Kraken Orbital (7 page)

As I eased
myself gently closer to him I could make out the grey
colored rock poking though the wall of green
leaves and trees. He took a bottle from his utility belt and held
it against the stone. I could just hear the water trickle down into
the empty and transparent container over the intense and constant
thunderous footprint of the monster that I could still not yet
see.

I waited there for him, as patiently as I
could, while the drips slowly filled the bottle with clear and safe
to drink rain water. I keep looking from left to right and back
again for anything out of the ordinary. Not that much is within the
confines of the ordinary on this planet that I have yet seen.

But I don’t see anything at all. I would have
felt better if we could just leg it and try to make it further away
from the brute that was grazing for food somewhere near by. Logic
swore to me that it was best to just run but I know that’s just
bull. If we run we attract more attention to ourselves and we put
ourselves in greater risk of being the highlight of the menu.

Kolt finally
screws the cap back onto the bottle and returns the container to
his belt. He looks up. I knew he would. He has the same idea that I
have but he definitely has more balls to make it happen than I
have. We need to climb out of the pit of the forest, get on top of
it, and get a good view of the intensity of the road
ahead.

I reach to
take hold of the vine. It surprises me how fuzzy it is. I was
expecting it to be smooth and to have to fight it for grip all the
way to the top. I flex my open palms over it a few times and give
myself a stern talking to.
Ok
I can do this.
I say to myself so that I
don’t look weak in front of Kolt. He comes up beside me and takes
hold of the neighboring vine.

I know he can sense my fear, even though I
don’t detect even the slightest hint that he might feel the same,
and graciously offers to go first.

‘I will climb first, you watch where my feet
touch the rock, study my technique and repeat.’ He instructs me and
trusts his full weight to the vine after tugging on it as hard as
he can. I guess there is no other way to test whether or not it
will take his weight. I do the same and mine uncoils somewhere at
the top. My heart stops as it snakes around and plummets to the
floor around me. It misses my head by inches and slaps the dirt
below my feet with a loud clapping noise.

I hold my
breath and wait for the beast to howl then come running to discover
us. Nothing. I breathe out slowly with a genuine sigh of relief and
try the next vine over. Kolt has stopped to wait for me. I tug it
again and again but it doesn’t give way. My heart is racing. I need
to calm it down or I’m not going to have the energy to make it up
the cliff face which is a sheer vertical wall with no forgiving
recess in which to take rest.

I dig the tips of my toes onto the first
jagged edge and balance all of my weight on my arms. I reach up as
hard and as high as I can with my right hand and pull as hard as I
can. That forces my feet to run up the slippery and slimy rock
face. Kolt watches me stumble up the wall from above and races
ahead every time I catch up with him.

My forearms
start to burn quickly but I know I can’t let go. Even though my
muscles are screaming at me to do it. I hold on with all my will
power and keep pulling and dragging my feet up the wall. I glance
down and
realize just how far we have
climbed. I lose all my depth perception right away and my heart
skips a full beat at the sight of the ground below. I tighten my
grip and push on. We climb, grimacing and shouting from the pain of
it, for another few hundred yards into the sky.

The high
pitch shrieks coming from below stops us dead! My foot slips at the
wrong time and my shattered arms relent. I fight the urge to let go
and tighten my grip once more. I only slide down the vine a few
feet but it felt like I fell for a lifetime. My heart races again
and I glance down to see a pack of five beasts salivating below at
the prospect of an exotic meal. They are long, sleek and patterned
with green’s and red
colors. Their scaly
skin glistens in the odd sparkle of light filtering through the
dense canopy above. Their jaws snap together like a crocodile’s and
they keep leaping in turn up into the air trying to catch a
flailing limb and pull us down to tear into our fragile
bodies!

I start to breathe erratically but manage to
hold it together.

‘Climb!’ Kolt
shouts at me from high above. I can barely make out his voice for
the muffling effect and through my own consuming fear. I have to
take his advice though or I was dead and eaten. Of all the ways I
can think of to die, that has to be one of the lowest on my list of
least favored ways.

I fight the
burn and numbing pain and slam my boots back into another crack of
the wall. I can see Kolt is only a few meters higher than me so the
beasts below are only leaping and snapping for me.
How flattering?
I pull hard on my tired arms and snap my foot into another
gaping hole in the soaking wall. I scream in agony as I can feel
the muscles in my arms snapping and creaking to keep up with
demand.

Kolt hangs on
his vine with one tensed and bloated arm. He stretches out his
other, enormous and powerful arm for me as I climb higher and
higher. He grabs for my hand and heaves me up another few feet. I
feel my entire weight trusted to his massive hand and powerful
grip.

It terrifies
and comforts me at the same time. I take the opportunity to flex my
other hand and get some more blood
flowing. I grab hold of the vine again and he nods at me so
I know to take my full weight again. The things below have given up
leaping either through exhaustion or their lack of success. But
they are still shrieking and that sound pierces my ear drums and
sends shivers down my spine every time.

‘
I can see
the top.’ Kolt says without even so much of a strain. He quickens
his pace and l
eaps up the rock face. He
suddenly swings his legs over his head to one side and heaves with
all of his might over the top. I panic for just a split second,
wondering if he’ll even come back for me.

His ghastly mask appears over the side,
directly above my vine. He holds out his hands for mine but both of
us know that I can’t reach him. My red face, covered in veins and
visibly strained, gives that fact away. He disappears again but I
feel the vine begin to move ever so slowly. I can feel his strength
and power heave me over the top.

I see his
grey boots first and dare to look up to him. He has planted his
legs under some jagged rocks and has his feet spread wide to take
the weight. He holds out a free hand and I swing for it with the
last of my pathetic energy. The feeling of his pale white, cool and
huge palm comforts me instantly and I finally
allo
w my battered muscles to
relax.

