Authors: Charles W. Sasser
Go to the pod, Pia
.
At least she could escape, even if I didn’t make it.
Kadar San … I’m sorry …
About what?
I received a picture message of her turning her back on me, and by it understood she was apologizing for having rejected me in front of the others a few minutes before Blade attacked with the neural grenade.
You are forgiven, Pia
.
The connection between us weakened. I sensed she was ill, perhaps injured. I felt her nausea in my own stomach. Its intensity caused me to wretch up newt meat. Pain — her pain — knifed into my skull.
Can you walk, Pia?
I gasped.
Walk …? Walk where …?
In her condition, she made easy prey for predators, even the smallest of them. But, still, reaching the pod was her best and only chance.
Pia …?
The Presence suddenly appeared in her place. Its wretched scream of interfering laughter echoed among the drenched hills. Down in one of the clearings, the lizards appeared as watery forms, like creatures seen beneath the gray surface of the sea. They reared to their hind legs and then, as one, darted for cover.
Pia …?
She was gone, likely returned to unconsciousness. Chilled by the hideous laughter and what it portended, undecided about my next move, I succumbed to a moment of helplessness and indecision. If I did not go to her, she likely perished from exposure or fell prey to some beast. On the other hand, leading Blade to her was even more certain death. It wasn’t so much that the rules of the game kept changing; it was more that there were no rules.
Pia’s life depended on me; my ultimate survival and escape now depended on her. Blade needed her dead, although I hoped he didn’t know it yet. But perhaps he did if, as I suspected, he and the Presence had become almost as one.
I decided to feel Blade out. I keyed the squad radio.
“Good morning out there in Happyville,” I chirped brightly.
He didn’t answer. He was still sulking from yesterday.
“Sergeant Kilmer, are we out of sorts this morning?
“Fu-uck.”
“Oh. There we are. Sergeant, have we noticed that the lizards you angered are now tracking you, while you track me?”
It was difficult to tell which of us the lizards were in fact stalking, now that Blade’s cammies were about to go. When they went completely, we would stand on a more equal footing, predator-wise.
“When they eat you, elf, I’ll get the box anyhow.”
“But what if they eat you, Sergeant Kilmer?”
“In your dreams, fairy man.”
“It is in my dreams, Sergeant.”
Psyching each other out, playing mind games.
“Sergeant Kilmer, in two more days the pod will leave without either of us.”
“We could have made a deal. You fucked it up.”
“A deal with the Devil would be more appealing.”
“Give me the case, elf. I’ll let you live. Don’t be a fool. At least you’ll still be alive.”
“You sound desperate, Sergeant. Okay. Tell you what I will do. Turn your Gauss over to me. Let me have the weapon.”
“Are you crazy, man? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“An old, old Earth expression?”
“I’ll give you an even better one: Bend over, elf, and kiss your stinking ass goodbye. I’m going to kill you today. I’m going to track you down and waste your sorry ass. Enjoy your last morning on Aldenia, or any other planet.”
“Oh, but, Sergeant, the hunted is about to become the hunter.”
“Fu-uck. Watch out, elf. I’m coming.”
I finished eating, climbed higher, and looked back. The lizards sniffed around in the lowlands. I noticed they kept looking off toward the west. I followed the direction of their gaze and saw a Human form climbing in the rain toward the rocky pinnacle where DRT-213 had started its final camp. Blade’s cammies were going on the blink. I saw him for just a few moments before he blended back into the terrain. The lizards returned to looking for me.
The rules that were not rules changed again. Blade must have gotten near enough the scene of his crime to pick up Pia on his LF tracker. He was heading her direction. To eliminate all survivors, all obstacles.
