They’ll be forced to go slow, keeping the slaves moving, so if they do come after us, at best they couldn’t spare more than three or four. They may not even try.”
Again searching through the pouches on the bandolier, Steven found the guard’s food pouch. He removed what appeared to be a piece of meat, similar to that of beef jerky. Nibbling at a corner, he found that it had a distinct, teriyaki-like flavor. The moisture it provided, pacifying. “I think it’s Uttu meat.”
Ashlyn, rummaging thru her pouches found a small piece of oily cloth wrapped around something. Unfolding it, she discovered a necklace inside. The pendant on the necklace was actually a piece of green, brightly glowing moss. “It’s the same moss we found in the river tunnel. The oil in the cloth must activate a light-giving ability.”
Steven began looking through his pouches to see if he had one. He found it quickly. It was about three inches in length and a half-inch thick.
Ash held it up. It illuminated a six-foot circle around her. Its eerie light magically transformed her angelic face into that of a ghoulish, green goblin. “Boo-ooo-ooo,” said Ash with a playful, warbled voice.
Her playfulness was so cute that Steven’s spirits instantly soared. “You’re adorable, Ash—but that thing is like a beacon out here. The Grays don’t seem to need as much light as we do. To them, that’s probably like waving a floodlight,” said Steven.
“Grinch.”
While walking, Steven decided to teach Ashlyn how to navigate using the stars. After a thorough explanation on the mechanics of star guidance, Ash repeated back what he’d told her. She was a quick study and Steven had never suspected that the skill would someday come in handy.
Steven had become as comfortable speaking in the meld as he was using the spoken word. His biggest challenge had been to learn how to discipline his thoughts. He took pride in the fact that he was no longer inundating her with the ramblings of the male mind.
Ashlyn let him revel in his victory, not letting on about the flood of titillating thoughts that were escaping him, sneaking through the veil, moment by moment. He had put her on a pedestal and she liked it. She found his desire for her intoxicating, flattering.
The pedestal, upon which he had placed her however, was no taller, than the one upon which she’d placed him.
Steven and Ashlyn each downed two large pieces of jerky, ridding themselves of days of gnawing hunger.
They walked throughout the night, stopping an hour after sunrise beneath the shady cornice of a large dune.
Lying there, their days of torture and exhaustion overwhelmed them.
“I love you, Steven.”
“You are my life, Ashlyn—now and forever,” he returned.
Within moments, they were asleep. Ashlyn’s head lay atop his shoulder, her hand atop his chest. They had been through so much—and it finally caught up with them.
Steven’s sleep was nightmarish; his dreams were of Ashlyn being beaten. It replayed repeatedly, an endless loop of tortured images mixed with his seething rage. His mind tore at the Grays, tearing them limb from limb by the thousands.
He awakened at sunset, to the sound of soft hammering. His eyes opened to find Ashlyn staring at him, a smile on her face. Her beauty shone as the sun and his heart leapt with joy, an acknowledgement that his nightmare was over.
Ashlyn stepped aside and with a bow, she offered him a small spring of water.
“How?” He said rising and heading to her.
“While you were sleeping I found the little hammering stone in one of the pouches. It didn’t make sense that they’d carry the stone and not the straw. I found it hidden inside a small tube that runs the length of the belt.” With a giggle, “It reminds me of you, hard when held erect and being hammered, but pliable enough to bend with the curves.”
Steven laughed at her comment. “I guess we should have realized the Grays would all carry one. We just missed it in the dark.”
“By the way, there’s no Igigi trailing us. You can see for a good ten klicks from the top of the dune. It’s clear,” said Ash. “I guess they decided not to go after us.”
Steven knelt to drink. Like a fish, he gulped heartily. As the water squirted into his mouth, and against his palate, Ashlyn teased him. “That’s what it feels like when I’m going down on you. It just keeps squirting. Feels good, huh? I like how it tickles.”
He had to look up at her and smile. Shaking his head, “I’ve created a monster.”
“Yes, but I’m your monster.”
