The Feeding Season

by Stoyan Stoyanov

“How's it look? Is it OK?” asked Yazo

  “Lift it up higher... That's good! Now relax it slowly,” replied Thirteen and then continued after a short pause. “I don't like that sound. Something’s messed up...somewhere inside.”

  “I knew that something wasn't right! I haven't heard these noises before now. Damn it!”

  “Your Shell is too heavy and at these speeds, it's normal for these parts to wear quicker than you expect.”

  “How much time do I have left?” asked Yazo. His face was lined with sadness, and his typical boyish grin had vanished long ago.

  “As often as you can, try to put more of the suit's weight on the healthy leg and then maybe you'll succeed in continuing on for a good while.”

  Thirteen deliberately avoided sharing his concerns, realizing that at exactly this moment they wouldn't be of any help. The mood in their small group had sunk to a critical low and the boys were finding it even more difficult to find the hope they needed to continue on.

  Many days had passed, weeks even, maybe months since they left their main group and the whole time they had been on the run. They constantly ran, day and night, in order to elude their pursuers, but it was impossible because their pursuers wouldn't give up. Led by some limitless desire for revenge, their frightening silhouettes kept showing up on the horizon behind them, sometimes much too close. And then the three lost boys continued their desperate run through the lifeless desert.

  “He's returning!” Thirteen said almost yelling upon seeing Bars' familiar Shell. The Hunter had stayed behind, to discover how far behind them were their pursuers. They recognized that by his quick step that they weren't going to receive any good news.

  “We have to keep on in the same way!” Bars panted confirming their suspicions. “They appeared among the rocks about a kilometer back. Once again they've found our trail.”

  Thirteen and Yazo took off after Bars, who didn't even stop for a moment to rest.

  Sometimes they succeeded in getting so far ahead of their pursuers, that they thought for a time they had finally succeeded in escaping, but disappointment would catch up to them a few days later. Once again they had to move quickly and they were constantly increasing their tempo.

  “How were they able to find us so easily, especially among the rocks?!” asked Thirteen dumbfounded.

  “They're amazingly good trackers! That's how!” replied Bars. “We've tried everything so far, but somehow they succeed in catching up to us. Obviously, they're professionals.”

  “What drives me crazy is that they're such stubborn assholes!” shared Yazo, who had fallen a few steps behind. “Why are they continuing to follow us for such a long time? I would have given up a thousand times over by now. Don't they have anything else to do, damn them!”

  “Maybe the one we beat up was someone special to them. And now, their only goal is to achieve their retribution no matter the cost,” Thirteen started to think out loud.

  “I don't know who he was, but now we're paying a high price for what we did,” said Bars and the boys stopped talking.

  The horizon before them was darkening.

  The last slugs that had given them strength for their endless escape had been consumed several days ago. They were gradually losing their strength, but they couldn't allow themselves a break.

  “We'll have to slow down the pace,” warned Thirteen upon noticing that the Defender was being left behind.

  “What's going on? They're catching up with us!” said Bars indignantly, because he didn't know about Yazo's newest problem.

  “Yazo... has some wearing out of the suit, which, if he isn't careful, could turn into a more serious problem,” The little Mechanic explained the situation.

  “You can't fix it?”

  “No. We don't have enough of a lead. The whole process of dismantling the mechanisms is a very long procedure.”

  “Why did you slow down?” questioned Yazo, who had caught up to them in the meantime. “Don't wait for me, I'm still able to move. I'm just saving my energy.”

  “You're still able to move,...for now,” implied Thirteen.

  The three boys continued on, just not as fast as before.

  When you have to resort to an escape, you have three variants that will ensure you success. The first is to outrun your opponent because you’re faster than him and you’re able to find your way easier. Bars knew this even as a young child, whenever he had to get away from the older bullies in the corridors of the Fortress. The second way to escape is to have greater endurance than your pursuer so that he tires of chasing you, just like the time when Bars had stolen a special sandwich from Fat Druzer several years ago. The last way to escape is when your enemy receives an injury and he's no longer able to follow you. These three main conditions for success and escape weren't available to them at all and the situation was getting out of control, since there was a danger of one of them being the injured one. If that happened, Yazo didn't have a chance of getting away.

  “It's time to do something completely unexpected, while we're still able to,” said Bars and stopped.

  “What have you thought up?” Yazo's voice betrayed a sense of hope and curiosity. And fatigue.

  “For several days, we've been heading South. Now, we're close to an area that we're not supposed to go into. A place of no return.”

  “You aren't talking about the Endless Southern Swamp, are you?” asked Yazo disgusted. “Nooo. Not that way!”

  “That's the only way those damn assholes will give up. Once they understand where we're heading, they'll turn back and forget about us,” said Bars trying to convince him.

  “You know what the Textbook says about that place, don't you! Are you mad?! Only one Hero has ever returned from there, and he was the one, who wrote the warning. Instead of going there, it would be better to just turn ourselves over to our pursuers!”

  “That's the idea!” said Thirteen excitedly. “Bars is right! If we head in there, we're sure to die, right? That's why it won't make any sense for them to chase us anymore. They're sure to give up. This plan should work!”

  The three of them looked at each other for a while without saying a word, each of them deep in their own thoughts calculating their chances of success, and then a decision was reached.

  “Anyway, we're not going to last much longer with them pursuing us. If we succeed in fooling them in this way, we don't need to go too far into the swamp and we'll be able to immediately come back out,” said Bars.

  “I'm ready!” said Thirteen without thinking.

  “I'm also with you. What the hell! Let's see what happens,” agreed Yazo finally.

  The day was about over, but where they were going that didn't matter much, because darkness was the eternal lord of that cursed place.

