Neverwylde (The Rim of the World Book 4) (11 page)

            “Oh, shit!” Fullgrath, in the lead, suddenly skidded to a halt with another expletive. The others clustered protectively behind him.

            Kyber felt the ruff at the back of his head and running down the length of his spine rise with anger and fear. Lifting their weapons, the others gradually spread out behind him and Fullgrath as they came face-to-face with Hoov and nearly a hundred more of its kind, who were waiting in silent anticipation for their arrival.

Chapter 16

Separated

            “What the hell?!” Jules’ outburst echoed what she and perhaps everyone else thought. Kelen aimed her blaster at the creatures facing them, but she knew it was a futile gesture. They were outnumbered at least ten to one, and there could be more coming.

            Beside her, Massapa took a stance and snarled. Kyber and the other Seneecians made a show of bearing their fangs and claws. A quick glance behind her confirmed her fellow crew members also had their weapons aimed and ready.

            “How did they know we were coming here?” Jules whispered.

            “We told them,” Sandow replied.

            “When?”

“Back at the room. We told Hoov we were from another part of the planet. That clued him in. It told him we knew about the panel.” The physician glanced over at them. “It only makes sense we would try to find another panel when we escaped.”

“So it knew almost as soon as we’d left the room that we’d escaped,” Mellori pointed out.

“The bug is smarter than it looks,” Fullgrath mumbled.

Kelen swept the room, and her sense of trepidation rose another notch. “I don’t see a panel. What are we going to do?”

“Until someone or something makes the next move, we have a stalemate,” Mellori remarked.

Kelen swallowed hard. “Surely they know they have us seriously outnumbered. What are they waiting for?”

“They do not know our strength,” Kleesod told her.

“They know we took down their people, but they do not know how,” Massapa added.

“Be prepared,” Kyber warned. “They will sacrifice one or more of their own to get an idea of the extent of our power. After that, they will try to divert our attention and attack.”

“How can you be so sure?” Jules asked.

Kyber gave him a scathing look, to which Fullgrath responded, “Takes an alien to know what another alien is doing.”

“It is also a basic military tactic, Fullgrath,” Mellori reminded him.

The weapons master grinned. “Then I say bring it on. I’ll blast their heads off before they’ve taken two steps.”

“No.” Kyber’s order was flat and inarguable. “Do not fire. Let them come to us. We will be the first line of attack. Do not show them our weaponry and full strength until I say.”

“How do we know they’re not listening and understanding what we’re saying right now?” Jules gave them a nervous look.

Kelen pointed at Hoov. “His necklace. It’s not glowing. We may not be close enough for the translator to overhear us.”

She felt a nudge at her hip and glanced down as Dox took her hand. Disengaging herself from his grasp, she gently pushed him behind her. “Stay back there with Sandow, Dox.” The little man bowed his head and obeyed.

Fullgrath set his blaster on kill. “Well, I still say—”

            Kyber threw up his hands, talons fully extended, and let out a roar. The other Seneecians joined him, and the sound of their growls reverberated inside the enormous cavern. Their show of force was more than intimidating. For a second, her initial fear of Kyber’s race, her trepidation she thought she’d overcome, returned. Seeing and hearing their challenge sent chills through her body, and she shuddered. Kelen then realized all five Seneecians had formed a human barrier in front of her and her fellow crew members. She noticed Mellori and Jules holding their blasters with both hands, but kept them hidden behind the Seneecians. She glanced behind her where Dox and Sandow were holding back.

            There was a movement in the darkness behind them.

            “Rear attack!” she screamed and fired over the physician’s head. She heard a shriek that sounded not at all human. Jules whirled around and also fired. At the same time, the Seneecians let out another roar as a phalanx of creatures charged their front line.

            “It’s show time!” Fullgrath aimed at the creatures Hoov commanded to attack.

            Kelen turned to face the ones coming at them from the cavern, letting Jules pick off the aliens who were forced to approach one by one through the narrow tunnel. The Seneecians met the frontal advance to decimate the creatures, slashing and tearing at the aliens.

