Authors: Ronan Frost
Tatura set a grueling pace and Capac followed close,
glad of the other's company. He knew that if left alone he would
not have had the determination to get moving once again. They
angled through tretcherous bogs in their attempts to catch up with
the tribe.
"There!" cried Capac as he spotted movement through
the mists. Shadows were trekking along the path in single file and
in seconds Capac regonised them as eloprin. "Thank the mother!"
The tribe had heard the shots and were running at a
considerable pace. Still at the lead, Elio's frown broke into
relief.
"Keep going, Elio," Capac urged, his eyes searching
through the ranks. A nagging fear allieviated slightly from his
heart when he saw Riel keeping pace with the rest of the children.
He was alive, for the moment.
Capac kept pace with the tribe, all senses attuned to
a fine edge. The silence assaulting his ears was somehow worse and
it filled his heart with uncertainty. It was impossible they had
shaken off their pursuers yet too much time was passing without
incident. A thin film of sweat glistening on his brow Capac knew
fear, not for himself but for Riel. He must survive, he thought
fiercely, shaking off a moment of pessimistic brooding.
It was not his ears that averted disaster but his
nose. Skin prickling Capac drew in another sharp breath, tasting
the air upon the back of his tongue. The ever-present smell of the
trees and swamp pervaded almost everything, yet there was a subtle
undercurrent. The mists hung still, disturbed only by the passing
of the villagers - indicating practically no breeze. Turning his
head Capac identified the direction from which the almost
intangible smell originated. It was before them. It smelt like hot
metal.
"Move aside!" Capac cried suddenly, breaking the
eerie silence. He knew that somewhere ahead another squadron of the
Federation soldiers awaited to trap them. "Elio - into the
forest."
Elio darted into the trees without a second thought
and the sixty-odd tribespeople followed him into the marshlands
with the confidence of ones born to the forest. Seconds later
Capac's suspicions were confirmed as an unnaturally silent craft
drifted from the mists, floating above the ground like a shark
shafting through water.
Five hunters fired arrows into the accelerating hover
tank - their efforts futile. The twin cannons flanking the slender
tank glowed dull red as waves of heat washed down the passage of
the trail bordered on either side by a wall of trees.
Capac saw the hunters die instantly - he had been a
hairs-breadth of falling prey to the beam himself. Some of the
villagers screamed suddenly, in their panic losing each other in
the mist. Cursing, Capac picked himself up and stumbled forward,
guided by an inner sense towards his nephew.
Riel yelled in fright as Capac swooped and plucked
the youngster from his feet.
"Uncle! Where is everybody?"
Capac cast aside his cane and struggled to retain his
hold upon Riel. Somehow, very quickly, they had lost contact with
the rest of the tribe and now the two were alone in an island of
mist and forest. Lungs burning and muscles stretching to breaking
point Capac could only hope he headed in the right direction. He
dare not call out to Tatura for fear of bringing the Federation
tanks upon him, leaving him alone and without direction.
The ground gave way and he fell knee deep into mud.
Grasping handfuls of reeds that cut into his skin Capac pulled
himself free. His skin stung with a thousand abrasions, his vision
blurred and hearing muffled. Fighting through this landscape of
horror Capac kept moving with single-minded determination, the
child in his hands still and wide-eyed.
Hands reached out and caught his fall. Capac raised
his head and blinked. It took a few seconds for him to pull the
moonlight washed features into focus.
"Elio, I'm glad to see you!"
"I've found the tunnel." Elio helped Capac and Riel
into the hollow.
"You did well." Now on his knees Capac looked down
into the dark hole that lay half-obscured by a clump of reeds. Upon
cursory inspection it looked like a pryon's den - thus something to
avoid - but Capac knew that it lead directly down into the vast
underground caverns of the Ansarii. "How many made it?"
"Only five so far." Elio swallowed. "I'm s-sorry. In
the mist I just lost sight of them and - "
"That's okay, get yourself in there quickly. Riel, go
with him." The child knew better than to argue with his uncle and
silently allowed himself to be placed in Elio's hands. Capac
paused, heart racing. "Quickly, get down there both of you.
