Thorn Fall (14 page)

A faint groan drifted to my ears, answering my question.

A rapid stream of words came out of Alek’s mouth, and he looked at me. I caught “slow heartbeat,” “awareness,” and “healer.”

“We’ll take him to the hospital,” I said, though the idea of carrying someone four miles back to the car was daunting. As was the idea of someone dying in our arms. “If we can get him off these rocks.” Even if the slope hadn’t called for ropes, scrambling down it with an extra two hundred pounds wouldn’t be a simple matter.

Alek nodded curtly and picked up the man, hoisting him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

“Do you want help?” Simon asked, though his expression said he wasn’t sure how he would offer it.

Alek, already jogging back to the spot where we had climbed up, didn’t answer.

“I’ll help him. He’ll need light at least.” Temi glanced toward the center of the formation where those strange flashes were still brightening the rocks, then ran to catch up with Alek.

Figuring more people would only get in the way and that I could catch up with them on the trail, I turned on my flashlight to examine the rocks.

“It might be unrelated,” Simon said, as he crouched next to me, his gaze downward. “He could have tripped and broken something and not been able to get back down. Maybe he got heat exhaustion.”

“In November? It was only in the sixties today.”

As before, the thorns I expected to see were hard to spot. I ran the beam along the rocks on either side of the crevice, my face as close to the ground as I could manage while squatting.

“I don’t see anything,” Simon said.

“Me, either.” I rocked back to sit on my heels—I was being careful not to touch the uneven stone. My feet ought to be protected by the thick soles of my hiking boots, but I doubted jeans would keep one of those thorns from pronging me. The glow of Temi’s sword was moving down the trail. She and Alek must have reached the ground already. Should we give this up?

“The guy might have moved after being hit,” Simon said. “It’s a slow-acting poison. Venom. Whatever it is.”

“Ah, that’s a good point. Unfortunately, that means we could have a large search area.”

Even by day, finding thorns out here on the broad expanse of rock would be a challenge. The wind could have blown them off the mesa by now too.

“Maybe he had some elf blood and was checking out the vortex.” Not expecting to find anything, I headed for the area where those lights had been flashing. With Alek and Temi gone, the phenomena had disappeared. I probed the lumpy red rocks with the flashlight again.

“They don’t have the car keys,” Simon said. “We better not get too far behind, or they won’t be able to take that guy to the hospital.”

“I know. You can run after them if you want.” I crouched near another little crevice, poking my light into the dirt lining the bottom.

“Oh sure, I’m going to leave you here with nothing but two grenades to defend yourself. What kind of hero leaves his sidekick to get eaten by alien monsters?”

“The kind who is actually the sidekick himself.” I smiled, not at my joke, but at the slender brown shaft sticking out from the roots of a tuft of grass. I pulled out my tweezers and another sample baggie.

“Find one?”

I extracted the thorn. It was the same as the others. “Yup.”

It went in the bag, but I kept looking, wanting a few more so Autumn would have a decent sample. I didn’t know if an antivenom would be possible or practical, but we had to get as much information as possible, in case the creature proved difficult to kill and more people fell prey to its attacks in the meantime.

Simon shifted from foot to foot.

“Just need another minute,” I said. “If we can find a couple more, that would be good.”

He huffed, but he bent low and scanned the rocks by the light of his phone display.

I found a second thorn lying flat on the ground and added it to the collection.

“This is right where those lights were, isn’t it?” Simon asked. “I don’t feel anything. No tingling, no vibrating, nothing.”

“I don’t, either. We lack special blood. It’s disappointing, I know.”

“Found one.” Simon reached toward it, paused, and waved me over and pointed, so I could grab it with the tweezers. “Maybe we could get a sample of Temi’s blood,” he said. “Figure out how to extract the elfie parts and insert them into our own bodies. That’s one of the ways to get super powers in comic books.”

“Uh huh, I’m doubting the ‘elfie parts’ are all that apparent, or some hematologist would have discovered them long ago.” I found another thorn and slid it into the baggie. One more, and we would go. “Besides, your body would probably reject Temi’s blood, the same way it would reject a blood transfusion from someone who isn’t a type match.”

