by T. R. Harris
“Poul did mention the snakes.”
“That he did. Whatever is out here, let’s try to find it, before it finds us.”
Chapter 19
The Hyben sun was halfway up in the eastern sky by the time Adam and Sherri awoke from their naps. Adam swung into consciousness, angry at himself for not having them each stand guard while the other slept. After pulling some leech-looking thing from his forearm, he looked around their tiny campsite and immediately noticed that Poul was gone.
Both he and Sherri drew their MK’s and began a sweep of the jungle surrounding the clearing. It wasn’t long before Adam spotted where the Hyben had moved into the jungle, his tail leaving a wide swath in the muddy floor of the jungle.
Silently motioning for Sherri to follow him, Adam began to track Poul further into the thick growth. After a couple of minutes, he heard a noise ahead of him. Holding up his clinched fist, Sherri froze. Then he alone moved forward.
Ahead he saw Poul coming toward him, carrying in his mid-arms the carcass of a rodent about the size of a small dog. Spotting Adam, the diameter of Poul’s round mouth grew wider. “I got us some first-meal. It’s a grummer. I have to say I’ve bought plenty at the market, but I’ve never had to kill one myself. This is exciting.”
Adam and Sherri stood and watched silently as the large shrimp-like being moved past them. They just shrugged at each other and followed him back to the campsite.
Once there, Poul tossed the dead, hairy creature into the center of the clearing and then leaned down, covering the carcass with his body. When he pulled away, the dead beast had been gutted, with its entrails clutched in Poul’s two nin-arms. “Come, get your fill,” he said joyfully at the two Humans, as the arms began to stuff the raw and bloody flesh into this mouth – the pink gash located between the nin-arms.
“You eat it raw?” Sherri asked, unable to hide the disgust from both her expression and her voice.
“Of course,” Poul said, cocking his head slightly to the right. “And it is best if the body is still warm.”
Adam sucked up his resolve and moved to carcass. He withdrew his sword and proceeded to cut two generous portions of meat from the flanks of the beast. Next he took out his MK-17 and dialed the weapon to level three. He fired the weapon into the flesh and surveyed the results. Some of the pink was gone, but still more remained than he was comfortable with. He blasted the meat three more times, until the alien steaks were steaming with a consistent brown color throughout.
Poul’s head began to vibrate slightly. “Why have you ruined your meal? Now most of the nutrients have been cooked out of it.”
“Thanks for the meat, Poul, but we can’t eat it the way you do.” Adam handed a slab of cooked meat to Sherri on a thick, shiny green leaf. She eyed it suspiciously.
Adam lifted his own portion to his mouth and bit off a section. He chewed vigorously before swallowing and then he met Sherri’s eyes with a look of surprise. “Not bad. A little tough, but I think this will do.”
Sherri tested a much smaller bite, but then raised her eyebrows. “Okay, but remember, we have to survive for five more days on this shit before Kaylor comes to our rescue. I hope in that time some ravenous little parasite hasn’t eaten us alive from the inside out.”
Chapter 20
The next four days passed relatively quickly, with a simple routine being established in the tiny base camp. Poul became the hunter of the group, surprisingly capable at locating and taking down small game. He also spent time near the river, catching a variety of fish, half of which seldom made it back to the camp before Poul consumed them.
Sherri and Adam had constructed elevated sleeping racks to lift themselves above the myriad of crawling creatures that inhabited the Hyben night. They covered the beds with stacks of palm fronds, and then covered themselves with more fronds as shelter from the frequent rains. Poul didn’t bother with any such improvements. Instead he dug a hole in the soft, muddy soil and would insert himself into it every night.
Even though they were all making it the best they could, Adam and Sherri were growing increasing restless. Adam’s beard grew longer while Sherri’s hair became oilier and darker from the accumulation of dirt and grime. The local diet had also caused its share of discomfort; they both suffered from chronic diarrhea and headaches from the dehydration it caused. After a couple of days, the diarrhea passed, but now they were weak and listless.