Something's coming."
Frozen where he lay Capac held his breath, pulse
sounding like a drumbeat in his temples. A shadow angled closer
then paused, looking about as if lost. Capac pursed his lips and
softly whistled the song of a bird.
The figure heard it and immediately charged directly
for the hollow. "That's got to be you Capac." The shadow dropped
into the hollow. "That bird lives up in the mountains, not down
here in the swamp."
Capac snorted in a moment of blessed levity and
relief. "It got your attention, didn't it?"
Tatura's voice dropped in seriousness. "Something is
moving around out there - and it isn't one of our tribe or any
k'lockri."
"We must call our tribe here." Capac pulled his knife
from its sheath. "And just hope we can fend off what ill falls out
way."
Tatura pulled his horn from his belt, brows raised in
question. Capac nodded a firm affirmative.
The long mournful note rang through the forest
shattering still mists. Echoing startlingly it sounded louder than
any volcano eruption or landslide. It seemed to ring on forever and
Capac instantly felt helpless, knowing that their cover was now
forfeit.
In the next few seconds a great number of the
villagers emerged from all directions, faces reflecting immense
gratitude in finding their fellows. Wordlessly Capac indicated that
all should scramble down the hole.
Barely had they disappeared did a tightly packed band
of metal armoured soldiers appear from nowhere, weapons held low
and ready. In that exact same instant Capac saw a band of eloprin
stumbling towards the hollow from the opposite direction.
"Run!" cried Capac, unheeding now of his own safety
as he stood and waved his hands at the villagers. "Run!"
Tatura drew back his bow and let fly the feathered
shaft. The arrow glanced the helmet of the foremost soldiers,
momentarily knocking him off-balance. But the ploy did not distract
the surrounding soldiers as they immediately fanned out and dropped
onto their stomachs, disappearing from view yet still creeping
forward.
Taking the newly arriving villagers' hands in his own
Capac roughly showed them to the tunnel entrance, pushing them
quickly knowing that the seconds they had left were fast running
out.
A sudden snarl pumped further adrenalin into Capac
and Tatura's veins before they realised the sound came from a few
metres distant. Fierce activity broke out from that section in the
swamp punctuated by numerous blasts of laser fire that lit up the
mist like bombs. Three more of the energy blasts followed before
silence settled once more. Allowing himself a wry grin Capac knew
the soldiers had stumbled into a nest of pryons, who had in turn
shown them a dose of native hospitality.
A red dot appeared upon Tatura's forehead noticed
only by Capac. Crouching there immobile Tatura saw the look of
horror spread across Capac's face in that split second.
"What's - " Tatura's words wrenched into a ugly
scream as the top of skull disappeared in a mass of red blood.
Capac ducked aside as his friend's body flung spread-eagled onto
the damp earth.
Capac knew there was no time for a last look or
second thought. Diving headlong he landed hard upon his forearms,
skidding down the tunnel. Scrambling down the dirt enclosure barely
large enough to allow his passage Capac paused to dig up a vine
cloaked under a layer of earth. Shuffling forward again he then
caught the vine in the foot of his good leg and tugged as hard as
he was able. Nothing happened, and a fresh bead of perspiration
glistening on his brow, Capac heaved again.
The vine moved, pulling with it a supporting branch
that roofed the tunnel. A cloud of dirt forced its way up his nose
as the massive weight of the aboveground soil collapsed in upon the
tunnel entrance, shrouding Capac in pitch darkness. Breathing a
sigh Capac was suddenly grateful that his elaborately laid
mechanism had not rotted into disrepair.
Hoping that the collapsed entrance would cloak their
escape, and also praying for the souls of those villagers who
remained outside in the swamp, Capac shuffled forward deeper into
the catacombs.
Voices filtered through the air and he found himself
momentarily blinded by a blast of yellow light seemingly brighter
than the sun to his night-accustomed eyes. Elio had shown them the
cache of firewood. Capac silently allowed himself a moment's
congratulation in displaying the foresight to lay out a month's
worth of dried meats down in these tunnels.
