by J. M. Preiss
"Mason?" he asked. No response.
"Mason?" This time louder. He heard a groan somewhere to his left.
Jacob knew that he was lying on his back, but he still could not see anything. He had no idea what his surroundings looked like. He guessed that they were in a field of some sort. The air had a bite to it, substantially colder than the facility had been. In fact, he was cold all over.
He rolled over onto his stomach and started crawling towards where he thought Mason was. As he moved, there was a crunching sound. He finally came to the realization that he was crawling in snow. Interesting. It was supposed to be summer according to the calculations. Perhaps this was an after effect of the wormhole travel that had been unobserved in smaller tests that came up due to it being such a large distance they travelled.
"Mason?" he asked again. Another groan.
"I knew I should've stopped before that last drink," Mason managed to say. "Where are we?"
"I don't know. I can't see yet."
"No, neither can I," replied Mason.
They managed to find each other by slowly moving towards the sounds of the other. They sat back-to-back and waited. After about ten minutes, their vision returned.
The landscape was desolate. Snow went on as far as the eye could see. There were no trees to be seen.
"Aren't there," trailed off Mason.
"That's what I was thinking." Jacob said as he slowly rose to his feet.
He checked his temporal beacon. It showed that a successful transport had been achieved, and the signal had been sent back through the wormhole that they had arrived.
"Well, apparently we arrived," he said.
"Yes, but where exactly?" asked Mason. "This doesn't match what the mission specs called for."
Jacob pulled his pack off his back and fished out the mapping device. Activating it, he ran it through its diagnostic. All green. He hit the button to tell it to sync up with any positioning satellites. Nothing. He ran through the diagnostic again. All green.
"Huh, that's strange," Jacob said.
"What's that?"
"Mapping tool isn't finding any sats," replied Jacob.
Mason pulled his device out of his package and activated it. No satellites were detected.
"Ok, that is strange," Mason said. "According to information, there should be a full string of GPS satellites in orbit. We should be able to ping at least one of them."
"Maybe the units got damaged in the transport."
Jacob looked at his watch. It was stuck at twelve hundred. "Watch is frozen. Something similar probably happened to all of our equipment."
Mason looked up at the sky. It was crisp and blue, not a cloud in sight. "Well, we have no satellite and no way to tell what time it is because we have no trees."
"Looks that way," said Jacob.
"Magnetic bearing working?"
Jacob fiddled with the mapping device. "Nope."
"Inertial mapping?"
Jacob shook the device back and forth. "Luckily."
Mason screwed up his mouth. "Guess we just pick a direction and keep heading that way until we find civilization."
Jacob shrugged and looked at the horizon again. "Lots of ground to cover by the look of it."
"Best start walking then. Take point, Lieutenant," said Mason.
"Yes, sir, Captain."
Jacob picked a direction, held the mapping device flat in his hand, and started walking. Every now and then, he would check to see if the satellite function was restored. Much to his dismay, it never was.
They walked for what seemed like hours. There was no way of telling for sure due to the frozen watches, but the sun had changed position in the sky. As it moved, they were able to establish the direction they were travelling. Northeast.
As they kept walking, they began to see foothills in the distance and a scattering of trees with what appeared to be a forest further up the hills.
"Let's try and make those hills before nightfall," said Mason. "With any luck, there will be a place to make camp for the night."
"Sounds like a wonderful idea. Maybe even get a fire going?" Jacob shivered from the cold. "These suits might be pretty good at adapting to any condition, but even they cannot combat this cold. Has to be a good amount below freezing."
"Agreed. A fire would be nice." Mason looked towards the hills. "Let's pick up the pace. The increased warmth will help us."
"Just no sweating," said Jacob.
"No sweating," Mason agreed.
They picked up the pace and kept going towards the hills. The landscape had remained pretty desolate for their entire trip. It struck Jacob as very odd that they had yet to find any sign of civilization. If he were any normal person, he would be starting to get worried. Luckily, the hypno-conditioning he had received stopped that emotion before it even started. His body warmed up from the increased pace. It was starting to feel slightly tolerable.
The sun was getting low in the sky by the time they reached the first stand of trees. They were tall pines, very tall pines actually. They towered over the landscape. Continuing on, they reached the second stand of trees shortly before nightfall.
"Looks like we are at the end of our daylight," stated Mason. "Make camp?"
"Best that we do," replied Jacob.
He picked a set of trees that were close together and took off his pack. Out of it, he retrieved a multitool. He activated a switch on it, and it morphed into an ax. He set about gathering stout branches to act as a frame for a rudimentary lean-to while Mason gathered pine boughs for the sides, roof, and floor. After they had finished making their structure, they shoveled the snow out from the interior, blocked off the other end, and started a fire. By the time they were done, it was well after nightfall. The temperature was dropping rapidly.
"I am surprised that we haven't seen, well, anything," started Mason. "We've been walking for a good part of the day, covered a decent distance, and we've seen nothing."
"It is mildly disconcerting," said Jacob absentmindedly. He was mulling over what he had managed to pick up about the project.
