by D. W. Vogel
My feet splashed into the water and I clutched onto the branches all around me, hauling myself hand over hand. The rushing river pulled at my legs and I kicked furiously, trying to find a foothold. Don’t break don’t break don’t break.
Finally I got to a stronger branch and clambered up out of the water. The rope trailed behind me. When I reached a strong fork, I tied it off. One more time. I re-crossed back to Don’s tree using the rope to keep me out of the river, dragging another line behind me. There was enough rope to cross three times, which made a V shape. Our people would be able to walk on one rope, while holding the other two as handrails. No more dangerous than anything else we’d been doing.
We climbed to the far bank and rolled off the trunk onto dry land. I looked at Don. “We could lose people right here.”
He shrugged. “We might. But you said the only other way around is several days’ walk. We’d lose people there, too. And I don’t think that kid’s got the time.”
For the millionth time since we started this disastrous trip I wished General Carthage was here. But he wasn’t. There was only me.
“Let’s get them across.”
I blinked my flashlight twice, the signal for the rest of the party to start out over the tree. Henri came first, shimmying across the rope part and shuffling across the thick trunk. “That’s really dangerous,” he said.
“Unlike anything else on this planet,” I answered.
One by one they came. The little kids acted like it was a game, swinging between the branches like monkeys in a nature video. Henri carried Shanna on his back. Her cheeks were pink with fever. We counted off as each person made the crossing until only Adam and Shiro were left on the other side.
After a long break Adam finally crawled out onto the tree. The rain was falling heavier and I couldn’t see Shiro on the other side.
Adam jumped down and plodded over to me.
“Shiro’s not coming.”
My head snapped around to squint over the river. “What do you mean, he’s not coming?” But I knew. I should have known. This was Shiro’s nightmare and we had dragged him right back into it. “Get everyone away from the water’s edge. I’m going back.”
Ryenne grabbed my arm and tried to pull me up the bank but I brushed her off. “I’ll be fine. Get Rogan and your little ‘saurs up that riverbank.” They had followed her easily across the tree, plucking insects and grubs out of the soft wood. Ryenne set off up the hill and they followed, one behind the other. They think she’s their mom.
I took a deep breath. One more time across the water. We had made so much noise in this crossing. If there was anything down there, it certainly knew we were here.
This was the hardest crossing yet. Exhaustion poked at my brain like the sharp branches poking my skin. On the thicker trunk most of the bark had been stripped off by our passage and the slippery surface gave no handholds. I lay on my belly and inched across.
After what felt like years, I reached the other side. Shiro was sitting on the ground, back propped against the rock we had used to swing the tree over the river. I sat beside him.
“It’s okay, Caleb,” he said without looking at me. “I’m all right with this.”
“With what?” I demanded. “Sitting here until you die?”
He smiled into the night. “Sitting on a tree until I die. You’d think once in a lifetime was enough.”
“Look, I know this has got to be awful for you,” I said. “I have nightmares all the time. Rexes, Wolves, Gila. They chase me through the jungle and my legs won’t move and I can’t run. Your nightmares have got to be . . .” I gestured to the tree above us.
“Yeah. Pretty much this.”
“But look. I left you once. And I’m not leaving you again. If you’re staying here, I’m staying with you.”
He turned to look at me then. “No you’re not. You’re going back across that scatting tree and leading all those people home.”
I shrugged. “Not without you.”
He leaned his head back on the rock. “Look, Caleb. I know you think you’re helping. And more than anybody else out here, I have to think you kind of understand. But I can’t do it. I can’t climb back out on a tree over a river. I can’t. I’d rather die right here. I really would.”
I could tell from his face he was telling the truth. He’d rather die. But I couldn’t let that happen. I’d known for weeks that something like this might be coming. My best friend wasn’t well, and I couldn’t make him well out here. Still, there was no way I was leaving him again. Time to pull out the big gun.
“Is that what your dad died for?”
His face darkened. “We’re not talking about my dad.”
