Into the Forest Shadows (20 page)

Strong arms wrapped around her middle from
behind, holding her firmly. Kate kicked out her feet with all her
might, striking the hard body behind her. Seeing Captain Straos's
portly body she kicked out at him, nearly knocking the Gatherer
holding her off-balance.

The Newcomer backed away quickly. "Behind
you! Lock them in the storage room. Do not delay!"

"You are weak, Newcomer," Diasis shouted.
"This is only a child! A child now filled with spores. I'll tear it
off myself."

The Gatherer dragged Kate backwards while she
continued her struggles and kicks. She saw Ayden briefly,
completely limp and showing no movement.

Behind her she heard Captain Straos say,
"Silence, Diasis. I gave an order. They will be contained until I
have full control."

The words only made Kate fight harder. If
Diasis had been close enough she would have kicked him, too. She
prayed for the chance to get even with the evil creature.

A door slammed open. The sun disappeared to
be replaced with musty darkness. She dropped to the ground of a
bare room with no furniture inside, the fall knocking the breath
out of her. She lay on the dirt floor trying to pull air back into
her lungs.

Ayden landed next to her with a hard thud,
his head resting a short distance away. His eyes were closed, his
breathing shallow.

The door clicked shut, leaving them in
darkness.

And the quiet was dangerous. In it she could
hear and feel the alien presence inside her. A presence building,
trying to take control.

Despite herself, the calm darkness of the
room pervaded her mind and body. She tried to push herself up, only
to find her arms lacked the strength. She lay on the ground with
her cheek on the grainy soil of the floor.

Her mind flew to anything to keep it at bay.
The need to escape. Her mother waiting in the city. Grandma alive
and in the same camp.

Grandma. Somehow she needed to finish
Grandma's work. But, what work was it? Her hazy mind couldn't quite
grasp the memory.

"A lot has happened since you last visited.
No one person can stop this now. It's gone too far," Grandma said,
handing Kate a cup of tea.

Kate automatically grabbed it, looking down
at it, confused to suddenly find herself sitting in Grandma's
living room again. Bunts gazed up at her from under the furniture.
She saw the boxes blocking the way back to the lab. The day of the
shuttle crash.

Kate regarded the tea suspiciously. "What is
going on? What needs to be stopped?"

"The Newcomers are stirring up the Shadow
Creatures. Making them believe they have a chance at the power some
have craved." Grandma sipped her tea, "Now the Ancients themselves
are in danger."

"The all-powerful Ancients?"

"No one is all-powerful." Grandma regarded
her with sad eyes, "The Newcomers bring to the situation a
dangerous unknown. I don't know why they are here. I can't explain
it, but I don't think their ship crashing on this world was a
complete accident. I think they meant to come here."

"Crash?" Images flooded Kate's mind,
including the pictures of the human colony ship shown in history
class. Now another ship on the planet? "The Newcomers aren't human,
are they? Otherwise the Alliance could take care of them."

"Once again you surprise me with your quick
mind. You are correct." Grandma leaned forward, her voice dropping
to a whisper. "If something happens to me and you aren't able to
find the Watcher, you must find the Ancients themselves."

"I'll try. But I don't even know what they
look like. No one knows what the Ancients look like."

"The forest creatures do. The forest itself
does. Learn to listen to the forest. It will lead you to where you
need to go. I'm counting on you."

Most of which made no sense at all. And,
wasn't she already protecting Mother from a family leach? Now all
this? The weight of it settled on her shoulders making her slouch
in her chair.

"Drink your tea, dear."

"I don't like it," Kate said, wrinkling her
nose at the pleasant aroma lying about the true taste.

"Sorry about that. I'm playing with the
flavorings but it's important you drink all of it. It's a
protection and it takes time to build up."

"A protection from what?" She sloshed the
dark tea in her cup.

"From what took over the sick trees you saw
in the orchard." Grandma took a long drink from her cup. She
promptly refilled it. "I fear because of my age it will take longer
to become effective than it might you."

Kate quickly checked her hands for any spots.
"The trees are contagious?"

