by Jack Porter
Uma was silent for a time. She hacked at a series of oversized leaves that were blocking our way and shoved her way through.
“It’s really happening, isn’t it?” she said, sounding more vulnerable than she had at any point until then.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“This,” she said, gesturing all around. “When I woke up from cryo sleep and saw we’d crashed, I had a hard time believing it. It didn’t seem real when the instruments said we were so far off course, and that the chances of anyone coming to look for us were so slim. Even the journey across the wastelands. Across the desert. Even then, I could convince myself that we were going somewhere. That we could somehow find a way out of here.”
She sounded upset, and something more. I sensed the brittleness in her, the effort it took for her to preserve her aura of strength. “But now… we’re not looking for some magic way off this world. We’re just looking for somewhere to set up some sort of base. There’s going to be the six of us just doing what we can to survive. No chance of rescue. No modern tools or technology to help, beyond those that we brought along with us.” She gestured all around us. “This is it,” she finished.
I stopped walking and turned toward her. I looked her up and down, and for the first time, I felt I truly understood this fundamentally civilized woman who stood before me.
She was capable and strong, and wielded her machete like someone who would use it if and when required. There was steel in her, a determination that would serve her well on this world.
But that didn’t mean she wanted to be there. It didn’t mean that this was the life she’d picked out for herself.
“There’s always hope,” I said. “None of us truly know what the future will hold. Well, except maybe Kia.”
I said the last as a joke, and Uma wasn’t so far gone in her fatalism that she couldn’t muster a hint of a smile.
“And even if we do get out of here,” I added, “remember that for some of us, being rescued might not be a positive thing.” I held out one of my arms to show her the metal cuff I still wore.
It was perhaps the wrong thing to say. She studied me narrowly for a moment, but didn’t say anything.
I grinned. “Don’t worry. I meant what I said. Even though the Company still wants to throw me down a deep, dark hole, if there’s a chance to see you and the others away from this place, I’ll take it.”
Uma nodded. She stood there in silence, perhaps contemplating her future. Then she seemed to set all her worries aside, and to my surprise, broke out in a grin.
“So, in the meantime, tell me. You didn’t really need me to come along with you, did you?” she said.
I pasted an innocent expression on my face and looked at her.
“You can move faster without me tagging along. And if anyone can defend themselves against the dangers we might find, it’s you. Yet you wanted someone to come with you. And you chose me. Why is that?”
Her expression told me she’d formulated her own ideas. I barked out a laugh even as I turned and headed further into the jungle.
“There’s water in here. Somewhere, we might find a pool deep enough for you to take that bath you mentioned.”
I could have said it was Kia’s idea. Could have come up with any excuse. But I figured I’d see what she said.
To my distinct pleasure, Uma laughed along with me, her gloominess at the whole situation largely forgotten.
“We might at that,” she agreed.
Chapter 28
Despite the canopy protecting us from the worst of it, the rain did get steadily heavier. It wasn’t long before both of us were wet through, but neither Uma nor I objected to it at all. The rain was still warm, and it seemed to carry some of the grime and dirt away.
At the same time, it didn’t make much sense to keep going deeper into the trees. Instead, we turned to one side and made our way parallel to the jungle’s edge.
“You won’t lose our way?” Uma asked me.
I shook my head and tapped my temple with one of my fingers. “Augmentation. I always know which direction I’m going.”
“They really did a number on you, didn’t they?” she said.
I shrugged. “It’s not like I’m going to complain about it,” I said. “After all, they didn’t force me to sign up. And besides, if not for the little changes they made, I’d probably be dead a dozen times over.”
Uma nodded in understanding. “Useful,” she said.
“Yeah. But that was always a two-edged sword as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, my usefulness has always been more valuable to the Company than to me,” I said.
As we walked, I made a mental note of everything that might prove handy to know. Several times, I spotted different types of fruit, some of which had been partially eaten. Always a good sign, I thought, even as my augmented sensors confirmed that the fruit would be edible.
We saw several non-predatory animals as well. A couple of primate-things in the trees, as well as grazers down on the ground, munching away at the foliage.
One of those creatures was gigantic. Big enough that I pulled Uma out of the way and just watched as it ambled past.
“Huge,” Uma murmured, still gripping her knife as if it would do any good.
I agreed. But what concerned me more was that even a creature this size seemed to have predators. Its flesh was covered in natural armor, and even then, it displayed huge, angry-looking scars on its hind quarters, as if something had tried to bring it down and had almost succeeded.
I resolved once again to keep my eyes peeled for dangers.
We had been walking for a couple of hours, and I’d noted three possible locations for us to settle.
One was where two enormous trees had grown together, leaving a hollow section down near the bottom. It was next to a stream, and we would have to clear out some of the fungal growth, but it seemed to be a good option.
There was another area where the trees were thinner, growing around a grouping of boulders. Again, there would be a bit of work to do, but it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibilities that some of those boulders would make good walls for a potential fortress.
