Bridger: a Dystopian Serial

The valley

"No," Char said. "It's just cold at night, all right?" She turned and strode across the tiny plateau as Venn, Seth, and the other members of her team emerged from her tent.

Char cuffed Venn to Jeff the scientist so all soldiers could have their hands free to shoot if need be.

"Oh, like he's going to stop Venn if he tries to run." Marlene sneered at her shorter colleague and adjusted her pack.

Venn towered over Jeff, it was true.

"Jeff will slow Venn down long enough for us to shoot him," Char said as she clipped the cuff shut.

"Yeah," Jeff said wryly. "I make wonderful dead weight."

Nearby, Leander and Anna snickered. Jeff grinned.

Venn smiled tightly.

They decamped and set out down the rapidly descending ridge.

They arrived at the edge of the valley as the high, white Kaa sun was reaching its zenith.

From ground-level the strange red grasses towered ten feet in the air. They had thick bases and rose into a smooth point. They swayed in the freezing gale like an overgrown, cardinal-coloured wheat field.

"All right, we'll have to take it slow because Venn tells me the Kaa burrows open up all over the valley," Char said. "Venn, Leander, with me at the front. Callum, Jesse, please take rear."

 Char took a few steps down into the tall red grasses, her rifle at the ready. She could hear Venn close on her heels because of his quick, panting breaths. She had to shove the grasses aside as she walked. Her hands swatted at the fat, flying bugs that kept swarming around them.

"How is it that you have bugs and live plants when it's so cold?" she asked Venn over her shoulder.

Venn shrugged. "Kaa is Kaa. This is how it is." He snatched a bug out of the air and examined it for a moment before letting it go.

She found the first burrow after they'd walked about fifty yards. It was a perfectly round hole, about four feet across. Char peered into the hole as she skirted around it. There was a thin layer of organic material, like soil, and then the same obsidian-like black rock.

They kept moving steadily. In the dense forest of red, Char lost all sense of where they were in the valley. They encountered more and more burrow entrances.

After two hours of walking, Char sensed that the ground was beginning to slope upward. Her shoulders were taut from strain. A headache was creeping up from the base of her neck. She turned back to glance at the group.

She made eye contact with Venn, and as she did, the ground vanished from beneath her.

Char screamed. She fell at least six feet before crashing, feet first into solid rock. She pitched forward onto her knees.

"Char!"

Char looked up. Leander's and Seth's faces filled the circle of light above her. "I'm okay," she hissed. "Throw me a rope. Now!"

She wasn't fine. Pain was shooting in needles from her feet to her knees. Char squeezed her eyes shut and willed back the pain.

As she opened her eyes, a burbling call echoed through the chamber, opening up into a full-throated wail.

"Rope!" Char scrabbled at the shiny rock walls around her and tried to stand. Pain rocketed through both legs. She collapsed.

A rope fell down the tunnel, and Leander and Seth appeared again, obscured by the dark spots in Char's vision.

"Wrap it around your waist," Leander said.

Char wrapped the rope around her waist. As she knotted it, the cry echoed down the tunnel again, closer. "Hoist me up!"

Her feet had just cleared the ground when the Kaa burst into the open.

"Oh... fuck!" Char stared down the red folds of the creature's throat, surrounded by the ring of its black pointy teeth. If it had eyes, Char couldn't find it beneath its shiny black fur.

A gurgle came out of its cavernous maw, and a moment later a gooey black substance shot out and wrapped around Char's leg. It formed a rubbery string, tugging her downward.

Char screamed with pain as the rope pulled her upward, and the slime pulled her injured leg downward.

Instinctively, she grabbed for the submachine gun, still hanging by its strap around her neck. She hooked her arm around the rope and turned the barrel downward. As she did, another spurt of black fluid came from the creature's mouth and caught the toe of her boot.

Char pulled the trigger, sending a spray of bullets into the Kaa. It screamed, a long, grating cry, and drew back. Her legs were pulled further out.

"Wait, stop!" She saw black spots, but managed to pull the trigger again. Viscous clear fluid flew from the Kaa's body as the bullets plowed into it. It jerked, screamed and slumped down. Liquid seeped from every bullet hole.

"Pull!" she shouted. "Pull me up!"

They began to hoist her up again. The bands wrapping her foot and leg drew longer and longer, pulling at her legs. Char wailed in searing agony.

Suddenly the bond snapped. She swung against the side of the hole. Her knees collided with the black rock. Char cried out, and darkness overtook her.