Bounders (32 page)

We walk as a group toward the watering hole. The eight-legged rodents peek their heads out of their holes, then pop back down as we pass.

“Eek!” Meggi says. “I don't like those things!”

“Oh, come on, they're like meerkats,” Marco says. “They're friendly, and I bet they're really soft.”

“Marco,” Waters says, “
do not
touch the wildlife.”

“Yes, Mr. Waters.”

The closer we get to the humanoids, the better we can see them. It's like we walked into a time machine. The humanoids look just as I picture early man on Earth. Their skin is dark and covered with coarse brown hair. They're short and kind of hunched like the Tunnelers. A few of the women carry babies on their backs.

“Stay together,” Charkeera says.

“Yeah, steer clear of the saber cat,” Marco whispers.

Right. Maybe it wasn't the brightest idea to leave the hovers. I stay near Charkeera and her gun and keep an eye on the cat.

Enormous blue bugs buzz above the grass. One flutters near the humanoid children, and they dash after it. The sound of their laughter drifts in the breeze.

“That's close enough,” Waters says, throwing his arm out to block us.

“Quit the worrying, Jon,” Sheek says. “We're armed.”

“I'm not worried, Max,” Waters growls. “And I'm not concerned about
our
safety. I'm saying that's close enough. We shouldn't interfere with them.” Waters instructs us to stop, then walks over to the next group of cadets and tells them the same.

Things seem safe enough. The saber cat is stretched out on the riverbank, taking a snooze.

I'm about to plop down on the grass myself when a piercing noise punctures my brain. The sound bullets between my ears and balloons until my entire head rings. I buckle at the waist.

Make it stop! My skull is going to explode!

I crouch on the ground and cover my head, hoping to block out the noise, hoping someone helps. When no one comes, I lift up enough to look around.

The other Bounders are collapsed on the ground, clutching their heads. What on earth is happening?

Waters and the other pod leaders dash about. It doesn't look like the noise affects them, but they know something's wrong with the Bounders. “What's happening?” Waters yells at Charkeera.

Most of the humanoids by the river seem immune, too. But one of them—a child—covers her ears with her hands.

The noise roars in my brain. Something about it is familiar. Where have I felt this before? The answer is at my grasp, but I can't reach it.

Something smashes the ground a few meters away. A boulder? The air clouds with dust. Another collision. Even closer this time. I've got to get away.

But the noise. It won't stop.

Next to me, Mira straightens. She pulls her gloves from her pocket and fits them onto her hands.

I remember where I've heard this noise.

The alien in the cellblock.

I stand and scan our surroundings. Charkeera swings her gun from her back, points at the nearby ridge, and fires.

My gaze traces her aim up the mountain. At the very top of the ridge there's movement. I shut out the noise as best I can and force my brain to focus.

Oh . . . whoa . . . no.

Five aliens like the one in the cellblock stand atop the ridge. They stretch their arms out by their sides. One of them sweeps his hands through the air, and the next second a giant ball of light barrels in our direction. It explodes in a blinding burst that radiates heat and ash. When the dust settles, a circle of scorched earth marks the spot of impact.

Marco is beside me. I punch him on the shoulder. “Get your gloves!”

Cole and Lucy are crouched on the ground behind him, covering their ears. I drag them up. “It's the aliens! Quick! Your gloves!” Lucy looks confused, but Cole gets it. He pulls out his gloves and then rips Lucy's from her back pocket.

As I stuff my fingers into my gloves, Waters grabs my wrist. “Jasper, what's going on?”

I don't respond at first. If I tell Waters, it's basically an admission we broke into the cellblock.

I take another step, but Waters tightens his grip around my wrist. “Jasper, I need to know what's happening!”

Most of the cadets still writhe on the ground. They need help. Waters needs to know.

“The aliens!” I shout above the din. “Not the Tunnelers. The other aliens. The ones we're fighting.”

His eyes widen, and he releases my arm. “What are you talking about?”

“We saw them on the ridge. This is an attack. On us.”

