“Good,” Kasha said. “Maybe the storm will be around for a while.”
Another drip fell on Bobby’s cheek. He wiped it off and looked at his hand to see… blood. “Hey, I’m bleeding!” he exclaimed. Kasha gave him a quick look and said, “No, you’re not.”
“Then what’s this?” Bobby said, holding out his hand with the bloody smear. “I must have cut something when we crashed.”
Another drip of blood fell on his hand. Kasha and Bobby both realized it didn’t come from Bobby, it came from up above. They both slowly looked up to see…
Dangling high in the trees was a net trap, with its victim still inside. Bobby dodged back to get away from the dripping blood. The trees above them were so thick it was hard to see the trap, let alone what was caught in it. Bobby strained to see. Once his eyes adjusted, his heart sank. There was a gar arm poking out from the net. A dark gar arm.
“Gunny!” Bobby shouted.
Kasha sprang for the tree that held the trap, climbed up by digging her claws into the bark, and reached the rope that held the suspended net. She slashed at it with one claw, while holding the rope with the other.
“I’ll lower him down,” she announced as she slowly let the rope slip through her hands. Bobby stood beneath to guide the net down gently and lay Gunny on the ground.
“Help me get this off!” he shouted to Kasha.
She jumped down from the tree and slashed at the net, freeing the unconscious Traveler.
“Gunny!” Bobby called. “C’mon, man. It’s me!”
Bobby felt Gunny’s neck, checking for a pulse. Kasha held up Gunny’s arm that was missing the hand. “He was cut,” she said. Bobby saw that the arm had a few deep tang cuts on it, which accounted for the dripping blood.
“He’s alive,” Bobby announced. He gently tapped Gunny’s cheek. “Wake up, Mr. Van Dyke, we need you.”
Gunny stirred. His eyelids fluttered and opened. He looked around with confusion until he focused on Bobby.
“No offense, shorty,” Gunny croaked. “But I was kind of hoping I’d wake up in my bed at the Manhattan Tower Hotel.”
“Sorry, we’re not done here yet,” Bobby replied with a relieved smile. He helped Gunny sit up while Kasha used some rags to dress his wounds.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Bobby asked.
“Nah. I got a pretty good headache, though.”
“What happened?” Kasha asked as she worked.
“We got jumped by a tang,” Gunny explained. “Mark and Boon and I. Boon saved my life. He pulled that monster off me and cut it up pretty good.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Bobby said, pointing to the dead tang.
Gunny looked at the body of the lizard and shook his head. “Violent place, this Eelong.”
“Where are the others?” Kasha asked.
“Boon sent Mark off on the zenzen toward Black Water. He told me to run. I couldn’t do much to help him, so I did. I tried to circle around toward the waterfall, but the tang was tracking me. Those beasties must like the way I taste. The tang jumped at me; I backed off and stepped right into the trap.” Gunny chuckled. “Never thought I’d be so happy to do something so stupid. I must have banged my head when I hit the ground, I don’t remember. But it pulled me up and away from that beast. Last thing I remember is looking down to watch it leaping up at me. But I was out of reach. Then I guess I passed out.”
“He must have bled to death trying to get you,” Kasha said.
“Serves him right,” Gunny said.
“What about Courtney and Spader?” Bobby asked.
Gunny frowned. “The tangs caused a rockslide in the tunnel leading here, Bobby. I can’t say if they were hurt, or trapped outside.”
“Neither!” came a familiar voice.
Bobby, Kasha, and Gunny looked over to see a welcome sight: Spader and Courtney jogged toward them through the trees.
“You can’t stop a couple of intrepid types like us with a couple of rocks and a mountain, no sir!” Spader said with a wide smile.
Courtney ran right to Bobby and gave him a hug. Bobby was more than happy to hug her back. “Are you okay?” Bobby asked.
“I am now,” Courtney answered. “Was that you in the helicopter?”
“Yeah, nice entrance, aye?”
“Where’s Mark and Boon?” Spader asked.
“I don’t know,” Gunny answered. “In Black Water, I hope.”
Kasha said, “We’re running out of time.”
Bobby pulled away from Courtney and got back to business. “Here’s the deal. Nine helicopters are grounded back in the valley, loaded with the Cloral poison. As soon as the clouds clear, they’ll have the power to take off and make their run on Black Water.”
“We lost one tank of the antidote, mate,” Spader announced. “Couldn’t be helped.”
Kasha said, “Without Mark, we’ve only got one tank left.”
“Can you walk, Gunny?” Bobby asked.
Gunny struggled to his feet. He was weak, but determined. “You don’t think a little conk on the head and a couple of cuts is going to slow me down, do you? Follow me!”
The team was reunited, sort of. Gunny led them on the final leg of their journey through the crater of waterfalls to the entrance to Black Water. They arrived at the second waterfall from the right, following Gunny across the underwater path of stones. Bobby was the last of the group to step behind the waterfall. He took one last look at the sky to see the thick clouds were still covering the sunbelt. No gigs could fly. But he also saw something new… the trailing edge of the large, dark cloud. Behind it was clear blue sky. The clock was ticking.
EELONG
(CONTINUED)
Boon stood on a chairto examine the window of the small room where he and Mark were being held captive. “This room wasn’t built to be a prison,” he declared. “I think I can pry this hinge off with my claw.”
“Do it,” Mark whispered. He was standing guard at the door to make sure the gar outside wouldn’t see them trying to escape. “What do we do once we get out?” Boon asked as he worked. “One problem at a time,” Mark answered.
“Welcome!” exclaimed the gar behind the waterfall when he saw Gunny and the others approach. “You’re home now, you’ve got nothing more to worry about!” The gar froze when he saw that one of the new arrivals was a klee.
“Klee!” he shouted. Instantly ten more gars appeared, all carrying spear guns.
“It’s all right,” Gunny assured him. “You know me, my name is Gunny. We’ve been here before. So has the klee.”
The gar was suspicious, until Gunny held up his handless arm. “Remember now?” Gunny asked.
The gar relaxed a little and waved off the other gars. “I remember,” the gar said. “You were with Aron.”
“That’s right,” Gunny said. “We’re friends. All of us.”
“You realize that the Advent is under way,” the gar guard said. “Soon there will be thousands of gars arriving. If they see a klee, they might not enter.”
Gunny kept eye contact with the gar. He spoke softly, but forcefully. “Everything will be fine, but you must let us enter. We are on an important mission to make sure the Advent succeeds.”
Bobby knew that Gunny was using his Traveler powers of persuasion.
