Arrival (46 page)

“Just unload it on him… as fast as you can… when he comes around the bend. If you can piss him… off again… maybe he’ll… stand up and roar… at us again.”

“Don’t you think… we’ve pissed him off… enough?” Will replied.

“When he roars… I’ll put one into his mouth… and blow out the back… of his fucking head. That should slow him… down a bit!”

Will settled down into a firing position next to Jack. “I’m not very good… with this thing… you know.”

“He’s only gonna be… twelve meters away. Just unload… the whole clip on him.” Jack whispered as he adjusted his aim. “One of them… is bound to hit.”

Jack waited, peering half through his targeting scope and half over the top of the scope, down into the gully below them. He could hear the sound of the beast approaching. Its lumbering paws, its ominous grunting pant, intermixed with occasional cries of pain from numerous wounds.

Will fought back his fear as they waited. He counted in his head the number of times he had actually fired a weapon at something living. Then he counted the number of times he had actually hit what he had been aiming at. The ratio was not encouraging. Neither was the number of times his hits had actually killed something.

His fear swelled as the sounds of the approaching creature grew closer. But there was something else, another sound, like small pebbles falling down the sides of a large rock.

The beast slowly rounded the corner. It hadn’t spotted them yet. Its face was bloodied from its wounded eye, its gait somewhat staggered as it tried to determine the range from various objects, using only its good eye. Its head rose slightly, sniffing the air with a large, black nose. The enemy was nearby. Another angry half-growl came from the beast’s mouth as it proceeded into the gully.

“That’s it,” Jack whispered. “Keep coming.”

Something small bounced off of Will’s back, and then off of his leg. Will instinctively turned his head to see where it had come from.

The beast caught the motion with its good eye, turning toward their position.

“It spotted us!” Jack warned.

Will’s eyes widened in horror as he looked up behind them. Crouched into an attack stance atop the rock behind them was the tall, muscular, humanoid that had originally spooked their prey. Its mouth was open, exposing sharp teeth and a pair of fangs. Its eyes were squinted and focused, full of rage and intent with a rugged frame coiled tightly to launch an attack.

“Jack!” Will warned as he grabbed at Jack’s shoulder.

Jack’s head spun around, his shoulders following as the ape-like creature above them let out a bloodcurdling howl. Jack and Will both spun around to take aim at the second creature, but it was too late.

The humanoid leapt at them from its perch. Jack’s heart stopped at the sight of the creature leaping into the air.

Will had already headed to his right, down their pre-planned escape route, not waiting to become the meal of yet another alien aggressor.

Jack raised his weapon to fire as the humanoid creature sailed over his head, landing a good five meters past him in the middle of the gully, right in the path of the rampaging beast. A split second later, the two creatures were locked in combat, rolling around wildly in the gully below.

Jack watched in amazement as the battle raged. Fur flew from the four-legged beast as the humanoid slashed at its opponent’s flanks with long, muscular arms. The beast latched its massive jaws onto the humanoid’s right leg as it fell over, eliciting a cry of pain. The humanoid reached its right arm down around the beast’s neck, driving its claws into the beast’s throat. A gurgling sound nearly drowned the beast’s cry as blood shot from its neck. Again, the beast locked its jaws onto the humanoid’s leg, struggling to defend itself.

That was enough for Jack—it was time to leave. He had no idea who was going to win this battle, but he was sure he didn’t want to hang around to find out.

He looked to his right just in time to see Will disappearing around the corner of the rocks at the bottom of their escape route. Will had the right idea, and Jack followed without hesitation.

Will rounded the rocks at the bottom of the crevice and turned to the right between more rocks. Jack was no more than three meters behind him when he too reached the bottom and turned to follow.

Will broke out into the open, south of the rocks. He started to run, kicking up snow as he plowed through the thigh-deep snowdrifts. All he could think of was getting back to camp. To Will, the camp meant safety.

Jack wanted to get back to camp as well, but for different reasons. Ammunition. Whoever won that battle back in the gully might come looking for them next.

Jack emerged from the rock field. He could see Will making his way across the snowdrifts, moving faster than he had ever seen him move before. “Will!” he called as he headed out across the snow after him.

Will wasn’t about to slow down, not until he got some serious distance between him and those two alien creatures battling it out in the gully behind them.

