On that night, in the confusion, she and Donny had also tried to escape. They'd run off into the cold, dark forest, covering maybe a half-mile before the Nazrene found them, scratched and shivering, within a raspberry bush. You can run, but you cannot hide seemed to apply. More confirmation that their captors had a very powerful sense of smell, demonstrated on countless occasions by snatching various creatures from their hiding places and consuming them like fast food as they jogged through each day on their travels. Which only deepened the mystery about how Laurie had escaped.
To their amazement, their only punishment for the escape attempt at that time was being herded roughly back into camp. Even when Sonja, more out of exasperation than anything else, had attempted to fight back, the Nazrene had reacted with a near-gentle restraint. She'd actually got one of them in a full arm bar, which she'd used on occasion to subdue some of the strongest man in her martial arts class, but the move only seemed to amuse the Nazrene. While she'd tried with all her might to snap the baboon's arm he'd just curled her up as if her legs and entire body was a weak rubber band to be stretched.
The Nazrene had responded to the incident by posting a guard – something they'd never seen them do. She'd detected a casual arrogance, a presumption of superiority, in the way the baboons traveled by day and established camp at night. None of the zoo creatures attacked them, and they behaved as if none would. That one night, probably in combination with the previous day's battle, had changed their attitude.
Later that evening, with the Nazrene guards encircling their camp, "Gash," the leader who'd formerly been with her daughter, now laid a claim on her. The possibility of another fight between him and "Drool" – Sonja's sobriquet for the apparent second-in-command – loomed, as Drool took extreme exception to the leader's request. Likely to avert a re-match or any further loss of morale, the two had compromised on both using Sonja that night. As was her habit, she suffered through the pain and degradation with her teeth clenched to avoid making any sound that would torment her son. Tonight, however, she could not stop a few groans and soft cries from slipping through, which only served to incite her two violators to renewed passion.
When they departed the camp site the next day, still moving southeast, Sonja clung to the back of Drool as usual, her body aching from the night's repeated assaults, forging a small degree of comfort by lapsing into detached, zoologist's point of view. No scientist could deny that the Nazrene manifested a bizarre and fascinating mix of simian and primitive human behaviors. They spoke few words – one exception being half-snarl that sounded like "Nagumi," which indicated a demand for sex – but communicated with grunts and chirps and hand gestures. Not so different, Sonja guessed, from chimps or gorillas. And chimps and gorillas used some tools – rocks and sticks – but the Nazrene much more closely resembled Stone Age humans in employing fire, ropes, and spears in their tool-repertoire. They had somehow developed a skill with ropes that would be the envy of the most talented rodeo cowboy. The ropes unfurled and grasped and changed direction as if they were extensions of the Nazrene's nervous systems.
They carried smoldering embers around in leather pouches, but were also adept at starting fires with flint – she assumed they'd obtained the clearly machined squares of flint from the ships that had deposited them here – and could fashion wooden spears with sharp stones in a matter of minutes. And while they used sharpened stones for butchering, they hadn't – luckily – made the connection between using them as knives or as spearheads. But then with their razor-sharp fangs and retractable claws, perhaps they didn't see the need for knives? And after burning the sharpened ends of thick branches in their fires, their spears were highly effective for killing animals and fish, even without stone or steel tips.
Sonja's first impressions of animals acting out their primitive, mindless, violent instincts had slowly surrendered to a more complex picture of their nature. She still hated them for their arrogant abuse of her and her family, but she couldn't deny they had some kind of inner life, some form of imperatives and rules they followed, perhaps even some form of proto-religion with their body-burning rituals.
Sonja sensed urgency and purpose in their long days of travel. They were running somewhere. Sonja had no clue how that could be since they presumably did not know this world.
