Hard Corps (Quentin Case Book 2)

by John Hook

  The spear hit the top of the snake’s massive head just as it was about to pull it up and open its mouth for me again. The spear shattered the skull, sank into the head and burst out into the mouth and finally through the lower jaw. There was a hiss that sounded like two metal sheets being scraped across each other. I hung onto the spear as the snake plunged toward the ground. Luckily its own reflexes, even while dying, slowed the descent so that I ended up almost floating to the ground. As the ground approached I let go and let myself be flung away from where the snake was crashing down, rolling as soon as I hit. I finally came to a stop at the base of a tree. My shoulder ached, but otherwise I was okay.

  I jumped up and then froze, waiting. I watched the snake’s entire body follow its head to the ground, coil after coil thudding down. The head rose up one more time and that metallic cry tore the air. Greenish fluid seemed to run everywhere, and then the head fell to the ground and stopped moving.

  Carefully, warily, I crossed over to the head. There was no life. I pulled the spear out and threw my head back and bellowed at the skies. It was partially release from having just escaped death and partially to warn anything else that wanted to attack me. However, it wasn’t anything I thought about, it just came out in the moment. And then, once more, my energy dropped back to normal levels and all balanced out again.

  I wiped the gore off the spear in the grass and strapped it on again. Heading in the direction where I had seen the light the night before, I decided to stay on the ground for now. Obviously, no place in the world was entirely safe.

  Whatever that opening of the forest canopy was, it was further away that I had anticipated. The sun was high in the sky by the time I reached it. I could feel the heat rising, but it wasn’t the sun. It was coming more from the ground. As I got closer there was hot steam drifting by in bands. As I came out of the forest and walked down a slope, I saw a river of a hot, molten substance running through a natural canal cut in the clay soil.

  I shrugged. It might be a place to camp out at night, given heat and light, but it didn’t seem that useful. It was too hot to even approach. I looked at the embankment near it. There were curious patterns of black sand that seemed to flare out away from the molten flow. I saw a small black rock on the ground that seemed to be made of the same black sand. I picked it up. It really was just compressed sand. Grains came off in my hand as I turned it over and over. It didn’t seem very important. I was just curious. Then, for no real reason other than amusement, I tossed the stone as far out as I could into the lava. I expected a little splash. What I got was a loud bang as the rock exploded, spraying sandy fragments.

  I jumped back, startled. It seemed to be some strange interaction between the rock and the lava. The rock hadn’t been swallowed by the lava. On contact, it was nearly vaporized. I found another black sand rock and threw it out into the lava. Again, as soon as the rock came into contact with the lava, the rock exploded. The energy blew bits of rock in all directions and even those little bits exploded as they hit the lava.

  I didn’t know yet how to make use of this, but this seemed like a powerful potential weapon in this world of so many dangers. I looked to my right and saw an outcropping of the black sand rock hanging out over the lava. There was a larger boulder that looked like it would be easy to work free. It was big enough to show me what a bigger explosion might do, but still light enough that I could heft it from a safe distance.

  I crossed to it and grasped it. I set my feet carefully so that I had good balance. I didn’t want to end up falling in the lava. I carefully dislodged the rock and then instinctively checked my footing. Somehow, in doing so, my hands fumbled the large rock. I looked back to see the boulder drop straight down to the lava right next to me. I didn’t panic. I didn’t have time. Chunks of rock the size of my fists had punched through my face even before the explosion blew me back into darkness.

  14.

  Bright light flooded my eyes. Somewhere there was a roar, not like an animal but like a violent storm. Intertwined with it was a distant screaming. I felt a sharp pain. Everything was distinct, distant and separate. The world was a jumble of chaotic impressions, but they all seemed to be somewhere else. I felt like I was running but I wasn’t going anywhere. I must have closed my eyes because the bright light and visual chaos retreated. I could still hear the sound like howling winds and I could still hear the screaming.

  Images also flashed at me in the darkness. I didn’t know what they were. There was a woman with white hair. Seeing her made my breathing easier, but the impression didn’t last long enough to remember her face. Then there was a woman with dark hair, who seemed to make my breathing accelerate, but not in an unpleasant way. However, all these images were gone as soon as I had them. They must be dreams or memories. I have no memories. A man in a yellow shirt and tan pants stood smiling, reaching out his hand. I took it.

  My eyes opened and the world around me whirled. However, it was solid now and the whirling was slowing down. I was confused at first because I couldn’t tell where I was. I felt another sharp pain and struggled for a moment. It only made the pain worse, so I stopped. I was filled with energy, but I fought to try to get it under control because it was making it very hard to concentrate. I had to find out why I was in pain.

  I finally succeeded in holding myself still. I found myself controlling my breathing and for just a moment a woman’s face passed across my mind. She had dark hair, but she was not the same as the other woman with dark hair. Her eyes were both intense and calm. For just a moment I saw my own eyes reflected in a sliver of polished metal. Then all of it was gone and I could barely remember that I had seen anything.

  However, I now lay still and slowly looked around, evaluating my situation.

