Chapter 18
Further
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Abby, Sara and Luis were in the lead. Since they had to go single file across the narrow bridge, Luke and Tom had sole support of the stretcher. Tom, at the back of the stretcher, was closest to the pursuing fiends. Apparently, they had no fear of the single-span bridge; they came charging across like it was a four-lane freeway, jostling each other for the right to be the first to disembowel Tom.
“Go, go!” Tom screamed at the top of his lungs to his friends. He couldn’t go any faster with them in front of him. Tom ran with his knees banging up against the travois handles he was gripping.
Abby, Sara and Luis hit the end of the bridge with the stretcher carried by Luke and Tom traveling like a bullet shot out of a barrel close behind. Unfortunately, the Lural were closing fast, and there was no way to trap them on the bridge.
The Humans were frantic. Then Luke remembered. He remembered something that had been nibbling at the edges of his mind ever since they’d strapped down Mr. Neudel on the stretcher, and Luke had crossed Mr. Neudel’s arms across his chest so they wouldn’t dangle to the sides and catch on something.
Luke knew this could be their only chance.
He slowed his pace and shouted back over his shoulder to Tom, “Stop! Drop down! Get out of the way!”
Tom didn’t hear Luke clearly as he was still pumped full of life-saving adrenaline, but obviously Luke had lost his mind and was slowing down. Luke dropped his end of the stretcher and lunged across Mr. Neudel’s poor, jolted body.
“GET DOWN!” Luke screamed at Tom. Tom, bewildered, dropped to the ground, rolled on his side, and waited for the Lural to attack. Luke snatched up Mr. Neudel’s left wrist, aimed the Xenoth as best he could and pressed nearly all the buttons.
A beam shot out of the Xenoth, startlingly bright in the humid air, first green, then bright gold. It hit a bridge support, but didn’t seem to do any damage. Luke yanked Mr. Neudel’s arm and re-aimed the beam, shooting the first Lural in the chest. Tom thought with a tinge of hysteria that next time, the Lural wouldn’t fight so hard to be in the lead.
Luke did not let up, but continued to shoot the beam at the two remaining Lural. The last one attempted to duck, but, gruesomely, the gold/ green arrow got him right in the head. Then the beam came out the other side and ignited a small fire on a tree branch on the far bank of the river. Luke let up on the buttons and gently returned Mr. Neudel’s arm back next to his body.
The little fire hissed out, and for a moment, there was utter quiet. Sara let out a sob.
Luke flopped onto his back and stared up at the sky. He was still breathing hard. He couldn’t believe that he’d just shot someone, or something. His Dad had always told him that self-protection was a fundamental right, but Luke felt shaky and hot.
Tom was the first to recover. “You know,” he said, “there are still some little bags of garlic over there if we want to roast some Lural.”
“Tom, that’s gross!” Abby was disgusted. Sara was still crying.
Luke unsteadily got to his feet. Abby gave Sara a hug, and after a small hesitation, Luis did, too.
“I really want this to be over,” Tom said with a sigh.
As if obeying Tom’s wish, the rain ceased, and a gap appeared between the clouds. A golden beam of sunlight came down upon the exhausted Humans and the heap of inert Lurals. The metal flanges on the Bridge of Stars sparkled with thousands of tiny, illuminated droplets of water.
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“Hooray!”
A great crowd had gathered at the Blue Pearl Sea finishing area. After checking in with the Gracchus judges and turning in their scavenger items, the teams milled about for the closing ceremonies and final results. Banners had been set up by the various fan clubs, and the teams crossing under the last archway received cheers and a warm welcome. If at all possible, the judges considered it good form to have all the members of a team cross the finish line en masse. The Ghost Wind group even carried two of its members through the end. One of the fan clubs populated mostly by Vannevars greeted their finishers with red velvet hats; a Nawak team received great foaming buckets of ale.
Oliver knew it was ale: one of the generous Nawaks had insisted that Oliver take a swig from ‘the great glass of triumph.’ Nawakian ale was strong stuff but helped to obliterate the lingering taste of Spam in Oliver’s mouth.
Most—but not all—of the race participants were friendly now that the race was over, comparing notes and swapping stories about their adventures. Mighty Carnivorous Amphibian was the only team which had managed to collect the points from the target on the wandering verdinger herd. After that, the herd had mysteriously spooked and had retreated far onto the Plains of Rubico. Only a few competitors were churlish enough to suggest that the Aeris had deliberately scared the verdingers away after earning the points.
No team had made it out to the Gem Islands, though Surprise From Above had made an attempt. While the Nawaks on that team were excellent swimmers, the strong wind blowing in from the southwest had made the waves choppy and swimming difficult.
Oliver left Macready and his teammates for a while to search the crowd for Tom and Abby. He felt a little nauseous from the Spam cubes he eaten an hour or so ago, but they were finally beginning to make peace with his stomach.