Sonja also felt clueless about why the Nazrene were so intent on taking them to wherever they were going. The obvious answer didn't seem to work. After the initial gang-rape – four others had forced themselves on her before Gash had stopped them – and only he and Drool had violated her since then, threatening violence on a couple of occasions to any Nazrene who had shown any interest in her. Similarly, "Blockhead" – the square-headed baboon who seemed attached to Donny and was a close friend of Gash – had threatened off others from her son. Though Donny confirmed in a closemouthed way that Blockhead still sexually assaulted him at least once a day – out of her and the pack's sight – the rest of the time Blockhead appeared to dote over Donny, showing him how to fashion a spear or toss a rope or climb a tree, often holding him close while the pack sat around the ritual evening's fire like some seriously warped version of a big brother.
Sonja had lost her sanity for a few moments when they'd first started in on her son back at their home. She'd attacked them, screaming, punching, biting – ended by a casual slap to the side of her head that had her seeing stars for hours after waking up. A mild concussion, surely. Knowing even a gentle, offhand blow from these creatures could severely injure or even kill them, Sonja had no longer fought their advances, and she'd told Donny and Laurie not to fight, either. The baboon's penises were large – longer and thicker than most men's – but not grossly larger, and, fortunately, they were self-lubricating, which saved her and perhaps her son and daughter from being torn or badly injured. An evolutionary development that allowed them to foist themselves on unwilling females of their own kind? she wondered acidly.
Now the pack slowed as they entered an area Sonja thought she recognized as Elm Creek Park Reserve, a place they'd spent some time exploring and picnicking on their way to the Twin Cities. There they encountered another alien landing craft in a large stretch of grass between patches of woods.
The excited gestures and vocalizations they'd witnessed when the Nazrene found the second cylinder were far more subdued this time. They approached the craft with a somber air that verged on reverence. She and Donny's attempt to enter the cylinder was rebuffed, but Sonja detected a strangely perfume-like smell while standing near one entrance.
"I wonder what creatures were in there," said Donny. "It smells like the cosmetics section in a department store."
"I was thinking perfume."
"Maybe they're some alien monster version of the Kardashians or something."
Sonja smiled, giving silent thanks that her son had somehow managed to hold onto his sense of humor. Dan had often anguished privately about their son's toughness, but Sonja now knew those worries were unfounded. The boy, despite appearances, was a tough as they came. Dan would be so proud of him now.
A strange thought under these circumstances, she realized, but you had to take your positives where you could find them.
THE NAZRENE campsite was deserted. Gary had confirmed in the morning that the "monkeys" were on the move again, still headed southeast. But Diana moved through their camp and the woods on high alert regardless, while Zurzay performed lazy flying maneuvers overhead, easing his injured body back into service. He'd made it clear in the morning that he was game to continue their pursuit of the baboons but that Diana would need to travel on foot for now.
Diana was fine with that at the moment. In fact, better than fine: she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt stronger or more energized. Even her joints, including a nagging injury in her right shoulder, moved as though freshly lubricated. She credited her renewed health, along with Zurzay's rapid recovery, to the blue miracle healing cream she'd applied to deep bruises on her legs and arms, with a probable assist from the
alien sausages. Now three containers of the healing cream had joined several alien sausages as honored members of the supplies in her backpack.
Diana had planned to stay with the cylinder until Penny returned with Dan and Myth, but renewed by the healing cream and food, she'd bowed to Laurie's pleas to keep after her mom and brother's abductors. Diana didn't see anything to be lost by continuing their pursuit, and something possibly to be gained. Penny would have no trouble leading Dan and Myth to them.
Though Diana and Laurie alternated jogging and walking fast, Diana knew they couldn't match the Nazrene's pace. Gary, however, had no problem running far ahead and giving them heads-up on the baboons' progress, while not actually catching up with them himself.
Zurzay dropped from his low-altitude flight and ushered them under some trees when a dark, milling cloud of flying creatures approached from the east.
"If they scare my friend," said Diana, readying her rifle, "then I'm assuming they're pretty scary."
