Domus Page 9

  “Racker, the floor is rumbling down here.” Another thud, and this time some of the water does leave the bottle. “Can you not hear that through our comms?”

  “I hear it, Sarah, but there is nothing registering.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that whatever is making that noise is massive. It is far enough away not to register, but big enough to cause that noise from a massive distance. Do not move, Seekers. Whatever you do, do not move.”

  The thuds continue. Whatever is making the noise is moving slow, lumbering through the forest. Distant canopies shake and rattle, leaves fall into the light breeze. My heart seems to pound with every step it takes.

  It is close enough now that I can hear the branches crack as it moves. It could just be another Apatosaurus, a vegetarian, but we are not taking any chances. With luck on our side, whatever it is might just lumber on passed us. The thing can continue unharmed to another part of the forest.

  And then I remember the gun turret further ahead. It will detect it, and it will shoot. If it doesn’t die, then it will come looking here. CETI said that even Apatosaurus are dangerous when threatened.

  The Widower is shouldered, and I drop from the forklift with a crunch of the dry shrubs underfoot. I stalk forward while the others all glare at me. They think I’m crazy, and I must be. I sneak towards the turret. If I can disarm it before it gives our position away, then we can avoid whatever it is.

  The device is near now, I can hear the soft beep of it tracking and the whirr of the camera. The thudding and snapping is just beyond the thick trees and ferns in front of me now. I can hear heavy breathing and groaning. There is a glimpse of grey, feathered flesh, and it stays my hand as it nears the off switch on the turret. I can see the outline now, two legs, making it bipedal and a huge. It has a feathered fan that is patched red in places, and it runs down the things entire spine.

  This is no Apatosaurus.

  “I can see it now,” buzzes Racker. “It has just come on the grid, and it is fucking huge! CETI, please report.”

  “With pleasure, Pilot Racker. The organism is a Spinosaurus. It was among the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs. This organism is fifty nine feet long, and weighs twenty three short tons. My database shows that the skull of Spinosaurus was long and narrow, similar to that of a modern crocodile back home.”

  “Is it a man-eater?” asks Racker.

  “It is known to have eaten fish and smaller dinosaurs. The Spinosaurus was a predator, and yes, likely to give chase to any Seekers in the aim of securing vital food. There are three theories for where the organism lived; it is long disputed whether it lived on land or water or both.”

  I can rule out one possibility of the three. It can definitely live on land.

  A snout pushes through the ferns. The jaws are open, and I can see the rows of teeth on the upper and lower jaws above. It sniffs the air, and I can almost feel the suction. I’m frozen to the spot, unable to move a single muscle.

  “Stay still, Sarah,” fuzzes Racker. “I got you both on my screen. Do not move.”

  The turret suddenly springs into live. Two bets of bullets unfold from the casing, and the muzzle extends to point directly at the snout. The belts of old bullets start to feed, and the weapon fires.

  “RUN!” shouts Racker.

  I jump to my feet and run back towards the forest clearing. The others can see the horror on my face. “RUN! Run! Go, go, go, go! Back to the Dweller! RUN!”

  The turret is unleashing volleys of bullets at my back. I can hear the whiz of old bullets and the thump as they hit bark and, hopefully, flesh.

  I see the others begin to run too. Evangeline is in front of me, but I catch her up pretty quickly. Ximena is now on my left, and the three of us are sprinting, running, ducking and diving under branches and leaping over shrubs. The three of us break through old cobwebs and swatting leaves and branches. Sweat is streaming from every pore, my heart pumps fire through my veins, and it throbs my legs.

  Don’t stop. Almost there!

  We break through the tree line, and the ocean and Dweller greets us.

  I catch my breath at last. The sea breeze cools my reddened cheeks, and I let out a sigh. I want to laugh, cry, and cheer all at the same time. I smile at the other three. The other three.

  There are only three of us back at the Dweller. “Where is Yun?” I ask the others. “Did anyone see her run? Did she get away?”

