by D C Tullis
“Just throw all of the gear onto the working one and let Khail pilot it because he’s wounded,” I suggested.
“Now that is an idea that I like,” Khail announced loudly as he took several deep breaths.
“Let’s do it then,” Ellie added.
Irithril gave me a nod of approval and we all quickly headed over to the landed glider. Enell shoved the floating crew served gun towards the glider, and Irithri, Enell, and I loaded it onto the craft. Next came the remaining undamaged equipment, and then finally Khail hopped aboard the glider.
“Okay, we have got that all dealt with, but which one of those openings leads out of here? Any ideas?” I asked.
No one responded at first until Ellie spoke up, “Eenie, meenie, miney, mo…”
“With that… I can help,” Eldevui cut in.
“At least I tried,” Ellie said to me.
“If there is more “bugs” in your plan…,” Khail chuckled before Irithril cut him off.
“Stop it, Khail, he made mistake. Give him a chance,” Irithril spoke.
Khail quietly mocked Irithril to himself as he took the opportunity to sit down on the glider and light another cylindrical cigar.
“Thank you,” Eldevui said. “I still have my drone units, we can send one up above the trees to locate the direction in which we need to head.”
“That’s actually a really great idea. I forgot about them entirely,” Ellie announced.
“So are we all in agree…,” Eldevui began before this time Enell cut him off.
It must have been something to do with being trapped in a giant spider's nest in a strange alien forest, but no one seemed able to let anyone finish their thoughts.
“Hold on, you said earlier your drones are for detecting Eldritch, correct?” Enell asked Eldevui.
“Yes…,” he replied.
“How is it then that they failed to detect the Arachyns circling around us?” Enell inquired further.
“Well, you see… I only had enough time to program them to sense the mental connection which links the Eldritch to their master. If I had had them locate all life, any damn one-winged bloatfly would have come up beeping,” he responded.
“That is unbelievably convenient. Why in the seven planes of Madgar-theos did we ever appoint you as leader?” Khail added between puffs of his smoke cylinder.
“Guys...,” I declared trying to sound as calm as possible. “We are currently sitting in the enemy's base. There could be a hundred of them climbing the opposite sides of any of these webbed walls. We’ve got a plan here. Unless anyone has a better one, let’s just keep cool and use the drones.”
“Works for me,” Ellie chimed in, her left foot unable to stop nervously tapping.
“Likewise,” Irithril and Enell added.
Khail remained silent.
“Just a moment then,” Eldevui said as he drew a few glowing symbols on the flat underside of one of the silver drones. “Up she goes.”
Within seconds the drone had risen from the glider’s deck and was now rapidly ascending to the partially webbed ceiling. It passed a hanging corpse, tightly wrapped in its burial cocoon, and continued on as it located an opening between web and tree branch. From there it soared a bit higher until it finally broke through its leafy cage onto the outside world. We observed the ascent of the drone through a sheet of glass about twelve inches per side that relayed what the drone saw. However, when that drone broke through the treetop barrier and entered the sky, what we saw was less than appealing. The mountains were located towards the east of our current position and wrapping around them for miles was a horrendous storm. The storm we had seen brewing on our arrival had finally arrived and was now not only completely covering where we had to go to reach the gate, but it was also slowly heading towards us as well.
“You may want to look at this,” Eldevui called as he pulled everyone but Khail over.
“Bloody hell,” Ellie stammered. “It just had to get worse!”
Eldevui ignored her for a moment as he tried to pinpoint which direction we would need to head to escape the nest. Pondering upon the display, he thought to himself for a minute. Eventually he settled on the idea that East would be to our left, meaning that the best exit would be… that opening about two hundred feet from where the queen Arachyn had entered.
“We head to our left,” he said. “That way,” and he pointed out the direction.
I shuddered when I briefly glanced at her no-longer twitching corpse. Just as I began to speak, I heard a soft bang in the distance and saw a half eaten drone drop from the ceiling and shatter into several pieces.