"I've seen them while with the Nazrene," said Laurie. "They didn't bother us."
"I've noticed not a lot does bother them."
They watched tensely while the mysterious flock closed the distance. In the same moment, a large, winged figure streaked by perhaps a half-mile overhead, flying south. The flock of black creatures, now resolving into square, kite-like shapes to Diana's eyes, altered their direction to an apparent collision course with the large winged figure.
"That's the dragon, isn't it?" Laurie asked.
"I'd say so." Diana spoke through tensed lips. She wasn't sure if this was the dragon she'd encountered at her friend's farm and in the forest, but it certainly could've been. The thing sure seemed to get around. "This should be interesting."
The dragon appeared to have no aggressive intent toward the black flock, but as the kite-like creatures converged on the mythic beast, the dragon veered to meet their attack. As it ripped through the flock, gathering black attackers like a stone gathering moss, scores of the kite-creatures dropped from the sky. One fluttering black creature crashed through the branches of a nearby fir, landing no more than thirty feet from them, where it thrashed on the grass and made distressed croaking sounds that reminded Diana of a bullfrog. Closer up, it looked to Diana like a manta ray converted into a giant bat – a bat with a tail-like appendage that was whipping furiously about as if seeking a target for what appeared to be a barb at its end.
In the sky, writhing black bodies blanketed the dragon as it dived, roaring, out of sight. A crackling of breaking tree branches and perhaps limbs carried back to them, ending in a kathump that made Diana think of someone belly-flopping off the high-dive.
Gary stabbed his spear experimentally into the manta-bat, which had gone still. The creature burst to life, flapping off the ground and whipping its barbed tail at the youth's legs. Gary leaped back, the barb missing his shins by inches.
Still huddled under their tree, Zurzay growled out something that sounded like a reproof.
"Be careful, damn it!"
Diana approached the manta-thing cautiously to one side of him, her rifle leveled. The creature had landed on its back, gasping, its small parted muzzle revealing needle-like teeth while its shiny dark-as-coal eyes met Diana's stare. She popped a round between its eyes and the thing jerked once and lay still.
"I wonder what happened to the dragon," Laurie murmured, coming up beside them, lifting her gaze from the manta-bat to the sky.
"Sounded like it fell," said Gary. "I heard branches breaking."
"Me, too," said Laurie.
They resumed walking through the forest, Zurzay coasting overhead. They hadn't gone far before they encountered more of the manta-bats – some lying on the ground, some caught in the trees, a roughly equal number of them lying still or flapping their triangular wings spasmodically. The woods echoed with bullfrog croaking. They followed the bodies to a lake where Zurzay had landed on a small boulder facing out on water awash with floating manta-bat bodies.
Something large sent ripples rolling across the lake, and Diana braced herself for the reemergence of the "creature from the black lagoon" but instead a horn-festooned head shoved out of the water and the dragon swam and crawled its way to the shore, where it collapsed in a gasping lump. Bloody gouges and crooked red lines spread like grotesque tattoos across its body.
After a few moments, one of its deep-purple eyes rolled in their direction. The dragon half-rose with a disgruntled-sounding snort, its baleful gaze focusing on Zurzay.
"It's okay," said Diana, holding up a hand. "We mean you no harm."
"Hi." Laurie gave it a small, limp-wristed wave. "Nice dragon."
Zurzay released a snort, long claws extruding from his hands. Diana placed a restraining hand on his thick-furred chest. "Be good," she murmured. The dragon appeared to sense their non-hostile intentions and slumped back on the beach. Or maybe it was too badly injured to move?
"He and Zurzay might be enemies," said Laurie. "I watched them get into a fight one day near our place – at least, I think this is the same dragon. When I shot at it to scare it away, it tried to kill me by dropping tractor discs on me."
Diana stared at her. "You're kidding."
"No." Laurie smiled a little. "But that's okay. No hard feelings. I shot at him, after all."
