by Mark Wandrey
“Stupid of them to leave those lying around,” Aaron said as they rifled through the bags. Luck was with them. One bag held a box, the other held two. Apparently, the girls weren’t the only ones committing larceny. The first box contained another electronic circuit. The second contained what looked like a tiny radio. And the last one contained another computer memory chip.
“Bingo,” Pip laughed as Minu dropped the chip into his greedy hand. A moment later he’d loaded it into the computer, and his fingers began dancing across the keys. Minu understood enough about computers to know the chip provided the final part of the file. It contained a document, and none of them were surprised to find the document contained a map and some short instructions. They read together in silence.
“Since you are reading this, you are to be congratulated on your resourcefulness. You have either shown wonderful forethought and cooperation or demonstrated the creative acquisition of necessary mission tools.” They all chuckled at the last part. “The next stage is going to challenge you both physically and mentally.” Pip moaned. “There is no misdirection this time. The only way out of these mountains is to the south. Once you find the pass leading from the mountain, follow the stream to its end. There you will find the final challenge. Good luck.”
The map showed the mountain next to the hut, as well as the Steven’s Pass facility and the intervening terrain. Everything was accurate, and Pip pointed out it was a cypher-accurate copy of a publicly-available Bellatrix Geographic Bureau map. He also told them it couldn’t be altered without affecting the accuracy of the cypher. The map showed nothing beyond the base of the mountain, though it did show the stream and its southerly course.
“We can’t take the computer with us, so everyone needs to memorize the map,” Minu told them. She used the memorization drill her father taught her many years ago. “Do any of you know what’s south of here?”
“Desert,” Aaron and Cherise answered in stereo. There was no reason to doubt them; they were both from neighboring regions on the far side of the equatorial desert. She closed her eyes and visualized a planetary map from memory. She located Steven’s Pass and admonished herself for not realizing the testing facility was close enough to the desert for it to become an issue in the Trials. She hadn’t studied desert survival.
“They wouldn’t take us into the open desert, would they?” Minu wondered aloud.
“Few can survive without extensive preparations,” said Cherise, confirming Minu’s worst fears. She was sure the desert was their destination, and part of the final trial.
“Let’s get out of here,” Minu said and shouldered her pack. Pip removed the data chips from the computer and held them out to her. “Put them in your box; you’re the one who knows best how to use them,” Minu told him.
“Aren’t you going to return them? How are the others going to figure out what to do?” Pip asked.
“I honestly couldn’t care less,” Minu answered, thinking about Ivan Malovich. Some small part of her wondered where this sudden, cold-blooded reaction had come from, but another part reminded her that it had always been there, in her genes. Pip nodded his head slightly and, with obvious misgivings, stored away the chips.
“What about the footlocker?” Gregg asked.
“It’s locked,” she reminded him. He smiled mischievously, and she cocked her head. “Can you open it?” He took a short length of rigid wire from his pocket, knelt over the locker, and went to work. Less than a minute later the lock clicked, and he swung open the lid. Inside was a treasure trove of unimaginable goodies.
“Jackpot!” Cherise laughed, then looked self-consciously toward the door, afraid someone outside might have heard her.
They first noticed the food, since it had been more than two days since they’d last eaten. There were dozens of packages of prepared, dehydrated meals, which they quickly divided up. Minu insisted they not eat anything before they left. The locker also contained a leather pack full of camping equipment: a stove, fuel, utensils, a pot and a pan. There was even a sturdy dualloy ax and a length of synthetic fiber rope. Under the pack, they found six sheathed survival knives complete with web belts, wrapped around one-liter canteens.
Minu felt guilty, as though they were robbing the Chosen of the equipment they needed to conduct the Trials. That was, until they found the six knives. These weren’t the ultra-cool knives with handles chock full of high-tech instruments and a power cell that the Chosen routinely wore. These were much simpler blades manufactured on Bellatrix. These were meant to be found; it was just luck (or providence) that Minu’s group was the first to force open the locker.