Occasionally, Adam would make a foray to the point where they had first entered the jungle to see if the Mulinni – the Hyben police – were still looking for them. Unfortunately, the Hyben appeared to have stepped up their efforts to find the two Humans.
A section of the wire fence had been removed, allowing for a steady stream of vehicles to pass through from the shipyards, as a road was cut through the jungle all the way to Jullin Creek. Boats had been placed on the river, and eventually the search had begun to move upstream as well along the bank, rather than exclusively downstream toward Luy Lake as it had for the past several days. At this pace, Adam began to make plans to move their camp further west; they still had two days to go before Kaylor would attempt a landing. And then the two filthy and smelly Humans would have to make their way to the spaceport for the rendezvous. That was another challenge that awaited them
Adam was making his way back to the base camp after one of his surveys when he heard a strange deep, guttural-breathing sound coming from the jungle to his left. He stopped for a moment and listened. The sound was hard to hear, but it was there, lower-pitched than the constant buzzing coming from the myriad of insects that inhabited the jungle.
He continued on, his hand resting on the butt of his MK, while keeping his head cocked slightly to the left in the direction of the sound. Whatever it was it appeared to be paralleling his path, remaining hidden in the lush overgrowth.
When he entered the clearing that marked the campsite, Sherri stood up from the edge of his frond bed and narrowed her eyes at him; Poul seemed to shrink in size and began to curl up in his carapace.
“What the hell’s that?” Sherri said, hearing the sound, too. Her hand moved instinctively to the grip of her own MK.
“I don’t know. It’s been following me for a while. It’s big, whatever it is.”
Sherri looked over at Poul, whose mouth now formed a perfect ‘o’, his head the only part of his body not covered by the shell. “Do you know what—?”
Suddenly out of the darkness of the jungle, something sprang forth, flying through the air to land directly on top of Adam. He felt a tremendous weight press down upon his chest as a hot, foul breath swept over him. Something struck against his right side, and was suddenly airborne, a sharp pain piecing his chest. He landed hard, but his fall was cushioned by the soft vegetation of the jungle. And then the thing was on him again.
Now Adam could see it. The beast was about twice the size of a Bengal tiger, with dark green and brown stripes that blended perfectly with the surrounding flora. It was covered in matted fur, with a massive head, short pointed ears aimed backwards and a mouth larger than Adam’s head. The creature had him pinned to the ground, a wide, clawed paw pressing down on his chest. And then the beast opened its mouth, revealing two rows of inch-long teeth plus two pair of six-inch long fangs projecting from both the upper and lower jaws. The creature reared back its head, preparing for the kill strike.
Adam brought both his arms up and crashed his fists in the chest of the animal. Caught off guard by the severity of the blow, the creature sat back on its haunches and blinked its yellow eyes. Adam managed to roll to his left, drawing his MK as he did so. The beast saw that Adam had escaped its grasp and let out a deafening roar, a loud, guttural sound that echoed throughout the jungle canopy. And then it sprang again.
Adam jumped to his feet, lifted the MK and pulled the trigger. The beast was hit in the chest, burning away a section of the thick fur. The thing roared again, but this time the sound was much higher-pitched – the sound of pain. Adam side-stepped the creat
ure as it landed, and was ready when the beast whipped its massive head around and jumped again. Adam pulled the trigger, striking the giant tiger between the eyes. He fired a third time, and the creature collapsed on the ground, but its forward momentum continuing to send the massive bulk hurdling toward him. Adam leapt into the air, flying easily two meters up in the light Hyben gravity. He landed on the back of the now-dead creature, his torn tunic revealing half of his muscular chest, blood dripping down his bare right arm, while gripping the MK firmly in his hand.
Sherri ran up to him with Poul right behind. Her mouth was open in shock, her eyes wide with fear.