The hands of the Chieftain aided Capac from the
tunnel and into the open space. Even though the flickering
torchlight lit up only a small radius it could be sensed by the
echoes that the cavern they were in was as large as village. It was
this cavern, filled with ruins of buildings, that Ashian Myshia and
himself had found all that time ago.
"Tatura?" questioned Kiroth.
Capac shook his head in the negative, still averting
his eyes while they became accustomed to the blinding light. "How
many of us made it here?"
"Twenty six, including yourself." Kiroth's voice
trembled slightly. "That's less than half our number."
"We must remain in hiding for as long as possible,"
said Capac. "We stand no chance of survival against superior
technology."
Kiroth breathed in the dank, stale smelling air. The
steady drip drip drip of trickling water ran into stagnant ponds
and a myriad of small insects swarmed about the torchlight. Every
breath they exhaled clouded in the cold air and skin unconsciously
prickled, somehow feeling that a presence far greater than their
own looked over them.
Kiroth said, "I guess we'd better get used to this,
then."
Capac nodded, his eyes finding the sharp edges of the
buildings half-obscured in shadow. "Right."
* * *
The lone figure wandered the smoking landscape of
craters and ravaged remains of military equip-ment. Massive tanks
lay in states of disrepair, silver-clothed occupants spilling from
hatchways wrenched away from their hinges. Haze hung in the air,
pools of radioactive water laying still in the hollows of the
desert.
Stepping carefully and checking the instrument in his
hand regularly, Shaun trekked through the region now devoid of all
life. Shaun knew that he placed his life in the hands of the
instrument that detected landmines, for if it failed to pick one up
then the next step he took would be his last.
Sweat trickled down his face, the air stifling inside
the plastic gasmask fastened across his face and sealing into his
helicasuit. "What the hell is this?" he cursed to himself in a
mutter as he saw that the land before him was thick with landmines.
They must have been dropped from the air. The same frustrating
thought ran through his mind, knowing that the Federation had
employed a new type of land-mine designed by the Skeeters that was
undetectable to the sonic radar he now used. Fortunately it seemed
most of the buried explosives were anti-tank mines, and would only
be set off by 400kg of weight upon them.
This thought did little to ease his mind for Shaun
knew that the Hartrias were fond of dropping anti-personnel
landmines that would blast ones ankle-bones up through the top of
the skull at super-sonic speeds.
Shaun stopped, pausing long enough to gaze up at the
orange sky. He had been journeying for several weeks now - weeks
that seemed like years when every minute held the prospect of
death. Habitually twisting his wrist Shaun caught himself, for he
knew that his watch was broken. It had smashed against a rock in
his encounter with a column of Hartrias footsoliders. Shaun had
managed to evade them and, with the aid of his helicasuit that
cloaked infra-red and a paint that absorbed radar, had gone
stealth. In his scramble to safety he had fallen and smashed his
watch and with it the global positioning micro-chip. Not that it
was much good to him - he didn't have a map and he didn't know
where he was going. It did not matter if he were lost.
He had landed the Minnow in the swamps where he had
last seen his native friends, knowing that if he remained airborne
in the fighter craft it would quickly attract the attention of the
Hartrias. At the time foot seemed to be the method of travel, but
now Shaun rued his choice.
Collapsing into the scrap of shade behind a boulder
Shaun closed his eyes. The landscape had changed a lot over the
course of a year; now more than ever his quest of finding Ashian,
Myshia and Capac seemed hopeless.
The word rung through his mind. He made the decision
then that it was time to turn back.
Sucking a little liquid through the straw on the
inside of his mask Shaun stood after a short rest, consulted his
instrument, then stepped forward. He was aiming westwards, back to
the site of the swamp. Hopefully the Minnow was still intact. Shaun
knew he would be roasted by the Generals back at the Federation
command ship, but that was something suddenly much more preferable
than these sun-baked plains.
* * *
He was glad to be amongst the trees again. The vast
plains had undoutably affected his thought processes because now,
back in the swamp, he felt more in control of the situation. His
pistol was in his hand, armed and ready should a pryon or k'lockri
attack. Through the trees the sun had now disappeared, marking the
end of another day.