The Circle and Star

by John Foster

  West and Volkum moved as swiftly as they could without using their lights. Thomas followed up and West was suddenly afraid for the young man but there was nothing he could do about it now. He could see the lights of the others behind them dancing on the ceiling above them. West grinned at the help that it was providing. West, Volkum, and Thomas came to a place where the rubble narrowed to a little path cluttered with broken pottery and fragments of cloth. They could see vague shadows ahead of the crates and large jars that littered the tunnel. West raised his pistol and moved forward kicking a large sherd of terracotta as he moved forward, he heard a faint click and stopped.

  “Run Volkum and Thomas, RUN!” said West as he dived for cover.

  Volkum turned and ran into Thomas and then with a huge roar the grenade blasted outward throwing West head over heels and then into the ground while Volkum and Thomas were thrown 10 feet down the corridor where they lay still, legs bent awkwardly. There was no sound from them.

  “Thomas?? West?” Yelled Madison, her breath coming in quick gasps as she ran down the corridor careless of the danger. Theo and Malena followed, no longer concerned that their lights were shining down the tunnel.

  West moved but his legs seemed drained and his arms felt like someone else’s attached to him. He couldn’t remember what happened and then it hit him that Volkum and Thomas might be dead. His arms started pumping at the ground clawing at it. Gaining purchase, his legs finding the strength needed to rise up, just as Tsamar fired his weapon at West, now only 20 meters away. The bullet whined and snapped at the edge of West’s ear and in blink of an eye his gun was up and blazing at Tsamar who was laughing at him.

  “Digger man can’t shoot” he chanted wildly, “Digger man can’t shoot.”

  West fired his last round and the bullet struck the pouch next to Tsamar and missed the grenades but snapped the ladder rung they were hanging from and one by one the little rings fell out of the little gems and they started to hiss. Tsamar looked at the pins in the reflection of the hand lights as they fell to the floor in maddening slowness. His previous smile turned to terror and he disappeared in a massive cloud of blood, dust, and wood.

  Madison saw a body in the middle of the tunnel a lifeless heap, the leather coat stained with a liquid she knew was blood.

  “Oh, god no, please no,” she uttered and ran to the form. She turned him over and saw Volkum his face covered in blood and dust. Theo ran up to them and took Volkum in his arms and then felt his pulse.

  “He’s alive, but we’ve got to get him back to the camp where we can check him out. Malena you’ll have to come with me to shine the light as I carry Volkum,” said Theo. Thomas, dazed and bleeding from a head wound, tried to stand but fell down again, and then with help from Madison gained his feet. Malena then took Thomas by the arm and led him down the corridor.

  West staggered up to them, his face smeared with sweat and blood, his forehead gashed and bleeding.

  “My god West, are you badly hurt?” Madison asked.

  West looked at her, his eyes glazed over and staggered a bit.

  “What are you saying, I can’t hear a thing.”

  Madison put her arms around West and started to lead him back down the corridor.

  When West realized what she was doing he said, “No, no, I’ve got to go on, that one fellow is probably dead and we’ve got to get the other one.”

  West pulled away from Madison and opened the chamber on his pistol and started to fumble with the cartridges on his belt. Madison shook her head, gave him a tight-lipped smile, and started to pull the cartridges from his belt and held them up to him to load. West smiled, rubbed his face and then replaced the massive firearm into his belt.

  “I’m coming with you, we have a score to settle,” said Madison, her lips in a thin line.

  Taos heard the explosion and hurried his pace, hobbling even more with the pain and exertion. He arrived at the hole, the rope dangling down and called up to his men to come down and help him. There was no sound but the rope moved as if someone was touching it. Puzzled he spoke louder this time urging his men to come down and help him. Perplexed that no one spoke or could be seen as he shone the light up the opening, he grabbed the rope and tied it around him, yelling excitingly that he had the disc and that would at least pull him up and then he would speak of their refusal and what he would do with them.

  As soon as the rope was secured he pulled once in signal and was jerked upward banging his head against the tunnel entrance and then out the hole and dragged against the ground until he lay at the feet of someone or... no, it wasn’t someone it was something. He started to scream...... the last thing he saw was a flash of light.

  West and Madison turned to look down the tunnel where they could hear one agonized scream after another each one like a hot spike being hammered into their heads.

  “Jeez,” said West his eyes fastened down the corridor as the screaming suddenly stopped. Madison’s hands gripped his arm and her nails were white upon his darker tanned skin. West turned to look at her, his head gave a slight nod and he gently took her hand, pulled her up and then started down the corridor, stepping gingerly across the body of Tsamar draped across a huge storage jar, his body mangled and torn. In the distance, they could see a single unmoving light. As they got closer they slowed and moved cautiously. They turned off their own light to not draw attention to themselves. They could see that a hand light was lying on the ground but that early morning light was filtering in from the top of the tunnel. When they arrived at the entrance, they moved quietly and listened again. It was chilly and cold and nothing but the sound of sand moving across the entrance above and the dim hint of dawn, dark and golden. West could see the end of the rope hanging just out of reach at the hole above. He jumped at it and couldn’t reach it. Madison watched for a moment and took his shoulder and turned him to face her and he looked confused. She motioned him to bend over and she immediately stepped up on his back and grabbed the rope and pulled it taut.

