Jessica gave him a steely smile. “That has never been something this planet has ever given a damn about.”
That annoyed him for some reason. Most planets had a system of reusing waste, using it to power their fuel stations, which in turn provided energy to ship and to dwellings and the like. Or they ground the organic and reused it in the ground, or they flash fired it into small chunks that could be then crushed and used as a base for other things, including dwelling building.
To just leave so much garbage lying around like this? It was not only disgusting, it was wasteful. He found himself wondering if Old Earth was even worth saving at all. It looked like a place where the Gorlites would feel right at home.
His gut tightened, and he paused as that thought hit home.
The Gorlites would feel right at home among all that trash and in those tunnels and…and had whoever had worked to give them that Planet known that all along? Had the Gorlites taking over Old Earth always been the end game?
It was highly possible, and not just possible either: it was probable.
Talon’s hands went to the weapons he had secreted away. Jessica also drew weapons. His eyes scanned the alley again. On one side it led back to the street; on the other, it led to a tall, smooth concrete wall, the kind of stone that had been outlawed on other planets many centuries ago due to its toxic properties.
Jessica moved toward a rusted grate that covered much of the ground by the concrete wall. His eyes went upward, assessing the sides of the building. The sides were also smooth and blank; no windows were present there.
He had a feeling that Jessica knew this place very well and had chosen it specifically because there were no windows that anyone could look down from and see them, and because the mass of people walking on the street just beyond didn’t seem to notice the crooked and narrow little alley long enough to bother looking down it.
Jessica went to the grate. She drew it upward, and it loosened a rusty screech that made his eyes go back to the street again, but the pedestrians still moved onward, oblivious to the two in the alley.
Jessica said, “Stay with me, Talon. Stay on the ropes. If you fall, I will lay down cover until you can get back on the ropes, and I hope you do the same for me.”
His shoulders tensed. What could possibly be down there? Whatever it was, the stench was unbearable! He could smell it wafting upward from the hole.
Jessica went in, and he followed her, one hand clapping to his nose and mouth to fight off a wave of sickness as the smell hit him full on. Jessica, her eyes streaming and her hand waving in front of her face, said, “I know. It is terrible. I wish there was another way, but this is the way we must go.”
Talon found his humor. “Whatever lies on the other side of this, Jessica, it better be good.”
She gave him a slanted smile. “It is. I promise.”
They stood on a shivering rope bridge. Talon’s eyes took a quick scan of the bridge, and his heart sank a little bit more. There was danger, and then there was stupidity. They were on a bridge made of rope that was clearly rotting away, and they were standing on that bridge in what looked to be an endless and vast cavern filled with mountains of refuse.
“What the hell is this place?”
“Hell about sums it up,” Jessica returned. “Come on. The faster we move, the faster we’ll be done here.”
She moved ahead of him, and he followed her. He was watching her, paying attention to every place she put her foot and steeling himself for the moment that he would have to reach out a hand and grab her as the rope bridge broke beneath her feet. He was so sure that bridge was going to break that he found himself plotting which mountain of garbage he could land the most softly in order not to fall to the floor so far below that was not littered with trash and would probably cause every bone in his body to break.
Time stood still again. Talon had been through a great deal of things in his lifetime: too many things. But nothing could have prepared him for that walk through garbage and waste.
And nothing absolutely nothing could have prepared him for the terra-rats.
“They only attack you if they smell your fear. So I would suggest that you don’t be afraid of them.”
Talon’s eyebrows went up. He shot the feral, hissing and repulsive creatures scurrying up the mounds of garbage a black look. “Can they smell disgusted? I’m not afraid of them, but I sure am disgusted.”
Jessica walked faster. “I don’t know, but I do know that if you are the tiniest bit afraid of them, they will swarm you. All those that you see down there, those dozens, they’re just a small percentage of the ones that are here. Once several swarm, they all swarm. They eat their prey.”
Talon said, “Now I’m really disgusted.”
Jessica said, “I’ve learned to hold in my fear but only for so long. I hate them. I hate them so much, and I fear them too. I am terrified of them in fact, and if we don’t move faster and get away from them, I may give them cause to attack us.”
Talon’s eyes went from the rats to Jessica’s back. Her shoulders were up high, and her arms held close to her sides. Her weapons were clutched tightly in her hands, and she walked so fast that the bridge swung sickeningly below their feet.
Why was she so frightened of them? He understood that they could kill. But he had seen her face down far worse enemies without flinching.
They reached a tall steel ladder. Jessica went up it, climbing with agility and speed, and he followed her easily.
Jessica said, “I need some help opening this.”
