Out of Sight (Progenitor Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  Lissa’s eyes widened. “You remembered their names!”

  “I did.” Sima smiled.

  The girl looked down. “Okay, but I don’t wanna wear pants.”

  Sima laughed.

  “I hate pants,” muttered Lissa, her attempt to appear ‘stern’ faltered with a little smile.

  The boys snickered.

  As the sun set behind the western jungle, they moved inside.

  “Everyone sleep,” said Sima. “Tomorrow, we’re going to take a long walk. Longer than we’ve ever gone before.”

  The kids nodded and arranged themselves on the floor.

  A few minutes passed in silence before Lissa burst into tears.

  Sima sat up. “What’s wrong?”

  The girl sniveled for a moment before whispering, “I gotta pee, but it’s dark out.”

  Sima pointed at the tunnel through the mangled metal. “Use the bucket.”

  Lissa stopped crying in an instant. “Oh. Duh.” She crawled across the room and slithered under the damaged ceiling.

  “Why do little kids cry about everything?” asked Austin.

  A distant raspberry came from the ‘bathroom.’

  Sima chuckled.

  Seconds later, Lissa shrieked and yelled, “Sima! Help!”

  “She fell in,” muttered Austin.

  Sima rolled over onto her hands and knees to crawl, but got only halfway across the room before a panicky Lissa scrambled into view with a huge ten-inch-long beetle on her back. The girl’s screams echoed painfully loud in the metal chamber. Sima also let out a yell when she noticed the bug dangled by a pair of pincers.

  “Mommy!” Lissa headed straight for Sima while scream-crying.

  “Austin! Axe!” yelled Sima, bolting to her feet.

  In flagrant disregard of her terror at a bug that huge, Sima grabbed it by the pincers, each mandible as long as dinner forks. Lissa howled in pain as Sima pulled the bite open and eased the tips out of the wound. The beetle’s legs blurred; whip-like antennae smacked at her arms, but didn’t hurt. Scratching and clicking came from the left.

  “There’s more!” yelled Juan.

  A veritable army of beetles swarmed out from the tunnel, following the trail of blood droplets Lissa left on the floor.

  With a cry of disgust, Sima tossed the beetle down in front of Austin, who promptly smashed it with his axe. A wicked crunch accompanied a splatter of yellow ooze.

  Clicking grew louder as the swarm neared.

  Lissa peered at the approaching cluster of bugs and sprinted to her feet, diving without a sound through the missing window into the stasis pod she’d been morbidly terrified of. Juan handed Sima the second axe. She grasped it, but backed away from the approaching bugs, horrified.

  “Maybe we should go outside,” said Sima.

  “The cat!” Austin pointed his axe at the door. “These bugs won’t kill us.” He ran at the swarm and smashed another beetle.

  One sprang at him. He shifted his hips aside like a matador, but the beetle nipped him on the upper left thigh.

  “Gah!” He swatted it off before it dug in too much. “Too close!”

  Sima gritted her teeth and attacked the swarm. One good hit killed each bug, but they kept leaping into the air. Austin adopted a bizarre fighting stance designed to keep his groin away from flying bugs. A beetle sank its mandibles into Sima’s shin, but it came loose when she kicked her leg, sending it flying across the room. The bug hit the wall with a clank and landed on its back, legs waving. Before it could tilt itself over, Austin ran over and smashed it.

  By the time the last bug burst open at the end of her axe, Sima nursed five bites, Austin three. Juan had caught one with his bare hands and mashed its face into the wall until it died.

  Austin swung his weapon at nothing to sling bug guts off it. “I should’ve put my pants on first. It almost got me in the… umm.”

  “They wouldn’t have helped.” Sima flicked bug guts off her axe. “The bug would’ve ripped a hole and ruined them.”

  “What were those?” yelled Lissa from inside the stasis pod. “Eww!”

  “I really don’t like this planet anymore,” said Austin. “Bugs should not be that big!”

  ‹They are closer to crabs than insects.›

  “And I’m closer to not giving a damn what species they are. That was terrifying.” Sima shivered. “Liss, come here please. I need to look at your back.”

  “Are they dead?” whimpered Lissa.

  “Yeah.”

