by Jim Laughter
“We’re making pretty good time,” gasped Leatha. She took a swig from her water bottle and realized it was near empty. She looked around for the stream her ears told her was nearby.
“So far so good,” Anna agreed as she enjoyed her own liquid refreshment. Noticing Leatha looking around, Anna remembered she’d not been allowed to refill her bottle the previous day.
“I think it’s over near that deadfall,” Anna said. Pushing up from her log, Leatha searched in the direction Anna indicated. It didn’t take long for her to find a small stream meandering through the clearing.
While Leatha bent down to refill her bottle in the brook, Anna took a moment to reflect on their situation, particularly that of Leatha’s mental state. Was she stable now that they were active and away from the cave? Would Leatha have another episode like the one that had nearly gotten her choked to death? What would be their course of action should they somehow encounter the contingent of Red-tails hunting for them? These were all questions rolling around in her head, questions she did not have the answers to.
Leatha returned to the log fall and sat back down on her tree. “Are we still on track?” she asked, unaware of the deep concerns haunting Anna. She rotated her shoulders to work out a cramp that had settled in just below her right shoulder blade.
“As far as I can tell, yes,” Anna said. “We haven’t had to make any detours yet. I think we can still make it if we don’t run into any serious obstacles.”
“Assuming there is a way across the river.”
“Of course,” Anna agreed. She capped her water bottle. “But that brings up something I’ve wanted to ask you.”
“What?”
“Won’t the Red-tails just follow us across the log jam? I’ve heard they’re adverse to water. But if it’s a big jam, they’ll just follow our scent across it, won’t they?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Leatha said. “And here is my idea. When we get to the river, I want us to do some wading if possible.”
“You mean lose our scent in the water?” Anna asked.
Leatha nodded.
“That depends on if there is any water shallow enough for the purpose. This river may have a few shallow places along the edges, but it cuts through solid rock with very steep sides, and it has dangerous under currents. Otherwise, we could just wade across.”
“I seem to remember something about how rivers tend to run flat and shallow downstream from where logjams develop,” Leatha answered.
“Good point,” Anna admitted. “So we’re wading. Then what?”
“We wade downstream out of sight of the logjam. Upon reaching the logjam, we use it to cross the river. It will take the Red-tails take time to figure out that we might have done something like this. Then they’ll have to find the logjam and use it. They won’t wade in the water themselves. It’s too cold for them. By that time, we’ll have more distance between us and them.”
“Sounds good,” Anna agreed. “If there are all the things you mentioned waiting for us up ahead.”
“It’s the best I’ve got,” Leatha said. “With the time we’ve made up so far, it should be enough to give us a chance.”
“At least they don’t know quite where we are yet,” Anna commented. Without warning, an electronic beep sounded from inside Anna’s backpack.
“What’s that?” Leatha yelled. She and Anna whirled around, seeking the source of the sound.
“It’s the responder!” cried Anna.
Anna tore open her pack and removed the incriminating the device.
“It activated itself to alert us!” she exclaimed. Opening the responder’s cover, she turned the alarm off and deactivated it.
“How did that happen?” Leatha asked. “I thought we turned it off.”
“We did. But I forgot about the automatic backup. If you haven’t used it to get a fix after a certain amount of time, it goes into automatic mode. Then it sends out a series of signals to connect itself with the preserve uplink. Once contact is established and verified, it trips the alarm.”
“So it sent out a signal marking our location?” Leatha asked.
“Yes,” returned Anna’s discouraged reply.
“Then they know where we are,” snapped Leatha as her demeanor changed. “We can still run, but eventually, we’ll have to fight.”
Chapter Thirty
Already disgusted with his assignment, the Red-tail soldier moodily considered his sorry lot. His anger boiling within, he wanted nothing more than to rip the life out of some living creature, preferably the humans, or even the commander. As delicious as the idea was, he dismissed it from his mind. Challenging the commander was too risky for one of such low caste. He would most likely end up with the commander’s long knife protruding from his chest. Better to devise some other path to glory and power. And if it made the commander look like a fool, then all the better.
Interrupting his musings, the transceiver whirled to life, startling the soldier’s nursing of his bruised ego. A glance at the display panel showed an unusual signal far away from the searchers. This was definitely not the frequency of the search team transmitters.
The soldier adjusted the controls to determine what might be sending the strange signal. In a few seconds, he had the answer - humans! The transceiver was picking up the signal from a human device nearby.
“The females,” he growled under his breath.
He knew the commander would want as much information as possible about the signal; how far away it was, if it was at a high elevation or in a valley, was the area wooded or clear? There were a hundred things he’d want to know before planning an attack. Most importantly, if he were able to provide the commander with information vital to capturing the humans, it would increase his standing in the group hierarchy, possibly even a promotion. Then again, if he could capture the human females himself, the Main Hive might see fit to promote him ahead of the commander. How many times had he heard it said the road to glory is often paved with the bodies of soldiers left behind?