"Possibly, but my main concern is direct
exposure to the contaminant."

"How could I be exposed?"

"You will have no doubt when it happens.
Watch out for the Shadow Creatures and Newcomers. I'm sure one of
them is the source."

Kate turned to study the landscape through
the window, the shadows among the trees turning ominous. She looked
down at the teacup in her hand and the dark hot liquid inside.
Setting her jaw she drank it down in several large gulps. When
Grandma refilled the cup she did it again.

The bitter taste overwhelmed her mouth. As
bad as it tasted it better work. She closed her eyes, forcing more
of it down her throat, angry she even had to drink the disgusting
stuff. All because aliens crashed on the planet and some of the
animals were getting uppity.

Why couldn't life calm down? Just a
little?

She felt a tickle on her cheek. A soft nose
rubbed against her chin.

She smiled. "Hello Bunbun."

The teacup was gone from her hand. Instead of
sitting in a comfy chair she found herself laying in the dirt of a
dark room lit only by small slivers of light from around the edge
of the door and along the floor.

The strength of the spores diminished in the
remains of her anger. Well, now she knew what 'direct exposure'
felt like. She also knew what could fight it.

Kate kept the rage. It didn't take much
effort. Imagining Uncle Travis's face. The toothy grin of Diasis.
The tree with the red mark laying in the middle of the clear-cut
clearing.

Bunbun cocked his head at her, looking into
her face.

"Found us, did you?" Kate asked, her voice
breaking. She cleared her throat and forced herself to roll
over.

Ayden lay next to her, unmoving. She forced
herself into a sitting position and reached out to shake his
shoulder. His eyes opened but he didn't move. Bunbun climbed on his
arm and poked at his face and he still didn't move. He'd had some
of the tea, but had it been enough?

She heard the sound of shuttle engines. Kate
frantically searched her pockets. Finding the small flat lump she
wanted she fumbled to open up the mobile phone. The signal status
showed a secondary signal. She dialed the number for her
mother.

A voice said, "There is no available
communications network. You can leave a voice message which will be
delivered the moment this communication module reaches a
communication relay."

At the beep Kate said as fast as she could,
"Mom! I'm still alive, but Ayden and I have been kidnapped by the
Shadow Creatures, Uncle Travis and an alien species who have
crashed a ship on the other side of the mountains. They infected
Grandma with something they call 'spores.' They're clear-cutting
and murdered the Watcher. The Shadow Creatures are massing to
attack the other Gatherer camps on the twin full moons!"

A beep interrupted her. She looked down. No
signal bar and no sound of the shuttle engines.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

She snapped shut the phone. Hopefully she
made sense. She only hoped Mother would believe the disjointed
message.

Time to turn to her own situation. She had a
promise to keep to Grandma to find the Ancients, and that meant
escaping into the forest.

She looked down at Bunbun, who had taken
residency next to Ayden, nuzzling his neck. "Know of a way out,
Bunbun?"

Bunbun glanced up at her and then turned back
to his nuzzling.

"Of course. No group mind to help," Kate
muttered. Too bad. Maybe with a group of bunts they could get out
of the place, if they could get the creatures to understand.

She quietly moved around the room, finding
the small hole Bunbun squeezed in through. Her first impression had
been correct, though. No windows and only the one door. And
Bunbun's hole was much too small to help. The hard-packed dirt
would take forever to dig out with the hands and fingers.

And all the while the spores grew in presence
and strength inside her. Her eyes felt heavy and her limbs
sluggish. It would be so easy to prop herself up against a wall and
fall asleep.

She heard Ayden move. Kate turned back in
time to see him roll on his back. Bunbun jumped out of the way only
to climb on his chest when Ayden stopped moving.

Kate knelt next to him and shook his
shoulder, "Ayden, wake up."

Ayden stared up at the ceiling, his face as
blank as the other Gatherers. The expression scared her. A
momentary lapse in attention and she would look the same way.
Grandma's tea hadn't been strong enough. Even so, somehow she had
to snap him out of it long enough to get into the forest.

