by Jean Kilczer
Mack strode to the door and a guard opened it. He turned and pointed at her. “Don't fail me. If he breaks through your defenses and mine, and I'm forced to run, it will be over the burned remains of your body. And I won't grant you the benefit of a quick brand through the heart first. I don't even know where your heart is, you freak.”
And as I die, she thought, and conjured an image of Big Mack sprawled on the ground motionless, my last act will be to slice your brainstem in half like the sinew of a loathsome beast.
She lifted her head, nodded agreement, and allowed her eyes to focus sharply on the humans as they left. She waited for their pounding footsteps to stop echoing down the hall, then flowed through the cinderblock wall and took a deep draft of soothing morning sunlight.
Chapter Nineteen
I stood upon a hill carpeted with pine needles, the drak's reins looped over my arm, and peered through graphoculars Chancey had hidden inside his jacket when he followed me into the woods. The morning air held the forested land in its grip, not yet loosened by the early sun.
In the far distance, I could just barely make out Big Mack's base, tucked in the arm of the silver river.
I rubbed my eyes and kneaded my sore shoulders. My brain was sending me messages that it wanted sleep.
I stumbled as I walked the drak back to our camp at the foot of a limestone cliff.
Chancey glanced up from skinning a large, brown-furred, unicorned animal he'd killed. The boulder we'd beamed earlier gave off a welcome warmth, and no smoke to target our position.
I don't know whether my stomach ached with hunger, or was queasy from the odor of all that raw flesh and spilled innards. I'm a biologist, and dissecting animals is nothing new to me, especially when I ran an alien animal sanctuary on planet Syl 'Tyrria. But I'd never associated dissection for a diagnosis of disease with purposely killing an animal for food. This time it was necessary, to maintain our strength.
I dropped the drak's reins. He licked scaly lips and drooled at the sight of all that raw meat.
Chancey's drak was happily crouched over a haunch, tearing into the tender rear flesh.
Chancey smirked. “You look a little green around the gills.” He threw my drak a rack of ribs. The animal caught it between teeth and I heard bones crunch as he settled down for his meal. “Any more messages from the friendly alien?”
“Not yet.” I stood by the heated boulder and unzipped my jacket.
Chancey sliced off two large steaks and threw them on the boulder. I stepped back as they sizzled and spat juices. “Sorry,” he shrugged, “no thermostat.”
I picked up a tough twig and moved the steaks so they wouldn't stick. Just as I wished that Chancey had spilled the animal's innards away from our camp, his drak trotted to the carcass and slurped up the smelly guts.
I turned my head away as my stomach lurched. But in the end, he licked up shreds and only smears of blood remained on the bare ground.
The gory odor was replaced by the pungent smell of roasting steaks. I breathed it in and now my own mouth watered. How judgmental we are, I thought, placed on these scales by our culture and our physiology.
With the steaks done, and the rest of the unicorned animal eaten by the draks, cracked bones and all, Chancey and I swallowed digestall tablets and tore into the tender steaks, while juices ran down to our bare elbows. Fresh meat is always tastier than mock, which is cloned from the DNA of living animals. But considering the good life of clone animal herds, I still prefer mock.
After our meal, we washed with broad, fuzzy leaves of a ground plant dipped into the raging stream.
By the time we returned to camp, our draks were asleep. I brushed debris away from the boulder and beamed it again.
Chancey and I made mats of pine needles and settled down for much needed sleep. I stared at the brilliant indigo sky and rubbed my eyes. “When you come down to it, Chance, we don't need much more than this, if our families and friends were with us, and a good supply of digestall.”
“Always the dreamer, Superstar. Winter ain't set in yet.”
“I've got one for you, Chance. 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?””
He sighed. “So far behind, we'd never make it.”
I curled up and closed my eyes. Good chance we won't make it anyway, buddy.
* * *
I drifted quickly into sleep, with the warm hand of a rising sun on my face, and slipped into a dream where Lisa, Sophia, and I cantered our horses across verdant fields of spring, with Lisa's dog Tikkie running through a bloom of flowers.