Again using the transceiver directionals to triangulate the human’s position, he commanded the unit to unravel more information about the human device. He’d been told there was much to learn from such signals. Some were used by the dreaded military of the human mass. Their weaker civilians used other less sophisticated equipment.
It took the transceiver several more seconds of using the parameters it had at its disposal to analyze the human signal. Instead of displaying the results right away, the unit signaled that it would take longer than expected. The soldier considered what to do next.
Although as brave as any of his comrades, he was not completely stupid. He knew he could beat any human in direct unarmed combat but only a fool faced their military with only knives. What if this were a trap by the devious human mass? What if the females were bait used to draw them into a trap? When viewed in this light, the decision was easy - be prepared.
Taking advantage of the processing time the unit was using, he turned and ran into the entrance of their underground base. Minutes later, he returned feeling much more confident. It was not so much a matter of resolve or courage as it was the fact he had a standard issue blaster strapped to his frame. Now he could bravely face even the armed forces of the human mass.
The transceiver displayed the results of its analysis. The signal was definitely human but not on a frequency used by their military. It had taken time to scour through its data files until it revealed a series of probable matches. There at the top was the best match.
“A human location responder,” he growled under his breath. “The missing humans we’re searching for.”
Displayed clearly on the unit’s screen was his position and three lights marking the locations of the search parties. A fourth light should have been there but it wasn’t. The human indicator was gone. He roared in frustration.
The soldier began checking backward through the record file of the map. On each one he saw the indicators as the search groups move
d within their search grids but revealed no sign of the human light. Just when he was about to give up, it appeared again but in a different location from what he remembered.
Now knowing he had not imagined it, the soldier ran it back to the first indication of the human responder and found the display. To be safe he ran it further back. Stopping the moving map, he set it to advance one frame at a time while he used a claw to trace the changes in the display.
The map clicked forward frame by frame. Each time, the lights for the search groups moved accordingly. Corresponding lines created by his machine appeared on the screen, triangulating the direction and speed of each group.
There! The human light appeared. As the map change, it made traces for the human light and those of the search groups. The soldier smirked when he realized the commander and the other searchers were far away from the humans. Although they were making slow progress in their general direction, they were not moving as fast as the humans. The human females were getting away!
The map overlay displaying the separating lights flashed and the human responder light disappeared. Such had been his excitement that it felt like a physical blow. Then a new realization dawned on him. He had the map! He knew where the humans were and the commander did not. Here was his opportunity to beat the commander without the risk of a blood fight.
Stabbing the control with a claw, the transceiver displayed the map and laid out a rough facsimile of the hills around them. He then ordered it to print the information so he could take it with him. Copy finally in claw, he commanded the machine into standby mode, but not before he erased the transceiver of all the information he had gleaned from its memory. The last thing he wanted to do was leave evidence of how he had accomplished what the commander had not.
With the precious map in his tunic and a blaster on his side, the soldier was ready. Taking a last look at the visible landmarks, he plunged into the alien forest in his best distance-covering run.
∞∞∞
“What do you mean fight them?” Anna exploded. “You say that like we’re going on a picnic!”
“We cannot keep running,” stated a now gaunt- looking Leatha. “They always come. So we fight.”
“But you said they’re stronger than we are. And they have weapons.”
“So do we,” Leatha rasped as she pointed to her head. “We fight. But we fight on our terms, not theirs.”
“Then we should have stayed back at the cave. At least there you had a rock fall set up.”
“A rock fall?” Leatha asked, looking puzzled. “Rock falls are good. Makes Red-tails into Dead-tails,” she added, laughing aloud.
Anna didn’t like the way that sounded. She thought she heard Leatha’s little girl voice. She hoped they weren’t going to have another episode like the one in the cave.
Not knowing what else to do, she shouldered her pack. “We better cut across country if we’re going to stay ahead of them.”
“That’s good,” Leatha said. “Make a trail for them to follow. Then we attack.”
“Attack?”
“Yep.”
“We’re going to attack them?”
“Yep,” Leatha repeated. “Soon as we find a good place to set up an ambush.”
Without another word, Leatha scampered silently into the woods, slinging her pack on as she ran. Dismayed and confused, Anna resigned herself to follow.
∞∞∞
The searchers followed a meandering trail through the alien vegetation, a trail that led them over and around obstacles. Unlike any decent animal, these humans tended to wander without reason. Still their scent was strong so the commander knew they were making progress.
Ahead of him a detail of his soldiers scouted for more signs of the human females. Since he had the freshest trail, he considered calling the other search parties to join his group in the hunt. But he did not want to share the prize when the humans were captured. He was commander. By right of caste he would draw first blood.
A break between the tall alien plants revealed a rock face rising above the surrounding territory. At last! Rocks! Something solid and sure under claw rather than this accursed soft soil and these strange slippery things that had fallen off of them, covering the forest floor. Off in the distance he heard a clicking sound.