Jack struggled to catch up, following Will’s path through the snow to reduce his effort. He kept his eyes on Will as he followed him, the sounds of the ferocious battle fading.

As he ran, Jack noticed a pain in his left leg. He looked down as he ran. Blood was dripping from a long gash in his thigh. He slowed for a moment, taking the opportunity to see if either of the two creatures was following them. But there was no sign of any pursuit.

Suddenly, Jack heard Will scream. He spun his head forward, but Will was nowhere to be seen. All Jack could see was the snowdrift where Will had been a moment ago. There was a terrible sound, like mountains of snow falling onto the ground all at once. “Will!”

Jack continued running forward, stopping short as the snow fell away in front of him. “Will!” Jack fell to his knees, his hands shuffling through the snow along the hard surface below, as he searched for an edge.

He found it. He looked to both sides. The snow had given way in front of him for at least twenty meters on either side of their path. He peered over the edge. Below him was another crevice at least fifteen meters deep. It was narrow at the top, maybe a meter or two across, opening up at the bottom to probably three times that. “Will!” His voice echoed in the space below. Jack scanned the bottom of the hole. It was illuminated by an eerie bluish-white light, the source was white directly below him, and blue to either side.

Jack searched frantically for any sign of Will, but all he could see was snow, lots of snow.
He’s gotta be down there somewhere
, Jack thought.

Jack continued to call out, but there was no response. No sound, and no movement. Further observation showed that the gully below was long. Jack couldn’t see an end in either direction.
It must’ve been covered up by the snow
, he thought.

“Will! If you can hear me, I’m going to run back to camp and get a rope! I’m gonna get you out of there! I promise!”

It was the most difficult thing Jack had ever done, tearing away from the edge of that cliff. But he had no choice. It was too far to jump down. And even if he could do so safely, there was no guarantee that he could get them both back out.

He ran back to camp, backtracking just enough to reach the edge of the rock field, hoping to avoid falling into the same crevice. He didn’t care who had won the battle back in the gully, beast or humanoid. The thought of the victor looking for him never even entered his mind. All he could think of was getting back to camp and returning with a rope. He had to get to Will.

* * *

Lynn leapt from her berth, dashing to the bathroom. She barely got the toilet lid up before she vomited. It was a frightening experience, since she had never vomited before. She heaved several more times before she sat back up and closed the lid. She needed water to rinse the terrible taste from her mouth. She sat there for several minutes, before she realized that someone else was in the bathroom on the other side.

Struggling to fight back the nausea, Lynn rose to her feet and made her way out of the starboard bathroom over to the port side. She stood at the door, listening. She could barely hear the sound of someone breathing heavily from inside the stall. She carefully pushed the door open to find Adia in the same position she had been in only a moment ago.

* * *

Jack had never run so fast, making it back to camp in less than twenty minutes. Working as quickly as possible, he tossed what he thought he needed into his backpack, including the rope and another ammo clip for his rifle. A few moments later, he was on his way back to the crevice, swinging his pack up over his shoulders as he ran.

Jack noticed the sun was getting low in the sky. With only a few more hours of light left, he would have to work quickly if he wanted to rescue Will and somehow get him back to camp before dark.

Jack was careful to follow his own path through the snow on his way back. It not only made for easier going, but also ensured that he didn’t fall into another snow-covered hole.

When he finally made it back to the crevice, he was exhausted and out of breath. “Will!” he shouted between pants. “I’m back! I’m coming down… to get you!” Jack peered over the edge, half hoping to find his friend sitting at the bottom, waiting patiently for rescue. But there was only a white blanket of the snow.

There was something else as well, something he had not noticed earlier. Several dark patches of snow, directly below. They were all along a two-meter line. One small one, a larger one in the middle, and another small one, slightly off to the right.

Jack slid his pack off his shoulders, dropping it in the snow to his right, as he reached inside and pulled out a rope. Looking around, it suddenly dawned on him;
What the hell am I going to tie this rope to?
“Shit!” There was nothing nearby. No rocks, no trees. The nearest possible anchoring point was too far away.

“I’ll be right back!” Jack hollered as he pulled a hatchet from his pack and ran toward the nearest tree.

