She nodded, her attention still with Ava.
“We need to get out of the open quickly. Where’s the nearest seal hide?”
She threw a glance along the coastline in either direction. “There should be one north of here, about a kilometre.”
“Are you certain?”
“I would be,” she replied. “I think we are on the east coast, but…” Still with her arm around Ava, she took another look around.
“What is it?” Callum asked.
“Usually I would see the ship, to the south.”
Callum turned and scoured the horizon. She was right. The Albanov was nowhere to be seen. For as long as they’d been on Harmsworth, it had been anchored off the island’s south-east corner, opposite Valerian Cove. Now there was nothing but an expanse of calm, open ocean rippling below the empty sky.
Perhaps it was delirium. He screwed his eyes up, opened them and looked again. Nothing. Then something caught his attention. High up, just below the streaks of white cloud sat a grey band; what looked like a single raincloud in an otherwise tranquil sky. It was getting thinner and thinner, bleeding away into the ether.
“Do you think they might have gone looking for us?” Darya asked.
“No, I’m pretty certain they’d send the helicopters over before upping anchor.” He turned back. Ava was upright again, but her face remained grey and she looked unsteady on her feet.
“They won’t’ve gone far without us,” he said, doing his best to sound confident. In reality he was more concerned about the absence of the Albanov than anything. It was their one and only lifeline, the only reason any of them could expect to survive even twenty-four hours at this latitude, summer or not. He pulled the rifle back into his shoulder. “We’d better get moving towards that hide. We’ll be safer there.”
Concealed from Ava, Darya cast him an uncertain glance.
* * *
Koikov flicked the end of his papirosa off the edge of the cliff and watched as it spiralled down into the surf. Then he turned to face his team. “The Albanov is gone. I’ve got no idea why or how, so don’t ask. But as far as I can tell, we are the only survivors. From now on we have two priorities. Number one. Shelter. Somewhere that we can protect ourselves from the weather and defend ourselves against those things.”
A cynical undercurrent of sniggers, looks and comments passed amongst the men, before young Private Tsaritsyn spoke out. “You mean the dragons, Starshyna?”
Koikov kept his cool and held Tsaritsyn’s gaze. “I mean the creatures that killed Private Yudina.”
“What do they look like?”
“They look like you,” Koikov replied. “Ugly. With bad teeth.”
A second round of laughter went up, only this time it was rooting for Koikov.
He seized the momentum. “Priority two. Communications. The primary transmitter for long distance and satellite communications went down with the Albanov, so our radio communications are limited to short-range field transmissions.” He tapped the side of his earpiece. “As of this moment we are cut off from the outside world. Nobody on the mainland knows a thing about what’s happening here.”
“What about the sudden radio silence?” Private Gergiev called out. “Surely they’ll know there’s an emergency now that they can’t raise the Albanov?”
“That’s true,” Koikov answered. “And they’ll send a team to investigate, but it’ll take time, perhaps weeks if they send a ship, and whatever else we’ve got here, we don’t have weeks. We need to try and make contact with the mainland so that we can explain the situation and get ourselves off this hellhole as soon as possible. Does anybody disagree?”
Silence.
“There’s an old military compound on the other side of the island. The bunkers will do for shelter and defence, and there’s an old transmitter that we might be able to resurrect.” He shouldered his rifle. “Now let’s stop fingering ourselves and move out. The sooner we get there the better.” He searched around. “Orlov, Zakrevsky. Grab RPGs and stick behind. The rest of you, I want four- and five-man teams, hundred-metre intervals. Let’s move!”
3
The hide was similar to the last, only larger and better concealed. The journey there had been nerve-racking but uneventful. There had been no sign of the creatures.
As they crawled inside, Callum was still battling to understand the situation. How did three sane, intelligent adults end up on a remote beach with a rifle, a handful of shot and not a clue between them as to how or why? It reminded him of some kind of macabre schoolyard brain-teaser. A hundred people are found dead in a cabin in the woods. They’re all sitting down. How did they die?
Besides the notion that the last few days were a whiskey-induced hallucination, the only common denominator was Dan Peterson. He was the last person any of them could remember being with. But why would a respected professional like Peterson drug three of his colleagues and maroon them on an island? Particularly when he professed undying love for one of them? It just didn’t add up.
“Would you look at this!” Ava was sitting opposite him with her back against the rock. The colour had all but returned to her face. In her hand she held a water canister. “This was in the inside flap of my jacket.”
“It’s not yours?” Callum asked.
She shook her head and raised the neck of the canister to her lips. “But I’m sure glad it’s here. My throat feels like sandpaper.” She stopped short of drinking. “I don’t suppose either of you have water, do you?”
Darya patted her hands across her jacket but found nothing.
Callum did likewise. “Looks like you’re the one with the guardian angel,” he said. “You know, I’m pretty certain the rifle was meant for you as well?”
She shrugged. “Was it now? Well, you can go ahead and keep a hold of that for us. I wouldn’t know which way to point it. As for the water, I guess we’re gonna have to ration it until we get rescued. Two sips and pass.”
