On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1) (31 page)

Mike turned back to Murphy, “so wake us up every two hours in that order, okay?”

Stein spoke, “Sir, Lieutenant Pang wanted you to know, we’ll be relieved at the end of four hours, and four more will be up here to pull security.  Two will be from security, and two will be from other sections.”

“Great, now, if you four gentlemen don’t mind, we’re going to get something to eat, and then hit the sack.”

The four airmen walked away to talk about the security shifts.  Mike was relieved to see that they had night vision monoculars.  It was getting dark outside, and the starlight monoculars would help them see any problems before they got too close.  That, plus Rob monitoring the drone and active radar from the mech armor should keep down the possibility that they would be surprised by anymore monsters.

Mike sat down and opened a beef stew MRE.  He had enough energy to eat the packet of beef stew, but he was too tired to eat the rest.  He popped the top to a soft drink and took a long swig.  When he was done with the food, he stood, walked over to the mouth of the cave, and pissed.  He walked back and fell into his sleeping bag.

Mike’s mind wandered as he sank into sleep.  Mike’s goal for tomorrow was a thorough reconnaissance of the area around the cave, and the valley.  He thought about where they would get food, water.  There would have to be a latrine somewhere away from where they were bedding down.  Otherwise, there was a great possibility that they would be killed by disease.  And they had to bury Airman Babcock.  He would talk to Lieutenant Jondreau about the service.

So many things to think about.  And he still didn’t know where the hell he was or how to get back to Jo.  Thoughts of Jo and his baby filled his mind.  He could feel the tears at the corners of his eyes.  He wondered if he was ever going to see his wife or child again.  “God, wherever Jo is, please take care of her.  Wherever my baby is, please make sure that they’re healthy.  Please, if you’re listening, let my child have a long, healthy, and happy life.”  He wiped the tears from his eyes.

Oblivion took over, blackness sucked him down into a deep sleep. 

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Matki Awrani had a very tough night.  He followed the demon queen back to the cave from her hunt.  Now he stood motionless, hand on staff, one foot against the knee of the other leg in a position that humans have used since time immemorial.  Matki Awrani, meaning “Touches Thunder” in the language of his tribe, watched the great Demon Queen.  On her, the life and death of his tribe existed.  It was an uneasy alliance, one the monster knew nothing about, but one which they depended on.  She had been the master of this valley since his grandfather was alive, and through the years, it was his family that watched her to ensure the tribe’s survival.  Now, the critical juncture approached.  Soon, there would be forty to fifty of her offspring leaving the nest to hunt through the valley.  They were smaller than she, and would be searching for smaller prey.  This was his great concern. That was a time of violence and death for his people, when those smaller demons hunted in packs.  As dangerous as she and her children were, however, the monster kept other demons from the valley, and demon children from other females were hunted relentlessly, killed and eaten, to keep them from competing and killing hers.  Other carnivores were hunted, killed, keeping their numbers low.  So his tribe only had to contend with her children.

As it was, the demon was not interested in his tribe, unless they approached too closely.  It took more energy to hunt them than the monster could get from eating them.  It was another matter entirely for her demon children.  When the small demon beasts came out, they would be ravenous, and the tribe would have to defend against them.  His tribe’s most vulnerable members would be moved into the caves up in the cliffs to avoid slaughter as the small demons hunted.  Because of this sacred trust, he watched.  This was why the tribe valued Matki Awrani.  Two older brothers were murdered while tracking the beast, their deaths agonizing as the demon queen played with them.  His brothers made mistakes and died too quickly.  They didn’t understand that it was not just tracking the monster, but understanding its moods.  Matki Awrani spent years shadowing his father to learn the beast.  Matki Awrani was different.  He was able to step into his father’s footsteps lightly, and had been doing so for thirty years since his father became too feeble to scout the beast.  He learned the monster’s habits.  He could sense its emotions from its movements.