The question was how. Kate glared at the
locked door. There had to be a way out!

The spores inched back, their control
slipping.

She smiled, having found her answer. She bent
down to Ayden's right ear and whispered loudly, "The city-girl is
going hiking among the stupid trees. Do you really trust me to do
that? I'm taking Bunbun with me."

Ayden blinked. Kate felt a momentary thrill
of excitement. Good. He was still in there somewhere.

BunBun let loose with a low thrum, shifting
nervously on Ayden's shirt. She grabbed him before he could hop
away, stuffing him into her shirt, her eyes darting towards the
door.

Shuffling steps stopped outside the door. She
poked at Bunbun until he quieted down, nestled against her stomach.
She lay down on the ground and schooled her features to be as
devoid of expression and emotion as possible. Pretend you're a
zombie, Kate repeated silently to herself.

If only she could be sure Ayden wasn't
already one.

The door creaked open. A shaft of light fell
across the dirt floor. Kate worked hard not to squint at the sudden
light. The light framed the shape of a Newcomer.

She tensed. The Newcomer was still too far
away and too firmly planted in the doorway to do much good. She was
sure she could push her way past him if needed, but not while
dragging Ayden behind her.

"Both of you, stand up!" the Newcomer said in
an authoritative tone that might have meant more if it weren't so
high-pitched.

Ayden immediately responded. Kate followed
his lead and rose to her feet, staring straight ahead with the
blank expression on her face. But oh, how her face wanted to
move.

BunBun shivered against her at the change in
direction. She hoped he didn't pop up. Who knew if the Newcomers
hated the bunts as much as the Shadow Creatures.

"You will work in the assembly area until
further notice. Follow me."

Into a building where it might be hard for
both to slip out. She didn't trust that they would remain together
and she wasn't about to leave without Ayden. She needed his
expertise to survive in the forest.

Their escape had to be now.

Ayden stepped forward. In two quick steps
Kate moved ahead of him, bringing up her foot for a sharp kick. The
heel struck the hard armor of the uniform, jarring her knee.

The Newcomer staggered back against a wall.
He hit the wall and fumbled at his belt. Kate didn't wait to find
out if it was for a weapon or more spores.

She pounced on him. The Newcomer squealed.
She felt a hard cold object at the belt that the Newcomer tried to
pull out. Kate twisted the object in a circle, breaking it out of
his grasp.

She backed away slowly, keeping herself
between the Newcomer and the door. "To the back of the room."

"But, you can't. The spores. No, you can't!"
the Newcomer squeaked as he backed away into a dark corner of the
hut.

"Maybe they aren't quite as strong as you
think they are," Kate mocked.

"You, human, stop her," the Newcomer
yelled.

Kate grabbed Ayden's arm and pulled, causing
him to trip out the door. "Ayden, go stand outside the door."

She said it as firmly as she could.
Amazingly, Ayden did exactly what she asked him to do. She kept the
weapon up, hoping she was pointing the correct end towards the
alien.

"It won't work for you. It is keyed
genetically to our kind." The Newcomer said, stepping forward.

In an act of bravery the Newcomer rushed
towards her.

Kate stepped back and slammed the door shut.
She leaned against it, reaching down for the board to slide across
the two bars on either side of the door.

With the door locked closed she took the time
to scrutinize the area. The wood muffled the cries of the Newcomer.
Time to get away before someone either came searching for him or
heard the noise.

Gatherers moved around the camp but didn't
pay any attention to them. No Shadow Creatures in view, but she
didn't count on it staying that way for very long.

"Time for a walk, Ayden," Kate said
softly.

Taking his hand she dragged him behind her.
Ayden willingly followed, but at a sedated walk. She tugged at him,
hoping to increase the speed, but to no avail.

Her cape was a bright red target. At every
sound she expected someone to discover them.

The edge of the clearing seemed as far away
as ever. The mountain range towered over the area, with her eyes
drawn to one specific peak. The perfect pyramid shape with a jagged
summit drew her attention. She'd seen it in the images of the
trees. She knew that was where she needed to head.