Kathy knew that the general and Mr. Wilmington were probably having a little COMde chat right that very minute.
Kathy followed the exact same path she had taken before just in case Dave and Zolna had managed to escape and were headed back along the planned route.
At the spot where Wilmington's goons had jumped them, the ground had been savagely churned up, and blood trails led off in all directions. More blood trails than bodies they had buried.
"What happened here?" Cassie asked.
SFC Webster had looked the ground over. "Several large predators fought over the remains. Seems they ripped the bodies to pieces and made off with the parts. Small chunks left behind were taken care of by smaller animals."
"That's horrible," Cassie exclaimed.
"Just be thankful you don't smell of blood, ma'am."
○O○
As Dave prepared to leave the E'lawvat E'meset, he took one last look around the cave. For the first time, he noticed the art that decorated the walls. These were not simple cave paintings. There were frescoes and mosaics that were photo realistic. Large sections of the wall were carved out and in the cavities stood statues. Some were obviously meant to represent tribal members who had earned some notoriety, others were purely artistic. Dave was admiring a life size nude of a male and female embracing when Le'ha came up behind him carrying his and Zolna's rifles and ammunition.
"Do you like?" she asked, handing Dave the weapons and ammo.
"It's amazing. On Earth, such artists are held in high esteem."
"I do not care for it. Look at my knees they are too large and my mate…his look was of soft warm moss, not of cold hard stone."
"This is you―and your mate?" Dave shot the statue a quick second glance, "You speak of him in the past tense. Is he—"
"He died in the Blood City, many rains past."
"Le'ha, I am so sorry." Dave spoke softly, but it was clear that Le'ha was not with him; her dilated eyes were on the statue. Dave gave her the moment she seemed to need. Her eyes eventually drifted away from the sculpture, and back to him.
"How is it you don't hate all Ukse?" Dave asked.
"I did very much for many rains. It was by Doctor Milnor that I learned you are not all bad people." She glanced one more time at the statue. "And my Hondar would not have wanted me to spend my life hating. And now, I meet you, a good Ukse.
"Come, I will lead you back to the place where Zolna killed the T'Pu Iya on the last Ourinco. From there, you will be left to return to the metal city. Beware, for those who attacked your friends yet stalk the woods and around the walls of the metal city."
They walked through the throng of E'meset just inside the mouth of the cave, all appeared to be preparing large pieces of meat.
"You must stop the Ukse." Le'ha pleaded. "If you do not, war will come between our peoples. Many E'lawvat E'meset will die, but none of the Ukse will be allowed to live."
Leaving the cave behind, they entered the woods and eventually walked directly to the place where Zolna killed the beast; the journey only took forty-five minutes. At the site, they found most of the carcass gone. Le'ha explained that her people had butchered the T'Pu Iya's body, and carried most of the bones away as well, the E'lawvat E'meset would eat or use all of the creature.
At their parting, Le'ha again emphasized the importance of Dave's success.
"Did Doctor Milnor explain to you about luck?" Dave asked.
"He did. But you cannot just hope for luck. You must not fail."
"Well…thanks Le'ha. I am very happy to have met you."
"Ah, at last, some joy in your life. I hope you find more joy, Dave. You are a very pleasant Ukse."
Dave smiled and was about to turn to leave when he stopped. "Hey, Le'ha, when you told me about Doctor Milnor you mentioned others, what others? And you never did explain this fish thing."
"We will meet again, Dave, and then I will show you."
Dave and Zolna climbed up the same hill they had run down the day before in order to ambush the T'Pu Iya. At the top, Dave turned to wave to Le'ha, but she and the other E'meset were gone.
Dave opened the map in his mind and the two headed back toward New Roanoke.
○O○
Kathy and her team continued through the forest. It was difficult to adjust to a world of blue, purple, and black trees and bushes. I miss green, the thought raced through her mind.