  I now realized the source of the pain. I was up in a tree, quite high, in fact, with my arm jammed between two very thick branches. Luckily it was jammed at the thicker part of the arm, up near the shoulder. Also, luckily, I had curled myself inward, wrapping myself around the trunk. Had I been trapped at the wrist, my agitation might have broken it. If I had not thrown myself against the trunk, I would have likely fallen out of the tree and, at this height, would have broken everything.

  Carefully I worked my arm back and forth. I felt if I released the energy that had built up, I could probably rip one of the branches away, but it might not have a good result on the arm. Somehow, I had to control the energy. Finally, with only minor scrapes, I was able to work the arm free. It was going to be sore for a while, but it worked fine.

  Getting down was going to be tricky. The branches were big and there were several levels going down to the ground. But they were too far apart for climbing. There were no vines and there were no other hand holds on the trunk of the tree. I was going to have to jump from one branch cluster to another and hope I didn’t slip. Or miss.

  I let the energy rise up. I was going to need it. I leapt off and dropped to the next branch cluster. I caught a limb with my hands and kept letting myself fall, using motion to absorb the impact of hitting the branch. I swung in an arc around and up and landed on my feet on the branch cluster. I didn’t even think about it. I dropped down to the next branch cluster. The lower limbs were almost too thick, so I had to try to land on them with my feet, which I managed, but it was much more jarring. On the last one, I lost my footing and fell the rest of the way. Luckily I was close enough to the ground that, painful as it was, I didn’t break anything.

  I pulled myself up and looked around. I felt like there was something I was trying to remember, but I had no memories. “Really?” I challenged myself. “Then what are those images that flash in your mind?” It was too hard to make sense of that. I let it go. I noticed I was wearing a yellow shirt and tan pants and thought that was odd after seeing that man in my mind, but I let that go too.

  I stepped away from under the forest cover into a clear area and immediately froze. I could feel a mild panic seizing me. So much so, I immediately looked around and up into the sky to
see if I was under attack. There was nothing I could see. Ahead of me was a river of molten substance. The heat was intense and it was potentially dangerous, to be sure. However, it was no immediate threat unless you were careless and got too close.

  There was an interesting pattern of flares of black sand on the embankment, fanning out away from the lava stream. My eyes drifted over to an outcropping of black grain rock near the lava and the panic hit me again like being hit from behind. I backed away. The fear was overwhelming and I was trying to understand why, but the panic wouldn’t even let me think. I turned and walked back under the forest canopy and felt much more relaxed immediately. I turned one last time and looked at the black outcropping. The sensation came back, but it was muted from here. There was something important about that black rock. I turned away again.

  On the ground I found what looked like a broken spear just lying there. It was broken in two pieces. I picked up the longer piece, which had a sharp point fashioned at one end. Whatever had broken it must have had a lot of force behind it because the wood was very smooth and hard. I hefted it from hand to hand. It was a perfect length. It had been too long before, I thought. There was a vine attached in a loop. It had broken just below where the lower loop was attached. I slung it onto my back and headed into the forest.

  I felt uneasy walking on the ground and eyed the latticework of branches above. I thought about using that to move through the forest, but that made me uneasy too.

  “Welcome to Hell, where everything is dangerous.” I looked around in a panic and then realized I had said that. It seemed humorous. Why had I said that? Was this place called Hell? I decided it was as good a name as any, although I wasn’t sure what it meant. I wished I would blurt out my name. It felt weird to not have one.

  I still felt a lot of energy built up and it was agitating me, so I decided to break into an easy run. It felt good, feeling the energy start to flow rather than be trapped. Without noticing much, I began to run faster and faster and it became easier as I went. Every so often I would hear animal sounds. I would always hesitate and look around, but they were somewhere I couldn’t see so I went back to running.

  Eventually, my running took me into a small clearing where there were vines offering a very large purple fruit. They looked like very large berries and the fruit was plentiful and heavy on the vines. I wasn’t hungry, but the same couldn’t be said for the mammoth furry beast that I had failed to notice in one darker corner where the trees on the opposite side came into the meadow.

  As soon as I saw the beast, my nerves went on alert. All my senses sharpened. I froze, but stood my ground. Too late. The beast had seen me. It turned and raised itself into an attack stance. It stood on its hind legs towering over me. Sharp talons stretched from its fingers. It had a long snout and the mouth opened, exposing multiple rows of jagged teeth. It made a dreadful howl of hungry anger. Its fur flared out everywhere on its body. I pulled the spear off my back by instinct, though I seemed terribly over-matched. Luckily, I wasn’t engaged in much thought. Its red eyes locked on mine.

  I noticed that it had a savage wound on the bridge of its snout that hadn’t healed yet. I don’t know why I noticed that, in the middle of this kind of situation, nor why it captured so much of my attention. I was drawn to it as if that was an important detail. Maybe that was where I should try to hurt the beast, aim my spear for the wound. However, even stranger, the beast suddenly seemed to change stance and expression. Inexplicably, I saw fear in the beast’s eyes. It averted its eyes, dropped to the ground, howled and lumbered off into the forest, shaking the ground with each bound, a last reminder of how much he really should not have been afraid of me.

