Consignment & Disposition
TO:
Presidio Disposition Center
Distribution List Page 3/3
FROM:
Civil Protection Department, Division 7
Capt. Justinian Thoreau, Consigning Officer.
RE:
Disposition Report March 14,
2832 Group 2832-7-0314A
CC:
Criminal Records Department
Consignee:
Darryn Meyer, Male, 16
Ht. 1.82m Wt. 75.1kg Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Blasphemy, Immoral Acts (Murder, Rape, Torture) Mental Defective
Consignee:
Kryss Davies, Male, 15
Ht. 1.87m Wt. 65.9kg Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Blasphemy, Heresy, Immoral Acts (Assault on Clergy)
Consignee:
Matthew Price, Male, 15
Ht. 1.73m Wt. 57.4kg Hair: Blond
Eyes: Brown
Blasphemy, Heresy, Immoral Acts (Assault), Mental Defective
Consignee:
Bran Owens, Male, 15
Ht. 1.74m Wt. 61.3kg Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Blasphemy, Immoral Acts (Deviancy, Promiscuity), Mental Defective
Consignee:
Justinian Thoreau, Male, 14
Ht. 1.71m Wt. 68.1kg Hair: Blond
Eyes: Green
Blasphemy, Immoral Acts (Deviancy, Promiscuity), Mental Defective
Consignee:
Michael McDowell, Male, 14
Ht. 1.69m Wt. 56.8kg Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Blasphemy,
Heresy, Immoral Acts (Murder)
Consignee:
Jacen Polczek, Male, 13
Ht. 1.64m Wt. 42.2kg Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Blasphemy, Immoral Acts (Attempted Suicide), Mental Defective
Consignee:
Dierdra Austin, Female, 16
Ht. 1.77m Wt. 59.3kg Hair: Blond
Eyes: Brown
Blasphemy, Immoral Acts (Promiscuity)
Consignee:
Moira Shale, Female, 14
Ht. 1.64m Wt. 59.1kg Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Blasphemy, Immoral Acts (Deviancy, Promiscuity)
Records
Expunged by order of Fr. Oscar Poppenaux.
Consigned
sedated by order of Fr. Oscar Poppenaux until departure.
Transport
Departure
March 15, 2832
Deposition
April 4, 2832
Transport
Return April 20, 2832
END OF FILE
Bleary eyed and
cotton mouthed, I struggled to my knees and vomited. Not much came out, because I hadn’t been fed in a long
while, except for the pellets they gave us.
I felt weak, like my body was weighed down by an invisible hand.
The heavy warm air tinged with the scent of grass and the faint odor of
rotting vegetation did nothing to help my nausea.
Rho was halfway up in the sky, casting it’s
light through wispy clouds that partially obscured a dark blue sky.
Somehow, the star seemed fainter than I was used to, like it was farther
away. It seemed smaller, too.
My head pounded as I glanced
around me. At least I wasn’t
alone. There looked to be about
twenty or thirty people sprawled around in a twenty meter area.
None of them were moving, either.
I tried to stand, but again the
invisible hand pulled at me, trying to keep me on the ground.
With an effort, I got to my feet. It’s
not that bad, I thought. It’s
going to take some getting used to, but I’ll make it.
We were in a field of ankle high
grass surrounded by trees about one hundred meters off in every direction.
They were deep green, darker than any tree I’d ever seen before, but
strangely beautiful in their own way. They
looked like they had leaves. I
wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. It
was too early to tell.
I staggered a few steps before my
equilibrium caught up with me. Yeah,
it’s going to take a while to get used to.
I shuffled around the area looking at the unconscious bodies laying in
the grass. They were men and women,
old and young, and every one of them wore an orange jumpsuit.
Startled, I looked down to see my own orange jumpsuit.
All at once, I remembered what had happened to get me here.
“What are you thinking,”
Bran asked softly.
“I’m wondering what
it’ll be like in the future. We
could run away and live in the wild. If
we stay here, we could get consigned if we’re caught.”
He sighed.
“I know. We’re so
careful, though. Sometimes it seems
like it’s not worth it, you know?”
“Not worth it?”
He squeezed me tightly.
“Not you, Jus. You’re worth everything to me.
I mean the hiding.”
“You know what would happen
if we’re found out.”
“Just as well as you.
Your father has given us his lectures enough times that we probably know
the law better than he does.”
“He wants to make sure we
don’t do something wrong.”
“Like this?”
“Yeah, like this.
Or anything else that could get us in trouble.”
“What do you think he’d do
if he knew about us?”
I had to think about that one
for a moment. My dad wasn’t the
most loving person on the planet, and he did take his job seriously.
Probably seriously enough to turn us in.
“Probably report us.”
“He’d do that?”
“Think about it.”
Without the slightest warning,
the door to our refuge - from our parents, from the Hand, from everyone- burst
inward. Men in black uniforms
rushed in and ripped us apart, holding us fast in their iron-like grip.
