The Seasoning

by Dennis Ingram

  Roberto grabbed Joyce’s feet, and together they crossed over and plunged into the woods.

  “Now where?” Roberto asked.

  “I’m heading over toward the far side of the cavern. You stay here and mind the bridge,” Jake said, water running down his face and dripping off his nose.

  “Fuck that, I’m not leaving you alone with her.”

  “I don’t have time to argue with you. Someone has to guard the bridge because that’s the way they’ll come.”

  “And what’m I supposed to do when they do? Shoot them?”

  Jake snorted. “Well, you do seem to have a talent for shooting colonists.”

  “Ha fucking ha. There’s no way I’m stayin’ here while you take that girl away.”

  Jake could see Roberto edging toward panic again and decided he’d have to compromise.

  “OK. I’ll go over behind that big tree over there, see?” he said, nodding his head. “Come back in an hour and I’ll relieve you.”

  “Shit.” Roberto paced back and forth. “Don’t you go foolin’ with her, now,” he said, pointing at Jake. “We need her in one piece, OK? We need somethin’ to trade with.”

  “Sure. Don’t sweat it. See you in an hour.”

  David’s head broke the surface of the water close to the bridge. The artificial rain fell with a steady beat from the roof of the cavern, the overhead lights casting dim halos in the misty air. He tasted the plastic scabbard in his mouth and felt soft, yielding clay under his hands. He inched forward until his eyes cleared the riverbank, then froze, his senses focused like a panther’s, searching for his prey.

  At first he heard nothing, saw nothing. Then the hint of a sound masked by the steady pattering of the rain. His head snapped to a small movement that teased the corner of his eye, and again he waited, until he could make out the silhouette of man sheltering under a tree, sidearm drawn.

  Roberto. He stomped on the rage blossoming at the sight of the man who’d shot his wife, and the ice took control again. There’d be time later for rage, for grief.

  He waited again, listening, watching, but he couldn’t locate Joyce, or Jake.

  He crept out of the water and stalked his quarry, silent and invisible in the underbrush.

  John ran into the stasis control room. They’d parked the lander containing the stasis chamber outside the habitat, connecting it to a new building on the inside, which contained the controls and the accumulators used to instantiate the stasis field.

  John found he wasn’t alone. Five faces looked up as he burst into the room, surprise written all over them. John’s eyes widened as he took in the scene. He recognized them all – Ernie, Chuck, Tracey, Gena, and Heinrich. He felt like kicking himself. He shouldn’t have been surprised to find them there, they always seemed to be looking for something to tinker with.

  His eyes went to the control console, where wires trailed out of an open panel.

  “Shit!” he said.

  “John? What’re you doing here?” Ernie said, eying the pistol pushed into his belt. “John?”

  “Ernie – mate, I don’t have time to explain it all.” He grimaced. “Grace … Grace got shot and it’s not good.”

  Gena’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God!”

  Ernie understood at once. “The stasis chamber!”

  John nodded. “She’s hurt too bad for Veronika to fix right now.” His eyes darted to the console again. His voice caught in his throat. “It’s her only chance, mate.” He saw sympathy and understanding on their faces. All except Heinrich, who crossed his arms.

  “We are not authorized to use this facility for anything other than testing.” He glanced at John’s pistol. “You are also supposed to be in custody. What are you doing here?”

  John’s eyes hardened. “I don’t have time to argue with you. Grace lies dying while we’re talking about it.” He looked at Ernie. “Will you help?”

  Ernie glared at Heinrich.

  “I’m pretty sure we’re authorized to run a test,” Tracey said.

  “Now’s a good time!” Chuck said.

  Ernie looked at John, a twinkle in his eyes. “We’ll need a test subject.”

  John nodded, his lips twitching in the briefest of smiles. “Thanks, Ernie.” He looked at everyone except Heinrich. “Thanks all of you.”

  “Give us twenty minutes,” Ernie said. “We’ll charge the accumulators while Gena and Tracey put the console back together.”

  John nodded and dashed back out the door.

