by D. W. Vogel
Chapter 28
In the late hours of afternoon we were awakened by the trumpeting calls of ‘saurs and heavy footsteps that vibrated the leaves on the branches in which we dozed. Those of us who were sleeping jolted awake and we all peered through the heavy canopy, trying to see what the commotion was. It lasted almost twenty minutes as the sun set and the night sounds of the forest took over. We waited another half hour, then crept down out of our trees. Near the bottom we tossed branches down, making sure no camouflaged predators were waiting in ambush around the trunks.
We gathered between the trees.
“What was all that?” Henri asked
I shrugged. “Just ‘saurs doing what ‘saurs do. Hopefully eating each other so they aren’t hungry for us.” Shiro was in earshot and I regretted the words as soon as I said them. Really compassionate. Nice job.
“Everybody stay close. There’s enough light to see, but not very far. Don’t straggle out, and if somebody falls behind, we all slow down.”
Tonight I would lead, and Kintan and Adam would be the rear guard. I positioned Shiro in the middle with Henri, and put the kids right behind them. Front and back were most vulnerable to attack.
Rogan and Ryenne walked right behind me, close enough that I could smell them. And they could certainly smell me. We had plenty of water for bathing in the Carthage caves and I’d forgotten how ripe a human could smell in this humidity.
Moonlight streamed through a small clearing. By day, clear fields were more dangerous, where any ‘saur in the surrounding trees could see us crossing the open plain. By night it didn’t much matter. Our nighttime enemies were Rex—who cared nothing for dense forest or flat grassland—and Crabs who were so well hidden under their foliage-covered scales that it made no difference where we walked.
An old familiar scent hit my nostrils. The image flashed into my brain . . . stripping off my pants in a cold running stream, washing off the stink of ‘saur egg I’d sat on. My foot crunched into a broken bit of shell.
“What happened here?” Ryenne prowled around the edge of the clearing, ignoring my order to stay close.
The ground was trampled flat in all directions, and ‘saur blood smeared the grass. Broken eggs littered the ground.
Laura knelt down and picked up a shard of eggshell. “It’s what we heard earlier. Has to be. Bunch of nests here together, and something got them all.”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t just an egg raid. Whatever laid them was here, too. Something killed the adults and trampled the eggs in the process.”
Rogan shook my sleeve. “We need to go.”
“We’re going,” I assured him. “But a few of the eggs are intact. We can take them to eat tonight when we get back into the hills.”
He stomped his foot. “Need to go now.”
I ignored him. “Everybody grab any intact eggs you see. Gather up in the center and we’ll move out.”
Rogan grabbed my arm and spun me around. His eyes held the steely intensity that made people uncomfortable talking to him. He spoke slowly, enunciating every word. “Paleontologist Jack Horner said Tyrannosaurus rex is scavenger.” He stared into my eyes as his words sank into my brain.
“Maybe on Earth,” I said. “But our Rexes are definitely not scavengers. They’re pure predator.”
Rogan stared at me. “Lots of scavengers. Not just Rex.”
I stepped back, avoiding his unflinching stare. “Right.” My foot crunched into an egg and the smell wafted by again. He’s right. You smelled it. Something else will, too.
“Okay, let’s go, people. Right now. We’re getting out of here.”
Laura held up two small eggs, not much bigger than my fists. “This is really interesting, though,” she said. “Most of the eggs are huge . . . at least thirty centimeters. And multiple nests all over this clearing. But there are a couple of places these small eggs are between all the bigger ones. Wonder what that means?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I took the eggs from her hands and stuffed them into her pack. “Time to go.”
I had to call again before everyone gathered around me, and we counted off. I had assigned everyone a number to make the count-off faster, and the glaring absence of number twelve, Shiro’s father, dug at my heart.
Ryenne was the last to join the group, shouting her number from behind a huge downed tree. She scuttled in beside me, fussing with her backpack.
“Everyone’s here. Let’s move.”