My black Arab stallion Asil sprang ahead and Lisa's horse Ginger followed, with Sophia's white Arab mare Stormy plowing through golden grass to catch up.
The sensation of joy was palatable, and within the dream I laughed. My forebodings sloughed off like a snake shedding an old skin.
Asil's ebony mane brushed my hands as a frozen wind suddenly howled, like winter's last breath, and lifted dead leaves to swirl into a rising whirlwind that loomed above, and chased us.
“Faster!” I shouted and kicked Asil's flanks. He leaped into a gallop, but as I looked back, I saw the growing tornado envelop Lisa and Sophia.
Each stiff leaf that struck my face bit like a viper. I tried to call to Lisa and Sophia, but the leaves scraped my lips and crawled into my mouth.
Ahead, the tents and vehicles of Big Mack's base materialized out of white fog.
Turn back, a voice whispered inside my head. Turn back or suffer the consequences.
I can't! I have a mission. Anyway, this is just a dream.
Are you certain of that?
Is this Evrill?
More than a dream, Jules, Terran of Earth. A warning. Turn your horse. He will obey.
When Big Mack is in his grave! I tried to push my mind out of this dream. This nightmare. Evrill held me there.
We are not finished, she sent.
Do your worst, scud. It's still only a dream.
Then dream this, for I will haunt you with this dream as long as you continue to the base camp.
Oh no! I saw Ginny sliding off the boulder again.
Julip, she screamed. It was the name she'd always called me. Save me. Please!
I'm coming, Ginny. I threw myself off the cliff and caught her as we fell. We dropped like stones, and I felt the impact past dream. Ginny! I cried. Oh my God.
Her skull was cracked open. The skin had been ripped from her face. One eye hung out of its socket. The other was a dark hole where brains oozed.
This, Jules Terran, is what your sister looked like at the bottom of the canyon.
I couldn't catch my breath. Couldn't think.
The small body stood up and jerked, as though drawn to its feet on puppet strings. The eyeball dangled from her broken skull. She turned to me, a limp hand outstretched. This is what you did to me, my brother.
In the dream, I turned and ran.
Run, Evrill whispered, back where you came from. Continue to the base, and you won't dare to shut your eyes.
I screamed as I sat up. Chancey leaped to his feet in one jump and grabbed his rifle. “What the hell is it, man?” he almost fell backward. “What happened?”
I wiped a sleeve across my sweaty forehead and stared at my trembling hands. “I just lost round two,” I grated.
Chapter Twenty
“He did it again!” Joe stormed through the drak corral, slid on drak feces, caught himself and strode out the makeshift wooden gate, followed by Bat, Sophia, Oldore and Galrin, while Huff stayed behind.
“An' he took Chancey with him.” Bat scratched under his cap.
“And he took Chancey with him!” Joe kicked a rock that was embedded deep in crusty ground. “Damn it!”
Sophia caught Bat's eye and discreetly shook her head.
“They took the two best stallions.” Oldore hooted softly. “If they encounter a willing female among the wild drak herds, Joseph Breth, they will need the prayers of suppliants to whatever gods they follow.”
“It would serve them right.” Joe limped toward the remaining jeep. “Bat, Sophia, get our weapons and our remaining supplies. That mule-headed–” He slammed his fist on the door. “I should've known he'd go wherever his thick skull told him to. If he lives through this, I swear to God I'll have his ass on a hot platter!”
Huff sat down in the dusty corral while draks sniffed his downy white fur and licked scaly lips. He lifted his snout and howled plaintively.
Oldore pointed a thick yellowed finger at Huff. “He is calling to his lost cub.”
“He should've drowned that cub at birth!” Joe climbed into the jeep's driver's seat.
Oldore and Galrin exchanged solemn glances and hooted softly to each other. The draks lifted snakelike necks and bayed.
“They sing of their losses,” Oldore said. “Three draks were slain in the assault on our new village, and some of our dearly beloved breths as well.”
