by J. N. Chaney
I released my hold on my club, deciding to deal with the one on top of me first. An older woman clawed at my throat trying to find a solid hold before squeezing the life out of me.
A white and grey blur crashed into her, taking her own throat in his jaws and ripping outward. Mutt hit that infected bat like a bulldozer.
One moment she was on top of me trying to end my life, the next she was getting hers ended for her, courtesy of my four-legged friend.
I’ve really got to be nicer to him, I thought to myself as I regained my feet and fell back deeper into the water with the others. Get him a bone or something.
My eyes stayed on Mutt as he finished his kill. If the infected went for him next, I was prepared to throw myself back into the beach to get him out of there. As silly as it sounded, he was my friend now too. I wasn’t going to abandon him when he refused to do the same for me.
Strangely, the infected had no desire to go after Mutt despite the fact that he was tearing through them like a buzzsaw. Not only that, their eyes didn’t even stray to him. It was like he was of so little interest, he didn’t even deserve a second look.
“Go, get up,” Mark was yelling to his wife and the others to ascend the side of the submerged section of the Orion. “I’ll cover you.”
David and Tom were first, followed by Boss Creed and Stacy.
“I’m out!” Boss Creed yelled as he assumed a firing stance on the second level of the Orion, where the cell block was located
“I got it,” Mark yelled to Hannah and me. “I’ll cover you! Go!”
Hannah gave him a fierce kiss and climbed the edge of the Orion. I was next. I’ll never forget the pause in the fight, the moment where Mark’s weapon clicked dry.
I looked down, preparing to go back. I saw a particularly large infected Transient grab Mark around the head and twist. Two others grabbed his arms, preventing him from fighting back.
He sank into the water, never to rise again.
“No!” Hannah’s scream was one I knew well. The sound of complete and utter heartbreak.
“Don’t!” Stacy and Lou were holding Hannah back as I reached the second level of the Orion. “Hannah, he’s gone. I know it’s hard, but he’s gone.”
Hannah wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I didn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have either.
“Let me go. I’m going after him!” Hannah screamed, leveling the last working blaster at the rest of us.
I was the last to ascend the side of the ripped-open Orion. I looked behind me to see the first infected reach the edge of the Orion and begin to climb. There were still so many of them crowding the water and the beach.
“He’s gone,” Lou said as Hannah passed him on the way to edge. “Hannah, he’s gone. What would he want you to do right now?”
Hannah was beyond words. Tears streaked from her eyes as she reached me and the edge. I knew what she was going to do. She was going to do what I would have done. Go down swinging and take as many of the infected with her as she could.
I rested my arms at my side as unthreatening as I could be. I took a step back from her as if I were going to let her pass. As soon as she turned her eyes and the barrel of her weapon from me, I acted.
I snapped forward in a single motion, knocking her grip free of the blaster. I took a step behind her and placed as gentle a headlock on her as I could manage.
She was sobbing now. I pulled her back and sat down with her in my arms.
Boss Creed sprang forward, grabbing the blaster. Along with Stacy, the two defended the side of the Orion the infected were ascending. Lucky for us, the side of the blasted-out level the infected climbed was only large enough for one, maybe two to very awkwardly climb.
Boss Creed saved the rounds now, striking out with the butt of his weapon, while Stacy used her knife to fend off infected after infected.
I held on to Hannah, who only halfheartedly struggled. The realization of the death of her husband was setting in now, along with shock. Her entire body shook with grief. I made sure my grip around her was only firm, not choking.
“I know,” I told her as she cried. “I know exactly how you feel.”
Pep talks weren’t really my strength. In that moment, I wished I had more to say, better words to comfort her, but I didn’t. When I realized she wasn’t going anywhere, I released my hold. Doctor Allbright came over to comfort her along with Lou. The padre looked at me with mournful eyes.
I wanted to ask him how special his planet was now. I wanted to remind him of the magical energy running through the galaxy that converged here to be so wondrous. Maybe I would another time. Maybe I never would.
I passed Elon, who rested against the side of the cell level with a bandage on his head. He looked at me grimly.
“Concussion,” he said, pointing to his head. “I’ll be fine. I lost my blaster in the explosion.”
I nodded, making my way to the edge of the level, where Boss Creed and Stacy looked down on the infected. The infected Transients were smarter than they first appeared. That fact alone sent another chill down my spine. Their ascent had been brief. With Boss Creed and Stacy raining blows down on them, they lost another handful of their number before they realized this tactic was useless.
If they were going to kill us all, they would have to do it another way. The infected retreated as if a single hive mind had them under its control. There were still hundreds of them lining the water around us and the beach.
For the moment, they remained content to let us be. Whether they were thinking of how to get us or something else was yet to be seen. All I knew was that we had a moment of rest.
The suns in the sky were already setting. The bottoms of the yellow and orange globes touched the edge of the horizon. We had an hour of daylight left. Maybe less.
“We have any flashlights or a fire starter?” I asked, motioning to the setting suns. “I’m not sure what our friends on the beach are waiting for, but if I were them, I’d come at us again at night.”
