She looked around and realized they were alone. She hadn’t noticed when Lo left and she hadn’t noticed Mercury moving to stand behind her either. She turned to face him and looked up into those stormy eyes. The skin at the outside corners crinkled with humor. Sweat glistened on his skin. Just looking at him made it harder to breathe. She had to fight instinct to keep her hands at her sides when all she wanted to do was follow the contours of his muscles with her fingertips.
When she spoke her voice was less steady than she’d have liked. “Camp.”
He put a hand out to indicate she should go ahead of him. She took her time climbing the slight incline to avoid the need for him to steady her. She could feel the weight of his gaze with every step.
Arena Dogs Campsite, Planet G-45987
Earth Alliance Beta Sector - Gollerra Border
2210.161
Mercury measured the path of the sun across the sky as Samantha had taught him. Midday. They’d been traveling for two days and those days felt as long as any he’d known in his life under the dome of Roma. Carn still lead the way, though both he and Lo could hear the pulse now. Even Samantha, who claimed not to hear the noise, clearly suffered its effects. The pain in her head etched tiny lines in her normally smooth brow. She’d claimed to have detected his moans of pain on the ship. Seeing her wince with each step, he knew it had been more than her machines that had detected his cries of pain.
Samantha stopped to catch her breath, putting her hands behind her head as she inhaled deeply. “Is it me or is Carn looking worse?”
Mercury looked down into Samantha’s face. “He’s lost much of his color.”
“And I can’t remember the last time I saw him hold down food or water.” Her small hand rested on his arm as it had more and more through the morning. He laid a hand over hers.
“His physiology can handle the dehydration better than a human.” Longer than one small female. But Carn couldn’t fight off the inevitable dizziness and loss of consciousness forever. His steps were already clumsy.
Samantha accepted his judgment of Carn’s condition and tilted her lips in a pained smile. “At least the ground here is level.”
After a day and a half of steady climbing, they all welcomed the more level terrain. There were fewer trees and the underbrush was more sparse making it easier footing.
She looked in the direction they’d been travelling as if she could see a clear path instead of the next rise less than a day’s walk ahead. “Seems like some kind of plateau.”
“A plateau?”
She turned her attention back to him. “Sometimes I forget you’ve lived all your life on a flat rock under a dome. A plateau is a place in a mountainous area that has…well, level ground.” She laughed. “Probably sounds silly to give it a special name, huh?”
He shrugged. She could call it whatever she liked. He cared little. But her smile put a salve on his worry over the fiery flush that dotted her cheeks and ringed her neck. He pressed the back of his hand to her cheek and found it several degrees too warm. “You need rest.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’ll be fine. And don’t even think of offering to carry me.”
Her gaze drifted to Carn and her smile faded. He knew she was thinking that she was no longer the one slowing them down.
“Carn grows weak, but so do you,
courra
.” He cupped her cheek and forced her to meet his gaze. “We should turn back. You didn’t feel the effects of the pulse back at camp.”
“But Carn did.”
He could see in her eyes that she understood the truth. Turning back might alleviate her pain, but only going forward to disable the pulse would help Carn. He knew, too, that she worried for his brother. Worried for them all. He wanted to tug her close and rub his face against her cheek. To press his nose behind her ear and fill his lungs with her scent.
“It was wrong of me to ask this of you.”
“You didn’t ask.”
She stepped in close, so close he could feel the heat of her fever before she rubbed her cheek against his arm.
“Then I shouldn’t have allowed it.”
“What would you do?” She looked up at him, so close he could see the striations in her bright green eyes. “Would you sit back and watch him get worse every day? Maybe die?” She pulled her hand out from under his and twined their fingers together. “If you could do that, watch a friend die, you wouldn’t be the man you are.”
He’d never known a female with such a generous spirit. The submissive females of his race, like Hera, obeyed and served because they knew no other way. Their spirits were more broken than soft. The gladiatrix females among them knew the same bonds of loyalty as the males but they were few. He’d not even spoken to one since forming his pack.
One moment he was reaching out to pull Samantha into his arms and the next the ground shook under his feet. He bolted toward where Carn had stood seconds earlier.
