The Tactics of Revenge (11 page)

“So your plan is to escape down the river?” Sherri asked Adam.

Suddenly Adam burst through the thick barrier of man-size fronds to find himself balancing precariously on the bank of a muddy river, about twenty meters above the water. Bending his body like one of those wacky air displays at a car dealership, he eventually regained his balance and stabilized. He turned back to smile at Sherri, who was just now emerging from the jungle. Suddenly, the brittle muddy bank gave way and fell out from under his footing. Adam slid down the muddy bank and splashed into the water. Sinking under the surface, he felt a strong current begin to pull him down river. Adam was a strong swimmer, so with a few kicks of his legs, he broke through the surface and swam for the shore, beaching himself about twenty yards down from where he’d entered the river. Poul and Sherri were busily making their way along the bank above him, a concerned look plastered across Sherri’s face.

“Are you all right?” she called out to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said as he stood in about a meter of water.

“The vipers move within the river,” Poul offered. “I wouldn’t linger if I were you.”

Adam looked up and down the bank until he saw where the river and the bank matched the same level. He began to move downriver, staying a few meters in the water as he did so. “I need the two of you to move back into the jungle a few feet. I’ll meet you in the jungle over there,” he said, pointing to the point in the river where he would make his exit.

“What do you have in mind?” Sherri asked, as she and Poul moved back into the thick vegetation.

“I want anyone who’s following us to think we entered the river and have either crossed over or headed downstream. We’re going to double back through the jungle and take up a spot upriver, near the shipyards.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Sherri said, “but it’s going to be tough getting through the jungle without leaving a trail.”

“We’ll manage,” Adam said as he joined the other two within the canopy of vines and oversized leaves. “Besides, in a day most of the trail will be covered over with new growth.”

Adam led the way through the jungle, this time going slower and using his hands and arms to gently push away the barriers they encountered. In a few minutes they came upon the path Adam had cut through the jungle with his blade, a wide and obvious scare through the jungle. They jumped over the path, each being careful not to leave any signs of their passing, and soon they were once again trudging upriver.

They stopped about twenty minutes later when they heard noises coming from behind them. Adam moved to the edge of the jungle where it met the river. The waterway curved slightly away at this point and Adam could see pretty far down the river. There, at the point where his original path met the water, were a gaggle of Hyben security forces, their flashlights dancing helter-skelter across the scene. They were shouting and pointing across the river, and in a few moments, turned away from Adam’s location and began to follow the bank downstream.

Adam smiled as Sherri patted him on the back. “Good plan, Stan,” she said, matching his smile. Then she leaned over and kissed his cheek. She quickly feigned spitting motions to rid her lips of the sweat and grim from his face, but still her eyes smiled at him.

“Let’s get going,” he said. “Another twenty minutes or so and then we’ll head back toward the yards. It’ll be daybreak soon; we need to set up camp and try to find something to eat.”

Adam saw the grimace cross Sherri’s face. She still had the taste and smell of the Hyben baths in her memory. “I hope there’s something on this fucking planet worth eating.” Then she looked back at Poul, who was standing a few meters behind her, still in the cover of the jungle. “Maybe something like a giant shrimp cocktail?”

Adam looked at Poul as well and raised an eyebrow. “Definitely an option. Just wish we had a little sauce to spice it up a little.”

Poul just stared at them, confused by the Human’s sudden attention directed his way. He was relieved when they moved past him, with Adam placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

An hour later, they once again were at the edge of the buffer zone surrounding the shipyards. They were a couple of kilometers west of the point where they’d first entered the jungle, and the area beyond the fence here was dotted with derelict spacecraft that had been relegated to the furthest hinterlands of the yards.

About fifty meters back into the jungle, Adam and Sherri began to clear a campsite with their blades. Once the vegetation had been cut, they proceeded to cover the muddy ground with large palm frowns to shield them from the guck. Finally, they all sat down in a circle, each enjoying the first rest they’d had in several hours. Poul managed to curl himself into a large ball, with just his pointy head and black, beady eyes staring out at them. Adam couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not.