“How do you—”

“There's no time!” I yell. “We need to try to stop them. Get everyone back to the hovers. Go!”

I dash forward. Marco, Cole, and Lucy have their gloves on. They still wince from the brain-invading screech. Mira stands a few meters in front of them, arms raised overhead.

“We've got to get out of here,” Marco says.

“No!” I shout. “We need to give the others time to get away.”

A giant boulder whizzes by, colliding with the ground just behind us.

“So we can get killed?” Lucy asks.

“I'm not getting killed,” Cole says, slipping his handgrips from his blast pack.

“Put those away!” I yell. “If you're flying, you don't have your hands free!”

“Right, we're just sitting ducks for the green guys,” Lucy says. “Oh no! They're coming!”

Four of the aliens stand in the valley about eighty meters away. There's no way they could have climbed down that fast. They must have bounded. One alien remains on the ridge, raining boulders and balls of light.

Mira advances, waving her hands. Marco, Cole, and Lucy stand in a cluster, ducking flying boulders and light-balls now aimed at the hovers behind us.

Mira flashes her hands at a boulder, and it stops in midair. She must be wrestling with the alien on the ridge for control of the boulder's atoms.

“Your girlfriend is one of a kind,” Marco says.

“Well, right now she's defending us single-handedly, so let's go.”

“We need a plan,” Marco says. “Five on five is not going to end in our favor.”

He's right. Our pod won't be enough. We need to enlist the help of the other Bounders. If anyone can get the word out fast, it's Lucy. Then Cole can outline a defense strategy.

“Lucy, Cole, run back to the other cadets,” I say. “Lucy, explain what's happening as quickly as you can! Cole, once Lucy rallies the others, come up with a scaled defense! Pull out your
Evolution
tricks!”

Cole shakes his head. “This isn't a game, Jasper.”

“Just do it!”

“Fine,” Lucy says. “Come on, Cole!” She grabs his hand and drags him away.

I spin back to Marco.

“What about us?” he says.

I shrug. “Stall them.”

Marco holds my stare. I know it's not much to go on, but if anyone knows how to improvise, it's Marco.

He nods, and we instinctively take off in different directions so we flank the four advancing aliens with Mira in the middle. At first I try her strategy—trying to stop the boulders flying through the air—but it's tough. I've never controlled anything as big as a boulder, let alone wrestle with one of the green guys over one.

Distract.

The word appears in my head, and I know it's Mira. I steal a glance in her direction and see she's no longer focused on the boulders and light-balls falling from above. Instead she's throwing whatever she can at the four aliens in the field.

Genius. If the aliens have to deflect our attack—no matter how weak it may be—their hands aren't free to turn on the offense. Or to bound.

I focus on the ground near the aliens' feet and shower them in a cloud of dirt. Mira uproots some bushes behind them and hits the aliens with a sneak attack. Marco catches on and gets creative. He seizes one of the eight-legged rodents from its hole and hurls it at an alien. The rat-faced critter latches on to the green guy's head. He swats and grabs at the little beast, and they both end up on the ground.

Nice one,
I mouth to Marco.

Behind me, Cole and Lucy are organizing the others, first by corralling them back to the hovers. By the looks of it, some of the hovers are already damaged.

Our vehicles aren't the only casualties. Han carries a banged-up Bounder over his shoulder. Waters helps a bloody Tunneler onto one of the hovers that's still intact. Two heads pop up from the belly of the next hover. Florine? Sheek? Are they hiding?

Meanwhile, the Tunnelers dodge about, setting up the mysterious machinery we saw them load at the mines. They fit rods together, then stick them into the ground like flagpoles. Once inserted, the tops spring open like metallic umbrellas and silver light cascades down in domes.

Portable occludium shields.

That can only mean one thing. This is not their first encounter with these aliens on the Paleo Planet. No wonder Charkeera was nervous.

Geez. I can't believe they didn't say anything. At least we have the shields. They're not much protection for Marco, Mira, and me, but the rest of the Bounders should be safe from an alien bounding into their space.