The third potential option was similar, and even had a sort of cave, which while not really big enough for all of us to comfortably live, it would serve in a pinch.
But the dangers of the forest were very real.
We almost got caught out twice within a matter of minutes. The first time, it was an amorphous shape, an ambush predator that rose up seemingly from nowhere, a silent, inky black shadow that looked set to engulf the both of us.
Uma let out a surprised shriek, and I responded with my club, hammering away at the monster before I even truly recognized the danger.
Then my sensors kicked in, giving me what details they could of the creature we faced. At once, I recognized that we didn’t need to kill it.
“It’s not really an animal!” I said to Uma, who was standing in a defensive pose. “It’s a predatory fungus of some kind. It’s anchored between those two trees. We just have to get out of its range.”
Together, we stepped backward, doing what we could to turn words into action. The amorphous fungus-creature grew longer and thinner, still trying to engulf us in its substance even as I continued to dissuade it with blows from my club.
Finally, after the thing had stretched far more than I would have believed possible, it gave up. Perhaps it was tired of the blows I was dealing to it, combined with Uma’s efforts with her machete. Or perhaps we were just out of its effective range.
Either way, it abruptly stopped questing toward us, curled back in on itself, and in moments was nothing more than a dark shape between those the two trees once again.
Not long after, a large flying lizard made of teeth and claws attacked us from above. I got the distinct impression it might have been related to the other flying creatures we’d fought off before.
Yet this one had misjudged us. If
it had attacked with more of its kind, then we could have been in real trouble. As it was, a glancing blow from my club was enough to send it screeching off into the trees.
In between finding the second potential location and the third, we were attacked once again.
This attack was more serious, and I never saw it coming. The first I knew of the danger was when Uma let out a yell and crashed into me, doing her best to push me out of the way.
Something dark and lithe flashed through the air where I had been standing, and I felt the sharp pain rake over my shoulder. I tumbled to the ground with Uma on top of me, but had no time to enjoy the closeness of her feminine form. In a heartbeat, I was back on my feet, with Uma bouncing back up beside me.
The beast that had pounced at my back was in front of us, crouching low, ready to go again, all teeth and claws and wiry strength. I knew at once that this thing was trouble, and my ocular sensor confirmed it.
Fully nine feet long not including its tail, this thing could have been an oversized panther with the neck frill of a lizard, and when it growled at us, that frill opened up to add to the intimidation.
“Get out of here!” I said to Uma. At the same time, I steeled myself, intending to take this monster’s attention to give Uma a chance.
“No!” Uma said back to me. “I won’t!”
The prowling black monster had been making up its mind which one of us to attack. All at once, it decided, and between one heartbeat and the next, it launched itself at Uma.
But I had no intention of letting it get anywhere close. With a roar of my own, I leapt forward to meet it, and swung my club for all I was worth.
Such was this creature’s speed and agility that it seemed to change direction midflight and closed in on me instead. I managed only a glancing blow, and then maybe six hundred pounds of angry, dangerous flesh bore me to the ground.
I found myself on my back, trying to jam one of my wrist cuffs into the creature’s mouth while doing my best to prevent it from raking my chest with its claws.
If I’d been a normal man, unencumbered by the augmentations that made me what I am, likely I would have been dead within seconds.
But I hadn’t been kidding when I said that I was stronger than I appeared.
Not Superman strong. Nothing like that. But if Tarzan could fight off a lion in the African jungle, then I gave myself even odds against this foul creature.
I yelled at the monster even as it bit down on my cuff, and used my free hand to hammer away at its ribs, doing my level best to shatter them with my fist.
I knew for a fact that my punches carried impact, and the weight of that metal cuff was a bonus. I felt the creature flinch away from my first blow, and my second, even as the damned thing’s claws raked at my skin.
At the same time, I’d been quick enough. Even as the monster bore me to the ground, I’d brought both knees up to protect myself. I hammered the creature in the side one more time, then heaved with everything I had and threw the monster away from me.
Once more, I scrambled to my feet, belatedly realizing that Uma had joined the fight, trying to hack at the creature with her knife. My move had surprised her as well, and she did her best to scurry away from the beast.
I found myself breathing hard, my heart pounding in my chest. Somehow, I’d lost my grip on my club. I spotted it to one side, but when I took a step toward it, the pantherish creature moved that way, crouching low, as if daring me to try.
I felt my expression turn into a snarl. The wounds on my shoulder and chest throbbed, and I knew that if it weren’t for my subdermal mesh, I might have been in trouble.
With one hand, I motioned Uma behind me, and this time, she did as I suggested. “Give me your knife,” I said.
She handed it to me without question, and I tested its weight.
Then, with a roar, I hurled myself at the monster, intending to do all I could to gut it where it stood.
It leapt sideways, away from my attack and past me completely.
