by D. W. Vogel
“Run!” I screamed, and took off toward the tank.
The power core bounced painfully into my kidneys with each stride. Sweat and bugs ran into my eyes, half blinding me in the hot sun. I couldn’t hear if Sara was behind me or next to me. I couldn’t hear the clicking of the pack. But I knew they would be on us in seconds. I pounded through the thick grass toward the tank’s overgrown side.
I reached it and climbed as fast as I could, feet slipping on the huge treads. I gripped the vines and hauled myself up, reaching for the lowest rung of the metal ladder built into the huge hull. Grunting with the effort, I pulled myself up onto the tread and turned around.
Sara was right behind me. And the Wolves were right behind her.
Four of them were converging on her from behind and to the sides. She wasn’t going to make it. She didn’t look up as she ran, couldn’t see them coming.
I dropped the heavy power core off my shoulders and drew my pistols.
Steady. I crouched down on the tread, steadying my arm on my knee. My heart was pounding so hard I could see my pulse in the sight of my pistol, a tiny waver in my aim with each beat. My sweaty hands trembled on the grip. Squeeze the trigger, don’t pull. The General’s firearm training echoed in my head. I squeezed.
The crack of the report echoed across the clearing. The Wolf I had aimed at, the one that was closest to Sara, stumbled and flipped over, skidding across the wet grass. It immediately stood up again on three legs, limping toward its prey. I couldn’t see the wound my bullet made in its tough hide, but I had obviously hit it in one of its thick front legs. I aimed at the next closest beast.
Crack.
If my second shot hit a Wolf, it didn’t slow for a single step. Clenching my jaw I aimed again.
Crack.
The Wolf went down and did not get up.
I didn’t have a single second to celebrate my first kill.
Two more Wolves flew across the grass toward Sara, but she was so close to the tank now. The tread dug into my belly as I lay down on the tread and reached down to her. I fired another shot from that awkward position, knowing I wouldn’t hit anything but hoping to give the pack pause.
Sara’s hand slapped into mine and I pulled with all my strength. She clawed her way up the tread just as the closest Wolf leaped toward her. She pulled her feet up and the Wolf’s jaws snapped on empty air.
Chapter 25
Sara panted, laying on the tank’s metal tread. We were too high for the Wolves to reach us, but as the injured Wolf limped up to the pack, the two that remained were joined by four more. Seven Wolves. The same number as the pack that killed Brent. Maybe that was a common number for a Wolf pack, but I felt sure these were the same ones.
“We need to climb to the top,” I urged Sara, pulling her up to a crouch.
I holstered my pistol and picked up the heavy core pack.
“You climb first,” I told her and she gripped the metal rungs. It was a short distance to the top, but her strength was gone. She climbed awkwardly, her toes feeling for each rung.
When she reached the top, I followed, glad to put another few meters between us and the angry Wolf pack below us. The hatch behind the huge gun turret was closed. I hauled at the heavy latch, but three months in the damp and rain of the clearing had welded the hatch shut. It would take more than my strength to open it.
“Sit here,” I told Sara and helped her rest against the back of the turret. I turned back to the Wolves.
They clicked angrily below me, circling the huge tank, sniffing the ground. The hide on their backs was nearly impervious to bullets. A thick plate of bone protected their heads, shading the shiny black eyes. The one I killed had been an exceedingly lucky shot. They were vulnerable under the neck and the belly.
Even the one I shot in the leg was not down for long. It still limped, but hardly any blood spilled from the wound. The leg was unbroken, and I thought the creature might heal before my eyes, spitting my bullet out from its shoulder like an unwanted seed in a soft fruit.
The day was young, with hours in the blazing sun before nightfall. And we hadn’t lost them by traveling in the dark. I had no reason to think that waiting them out until after sunset would improve our chances. Besides, we were hardly safe on the tank. We couldn’t get inside it, and if a Rex smelled us out in this field, we were done for. I had to get us out of here.