We filed out of the clearing, moving as fast as I dared. More of our party was barefoot now, their shoes having fallen to ruin on the forced march. It slowed us and made me grit my teeth in frustration.
Less than half a kilometer away from the clearing, we felt the tremor.
I knew what the vibration in my boots meant, though this was milder than some I’d felt.
Rex.
We halted, waiting for the next footfall.
It sounded farther away.
I crouched on the ground, palm to the moist soil. Everyone behind me did the same thing along the line.
Another footfall. Farther away.
Silently I turned to Ryenne behind me. I made the “come on” gesture with one hand, with the first finger of the other hand pressed to my lips for quiet. She repeated the gesture behind her, and it propagated down the line.
We crept forward, keeping low.
The Rex’s footfalls echoed, farther and farther away.
Finally I stood upright. It’s gone. We’re safe.
A ‘saur burst out of the trees behind me, darting forward along our line. It was big, and so fast I couldn’t get a good look at it, just an image of brown scales streaking by.
Running ‘saur in the middle of the night.
Oh scat.
“Run!” I shouted it over my shoulder and took off into the darkness.
Chapter 29
I barely noticed the quiet of the forest in all the noise of my people following me. The normal night calls had ceased, replaced by scuffling and the cursing of human voices. No one screamed behind me and I risked a glance over my shoulder. Maybe nothing was there?
But behind my party I saw branches shaking high in the trees.
Something was coming after us.
I grabbed my pistol as I ran, wondering what I thought I was going to do with it. Bullets won’t turn a Wolf. And whatever this was, it was much, much bigger than a Wolf.
The forest thinned out around me, giving way to grassland. Turn around and climb a tree! But it was too late for that. Moonlight shone off a sheer rock wall on my right and I followed its edge, rushing along in the moonlight. There had to be a path up into the hills. A rock we could climb to safety. My breath came in ragged gasps. The rock wall remained sheer, still radiating the day’s heat in the cool night air. Suddenly the flat face of another wall loomed up in front of me. I veered left and ran into another cliff face.
Dead end.
Flat rock rose up all around us, and I had run us straight down a natural chute. Panting people caught up to me and doubled over, heaving for air. We clustered as close to the rock face as we could, peering out into the dark grassland.
A ‘saur burst from the trees.
It wasn’t a Rex. I had no name for this thing. It stood as tall as three men on each other’s shoulders, color indistinguishable in the darkness. Its shoulders and hind legs were smeared with the phosphorescent slime that lit up the night jungle. The monster walked like a Rex. The snout was longer, and some kind of crest or horn stuck up above each of its eyes.
“Rugops, but bigger,” Rogan muttered in front of me. “Carnotaurus but smaller.”
I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him behind me.
The horned ‘saur lowered its head and roared, the high-pitched squeal driving into my eardrums. It stepped forward, eyes fixed on the group of humans huddling against the buzzing rock wall.
The ‘saur took one more step and stopped, sniffing the air. I was close enough to smell the breath that puffed out of its n
ose. Its huge head swung from side to side. Behind me I heard whimpered voices. The people clustered together behind me and I reached down to my belt, loosening a grenade. It wouldn’t be near enough to kill it. But maybe we could convince it to hunt easier prey elsewhere.
Shots rang out all around me, the Carthage soldiers unloading at the approaching ‘saur to no effect.
Before I could grip the grenade and pull the pin, the ‘saur stopped. Its eyes widened in what might have been a comical expression, if not for the sickening bile searing the back of my throat.
It stood upright, towering over us.
Scat, here it comes.
I wanted to shut my eyes but couldn’t tear my gaze away from the underside of its huge head.
It pivoted on one hind leg and bolted for the forest, its tail whipping so close to my face I could almost taste it.
“What the . . .” I choked back the words, feeling the warm rocks around me vibrating. “Oh, no.”
Tiny flying wasps poured out of the rocks that surrounded us. The air was alive with their angry buzzing and the moonlight showed a thick black cloud of them swarming after the retreating ‘saur.
I stared until a sharp sting on my arm tore my attention away.
Scat. I slapped at the bug.