“I’ve got a flashlight,” Boss Creed said, reaching into the side pocket of his cargo pants.
“Me too,” David said, extending a small handheld device from the belt around the suit of heavy blaster armor he wore.
“I need to know everything you know,” Stacy said almost angrily as she stalked toward David. “What the hell are those things on the beach, because they sure aren’t human.”
David allowed Stacy to tower over him without standing to meet her onslaught. He shook his head, gathering his thoughts. “I still don’t exactly know. None of it makes sense.”
“Tell us what you’ve seen, please,” Elon said.
David nodded slowly and began weaving a tale I would never believe had we been anywhere else.
20
“I landed in a single escape pod when the Orion went down. I disembarked in a grassy field with the jungle on my left, the ocean behind me, and the bulk of the crashed Orion in the distance. I decided to travel through the edge of the jungle for cover.” David paused here to lick at dry lips. “That was the worst mistake I ever made. I came across another escape pod. It must have landed just after mine. A woman was climbing out. She fell in a bush of some kind of black plant I’ve never seen. Before I could call out to her, she started coughing and gagging. Some kind of pollen was coming from the plant she fell into.”
David stopped again, this time not to lick his lips, but to think back on the horrific sight he had been privy to. No one rushed him as he thought about the implications of his next words.
“By the time I had gotten to her, she was already showing those black marks on her eyes,” David continued. “That’s where they start first. She was hysterical and violent. She chased me into the jungle and I’ve been hiding there, living day to day ever since. I found a stockpile of armor that must have fallen from the Orion on impact. It was still in its crate. I put it on, thinking it would protect me somehow, but, well, you see how useless it’s been. I’ve survived this long by staying quiet an
d out of sight. When the explosion went off here, I knew we were done. You’ve managed to grab the attention of every infected in the jungle.”
“You said there were bushes that let off the spores?” Elon was the first to find his voice. “What did they look like?”
“Kind of like a moldy, black cauliflower that’s soft,” David answered. “It’s spread out all over the jungle. I would have stepped in it unknowingly a dozen times if I didn’t know what I was looking for.”
“They can still talk when they’re infected with whatever this thing is?” Lou asked. “They’re not mindless, it seems.”
“Oh yeah, not mindless. Just freaking crazy and violent,” David answered. “I’m not sure what that alien pollen does to them once it’s in their system, but it messes with their minds to the extent they can’t think straight. I’ve heard them talking to one another like you and I are talking now. Other times, they’re shrieking in the jungle like banshees.”
“We’re not going to get out of here alive. He’s right,” Tom said, rocking himself back and forth. There was a one-hundred-mile stare in his eyes as he got deeper and deeper into his own head. “We’re all going to die here. I should have never come. I should have never come.”
“Hey, we don’t need to hear any of that talk right now,” Boss Creed said with a frown. “You’re a survivor specialist. Start acting like one.”
“But I’m not,” Tom said, shaking his head. “I just said that so I could go on this excursion with you. I thought we were going to find some Transients and then head back, all done in a few days. I lied to come along. I just wanted to be the hero for once. I just wanted to help. I don’t belong here.”
“You lied about what you did for a living?” Stacy clenched her hands into fists.
I half thought she was going to move over to Tom and give him the beating of a lifetime. I wasn’t going to stop her. In fact, I couldn’t say I was wholly surprised by Tom’s revelation. He never struck me as the hardcore live-off-the-Earth kind of guy.
“Wonderful, freaking perfect.” Stacy set her jaw, stopping herself from saying more. As frustrated as she was, she understood the only way we were going to get out of this thing was with one another working together.
“Food and the rest of our supplies are on the beach,” I said out loud, already thinking about our options. “We’ve got a single rifle with a handful of rounds left, two flashlights, and a knife.”
Mutt barked from the beach, where he had taken up a position apart from the infected.
“Oh, and a Mutt,” I said with a smile on my lips. “I’ll take those odds.”
“How are you smiling at a time like this?” Tom asked.
“What other option do we have?” I asked. “I’m not going to lie down and die. That’s not who I am. That’s not who we are. We’ll figure this out. Mark didn’t sacrifice himself for us to give up now.”
I said this last part looking over at Hannah. Doctor Allbright and Lou were still with her. At the mention of her husband’s name, she looked up at me. Her red eyes could have bored holes through me. Instead of anger or tears, she gave me a resolute stare and nodded along with my words.
“There has to be hundreds of them,” Elon said, already working out a plan. “A head-on fight isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need a diversion or a way to sneak past them.”
“Maybe both,” Boss Creed said.
“What’s above this level?” I asked. “I know below us was a storage level and it’s pretty much been emptied by the crash, but what’s in the level above us?”
Elon thought a moment, trying to remember the schematics from when the Orion was whole.
“I don’t remember,” Elon said with a shrug. “I lost the data pad along with my blaster in the explosion.”
“I think it’s just another storage level,” Boss Creed said, searching back into his memory. “Maybe work supplies. I doubt any of it would still be there after the crash.”
“Only one way we’re going to find out,” Stacy said, motioning to me with her chin. “Let’s go check it out.”