Crouching down, I counted my ammunition. Each pistol held ten rounds. I had twenty more in Sara’s pack, and there were another twenty for the smaller pistol she carried. Plenty of shots. Plenty of tries to take this pack down, or at least convince them to go off in pursuit of more poorly-armed prey.
“Stay here. I’m going down where I can get a shot.”
Sara’s eyes opened wide and she sat up straight, grabbing my filthy shirtsleeve.
“Don’t go down there. We can wait for nightfall. They’ll get you if you go down there.” She was almost babbling in fear and exhaustion.
“I’m not going all the way down. Just onto the treads. You can’t shoot Wolves from above,” I reminded her. I peeled her hands off my leg and swung my feet over the edge of the tank. I hated turning my back on the pack, but I faced the tank as I climbed back down the rungs.
The lead Wolf was trying to climb up the treads, jumping at the heavy metal and scrambling with its front claws to get purchase. Its eyes met mine as it clawed. I expected to see hatred, feral anger, but the black hooded eyes looked as emotionless as the eyes of all its kind, darting heavy-lidded in the gray, scaled face.
I lay down on my stomach and lined up the shot. The next time the gray head appeared I squeezed the trigger, catching the wolf squarely under the jaw. It made no sound as it fell away from the tread.
“That was for Brent,” I said to the still form at the foot of the tank. I took a moment to bask in the glow of the kill. I was a soldier, trained these last three years to keep my people safe in this hostile world. This was what I trained for. All the target practice, the endless drills, the months of running and climbing came down to this moment.
Two of the remaining five Wolves came around to sniff the fallen body of their leader. I sighted them down the barrel of my pistol, but I couldn’t get a shot from this angle. They were too close to the tank.
I sat up, considering. My head was still on fire from the adrenaline rush of the run, the climb, the kill. My nerves were electric wires, zapping energy through my body. I pushed my sweaty hair out of my face.
The pack milled around the base of the tank, sniffing and clicking. I fired off the remaining six rounds in my pistol, hitting the Wolves closest to the tank. They danced away from the impacts, no more affected than I would be by a particularly large bloodsucker’s bite. They weren’t scared off, and they weren’t intimidated in the slightest. And I risked alerting other predators to our location with all this gunfire.
I sat back on the tread with my back against the rungs of the ladder. The sun beat down on my face. My nose and cheeks felt pink already. I exchanged the spent magazine for a fresh one, though I knew I could empty all my ammo into the pack’s thick hides and not make a dent. I wished I could get inside the tank. One blast from the huge gun turret would surely scare this pack away. But the tank was sealed, and even if we could get inside, the missiles wouldn’t fire without power.
Our lives hung by such a thin thread here, and the thread was power. The reactor core in the pack next to Sara was all that stood between Eden base and certain death. This tank had no power and so couldn’t be fired to save our lives. Our own personal power was ebbing away as the sun baked us out here, exposed with no water. I shook my head, eyes closed. Thinking about water only made me thirstier.
At least I could call into base from here. The cloudless blue sky would not impede my sat trans signal. If Eden still had power, they would answer. They could send a team to pick up the power core from my coordinates. I could talk to Mom and Malia one last time. I could tell them I found Josh’s tank out here. I could say good
bye.
It’s better than Josh got. Or Brent, or Jack.
I pulled my trans out of my pocket and powered it up. The map it revealed showed me how far off course we were. This dead tank sat almost due north of Eden base. We were nearer the mountains than the base. I looked up toward where they rose past the trees, so close. Their brown, barren sides jutted up past the canopy, foothills of a huge, desolate range that ringed the continent.
Movement below me pulled my attention. The pack had gathered near the lifeless body of the leader. Five Wolves clicked in unison, peering intently into the tree line between the mountains and the tank.
Shots exploded out of the trees and I ducked instinctively as bullets ricocheted off the metal treads. I covered my head with my arms and pressed myself into the overgrown hull. The air was on fire with noise and smoke.
