by Dan Oakley
The bear ignored me and focused on Kira, snarling and gnashing its teeth together.
Desperate to get away, Kira threw herself onto a branch, grasping the slippery bark with her fingers. But she couldn’t hold on for long. She hung there, suspended in midair as the bear reached out, trying to club her with a heavy paw. I moved to the foot of the tree, trying again to distract the angry mother.
Kira’s eyes met mine as she lost her grip and then fell ten feet to the ground. The bear jumped from the tree and landed with a heavy thud. It was going to maul her. I had no choice but to shoot it. But as I raised my weapon, I felt a jolt and pictured myself using magic to shove the bear to one side.
It worked. Sort of. The bear only moved a couple of feet and seemed to do so unwillingly.
But it still moved.
Again I imagined an invisible force pushing the bear backward away from Kira. It let out a grunt and moved back another few feet.
Go back to your babies and leave us alone.
The bear raised itself on its hind legs and raked its paws across the air, letting out a growl.
“Go away,” I said aloud this time.
To my surprise, the bear lowered itself to four legs, gave us a scathing look and then wandered back to find its cubs.
Had I been using magic or had the bear decided we weren’t worth the bother? Either way, I was glad it was heading in the opposite direction.
Kira was shaking as I helped her to her feet. Thankfully, she wasn’t badly hurt.
She brushed off the dirt and vegetation that clung to her cargo pants.
I picked a leaf out of her hair. “That was close. Do you think you can walk back?”
She took a few tentative steps and then nodded. “I think so. I’m not sure what made that bear retreat, but I am very glad it did.”
“Me too.” I retrieved our sack of tools and then we made our way slowly back through the jungle.
I’d expected Kira to be hobbling or at the very least to look a little stiff as she walked, but she seemed to have suffered no damage from the fall.
It was a good job because medical treatment wasn’t easy to come by here.
We made it back through the jungle and across the clearing to the complex building without running into any more predators.
The sun was setting as we entered the lobby and I let out a sigh of relief. We’d made it through another day.
After we switched on the power to the fence and got a green tick next to the security protocol, I gave Kira a high-five. But she still looked worried.
“You did great today,” I said.
“That bear could have killed me,” she said ruefully. “Just for once, I’d like to live a day where my life wasn’t in constant danger.”
“Well, we’re getting close to that. Now the perimeter security is working, we should be able to keep the lizards out as long as the power supply doesn’t go down again.”
“But what about the lizards trapped inside the fenced area? The lizard we saw earlier wouldn’t have had time to get out, so that means it must be lurking around somewhere.” Kira’s face was white and pinched.
I wanted to reassure her but couldn’t lie. She deserved better than that. “We won’t be safe until we can make sure the whole complex is free of predators, but we’ve made vast progress in the last couple of days. The building is secure.”
Kira nodded but didn’t look convinced.
After living half her life in fear of these animals, it was understandable she didn’t want to let her guard down.
We toggled through the external security cameras but couldn’t find the lizard.
“I am starving,” Kira said eventually. “Let’s go and get something to eat.”
Even though the idea of the dried packaged food wasn’t very appealing, I was hungry, and we’d expended a lot of energy today. “Sure. We’ve done enough for today.”
As we walked out of the lobby, Kira turned to me and asked, “What’s on our schedule for tomorrow?”
I took a deep breath. “Tomorrow, we bury the scientists and members of my team who were killed by the lizards.”
Kira pulled a face. “Maybe we should just seal off the rooms.”
I shook my head. “They deserve a proper burial.”
I only wished I could have done it earlier. But with the sheer number of lizards roaming the corridors and around the outside of the building, dealing with the dead bodies and arranging burials would have made us an easy target.
The following morning, I got up early and prepared for a challenging day ahead. Our time on Tor had been hard, but I suspected today would be more emotionally draining than all the others. When under constant attack, I found it easy to push on. Survival mode kicked in, but today I’d be forced to face up to the reality of what had happened to my colleagues. I hadn’t known them well, but they were all individuals with hopes and dreams for the future. They had families and people who loved them who would be devastated by their loss. I imagined how Maureena would feel when she heard I was supposedly dead. Anger caused my gut to clench. I would have revenge. It might take years, but I would return to Terrano to help Maureena after dealing with Zarak.
I’d charged up my headset because I intended to use the air purifier. The corpses were decaying, and I expected the smell would be sickening.
Kira came with me and helped me dig a huge trench on the edge of the clearing. It was hard, backbreaking work, and took us hours, but we needed the trench to be deep. Although we both used shovels Kira had found, we kept our weapons nearby in case of an attack.
Digging the trench was hot, thirsty work. But as arduous as the physical labor was, it was nowhere near as traumatic as moving the dead bodies.
I didn’t want Kira to handle the corpses.
We located a gurney in the medical center, and I used it to transport the bodies along the corridors and out through the lobby. Pushing them through the building was the easy part. Outside, the ground was rough and bumpy, and it wasn’t easy to get them to the trench.
