by Garry Ocean
They reached the tripod at the same time, and even though Sith was all covered in mud, his eyes were sparkling with joy. “Obviously,” Nick thought unwittingly, “we played different games in childhood.” They hardly caught their breath when the shouts and yells of the hunters became louder.
“Over there, Nick! Look over there!” Sith was the first one to realize what was going on. “The beasts are going through!”
Nick looked where the boy was pointing. From the huge hole gaping like a black mouth, leaped out creatures Nick had never seen before. Some of them looked like huge dogs with disproportionately large heads on a powerful short neck. Nick immediately noticed their oversized long muzzles with rows of sharp teeth bent inward. Their back legs were much shorter than the front ones, but a lot stronger, which allowed the creatures to move quickly in long leaps. The second type of the creatures was probably from the arthropods class. They had a lot of furry articular legs, looking like spider legs, and their backs were covered with a chitinous shell. Their front legs ended with sharp claws, constantly snapping and opening, producing disgusting crackling and clapping. The head of the monsters was decorated with two round eyes, rotating independently of each other, and sitting on a flexible stem. Nick had never seen creatures more absurd than these before. He stood there, mesmerized, having forgotten for a moment why Sith and he had come there, and watched more and more creatures coming out of the gap in the ground.
“Nick, did you set roots there?” the boy’s voice returned him to reality. “Move, quickly, before they see us!”
They were standing next to the high fire under the tripod and therefore were relatively safe. Sith quickly evaluated the danger, picked up a thick stick and dipped its sharpened end into a barrel of tar. When he brought it to the flame, the stick caught on fire and Sith had made himself an improvised torch. Nick looked at the heavy structure of the tripod. It was at least two times higher than Nick and was holding an enormous cauldron with the boiling tar. It had a crude wooden ladder with two small landings. Nick gave the entire structure a long look, trying to figure out from which side it would be easier to overturn.
First, he had to tear the ladder off because it also added to the tripod’s stability. He quickly knocked out its bolts, pushed it hard and threw it right onto the nearest tentacle of the ground-digger. Several of fanged beasts stopped and started to move their heavy muzzles from side to side, as if sniffing something out. Nick and Sith froze. It would be quite stupid to start a fight with them right now. They were lucky. The fire’s flames hid them from the beasts’ hungry eyes, and the latter started to leap to the weapons room, where there was a true battle now.
“Sith!” Nick called, pointing the iron leg of the tripod to the boy. “I will now lift this foot, and you push, as hard as you can, your stick into that crossbar on top. Try to find a bearing as high as you can. Do you get this?”
“Why wouldn’t I get this?” Sith mumbled, “I’m not a toddler!”
Of course, it would be easier to turn the tripod by swaying it, but Nick did not know how much of the boiling tar there was in the cauldron. If a lot, it could simply overflow right on their heads. When Nick made the decision, he grabbed the foot at its very end near the ground, breathed deeply, and pulled the foot upward.
At first, it wouldn’t budge. Nick started to think that he wouldn’t be able to do it, but then he was able to pull the foot up to his chest. He bent his knees a little and started to dash it up above his head. The tripod finally went over the invisible axis of its gravity center and, croaking and screeching with all its metal joints, started to fall toward the gap in the ground, at first slowly and then faster and faster.
The cauldron slid off the tripod with a loud clanking and flopped on the ground. Its boiling tar spilled out and poured in a thick bubbling stream down into the gap. The next moment, they heard a non-human, many-hundred-voices howl from the underground.
“The beast has chocked!” Sith whispered meanly, wiping the sweat off his face.
The ground-digger’s tentacles still continued to contract in convulsions, mindlessly raking in the soil. But it was obviously in agony. Nick could hardly contain the desire to come down to the ground. Instead, he took a burning branch from the fire and swung it into the black gap. The fire blazed so beautifully! Nick caught himself smiling. The creatures that had come out from the underground did not stir any feelings in him except for disgust.
