Lainie scuffed her feet on the ground, and then said sheepishly. “Sorry, Quinn. I’m going with Decker.”
I knew I couldn’t let them go off alone, even though it would serve Decker right to get lost in the jungle. But Lainie shouldn’t suffer because of Decker’s arrogance. “All right,” I said, “though I get to say I told you so when you realize we’re going the wrong way.”
It didn’t take long for us to become completely lost. Decker pushed through a mat of vines and when I followed, I saw we were in another clearing, this one much smaller, surrounded by tall plants with long pale leaves that spiraled around the stems. Olons perched everywhere.
“Wow! I’ve never seen so many olons in one place.” Lainie exclaimed.
“It must be there nesting area,” I said, fascinated. The nests were almost like miniature hammocks, made of some sort of shredded plant material, attached on one side to the edge of the leave and on the other side to the stem. They were occupied by the ugliest little creatures I had ever seen. The eyes and the heads were enormous, stuck on tiny stick bodies covered with dull black scales.
“Are those really olons?” Lainie asked, getting up close to one of the nests. The creature in it made a startled whistling noise and some of the adult olons hooted in response.
“I don’t think the adult olons would care for some other species,” I said, though I couldn’t see any resemblance between the young and the adults.
All at once the olons ceased both sounds and movement and the jungle around us fell silent.
“Am I imagining it, or did everything just stop?” Lainie asked.
“That’s a bad sign,” I said.
“Listen.” Lainie pointed to her right. “There’s a hissing noise from that direction.”
The hissing noise following by a clicking sound reminded me of something. “That’s a really bad sign,” I said, remembering the lizard puppet and the noises it made in the show. “I think it’s a tachesum.”
Decker gave a start and moved to the other side of the clearing. “We have to get out of here!”
“Do I want to know what a tachesum is?” Lainie asked.
“No,” I said. “Let’s just say it’s not cute and fuzzy. Come on!”
As we reached the other side of the clearing, a giant creature crashed into the middle of the nesting area and starting swiping the baby olons from the nests. I froze, a stupid thought flashing through my brain that they hadn’t quite gotten the color right on the tachesum puppet. The actual skin was more the color of dried blood.
“This way!” Decker yelled as he tried to push through the foliage. It was too thick. Wirevines wound around and through the spiral plants like a fence. The tachesum noticed the movement and swung its head in our direction.
Another baby fell out of a nest and the tachesum reached for it.
I finally realized I shouldn’t just stand there. “Over here,” I said. I found a spot between two clumps of plants next to a split pod tree and motioned for Decker and Lainie. We crowded into the small space.
“Maybe it won’t notice us,” Lainie whispered. The smell of something burnt filled the clearing and I realized it was the odor of the tachesum.
The adult olons were going crazy, diving at the giant creature, driving their beaks into its leathery skin. Some of the other adults tried to pick up the babies with their beaks and fly away, but there weren’t enough of them. The babies all whistled frantically. A group of olons landed on the ground just in front of the tachesum and began wobbling around, dragging their wings as if they were injured.
When the tachesum saw them, it bent down and scooped one up, swallowing it in one gulp. The others continued, acting as if they were trying to get away from it, but kept just a few meters away from it. I thought I saw the olon with the single marking in the group.
“What are they doing? It’s going to catch them for sure!” Lainie said.
“They’re trying to distract it away from the nesting ground. There are Earth birds that do the same thing.” I shifted, trying to see better and nearly fell when my foot came down on a fallen split pod. The tachesum lowered its head and reached for another of the olons on the ground. I leaned down and picked up the split pod. “We can help with the distraction.”
I tossed the pod at it right as Decker yelled, “No!”
The pod nicked the creature’s shoulder but didn’t explode. The tachesum roared and turned its head in our direction, looking right at us. It had huge freaky yellow eyes. The pupils were like black Xs that kept pulsing from almost nothing to nearly covering the entire eye. The creature moved its head back and forth as if it were trying to either see us or scent us.
