by D. W. Vogel
The open gate loomed up in my vision. I was running in a dream, slow motion, dragged down by some heavy force. I saw the faces of the soldiers as they squinted into the sights of their rifles. The muzzle of each rifle jumped as the trigger was pulled, and a tiny puff of smoke issued from the dark tube. The air was full of the sounds of gunfire.
The first soldier backed through the gate and held it wide open. I leaned forward as I ran, feeling the weight of the pack on my shoulders. I smelled the sour tang of the Wolf at my heels.
I stumbled again, pitching forward. I reached out toward the nearest soldier as I fell and he dropped his rifle to grab at my arm. The other soldiers kept firing as I dropped to my knees.
BOOM. One more grenade exploded far away in the tree line.
The soldier pulled me up by the straps of my pack and together we lurched through the gate.
The others dropped back behind us, and I heard the rusty squeal of the metal closing behind us.
“All clear!” shouted one of them, and the lights of Eden dimmed for a moment as the remaining power surged back through the wires.
The Wolves pulled up short, but the lead beast slid right into the live wires. Sparks showered us and we smelled the burning flesh as the last of Eden’s power electrocuted the ‘saur, the surge sputtering out all the lights in the camp. The Wolf behind it bounced unharmed off the wires.
I shrugged the pack off my shoulders and gave a weak nod as a soldier opened it. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open when he saw the power core inside. His gaze met mine for a moment before he turned and dashed away toward the generator.
The remaining two Wolves stalked away from the gate, circling Eden’s fence in opposite directions.
Soldiers surrounded me, clapping me on the back. I heard their excited voices, but their words meant nothing to me. My vision blurred and I stumbled away from the crowd, weaving blindly through the downed transports and wooden shanties of Eden.
General Enrico followed me. “How many Wolves followed you?” he asked.
My brain took a moment to focus on his words.
“There were four. One shot, one electrocuted.” I realized what he meant. “Two left. And they know there’s no power.”
Gunshots echoed far across the compound. General Enrico took off toward the sound, drawing the pistols from his belt. I took a deep breath and lifted my foot to follow.
Screaming. Right behind me. High pitched screams.
Scat it. Those are kids.
I spun around to see the stumpy tail of a Wolf disappear around the edge of one of our large transports. It was the one we used as a hospital.
By the time I reached the corner, the Wolf was gaining speed. The shrieks of terrified children echoed inside the metal transport shuttle and Mom and another woman were hauling on the huge wooden hatchway. The door was stuck open, rusted in the humid air.
Her eyes met mine and despite her fear, she smiled, then ducked inside.
The Wolf loped toward the open hatchway. I raised my gun and shot it four times fast. The first three bullets bounced off its back plates, but the fourth was lucky and caught it in the soft spot behind its knee. It stumbled and skidded to the ground right in front of the open transport hatch.
I crouched against the hull of the transport twenty feet from the ‘saur. I had plenty of rounds but no time to reload. My brain spun as I tried to remember how many shots I had fired since I saw Josh heading straight for the Crab outside the fence. Six? Eight? The guns in each hand held ten shots. I dropped the one that had to be nearly empty and switched the full one to my right hand.
The Wolf rounded on me. Bullets screamed from my gun, mostly bouncing off its hide. I fired and fired, squeezing the trigger. The thunder of the shots ended with a single empty click.
My last bullet hit the Wolf right in the mouth. As I scrambled toward the gun I’d dropped on the ground, the one with maybe two more rounds in it, the Wolf reared back on its hind legs, pawing at the bullet lodged in its jaw.
A deafening roar split the air and the Wolf jumped sideways, the soft underside of its neck exploding in a shower of bloody meat. It crashed to the ground, twitched, then stilled.
Mom emerged from the open transport door, rifle smoking in her hand.
“Holy steaming dino scat! Nice shot, Mom!”
She grinned. “Lived with the General these last few months. He taught me a few things.”