Steven laughed. When he was done, “Aren’t you going to drink?” asked Steven, realizing that from the moment he’d heard her hammering the straw into the ground, that he had not seen her drink.
“From that little thing?” Taking him by the hand, in her playful Draculean voice, “Come with me, cause I vant to suck your dick.” Looking down at his cock. Slowly, with emphasis, still in her Bela Lugosi voice, “I’m going to suck you and your two little friends, sooo hard.”
He was already erect in response to titillating words. She led him back into the shade of the dune.
“We have seven hours ‘til sunrise,” said Ash. She let the words sink in before she continued, “Let’s stay here tonight, wait until morning to start walking. We both need the rest. I’m not sure why, but somehow, sex strengthens me. It’ll be good for me, for you.”
As she bid him to lie down, Ashlyn positioned herself atop him. Sitting upright, she straddled his hips. Leaning forward, she buried her face in his neck and just by chance, found a spot behind the lobe of his right ear that as she wiggled her tongue, it created a strong, tickling sensation in his lower back.
“Hmm, you like that!” she said, feeling his back arch, and his chest tighten. Instantly, he began throbbing, his cock thick between the swells of her pussy. “Wow, you really like that!” She felt giddy, knowing she had discovered an exploitable secret. “You’re like my own personal boy toy!”
As she slid down his chest, and brought him to her lips, “I’m such a lucky girl.”
***
Seven hours later, their needs satiated, their hearts content, they were again underway.
They traveled fast, taking advantage of their renewed strength. Conversation was kept to a minimum as they put all their efforts into covering distance.
As day turned into night and they trekked on, Ash spotted three craft heading at high speed to the North, likely toward Sinai, the mountain refuge. They hoped that Phillip and the others were safe.
As the ships disappeared beyond the horizon, they felt a thunderous, pounding vibration beneath their feet. “The Uttu,” Steven whispered, sheer habit making him use his human voice.
A minute later, it was gone, having ebbed away behind them.
“We’ll have to be quiet,” reminded Steven.
“I guess that means no more screaming during sex?” said Ashlyn back to him in the meld.
“Yeah, you can’t do that anymore,” said Steven.
“I was talking about you,” said Ashlyn with a small laugh.
An hour later, Steven staring heavenward, checking his course by the stars, tumbled head over heels into a deep abyss. On the long, slide down; as he fought not to lose his gun and gear, he was only vaguely aware of Ashlyn’s frantic scream to him within the meld. “Steven, are you all right?”
The tunnel leveled out, bringing him to a stop in total darkness. “Yeah, I’m covered in their slimy lubricant. It’s part of the Uttu’s tunneling process. It’s no wonder they need such vast amounts of water, they must burn through it like a steam locomotive. I’m just glad they aren’t excreting acid.”
They can probably turn the acid on and off as needed, Steven thought to himself. Depending on the type of strata they are burrowing through.
“Do you think you can climb out?” Ashlyn asked, hopeful.
“I can try. It was almost a free-fall at the top.” In trying to stand, he found that the ceiling was too low to do so.
“Steven, try using the moss,
” said Ashlyn.
Donning the necklace, Steven’s eyes soon adjusted, and he could see the sand walls around him.
Forced to hunch, he began to climb up. He’d not gone more than twenty paces before his ascent up the tunnel was so steep, that each new step was threatening to send him sliding back to the bottom again. It was like trying to walk up a mountain of ice.
“You know, Ash—I think the slime is the only thing keeping the tunnel from collapsing.” Two minutes later, Steven knew he was stuck. Every step forwards took him one or more backwards.
“You can’t make it?”
“No.” Silence, nothing but sterile silence. “Ash?” No reply came. “Ash, where are you? Ash?” Seconds passed. “Ash!” A rumble shook the ground for a few seconds, before fading away.
“I’m here Steven, I’m here.” Her voice was hurried and alarmed.
“What happened?”
“One of the Uttu was sitting next to me. I didn’t even know it was there until I heard a faint snort, and when I looked over, the damned thing was sniffing the air. It was so close I could have touched it with the rifle. Then suddenly—just when I thought it had detected me, it turned round and left. And wow, can that thing move.