"I honestly don't see how this is possible. The mission data was supposed to be spot on. The scientists spent months going over the calculations. How could something like this happen?"
"Calm down, Captain. We don't even know what has happened."
Mason ran his hands over his head and took a deep breath. "Sorry. This was supposed to be routine." He shook his head. "Ok, not routine, but nothing was supposed to go wrong. I was reassured multiple times that nothing was going to go wrong. That's the only reason I agreed to this."
Jacob nodded. "I was told the same thing. Let's face it though. Something has gone wrong." Jacob remembered the mission critical item in his pack.
He retrieved the item from his pack, set it on the ground in front of him, and opened it. There was nothing inside it but dust.
"Ok, that's strange."
"What's that?" Mason asked and raised his head.
"Full of dust," Jacob replied as he dumped the dust from the container into his hand.
Mason got the item from his pack, opened it, and dumped it onto the ground unceremoniously. Dust spilled forth and floated on the air.
"I don't understand," said Mason. "Why would they give us dust? How is this mission critical?"
"Beats me, but that's what was in the box." Jacob wiped his hands together to clean the dust off of them and then scratched his head.
Light spilled across the landscape as the moon rose.
"Ah, the moon. Good to know that's at least still the-" Mason trailed off as he stared at the moon.
"Hmm?" Jacob made a noise, but didn't look up.
Mason simply took Jacob's head in his hand and rotated it to look at the moon. Where the moon was supposed to be was a shattered mass. Now that he was paying attention to the sky, there was also a ring of what appeared to be debris from whatever cataclysmic event had shattered the moon.
"We're not in the past," Jacob stated. He
shook his head as he ran over the possibilities. "Something went wrong. Something went horribly wrong."
Chapter VI
There wasn't much sleep to be had. Jacob knew deep down in his gut that they were on Earth. The odds that they had magically been transported to another planet rather than their own were astronomical. Perhaps that is what happened, he thought. Maybe the thing that went wrong sent them to another planet. Perhaps they weren't actually in the future, and they were instead just somewhere else. Somewhere else.
It kept nagging at him as he lay staring up at the shattered moon. It certainly looked like what was left of the moon he and Lisa had stared at as they spent evenings together back during their early years together. It started to settle in that he would never see her again. Normally, someone would have been troubled, and Jacob did feel sad to an extent; yet, he wasn't overwhelmed by the feeling. Blasted training, he thought.
Night passed uneventfully. The moon, what was left of it, had set long before. Evidence of its passing remained as a light ring that was slowly being washed out by the brightening sky.
The amount of energy required to shatter the moon like that was phenomenal to Jacob.
"Morning," said Mason as he rolled out from beneath a bunch of pine boughs. His breath was visible in front of him. He looked at Jacob. "Didn't get any sleep?"
Jacob shook his head. "Too much on my mind."
"Well, no need in thinking about the past anymore." Mason crawled out of the shelter and stood up, stretching. "We need to continue going the direction we were. With any luck, there will be a water source that we can latch onto."
"Sounds good to me. I just wonder though, is anybody still out there?"
Mason shrugged. "Not our problem right now. Prime objective is to find a source of water. Secondary is to determine the flow towards the sea, and tertiary is to follow the flow to the sea."
Jacob nodded as he stood. Mason had recovered well from the previous night. His steel resolve had hardened once again. His reaction was reasonable, all things considered. Anybody would be very distraught after going through what they did.
"Should we check the equipment again? See if it's working?" asked Jacob.
"Couldn't hurt." Mason rifled through his pack and pulled out his mapping device. After a few moments of inputting commands, he lowered his hand. "No dice. Still the same as yesterday."
Jacob confirmed after checking his own device. "At least inertial still works."
They set about dismantling the makeshift camp they had made the previous evening and started back on their original path. Not long after, they crested the first of the larger hills.
Jacob and Mason were greeted with a commanding view of the countryside beyond. There was snow-covered forest as far as the eye could see. The wind was hardly blowing, and there was no noise that could be heard other than the soft movement of grasses sticking out of the snow.
"What's that over there?" asked Mason as he pointed off into the distance.
"Where?" Jacob scanned the horizon. "Oh wait, I see it." He pulled out a set of visual enhancers and focused on the light darkening on the horizon. After a few short moments of tweaking settings, an image snapped into view. It was smoke.
Jacob smiled. "Plume of smoke. No telling exactly how far away it is, but we can see it." Jacob took a reading with his mapping device and input the path to reach the smoke in the distance. "We have our bearing. Shall we?"
"Let's," said Mason. "The sooner we reach people the better. Hopefully they know what is going on."
They trekked through the forest. The snowfall hadn't been terribly deep as a lot of places under the trees just had a few patches, but that did not change how cold it was. The actual depth of the snow in the clearings was no more than five or six centimeters. As snow crunched under foot, Mason and Jacob kept scanning the forest for any signs of life. After a few hours of travel, there was a sharp beep from Jacob's pack.
He swung the pack off his shoulder, opened it, and saw a glowing light inside. He reached for it and pulled out the bioscanner.
"Well, hello. Look what just came back to life," Jacob said. "Scanners are active again, or at least, mine is."