Ava took her sips and passed the container to Darya. When it had made its way back around to her, she reaffirmed the lid and pushed it into a crevice in the rock. “There, that ought to keep it cool. Now let’s see if I’ve inherited anything else.”
She emptied all of her pockets out onto the floor of the hide. “Okay, folks, our inventory stands at one fully stocked survival tin, four energy bars, a pocket-sized torch, three emergency glow-sticks, a penknife and a bag of hard-boiled candy. The survival tin’s mine. Otherwise I haven’t the first idea where any of it came from.”
She prised the lid off the tin and checked the contents. “That’s interesting.” She withdrew a small, black plastic rectangle with a metal hoop through it. “Haven’t seen this before.”
“What is it?” Darya asked.
“Key ring,” she replied, inspecting it. “Maybe it’s not my tin after all.”
Callum cast his eye over the assemblage. Then he looked to Darya. She met his gaze and he could tell that she was thinking the same thing. “How well do you know Dan?” he asked Ava.
“That’s an odd question,” she replied, her tone suddenly guarded. “I mean, I know Dan like the rest of you know him. We’re colleagues is all.”
As tactfully as possible, Callum said, “I thought you might know him a bit better?”
There was silence. Ava’s face flushed, “Wha… what’s that no-good Lothario wannabe been saying?”
“Nothing really. He just said that you and he were… more than colleagues.”
“I can’t believe he’s gone and shot his mouth off like this. I specifically told him not to say anything!”
“It is okay,” Darya said, picking up on her embarrassment. “Me and Callum are also… more than colleagues.”
Ava looked between the two of them. Her expression seemed to soften. “You know, I guessed as much. Two good-looking youngsters like yourselves and everything. J
ust, I’m confused why you want to know about Dan. You can’t possibly think he’s got anything to do with this? He’s a clown, but he’s no Pennywise.”
“Dan’s the last person any of us saw before we blacked out and ended up where we are now,” Callum said. “On top of that, only one of us has woken up armed with a whole raft of survival equipment, and that’s you.”
“The one he has feelings for,” Darya said.
“I wouldn’t exactly say feelings. It’s just a thing, you know? For crying out loud, I turn forty-one next year, not sixteen.”
Callum shook his head. “I don’t think that matters to Dan.”
“Besides,” Ava went on, “if he does feel for me at all, then I can’t imagine for a second why he’d go and do this to me, especially if he knows there are things on here. And he saved both of your asses earlier today as well. Why would he do that, huh? Save you then strand you?”
“I’ve no idea,” Callum said. “I just wondered whether he’d said anything to you, that’s all. Anything that might’ve seemed odd.”
Ava laughed. “Are we talking about the same guy? Everything he ever says to me sounds kind of odd. It’s kind of what I like about him. But no, as far as I’m aware he’s never betrayed any desire to strand the three of us on Harmsworth.”
There was no point pressing her any further, so Callum let it drop. They shared out one of the energy bars and passed a few moments in silence before Ava said, “Tell me more about these creatures? You say they’re a new species?”
“Yes,” Darya replied. “They are different from anything I have seen before. They have feathers and they are bipedal, like large birds. But they appear to be flightless. Instead of full wings they have forearms.”
“Forearms? Sounds like evolution in reverse,” Ava said.
“Plus their eyes are large,” Callum added, “and they have a snout instead of a beak. They seem almost reptilian.”
“There are no contemporary bipedal reptilians,” Ava said.
“Well, whatever they are, I think the Nganasan peoples of northern Siberia might have known about them for a long time—”
“What was that?” Ava whispered suddenly, the blood visibly draining from her face.
“What?”
“There was a noise… from outside.”
“Probably a rock falling from the cliff,” Darya whispered. “It happens all the time.”
They listened in silence, Callum clasping the rifle close to his chest.
And this time they all heard it: the sound of scattered rock.
“Callum,” Darya whispered. Her voice trembled as she pointed past him at the side of the hide.
A low shadow was moving along the outside of the fabric, shuffling towards the entrance. The way the light fell left the shadow formless, so that it was impossible to identify. Its movement was divided into a series of slinks; move, stop, rear-up, pause, move, stop, rear-up, pause…
Whatever it was, it wasn’t small. Whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t human.
A cold sweat broke across Callum’s brow. “Get behind me,” he whispered. “Slowly. Don’t make any noise. If we’re quiet, maybe it’ll move on.” He could hear the desperation in his own voice. Perched on his knees, he raised the rifle up and trained the barrel on the entrance.
From behind him came Ava’s muffled sobs, and he could feel Darya’s fingers digging into the sides of his ribs as the shadow crept closer and closer to the entrance. The sound of his own heart pounding drowned out every other sound in existence.
The shadow stopped suddenly. Its head bowed down and tapped at the base of the fabric, sending ripples radiating up the side. Ava winced and squeaked into his shoulder. Whatever it was jerked its head back up and listened intently.
“It is not going away,” Darya whispered, her voice barely audible. “It knows we are here.”
Callum fought to hold the rifle in position. Hands shaking, he brought his finger to the trigger just as the shadow reached the entrance flap.