It quickly became apparent they were overwhelmed. There were too many creatures, and their weapons, as well as their strength, would soon run out. Fullgrath came to the same conclusion. “Jules! Clear us a path to retreat!”

“And go where?” the navigator yelled.

“Can anyone see a panel?” Kelen shouted. No one answered. Screams and the sound of blaster fire filled the chamber with a cacophony that was almost deafening.

A movement in her peripheral vision made her pivot around in time to see a mortally wounded creature staggering toward her. Its intestines hung from its central cavity, bluish-black fluid oozing onto the ground. The thing had difficulty keeping its footing as it stepped into the blood, but it was determined to reach her. It held out its other four appendages, needle-like pincers erect and ready to inject venom. Kelen raised her blaster and took out its head. Chunks of flesh and gore flew everywhere. Before the body could fall, three more creatures pushed it aside and stepped toward her.

She fought her rising panic, shooting and taking down the three, but an unending mass continued to advance. Breathing heavily, she glanced around to see everyone fighting and firing. Even Sandow was getting off shots, taking down the ones coming through the tunnels and allowing Jules to focus on the front.

She tried to find Kyber, but the creatures coming at her blocked her line of sight.
Kyber! Oh God, Kyber!

She began praying. If this was to be their final stand, and she knew it was, she wanted to be by his side. She wanted the last thing she saw to be his face. And, if she was lucky, to hear him say her name one final time.

Kyber, I love you! Please know how much I love you!

The whine of a pulse rifle was ear-splitting, drowning out all other sound. Creatures exploded as the rays bombarded them from the inside out, causing the moisture in their bodies to boil instantaneously at a thousand degrees.

Kelen cried out, throwing up her arm to keep the scalding mess from hitting her in the face. A furred hand grabbed her arm and threw her forward. She stumbled, nearly falling, when Kyber scooped her into his arms and sprinted down one side of the room, hugging the wall. She managed to catch a glimpse of the utter chaos erupting in the cavern, and Cooter perched on a small ledge high above the floor, before Kyber ducked into another tunnel.

Darkness swallowed them. The sounds of the battle faded in the distance. Kyber kept running, his breathing becoming more labored, until he finally slowed. He set her back on her feet when he could go no farther and slid to the ground to catch his breath.

In the blackness she couldn’t see him, but he reeked of something that had to be the remains of the creatures he’d killed. She tried to scoot closer to him, but he gave her knee a little shove.

“No. I am foul.”

“Why did we leave? Kyber, they need us back there!”

“They were disbursing, running to save themselves.”

“They? You mean Fullgrath and the others? Or the creatures?”

“More of those things were coming in from the back of the cavern. Hundreds of them. We had no choice but to split up.”

Her mind whirled. The mental image of hundreds of those insect-looking things pouring into the big room was enough to chill her blood. She felt the hairs on her head rise at the thought.

“We need to reconnect with the others, Kyber. How are we going to do that?”

“I do not know.”

“Did you see Cooter? He was up on a ledge, firing at them.”

“He provided us with cover and enabled us to flee. We are alive only because he intervened. Hoov and its people never intended for us to leave alive.”

Bending over, she reached out until she found his leg. He tried to pull it away from her, but she persisted.

“Kyber, what are we going to do now? Where do we go? Should we try to go back to that cavern?”

“Hoov will have its people waiting for us to make that mistake. No, Kelen, we need to keep pushing onward. There are other chambers, which means there are other panels. We only need to find one.”

“And eventually hope we all reconnect.” When Kyber didn’t answer, she persisted. “Do you think we’ll meet up again somewhere?”

“We can only ho—”

A familiar rumbling sound came from down the throat of the tunnel. Already she could feel the walls and floor vibrating.

“Kyber!”

He grabbed her arm, lifting her onto her feet, and pushed her ahead of him.

“Run, Kelen!”

“Where?”

“
Run!”

Chapter 17

Discovery

            “I can’t see!”

