spun around, her skirt lifting enough to show a teasing glimpse of thigh, and walked quickly back down the plank.
“ One more thing,” Sharp said. “We’ve got another one of your men, guy named Cooper?”
Klous jerked in surprise. Sasha gasped beside him. “Where is he?”
“ Tied up and under guard. We carried him back here and when he woke up he convinced us he’d work with us, then he tried to take out Jeff. He might have won too if Jeff hadn’t spent the past nine months on this place. You learn to grow eyes in the back of your head here.”
Klous sighed. “I’ll talk to him.”
“ Later, after we get back.”
“ Sharp, don’t underestimate Cooper, later might be too late,” Klous warned. Sasha nodded beside him.
Sharp chuckled. “I’ll take the risk. He resists again and Jeff puts him down.”
Klous frowned but nodded. Sharp and his men still had the guns, after all. “All right, let’s get to the Hole.”
Chapter 8
Brand leapt over a root, convinced he could still hear the pounding feet of the beast behind him. His toe snagged against it, throwing him forward and causing him to crash face first into a mound of dirt. It sounded hollow but was resilient enough to make him bounce off of it.
Blood ran down his face, mixing with the sweat and stinging his eyes. He groaned and rolled away, staring behind him and expecting massive jaws to clamp shut on him at any moment. Instead he found himself alone in the jungle. Alone and exhausted.
Brand wiped the sweat and blood from his face. He gasped for air and looked for his laser rifle. He crawled over to it and picked it up, noting that it had cooled down and come back online. He felt better, even if the creature that had chased them all had proven stronger than the energy weapon. He sat there a few moments longer catching his breath, then glanced up and saw that he was in a section of the jungle that seemed less dense with trees.
It was brighter, but that also meant hotter. He could see insects flying above, insects that he could not identify in spite of the fact that they were larger than any bug he’d ever heard of or seen. Far up in the branches he saw movement as well, a multi-limbed creature was slowly moving about, stalking some unseen prey or seeking shelter. Brand didn’t know or care, as long as it stayed away from him. On the jungle floor undergrowth sprouted upwards, reaching for the faint promise of sunlight far above.
He jerked his hand, feeling a sudden tickle on it. Looking down he saw another insect, this one half as big as his foot. It was multi-segmented and possessed multiple legs, as well as some wicked looking mandibles. With a curse he jumped up and away from it and leveled his laser rifle at it.
He stabbed the trigger and stared, uncomprehending, as the large bug continued unharmed. At that range and with his experience he knew he couldn’t have missed. He yanked the trigger again twice before glancing at it and noticing that the gun had gone back off line. A faint smell of burnt electronics reached his nose. He tossed the gun aside and cursed, then looked at the bug again.
The bug that had touched him was only the first of many. A line of them approached and fanned out, coming towards him without fear or concern for their own safety. His delay while trying to work the rifle had only given them more time to approach and surround him. He swore again and turned to run, but found his ankle had been twisted by the earlier fall and wouldn’t support the sudden movement.
Brand grunted and tried to pull himself away, flailing with his feet as he did so. One of the bugs grabbed and bit through his boot and into his foot. Brand screamed, first in fear and then in pain as some sort of burning venom entered his foot. He pushed harder to get away, smashing the bug that had bitten him in the process.
He scrambled onto his hands and knees, then tried to rise up but a growing numbness in the bitten foot left him off balance. He rolled onto his side and into a patch of flowered grass. The pollen stunk and made his eyes water, causing a sneezing fit at first, then a swelling of his sinuses and throat as anaphylactic shock set in. He labored to breathe, forgetting momentarily about the swarm of insects that were climbing onto his legs.
They bit him anew, drawing fresh attempts to scream for help from him. His cries were raspy, limited by his restricted air flow. He beat at them with his hands until they, too, were covered with the clinging and biting bugs. Brand continued to wheeze for help as the bugs swarmed over his body and into his open mouth, seeking the hot moisture within.
It never occurred to him that his vow for vengeance had failed. Not only had he not killed the crew of the Rented Mule but he hadn’t even made it past the inhabitants of the planet to find them.
Chapter 9
After the forced march through the jungle to Treetown, Klous was surprised to find himself not only ready for more hiking, but better suited to it. A glance at Sasha showed that she felt similarly. Further glances proved that her shirt was definitely in danger of falling off of one or both of her shoulders. He kept checking just to make sure.
When not sneaking glances at Sasha, Klous tried to follow Kira as she floated through the jungle at the head of the group. Tarn was behind them, carrying the heaviest ordinance, and Sharp was between Klous and Kira. Sharp didn’t foil the view so much as Kira’s pace left the others behind. They would come upon her waiting for them from time to time, impatience stamped upon her face.
In what Klous considered record time they reached the beach. He was winded but found himself recovering quickly. The recaptured breath slipped out of him when he looked down the beach to his damaged ship.
“ My ship!” He gasped.
“ I don’t think Ling and I can fix that,” Sasha muttered.
Klous ignored her and started forward. Sharp caught his arm and stopped him. He pointed out to sea. “See those clouds coming? Bringing in a mother of a storm and the sun’s already behind ‘em about to set. We’ll need to hurry or be caught in it and trust me, you don’t want to be caught in a storm like that.”
“ We can wait it out in the Hole,” Sasha suggested.
Tarn laughed, drawing Klous and Sasha’s attention. He shook his head and adjusted one of the strange weapons on his back that Klous couldn’t identify. Sharp interpreted for him, “Your ship is going to be pounded by waves like you’ve never seen.”
Tarn was quick to add, “Gotta get what we can off it while we can, shit breaks down fast here. Never know if these guns are going to work next time we try ‘em even though we field strip ‘em daily.”
“ That why you’re carrying different weapons too?” Klous asked.
“ Took some trial and error but yeah, modern day crossbows, Kira made herself a regular longbow, straight out of Robin Hood!”
“ Robin who?” Sasha asked.
Klous waved her off. The name sounded familiar to him but it wasn’t important. He did know what a bow and arrow was, he’d just never seen a real one. For that matter, he realized, he’d never seen a lot of things. “I’ve never seen a wave,” Klous admitted, unconvinced. “How could water hurt my ship?”
Sharp chuckled. “Fair enough. It hits harder than you’d expect. Lot of weight and power behind it, kind of like crashing into the ground every time you get hit. You’ll have to trust me, being trapped in there is the last place you want to be.”
“ There’s holes in the ship and after the beating it’s going to take, there’ll be more.”
Klous turned to the new voice and saw a short man walking up to them from the edge of the jungle. His hair was longer and he had a few days worth of stubble growing on his face, but Klous recognized him from the pictures of the bounty he was after. “Eric?” He asked.
Eric stopped and stared at him. His eyes went to Kira first, then Captain Sharp and Tarn. Kira stepped in,