Uma let out a shriek, and I saw her standing there, her face a picture of fear, defenseless as the creature bore down on her once again.
At the last moment, she ducked, and I threw myself around in an arc, stretching out with everything I had.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I bellowed. I caught the creature’s black, sinuous tail in my free hand and used all my weight to drag it back and away from the woman.
The creature didn’t seem to like having its tail being grabbed. It exploded into a fury of claws and teeth, a snarling whirlwind of danger, doing all it could to twist and turn and rip me to shreds.
But it wasn’t designed with the same flexibility of a house cat. And I kept my weight in place, holding onto that thing with everything I had, hauling it backwards.
For a handful of seconds, it couldn’t touch me, and that was all that I needed.
I could have tried to plunge my blade into its back. Could have chopped off its tail and hoped that it would charge off into the jungle to lick its wounds. But I didn’t want this monster to ever be able to attack us again.
So, I took half a moment to tuck the knife down the back of my pants, then gripped the tail with my other hand.
Then I executed a move that a champion hammer thrower would have been proud of.
In this gravity, I probably weighed a bit over two hundred pounds. Maybe a third of what the panther creature did. But it wasn’t all about weight.
It was about strength as well. And I had that in spades.
With a snarl of rage at this monster, I dug my feet in, leaned back, and used the creature’s own efforts against it. It turned to the left and tried to attack me from the side, but I turned with it, hauling on that tail for all I was worth. For half a heartbeat, it looked like the monster was going to change direction. So I yelled at it and pulled it the way I wanted it to go, and it obliged.
In less than three heartbeats, we’d turned in a complete circle, and I had no intention of stopping. I goaded the beast to keep going, and leaned back, praying that the ground beneath my feet wouldn’t betray me.
With a mighty heave, I used the monster’s momentum combined with my strength to lift it up off the ground and swung that fucking thing through the air.
The crazed creature let out a howl that sent chills up my spine, but I still didn’t loosen my grip. I whirled that beast through the air one more time, another full circle. Then I sighted on a tree and let go.
Six hundred pounds of teeth and claws sailed twenty feet through the air and crashed head first into the base of the tree. It hit hard enough that the small creatures living up top scattered in every direction.
The creature was stunned. But a long way from dead.
So I drew Uma’s machete from the back of my pants and hurled myself at it, hacking with all the strength that I had.
The monster was tough. It tried to get back to its feet, but I wouldn’t let it. I held my own weight on top of it, doing my best to drive that twisted piece of metal through its ribs, into anything important.
For long minutes, I kept at it, plunging the blade in again and again.
Perhaps at some point I recognized that it was no longer moving. But by then, I was beyond reason, beyond caring, beyond anything. All that mattered was that I had to be sure that this thing wouldn’t be a threat ever again.
“Adam,” said Uma. I was dimly aware that it wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get my attention.
“Adam, it’s over. It’s done.”
I stabbed the monster one more time, just to make sure.
“Adam,” Uma said.
Then, panting as if I had run ten miles on a high gravity world, my heart pounding with effort, I thought about stabbing the creature again, but did not.
Instead, I leaned back, seeing for the first time what I had done.
The creature was dead. No doubt about it. It was a mess. Hacked into pieces.
My arms were covered in blood.
“Adam, are you okay?�
�� Uma said. This time, she was standing closer. As if at first she’d been too scared to approach.
I took a deep breath and realized that my grip on Uma’s knife was uncertain. There was so much blood the handle was slippery.
Nevertheless, I nodded. “I’m fine,” I said.
To my surprise, Uma put her hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said, her voice warm and soothing. “It won’t attack us again.”
As if Uma’s touch had healing properties, I finally felt myself returning to normal. I drew a deep breath of air and let it out all at once. Then I heaved myself to my feet and pulled a face at the mess I’d made of my clothes.
Uma noticed. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” she said. I let her help me away from the corpse of the panther creature, and felt better once I couldn’t see it.
Then I looked around.
“My club,” I said.
“I have it,” Uma said. For the first time, I noticed that she was carrying my club with her free hand.
Surprisingly, I felt my expression turn into a grin. “Thank you. But let’s try to avoid those things in the future. I don’t think I like them very much.”
Uma let out an appreciative chuckle. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t like them much either,” she said. “But at least it taught me one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“There’s more to you than just the cold, calculating part. You care about people. You care about me.”
I kept grinning. “How about that, huh? Almost like a real human being.”
Chapter 29
Despite my levity, the fight with the panther-thing had taken a toll. As well as wearing a not-so-thin coating of its blood and entrails, I was injured, and I needed to know just how bad that injury was.
Keeping an eye out for additional predators, Uma and I found a place where the rain had gathered into a small pool, and I set about cleaning myself up.
It felt good to clean the blood off my hands, but that was just the first step. Gingerly, I peeled what remained of my shirt away from my body.