I struggled against my captor, but two quick blows to my face stilled my
efforts. Oh my god, I
thought, we’ve been caught! A tear escaped Bran’s right eye and ran down his cheek.
We were done for. We probably wouldn’t ever see each other again.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
An officer in a black uniform
of the Hand strode in with terrible purpose.
He looked at Bran from head to toe, then did the same with me, disgust
curling his lip. “How
touching,” he said with derision. As
our eyes met, I recognized him.
“Justinian Thoreau, Bran
Owens, you are guilty of Blasphemy and Immoral Acts, and are hereby deemed
Mentally Defective. You will be
held until your disposition. Take
them away.”
As I was roughly carried out
of the vacant apartment, I looked over my shoulder and caught the eye of the
consigning officer. His expression held nothing but contempt and revulsion. He
turned away with a sneer. “Dad,
no! Please!” My plea went unanswered, and a fist fell, silencing me
as I lost consciousness.
The Father’s chamber was a
dark, stuffy little room filled with cloying incense. He was a pudgy dwarf of a man, standing no more than 15
decimeters tall. He didn’t look
up as we came in, his nose buried in papers strewn over his desk.
At last he found what he was looking for, and deigned to look at me.
“Ah, and who might you
be?”
“Justinian Thoreau.”
The guard slapped the back of
my head, bellowing, “Father! You
call him father!.”
“That’s enough, Corporal.
It doesn’t matter, especially from this little deviant.
Justinian Thoreau. Why is
that name familiar? Ah yes.
There’s a Thoreau in Division 7, I believe. A captain if my memory serves. Any relation?”
“Yes, sir.
He’s my father.”
“Hmm. Very unfortunate for him.
There will be an investigation, of course. He may not be a captain after all is said and done.
No matter. Now as for you,
do you have anything to say for yourself? You
do know why you are here?”
“Yes, father.
I know.”
“Anything to say?”
“No, father.”
“Good.
That makes this easier then. Let’s
see. You’re in
luck. There’s a transport
leaving tomorrow. Take him back to
his cell. Standard protocol.”
“Yes, father.”
The corporal sunk his fingers into my shoulder once more, and led me out
of the room.
As we walked back toward my
cell, the guard spoke in a conversational tone. “I’m glad you go out tomorrow.
With the crackdown, we’re running out of cells to keep you people
in.”
“Us people?”
“Of course.
You criminals and blasphemers. Can’t
have you contaminating everyone with your behavior, can we?”
“I don’t understand.”
He slapped my neck, and I felt
dizzy. “We can’t send you to
hell directly, because God forbids it, but we can help you on your
way.” As the room faded to
darkness, the guard continued, “You’ll see Heaven’s Wrath soon enough.”
I awoke in
another cell, alone, still in an orange jumpsuit. The room was two meters square, and devoid of any furnishings
with the exception of a privy and sink. On
one wall was a hole with a basin below it, welded into place.
Inside the basin were pellets of something, about as large as my thumb.
I picked one up and sniffed, revealing the odor of corn. Food. Kind of.
Every four hours or so, I could hear the rattle of the next allotment
rolling down into the basin to join the portion I left uneaten.
There was nothing else in the
room at all. No blanket, no
nothing.. Only one thing broke up
the unrelieved dull metal walls. Above
the door of my cell, someone had painted in red letters:
Abandon all hope ye who reside here.
Oh, Bran.
Where are you? I need you so much.
Tears filled my eyes, but did not fall.
There was no purpose in crying now.
It would be a waste of water that I would need later.
A few people were beginning to
stir. I heard someone else empty
their stomach a short distance away. Another
person started weeping. A woman in
her early twenties. I felt no pity
for her. Another just sat there,
her face slack, like she was a zombie.
I sat on the soft grass to
conserve my strength. Laying there,
I studied the sky, hoping against hope that this was all a bad dream and I would
wake up. But in my heart, I knew
this was real. All of it was real.
Maybe a half hour later, I awoke
to a loud voice.
“What in heaven is that?” The half cry, half whimper of a girl startled me. I scrambled to my feet and followed her pointing finger. There, I saw a leaper for the first time.
It stood about one meter high,
and weighed more than I did. It’s
fur was striped with black on buff. The
leaper opened it’s mouth and roared, a sound I will never forget.
It echoed interminably, like a scream issued from the gates of hell.
The leaper roared again and
jumped with incredible strength, easily clearing the thirty meters between us.
What happened next was the perfect nightmare.
Before anyone could react, it
landed on the girl who had spoken. She
screamed and screamed as she fought back against her attacker, but her cries
were soon silenced by it’s deadly sharp claws and teeth.
As we scattered away from the monster, it turned in place, seemingly
protecting it’s kill from us. I
backed away slowly, never taking my eyes away from the horrific scene in front
of me. It seemed disinclined to
chase us, so I did what anyone would do.