Exhaustion flattened me, and I collapsed. Mom rushed over and wrapped her arms around me just as the lights all around the compound sputtered to life.
“The power core,” I murmured.
“They got it working,” she said.
Children from inside the transport poured out, circling the dead Wolf in wonder. Malia was among them.
“You did it, Cay,” Mom said calling me by the babyish nickname I always hated. It didn’t sound so bad today. “You and Josh.” She raised her head and looked around. “Where is Josh?”
Three soldiers ran up to us and shooed the kids away from the dead Wolf.
“Josh . . .” I stuttered. “You have to find Josh.”
They stared at me, then rushed off. A few minutes later, the lights snapped off as the huge gate was opened, and our one remaining tank rumbled out into the jungle to search for my brother.
***
We had gotten the power on just in time.
While Mom and I took down one Wolf, the other had snuck through the wires on the other side of the compound. We lost five more people before a lucky shot brought it down. And it wasn’t the only ‘saur to notice the power out.
I sat in the hospital while General Enrico ordered our few remaining soldiers to drag the dead Wolves away to be butchered.
“We’ve never eaten Wolf before,” he joked. “These two will keep us fed for a couple of days at least. Shame we didn’t get one of the Rexes.”
He had been at the fence-line when the Rexes in the jungle heard all the shots. He had seen them come lumbering out of the trees, felt the ground shake under their heavy footsteps. Facing the Wolf, I hadn’t even noticed.
“They saw the Wolf come through. Wouldn’t have thought they were smart enough to figure it out, but they knew it meant the fences weren’t live. Another minute or so . . .” He trailed off.
“It didn’t surge.” When a ‘saur hit the fence, it always surged. Sometimes it killed whatever power source we were using.
“No. One of the transformers blew when the power kicked back on, sparked everywhere. The Rexes saw it, thank the shining stars. Decided we weren’t worth the jolt today. Headed back for the jungle. Eden lives another day.”
I sighed. “And then what?”
Mom dabbed antiseptic onto the scabs that covered my body. The sting kept my mind off the waiting, listening for the return of the tank. “Then we just . . . keep going,” she said. Her eyes kept wandering to the transport’s door, hoping Josh would walk through it.
“We have one power core,” I said, wincing as she dabbed a wound under my armpit. “How long can we last? One more ‘saur rushes the fence and the power surges out. No more Eden base.”
General Enrico shook his head. “Caleb’s right. We have to find a better situation. Somewhere safe.”
Images floated through my exhausted brain. Somewhere safe. Somewhere high in a mountain where ‘saurs couldn’t climb.
“I know where we can go.”
The lights died, signaling the power cut that allowed the gate to be opened. Mom dropped the antiseptic-soaked rag and we dashed outside, blinking in the morning sunlight.
Our huge tank rumbled through the gate.
Mom grabbed my hand as the top hatch popped open.
Josh stuck his head out the hole, face split in a grin. “Hey, Mom. Hey, Squirt. What do you say we move this show to the mountains?”
Chapter 36
It took two days to make the trip. Josh and I had left my sat trans with Sara in the caves, and its charge died halfway through the conversation with her
that we were coming. All of us.
We took the children first. With one power core to charge two shuttles and keep the fence live, we were cutting it very close.
“People first, then equipment,” General Enrico shouted. Everyone scurried around, collecting what we thought was most important in case the power didn’t allow everything to go. Once Malia was safely shuttled away, I helped Mom pack up the medical supplies.
“They’re not as important as the food,” she said. “But we’ll take all we can.”
The caves would keep us safe, but as far as I had explored, they were nothing but hollowed-out rock. Nothing to eat, and nowhere for our few remaining sheep to forage. We’d still have to brave the jungle on hunting trips. General Enrico was sending all the extra wire ahead, in hopes of staking out a bit of land at the mountain’s base where we could grow our crops. But at least we could sleep in safety.
