by Jack Porter
“Yes, you can,” I agreed.
Together, the three of us stepped closer to the edge, and both Uma and I stood ready with the cord held firmly in place.
“When you’re ready, lean over the edge. I won’t let you fall.”
It must have been difficult for her to trust me. But she nodded, the fear still written large on her face, and did as I asked.
At the same time, she snapped her eyes shut and gripped hold of the cord with her good hand until her knuckles turned white.
Carefully, gently, I lowered her down, ignoring her occasional struggles and the way she cried out in fear.
By the time I’d lowered her a third of the way, those cries had turned into screams of abject terror, and didn’t seem to be stopping. Yet she did the right thing. She kept clutching at the cord, and kept her eyes closed, and tried not to struggle too much.
That was all I needed.
I blocked out the sound of her screams and kept at it, lowering her hand over hand, a few inches at a time, making sure not to let her fall sharply at all.
By the time she was halfway down, the girls at the bottom were calling up with encouraging words.
“Is not far now, you can make it, you doing fine,” they said.
I wasn’t sure if Jayloo heard them, nor did it truly matter.
Two thirds of the way down. Just under twenty more feet to go.
I kept at it, the sounds of Jayloo’s screams growing more distant even as they grew raspy, her voice not up to the challenge.
“Just a little more, you’re doing great, nearly there,” the girls down below said.
Jayloo kept screaming, and I kept lowering her down.
Finally, it was done. Jayloo touched the ground and stopped screaming. Instead, she burst into tears, and threw herself into Sydney’s embrace.
The two women clung to each other for long seconds, until finally, the women down below persuaded Jayloo to step out of the harness.
I distinctly heard Sydney say, “Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it? When the cord gets stuck up your twat.”
I chuckled to myself again, very much aware that her complaint was slightly different this time. Then I pulled the harness back up to the top and looked at Uma.
“I hope you don’t want me to lower you down the same way?” I said.
She looked me dead in the eye. “What, are you suggesting I’m too heavy?”
I hesitated, and she waited two full heartbeats before giving me another of her wry grins to let me know she wasn’t serious.
I realized she’d got me, but then decided to go with it.
“Of course I am,” I said. “But I like it when a woman has a bit of meat on her bones.”
Uma raised a thoughtful eyebrow.
“Do you now?” she said.
I made a point of admiring her. She was nearly as tall as Deeve, but was more solidly built. That said, there wasn’t an ounce of excess on her anywhere. She was the definition of the Golden Ratio, and the scale on which she was built conjured a phrase, the origin of which was lost in antiquity: death by snu snu.
The Commander was studying me in turn, in a way that suggested she was thinking thoughts that hadn’t really crossed her mind until then.
“Be careful,” she warned. “Or I might start getting ideas that you might struggle to live up to.”
“What makes you think I’d struggle?”
I could see the Commander’s mind working. Not long ago, she hadn’t known whether she could trust me or not. Now, it seemed that she was looking at me in another way entirely.
And, for the first time since we’d started our journey, we were effectively alone. The two of us were the only ones at the top of the cliff.
Those were the thoughts running through my mind, and I suspected similar ideas were running through hers. Her expression had turned from a wry smile to one that suggested she was wondering how I might taste, should she close in and take a nibble.
But before she could do so, before either of us could actually make a first move, Kia called up from below.
“Are you two coming?” she shouted. “Because I’m getting a bad feeling…”
It was enough to get the attention of both of us. I already knew that Uma took Kia’s feelings of danger seriously, and I saw no reason not to do the same.
The moment already gone, and Uma was climbing into the harness. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll climb down under my own power. All you have to do is take my weight if I fall.”
I was happy enough with that. To my mind, it was the best option. In moments, we were ready, and Uma began to climb down. At the same time, I scanned the horizons, looking everywhere for the threat Kia had sensed.
At first, I saw nothing to cause any alarm. But Kia had been right before, when it came to the wolf things with the porcupine quills. No doubt, she would be right now as well.
“Kia!” I shouted. “What do you sense? What’s heading our way?”
“I don’t know,” came the psychic’s response. “It doesn’t feel like those tremors or the sandstorm. It’s more like the wolves. But it feels different as well.”
I nodded even though Kia couldn’t see, and quietly thanked her for narrowing it down at the same time as I let out more and more of the cable, helping Uma get down the cliff.
I kept scanning, and when the Commander was perhaps halfway to the bottom, I thought I knew the danger.
Several times in the past, I’d seen black smudges in the sky that suggested some kind of winged creature. Now, I saw a similar dark smudge, only this time, it seemed to be considerably closer. And it seemed to be heading toward us.
I wondered briefly whether Jayloo’s screams had attracted its attention, and turned my ocular sensors to their maximum once again.
The dark smudge immediately became more distinct, resolving into a creature that looked like some kind of smooth skinned dragon, albeit much smaller than the creatures of legend, and with just two legs to go with its wings.
So, a wyvern type of creature, a sinuous, oil-slick of a beast that seemed to ripple with all the colors of a rainbow.