I turned and ran toward the trees
like it was right on my heels. The
weights on my body seemed more pronounced the faster I ran.
Chancing a glance around, I saw there were about ten people running with
me. I kept going and didn’t stop
until I was well inside the trees. Only
then did what I had just witnessed hit home.
That girl had been killed right
in front of me! One minute she’d
been pointing, and then next, her blood was spilling into the ground while
that... that... thing ate her! I
looked back through the trees to see the leaper crouched over it’s kill,
ripping off chunks of meat and swallowing them whole.
All at once, I wretched, but nothing came out. My stomach was empty already.
When had I eaten last? I
wretched again, tasting bile. I
stood there, hunched over, trying to regain control of my heaving bowels.
A hand on my shoulder brought me
back to the moment. “Are you
okay, Jus?” I knew that voice.
Wide eyed and disbelieving, I pulled him into my arms and squeezed hard.
Bran was still with me! I held him
at arms length, and pulled him to me again.
Thank- no. Not God.
Never again God.
“I thought I lost you,” I
whispered into his ear through my tears.
He smiled sadly.
“It’ll take more than the Hand for you to lose me, Jus.
Are you sure you’re okay?”
I straightened and nodded.
“Yeah. Gimme a minute.”
I took stock of our company. I
counted six other people besides myself and Bran.
All were young. Five boys
and two girls. Most were bent over
as I had been, still heaving. Two
older boys stood in the center of the group, observing.
“Where are we?”
“Somewhere on Wrath, Jus.”
I knew that, but I had to ask. It
somehow seemed more real now that I’d heard the words.
“Those bastards!”
He gripped my shoulder in sympathy, but I knew he felt much the same.
We’d grown up together in the same crèche.
There were twenty-two of us, but Bran and I had been taken away, and he
was all that I had left. And since
we’d been deemed mentally defective, that meant the crèche would be... destroyed to prevent any possible contamination of the
general populous. I hugged
Bran again, more for support than anything else.
My earliest
memory is of the nursery where we were raised.
I must have been about two and a half or three.
I was toddling around the play area and literally ran head long into
Bran. Being young, we bounced off
of each other and fell on our butts. We
sat there and looked at each other, blinking, until we started laughing and
pointing at each other.
From that point, we were
inseparable. No matter what the
adults tried, we ended up together. No matter who they put us with to
‘socialize’, Bran and I would drag our partners so the four of us could
play. Even then, though, I somehow
ended up in charge of our little group. I
don’t remember asking or demanding that we do things my way, but they followed
my lead anyway.
Sometimes, others would take
the lead role, and I’d let them run with it until they either lost control, or
were stupid, according to my own judgment, of course. Sometimes I got myself in trouble doing that though.
I was so convinced I was right, that when I did make a mistake, it
took me forever to realize it, sometimes with embarrassing results.
The adults finally gave up on
separating us when we both were taken for Ranger training.
Since we were the only people out of our crèche that made it, they let
us be.
“All right,
everyone over here.” The oldest
boy spoke as if he expected our obedience.
Immediately I distrusted him. I
glanced at Bran and he mirrored my thoughts.
This one would bear watching.
Everyone gathered around this
man-boy. He was tall, 18 decimeters
at least, and he was in good shape, too. Brown
hair framed his brown eyes, but there was something behind his eyes that he hid.
Something sinister. He would
definitely bear watching. I again
glanced at Bran, and he nodded slightly. He’d
sensed the same thing.
“My name is Darryn, and it
looks like I’m in charge.”
“Why are you in
charge?” asked the taller of the two girls.
She looked to be about the same age as Darryn, with blond hair and brown
eyes.
“Your name?”
“Dierdra Austin.”
“Well, Dierdra, I’m in charge
because I said so. We need to move
away from here; get away from that thing so it doesn’t come hunting for
another meal. Do you want to be
that thing’s dinner?” I
shuddered. Is that all we were?
Animal food? “Okay then.”
I immediately knew what Darryn
was trying to do. By asserting
himself and displaying his superiority to everyone, he was trying to solidify
his assumed role as leader of our group.
Darryn pointedly looked at a tall
boy with copper hair and bright green eyes.
“Who are you?”
“Kryss.” He
appeared to be about my age, maybe a year older.
“Can you do anything useful,
Kryss?” The boy looked
confused. “Can you do anything to
help us survive? No? Then keep you mouth shut and there won’t be any
problems.” Kryss’s eyes
narrowed dangerously. In barely
five minutes, Darryn had made an enemy. Not
an overt enemy, but more of a subversive element in his command.
More than one, maybe. “What
about you?” Darryn now
scrutinized a blond boy with big brown eyes, about fifteen years Terran.
“What’s your name?”
In a timid voice, he answered,
“M-M-Matthew P-P-Price.”