Wait a minute, that little voice in the back of her mind, her alter ego, or conscience, which had been her companion since she was a child, spoke up. The voice only visited her when she was deeply conflicted, and its return now worried her. The little voice said, You miss green? Really? We were eighteen months on the Moon, and there's no green there. Our time at the JPL on Earth didn't count; we never even looked out a window. It's literally been years since we've walked through a forest of any color! Her memories of the islands of Oceania were of a lush, green hell that she looked down on from several thousand feet. Looks like this place is gonna become a black and blue hell, and this time, we're a caterpillar crawling along the ground.
Kathy shook her head. Just what I need now, my old conscious with its own personality.
SFC Webster had the point. She was carrying a Squad Automatic Weapon or 'SAW', a machine gun with a very high cyclic rate of fire, and she packed an AT-88, which, thankfully was small, just over a meter long, and light, being less than one-and-a-half kilo. The SAW was quite a bit heavier, but Webster, being a SUB, was more than up to the task. She displayed little in the way of feminine qualities, but was nonetheless an attractive woman.
Kathy called a halt and went with Mitch to the wood line on the edge of a three hundred and twenty-meter-high cliff to look east toward the river at the cliff's base.
○O○
Webster took the opportunity to casually approached Cassie and attempted to make small talk. "Nice day for it, don't you think?" Webster asked.
"I'm sorry?" Cassie answered slinging her rifle over her shoulder.
"The weather."
"Oh, you're trying to initiate a conversation. Do you wish to speak in generalities, or do you have a specific question?"
"I'd heard you lab coats were all matter of fact."
"Lab coat? Sergeant, like you, I am poor when it comes to human interaction. I have found it best to cut right to the point. However, if it's just small talk you're after, I am happy to accommodate you."
"I think I like you, Doc, no BS. Okay, I do have a question; if you consider it too personal, just say so. You and Doctor O'Connell were married after becoming SUBs. Did you marry for…love or was there another reason?"
"I was not pregnant, if that's what you mean." Cassie chuckled.
"Come on, Doc, I know better than that."
"We married because—" Cassie paused, looked at Webster's identifier— "NR – CYB – 223 – Webster, Brenda, Sergeant First Class"—then she continued. "Brenda…I fell deeply in love with Mitch. We were in the middle of a battle on the Moon. I had suffered my first friend killed in action. I was starting to fall apart at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and Mitch pulled me together, effectively saving my life. After that, we grew closer. I had discovered his strength, and then discovered his softness. I can't tell you when it happened, but we fell in love. He knew it first, and when he asked me to marry him … well."
"So, it's possible? I thought that as a SUB I'd lost most of my emotions."
"No, Brenda, you are everything now that you were before. Your emotions are still with you, but just like before, you have to open them up and use them. I take it you're alone, and lonely?"
“Well, Doc,” Brenda spoke in a low voice. “I didn’t think much about it until I met you and your husband. I think about it a lot now.”
○O○
Kathy and Mitch now came striding back toward the rest of the group.
"Mitch says we can expect them to build camps and villages by water, but there's no sign of anything down there. Let's keep going till we get to the hi
ll that overlooked the clearing where I last saw Dave―and Zolna." Kathy explained.
Webster turned and resumed her position at the front and everyone moved out.
"Kathy, Mitch is right," Cassie said, "they will be near water; it is essential for life. However, these people are trying to hide from us, so we need to look where water is concealed; perhaps in the deep woods."
"Yeah, Mitch told me the same thing," Kathy replied. "We have to take a look from the top of the hill. We might see tracks or smoke rising into the air…something.”
"We saw which way they took Dave and Zolna into the woods," Mitch added. "No doubt they were not heading directly to their village, knowing we were watching. But look at the map, Mike Alpha 338 765, see that creek running along the base of the cliff there. My bet is that they are under that triple canopy somewhere in the lee of that cliff."
"Darling, that cliff is eight kilometers long."
"I see that, honey. I suggest we pick up the pace. Kathy, have you considered what to do in the event we find ourselves out here after dark?"
