Shadows

by Brian Whiting

  When the child finished Jackie raised her eyebrows and waited for Grissom to respond.

  “As you know, the Atlanta safe zone is UEF-run, and the Delaware safe zone is run by the government. I can’t do anything in that zone.”

  “But you can stop sending kids there and all the other government-run zones.”

  “The child makes it sound like its lord of the flies over there. I doubt the government is even that inept.” Grissom glanced at all those nearby listening.

  “Grissom, I don’t really care what you think is going on over there. This child felt it was safer and better to run away into the wilderness then to stay there. We are not sending any more kids there.” Gloria turned away from Grissom.

  Grissom nodded in silence and looked at Gloria, who was cupping the face of another child with her hands, moving it to one side as she looked in the girl’s ear. “These kids need medical attention.”

  “See that they get it,” Grissom said as he walked away.

  Jackie was relieved and aggravated at the same time. The hall emptied out as the kids and Grissom’s entourage left. She needed to decide what to do next and she waited for something to come to her before she moved. Something more needed to be done. She thought a bit, then pulled out her datapad and began typing.

  ***

  Dayanh took a long walk to the annex building. She could have taken a vehicle, but she wanted to get her mind right and prepared for whatever Master Sergeant Briggs was going to do to her. There was a fair amount of distance from the hangers to the annex building. Just open desert land for about half a mile. The building itself bordered the UEF fence perimeter. But unlike the roaded entrance into the UEF facilities, this area was devoid of people camping on the other side.

  She had been to a gun range enough time to know that she was walking towards one when she heard the sounds of gunfire. Instead of walking to the entrance of the building she walked around towards the sounds of gunfire.

  Sure enough, she found a dozen men hanging around, some were firing various kinds of weapons, some were watching the shooters and one of them was even barbequing.

  She slowly approached the group from behind and heard one of the men say.

  “Hey Sarge,” then pointed towards her.

  The men turned to look at her and tense up immediately. “Cease Fire!” someone yelled and made a quick approach to her location stopping a few feet away from her.

  She had met enough men in her time in law enforcement to know when she was being sized up, so she stood tall and looked directly into his eyes.

  “Are you looking for someone?” He asked.

  “My name is Trooper Daynah Steepleton of the Washington State Patrol, Major Grissom sent me to find Master Sergeant Briggs to put me through the trial.”

  “Wow, he hasn’t done that since you were a first sergeant.” One of the other soldiers nearby said.

  The sergeant put up a hand to silence him and then asked. “Well…since we don’t have any real orders yet ourselves, do you know what he has in mind for you?”

  “We are to become the first Zorn Queen hunter team.”

  “I like the sound of that.” Yet another soldier said.

  “I assume you’re familiar with the basic weapon systems, pistols, rifles and shotguns. Take a weapon and make number five your target.”

  Dayanh looked past the Sergeant towards the fire line, six targets were numbered and evenly spaced about a hundred yards in the distance. Too far for a pistol or shotgun, she thought and picked up the AR-15 style rifle. Feeling the weight of the weapon she could tell it was fully loaded but checked to make sure there was a round in the chamber. Without further delay, she began taking regular single shots spaced by three seconds at the target. When she ran out of ammo. She removed the magazine and set them both down on the table in front of her.

  “Let’s go take a look.” The sergeant said as he walked past the table towards the target. Dayanh quickly followed along with the rest of the team. No one spoke as they walked toward the target.

  When they reached the target, the Sergeant began counting bullet holes. Twenty-nine out of thirty had hit the target. The grouping of the rounds wasn’t unimpressive, but it wasn’t impressive either. The paper target was affixed to two wooden stakes in the ground. Off to the side was a series of oil drums that looked shot to hell.

  “Damn T, she shoots better than you.” One of the soldiers behind her said

  “Shut up.” Someone else replied.

  They returned to the annex building at the firing line.

  “I’m sure you haven’t seen this weapon.” The sergeant said as he picked up the Thean pulse rifle.

  It looked cumbersome, long with a small grip considering the size, and an adjustable shoulder rest. The material looked like any other weapon with casted metal. The barrel wasn’t smooth and round like most weapons, it was bulky and had three gray rings near the end of the barrel.

  The Sergeant aimed the weapon at one of the few remaining barrels that stood up straight down the range and fire off one round. The launching of the round was nearly silent. The round its self almost sounded like it sizzled as it disappeared down range. When it struck the barrel it exploded not with fire and but molten metal globs went flying off in various directions and the barrel itself just didn’t exist anymore.

  “The barrels are a bit thin and cannot take the energy transferred into it very well, so it basically disintegrates.” The Sargent said.

  “What the hell happened?” Daynah replied.

  The Sergeant picked up one of the many round balls on the table. It was gray, about the size of a regular marble. When he placed it in her hand, it felt solid and heavy.

  “That is solid Thean capacitance.”

  “Like the super batteries, I keep hearing about.”