“What? I couldn’t hear you!”
I shuddered as Darryn’s voice shattered the stillness surrounding us
for the moment. “Well,
M-M-Matthew, c-c-can you d-do anything t-to help us m-m-make it out here?” Matthew looked at the ground, hands in his pockets, refusing
to meet Darryn’s gaze. “Didn’t
think so. Who are you?” Darryn pointed at a boy a little shorter than me.
He was thin, and had brown hair and eyes that glinted dangerously.
“Michael.”
“Well, Michael- is that really
your name?- why are you here?”
He stood defiantly, head high.
“That’s between me and God.”
“Ohhh, too good to tell us,
huh? Well, you and your god stay
out of the way. Your name?”
“Justinian,” I answered.
He looked at me strange as I returned his gaze with no expression.
“And you?” Darryn asked.
“Bran.”
“You call that a name?”
Darryn snorted and went on to the girl standing next to us.
“And who are you, pretty
girl?” He walked up to her as he
spoke, smiling laciviously. She had
brown hair and brown eyes
“Moira”
“How old are you, Moira?”
“Fourteen.”
“Oh, fourteen?”
She nodded. “Are you okay?
You’re not hurt?” She
shook her head. Darryn placed his
hand on her shoulder. “Well, if any of these guys bother you, let me know,
okay?” She nodded again.
Darryn pointed to the last member
of our group. “And you?”
“Jacen.” This kid was at least a year younger than me, and was the
shortest person there. He too had
brown eyes and hair.
“Are you sure you’re not a
dwarf?” He didn’t answer
Darryn’s insult, remaining silent. “Well,
just stay out of my way, shrimp. I
don’t want to hit my crotch on your forehead.”
Jacen flushed with anger, but Darryn returned to his position in the
center of the group.
“Any of you in the Rangers?”
Bran and I glanced at each other
once again. Do we tell him?
He might see it as a threat to his leadership. But if we don’t tell
him, he’ll get suspicious when we do use the training we had.
“We were.”
“How long?”
“Seven years, Terran,” I
answered.
“Both of you?”
Bran nodded.
“Good,” Darryn said.
I had no desire to deal with this kid.
I knew Bran felt the same, but for the moment, we had no choice.
“Okay, little boys. It’s
your job to make sure we stay clear of anything that can hurt us.
You get out front, and we’ll follow you.” Sure. Send us
out front so we can die first.
Without a word, Bran and I walked deeper into the
forest, until we were barely in sight of the group. Even at this distance, we could hear them talking worriedly,
and Darryn was doing nothing to stop them.
He didn’t even seem to notice.
“This is beyond stupid,” Bran
said quietly as he came alongside me. “He
has no clue what he’s doing.”
“Do we tell him that?”
“It’s not him we need to convince. It’s everyone else.” I considered his words. Even though he was a year older than I, he tended to defer to me most of the time, unless he felt strongly. I trusted his instincts. He understood human nature better than I did.
“So what should we do?”
“We need to talk some sense
into the group.”
“How do we do that?”
“Tell them the way it is.
You’re good at that, Jus. Just
tell them what we need to do to survive out here.
“All right.
What about Darryn?”
“What about him?
If they want him to lead, then we’ll go it on our own.
If they won’t let us leave, then he might have an accident.
Here they come.” I
wasn’t shocked that Bran would say such a thing.
This was a life-or-death situation, and if Darryn’s death saved our
lives, then that’s the way it would be.
Obviously angry, Darryn bellowed,
“What are you doing? Get out
there!” Avians flew from the
trees, startled by Darryn’s booming voice.
Neither Bran nor I answered or moved.
Did he realize he probably just called every hunting creature within
three hundred meters? He finally
reached us. “Well?”
I frowned as I said, “Keep your
voice down. If our smell isn’t
enough to attract company, then you yelling sure is.”
Darryn’s eyes narrowed, taking my reprimand as a challenge to his
authority. I guess it was at that.
“Secondly, we need to find
somewhere to set up a defensible camp and work on making tools, like spears.
Without them, we might as well climb into the jaws of the nearest
predator. We can’t wander
aimlessly. Since we have no place
to go, we might as well find a place and stick to it until we’re better
prepared, and have a plan.” I
heard a couple boys mutter their agreement, Kryss among them.
Darryn silenced them with a glare.
“No. We keep moving. We
have to put more distance between us and that thing.”
I stared at him for a moment,
while the rest of the group shifted uncomfortably. “They’re probably territorial, you know.
Most predators are. We could
be running right into another’s territory.
Or something worse than what we left behind.”
Darryn moved closer so he could tower over me, trying to make me look
like a child.
“We keep moving because I said
so.” He pounded his finger into
my chest. “Now get out there and
do your job.” I just stared at
him until Bran tried to pull me away by the shoulder, but I shrugged him off.
He was too late; I was fuming at Darryn’s idiocy.