  The others turned to their tasks. All except Heinrich, who slipped out of the door and headed back toward the park.

  Vasily tied his shirt over the barrel of the rifle and pushed it stock first into the side of the waterfall, trying to keep it dry. He followed, wriggling his way across, pushing the rifle ahead of him. On the other side he collected the rifle, leaving the shirt, realizing the bright red color would make him too visible. He hesitated for a moment, then grabbed a double handful of mud and daubed himself with a camouflage pattern with quick sweeps of his hands. It began to wash off in the rain. He shrugged and ran off into the bamboo grove that grew on this side of the river, slower this time, understanding the need for stealth.

  Kevin jog-trotted down the path leading to Solar Park, Josh and Nigel close behind. Just before they cleared the trees lining the edge of the park, he held up a hand to bring them to a halt.

  Overhead, the lights flickered on and the artificial rain cascaded down. Kevin glanced up then turned to his two companions. “I hope this water drives most of the others inside, out of harm’s way. I don’t think we need to worry about the passengers. None of them signed up to fight, so I think they’ll stay out of the way. Edward, Carla, and the security team will be the biggest problem. We don’t know for sure where Jake and Roberto went, so it’s possible there may be eight of them altogether. As for the professionals, the engineers and scientists – I don’t know which way they’ll jump. Most of them are sympathetic toward us, but it’s hard to be sure.”

  “So what do we do?” Josh asked.

  “They’ll know something is up. They may or may not have heard the gunshot, but they’ll have seen the kids come for the ice. Even if one of the guards didn’t see them, someone must have, and we have to assume they passed that on.”

  “If that didn’t do it, this will,” Nigel said, holding a hand out, palm up. The rain splashed on his palm and cascaded to the ground.

  Kevin nodded.

  “So what do we do?” Josh asked again.

  “We’ll stick together for now,” Kevin said, “and circle around behind the houses and try to disarm Edward and his core team. Then we’ll contain them and the engineers in the pavilion until we get further orders from David.”

  “What if they resist?” Josh asked.

  “We shoot them,” Kevin said. He looked Josh in the eye. “Can you do that?”

  Josh shifted his feet. “You mean in the legs, or something?”

  “If you can safely disable rather than kill, then yes,” Kevin replied. “But otherwise, shoot to kill. Better them than us.” He glanced at Nigel before returning his focus to Josh. “Do you understand? You must be ruthless if you need to.”

  Nigel nodded, and Kevin could see the steel behind his mild exterior.

  Josh swallowed and rubbed his chin. “OK.”

  Kevin could tell he needed convincing. “Do what you have to,” he told him. “Remember Veronika. Remember your family. They’re depending on you.”

  He saw a spark in Josh’s eyes and knew his words had struck home. “Now, let’s check our weapons.”

  Roberto twitched and checked his pistol for the hundredth time. He squinted out into the misty rain, but couldn’t see anyone near the bridge. Now and again he snapped a nervous glance over his shoulder, even though trouble shouldn’t come from that direction.

  He didn’t like this. He didn’t like it at all. Jake’s insistence on splitting them up didn’t make any kind of sense to him, and he felt pissed
about being isolated and worried about Jake’s intentions.

  He heard nothing of David’s approach until a sudden explosion of movement from the bushes behind him. One strong hand clamped over his mouth, the other chopped the pistol from his hand. He didn’t have time to struggle or fight back before David sliced his throat from ear to ear with the bayonet and pushed his face into the ground. He held him in a vice-like grip, not saying a word, as Roberto’s lifeblood pulsed into the wet earth. Roberto struggled a moment longer before laying very, very still.

  David wiped his bayonet on Roberto’s shirt and hunkered down again to watch and listen.

  Heinrich pulled up short of Edward’s door, breathing hard. He knew better than to try and bypass the guard. “They’ve escaped,” he said, after sucking down a deep breath.

  With the need to cycle through shifts at the warehouse, only a single guard remained on duty – Christian Bayer.

  “You’re sure?”

