Bridgers 1_The Lure of Infinity

by Stan C. Smith

  She cursed silently and looked around for any possible escape. Other trees were growing near this one, but not near enough to climb from one to the next.

  The tourist said, “If we’re this high when the tree falls, we’ll be killed. Or we’ll be knocked to the ground when it hits one of the other trees. We have to move lower. Or we can just surrender.”

  “Not much of a choice,” she said.

  “I honestly don’t think they’re planning to eat us. There are plenty of game animals around, and these guys make excellent traps for them. Why would they go to this much trouble?”

  “Doesn’t mean they won’t kill us.”

  “Well, we’re about to find out.”

  She sighed and shook her head. After thinking for a few seconds, she said, “Okay, I’m going down. Stay here. Maybe I’ll be enough to satisfy them. If so, stay in this tree until bridge-back.” She lowered herself painfully to the limb below and began her descent.

  The creatures stopped chewing on the tree when they realized what she was doing. With their tracking animals beside them, they stood in a circle, waiting.

  Infinity was still considering the possibility of fighting when she stepped to the ground. But when she turned to face the bird men, she realized it would be useless at best and suicide at worst. There were too many of them. And their leashed animals, although smaller than their masters, looked just as formidable.

  Despite being fully aware it had done her no good the day before, she spoke softly. “I’m not here to hurt you. Please don’t hurt me.”

  Several of them held their crossbows in front of them with both hands, ready to pull back the strings with their beaks. Three of them stepped forward, holding out loops of rope, obviously intending to lasso her.

  She almost dropped to her knees to allow them to rope her more easily. But then it occurred to her that if she made them work for it, they might decide the tourist wasn’t worth the effort.

  They stepped closer, readying their ropes. Their round, unblinking eyes darted up and down her body, as if they weren’t sure which part of her would prove to be most dangerous.

  Infinity looked at the creature approaching on her left and spoke directly to it. “I killed your buddy. I’m going to kill you, too.” Then she took a step to the side and threw a roundhouse kick to the bird directly in front of her, catching it off guard. Her foot connected, but the pain in her hip made her double over. Before she could straighten up, the creatures were all over her, and she collapsed under their weight.

  Beaks clamped onto her wrists and ankles, but only hard enough to prevent her from flailing. Meaty, prehensile tongues explored her skin, tasting or perhaps feeling her.

  “Infinity!”

  “Shut up!” she shouted, her face being pressed into the dead leaves and soil. “Stay where you are!”

  The creatures deftly tied lengths of rope around her arms and legs, immobilizing her. The bird men then dragged her face down until she was several yards away from the tree. She managed to turn her head to see what they’d do next. They squawked for a few moments, looking up at the tourist. And then, except for two of them that stayed at her side, they went right back to work tearing the trunk apart one bite at a time.

  At the edge of her field of vision, Infinity saw the tourist making his way to the ground. The bird men again stopped their assault on the tree and waited. As soon as his feet hit the ground they were on him, holding him down and binding his feet and hands. They dragged him over and roughly dropped him next to her.

  Infinity grunted and rolled onto her back. The creatures and their tracking animals stood over them, taking in every detail. One of the bird men let out a long sequence of squawks and chitters.

  Suddenly, the tourist opened his mouth and mimicked the series of shrill sounds. The sounds were created by a human mouth, so they certainly weren’t exact, but they definitely were similar, and in the same sequence. The bird men went completely still. Infinity turned and stared at Desmond. He had managed to surprise her again.

  After several long seconds of silence, the creature the tourist had mimicked took a step closer. It spoke again, a different sequence of bird squawks.

  The tourist repeated the sequence, doing a decent job of mimicking every sound except the highest screeches.

  11

  Curiosity

  Twelve tracking animals and twelve bird men stared down at Desmond, the latter obviously startled by his attempt to mimic their language. This was good. He had hoped it would make them curious rather than murderous.

  The individual that had talked directly to him spoke again, and Desmond again did his best to repeat the sounds. His ability to recall long sequences of information, which was normally of little practical value, was serving him well at this moment. The creatures gathered around closer, and some of them leaned down to gaze at Desmond’s face. For the first time, he took note of the finer details of their appearance. Their overall structure was somewhere between a large flightless bird, like an emu, and a theropod dinosaur, like a velociraptor. The bird men stood about five feet tall, although their necks made up at least twelve inches of that height. Their heads were approximately the size of a human head. Round, two-inch eyes capable of gazing straight forward for 3D vision sat near the top of the skull. They had almost no forehead, so their brains, which were obviously well developed, must have been arranged directly behind their faces, near the back of the skull. Their tan-colored beaks, although smaller than those of the predators Desmond had seen yesterday, were about five inches in both height and length, and had already proven to be formidable. A brown coat of fine feathers covered their entire bodies except for their three-fingered hands and three-toed feet. Their hands, half the size of Desmond’s, included two fingers and an opposable thumb, with no visible claws or fingernails. They wore no ornamentation or decorative markings other than lengths of rope and various tools and weapons looped around their necks.