In minutes it was over. Four of the Wolf pack lay dead at the foot of the tank, while the last survivor bolted away into the forest. I lowered my arms and scanned the tree line. A lone figure strode into the clearing, empty automatic rifle smoking in the late morning heat.
It was my brother, Josh.
Chapter 26
I scrambled off the side of the tank, landing hard on the grass. A few of the Wolves still twitched but none got up to follow as I raced through the open field.
“Josh! Josh!” I yelled as I ran, tears half blinding me.
“Shhh! You’ll draw every ‘saur on the planet!” he answered, laughing. As if the explosion of gunfire wouldn’t.
I plowed straight into him, knocking us both down. I hugged him as hard as I could and he hugged me back. I rolled off him and wiped my eyes on my shirtsleeves.
“You were dead,” I said, and laughed.
His smile evaporated and he dropped his eyes. Deep circles ringed them, the weight of these months pressing on him.
“I know. Of course you thought I was dead. I’m so sorry. Is Mom okay? Malia?” he asked me, standing up and brushing the grass off his pants. He was filthy, but so was I.
“They were okay when I left. We’ve been out a while,” I answered. “Where . . . where have you been? Why didn’t you come home?”
Josh’s shoulders sagged. He looked so much like our father now. “I couldn’t,” he said.
“Why not?” I asked, turning to head back toward the tank.
“Not that way,” Josh said, reaching for my shoulder. “We need to get out of here. I wasn’t kidding about all the ‘saurs coming to the noise.”
“I know, but we need to get Sara,” I said.
“Sara? Our teacher, Sara? What’s she doing out here?” he asked, trotting ahead of me. I quickened my pace to keep up.
“She was on the mission. Things went bad,” I said, a gross oversimplification.
Sara was already climbing down off the tank when we approached. She tossed down the power core, which landed on the soft grass with a loud thump. I picked it up while she and Josh hugged a welcome. He kept an arm under Sara’s shoulders as he headed back toward the trees.
“We need to go south, not north,” I protested. “We have to get the core back to base.” I showed Josh the power core, which he took from me and hoisted up onto his shoulders.
“Sara looks exhausted. She won’t make it,” Josh argued. “We’ll get to safety and then make a plan from there. But we really need to get out of here now.”
“I’m not sure Eden has time for that.” I filled him in on what had happened at base since he disappeared. How Eden was running on the power supply from the remaining two shuttles, having lost the last of their power cores after our shuttle left.
“Your sat trans works?” Josh asked me.
“Yes. Josh, why didn’t you call? Why didn’t you come back? We all thought you were dead. Where is the rest of your unit?”
“No time to talk right now. The gunfire and the blood here will draw all the scavengers.”
I followed him into the forest with Sara between us. It was like having the General back again to lead the way.
“We’ll get up into the hills and call from there. We have a safe place there.”
“We?” I asked.
“Erik is alive, too. It’s been just him and me for the last three months. He’s still injured, but we found a place to hide.”
I burned with a million unanswered questions, but I followed silently as he led us north, away from Eden base.
***
The safe place was a cave at the foot of the hillside.
We crowded inside and squeezed through a narrow passageway to a small open cavern. The entry was much too small for any of the dangerous predators to fit through. The armor plating on the Wolves’ backs wouldn’t let them push their way inside. I sank down onto the stone floor and felt exhaustion pull me down as the terror of the past days finally took a break. We really were safe here.
A young man sat in the middle of the cavern, tending a small fire. He looked up in surprise when we entered.
“Caleb, is that you? And who’s with you? Sara? Stars, how did you ever find us?” he asked.
“I found them,” Josh answered before I could speak. “Wolf pack had them cornered. I heard the shots. They were stuck on our tank in the clearing.”
“Well, welcome to paradise,” Erik said, indicating the dark musty cave. I smiled. After the past few days’ travel, it was paradise to me.
