Read Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor Online
Authors: Jonathan P. Brazee
Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor (16 page)
I looked up to see the others holding the rope down, providing a pivot point so that it wasn’t lifted up by the length going up to Hamlin, but with my weight in the water, that probably wasn’t necessary.
I cracked a smile at their intense concentration when the water pressure on me ceased and I suddenly started moving downstream. I looked back and saw Alfhid in the water. Not on the edge, but moving in the current. The rope must have slipped, and now we had no anchor on the far side.
I had to get across immediately. With both of us in the water, the three on the rope could not hold it down, and it would lift up until we were anchored by one point only: Hamlin on top of the cliff. And the two ropes together were long enough that the far end, Alfhid, would be in the raging torrent of the main current.
I started to lunge as hard as I could to get across. The rope started lifting, and Ratt was pulled off the ground. Mike sat down against the strain, and Borlinga stumbled on him, losing her grip. The rope lifted higher, while Ratt hung on with determined ferocity.
As the current swept me downstream, it also brought me closer to the bank. I was too heavy for the rope to immediately lift up, so the rope was going down from Hamlin to the four already across, then mostly horizontally to me downstream. But the three of them were being half-dragged and forced to half-stumble their way along the bank. The rope was no longer at a nice 90 degree angle.
Borlinga had jumped back on the rope, making four of them on it again, but Ratt was already suspended, and she shouted furiously for Alfhid to get her butt over. I was close now, but I had to get over before I rounded the tip of our island and hit the main current. With one hand on the rope, I made a desperate lunge just as my feet hit bottom. I wrapped my free hand around a rock, and stumbled ashore. I turned to look just as Alfhid hit the boundary between the calmer water and the torrent. She was flailing away with one arm, but she made no discernable progress.
I grabbed the rope with both arms and pulled back with all my strength. The force of Alfhid in the current dragged me along the rocky bank, threatening to send me back into the water. Only the decreasing angle of the rope to the shore enabled me to fight it. I was finally able to plant my feet and stop, but the strain was hard. I tried to pull in, but my arms just weren’t strong enough. I could see Alfhid’s panicking face as she kept going under.
Now we had three pivot points. Hamlin was on top of the cliff. The other four were essentially under him, if not a bit downstream. And I was downstream, the force pulling against me horizontal. If I let go, the force would soon be pulling directly against Hamlin, and there was no way he could pull Alfhid to safety from that vantage. There would be too much rope weight added onto the force contributed by the pull of the river on Alfhid’s body
Someone ran into me and grabbed the rope. I barely noticed it was Borlinga.
“Hold on for a moment. The rest are coming.”
I concentrated on just remaining steady, but I could feel the others join us one by one. If they had all come at once, then the upwards pressure on the rope as I became the new next pivot point from Hamlin would probably have been too much for me to hold on. Ratt snuck in front of me, the others behind me.
“OK, on my count, heave. Heave!” I shouted. “Heave!”
We pulled Alfhid back to us maybe a meter or two when the rope slid through our hands, and she went back out maybe tree meters. We had lost ground.
“Just walk her!” Lindadawn shouted.
We turned, and even stumbling over each other, we were able to start moving back upstream. Each step was agonizing. I had the rope over my shoulder, hands grasped on it, and the strain was getting to me. I didn’t know how much longer I could go. Each time someone slipped or fell, our progress stopped. Then it was hard to get going again. Ratt stumbled against me from behind, but she was small enough that I didn’t falter because of that. Behind me, I don’t think she could exert any horizontal force on the rope, but her pulling down was adding more pressure to my shoulders.
“Ratt, move ahead of us. Get to the front!” I shouted at her.
She didn’t hesitate. There wasn’t much room along the edge, but she scrambled up and around us like a mountain goat, jumping to take the far side of the rope, the side leading up to Hamlin. We started moving forward better when the pressure against us fell away.
Had Alfhid fallen out of the loop?
I spun around, still holding the rope. Alfhid was still there, but now in the calmer water of this side of the island. She clung weakly to the rope against the rocks, but she didn’t make a move to climb out of the water.
“Hold on!” Lindadawn shouted, then went racing down the edge of the bank.
Ratt pushed past me to join her. My arms trembled, but holding the rope now was much, much easier. The two reached Alfhid, then stepped into the water and dragged her out. With Alfhid on solid land, I sat down in a heap. My nanos were going to have their work cut out for them. My muscles ached.