P
laying with lintatai was playing with the dark side. Taa reacted to hatred, fear and aggression, all the demons that lurked in the Zentadon soul. I released a trickle of it, carefully, experimenting, as I threw caution to the wind and hastened from the high ground and back onto the savannah, a straight line being the shortest distance between two points. I counted on Blade’s being so preoccupied with whoever had survived his ambush that he would overlook me for a little while. His LF would not tell him who the survivor was. Whoever it was had to die. Especially if the survivor outranked him and therefore controlled access to the pod.
I also counted on Blade’s being unaware that I also knew about the survivor. As long as that ignorance continued, he would not expect his prey to turn and become the predator.
Rain slashed at my face, painfully at the speed I was going under taa, and stabs of quicksilver lightning strobed overcasting grayness into alternating instants of blinding brilliance. It was a little disorienting. I drew my Punch Gun in one hand while carrying the case in the other. I hurried to break a straight path through the purple grass that grew taller than my head. Water and mud sucked at my boots. The strain drew on the frailty of my injured ribs. Someone observing from a high point would have seen the path I made through the grass, like a line drawn on a child’s etch-a-sketch toy. Overtness was a chance I had to take to reach Pia in time.
I intended to kill the sniper if I could. I was on the trail of my first kill of a sentient. That thought alone caused a taa feedback, threatening lintatai. The evil genie in the Indowy box was not the only genie attempting to break free. I cleared my thoughts of the killing itself and thought only of Pia. I bulldozed through the grass with deadly purpose.
My thoughts called out to her desperately.
Pia …! Pia
…? Without an answer.
Looking up to the high ground, I estimated Blade’s position relative to mine. He was going to beat me to her, unless I used a significant burst of taa. But if I used it now, it would leave me weakened and there would be little left for the confrontation.
I explored for Blade’s emotions, finding them at last. They tasted fierce with determination and violent intent. The Presence was with him. At the same time, however, I sensed something else. Uncertainty. Like he knew a survivor was there, but wasn’t exactly sure where he hid. That could mean his LF was starting to fail. Perhaps Pia and I still had a chance.
Hurry!
said the Good Presence.
What do you think I’m doing?
Quickly!
You could help
.
No
.
Can you at least tell me, is she alive?
She is alive. But hurry
.
I crashed recklessly through the weeds, heedless of the big lizards nearby, having forgotten all about them in my desperation to reach Pia Gunduli. They had not forgotten me. They reminded me of their proximity in a most startling manner. One of them sprang into the air and rode the slash of rain to a landing directly in my path. It towered head and gleaming teeth and unsheathed front claws above me, eyes like black holes punched into leathery skin. A thin screech of triumph hissed from its cavernous gullet.
Peripherally, I spotted a couple of the others leaping up and down in the grass like hunting terriers in order to get a look at me. They seemed overly cautious as a result of their previous encounter with Blade’s bullets. Their wariness and hesitation gave me a slight edge.
I exterminated the first beast, blasting him into a pink mist of body parts. Taa kicked in like a Starfighter’s afterburner to help me escape from the others. An observer of the savannah etch-a-sketch would have seen a straight line appear in the grass as if by magic. I was almost all the way across the meadow during the time it took a bolt of lightning to jag from one edge of the sky to the other.
Taa ran out abruptly. I felt what I assumed to be the beginning stages of lintatai. I stumbled, returning to normal time, and fell exhausted to my hands and knees. My head dropped between my arms into an inch or so of collected water. I breathed heavily, trying to regain control, feeling my body heat up like a stove. Heating up rapidly.
Wait!
Easy enough for you to say.
Look
, said the GP, the Good Presence. A vision appeared. A peaceful Ganesh evening when the sky blazed with stars and planets and there was a breeze across a silver lake. The breeze was cool and it touched my face.
Feel it? Let it take away the heat. Look for the peace
.
There can be no peace
.
Peace is inside us. That is where we must look
.
Who are you?
I asked again.
I am who I am and who you are
.
That tells me shit
.
Later
.
I felt the heat dissipating.
Thank you, whoever you are
.
It was
your doing
.