I knocked Darryn’s hand away.
“Okay, here’s the deal. You
do what you want, but Bran and I are going to do things our way.”
I turned to the group, meeting everyone’s eyes as I spoke. “If you want to come with us, then let’s go.
If you want to stay with Darryn, you’re welcome to him.
Just pr- hope you can find
us after one or more of you die, because when it comes down to it,
he doesn’t know how to survive in his own back yard, much less
this hostile jungle.
“Let’s go, Bran.
I think I saw a hill that way. Maybe
we can get the lay of the land. And
we need to keep the noise down so we don’t attract any unwanted company.”
I started off at right angles to the direction Darryn wanted to go, with
Bran just a step behind me. A short
moment passed, then I heard some of our group move to join us.
I didn’t look back to see how many, but as I dodged trees in our path
further on, I saw everyone following, including Darryn, his expression murder.
“Are you sure it was wise to
slap him down like that?”
“No, but I’m not going to get
killed because he’s an idiot, Bran.”
He was quiet for a few moments.
“I get the feeling I should watch your back.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Hurry up!
Move it; we don’t have all day! The
rains are supposed to start tonight, and if you don’t have this shelter up by
then, you’ll get soaked. If you
get soaked, you could die when the cold sets in with the night!”
We’d all heard those words before, but they served as warning that
nature was not a kind adversary.
I did as I was told, like a
good little Ranger. I was twelve
when we took that trip into the mountains with my troop. Fifteen rowdy boys and two men pitted against the wilderness
for two months, with only the contents of our packs to work with.
The fifteen of us had been
chosen out of school at around age seven to join the rangers, ostensibly based
on merit only, but I know I got in because of my dad’s position with the Hand.
I don’t know if I’d have made it otherwise.
Bran had made it strictly on his abilities.
We were already friends, having grew up together in the same crèche.
We’d spent most of that
first day gathering poles and tree boughs to make a roof over our heads.
As eight of us worked on the shelter, the rest of the troop gathered
firewood and set snares and dug pits for food.
It was too late in the season for berries or fruit of any kind, so we had
to rely on our trapping skills to survive until we could locate some plants to
add to our diet.
There was two hours of
daylight remaining when the first showers settled in.
It was supposed to rain nearly seven centimeters that night, so we needed
to have a roof as water tight as we could make it.
Unfortunately, nature didn’t give us a chance.
The skies opened up and the rain started falling in earnest before we
could complete our shelter. Water
was pouring through the roof, and as the wind picked up, the holes only got
worse. Thinking quickly, Bran
pulled out his thermosheet and some twine from his pack. Grabbing the sheet, I
helped Bran spread it out as much as we could in the confined area under the
shelter. He handed me two one meter
long lengths of twine, and at a nod, we dove out into the storm.
We quickly tied the corners of
the thermosheet to the frame of the shelter, and then arranged it so the runoff
went into the ditch we dug to keep the floor of the shelter dry.
Having accomplished our mission, we reentered the shelter to discover
others breaking out their sheets to cover the sides and front of our mountain
home. In short order, the shelter was water- and wind-proofed.
The next task was to get a
fire started so we could dry out. One of our compatriots was working on that
already, so Bran and I stripped out of our wet clothes and wrapped up in my
thermosheet to wait until the fire was going.
Once the fire was burning, it
became quite warm in our hut, so much so we had to crack open our ‘door’ to
keep the temperature bearable. We
hung our wet clothes by the fire to dry them, set up a fire watch rotation, then
settled in to sleep. Bran and I
shared my sheet, and no one thought anything of us being nude... except Bran and
me.
“Huh? What?”
He smiled.
“Daydreaming again? Where
were you?”
“Remembering that mountain
excursion when I was twelve.” He
smiled. Bran, too, remembered the
significance of that trip. So much
happened in those weeks, both good and bad.
Looking around, I realized we
were at the base of the hill I’d seen off in the distance. Climbing the hill proved to be a little more difficult than I
thought due to the extra weight we were carrying. Wrath’s gravity was nearly twenty percent greater, which
meant that instead of being just over 61 kilograms, I was now about 73
kilograms. Quite a change.
The top of the hill cleared the
canopy of trees we’d been surrounded by all day. From this vantage point,
We could see kilometers in every direction. There were mountains in the far distance to what I called
west, the direction of the setting sun. What bothered me was Rho looked to be
dropping toward the horizon more quickly than seemed possible.
Looking around us, I was
extremely surprised to see what looked to be a former campsite on top of the
hill, made by some other group that came this way.
The walls were made of old branches, and there was a fire pit that showed
use.
“All right.
We’re going to camp here inside the walls.
We need firewood.” I
pointed out everyone but Darryn and the oldest girl.
“You go back down the hill and pick up some firewood.
