Terra

Home > Other > Terra > Page 8
Terra Page 8

by Robert Turnbull


  She had walked up on the ramparts to clear her head as she was being pulled in many unfamiliar ways. Sky had strong feelings for Luke despite him being older, and something her father had always frowned upon. It was that, that caused her second dilemma; she had stayed too long because of these feelings and knew that she should have started their return journey months ago. At first she had told herself it was to allow the kids to grow more and to train them better. Now the kids actually played with the denizens of Wheel 3, towing them around in the old lumber carts and even bringing large kills back for everyone to eat; they could no longer be used by her for an excuse.

  At some point over the last few weeks she had felt a strange, stronger attraction to Luke, not his washboard abs, nor ripped biceps, but something non-sexual and for once faced a problem that she wasn’t sure how to handle. When Lucy flirted with him, she wanted to rip her eyes out…assuming that she was still alive after she shot her. When they were together, he acted like Sky was his sister and she became frustrated, even angery that he didn’t make a pass at her.

  “Jesus what a freakin’ mess.” she said as she leaned over the short defensive wall of the stockade.

  “Looks pretty good from where I stand.” a male voice interrupted her thoughts.

  Sky nearly fell on her shapely rear-end as she spun to see Luke leaning against the inner log railing. “Scare a girl half to death, will you?” she looked puzzled “And what looked good?”

  “The view from where I stood.”

  “Well, the moons are beautiful this time of year, so full and golden…can’t see much of the forest from here though.”

  Luke snorted a half laugh “You really don’t get it do you?”

  “Get?” she smiled and still looked puzzled anyway.

  “I was talking about you numb-nuts…” he looked at her as he moved closer “Jesus, you really don’t get it…I mean that you are a beautiful woman.”

  Sky looked down at her tapered legs and her petite frame and awkwardly tossed her hair with her fingers “Uh…thank you?” In her mind she wondered if Luke could hear her heart beating so loudly.

  Luke laughed that wonderful laugh of his and leaned on the wall to look out over the treeless areas beyond the wall as Sky leaned on it next to him, the muscles seemed to ripple as he settled on the railing and Sky quickly tore her gaze from him to the darkness.

  “Can’t take a compliment?” he teased.

  “Daddy, never let many men older than myself talk to me, or me them.” She smiled and then tossed her head so her dark locks fell over her shoulders as she cocked her head. She was thankful that he couldn’t see her blushing in the dim torchlight.

  “He only wanted me to date boys my own age figuring that older men only wanted sex.” Her laughter was musical, her face lit by the two golden moons as she turned fully toward him.

  “Little did daddy know boys my own age were just as interested in sex as any man would be.” Again she laughed “Maybe he’d already forgotten his younger days that mom used to tell about, he was quite a ladies man I guess.”

  “Hope daddy didn’t find out.” Luke smiled and turned to face her “Guess if I had a girl, I’d keep her a virgin until she was at least fifty.”

  She frowned and then with a smirk added “Well, daddy was wrong…and I’m no virgin…” she swallowed hard and even in the glow of two moons Luke could see that she was blushing “Ohhh, guess I shouldn’t have said that huh?”

  Stepping closer to her, their faces inches apart Luke gazed into her eyes for what seemed like an hour, then seconds later he smiled “You’re beautiful, you’re smart, resourceful, and have no idea how many men watch you running around in those tight leather cut-offs.” Now it was Luke’s turn to be uncomfortable “AND, that top of yours shows your rather large…uhh…nip…er…” he looked quite comical as he searched for the right words “Sky, look, you’re aren’t a little girl, you and I know it, but you don’t realize the effect that you have on men. You’re nearly twenty-one and show off too much of your…uh…shit!”

  “I’m showing off my shit?” she chuckled.

  “YES YOU ARE!” Luke snorted back.

  Sky turned quickly and looked at her rear-end, or as much of it as she could see “I don’t see any…Oooooo.” Her face turned darker and she knew she was blushing. In her mind she wondered if she had become all that she hated in Lucy. Had she began to dress ‘that way’?

