Read Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor Online
Authors: Jonathan P. Brazee
As we were wandering the hangar, Yash called out. “Look at this!”
We gathered around to see what looked to be a gash in the steel wall, covered with a carbon scorch mark. Alfhid rubbed here finger in the soot and smelled it. She held out her finger for us to see.
“Something burned here.”
“Could they have been, well, attacked?” Josh asked, his voice unsure.
“By who, space pirates?” Hamlin retorted. “You’ve been watching too many Holowood productions.”
“Well, you tell me something more likely!”
“OK, you’ve got me there,” he admitted. “I just don’t know what happened.”
We filed back in and checked the last few storerooms. Empty as the rest.
“We’re not going to find anything here, I think, and it’s getting late. We should think about heading back,” Hamlin said.
I thought that was a good idea. We trooped back to the canteen, where we found a couple of boxes and filled them with drinks and snack foods.
“Hey, Alfhid! Looks like you got your wish!” Mike held up an orange, which he tossed to her. She smiled and took a bite, right through the skin, pulpy orange juice dripping down her chin.
With each of us loaded down, we made our way back down the corridor. Before we reached the end, a crashed sounded in back of us. We wheeled around.
“Hello?” Hamlin shouted back, his voice quavering. There wasn’t a response.
“Something must have just fallen over. We’ve already checked everything.” Josh sounded sure of himself.
“Yea, you’re probably right.” Yash didn’t sound as sure of himself.
We turned back and got to the end of the corridor. Opening up the door and getting on the platform, it took a few moments for our eyes to adjust the best they could to the darkness.
Mike turned the lever on the control box, but the railcar didn’t quiver.
“It was worth a shot,” he said wistfully. “Well, there’s no use delaying. Let’s get going.” He started walking off into the darkness.
This time, I was second to last with Josh bringing up the rear. Now I had to worry about climbing up Alfhid’s butt while I walked. I put my spear crosswise over my box of food so it couldn’t poke her.
Carrying the food was harder than just carrying our spears, so we had to stop more often to rest. On the third stop, while we were huffing for breath, Josh suddenly said “Shh! Did you hear that?”
I strained to listen. At first, I thought he was imagining things, but then I heard it too. Way down the tunnel, back the way we had just come, I could hear something. What that something was, I couldn’t tell. It could have been the railcar. It could have been a door opening. But it was so far away, that by the time whatever it was had bounced and reverberated from down the tunnel, it had been distorted beyond recognition.
“Hello!” shouted Josh back down the tunnel. “Is anybody there?”
Silence greeted us.
“Let’s go back,” he suggested.
Mike did not seem to think it was a good idea. His voice came back to us from the darkness. “I think it might be a good idea if we got going again. And not back there.”
“What if it’s somebody? We need to see.”
“If it’s somebody, they’d be shouting back. Let’s go,” he pressed urgently.
“I’m with you, Mike.” Alfhid got up and moved on. She must have hit Hamlin in front of her as I heard a grunt and her murmured apology.
We all started moving, feeling our way ahead, yet one ear attuned to the tunnel behind us. I thought I could hear things, but with our own footsteps and breathing, it was hard to tell. Josh kept stopping behind me, I assume to listen. Then I could hear his rapid footsteps as he caught up to us.
In the darkness, it was hard to keep track of the time. We walked another 15 minutes? 30 minutes? An hour? We had to have been getting close, I thought.
My mind was in economy mode, just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. My arms were cramping from carrying the food box. I was trying to shift the box up to my shoulder when a primordial scream echoed from behind us, unbearably loud.
“Run,” I screamed back, forcing myself into motion. I took three steps before falling over Alfhid in the darkness. My food went flying, my box disintegrating. I tried to haul her up, but she was tangled with Hamlin. I could hear Yash and Mike ahead, yelling back at us to get going.