Bran, go with them. See if
you can find some poles.” Bran
hesitated, looking quickly to Darryn, then nodded and started down the hill. “Go on,” I
said to the rest. “If you have
any questions, ask Bran. He knows
what we’re looking for.” Reluctantly,
they followed him down the slope into the trees.
“Now, we need to go around the
walls and make sure there aren’t any gaps.
These branches are the only thing separating us from the night hunters.
If you find a gap, see if you can close it by moving the branches around.
If not, we’ll have to add some fresh branches.”
I suited words to action and started examining
the wall. The older girl
waited, watching Darryn, until he reluctantly joined me.
I never turned my back on them.
By the time Rho set, everyone was
back inside the brush walls. Bran
had started shaving an end of a pole into a point with a chipped stone he’d
found.
I attempted to start a fire.
None of the rocks we found sparked, so that method was out.
I tried to fashion a bow out if a branch and green vine, but to no avail. Abandoning this plan, I just started drilling into the
tinder, trying to make it burn. I
turned it over to Jacen, who’d watched me as I struggled to create fire.
Everyone took their turn at the drill except Bran, who continued to make
a spear.
Sitting outside the group, I
mentally reviewed what had happened during the day. I awoke while Rho was at it’s highest point in the sky,
which was midday. I couldn’t be
certain, but I think there was only four to five hours between that time and
when Rho set. That meant we had
short days. Would the nights be
short, too? Or would they be long,
like they were in winter? I had no
way to know what season it was.
What about the animals?
We’d only seen one animal larger than a cat, and it had killed one of
our number. The rest of the animal
we’d seen varied in size from an insect to what looked like a brown cotton
ball on legs the size of a small dog.
I knew there had to be other
animals large enough to kill the leaper, unless it was at the top of it’s food
chain, which I thought likely. It’s
leap may be a hunting tool, and it would serve well to keep the creature out of
the jaws of another once it was in their claws. It’s awkward movement when it
was standing in place might make it vulnerable though, if one could get close
enough.
We’d have to set some traps
tomorrow, and find a water source. Maybe
stay here a couple nights so we can get some food and work on some weapons.
I doubted we would find another camp this well ordered anywhere near.
Unless we followed the group that built this one, but how would we find
which way they went? By the light
of the twin moons of Wrath, I saw a rock formation just outside the walls of our
camp. It was obviously man made.
In the morning, I’d take a closer look at it.
I sensed Bran’s approach from
behind me. I’d been staring
through the brush wall out into the
night. Wordlessly, he handed me a
finished spear. I hadn’t held one
in a long time. I bounced it in my
hand, gauging it’s heft. It was
heavier than I’d like, but if it were any thinner, it would be useless.
I nodded, handing the weapon back to Bran.
His face lined with concern, he
asked, “Are you okay, Jus?”
I sighed.
“I guess. I’m just
overwhelmed. There’s so much to
do, and we don’t have a lot of time.”
“I know. I’ll do what I can to help.”
“I know you will, Bran.
You always do.” He put his arm around my shoulders. How did he always know just what I needed?
The Rangers were
an organization to train search and rescue workers. The training lasted twelve Terran years, and was considered
part of the cadet’s formal education. It went beyond rescue work, teaching
wilderness survival, and all the skills needed to live on the land.
Weapons training and manufacture was part of the curriculum, as was
hunting. Sometimes, the lessons
were deadly. It was understood that
a Ranger cadet could die during his training exercises.
That’s just the way it was.
We’d been out in the mountains for nearly six
weeks, with a month to go. Our troop now numbered twelve.
Three of our troop mates had been flown home for one reason or another,
and one of our guides had returned because of an animal bite that threatened his
life. As always, the Rangers continued on.
That was our job.
We were hiking to a new campsite twenty kilometers from the
last. To get there, we had to scale
a forty-five meter cliff. There was
nowhere to secure a rope along the way, so whoever led the climb would have to
anchor the rope as he went along. Our
guide would climb along side our lead climber, to help in case he got stuck.
As we uncoiled the rope, it
was decided that Anthony would lead the climb.
He was stronger than any of us, and free climbing a face like that
required strength. We helped him
get into his harness, handed him his anchors, and helped him hook in.
We triple checked everything.
As they climbed, every three
meters or so, they would place an anchor in the face, to arrest their fall if
they slipped. Our guide, Mr.
Foster, climbed up a parallel path to Anthony’s, separated by three meters
horizontally if at all possible.
Mid-way through the climb,
Anthony ran into an impasse. He
couldn’t go up or to the side any longer, so he had to choose a different
path. He moved to his right, toward
Mr. Foster’s path, and slipped. He
frantically grasped at a wedge that he had placed, but it came out of the rock
face into his hand. As he fell, Anthony grabbed Mr. Foster’s rope, literally
jerking him off the cliff face. He
fell right onto Anthony, who had been arrested by the last safety he placed, but
the extra impact of our guide caused it to fail.