The shields also appear to deflect the giant balls of light, but they're useless against the flying boulders. I wince as a huge rock hurtles toward the hovers.

Boom!
The boulder explodes, raining rock fragments across the field.

And now we know why the Tunnelers brought their guns.

When I spin back around, there are only two aliens where there used to be four. I still count one at the ridgeline. The others must have bounded.

“Over there!” Marco shouts, pointing at the cluster of humanoids.

In a flash of light Mira bounds, reappearing instantly near the humanoids. The alien turns to face her as the humanoids dash for the tree line.

I spot the second alien on the other side of the river. It has a clear line to the rest of the Bounders. I grab my straps and zoom toward the group.

“Watch out!” I shout. “Behind you.”

I don't slow enough for a proper landing and end up on the ground right by Lucy.

“Graceful,” she says.

“Shut up and listen! They're bounding. One of them is advancing from the other side of the river. Tell Cole!”

“Wait! What are you going to do?”

“Bound.”

“Jasper, I don't think—”

I tune her out and tap in, mentally gathering the atoms I need to bound. I open my port and—
bam!
—I'm on my feet, sinking into mud on the other side of the riverbank.

The alien is only twenty meters away, but he hasn't spotted me. He's focused on the huge group at the hovers.

Lucy must have gotten the message to Cole. The Bounders circle the perimeter, their backs to the center, their gloves at the ready. Those are smart tactics. This is not a linear engagement. The aliens could bound at any moment. No side is safe.

A wave of water leaps from the river and soaks the alien closest to me. Cole's rolling out the same strategy as Marco, Mira, and I: keep the alien distracted so he can't launch an offensive. They spray him again, and the green guy backpedals, like he's afraid he's been hit.

Then—
boom!
—a true gunshot.

The alien collapses. Green mucus spurts from his chest.

For a moment I'm back in the space station, gazing down at the med room, watching the alien on the table. Without even thinking, I take a step forward, then another. The alien tips his huge, bulbous head in my direction. His black, bottomless eyes latch on to mine.

He's in my head. It feels familiar, almost like Mira. Almost like Addy.

Leave.

Leave? I don't get it.

Leave.

The air shimmers, and three other aliens are by his side. One waves his arm, and they're shielded inside a dome of light. Another turns to me and lifts his hand. My body is gripped, caught in a suction. The alien is trying to grab my atoms.

“No!” I squeeze my grips and shoot straight into the air, but I can't escape the tugging, now from multiple hands. I have only one choice. I need to bound. But I'm fifty meters high. And directly above the watering hole.

I get one shot at this or I'll be Play-Doh for those aliens. Once I drop my grips, I'll have seconds to bound. If I don't open my port in time, I'll hit the amphidile-infested waters.

As soon as I drop the grips, gravity steps in. I plummet for the water. Tap in. Sense the atoms. Open the port.

My toes touch the water just as I bound. I land near the ridgeline and take off running in my wet shoes. Mira and Marco are in the middle of the field, trying to hold off the boulders falling from above now that the other aliens are across the river.

“J-Bird, what a relief,” Marco says as I skid to a stop beside him. “I was worried you'd been hit.”

“Not me,” I say. “But a Tunneler took out one of their guys.”

“What about the others?” he asks, wildly scanning the surrounding area. “They could be anywhere.”

“They bounded to the other side of the river once their guy was shot.”

“Is he dead?”

“He was still alive when I last saw him,” I say. “But I think he was injured pretty bad.”

The remnants of the alien and his message float like a haze in my brain—
Leave.

A new boulder soars off the ridge.

“Grab that!” Marco says.

I lift my gloves to the monster rock and wrestle with the alien for control. My energy is nearly drained. There's no way we can keep this up for long. Mira dashes over, and she helps me hold the boulder.

“We've got to make our move while the other aliens are still occupied,” I tell them. “Hold him off another minute while I check in with Cole.”

I zoom in my blast pack across the field and circle the line of Bounders.