“But we are,” I insisted. “Your dad died for us. For you and me. He walked right into the jaws of a one-eyed Wolf so you and I could run away. He knew exactly what he was doing. And I can damned well tell you he didn’t sacrifice his own life so you could throw yours away like this.”
That hurt. I could see it in Shiro’s eyes.
“Caleb . . .” He looked like a child in that moment, terror and dread all over his face. “Please. Please, just go.”
“I’ll go.” I stood up and held out a hand to him. “I’ll go first.”
His gaze dropped and a single sob pulsed through his shoulders. He took my hand.
I climbed out onto the tree backwards, facing him. He was muttering, “Never, never again,” but he climbed up as well. I inched backwards and he inched forward, our eyes locked on each others’. When my feet reached the rope bridge I stopped.
“Just a little farther. Across the ropes, and onto the other tree. You go on ahead.” I didn’t trust that once I was onto the ropes, he wouldn’t turn back.
One foot on the rope. Two. He tottered across and climbed onto the far trunk. My turn. One more crossing.
I grabbed the higher rope and eased a foot onto the lower one.
A few more steps.
Shiro reached out a hand to help me onto the trunk. At that moment, the water boiled up underneath me and a huge, black head lunged up from the depths, a mouthful of razor teeth flying straight at Shiro.
Chapter 41
I leaped forward and shoved Shiro out of the way. The force of the attack slammed me hard against the tree. I couldn’t even tell what it was, but the smell of ‘saur and the hiss of fetid breath told enough. I grabbed for the branches, sliding through the thin, leafy wood.
A huge black coil reared up next to me and the whole tree shifted underneath my hands.
Titanoboa.
It thrashed and writhed, half of it disappearing into the water below while the other half squirmed in the tree. Somehow when it lunged at us, it got its teeth stuck in the tight-strung ropes. Its head was trapped, but its body whipped from side to side. The strength of the thing astounded me.
With a great heave, it tore at the branches. The jolt threw me off the tree. I bounced right onto the shining black scales and had a moment to feel the rippling muscle beneath the smooth skin. A crazed thought echoed through my brain. The skin. It’s softer than I expected.
Then I was in the water.
The rest of the Boa was there, thrashing the water into brown mud. My body was pitched down, then up, flying completely out of the water for a moment before I splashed back down. The current carried me away from the monster snake and I clutched at the water, struggling to stay afloat.
We never had a swimming pool on Horizon Alpha. In that moment, if I could have traveled back in time to the scientists who designed our ship, I’d have strongly suggested they build one. No pool on the ship, and no safe water on Ceti for a kid to learn to swim.
This is it. All this way. All these ‘saurs. And I’m going to drown in the river.
A huge log bashed into my back and I grabbed for it, swallowing water and choking.
It floated. I was afloat.
In that moment I could hear shouting from the far riverbank. Our party was running alongside me, far out of reach. O
ut of reach of the Boa, too.
I kicked, trying to push the log toward the bank, but my heavy boots weighed me down. The current was flowing faster now.
A word reached my ears from the people shouting on land.
Waterfall.
I wrenched my body around, and saw the water crashing over some huge boulders sticking up out of the river. Beyond that, I couldn’t see anything.
Waterfall.
The rocks. Get to the rocks.
I kicked and paddled as hard as I could. Two boulders sat close together, almost in my path. I lunged for them, wedging the log between them, and my legs were swept under the log as it suddenly stopped flowing with the current.
My hands gripped the wet wood. If I moved, the log would come unstuck. Just a few meters away, the river crashed over the edge. Even if I somehow held onto the log, I’d never survive the drop.
I stilled, feeling the cool water rush around my body. The waterfall roared just over the crest.
The boulders were only about ten meters from the shoreline, but it might as well have been a mile. In the few feet of space before the waterfall, I’d never make it even if I were the best swimmer on Ceti. Which, I reasoned, I probably was at this moment. The thought made me snort, then giggle. You’re going crazy, Caleb. This is not a laughing time. But I couldn’t seem to stop. Yeah. Crazy.