  He gave a grim smile and then jammed the pistol down into his belt and pulled on the rope. It moved slightly and then he pulled harder, feeling whatever was anchoring the rope gave slowly until it held. Satisfied he gave one more pull then started to climb the knotted rope. When he reached the entrance, he looked out, his eyes widened and his lips curled back, in a feral grimace he saw the most grisly sight he had ever seen. Several men, all beheaded were strung together on thin wires as if they had been on a fishing line hanging between two large metal poles. He could see that they had also been gutted and their entrails hanging from their midsections. There were sections of their bodies where the flesh had been ripped away as if something had been eating them. He heard something move behind him and something hard hit his head and he dropped like a rock back into the tunnel at Madison’s feet. A large round object like thing rolled over the entrance and down into the tunnel showing what had been a human head. Taos’s face grinning in abject horror at his feet. West jerked his feet back away from the head.

  He looked at Madison, her hands were up to her face which was ashen.

  “This is seriously not good!” Her eyes glancing left and right, and her body hunched forward with her arms out in front of her and holding on to West. Grasping his arm in a vice like clinch, she said, “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “No, we’ve got to get that disc. No one will be safe until we do. Whoever killed those men has it and we’ve got to get it back,” and looking back at Madison continued, “What’s up there is pretty gruesome. You should return to the Paradig and bring up some of the crew to help,”

  Madison, her lips white and thin, said, “No, if you’re going out there, then I need to help. As much as I may regret this, I’m with you.”

  West smiled and in spite of the horror he had seen above, he felt happy. He blinked and rose to his feet and grabbed at the rope again and it gave a little but moved no more with repeated tugs. He started to climb again. This time he looked to where the head had rolled do
wn from and saw a neat little stack of heads piled up next to the hole.

  “Friendly little message but to the point,” he muttered to himself. He pulled himself up and drew his weapon, waiting to see if his movement had caught the attention of whatever had murdered these men. Satisfied that nothing was near, he called to Madison to tie the rope around her waist and he would pull up her up. A few moments later she was climbing up and out of the hole. She gasped in shock at the dead men hanging like so much meat in a butcher shop. She then turned and saw the pile of heads near the exit hole.

  “My god, what did this?” she said, her hand covering her mouth, her eyes wide in shock.

  “I don’t know and I’m almost certain, I don’t want to know, but the stakes are getting higher and the price dearer,” said West.

  He moved around the little area of the dead men and was looking at the ground while Madison forgetting her revulsion found herself staring at the bodies of the guards. Bending over the one body that wasn’t hung with the others, West knelt and rifled through the man’s clothing. “Look here,” and pulled out a large wad of Terran paper money. “It’s all different types of currency.” Madison glanced over but was clearly distracted by all the mutilated bodies. West was kneeling and continued to check the bodies when they heard a dull rumble in the distance and he walked to some rocks that formed a low barrier around the place they were in. He realized that the location they were in was like a little fort or no, more like an outpost for sentries. The vista below them stretched for miles and in the growing light in the east he could see a trail of dust moving towards them. Suddenly the dust trail which had been on a straight trajectory turned sharply towards a low valley to the right. West and now Madison looked in that direction to what had elicited this change and could see a smaller group of hover vehicles moving into a low walled canyon.

  “Who are those people?” Madison asked staring at the vehicles.

  “I would say that the ones on the right moving into that canyon were the ones who butchered this group here and that the other group is... what? I have no idea,” He trailed off. As West looked about trying to understand where they were, he spied a group of Dragonfly air bikes just down the hillside from where they stood which he guessed were used by the dead men hanging before him. Time to ride.

  “Dragonflies!” West said pointing down the slope and off to one side of the little promontory that they looked from. “Let’s get a couple,” he told Madison as he moved to climb over the rocks.

  “I’ve never ridden one before,” Madison said, her gaze focused on the machines as she walked up to them. The machines West had called Dragonflies were shaped like a snow board with a squat large engine on the front and a low long seat behind with hand grips near the engine that had track balls to direct steering. Her practiced eye found the propulsion vents mounted on gyroscopic pivots and she could see that the vehicle was highly maneuverable. It was obvious that these machines had been patched and jury-rigged together but they looked quite capable. Despite the carnage she had just seen, her attention was fascinated by this obvious blending of old and new technology. She looked up at West and said, “I want one.”

  Turning to look at her in surprise, West smiled at her and nodded his head in delight. “Well, let’s get these started and find out if you like riding them too.”

  She followed and with some tinkering they were able to start the bikes. It wasn’t long before she was proficient with the mechanics of the Dragonfly and was able to keep pace with West. “Just like riding a bike,” she said smiling.

  They rode up to just below the height that they had recently quit and stared at the pursuit.

  “The little group is heading to that canyon which narrows as it recedes and it looks like it might be a dead end,” said West looking at the higher cliffs in the distance.