He didn’t find the kids, but Oliver did meet the Vargases who were looking for Sara and Luis.
“They could be here somewhere; it’s hard to tell in this crowd,” Alex Vargas remarked, peering at the multitudes around them.
Mrs. Vargas wasn’t so sure. “I hope that Luis didn’t wander off on his own. He’s so independent sometimes. Thank goodness Sara is responsible.
“I’m a little worried that he might have gone to Pelerin Mountain,” Marisol Vargas continued. “One of our Vannevar apprentice chefs told he there was a mathematical puzzle at that checkpoint. You know how Luis loves anything to do with math.”
“Not to mention the chance to demonstrate his abilities in math,” Alex said.
“Exactly. And that’s where the rain has been. I know Sara packed her rain gear. I should have checked that Luis had his,” Marisol fretted.
Oliver spotted Miranda Tavish at the judge’s table and excused himself. She had been running a first aid station at the Aeris Spire checkpoint, but Oliver hadn’t had a chance to speak with her at the time. She’d been busy cleaning and binding a gash on the leg of a Vannevar from Velvet Kitten Claw. The Vannevar had tripped and fallen into a decorative but thorny hedge. There might or might not have been foul play involved.
Miranda hadn’t seen the kids either but promised to keep an eye out for them.
“I wouldn’t worry too much. They’re probably still out on the last stretches of the course, having fun,” she said.
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The kids were still on the course, but by no stretch could they be considered to be having fun.
The town of Aurelia was silent. There was no one in the streets, no one in the shops. Steam rose from the damp streets like friendly phantasms in the glowing light of late afternoon. Between the bridge and Eck’s Cave, the kids did not encounter a single soul. Luke had taken the Xenoth from Mr. Neudel’s wrist and attached it to his own, but he wasn’t even sure if it worked anymore. And if it was still charged, Luke didn’t want to waste any energy on an experimental shot. He’d just wear it and hope that he didn’t have to use it.
Eck’s Cave, too, was deserted, closed up completely. There was a note on the door, but it was in Nawakian.
“I’ll bet it says that everyone’s at the finishing line,” Tom said. He and Luke set down the stretcher and flexed sore shoulders. Sara bent down to put a hand on Mr. Neudel’s forehead. He was warm, perhaps even a little feverish. At least he was still breathing.
Everyone knew that there could be more Lural following them, and possibly the ones back on the bridge weren’t dead, but so
mehow, it felt safer here among the familiar buildings rather than out in the woods. But until they made it back among others, they couldn’t stop for long. At least it was dry here, and the sun was warming them up.
Sara thought that she would give a lot right now for a hot bath and some dry jammies. A mug of hot chocolate wouldn’t be bad, either.
Luis asked, “Why were they after us?”
“The gibble?” said Abby. “They were mad.” She still thought of the horrible hunter as a gibble, terrible creature out of Gracchian mythology. The word fit better to her ears.
Luis nodded. “I know that maybe they were angry about their friend or pack member or whatever getting dissolved but why chase us and risk even more injuries?”
“Maybe they’re like wolves; it’s just instinct,” Sara offered.
“No, they’re smart; plus they had metal vests on,” Luis said.
“Even smart beings could be vicious,” Tom said.
Luis shrugged. “It just seems weird. Like they’re after something. If it’s not simple instinct to chase us down, we could still be in danger, even here.”
Abby felt the black cube that Mr. Neudel had given her pressing against her body. She decided not to remind anyone that she had it. It might be better not to know.
“I don’t think we can carry that,” Abby gestured to the battered travois, “all the way to the Blue Pearl Sea.” She was right. They were all at the limits of their energy and the primitive stretcher was starting to come apart at the seams.
There were several jellycars parked adjacent to Eck’s Cave. Tom announced, “Transportation won’t be a problem.”
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The large, lime green jellycar must be used by Eck to transport supplies and ale, Tom decided as used his knife to pry off the control panel at the back of the car. There was a sizable cargo area, and the driver’s seat was very large, much bigger than those used by Humans or the small Gracchus. The cargo area itself smelled of old beer and had a sticky floor. Thankfully, the controls seemed to be the same. Tom wouldn’t have to figure it out on the go.
Tom pulled out the speed governor; if any more Lural appeared on the scene, it would be good to be prepared. Starting the engine wouldn’t be difficult since the jellycars didn’t require keys. Tom used his backpack as a booster cushion upon the oversized driver’s seat and fiddled with the controls. After a slight lurch, he got the jellycar moving and pulled over in front of Eck’s Cave where the others were waiting.