It was late afternoon by the time we began to shovel the earth over the bodies in the trench. Kira helped, and we worked in silence, the knowledge that it could easily have been one of us in the ditch weighed heavily on me.
My arms were shaking from exertion when we finally stood beside the communal grave.
“You should say something,” Kira said. “Like in a proper funeral.”
She was right, but I wasn’t good with fancy words and speeches.
I leaned heavily on the handle of the shovel and stared down at the rough earth.
“You deserved better,” I said. “I am sorry. Rest in peace.”
Kira put a comforting hand on my shoulder as we walked back to the complex.
We knew at least one lizard still lurked within the perimeter, but it hadn’t bothered us today.
Inside, the cool air of the lobby hit me, and I removed my headset. I wanted a hot shower and a proper meal, but neither of those things was on the menu.
“I want to get those dead lizards out of our building,” I said as I looked along the corridor.
Scattered around the complex were the discarded bodies of dead lizards. They needed to be disposed of properly.
Kira looked thoughtful and tapped her lower lip with a finger. “That’s going to be a lot of work. It was hard enough with human bodies, but the lizards weigh a lot more.”
She made a good point. Even with the two of us dragging them, removing the lizard corpses was not going to be an easy job.
I was shattered, and the most sensible idea was to get washed and go straight to bed, but after burying my colleagues, I wanted to get those lizards out of this building. The anger over what they’d done consumed me.
“Let’s go and take a look,” I said. “I think I saw a sack barrow in the storeroom of the kitchens. We might be able to use that.”
Kira looked at me as though I were crazy. “Are you sure?”
“It can’t hurt to look. Maybe we
can make a plan for tomorrow.”
Kira shrugged. “All right.”
We went to one of the most recent kills first. It was the lizard in the corridor leading to the communication suite that Kira had shot just before I was torn apart by its massive claws.
It was already looking a little bloated, and some brown fluid had leaked from the lizard’s underside.
Kira slapped a hand over her mouth. “Yuck.”
That was pretty much my reaction too.
Even getting it onto the sack barrow was going to be a struggle. Getting outside would be almost impossible. Still, I was determined to try.
I knew Kira was going along with my crazy idea to be kind. She understood my need to get rid of these lizards. While they remained here, they were a health threat and also a reminder of the horrors we’d just lived through.
It was getting late, but Kira stayed by my side, grappling with the lizard carcass.
We got it onto the sack barrow and then managed to drag it a few feet before we were both panting on the floor with exhaustion.
“It’s no good, Tomas,” Kira said, breathing fast. “It’s just too heavy.”
I pushed myself back until I was leaning against the wall. She was right. We weren’t strong enough to move it this way.
“I could try magic,” I suggested, half joking.
“Good idea.”
“There’s no guarantee it will work,” I said. “In fact, I am pretty likely to screw it up.”
“That’s right,” Kira said sarcastically. “Think positive.”
Despite the tension and the hatred I felt towards the lizards for causing such carnage, I smiled.
“I haven’t had much training, so positive thinking won’t help.”
“Listen, as long as you don’t bring the lizard back to life with your magic, I don’t think you could make the situation much worse.”
I pushed myself to my feet and held out a hand to pull Kira up.
“All right, you asked for it,” I said, grinning and cracking my knuckles for effect.
I decided to try the same technique I’d used on the bear, imagining some invisible force pushing the lizard. It would be a bit harder this time because I needed to push it all the way to the lobby.
I took a few deep breaths, trying to locate the vibrational energy. My muscles tensed and I imagined the lizard moving slowly along the corridor.
It moved an inch.
“Hey! It’s moving. It is really working,” Kira said sounding excited.
She was right. It was moving. I felt a rush of energy, and suddenly the lizard wasn’t moving slowly any longer. It flew through the air, directly at Kira.
Luckily, despite how exhausted she was, her reflexes were excellent, and she managed to duck at just the right moment. The lizard shot over her head and collided with the wall, making a horrendous mess.
For a moment, neither of us said anything but looked at one another in disbelief.
Then Kira straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “A little warning next time, please!”
After apologizing profusely, we got back to work. This time, Kira stood well clear as I used my magic to throw the lizard down the corridor. It wasn’t the most efficient way to use my magic, but it was hard to control.
It was still a lot better than the sack barrow method. Kira followed using the cleaning material she’d found in the maintenance cupboard and tried to clear up most of the disgusting lizard juice left behind every time the lizard made an impact with the wall or the floor.
It was late and completely dark outside by the time every lizard carcass was in the courtyard.
I was beyond exhausted, and I was sure Kira must be too.
Physically my body was wrecked, and the magic drained my mental energy. By the time we got back to the room we’d been using for a base, I felt like I could sleep for a week.
As I waited for my turn to use the wash basin, I downed a container of water then noticed a small red light illuminated on the corner of the console on the opposite side of the room. It was flashing.