Erik stood up. He was older than Josh but younger than Mom, and he walked over to Sara with a pronounced limp that hadn’t been there when he left on the mission with Josh. “Let me get you some water and food. I can’t believe you found us.”
They had two of the huge water jugs from the tank, both full of fresh water. I drank greedily and so did Sara. Erik returned to the fire, and I sniffed the smoke with joy, smelling large chunks of meat cooking on a makeshift spit over the flames. Erik cracked a huge egg into a metal basin scavenged from the tank and stirred it with a stick, setting it right into the fire to cook. I was actually drooling.
We gorged on charred meat and scrambled egg. I licked the drippings off my fingers, savoring every taste.
“What happened to you guys? You look awful,” Erik said around a mouthful of meat.
I shrugged. “What didn’t happen to us?”
He pointed to my arms, my face. “I mean what bit you up like that?”
Sara snorted and I grinned, remembering the night I washed my pants in a flowing stream. It felt like a hundred years ago. “We found a Buzzer nest. They weren’t too happy about it.”
The food revived us and new energy coursed through me. Much as I hated to leave this haven, I knew we couldn’t stay here.
“We need to move as soon as it’s dark. Eden needs this core.”
Josh looked at me across the fire. “Have you contacted them? How much time do we have?”
“No. I was about to call them when you showed up at the tank. We haven’t had contact for days.”
I turned on my trans but it was useless in the cave. I powered it down to conserve its remaining charge.
“I need to get up on the hill to make the call.”
“Give me your trans, and I’ll go in the morning,” Josh offered.
“What happened to yours?” I asked him.
“Both of ours broke in the accident. We aren’t even sure where we are,” Erik said.
Sara’s head was nodding in exhaustion. Erik pulled an emergency blanket off a pile of supplies at the back of the cave and Sara sank down gratefully.
“I’m just going to nap for a few minutes,” she mumbled, laying her head on the blanket. She was asleep in seconds. She looked so comfortable.
“We need to go now,” I protested to Josh. “We can’t wait until morning. We need to call Eden now and leave as soon as it’s dark. We can be there by morning.”
“You’ll never make it, little brother,” he said, shaking his head. “Look at you. You did great getting here, but you’re asleep on your feet. If we leave now, you’ll be a liability. And we can’t climb up the mo
untain in the dark anyway. Sleep tonight. Tomorrow morning we’ll climb up higher and use your trans to call in. Then tomorrow night we’ll take the core back to base.”
I shook my head again, but I was so tired. Josh’s idea made sense. Surely Eden would be all right for one more day. I could sleep here tonight, in safety and comfort, and tomorrow we would head back out.
Before I went to sleep, though, I had to tell him.
“Josh, there’s something you need to know.”
“What’s that?”
My eyes felt heavy, but my heart was heavier. “Jack was on our shuttle.”
His face crumbled for a moment, deep heaving breaths racking his frame.
“Who else?” he whispered.
“Brent. Shiro. And Viktor and Raj died in the crash. Plus two of the older men and Bronton.”
Josh shook his head, and murmured Jack’s name.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I thought you needed to know.”
He turned away from me, nodding. He did need to know. But I wish I hadn’t been the one that had to tell him.
Erik handed me a blanket from the pile and I closed my eyes against the dim light of the smoldering fire. He scooted over to Josh and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. They whispered together as I fell asleep.
Chapter 27
I slept more soundly than I had in a week. My muscles stiffened and I woke up sore from lying still on the cave’s stone floor, but as I stretched and stirred, I felt like a new man. I hadn’t realized how truly exhausted I was.
Josh was awake and building up the remains of last night’s fire. The small cave didn’t hold on to the smoke. It drew up into invisible cracks beyond my sight in the high ceiling. There must be more caverns in this mountainside, all connected somehow for the air to circulate.
“Morning, little brother.” He put some of last night’s meat and some foraged greens into the metal basin and set it in the fire to cook. A real breakfast. My stomach growled audibly.
“Morning,” I mumbled back.