Even as I watched, I could see it getting closer. Nor was it the only one. Like the wolves, this creature seemed to travel in packs.
And Kia was right to be wary. They were heading toward us.
“Uma! I think I see what Kia is worried about. If you’ve got any more speed in you, use it now!”
Chapter 23
There were half a dozen of the creatures, and while I didn’t think any of them individually would be strong enough to carry the girls off, together, it would be another story.
In my mind, I envisaged a flight of pterodactyls, all of them approaching the girls much too quickly for comfort.
“Hurry!” I called out to them, even though I knew the Commander was already doing her best. The winged creatures were now close enough that the girls could all see them clearly, and while I was too far back from the edge to see what they were doing, I imagined them panicking, not quite knowing what to do.
Perhaps Deeve had already grabbed her knives. As for the others—they would doubtless do what they could, but they were largely non-combative.
“Use the poles!” I shouted down to them. “Keep the creatures back!”
And then it was too late for any additional advice. The wyvern-creatures were upon the girls down at the base of the cliff, the sound of their wings merging with cries that sounded like the rending of metal.
I heard Deeve’s voice raised in challenge, heard Jayloo cry out in terror, and knew I had to get down to them.
But I had my own problems to deal with. I was still holding onto a cable, still providing support for the Commander should she need it, and one of the wyvern-things had chosen me as its target.
It swooped at me from the side, its dark, beady eyes glaring at me over top of a beak that would have turned any self-respecting buzzard green with envy.
“Ha!” I yelled at it, waving my free arm in an effort to
discourage the beast’s attack. But other than that, I stayed where I was, rooted to the ground.
Uma was relying on me. I couldn’t let her down.
The wyvern-creature was perhaps my size, with wings and claws like that of the greatest of eagles. It beat its leathery wings, almost hovering in place as it cried its raucous cry and attacked me with beak and claws.
Once again, I waved my arm about, using the metal cuff on my wrist as a sort of small shield, aiming to strike the creature if I could, trying to fight it off with one arm.
“Ha!” I yelled again. “Get the fuck off me!”
I gritted my teeth as the monster’s claws raked through the remnants of my sleeve and scored a couple of good cuts on my arm. Yet even then, I knew the mesh reinforcements grafted under my skin were doing their job. The damage was no more than minor.
“If you’re not going to fuck off and die, then at least stay still so I can wring your foul neck!”
I admit it. I was angry. I didn’t enjoy being attacked when I couldn’t fight back. At the same time, a part of me acknowledged that it was good that this creature had chosen me as its target.
I didn’t know how the girls were doing down below beyond what I could hear. But I knew their chances of holding this attack back were better because this one had picked me.
“Adam!” I heard Uma cry over the shouts and curses, and raucous cries of the monsters. “I’m down!”
At the Commander’s words, I felt myself starting to grin. Without a second thought, I tossed the end of the cable I was holding over the side. Then I turned toward my attacker and launched myself at it.
Without having to worry about Uma, I was free to act as I wished.
My first action was to reach out and grab hold of the winged monster’s tail. The dragon-creature didn’t like it one bit, and snapped at me even as it buffeted me with its wings.
But I didn’t care. This creature might have been about my size, but I had the advantage in weight.
And I was pissed! Here I was, at the top of the cliff, when those I had so recently agreed to protect were down below. So I took my anger out on this creature that had foolishly picked me as its prey.
With my feet planted firmly on the ground, I heaved the monster’s body around in an arc, and brought it down with shattering force on the ground.
The winged beast let out a sound that was almost a whimper and struggled immediately to rise.
But I hadn’t let it go. I was still grasping its tail. So I heaved it up into the air once again, spun myself into a circle, and this time, when I brought the beast’s head down once again, I aimed at a boulder.
The sound of the creature’s skull shattering was sickening. It shuddered once in my grip, its hind legs reaching out as if from instinct, but the fight was already over.
Ignoring the twitching corpse, I reached for the last remaining items at the top of the cliff. There was just a coil of cable resting next to my makeshift club with the spike at the end.
I kicked the coil of cable over the edge and picked up my club, intending to toss it over the side as well.
But then I had a second thought. I didn’t want to waste time at the bottom looking for my only real weapon. So instead, holding it in one hand, I threw myself over the edge of the cliff and did my level best to scramble down as fast as I could.
A quick glance down below showed me that the girls had taken up my suggestion. They were fending the flying creatures away with the salvaged metal poles, and were doing a decent job of it.
Yet even from my position above them, I could see it hadn’t all gone their way.
Deeve in particular was bleeding from a series of parallel gashes on her arm.
The sight of that made me even angrier than I had been before. I threw caution to the wind and let gravity do even more of the work, using my free hand and my feet not to find any safe hold, but just to slow my descent.
And when one of the flying creatures backed away from the group to hover for just a few moments beneath me, a mad thought crossed my mind.
In any normal circumstances, I would have dismissed the mad thought as foolhardy. Yet these were not normal circumstances. Not by a long shot.
And I was angry.