Downstream from me, maybe thirty meters away, Alfhid finally sat up, coughing up water. She looked up and weakly blew us a kiss. Somehow, against any odds I would have laid, we had gotten her back.
Hamlin shouted worriedly several times over the edge, lying down, face pointed toward us. We shouted back, telling him that we were OK. Alfhid wasn’t moving anywhere soon, so we decided to send Ratt and Borlinga up as the two lightest. Ratt wanted to stay with us, but the logic of mass deemed otherwise. With the rope tied around their chests and under their arms, they climbed while Hamlin hauled them. Mostly, it was Hamlin hauling. Ratt was off the cliff face more than she was on.
Mike was bigger, but Hamlin mostly hauled him up, too. Lindadawn and I waited with Alfhid until she seemed more herself again, even if pretty weak. When she said she was ready, Lindadawn went up. Logic said I should be next so I could help Hamlin bring her up, but that supposed she would be able to tie herself in one-handed. So we decided that I would wait until last. After Lindadawn got up, she had Hamlin rest a bit while I prepared Alfhid.
“Thanks for back there,” she told me when we were alone.
I didn’t know what to say. “Oh just be quiet. Let’s get you up the cliff.”
“No, really. I was sure I was a goner. I know you kept me from drowning. The others, God bless them, they were willing, but it was you.”
I felt embarrassed. “Well, you would have done the same for me.”
“I would hope so, but you did it.”
The rope was tied, and I signaled them to begin to haul her up. Just as her feet left the ground, she leaned over and kissed my cheek.
“If the game were still on, I’d want you to win.”
It may have been corny, but I felt a little something when she said that, even when she looked down again and added with a laugh, “I mean, if I couldn’t win, of course!”
She slowly made her way up, good arm grasping the rope and legs trying to keep her from banging too hard on the cliff face. Hands reached down and pulled her over the ledge.
The rope came back down for me. I know Hamlin had to be getting tired, even if he had more help now, so when I went up, I tried to mostly climb under my own power. I think I did a pretty good job at it, maybe needing support only once or twice. I made it up and was happy to be off the rope. Hamlin might have been happier. Although smiling, he looked exhausted. He probably felt worse than I did.
The others had already told him about the barrier, so we made our way back to the camp. We were out of food, and we still had to haul up more water, but spirits were higher now that we had taken some proactive action. We were not just waiting for whatever the fates wanted to throw at us.
Chapter 19
We woke up the next morning to find Mike gone. There was no sign of him anywhere. We searched the camp, which took only a few moments. We checked around the bridge. We went over into Indian Country and even checked the snares. While there was a dead rabbit in the drag noose, which we gratefully harvested, there was no Mike.
Hamlin even climbed back on top of the camp walls and looked downstream to the trout cove, but there was no sign of him there, either. I think all of us had the same fear. Mike had been pretty down on himself since Yash’s death, and the incident crossing the river seem to further depress him. Could he have been so down that he’d killed himself, maybe jumping into the river below? No one said so out loud, but by looking at the others, it was a pretty safe bet that the rest had considered the same thing. We hadn’t felt our telltales vibrate, so he could be alive and out there somewhere, but we were all asleep when he disappeared, so we may have missed them signal his death.
We butchered the rabbit and ate as we waited around. I decided to broach the subject about the transponders. During the night, I’d noticed that mine had gone completely dark. Alfhid, being topless, had noticed the same thing, but had decided to remain quiet about it. Hamlin also hadn’t a shirt, but he hadn’t even noticed his going dark. The others took quick looks. Only Ratt’s had a faint rose glow which could be seen only if she cupped her hand around it. It looked like we had lost that faint connection with civilization. While we hadn’t much connection with much of anything since October died, the moral blow of losing our transponders hit us hard.
By afternoon, we collectively assumed that Mike was gone, not to return. We were down to six of us.
Chapter 20
We all had a fitful night’s sleep. A gnawing hunger ate at my belly, and I know the others were hungry, too. And I think Mike’s disappearance affected each of us more than we let on.
By morning, after hauled up water, we tried to figure out how long we had until rescue could arrive. Mike would’ve come up with a firmer figure, no doubt. But the best we could do was to decide rescue could be in as little as three days and as much as over a week. We just had to last until then.
Which meant we had to get more food, at least once. We were already starving, having eaten only three rabbits in three days, and our effectiveness was compromised. Hamlin especially seemed affected. His skin was taut over his muscles. I guessed his big body needed a lot of calories just to keep breathing.