Like a zipper, we saw two sets of safeties fail until the amount of rope
out exceeded the distance to the ground.
Stunned silence reigned.
This was the first time many of us had seen death.
I think we dealt with it pretty well.
No one panicked. We buried
their bodies a short way from the cliff face.
Someone said the appropriate words, and then it was over.
We gathered several meters away from the gravesite, trying to decide
between the eleven of us what to do next.
Bran and I listened quietly to
the various arguments. Some wanted
to go back to our insertion point. Others wanted to stay where we were.
The one thing they were forgetting is that, if we didn’t continue, the
Rangers wouldn’t know where to search for us.
The path we’d taken to this point had been up to our guides.
They had led us to this cliff, and to go around it would cost us so many
days that we couldn’t make it to our rendezvous at the end.
I let them bicker back and forth until I couldn’t take it any more.
“That’s enough!”
Everyone shut their mouths and stared at me like I’d spoken some alien
language. “Look at the maps,
guys. We can’t go back.
We don’t have enough time to make it to where we started.
We don’t have enough time to go around this wall.
It’s over fifty kilometers to the nearest crossing.
If we do that, we miss our ride home.
You know our comset was broken in the fall.
How’re we supposed to tell them where we are?”
“So what do we do?”
Near panic in that voice.
“We do what we’re trained
to do. We don’t panic, we go on.
We’ll camp here tonight, and then tomorrow morning, we’ll climb that
face, just like we would normally.”
“But Mr. Foster is dead!”
“We will be too if we
don’t keep moving! Do you want to
stay here for a month to find out that no one is coming to pick you up?
Do you know how far it is back to the city?
Huh?”
“Still...”
“Still what?” I
interrupted. “There’s no
choice! Don’t you see that?
We have four weeks to travel two hundred kilometers to our extraction.
It’s nearly four hundred to our insertion point!
We have to go on,” I said more gently.
“We don’t have a choice. And
besides. The city is that way too.
Might as well go toward it instead of away, don’t you think?”
Some nods, but more grumbling.
“Look,” I said, “Show of
hands. Who here is scared?”
I raised my hand as I asked the question.
I was scared. I
didn’t know why, but I had taken charge of our patrol.
That I was now responsible for their lives nearly overwhelmed me.
Slowly, every hand in the
group went up. “It’s nothing to
be ashamed of, guys. Being scared
is normal and healthy. It keeps us
out of trouble, usually. But now,
we have to move beyond our fear and do what we have to do.
That’s what being a Ranger is all about. Right?”
I saw Bran smile slightly as I made my speech.
Why, I don’t know. Sometimes
he was weird.
I told them to make camp while
I checked over the climbing gear. If
I was responsible for these guys, I was going to make sure the gear was in
working order. I would have liked
to have had another rope, but we didn’t, so I’d have to trust the ropes we
had.
Night came, and we ate our
meal of dried meat and meal cracker. As
everyone drifted to sleep around the fire, Bran came to sit by me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi, Jus.
How’re you doing?”
“I don’t know, Bran.
I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Yes, you can.
You’ve done it before.”
“Maybe, but I was never in
charge in a life or death situation before. I mean, what if I make a mistake?”
“Then you make a mistake.
Look around, Jus. Is there anyone else who could do what you’re doing?
Taking control of a bad situation and turning it around?”
“You could.”
“No, I couldn’t.
I’m a follower, not a leader.” Bran
knew himself, even then.
“I might get someone killed!"
“Yeah, you might.
But even so, every one of them accepted you taking command.
None of them are stupid.” I
snorted. “Well, not many of them,
but they all understand the stakes here. For
what it’s worth,” Bran put his
arm around my shoulders, “I trust you. I’ll
help you as much as I can.”
“I don’t know.
I- I’m scared, Bran.”
He squeezed my shoulders and
smiled. “So? It proves you’re human.
All anyone can ask is that you do your best, Jus.
Nothing more.”
I gave a half-hearted grin.
“You should get some sleep, Bran.
It’s going to be a rough day tomorrow.”
“You get some, too.
When does your relief come on?”
“In an hour.”
“Make sure he does.”
“Go to bed, Bran.”
He leaned close and whispered,
“I love you, babe. You’ll do
fine.” I answered him with my
eyes. He smiled again, and went to
bed like a good little boy.
The time for my relief came
and went. I didn’t wake him,
because I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
In that way, I made sure everyone got sleep that night, by not getting
sleep myself. Fortunately, the
climb the next day went without a hitch.
“You have to stop
doing that, babe.” Bran’s
gentle voice brought me back to awareness again.
“Shh! They might hear!”
“What are they going to do?
Send us to Wrath?”
Sighing, I said, “I’m sorry.
Habit, ya’ know? And we don’t know these people.”
“You’re right.” He paused a
moment, then put his arm around my shoulders.
“Darryn’s trying to stir up trouble.