I got to my feet and managed to help the other two up. Something brushed by me, and my heart stopped before I realized it was Josh, sidling past us. I could now hear serious crashing behind us as something was coming our way. I started running again, pushing Alfhid ahead. I almost went down again after stepping on some cans, but I somehow stayed on my feet.
Where we’d been so careful with our footing before, afraid to misstep, now we were plunging pell-mell down the tunnel, trusting our feet and instincts to keep us upright. Turning an ankle now just wasn’t an option.
There was another scream somewhere back, but more of a scream of anger than of pursuit as something fell heavily, right where we had just been. Our cans of Dr. Pepper, now scattered on the tunnel floor, may have claimed a victim. I just hoped it would stay claimed. But I could hear it scramble up, scream again, then start back after us.
Up ahead, light suddenly flared.
Has the power come back on?
I wondered for a brief second. But no, it was the door back out of the tunnel. Mike and Yash were there, their shadowy figures urging us on. Josh made it, too, and he was out the door and gone. Mike stepped out through the opening and only Yash was left, our beacon.
Our nemesis was right behind us. Its heavy footsteps were clear, making a different sound when claws hit the rail than when they hit the floor. And it was close. Very close. Somehow, I had a moment to acknowledge the deja vous aspect of this. I didn’t want this to be a habit, being chased by large carnivores.
The door was close. 20 meters… 10… 5. Hamlin got through first, brushing Yash back. Alfhid and I were right behind him. With all our instincts yelling
RUN
, it was very hard to stop and close the door. Just as it closed, something big and strong hit it, pushing it forward before it fell back. The same something big and strong hit it again.
“Alfhid, Yash, get out of here!” Hamlin shouted. Alfhid took off, but Yash looked uncertain for a second.
“I said get going! We can’t all get on that bridge at once.”
Yash nodded and ran off. Hamlin and I held the door fast. Whatever was on the other side really wanted to get on this side, and while it was stronger than both of us put together, it couldn’t quite seem to figure out doors and continual pressure. Each hit jarred me to my heels, but we held.
“OK, Corter, your turn. “
I didn’t bother to argue. I went, and I went fast. I was on the bridge in a split second, across it to the waiting arms of the rest not much longer than that. I looked back to Hamlin. His feet were digging in, the dirt furrowed. He seemed to time it. Right after a fierce hit which open the door a foot or so before he as able to stop it, he took off, running for all he was worth. The door opened, and a huge black and red saurian head pushed out, snapping at him. A scaly shoulder followed, but the door was too small for the rest of it to make it through. It wasn’t T-Rex, but it was something almost as big, and equally as nasty.
Hamlin didn’t stop to see if the beast made it out or not. He rushed the bridge and barely slowed down to cross the single strand. He dived to the ground and lay there, chest heaving as he tried to replenish his oxygen debt.
My legs were trembling, my own chest heaving. After a few moments, and with several looks over our shoulders at the dinosaur still looking at us through the door, we slowly walked back to our campsite and sat down in exhaustion.
We still didn’t know what had happened to the crew. We didn’t even have our food to call the trek a success. Then a thought hit me, and even as frazzled as I was, I had to smile. I reached in my pocket and took out the package of Lay’s Classics, much pulverized, but still there. I passed it around, and everyone took a small handful of crumbs.
So, the trek wasn’t actually a total loss.
Chapter 14
“Ok big boy, take ‘em off for me.” Josh stood in front of me, one hand on his hip, the other hand out effeminately.
Borlinga had never put her leggings, headwrap, and smock back on, but I put my jeans on after each time they were used for water. Josh had her clothing and now wanted my jeans.
Yash laughed. “I knew you had a thing for Mr. Corter there!”
“Well, he is kinda cute, in that Outerworlder way,” he retorted, his voice in an exaggerated affectation. “But you, Yashy, you’re the real one I want, so mysterious.”
Yash put his hand on his chest and gave a mock bow as we all laughed.