"It won’t be any different than our first patrol to the clinic, other than we are likely going farther, and for a longer period of time. But, as you suggest, let's pick up the pace."
○O○
Dave and Zolna walked side by side about two meters apart. They were as quiet as possible and hyper alert. Both men took Le'ha's warning about more hostiles seriously. Between man and beast, Dave knew they were in dire straits. He just needed a little luck, Le'ha didn't hold to luck and, frankly, he had no faith in it, either.
Dave suggested to Zolna that they turn off their individual identifiers, just in case there was a SUB among the mercs.
"Are there SUBs with the mercs?" Zolna asked.
"Besides Wilmington―I'm not sure, but better safe than sorry."
“How do you turn them off?” Zolna asked. “I didn’t know you could.”
“In your memory, look for a file titled CYB-ID, followed by your personal identifier. Then, just turn it off.”
Zolna took a moment, as he followed Dave’s instructions. “How do you know about this?” he asked.
“Buddy, I’ve been a SUB a long time.”
○O○
The woods were not too dense, and the forest floor was easy to traverse. But the already dim light of the red sun was making little direct penetration through the triple canopy over their heads. Dave alternated his vision from Gama-Ray to Microwave, but settled on infrared. So far, he'd not seen a single creature on the ground larger than a German Shepherd dog. The big predators were mighty sneaky and, thankfully, hunted mostly at night. Men, on the other hand, were a danger around the clock.
One hour became two which became four. The sun was getting low and Dave found himself switching now between infrared to passive night vision, and he'd made his hearing quite sensitive.
Then Zolna stopped and both men got down on the ground. Zolna pointed to their direct front. Dave increased the sensitivity of his hearing. Zolna whispered, despite the fact that they were speaking over their COMdes. "Sounds like footsteps through the foliage, sir. I can't make it out, but it's either several Ukse's or a creature with six to eight legs."
Dave could hear it now as well.
Zolna slowly started to crawl toward Dave, the leaves and plants under him rustling.
Dave instantly threw up a hand shaking it violently indicating Zolna should stop. He did, but it was too late. The noise in front of them fell silent.
○O○
Kathy, Mitch, and Cassie were prone among the forest's undergrowth. Webster was behind the trunk of a particularly large tree. She squatted and slowly looked around the tree, her eyes in infrared. She then spoke over her COMde to Kathy who, like everyone, had amplified her hearing.
"Ma'am?'
"Yes."
"I have a visual on two humanoid, direct front, one hundred eighty-seven meters."
"Dave and Zolna? Can you tell?"
"No. But I don’t see any identifiers."
"Coms check, can everyone hear me?" Kathy inquired. "Mitch?"
"Yes."
"Cassie?"
"Yes."
"Sergeant?"
"Yes."
"Don't anyone move." Slowly, Kathy crawled to her left. When she was far enough away that any bullets fired at her would go wide of her team, she laid back, prone.
She let several seconds pass then in a normal speaking voice she said, "Dave?" Only a SUB would hear her at almost 200 meters.
Just barely audible she heard, "Who wants to know?"
"Dave, Zolna, it's Kathy. Don't shoot." She rose, slung her weapon, and extended her arms out to her sides. She advanced slowly toward the place where the voice originated. She wished she could make her identifier bigger and brighter. In her Infrared vision, she could see the outline of two IIEA firearms both pointed in her direction. As Brenda had reported, there were no identifiers, or the glow of a warm human body. The two laying prone before her were in E-suits.
○O○
On seeing her identifier, Dave felt a joy he'd not known in a very long time. In fact, the feeling startled him. "Kathy!" Dave of course did not shout her name, but his excitement was evident.
"Boy, am I happy to see you!" He and Zolna leapt up and ran to her.
"I told you I'd be back for you. I have the O’Connell’s and SFC Webster with me."
The other three came walking up.
"Ma'am," Dave became an officer again. "As we laid there, we heard something large to our west crashing about, meaning it was so big it didn’t not care who or what heard it. We have to get out of here."
"Where do you suggest?" Kathy asked.
