Escape from Endeavor

by Daniel A. Jones

  ***

  Charlie couldn’t get the vision of that thing out of his mind. He went in the direction he was told but he kept reliving the scene in his mind. Alan started to worry that Charlie was losing it and told Gabe to keep an eye on him. Gabe wasn’t doing much better than Charlie—he was just able to hide his fear better. Gabe hurried up to walk next to Charlie.

  “Charlie, calm down. You need to get hold of yourself.” Gabe whispered.

  “I’m trying, but you saw that thing. What was it?”

  “Keep your voice down. It must be one of the Rift monsters.”

  Charlie stopped to whisper. “We have to go back. Daemon is leading us right to the Rift! There are going to be more of those things, or worse.”

  “Tell Alan you got to take a piss,” Gabe instructed him as Alan caught up to them.

  “Hey, I got to stop and clean up a minute,” Charlie told Alan as he stopped to see what was up.

  “All right. Gabe stay with him and make sure he doesn’t run off,” Alan instructed.

  “Coward,” Arnold commented as he walked by them.

  “Don’t take long; you don’t want to get lost out here,” Alan said again as he followed after Arnold.

  Gabe motioned Charlie to move off the trail a bit, so he did. Gabe followed him into the woods a little before explaining his plan. “I’m leaving. I am not getting any closer to the Rift. You coming with me?” Gabe asked, knowing Charlie’s answer but making it his idea and decision to turn back.

  “Yeah, that’s what I been sayin’. But how about that thing back there?”

  “We’re going to have to circle around that part of the stream. We can pick up the trail on the other side and follow it back to the gorge,” Gabe said as he watched Charlie’s reaction to his plan.

  “Okay, but I say we run.”

  “Yeah, but don’t make much noise, at least until we’re back across the stream. Thomas sees us leaving and he’ll shoot us in the back,” Gabe cautioned but Charlie was already half running, half stumbling farther away from the trail and the others. Gabe mouthed a quick prayer and ran off after him.

  Alan didn’t realize Gabe and Charlie hadn’t rejoined them for about fifteen minutes. He was having a hard enough time keeping up with Thomas and watching his footing. He hadn’t thought about the two since they’d stopped. When he finally did realize they were missing he called to Thomas and Arnold to stop. Thomas wasn’t happy but he came back to find out what was the matter. Arnold just looked around a bit before sitting down.

  “What now?” Thomas demanded as he stumped up to Alan.

  “Gabe and Charlie are missing,” Alan said. He knew he’d pushed his luck with Thomas earlier and wasn’t sure if he could beat him in a straight-up fight so now wasn’t the time to upset him any more than needed. “Last I saw them was about fifteen, twenty minutes ago. They stopped to take a piss.”

  “Damned cowards. I’ll take care of them when we get back, assuming they can make it without getting' lost or eaten,” Thomas snarled then spat back in the direction the two had gone. “You going to run off, too?” Thomas asked Arnold as he walked past him.

  “Nope, I’m no coward to be scared off by a little woodland critter,” Arnold replied, mocking Gabe and Charlie. “I got a date with that spacer wench and Mystique, while you play with Daemon and his sister.”

  “You just make sure they suffer a lot before you kill’em.”

  Arnold just gave Thomas an evil grin as he stood up and motioned for him to lead the way.

  Alan had walked up to join them but had nothing to say. He just wanted the four dead, he didn’t care how much they suffered or even if they suffered.

  Thomas walked up the path, followed by Arnold, with Alan bringing up the rear.

  Thomas didn’t think Daemon and the girls could be much farther ahead of them. The trail Daemon was leaving indicated that he was running. He’d been running for miles and had to be getting tired. Thomas figured once he stopped he’d collapse from exhaustion and be unable to defend himself. The thought brought a grin to Thomas’s face.

  The three reached the camp site where Daemon had stopped running a little after dark. They looked around a bit but were unable to figure out which direction Daemon had gone, so they made camp there and planned to get an early start in the morning. They intended to head to Discovery City if they couldn’t find Daemon’s path in the morning light.