Adam looked down at the massive creature he stood upon, and then over at his two companions. “I don’t know what it was – but it’s dead!”
Poul moved up to the creature and kicked at it with one of his small feet. “It’s a freager cat,” he said. “They’re endangered now on Hyben, but they are the deadliest animals on the planet.”
The alien then looked up at Adam, standing high on the dead beast. “At least they were – until now.”
Sherri efficiently tended to Adam’s wounds, which consisted of a four-inch long gash on his right shoulder and possibly a couple of bruised ribs.
“I can’t guarantee this cut won’t get infected, not out here. We may have to move into the town and find you some medicine.”
“I’ll be fine,” Adam said wearily. After four days of camping out in the heat and humidity of the jungle, suffering from diarrhea – and now this – Adam was thinking he sure could use a vacation.
“I guess we could start making our way toward the spaceport. We wouldn’t want to miss our ride—”
Just then the jungle ground began to shudder and vibrate as a sound louder than any departing jet airliner filled the air.
“Now what?” Adam yelled over the din.
Looking up in the sky, in the direction of the sound, they could see three dark shapes high up above. The objects were growing larger, and Adam immediately recognized them as the underbellies of three large spacecraft. Through the pain in his shoulder and side, he rushed through the jungle, with Sherri and Poul close behind. They broke through the maze of vines and fronds and into the clearing between the forest and the shipyards just in time to see the massive spaceships make gravity landings in an area to the north of them. The ships didn’t seem to care that their landings were tearing apart everything at this end of the complex, including buildings, roads and the graveyard of derelict spacecraft. The surface was being ripped up and sent roaring into the sky; but the moment the ships touched down and dissolved the wells, there came such a rain of dirt and debris back to the surface that an enormous dust cloud rose up and swept over the entire area, reaching as far west as where Adam and his companions stood in shocked disbelief. Stray bolts of static electricity arched between the three metal craft, and even from this distance, Adam could hear the creaking of the hulls as they cooled.
“Let me guess – Juireans,” Sherri said.
“You don’t suppose they’re just dropping in for an oil change, do you?” Adam said, trying to lighten the mood.
“I don’t think so; looks like they’re serious about finding you this time.”
“Juireans you say!” Poul was apoplectic, his three sets of arms flailing widely in front of him. “No, no, I’ve had enough.” And with that, the large shrimp-like creature began to scurry off to the west, squealing as he went.
“Come back, Poul,” Adam called after him. “You can’t go back now.”
“I will take my chances with my own kind. You two are on your own against the Juireans.”
Adam couldn’t blame the big shrimp for being scared, and after a moment’s thought, he decided to let him go. Besides, he and Sherri could travel much faster without him along.
The two Humans retreated back into the cover of the jungle and knelt down next to one another. “What now, Captain Cain?” Sherri asked, serious this time.
“You picked a fine time to start respecting my rank,” he said with a smirk. “It all depends on what the Juireans do next. If they join the Hyben and search for us downriver, we should be fine. Otherwise, we’ll have to take our changes within the city. We’ll stay here until the J’s off load, and then we’ll make a decision.”
Chapter 21
The two Humans returned to their tiny camp, where they recovered Adam’s flash rifle and the extra weapons charges. Then they returned to the buffer zone and began to move within the jungle boundary area toward the entry point through the shipyard fence. The journey took them an hour and by the time they drew close enough to observe the aliens, the Juireans were ready to join the search for Adam Cain.
It wasn’t long before the Juireans revealed the level of determination they had for the hunt. From their ships they had unloaded three massive tracked vehicles, each featuring the largest ground-based flash cannon Adam had ever seen. The Humans couldn’t risk getting too close, but even from this distance they could make out dozens of Primes moving between the ships and the jungle. There were very few Hyben now, replaced mainly with other beings – including some Juireans – but mainly Rigorians and other equally fierce-looking species.