  “I didn’t see,” mumbles Ximena.

  “I didn’t look back, Sarah,” says Evangeline with a sigh.

  We turn back towards the forest with our light rifles aimed. Nothing stirs. The trees and the leaves are quiet. The ground and the sky are still. We stand ready for minutes, half an hour more…but nothing comes.

  “Sarah, this is Racker. Yun ran the other way. She carried on through the forest, and I have lost her signal.

  “She is on her own.”

  Liu Yun

  I had broken away from the group. I thought that the Spinosaurus, or whatever CETI had called it, would track the larger group. I thought it would go for the most food it could, but it didn’t.

  Maybe it had detected me as the weakest of the group. Just like a lion does back home, I, the weakest, have been weeded from the rest of the herd.

  The Spinosaurus is still chasing. The ground thudded behind me, but I was able to keep a good distance, mostly due to me being able to dodge in and out of trees and small nooks in the forest. I also think that the turret may have landed a few bullets. I can only hope that the beast is feeling the effects.

  I can out run this, I can do it.

  My whole body is in a cold sweat; a combination of exercise, fear, and drug withdrawal symptoms. I have a stash of liquid morphine back on the Dweller. It’s a double edged sword; it is today’s hit that has me in such a bad way, but the thought of getting back and having more is the only thing keeping my tired body pushing on past its limits.

  I cut through gaps in the trees that I know will be too small for the Spinosaurus. I cut under branches and over mounds and keep running on through. I run and I run. The rumbling floor is always behind me, but I’m keeping a good distance between us. I look ahead, and my heart suddenly jumps into my throat; the forest ends.

  And beyond it is just the sea.

  I am near a cliff now. The gradient from the forest clearing had been steady, but I have been running for an hour now, maybe more. The edge is still a few yards away, but I can see that it is a huge drop down to the sea level; one that I will not survive.

  There is a large tree approaching, one of the last of the forest line. And it looks climbable, even for my tired body. It is my only chance. I just hope I have enough time.

  My father’s favourite saying echoes around in my head,望子成龙, or “Wàng zǐ chéng long.” He said it a lot. It means to wish for your kids to succeed, for them to become dragons.

  I won’t let him down.

  The switch on my light rifle is found without me having to look. It comes alive and vibrates against my back. My foot finds a low branch and my arms grab a higher one. I begin to spiral up the tree, grabbing and jumping up until I am at the height I believe the beast to measure up to.

  I pull the light rifle from my shoulder and take aim in the direction from whence I came, and I wait. The floor is still pounding, and my arms and hands are still shaking. I can just make out the snapping of branches and the rustle of leaves, but it is ever growing louder. The floor seems to thud in unison with my heart still stuck in my throat.

  The fern in front of me begins to rustle. My finger is resting on the trigger. I close one blurred eye and hope that I can squeeze a shot away. The triggers on the light rifles are stiff when I am not withdrawing.

  The Spinosaurus’ snout burst through the leaves at full sprint towards me. Blood has splattered him where the turret bullets had landed, and it appears to come towards me with a limp. The jaws are snapped open, and I can smell the fishy breath and feel th
e warmth. I take aim, and I pull the trigger.

  The bolt lands true and takes the head clean off with a brilliant flash of white light. Blood and brains colour the leaves behind and shower the ground. The momentum of the beast carries on, and the headless body slams into the tree I am in. I hold tight, and the tree takes the force well.

  This one was no Apatosaurus. This one was definitely a threat to us.

  I catch my breath higher in the tree. The sun has started to set, and my whole body is shaking, almost convulsing. The night isn’t cold, but my turkey is. Without my morphine, the withdrawal symptoms will only worsen to include anxiety, sweating, vomiting, diarrhoea, irritability, fatigue, shaking, nausea, insomnia, and headaches.

  I need to find my way back to the Dweller. But the comms have been silent since I ran from the lumber site.

  “Racker, do you read me?” I ask.