Meanwhile, the battle near the weapons room raged. At the beginning, the hunters suffered losses because of the unexpected attack. Also, many of them did not manage to get their weapons back. However, now the battle was equal in forces. More and more hunters, who finally got their spears, fiercely joined the bloody battle. On the other hand, the influx of beasts stopped.
Nick looked at the fortress walls. The battle was raging there as well. However, he couldn’t estimate the situation correctly from beneath. One thing was clear: the guards were fighting with what was left of their strength. Nick looked up at the sky. The Orphius was already lowering to set behind the horizon, which meant that the battle had lasted for almost the entire day.
Out of the corner of his eye, Nick caught some movement behind him. His instincts were faster than his reason. He rolled over his shoulder, forward and to the side, and the next moment he was already standing, slightly bent, waiting for a repeat attack. At the place where he had stood just a second ago, stood a huge beast, spreading its furry claw-like paws. Its claws were snapping with a loud menacing sound. A pair of red eyes on thin stems was looking at him intensely. There were no emotions in them. However, Nick could feel with his guts that the beast was enraged that its sure-bet prey escaped at the very last second.
“Nick! It’s yellowbellies!” Nick heard the late warning from Sith. The boy was standing on the other side of the fire. Nick couldn’t see him but by the sounds coming from there he realized that Sith was being attacked as well.
Alert, Nick looked around. Not far from the fire he saw a sharpened and slightly burned stick. He regretted that he had left his spear in the weapons room, but he had no choice now. Nick leaped to the fire and, rolling over his head, picked up the improvised spear. Right on time. He heard a sound remotely resembling a roar. Two fanged beasts were racing at him from the western tower’s side. While Nick was trying to evaluate which danger was more serious, the yellowbelly attacked him. The beast turned out to be quite agile. Quickly moving its spider-like legs, it was advancing, with its claws ready to snap. Nick glided to the side, and, not coming up with anything better, used all his force to hit the yellowbelly from behind on its hard shell.
Nick, of course, had never met such creatures before, let alone fight them. He did not know their weak spots, habits, and modes of attack. He had to learn and guess all this by trial and error. Nevertheless, his hit was not in vain. By inertia, the beast ran a little more and started to lean to the side, limping. At the same time, its empty non-blinking eyes were fixated on Nick. They were rotating on their thin stems irrespective of how the yellowbelly’s body position changed.
Perhaps, someone who was watching this movie on a stereovision set would find this funny, but it was no fun for Nick. The two monsters, with their deadly fangs bared, were approaching Nick faster and faster. Nick hit the first beast in the air. Unexpectedly, it jumped at Nick from about twenty feet high. Nick squatted a little, put the sharpened stick in front of him, grounding its back end. The makeshift stake broke into two on impact, but nonetheless pierced the beast and killed it. However, Nick couldn’t keep his balance either and rolled onto the ground.
The second monster roared, showing the inverted fangs, and, determined to tear up Nick’s chest charged at him. The sharpened stick stayed in the first beast’s body, and Nick had no other weapons. So Nick, who was now sitting on the ground, could do nothing else but grab in flight the monster’s front legs and throw it over his head. Nick then landed and straightened out, getting ready for the second attack. But the attacking beast arched in the air and land
ed into the burning fire. It started wailing and howling and then ran away without looking back.
“Sith!” Nick yelled and started going around the fire. “Where are you?”
“Why are you yelling? I’m here.”
The boy was sitting, leaning on a barrel, licking his bloody hand. Not far from him, Nick saw the dead yellowbelly, belly up.
*****
The hunters broke up into several groups, as Whisperer advised. The groups were to find the surviving protectors of the fortress walls and to clean the perimeter from the beasts that broke through the defense.
Nick, Sith and about a dozen other hunters of the Near Valley went to the western tower. What they saw there was truly awful. The disgusting creatures’ torn and mutilated bodies were piled up everywhere together with dead bodies of the guards. Nick nearly threw up in disgust. A thought flashed in his mind that at some point the nature on this planet went crazy and created all these monsters with only one goal – to kill. To kill people.