He waited for the demon queen to come back out of the cave, and was shocked when he saw the large, black demons come out instead.  He was even more shocked to see the new demons drag the demon queen’s head to the edge of the forest.  Large bloody chunks of her carcass soon followed.  He started shaking as he smelledher death.  It was more than death and gore.  It was her scent, the smell of her glands, her death scent.  He was amazed that these creatures didn’t smell it. Or maybe they did, but didn’t recognize it.  A low moan of fear escaped. The slaughter would begin soon.

Scavengers would come to the area, lured by the smell of the decaying meat.  That wasn’t the most dangerous problem.  The smell of her death would spread on the wind, and other great demons would know that she was no longer in the valley.  Other females would arrive to claim the territory.  Males would know that this valley was no longer protected by the demon queen.  More savage demons would come to claim the valley.  Males, twice her size, would fight over the females in the valley.  They would hunt, kill, and eat.  Nothing would be safe from the rut and violence that would occur here. 

Matki Awrani felt the scavengers before he knew they were there.  He quickly climbed the great tree, the giant demons be damned.  He moved high, staying on the side away from the cave.  Time passed, and he watched as the size of the scavengers grew.  His stomach growled, and he pulled dried, spiced meat from a pouch.  It was tough, and he had to suck water from his water skin to help soften the meat.  At one point, he watched a child, a little girl pull thunder from her pocket and kill a jongom, a murder bird.  These were powerful demons, indeed.  The day shifted into twilight and soon after, into the dark.

He thought about when he could leave the area.  Darkness was not his friend.  There were many predators down there that could kill and eat him.  He knew that most of the meat on the pile was probably gone, especially with the Talgit, the bear pack in the area.  If he went down now, he would be hunted and torn to pieces.  He was fast, but they would run him down.

He listened through the night.  The pack of Talgit went into frenzy after the sun set, and with the moon hiding behind the clouds, there was no light to see what happened.  There was the sound of thunder.  He didn’t need to see to understand what happened to the demons at the cave entrance.  A pack of Talgit was formidable.  He knew that he would see the carcasses of the demons on the ground in the morning.  If he was lucky enough, the bear-pack would have enough to eat, and would be torpid when he tried to sneak away.  His only worry was the other animals in the area he would have to avoid.  Still, with the pack of Talgit close by, other predators might avoid the area.  It was a long night, punctuated by the sound of violence and death.  He was awakened constantly by the sound of animals moving through the brush.  They were large animals, hungry animals.

He had to make water from the top of the tree.  Pissing off the tree would make noise, as his water hit the ground, so he pissed down the side of the tree.  He hoped that the smell of his urine wouldn’t attract any predators.  He sighed as the pressure eased from his bladder.  It was a very long night.  He was shivering in the early morning.  Darkness turned into twilight, and the light increased.  With the clouds, the sun didn’t fully light the valley immediately, but illumination increased steadily until he could see.  Eventually the sun was up fully, and not too soon for Matki Awrani.  He thought he would freeze in the night.  Mist rose off of the ground.

He didn’t want to move too quickly.  The last thing that he wanted was to attract attention of either the Talgit or the demons.  Either could mean his quick death.  He stretched and retracted his legs, to get the blood flowing.  There was a rustling below him, and he looked to the ground.  He didn’t see anything, and held his position as he listened and looked for anything that might be hunting him.  Time moved slowly, until he was satisfied that there was nothing down there.

He moved his head around the bole of the tree.He inhaled quickly, not believing his eyes.  The carcass of the demon queen was mostly gone, soft tissue rended from the bone.  All of the Talgit were dead, their carcasses piled onto the bones of the Demon Queen.  Small animals worried the meat and tore chunks to eat.  The animals in this area had not eaten so well in quite some time.  That had been a large pack.  He watched packs like that take down herbivores five times the size of the demon queen.  Those pack bears were another reason that his tribe lived along the cliffs in the mountains.  The large demon carnivores didn’t climb rock, and the talgit were too big to climb onto the paths that his people used.  His tribe spent lifetimes carving into the cliffs to ensure their survival, to escape the large predators on the ground.

He looked at the five black demons, guarding the entrance to the cave.  Four were crouched with their fists against the ground.  One was standing.  He was amazed that these demons were still alive.  There were even a few of the smaller demons standing back inside the cave entrance.  One seemed to be breathing smokeout through its nose and mouth!