Mason slipped his pack off and pulled his out. It was also working and showing Jacob.
"So, what set off the signal," asked Mason.
There was a shriek that split through the forest and then a thunderous roar answered. Sounds of a fight picked up off in the distance. The scanner showed two lifeforms on top of each other no more than one hundred meters away. Jacob looked at Mason, and they both pulled out their rifles. Putting their packs back on their shoulders, they started moving towards the sounds of the fight.
There was another piercing shriek.
They picked up the pace but didn't actually run. They moved along at a quick trot, keeping themselves lower to the ground. Jacob kept looking at the bioscanner to keep track of the life signs that were in combat. As they got nearer, they slowed down, and eventually, they were creeping along from tree to tree.
In the clearing in front of them, some spindly-legged animal was pinned on the ground by something the size of a bear. There was another shriek as the bear-like creature swiped at the animal. The massive creature lifted up on its hind legs to a height taller than any bear Jacob had even seen and slammed its front paws down on the head of the pinned animal. There was a sickening crunch and then nothing. The snow was stained red with blood.
Mason motioned to Jacob to move along the periphery of the clearing so as not to disturb the large creature. They silently slid from tree to tree and made it to the other side of the clearing. Keeping up their slow pace, they started moving away from the creature and its gruesome kill.
Both bioscanners beeped. The creature's head shot up, and it roared. Rather than the head of a bear like Jacob was expecting, it was some gruesome facsimile. It looked almost as if a child had gotten a hold of a toy, mangled and burnt it, and then put it back in the toy box. It roared again and charged.
It crashed quickly through the forest, far quicker than Jacob expected. He deployed his rifle and began to shoulder it.
The creature was on Mason. With a massive swipe that barely broke its stride, the creature sent Mason flying where he landed at the base of a tree with a muffled groan.
Before Jacob could complete shouldering his weapon, the beast swiped at him and knocked the rifle to the ground as Jacob dove out of the way. He quickly rolled and regained his feet, but the creature was already on top of him. He was sent sprawling backwards as the creature slammed into him with its head. The creature roared again and stood up on its hind legs. Its gruesome face almost seemed to smile as it stared down at Jacob. Jacob stared back, no fear showing on his face.
There was a sharp crack. A puff of smoke burst off of the head of the creature, and the pungent odor of burnt hair and skin quickly filled Jacob's nostrils. The beast slowly toppled over to the side. Jacob rolled till he could see where Mason had been. He expected that Mason had fired the shot, but he saw him still crumpled up against the tree.
"Much more effective weapon than one of our rifles, High One," said a gravelly voice.
Jacob was startled, and he spun around to face who talked. Before him, with his rifle in hand, stood a man covered in a mottled assortment of clothing. He had an outer layer of heavy furs, but beneath the furs, Jacob was able to make out what looked like a screen print t-shirt.
"Forgive me, High One, but I had no choice but to use your sacred weapon," the man said.
Jacob kept staring at the man. The man was in dire need of a shave and a haircut. His dark brown hair was long and matted, and his beard was touching his chest.
"Are you injured?" the man asked.
Jacob worked his mouth. "No, I'm fine. Thank you," he trailed off.
"I am known as Hector of the Forest Tribe," the man said.
"Well then, Hector, I am Jacob Brown of the, uh. Well, I don't really have a tribe." Jacob looked puzzled at the concept.
; "It's quite alright, High One Jacob Brown. We of the Forest People are aware you don't ascribe to our ways in the gleaming towers." Hector slightly bowed his head in reverence.
"Please, I'm just Jacob."
"I could not, High One. To call you by your given name would be a sin punishable by death," said Hector with a shake of his head.
Peculiar, thought Jacob. "Very well then. Perhaps you can help me with my friend."
Hector nodded, reverently put the rifle on the ground, and moved over to Mason. Hector rolled Mason over and lifted one of Mason's eyelids.
"High One, your companion would appear to be unconscious," Hector said with a nod. "I would be honored to assist in the transport of him to my tribe where he will be safe."
Jacob shrugged. "Sounds good to me, Hector." He pulled out the multitool from the night before and selected the ax setting once again. As he began to hack away a number of branches for a travois, he noticed Hector staring in awe.
"The myths are true," Hector said. "The High Ones are able to command the elements."
Jacob stopped for a moment as he surveyed what he had managed to gather. "Pardon me?"
"The myths," repeated Hector. "They tell of how the High Ones are able to command the elements. They control fire, master wind, subvert water, and bend earth to their will."
Interesting, Jacob though. "And just how do these - uh, us - High Ones do this?"
Hector bowed his head. "That is not for us of the Forest Tribe to know, Reverent One."
Jacob harrumphed and continued about his task. With help from Hector, he managed to lash together a makeshift travois with which to pull the unconscious Mason behind himself. Before Jacob could pick up the travois, Hector leaned over and lifted it up.
"Allow me to carry your burden, High One," he said as he began walking.
Jacob shrugged once more. Checking to make sure that both rifles were safely tucked away in his pack, Jacob slung Mason's pack over his left shoulder and followed Hector and his unconscious friend.
Chapter VII