"I don't recall hearing the part about it trying to kill you with tractor discs."
"I kind of left that part out." Laurie frowned at the dragon, which was still watching them, though with heavy-lidded eyes. "I wonder if he remembers that."
"I wouldn't doubt it. Something smart enough to attack you with tractor blades probably can store important details like that in his head."
"Anyhow," Gary said with an impatient tone, "the thing's dying, so it doesn't matter one way or the other, right?"
"Not necessarily," said Laurie. "Dying, I mean. Not if we use the blue salve on its wounds!"
Diana was shaking her head. "You want to doctor a creature who tried to kill you?"
"Besides, that healing stuff is for us," Gary grumbled.
"I'd like to make amends. I shouldn't've shot at it. And it's so beautiful."
"So beeeewwwwwtttiffuuul," Gary crooned.
"I want to do it, Diana. I want to try to save him."
Laurie moved toward the older woman, but Gary got in her way.
"Step back, Gary," Diana growled.
"Ja wohl, mein Capitan!" The youth goose-stepped aside, offering Diana a sharp salute. Diana sighed.
"Okay, Laurie. But I'm coming with you. He and I had a more friendly encounter. In fact, he probably saved my and Myth, Penny, and your dad's lives."
Diana wondered if she was greatly overestimating her beast-taming charms – or their amicable encounter – when the rhino-sized creature rose unsteadily on its legs and glared at them as they approached. Diana stopped several feet away, holding Laurie back with one hand while raising the other in reassurance to the massive creature.
"We just want to help you," she said softly.
The dragon remained standing, but the tension in its body appeared to ease. With slow deliberation, Diana slipped the pack from her back and snapped open its top cover. She handed one of the blue containers to Laurie.
"I'll go first," she told the girl. She walked up to the creature, whose eyes tracked her warily, holding up a clump of the cream on three fingers. "Easy, boy. We're here to help." She pointed from the salve to the creature's ripped and gouged flank.
At the sight of the blue healing balm, a light seemed to shine in the creature's purple eyes, and with a groan that sounded to Diana like surrender or acceptance, the dragon sank to the ground.
"Almost as if he knows what this is," Diana muttered.
"Maybe he does," said Laurie. "The Nazrene do, and I think he might almost be as smart as they are."
Zurzay's yodel struck Diana as part-warning, part-protest. Diana replied with a copy of one of his own dismissive waves and a stern glance. Don't make trouble, my hairy friend. She rea
ched out and dabbed the cream on the largest of the wounds near the creature's head. The skin twitched under her fingers, but otherwise the dragon continued to lie still. Even lying on his belly, his shoulders reached Diana's upper chest. She wondered if he shared Zurzay's light but obviously immensely strong bones. She waved Laurie over to the other side of the beast.
"His skin feels like sandpaper," the girl said quietly, her smile spreading as she applied the cream.
"Go easy," said Diana. "We may need that again ourselves."
"Okay. Most of these wounds don't seem very deep. I think his hide is really tough, like a rhinoceros or something."
"If I had to guess, I'd say those bat-things have poisoned stingers on their tails. They don't have the weapons, otherwise, to take down something this size."
"Seems like a good guess. Speaking of size, I wonder how something this big can fly."
"I've been wondering the same thing. Same question about Zurzay. It wasn't until we carried him last night that I realized how light his bones must be. Maybe it's the same thing with this monster."
"Maybe they have hollow bones like birds?"
"Could be. Though I've never seen a bird as powerfully muscled as either of them."
By the time they'd finished, the dragon's eyes had closed and he was making noises that sounded suspiciously like snoring. Or maybe it was purring? Diana smiled to herself. She caught Laurie smiling at her over the sleeping creature's broad back.
"It feels good to help someone," she said. "I felt so helpless while with the baboons."
"I can imagine."
"Shouldn't we leave him something to eat? He may be too weak to feed himself?"
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