He’d heard Carn’s inrush of breath, his panicked scramble, and he’d reacted on instinct. Lo had responded much the same. Mercury passed him only a few paces before he reached the edge of the level earth, where the ground had opened up and swallowed their brother.
The ground beneath his feet gave way. Instead of fighting against the fall he dove into it. He caught his breath as he slammed, head first into the funneling brush and let it drag him forward. His heart beat like the swell of a blood thirsty crowd on arena night.
The earth closed in around his waist as he burrowed his arms deeper into the freshly loosened soil. The reassuring sensation of Lo’s grip closing on his ankle kept him searching blindly for any sign of Carn long after his air had run out.
No! His mind raged as his body panicked at the lack of oxygen and he began the work of digging his way free. The moment he surfaced he sucked in a lungful of air, breathing deep. His gaze skittered across Lo and settled on Samantha. She lay at the edge of the collapse, one arm wrapped around Lo’s leg. “Spread your weight out.” Samantha strained with effort.
Mercury wanted to crawl up Lo’s body and drag her away from the danger, but fear pinned him in place. He copied the arms and legs spread position that Lo, who’d likely already gotten this instruction, had assumed.
Mercury growled up at Samantha. “Get away from the edge.”
“I will, if you’ll climb back up,” she bargained.
He had no plans to give up on Carn so quickly. He just needed to know she was safe.
“You need the rope.” She started to edge back, as if she fully expected him to obey.
“She’s right.” Lo’s eyes were dark with worry.
“Move slowly,” Samantha shouted down. “And keep your weight as spread out as you can.”
When he looked around him he saw nothing but freshly disturbed ground. Vines. Rocks. Branches. They all twisted up from the fallen earth like the skeletons of the restless dead. Carefully, he climbed upward, Lo moving beside him with equal care. When they reached the top, Samantha shoved the pack into his hands.
“He’s alive,” said Lo. “I can hear him.”
“Conscious?” Mercury dug into the pack for the rope.
“I don’t think so.”
Despite the answer, Mercury called out using both standard and low sound. There was no response. Not even a moan.
Samantha, put her hand on his arm. “We have collapses like this in the dunes outside Haverlee. The dirt had to go somewhere. There’s probably a void below us. Carn could have ended up in one.”
He looked back to Lo. “Can you tell how far below you heard him?”
The other Dog shook his head. “Not close.”
“There’s a lot of earth to dampen the sound. It may not be as far as we fear.” At Lo’s skeptical look, Mercury indicated for him to back away.
“I’m lightest. I should be the one to go down.” Samantha’s fear laced voice came quick and breathy.
“No.” He valued her concern, but he needed her safe and that need fueled the one clipped word.
She bristled as if she would argue, but seemed to think better of it. “Okay. But we’ve got to get him out of there.”
He started tying one end of the rope around his ankle and passed the other end to Lo who started tying the other end around a stubby but sturdy looking tree. Mercury headed over the edge, belly crawling as the torn earth shifted and settled beneath him.
A tug on the rope let him know when Lo joined him. He didn’t stop until the rope pulled tight against his ankle.
Lo scrambled over his back. “He’s further down, but—” Lo rolled over and down below Mercury, gripping his hand with complete faith as he threw himself beyond the rope’s reach. “There’s something here.”
Lo began to dig one handed into the side of the ravine just below where Mercury lay at the rope’s end.
“What is it?” Mercury couldn’t see anything but Lo’s efforts had sharpened to focus on a small area.
“A passage, I think.” Lo’s head and shoulders disappeared into the dirt or so it seemed from Mercury’s position. He tightened his grip on Lo’s hand. He breathed a sigh of relief when Lo reappeared. “Take my ankle.”
Lo turned and Mercury grabbed the offered ankle, stretching his body to give Lo as much distance as they could safely manage. They both knew if it came to it, they’d simply lose the rope and go back to working without it. They were not prepared to lose another brother.
Lo scrambled back out. “There’s a cavern below. It’s large and I can hear Carn breathing. Roughly.”
Mercury waited, knowing there was more. If it were that simple, Lo would already have gone into the cavern.