  “The same. It’s also the ammo for this rifle.” The sergeant handed her the Thean rifle.

  “The round is magnetically rail launched down the barrel, once it reaches these three rings the round undergoes a catalytic reaction with the stored energy these rounds hold. The round ignites like a star as it leaves the barrel. The moment the round touches something substantial it transfers all that energy instantly into that object, with devastating consequences.

  “That sounds like a kick ass weapon, does everyone have one?” Dayanh asked.

  “Well, no. There are some pretty obvious downsides to this weapon.” The sergeant replied.

  “First, it’s heavy and it’s big. Not very good if you’re walking through a hallway and need to move quickly. To make it worse, the center of gravity is a bit off towards the end of the barrel which makes it more difficult to keep it aimed downrange for long periods of time. While it is good for somethings, it’s not good for others. If I wanted to shoot one person thru a window, this would not be the weapon of choice. As the round would vaporize and shatter the glass in various directions and the round might not ever reach the person on the other side. If I fired an armor piercing round through the same glass window, it would penetrate and strike my target.”

  “It seems it would be best used against buildings and vehicles.”

  “Exactly, but if a person is out in the open and gets struck by the round, it’s devastating. It will put a one foot hole in your chest through and through. It will also instantly cauterize the wound preventing blood loss so depending on where the round strikes it will not be a quick death.”

  “So… a shot to the gut.” Dayanh started.

  “It would put our one foot hole there, which means the spine would be gone from that point, no more use of the legs. The descending aorta would be cauterized. The man would die, but I think it would take a minute. In the meantime, they would have the use of their arms and could theoretically return fire. However, if you managed to hit your target in the upper chest. Then you would have nothing to worry about.”

  “The head pops right off.” One of the soldiers said with a grin.

  “Well, we aren’t hunting men we are
hunting Zorn. So did I pass?” Daynah looked to the sergeant.

  “Pass…Ha! You thought shooting down the range was the trial.” The sergeant smiled widely as the others laughed.

  “Here you better drink some water before we get started.” The sergeant handed her a bottle of water.

  Chapter 4

  Being Hunted

  “Hey, wake up. Are you OK?”

  Alex opened his eyes, and his hands immediately went to the sides of his head. “Here, breathe this!” Jeremiah handed Alex a small personal-sized tank of compressed air. “It’s only got about three minutes of air, so try to puff and close. It helps with the headache.”

  The shuttle was in shambles. The glass canopy was shattered completely, as well as his helmet as he looked at it laying by his side. He was lying in an awkward position on his back, with his feet above him. Several Gothans entered the cockpit and began speaking unintelligible words.

  Alex rubbed his eyes and held a hand to his forehead. The headache was terrible.

  At first he thought something was wrong, but soon he realized that the shuttle was nearly upside down. Once he managed to sit up against the wall, he began to feel more stable.

  The Gothans stepped closer to him. “Gon no toy ya!”

  It was peculiar knowing it was talking to him without seeing a mouth move.

  “I don’t speak Little People.”

  Alex looked around the cockpit for his datapad. The little Gothan was standing on it. Bending at the waist Alex reached forward and grabbed a corner of the datapad, and the Gothan stepped off it with eagerness and backed up several paces.

  The datapad had a severe crack in it, but it was still functional. The screen came on with a message waiting, from Symboli.

  (Alex, it seems you are destined for the planet. If you should survive you will need this program I have uploaded to the datapad. It will assist you in translation. Speak into the pad; it will put out the closest resemblance in the other language and vice versa. Good luck, Captain.)

  “Convenient,” Alex mumbled to himself. “I should be thankful for small gestures.”

  “Gon no toy ya!”

  Alex tapped the translate button. Moments later, he saw the translation: “Are you OK?”

  “Yes, I am fine.” Alex began to reposition himself.

  “I feel relief. We need to leave, now!”

  Alex stopped moving and focused on the Gothan. “Why are you in a hurry to leave?”

  Jeremiah began to listen to the conversation even as some of the other Gothans in the back area continued to moan in pain.

  “We will be hunted if we stay here, and the attack was not just against you, it was against me. By now, the property transfer will have gone through, and I will be top leader once again. Ga Det Gru will pay a terrible price for what he has done today. I will make sure of it. If we manage to make it back.”

  “What’s he babbling about?” Jeremiah asked as he rummaged through a first-aid kit.

  “I don’t know; something about a takeover, false leader or something.”

  The pad continued translating everyone’s conversation.

  “The attack was not permitted, our leader wanted peace with you. It was gat hope you both would meet.”

  Gat? Alex wondered. Was this a translation glitch?

  “What is a gat?” Jeremiah asked.

  The Gothan looked at him without saying anything. Then it pointed at itself and said “Gis.” Then it pointed to a Gothan standing nearby. “Gis,” it said. Then it pointed toward those visible in the back half of the shuttle. “Gat, gat, git, gis, and git.”

  “Ahhhh.” Alex shook the datapad. “Three sexes, I remember Symboli saying something about that. I am just curious who bears your young.”