They didn’t waste time talking. In no time they put on the belts and attached the sheathed knives and canteens. Their once nearly-empty packs now bulged with additional goods. Aaron was by far the strongest, so he carried both his pack and a newly assembled one containing the camping gear. Minu took the extra belt with its knife and canteen for herself and secreted it in the bottom of her pack. She had no intention of leaving anything behind. She would seize every advantage.
It was obvious the Trials required teamwork. The fact that the file containing the map and the next objective was in pieces, each of which was on a separate data chip, proved that. But assembling the file didn’t require dozens of chips, only three. And it was likely any three chips would have worked. If they showed signs of ‘teamwork,’ they were rewarded. The locker proved the Chosen expected the teams to be small. It only contained enough supplies and equipment for six candidates to survive in the wilderness.
Everyone was ready, so Minu led them outside. They had pulled their shirts over the new belts to hide them. The boy Minu had talked to earlier looked up as they exited the shelter and cocked his head in confusion.
“I thought you’d left.”
“Not yet,” Minu replied. She’d been about to head for the woods, but she remembered their new canteens were empty. Once they got deep into the woods, they wouldn’t have time to waste looking for a pure, clear stream. “Fill the canteens,” she instructed Cherise in a whisper. Suddenly, the boy’s curiosity changed to suspicion, and he jumped to his feet.
“Did you find some stuff in there?” Minu didn’t answer. She fell in with her friends and walked quickly down to the river. Once they left, the boy ran into the hut. Minu cursed silently; they hadn’t re-locked the footlocker before leaving.
“We don’t have much time,” she said to them a bit louder since the nearest kids were a few yards away. “Try not to be obvious about what you’re doing, but get the canteens filled so we can get out of here.”
“FUCK!” sounded from inside the hut. Instantly, kids jumped to their feet and ran toward the hut. Minu pulled out her canteen and handed it to Cherise to fill while she watched to see what happened. She could hear a loud conversation inside the hut and knew the game was up. Ivan came out first and looked straight at her, murder in his eyes. Cherise handed back the full canteen. Hiding their actions no longer made sense. Minu couldn’t resist raising the shining metal container to her lips and taking a long cool drink.
“Bitch!” she clearly heard Ivan say as he ran toward her. His friends followed his lead. Those not part of Ivan’s group were unsure about what to do and milled outside the hut.
“Damn it,” Minu said as Ivan and his friends raced toward them. Cherise turned around, saw them coming, and grabbed Minu by the arm.
“Get out of the water,” she urged. The others quickly followed. “The unsure footing in the river will work against us.” They made it a few steps toward the woods before they encountered the angry young men. Minu could tell they were ready to fight.
“We want half that stuff!” Ivan barked. Minu let out a couple of little laughs, and Ivan’s face turned red. “You think I’m kidding, Daughter of the First?”
“I think your bargaining position is extremely tenuous.”
“Who said I was negotiating?” he snarled and took a menacing step toward them. Four knives slid from their leather
sheathes, flashing in Bellatrix’s bright, morning sun.
“You planning to rob us, Rusk?” Aaron demanded, his hatred of the Rusk people obvious. Ivan sneered at Aaron, then moved his eyes to the gleaming blade Gregg comfortably held.
“You’d kill someone to avoid sharing? Filthy Jew boy!” One of the boys with Ivan spit onto the river rocks.
“I’ll kill you if you lay a hand on any one of us, Rusk pig.”
Minu watched Ivan chewing it over under his thick eyebrows. Though the two sides were equal in number, the knives were an insurmountable advantage. Minu didn’t draw her knife, she just put her hand on the hilt. She watched Ivan stew as he realized they’d outmaneuvered him.
“You win this day,” he snarled at her, spitting in the wet sand at her feet. “But remember this, Daughter of the First; a lot can happen between now and the end of the Trials. Accidents happen, and candidates have died.”
