by Darrell Bain
Lea followed, not quite as enthusiastically but unwilling to be left behind.
Maria hurried to keep up with Gary. She didn't quite understand why he wanted them to hurry into a dangerous situation on behalf of complete strangers. No one except him had ever offered to help her before and the attitude was foreign to her. She was learning to trust him though, and she was beginning to mimic his attitudes in her desire for a normal life. If he wanted to help the people in the floater, she was willing. From the sounds she could hear, she had doubts about them being in time though.
Only Booger Bear was hesitant. He didn't understand at all why his human wanted to rush into a fray with strangers and ferocious dogs as he thought of them. As soon as Gary missed him, he turned and saw him reluctantly following. “Come on Booger,” he said. “When we get close, you find a tree and wait on us. Stay out of it, understand?"
“Okay,” the black furred cat said. Climbing a tree sounded like a fine idea.
Within a few more minutes, even Gary and Lea could hear the sounds of wolves growling, humans screaming and the occasional shot from a gun. The explosive noises sounded far too few to him in relation to the number of different growls and snarls coming to them. As he listened, a horrible human scream was cut off abruptly, as though a throat had been ripped out. There were two more shots, then only the guttural growls of a pack of animals disputing their kill. Gary feared they were going to be too late to help anyone by the time they arrived at the scene. He was panting heavily as they rounded a final sharp curve in the old highway and saw the floater grounded in the middle of the tarmac. It was surrounded by a pack of almost two dozen large enhanced wolves, grayish red in color. The thin, rangy animals were divided into small groups, all tearing ravenously at bodies on the ground as if they hadn't eaten well lately. There were three bodies that he could see. At the back end of the floater, another three persons huddled together, protected by a single man with a hand weapon who waved it threateningly when a wolf came close. He was obviously saving power or bullets, probably both Gary thought. He began to run.
The wolves were so busy concentrating on their first victims that they didn't notice until Gary and the others got close. It was almost too close, as he soon found out. His first shot boomed amidst the growling of the pack, dropping one of them. It kicked and died. The others, alerted now, acted intelligently. They spread out and ran fast and low to the ground, obviously aware that a moving target was harder to hit. They growled and snarled with an occasional word in English mixed in as they ran.
Lea fired and missed three times in quick succession. Maria was calmer and took her time. Her first shot missed, but then she brought down one of the wolves. Gary was grateful now for his hours of practice with weapons at the firing range where he had worked. He knocked four of the vicious, starving animals down as they came close, emptying the rifle's clip and almost depleting the power pack with continuous laser fire. Maria's laserifle jammed at the same time. One of the charging animals saw the opportunity and came in low, intending to hamstring her. Gary screamed an oath and dived in front of it, taking the teeth that had been meant for Maria on his left arm. The jaws closed on his flesh with a horrible jolt of pain even as he drew his sidearm. He was on his knees by the time he got the gun barrel against the head of the wolf and pulled the trigger. Gore spattered out in a red cone as the slug exploded the wolf's head. He was barely in time to kill the next one as it closed in, and behind him he heard Lea's gun barking explosively.
Maria screamed like a panther making a kill as she saw the damage the wolf had done to Gary's arm. The wild screeching sound unnerved the remaining wolves. Most of them didn't understand that it was coming from a human. She fired at the ones that were close just as Lea finished emptying her weapon. Then the man who had been protecting his charges joined in with the last of his ammunition. More of the wolves dropped and the rest fled. Starving or not, they were too intelligent to press an attack that had failed and already cost many of them their lives. Had they seen how well armed the travelers were to begin with, they might not have attacked at all.
Gary turned in a half circle, still on his knees, looking for more of the fierce carnivores. Then the pain from his mangled arm washed over him and he groaned. He just managed to change clips and shakily holster his lasergun before his muscles weakened like wax under a hot summer sun. He fell onto his side, clutching his arm. He could see the ends of one of the bones in his forearm grating together in the open wound. He wondered dazedly whether both of them were broken while a mist seemed to hover in front of his eyes, spoiling his vision. Still, he had enough strength to speak. “Maria? Where are you ... are ... oh, I see.” Her image wavered in front of him. He squinted, trying to see if there was any blood on her but it was hard to tell through the mist.
