?That?s all. Think TomAs. When did you last see me drink water? I can drink, of course, but normally I get all the moisture I need from what I eat. We use everything that we take in much more thoroughly than you do.?
?Why aren?t you ever covered in mud??
?I do one thing at a time.?
?And
our children would be like you??
?Not at first. Human-born children look very Human at first. They eliminate in Human ways until metamorphosis.? I changed the subject abruptly. ?TomAs, I?m going to stay awake through as much of this trip as I can. I should be able to warn you if we?re near people so that we can at least stay close to the opposite shore. And I?ll have to stop you at my family?s camp. You won?t be able to see it from the river.?
?All right,? he said.
?If I do fall asleep, make camp. Wait for me to wake up. This is a very long river, and I?m not up to backtracking.?
?All right,? he repeated.
Jesusa arrived them. She had found a cacao tree the night before, and today had climbed it again for one last harvest. I had pointed a cacao tree out to her as we traveled together, and she had discovered she especially liked the pulp of the pods. She put her basket, stuffed with pods, onto the raft, then helped TomAs push off. They poled us into the current not far from shore.
?Listen,? I said to them once the raft was moving easily.
Both glanced around to show me they were listening.
?If we?re attacked or we have to abandon the raft for any reason, push me off into the water?whether I?m awake or not. I can breathe in the water and nothing that lives there will be interested in eating me. Get me out later if you can. If you can?t, don?t worry about me. Get yourselves out and keep each other safe. I?m much harder to kill than you are.?
They didn?t argue. Jesusa gave me an odd look, and I remembered her shooting me. Her gun had not been salvageable. The metal parts had been too damaged. Was she remembering how hard I was to kill?or how I had destroyed their most powerful weapon? After a time, she left poling the raft to TomAs. He seemed to have no trouble letting the current carry us and preventing us from drifting too close to either bank, where fallen trees and sandbars made progress slow and dangerous.
Jesusa sat with me and fed me cacao pulp and did not talk to me at all.
10
We drifted for days on the river.
I could not help with paddles or poles. It took all the energy I had just to stay awake. I could and did sit up and spot barely submerged sandbars for them and keep them aware of the general depth of the water. I kept quiet about the animals I could see in the water. The Humans could see almost nothing through the brown murk, but we often drifted past animals that would eat Human flesh if they could get it. Fortunately the worst of the carnivorous fish preferred slow, quieter waters, and were no danger to us.
It was the people who were dangerous.
Twice I directed Jesusa and TomAs away from potentially hostile people?Humans grouped on one side of the river or the other. Resisters still fought among themselves and sometimes robbed and murdered strangers.
I didn?t scent the third group of Humans in time. And, unlike the first two, the third group spotted us.
There was a shot?a loud crack like the first syllable of a phrase of thunder. We all fell flat to the logs of the raft, Jesusa losing her pole as she fell.
She was wounded. I could smell the blood rushing out of her.
I lost myself then. I was not fully conscious anymore, but my latent memories told me later that I dragged myself toward her, my body still flat against the logs. From shore, the Humans fired several more times, and TomAs, unaware of Jesusa?s injury, cursed them, cursed the current that was not moving us beyond their reach quickly enough, cursed his own broken rifle
.
I reached Jesusa, unconscious, bleeding from the abdomen, and I locked on to her.
I was literally unconscious now. There was nothing at work except my body?s knowledge that Jesusa was necessary to it, and that she would die from her wound if it didn?t help her. My body sought to do for her what it would have done for itself. Even if I had been conscious and able to choose, I could not have done more. Her right kidney and the large blood vessels leading to it had been severely damaged. Her colon had been damaged. She was bleeding internally and poisoning herself with bodily wastes. Fortunately she was unconscious or her pain might have caused her to move away before I could lock into her. Once I was in, though, nothing could have driven me off.
We drifted beyond the range and apparently beyond the interest of the resisters. I was regaining consciousness as TomAs crawled back to us. I saw him freeze as he noticed the blood, saw him look at us, saw him lunge toward us, rocking the raft, then stop just short of touching us.
?Is she alive?? he whispered.
It was an effort to speak. ?Yes,? I answered after a moment. I couldn?t manage anything else.
?What can I do to help??
One more word. ?Home.?
I was of no use at all to him after that. I had all I could do to keep Jesusa unconscious and alive while my own body insisted on continuing its development and change. I could not heal Jesusa quickly. I wasn?t sure I could heal her at all. I had stopped the blood loss, stopped her bodily wastes from poisoning her. It seemed a very long time,