  “I’m sorry…” she said as she untied the knot from her blouse and tucked it in neatly at her waistline “I hope I haven’t caused…”

  “What? Oh, good God no! No problems…it’s…uh, me I guess.”

  “You?” she frowned now completely lost.

  “You don’t know how much it takes for me not to completely rip their heads off when they ogle you when you bend over, or make innuendos, or watch your…uhhh…you know bounce as you walk. Christ I just want to body slam them for looking at you that way, it isn’t right.”

  Sky glided within inches of the handsome hunter, her warm breath drifted over to his chest as her scented hair intoxicated him. Her head barely came up to his chin as she looked up and into his eyes. “So you did notice me when I bent, or walked so uh…things wiggled a little?”

  “A little? Holy Mother of God woman, half the guys in the party are walking around with wood.”

  Sky took a half step back “Wood? I’d hope so…” Luke snorted and spun as he stormed off down the stairs cursing under his breath.

  “…after all we are repairing the inside of this fort and…we…need…woo…Ohhhh!”

  She quickly turned and leaned over the railing to stare back out into the dark forest.

  “Jesus girl, you need to pick up on things a bit faster if you’re going to play with the adults…” she frowned at the larger of the two moons “What the hell am I talking about, dammit! I am an adult…” her head drooped as she looked at the foggy ground below “It’s just that around Luke that I feel like a giddy little girl.” She gave a deep sigh, these people had different ways of saying some things and if she was to understand…she sure as hell was going to have to be quicker on the pickup.

  “Ok, first thing in…” there was movement below in the piles of vines that had been cut from the walls of the stockade. Again the fog below seemed to move slightly and the tops of the piles that could be seen protruding up through the fog vanished.

  Sky turned to look at the closest blockhouse to see the guy on guard watching the other side so she picked up a chunk of hard vine chip and tossed it.

  It sailed through the air and bounced off his back and as he spun to see what had hit him, Sky held her finger to her lips, slowly moved her hand outward and then down, but keeping it well back of the top of the wall.

  The guard looked down and shrugged as Sky made snapping jaws with her hands and then pointed below; the guard nodded as the color drained from his face. Sky bent and tossed a larger chunk of vine that bounced off the center guard house and followed the same motions. She then moved to the wall and pointed to the long carved out logs that hung below the protective spikes. A quick check with both guards and she raised her arm; both guards nodded.

  “NOW! Sky screamed as the guards loosed the lines that held the carved out logs and a thick viscous liquid slopped down into the fog below. From the guard houses flew two torches and after the briefest of pauses, the ground erupted with reddish-orange flames that leapt nearly to the top of the walls. The entire south side of the fort was ablaze and although the ironwood wouldn’t burn, it was not the same for the dozen or so scalies below.

  They screamed until the flames seared the insides of their throats and burnt their lungs. Tangled in the mass of cut vines they rolled and writhed in pain until there was just the sound of the roaring flames below and in the fairly well-lit surroundings, several scalies could be seen skulking back into the dense fringe of the clear-cut kill zone.

  Of course that brought alarms throughout the fort and men and women ran to the walls and ga
te to make sure there were no other attempted breaches. Luke, Dar, and Clark walked up next to her as she watched the flames begin to die out. Luke leaned over and bumped his shoulder against hers.

  “Well done Sky.” he looked around the other walls as the guards waved torches to indicate all clear. He smiled as he looked over and below.

  “Good thing they don’t know we didn’t fill all the logs yet.”

  Clark nodded “Yeah, and thanks to Sky here suggesting that we fill the ones closest to the scalie territory paid off.” he grinned “Pretty as well as smart.”

  “Now what the hell does pretty have to do with it?” she snorted “I would have thought of it if I was butt ugly…” she spun and stormed off and the last thing anyone heard was another loud snort “…MEN! Arruuuggg!”

  Chapter 13.