“I'm fine. Hold still Gary, please hold still.” Maria said senselessly. She took his torn arm and held it while tears streamed down her cheeks, making darker streaks through the fine down on her face.
“Here,” Lea said. She knelt and pressed a pain ampule against Gary's neck and thumbed it into activity, then began examining his arm. She shook her head. “I don't have anything we took from the van to fix this. Maybe there's something in the floater."
“There is,” The man who had been single-handedly holding the feeding wolves away from the survivors from the floater said. He had come forward once he had gone hurriedly inside the floater cabin and replaced the powerpack and clip for his weapon from supplies there. His charges had gone with him, almost running over him in their anxiety to get back inside to the shelter of the floater.
Lea looked up at him and saw a lean, deeply tanned face above her. It was lined from the sun and he appeared to be at least her age. He had a receding hairline and threads of gray woven through his reddish hair. He wasn't very tall but there was no spare flesh at his waist. “Well, get it then,” she said irritably
“Wouldn't it be best for us all to get inside first? I don't know about you, but I don't want to face those goddamned beasts again."
“They're gone,” Maria said, her voice shaky.
“He's right though. Let's get inside. Help me with him.” Lea got her arms under Gary's shoulders then looked up again, more irritated than ever at his lack of help. Then she saw him pulling his gun. She looked behind her.
“Don't shoot mister. That's just Booger Bear."
Gary's cat had indeed climbed a tree while the shooting was going on, knowing he was no match for a wolf. He looked up at the man from the floater. “Bad dogs,” he said plainly.
The man's mouth opened then closed again. His thin lips turned up in a grin. “Damn straight they were bad dogs,” he said and secured his gun. He bent down and assisted Lea and Maria in getting Gary to his feet. Together they walked him to the floater and helped him inside, where he collapsed onto a passenger seat.
“I got you all bloody,” Gary managed to murmur as they laid him down. He tried to wink at Maria who was hovering close by, but only managed to shut both eyes. He kept them closed for a moment, then opened them again and looked toward the man who had been helping him.
“Don't worry about it. I'm just grateful to be alive enough to wash it off. I'm Jake Douglas, by the way, the pilot on this misbegotten trip."
“I'm Lea and this is Maria,” Lea said. “Maria, please help him. I have to go outside for a minute."
Both the pilot and Maria thought she must be going to be sick. Instead, she stepped down from the floater and went from the remains of body to bloody body, searching each of them until she had found what she was looking for.
* * *
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Maria hovered next to Gary in the double passenger seat like a mother cat protecting her kittens. She had seen the rage on his face when he thought the wolf was going to get her and remembered how instantly he responded by throwing himself in front of it to protect her, deliberately thrusting his arm between her and the wolf, readily accepting the harm meant for her. If she had an
ything to do with it, nothing would ever hurt him again, not if she had to die to prevent it. She didn't realize that the response she was showing demonstrated love, not just for a fellow human, but an emotional bonding with a man, something completely new to her.
“Do you have any water?” She asked the pilot, who had gone to get first aid supplies from the forward cabin and was just returning.
“Oh yeah, should have thought of that too.” Jake set his bag down and left. He drew a large pitcher of water from the tap that ran from the fuel cell. There was never a shortage of water on a floater; it was a byproduct of hydrogen combustion and salvaged through an osmotic membrane. He carried the pitcher and a stack of glasses back down the aisle between the passenger seats and handed them to Maria. “Here, you pour him some water while I get the wound dressing ready. You'll have to move over too; I'm gong to need some working room.” He began taking supplies from the bag.