And then the Juireans fired up the vehicles. The loud, rumbling tanks sped off toward the narrow opening in the fence that the Hyben had cut, but rather than bothering with the opening, the vehicles simply crashed through the fence, churning up dirt and dust with their tracks. They crossed the buffer zone in seconds and entered the jungle, firing the cannon to clear the growth from their headlong surge.
Next Adam and Sherri saw half a dozen small flying objects cross over the fence and head for the jungle. They were like small helicopters, with an array of scanners and a prominent flash rifle of their own pointing downward. Almost immediately, the small drones begin firing their weapons into the jungle. They spread out and headed for the river, firing nearly constantly into the jungle below.
“What are they shooting at?” Sherri asked.
“Probably any living thing they pick up on their sensors, more-than-likely using infrared. This doesn’t look good. They’ll be able to pick up our heat signature even through the canopy.”
“Then we’re fucked if they head this way.”
“You’re right. Let’s move back to the river and head west.”
They began moving back the way they had come, keeping an eye – and an ear – out for the prominent buzzing sound the drones made. After an hour, they had passed back through their small clearing and cut deeper into the jungle. Soon they emerged at the river, at the point where it widened out and turned to the south, allowing them a long view downriver.
The Juireans were there; the tracked tanks having ripped most of the jungle away. One of the vehicles had crossed the river and was blasting away at the growth on that side. Several of the drones circled above, periodically sending bright flashes of electricity into the jungle canopy. Fortunately, the Juireans had turned to the south, heading downriver. Adam breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the Juireans spent their time downriver, they should be fine.
But then he noticed two of the drones begin to head upstream, one on each side of the river. Adam grabbed Sherri’s arm and pulled her along the riverbank. A wide beach area had been cleared by the water at this point of the river, so they were able to move fast in the light gravity. But still they couldn’t outrun the drones.
“Follow me!” Adam yelled as he moved toward the water. He stopped at the shallow, muddy bank, grabbed Sherri and threw her into the mud. “I saw this in a movie once,” he said with a wink, as he began to pick up handfuls of mud and slap the smelly, sticky goop onto Sherri body.
“What the fuck, Adam!”
“The mud should mask your heat signature. Deal with it.”
“Yeah, I saw that movie, too, but I ain’t Arnold!”
And then with her brief protest over, Sherri began to help cover herself with mud, and in a minute she looked like a life-size chocolate mannequin, embossed in
the bank of the river, with just her bright eyes peering out.
“Now you,” she said.
“I’ll take care of myself. You just stay here and don’t move – no matter what.”
“What are you going to do?”
For an answer, Adam looked back over his shoulder just as the two drones swept over the river from the jungle canopy. He turned toward the water and dove in, kicking hard until he was skimming along the bottom of the river as it deepen near the center. The current was fairly strong, but Adam was able to move through it with little effort. When he was in peak condition, Adam had been an excellent swimming and could hold his breath for nearly four minutes in warm water. Although he had not maintained his physical conditioning as he did back in the SEALs on Earth, he was able to stay submerged until the drones passed over.
But he couldn’t make it all the way across the river without coming up for air.
He broke the surface about twenty yards from the opposite shore and looked into the sky. The drones had passed by; Sherri’s camouflage apparently worked. But then one of them stopped and turned back in his direction.
Adam ducked under the water again and kicked for depth. At the bottom of the river, he moved toward the closest shore. When he looked up through the prism of the water he could see the drone pass over his location.
He broke the surface again and took a deep breath, ignoring the pain from the cut on his shoulder. He lay in about three feet of water and looked around trying to locate the drones. He couldn’t see them, but he could hear their distinctive buzzing nearby.
And then one appeared across the river, almost directly over Sherri’s location. From where he lay, Adam could clearly make out Sherri’s uniform brown figure plastered against riverbank, the drone moving slowly above. It had picked up something and the longer it stayed above her, the better the chance that a Human outline would be discerned by either the computers onboard or the creatures manning the screens back at the Juirean ships.