  The girl crawled out of the stasis pod and padded over. “They came through the holes in the wall.”

  Sima pulled Lissa’s hair aside and examined the two puncture wounds. Both appeared shallow, but continued to bleed, so she got the silver egg out of the medical kit. “Okay, sweetie. This is gonna hurt a little.”

  Lissa trembled.

  Sima sat on the floor and pulled the girl across her lap.

  “Please don’t spank me. I didn’t mean to let the bugs in.”

  “I’m not going to hit you.” Sima patted her head. “That bug bit you on the back, and you’re bleeding. This medicine stings.”

  Lissa trembled and squirmed.

  As soon as Sima activated the egg, the girl shrieked and tried to wriggle away, but Sima held her down, feeling like a complete monster for doing it. Fortunately, it took only a few seconds to mend each hole, after which, her immobilizing grip became cradling.

  Austin took the egg and tended to his bites. The first time, he yelped and dropped the egg. “Wow! That hurts.”

  “Told you,” said Sima.

  “Why do they make something hurt?” He gingerly picked the egg up.

  “Probably because real doctors have needles that make the pain stop before they use the egg,” said Sima, still rocking a whimpering Lissa.

  “Oh.” Austin gritted his teeth and closed his beetle bites before handing her the egg.

  Compared to the claw wound, pain from sealing the mandible punctures barely registered. Sima flinched, but tended to numerous small holes on her legs.

  “Now what?” asked Austin. “We can’t sleep in here in case more bugs come in. We can’t go outside because of the cats.”

  “I’ll cover the holes by the ground when we get back from checking out that signal.” Sima gestured at the useless, empty storage cabinets. “Plenty of panels.”

  Beep.

  “What?” Sima held up her arm.

  ‹Those beetles are edible if cooked. Like lobster.›

  She scrunched up her face. “What the hell is lobster? And… Eww.”

  “Huh?” asked Austin.

  “The Omnicomputer said we could eat the bugs we just killed.”

  “Eww!” shouted Juan, Lissa, and Austin at the same time.

  ‹Lobster is, or was, a sea-based life form on Earth that had been regarded as an expensive meal for the upper classes. Ironically, when first discovered as a food source, they had been considered ‘bugs’ and were thought of as trash for the poor to consume. In later ages, they became an expensive delicacy for the wealthy.›

  “Well, duh. Only poor people would eat bugs.” Sima shuddered.

  Austin glanced down at his lack of pockets—or clothing. “I think we count as poor.”

  Lissa narrowed her eyes. “It bit me. I kinda wanna eat it.”

  “Eww,” said Austin.

  Sima’s stomach churned. “We don’t have a lot of food. I guess we could try it… shouldn’t waste them.”

  Austin gagged.

  Despite it being the middle of the night, Sima pulled out the portable campfire from the survival kit and improvised a pan from a sheet of metal Austin pulled off the wall. After cooking for a while, the bug innards didn’t smell that bad after all. A few test nibbles (and a lot of mental effort trying to forget the meat came from bugs) allowed everyone to eat.

  Lissa snarled and savaged her portion, as if punishing the bug for biting her.

  Thump.

  The lifeboat shifted as the N
ight Scratch leapt onto the roof. It sniffed and clawed at the gaps in the ceiling.

  Figuring they’d spoil sitting around in the heat, even overnight, Sima tossed the uncooked beetles out one of the holes in the wall, which attracted the large cat. Rather than claws scratching on metal, she listened to teeth crunching bug shells.

  Maybe it’ll leave us alone if it has easier food.

  Lissa, much to Sima’s astonishment, crawled back into the stasis pod to sleep, evidently more frightened of a second wave of bugs than the place where she almost suffocated. Juan decided to join her on the soft cushions. Austin wedged one of the storage cabinet doors over the tunnel entrance to the ‘bathroom.’ Even if the beetles had the strength to get past it, they couldn’t do so quietly.

  Not that she expected to sleep, Sima stretched out on the floor beside the stasis pod.

  Austin sat next to her, resting the axe on the floor at his right. “I really hope there’s people in that other pod. Maybe it’ll be a big one with stuff in the cabinets.”

  “Yeah. That would be nice. Watch them have jumpsuits.”