“I take great displeasure in informing everyone that the Arachyns are still here,” Eldevui declared as he lifted the lens which was frozen on the image of half a pincer.
“Well, I’d say it’s about time we get the fuck out of here then,” I added.
I received only nods of agreement.
“The exit should be that opening over there,” I spoke as I pointed to the patch where the treeline seemed to recede a bit.
I looked to Eldevui and he shot me another nod of agreement.
“Looks like we’re running,” Ellie said to me.
“Seems that way,” I replied. “Honestly, I don’t really give a damn as long as it means we get out of here quicker.”
She didn’t reply. She didn’t need too. And so we began to jog towards the exit. Foot by foot and meter by meter. I was again surprised to find Eldevui keeping good time with us despite his age. It became all the more clear why he’d managed to survive for so long. Pragmatism, wits, and wiry strength go a long way for keeping your head attached to your body.
We’d nearly reached the exit before we began to hear skittering again, but this time something was different. It didn’t sound like the presence of a few Arachyns chasing us. I turned around and nearly died from fright. It wasn’t a few Arachyns chasing us, it was nearly fifty.
I didn’t particularly need to scream in that moment, or really say anything even. I just grabbed Ellie’s arm and began training for the Olympic two hundred meter dash. All fifty pounds of gear flailing wildly with me. When the others saw, they too began sprinting at breakneck pace as the skittering of our hairy pursuers grew louder and louder by the second. Only Khail was keeping pace as he had the glider. We quickly entered through the opening and were thrust back into the twisting, tunnel like surroundings of the rest of that alien rainforest. While the last remaining glider seemed to be only able to perform around thirty miles per hour and it was weighed down by all of our gear, it was still faster than we could run. Needless to say, the Arachyns were catching up.
I shuffled along, weighed down by the Fae armor, the ammunition harness, the sword, my rifle, and my backpack. Wait the backpack… maybe if I drop it, it would lighten… Oh my god!?! I had forgotten that I still had the IMRA AI unit in my backpack and I never had mentioned it to the Fae! It didn’t matter now anyway if I was dead, but shit I can’t just leave it.
As I finished my panicked thought, we finally all broke free of the Arachyn’s nest and began tunneling through the forest of twisting branches and overturned stumps as rapidly as we could. The treeline seemed to get lighter as we ran, but none of us were thinking about that at the moment. As the creatures’ skittering grew gradually louder and louder, I heard something suddenly that none of us expected. A cataclysmic KABLAM exploded throughout the rainforest and I turned my head just in time to watch Khail standing on the unpiloted glider controlling the heavy weapon. It had launched what was obviously a railgun round right into the base of a ginormous tree. Seconds later, that falling tree began to wildly crack as its blown apart base could no longer support its weight and as its branches thrashed against the surrounding trees and plant life. In one fell swoop it came down, crushing a handful of Arachyns and blocking the path of the rest of them. Only three Arachyns managed to dodge the tree and kept in hot pursuit, but even they failed to last long as Irithril recognized her opportunity and hosed the
m down with her dart rifle on full auto fire. Within seconds nothing remained but spasming legs and inhuman squeals. They were dead, and the rest of the pack seemed blocked off by the fallen tree.
“Fuck yeah!” I cheered as I kept up my exhausted pace.
It didn’t look like those Arachyns were going to be able to maneuver around that tree anytime soon. That was good news for us as I was losing stamina very quickly. After keeping up our pace for about five minutes longer, we all stopped to take a breather. I collapsed on the spot, breathing with ragged breaths. The area we had chosen was decently well lit as we were nearing the exit. It wasn’t quite big enough to be considered a clearing, but it was still an opening considering what we had just ran through. What truly caught my eye about the clearing were the trees. Though otherwise normal in appearance, the leaves looked like they were stolen from a Hallmark display. Cheap spray paint gold all the way around with strange spiraling stems. Certainly a pleasant sight after what we had just witnessed. I crawled over next to Ellie on a flat log and reclined for a moment. Jesus, these stories are gonna blow Maxence’s mind. Assuming he believes me of course. It’s probably gonna make the strangest family meeting when I inform him that he has a portal in his house and somehow I’m something called a portalwalker. I wonder if he’s gonna ground me? Shit, I shuddered at that fact before laughing it off. Maxence hasn’t punished me for anything. I doubt he’s gonna start now.
