Crazed, she pivots on the spot and attacks Adam, again and again, forgetting all about me, which must be Adam’s intention because he’s slowly leading her away from me while nimbly evading the creature’s increasingly furious attacks. It’s a mortifying yet captivating sight. Feral Adam was a terrifyingbeast, but intelligent Adam is a deadly mirage, dancing with fluid grace in carefully calculated movements.
The venomfang yelps when Adam’s claws catch her snout and possibly her eye. Still, the stubborn bitch doesn’t give up. Shaking her head, she looks around, her vicious eyes finding me again. As if she’s just remembered I’m the one she wants, she changes directions mid-attack, avoiding Adam and lunging straight for me.
Roaring, Adam jumps at her from the side, throwing her off course, and together they roll along the riverside. Adam grunts, then the venomfang howls in agony. Their bodies separate, my hopes crashing as the venomfang scrambles onto her feet. Is that thing immortal or what?
Blood covers her face, some of her teeth missing as she snarls at us before retreating. The smaller venomfang bounds after her and together, they disappear between the trees.
“Fuck.” I suck in a breath, realizing I’ve barely breathed since the fight started. “I guess you showed her who’s the boss here, didn’t you? Fuck, Adam, you were amazing. Are you okay?”
“Jaime…” He groans, stumbling a few steps closer. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m f—” The words die in my throat as Adam collapses in front of me.
“Jaime…safe…” he whispers as his eyes blink, completely out of sync, before closing.Only then do I notice the teeth marks on his arm, black lines spreading from them. Venom.
Chapter 27
Jaime
“No.Nonono.Adam?Fuck,Adam, wake up!” Naturally, he doesn’t react to my words, because he’s fucking unconscious from whatever shit the venomfang injected when she bit him. Fuck. I need to do something, anything, but my mind just keeps repeating “nonono” in an endless loop. This can’t be happening. He can’t die. Can’t. I won’t let him.
“Do you hear me? I won’t let you die!” Words won’t save him, though. I need…what do I need? The millipede! Black millipede with blue markings. But where do I get a fucking millipede?
Crawling over to the crack in the nearest rock, I shove my hand inside, yelping when something rattles within. Another panicked cry escapes me when a mutated scorpion crawls out and advances toward me.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” I grab a stone with both hands, pressing on it with my palms since my stupid fingers won’t move, and smash it down onto the scorpion. “I hate this stupid planet! Stupidest fucking place I’ve ever been to!”
Once the thing is dead, I explore the crack again. Something moves deep inside, something with many legs. A millipede, likely, but is it the right one? And how the fuck do I get it out?
The last issue resolves itself when the millipede crawls out. It is the right one, its blue markings shining brightly on its back. Not knowing what else to do, I smash its head with the stone as well.
“Okay, now what?”
It keeps slipping out of my hand, so I put the disgusting thing in my mouth while I crawl back to Adam. He’s so still that, for a second, I worry that I’m already too late, but then he draws in a shallow, shaky breath. Still here. Spitting the millipede onto his arm, I start squeezing its insides into Adam’s wound, worried about how rapidly the black lines are spreading.
“Don’t leave me now, understand? Don’t you fucking dare to leave me, Adam,” I shout as I squeeze the last of the goo out of the millipede’s carapace. It’s not enough. Not nearly enough. Fuck.
Crawling over to another rock, I repeat the procedure over and over. Fortunately, the millipedes seem to be numerous in this area. Unfortunately, so are the stupid scorpions. I find two more and it’s a miracle I don’t get stung. At least they come to me when I knock on their rocks, and I don’t have to blindly fish them out from cracks and fissures. That would get me killed for sure.
It takes eight millipedes to cover Adam’s wound and the black lines stretching from it. By then, I’m exhausted, my chest, forearms and thighs scratched bloody, and one of my fingers is swelling painfully. A scorpion must have stung me, after all. There’s also a millipede leg stuck between my teeth, because why not? How much worse could this place get?
At least the venomfang doesn’t return and no others come snooping around. A flock of clatterbeaks arrives, with a few of them fighting over the husks of scorpions and millipedes I killed.
Unsure what else I can do for Adam, I crawl over to the water to wash myself and take a moment to pry the millipede leg from between my teeth. Having it stuck there is a feeling that will haunt my dreams for many nights to come. If I live that long, which, if Adam dies, is highly unlikely. Without him, I don’t stand a chance of even getting out of the venomfang territory, let alone surviving on my own in the jungle. Sure, I know how to hunt for worms and know that drinking unfiltered water probably won’t kill me, but I doubt I’d make it a day.
Adam can’t die. And not just because I’d die without him, but because I lo—I like him. I like him very much. Maybe too much.
The strange object in the water draws my attention again. Adam said it was a probe. Someone must have sent it here, but did it manage to contact anyone, or did the blasted sun or the crash kill it before it could send a transmission? It looks dead now, but perhaps I could activate it somehow? I’m no expert on technology, but banging on it with a stone can’t hurt, right? But…
It’s in the water. Not far from the shore, perhaps ten feet, but it feels like a mile to me. The water can’t be that deep where it sits wedged between rocks, maybe a foot deep? If I could walk, it would be nothing, but if I crawl there and miscalculate the depth or slip, I could die. I could. But if I stay out here alone, Iwilldie. Checking on Adam, I discover that the black lines have stoppedspreading, but his breathing is even shallower and his pulse is barely noticeable. He’s not going to make it. Not unless he gets help. Medicine. We need someone to come pick us up. Now.
The inevitability of Adam’s death strengthens my resolve. The probe might be our only chance.
Finding myself a nice, long stick, I grab it between my teeth and start crawling into the water, shuddering as it flows around me. At least it’s not freezing, which makes sense since there are no snowcaps on the mountains. To stave off the panic attack as the water sloshes around my neck, I ponder the moon’s odd lack of weather diversity. There’s barely any wind and I haven’t seen a single cloud since I arrived, let alone experienced rain. I wonder if that’s an effect of the solar storms or if there’s a different reason for it.
My arm slips on a rock and my head follows, plunging into the water. It’s all I can do to not gasp, but focus on righting myself before I run out of air.
Water drips down my face as I stubbornly continue the last few feet before situating myself on one of the rocks between which the probe is stuck. “Okay. Good. Now what?” The design of the probe looks completely alien, and its body is smooth, with no obvious controls or access panels. It probably makes sense if it’s designed to be hurled through the planet’s atmosphere at great speeds.