  Once the boys started to head for the Endless Southern Swamp, their mood did not improve, nevertheless there was a slight chance that they were going to surprise their pursuers and force them to give up once and for all. No one would go where they were going of their own free will, except if they were truly desperate or completely mad.

  The first Shells, who reached this malicious place several centuries ago, didn't even suspect what was waiting for them inside. A group of more than fifty people entered that until then unknown place, trying to discover its secrets, and only one of them succeeded in escaping alive, living to return to the Fortress and tell about the swamp. Several days later, he had died of his wounds, but his categorical warning that no human being should ever set foot there again was written in big letters in the Textbook.

  Now, walking straight for these forbidden lands, were three lonely Shells. Sometimes one of them would look back to see whether their pursuers were somewhere close-by and then he would quickly catch up with the others. They had been walking for several days, without halting, until they had finally reached the outer border of the danger zone.

  The surface, broken and displaced, gradually slid down in a series of still
stable pieces of rock, which gradually sank into a bluish fog.

  “I'm already regretting this idea, now that I see what is ahead of us,” muttered Yazo.

  His traveling companions were scared by the sight in front of them also and glanced around uncertainly.

  “What do we do, are we going to continue on?” asked Bars.

  “Weeell, yes.... but let's first try to find an easier way down?” suggested Thirteen.

  “I don't like the looks of this fog! I don't want to go down there!” Yazo was on his way to rejecting the idea.

  “The fog will be the least of our worries, if you ask me,” shared Thirteen and that caused the Defender begin to freak out.

  “Let's give up on this plan while we can! I don't want to go in there!”

  “Hey, calm down! Stop yelling! We're doing this because of you – we have to get rid of those damned pursuers before your leg locks up,” Bars tried to reason with him. “Once they lose our trail, Thirteen will have time to make repairs on you.”

  “There has to be an easier way! Something not so dangerous! I don't want to go in there!”

  The Defender limped backward and nothing in the world could calm him down at the moment.

  “I'm staying here, you go on without me!” he was categorical, but Bars continued with persistence.

  “Come with us or this will be the end of you, you fool! We've already wasted enough time!”

  While the two boys were hotly arguing, Thirteen stood to the side and looked at the foggy depression, which was also covered in dark, frightening clouds. He also didn't want to go into that inhospitable and dark land, but the threat that was following them wasn't any better of a choice.

  “Come on, you stupid coward!” yelled Thirteen suddenly. “I'm tired of listening to you! You're a Defender and you have to protect us no matter where we go, so you don't really have a choice!”

  Yazo took a step toward the little Mechanic staring at him all the while.

  “Do I have to protect you? Up till now, I've only gotten into trouble because of you! Why did I have to chase after you in the darkness? It would have been better if I had let you go. Then I would still be with the guys in the main group. Far from this cursed place!”

  “Guys...?” Bars said anxiously.

  “A Defender, who abandons his group, isn't worth anything!” continued Thirteen.

  “Ah, you little!!” Yazo threw himself at Thirteen, but at the last moment his heavy arm stopped only centimeters from the Mechanic's Shell. His enraged eyes squinted even more and on his face one could read real horror. “Is that them!”

  From the nearby rise popped up the figures of their endless worries. The executioners group was heading straight for them.

  “They've caught up to us!” yelled Thirteen in a shock. “So soon?!”

  Their enemies were closing in at a terrible pace.

  “Run!” yelled Bars and headed for the pieces of rock that were sinking down.

  “If you're going to abandon us, at least try to slow them down a little!” said Thirteen and turned his back on Yazo.

  The Defender turned red with anger and despair. He stood there watching how the strange Shells were getting ever closer, and how his friends were getting farther away. Fear of the unknown tore at him from the inside but now a greater threat was before him, and getting nearer with every passing meter. Yazo didn't have a chance against this enraged opponent – even if he succeeded in defeating two or three of them, the rest would finish him off in seconds. It wouldn't even slow them down much.

  “Come on, you damned bastards, if you want us so much!” Yazo screamed at them and ran after Bars and Thirteen, who had already begun the descent on the rocks. He had fallen behind and he could already hear the angry screams of the pursuers, who were only a few meters from him when he jumped. His suit flew down and with an amazing hit landed on the rock, where Bars and Thirteen were. He rolled forward and continued to slide down among a cloud of dust and rocks.

  “Aaaaah!” echoed Yazo's yell while he rolled down the inclination.

  Seconds later the rock gave way.

  “Three hundred shriveled slugs!” said Bars along with Thirteen, as they fell among the broken pieces of the rock.

  The descent into the Endless Southern Swamp went faster than they had expected. The incline increased ever more, and with it their rate of descent. Yazo, who had a lead on them, was rolling out of control amidst a cloud of falling debris and the only thing that he could do at the moment was to yell as loud as he could. Following him, Bars and Thirteen tried everything they could to keep up with him, jumping from one rock to another, hoping that the falling broken pieces from above wouldn't reach them and hit them.

  After one last jump, they landed, finding themselves in the lowest part, where Yazo was already waiting for them. His suit stood up slowly, covered in dirt and filth.

  “I'm back!” he said and licked his busted lip.

  “I was already starting to miss you,” grinned Thirteen.

  A few meters from them rained down the last of the debris. Now the incline, that they had descended rather madly, was too steep for them to climb back up, but their pursuers also wouldn't be able to follow them.

  “Let's see how strong their desire is to catch us now,” laughed Thirteen.

  “Heeeey, losers! You almost caught me!” yelled Yazo and threw a rock up at them.

  The rock flew up and landed somewhere higher up.

  The bluish fog didn't allow them to see if their pursuers were still up there, but the boys didn't hear their raging screams anymore.

  “We won't see them again,” stated Bars.

  Chapter 15