  The tracking animals were no more than three feet tall, appearing to be smaller versions of the predators that had attacked Desmond’s group minutes after they’d bridged. The trackers’ predator-like beaks were proportionally larger than those of their masters. But their overall anatomy was similar: brown coat of feathers, round eyes, three toes, and three fingers, although their toes and fingers ended in black, inch-long claws, obviously better suited to tearing flesh than using tools.

  Desmond glanced over at Infinity. She had several new cuts on her arms and legs but otherwise seemed okay. She was staring at him, perhaps trying to decide if he’d gone mad.

  Before he could say anything to her, one of the bird men grabbed the ropes on Desmond’s ankles and dragged him a few yards. Two others took the ends of ropes that were draped around their necks and tied them to his ankle ropes. They did the same to Infinity’s. All of the creatures then turned and walked down the hillside, roughly dragging Desmond and Infinity behind them.

  Desmond was able to twist his body several times to avoid being dragged over jagged rocks, but the friction of the bare ground against his skin was already taking a toll. He heard Infinity grunting in pain as she tried to maneuver herself to avoid the worst of the rocks.

  When they arrived at the narrow stream at the bottom of the ravine, the creatures dragged Desmond and Infinity into the water and stopped. Several of them stooped over and used their hands to scoop water onto the humans’ skin and wipe off the layers of mud. When they revealed the bird tattoo on Infinity’s chest, the creatures began another round of staring and talking, as if they were trying to decide exactly what to make of it. The bird men then took turns leaning in to poke and caress the humans’ skin, ears, and toes, as well as most of their other parts.

  “Be cooperative,” Infinity said. “Don’t do anything to make them think it’s not worth the trouble to keep you alive. Your only goal now is to live until bridge-back. If they plan to kill us, we have to find ways to stall them.”

  “I think they’re curious about us,” Desmond said. “
They have no idea what we are.”

  “Then continue to be interesting. Mimicking their speech was good.”

  Desmond realized the creatures were listening to them talk. Every minute the bird men continued to be curious was one minute closer to bridge-back. “That sounded almost like a compliment,” he said, and then he forced himself to laugh out loud. He started with a deep guffaw and ended with a high twitter, sounding completely ridiculous the entire time.

  Infinity stared at him. “Are you losing it, tourist?”

  “I’m trying to be interesting. They seem fascinated by our voices.”

  Infinity remained silent for a moment. Suddenly she began chanting, “Hey ho, let’s go. Hey ho, let’s go. They’re forming in a straight line. They’re going through a tight wind.”

  Desmond blinked at her. And then he realized she was singing—or at least trying to “Blitzkrieg Bop” by the Ramones. The bird men watched silently as she continued through the song. Finally she ended with one last, “Hey ho, let’s go.”

  The entire group of creatures continued staring for several seconds. The individual who had spoken to them first—perhaps the leader—emitted a complex series of birdcalls. Several of the others came forward, removed the ropes they’d used to drag the humans down the hill, and tied them around Desmond’s and Infinity’s necks. Then they removed the restraints from the humans’ ankles and handed them to a bird man whose purpose seemed to be carrying heavy coils of rope.

  They forced Desmond and Infinity to get to their feet. And then the bird men began making their way up the next hill, pulling the prisoners behind them.

  After what must have been at least an hour of walking, Desmond began to worry about Infinity. Every step was causing her to grunt, and he could scarcely imagine the pain she was enduring. If she lost consciousness, would the bird men kill her on the spot?

  “Wherever we’re going, it can’t be much farther,” he said. “If you need me to, I’ll carry you the rest of the way.”

  She glanced over at him and shook her head but didn’t reply.

  “They must intend to keep us alive,” he said, although he had already decided this was a false hope. If they were being taken somewhere to be butchered and eaten, the bird men would probably rather make them walk than carry their bodies. Also, the longer they were kept alive, the fresher their flesh would be.

  Desmond studied the beak of the nearest bird man. It didn’t have the look of a predator’s beak. It was obviously powerful, but the biting edges lacked serrations. These creatures were either herbivores or omnivores. This was only mildly comforting, considering humans were omnivores and ate plenty of meat.

  Desmond noticed they were now walking on a well-worn path, and soon the path was running parallel to a river. It could have been the same river that ran beneath the cave where Lenny and Xavier were hiding miles away, but if so then here it was wider and deeper. They were still walking through dense forest, but the area across the river opened into a wide, treeless meadow. Several bird men were scattered around the meadow, and Desmond realized it was an agricultural field, planted with waist-high stalks with green bulges at their tips. The bird men were farmers.

  One of the bird men leading the humans screeched. This was answered by a similar call from somewhere ahead. Apparently they were approaching their destination. This perhaps meant that rest was within sight for Infinity, but more likely their situation was about to worsen.

  Desmond saw an open area ahead, and as they approached it several small creatures in the trees began screeching at them. The bird men ignored this clatter as if they had expected it. Finally, the path opened into a wide, flat riverbank of copper-colored gravel. The river ran along one edge of the gravel, and fifty yards from the water was a vertical cliff face, even taller than the one where they’d left Lenny and Xavier. The cliff extended upstream along the river for at least a quarter mile.