            She floundered in the darkness, unable to see the walls, unable to tell if the tunnel was straight or curving. Kyber grabbed her arm and took the lead. She was hard-pressed to keep up with him, but the trembler making the corridor unstable pumped more adrenalin into her system. Kyber couldn’t see in total darkness, but she knew his senses were more astute than hers and would help her avoid running into the rock.

It took all her concentration to keep even with Kyber and not drag him down. The rumbling continued rolling toward them, gaining momentum. She didn’t dare look back. Dust and debris filled the corridor, making breathing difficult. They were pelted by rocks and clumps of dirt falling from the roof. When they encountered a curve or turn in the tunnel, he jerked her to the side to prevent her from colliding with it.

Kyber paused, coughing like her to clear his lungs. They’d unexpectedly encountered an area of clear space, free of grit. That fact registered in her brain, niggling something in the back of her mind as she tried to catch her breath.

“Wait. Wait, Kyber.” She tried not to sit down, knowing that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to get back up. Her legs were rubbery; her body felt like it was on fire. The quaking around them continued.

“We must go!” He pulled on her sleeve.

“Kyber, wait. Why is the air in this part of the tunnel clear?”

He gave her question a split-second of consideration and came to the same conclusion at the same time she did. “Air duct.”

“We gotta find it,” she gasped.

He silently agreed. They both knew those interconnecting tunnels were shorter and studier than the long, wandering corridors. She took one side and him the other, running their hands over the walls, frantically searching for the hidden doorway as the rumbling increased.

She nearly fell through the portal, catching herself at the last second on the rocky frame. She felt Kyber grab the back of her uniform to keep her on her feet when the ground undulated beneath them. They tumbled inside the tunnel as more rock and dirt fell, one large stone barely missing her head by centimeters.

Kyber rolled on top of her, protecting her from flying debris as the tunnel behind them imploded. Gradually, the shaking ceased. As the last sporadic quivers died away, Kelen opened her eyes. She gasped in surprise.

“Kyber, look. Glowing glyphs.”

They weren’t the first glowing glyphs they’d seen on this side of the planet, but there was something different about these. She ran her fingertips over the designs. “Kyber, these aren’t the same kind of marks that are at the other temple.” She looked up into his face to see his pupils distended in the weak light.

He sat up to examine them. “I may be wrong, but they look nothing like the glyphs from the other temple, either.”

She took a second, closer look at the marks, then turned and stared at him as she tried to make sense of the implications. “I think you’re right. Okay. Let’s think in threes, because that has always been the common denominator, whether we recognize it immediately or not. Those little creatures, the ones with the squarish heads who died and whose bodies we discovered at the other temple, let’s say they were initially the dominant intelligent species there. And let’s assume Hoov and its people are the intelligent species here.”

“Which means there will be another different intelligent species on the third portion of this world we have yet to discover.” He looked again at the glyphs. “Are you thinking these glyphs are from that third species?”

“It might explain why these carvings are different from the others.”

“If they are, then it means that at some point that third species was here.”

“Kyber, I think all three species lived together on this entire planet, but at some point they split up, and each took a section of this world.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. It was growing cold again. She wrapped her arms around herself. “This is all conjecture, but maybe they felt it was the only chance they had to survive. Maybe Hoov and its people came here because they were able to adapt to the cold, and the other creatures…” She gave a humorless chuckle. “Maybe they flipped a coin. Who knows?”

“If your theory holds true, then it would explain why the temples and the panels and the tunneling systems are so similar.”

He crawled over to the entrance. Kelen couldn’t see what he was doing, but from the slump in his shoulders, it didn’t look good.

“What?”

“This way is blocked.”

“Can we dig our way out?”

He turned around and sat with his back pressed against the wall. “I no longer have the strength. Even if we could, it would not be wise.”

“Kyber, we have to find the others,” she persisted.

“Who could be anywhere,” he argued. “You know Hoov’s people are looking for us. There are too many of them, and too few of us.” Kyber pointed down the tunnel, in the opposite direction. “We best go that way and hopefully find another corridor that will lead us to a chamber with a panel.”