she felt safe about it. Missing both arms and parts of one leg allowed fresh air to get in.
Tarn wound the rope around the splints, binding them tightly to her arm. She feared a loss of circulation, but she knew the sticks would keep her bones in place as long as she didn’t do anything stupid.
“ You ready?”
“ Depends, what’re you going to do to me this time?” Elsa asked. She secured her knife in his sheath again and caught Tarn’s smirk as he turned away.
“ We follow that strip of grass up and around that rock, then find a way to get over the rest of the ridge. It can’t be far, then we’ll have to find a way down to the place you think you want to go.”
“ I know I want to go there!” Elsa snapped.
Tarn shrugged. “Then quit yapping and start hiking.”
Chapter 14
Elsa guessed it took them another couple of hours to clear the ridge and reach the foothills on the far side. As Tarn had promised, there was no sign in the distance of the research outpost. There was a mound in the distance. Without any technology to assist her, she assumed the mound was the same place the colony had been.
Halfway down the ridge Elsa needed Tarn’s help in getting her helmet off. The humidity inside of it had gotten to the point where the view screen was fogging over. It took some work, the helmet had been bent and mangled badly, but finally he’d managed to beak the seal and work it free. She suspected he’d bent it back some to make it release, given the way he’d been grunting while working on it.
“ You see that mound?” Tarn pointed it out.
Elsa nodded. She ran her fingers through her short hair, grateful that she’d gotten a hair cut before deploying. It was a long enough buzz to keep the sun from baking her brain but short enough to let the air in and keep her cool.
“ That’s where them researchers were. The megasaur died there too, but it wasn’t your Marine buddies that killed it. It had some kind of infection or something, there ain’t no way to describe it. A whole shit ton of these things come crawling out of it and anybody that wasn’t killed by the megasaur were killed by them.”
“ What?” Elsa heard what he said, but it didn’t make sense to her. “Babies or something?”
“ No, parasites or something. Our best guess is that it ate some eggs and they hatched inside of it. It was being eaten from the inside and it went crazy and attacked your people.”
“ Woah.”
“ Yeah,” Tarn agreed. “Kira comes up to check on it every now and then, she figures there was a dozen or more the first time around, now there’s a hundred or more.”
“ How big are they?” Elsa said after gasping.
“ They hatch only a couple feet long or so. At full size they’re probably about as big as those screechers you killed.”
“ That’s not so bad.”
Tarn chuckled. “Nasty fuckers. They got teeth, they can jump and run, they got a tail we seen ‘em use to smack their prey, and Kira’s been close enough to see them spit.”
“ Spit?”
“ Yeah. She saw one spit some kind of poison that was absorbed through the skin of brutasaur they were after.”
“ Brutasaur?” Elsa interrupted.
Tarn scowled at her. “Big, six legs, stands about as tall as a Megasaur but they’re really dumb.”
“ So this little thing spit on a big thing?”
“ Yeah, a few minutes later it stumbled and fell over. Kira said it was still alive, just paralyzed. She said a couple dozen of them swarmed it and cut it up, then carried it back to their hole.”
“ Holy shit.”
Tarn nodded. “Nasty fuckers,” he repeated.
Elsa nodded. “I gotta find my team.”
“ I’ll take you down there, but you do what I say and we don’t get close to their nest, got it?”
She found herself nodding again. She was the Marine, but she could justify following a local guide. “What are they, insects or something?”
“ Got a guy who used to be a veterinarian, he thinks they’re animals.
Tarn wound the rope around the splints, binding them tightly to her arm. She feared a loss of circulation, but she knew the sticks would keep her bones in place as long as she didn’t do anything stupid.
“ You ready?”
“ Depends, what’re you going to do to me this time?” Elsa asked. She secured her knife in his sheath again and caught Tarn’s smirk as he turned away.
“ We follow that strip of grass up and around that rock, then find a way to get over the rest of the ridge. It can’t be far, then we’ll have to find a way down to the place you think you want to go.”
“ I know I want to go there!” Elsa snapped.
Tarn shrugged. “Then quit yapping and start hiking.”
Chapter 14
Elsa guessed it took them another couple of hours to clear the ridge and reach the foothills on the far side. As Tarn had promised, there was no sign in the distance of the research outpost. There was a mound in the distance. Without any technology to assist her, she assumed the mound was the same place the colony had been.
Halfway down the ridge Elsa needed Tarn’s help in getting her helmet off. The humidity inside of it had gotten to the point where the view screen was fogging over. It took some work, the helmet had been bent and mangled badly, but finally he’d managed to beak the seal and work it free. She suspected he’d bent it back some to make it release, given the way he’d been grunting while working on it.
“ You see that mound?” Tarn pointed it out.
Elsa nodded. She ran her fingers through her short hair, grateful that she’d gotten a hair cut before deploying. It was a long enough buzz to keep the sun from baking her brain but short enough to let the air in and keep her cool.
“ That’s where them researchers were. The megasaur died there too, but it wasn’t your Marine buddies that killed it. It had some kind of infection or something, there ain’t no way to describe it. A whole shit ton of these things come crawling out of it and anybody that wasn’t killed by the megasaur were killed by them.”
“ What?” Elsa heard what he said, but it didn’t make sense to her. “Babies or something?”
“ No, parasites or something. Our best guess is that it ate some eggs and they hatched inside of it. It was being eaten from the inside and it went crazy and attacked your people.”
“ Woah.”
“ Yeah,” Tarn agreed. “Kira comes up to check on it every now and then, she figures there was a dozen or more the first time around, now there’s a hundred or more.”
“ How big are they?” Elsa said after gasping.
“ They hatch only a couple feet long or so. At full size they’re probably about as big as those screechers you killed.”
“ That’s not so bad.”
Tarn chuckled. “Nasty fuckers. They got teeth, they can jump and run, they got a tail we seen ‘em use to smack their prey, and Kira’s been close enough to see them spit.”
“ Spit?”
“ Yeah. She saw one spit some kind of poison that was absorbed through the skin of brutasaur they were after.”
“ Brutasaur?” Elsa interrupted.
Tarn scowled at her. “Big, six legs, stands about as tall as a Megasaur but they’re really dumb.”
“ So this little thing spit on a big thing?”
“ Yeah, a few minutes later it stumbled and fell over. Kira said it was still alive, just paralyzed. She said a couple dozen of them swarmed it and cut it up, then carried it back to their hole.”
“ Holy shit.”
Tarn nodded. “Nasty fuckers,” he repeated.
Elsa nodded. “I gotta find my team.”
“ I’ll take you down there, but you do what I say and we don’t get close to their nest, got it?”
She found herself nodding again. She was the Marine, but she could justify following a local guide. “What are they, insects or something?”
“ Got a guy who used to be a veterinarian, he thinks they’re animals.
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