Mom and her medical supplies were on the last shuttle run.
“This is all the power we have,” said the pilot. “We’ll make it back to the caves, but not back here again.”
I had volunteered to be part of the final squad. We watched the shuttle sail away over the trees, taking the last of our power with it. Four of us stood in the quiet compound, suddenly noticing the sounds of the forest without the buzz of the electric wire.
“‘Saurs’ll be here soon,” said General Enrico looking out across the remains of our camp. “They’ve been watching.”
We piled into the tank and rumbled out through the open gate. I peered through the little porthole, reminded of the day I’d first left these fences. Had it only been a week? I felt at least a decade older. The tank bumped through the forest, its vibration obscuring the footfalls of the Rex that had been sniffing around the south fence-line.
It’s all yours, I thought. The empty transports. The lean-to shelters. Eden Base was returning to the jungle. We’re cave people now.
No one had heard from Shiro in three days. We all knew he was probably dead by now, and we were cutting it close on power to shuttle everyone to the caves. But I convinced General Enrico that even though it was three hours out of our way by tank, we had to look.
He wasn’t where we left him.
Half the tree he’d been sitting on was gone, the remainder jutting out over the river like an accusing finger pointing right at me. Too slow. You were too slow and now he’s dead. His sat trans battery was out of charge, but it still had a live beacon, and we followed it downriver nearly a kilometer. When we were within a few meters of the beacon, we popped the top of the tank open. I was the first out.
“Shiro?” I called, scanning the forest around the riverbank. My trans homed in on his and I followed its blinking light into a hollow under the riverbank. Shiro lay there facedown, unmoving, the General’s makeshift splint still tight on his leg.
I knelt down by his body and laid a hand on my friend.
“Fly free, Shiro,” I whispered.
He was still warm.
Stars. My pulse pounded in my ears. Please please please.
I rolled him over.
His eyelids fluttered.
I popped my head up over the hollow and hissed toward the tank. “General Enrico! He’s here!”
Shiro was barely conscious as we dragged him up the bank. It took all four of us to get him into the tank, and I cradled his head in my lap the whole way back to the caves.
By the time we arrived, the caves were a hive of activity. Someone directed me to the room Mom and Malia had picked for themselves. I poked my head in.
“Mom, we need you. Shiro’s alive!”
She darted past me out the passage toward the room where all her medical equipment was piled up. I knew he was in good hands.
I knelt on the cave floor next to Malia.
“We made it,” I said.
Malia plopped into my lap.
“Hey, Mali. You forgot this,” I said. I pulled an old worn blanket out of my pack. She had brought it down from Horizon and slept with it every night, its edges frayed and soft. Somehow it had been left behind in the frenzy of packing. She grabbed it and laughed. The sound lifted my heart.
I figured I would bunk in here, but Malia pointed to an adjoining room.
“Mom says you’re too old to stay in here with us,” she said. “Your room’s in there. Mom says you can keep an eye on us.”
***
We spent the following weeks exploring our new home. Squads of us probed deeper into the mountain, mapping out the endless corridors of the cave system. We used up a lot of our precious paper until one night I noticed Sara squatting in the room where the birdman’s mummy still lay undisturbed.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her. I hadn’t seen much of her since we all arrived, and had been too busy to wonder where she was.
“Translating,” she said. She gestured around the room. “He left us a key. He drew it all out in pictograms . . . what the scratch marks mean. His language.”
I studied the walls of the little room where images of bird men accompanied more of the strange, scratchy writing. My eyes were drawn to a familiar shape painted on most of one wall. I held up the paper in my hand, comparing the images.
“It’s a map.” I said. “A map of the caves.”
Sara looked at the paper I held. “That’s exactly what it is.”
“Can you read this yet? There’s writing all over it.”
She shook her head. “I’m working on it. I’ll let you know.”
