still covered in glimmery, pearlescent alien blood. “Washing sounds like a good idea.”

  “Yeah.” Austin stood with a grunt and dusted himself off. “I think we should probably go home, too. Before another one of those things tries to eat me.”

  “What’s the Night Scratch doing outside at the day?” asked Lissa.

  Juan shook his head. “That’s not the Night Scratch. It’s way too big.”

  Trees parted as the Aurak strode into view. The huge bird bowed its head down to human level, emitting a soft coo.

  Austin hugged its beak the way a person might hug the hood of a gee-vee. “Thank you!”

  It attempted to nuzzle him, but its sheer size lifted him several feet into the air atop its beak. He slid off and landed on his feet, waving his arms for balance while laughing. Sima also brushed a hand at the side of the bird’s face.

  “Thanks. Wow… he helped us,” said Sima.

  “They’re smart.” Lissa set her hands on her hips. “Because Austin helped one of them.”

  “Or they just hate the monsters with needles,” said Juan.

  Austin shook his head. “He helped us. That monster wasn’t attacking a bird. It came running all the way across the lake to help.”

  “Oh.” Juan’s eyes widened. “Cool.”

  For a little while, everyone patted and hugged the Aurak. It eventua
lly appeared satisfied that the quill cat would not return, and headed off in the direction of the lake. Sima led the kids back to the water. She dipped in only long enough to rinse herself clear of alien blood and clean out the claw slices on her shoulder. Looking at the wound made her squeamish, but she had little choice.

  Juan retrieved the red, spongy disk they’d been playing with, wearing it like a hat.

  “Where did you find that?” asked Sima.

  “On the lake bottom. It’s the top of a mushroom.”

  She held her left wrist over to it. “Is it dangerous?”

  ‹Only if eaten.›

  “Okay, you can keep it to play, but do not bite or lick it.”

  Juan nodded.

  After gathering the portable campfire, she walked at a brisk pace back toward the lifeboat. A few minutes into the trip, she spotted a tall bushy plant with broad, lavender leaves. Some reached a size big enough that only two could form a skirt, one in front one in back. Curious, she approached, despite still bleeding from the shoulder.

  “Where are you going?” asked Lissa.

  “We haven’t seen these before.” Sima pointed at the plant. “Maybe we can make something to wear out of these leaves.”

  “It’s too hot for clothes,” said Lissa.

  Austin smirked. “I’d feel dumber wearing a leaf than underpants.”

  “Which are back at the lifeboat,” said Sima. “Eventually, we won’t have a choice. You’re all going to get too big for them.”

  He smirked. “Wearing leaves is stupid. They won’t keep us warm.”

  “Wearing pants is stupid!” said Lissa, flailing her arms. “And we don’t need warm.”

  Sima laughed and grasped one of the leaves, giving it a test squeeze. The plant matter tore like tissue paper. “Dammit. Why is everything here so delicate?”

  All three kids shrugged.

  ‹This leaf has a highly fibrous structure that could readily be processed into fabric given the proper equipment. It could become a primary source of cloth with properties similar to cotton.›

 

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