by A. G. Wilde
He had never felt so helpless in his life. “Keh-reh-nah?”
“It wrapped itself around me,” she met his gaze and blinked back the wetness, “I swear. It wrapped itself around me while I was sleeping. I felt it tighten. I felt it pull me.” She scrubbed her skin again. “I mean, I work with plants but that just…it creeped me the fuck out and you weren’t here. I thought you’d left me and—”
She stopped and took a deep breath.
Her throat moved as she swallowed hard and then she was standing.
Her back was turned to him as she wiped her eyes and then her shoulders stiffened and she took a deep breath.
“I freaked out,” she said. “It won’t happen again.”
He could see her throat move the more she tried to hide her true emotions.
“Maybe these plants just grow ridiculously quickly and the root thought I was something to climb over. Climbing plants can curl or cling to other plants.” She looked up into the trees. “That can make them dangerous in some cases…”
Her gaze scanned the vegetation and Ajos got the distinct impression that she was talking to herself again.
She seemed to do this whenever she was talking about plants and he found his anger and rage quelling a little as he watched her.
Keh-reh-nah spun, her gaze still moving around them. “But these are roots, not vines…”
Her fingers were working in a strange pattern as another breath shuddered through her and she caught hold of her emotions. It was as if she was weaving invisible thread with her fingers and his eyes locked onto her movements, mesmerized.
“They’re roots but they act like vines and vines that grow that quickly could choke the plants they grow on…” Her eyes held no wetness anymore and she frowned. “…because they’d deprive the other plant of light to the point they’d kill it.”
Her gaze finally landed on him, the frown still on her face.
“Ajos,” she said. “I don’t see any roots climbing on the trees or even the plants around us.”
She looked down and he followed her gaze.
There were roots all below them and Keh-reh-nah crouched.
He watched her work, his own urges halted momentarily in awe of the female before him.
He’d expected her to shout or scream at him. He’d expected her to send him from her presence.
He hadn’t expected this.
Though…there was still time for her to proclaim that he shouldn’t come anywhere near her again.
It could still happen.
“I don’t think these are completely roots,” she finally said.
Ajos’ gaze fell to where she poked with one hand.
“What?”
“I don’t think these are fully roots,” she repeated. “But I don’t think they’re vines either…”
Ajos looked around them.
He didn’t know about that. There were so many.
He’d never seen so many roots above ground before, except in places where the ground was too soft to hold them. They looked more like vines to him, but she was the expert at this on her planet. She’d know more than he did.
“I don’t see any root caps, no root hairs, and these motherfuckers are thick, thicker than any vines I’ve ever seen before, but,” she took a breath, “a vine is a plant on its own. These things…they’re connected to the trees…”
Keh-reh-nah rose and rubbed her hands over her shoulders. “We should go,” she said. “I’m suddenly creeped out.”
Ajos jerked his head in confirmation. “Do you wish for me to escort you back to the ship?”
He was reining in himself but who knew how long he could keep it up. She’d probably feel better being around V’Alen anyway.
V’Alen had the advantage of not having any urges at all.
Keh-reh-nah’s frown was suddenly directed his way. “No. We have to find the source of that signal. I’m not going through all this to just return empty-handed.”
For a beat, he studied her, but her shoulders were set and, somehow, he knew if he pressed, it was an argument he was going to lose.
“Let’s go,” he finally said, rising to his full height.
Keh-reh-nah averted her gaze, looking off into the distance.
He could cut the tension between them with his spear.
“Let’s.”
17
This time, Ajos walked in front. He kept his pace a good few meters ahead of her and she wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t want to be close to her or if there was some other reason.
It didn’t matter.
She had bigger things on her mind.
There was a niggling feeling at the back of her mind as they trekked through the undergrowth and Kerena frowned.
She could be paranoid, but since she’d woken that morning to find the vine wrapped around her leg, she couldn’t relax.
She was missing something.
Something important.
Coupled with the fact that the alien she was with was confusing her to bits, she just had a lot to think about.
Releasing a breath, she let her gaze roam over the vegetation.
What was it?
What was she missing?
Ajos stopped for a moment to check his communicator before glancing back at her.
He was turning red again, she could see, and she knew he was out of medicine.
Well, that explained why he was walking so far ahead. He didn’t want to touch her.
“The signal is still scrambled,” she heard him say, and that prompted her to look at her own device.
There was a little dot on the screen that kept lighting up now and then, and she assumed that was where the source of the signal they were searching for was.
However, the dot kept disappearing and appearing. They’d be walking straight toward it at one point and the next time it appeared on the screen, it was in another direction.
That and the unsure feeling at the back of her mind had her on high alert as she looked around them.