***
Two months after we arrived in the caves, we gathered in the great hall. The blue twinkle of the glowworms coating the cave’s stalactite ceiling made us feel like we were sitting outside beneath the stars.
We had added to the bird people’s paintings.
On the farthest wall of the cave, we added names.
Every name we could remember of the people who were on board Horizon when we entered orbit. All those unaccounted for, who didn’t land in Eden with us and must surely be dead by now.
All those lost in the early days when this harsh planet and its inhabitants tried to kill us all. Soldiers, engineers, scientists. The members of Josh’s ill-fated mission.
Viktor and Raj, Cara’s dad, Mr. Hague, all lost when our shuttle crashed.
Jack. Brent. General Carthage.
Their names were painted on these safe walls. Their lives wouldn’t be forgotten.
I ran my fingers over the cool stone wall as I entered the hall and sat on the floor near the front of the crowd. Some people had brought chairs or cushions, but most of us sat on blankets on the smooth stone. I looked around at all the familiar faces.
Mom sat near the far wall on a bench with Malia cuddled at her side. Mom smiled when she caught my eye, and gave me an encouraging nod. I wiped my sweaty hands on my pants leg and looked back toward the front of the cave.
Shiro nudged me from behind. “Big night tonight, buddy.”
I grinned at him. He still looked awful, and Mom said he might always limp, but thanks to the General’s splint, he wouldn’t lose his leg. He hadn’t yet told anyone about his days alone on the river, and I didn’t push him. But since the day we found him on the riverbank, he’d always called me “buddy.” No more “Squirt.”
General Enrico spoke from the front of the room. “Welcome, friends. Take your seats and let’s get started.”
The murmuring quieted as his voice echoed through the space.
“We gather today to honor and remember those lost when our home planet was destroyed. Without the cooperation of all Earth’s scientists, all governments and all peoples, mankind would have been lost forever. We, the descendants of the brave heroes who embarked on a two hundred year voyage to an unknown future, give thanks that through the sacrifice of the world, humans will persevere.”
My eyes glazed over. These words were the same every year, spoken on Earth Day, the day we predicted the Earth must have crashed into Jupiter and been destroyed. I didn’t really need to hear the cer
emonial thanksgiving lecture to be grateful for my life here.
“And now let’s hear it for Caleb Wilde, who found our safe haven in the mountains.” The sound of a hundred people clapping startled me back to the present. General Enrico motioned for me to step up to the front of the cave and address the crowd. I sweated in the dim cool of the cavern.
I was supposed to make a speech. My throat tasted sour as I shuffled forward to stand next to General Enrico.
“Thank you, General,” I began. He nodded, encouraging. I scanned the faces of the crowd. Everyone was beaming at me. I swallowed and spoke again.
“We’ve been through a tough three years here. We’ve all lost people we loved.” I looked down at my shoes for a moment. “But this place . . . this is where we belong. It’s still a struggle, but if our ancestors could see this place, I think they’d be happy for us.”
I cleared my throat.
“But we wouldn’t be here without the guidance of one man. He kept us alive at Eden base, he found the power we needed, he taught me how to survive in the forest. And he died without knowing his sacrifice would help save us all. So I hereby declare this place be forever known as Carthage, in honor of the General who made it possible.”
“Carthage!” roared the crowd. General Enrico clapped me on the shoulder, and I returned to my seat. I looked over to Mom and saw her wiping tears from her cheeks.
Chapter 37
The crowd quieted down, and General Enrico spoke again.
“We are fortunate to be here, and fortunate to have a special treat tonight. Sara Arnson, will you please come forward?”
Sara stood up and joined the General.
“As you all know, I’ve been studying the writings and pictures on the walls of these caves since the day Caleb found them.” She glanced at me, and I grinned at her. She’d done little else from the moment she first saw the ancient paintings left by the strange birdman mummy. “It’s taken me all these months, and I had to guess a bit, but tonight I’d like to tell the story of the bird people that’s written on these walls around us.”