  I bellowed after it, shaking my spear. That was instinct and a release of pent up fear and aggression. Then I sniffed my arm pits wondering if I had some offending odor. I thought that was strange, then it struck me as funny and I started laughing uncontrollably, falling on the ground.

  It took me a while to get myself under control, but I finally raised myself up. I looked in the direction the beast had gone, realizing that when I was laughing I had been terribly vulnerable, but the beast was nowhere around. I thought of picking the fruit, but I wasn’t really hungry and was afraid the beast might be territorial about the fruit. I started running again the opposite way the beast went, back into the woods.

  I couldn’t gauge the passing of time very well, but for a while not much was happening. As my energy dissipated to a more natural level and seemed to balance out, I slowed my pace to merely a fast walk. I had no sense of direction or purpose. Sometimes that was fine with me and sometimes that felt wrong to me. The latter were the times when I felt like I had something to remember, but it would never come. I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t hungry, and there was no reason to stop. I did encounter a stream and, although I wasn’t thirsty, my mouth was dry and it felt comforting to drink the cool water.

  Sometimes the aimless walking would just become hypnotic and images would drift in and out of my mind. Some were comforting and some were disturbing. There was a man with metal covering his skin like the black rock and he evoked the same panic. They must be related, I thought. At one point, I saw the woman with dark hair who made me breathe faster. She smiled. I would give anything to see her smile again. Before she faded she locked eyes with me and said, “Rox.” I decided this must be a memory and that my name was Rox. Good. I was beginning to make progress.

  Finally, I was pulled out of my state of drift by a scream. I had become adjusted to hearing strange animal sounds in the distance and they no longer startled me much. Occasionally, I had sensed closer proximity and had hidden as some large and usually well-armed nightmare lumbered past. It was more or less routine now.

  However, this was unmistakably human. It was very quickly followed by a grating cry that was decidedly inhuman. It also didn’t seem to be a bellow of pain. Curiously, it seemed to almost be a shout of joy. I saw the floor of the forest was coming to an outcropping where the floor fell away to something below. That’s where the sounds were coming from.

  I went low to the ground and crept as stealthily as possible to the edge of the overhang. The drop was only about twenty feet. There were three humans, two males and one female looking terrorized, surrounded by five short humanoid creatures. The creatures were maybe five foot six, shorter than the humans, but aside from out numbering the humans, they had better natural weapons. They had yellowish-green skin that had a slick, almost rubbery texture to it that made it seem tougher than bare flesh. They had mouths that hung open with multiple rows of razor teeth and claws that were equally sharp. The fact that they had made use of their claws was evidenced by tears in the fabric of the humans’ clothes, with small trickles of blood running out. I almost failed to notice an additional one of the creatures standing directly below me, leaning up against the cliff wall watching what was happening.

  They were carelessly ripping the clothes completely off one male and one female. I didn’t know yet what they intended to do, but anger shot up my spine. My chest pulled tight, but I realized I needed both surprise and control to properly even the odds and not just become another victim.

  I let my instinct to control my breath take over, and then I did something that seemed to come naturally but I found inexplicable at the time. Hooking my spear by the strap on a root, I lowered myself down the cliff until my face was next to but slightly above the creature leaning against it. The others were all too busy with the mayhem to notice me and even the creature next to me was too wrapped up in it to notice.

  I put on a big grin and said: “Hi. So, what are you doing here, ugly?”

  He turned to me with a relaxed expression and I heard in my mind “We are capturing some wild protos. Going to have some fun with them first.” He had already turned back to watch. I saw his expression change, eyes bulging wide. My hand closed on his throat, squeezing as I hauled him back up on the ledge. Without hesitation I had unhooked the spear from the root and sunk the shaft in the
creature’s eye. I threw myself back against a tree and green and yellow goo slopped out of the wound and the creature expired. I waited a moment to find out if he had sent out a telepathic warning. I heard more shouts of pain from the other humans—protos the creature had called them—but I didn’t sense anything had changed.

  I crawled back to the edge. The anger was back. Both the woman and the man were undressed. The creatures had slashed red welts on their buttocks to make them bend over. One creature was purposely choking the woman with a leather strap, probably meant to control her, venting his screaming laugh as he watched her eyes bulge in panic. Another creature behind the man produced a twisted cock from between his legs that looked like a misshaped thick root with barbs more than a cock. It was clear he was about to use that foul thing on the bent over man. The woman tried to scream but her breath was choked off.

  I leapt and landed behind the creature holding his gruesome member. I gave him a punch to the ribs that bent him over. The other creatures were still too shocked to react.

  “Here, why don’t we try it on you first?” I shoved my spear between his legs and sank it in. “What do you think? How does that feel?” The creature shrieked as more green-yellow goo splashed the ground.

  The one human who had not yet been severely attacked, though he had slashes, immediately came to life. He grabbed a rock off the ground and, with his teeth clenched, brought it down with both hands on the head of the creature that was choking the woman. The creature had been caught between wanting to come after me and wanting to deal with the other human, and failed at either. His head exploded as the rock smashed into his skull. He released the grip on the leather strap and the woman fell to the ground, coughing painfully, pulling the strap desperately from her throat.