“Not a brilliant move, Quinn,” Decker said. “Now who’s going to distract it from us? Let’s get out of here. Try to crawl underneath those vines. There, Lainie, go first.” He pointed at a space underneath the thickest part of the vines and Lainie dropped to the ground, belly crawling as fast as she could. The tachesum still couldn’t seem to find us, and when another olon dove at it, it raised its front limb, trying to swat the attacker from the sky.
“Go!” Decker said, pushing at me. I followed after Lainie, hearing Decker gasping for breath right behind me. I could see an opening in front of me and Lainie standing there, her feet and legs visible. I shimmied faster, not liking the fact I couldn’t see what was happening behind me. Once I was through, I got to my feet and then turned around to help Lainie pull Decker all the way out. The vines above Decker snapped with sharp cracking sounds as he tried to stand too soon.
A hiss came from too close and then the thing crashed toward us, going right over the plants, trampling them beneath it. The three of us didn’t need to speak. We all took off running, pushing through the dense growth as plants whipped at our faces. I got tangled in a vine, but Decker and Lainie were already ahead of me. I didn’t want to call for help because I thought the creature was tracking us more by sound than motion. The tachesum stopped, and I could see through the foliage that it was swinging its head back and forth again.
I thought about just waiting it out until the thing gave up and moved away, but then it started to move around in increasing circles. If it kept going, it would eventually step right onto me. Timing myself for when it was turned away from me, I finally managed to get free, and took off again, this time trying not to make noise. I came around a clump of splitpod trees to find Lainie and Decker backed up against a mass of giant boulders, too tall and too smooth to climb.
I listened, hoping I would not hear anything. No such luck. More hissing, and it was coming closer.
“I’ll boost you up,” Decker said to Lainie. “Quinn, help me.”
“No time,” Lainie said, “This way.” She darted off to the side and I saw she was making for some of the boulders that weren’t quite as huge. She climbed up on one. “Hurry! Maybe that thing is too big to climb after us.”
When I made it to the top of the closest one, I saw that not all the boulders were packed closely together. There were some narrow spaces between them. From the crashing noises, I knew the tachesum was almost on us. I feared the thing might be able to either climb up or jump up and grab one of us.
“Down here,” I said, sliding down behind one until I reached the ground.
Decker and Lainie followed. “Let’s hope it can’t climb up and reach down in here,” Decker said.
“It can’t. Its forearms are too short for such a big body. It doesn’t look like it would be able to climb. I think it tracks by sound, so we need to be quiet.” We all held still, straining to hear if it was going to try to climb after us. I hoped the thing wasn’t a good jumper, though with its huge back legs, it was possible. Then its arms wouldn’t matter.
The burnt smell came from above us and a small rock dislodged, sliding down and hitting Lainie on her shoulder. She muffled a startled cry. There was silence, and then the sound of crashing moving away from us. The smell disappeared.
“M
aybe it’s given up.” Lainie whispered.
“I hope so. I hope it’s not just waiting for us to come up.” I said.
“It can’t be that smart,” Decker said. “Let’s go.” More cracking noises came from the jungle, the sound of breaking trunks and ripping foliage.
“Maybe we made it mad and it’s stomping away. I hope we can climb out here,” Lainie said as she tried to find a foothold.
I went to give her a lift when the burnt smell overpowered me again. A broken tree trunk came straight down, the jagged point of the end hitting the ground centimeters from my foot. I fell back, knocking Lainie and Decker down.
“It’s throwing trees at us!” Lainie yelled, trying to squeeze into a smaller space.
The trunk lifted up as if it were being taken away and then came down in a different spot.
“It’s not throwing it!” I said “It’s trying to skewer us! Move, move! Squeeze in there.” I pushed them to another space.
“I thought you said the thing wasn’t very smart,” Lainie said.
“I guess I was wrong.” Decker barely managed to move to the side as the trunk came down again.