Another replaced it on my forearm, and the sting was worse. It felt like someone pounded my arm with a heavy branch. All around me people were cursing, slapping at their skin. The huddled cluster spread out into a chaotic mass of people, nearly all of us spinning around and slapping at our skin.
Most of the insects had chased the retreating ‘saur, but plenty remained to sting us.
In the dim haze I saw a few of our party standing amid the buzzing nightmare, apparently untouched by the insects. In the confusion it took me far too long to realize what those people had in common.
They were all pale. All sunburned.
“Everybody!” I shouted above the buzzing din. “Hushtree! Get the leaves!”
The untouched pale folks stood staring for a moment, then fumbled into their packs for the sticky triangular leaves.
“Rub them all over!”
The people on the edges couldn’t hear me and those with the leaves had to grab them, squeezing the thick juice onto their hands and smearing it over their skin. Finally everyone was covered in the sticky sap and the wasps buzzed back into their holes in the warm rock face.
“We need to get out of here.” I started for the edge of the grassland, wanting to get everyone out of the high-walled dead end.
“Wait, it’s Jess!”
I turned toward the voice.
One of the women was on the ground. Her face and arms were a mass of red welts and her dark eyes were swollen shut. Harsh breath gasped from her throat.
Shiro was next to her. He looked up at me, desperation in his eyes. “I think . . . I think it’s an anaphylactic reaction. She’s allergic.”
I whipped back to the group. “Is there medicine? Who has the first aid kit?”
Kintan pushed it forward and I ripped it open. Gauze bandages. Antiseptic. Cloth slings and metal splints. Down at the very bottom sat a small thin tube, the size of my finger. I squinted at the label. Epinephrine.
I didn’t know much about medicine, but my mom was a doctor. I ripped the cover off the Epi shot and jammed it into Jess’s leg, pressing the plunger. She jumped and grabbed at me, panic in her swollen eyes. She opened her mouth but no sound came out.
“Easy, breathe easy,” I chanted. She can’t breathe at all. “Relax, relax. You’re fine.” I’d heard my mom whisper the same useless sayings when one of the men at Carthage got bitten by a snake. “Easy, now. It will be okay in just a minute.”
After what seemed like a year, Jess’s throat opened enough to allow a squealing whistle of air. She clawed at her throat, rolling onto hands and knees with her head down.
I looked out at the empty grassland. The swarm hadn’t returned, and I had no idea how far the wasps would chase the horned ‘saur. But if it came back, we were done.
Henri and Adam were by my side. “Can you carry her?” They nodded and slung her between their arms.
I closed the first aid pack and led my battered party out of the dead end.
Chapter 30
Within an hour Jess’s throat seized up again. We were deeper into the forest, creeping along in the green gloom. She was in her early twenties, and one of the stronger women from Seventeen. But I couldn’t even count the welts on her skin. She’d been stung at least a hundred times.
I didn’t have another shot. No medicine to save her.
She stared into my eyes, desperately trying to suck in air, hands drawing blood as she clawed at her throat. It was almost a relief when she lost consciousness and died on the ground in front of me.
Shiro was there with a hand on my shoulder. I stared down into Jess’s dark, glassy eyes. You failed her. She died because you led us the wrong way.
It was like Shiro could hear my thoughts. He said, “If you hadn’t led us to the wasps, that ‘saur would have gotten a bunch of us. Maybe all of us. One loss here is really, really lucky.”
I looked at him, and my face must have looked like Jess’s in her last moments of desperation. Shiro stared into my wide eyes, hands clutching my upper arms.
“I can’t do this. I can’t lead us,” I whispered.
“Yes you can,” he said, using the soothing voice I had used on Jess who lay dead at our feet. “Look, Caleb.” He dropped his eyes. “We aren’t all going to make it. We knew that when we saw the shuttle.” His hands dropped. “The weakest ones were doomed from the start.”
I knew who he meant. The horrible sound of the lone Wolf shaking Shiro’s dad, the crack of his neck breaking . . . A tear slithered down my cheek.