  Most striking about the entire scene was that it proved the bird men were far more sophisticated than Desmond had previously guessed. Numerous circular openings to dwellings had been carved into the vertical cliff face, accessible by ladders made of wood and rope, and with rope loops spaced regularly from bottom to top. Dozens of bird people were scattered about on the gravel riverbank working on various tasks. When they noticed the humans, they stopped what they were doing and approached to take a closer look. Several smaller carnivorous pets—the same type as the tracking animals—were milling about. The small, noisy creatures that had fussed at them from the trees came scampering across the gravel, emitting their shrill calls. At the far end of the gravel bar, a massive creature—almost the size of an elephant but on two legs—was dragging a boulder from the cliff face. The creature wore an elaborate rope harness, and two bird men were leading it with leashes.

  Bird men surrounded the humans as their captors stopped. Numerous conversations took place at once, sounding like a bird house at a zoo. Desmond and Infinity were prodded and touched all over again, and the creatures pointed at Infinity’s bird tattoo as they cackled. Some of the creatures even grabbed them gently with their beaks, tasting their skin with finger-like tongues. This went on for several long minutes.

  Two bird men pushed through the onlookers. They each carried a bowl that appeared to have been carved or chewed from solid wood. They both placed the bowls on the ground. One contained water, the other a pile of some kind of seeds or fruit, looking like golf balls covered in green velvet. The bird men used their toes to push the bowls closer to Desmond and Infinity, making it clear they were offering the contents.

  “Don’t eat the food,” Infinity said. “If it’s toxic, it could kill you in minutes. But we should drink the water. To keep them happy.”

  Desmond’s arms were tightly bound above the wrists, but he could grasp the bowl and raise it to his mouth. Although speckled with sediment, the water was cool, and he drank it desperately, realizing suddenly how much he needed it. He forced himself to quit when half of it was gone and handed it to Infinity. She finished it off.

  One of the bird men nudged the food bowl closer with its toe. Desmond and Infinity ignored it, prompting a round of squawks, whistles, and clicks.

  Having apparently come to a consensus, the entire group of bird men and their pets began walking, leaving the bowls behind and pulling Desmond and Infinity with them. They walked upstream along the gravel bar, passing numerous dark openings carved into the cliff, each with a ladder of rope loops and wooden rungs hanging from it. The lower openings were fifteen feet above the gravel bar, probably due to occasional river flooding. Or perhaps as protection from predators.

  About halfway between the downstream and upstream ends of the cliff face, Desmond saw a group of five openings that were rectangular instead of circular. Beyond these five were more of the circular openings. The group approached the cluster of rectangular openings and came to a rest directly below them. Everyone grew quiet, as if waiting.

  They didn’t have to wait long. Dark shapes emerged from three of the rectangular holes almost immediately.

  Desmond glanced over at Infinity.

  “Remember, be interesting,” she said.

  The emerging creatures were clearly of a different species. Black feathers, rather than brown, covered their bodies. And they had black beaks, unlike the tan beaks of the brown bird men.

  The black birds began descending the ladders, and Desmond realized the rope loops were there to provide a grip for their beaks. Again, he thought of parrots climbing about their cages.

  Once they were on the ground, Desmond could see that the black birds were at least as tall as he was, about a foot taller than the brown bird men. But the most remarkable aspect of their appearance was that they were each adorned with dozens of elaborately-beaded cords. They wore them around their necks, chests, arms, and legs. Each cord was strung with objects of alternating colors and shapes: rocks, mollusk shells, insect parts, and other things that were difficult to identify. Against the birds’ black feathers, these cords
were striking, even beautiful.

  The brown bird men and their pets moved aside as the black birds approached and stopped before Desmond and Infinity. Like the others, they had three fingers and three toes. Unlike the brown irises of the smaller birds’ eyes, these creatures’ irises were black, making it difficult to tell exactly what they were looking at.

  One of them spoke. Its squawks and chirps were deeper than those of the smaller bird people. But apparently the language was the same, because several of the brown birds replied at once. The brown birds went on for minutes, perhaps explaining the circumstances of encountering and catching the humans. As the black birds listened, they stepped forward and began feeling, tasting, and probing.

  Finally, one of the black birds interrupted the extensive explanation with a series of cackles and whistles. Seconds later, a brown bird came forward with a weapon. It was a four-foot stick two inches in diameter, with a sharpened stone spearhead attached at each end—a short, double-tipped spear.

  This was it, Desmond realized. He and Infinity were about to be killed. He had to recapture their interest. He looked directly at the black bird who had given the order and repeated its last sequence, doing his best to approximate each of the unique sounds.

  The three black birds gazed at him. The one he had mimicked gave another order. Several brown birds stepped in and removed all the ropes from the humans’ necks and arms. Another brown bird came forward with a second double-tipped spear and handed it to Desmond. The crowd backed up except for the brown bird holding the other weapon, forming a wide circle with Desmond, Infinity, and the armed bird in the center.

  “This doesn’t look good,” Infinity said. “Give me that weapon.”