"I better see what they're up to-" I grabbed the camera and headed for the back. I stopped and peered up into the turret. One of the little cutenesses was peering back down at me. I waved at it facetiously-it waved back-then I closed the shutter in case Duke woke up again.
On a hunch, I peered out through the tiny accidental window in the door patch. "Holy Hannah-" I jammed the camera against the glass and started shooting. There were bunnies all over the dead worm! The ice had evaporated from its fur-now it was just a big collapsed bag of dead pudding-but the bunnies were climbing up onto its back, patting it curiously and chittering at it. They looked like they were trying to wake it up. One of them was even peering into its mouth
Lizard called me then. "Hey, McCarthy-something's happening. "
"Wait a minute-"
"I mean it! You better get down here!"
She was right. Something was happening. The bunnies were suddenly dropping off the dead worm and moving forward again. I swung down to the front of the chopper and climbed back into my seat.
Lizard pointed off to the left. "Over there. Look-the bunnydogs have all stopped to listen."
She was right. The little round creatures had fallen still-they were listening for something. They had their heads cocked sideways and their expressions were expectant.
Beyond, in the darkness, something was stirring up the dust. It rose brightly in the glare of our lights.
The bunnydogs stiffened expectantly.... I could feel my heart rising. This was it.
And then the first worm poured over the dunes and down into the drifts.
And then a second worm, and a third-
There were more bunnydogs riding on their backs.
Lizard lifted her camera and started shooting. "Well, you got the worms right," she said, "but you missed the time."
I barely heard her. The worms were still pouring over the dunes. "Win one, lose one," I gulped.
Lizard was scanning the group with her camera. "I see six, seven, eight... no, make that ten, eleven-urk, fourteen worms." They were all different sizes. The smallest was no bigger than a pony. The largest was the size of a bus. They swiveled their big black hand-puppet eyes at us, cocked them back and forth, up and down, locked them into place, and stared at the chopper. If they had expressions, they were unreadable.
We could see the coloring of the worms vividly. They were bright red and orange, striped with purple and all over frosted with pink powder. They left trails of glittering dust in the air. They sparkled as if they were made out of magic.
"I hate to say it," whispered Lizard, "-but they're beautiful." She was right. As horrifying as the worms were, they were also fascinating. Each worm was a gaudy calliope of color. Their stripes had the confusing effect of seeming to shift even as we watched. If there was a pattern to the markings, I couldn't tell.
Despite the dust, this was the clearest and closest view of worms in the wild we'd had yet.
I yelped and leapt for the peace-pipe. I fumbled a rocket into it, then looked out the window again.
The worm was peering in at me.
I jumped backward, almost tripping, slamming into the opposite wall. I braced myself and aimed the rocket-launcher straight ahead. Something tapped at the door. It sounded exactly like a knock. "Don't answer it..." squeaked Lizard.
The tapping continued for a long... long moment. And then it stopped abruptly.
I could feel my heart beating like a jackhammer- The silence was terrifying!
Abruptly, the door squeaked and groaned. The worm was trying to work the latch! It didn't rattle. The shelterfoam held. And then silence.
"What's it doing-?" I whispered.
"It's backing away from the door-"
I jumped for the window. She was right. The worm was retreating a meter at a time. It was still studying the chopper door curiously. And then it-scratched itself right between the eyes. It looked ... puzzled!
"Are you getting all this?"
"Uh huh-I don't believe it either. McCarthy! Look at the other one!"
The second worm to cuddle against the dead one had lifted its eyes to study the door now. It shifted its glance to the worm that was backing away-as if considering. Then it looked to the door again and apparently made a decision. It slid off toward the nose of the chopper.
Several of the other worms approached the dead one now. They looked like they were sniffing and inspecting it, but none of them moved up alongside it. "Nobody else wants to cuddle... ?" I guessed.
"Would you?" Lizard asked. She dropped out of the turret. "Come on! Something's happening up front."
The worms were forming themselves into groups. There were Iwo groups of four and two groups of three. The bunnydogs looked like they were directing them, but I wasn't sure. I never listened to the person guiding me into a parking place either, why should a worm? The creatures were settling down quickly.
"Now what are they doing-?" Lizard wondered.
The monsters were shaped like stubby cigars, but with a bulge at the front like the nose of an old Boeing 747. That was the brain case, a thick shell of bone shielding the creature's gray matter (or whatever color it was-more likely purple). The monster's arms were anchored here. Mostly the worms kept their peculiarly doublejointed arms folded flat against the brain case, reaching up and over the eyes only to grab or hold something. Or someone.
The creatures' eyes rose up just in front of the brain case. The two eyes moved independently of each other, as if they were mounted on separate swivels, but both organs were enclosed in the same rubbery bag of skin.
At the very front of the creature was the mouth.
When it was closed, it looked like a sphincter; but when it was open, it was hideous-it was a maw, a grinding hole, a pit. Nothing godly was responsible for this beast. No, Lizard was wrong. The worm was not a beautiful creature. The mouth spoiled it.
The worms were moving around the chopper now, inspecting it, looking at it sideways, but always keeping a cautious distanceat least three lengths away. Several of them began moving toward the rear
"Oh, my God-the dead worm!"
Lizard followed me back-I leapt over Duke toward the weaponbay, she climbed into the turret-
"They've found it! McCarthy, look at this!"
I grabbed the box of rockets and scrambled back-I shoved my face up to the accidental window. Three large worms were inspecting the body of the dead one. The bunnydogs moved to keep out of their way.
One of the worms slid around then, bringing itself directly alongside the body. It rolled up to it as if it were ... cuddling? That didn't make sense. Another worm was doing the same thing on the opposite side.
"What are they doing-?" Lizard called quietly.
"I don't know. I've never seen this before. Are you still carrying your camera?"
"Yeah. I'm getting it!"
Abruptly, one of the worms lifted its eyes and looked straight at me. It was studying the door-the same door its colleague had been trying to open when we'd killed it.
The worm slid forward
"I don't know," I whispered back. "Always before, we've seen worms only in groups of three or four. We've assumed those were family groups. We've never had a chance to observe a really large gathering." My voice cracked on the next-to-last word. I swallowed hard.
Lizard looked over at me. "How are you doing?"
"You mean, am I scared?"
"Yeah."
"I'm petrified. How about you?"
She said it matter-of-factly: "I guess you could say I'm handling it as well as can be expected."
I heard the quaver. I reached over and touched her hand. "Under the circumstances, there's not a hell of a lot of other options." She squeezed my hand in hers-almost a little too hard. Then she let go quickly, as if she were embarrassed at having admitted her emotion.
I covered my own reaction by picking up the Pentax again. When in doubt, take care of business. I popped the clip and dropped the memory cassette into my lap. I reached down for a new one and snapped it into place.