Huff wiped his eyes, trotted to the fence and leaped over it while a drak snapped at his rear and missed. He trotted to the jeep. “I am grieved down to my liver.” He climbed into the open compartment behind the rear seats. “I have no more succulent bars of chocolate candy to offer the Ten Gods. I am bereft.” He hid his snout in his front paws and sobbed.
Joe let out a breath as Sophia began to cry too. Bat patted her shoulder.
“We'll find him,” Joe said. “We'll find the…if we have to search from here to Perdition's Gates. And when we do…” He gritted his teeth.
“When we do,” Huff howled at the sky, “I will thank the gods, and create a plan to honor their kingdom and glory with the intestines of many fat fish.”
“Yeah,” Joe muttered. “I've got some plans in mind for him too.” He started the jeep.
Oldore scratched his crotch. “We will wait no more days, and no more nights, while the ravagers decimate my people.” He turned abruptly, dropped to all fours and loped to the center of the village."
“What's he got in mind?” Joe asked Goldrin, who got into a rear seat.
“The Calling Time, my Terran breth. He will gather the warriors and take the matters of war to the mercenaries' inner sanctuary.”
“With spears, bows and arrows?” Joe asked.
“We have our ways, Joseph of Earth.”
“Would you care to explain those ways to me?”
“Our way is not the direct confrontation.” Goldrin lifted his chin and suddenly appeared older. “We will take what nature offers us and turn it against the ravagers.”
“They've got beam weapons, Goldrin,” Sophia said as she threw their supplies onto the rear floor.
“And we have our weapons, brethra.” Galrin strode into the village where the Orghe warriors were gathering around Oldore, called by a silent command.
Bat came back with his medkit and their rifles and stinglers. “Where's everybody going?”
Joe scratched his bristly chin. "Get in. David is about to bring down Goliath with a slingshot and a stone.
Chapter Twenty One
I was so sleepy. So sleepy I was hallucinating. I kept rubbing my eyes and blinking to keep them open. Twice more I had tried to sleep, and twice Evrill had attacked.
I stood up unsteadily, thought our draks were Asil and Stormy, and wondered how they'd come to New Terra? I walked into the woods to pee, and stumbled to avoid branches that looked like snakes.
“Hey, man,” Chancey called, “want me to come with you?”
“I think I can do this alone,” I mumbled.
“Well, don't get lost.”
“OK. I won't.”
But when I was finished, I took a wrong turn and heard the whine of ground motors. Was that a boulder or a tent? I rubbed my eyes and squinted. Were those trees, or spaceships on their pads? How had I wandered into Big Mack's base? I couldn't remember.
Two glowing eyes approached, bouncing low to the ground. A hunting animal, crouched as he ran, with a voice like the keen of a bird of prey.
I backed into afternoon shadows. It wouldn't see me here. Could it smell me? I unholstered my stingler. My rifle was back at the village. Was that a water buffalo approaching, with eyes like hot coals? I drew in a raspy breath and spun the stingler's ring to hot. It would take hot to stop a water buffalo. Something was pounding the ground close to my right. I swung the stingler and an Orangutan on a dragon knocked it spinning from my hand. I made a dive for it, but he leaped off his mount and got to it first.
“What are you doing?” the Orangutan asked. “What is wrong with you?”
“I had to pee.”
The water buffalo resolved itself into a jeep with humans inside. I leaned back on a spaceship to keep my feet.
“Jules!” a woman called. “Oh, Jules.” She ran and threw her arms around me. “We've been looking all over for you. Oh, babe.” She kissed my cheek.
“Sophia?” I held her at arm's length. “What're you doing in Africa?”
Was that Chancey in the driver's seat?
An older human with white stubble, gray hair, and a grim expression, approached stiffly. Beside him, a compact man with a military cap carried a black bag.
“Chancey told us you haven't been able to sleep, hon.” Sophia took my hand and led me to the water buffalo …turned jeep.
“It's a jeep,” I said.
She nodded and helped me inside. I laid my head back and closed my eyes.
She zipped my jacket. “Chancey said you haven't slept in over two days. He said you couldn't go on, and you were too weak to stay in the saddle and come back to the village.” She brushed hair off my forehead. He wanted to ride back for help, but he was afraid you'd wander off."