"That way, toward New Roanoke."
"Can't go that way, we’re expected, how about back the way you came?"
"But, we just came from there."
“I know that, Major," Kathy said, wide-eyed, in a mocking voice. Then smiling, she added, "Let's go."
They had not walked fifty meters when Webster came jogging back toward them. "Ma'am, there is a bipedal creature seemingly sniffing at a trail that is leading it right to us."
As SUBs, Kathy assumed they had no appreciable odor. "What's this thing smelling?" she asked.
"Ma'am," Dave replied, "we spent the night last night with the E'lawvat E'meset, the indigs, and they cooked meat. Our clothes must be permeated with the odor."
Kathy turned everyone toward the east. She planned to follow the high cliff that lay in that direction and flank the creature, when it suddenly could be heard running toward them.
"Run!" Kathy ordered.
The bipedal creature, two meters tall with all the appearance of a set of jaws filled with shark's teeth, and long powerful legs was stomping after them. Its ears were filled with the sound of their running, its nose with the smell of roasted meat.
Arriving at the cliff face, they realized there was no place to go. Behind them, the monster was galloping straight for them. "Light up your suits!" Dave called out and everyone's survival suits started to flash brilliant day glow colors. The beast slowed almost to a stop and cocked its head like a confused puppy. The pause was only momentary, then it sprang forward with renewed vigor, its jaws wide and its roar deafening.
Webster took her SAW off safe and opened fire.
Kathy had looked down over the edge of the cliff where she saw, seven meters below them, a gigantic boulder sticking out from the cliff wall.
Webster's bullets seemed to be only a minor annoyance to the creature; it slowed and swung its great head about, but kept coming.
Kathy’s voice over the COMde was quite audible above the din of the machine gun. "Jump!" And she leapt, the others followed without hesitation.
The six of them looked up from the top of the rock and watched as the hungry predator screamed in frustration then departed.
"I turned off all my pain receptors thinking we were going to fall the entire distance," Cassie commented.
"How did you know about t
his rock sticking out of the cliff right here?" Webster asked.
"I didn't, till I looked down. Seems we were lucky."
"Lucky?" Dave said and looked off toward Le'ha's village.
Zolna leaned against the cliff wall. "You people are so going to get me killed." He whispered, but over their COMdes everyone heard him.
Mitch looked around. "Okay…how do we get off this thing?" he had no more asked the question when the massive boulder on which they stood began to shake, then it jerked. It was coming loose from the clay of the cliff face.
Zolna leapt up from where he was leaning and shouted, "This is not my fault!"
As the top of the boulder dislodged, all six ran toward the cliff trying to stay atop the rock. It broke free and began to fall. From where it once rested in the cliff, there was left a great cavity. They all jumped into this hollow. Kathy fell short and disappeared into the swirling dust and falling dirt.
Dave got to his feet and looked around trying to orient himself. The dust cleared, but Kathy was nowhere to be seen.
"Kathy!" Dave called out aloud, panic in his voice.
"Dave! Down here!"
Dave spun around and noticed that one of many vine-like roots that now hung over the edge of the cavity was pulled taught. Below, hanging onto the root and bouncing off the cliff face, was Kathy.
"What are you looking at, Major? Pull me up!" Kathy was back on her COMde.
Dave felt that all the power in his cybertronic body had relocated into his arms and chest. He grabbed the root and began to pull like a mad man. His last pull yanked her up almost two meters and directly into his arms.
He held her a moment, her feet dangling over the precipice. She looked down, and then back at him, their faces centimeters apart.
"Um…Dave," she said rather sweetly, "back up a meter or two and set me down, will you?"
"Oh…ah, yeah…of course."
When her feet were on solid ground, she dusted her uniform off and looked up at him.
"Thank you, Dave."
"You're welcome," Dave replied and then felt foolish for having said it. Everyone was looking. Dave felt like jumping over the cliff.
Mitch spoke up. "I say again, how do we get down?"
The Vampires of Antyllus Page 16