“Hey, you can have Corter, but hands off Yash! He’s mine!” Alfhid sputtered, laughing too hard to get it all out at once. She jumped up and rushed over to him, grabbing him in an embrace and lifting him off the ground before planting a kiss right on his dastar.
It felt good to laugh. We had been a morose bunch the night before after getting back, and the morning hadn’t been much better. When Yash blushed, we broke into even more laughter, Ratt laughed so hard that she started gasping for air.
“Well, if that’s the way you’re going to be…” Josh spun to flounce off, actually swaying his hips. I wondered what his legions of fans would think if they could see him then. Who would’ve thought he could cut loose and goof off like that? I wouldn’t have guessed he had a sense of humor, but maybe he had hidden it before, conscious of his sports image. Without an audience, though, why not joke around?
“I’ll go with him.” Ratt jumped up and followed, still chuckling. Our alliances had pretty much broken apart. We were one group then, and Ratt seemed to be gravitating toward Josh. He was a good-looking man, to be sure, and he’d had a small amount of fame before, so I guessed that wasn’t too surprising. Even his surliness of the last couple of days hadn’t seemed to bother her.
Alfhid let Yash go and started after them. “Well, Ratt isn’t going to be much help hauling that thing up, so I’d better go, too.” She walked off, her half-nakedness now the norm.
I think the rest of us contemplated helping out, but despite the spasm of laughter, lethargy had crept into the camp. We were listless, waiting for something to happen, for someone to come get us. Wherever we were, the trip here from Earth had taken two weeks. So no matter what had happened in Production City, they had to have dispatched a ship to come get us, and that meant we only had to wait another week or a little more before we could leave this God-forsaken place. So we were just sitting here, waiting.
We sat in silence for awhile until Mike said, for the umpteenth time, “It just doesn’t make sense. No power, but the river is flowing. No ships. No messages. Dinosaurs inside Production City.”
We’d heard this before, so we didn’t bother responding. Mike was worrying the issue, his mind clamped on it like a bulldog, refusing to let go. The rest of us had gone beyond surprise and shock and just accepted it as the new norm.
Hamlin was leaning back on the log we used for a bench, his eyes closed. I couldn’t tell if he was asleep, or if he just didn’t want to talk. Not that the rest of us were talking much, either. I decided I had to break the silence.
“So, Lindadawn, after we do get back, what do you think your employees will think of you?” It wasn’t the most astute question, but I didn’t want Mike to get back into what was happening, and Lindadawn would probably be able to talk for awhile on it. And I wanted talking to fill in the silence.
She gave a quiet chuckle. “Well, they probably expected me to take over from the git-go.”
That might’ve been true. Lindadawn had started a machinery shop when she was 21, and now she sold pumps to the EU military. She had over thirty employees, and from what she had told us before, she ran a pretty tight ship.
“Why didn’t you, then?” I asked.
“Well, with Hamlin and Josh,” she nodded at Hamlin who hadn’t moved, “they seemed to be doing a good job. And I didn’t want to get in a pissing contest.”
“What would’ve you done with the money if you won? You’ve never told us that.” Yash asked.
“A million unis is a lot of money. I think I would’ve taken most of it for my business, to expand it.”
“What about your family? Your sister in Rotterdam, or your mom in, where did you say she’s at?”
“Stephenville, Newfoundland. She re-married a Canadian and went to live with him there.” She looked over at Mike. “Hey, you’re a US citizen. Do you know the streets in Stephenville are all named after US states? Weird, huh? So where was I? Oh yea, anyway, my mom is happy in Stephenville, writing her poetry. I see her once every couple of years. And my sister? She does quite well on her own, thank you. She doesn’t need my money.”
Yash shook his head. “I couldn’t get away with that. With my family, my extended family, they would consider the money theirs as well. And Nirmal would be in charge of making sure we fixed up the house. And we’d have to take care of my mata and bibi, of course, but the rest, well, I guess that is up to how strong Nirmal is. I would leave it up to her.”
