Cry For Tomorrow (26 page)

None of us especially liked the nasty little skorks, but the creature’s pitiful scream made us all cringe.

My teeth ached from clenching them long before the skork mercifully succumbed.

“That was really awful,” Kelly gasped as she moved closer to my side.

“Yes, it was, but the death of a gruesome little scavenger like that isn’t what’s got me rattled,” I said with a shiver. “What does worry me is the fact that neither of these groups of ghouls are the vacuous, harmless ghosts that have infiltrated our own world. These are solid and very dangerous.” Seeing the dog racing across the beach, snuffling at the bodies of the dead, I called her back to me. “Dusty! Come!”

Hearing my call, she leaped over the thick, green-scaled legs of a dying ghoul before racing back to us.

“Good girl.” Kelly giggled when the sandy dog slammed into her legs.

“Oh, great!” I groaned. One of the remaining ghouls had spotted the running dog and was now waddling after it and toward us.

Taking a firm grip on my sword, I stepped out into the open. I was braced to do battle to defend my sister, but my knees were shaking and my legs nearly collapsed under me when I looked up into the face of the shark-head ghoul. A sound very like a growl rumbled from its chest as it loomed over me.

A flicker of movement to one side drew my attention and I caught a glimpse of Ben and Rainor moving towards me with raised weapons, but I was too close to the seven feet of ghoul. They could not fire their weapons without striking me.

“Damn,” I muttered. Taking a deep breath, I tightened my hands on the sword and released the energy I’d been gathering, allowing it to flow through the hilt and into the blade. I guessed now was as good as any other to test my little theory.

I was bracing to meet the ghoul’s attack when something flew over my head and slammed into its chest.

I took a step back and raised my arm to protect my face and eyes from the cloud of sand being kicked up by the two figures thrashing on the beach. When I was finally able to focus my eyes, I realized that the object straddling the ghoul was a small, humanoid woman. I could only stare in disbelief at the delicate-looking young woman, with a mass of dark grey-green hair swirling about her shoulders, wrestling to free the blade of a long knife from the side of the monster’s throat.

“If you can get a blade into their jugular, it’ll kill’em every time,” she declared with a smile for me and the girls as we gathered around her. She jumped off its chest and stood up with her hand out to greet us. “Hi, I’m Misty.”

“Damn, Misty! How many times have I told you to use the taser I gave you instead of jumping on those things like that?” Rainor demanded as he and Ben joined us. He fired a couple of taser-shots in the direction of the scattering of ghouls still wading through the surf before returning his attention to us.

“Halie, are you alright?” Ignoring the others, he grabbed my hand before the new arrival could wrap it in her bloody grip and, much to my embarrassment, began checking me for wounds. He jerked when he felt the sharp tingle of energy still pulsing through the hand he was holding and gave me a quick look of surprise.

When he was sure I hadn’t been harmed, Rainor returned his attention to the young woman, plainly intending to reprimand her again, but she threw herself at his chest before he could get the words out of his mouth.

“I was so worried about you,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Ignoring the reunion, Ben stepped around the couple and fired his revolver at one of the crab-ghouls sneaking behind us. He was joined on the beach by several more of the new-comers who added their own missiles to the shots he was firing at the creatures still lurking in the churning waves.

“Rainor! Glad to see you again. We were beginning to worry when you didn’t check in on time,” declared a tall, slender man stepping from the rocks behind us.

I knew I was gawking, but I couldn’t help staring as one of the most handsome men I’d ever set eyes on made his way toward Rainor. The effect was magnified when the wind tumbled through his thick mane of russet hair so that it blew into his face and forced him to straighten up to his full height, which must have been at least six-four, and stretch his heavily muscled arms up to sweep his hair back. giving me a clear view of his very muscular body and the glistening scales covering his exposed flesh
.
I was also pretty sure that those were gills visible at the base of the man’s throat. In fact, it appeared that all of the
people
that were closing in around us had gills and webbed toes and the same
gods of sun and sea
look.