  There was a gentle knock at the door of the small room that Sky was staying in, an old officer’s quarters which consisted of a bedroom and tiny living room. There was one door to enter by, and one to go to the outhouse close by to the rear door, and Sky wondered why someone would be knocking on that one. Upon answering, Dar staggered in and fell into her arms Sky heard shouts in the distance. Dar fell to his knees and she saw blood running down his neck.

  “This is the second time I’ve lost my love.” he slowly sputtered as tears fell to the floor “He took a spear to the neck…died almost instantly…he…he…” the bloodied Dar collapsed.

  Sky grasped him and propped his head in her lap when Luke burst through the door “Scalies! Leave Dar, he’ll be safer here unless we fail to repel the attack.” and he was gone in a flash. Sky knew that Luke was right and laid Dar’s head carefully on the floor and dashed out behind Luke to see him half way up to the ramparts.

  Upon reaching the top everyone was throwing the rocks that had been gathered from the grounds below as well as large logs and anything else that could be thrown. Those that were good shots fired their limited rounds and what few small buckets of pitch had not been used earlier, were now used in desperation.

  Standing in between Luke and Clark, Sky aimed her pistol downward and fired, one scalie fell. Another shot, another scalie and the men stopped to give her a quick glance as she kept firing and each shot brought a scream or the sound of a falling scalie.

  Knowing that they were in deep trouble, Sky reached into her holster’s belt pouch…and fired her last flare. As the sky lit and the jungle below became aglow with the eerie green light, they gasped. The entire field between the fort and southern jungle was nearly filled with scalies that were shoulder to shoulder and they all were headed not just to the southern wall, but broke off to flank the walls to either side; what they thought was a full on attack erlier, was just a probe.

  Luke’s face said it all and he grasped the arm of one of his men that had begun to flee. The firmness in his voice stayed what appeared to be the man’s panic. Calmly and firmly Luke spoke,

  “Friend, if we run now, they’ll come through the gate and kill us all.”

  His man jerked his arm from Luke’s grip the panic was gone, but the fear was still there, “With all due respect Luke, we’re dead either way and I’m…”

  There were a series of earth-shaking roars that were so loud they made the human’s insides vibrate. From both sides of the fort the upper bodies of the twins could be seen in the flickering light of the quickly falling flare. Again the twins roared and dashed into the fray crushing scalie after scalie beneath their feet. Now and then one or the other would bend and scoop up a mouthful of the screaming leathery hided beings and throw them into the air and away from the fort so that their terrified screams could be heard by the other scalies as they fell to the ground with a sickening crashing of limbs and brush. The twins crisscrossed the south side of the fort crushing scalie bodies as they fled back into the jungle. Even in the dimness of the two moons the humans could see the twins rampaging and hear the distant screams. Fainter and fainter the was sound of crashing trees as Dash and Lady slammed trees out of their way in pursuit of the enemy and it continued on until the sounds simply faded away.

  With a spin Sky shouted “Dar!” and headed for her quarters as Clark shouted for a medic to follow. Luke close at her heels was there to catch her as she stumbled and fell backward at the sight of Dar’s open eyed stare and gray face. Blood had puddled under his head and slowly trickled toward the crack in the floor.

  “My God…I never thought that Dar might be injured.” She blurted out as tears welled in her eyes.

  The medic pushed them all aside and knelt beside him, he checked Dar, and then looked at the three.

  “I’m sorry…” he slowly rose and gently laid his hand on Sky’s shoulder as he passed her on his way out of the door, his look told her all she didn’t want to hear. Sky spun and buried her head into Luke’s chest. All her life there had been Dar, Tom and herself, now she had neither…her head spun, her vision became as foggy as the morning meadows, her knees wobbled…

  ************************************

  “How…how long?” Sky muttered to Clark as he sat in a chair next to her. He leapt to his feet and gently sat on the edge of her bed.

  “Two weeks.”

  “TWO! Two weeks…how?”

  “You passed out but apparently our medic said that you’d also had a bad case of paleo-fever cooking in you.”