  He nodded. “Positive. John Coultas just turned up at the stasis chamber. One of their people got shot and he wants to use it for them.”

  Christian pressed his lips together. “Wait here,” he said, and he trotted off to the house they used for barracks.

  Heinrich straightened, having regained his breath. He looked up in surprise when the lights came on and rain began to fall. He’d seen the artificial rain before, but never the ceiling lights. They cast an eerie artificial moonlight that made him shiver, despite the residual warmth from the day’s sun.

  When Christian didn’t return, he looked at Edward’s door, wondering if he dared knock. He made up his mind and steeled himself to raise his fist and pound on the door. Edward had to know.

  Jake had lied. Once he’d disappeared behind the tree he’d pointed out to Roberto, he’d kept on going, striking toward the western side of the cavern’s main opening.

  He pushed on through the rain until they reached a stand of pines, where he dragged Joyce into the trees and thrust her to the ground, a hand still over her mouth.

  “You so much as squeak and I’ll kill you, understand?”

  Joyce nodded, her eyes wide, and Jake withdrew his hand. “You sit there, OK? Just sit there and don’t make a sound.”

  Joyce nodded again, and sat up, drawing her knees to her chest.

  Satisfied for the moment, Jake made a show of checking his gun and then looked around. The dim, filtered light made it hard to see much, but they seemed to be alone. He relaxed a little and tried to think.

  Damn Roberto! Why did he have to shoot the girl’s mother? He’d bring them down like avenging angels, and they couldn’t stop them. They had nowhere to run. He cared nothing for Roberto and would toss him to the wolves if the opportunity presented itself, but even sacrificing Roberto wouldn’t guarantee his own continued existence.

  Jake glanced at the girl. The rain had soaked her clothes, so they clung to her body. He felt a stirring in his loins, and a little voice spoke at the back of his mind. What does it matter what you do now? You’re a dead man anyway, why not take a little pleasure before you go? You’ll never get another chance, will you?

  Vasily looped around the back of the cavern, padding from cover to cover like a stalking panther. He felt himself drop into the mindset of a hunter. He knew if he allowed himself to worry, he’d be lost. At each stop he paused and ranged with his senses, listening, looking, smelling.

  Nothing.

  He needed to be cautious, but he also didn’t have time to waste. Who knew what could be happening to Joyce, right now?

  He cut back into the trees and headed toward the bridge – perhaps he would run into them coming from that direction. He ran on, the rain continuing to fall, the dim light from above painting the forest floor with shadows.

  Jake eyed Joyce like a crocodile might look at a stray chicken that had wandered into striking range. He pounced on her, straddling her and pinning her to the ground. She let out a frightened yelp before he could clamp one big paw over her mouth again.

  He licked his lips and his eyes glittered. “I’d save you as a bargaining chip, but what’ve I got to lose? Nothing. Nothing at all,” he said, answering his own question.

  Joyce trembled like a leaf in the wind, but try as she might, she couldn’t so much as move a muscle. She felt sure she Jake would kill her.

  Joyce’s terror only seemed to arouse Jake more. He reached down and tore her T-shirt, grinning as he eyed her body. “My my, what do we have here?” he said, reaching out to touch her chest.

  Joyce’s eyes bulged. She tried to scream, but her voice froze in her throat.

  Jake leered at her. “Oh yes, little miss. You and me are gonna have some fun tonight.”

  John grabbed at the door frame as he ran flat-out into the warehouse, legs pumping and heart fit to burst. He skidded to a stop where Grace lay on the floor on an improvised stretcher, her body mounded with ice. Veronika looked up, a question in her eyes.

  He swallowed hard and found his voice. “It’s all set. It’ll be another fifteen minutes. We need to get her there now.”

  Veronika jumped up and bent to pick up one end of the stretcher. John did likewise for the other end, but Veronika shook her head.

  “No, John. You’ve done your part. You’re needed with the others now. Leave Grace to us.”

  John looked into her eyes a moment, then nodded. He turned his attention instead to the carryall.