Minu did her best not to react, though she knew Ivan could see the fear in her eyes. That made him smile as he watched Minu and her friends disappear into the woods.
* * * * *
Chapter 9
Julast 7th, 514 AE
Cascade Mountains, Unknown Valley
For the rest of the afternoon, Minu and her friends constantly glanced over their shoulders as they climbed into the mountains. Minu walked into a tree once, and her neck was so sore from looking backwards it throbbed. Though there were no signs of Ivan and his people, Minu knew they were out there, plotting revenge. The question was when and where it would come, and what form it would take.
“We have a good head start,” Cherise said as they steadily climbed toward their destination, a mountain pass some three thousand meters high.
“They needed time to get their gear together,” Pip agreed. He was straining from the exertion of the climb and the extra gear. Minu thought he was faring somewhat better than he had the day before.
“They’re probably still back there complaining we robbed them,” Gregg laughed. Aaron agreed heartily.
“I doubt it,” Minu said. “He isn’t the kind to take a setback lightly.” No, he’s right behind us, she thought. They spent the next hour in silence, still looking over their shoulders.
As early evening approached, they came across a trail. Minu stopped to stoop and examine it, and the others joined her moments later. She was in the best shape, and the tacit leader, so she’d taken point. Cherise usually followed close behind, with Pip in the middle, and Gregg and Aaron in the rear. Aaron had chosen his spot because he was the strongest and wanted to be ready should Ivan and his thugs overtake them. He was quietly bristling for the chance to continue the encounter by the river.
“It doesn’t look very well-traveled,” Minu said. The path was nothing more than a treeless patch bisecting their route; the ground was clear of grass and lichen.
“Looks more like a game trail,” Cherise told them. She was a good tracker with well-developed wilderness skills. Minu had picked that up while running with her the last two days. Cherise used her knife to move around some small vegetation growing along the trail. It was lightly trodden. “Too small to be Kloth. Could be wild deer or boar. There are a lot of them up here. Should we follow it?” she asked and pointed up the trail before sheathing her knife.
“It goes more east than north,” Pip pointed out, sitting on a fallen log while catching his breath. He drank deeply from his canteen.
“Go easy on that,” Minu warned him, “you’ll be out of water and puking your guts out if you’re not careful.” Pip looked at her doubtfully, but he reattached the canteen to his belt and leaned back to rest while she decided what to do. “I don’t remember any paths on the map, do any of you?” They all answered no. “That’s what I thought.”
Minu cringed inwardly at having to make another crucial decision. Should the path end suddenly, they could wind up in a blind valley. Having to backtrack could cause them to run into Ivan and his friends. Or the path could meander around the side of the mountain, in which case following it would be a waste of time. So far their path had been easy enough; abandoning it was not an easy decision. Minu and Cherise estimated they’d traveled about six kilometers since leaving the river. The sun was setting quickly, and they’d only have another three hours of light, maximum. Minu felt that following the trail was an unreasonable risk and said so. All but one accepted her decision.
“We could mislead Ivan,” Gregg suggested. “I can leave a few food wrappers lying around and break off a few leaves, making him think we took the trail.”
“But what if it’s the right trail, and he follows it and gets ahead of us?” Pip asked.
“There are risks to all paths one takes,” Cherise told them. The Desert Tribe wisdom was solid and simple.
“Do it,” Minu told Gregg. He pulled out a meal, tore it open, and parceled out the meager food between them. They were all very hungry, and one meal split five ways disappeared in seconds, leaving Gregg with a handful of crumbs and biodegradable silver wrappers. He headed up the trail, leaving wrappers here and there before dumping the crumbs and the remainder of the wrappers in a small pile. He stomped around the area, flattening down several small ferns.
“Any more and it would be overly obvious,” he told them. Cherise complimented him, making his blue eyes twinkle, and a small smile spread across his face. Minu had already realized he was a good-looking young man, and Cherise was beginning to realize it, too.