After some more deep breathing, I managed to stagger to my feet and look back on the trail I had made through the grass. The lizards were out of sight. I called out thought-wise to the GP, but it was gone. I wondered what assistance the evil Presence provided Blade, if it were in fact stronger than my Presence.
I struggled out of the meadow and into the rocks and twisted electric-wrecked jungle below the old campsite and still some two or three kilometers to the south of it. I had made up some time with the taa, but now my feet were leaden weights and it was all I could do to put one foot before the other as I began to climb. Blade must still be ahead of me. He would reach the camp first.
Kadar San …?
Pia! You must run! Run for your life!
I lurched forward, attempting to run toward her plea. I tripped and fell hard. I hadn’t the strength to get up. Pushing the Indowy box ahead of me, still holding the Punch Gun, I crawled on hands and knees. I couldn’t make it to her in time. I had failed her.
Kadar San …?
I collapsed in the mud and dank forest growth. Water ran off the hillside and over me. My muscles refused to work. All I had left, at least temporarily, was my Talent. I reached out with it and felt Pia, frightened and alone but not as ill as she had been before. I had to get across to her the urgency of her situation. Whether Blade’s LF was fully functional or not, he would find her if she remained near the old camp.
I pushed with my mind, pushed hard to overcome any inadvertent resistance on her part.
Pia, I will show you the way. Can you walk?
Kadar San …?
Yes. Move it. Now! Look, I am showing you where to go
.
If Blade’s LF was losing power, its range would be considerably reduced. That was our only hope, her only hope.
I formed a route in my mind and transmitted it to her. I showed her how the hill was a waterslide that she could use — that I had used before — to escape into the forest below.
I don’t understand. You want me to slide …?
Go! Go!
Images were coming back from her now. I felt terror and saw through her eyes Blade toiling up my side of the slope toward her, disappearing in and out of the rocks and trees. His chameleons were off and he carried his rifle. His head looked huge and otherworldly in his battle helmet. He glared up the hill toward her. He moved with caution.
I screamed at her through my thoughts. I showed her the waterslide.
She started crawling on her belly, slithering. I saw through her eyes Atlas’ body sprawled before his half-erected pop-up bivvie. He seemed to have shrunk over the past few days. Pia gasped and looked away from him, and I saw through her how the camp was torn apart. Destroyed items were scattered about everywhere among the corpses of the dead former DRT-bags.
She tobogganed downhill with the runoff water. She cried out from the pain of slamming into rocks and other obstacles. I was afraid she would pass out again, which meant her end and the end of all hopes for my own escape.
She made it to the thicker forest on the lee of the slope opposite me, still conscious and retaining some energy.
There is a game trail. See it?
I showed it to her. She reflected it back to me.
Follow it
.
It was raining hard and the rain would wash out her tracks before Blade followed them.
It was almost dark in the forest where she was. Her breath came in quick, fearful gasps. Creepers and finger-like vines snatched at her clothing. Shadows lurked in dangerous places. I felt her poor heart thudding in her chest, pounding out a rhythm of sheer terror. She kept tripping, falling down, getting up, and falling down again.
He’s coming! He’s coming!
Keep going, Pia. There is a little waterfall over a ledge …
My head spun and I blacked out for an instant. When I revived, Pia was still there, anxious because I had disappeared for awhile.
The waterfall?
she prompted.
She revealed it back to me.
Good
.
I showed her how to get through the fall and into the little cave underneath where it was reasonably dry and all but concealed. Within a minute or two, I saw the underside of the waterfall through her eyes. I felt her nausea again, her weakness coupled with mine.
Do you have anything to eat?
I asked her.
It didn’t come through. I played a scene of her eating so she would understand.
Food?
she said.
Yes. You need to eat if you have food
.
An energy bar?
Yes. Something
.
That was all I could do for her now. Hopefully, Blade’s LF would not be able to find her. I used my remaining strength to pull myself deeper into thick brush. I rested my head on crossed arms. Tired, so tired …