“Why would I wander off?”
“Why not?” the bristly-chinned man asked.
“Joe?” I lifted my head. “Is that you, Joe?”
“No, it's your guardian angel who just put in for retirement.”
Sophia stroked my cheek and I started to fall asleep.
Convince them to return to the village, or you are all dead!
“Go haunt somebody else,” I mumbled.
“Is it Evrill?” Sophia asked.
I nodded and opened my eyes. “She doesn't trust Big Mack either.”
The compact man turned in the front seat. Bat! The name suddenly came. “Does she only attack you while you're asleep?” he asked.
“Lately, she's been attacking when I'm awake, too. My defenses are weakened. My shields are down.”
“Jules,” Sophia said, “Oldore's warriors are preparing to attack Mack's base with nothing more than bows, arrows, and spears.”
“No!” I pressed my temples. “No, they'll be slaughtered. I have to kill Big Mack.”
“Ya'll in no condition to kill a swarm of fleas,” Bat said. “Not without a real good night's sleep.”
Chancey pulled up by the boulder and the limestone cliffs. It was the Orghe's camp now.
I draped an arm around Sophia's shoulders and she helped me out of the jeep. My knees almost buckled.
Chancey got out and slung my other arm over his shoulder. “C'mon. Bat says he's got something to help you sleep past the bitch's attacks.”
“OK.”
I let them lead me to the pine-needle mat I had made. A blanket was sprawled over it. I lay down and sighed. “Whatever Bat's got, I'll swallow it.”
Chancey glanced at Sophia and I felt a twinge of fear in my chest. “OK, I'll drink it?”
They didn't answer.
Bat approached with his black bag, kneeled beside me and opened it. “This is the latest drug, bubba. It was developed for traumatized people who couldn't sleep because of nightmares.”
“I'm the poster child.”
“Take off his jacket,” Bat said.
“Wait a minute.” I sat up.
Chancey unzipped my jacket and pulled it off.
“Oh no,” I said as Bat took a syringe from his bag and pulled the sheath off the tip. “I didn't consent to shots.”
“Here we go again!” Joe thre
w up his arms.
Chancey pushed up my right sleeve.
“Now c'mon, bubba,” Bat said soothingly. “It's just a small prick and then you'll sleep like a baby an' feel like your ole self again.”
“Yeah, bubba.” Chancey smirked. “You ain't afraid of a small prick?”
Bat hid the syringe behind his back. “Just lie down and close your eyes. We'll do the rest.”
“No you won't!” My heart was pounding as I scrambled to my feet.
Chancey grabbed my arms and pinned them. Joe took my right wrist and stretched out my arm while Bat swabbed it.
“I can't take this!” I yelled.
“Yeah,” Joe said, “we know. Don't throw up. And don't faint.”
Huff growled, deep in his throat, and crouched, muscles taut, ready to spring.
“No, Huff!” Sophia said. “We're helping him.”
“My Terran cub does not think this is help.”
“It's OK, Huff,” I gasped. “Don't attack.”
His taut muscles relaxed and he sat down.
Sophia held my head between her hands. A chuckle escaped her lips. “It's all right, babe. It's just a small prick. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Yeah,” Chancey said, “Hey Bat, you got scissors in that little black bag?”
“Sure. Why?”
“I figure our boy's about due for another haircut.”
My knees sagged. I wanted sleep the way a baby wants his mother. “Chancey,” I mumbled, “when I wake up, I'm going to kick your ass all the way back to Harlem.”
“You an' what army?”
I felt dizzy as the needle slid into my arm. “Oh God.” I thought I'd fall, but Chancey held me up.
“There! That's all,” Bat said.
My eyes closed, my head fell forward. My knees gave out. Chancey helped me down onto the blanket and stuffed a pillow under my head.
Sleep embraced me like a gentle mother, past dreams, past tel-links, past Evrill's attacks, past all concerns. Sophia cuddled next to me and took my hand. Huff laid down on my other side and threw a forepaw across my chest.