Kerena eyed the roots along the ground as they continued walking, and the more she studied them, the more she felt disturbed.
They didn’t burrow into the earth, as she’d noted before.
They crept like vines. Kerena frowned, her gaze focused on the vegetation, and she almost bumped into Ajos.
She hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking.
She opened her mouth to ask him if the signal was scrambled again but he was standing so rigidly, she realized there must be something ahead of him that she couldn’t see.
Glancing around him, she decided to take a look for herself.
The first thing she noticed was the fallen trees, snapped in two like a great hand had come down upon them.
But off in the distance was the dark metal hull of a spaceship.
Kerena’s breath caught in her throat.
The enemy ship.
It was mangled, as if something had ripped through it, but even with the damage done to it, it looked huge…menacing.
Ajos blocked her with his arm.
“You should wait here,” he said.
Kerena’s gaze darted to him. “You think they’re alive?”
He stared at the wreckage. “No, but it might still be safer if you stayed here and out of sight.”
Kerena nodded. She understood that.
Only, even though she and Ajos weren’t on the best of terms, staying by herself all alone made her anxiety rise a little—and that’s thanks to the vegetation introducing itself to her leg earlier.
Something creeped her out about this place, and the presence of the enemy ship so close only freaked her out some more.
She’d known what they’d been heading toward, but seeing it big and menacing, the dark metal sticking out against the green vegetation like a bad omen, was something else.
It made alarm bells ring in her head.
Nevertheless, she nodded to Ajos.
“I’ll wait here.”
He glanced down
at her and hesitated.
“Keep your comms on.” He turned to her and put a finger over one of the buttons. “Press this one if you need to talk to me.”
He glanced back at the ship. “I won’t be long.”
As Ajos moved off, Kerena settled behind some bushes, her eyes on him as he headed toward the huge ship.
He had his spear poised as if he would attack anything that moved near that ship, and Kerena watched him nervously.
As he neared the vessel, the mere size of it made Ajos look small, and seeing the large alien dwarfed was alarming in itself.
Kerena bit her bottom lip as she cracked the bones in her fingers.
This was what he did for a living. This was his job, something he did every other day.
So why was she so scared?
As Ajos disappeared into the vessel, her anxiety only rose.
Minutes ticked by and the silence in the forest became ominous.
How long should she wait before she assumed the worst?
“Keh-reh-nah?”
Kerena jumped before she realized the sound had come from the watch on her hand.
She fumbled to press the button.
“Ajos? Did you find anything?”
For a few moments, there was no response and it sounded as if the connection had cut out.
“Yes.” His voice came back in.
He sounded so strained, Kerena felt an icicle begin to form at the base of her spine.
Something was wrong.
She could feel it.
“I can’t be certain—” His voice cut out again. “—sure I have the right thing. It is scrambling my comms.”
“Is everything all right in there?”
Kerena bit her lip again as she waited for a reply.
“Yes…” he grunted. “…and no.”
Fear spiked within her.
“Wh—what’s wrong?” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Are there bad guys in there?”
Ajos grunted again but didn’t answer.
She could hear him breathing hard through the receiver.
Kerena gulped as she crouched some more in the bushes, her eyes wide as she stared at the enemy ship.
“Tell me what to do,” she whispered, glancing around her for anything she could use to defend herself should she need to.
“There are no Hedgeruds,” Ajos rasped. “But you need to do something for me.”
“What?” she whispered. She was prepared to do anything.
“I need you to…” His breath came hard and the beginning of a rumble changed his voice to something feral.
“…run.”
His words pushed fear deep inside her.
But he’d said there were no enemies.
Why would she need to run?
Ajos made a tortured sound and then there was a loud crash as if he had fallen.
“Ajos?!”
“Go!” he growled. “Get away from here. Head back toward the ship. Contact V’Alen. He will find you and get the qef out of—”
The transmission crackled and his voice cut off.
Kerena rose slowly, her heart beating hard as she stared at the huge enemy vessel.
“Run, Keh-reh-nah.” His voice was beginning to sound like he was possessed by something, and there was another loud crash.
Her heart was slamming so hard against her chest now, she could hardly think.
He’d said there were no enemies in there with him. Yet, it sounded as if he was in combat with someone.
It hit her then.
That was right because he was in combat.
He was fighting with himself.
“Ajos—”
“Go!” he snarled. “Do not let V’Alen return for me till you are safe on the base.”
Fuck.
This was just like last night.
His fever was overwhelming him again.
Kerena stood, her fists clenching and unclenching.
She needed to make a decision.
She could either run as he said and use those markers he’d set down to help find her way back…
Or she could put on her brave hat and head into the enemy spaceship to find and help him.
