Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (11 page)

He waited for a moment, then John called back, “She’s here, but she doesn’t want to say anything.”

Mike looked at Rob, “Did you hear that?”

Rob looked downcast as he nodded.

Mike called back to John, “Okay, Spec team out.”

Mike turned around.  The team’s grins were even bigger.  Even Rob was smiling, happy for Mike and Jennifer.  Everett began to say something, but Mike forestalled the quip by holding up his hand and stopping him, “Okay, everybody get it out of your system, then ruck up, and shut up.”

A chorus of ‘lover boy,’ ‘you the man,’ and ‘sexy beast,’ hit him all at once.  He let them continue until they stopped.

Mike looked around at the team, “Now that you’re done, is everybody ready?”  He passed the radio back to Rob to carry.

Their plan was to keep a lookout for anyplace that looked good for another settlement, preferably with game, water and other resources.  Right now though, they were going to head southeast to find a path to Matki’s tribe.  If the team could find a route, then maybe they could trade iron implements for salt, information, maybe food.  The possibility that they would be able to do all this was slim, but they wouldn’t find anything if they didn’t search.

He got a thumbs up from everyone.  He turned, and walked down the path.  Rob fell in behind him.  The order after that was Matki, Everett, Tom, and Mickey bringing up the rear, all of them with smiles on their faces.

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Joseph sat on the steps of the gateway.  He slapped at a bug on the side of his neck.  In front of him, Lieutenant Jondreau was rattling off about something.  That’s all he seemed to do, talk, talk, talk.  Joseph was going on guard duty with Trevino, Murph, and Yee. While Jondreau talked, Joseph watched the team climb.  They looked like bugs from here.  They spent the better part of a day getting up the side of the cliff.

He’d watched Pang with Nosstrand, Sheffield, and Franklin.  If Trevino wasn’t about to go on guard duty, she’d be over there as well.  Joseph didn’t understand it.  The team guys had the best looking women.

Things weren’t going well for Joseph.  He wanted to go home.  This place sucked.  He wished he could have a cold beer.  He wanted to be back in a honky-tonk in Great Falls.  There were always girls there who wanted to spend time with him.  He couldn’t claim to be the smartest or the funniest guy, but eighteen inch arms went a long way with the girls he liked to sleep with.  He also enjoyed putting a beat down on a few guys every once in a while.  Things had been fun in Great Falls.

Now, there was nothing.  An unending, unrelenting nothing.  All he did was eat, sleep, and slap at the no-see-ums that surrounded him when he was on guard shift.  The only fun he had was throwing rocks at the dragons when they showed up.

Lately though, he found himself staring at Lieutenant Pang’s ass.  She was tiny, and he was a big guy.  He thought about some of the interesting things they could do together.  He didn’t know why he fixated on Pang.  Hell, it could be dangerous for him now that Pang and Mike were an item.

There were other pretty girls here.  Not as many as there were at home, but there were a few.  The girls here talked too much, though.  Over educated, that was the problem.  The girls back in Montana weren’t nerds like the ones here.  He didn’t like the idea of having to spend a lot of time with them either.  They always wanted to talk about something.  A few girls showed interest at first.  He’d hooked up Maria Roberts, but he lost interest after a few romps in the sack.  He’d moved on to Michelle Tomiko after that.  Lately though, he wasn’t able to hook up.  The girls blew him off when he tried to chat them up.

“Joseph, you paying attention?” Jondreau asked him.

He turned around and looked at the lieutenant.  Sometimes, Joseph just wanted to beat Jondreau’s face in.  Jondreau had always pushed his buttons.  Jondreau was such a pussy.  Now though, Jondreau wasn’t really a lieutenant anymore.  Joseph didn’t have to listen to a thing he said.  He stared at Jondreau for a minute, then blinked, “Yes sir, I’m paying attention.”

Murph looked at him, “Dude, you okay?”

Joseph nodded, “Yeah, no problems.”

Murphy frowned, concern on his face.  He turned his head back to look at Jondreau.

Joseph looked at his friend for a moment.  Murph didn’t understand.  Hell, Murph could have his choice of the women here.  He was knocking boots with Laura Roberts, one of the techs.  They even had a ceremony.  He didn’t understand why the people here were getting married.  It wasn’t even legal.  There weren’t any priests, so how the hell could they get married.  It didn’t make sense.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one that couldn’t get laid here.  There were a few others as well, not enough girls to go around.  It was strange that he couldn’t get laid.  Hell, even that pussy Stein was getting some.  He and Stephanie hit it off when Stein started teaching her Aikido.

Joseph looked back out at the team guys on the cliff.  It looked like one of them had just reached the top.  Of course, that meant that the team guys wouldn’t be around for a while.  Joseph thought about Pang’s ass some more.  He really wished he could have a beer.

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Mike felt someone shaking his shoulder.  He woke with a start, and drew back to punch.

“Whoa, Mike, it’s me, Tom.”

Mike relaxed and put his arm down.  He looked around, and saw Mickey and Tom looking at him.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Tom spoke, “Something’s out there.”

Mike stretched, “Isn’t there always something out there?  That pretty much sums up this world.”

“Yeah, but I think there’s something out there stalking us.”

Mike was suddenly wide awake, “Where?”

Tom pointed to the southwest, “It’s over that way.  Mickey saw if first, then he grabbed me.”

Mike sat up and looked around him.  The cold air fogged his breath.  They’d walked into the small rift above the cliff, and climbed steadily upward since.  They were at least two thousand feet above where they had started.  There was a light fog, but it didn’t hide the scenery around them.  It was magnificent.  Mike had lived in the Rockies, but it was nothing like this.  Everywhere, as far as the eye could see, there were mountains.  High craggy mountains towering up to the sky.  Snowcapped mountains that looked like God’s own throne.