  Alan started a fire and warmed up some of the food he’d brought, and after eating lay down for some much-needed sleep. Tomorrow promised to be another long day.

  18

  Daemon hadn’t truly slept at all that night. He’d learned long ago he could go for almost a week without sleep. He just needed to meditate to give his mind a chance to rest and while meditating he could remain aware of his surroundings. He started making breakfast as the light of predawn arrived.

  Mystique woke first. She hadn’t expected to sleep all through the night and was a little concerned that she had.

  Angelica woke up next and joined Daemon near the fire. Daemon was happy to let her finish making breakfast. She was a much better cook than he was. Once the food was ready Angelica woke Sara, who looked a lot better after sleeping. They all ate in silence for different reasons.

  When they had finished eating, Daemon asked Sara, ”I think we should contact the ship and make sure they haven’t discovered there are more parts they need. I really don’t want to have to make a second trip to the spaceport.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Can you give me the radio?” Sara replied after only a few seconds’ thought.

  Daemon unpacked the radio and power cell and handed them to Sara, who started wiring them together. A few minutes later she had the radio powered up and was trying to make contact. They only had enough charge in the power cell for a short call so this would probably be their last contact.

  “Remember to get a location on the ship so we know where to head to once we leave the spaceport,” Angelica reminded Sara.

  “We could look for a charged power cell while we’re looking for the other parts,” Mystique suggested. They had agreed to take her but she didn’t have a money stash like they did. She figured the more helpful she was, the better her chances.

  Sara spent close to half the remaining power trying to raise the ship but got no reply. She was sure the radio was transmitting but was worried the radiation coming from the Rift was interfering with the signal. She prayed that that was the reason and not that they had been killed by some terrible monster. Sara told the others, “It looks like the radiation from the Rift is too strong here. We’re going to have to get the coupling and hope it’s all they need,” while she broke down the radio setup. She packed the radio in her bag and handed the power cell to Daemon. He put it away and was ready to leave in a few minutes.

  “How are we going to find the ship?” Angelica asked.

  “It’s south of here; once we have the coupling we can go that way until the radio works,” Sara said, trying to sound more confident than she was.

  “Okay, everyone stay close and stay calm,” Daemon instructed as he shouldered his pack and started hiking toward the spaceport.

  They traveled pretty well for the first hour or so. Then the trees started turning into broken and ravaged stumps as they got closer. The trees had either died from the radiation or had been attacked by some creature. The underbrush became thicker as the tree canopy thinned, allowing more light to reach the forest floor. At first it was thin enough for Daemon to navigate through without damaging much or leaving too much of a trail for Thomas to follow, but the closer they got to the spaceport the thicker the brush got. All of the brush had thorns and was twisted into odd shapes with only a few stubborn leaves keeping them alive. Daemon was forced to pull his ax and start hacking a trail for the girls not wanting to risk anyone getting too scratched up.

  Angelica felt the presence of something evil in the underbrush a few times. Most retreated, but a few stopped and waited to see wher
e the group would go. Each time one of the creatures stopped to ambush them, Daemon would change course slightly and avoid it. She could feel Daemon’s desire to go after and kill the ones that didn’t run away and tried not to think of what would happen if he did. She maneuvered closer to Daemon and motioned for Sara and Mystique to close ranks, too; this was not a place to be spread out. Mystique didn’t understand why, but moved up anyway.

  It took them almost seven hours to reach the Spaceport’s tarmac. Mystique expected Daemon to stop and look around from the cover of the brush so she was surprised when he just walked out into the open. Angelica and Sara followed him without thinking; they were just glad to be out of the thorny bushes. Mystique hesitated before breaking cover. She was more afraid of being exposed than of getting scratched up a little.

  Daemon had sensed the creature following them for the last twenty yards. He had worried it would decide to attack if the girls fell too far behind so he’d slowed his pace and cleared more brush from their path. Now that they were on the tarmac whatever it was would have to show itself or leave them alone.

  Daemon felt the creature’s decision almost as soon as it made it. He charged to meet the thing.