You should probably talk to everyone.
They’re getting restless.”
“Okay.” I sat there for another moment, then turned back to my new
charges.
As I rejoined our group, I could
hear Darryn spouting off nonsense about how dangerous it was to stay on top of
the hill in the camp, and how they were stupid to follow some young kid.
“He hasn’t even hit puberty, for heaven’s sake!” he said as I
walked up.
“How would you know,” I
interjected. “Have you been
peeking?” I got a few laughs out
of that one. Darryn just glared
daggers. “All right, Darryn,
let’s take your arguments a point at a time.
Let’s handle your last objection first; that I haven’t reached
puberty.” With a wry smile, I
continued, “How do you want me to prove THAT wrong?”
I was baiting him, but I didn’t know what else to do at that moment
other than make him look foolish.
Darryn remained silent as hate
blossomed on his face. “Okay, so
we’ll consider that matter closed, right?
The next objection you have is moving on versus staying here, right?”
“It’s stupid to stay here in
one place, letting those animals zero in on our position like this!”
“Here we have some protection
from those animals. If your walking
–and where did you say you wanted to go, anyway? If your walking, there’s no protection at all.
It would be even more risky without a weapon to at least try to
defend yourself with.
“Can we stay here forever?
No. Should we stay until
we’re better prepared to deal with what’s out there?
In my opinion, yes. And
I’ll say it again.” I pulled
Bran to me, my arm around his shoulders. “We’re
going to do things our way, regardless of what you decide to do.
We have some survival training- which is more than any of you have- and
that’s what we’re going to try to do: survive.” I turned to look at Darryn.
“If you want to move on, there’s nothing and no one holding you back.
Just replace the fence on your way out.
And that goes for the rest of you, too.”
I turned my back on them and went
back to my vantage point. There was
some conversation after I left the circle, but I didn’t listen to it.
Bran sat next to me a few minutes later.
“You were great, Jus, but
there’s no way you’re going to convince Darryn he’s wrong.”
“I don’t have to convince
him, like you said. I have to
convince everyone else, if we’re to live.”
He tried to pull me tightly to him but I stopped him this time.
“Bran? Maybe it’s not
such a good idea to let them know about us just yet.
We don’t know them, and things could get even more dangerous if they
found out, okay? We can wait,
can’t we?”
He sighed, “Yeah, babe, but not
for long.”
“I don’t know what I would do
without you, Bran. I love you.”
His eyes softened in the rising
red moonlight. “I love you, too,
Jus.” Sitting together, we gazed
out over the forest, lost in our thoughts.
The moons were bright overhead,
glaring balefully like evil eyes dooming our efforts. The first moon to rise that night was full, and reddish in
color, from deposits made by heavy volcanic activity.
It’s light was dark red to pinkish in color depending on it’s
position in the sky. The other,
smaller, crescent moon cast a pale light from it’s white surface strewn with
craters.
By the moons’ light, I caught
sight of a hill, just like the one we were on, far off in the distance, in the
direction of the mountains. We
could probably make it to there in a day if we kept moving. And curiously enough, that rock formation pointed right at
it.
After sitting apart for about a
half hour just staring at tree tops, Bran went back to sharpening another spear,
and I cautiously approached the barely smoldering fire.
Darryn was sitting apart from
everyone, glaring at me as I walked from person to person, asking quiet
questions. I had some of them try
to get some sleep, as I would awaken them later to take their turn at watch.
For the most part, my suggestions were taken without difficulty, but I
could sense resistance in a few of them.
Dierdra looked down at me like I
was pond scum and ignored what I said outright. Michael was on his knees praying and refused to respond to
me, so I let him be for the moment. Kryss
watched me with a measuring stare as I made the rounds.
When I spoke with him, he seemed guarded, like he wasn’t sure if he
could trust me.
I finally made my way around to
Bran, who was gathering up his shavings for use as tinder in our fire efforts.
He smiled at me as I sat at his feet.
“Any problems, Jus?”
“Besides Darryn?
A couple. That girl over
there,” I pointed to the oldest, “and that boy there, the one praying.”
“Praying?
That’s interesting.”
“Yeah, I know.
I hope he doesn’t cause trouble, but I think he will.
If he’s still praying after what’s happened to him....”
Bran pushed his leg against my shoulder.
“You’re probably right, Jus.
What are we going to do about Darryn?”
“You’re going to play it low
key. Let him focus on me.
If he does that, he’s less likely to
cause problems with the others.”
“And if he gets you alone?”
“I said play it low key, not
disappear. I’ll do what I can to
stay with the group.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I, bud, but we have no choice, if we’re to survive, and keep everyone else alive, too.”
Copyright Notice - Copyright ©2004 by Dewey.
This story is copyrighted by the author and the author retains all rights. This work may not be duplicated in any form, physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise without the authors expressed permission. All applicable copyright laws apply.