  “Can’t…been…immunized…Dar…” she tried to sit up, but fell back as Clark held her shoulders and smiled.

  “Easy gal, we took Dar back to the wheel to bury him, you were too sick to travel, so Luke stayed with you. I, we gave him a hero’s burial…”

  “What?” Sky asked seeing Clark was holding something back.

  “We buried him and his boyfriend side by side, figured they’d like that…but we’re all worried about Dash.”

  “Dash, oh my God…he and Dar were inseparable.”

  “He and Lady have stayed by Dar’s grave until the other day. They sat there day and night, until someone mentioned your name as they were passing the big guys. They both got up and started following them. Finally one of the people that was going to the fort shouted for your kids to go to you,” Clark smiled warmly “they hadn’t moved from the graves; they apparently thought that you and Dar were both buried there. Jesus, I heard about it and told your pets that we were bringing a couple of wagons back here to the fort and they allowed us to hook them up.” Luke laughed from the doorway in which he stood.

  “Nearly lost people off the wagons as they hurried back here. Since then they’ve been pacing around guarding this fort. Every day after I finished my shift sitting here with you, I’d have to go up on the walls and give them a report…and I have to add, those kids of yours are too damned smart for my liking…Jesus, Sky…I think they actually knew most every word I said.” he shut the door and sat on the other side of the bed “Medic said you were showing signs of coming around and I told the dinos that. Every day they would bend down and put their heads near me so I didn’t have to yell. I said you were getting better, and they seemed happy…but the day I said that you showed signs of coming around and your kids started dancing around and making happy sounds, not the low moans they had been making…Christ, they know what I said, I can just feel it.”

  Sky smiled and laid her hand on both of theirs “Thank you both for taking care of Dar.”

  Clark nodded “The fort is safe now that the kids are back. All the time you’ve been slacking off here in bed, the people that wanted to move here, have. We have a little over three hundred living here now. Additional lands are being cleared to build add-ons and we have plenty of weapons to repel any invasion…” he smiled warmly at Sky “all thanks to you and Dar…and your amazing kids.” he chuckled “Do you know that the two of them can push down one of those damned trees out there, roots and all?” he frowned “Still don’t know how they knew we were in trouble that night though.”

  Sky fluffed her pillow and looked out the tiny window toward the wall hoping to catch a glimpse of her k
ids “They no doubt heard the gunshots; they do travel across the plains at night. Most likely the flare did it. I know you thought that it was to get a better picture of the battle, but Dar and I trained the kids to come to either red or green flares. Either way once they got close enough to hear gunshots, they are smart enough to know there was trouble.”

  “Well they saved our asses that night and since returning, they’ve been patrolling the jungles and I think all the way through the southern one to the river.”

  Sky looked at Luke “I wonder if they know where the scalie village is?”

  “Dunno,” Clark looked puzzled “Why the hell would you want to know that?”

  “Because…” she replied as she slowly slid into a sitting position and looked at one man and then the other “I intend to pay them a visit.”

  ******************************

  It took another few weeks for Sky to feel more like her old self. However now with the loss of Dar, Sky was more confused over her feelings about Luke. Was it that she was alone or were her true feelings becoming stronger? Perhaps, she needed someone to fill that gap in her life? Maybe she did have serious feelings about this older man that seemed to fill her life and cared enough to sit by her side for nearly two weeks, as she later found out from his brother.

  But all that could wait for now, vengeance boiled in her blood!

  From across the river the scalies had been observed and it appeared that by the size of the village and the lack of large numbers, it appeared that the mega-rexes had beat the fight out of them; not once did they attempt to cross to the northern bank.

  As the human scouts watched the jungle from the west of the village the jungle-like vegetation blasted into shards of wood and leaves as two giant rexes burst forth with the raven haired Sky screaming at the top of her lungs. The rexes took such large steps that at a full run, the ground shook on the scout’s side of the shallow river and the water began to boil with whitecaps at each bounding stride. Hell was coming to the scalies!

 

‹ Prev