Jack leapt at the tree as he approached, grabbing onto the lowest branch and swinging himself up like a gymnast. With surprising grace, Jack ascended the tree until he reached what he thought to be a stout-enough branch and began hacking away at its base.

A few minutes later, the branch had been cut away, and Jack was dragging it across the snow, back to the crevice. He quickly draped the branch across the crevice and lashed his rope to it. After tossing his pack down into the abyss, Jack donned his climbing harness, twisted a descent ring through the line, clipped it to his harness and jumped into the gully.

The branch bowed at the sudden torque of Jack’s body weight while the rope became taut. Jack applied just enough tension to the rope to slow him to a safe speed. Still, he hit the bottom harder than he would have liked, his left ankle folding over as it plowed into the snow at the bottom of the gully and landed against an uneven, rocky surface.

Jack never noticed the pain. “Will!” Jack scrambled over to his pack, reached into a side pocket and pulled out a lantern. It was much darker down here than it had looked from above. As the lantern flickered to life, Jack saw inside the crevice clearly for the first time. It was about forty meters deep, four meters in width at the bottom, and varied between one and three meters in width at the top. Above him to the sides, he could see where the snow had frozen over to form a bridge across the crevice, hiding it from view of anyone on the surface. The late afternoon sunlight gave the frozen snow-bridges an eerie, bluish glow. The fissure looked to be endless in either direction, but there was no way to tell without investigation.

Jack looked toward the location where Will would have landed. The three dark patches of snow were dark red. He hurried toward the patches, dropping to his knees in the snow as he reached the first patch and frantically started digging into the crimson-stained snow. Within seconds he felt something. A boot.
Will’s boot
.

“Will!” he cried as he frantically brushed the snow away from Will’s boot and leg. “Oh God.” Jack reached Will’s knee. His pant leg was torn open, as was his knee, which was bloody and mangled. His kneecap was hanging off to the side, torn from its ligaments.

Jack continued brushing away snow as he worked his way up Will’s body.
Thigh, pelvis.
Will was on his side. His right side. He was lying on an uneven surface, draped over jagged rocks. Something Jack had dared not think about suddenly entered his mind.

In less than a minute, Jack had cleared away the snow from most of Will’s body. “Will!” he cried. Jack gently cradled Will’s head and neck to protect his cervical spine. Carefully, he rolled Will onto his back.

“Oh God,” Jack whispered. “Oh shit… Will,” he said in agony.

There was a huge gash in Will’s left side, from his mid abdomen up to just below his right armpit. Bowel, lung tissue, and pieces of broken ribs hung from the gaping wound. The snow and rock where Will had struck the ground was saturated with blood that had coagulated and begun to freeze.

Jack looked up at Will’s face. His right eye was smashed back deep into its socket, the perimeter of which was crushed and bloody. There was no life in his good eye; no foggy breaths, his face already ashen and cold.

Jack laid Will’s head gently down onto the snow. He knelt there for ages, staring at the face of his dead friend, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Why’d you have to go and fall in here, Will?” he cried. “Why?”

Suddenly, a small round shadow appeared over the bloody snow next to Will. A shadow from above. Jack spun around on his knees, nearly stumbling backwards over Will’s lifeless body, staring at the sight above him. Peering down over the edge of the crevice above was the face of the ape-like creature.

The creature’s long, bluish hair hung down in front of its face as it watched Jack. Its features were disheveled from the battle with the beast. Its face and hands stained with a mixture of its own blood and that of its dead opponent. It made no sound, no gestures. It only stared, a puzzled look on its face.

“What the hell are you looking at?” Jack cursed at the top of his lungs.

The creature gave no indication of a response.

“What do you want? A thank you?” Jack yelled as he got back to his feet. “Fine! Thank you very fucking much for coming to our rescue back there! Thank you very fucking much! But if you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone right now!”

The ape grunted, then growled softly.

“Get lost!” Jack yelled, his arms flapping wildly. Jack reached down and picked up his rifle, flipping off the safety as he swung around and raised his weapon. Four rounds left the barrel of his rifle in flashes of light and fire, crashing into the ledge above, but the ape-like creature had seen them coming and ducked away. Rock and snow came tumbling down on top of Jack. He quickly realized what a dumb idea it had been.