There were very few wounded. They were quickly taken down to the square, where a makeshift first aid service was organized. The village whisperers started small fires and cooked in small pots the healing concoctions the recipes of which were only known to them. They were helped by women who had left the underground to tend to the wounded.
Gorr’s body was mutilated beyond recognition, as if a whole pack of mad dogs tore into him. The commandant was fighting till his last breath, which was evidenced by piles of killed beasts around him. Most of them had their limbs chopped off and the claws removed at the root. Some were still moving, leaking out thick greenish blood. The hunters were walking around, finishing them off methodically with short and pointed spear strikes, as if this was their habitual occupation. Nick hesitated a little and then took the sword from Gorr’s dead hand. He fastened it on his belt, thinking that the deceased, as a military man, would be only grateful that his favorite weapon would still serve someone for a good purpose.
There were more dead than wounded. Almost all of them had deep wounds and torn limbs. Many bodies were unnaturally bloated, with purple spots, some turning black, on their skin. As Sith explained, most of the beasts’ bites were poisonous.
The Dominia’s emerald light made the reigning atmosphere of death on the tower even more somber. Nick bent over the loophole and looked down. The twilight was not a problem for Nick because his eyes were trained to see even in complete darkness. However, the thick fog near the fortress walls covered everything that was happening on the ground. Strange boiling sounds were coming from there, as if something was cooking, accompanied by a strong odor. It was not exactly a stench, but Nick’s stomach was retching from time to time. When asked what was going on there, Sith mumbled, “They are ripening.” Or something like that. Recently, the boy wasn’t talking as much.
At night, the Elders held their council. Whisperer, with silent agreement of the village elders, invited Nick to participate in it as well. No one was against it. Everyone knew that they owed a lot to the Foundling, as they still called him amongst themselves. They said a lot of things during the council, and even though Nick was listening attentively, trying not to miss a word, but he still did not understand a lot of things. He could not interrupt them with his questions, thinking that he’d rather ask Whisperer later, as soon as he has an opportunity to do so.
One thing he understood: the Tower was under siege and everyone inside it was in a really bad, it could be said hopeless, situation. The people were surrounded on three sides. The first two waves were deflected at the cost of unthinkable effort and many lives. However, as Nick understood from the Elders’ discussion, the third wave was coming. People had nothing to fight it with.
Practically the entire garrison of the Tower was eliminated. Several dozens of the wounded could not be counted on. The flammable tar was completely used up. The two moats that protected the road to the pier on both sides were still on fire but everyone understood that they wouldn’t last long. During the fight at the central square, the hunters suffered significant losses as well. The gap the ground-digger made was covered with rocks and sand. However, as Nick understood, the Elders believed it was only a temporary solution. Everyone was sure that the attack would be repeated again, probably in several places at the same time. For that reason, it was decided to lead all women and children out of the underground. Everyone was concerned about something that was located right under the fortress walls. Something that was “ripening” or “getting ripened.” Nick couldn’t understand what exactly, but everyone was very apprehensive of it.
Nick was glancing at the Whisperer from time to time. The old man was sitting with an indifferent look as usual, his eyes half-closed. Nick already knew Whisperer well enough not to be fooled by his sleepy, distracted appearance. He was sure the old man was listening to everything attentively and, perhaps, even had developed his own plan but wanted everyone to have an opportunity to speak. Nick himself saw only one way out of this situation and was sincerely surprised that no one else came up with such an obvious and simple idea.
Finally, when the discussion of rescue plans started to circle for the third time, Whisperer stepped forward into the spotlight near the fire. He expressed his reverence to the elders and whisperers of the Near and Far Valleys, as well as to the good neighbors from the Bony Mountain Chain. He reminisced about the long-passed days when they gathered almost in the same membership and coordinated their joint actions to combat the misfortunes that fell down on them. And then he started to make his point.