Lea came back into the floater. When Jake saw her, he spoke up. “Was that a painkill shot I saw you give him?"
“Yes.” Leas saw what he was dragging from his bag and added, “I have some more if you need them."
“I've got plenty. You might want to help here though."
“I'll help,” Maria said instantly.
Jake saw the entreaty in her eyes. “All right. Give him some water then Lea can take the rest back to the passengers."
Maria held the glass while Gary drank thirstily. When he was finished, she knelt in front of Gary and followed the floater pilot's instructions, holding Gary's arm as tenderly as if it were made of the most fragile crystal. Lea came back and lent a hand as well. The two male passengers hadn't even thanked her for the water.
Gary watched abstractedly. The drug was working fine. He felt no pain at all and watched the proceedings as if they were being done to another person.
Jake first washed the wounds, then pulled gently on his arm until the two ends of the broken bone were lined up. He had Maria support it while Lea kept the tension on it, then he took a tube and squeezed a line of yellow paste directly into the wound. He set the tube aside and pulled the two sides of the gaping cut together. The semi-live gel immediately dissolved into thousands of tiny tendrils that burrowed into the raw flesh in both directions. Tiny hooks formed at the ends of the tendrils, then they shrank and tightened, holding the sides of the cut together as neatly and better than stitches would have. After a minute or two, Jake let loose and followed the same procedure for two smaller wounds.
“Now for some skin topper and this will be fixed,” he said. He cut off a strip of skin colored tape, peeled off the backing and laid it over the line of the closed wounds. This material sent its tendrils down into the skin. It would form a perfect patch and dissolve in a couple of days, leaving no sign behind. Not even a scar.
“You can let go now, Lea,” Jake said. “I'll put a brace on it and the cut and bones should be fine in two or three days.” He saw her hesitating and added, “It's okay; the ulna, the large bone in his arm wasn't broken; it will hold his arm straight."
“Thanks,” Gary said. “Can I have some more water?"
Jake nodded. “Water we have plenty of."
Maria held the glass for him while he drank some more. It revived him better than a shot of whiskey would have. He sat up straighter and looked around. This was the first time he had ever been inside a floater.
There were alternating double and single seats half the length of the fuselage, a dozen and a half in all. At the back was a very small lounge taking up half the width of the fuselage, with soft padded seating attached to three partitions. The other half had a door that was partially open, revealing several narrow beds. At the very back was the head and a tiny bar with pre-packaged beverages. Taking in all the surroundings, Gary knew that it must be a craft for transporting VIP passengers. Even the seats were spacious and soft.
He saw the two remaining passengers eyeing him from the little bar. No, it was Maria they were looking at he decided, and not with a favorable expression on either face. When they caught his glance they turned away, as if the mere sight of him and his friends might contaminate them. “They don't look very happy,” he said to the pilot, not bothering to keep his voice down.
Jake leaned down and whispered to him. “Be careful. Those two are big shots in government, such as we have these days, and they're not very happy right now."
“I guess not after their friends were killed."
“It was their own fault,” Jake said in a low voice. “I told them to stay inside while Jim and I went to see what went wrong, but they thought they knew everything; they wanted to go out and see the sights. Hell, they weren't even armed. If you hadn't come along we all would have died because of their stupidity."
“Sorry,” Gary murmured.
“For what?"
“That they didn't get killed too. Did you see how they were staring at Maria and Booger Bear? Like they were freaks of some kind."
“Just cool it, okay? We're going to have to get along with them—at least until the sun comes out so I can recharge the solar battery, and then we're still stuck here for another day while it gets up to full charge unless I can fix the fuel cell."
“What happened?” Lea asked. She had sat down next to the pilot.
“The fuel cell went down first, then the clouds moved in and I couldn't keep the solar batteries charged. I tried to baby us along and make it to Dallas, but it didn't happen. And whatever went wrong took the power cell for the radio with it. I couldn't even call for help. Jim, my copilot and I had just gotten into the fuel cell panel when the wolves hit.” He shook his head with forced admiration. “Damned smart animals too. They blocked the entrance almost immediately so we couldn't get back inside, then started the slaughter."