Using the old signaling system he had learned as a spawn, he clicked back to the soldier calling him. Charging ahead, he headed for the rock face.
“What have you got?” the commander demanded when he reached the signaling soldier. He recognized him as a lower command caste soldier, a fool to be sure but at least one that could communicate. He’d often thought of killing him as an example to other ambitious climbers but he didn’t want to answer questions to the Main Hive for killing a soldier with hierarchical family connections.
“Signs of the humans,” the soldier reported, his eyes bright with blood lust. “They scaled the cliff here.”
“Humans can’t climb rock, you fool,” growled the commander. “They don’t have claws to give them proper traction.”
“Not up the cliff, Commander,” the soldier said with an obedient bow. “More roundabout. Up that trail,” he pointed at a meandering path through the crags of the cliff.
“Why didn’t you follow it?” he demanded.
“I sent two soldiers up the trail as advance scouts, sir, while I checked the caves at the bottom,” answered the soldier. “You said you want a complete search.”
“What have you found?”
“Only a few broken native plants, some missing native fruit, and a pool of liquid water, sir. Nothing special.”
“Then let’s be about it,” snarled the commander. “I want my humans before the star reaches zenith.”
“Yes commander.” The soldier snapped to attention. Turning, he led his superior around the base of the cliff. A narrow trail ascended along the side of the incline. There were definite signs of recent passage.
The two climbed upward, following the scent of the humans. The path rose higher and higher along the face of the cliff to a rocky ledge with rock wall on one side and a sheer drop-off on the other. One of the advance scouts waited at the entrance of a small cave.
“They were here for the night,” the soldier reported as soon as the commander stepped onto the ledge. “The humans slept and then were gone a few time cycles ago. Several trails lead away from here.”
“Show me what you found,” the commander demanded. The soldier turned and led his superior into the cave. Rounding the bend in the cave, they came to the dead-end. Scuff marks in the dirt floor indicated the humans had fought each other here, but there was no blood to suggest which was superior to the other.
Having seen his partner and the commander enter the cave below him, the soldier on the cliff waved at his comrades below. Then he turned his attention to the strange trail of a single human scent that led to a makeshift pile of rocks. He had hoped to find more, maybe even the human, but this was a dead end. The commander would surely berate him for his failure.
The construct of rock and vegetation was so pathetic, not worthy to be called a shelter. There was no way to climb under the pile of rocks and feel their comfort against your hide.
Just as he was about to climb back down the cliff face, his eye caught a flicker of color wedged under a rock at the base of the pile. What is this? he thought and bent down to examine it. A piece of material left by the humans? This could be worth something to the commander.
He squatted down to examine the torn piece of cloth more closely. It was stained. Blood! Eager now to retrieve this prize and present it to his superior, the soldier tried to move a dead branch away from the bottom of the makeshift rock pile.
Back inside the cave, the commander and his escort were examining the floor and walls at the back of the cave. “Here is where they slept,” the soldier reported. “We found nothing else.”
“We?” asked the commander, remembering there were two soldiers up here, not just this drone. “Where is your partner?�
� he demanded.
“He is following one of the trails leading out of here,” the soldier reported. “It appears to go right up the rock face.”
“That’s impossible,” snorted the commander. “Humans can’t...”
His words were cut off by an awful rumbling above the cave. They raced to the front in time to see a shower of rocks cascading over the front of the entrance. While they watched, the falling body of a soldier passed by, colliding with another soldier and knocking him off the ledge. Both hurtled down in the rock fall to land crumpled and dead at the base of the cliff. The commander roared in anger.
When the dust cleared and the last of the falling rock passed into the abyss below, he stepped back onto the ledge. There, back along the trail leading to the cave stood one of his remaining soldiers.
“Commander,” he called out, “we have found the trail of the humans leading away from this place.”
“Good,” snarled the commander. He whirled on the command caste soldier standing next to him.
“You!” he barked with the stab of a claw. “Remain here and wait for the others. I want those bodies removed and taken back to our base. No evidence of our passing must remain here.”
“Yes commander.”
“Now you,” the commander said to the soldier still waiting on the trail. “Take me to my humans!”
Chapter Thirty-One
For half an hour the only sound the two women heard was that of rushing water while they fled through the forest. Anna, following Leatha as she slipped noiselessly along, had been relieved when she saw Leatha was heading in the general direction they had originally planned. Her young friend was still acting strange again but that wasn’t the most important issue at the moment. Escaping from the searching Red-tails was the only thing that counted right now.
Everything Anna knew about the region pointed to the likelihood of stretches of the river where they could cross. Either a log jam or a shallow stretch of water they could ford would work for her right now. After that, things would take care of themselves. But she weighed the hope of safely crossing against what her ears were telling her was in front of them - the noise of an angry river.