  Nothing.

  I pull the earpiece out of my canal. It appears to be working, and the transmission light is on.

  “Racker, do you read me?” I ask again.

  Nothing.

  I must have run outside of the triangle and the small amount after. I have no idea where I am, but I am sure that if I were to just follow the cliffs around, I would reach the Dweller out on her peninsula. But it will be dark soon. I am without light, and the dark may bring more than just fear. I have no supplies and no communications.

  There is no choice but for me to spend the night here and in nothing my seeker uniform.

  Further up the tree is a branch so large it has more than the width of a double bed. It is so large that it reaches out over the cliff and the sea below. I have my machete. I can strip some smaller branches and strip bark to make some lassoes to tie a support rope to me and the branch. That is where I will try to sleep.

  My symptoms are worsening but I manage a way up to the thick, strutting branch. I find the top almost flat but with a slight groove in the middle; perfect. It should reduce the chances of me falling off even more, so much so that I abandon the idea of a safety rope. I lie shaking for a while, just to catch my breath and focus.

  I take some small branches full of leaves with my machete. I check them for bugs first and they are fine. I lie back on the thick branch and cover myself in layers of the leaves, anything to try and retain the little body heat I have left. My body is still shaking, and I vomit a small amount of bile over the side.

  The adrenaline of the chase has worn off and I am left to try and piece my mind back together.

  Just an hour or so later and the light all over the sea and forest disappears. The sun has vanished. It has been replaced by an almost full satellite, her face shining down on me now. Although we have not got to naming anything on Domus yet, I will call her the ‘moon,’ just like back home. I had spent many nights under that moon but none of them compares to this.

  I cannot see what it is but things move all the time. The ground pounds when something large passes by my new home and the bushes below always rustle. The birds are still alive well into the night and there are caws, roars, shrieks, and squeals.

  Night on Domus is more alive than the day. I can even hear splashing and moaning way out at sea. I hear the waves break on the shore and I can see a huge, thin spider spinning a web above me.

  This planet is alive. I am alive.

  The sights and sounds even alleviate my symptoms somewhat. My mind runs through the events of the Seeker Project from inception to this date. How could I have fallen so low? How could I allow myself to be used by Ximena like that?

  People say that they have had an epiphany when they are at their lowest, when they have hit rock bottom and need something to pull them from the mire of life. I have never had one before but I see it now. If I survive this then I will no longer take any non-prescribed medication. I will no longer lose myself in the empty, fake, dirty solace that drugs bring.

  I will live my life clean. For me and for any children I may yield from a Seeker.

  My body suddenly seems lighter. The burden feels lifted. The symptoms slowly ease, and I can sleep now. Darkness takes me, but this darkness is a comfort.

  The icy hands of slumber had whisked me away to a place where nothing stirs in the bushes, nothing thuds the floor, and nothing moans out at sea. It was a place only I have been to before; it was my dreams. Tonight, they are filled with nothing, and I am grateful.

  When I hear a scuttling at my feet, I cannot tell just how long I had slept. My body feels new, feels good. I feel a vibration through the branch, and I’m awake, alert.

  There is a bird at my feet. It has arms and a huge tail and almost the head of a lizard, but it is beaked. It pecks at the bark for insects, but flies away startled when I move. The sun has returned to the sky, and it has brought new sounds, new smells, and new life.

  There is movement below my tree.

  I stand on the branch and stretch out. I feel fantastic, revitalised and reinvigorated. The spider above me has finished spinning the web. The intricate design is the most beautiful I have ever seen. The spider that spun it is not to be seen, but I thank her in my mind for providing me with such a stunning thing to wake up to.

  There is more movement beneath the tree now. I can hear the normal scuttling and rustling, but there is something else now, and it sounds wet.

  I peer over the edge to my left. There are two of them, no three, no four. Great feathered dinosaurs, only an eight or a tenth the size of the Spinosaurus, but they are eating him. They take turns tearing away chunks of fresh, bloody flesh.