By the way, the desert looks like a putting green up here, there are holes everywhere.”
“Ash—quiet for a moment.” He listened, straining to hear. “Do you hear it—the thrumming. It’s the Igigi. They’re tracking us. It was their sonic device that scared the Uttu away from you.”
“You sure. I don’t hear it!”
“The tunnel must be amplifying it.”
“Then we need to get you out, Steven—fast.”
He thought for a moment, “You know, if there’s a lot of Uttu running around, their tunnels might intersect. With a bit of luck, I might find one that’s not as steep.”
“Or, you might get yourself hopelessly lost?”
“Me? I’ve got the directional sense of a snail.”
“A snail?” she said with a hint of a laugh.
“Yup, you ever see one that was lost?”
“They all look like they are lost!” retorted Ash.
“All right, Ash. I’m starting back down the tunnel. I’ll follow the left wall, making all left turns. Eventually, it should lead to an exit.”
“Steven, please be careful. Remember, you may not be alone down there.”
“Got ya!”
Minutes later he began to feel the vibration again. It was closer this time, much closer, but there was something different about it.
When his feet began tingling, he knew what was happening. One of the Uttu was coming toward him. In the darkness, the vibration seemed to surround him. Sand began to loosen and fall in small clumps from the ceiling.
“Steven, what is it?”
“There’s an Uttu in the tunnel—it’s coming—fast!”
“Fire the rifle, Steven. Fire now!”
“The vibration might bring the ceiling down.”
“Fire—fire, now!” Ash cried out.
He un-slung the rifle from his shoulder, and took a knee. By the time he activated the energy cell, he could see the dim red eyes of the spider in the tunnel moving rapidly toward him.
A few clumps of sand gave way in the ceiling under the shrill, resonant vibration of the lasers powered up hum. He sent four shots down the tunnel, which brought down a large batch of sand atop his shoulders.
With the visual effect of a strobe light, each burst brought the creature closer, as did each burst slow its pace. The Uttu let out a long, blood-curdling shriek that seemed to echo forever, following it with a bellowing roar. The creature seemed madly determined to make him pay for his intrusion.
Their armor is crazy hard.
A shudder ran up Steven’s spine as he realized that in the world of the Uttu, he was the invader. He felt a twinge of sadness over the irony.
Steven, the glow from the moss illuminating him, raised his weapon into the air, holding it at arm’s length before him. A gesture of surrender.
The Uttu slowed to a stop and looked at him. What the Uttu thought of him, no one would ever know, but Steven understood that the Uttu was merely protecting his home. The two of them seemed to share a small moment.
The Uttu then gave a huff and a bellowing roar.
“Steven, what’s happening?” Ash called out, as she felt the emotional rush of his sadness surging within him.
So caught up in the moment was he, that he didn’t hear her. Slowly lowering the weapon, he placed it on the ground, letting go of it.
“Steven, what’s wrong?—Talk to me!”
“Hold on a sec.” Steven wasn’t sure if the Uttu was capable of understanding his actions—but he was listening to his heart.
The Uttu bellowed an acknowledgment of Steven’s submission.
Then, slowly, the Uttu moved forward, coming to a stop in front of him. The Uttu extended a single, slimy leg toward him. It hovered a moment, then touched Steven on the top of his head—after a long moment, in a quick motion that startled Steven, the Uttu retracted its leg and rolling over upon itself, headed back in the direction from which it had come.
The Uttu’s quick movement however, was the final straw needed to bring the tunnel down. Steven turned quickly trying to scramble away, but it was too late. He’d only taken a single stride before the ceiling completely gave way, entrapping him. With his last free movement, Steven fought to form a small air pocket around his head.
“Ash! The ceiling collapsed atop me!”
“Ok, I’m coming down!” Slipping the luminescent necklace round her neck, she peered over the edge of the hole.