Kerena began running.
Someone wise once said, “You are only one decision away from a totally different life,” and somehow, as she ran, that thought echoed in her head.
The enemy ship grew even larger the closer she went toward it and, in any other situation, she’d be terrified of it.
Heck, she was terrified of it now, but that wasn’t going to stop her.
“Keh-reh-nah.” The voice that said her name sounded livid. “My comms must be really qeffing scrambled because—” his voice cut out “—that you’re coming toward me.”
Something else crashed.
“Tell me you are not so stupid.”
“I am,” was all she said, and a vicious snarl sounded over the comms.
“Don’t…”
“Why not? I told you last night, I can’t let you die on me.”
“You don’t understand…”
“You’re ill. I understand that.”
The connection cut out.
She was out in the open now and the wind pressed against her face as she ran toward the huge structure.
She was doing this. She was heading in there to help him.
Something sliced her leg and she hissed in pain, only glancing down to look at the thin line of her blood.
It was only a thin cut caused by a jutting piece of bark she’d ran too close to.
It hurt like the dickens, but she didn’t stop. She’d just have to be more careful.
“—stubborn female. You don’t understand.”
Anger filled her.
Why was he resisting her assistance so much?
“I don’t understand what?!”
The line cut out again and she didn’t think she was going to get an answer.
“All I want to do…” whatever had possessed him took complete control of his voice “…is qef and kill.”
Kerena’s mouth fell open a little and her steps slowed.
“I want to qef you…” it wasn’t possible for his voice to get harder, lower…yet it fell even more decibels “…and I want to kill anyone who even looks your way.”
Kerena skidded to a halt not far from the huge alien ship.
She’d heard those words right, she was sure, but she was having a hard time believing he’d actually said them.
“If you come in here…”
He left the words unsaid and Kerena gulped.
Her body heaved with the exertion of running and she took in deep breaths as she tried to calm the burn in her lungs.
“Ajos, I—”
The words stopped in her throat.
Even if she wanted to complete them, she wouldn’t have been able to.
One moment, she was standing and the next she was pulled to the ground as someone attacked her from low on the ground.
No…it wasn’t someone…it was something.
Something firm, sinewy, and strong wrapped around her leg and brought her down.
A scream barreled from her breast as she hit the ground hard.
Pain rocketed into her back as her body kept colliding with the rough earth beneath her.
She was moving.
It was pulling her.
She was moving so fast, she could hear the vegetation around her swish by, and the last thing she was able to shout, before something sealed her mouth shut, was his name.
It pierced the air as her singular plea.
“Ajos!”
18
She was being pulled across the terrain fast. So fast, she could hardly see where she was going.
Whatever had gripped her had wrapped itself around her almost completely.
Her arms were wrapped within it, her legs…it had even wrapped itself around her neck and mouth, sealing her lips shut.
It felt as if she was within the clutches of a giant se
rpent and even though she was trying to scream, her sounds were quieted by the sheer speed of the force taking her away.
She could see it, her foe, but she couldn’t comprehend it.
Around her, vegetation continued rushing by as the thing carried her away.
The things, rather.
Roots.
Many, many roots.
Large, sinewy, black roots.
They’d wrapped around her completely, and with amazing speed.
She could see it, but her mind refused to acknowledge it—because it was impossible.
Heck, the fastest growing plant on Earth was bamboo, but compared to bamboo, these roots…these roots were like putting Usain Bolt against a toddler in a race.
Even as she struggled and fear made her heart hammer against her chest, she knew she wasn’t getting out of the plant’s grasp.
Her life flashed before her eyes.
This was how it was going to end?
Of all the ways to die?
She had no idea how long she’d been moving or how far she’d been pulled away.
It felt like ages but it could be less than a minute. She couldn’t know for sure. The terror of the situation alone had distorted time.
Kerena gulped as she attempted to control her breathing.
She could only assume that she’d tripped some kind of mechanism that made the plant latch on to her—kind of like tickling the hairs on a sundew or Venus flytrap—and that thought only made her freak out even more.
She could only hope the plant would release her soon, but there was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It wasn’t acting like any plant she’d ever encountered…it seemed sentient—as if it was taking her to a specific location—and that thought chilled her to the bone.
The light of the sun seemed to dim as the movement of the roots slowed down and Kerena realized it was taking her to a dense area where the vegetation was a lot thicker.
She could hear her pulse in her ears as her breaths came ragged through her nostrils.
Please, God, don’t make this be some sort of carnivorous plant.
Please.
Gravity suddenly tilted and she was going down, down, then all movements stopped.
Kerena’s heart hammered against her chest.
Nothing happened.
There was no sound, no movement, nothing.
