Eden (30 page)

She felt Fly move, and was grateful when his arm slipped around her shoulders. Slowly, almost uncertainly, Bodie and Matt walked away from them.

The newcomers were watching the coiled trees with the same wonder that Bodie, Matt and Jenny had when they’d witnessed them for the first time.

Logan turned as if he sensed their approach. At his audible gasp, the others turned too, and Bodie and Matt stopped their advance knowing all too well of how they must look. Their spacesuits had been discarded long ago: now they were clothed in animal furs and skins, and hand-made weapons hung from a belt around their middles.

“I thought the planet only contained animal life?” Perry
’s
hiss was carried across to Bodie and Matt, who exchanged glances and promptly grinned.

“They think we
’re
cavemen, or something,” Bodie whispered.

Matt fingered his roughly cut beard and hair. “Can’t think why,” he joked.

Logan stepped forward, one hand outstretched as if to appease, the other sliding across his stomach to the holster which hung from his hip.

Bodie raised his hands above his head, but a grin split his face. “You took your bloody time getting here, didn’t you?” he called.

Logan stopped, and then peered hard at him. “Jim?” he asked, his voice disbelieving.

“The one and only.”

“Dear God! I don’t believe it...” he broke into a run, and raced towards him.

They stood clutching each other, staring with the same incredulous grins stretching their mouths.

“I don’t believe it,” he said again. “Is it really you?”

After a dumbfounded pause, the others raced over with the same unbelieving expressions on their faces. They laughed, then babbled questions non-stop.

“Look at the state of you!” Logan gasped. “We thought you were cave dwellers or something. What
’s
this?” he pointed to the hand-made gun on Matt
’s
belt.

“We were forced to make weapons to survive,” Matt said. “The planet
’s
overrun with wild animals. The worse are the ape-like creatures, which kill anything and everything that move. We
’re
lucky to be alive.”

“You spoke of wolves on the waves,” said Perry. “Are they the
same?”

Bodie nodded. “They have the voice of a wolf, but that
’s
where the similarities end. They
’re
like nothing you’ve ever imagined. They
’ll
be forever in my nightmares.”

“I’ve heard the howling,” said Helen. “It somehow matches the atmosphere of this place.” She looked up, and around at the dark shadows with green reflected eyes. Her hand moved to her holster. “I think we have company.”

A black mass stepped out of the shadow, and the disjointed shapes became the hairy bodies of the natives as they came to investigate the visitors to their world.

Bodie urged them towards Taurus. “We
’re
an easy target here.”

“Christ!” Perry backed up several paces. “What are they?”

As he spoke, the animals reared up on two legs and walked forwards as comfortably as people.

“Bloody first man,” whispered Helen.

Bodie and Matt looked over their shoulders at the wolves.

They hadn’t seen it before - why hadn’t they? They weren’t wolves, apes or any animal for that matter; they were people. Was this the beginning of a new race of people that could possibly, in thousands of years, rival man?

Matt
’s
mind tugged at a memory. Then it was thrust upon him, and he could remember the time when he was left in the forest with the native-wolf creatures for
neighbors
.

He thought back to when he had watched them eat, their movements, deliberate and smooth, were not at all sloppy or fierce like the brutish animal they portrayed. They had eaten sitting on their haunches like apes, using their thick hairy fingers to pull and tear at the meat. Their hands were human, Matt remembered, thumb and forefinger able to touch, and their hand/eye co-ordination had been excellent.

He remembered the young pup, hairless and pink. Its small humanoid face, thin lips and snub nose. Its short, un-ape arms clinging to the top of its burrow. It could have been a child of one or two years old.

Matt nodded to himself. The so-called wolf creatures were the
planet
’s
first people. How many years would it take them to evolve? It had taken humans no time at all to declare themselves the supreme king of Earth.

One quick look at Bodie, told Matt that he’d seen it to.

Matt looked back at the shadowy cluster of two-legged people who were watching them with an equal amount of interest. He remembered their cries when he and Fly were fighting - cries of distress and fear for a loved one
’s
life, maybe?

“D’
you reckon Fly knew what they were?” Matt whispered.

“Yeah. That
’s
why he held such a deep respect for them.”

“Son of a bitch.”

Bodie laughed. “Probably was that, as well.”

Jenny and Fly watched them disappear into Taurus XII.

They stood for a while longer, gazing at the spaceship with the same intensity as the group of natives, and then with hands entwined, they turned their backs and walked away.

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