Shiro went on, stronger. “But if we keep it together, we can get this group back to the caves. We know where we’re going. We know what’s out here. You did it before, buddy. You can do it now.”
But it was just me and Sara before. Not this frightened, bewildered group. No one weakened by blood loss. No kids. And I’d gotten very lucky.
I became aware of the group around me. Most of them were staring at Jess on the ground, her pretty face ruined by dark swelling. A few of them were looking at me.
Can’t let them see. Have to hold it together.
I wiped my cheeks and stood up straighter. “All right, folks. Remember the rule. We mourn later, when we’re all home safe.”
Their faces showed doubt. I cleared my throat. “We’ve still got a long road ahead of us. How much ammo do we have?”
Those of us with guns gathered and opened our packs. Plenty of rounds for the pistols, fewer for the rifles. But enough for the hunting we’d need to do on the way back.
“Fly free, Jess,” I whispered, then turned back to the group. “Let’s move out.”
We covered Jess’s body with fallen leaves and left her for the scavengers.
***
I told them not to scratch.
Most of us had welts where the wasps had stung us. They itched like fire and we rubbed Hushtree juice on them to quiet the burning. But some of the people had so many stings. They scratched themselves until they bled, open sores running from their skin.
And despite the bug-repelling juice, other flying insects found the wounds.
We slept that day in the trees, and by the next day three of the Seventeen survivors were lagging behind. I put Adam in the lead and circled back to them.
“Come on, guys,” I encouraged. “Another day and we’ll be back into the hills. We can switch back to day travel.” They nodded, lips pale in the darkness.
We trudged on.
***
We emerged into the hills early the next morning. The sun hadn’t yet risen above the distant mountains, but our path was bright enough to follow. It was still cool enough to travel and we climbed away from the jungle, feeling the safety of barren rocks around us.
When the sun blared over the moun
tains I called a halt.
“We should get some rest. We’ll sleep for a few hours, then move out in daylight.”
I checked on everyone in the party. Rogan and Ryenne were away from the group, huddled behind a large rock. They were peering into her pack, which they slapped shut as I approached.
“You guys okay?”
Ryenne nodded. “We’re good. Just hungry. Was just looking in my pack to see if I had any fruit.” She edged the pack behind her.
We foraged as we traveled, and the jungle had been kind so far. Fruits and berries were plentiful enough that, although no one was full, we weren’t starving.
“I’ve got some,” I said, pulling a couple of small, hard-shelled hairy hawkfruits out of my pockets. I tossed them to Rogan. “Get some rest now. We’ve got the watch.”
They nodded and I turned away.
The three weakest members were huddled together in the shade of a tall rock. As I approached I could see they weren’t well. One of them was Don Rand, the self-important jerk who’d suggested leaving the slower members of our party behind to fend for themselves.
I squatted next to them.
“You all right?”
Don turned his head to the side, displaying a large swelling under the left side of his jaw. It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at.
His skin was moving.
Scabs covered the welts from wasp stings, and beneath each one the skin pulsated, wriggling.
Oh scat.
“Do you all have . . . skin like that?” The other two nodded. One woman held out an arm, and the other turned her head so I could see the base of her neck where it met the shoulder, dark skin undulating on its own. “Okay. Just . . . stay right here.”
“Wait,” Don said. “You’ve seen this before, right? You know how to fix it?”
I nodded, hiding my smile.
Kintan carried the first aid kit and I asked for his help. “Just . . . bring it. And try not to throw up.”
He blanched when he saw the wriggling skin. “Um . . . what . . . what is that?”
My lips pressed together. “I know what happened here.” I remembered the words Mom had used on her patient when we were still in the wire-fenced clearing we ironically called Eden. A man had cut his arm and not kept it bandaged. This is what happened. “So there are a lot of insects on this planet. Not just bees and wasps and things. Flies. My mom says some kind of bot fly. And,” I swallowed. “What happens is, when you have an open wound, they . . . lay their eggs in it. And then . . . the eggs hatch.”
