Sorcha The Alien Book One

Chapter Eleven

Naught but black fills my sights for a moment, but then the shadowed sentinels of tall trees begin to take shape. Sound is almost as elusive, just the noise of Cantral's hushed voice whispering my name over and over, and a distant hum, like the buzz of a lone bee. My eyes close again, I only care for sleep.

Cantral nudges me. "Sorcha," she whispers again.

My eyes flicker open. "Huh?" I stretch. "It's not morning."

Cantral lifts my arm and taps on my computer. Entra script scrawls across the inside of my visor, night vision activated, it reads. Details I previously missed appear before my eyes, monkey-like creatures watch us. Large round eyes, staring with mischief. Is this what she woke me for?

"Entra. I think they're searching for us," her voice comes through a speaker in my helmet.

"How do they know we're here?"

"I think it's routine because my ship was empty. Or ..." Cantral's repositions herself, alert and watching the ground.

"Or what?" I ask when it appears she isn't going to continue.

"Or Ramet had no choice but to tell Fendan where we were," the anguish in Cantral's voice is evident.

"He'd hurt her?"

"He'll do anything it takes to get you and Sask and maybe to keep me from discovering what he's doing here," Cantral says, I go to speak, and she holds her hand up to silence me.

Footsteps come from below, I peer through the leaves, staring hard at the ground, nothing. Silence surrounds us, I hold my breath. Cantral moves without sound, like a tigress on a hunt, she watches, ready for anything. Shrieks break the silence, the monkeys scatter in different directions.

A flash of yellow illuminates the jungle for a single moment and I see the colour darkness hid. Redness all around. A deep, splintering groan comes from below, the tree creaks. Cantral stands and pulls me up with her as the mighty tree lunges forward.

I'm sandwiched between Cantral and the trunk as we make our descent to the ground. Groans call out all around us as smaller trees are crushed under the weight of this giant. Cantral's arm wraps around my waist and she shoots her grapple to a nearby branch.

"Hold on!" she shouts, but she needn't have bothered, I've never gripped anyone so tightly.

We swoop through the air, leaves and vines whip our visors and we swing backwards and forwards, midway between the branch and the ground. A mighty thud echoes through the jungle, the death of an aged tree. Cantral removes a blade and I watch in horror as she raises it to the grapple cable.

"What are you doing?"

"It can't pull up the both of us, it's only a short drop."

"The hell it is!" I shout, as I stare down. "It's twenty feet at least, and if that doesn't break us, I'm sure the waiting entra will!"

Cantral slices through the cable. We fall through the air and our backs hit the ground simultaneously. Cantral yanks my hand and pulls me up, we take two steps. A fist comes from nowhere, it rams into my chest and sends me reeling. My back hits a trunk, my head lulls forward and for a moment I do nothing but watch the events unfold.

The ground swarms with entra foot-soldiers, or at least it feels that way but including Cantral there are only five. Four too many. Cantral fights with skill, four against one and she doesn't look too outmatched. I had thought she was green, inexperienced, but as she throws punches, as she rams the head of one Entra against a tree and he drops to the floor, I realise that's not the case. Not entirely.