“My body reject her? That’s hard to imagine.”

“It’s because your blood isn’t as horny as the rest of you. There’s a fifth one. That’s going to have to be enough.” I sealed the bag and rose, aware that the glow of Temi’s sword had faded from view. They were hustling down the trail. “Come on.”

Simon must have been waiting for that suggestion like a runner poised on the starting line, because he took off, beating me to the edge by a long shot. Knowing the
jibtab
had been up here, sniping at people earlier in the day must be making him edgy. I wasn’t that excited about it, either.

With the flashlight in my mouth, I scrambled down the slope, pebbles and dirt falling away from my boots and plinking to the bottom ahead of me. Simon waited for me on the ground, though I didn’t know if that was because heroes didn’t leave sidekicks, or because he didn’t have a flashlight.

I dropped onto the dirt. In the second it took me to reach up and remove my flashlight from my mouth, a distant noise drifted to my ears, something that sounded like the propeller of an aircraft.

Simon groaned. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him toward the trail. “Run.”

Simon and I ran down the trail, leaping rocks and clumps of cactus that we had carefully stepped over and around on the way in. Branches clawed at my jeans and tried to snatch my whip from my waist. I batted them away, ignoring the leaves slapping my face. I tried to think of spots along the route where we could hide, but there hadn’t been any caves. Short trees and brush; that was it. Ducking behind the trunks might provide some cover, but the odds of avoiding something that could fire stingers like a machine gun on steroids didn’t sound good to me.

We skidded around the corner at the turnoff and kept running, our breaths so noisy that I couldn’t hear the drone of the creature over them. I wished that meant it wasn’t there anymore. Neither of us slowed down. Three and a half miles to go, was it? Would we be safe if we reached the van? I hadn’t tried breaking one of the three-inch-long thorns but they seemed too thin to pierce the metal siding of a car. The glass of the windows? I was less certain about that, given the velocity at which the
jibtab
fired them. Even though Autumn had succeeded in slicing one open, she had struggled. They were far sturdier than wood.

The trail crossed the road, and I paused, thinking it would be faster running back along it, regardless of the potholes.

“There’s the sword.” Simon flung a hand down the road.

The silvery glow was disappearing around a bend. Alek must have had the same idea I did.

“Good,” I panted, abandoning the trail. As much as I would like for Simon’s “Greek fire” to be an effective weapon, I put a lot more stock in that sword at the moment.

The road was less torn up here than it had been back at the gate, and we caught up to the glow quickly. We rounded that bend and found Temi waiting for us, her eyes toward the sky behind us.

“Alek went ahead.” Temi started running as soon as we got close, leading the way down the road, her sword held out in front of her. “He’s running.”

“He’s a beast,” Simon panted.

No kidding. My legs were already heavy. I was gulping air in gasps, and all I carried was a light pack and a few tools. And five thorns.

“He was running before the creature showed up,” Temi said. “He doesn’t think the man has much time. But then we heard—” She waved toward the sky behind us.

Yes, the drone of the creature was audible again, the noise no longer drowned out by our heavy breathing. It had gotten closer. “Did you… see it… at all?” I still hadn’t glimpsed anything more than a shadow. A
big
shadow.

“No.”

Every time the road ran flat for a stretch, I glanced back, looking for a dark silhouette against the stars. Every time, I saw nothing. But the drone kept growing louder. How close did the
jibtab
need to be to start firing? I didn’t think it was as close as it had been when we were in the cave, but our hiding spot, hunkering inside the cliff, would have distorted sound.

“Is it… invisible?” Simon panted from behind me.

“Dunno.” I stumbled, my legs like iron weights. I forced them to keep going. We had to be at least halfway back by now. I’d glimpsed the back of Alek’s head a couple of times at the edge of the sword’s glow. The fact that he was carrying another person spurred me on. No way was I going to collapse under nothing but my own body weight.

“The thorns aren’t.” Temi didn’t sound nearly as breathless as Simon and I. For her long legs, this was probably a light jog. I’d hate her for that later; no time for anything except running now. “You have your flashlight, Del?”