“From what you’ve said, Nirmal is a strong woman.”
“Yes, she is. Her name means, ‘pure,’ you know? And she is. I’m lucky to have found her.” His eyes started tearing up a bit. “I hope I get back to her soon.”
Lindadawn sidled over to put her arms around his shoulder. “You will, you will. And you are a lucky man, extended family and all.”
Josh and Alfhid came back around the corner, wet clothes held between them, Ratt following keeping some of Borlinga’s leggings from dragging in the dirt. They gave us a slightly dirty look as they walked up the basin and started to wring out the water. I felt a little guilty for sitting there while they worked, but not guilty enough to actually get up and help them. As they left to get another load, I studiously avoided catching their eyes.
“You’ve been a little vague about your plans if you had won the money, Corter.” Lindadawn looked at me expectantly.
I debated for a moment if I should tell them the truth. But we were in a contemplative mood, so I just decided to go for it.
“I know I kind of hinted that it would go for students. And I kind of told the GBC interviewers that I wanted to start a school. And I do. Want to start a school, I mean. But I need to pay back my mom first of all. She financed my company, and I lost it all.” There. I’d said it. I had admitted I was a failure.
“Lost it all?”
“Yep, every uni.”
“How did that happen?”
“Well, my mom, she scraped and saved, so when she retired, she had a nice nest egg. She wanted to travel, to see Earth, for example. Go on an Alaskan cruise. She had holos of the various cruise lines in her room, and she dreamed of that. I’d been working as a pipefitter at the spaceport since I was a teenager. And it was a good job. But I wanted something bigger. I thought I could start my own business, sort of like you, Lindadawn. My mom trusted me, trusted my vision. So she gave me the money. I was going to pay her back out of my profits. But unlike you, I failed. I pretty much crashed and burned. That was last year. And now my mom had to go back to work. She’s a processor at the chicken plant in town.” Borlinga grimaced at that—I guessed she knew what kind of job that was. “So then this came up, and I thought if I could win, I could pay her back, I could send her to Earth and on that cruise. And I wouldn’t be a failure.”
I knew that sounded melodramatic even as I said it. This could have been written for a holo script. But this was my reality.
“I don’t think you are a failure,” Lindadawn said quietly.
“With all due respect, that’s easy for you to say. You didn’t fail.”
We were interrupted by a loud screech reverberating down the curved entrance to the camp. We jolted upright, looking at each other. Then my telltale vibrated. Someone had died. We jumped up, grabbed our spears, and rushed out the entrance to where Alfhid and Ratt were standing at the edge of the cliff, looking down.
Ratt looked back at us, tears in her eyes. “It’s Josh,” she said simply.
I moved forward to look over her shoulder. Down in the water, already a couple of hundred meters downstream, the pterosaur was struggling to stay afloat. It couldn’t seem to get its wings out of the clutching current. There was no sign of Josh.
“What happened?” Hamlin grabbed Alfhid, spinning her around.
She gathered herself. “We were just…we…Josh and me were pulling up the water, and then…”
“That fucking flying devil swopped down and took him,” interrupted Ratt. “It just knocked him over the side. But he grabbed it, and he was too heavy for it, and he took it with him.” She broke down sobbing.
“In Haven? It attacked him in Haven?” Yash asked incredulously.
Lindadawn took Ratt in her arms as the rest of us watched the still struggling pterosaur get swept around the bend and out of sight.
“How the hell would a golem cross into Haven?” Mike asked. “A biobeast, maybe, or a natural. If it could cross the bridge, and something lured it here. But a golem has to be programmed.”
“But they’ve go their AI function, right? And if the directors in Production City are gone, then couldn’t the AI take over?” I asked.
“Well, maybe,” he conceded. “But it doesn’t seem right to me.
Losing Josh, one of our strongest cast members, was bad enough. But losing him inside of Haven? That was really, really bad.