“Wow, look at him,” gasped Jennie as she leaned against me to whisper in my ear. Neither of us could seem to keep from staring at the men gathering around us. None of them were wearing a lot of clothing, just sandals and short sarongs in an assortment of pale, silvery colors. Even the scales on their bodies shimmered either a silvery pearl or iridescent sunshine gold.

“Orin! Gotta’ say, your timing is good! What’s going on with this attack?” Rainor demanded. “I’ve only been gone a couple of weeks. When I left, things were pretty quiet here.” Ben’s return made him stop, as if suddenly remembering his audience.

“Please excuse my manners,” he said. “I would like to introduce you to some new friends of mine.” He proceeded to name us before introducing the natives. “This is Misty, my little sister,” he said with a wink, “and Orin, who is leader of this pack of renegades.” He smiled at the man’s frown. “The rest of this pack are, well, they are all residents of the village we are about to visit, and I’m sure they will manage to introduce themselves later on. Right now I would really like to get us out of the open and to the village so we can get some information and,” he looked down at his wet, sandy clothing, “some dry clothes for all of us.”

The natives closed in around us, smiling and chattering as they carried us along a path through the surrounding barrier of rocks and boulders.

We’d gone only a hundred yards past the strip of rocks when we encountered a canal of water. A well-traveled path following its bank, and the residents of under-world began to appear.

The all-too familiar phantoms that had been haunting over-world for most of the last half-century arrived, swooping and swirling about our party. A pair of the stumpy-legged trolls just like the one I’d seen kill a monkey in front of our apartment building only a day ago chunked into sight, happily chasing each other between the tufts of purple grass that lined the pathway. A serpentine bigger than any I’d seen before swooped from the trees and eagerly greeted Rainor before moving on to gently rub against each of the new-comers like a giant cat looking for attention. The only difference between these and the ones we already knew was that these were not ghosts.

“You aren’t concerned about the serpentines?” asked Misty when it was my turn to be
greeted
. “Their size can be a little intimidating.”

“No, I’ve been seeing them all my life and I know they’re harmless.” I laughed. “But those ghouls that came out of the ocean—those were something none of us have seen before.” I studied the dainty, elfish young woman walking at my side for a moment before deciding to question her. “Is this the way the ghouls act all of the time? Are your people always in danger?”

Misty nodded her head. “Yes, since the time that the two worlds first came into contact. I’ve been told that the ghouls were not as aggressive or deformed before then. It has something to do with the radiation of the sun, but this is the way it has been for all of my life.” She paused, as if trying to decide what she could ask. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything,” she smiled and cocked her head, “but you and your friends are obviously not like those poor freaks that frequently follow my brother home, so tell me, are you one of these psis that he’s been so ardently searching for?”

“Maybe. Rainor seems to think we can help. I’m really not sure if there’s anything we can do, but we did agree to accompany him so that we’ll have a better idea of what’s needed for both worlds to accomplish the merging.” I frowned, trying to organize some of my thoughts about recent events. Everything had been happening so fast. “All I know is that if there is something we can do to bring an end to the way things are now, well, then we’re willing to do anything within our power to help.”

The raised path we were following had widened and become a wide, sandy dike. To our left, what had been clumps of spindly trees had gradually thickened and become a forest, but the ground on the far side of the canal was a patch-work quilt of grain-bearing fields and groves filled with tropical plants and trees bearing an assortment of unknown fruits. Sometimes, there were small groups of men and women tending to the crops. These always paused in their work long enough to wave in a friendly manner at the party passing by.

Several members of one such group even put down their tools and made their way to the stone-lined bank of the narrow canal, waving in a friendly manner for attention.

“Halie,” Kelly whispered nervously, “do you think they’re going to attack us?”

“I don’t think so,” I tried to reassure her. “They act like they know Rainor.”