“I can’t fit. This small channel is between two layers of rock.” He twisted his body reaching a hand out. Mercury quickly switched from his ankle to his hand. “It’s too narrow for my shoulders.”
And if it were too narrow for Lo, Mercury certainly wouldn’t fit. “We’ll find another way.”
Lo nodded. And crawled closer until they lay so close they could feel each other’s breath. “Release me then.” The whispered words had to be for Samantha’s benefit. Lo could probably hear her moving around above. Mercury could hear little above the pounding of his pulse in his ears.
“Does it feel stable beneath you?”
“Stable enough. Release me.”
Mercury forced open his grip and watched his brother scramble away.
“What are you doing?” Samantha’s strained voice drifted down from above.
Mercury turned to release his ankle from the grip of the cord. He could see her on her belly above looking over the edge. He wanted to shout or snap at her, but he wouldn’t risk startling her. “It’s more stable down here now, but the edge is dangerous. Back away.”
Her face disappeared, but he’d bet she didn’t go far.
He scrambled on his belly again, this time following Lo’s path.
“He’s below here,” said Lo. “Do we risk collapsing this area over him?” Lo’s dark eyes telegraphed his trust and willingness to follow.
Nothing in the arena had prepared them for this. “It didn’t collapse when I dug there before, but we can move to the side a bit. We have no choice but to dig.”
Carefully they began to scoop the dirt away, hoping the weight of the dirt being moved wouldn’t cause the very collapse they hoped to avoid. Mercury could hear Carn now. His breath was ragged and strained.
They dug and dug. The dirt had been loosened and moved easily, but there was a lot of it and every time the dirt shifted, more would tumble in to fill up the hole. They worked in silence as the sun overhead marched steadily down the sky.
He couldn’t be sure how long they’d been digging when they heard Carn moan. His breath turned into a pant of panic.
“We’re here, Carn. We’re going to get you out.” Mercury spoke loudly, but avoided shouting. The area around them had become less and less stable as they’d shifted the dirt around.
Carn calmed below, but he didn’t answer. They dug faster…until they heard a shower of earth fall free below them. The surface where they lay didn’t shift but they heard Carn sputter and spit.
Mercury tried for calm as he called out to his buried brother. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” The strained word drifted up alone at first. “The dirt above fell. Can you work faster?”
“If we do, more dirt might fall down. Can you move to the side?”
“No.” Again the one word set heavily in the air for a moment. “Leave me.”
Mercury had no intention of leaving him so he ignored Carn’s command and continued to work.
“I won’t be able to walk,” Carn shouted up. “I’m safe where I am. Let me stay here and heal. ” A cough interrupted his speech.
Mercury wanted to tell him to save his breath, but he knew Carn was no longer thinking clearly.
“Go and shut down the noise,” Carn continued. “I know you can both hear it now. When I’m stronger I’ll climb out.”
Mercury gritted his teeth against the slow boil of frustration. “This is taking too long.”
Lo tilted his head, ears flicking. “He sounds weaker.”
“Fuck.”
“He could be bleeding out.” Lo’s raspy whisper faded into nothing.
“Hey, guys?” Samantha’s voice drifted down again as it had several times as they dug. The concern in her voice had changed to something more urgent. “Do you think you’re going to break through anytime soon?”
“We have more digging to do.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that. Watch out below, I’m coming down.”
“No!” Mercury added his growl to his voice but it was too late. She was already over the side and moving down the rope. A small part of the edge collapsed in and tumbled down around them. Not enough to harm, but enough to make it clear that the area could collapse further at any moment.
Mercury belly-crawled over to the rope and steadied it as she crawled down ending in his arms.
“You shouldn’t have come down.”
“I didn’t have a choice.” He wanted to argue, but her fingers on his lips stayed his lecture. “There’s a storm coming. I’ve been watching the rain moving our way for the last hour.”
“Rain?” He looked up to see the trees shaking.
“Yes. The water will come pouring down here in an hour or so. We’re running out of time.” Her knuckles were white where she gripped the rope, but he didn’t think it was a fear of falling that had her so tense.