4
The sound of the creature’s breathing filled the hide, loud and abrasive. Inside, Callum, Darya and Ava waited, huddled in silence behind the rifle.
A snout pushed through the gap in the fabric. The creature’s mouth dropped open, and a long pink tongue unfolded over the teeth of the lower jaw.
Ava and Darya screamed, while Callum dropped his shoulder at the last minute and discharged the bullet into the roof.
As the sound of the gunshot echoed, he let out a massive sigh of relief. “Fenris!”
The dog’s ears, which had flattened at the sound of the rifle, sprang back up. He gave a string of excited barks and bounded into the hide. His tail wagged frantically as he barged into Callum, toppling him back into the others. Then he whined and nuzzled the side of his face.
“It’s a dog,” Ava said, her hand on her chest, her voice matter-of-fact with shock. “It’s a dog.”
Lying next to her in a heap, Darya broke into relieved laughter. “It is a dog,” she echoed.
“You don’t know how lucky you are, boy,” Callum said, rubbing behind Fenris’s ears. “Now, where’s Daddy, huh? Where’s Lungkaju?” He noticed a smear of dried blood on the side of Fenris’s snout. The dog’s coat was matted. It felt slick with some kind of oil and gave off the faint tang of burning rubber. “What’s happened to you, boy?”
The dog backed away, casting cursory glances at Darya and Ava. Then he pushed his way back out of the hide.
Without a second’s thought, Callum crawled after him. “We’ve got to follow.”
“And leave this place? Are you crazy?” Ava protested.
Callum looked back. “Do you want to sit around and wait for one of those things to turn up for real? Trust me, we’re a lot safer with that dog than we are in here.”
“But where’s he leading us?”
“With any luck, he’ll take us to Lungkaju. Then we can get back to the ship and report what we’ve seen before anybody else gets hurt.”
Darya got to her knees and began following on, but Ava remained rooted to the back of the hide, her face twisted with fear.
“Ava, this is our best chance at rescue,” Callum said as calmly as he could manage. “But we have to move. Believe me, that dog does not stand on ceremony.”
Darya cupped Ava’s narrow face in her hands, pushing the strands of dishevelled brown hair back from her forehead. “I know that you are scared, Ava. I am scared too. But Callum is right. We have to move now or they will not find us. I will help you, come on.” She wrapped her arms around her colleague and gave her a hug. Then she took her by the hand and moved slowly towards the entrance.
“Why did you have to tell me about those things?” Ava mumbled as she edged forward. “Nobody ever tell you ignorance is bliss?”
Callum emerged from the hide. His attempts at stealth were undermined by the impatient whinnying of Fenris, but still he kept as quiet as possible and concealed himself behind a stand of rock. The other two clambered after him.
He glanced around. They had the vantage of high ground, and from what he could see there was no immediate threat, either from inland or the coast. There was also no Lungkaju. This wasn’t totally unexpected; he recalled the countless hours that Fenris had disappeared for, when he and Lungkaju were carrying out the survey. Humans obviously moved at too deliberate a pace for Fenris.
In his most commanding voice, he called the dog over. To his surprise, Fenris actually came. He quickly removed his belt and tied it as a makeshift leash around the dog’s collar. “I’m sorry boy, but we’ll lose you otherwise.”
Fenris whined and tugged at the restraint. But Callum held firm. The dog was a new lifeline and he wasn’t about to let him get away.
As they set off, Fenris pulled so hard against his new lead that he could only breathe in wheezes and grunts, which seemed to echo far
and wide.
“Why don’t we just fire off a couple of rounds on the rifle?” Ava said.
But despite the noise, Callum felt a quiet confidence, not least because Fenris seemed to know exactly where he was going. He led them a short distance inland away from shore. Then he turned north and took them through a winding valley littered with strange, near-spherical boulders. Some were several metres in diameter, some perfectly round, others oval like gigantic eggs. Some were smooth, others criss-crossed with a web of mineral veins, and together they created a Martian landscape unlike anything Callum had ever seen before.
“I wonder what has caused these rocks to be this way,” Darya said.
“They’re concretions,” Ava replied, her voice low. “They form within sedimentary strata on the seabed over millions of years. Either a cavity in the sediment in-fills with minerals of a different kind, similar to the fossilisation process, or a sediment nucleus gradually enlarges as minerals accrete to the surface, similar to how a pearl’s produced. Either way, when the surrounding sediment erodes away, you’re left with these beautiful formations.”
“You’ve seen them before?” Callum asked.
“Not these ones,” she replied. “But I’ve visited formations in Koutu and Moeraki in New Zealand, and a few others in the States. They’re interesting because they quite often contain fossils. They sometimes form around them. I know for a fact that some of the concretions on North Island in New Zealand contain the fossilised bones of prehistoric marine reptiles.”
Callum stopped suddenly and held his hand up. Ahead of him, Fenris had ground to a halt and was standing with his ears and tail erect, sniffing at the air.
“What is it?” Darya whispered.
Callum shook his head. They were approaching the end of the valley and the land was rising steeply, the trail veering east, back towards the coast. Callum tugged gently at the leash. “What is it, boy? Can you smell something?”
Colony Page 18
