Grey whispers, “This is late evening of the third day.”
I’m about to voice my astonishment when we round the corner of a curious, humming building. There, sitting around a merry fire are Theo, English, Samuel, Bets, and Etch. Theo, English, and Samuel wear the strange clothing that Grey’s donning. Bets is still in her hunting clothes, stretched out, warming her bare feet by the flames. Sitting next to her is a muscular young woman with a worn, kind face. Bets exclaims, “Marksman, you spend more time out cold than awake. Welcome back to the living once again.”
“Good seeing you on the mend, Amy,” Samuel grins. He’s trimmed his beard and looks ten years younger.
Theo hands me a cup of white liquor. “This is Grey’s special sauce. Go easy on it.”
Grey takes the cup from me. “Until the meds cycle out of your system, best not to tempt fate. Amy, I think you’re acquainted with everyone here except Minns.”
The woman stands up and extends her hand. “Pleased to meet you. They tell me that you’re a pilot, though you don’t know it. I’m not sure to tell you whether you’re fortunate or cursed. Perhaps a bit of both.”
Etch growls. “Minns, she has a gift. Amy, forgive her rudeness.”
Minns continues grasping my hand. “We have a bit of a history with another pilot that’s all. It’s one of the reasons we’re stranded here.” She lets go and sits back down next to Bets.
“You’ve created a small village here. How do you remain hidden?”
Minns answers. “Smoke and mirrors. The protective field you’ve entered hides us from view overhead. We are only seen by ships in space when we want to be found. We’re in exile from the rest of our kind you see.”
“Let me try to explain.” Grey sits in a strange canvas chair. “We discovered something that’s considered tempting to some factions up there.” He points to the sky. “It was on a planet that my father was trying to make suitable for life and eventual colonization. You know what a planet is?”
I think of Troll and its education. “Yes, I do.”
“Well, things went horribly wrong. We called it planet C9 — it opened up a hole of sorts. All kinds of nasty creatures came out.”
“In a brown fog that your dad created and the monsters highjacked.” I say confidently.
Grey seems surprised at my ability to make the connection. “Well, yes. The hole provided a potential way to travel all around space, but it was unstable and eventually destroyed.”
I continue. “And your people don’t want you spreading the news because they may look for another door of this sort? Were you with the Institute?”
Grey’s gaping mouth betrays his continued surprise. “Yes and yes. The Institute did not want us to let others know. Hence, our exile in the one place where people are least likely to look — the one technologically quarantined planet in the known universe.”
I turn to Etch. “Time to tell them what we know.”
We explain my dream, omitting Fromer’s participation. Both Etch and I feel that it is our secret. As I finish talking, a female voice asks, “Is there another portal here on earth?”
Grey stands. “Hi Gorian. Amy and Etch are talking spooky pilot stuff. Yes, it seems that the phenomenon that occurred on C9 is cropping up here.” Gorian’s the woman who accompanied Grey when we first arrived. She’s fair haired, with flawless skin. Her hands are covered with grease, which she’s wiping away on a cloth.
“How’d it happen?” Gorian takes a sip from Grey’s cup.
Minns laughs. “Gorian, you’re never satisfied with things to just happen. You’ve got to work all the angles.”
“Forgive me for being curious Minns. What’re we going to do about this?”
Grey turns to me, grinning. “Gorian is our engineer. She’s responsible for fabricating this compound and keeping us comfortable in our exile.” He squeezes her shoulders. “And she keeps me sane.”
Minns groans, while Etch chuckles. He’s eating some kind of fish now. I’m unsure whether it’s been cooked.
Grey looks at Theo. “I think we need some time to interpret what’s facing us and what we need to do.” Theo nods.
“It’s time for me to ask some questions,” I say. “Are there others we haven’t met?”
Grey sits back down. “There were originally a large number of us on the planet C9. It’s hard to explain, but one of our colleagues, another pilot, lost her way.”
“Went wankers from the sounds of it,” English interjects.
“Melat was her name. She collapsed the planet with her ship called the Raven.” Grey smacks his palms together and makes a whooshing sound. I’m more than shocked. How can something so massive be destroyed? Grey continues, “Gorian, a nauron named Iggy, Minns, my uncle, and I were the only survivors. Etch rescued us.”
“Where’s this nauron and your uncle?” I ask.
“My uncle passed a few months ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He never quite recovered from some injuries. Iggy, well, he or she, we can never quite decide what sex he prefers, jumped in the ocean a month ago and we haven’t seen him since.”
“So, a nauron’s a fish?”
Gorian jumps in. “More like an intelligent, human-sized frog. We suspect he, she, went off to reproduce.”
“How’s that possible? Are there more of its kind in the ocean?”
Etch laughs heartily. “No, his — or her — species can reproduce on its own. No sex needed.”
Kind of like some plants, I suppose. I’m sleepy and it’s showing. Grey gathers his things and shows me back to my beloved cot. I’ll learn more in the morning.
Chapter 54 – Thresh
I open my eyes and I’m dismayed to find myself back in Thresh. She’s in a dark room, with a blindfolded and bound man in the corner. Thresh is tired and angry. She’s in the village we’d visited a few days ago. The man is dressed in blue and white robes with thin alabaster skin. I recognize him as the town elder.
“Where did they go? This is your last chance.”
He croaks, “They headed south. The man, Theo, could talk with birds. He warned us of you and your evil. You will not prosper in this world.”
“Did they tell you what they were looking for?”
“No. They did warn us of you, thankfully. As your army descended on us, most of our townspeople were able to escape thanks to them. You’ll get no help from the rest of us. May your soul go to hell.”
“No need for your assistance anymore.” Thresh pulls out a short, thick staff and beats the man’s head. He screams once and then falls silent. I watch in revulsion from Thresh’s eyes, unable to do anything as the man’s head is reduced to bits of skin, bone, and brain.
She steps out into the cool night, the crisp air wrapping around her like a blanket. There are more grubs. Apparently, the fog is gathering around her. She has more men and women with her — recruits from nearby towns, I’d guess. The beautiful, colorful houses are now smoking hulks. Bodies are arranged in piles around the town commons, legs and arms entwined.
I feel something like elation welling up inside of her. She lifts her hands and fog oozes in from the shadows. It swirls around the bodies and they begin to tremble and twitch. One stands and then another. Before long at least a hundred corpses are assembled before her. I can hear her whispering to them and they shuffle toward her. The living people in the courtyard are clearly terrified. Only the thought of being torn to pieces by the grubs prevents them from running in terror.
“My children,” she says lovingly to the slumped, swaying bodies. “I have a job for you. Go south from here and look for the one who is like me. “When you find her, kill her companions and bring her back to me.” It’s not the dead minds she’s directing but the ooze animating them. The fog’s using the sad, empty shells as a way to transform and hunt.