  “Heidi?” Veronika asked. Heidi hastened to take the other end of the stretcher.

  “What shall we do?” asked Nathalie.

  “Take the kids home, hon. We need to know they’re safe,” John replied.

  Nathalie’s face said she’d rather be with the others, but she nodded. “D’accord. But come back to us soon.”

  She herded the little ones together, looking to Elizabeth for help. But Elizabeth shook her head. “I’m going with Grace,” she said, her jaw set. She turned to John. “Give me a gun.”

  John shook his head. “No way, love. They’re far too dangerous.”

  “Do you think they’re as dangerous as not being able to defend ourselves?” she asked. “I’m going to make sure Grace is put into that stasis chamber, and I’m not going to let anyone stop us.” She fixed John with a steely gaze.

  John returned her stare for a moment, then nodded. He didn’t like it, but he liked the thought of Elizabeth going undefended even less. He reached into the carryall and extracted a pistol and a clip. “Here,” he said, showing her. “You put the clip in here and load the first round by pulling the slide back like this.” He chambered a round. “Make sure the safety is off,” he said, pointing. “Hold it in both hands like this and squeeze the trigger. Be careful when you shoot, it will recoil and pull high.” He engaged the safety and handed the pistol to her. “Don’t use it unless you have to, OK?”

  “I won’t, Dad, don’t worry.” She took the pistol and turned to leave.

  Nathalie stood with wide eyes, imploring John not to let her go. John shook his head. “It’s the way it has to be, love,” he said.

  One assault rifle and two pistols remained. John took the rifle and three cartridges, then zipped the carryall and handed it to Nathalie.

  “You saw what I showed Lizzie?”

  She nodded.

  “Then take these. I hope to hell you don’t need them, but better safe than sorry.”

  John swept Nathalie into his arms and Nathalie crushed John’s lips to her own.

  “Prenez garde, mon amour. Take care.”

  “Moi? Toujours!” He kissed her again before hurrying away.

  Nathalie shouldered the bag and ushered the children along. “Stay close, mes petites. We’re going home.”

  David heard Joyce’s first yelp in the distance. The rain muffled it and made it difficult to tell the direction, but it sounded as if it came from the west side of the cavern. He set off in that direction, padding along like a jaguar. The scream that followed told him all he needed to know. He swerved left and made straight for t
he sound, the bayonet once more clenched between his teeth as he used both hands to help push his way through the undergrowth.

  As it turned out, the line Vasily ran put him close to Joyce’s position. As soon as he caught her startled yelp, he turned to his left and made his way straight to her location.

  Unlike Jake, he had the vast advantage of knowing every inch of the wild lands – he’d grown up with them, watching the trees develop year by year. He could tell straightaway where they’d be, and sure enough, as he came down a short rise to a clearing, he saw them next to the five pines.

  Jake was sitting on top of his sister. Vasily’s blood boiled and his head felt like it would explode. He didn’t have his father’s ability to bury his rage and use it to focus. He looked down at his gun. His hands shook so much he had trouble controlling them, but he forced himself to check the cartridge, check the safety, pull back the slide, and chamber the first round. He did everything he’d read and he prayed he’d done it right. He wouldn’t get another chance.

  Vasily looked up and wiped the rain out of his eyes, gauging the distance. Jake and Joyce looked to be about thirty meters away, and he knew he couldn’t shoot from here. He didn’t know the gun, and was worried he’d hit Joyce. So he walked into the clearing, step by step, keeping his eyes on Jake. The rain and the dim light ought to mask his approach – he hoped.

  He closed to twenty meters when Jake stood up to pull his pants down. Now – he had to act now! Vasily dropped to one knee, bringing the rifle to his shoulder. His hands trembled again and the rain stung his eyes.

  Don’t miss, don’t miss. The mantra resonated through his mind, along with Don’t hit Joyce, don’t hit Joyce.

  He imagined he was playing paintball again, and did what he’d done to earn his reputation as Haven’s best shot – a short breath in, long steady exhale. Both eyes open, right eye centering the bead on Jake.