A splash drew my attention.
Oh no. Don’t. You can’t.
I wanted to yell, but the water I’d swallowed had choked me and I had no voice. There was no way they’d hear me over the pounding of the waterfall even if I could have screamed.
They were making a human chain.
“We don’t have rope, but hang on, Caleb!” someone yelled across the rushing water. “We’re coming.”
No, we don’t have rope. The Boa has the rope. I chortled again. Absolutely insane. If you survive this, they’re going to lock you up.
I couldn’t tell who was who, but they lined up from a tree that grew right next to the bank. One person was holding the tree, and two more people were holding his arms. The next person grabbed his legs and lay down on the muddy bank. The next person climbed into the water, holding the legs of the guy in front of him.
It took twelve people to get close. The current kept pushing them back toward the bank and someone on the land had to shove them over with a long branch, but finally I could see they weren’t going to make it. I’d have to leave the relative safety of the wedged branch and cross a body-length of rushing water to grab hold.
Scat it. Here we go.
The last person in the chain was over a meter away, parallel with the riverbank, back to me. There was no way I could reach him. If I missed this grab, I’d be dead, crushed on the rocks below the fall.
I lunged from the water, grasping as the current took hold. My hands flung water away as the river whipped me past the guy hanging in the water.
One more stroke.
My right hand latched onto the guy’s ankle, a death grip digging into the bare skin above the boot. Whoever this is, they’ll be bruised. It had to be one of us from Carthage because none of the Seventeen survivors had boots.
We inched toward the riverbank as people on land pulled the whole chain over onto the mud.
Stars, I might actually survive this.
Then I heard the cry from one of the people on land.
“Snake!”
The water pounded into my face as I craned my neck to see upriver, still clinging to the ankle of the guy in front of me.
Titanoboa had wrenched free of the rope bridge. It turned to face us, twisted rope dangling from its iridescent head. The huge body slithered around as it dove into the deep water, heading straight for us.
“Pull pull pull!”
Man by man, the human chain was hauled out of the water, but the snake was huge and the current was ripping fast.
Not going to make it.
My hands reached the soft mud of the riverbank at the moment the beast’s head reared up behind me.
It lunged forward.
One of the ropes still wrapped around its face snagged on a rock, slowing the massive head. I kicked straight up, my boot connecting with the Boa’s lower jaw. Its mouth snapped shut, and the momentum of its long body flowing with the current carried it right over the side of the cascade. The huge head snapped at my ankle one last time before the Titanoboa rolled over the edge of the waterfall, crashing toward the foaming rocks below.
My feet were hanging over the edge of the waterfall when hands grabbed my shoulders and dragged me up onto the squishy ground.
All of us lay there panting. Shiro was the first one up. He’d been the last one into the water, the most dangerous position. It was his ankle I had grabbed.
He rolled over and nudged me with his foot.
“Caleb? You okay, buddy?”
I coughed and gagged up half the river, blowing muddy water out my nose. Finally I was able to choke out words.
“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Chapter 42
We spent the day in trees near the river’s edge. I was worried about the Boa having survived the fall, but Ryenne had run to the edge when it went over and said she saw it float away downstream. Dead, or just dazed, we weren’t sure, but it should be far enough away for one night. As if there was only one Titanoboa on all of Tau Ceti e.
I sipped from my canteen, still tasting muddy river water. Less than a full night’s walk and we would be back in the hills. Another couple of days and we’d reach Carthage’s front door. I would lead the group up into the cave, through the tunnel that led to our safe home.
All day we listened to ‘saurs below us. We couldn’t see much through the trees, but our makeshift bridge seemed to have drawn a lot of attention. Hopefully the Boa’s thrashing had dismantled most of it. But it couldn’t really matter. Whatever was on the far side of the river, there were plenty of dangers on our side.