I frowned. Was it some kind of an alarm? I moved over to the console and logged into the security system for the building. I exhaled in relief when I saw we didn’t have a breach.
“Hey, what does the red flashing light mean?” I asked Kira.
Her head whipped around, droplets of water dripped from the ends of her spiky hair. Without replying, she rushed over to the console and tapped a series of buttons on a small keypad.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked, putting my water container down.
Instead of answering, she pointed to the center of the room. I blinked as a 3D image appeared, shimmering, in the middle of the room.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The image flickered.
It couldn’t be…
But there in front of me, larger than life, was Trella.
Chapter 35
Trella… Were my eyes deceiving me?
I reached out and ran my hands through the 3D image display. It was so realistic I could almost believe she was in the same room as us.
“What is this?” I asked turning to Kira. “They said she was dead. Draylan said they found Trella’s headset covered in blood… This has to be a recording, right?”
When I had first seen the optical display, I’d wanted to believe Trella was alive but it was impossible. This had to be some kind of recording like the one Kira had taken of the commander’s sister shortly before she died.
Kira’s hand hovered over the buttons on the console. Her face was white as she shook her head. “This isn’t a recording. This is live.”
“How can it be live? Where is she?”
“It is part of my security system. I rerouted the cameras to be triggered by motion sensors.”
“So, she is in this building?”
Kira glanced down at the console and then shook her head. “No, she’s in the administration building.”
“Then we have to go and find her,” I said, heading over to the stockpile of weapons.
“No! We can’t go now. The jungle is far too dangerous at night.”
I looked back at the 3D image, watching Trella move about. She was studying something, but I couldn’t work out what she was looking at. She was still dressed in her Seven Kingdoms uniform but wasn’t wearing her headset. And oddly, the material that used to cover her right leg had been ripped clean away.
“I don’t care how dangerous it is, Kira. Trella could need our help.”
Kira’s eyes narrowed. “I thought she could do magic like you… Only better?”
“She can, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t vulnerable. When we arrived here on Tor, she was knocked out and was almost eaten by one of the lizards.”
Kira let out a sigh. “Then let’s send her a message.”
“No, we don’t have time for that. We know she’s in the administration building, so we have to get to her now. She might be gone by tomorrow, and we’ll never track her down.”
“Of course we will. The most sensible way to survive is to stick to one of the buildings, and from what you’ve told me, Trella seems like a sensible person.”
Kira was right, but I wanted to see Trella in the flesh. I couldn’t let myself believe she was really alive until I saw her standing in front of me with my own two eyes.
“Okay, let’s try and contact her. Can you control the speakers from over here?” I asked.
“I think so. Give me a minute.”
While Kira’s head was bent over the console, I watched the optical display.
Trella’s magic could help us. Maybe she’d even know a way to get us off this planet. She was a jump mage so she’d know all the tricks and methods for jumping to different places. If there was a ship in range, we could jump aboard.
“Hey, wait a minute…” I said as a realization dawned on me.
I was really off my game tonight, but I blamed that on the exhausting day we’d had.
“What is it?” Kir
a asked.
“Trella is a jump mage, so if she knows we are here, she can just jump to our location.”
“So there’s no need for us to go out into the jungle?” Kira asked, a smile breaking out over her face.
“Exactly.”
“Good.” She tapped a couple of buttons on the console. “I have hooked us up to the speakers. We have to press this transmission button here, and Trella should be able to hear us.” Kira pointed to a green button beside the thin glass touchscreen.
Unable to wait, I pressed the button straight away.
“Trella, can you hear me? It is me, Tomas.”
I watched as the projected image of Trella turned in a slow circle, looking around.
“Tomas?”
“Yes, we are in the main mining complex building. Do you think you can jump here?”
“My energy is depleted, but I should be able to make a short jump. Is the room clear? Where exactly are you?”
I thought about trying to describe exactly where we were in the basement of the building and then decided against it. “Just jump to the lobby, and we will meet you there.”
“Can you make sure it is free of lizards? I have used up a lot of energy over the past couple of days, and I’m not sure I’d be able to fight them off.”
Her voice sounded weak.
“You don’t have to worry about that; there are no more lizards in the building. We’ve restored security. We also repaired and powered up the perimeter fencing, but we believe there’s at least one lizard still lurking around the courtyard area. But as long as you jump inside the building, you should be fine.”
A small smile curved her lips. “That’s good news. Jumping now.”
I headed straight for the door, not waiting for Kira, who was more cautious than me and stopped to grab a plasma weapon.
I raced along the corridors, and when I eventually made it to the lobby, Trella was already there.
She blinked under the bright lights. “You’ve got the power working in here too. I am impressed.” She looked behind me and saw Kira. “Where are the others?”
In my excitement at finding Trella, I hadn’t thought through what I would have to tell her. She’d been holed up somewhere and didn’t realize the rest of the crew had left without us.