“All right, let’s get moving again,” Minu said. Two hours later the light began to fail, and they searched for a place to camp, as they knew that moving through the forest in the dark would be a mistake. By the time they’d found a good spot, they couldn’t see well enough to pitch the tents, so they used the tarps as ground cloths, one under and one over, to keep off the dew. As they settled down, Minu glanced up at the sparkling black obsidian of Remus. Recalling the orbital tables she’d memorized before the Trials, she figured Romulus would pass in seven hours. Though farther away and smaller, Romulus appeared bright green, due to the shallow oceans of algae covering its surface. It orbited twice as fast as its dark black brother. She decided they would get up when Romulus was at apogee and use the light to get an early start.
* * *
As it turned out, there was no early start. Clouds and a light mist moved in during the night, obscuring the dazzling, emerald brightness of Romulus, allowing only a muted glow to reach them. When Minu awoke in the middle of the night, she pulled the mostly waterproof tarp over her head and went back to sleep. When morning arrived, conditions hadn’t improved.
“This sucks!” Pip grumbled. The drizzle threatened to upgrade to rain; it couldn’t seem to make up its mind. Aaron and Cherise warmed two packets of prepackaged food over the camp stove, and the smell was wonderful. The food pouches included drink packets in different flavors. They took two bitterseed packets and mixed them. Everyone drank a full cup of the liquid and found the bittersweet flavor reviving. They finished their meal, rehydrated mystery stew and crackers, in grateful silence.
“Damn, that just made me hungrier,” Pip complained as he put on his shoes. Minu glanced at his feet and noticed a couple of blisters. She decided to check his feet daily. They all probably sported blisters from the poorly-constructed shoes, and Minu sorely missed her hiking boots. They, like the rest of her stuff, had disappeared back in Steven’s Pass. She wondered if she’d ever see them again.
They were stiff after the damp night on the ground, and Minu was happy to be moving again. The steady, uphill progress quickly loosened their cramped muscles. Even Pip didn’t complain as much, until it started to pour. They heard a few distant cracks of thunder, and suddenly, the skies opened with a vengeance.
A few great ferns, remnants of the planet’s original biosphere, provided decent shelter from the pelting rain. They continued to walk but routed their path as much as possible to take advantage of the cover. Minu looked at the sky and decided the rain wouldn’t stop anytime soon, so she fished a
tarp out of her backpack and slipped her head through the slit in the center, converting it into a poncho. The others watched her and followed suit. Cherise was the slowest to do so. Minu knew this weather must be quite different from what she’d experienced at home and silently commiserated with her.
They had nothing to cover their heads. The tarps kept their bodies mostly dry, but water ran over their faces in sheets, and down their necks in streams. Minu walked with her head down, preferring the rain run down her back rather than over her chest. As afternoon approached, and they came closer to the pass, every step brought thinner air and colder rain.
“The weather is going to shift,” Pip said miserably, punctuating his words with a sneeze.
“Hopefully, the damn rain will stop,” Cherise said.
“It’ll stop raining,” Pip agreed, “but you might wish it hadn’t.”
The rain made them miserable, but the hail that soon started took them to the edge of despair. To make it worse, at the higher altitude, there were no longer any tall trees or huge ferns to provide cover. There were only a few scrub evergreen bushes. Minu tried to think through the howling wind and stinging hail, but she felt like the cold was freezing her brain.
“You understand this weather,” Minu said to Pip as they took out extra tarps to hold over their heads, hoping for some relief. “Tell me what to expect.”
“I’m no meteorologist,” he said, but seeing the dark look Minu gave him, he added, “It looks like the storm is developing. Once we get above the inversion layer, the hail will stop.”
“Thank goodness,” Cherise laughed, her teeth chattering.
“Then we’ll be above the snow line.”
“Snow?!” Cherise cried out. “How much?”