✽✽✽
We’d been resting for nearly five minutes before I popped the question.
“You gonna tell your folks about this?” I asked Ellie who seemed consumed in thought at the moment.
“Uh,” She replied as I broke her from her trance. “Well my parents are still on their cruise in… god knows where, but I’m totally gonna tell Aunt Rose. I’m not sure she’ll believe me, but getting to describe all these dope ass guns we’ve seen might bring a smile to her face. You gonna tell Maxence?”
“Yeah…,” I declared as I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t really think he’s gonna believe me that I found a portal in his house. It’s kinda weird really. I mean, the fact that he’s lived there for so long, yet didn’t even realize it.”
“Well, I doubt anyone anywhere really expects there to be a fucking portal in their house,” Ellie replied.
“Yeah… I know, but something Eldevui said just kinda rubs me wrong. He said that this portal walker thing is genetic… so maybe Maxence has the gift too… I don’t know. Maybe that’s a stretch,” I declared.
“Stranger things have happened…,” Ellie said as she further reclined on the log.
Her groaning stomach cut her off.
“I’m kinda famished, J.” Ellie giggled as she said that.
“Oh, god, you’re right. I would kill for some pizza right about now,” I replied with a smile.
“We should probably head out,” I called to the rest of our party.
“I agree,” replied Enell before he craned his neck to survey our perimeter. “Where is Khail?”
“Oh, about that...,” Irithril said.
Khail, being his usual self, found that the perfect time to reemerge from the treeline.
“My apologies,” He declared. “All that booze built up quite an urge.”
Ellie chortled to my right.
“Let us get moving then,” Irithril announced.
We were all in agreement with that. Next stop, the gate! Or at least I hoped so. The rest of our voyage from the forest took only about another five minutes and with that we were free. Unfortunately, what waited for us on the other side of that blanket of evergreen horror was only slightly less appealing than a den full of bloodthirsty alien spiders. A storm.
✽✽✽
By the time we had reached the top of the wall of mountains, the conditions were so dire that we almost had to leave the remaining glider behind. The rainfall was devastating the pathway by blocking off potential routes, and the constant stream of lightning was only making our situation worse. Our only real hope was that the wall of mountains was actually quite deceptive. It appeared to stretch infinitely outwards, but this was merely an illusion as the mountains were neither steep, nor very tall. Really more like really big hills rather than true mountains. Upon reaching the top of the pass through the mountains, we had a bird's eye view of the canyon containing the gate. Between us and it rose a number of smaller hills which, though treacherous in these weather conditions, could hardly be considered real mountains. It was the first wave of true relief I had experienced since arriving here. I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs. Just letting it all out for only the raging winds and these foreign skies to hear. Unfortunately, Eldevui beat me to it as a bolt a lightning struck down about 300 feet behind our caravan and he let out a sudden yelp. The concussion of the lightning strike was quite literally the loudest sound I had ever heard. Eldevui’s response to it was almost comical, but not quite. That bolt landed a little too close to us for it to be humorous.
“Come on,” Irithril yelled back to us over the violent roar of the torrent of rain. “The sooner we get down there, the sooner we are not crushed by a landslide, or fried by a lighting bolt!”
No one needed to say anything initially because we all agreed with her sentiment, but a thought did cross my mind.
“How’s your tech holding up?” I asked Eldevui.
“My what?” He called loudly in the comm link. “I can hardly hear over the thund…”
BOOM!
