2199 Extinction

Let's Track Them

           After a few hours of careful searching, we are led to believe that everyone did indeed survive the crash. Either that or they didn't make it to the safety zone. But with the doors found wide open, I must believe that some of them actually made it out of there, alive. I also must believe that one of them was mother. Until we find them, I won't know anything for sure.

          "How do we find them, now?" I ask, walking back to the door.

            "We track them the old-fashioned, nontechnological way." She responds, walking outside and looking down.

           "Which is?"

           "Footprints." She answers, pointing down. "The ground is wet, so tracking them will be easy. Besides, they aren't counting on being followed, so I doubt they try to hide their tracks."

           Footprints. Of course. One of the most basic things you learn in the Copaie military is tracking. I can't believe I didn't think of that.

           We follow their footprints for a while, until we find ourselves in a swamp. It's as if someone flipped a switch and turned on a fan. The fog is a lot thinner here, more like a mist. I am able to make out pools of water, everywhere, like early morning back home. Though, something tells me whatever lays in the depths of these pools, isn't cute little frogs. I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling below the water's surface is a whole other world. A world I would not survive, if I fell in. Hm. I wonder. I think I'm going to test that theory. See if it's really dangerous or if it's just me being paranoid. Of course, the life underwater, if there is any, could be intelligent and not easily goaded to show itself. I'll just have to hope whatever lives down there is stupid. Because I'm becoming more and more convinced that something does live down there. All of these animal sounds that surround me, and yet, I don't see of them going near the water. I don't even see any aquatic life breaking the water's surface. It's all just too, I don't know, peaceful?

           I scout around for just the right thing. I bend over, picking things up and dropping them back down again. Stick? No. Leaf? No. Vine? No. Rock? Yes, that might work. I pick up a stone the size of my fist and try to judge it's weight. Yeah, this should be heavy enough to do the trick.

           "Vos? What are you doing?" Amancia asks.

           "I have a feeling, and I want to see if I'm right." I say, throwing the rock into the large nearby pool of water. No sooner has the rock touched the surface of the water, when I see a large mouth full of teeth. The mouth swallows the rock and disappears again, so fast that I can't make out much about it. I can tell that it's large, it has sharp teeth, and seems to eat anything that touches the surface of the water. Other than that, I'm out; I can't even tell if it had scales, skin, or fur.

            "Thirsty?" Amancia asks, from right beside me.

           "Not funny, Amancia." I say, shifting the weight of the backpack.

           "We each have two gallons of water, in our packs. We are good. Now come on. I want to catch up with them, before something catches up with us." She says, turning and walking away.

           We walk a few more hours and then I stop. "Did you hear that?" I ask.

           "Hear what? I didn't hear anything other than the same noises we have heard since we entered the swamp. The same bird calls, the same animal howls." Amancia says.

           "It sounded like...I don't know. Some kind of creature shrieking. And then I swear I heard screaming. Listen."

            Amancia stops and listens, after a few moments she shakes her head and starts walking again. "I still don't hear anything."

           "I don't hear anything now, but I swear that I did a few moments ago." I say, pausing a moment longer before following behind her.

            It doesn't take long for us to find out that I was right, there was screaming. Had to have been screaming. Although I don't hear the screaming anymore, I have to shove my fist in my mouth to prevent myself from screaming. I don't want to draw any unwanted attention. And right now, all attention from the local population is unwanted. Ahead of us is a clearing. Well, what used to be a clearing. Now it's a mess of paper, blood, and body parts. Five, giant, winged bodies lie scattered across the clearing. Five giant heads lay separated from those bodies. It looks like some kind of fight broke out. Either the Talfarians stumbled onto these creatures, or the creatures stumbled onto them. There is a lot of carnage, but not enough to cover these large beasts. The blood must be from the Talfarians.

            My face must pale because Amancia speaks up. "I doubt it's from your mother. Knowing the Talfarians, the people circled around her, to keep her safe. The blood probably belongs to them."

             "I hope so." I whisper. I know it sounds awful, but I really hope the blood belongs to one of the others. I wouldn't wish this kind of mess on anyone, not even Malum. But I don't want mother to be the injured one. I walk over to the nearest head and lightly kick it with my foot. Small horns, the size of my smallest finger, line the top of the creature's head. Sharp teeth fill a beak like mouth that is opened in an eternal shriek. Six eyes glare back at me. Technically they are staring into nothingness, but even in death the eyes scare me. I thought Copaie were tough, but man, I've seen so many scary things in the past twenty years. "You know, I don't know what's worse, these things or the Furbos."

            "I don't know, either. Maybe the Furbos. Fear of the unknown is scarier to me than what I can see. But don't tell anyone I was afraid." Amancia says.

            "Yeah, same for me."

            "Come on, let's get out of here before any more of these things show up." Amancia says, kicking the head away from us.

              This breaks the eerie fascination it held for me, and nausea washes over me, like a wave crashing against a rocky shoreline. I bend over and throw up the entire contents of my stomach, until nothing but bile comes up. Amancia walks over to me and rubs my back. I straighten up and she hands me a bottle of water. "My legs feel shaky." I say.

             "Just stand still a minute and we will move on."

               "Okay, I'm good now." I say after a few minutes.

              "Good. I'm ready to get out of here. I feel like we are being watched."

               "Yeah, I get the same feeling. Like something is trying to decide if we would be better as dinner or as a snack."

             "Stop. That's seriously creeping me out." Amancia says.