Sherri fell back herself, resting her head on a small vine. She had mud on her face, stubbornly securing itself to her skin even through the sheen of sweat that dripped from her pours. Adam’s stomach began to growl, loud enough so she could hear it.

“You know it’s going to be a crapshoot with the food we find,” she said. “Without a dietary scanner we could be eating poison and not even know it until it’s too late.”

“I know,” Adam agreed. “The safest thing to do would be to find some meat and cook it, but we don’t want to attract anyone with either the fire or the smell. Let’s get a little rest now, and then I’ll head out to try to find us something near daybreak. So far I haven’t seen anything much bigger than a worm. But there has to be something out here worth eating.”

“Poul did mention the snakes.”

“That he did. Whatever is out here, let’s try to find it, before it finds us.”

Chapter 19

The Hyben sun was halfway up in the eastern sky by the time Adam and Sherri awoke from their naps. Adam swung into consciousness, angry at himself for not having them each stand guard while the other slept. After pulling some leech-looking thing from his forearm, he looked around their tiny campsite and immediately noticed that Poul was gone.

Both he and Sherri drew their MK’s and began a sweep of the jungle surrounding the clearing. It wasn’t long before Adam spotted where the Hyben had moved into the jungle, his tail leaving a wide swath in the muddy floor of the jungle.

Silently motioning for Sherri to follow him, Adam began to track Poul further into the thick growth. After a couple of minutes, he heard a noise ahead of him. Holding up his clinched fist, Sherri froze. Then he alone moved forward.

Ahead he saw Poul coming toward him, carrying in his mid-arms the carcass of a rodent about the size of a small dog. Spotting Adam, the diameter of Poul’s round mouth grew wider. “I got us some first-meal. It’s a grummer. I have to say I’ve bought plenty at the market, but I’ve never had to kill one myself. This is exciting.”

Adam and Sherri stood and watched silently as the large shrimp-like being moved past them. They just shrugged at each other and followed him back to the campsite.

Once there, Poul tossed the dead, hairy creature into the center of the clearing and then leaned down, covering the carcass with his body. When he pulled away, the dead beast had been gutted, with its entrails clutched in Poul’s two nin-arms. “Come, get your fill,” he said joyfully at the two Humans, as the arms began to stuff the raw and bloody flesh into this mouth – the pink gash located between the nin-arms.

“You eat it raw?” Sherri asked, unable to hide the disgust from both her expression and her voice.

“Of course,” Poul said, cocking his head slightly to the right. “And it is best if the body is still warm.”

Adam sucked up his resolve and moved to carcass. He withdrew his sword and proceeded to cut two generous portions of meat from the flanks of the beast. Next he took out his MK-17 and dialed the weapon to level three. He fired the weapon into the flesh and surveyed the results. Some of the pink was gone, but still more remained than he was comfortable with. He blasted the meat three more times, until the alien steaks were steaming with a consistent brown color throughout.

Poul’s head began to vibrate slightly. “Why have you ruined your meal? Now most of the nutrients have been cooked out of it.”

“Thanks for the meat, Poul, but we can’t eat it the way you do.” Adam handed a slab of cooked meat to Sherri on a thick, shiny green leaf. She eyed it suspiciously.

Adam lifted his own portion to his mouth and bit off a section. He chewed vigorously before swallowing and then he met Sherri’s eyes with a look of surprise. “Not bad. A little tough, but I think this will do.”

Sherri tested a much smaller bite, but then raised her eyebrows. “Okay, but remember, we have to survive for five more days on this shit before Kaylor comes to our rescue. I hope in that time some ravenous little parasite hasn’t eaten us alive from the inside out.”

Chapter 20

The next four days passed relatively quickly, with a simple routine being established in the tiny base camp. Poul became the hunter of the group, surprisingly capable at locating and taking down small game. He also spent time near the river, catching a variety of fish, half of which seldom made it back to the camp before Poul consumed them.

Sherri and Adam had constructed elevated sleeping racks to lift themselves above the myriad of crawling creatures that inhabited the Hyben night. They covered the beds with stacks of palm fronds, and then covered themselves with more fronds as shelter from the frequent rains. Poul didn’t bother with any such improvements. Instead he dug a hole in the soft, muddy soil and would insert himself into it every night.