The creature kept after us until we were all out of breath and soaking with sweat. After another narrow miss, I said, “We can’t keep this up. It’s going to get us eventually.” I took a deep gulp of air so I could keep talking. “I’ve got an idea, but I need to get to a splitpod tree. I saw some in that direction. You’ll have to distract the tachesum to give me time to get to them. When I throw you some splitpods, crack them and get the pulp all over you.”
“Why would we do that?” Lainie said. “Are we adding sauce to ourselves to make us taste better?”
I would have laughed at that if I hadn’t been afraid she might be right. “Mira told me nothing except bugs will eat splitpod pulp, because it’s the same color as a really poisonous creature called an anguist. Maybe the tachesum will leave us alone if it thinks we are poisonous.”
“That’s a big maybe,” Decker said. “Go that way!” He pushed us back the other way as the tree came down again. The creature roared louder.
“Unless you have a better idea, I’m going with this one,” I said. “Are you going to distract it or not?”
“Okay, but I hope you can get up that tree fast enough,” Decker said. “I’ll yell and then move that way and yell again. Lainie, we’d better separate to give us more room to maneuver. Ready?” I nodded. Decker yelled, “Hey you, leather skin! This way!”
When the creature brought down the trunk where Decker had been, I scrambled up the boulder and bolted to the tree, climbing as fast as I could, ignoring the stinging of the bark against my hands. At the top, I nearly lost my balance and a frond snapped loudly. The tachesum lumbered over toward me, hissing furiously. It grabbed hold of the trunk and shook it, biting at me. The burnt odor nearly gagged me. I pulled at the pods as fast as I could, tossing them in the direction of the rocks, hoping at least a few of them would get there. I could feel the tree swaying as the creature continued to pull on it. Taking one of the pods, I hit it as hard as I could against another one until it split open.
I smeared the pulp all over me, and then reached for another and split that one open too. The tree swayed far to one side and I nearly lost my hold. I wiped at my face trying to keep the stuff away from my eyes and my nose.
The creature gave one tremendous roar and the tree was lifted out of the ground. I grabbed at the top clump of fronds, hoping they wouldn’t break on me. I clung to the tree, not knowing what to do. The tachesum roared again, and then brought the tree thumping down on the ground. I fell, hitting a thick mass of wire vines. I rolled off them, the breath almost knocked out of me. When I opened my eyes, I saw the creature’s head bend down, nearly touching my face. I went rigid, trying to hold as still as possible. The creature sniffed at the one leg I hadn’t managed to cover. I shifted so that my other leg covered it up, tiny bits of pulp flying up and hitting the tachesum in the face. The creature reared back and then moved away, back to the boulders.
Decker came up from behind one and threw a pod that hit the tachesum right in the head. The pod split and the pulp spattered all over it. The creature frantically scraped at the pulp, thrashing around in a circle as it tried to get it off. I got to my feet and when the tachesum saw the motion, it took one look at me and then headed off in the opposite direction.
“Are you okay, Quinn?” Lainie appeared next to Decker. She slid off the boulder and ran over to me.
I moved my arms around, feeling pain in the shoulder that had hit the ground. The dizziness was back too. “I’m okay. Let’s get out of here.” I was afraid it would come back. “We need to go back toward the spaceship and start over so I can find some landmarks.”
We were all so shaken, no one spoke on the way back. It was slow going. Decker had done something to one of his ankles and limped along. When we were almost at the spaceship, I spotted a familiar patch of plants. “I recognize this place,” I said. “We go this way.”
The going was slow as I led them back to the ruin. When we reached it, we climbed over the wall. I collapsed on the floor, thinking I didn’t want to move for a long time. Mags peered at us. “Hallelujah,” she said, hopping out of her cage and swooping down. She landed on me and then raised one foot, examining the bits of pulp stuck to it. With a squawk, she flew back to her cage and began cleaning her talons. “Bath? Bath?” she said.