Matki Awrani thought about this.  Maybe these were demons of the underworld.  He traveled into areas where the land shook and mountains spit red and black blood out of the earth.  These demons could possibly come from some area such as that.

He was amazed bythem.  As he watched, more came to the front of the cave to make water, or squat to defecate.  There were many male demons, but not as many female demons.  And they were of different colors.  They were pale pink to dark, dark mahogany.  They all looked human to him, but no human could have such powers.  Only the sky gods had such power.  The smell of fire was in the air.  Matki Awrani watched as smoke drifted out of the cave.  His mouth watered as he smelled food cooking.  He wished the demons would bring him some.  He was tired of eating the dried meat and fruits that he carried. 

He was not quite so worried now.  The Talgit were dead.  The scavengers should all be on the pile of carcasses.  He should have a better chance to make his escape.  He started climbing down, then stopped, to listen and look.  In this forest, it paid to be very patient.  The wind wasn’t helping him, as it intermittently picked up and rustled through the trees. He stopped.  He waited.  He learned patience at a very young age.  Being patient saved his life many times.  The sun was up, and soon the coolness of the morning would move into higher temperatures.  He wanted to be well away by then.He sipped water, moving slowly, and ate some more dried meat.  He heard nothing in the surrounding vegetation.  He started climbing down the tree again.  Finally, his feet were on the ground, and he listened.  Hearing nothing, he started to move into the forest.

Now, stealth and speed were his friends.  He would move slowly, stealthily until he was away from this killing ground, then he would pick up speed to get away from the new demons.  He had to get home to tell the tribe about the death of the old demon queen, and the arrival of the new demons.  He walked slowly away from the tree, moving from shadow to shadow.  Sound and quick movement would get him killed.  He was ten feet from the tree, then twenty feet.  Insect activity started to pick up.  He could feel the insects landing on him, flitting around his face, as if they were in collusion with the demons, trying to make him give his position away.

At thirty feet, uneasiness hit him.  His senses went to high alert.  Something was not right.  He felt like he was being watched.  Then he heard it.  Off to his right, something was moving.  He could hear the slight rustle of plants as the beast moved.  He heard something else to his left, a soft rustle of underbrush.  He was being stalked by more than one creature.  It may have been the thing that tried to climb the tree the night before, or it could be something that smelled his urine.   Either way, it was not good.  This spoke of patience, and patience meant an ambush predator, which meant a creature that would make a fast and violent attack.  And now, he was in the kill zone of the ambush.  If the animals were moving, then they were getting ready to spring.  There was no way he would make it back up the tree from here, the beasts would grab and kill him before he could make the first branch.

He stood motionless, knowing that any sudden movement would cause the animal to charge.  He thought, and could only think of one thing that might save him.  If these ambush predators ran into a bigger predator, then he might survive.  He could only think of one predator that could stop them.  He whirled and ran, dodging around trees, trying to put distance and solid objects between him and the predators behind him.  He heard the brush behind him explode as the predators broke their cover.  They were maybe thirty feet behind him, and would catch up quickly.  He heard a thump and a growl as something impacted into a tree.  Luckily he was out of the tree line into the open field before the beast was running again.  He opened his mouth and started screaming as he ran, hoping to wake the sleeping demons.

The carcasses of the dragon and bears were on the other side of the meadow, but as soon as he started screaming, the animals on the carcass mound turned and looked at him.  He heard the sound of footfalls running behind him.  His hands were straight out, elbows and knees pumping as he sprinted across the meadow.  His feet were different than those of a homo sapiens.His foot was longer, thinner, except across the ball of his foot.  As he ran, the heel of his foot rose from the ground.  The difference in foot structure propelled him much faster than a human could run.  He was much faster from a walk to sprint than his pursuers were.  But they were gaining on him as they warmed up to the sprint.  His intent was to run to the large black demons and hope they would kill each other.  He hoped that he was small and inoffensive enough that they would ignore him for the most dangerous threat.