“Rainor! A word, if you please!” called the large humanoid ghoul at the head of the procession of farmers. “It’s good to see you again, Sire.” He smiled in a friendly manner as he went on, “We’ve been hearing rumors of scavengers in the area and were wondering if you’ve sighted any.”

“Brock! I see the crops are doing well,” Rainor returned. “I’m afraid the rumors are true. We encountered two different bands at Turning Rock. One attacked us from dry land and the other rose from the Deep.”

“That is unfortunate.” Brock shook his head in concern. “I will warn the patrols to keep a sharp eye out for them.” The man turned, as if to return to the cluster of farmers waiting for him, but paused and looked back. “There were no survivors of the merging this time?”

Rainor shook his head sadly, “No, not this time.”

The man plodded off to join his comrades. We could hear them muttering between themselves as they returned to their labors.

My friends and I quietly exchanged looks. Our recent experience made it obvious to us that the
farmers
were the result of previous mergings between the freaks and humanoid ghouls.

“Do these farmers live in your village?” I asked Misty as we resumed our trek. I was curious about the social issue of what appeared to be normal humans living in close proximity to the mutants.

“No. The survivors of the merges aren’t usually interested in living as close to the water as we are.” She cut her eyes towards her brother and back to me. “I’m guessing Rain hasn’t been very forthcoming as to our odd heritage so I think I’d better fill in some of the gaps. You see, most of the humanoids born on Tereus, such as me and the villagers I live with, are amphibious,” she held up one hand and spread the fingers to reveal the fine webbing between them. “But there are others who are much more comfortable living a little further from the water or in the larger settlements. The degree of mutation varies a lot, even within a family.” She half-turned to look back at the farmers working in the fields. “The mergings create creatures that are not always able to live in the water and they are rarely socially acceptable in the villages—at least for a generation or two. We call them dry-landers. They have their own village not far from here.”

Misty’s explanation left me with a whole new set of questions but I managed to keep my questions to myself—for now.

The canal had widened and the low, thatched roofs of a village had just become visible on the horizon when the first of the chariots appeared. Pairs of creatures resembling some blending between seahorse and serpentine were harnessed to large, round sea-shells and guided by the hand of native humanoid males dressed only in sarongs that left their upper bodies, and most of their long legs, bare and unadorned.

“Rainor! Welcome home!” they each called as they streaked past.

He smiled and waved back, sometimes calling one or another by name. As if noticing the hot, sweaty faces of his traveling companions for the first time, he turned to me, “I’m sorry circumstances didn’t allow me to better prepare you for the weather and tropical temperatures you’ll find here on under-world. I’ll get you all some clothing a little more suitable for the climate when we reach the village.”

“Great, I’m about to melt in these heavy clothes.” I wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead before returning my attention to the village we were walking into. It had the look of a Polynesian village I’d once seen in an old book at the library. Well, except that the
streets
winding through this village were actually part of a floating wooden dock built out over the surface of a large lagoon of sparkling blue water. Each of the huts was a separate unit, floating on the surface of the lagoon and connected to the dock by a wooden ramp.

We were nearing the juncture of the dike and the docks when we encountered a number of large pens lined-up in double rows along the lane on the forested side. The pens appeared to have been woven of a material resembling bamboo. Each was about twenty by forty feet and had been raised up from the ground on piers. Curiosity got the better of Kelly, luring her to the side of one of the pens.

“You’ve got to come see this,” she called.

Exchanging glances and shrugs, we followed her.

“What are they?” asked Jennie as we all leaned over the top of the woven panel to study the pair of giant slugs sleeping within.

“And why are they kept penned up like this?” Kelly asked Rainor when he joined us at the side of the pen.

“These are the glow-worms I told you about,” he said. “Only the medium-sized worms actually breed, but their size doesn’t matter, they all leave deposits of the globes that we use in much of our construction. The size of the globe is relative to the size of the worm.” He nodded at the adjacent pen. “We corral some of the breeders in an effort to acquire as many of the young ones as possible. We’ll keep them confined for the first few months to protect them from predators until they’re large enough to escape.”