“In a minute, Mags.” It would feel good to wash the pulp off, but I didn’t know if I had the energy to drag myself out to the water. I couldn’t believe we had come so close to disaster.
“You weren’t joking about remembering things,” Lainie said. “You led us straight back here. How did you do that?”
“I told you the shock did something to my brain.” Now that I was resting, all the images came back in a rush, too many to untangle.
“That’s a good side effect to have,” Decker said. “I wish I could remember everything. Enjoy it until it wears off. I have to get this pulp off me. It’s going to attract bugs.” He slapped at his arm as he got up.
“I’m coming with you.” Lainie said, opening up a pack of nut candy and popping some in her mouth.
“Water person? Beautiful water person?” Mags asked.
“She had to go home,” I said, wondering how Mira’s sister was doing. Even though I wished Mira hadn’t gone with Tasim, I would have done the same had it been Piper who needed me.
“Why does Mags call Mira a water person?” Lainie got up and went over to the food supplies.
“When Mags first saw her, Mira was all wet. She swam out to our unit to … to look around. I guess that’s where the ‘water person’ comes from.”
“Getting all wet sounds perfect right now. I want to be a water person too,” Lainie said. “Let’s go.”
I forced myself to get up, even though I could easily have closed my eyes and fallen asleep. Decker went first, creeping forward to make sure no Fosaanians were on the walkway or anywhere on the beach where we might be spotted.
The water felt great and revived me enough to go back to the ruin and eat something. As I sat down and pulled out a food packet, I said, “We’ve been going about it all wrong. We’ve been so focused on contacting the outside world and just assuming once we do, someone else will come up with an idea. We need to come up with our own ideas. Ansun has some sort of complicated plan and I’m sure he’s not going to be caught by surprise.”
“It would be excellent if you came up with an idea,” Lainie said. “I’m all out.”
“I’m trying. It all hinges on the MIbots. The raiders are only here because of the bots, and without them to sell, Ansun won’t have enough currency to do anything. We don’t have much time though. I know my mother said the bots are programmed to assemble other bots just like them. Once there are enough of them to do that, Ansun won’t need the researchers anymore.”
“What can we do about it?” Decker asked.
“I’m sure you mother and the other researchers would have already done something if they could.”
“I don’t know yet. Lainie, you got that one bot to do what you wanted by talking to it. Even though they are hyperintelligent, they should still value logic. Can you think of a way to convince the MIbots not to help Ansun?” My arm began to tremble again and I folded both arms together so it wouldn’t be noticeable. The aftereffects of the bot attack were getting annoying. I really needed Doctor Becca.
“Wow, that’s a tough one” She yawned. “I’m not sure why they are helping him in the first place. Maybe, but I’ll have to think about it. And I need to sleep on it. I’ve never been so exhausted. Being chased by a giant lizard is not something I want to repeat.”
Lainie’s yawn made me yawn. It felt like it had been weeks since I had slept, but I couldn’t quiet my brain down. I was still bothered by something Mira had said. “Do you really think Earth caused the supervolcano?” I asked.
“No!” Decker scoffed. He was up roamed around examining the floor. I knew he was checking for bugs. “They must tell themselves that as a way to find someone else to blame. I’ve never heard of anyone having the technology to do that. Earthquakes yes, but not volcanic eruptions.”
He was right. If it had been possible a hundred and twenty years ago when the Apocalypse happened, no one could have kept that technology hidden for so long. “I need some sleep too. How about a holo campfire?” I asked, taking the scene setter from my pack. I needed a distraction, a way to stop thinking about all the events of the day.
“Good idea,” Decker said. “Maybe the bugs will think it’s real and stay away.”
I turned it to “fire-single-small” and added in “scent-woodburning.” I’d have to keep it low or else Mags would get agitated and start making siren noises. The campfire setting wasn’t one of her favorites. I took the impak out and laid it beside me, though I hoped I wouldn’t need it.
“Decker, can you play us some music?” Lainie asked. “Please?”
Station Fosaan Page 14
