Odyssey Rising (18 page)

Around the Pod, fifty or so camelbacks continued to play tag with the vehicle. The humped creatures were jumping on it, landing on it, jumping over it and running around it. Clearly, this was their world and they had found a new toy to play with and possibly destroy.

Theo and Ellie rode the 3-wheel ATV vehicle away from the plateau above the cave. They were nearly half a mile away from the Pod where the playful, though potentially dangerous chaos beat on.

Behind them, the slake was on the plateau just twenty feet away. It was giving chase at a speed that was nearly as fast as the ATV. There was nowhere to hide out on the dusty plains.

Without warning, there was a radical change in the camelback herd’s behavior. They scattered into a dozen groupings and started to hop away from the Pod.

Nearing the lip of the nearest crater, the slake did a curious and unexpected thing. Rather than give chase for Theo and Ellie on the ATV, the slake diverged toward one of the groups of camelbacks scattering away from Pod.

Another unexpected thing happened. Out of the soil, half a dozen different slakes rose up to join the original slake from the cave.

“Crazy,” Ellie yelled, “look at them all.”

“It’s like we kicked a hornet’s nest,” Theo said.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” Ellie said. “How many can there be?”

“I count seven,” Theo said.

“Where there’s seven, there’s going to be more.”

The two types of creatures – camelbacks and slakes – were now on a collision course with each other.

Trying to avoid the leading slake, several of the other camelbacks jumped into the air, but the slake still smacked into the line of camelbacks and sent the humped creatures into the air like toys being dislodged from a sandbox. Through their telescopic goggles, Theo and Ellie saw the slake slap another five camelbacks aside with one swing of its body.

One of the smallest of the camelbacks strayed from its small group. It was directly in the path of the large slake and its posse of six. When the large slake came upon the stray camelback, its body opened up and consumed it in one gulp.

“Whoa! That’s nasty stuff,” Ellie said.

“We have to warn the Pod,” Theo said.

In the Pod, coming from the console speakers, Ravi heard Theo yelling.

“Do you copy?!” “Ravi? Do you copy?”

“Roger that,” Ravi answered. “What’s your status?”

“Confirmed existence of the slakes,” Theo yelled into his Communication device. “And they’re on a collision course with the Pod! Seven of them! So, please, get the Pod moving! Do you copy?”

“Yes. We’re rolling!”

While getting the Pod moving as fast as he could, Ravi noticed one of his specimen jars vibrating. It was on the lab table and heading to the edge. As it was about to fall off, he grabbed it. Volcanic eruption? Something else?

Ravi held onto his chair. His first thought was: it’s an earthquake. But it wasn’t long before he knew the trouble was of a more uncommon form.

Outside, through the window, Ravi saw that it was something alive, something huge, something blackish brown. The thing crashed up out of the sand and surrounded the Pod. There were seven long golden brown slakes. Only two were as long as twenty feet. The others, while shorter, were still part reptilian lizard, part snake, part crystallized creature.

“Remain calm,” Ravi said. “All storms will pass.”

Ravi sat down at the console and got the Pod rolling as fast as she could, but it was already too late. While she did, the seven slakes slapped against the outer shell of the Pod. The force felt like a tornado gust.

Again, one of the slake tail smacked into the Pod and the vehicle hiccupped up and down in the sand like it was just a plaything in the slake’s sandbox.

The slake paused. Its whole body shook up and down and then it dove into soil. When it came up out of the soil, the slake attached itself to the Pod like a giant squid sucking a lollipop made of metal.

The force generated by the slake creature again lifted the Pod off the ground.

Again, the Pod was knocked from side to side. The whole Pod shook.

The slake and its entire pink and brown body wrapped around the entire Pod.

Inside it, Ravi had to try to wait out the inevitable. Either the slakes would tire and leave or they wouldn’t.

Ravi tried to drive the Pod but his view out the window was mostly blocked by the golden and brown diamond skin of the slakes.

In the Pod, above Ravi’s heads, the largest slake pounded its body into the skylight area of the roof where the heat shield used to serve as protection. Now, the slake had found a weakness and kept pounding and pounding the glass and a small crack began to grow in width and depth.

Theo’s mind raced with how to help Ravi in the Pod. He slowed the ATV at the edge of the attack zone around the Pod and quickly took the parachute off and tied it to the handlebars. The silverflies had not escaped, though they forced the parachute to sway like a hot air balloon tethered to the ground that was ready to fly away.

Ellie jumped off the back of the vehicle to help him.

“I’ve got a plan,” Theo said.

“Free jazz,” Ellie said.

“We burn the suckers off,” Theo said, “and then blow them to kingdom come.”

“How?” she asked.

“Molotov cocktails,” Theo said.

“Did you know that Alfred Nobel got his start this way?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t care about peace!” Theo snapped back. “Now cover me.”

While Theo untied a liquid container hanging from the ATV, he kept an eye on the slakes and saw that they were still preoccupied with the Pod. By his side, Ellie held the gun.

Theo took two of the liquid containers hanging from the ATV vehicle. They were intended to store soil samples or water or anything else found of interest.

Theo sprinkled the liquid from the methane-ammonia oasis into a circle that roughly matched the circumference of the Escape Pod. They were only about twenty feet from the slakes, which were all still firmly attached to various areas of the Pod. In fact, very little of the Pod’s outer white shell was visible.

One of the slakes worked on the moon roof area, slamming its tail end against the glass. It was beginning to crack.

“Ravi? Are you okay? Over?” Theo spoke into his communication device.

“I copy. Over,” Ravi announced.

“Listen up,” Theo requested. “I want you to drive through the ring of fire. Repeat, drive through it and we’ll take care of them!”