“The rest of us will keep watch on the infected,” Elon said. “We’ll call to you if there’s any movement.”
“Be careful,” Boss Creed said, handing me his flashlight.
“Will do,” I said, taking the flashlight. I placed it in between my teeth as I scaled the side of the Orion.
The oncoming darkness didn’t help. The edges of the Orion were sharp and curved, footing from our soaked-through boots was slippery. After a few minutes of slowly ascending the edge of the Orion, Stacy and I made it to the next level.
This one was the third and uppermost level to have remained intact in this section of the Orion. Boss Creed was right. It was another storage level. The black crates that were strapped onto the sides of the wall had mostly been ripped from the level upon descent. There were two black crates left intact still held on to by the straps anchored into the wall. Stacy and I headed for those to see what was inside.
“Hey,” Stacy said. Something in her voice stopped me in my tracks. I gave her my full attention.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“I uh, I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life.” Stacy held my eye. “I’m not trying to get all mushy on you here, Slade. Just in case we get our necks broken by alien spore-infected colonists, I wanted to say I’m glad you got stuck on this insane planet with me.”
“Well, Stacy,” I grinned, “I think that might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“You need better friends,” Stacy commented as we headed over to the first of the two crates.
“Naw, I got Mutt now. He likes me,” I said.
“You’ve got a lot more friends than Mutt now,” Stacy said as she unstrapped the heavy fabric holding the black crate in place. “I hope you know that.”
“Now who’s getting mushy?” I asked.
Stacy grinned.
We opened the first black crate. I shined the flashlight down on the contents, not really knowing what we were going to find. It was a power core for a rover. Rovers were small four-wheeled vehicles on board the Orion. They were going to be used as transportation for when we made it to Kronos Five. We all knew how that went.
“What is it?” Stacy asked, looking at the strangely shaped power unit and the cables running from it.
“It’s a power unit for a rover,” I explained to her. “Not going to do us any good here.”
“I guess asking for a crate of blasters was a little too much, huh?” Stacy asked.
“Yeah, that or a plate of sandwiches,” I said, patting my stomach.
“How can you think of food at a time like this?” Stacy asked.
“How can you not?” I answered.
We moved on down the level toward the last crate. Like the first, we unstrapped it from the wall and cracked it open. This one held twelve Lestrium canisters. Unlike the contents of the first crate, Stacy and I both knew what Lestrium was.
Lestrium was a fuel source. Highly combustible, Lestrium was stored in the canisters for use in the new colony. It would provide the fuel for everything we needed from cooking to heating.
“Hey, can we do something with this?” Stacy asked. Hope filled her words. “Won’t these explode if we were to puncture the outer casing?”
“Sure will,” I said, running through the possible scenarios in my mind of how we could best use them. “I think I might have an idea.”
Stacy screwed up her face as if she had just smelled Mutt’s hindquarters.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, no offense, but you’re really not the idea guy,” Stacy explained. “You’re like the guy who we have execute the idea.”
“Just because you say ‘no offense’ doesn’t mean you can just say anything you want after that,” I said.
“Fair enough,” Stacy said, closing the crate lid. “Let’s get this crate down to the others below. You can tell us all your genius plan then.”
We wo
rked in silence, carrying the crate to the edge of the level.
“Coming down,” I whispered to Boss Creed and Elon below. “We found a crate of Lestrium.”
“You found a case of what?” Elon asked too loud.
“Shhh…” Stacy warned. “I’m not sure if the infected are listening or if they can even hear us, but let’s keep this to ourselves.”
“Right,” Elon whispered back in an excited tone. “Did you say Lestrium?”
“Yep, an entire case,” I said as Stacy and I tipped the end of the black crate over the edge. It was heavy but not impossible to maneuver. We released our end of the crate when we felt Boss Creed and Elon tugging on their end below.
A few minutes later, we were reunited once again on the second level.
All was quiet on the beach, almost eerily so. The only thing we could hear was the gentle lapping of the water. The stars, along with an impossibly large blue moon overhead, made it bright enough to see without our flashlights. We used them anyway as everyone on the level crowded around the crate to see what we scavenged.
“Holy Toledo,” David said when we opened the crate. “Is that what I think it is?”
“If you think it’s our ticket out of here, then yes,” I answered back. My time as a mechanic taught me how flammable Lestrium was. We generally stayed away from the stuff unless we used it in minor dosages for our cutting torches.
“Was there anything else on the level?” Doctor Allbright asked. “Anything we could use?”
“Nothing,” Stacy said. “Well, I mean there was this power core thing, but it’s not going to do us any good without a rover.”
“A rover?” David asked. “Would it work to power a crawler?”
The way he asked the question made me think he had seen a crawler recently. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.
“Why would you ask that question?” Elon looked at David. “Have you seen a crawler here on the planet? Did one survive the crash?”
I looked over at David with everyone else. A crawler could be our ticket out of here if David knew where there was one in the jungle. Much larger than its rover counterpart, a crawler was used to transport not only people over short distances but equipment as well. If a rover was a golf cart, a crawler was a flatbed truck.