Mike looked out across the slope of the mountain in the direction that Tom was pointing at.  It was strewn with rocks, boulders, and talus.  Evergreen trees, or something closely related to them, were scattered across the landscape.

“I don’t see anything.”

Tom nodded, “Yeah, I didn’t see anything either when I first started looking.  But, eventually, I saw something move.  Not much, but it was there.  Then it was gone.”

Mike studied the area.  He still didn’t see anything, “Well, if its intent is serious, I’m pretty sure it’ll show itself again.  Until then, we just need to stay on our toes.”

They doubled the watch, and Mike went back to sleep until it was his turn.

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They started early the next morning.  Matki cooked and made tea for the team.  They were on edge, knowing there was something out there trailing them.  Tom was pulling rear security, and had been watching their back trail through the telescope on his rifle, so he was the first one to see it.

“Yeah, it’s back there.  I still don’t know what it is though.  I tried to look at it through the scope, but I couldn’t get it on target in time.  It’s still paralleling our course, along the base of the mountains up there.”

The smaller valley they had initially climbed merged with a larger valley that led up into the mountains.  The valley floor changed from talus and rock to a springy moss carpet.  The moss was punctuated by stones thrusting up through the green floor.  A small stream flowed through the middle of the valley, taking melt water from the high mountains down to some far away river down slope.  They were looking for a way to cut over to the south of the mountain they were heading for.  They had to find a pass in that direction, otherwise they would be heading too far northeast.

“So, it’s stalking us?” Everett asked.

Tom nodded, “Yeah, it’s definitely stalking us.”

Mike looked at the faces of his patrol.  No fear, they just wanted to know how to deal with the situation.

“Okay, we can’t spread out when we bivouac.  We have to stay in tight.  We need to find places that are easily defended.  And, we need to make sure we have a fire every time we settle in.”

He looked over at Tom, “Any ideas on what else we can do?”

“Well, keep your eyes peeled.  If you see it, let me know, and I’ll try to get the optics on it.  If it looks dangerous, then I’ll try to kill it before it can get close to us.”

Mike nodded.  He turned to Matki, “Any ideas on what it might be?”

Matki shook his head, “There are fewer predators up here, not enough prey for them to hunt.”  He paused as he looked around the mountains, “Sometimes, an older animal will be driven by sickness or other predators to the mountains.  The talgit are like this, and can be a concern to us.  But, once again, it’s the same thing.  Since they hunt in packs, there’s not enough protein up here to keep them all fed.  We might see them in singles, but they are not stealthy hunters.  They prefer to run down their prey.”

“So you have no problems with predators, then?  No native predators in the mountains?” Mike asked.

“Oh no, I didn’t say that.  The mountains are still a dangerous place, even without the dragons.  There are some animals up here that hunt smaller game.  There’s just not a whole lot of them.  Sometimes, people disappear.  Of course, you know about the dragon spawn.”

Mike nodded, “I don’t think we have to worry about them for a while.”

“No, we don’t.  Besides, we would already know if it was them.  They hunt in packs until they get older,” Matki confirmed

“Okay then, we continue our scout.  We’re looking for an opening to our south so that we can cut over and get to the other side of that ridge line.”  Mike pointed to indicate the direction he was talking about, “So if you see anything that might be a cut over, let me know, and we’ll check it out.”

Tom spoke, “Make sure you keep your eyes peeled.  Whatever’s stalking us might have friends in front of us.  It won’t be the first time that an animal has driven prey to its pack.”

They continued walking, looking for a way south.  Everett saw the cut first, “Hey Mike, what do you think about that,” he pointed to indicate the area that he was looking at.

Mike called a halt, and everybody faced out for security.  Mike dropped his pack to the ground, “Okay, everybody, relax.  Go ahead, pull in and set up for a halt.  Maintain security, though.”

Mike rummaged in his pack, and pulled out binoculars.  He scanned the area that Everett was talking about.  The cut was masked partially by a peak in front of it, but he was able to see it.  It was a high pass, but it was definitely climbable, steep but no need for mountaineering tools.  That was a relief.  He’d been worried that they would have to do another climb to get to the other side of the ridge line. 

With the mountains as high as they were, that would have been problematic for his team.  They didn’t have enough food for an extended foray at high altitudes.  If they didn’t find a way across soon, then they would have to change the plan.  They’d have to relay supplies up, set up a temporary camp, then explore mountaineering routes across the southern ridge.  That would have been much more work intensive and time consuming.

Mike surveyed the route to the pass.  It looked like it would be another four, five hours before they could get to the base.  He figured that they could set up camp there, then tackle the high pass in the morning.  He looked up.  The sun was low in the sky.  Daylight didn’t last as long in the high mountains, even with the longer days.  He wanted to be in the bivouac area before before darkness set in.  With a possible predator out there, he didn’t want to take any chances.

He walked over to Rob, and motioned for him to take point, “Rob, go ahead and make your way to the cut, in that direction,” Mike pointed at the area he was talking about, “Then find a defensible position for us.  When you do that, we’ll laager up and get ready for the night.”

Rob pointed in the direction that Mike had indicated, a question in his eyes.  Mike confirmed, and Rob started walking.  Mike walked back and grabbed his pack as the rest of the group stood up.

“Alright, break time is over.  We’re going to head to that high pass and laager up for the night at the base, then we can head out in the morning.”

They started walking, heading in a southeasterly direction.  They didn’t take any more breaks, trying to beat the sun so that they could get to a defensible position.  The crew kept a sharp eye out, looking for whatever was stalking them.  There weren’t any more sightings, though.  Whatever it was, it was able to blend into the minimal cover that the landscape provided.  To Mike’s thinking, that wasn’t a good thing.  It meant that they were up against a practiced, capable predator.