“You won’t need to. The landing zone is above sea level. It’s on a plateau that juts high above this jungle and can be seen from above. We probably could have seen it miles ago from the ground if it weren’t for all this canopy. And all this rain.” She sighed and looked out between the leaves. “It’s dark, though, and the rain is impenetrable.”
“It’s going to continue to be dark and the rain isn’t going to stop. What kind of ship is it?” he asked.
“It’s commercial, midsize, and it doesn’t have much defense but it can comfortably transport up to twenty-five beings.” Norah tried to remember the name of it but drew a blank. “It’s silver and fast. I’m sorry, I can’t remember the name.”
Stryker turned his face away from the sky and looked back down at her. The numbers were gone. “The organization you work for, what’s it called?”
“EonMed Corporation.”
He snorted but it came out low under his band. “Funded by the EPED. No wonder you eased up back at your lab. That you knew I had a card. They employ cruisers–”
Cruisers.“Yes, that’s it. A cruiser,” Norah let out a breath.
“Yeah?”
She eyed him. “Yeah.” The sides of her lips twitched up involuntarily.
“Alright, I’ll go check it out.” He reached for his rifle. “Get some rest.” His free hand backed up over her temple, Norah held still as he checked her temperature. “There are more synthesized pills in the medkit. Take ‘em.” Stryker lifted up, taking his hand from her face. She instantly missed the warmth of his touch.
“Stryker?” she breathed out the question. “Why do you wear a mask around your face?”
“You don’t already know?”
Did she? Norah shook her head. “Tell me.Please.”
“It’s so I don’t strike out at people,” he said as he climbed up and out of her sight. She didn’t see him shift before he was gone, but his voice trailed him. “It’s so I don’t kill them.”
Norah sat there and waited. And listened for more words in the wind but none came. She looked around herself, at the flickering leaves snapping against each other, some torn from the gusts. The smaller sticks creaked and groaned around her. The tiny waterfalls of rain surrounded her and the weather raged. The humidity was suffocating, yet she shivered from the cold.
She continued to listen and the more she did, the more she began to hear.
“Uuup...up.”
“Uuuuuuup...”
Norah scrambled for the knife, hidden under her poncho and the Cyborg’s pack. She looked around but didn’t see anything but her shell and the small pod split open off the branch towards the end.
“Eep Uuup.” The sound whistled, followed by a crunch and a blast of thunder. “Hhhate this juungle.”
She dragged her supplies away from the trunk and perched at the end.Either cover my back, or see every angle.A familiar shriek sounded in the growing darkness.
Norah gripped the dagger and waited for a shrieker to appear. She pictured it as she stared out into the gossamer rain. Long fingers. Pale grey and thin. A body that slithered through the water and mud, tall, crooked, and thin. It used the heavy rain to go where it couldn’t go before.
“Oh my god.”
She looked up toward the invisible sky.
I’m surrounded by monsters.
Her clothes flapped madly, as if even her shirt was amused by her predicament.
When nothing happened and the riotous stillness multiplied she realized something, something she wasn’t sure was possible because, deep down inside, she knew her mind had to be playing tricks on her.
She was, after all, tense and alert, straining to hear something that may or may not be just outside her sight. But she had heard something, even if it was just in her mind.
And her mind was well-honed and had undergone all the psychological tests it took to work out in space, in a small communal environment.
She had heard Robert’s voice, repeating one of the last things he had said to her. He hated this jungle.