  Once again the Gothan stood like a statue.

  Alex explained, “I am a he, male. That is a male, he is male. We also have females, a she, who bear our young. You know what? Never mind, we got work to do.” Alex rolled to one side to get up.

  “Yes! Gat bears our young, from either a git or a gis. They are the superior sex.”

  “Interesting,” Jeremiah said as he finished unwrapping the gauze.

  “Yeah whatever, let’s collect supplies and get a status report.” Alex tossed Jeremiah a foil package of some kind that must have made it to the cockpit from the cabin area somehow.

  Alex stood up, towering over the Gothans as they all stood on the ceiling. Alex took another puff from the oxygen tank. Almost instantly the headache began to subside. Several Gothans and one of the guards were killed, either in space or during the crash, it wasn’t clear.

  “I feel fear, we really do need to leave!” Gs Ho Tae said again.

  “What are you so worried about?” Alex looked over his own torn EVA suit.

  “We will be hunted and killed if we stay here. Predators stalk the dark.”

  Alex crawled out the broken cockpit window of the shuttle. The forest canopy was thick and blocked a significant portion of the light from the sun. The hull was covered with odd-looking insects of some kind. Like large black moths, possibly attracted to the white color. Something buzzed by Alex’s ear.

  “OK, we certainly cannot stay here. I’ve had enough lectures from Gloria about this kind of situation.”

  Just then Alex was positive he felt something move beneath his left foot. He jumped to the side and looked at the ground. The dirt moved, but whatever it was became hidden once again.

  “Hell, we really need to leave.” He bent over at the waist and looked into the shuttle through the broken window. “Hey, I need my guards outside now! Grab all the gear you can, we need to leave!” Alex reached into the shuttle and began helping pulled supplies out.

  Moments later Jeremiah crawled out along with three guards. He had cut his hand on pieces of broken glass. Several Gothans exited the shuttle through the broken window, too; they didn’t even have to bend over to get out. They were short enough to walk standing up without bumping their heads on anything.

  Alex thought about taking his EVA suit off but looked at the vegetation, which wasn’t all that dissimilar from the jungles on Earth, and thought better of it. The temperature was in the low seventies, he guessed, and the sun was halfway up from the horizon. The clouds were a grayish bronze. Alex approached one of the trees, which looked like it had pine needles sticking out of the trunk. He reached out to touch a needle.

  “Don’t touch that! You’re big, but you’re not impervious.” Gs Ho Tae picked up a dead twig on the ground and tossed it at the trunk. A part of the tree trunk snapped shut. Now Alex was able to see that the tree trunk had long vertical splits that only resembled the texture of bark but actually were able to snap shut like a Venus’s fly-trap.

  “I know the wood, I grew up next to a small patch of it in the Kehendra Valley. You should follow us.” Gs Ho Tae began a slight jog. Due to gis small size, all the humans had to do was walk casually to keep up.

  They had traveled only about a hundred feet from the crash site when they reached a large flat plant of some kind. It was bright green, completely smooth on top, with one-inch holes along the edge. The plant’s stalk was about a foot thick, and its top reached a couple feet off the ground.

  Gs Ho Tae stopped in gis tracks and gave the plant a wide berth. “That’s a spot snare. Few survive a direct encounter.”

  “Really?” One of the security guards, Travis, looked at the four-foot-wide flat plant and approached it with his gun at the ready.

  “Hey, what are you doing? They just said don’t go near it,” Alex said, but was admittedly curious about the plant and for his team’s safety.

  “This isn’t me being macho, sir,” Travis said. “I need to evaluate their fears and experiences with reality at their size against what it’s like at our size. I think this is a simple means to compare their concern with ours.” Travis continued forward toward the plant.

  “I’ll be honest, I don’t see the need of all that.” Alex stepped aside as Travis stepped forward.r />
  “What do I need to worry about with this plant?” Travis said, looking at Gs Ho Tae.

  “Long tentacles will shoot out those holes and grab you, then pull you to the plant where the other shorter tentacles will also grab you. They will drain your fluids, and you will decay into bones. If you look closely you’ll notice a nice pile of them there already.”

  Alex did see what appeared to be small piles of what he would have thought were sticks surrounding the plant.

  Travis took a step forward and grabbed a large vine that was hanging nearby. He cut the far end of the vine and then tossed a portion of it toward the plant. As described a long green tongue shot out and curled itself around the vine and pulled it in. Travis pulled on the vine and as he did the plant got much stronger and he had to struggle. With one final tug, the vine came free, with the tongue of the plant still attached to it.

  Gs Ho Tae grabbed the vine from Travis’s hand, and the Gothans gazed upon the plant tongue for several minutes, making odd observations about it. As they peeled the tongue away from the vine, they pointed out how the tongue had inserted two-inch barbs hidden within it into the vine itself.

  Keeping a wide berth from the plant, the Gothans resumed jogging without saying a word.