We still could have waited a day or two, but by then, we would be getting weaker. So we decided to go out while we still had some strength left. We would go retrace our route back toward the landing strip and try to find the fruit Alfhid had seen, collecting anything else along the way we could discover.
It didn’t take us long to get ready. This was a far different crew from the group that had set out to catch trout, so full of energy and hope just a short time ago.
I seemed to have been somehow ceded the point man position. I didn’t really want it, but I accepted it. I had my spear at the ready as I moved carefully down the trail. The crew hadn’t tried to hide it, but even a novice tracer could back-track along the huge three-toed footprints left by my killer. Birds twittered alongside us, and each tiny motion in the brush instantly brought up images of Hell Pigs or T-Rexes. My adrenaline was pumping as we moved along.
Lindadawn stopped us once and moved to the side of the path. She knelt to dig up something, a root from the looks of it. She sniffed it, then grimaced and threw it away.
“Sorry about that. I thought it looked like a yam plant. I guess I should’ve paid more attention to that class.”
I had never eaten a yam. We didn’t have them on Monsanto. (I guess we farmed only about 30% of the plants cultivated on Earth.) But I would’ve liked to try one. I would’ve liked to try about anything by then.
We walked on. Something or some things big crashed by in the near distance, followed by squeals and roars. The noise ended mid-squeal. An animal, construct or natural, had just died. I shuddered and moved on.
We came around a bend in the trail, and we could smell a cloying sweetness in the air.
“It’s mango!” said Ratt in a stage whisper.
I moved carefully forward until I saw an orangish fruit on the ground in front of me. Kneeling, eyes still scanning in front of me. I picked it up. It was mushy and long past its expiration date, but I bit into it. An almost overpowering sweetness filled my mouth. I was lost in ecstasy as I swallowed. Juice and bits of fruit dribbled down my chin.
I turned to show the others what it was when a snuffling, grunting sound got my attention. I spun back around, mango forgotten for the moment. I couldn’t see what was making the noise until it moved from in back of some bushes. The Hell Pig was harvesting mangos as well, head down, small tail held high. I don’t think it knew we were there yet.
I slowly backed up to the others. They must have seen from my expression that something bad was in front of us.
“Yea, Ratt, there are mangos there. A bunch of trees, I think. But the Hell Pig’s there, too. And I think he is claiming the mangos as his.”
“I guess that’s that,” said Lindadawn, starting to edge back.
“Wait a minute, let’s think this through,” Hamlin stopped her. “We need those mangos, unless you know of somewhere better to get something to sustain us. And the pig backed away from us last time. I think we can drive him off.”
“It killed October,” Borlinga reminded him.
“Yes, but that’s because she attacked it. When we went forward together, it ran off.”
“I think we can kill that thing.” Ratt shocked us into silence.
“No, really. Think of it. That’s not a real prehistoric killer. It’s a pig or something, engineered into what looks like the devil. And we eat pigs in Thailand. We can kill it. Just hit it in the throat right here,” she indicated a spot on her neck. “And we have all the food we’ll need until rescue comes.”
“Pig or not, that’s still one big, huge monster,” Lindadawn said.
“I’m just sick and tired of sitting here waiting for things to happen to us. We need to take what we want.”
In a way, I understood what she was saying. I hated being the victim. On the other hand, I didn’t want to face that thing with only a flint-tipped spear.
“Super Ratt, you’re a fierce little bitch,’ Alfhid told her. “I’ve gotta give you that. But as much as I would love some fried bacon, I think we can skip that for now.”
“I’m just saying it, you know?”
“I know, sweetie, and we love you for that.”
“I’m still not convinced that we should even try to drive him off. Are some mangos really worth it?” Lindadawn continued.
“I have to go with Lindadawn here,” Borlinga agreed. I couldn’t help noticing that her fake syntax was fading. With most of us in on it, maybe it didn’t seem worth the effort when things were on the line.
Hamlin looked back down the trail. “I’m going to stay out of this one,” I was surprised to hear him say. “Ratt and Alfhid, I assume you want to drive it off and get some mangos?”
They both nodded in agreement.
“And Lindadawn and Borlinga, you want to pull back and think of something else, some other way to get some food?”
“It seems to be the most prudent thing to do,” answered Lindadawn.
He looked at me. “I’m going along with the majority, whatever that is. What do you say?”
I looked at five expectant faces peering at me. I admired and respected Lindadawn, and she was usually right. But my heart went with Ratt. I wanted to strike back at all the crap thrown at us. And it had readily backed down before.