  “I’ll take a jumpsuit. Even if it’s pink.” He frowned at the blood trails on his legs.

  She pulled her hair off her face and tried to get comfortable, patting her stomach, full of… bug. “Those suits would be too hot here without air conditioning.”

  “Yeah. I guess.” He glanced at her. “We really ate bugs, didn’t we?”

  “We did.”

  “Go to sleep,” whispered Juan. “I can’t sleep with you guys talking.”

  Sima chuckled. “Okay. We have a long walk tomorrow. Bracelet, please wake me at dawn.”

  The cat once again worried at the walls, picking its claws at any hole it could find and sniffing.

  She tried to get comfortable on the metal floor, but no matter how she curled up or arranged herself, sleep stayed out of reach. Though the kids had become numb to the nocturnal scratching, Sima couldn’t push aside the worry that they all lived on borrowed time.

  30

  The Journey

  Beeping dragged Sima out of a strange dream.

  She’d been back home in her mother’s apartment, only Mom hadn’t been there. It had been her with Austin, Juan, and Lissa, living like normal people. She’d cooked the kids breakfast, sent them off to school, and then gone to work—begging.

  “I’m up.” She yawned and gazed up at one of the holes in the roof. From the color of the light, she guessed dawn. The bracelet confirmed local time at 5:52 a.m. “Stop. Stop. I’m up.”

  The beeping ceased.

  Sima dragged herself to her feet and headed outside to relieve herself. That done, she went back into the lifeboat and plucked her garments off the wall. It felt almost strange to wear them, but as comfortable as she’d gotten in her skin, she retained enough civilization to dread encountering other people with nothing on. Underwear would be embarrassing enough, but she’d deal with it on the off chance additional survivors existed. A larger group meant better odds everyone survived.

  “Come on, guys. Get up. Get dressed.” She nudged Austin, then banged on the stasis pod window until Juan and Lissa stirred.

  While the kids went out to water the grass, she stuck the first aid kit in the backpack, then printed four chicken patties from the fabricator. She peeled some fruits for breakfast and used the rinds as wrappers to protect the chicken before adding them to the bag. Next, she added ten red fruits and the remaining half ‘zucchini,’ which filled the pack. She didn’t want to lug the entire survival kit or fabricator, but if the far-off signal turned out to be a more-intact lifeboat that would be better to live in, she could always come back alone to get them.

  Sima slung the backpack over her shoulder and stepped outside. All three kids stood waiting, but only Austin had put his pants on. “Pants, now.” She pointed at the door.

  Juan shrugged and ran inside. Lissa whined, but eventually capitulated and went into the lifeboat to get dressed.

  Breakfast—the fruits she’d pre-peeled—happened on the hoof. Sima walked at the front, arm held out in front of her so she could follow the arrow. In broad daylight, the forest glowed with a palette of color, seeming like they’d leapt into the pages of a storybook. Friendly, inviting, and alive with wonder. Sky mantas glided in lazy circles overhead, cooing like airborne whales. The boys tried to mimic the sounds. Lissa laughed at them. For a little while, the mantas seemed to be talking back.

  Thick underbrush slowed their travel after a few hours. A barefoot trek across unfamiliar jungle resulted in frequent pauses to recover from stepping on things that hurt. Sima chopped her way past denser swaths of foliage, creating a path the kids followed. Every two minutes, she glanced back to make sure everyone was okay. Every twenty minutes, she stopped for a five-minute break to let Lissa rest. She couldn’t carry the girl and the backpack, and as much as she’d rather carry Lissa, the backpack felt like it would be too much for Austin.

  A few hours into the trip, she glanced back to check on the kids and noticed Lissa’s pants had vanished.

  Sima stopped, folded her arms, and tapped her foot. “What happened to your pants?”

  Lissa looked down at herself, emitting a fake gasp as if their absence surprised her. “Umm.”

  “Liss…”

  “They fell off, but I didn’t wanna go back for them. I’m already too slow.”

  She sighed at the woods, but spotted a wad of white cloth not too far away. Sima tapped Austin on the shoulder and pointed. He nodded and ran off to get them. Sima crouched eye level with Lissa. “We might find more people there. If we don’t, you can forget them again, okay? Just please keep them on in case we find others.”