  I have seen these dinosaurs before. I don’t need CETI to tell me I am in danger.

  They are Velociraptors. I can tell by the second claw on both of their feet. It is a claw for which the Velociraptor is most famous, a retracted, off the ground, sickle-shaped claw. The four animals caw at each other like giant swans, keeping their mouths open and the noise constant. They are deciding over the better meat, the better parts of my kill.

  There is no way for me to climb down. I must sit and wait.

  I watch the four as they strip an entire back leg of all the meat in just minutes. White bone glistens under the sun, and flies have started to drift in on the breeze. I grip the bark and peer over the edge for a better look. I can almost feel their feathers. Something else catches my eye, something moves near my hand, just on the periphery of my vision; it’s the web spinner from last night.

  Eight stick-thin legs dart across my hand, and the sudden movement forces me to jump and throw out my arms. I watch the spider leave my hand and fly through the air towards the floor. When I change my focus to look past, I see four faces looking up like inquisitive puppies. I thought I had remained quiet. There was a shriek, but I thought I had managed to keep it in my head.

  Their heads are tilted, and their feathery tails are in the air.

  I pull back from the edge. I can hear them caw at each other again, louder and longer, and more aggressive than before. They seem to be discussing me now and not the dead supply of meat in front of them. Maybe they see me as a threat, and they will want to defend that big kill.

  Lucky I am so high up in the tree.

  I peer over the edge, and the four have gone. The headless Spinosaurus is still at the base of the tree, but the four have gone. There is a rustle to my right. I change sides and look down; one of the Velociraptors is on the first branch that I had found my footing on. It leaps to the next and the one after that.

  The other three are climbing now, all four of them climbing one branch at a time; they begin to caw loudly as they go higher and higher, closer and closer.

  I move away from the trunk and shuffle backwards along the branch on my backside. I can hear the sea at my back now. The branch is slowly running out. It is getting thinner and thinner under my bottom. I shuffle even further until the branch starts to bend under my weight. I can see the cliff edge below and in front now. I am over the sea.

  The first Velociraptor jumps onto the thick branch at the far end. I can see its grey
feathers and teeth now. It calls out a long caw to the others in triumph. I shimmy a little further backwards, and it takes a few steps forward. There is only twenty yards between us now.

  I rise to my feet and switch on my light rifle. The vibration nearly topples me, but I balance like a tightrope walker. I take aim. The Velociraptor lurches lower, like a cat ready to pounce forward in a strike. The beast does spring forwards, and I pull the trigger.

  I can immediately taste blood. I’m not sure if is mine or the beast’s, but I am falling. I can feel its feathers against my face and see the branch above me shrinking further and further away. I can see the other Velociraptors still struggling up the huge tree trunk.

  My hands are now empty. The light rifle is no longer in my grasp, and the water crashes hard against my back. The world is a swill of blood and salty water.

  I hold my breath.

  Captain Reed

  I hope the others are okay. I had lost contact with Racker the day before this one, and not even a mile from the Dweller. Once I have the new beacons in place we will be better for it, we will see further and in more detail. And then we can take the fight to Domus.

  The two new beacons had rattled against the turret case on my back the whole way. It isn’t the ideal way to transport delicate kit, but it was the only way. Walking to the new beacon locations would have taken days, not to mention the potential dangers and loss of life we may have endured.

  It is a task I must do alone and with speed; we need to see more of Domus if we are going to survive on her.

  My journey so far has been uneventful. The wildlife seems to cower in the wake of the quads roaring engine. The only animals I have seen so far was a flock of those clawed birds and a small herd of the things that ate Simon, only this time they chose flight over fight.

  Even my night had been pleasant. I found a cave just passed the forest. It was high up behind a small waterfall and out of the reach of most organisms. I had left the quad at the bottom and climbed on foot. I set the sentry at the mouth but woke to two full belts of bullets and not a single casing.