D. MacHale - Black Water

“Pendragon, are you listening to me?”

“Yeah, yeah. Outside in. How could the klees want to hunt intelligent life?”

Kasha gave a quick glance behind me. I turned to see Durgen stalking toward us. “Do as I say, Pendragon,” Kasha said quickly. She gave me a kick and I fell at Durgen’s feet. “I was making sure he will carry his weight,” Kasha explained to Durgen.

Kasha was definitely playing this up for Durgen’s sake, but I think she was enjoying it a little. Durgen lifted me up by my shirt. I was really getting sick of being handled like a doll.

“Good,” he said. “Then he will lead the pack.” He shoved me in the direction of the other gars. I didn’t know what he meant by leading the pack, but whatever it was, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it.

The klees herded the gars together, shoulder to shoulder. I was in dead center. That was good. Tangs attacked from the outside in. But I was told to walk forward first, into the tall stalks. The others were to follow me, slightly behind and spread out like an arrowhead. That was bad. I was the tip of the arrow. If there was a hungry tang lying in wait inside those plants, I’d be the first one to reach it. I gave a quick glance back to see Boon sitting in the driver’s seat of the wagon, looking helpless. I heard a loudcrackand felt a sharp, stinging pain on my back. Yeow! I looked the other way to see Durgen standing there with a long strap he used like a whip.

“Now!” he bellowed. “Before the tangs catch a whiff of your stench!”

I got the message. I stepped forward and into the first row of plants. The others followed to either side and slightly behind. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started pulling the blue fruit off the stalks and dropping it into my bag. It was mindless work, which was good because the only thing on my mind was the possibility of a tang lying in wait for me. As I picked the fruit I looked back to see what the klees were doing to protect us. The answer was, nothing. Just the opposite, we were there to protect them. While Boon and another klee stayed at the wagon, the others walked behind us, inside the arrowhead, shielded from a surprise attack. Kasha was with them, which gave me a little reassurance. Very little.

When my bag was filled with blue apples, a gar came forward, took it from me, and gave me another empty sack. The gar dragged the loaded bag back to the wagon where he dumped the fruit. They had a couple of gars shuttling loaded sacks. I realized pretty quickly that once the wagon was loaded, there’d be no room for us poor gars to ride on the way back to Leeandra. That is, assuming we survived.

The picking was slow going. I’d say it took about a minute to get all the fruit off a single plant. I quickly learned that after a plant was picked clean, it had to be uprooted and laid down. That meant as our formation moved forward, we cleared a path through the crops that grew wider as we went. I don’t know how long we were picking. Two hours? Three? It was grueling and I was getting tired. The klees didn’t give us water, either. Or food. It struck me that if the tangs were smart, they’d attack later in the day, once their victims were burned out. I really, really hoped they weren’t smart.

I finished another bag and held my hand up to signal a gar to come and take it. But nobody came. They had been pretty quick up till then, so I realized that for some reason the process had slowed… or stopped. I looked to Kasha and held up the heavy bag.

Kasha saw it and shouted out, “Here!” Nobody came to fetch it.

The other gars stopped picking. I instantly felt the tension as they stood up and looked around nervously. The cats reached for their weapons and slowly brought them forward. Uh-oh. Everyone stood absolutely still, not making a sound, only listening. A few seconds went by. The only sound I heard was the wind gently rustling the plants. Where were the shuttling gars? Were they just slow in emptying the sacks at the wagon, or was the answer more ominous?

I looked to my right. Standing a few feet behind me was the gar who earlier showed me his amber cube. His every sense was on alert, listening, looking, smelling. He was scared. I didn’t blame him. So was I. The guy looked ahead into the dense crops, but saw nothing but plants. His gaze wandered until he saw me. Our eyes met. Instantly his look went from one of fear, to one of serenity. Seriously. It was like the tension left his body as he broke into a big smile.

It would be the last action of his life.

A second later I smelled the stench. It was the odor of a hungry tang. Another second passed and the tall plants in front of the gar rustled. Something flashed out. It went so fast I can’t really describe exactly what happened. One second he was standing there, the next second a green blur wrapped around him and pulled him into the dense plants. I stood frozen, a scream caught in my throat. A moment later I had no trouble screaming, because something came back out. It hit the ground and rolled close to my feet. I looked down to see something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. Lying at my feet was the head of my friend the gar. His lifeless eyes staring up at me.

I screamed…and the attack began.

Theassault was fast and violent.

The tangs were waiting for us, just as I had feared. As soon as the first gar was killed, it was like the signal had gone out for the others to attack. They sprang from the plants in front of us like guerrilla fighters. These may have been beasts, but they were smart. Their green color blended with the green vegetation so well that we were nearly on top of them before they made their move.

A tang leaped for me. Without thinking, I swung the bag full of apples. It wasn’t exactly a deadly weapon, but the heavy bag saved my life. I hit the tang’s gut with such force, I heard it grunt. The beast fell back, its scaly tale thrashing. It wasn’t hurt, but the move gave me the few seconds I needed to do the only thing possible.

I ran.

It all happened so fast that I can only remember quick, horrible images. I saw another tang leap out and grab the gar who was picking fruit on the other side of me. The gar’s scream of pain cut right through me. I never saw him again. All around me, gars had dropped their bags of fruit and were running back toward the wagon. They had no weapons. They were sitting ducks. Or running ducks. The klees didn’t do anything to help them. The cats held their wooden staves up as they backed toward the wagon, but it was to protect themselves, not the gars. A few tangs attacked the klees, but the experienced foragers used their weapons expertly, fending them off and knocking a few senseless. There were screams all around me, both from gars who were being attacked, and the tangs who were pouncing on them with a bloodlust. I had no idea how many tangs there were. There could have been ten, or a hundred. It was all a blur.

All I could do was block out the horror around me and get back to the wagon. I pumped my legs, jumping over the crops we had just picked. I didn’t dare turn around for fear of what I would see. Besides, it would only slow me down. I’ve always been fast, but I had no idea if I was faster than a hungry tang.

Up ahead of me, the klees were on the run. They were down on all fours and chewing up the ground to escape. I didn’t see Kasha, but I figured she was right there with them, abandoning me. So much for trusting the next Traveler from Eelong. Behind me, I heard tangs crunching across the fallen plants, hungry to catch up. But my confidence was growing. I was faster than they were. I was going to make it to the wagon. My thoughts went to what I would do once I got there. The klees would make a stand, I was sure of that. But could I count on them to protect me and the other gars who were lucky enough to make it back? Could I rely on Kasha? And Boon? I would find out soon enough. Up ahead, I saw the wagon. Boon was standing up in the driver’s seat, motioning for us all to hurry. I shouldn’t have been looking at him, because it meant I wasn’t watching what was in front of me and… I tripped.