  Madison looked to West and nodded her head, her reddish coppery hair reflecting the morning light.

  West looked over his shoulder at her said, “We’ll stick to the high ground along this side of the canyon and keep track of them until we see what happens.”

  Madison nodded again and they took off along a narrow trail of rocks and boulders overlooking the canyon that the others seemed to be heading to.

  Suddenly a flare of light in a bright beam of scarlet shot out from the first group and hit the lead machine of the second group which exploded in a ball of fire and flame. The remaining vehicles spread out in a fan without slowing and the dust kicked up higher behind them as they increased speed. Then little short flashes shot out from the second group and were dancing off and around the first vehicle which shuddered and started to run a zig-zag pattern. Scarlet beams again flashed out but it was obvious that the first vehicle had been hit and the weapon was firing erratically. The first vehicle hit a small boulder and it rose up and turned over. West and Madison could see someone or something moving about the over turned wreckage which was now starting to smoke. West could see some dark form move up and out of the vehicle and then seemingly disappear and just as suddenly reappear farther up the canyon. In a moment, additional creatures were clamoring about and screeching at each other and then as if suddenly given orders scurried off into the surrounding rocks and took cover. West couldn’t see how many there were but figured there were no more than eight or nine. One of them had obviously been injured and was limping and crouched over as it made its way to the side of the canyon but before it could escape to the rocks, two of the pursuing vehicles had come up on it and sprayed it with short dark beams of light. It instantly screamed and rose up to its full height clawing at the sky as it burned and then toppled over, smoking.

  Madison had ridden up to West and now looked away as the creature died. West and Madison were now no more than 200 meters from the fight going on below them. They bent low in their Dragonflies to avoid detection. West realized that some of the monsters that had escaped the vehicle were hiding in the rocks just below them and he pulled his weapon out in the event that one appeared.

  “They must be soldiers to have plasma beam weapons,” said Madison.

  “Somehow, I don’t think they are OUR soldiers,” replied West looking worried.

  They looked at each other as they considered what this may mean but before either of them could comment, they could hear loud burst of firing and craned their heads over the rocks to see what was happening.

  The second party had fanned out into two groups with each taking one side of the canyon and had their weapons ready. There were several small air bikes with two people and then several larger vehicles that appeared to be armored with mounted beam weapons that were scanning back and forth between the canyon walls.

  West slid off his bike and motioned to Madison to do the same. They left the bikes behind them and crept up the rocks to watch the battle unfold, or to West’s mind, the hunt. They could see one of the creatures from the first party creeping around a boulder above a group from the second. West watched the second party trying to figure out where the first party had gone. The individuals in the second party were all white faced and dressed in black military clothing.

  “Why are they so pale?” asked Madison.

  “I don’t know, but they seem to be military considering their gear and uniforms,” said West.

  As West and Madison watched they saw one of the creatures with extraordinarily long arms, crawl up on one boulder and perch above the milling soldiers below. Oblivious to this threat the soldiers paused while one man scanned the rocks in front of them. The creature above then leaped with a frightening scream with its arms and legs wildly outstretched. The military party froze for a second, then their weapons rose as one but by then the thing was upon them, ripping and flailing into them. West and Madison could see long curved claws flashing in the morning light as it caught one man in the throat and ripped into it while one leg with long prehensile claws fastened itself into the stomach of another man ripping his belly as if it were a water balloon which splattered blood and guts upon the desert floor. Anot
her man shoved a pistol into the face of the monster and with a bright flash the head disappeared in a blaze of light. The survivors quickly moved away from the boulders and took cover by the larger vehicles, weapons pointed outward. All of the soldiers were scattered about in small groups eying the rocks and boulders that made up the canyon walls. From the central vehicle, a low hum was emitting and the animated movements of the soldiers ceased as if someone had hit the pause button. The soldiers then formed up in lines and advanced to the edges of the canyon and proceeded to methodically search the area for the alien creatures.

  “Wow, what just happened?” said West.

  Madison looked thoughtful and pondered for a moment. “If I had to guess it was some kind of conditioning signal that overrides normal impulses” said Madison. At first the soldiers seemed to move in a mechanical fashion but then a certain fluidity seemed to exert itself and they resumed normal movement. One of stationary vehicles started to roll forward on its wheels forward and head up the canyon as if searching for something or someone. West remembered seeing a glimpse of something, when the first party’s vehicle overturned, that had continued up the canyon and wondered if the second party had seen it too. Flashes of beam weapons and screams of anger and rage were erupting from the canyon slopes as the soldiers made contact with the clawed creatures. Smoking piles of charred creatures started to appear as the search continued.

  “We’d better get out of here, or they’ll eventually find us when their search parties get high enough on the canyon slopes,” said West. Louder and more powerful blasts were erupting from the canyon as the soldiers were throwing small bomb like grenades into the boulders. They stared as one of the creatures leaped from behind some boulders and grabbed a soldier by the neck twisting his head in a grotesque position and then running to catch another who was raising his weapon. The beam of the weapon sliced through the clawed hand and the creature screamed in agony as the soldier fired another shot into the head of the wounded beast leaving it to fall at his feet.