“We have only one way out, and you all know what it is. I will take this step and pronounce it,” he took a pause, glanced at everyone sitting around the fire, looking everyone right in their eyes and said in a quiet but firm voice, “We’ll be safe only behind the Rapid Waters.”
People roared. Some jumped to their feet. Everyone started to talk at the same time. Nick was turning his head around, trying to understand what was going on. Whisperer just said what was obvious and needed to be said from the very beginning of the council.
“This is against all rules!” people shouted from all directions. “Unheard of! The Guardians will never allow this! We will get reinforcements tomorrow!”
To tell the truth, there were sobering ideas as well, “All guards allocated by the Guardians are dead! We will catch up with them by tomorrow evening. We need to think about our women and children!”
Whisperer waited for the noise to quiet a little, then raised his hand, calling for silence, and said, “There’s a large ferry on the pier. We can use it to cross the Rapid Waters. There, we will wait out the Big Exodus, and then go back to our homes. If we stay here, we will be dead by tomorrow night. All dead. I’ve said it. Now the decision is with the council.”
The discussion took less than an hour. In the end, common sense won. It was decided to let people get some rest that night. The next day, just as soon as the Orphius starts to rise, they would begin loading onto the ferry. Whisperer volunteered to go to the pier with a small delegation, to reach an agreement with Rekk about the crossing.
Igo invited Whisperer, Nick, and Sith to sit at his fire. This was welcome because the central square at that point reminded him of a huge ant hill, or an overflowing refugee camp. To tell the truth, this in fact was a refugee camp. Upon its inspection, the underground was deemed unsafe and carefully sealed after all the old people and women with children were led out.
Nick had been trying to stay awake for some time. To distract himself, he took out Gorr’s sword. He looked at it from all angles, and, carefully gliding his thumb on the blade, smiled with satisfaction. Not taking into account several microscopic chips, the sword looked as if it was just cast that very day. And the blacksmith who cast it, undoubtedly, was a master of his craft.
The sword was finely balanced and felt comfortable in the palm of Nick’s hand. And Nick was an expert in this type of weaponry. He acquired sword skills back in his childhood, training in historic game simulators until he bro
ke the seventh sweat. While in the virtual game titled “The Battle of the Thermopylae” he was in the Top 100 best warriors of the entire zero-network for several weeks. His friend Paul was a master archer and one of the best javelin and axe throwers. No matter how much he trained, he could never beat Nick in sword and close combat skills. The friends even had fights because of that, resulting in several days of boycotting each other.
Nick smiled sadly. The tiredness he accumulated during this endless day was now taking its toll. He put his bag behind his neck and spread his tired body right on the wet ground with pleasure, feeling his overworked muscles ache. The last thing he heard, drifting off to sleep, was the roll call by the guards on the fortress walls.
*****
Nick left the zero-pod and took several deep breaths with great pleasure. It smelled like spring. Whenever he heard that saying before, he always associated it with this air of the Altai Nature Reserve filled with a thousand various smells of the flora waking up after a long winter hibernation. It was early spring. Already in a month, the grass would be waist-high, and the mighty evergreen pines of Altai would start to bloom.
Nick searched with his eyes a landing platform for passenger flyers. He hadn’t visited Beluha for a long time, and the city has changed a lot. The zero-pod in the town of Yaylyu, which was right next to their house, was temporarily out of order. He didn’t want to wait for it to be repaired. Besides, he had been feeling nauseous for some time. This peculiarity of his body – to react to zero-leaps this way – always irritated him.
A couple of years before that, Nick went through a specialized check-up at the Massachusetts Research Institute of Exoneuroses. Then an old doctor who carefully studied all his diagnostic tests and results explained that his case was rare but not unique. This peculiarity was observed in one hundredth of one percent of all Earth residents. Perhaps, to console him in some way, the doctor added that this phobia mostly struck people with a very responsive and sensitive perception system for example, artists.