“My point exactly…,” he finished.
“I said, how are the drones holding up?” I asked him once again.
“Let me see…,” he began as he withdrew the tablet from his pouch and continued to wipe the screen free of the downpour. “No detections yet. That either means it is as it says and there are no other Eldritch lurking amongst these rocks… or the drones have been rendered useless and we could be surrounded.”
“Comforting,” Ellie called over the comm link.
“Fret not though, children of Earth. We need only scale over those two hills down there and we will be at the canyon. Dubuqeln was its given name, I believe,” Eldevui nodded as he spoke.
“Will the rain, like, mess with the gate technology?” Ellie asked over the comm link.
“Absolutely not. We Fae have engineered these gates to be virtually indestructible. Rain, wind, flames, all hold no power over our technology,” Eldevui loudly responded as another bolt of lightning shot down near a few hundred feet to our West. The concussion of the sound was incredible.
“Indestructible, my ass. You can still blow it up,” Khail added seemingly unaffected by the lightning.
“Why must you always contradict me?” Eldevui shouted in reply.
“Force of habit,” Irithril added.
“Force of habit,” Khail furthered.
Ellie giggled to my right.
“Hey guys?” I called over the comm link. “Look down there.”
As I declared this, I pointed down our route to a possible issue. The pathway down from our location was missing its next leg. A rather long chunk had been removed by the weather conditions. We were now at a bit of an impasse. Search for another route and continue to face these ever worsening weather conditions as we lose more valuable time, or make the jump of what appeared to be about twelve feet.
“I can send out my…,” Eldevui began to speak before Irithril’s actions cut him off.
“The fall isn’t all that bad,” Irithril called from the bottom of the impasse.
“Woman, have you forgotten we have a glider full of supplies?” Eldevui asked Irithril over the comm link. “We can not up and well just launch it over.”
“No…,” she replied before pausing for a moment. “Might as well leave it here.”
“My equipment…,” Eldevui began to speak before he was cut off by Khail.
“...Will be waiting for us when we return. We should keep moving before you decay any further,” Khail cut in.
Khail could really be a bit of a d
ick at times, but I couldn’t honestly say I wished to be here any more than he did.
“Just leave it,” called Ellie as she took a leap of faith and landed next to Irithril. “Shock absorption, nice touch.”
“I have never too much liked heights either,” declared Khail as he dropped awkwardly and was caught by Irithril. “Thanks.”
“Any day,” Irithril replied.
I peered over the edge to survey the distance. I’d made greater leaps, or more realistically, greater falls before. I had once fallen a good twenty feet from the base of a treehouse that I and Cody Durand had been building in middle school. My left arm had collided with several branches on the way down. I don’t really know what happened after that, but I woke up in a hospital with my arm in a cast. Needless to say, I’d never quite enjoyed heights after that.
I slowly lowered myself to the edge and sat on it for a moment. I didn’t particularly want to jump, but the idea of being stranded on this world for much longer felt like a much worse fate. Screw it, it was now or never. I jumped next and landed alongside them on the rust tinted gravel which adorned the mountain range. Enell and Anairen quickly followed suit, leaving Eldevui still teetering on the edge of the drop.
“Come on now,” I called to him. “It’s not that bad.”
“Yeah,” Ellie added. “Your suit will absorb most of the impact.”
“This is a very, very irrational idea,” he began mumbling as he lowered himself to the point where only his fingers gripped the ledge.
“Now drop,” Ellie called.
“Drop, or Irithril will poke you with her staff,” Khail called up to him.
I’m still not quite sure whether it was the sudden boom of thunder in the distance or Eldevui just letting go, but either way he released his death grip from the ledge and landed on his feet.
“Good job,” Enell declared as he patted Eldevui on the shoulder.
“Remind me to never do that again,” Eldevui mumbled to himself as he took the moment to catch his breath. “Onward,” he declared with a seemingly newfound sense of confidence.