He heaves me
one last time and throws me over the top. I can’t even stand. I hit
the bare stone like a bag of bricks and pant repeatedly for breath.
He reaches under his brown leather apron and reapplies his leather
gloves of the same
color. He reaches down
at the wet rock below and runs his covered finger tips over the
surface of the green colored rock.

‘This.’ He splashes me with it. ‘You can
drink.’ He nods at me as the redness fades at last from my strained
face. I don’t hesitate to start slurping the cool and tasty water
from the surface of the rock below my hands. It tastes milky with
all of the calcium from the rock itself. I drink until my heart is
content and my tired muscles satisfied.

I roll over
and allow the gentle stream of satisfying water drench my hair and
drain behind my
armor. It instantly cools
my shattered back and I breathe a gentle sigh of comfort. I open my
eyes to see the sky for the first time since entering the packed
jungle.

The sky is blue and pale, a welcome sight,
and the sun is warm but gentle after the desert. The rock face we
climbed opened up onto a raised plateau and I can finally see the
path ahead.

The jungle
stretches for miles and miles. Right up to the crest of the
horizon. I can finally see the beasts that roam the land. I can
just about see their heads above the canopy of trees below. They
are fearsome, enormous, and snarling. They don’t see us. They are
still too far away. The sounds of their stomping has become natural
and I have all but drowned it out. But the sound of landing jets
and the sight of a dark ship hovering in the sky, bearing a logo I
instantly
recognize, instantly fills me
once again with fear.

Chapter 5

Discovered

My stolen rig
must have been embedded with a tracking device.
Figures.
The ship
passes right on by, flying low above the forest and making a b-line
for the crash site of the rig. There is no doubt in my mind that
they will be heading our way.

We weren’t
careful about covering our trail
s
either.
Why would we
be?
I never thought they would be coming
for us. It will be easy for them to pick it up when I think more
about it. I left my bag at the beach. That was stupid. We killed
that snake to eat and it bled out all over the place. I know the
sand will cover it over but there will still be a signature for
them to track.

The thoughts
are racing through my mind but I still haven’t moved from the
streaming water atop this rocky outcrop. Kolt remains irritatingly
poised as usual.
But he doesn’t even know
it’s a problem. It dawns on me that I’ve told him
nothing.

The Morris-Cooper Mining Company.
The circular logo with a pick axe protruding from the
centre makes me shiver. I think that the company had just been
founded by two probably pretty nice guys some hundred or so years
ago when the exploitation of space bound resources first began back
on Earth.

Who would have known that it would have
evolved into the heartless, evil, un-trustworthy company they
became? I hope the two guys who formed it are rolling constantly in
their graves knowing what their namesake became.

This changes
things though. This is no longer a desperate mission
of survival anymore for us. Well, just me I
guess, since Kolt claims not to be bothered about rescue. That’s no
longer necessary though. This just became a race to escape and find
a way off the planet. This isn’t a rescue anymore. This is an
evasion.

I slowly
steady my breath. Kolt is peering into the distance, back the way
we came, and in the direction of the landing craft. He hasn’t said
anything even though he must have figured it out by the look of
horror I just can’t hide. Something occurs to me. I haven’t even
told him who I am or that I’m here because I
’m a wanted criminal. I stole. I killed. And I guarantee
they’re here for my ass.

‘It would seem you no longer require my help
to be rescued?’ He stands aloof and cross armed. He briefly glances
down to me. He must think these guys are my friends who have come
to save me.

‘Oh that is so far from true I don’t know
where to start.’ I say through panting breaths. I lift my soaked
body from the ground. My legs have turned to jelly but I can stand
and shake it off. He looks confused. That’s a lie. He looks the
same. But he doesn’t reply to me right away so I can only guess
that I have him stumped.

‘
I don’t
understand.’ He states. I
t take a while
to think about how to explain it to him and look around the place.
The sun caresses the green tops of the jungle canopy. The light
dances across the colorful fruit bearing trees and creates a
beautiful and color rich spectacle. It’s warmer up at the top of
the rock face but I don’t mind.

The sun soothingly laps me dry after the hard
climb and all I can smell is the dull, pungent scent of my own
sweat. The rocky outcrop extends beyond the obvious. It forms part
of a cracked and fractured ridge that weaves through the trees and
cuts deep into the jungle, luckily, in the direction that we need
to go in.

We can stay atop the jungle floor for a while
and that would mean we are plenty out of the way of some of the
bigger creatures. From this vantage point I can see far into the
horizon, to the base of a mountain and some foothills before that.
I follow the jagged edge of that mountain with my strained eyes up
into the sky, where the peak disappears into a haze of high top
clouds.

That must
have been where we were heading. Kolt me
ntioned that he crashed his ship atop a mountainous
peak.
And I thought climbing
this wall had been hard
… I allowed myself
a brief moment to feel afraid of what was to come but had to snap
out of it. I don’t care how hard the walk or the climb will be, or
even how many different things try to eat me on the way. I don’t
want to go back. I can’t go back. I won’t let them take
me.

‘
Those would
be my
former
employers.’ I begin my story, hands on hips, and
staring blankly across the open jungle floor and into the hazy
mountain face beyond. I emphasize the word “
former
” and hope that he
clicks on.

He might have
but still remains silent, arms folded, and peering in the opposite
direction. I can make
out some bobbing,
reptile like heads weaving and forcing their way though the dense
foliage below. They must be some of the bigger creatures. They have
enormous teeth and snarl incessantly. I have to talk over them but
I continue my story.