Not four meters away, was the large, red, glowing eyes of the Uttu Steven had seen. It came racing up out of the hole—Ashlyn jumping out of the way, just in time. That was close. Jumping in, she took a long, controlled slide to the bottom. “Hold on—I’m on my way!” Her voice was assuring, confident. Moving quickly, “Keep talking to me!”
“The weight is crushing me. I can’t expand my lungs.”
“Don’t stop talking to me, don’t stop!”
“Can’t breathe!”
***
“Sir?”
Novacek’s thumb eased off the last button.
“The crew needs you. Yours was the only voice of reason against that monster. I can do this! You go with the others!”
Novacek searched for the words that would keep him from abandoning his friend.
“It’s all right, sir. I don’t feel the pain. I’ll give you to the count of 10!” He put his hand out, his trembling fingers asking Novacek to place his finger atop the last button.
“You’ve got the courage of a lion, Martin. You’ll run again. You’ll run at your ancestor’s side as they honor you for your bravery.”
“Thank you, sir—but, I’m not a brave man. I’m just a man with nothing left to lose. The others need you.” Martin’s free hand slowly pulled the blaster from his holster. “Go, 10—9—please, sir. Go.”
Novacek turned and hobbled away as fast as his broken body would allow. From inside, Novacek heard Martin’s fading voice, “I damn all of you monsters to hell!”
Novacek then heard Martin’s blaster sealing off his tunnel. The ear-shattering roar of the collapsing tunnel behind him was only a second ahead of the billowing dust and dirt that came shooting down the tunnel, engulfing him. With a single breath of clean air in his lungs, he struggled to make his way back inside the cavern.
A moment later, the energy cores’ concussion tore the world apart.
It threw him to the ground. The slipknot round Novacek’s wrist to the flashlight broke, sending the flashlight skittering away. He scrambled to retrieve it. Stumbling on, unsure of where he was, he kept moving forward until he fell face first into the river. All around him, he could hear splashes in the water as the cavern itself began to collapse.
Floating with the current, Novacek swam through the hole exiting the cavern, carried by the fast, moving wate
r down the dark tunnel.
His clothes felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds, and he struggled to remove them, even as he was tossed against the walls. Somehow, he seemed to find each boulder that lay in his path.
Stripped down to his boxers, flashlight in hand, he swam.
***
“I think I found you—the tunnel is collapsed here!
Steven?—Steven, answer me!” Nothing. She could feel that he was alive, but unconscious.
Ash tore at the sand, frantically scooping it away. As she dug, tears fell from her chin. A moment later, she found his feet. Two minutes later, she pulled him out.
Verifying that his airway was clear, Ash started to give him mouth to mouth.
When he gasped, coughing, “Don’t you ever do that to me again!” Ash said tearfully.
Through continuing coughs, he replied, “You don’t want to have sex anymore?”
She punched his arm and then just as quickly gave him a gigantic hug.
Grabbing each other, they embraced tightly. With melded minds, they held one another, reveling in the one, small victory.
Her lips carried a sweetness, that for a brief moment, Steven thought he’d never taste again.
“Listen? Do you hear it?” Once again, they heard the thrumming vibration of the Grays’ sonic device. “They followed our trail to the hole!” said Steven.
“Maybe they’ll think we’re dead?” whispered Ashlyn.
Steven hoped she was right. They waited, not daring to make any movement. Even breathing felt like a salient signal that might give them away. It was near twenty minutes, silence filling the air, before they began digging their way through to the other side of the tunnel. They followed Steven’s plan, following the left cavern wall of the tunnel.
Half an hour later, they found the divergence they were looking for. The slime on the new tunnel was older and had hardened. It made for a much firmer and faster walk, though Steven still wished the tunnel were taller so that they could stand upright.
It wasn’t long before the tunnel soon started to gently slope upwards. They were soon scrambling, their clawing fingers fighting for every inch of ground up the ever-steepening surface. For every step forwards, they lost a half step backwards, and even a momentary stop meant losing several steps. It was a do or die fight.
EARTH'S LAST WAR (CHILDREN OF DESTINY Book 1) Page 32