“I say we get some mangos.” Rat looked thrilled, but Lindadawn’s eyes furrowed as if she felt betrayed. I looked away. “But that means driving it off. Not actually attacking it.”
“OK, OK,” Ratt readily agreed. “Just drive the bastard off.”
We started planning it out. We didn’t want to surround it. We needed to give it an avenue of escape. So we decided to make a concerted front and move that to it in lock-step, shouting and making a nuisance of ourselves.
I crept forward to spot it again. For a moment I thought it might have already wandered off, but then I saw it in the dappling of the sunlight coming through the trees. It grunted happily as it foraged.
I came back to tell the others, and we all crept down the far side of the trail. When we got even to where I had last seen it, on Hamlin’s signal, we all got up and started shouting.
The grunting stopped, and suddenly, we could see the beast, yellow eyes glaring at us. It stamped one of its surprisingly dainty-looking feet at us, but it didn’t charge.
“OK, move forward,” Hamlin directed us.
We stamped our feet and edged forward, still shouting.
“Get away from our mangos, you piece of shit!” screamed Ratt, while the rest of us shouted mere incoherent noises.
The beast was getting extremely agitated. It suddenly hit me, watching it swing its head back and forth, that its eyesight was probably pretty bad, that it couldn’t make out what we were.
“Wave your arms,” I shouted, figuring it needed to see us before it turned and ran.
We were pretty close to it by then, and when we started waving our arms, it wheeled away. But it was up against a tree trunk, and as it wheeled, its little hind hoofs slipped on the ripe mangos underfoot, and it bounced off the tree. Falling over to its back, it waved its legs helplessly in the air for a moment.
That instant of helplessness was all Ratt needed to forget her promise. With a shriek, she plunged forward, spear pointed at the huge beast’s belly. Before she could cross the short distance to it, though, the Hell Pig scrambled up. Ratt’s spear never even hit it, and the huge head turned, mouth snapping closed on Ratt’s side.
It didn’t worry her or keep biting. It let go just as Alfhid, with a battle cry worthy her Viking ancestors rushed forward, spear straight and true in her good arm, steadied with her recovering bad one. She might have been trying for the throat as Ratt had suggested, but the spear missed and plunged deep into the thing’s shoulder. It roared in pain and flung its head, sending Alfhid flying up against the tree trunk. She fell bonelessly to the ground.
Our telltales vibrated.
The Hell Pig swung around to look back at us, spear sticking out of its shoulder. It started to move, and for a moment, my perspective was such that I thought it was charging. But it was trying to run, to get away from its tormentors.
It crashed off through the bushes, and the four of us rushed forward. Alfhid looked OK, as if she was going to get up in a moment, laughing it off. But she was still. I checked her pulse without hope. The telltales didn’t lie. She was gone. I eased her down, and her head flopped on a loose neck.
I looked over to where the others were on Ratt. She looked pretty bad. There was so much blood flowing from her side, so much for such a tiny body.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she kept saying.
“Hush, Super Ratt,” Lindadawn soothed her. “It’s OK.”
“I just thought it was helpless, and I wanted to kill it, I wanted it dead because of Paul, because of Tobie, because of the others….” Her voice trailed off.
Lindadawn looked up at us, tears in her eyes as she shook her head.
“Tell Alfhid that …”
Our telltales vibrated again. In thirty seconds, we had lost two of us. Just like that. For a pig that was running, that had wanted to run away.
Borlinga stood up and started to strip Ratt of her clothes. I grabbed her arm.
“What’re you doing?”
Borlinga looked at me with her calm eyes. “We still need food. This doesn’t change that. And unless you can carry all we need in your hands, we can use her clothes as a pack. Along with your jeans and shirt, along with my shirt. With anything we can.”
I wanted to object, but couldn’t. She was right. I looked down at Super Ratt’s body. The punctures looked so huge against her tiny lifeless frame, but still, there were only the four bite marks. The rest of her body seemed fine, but now so helpless lying on the jungle ground.
We didn’t bother taking off Alfhid’s shorts. They would not have held much. With our makeshift packs, we picked up as many mangos as we could carry. I was actually loaded down with my jeans and shirt full of them. Hamlin had filled his pants and had taken Ratt’s shirt.
As soon as we were finished, we trudged back, four naked apes burdened by our gathering. I was still nominally point, but I doubt I could have done much had anything attacked. I didn’t even glance back for one last look at Ratt and Alfhid. I couldn’t.