“Fire?”

“Do it. Drive through the fire!” Theo turned to Ellie, “Now back up ‘cause I don’t know how well this is going to work.”

Theo shot his taser into the ground.

The circle of liquid methane-ammonia rose into a ring of fire that was teen feet in height. It burned orange and black smoke billowed into the desert sky.

“Go! Go! Go!” Theo yelled into his Communication device.

“I’ve got this thing rolling,” Ravi responded.

Slowly, the Pod traveled into the ring of fire.

There was a smaller, nearly half-sized slake covering the Pod viewing window. It was the first of the creatures to catch fire and fall off the Pod. The outer skin of the slake crackled like bark burning on a campfire.

As Ravi drove the Pod around the ring of fire, four of the other slakes all scattered of the outer shell and shook and twisted their cylindrical bodies and then dove down into the golden brown soil and did not instantly re-appear.

The largest of the slakes split in half. Rather than go back to the Pod, it turned its attention toward Theo and Ellie. The wind was blowing. Golden brown dust kicked up into a swirl.

“They’re not leaving,” Ellie observed.

“Plan B.”

“Which is?”

“Blow them to kingdom come. Rip up your shirt into four strips,” Theo said.

Quickly, Ellie took off her outer shirt and tore ripped into strips while Theo grabbed the first of the four plastic containers. It was filled with a mixture of the planet’s methane-ammonia chemical mixed with soil.

Ellie twisted one of the strips into a long wick. She handed it to Theo who stuffed the wick down into the liquid oasis fuel. Theo placed the cap back on the container, so that half of the wick hung outside the container and the other half remained dip into the liquid oasis fuel.

Theo lit the wick with a makeshift match and then tossed the flaming bottle toward the slake. It caught fire.

Quickly, Theo tossed the jug full of methane toward the slake with a strong heave. This improvised weapon landed on the slake’s midsection.

Within two seconds, there was a huge KA-BOOM!

Pounds and pounds of sand, dust and slake skin exploded in a dozen different angles. The force from the explosion knocked them both to the ground.

Plumes of black billowed. The fire was raging a mercy of orange flames. It was a desert storm. Twenty-feet high.

The Pod was still positioned firmly in the soil, even though mounds of mud and debris from the explosion pelted it.

The slake kept moving through the flames.

“Oh my bloody crap. Theo! Theo! It’s not dead.”

The skin crackled like birch bark thrown onto a forest fire and burning black smoke continued to bead off the creature’s body like heat rising from black asphalt on an August afternoon in the Vegas summer.

Part of the slake could be seen. It was breaking free from the smoke and flames. It was alive and moving. Squirming to be resurrected. Only half of the largest slake was on fire and the other half had split apart from the injured part.

There was only one slake slithering along the soil. It was the half destroyed one.

Theo threw the second container toward the half destroyed slake.

And then there was a second KA-BOOM!

A huge, explosive fireball of red and orange blew the slake up into several pieces. But the front end of the slake kept slithering along the desert soil toward Theo. The things front was completely open and Theo could see into the belly of the beast.

Again, he lit the wick on the third improvised explosive device and threw it into the burning slake’s open mouth area.

There was a third KA-BOOM!

When the dust and debris settled, the slake was split apart in dozen different chunks of skin and guts of various shapes and sizes.

As seconds passed into minutes, none of the slakes returned to the area and the split apart slake did not move at all.

With a look to the others, Theo said, “We’re safe now.”

“Are we?” Ellie asked.

Theo didn’t answer. Safety was a hard condition to measure, especially when nearly half of the slake was still moving and slithering around off in the distance. Sweat beaded from his temple. He wanted to rest his weary body. He wanted to stop running. He wanted to calm his racing breath.

“They’re gone,” Theo said into his Communication device.

“Are you sure?” Ravi asked.

“Yes. What about you? Are you okay?”

“Just another day in Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” Ravi answered into his Communication device.

Slowly the Pod door opened and Harry Wolf rushed out to greet Theo and Ellie like heroes. They were nothing of the sort. Simply, they could just say that they had survived. All the Positives had.

Through the ring of fire excitement, the silverflies remained captured in the parachute.

“We’re safe,” Theo said.

“Are we?”

“For now,” Theo said.

“Are they really dead?” Ravi asked.

“I’ll check,” Theo said as he lit each torch in the ring of fire. “Cover me.”

With the fire burning from the Kevlar material, Theo approached the remains of the two slakes carefully. Theo poked and prodded at the burning creature. There was no movement and he relaxed.

“All clear,” Theo announced as he turned his back on the burning creature.

There was a quiver of movement from the slake. It wasn’t dead yet.

The slake lunged for Theo’s back. The slakes ugly mouth was wide open and ready to swallow him whole.

“Look out!” Ellie yelled.

Before Theo could react with the torch, Ellie aimed the taser gun and shot an electrical charge into the slake. The current ran through the slake and stunned its movement.

Theo spun around with the fire end of the torch and torched the creature several times. He pounded into the slake like the hunter he had become.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, but I’m never turning my back on that thing ever again…and hey,” Theo looked to Ellie, still breathing heavily.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Ellie smiled warmly.

Finally able to rest, the Positives leaned against the Pod.

“This time it’s dead, right?” Ravi asked.

“It’s not moving,” Ellie observed.

“But is it dead?” Ravi asked again.

Exhausted, Theo dropped to his knee in the sun dried soil. The group was thinking and figuring and admiring the emptiness and danger of this place. There were small black clouds rising into the sky as the group of Positives felt the warmth of the sun hitting their sun burnt skin.