  The creature had realized it was going to lose its meal and was determined to get Mystique before she left the brush. It charged at her as fast as it could. It would only have a few seconds to kill her before the male arrived.

  Daemon yelled for Mystique, ”Get out of the brush!” as he sprinted toward her.

  Mystique was surprised at Daemon’s sudden charge, but reflexively jumped over him toward the tarmac. She almost got high enough for Daemon to go underneath her but he clipped her feet, sending her somersaulting toward Angelica and Sara, she nearly recovered enough to land on her feet but missed, landing hard on her shoulder.

  Angelica, less surprised than Sara, had started back toward the brush, too, and was able to grab Mystique by the arms and start dragging her farther away from the brush line.

  Daemon had ducked to go under Mystique when she jumped. He hadn’t expected her to do that—he’d expected her to jump to the side or even drop flat.

  The creature had lunged for her as she jumped and found itself landing on Daemon’s chest. Its claws sank into Daemon’s flesh, anchoring it to him so its tail could whip around and stab him.

  Daemon ignored the pain caused by the claws and grabbed the creature’s tail. He pulled it away from his chest as far as he could with one hand before hacking at it with his ax in the other. He cut through the tentacles surrounding the creature’s body, driving the ax blade deep into its flesh. The back half of the creature tore away as Daemon continued to pull the tail away from his chest. Daemon threw the remains deep into the brush as he stumbled back onto the tarmac.

  The creature’s tentacles were coated with a neurotoxin intended to paralyze its victim. Daemon’s regeneration ability fought the effects of the toxin but he had a hard time moving.

  Angelica and Mystique ran over to him and half carried him away from the brush line. When they reached Sara they lay Daemon down and started to examine his wounds. Mystique pulled one of her knives and carefully started to pry the six claws out of Daemon’s chest. It took Mystique a few frantic minutes to get all the claws free and remove the creature’s mass, very careful not to let any part of the creature touch her. When she was finished, she left the knife sticking in the carcass.

  Angelica focused her energy on healing Daemon while Mystique worked.

  Sara held her rifle ready, scanning the brush line for any signs of movement and wishing she had accepted Alex’s offer to teach her how to shoot better. She spotted smoke coming from the brush about a half mile away; someone must have set it on fire. She wished the rifle had a scope so she could get a better look at what was going on. The amount of smoke increased, which meant the brush was burning faster.

  “We have company. I think Thomas has lit the brush on fire,” Sara informed the others.

  Daemon quickly recovered from the toxin’s paralysis once the claws were out and with Angelica’s help. He stood up and looked to see what Sara was talking about. Mystique, meanwhile, shifted a few knives around to replace the one she was losing. Angelica joined Daemon looking out toward the fire.

  “Let’s get moving. Sara, the power coupling we need, does it matter what size ship it comes from?” Daemon asked as he took off his shirt and started jogging across the tarmac toward a few large buildings.

  “It has to come from one of our ship’s size or bigger, but the closer it is to Neptune’s size, the better.”

  “Okay, you see one the right size, let me know. I don’t like the idea of entering a ship but it would probably be the fastest way to find the part, so we should at least check it out. Dad and I avoided the ships most of the time; a lot of them have creatures hiding in them.”

  The fire was at full strength now, shooting flames fifteen to twenty feet in the air, and moving out in all directions from its origin; whatever lived in that brush was on the run and there was no telling where it would go. They jogged across the tarmac, trying to put distance between them and whatever was forced out of the brush by the fire.

  19

  Thomas watched the fire move out and away from him. Alan had finished bandaging his wound and was flexing his hand. The creature hadn’t gotten to do much more than scratch him before Arnold shot it. Thomas knew it had been pure luck that he’d missed Alan’s arm and only killed the little creature. It was about time their luck turned. Alan could feel a tingling sensation in his arm but he was still able to move his fingers so he hoped it would pass.

  Thomas started moving closer to the spaceport, following the fire. If their luck held they would be able to get to the tarmac without running into anything else. It was slow going as they kept as close to the fire as they could. Each of them continually scanned the brush for anything that might attack.