I had debated walking through the day. Little Shanna’s fever kept breaking and returning. She’d get lucid for a few hours, and Laura would get some soft fruit into her, but then she’d lapse back into clammy red sleep. We hadn’t removed the bandage on her wound, but it was moist and seeping, and the red streaks had climbed up past her knee, peeking out the top of the dirty wrap.
The next night we crossed the final stretch of jungle. As the ground rose up under our feet, trees giving way to the familiar rocky hillside, I dared to hope. We’re going to make it. We lost some good people, but we did it. We’re all going to get home. I looked at Laura holding Shanna. And we’ll be in time. We have to be.
We rested on the rocks in the early hours of dawn, and were on our way again by midmorning. Everyone looked tired, drawn, thin. But the hope I felt was echoed in their faces. They can feel it too. We’re almost there.
The fruit we had foraged filled our bags. Shiro and I carried the heavy ammo packs, having distributed our take among the Carthage armed soldiers. We ate the last of the fruit at sundown, settling in for our last night in the open. Laura sponged cool water onto Shanna’s face. Tomorrow would be a long, hungry day, but tomorrow night I would sleep in my own bed in the caves.
On our final morning of travel we started off at dawn. A few bushes had ripe berries and we made a poor breakfast as we walked. No one wanted to pause for a hunt. The excitement in the air was palpable. Transport Seventeen’s survivors hadn’t felt truly safe in three years. I couldn’t wait to show them their new home.
Ryenne let her baby ‘saurs follow her, hopping along in her footsteps. They browsed on the dry, woody shrubs, raking the scrubby leaves off the roots with their toothless sharp beaks. Rogan chattered away behind Ryenne, retelling the Titanoboa story for the hundredth time.
Shiro walked beside me at the head of the party. I’d seen him talking with Kintan the night before, and the talk ended with a hug. Guess Kintan wasn’t that angry about Shiro’s wild bullet.
“Your mom’s gonna freak when we get back.”
> “Yeah.” I squinted into the morning sun. “Maybe we should call in and let them know we’re almost there.” We hadn’t used the sat trans in the past few days, conserving the tiny remaining charge.
Shiro shrugged. “Or we can just let them be surprised.”
I grinned. Something had broken free in Shiro on that tree. He walked with a softer gait now, his shoulders lower and relaxed like I hadn’t seen in months. I’d still make him talk to my Mom when we got back, but for the first time on this trip, I was seeing glimmers of the old Shiro.
“So . . . you think Staci will be there to meet us?” Shiro asked, eyes turned up in an innocent expression.
My head whipped around before I could catch myself, and Shiro broke down in laughter. Thinking about my Carthage climbing buddy, I felt the heat creep into my face. “Maybe. She might. Who cares?”
Shiro snorted and wiped his nose on his filthy shirtsleeve. “Well, not me. I sure don’t care.”
“Me either.”
I hadn’t thought much about anyone back at Carthage since this month-long nightmare began. Mom and Josh and Malia were always close to my heart, but it hadn’t seemed wise to let idle daydreams cloud my thoughts when so many people were depending on me to get them back. Now I allowed myself a moment to consider. Yeah, Staci will probably be there. And that was probably okay with me.
The sun was well over the mountaintops when we heard the rumble. We were in a rugged part of the hills, up and down steep inclines. Exhausted and hungry, but the thought of dinner in safety drove us on. We dropped into a ravine and the noise went away, but as we crested the next hill it was clearer. I held up a fist for a halt.
“What is it?” Ryenne whispered from behind me. “Predator?”
I turned my head away from the dusty wind filling my ears. The noise was coming from ahead of us, somewhere around the next hill.
Between us and home.
“Everyone stay here,” I said. The group shrank back into the rocks, adults pulling the smallest children into their arms.
Shiro and I crept forward. The noise got louder. It wasn’t a roar, or the pounding of heavy footsteps, but a constant, low rumble. As we scuttled over the hill the noise increased, with intermittent crashes and grinding growls.