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The party was in full swing at the Blue Pearl Sea when finally an announcement was made regarding this year’s winner. The Gracchus judges had taken an exceptionally long time to tally the results, adding all the points from the course and puzzles and going through all the items from the scavenger list. Style points were the wild card, the joker in the pack.
“I’ll bet the first thing the judges did was count the bottles of Flottle. I doubt we’ll be seeing any of those again,” Macready said.
He and Oliver had been roaming the crowd, and Oliver was growing increasingly anxious about the kids. Back on Earth, Oliver hadn’t had much liking for cell phones, especially the implanted kind, regarding them as a sort of electronic leash. Still, right now, he wished he could call the kids.
“Competitors! We have reached a decision!” A Gracchus judge shouted from the top of a hillock. His voice projected across the chaotic crowd. He waited. It took a few minutes for the people to settle down, but eventually everyone grew quiet. The air quivered with charged hopes. All the valiant effort, underhanded bribery, dirty tricks and honest achievement were now at an end; all that was missing was the final cherry on the sundae, the bow on top of the package.
“For only the second time in recent history,” the judge said, “we have two winners!”
A great swell of noise rose from the crowd. It did not sound like a tide of happiness.
“Oh, no!” Macready exclaimed. “A split decision. This is just terrible. Everyone hates a tie: everyone, including the so-called winners.
“Last time, fifty-odd years ago, the fights went on for days. I wasn’t here, naturally, but it was an unfortunate time.”
The judge continued, oblivious of the effect he was having. “Congratulations and felicitations to: Mighty Carnivorous Amphibian—“
“What!” None of the members of the MAFM could believe this. Carnivorous Amphibian had been trapped on the far side of the Star Bridge for well over an hour.
“—and Velvet Kitten Claw!” the judge finished. Whatever he said next was lost in the rumble of voices washing over the hillock.
A giant blob of mud flew through the air from the general vicinity of the Aeris fans of Carnivorous Amphibian to the general vicinity of the fans of Velvet Kitten. And so it began.
“My friends, I think it politic to let the principals in the fight settle this without our participation,” Macready said. “Let’s retreat to the fringes. Besides, we’ll get a better view that way.”
The MAFM made it to a sensibly distant rise. Macready was right; from here they could get a clear picture of the battle below. Oliver was reminded of seeing Civil War reenactments back on Earth with all the participants in period costume and the occasional puff of smoke, but without anyone getting truly injured. The most popular weapon seemed to be the mud bomb, though the Aeris were also deploying the sticky nets here and there.
Then one of the battlers lobbed a sulfur smoke device, and the people dispersed, coughing. No species liked the noxious odor of rotten eggs.
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The ride to the Blue Pearl Sea was uneventful in terms of Lural, but Tom’s driving was exciting enough. He was compelled to put on speed in spite of the lack of pursuit, and no one argued with him. All of them wanted to reach the safety of a crowd and get help for Mr. Neudel as soon as possible.
The jellycar performed bravely in spite of its heavy load and the unaccustomed speed. Tom thought that there were a couple of easy modifications that could make it go even faster. The steering could be improved, and the acceleration wasn’t that good. But once it was up to speed, the cruising was okay, the engine had decent power. The wheelbase was wide enough for good cornering; the jellycar barely tipped even on the sharper corners.
They arrived at the Bonebreaker finishing area to find the place in chaos. Before they were even in sight of the Blue Pearl Sea, the smell of sulfur drifting through the late afternoon air tipped them off that something was amiss. And as Tom drove over the crest and they could see the scene, there seemed to be more mud in the air than on the ground.
“Holy cow,” Tom said for the second time that day.
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Katie Peterson was the first one to spot the lime green jellycar cruising the edges of the crowd. Tom Ellsworth was at the wheel.
“Oliver, I believe we’ve found your son,” she said.
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When Tom saw his Dad, he stopped the car, and everyone piled out.
“Dad, Dad!”
Oliver’s initial anger at seeing Tom driving a jellycar again evaporated; obviously, there was something wrong. He fell to his knees and opened his arms. The kids looked more battered than the Bonebreaker Racers, scrapes and bruises everywhere and their hair damp and stringy. Something was wrong with Abby’s hand; it hung red and puffy at her side.
“It’s Mr. Neudel, Dad, he’s hurt really bad,” Abby said, pulling her Dad by his hand to the cargo area of the lime jellycar to where Nicholas Neudel still lay strapped to a very odd-looking stretcher made of flimsy branches and strips of rubber. Even Tom’s driving hadn’t woken him up.
“He was shot by a gibble,” Abby explained. “Or a Lural.”
Oliver was stunned (what in the world was a gibble? Lural?), then training kicked in, and he took action.
“Get Macready,” he told Abby. “Hurry!”
Oliver crawled into the jellycar to c
heck the unconscious man. Macready would know where they should take Mr. Neudel. All other questions could wait.
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