“How long until the clouds break?"
Jake shook his head. “I don't know. The weather service is just making guesses until they pay the satellites for past forecasts."
“I think I need to lay down. I'm woozy,” Gary said.
“Come on, I'll take you to the back. If one of you ladies will refill the water pitchers, you can wash off there, too.” Jake didn't say so, but Gary knew he must indirectly be telling them that their body odors were rather pungent in the closed space of the floater. One other thing he noticed was that Jake was treating Maria with the same courtesy as Lea, despite her obviously altered appearance. He was glad he had been able to help him. He just hoped his passengers would behave around Maria, at least until he regained his strength.
Maria wouldn't leave Gary's side. She helped Jake steady Gary and helped him toward the back of the floater where the beds were.
When they got to the little lounge where the two passengers were still downing drinks, one of them, a large florid man in a rumpled business suit held up his hand. “What the hell do you think you're doing Douglas? This is the passenger lounge, not a haven for freaks. And goddamned dirty filthy ones at that!"
Jake gritted his teeth to keep from punching the man in the face. “Mister Johnson, these people saved your life, in case you don't realize it."
“If they were so intent on saving someone, why did they wait until the others were dead? I wouldn't be surprised if these creature weren't running with those goddamned dogs or wolves or whatever the hell they are. Besides, it's your fault for not getting us to Dallas. You're incompetent and your boss is going to hear about it. Now take them back up front and away from us."
Gary was wobbly but he started to pull his gun anyway. Lea, coming up behind them with a big bucket she had found and filled with water, beat him to it. She drew her weapon and stuck the end of the barrel under the man's nose. “Bud, you strike me as a good example of your mother breeding for bluster instead of brains. Shut up and get out of our way before I shoot your fucking ears off."
The florid man's face lost its color and turned a dead white. He went cross-eyed looking down at the barrel of Lea's handgun poking him in the upper lip. His companion gave Lea a dirty look and pulled hi
m out of the way. He whispered something into his friend's ear that she paid no attention to as she helped Maria steer Gary into the little bedroom. As they got him laid out on one of the narrow beds, Lea heard them talking back and forth about why they should have taken another carrier and what they intended to do when they reached Dallas. She closed the door on the voices.
Maria and Lea first stripped Gary's clothes and bathed him, then covered him with a blanket. He had begun shaking, caused partly by delayed shock but mostly by the rapid response of his body as his metabolism speeded up to help the healing process begun by the medications. Lea went back for more water, leaving them alone for a moment.
“I'm sorry, M-Maria. That son of a b-bitch had no business talking like that.” His teeth were chattering.
Maria said nothing but she sat beside him on the little bed, then bent over and kissed him firmly on the mouth—and found herself wishing he were well enough that she could do more than just touch lips with him. Just the thought of it made her begin to tremble.
Gary felt the tremor in her body and murmured words of assurance.
Maria touched him gently on the cheek just as Lea returned with more water and some wraps they could use. She intended to wash all of their clothing while Maria tended to Gary.
“You can bathe first,” Lea said. “I'll be back in a minute or two. I want to talk to Jake about those two bastards he's transporting. I don't like them one bit, nor trust them either. Maria, keep your gun handy, huh?"
“I will."
Lea left and she stood up and began undressing.
Gary's teeth had stopped chattering as his body absorbed more liquid from a container of something Jake had sent back with the water and wraps. It must have had some sort of stimulant in it he thought, because almost immediately he began to experience a tingling sensation all over his body, and he also felt his strength returning. He found himself unable to take his eyes from Maria's body after she stripped off her dirty jumpsuit. He finally looked away, embarrassed at his interest; not in her differences from normal humans, but in her beauty. Presently he felt a gentle touch on his bare shoulder. He opened his eyes.