So instead of responding with caution, I calculated the angle and kicked out from the wall. I dropped through the air, and knew that all the winged monster had to do was beat its wings once and I would plummet to the ground.
At this height, I figured I would survive such a fall. But if I was unlucky, I would sprain an ankle, a wrist, or bang my head in on the ground.
So it was a risk.
A risk that paid off.
The wyvern-creature didn’t see me. It didn’t move out of the way.
I crashed into it from above and used my weight to bear it to the ground.
The winged monster cried out in fury and fear, but when we hit the ground, I didn’t let go. Instead, I wrapped my arms around the monster’s sinuous neck, using my club as a sort of garrote, and we tumbled back and forth on the ground.
The monster was trying to turn about to claw at me, but I had no intention of allowing that to happen. At the same time, I figured that this was not a creature that was easily choked. So I kicked away from it, regained my feet, and before the wyvern-thing could recover itself, I smashed at its head with the spiky end of my club.
The monster went down in a heap.
Breathing deeply, my heart pounding loudly in my ears, I turned to where the girls still defended themselves.
There were four more of the creatures remaining, and I didn’t hesitate. I launched myself at one of them, my club swinging, and smashed it out of the sky. Then on to the next, and the one after that.
Unlike with the wolves, these fiendish creatures didn’t break and run. Instead, when the last remaining monster saw what I was doing, it turned its attention my way.
I was more than happy with that. Like a batter at a baseball game, I waited for the monster to approach. It dove at me, and I swung my club for the last time.
I missed the target I was aiming for—the creature’s outstretched claws—but connected with a satisfying crunch against the monster’s rib cage.
Just like with its brothers, the monster crashed down to the ground. And I was in no mood for mercy.
I smashed my club down against its head, then checked on the others.
In just a few more seconds, I had smashed each one of the monsters, making damn sure that they wouldn’t attack us again.
Then, breathing heavily, the sweat dripping from my forehead and making my grip on my club slick, I turned to the girls.
“Is everyone alright?” I asked them.
It turned out that Deeve wasn’t the only one to be injured. Nearly everyone had defensive cuts and scratches to deal with, and Sydney had a set of worryingly deep wounds in her thigh to go with the damaged ankle she’d gained the last time we’d been attacked.
We spent considerable time applying antiseptic cream, and then bandaging the worst of the wounds.
As for Sydney’s thigh, a simple bandage wouldn’t cut it. Fortunately, the med kit came with a supply of medical glue and a stapler, which Jayloo proved a dab hand at using, displaying a surprising degree of empathy as she did. But even after we were all patched up, a serious issue remained.
“Are you up to continuing?” Uma asked the environmentalist.
Sydney hesitated. Her expression was clear. She wanted to say that she was. She didn’t want to be the one who stopped us all in our tracks.
Yet she had no real choice.
“I don’t think so,” she finally admitted. “Maybe in a day or so, when things have started to heal.”
By the look of her wound, I judged that it would take a good deal longer than that before Sydney could really begin to keep up. But I wasn’t going to say that out loud.
“Maybe we could all use a day or so. Just to give ourselves a break.”
At my words, Deeve idly rubbed at her should
ers, and I knew I wasn’t the only one to feel the results of our efforts towing the supplies.
There was a general murmur of agreement.
“But we can’t stay here,” Uma said. “Not with that carrion out in the open, attracting scavengers.”
It was the same discussion we’d had before, after the fight with the wolf-things. In the time since then, I’d been contemplating using one of the salvaged shards of metal from the transport to fashion some sort of spade. But I hadn’t done so as yet, and liked the idea of burying the dead flying creatures as much as I liked the idea of having rocks thrown at my face.
“We’ll have to move at least a little way,” I said.
Nobody disagreed. Not even Sydney, who was in obvious pain.
“Can we stay out of the sun?” Kia asked.
We were still in the shadow of the cliff we had descended. And I had to admit, the comparative cool was a luxury.
Nobody voiced any objection to the psychic’s words, and those who were up to it finished putting the sled back together, with the supplies stacked neatly on top.
“A couple of hundred feet ought to do it,” I suggested. “Perhaps if Uma and Deeve were to join me, the three of us could manage the sled. Then Jayloo and Kia, if you could help Sydney as best as you can, maybe that will be enough. And if it’s still too difficult, then when we’re done with the sled, I’ll come back and carry you.”
Sydney’s expression hardened at that idea. I wasn’t sure if she really didn’t want to be a burden, or if the idea of me helping her to such an extent just wasn’t something she wanted.
“I’ll manage,” she said.
In the end, she did manage. We made our way to a spot near the cliff face where a natural formation of rocks would protect us from three different sides. That spot was far enough away from the dead wyvern things that scavengers shouldn’t be a problem, and once again, we set up the canvases to make a shelter.
Sydney had been virtually carried by Jayloo and Kia between them, and collapsed onto the shelter floor as soon as we were done.
There was nothing else to do. The others all settled down, several of them with their backs against the rocks, while I took a position where I could easily see anything coming.