  “Why?” whined Lissa.

  Sima touched foreheads with her. “It’s something that people just don’t do, okay? At home, when it’s this hot, with your family, it’s okay to go tribal. But around people who don’t know us, it’s not polite.”

  “Okay.” Lissa looked down. “We’re not gonna find anyone, are we?”

  Austin trotted back and handed Lissa the ‘runaway’ underpants, which she begrudgingly put back on.

  “We don’t know that. The signal the bracelet picked up only started yesterday. That means someone might’ve turned it on. So there could be another lifeboat.”

  Lissa shrugged. “Okay. I think I’ll believe everyone’s dead.”

  “What?” Sima blinked, stunned. “Why?”

  The girl tilted her head. “If I hope people are there, and they’re not, I’ll be really sad. But if I think they’re all dead and we find someone, then I’ll be really happy.”

  Austin raised both eyebrows. Juan picked his nose.

  Wow. This kid’s six going on thirty. “All right. Let’s keep going. If this turns out to be nothing, I want us to get home before dark.”

  She carried Lissa for about half an hour before the combined weight of child plus backpack wore her out. After a ten-minute break, she asked the girl to walk, but tried to keep a pace that wouldn’t overstress her lungs. As before, she peered back at the kids every two minutes or so.

  The eighth or ninth time she checked, Lissa had vanished. Sima’s heart almost stopped.

  “Lissa!” she yelled.

  “I’m here,” cried the girl, emerging from some trees ten meters behind Juan. “I’m tired. I hadda sit.”

  Sima almost fainted from relief. “You scared me. Don’t get so far away from—”

  In a flash of azure and green, a lion-sized animal with the general shape of a panther burst out of a cluster of foliage the same colors as its fur. It seized Lissa in one smooth motion and zoomed off into the woods with the shrieking child dangling from its mouth, a long pod-tipped tail flowing after it.

  “No!” Sima screamed, shrugging the backpack off her shoulders and sprinting after it. “Lissa!”

  Austin also shouted, “Lissa!” and chased.

  The quill cat bounded with ease deeper into the dense forest. Lissa’s intermittent yelps
made it possible to follow without being able to see the creature. Sima ran heedless of where her feet landed, ignoring the whips and scratches on her legs and arms from vines and leaves. Burdened by forty some odd pounds of child in its mouth, the cat mistimed a jump and slipped from a boulder covered in glowing purple moss, leaving pale white scratches down the stone. Sima gained ground, catching up to within a few feet of its tail, but the beast darted to the left. She stumbled around a turn, chasing it.

  Lissa stopped screaming and went limp in its mouth.

  “Lissa!” Sima shrieked. Adrenaline surged in her blood. “Lissa!”

  The child reached up and yanked on a handful of whiskers. The cat torqued in the direction of the pull and wiped out, rolling like a log. Lissa popped out of its maw, flopping to a halt a few meters away from the beast, covered in blood.

  Sima skidded to a stop next to her, brandishing the axe. Air raced in and out of her throat; her lungs burned with each breath and every muscle in her legs trembled. The cat righted itself and snarled. Sima stared into four glowing green eyes, arranged in two pairs, the upper set slightly wider apart. An indigo feline nose striped with bright green wrinkled with a snarl as it circled. Rich azure fur shimmered with its motion, a mane of longer lime green down along its back. The quill pod at the end of its tail swished side to side.

  Damn. This isn’t the Night Scratch. That one had a pink nose, and looked a little bigger. How many of these things are there?

  “Ow,” whined Lissa. “It hurts.”

  “It’s okay, sweetie. I’m here.” Sima clenched and released her grip on the axe. Bad kitty’s gonna have to kill me to get you. “Come on you ugly bastard. Let’s dance.”

  It stared at her for a long few seconds before taking a tentative step as if it intended to nip Lissa’s foot and drag her off.

  Shrieking war cries, Sima lunged, swinging like a woman possessed. The cat scurried backward each time she attacked, as if trying to lure her from the injured girl. Sima refused to take more than half a step from the spot. It bared its fangs, roared, and rushed in. She traded a superficial gash to its breast for two claw rips down her left thigh. They burned like hell, but didn’t cut deep enough to make her leg give out.