“Yeah,” I rasped, my mouth drier than the desert dust.

“Go ahead. I’ll watch our backs. You’d be better off on the trail than the road. It’s too open here.” She waved toward one of the crossings up ahead.

“Temi—”

“It’s almost here. Go!”

I wanted to argue, to forbid her to endanger herself—or
sacrifice
herself—but it would have taken far too many words. Words I didn’t have the air for. When she stopped, I kept running. What else could I do?

“I saw something,” Simon blurted.

“Where?” Temi barked.

Simon fell to his knees in the shadow of a tree. Cursing, I stopped too. If someone was going to make a stand, we all should. I touched my whip, laughed at the ridiculousness of it being effective, and grabbed at the bulky objects in my vest pockets instead. Time to see if Simon’s canisters did anything.

“There!” Simon pointed. “See? Where the stars are blurry?”

Blurry stars? I was torn between wanting to hide behind the trees for cover and wanting to see what he meant.

“Yes…” Temi said.

“It’s
cloaked
,” Simon said, revelation in his voice. “Like a Klingon Bird of Prey.”

In another situation, I would have smacked him—like
that
explanation was going to help Temi—but I was too far away and too busy panting and sweating.

“I see,” Temi said, then cursed. “How am I supposed to hit it way up there?”

“Like
this
.” A soft snap-hiss sounded, like a soda opening, and Simon hurled one of his canisters into the air. Impressive flames spit out of it as it arced across the sky. As it passed the zenith of its trajectory, it exploded in a flash of white.

By this point, I had spotted the blot of fuzzy stars he had mentioned. The
jibtab
moved around, matching the night sky when it was still, but blurring the stars when it moved. Simon’s grenade hadn’t come anywhere close to reaching it. It paused for a minute, maybe to watch our ridiculous attack, but the droning started again, veering closer.

I grabbed Simon by the collar. “You’re going to need a grenade launcher, dude. Come on, run.”

Deflated, he let me pull him back into motion.

“Temi, you too,” I ordered, though I didn’t know if she would obey me. “There’s nothing you can do with a sword.”

“It’s firing,” she called. “Hide!”

I raced toward a boulder off the road to the right. “This way.”

Soft thuds sounded, thorns striking into the dirt and trees. Urging my legs to greater speed, I sprinted ten paces, nearly catching my foot on a root, and lunged behind the boulder. I crouched, my back pressed against it, my chest heaving. The rock rose over my head and should protect me… until the creature flew around to the other side. Would I be able to pick out blurry stars and track its path?

Something slammed into my shoulder. Simon. Fortunately, he grabbed me, or I might have tumbled out on the other side of the boulder.

“Where’s Temi?” I wanted to lean out and look, but another barrage of thorns plunked to the ground up and down the road. One clacked off the back of the boulder, and I sank lower.

“She dove behind a tree,” Simon wheezed. The light of the flashlight showed his face as bright as a cherry tomato. Impressive, given his bronze skin. “Grenade launcher. Can’t believe I… didn’t think of that.”

He hadn’t been in the attack earlier, or he might have.

“I’m distracting it,” Temi called, her voice a good twenty meters away and off the road somewhere. “Get back to the van. Get it started. I’ll catch up.”

“Temi—”

“Go,” she shouted. “It’s drawn by the sword. It’s—”

The night was utterly still now, save for the buzzing, the only way to track the
jibtab’s
presence. It had moved away from us and toward Temi. I smacked a fist against my thigh. Damn it. I should have known better than to come back out into the woods. We should have come up with a better plan first. “Temi?”

Simon peeked around the boulder. “She’s running around between some piles of rocks.”

I didn’t want to leave her, but I didn’t know what else we could do. Maybe if we got the van, we could find a way around the gate and up the road after all. I pointed the flashlight toward the rocks and dirt. As I had noticed earlier, it wasn’t as rough up here. If we could get past that patch of broken asphalt at the beginning…

“All right,” I said, “let’s get the van. We’re going to pull an A-Team if we can.”

“You’re going to come up with a brilliant Hannibal plan?”

“I was thinking more of the way their van was always crashing into buildings to save the day.”