Even though they were all making it the best they could, Adam and Sherri were growing increasing restless. Adam’s beard grew longer while Sherri’s hair became oilier and darker from the accumulation of dirt and grime. The local diet had also caused its share of discomfort; they both suffered from chronic diarrhea and headaches from the dehydration it caused. After a couple of days, the diarrhea passed, but now they were weak and listless.

Occasionally, Adam would make a foray to the point where they had first entered the jungle to see if the Mulinni – the Hyben police – were still looking for them. Unfortunately, the Hyben appeared to have stepped up their efforts to find the two Humans.

A section of the wire fence had been removed, allowing for a steady stream of vehicles to pass through from the shipyards, as a road was cut through the jungle all the way to Jullin Creek. Boats had been placed on the river, and eventually the search had begun to move upstream as well along the bank, rather than exclusively downstream toward Luy Lake as it had for the past several days. At this pace, Adam began to make plans to move their camp further west; they still had two days to go before Kaylor would attempt a landing. And then the two filthy and smelly Humans would have to make their way to the spaceport for the rendezvous. That was another challenge that awaited them

Adam was making his way back to the base camp after one of his surveys when he heard a strange deep, guttural-breathing sound coming from the jungle to his left. He stopped for a moment and listened. The sound was hard to hear, but it was there, lower-pitched than the constant buzzing coming from the myriad of insects that inhabited the jungle.

He continued on, his hand resting on the butt of his MK, while keeping his head cocked slightly to the left in the direction of the sound. Whatever it was it appeared to be paralleling his path, remaining hidden in the lush overgrowth.

When he entered the clearing that marked the campsite, Sherri stood up from the edge of his frond bed and narrowed her eyes at him; Poul seemed to shrink in size and began to curl up in his carapace.

“What the hell’s that?” Sherri said, hearing the sound, too. Her hand moved instinctively to the grip of her own MK.

“I don’t know. It’s been following me for a while. It’s big, whatever it is.”

Sherri looked over at Poul, whose mouth now formed a perfect ‘o’, his head the only part of his body not covered by the shell. “Do you know what—?”

Suddenly out of the darkness of the jungle, something sprang forth, flying through the air to land directly on top of Adam. He felt a tremendous weight press down upon his chest as a hot, foul breath swept over him. Something struck against his right side, and was suddenly airborne, a sharp pain piecing his chest. He landed hard, but his fall was cushioned by the soft vegetation of the jungle. And then the thing was on him again.

Now Adam could see it. The beast was about twice the size of a Bengal tiger, with dark green and brown stripes that blended perfectly with the surrounding flora. It was covered in matted fur, with a massive head, short pointed ears aimed backwards and a mouth larger than Adam’s head. The creature had him pinned to the ground, a wide, clawed paw pressing down on his chest. And then the beast opened its mouth, revealing two rows of inch-long teeth plus two pair of six-inch long fangs projecting from both the upper and lower jaws. The creature reared back its head, preparing for the kill strike.

Adam brought both his arms up and crashed his fists in the chest of the animal. Caught off guard by the severity of the blow, the creature sat back on its haunches and blinked its yellow eyes. Adam managed to roll to his left, drawing his MK as he did so. The beast saw that Adam had escaped its grasp and let out a deafening roar, a loud, guttural sound that echoed throughout the jungle canopy. And then it sprang again.

Adam jumped to his feet, lifted the MK and pulled the trigger. The beast was hit in the chest, burning away a section of the thick fur. The thing roared again, but this time the sound was much higher-pitched – the sound of pain. Adam side-stepped the creature as it landed, and was ready when the beast whipped its massive head around and jumped again. Adam pulled the trigger, striking the giant tiger between the eyes. He fired a third time, and the creature collapsed on the ground, but its forward momentum continuing to send the massive bulk hurdling toward him. Adam leapt into the air, flying easily two meters up in the light Hyben gravity. He landed on the back of the now-dead creature, his torn tunic revealing half of his muscular chest, blood dripping down his bare right arm, while gripping the MK firmly in his hand.