Chapter 6. Max
I opened my eyes groggily when I smelled bacon and eggs, and I saw Miranda and Tyler sitting at the small table by the window with nearly empty plates.
I stretched and rolled off of the hide-a-bed. “How nice! You made breakfast,” I said to Miranda.
“Actually, Tyler made breakfast,” she replied.
“I just returned from Mylar 5 and haven’t gotten used to twenty-four hour solar cycles yet,” Tyler said through a bite of eggs. “I’m still on a 500 hour cycle. So I ran to the nearest convenience store and bought breakfast.” He gestured to their empty plates. I knew he was a quarter Yungen and a quarter Schwartzen, but I was starting suspect the remaining half golden retriever.
I was confused. “Nearest convenience store? It was night time and we’re in the middle of nowhere. They don’t have all night convenience stores out here.”
He cleared his throat. “It was thirty miles each way.”
Miranda patted his hand. “That was so sweet of you.”
“Yeah, sweet,” I muttered to myself. I began scrounging around the kitchen. “Is there any left?”
“Um, I think there might be some toast in the toaster,” Tyler said. “It’s a bit on the done side.”
The toast was charcoal black and tasted like burnt carpet, but I ate every bite. “Very thoughtful,” I said with my mouth full.
Miranda hopped up from the table, too chipper by half at this early hour for my tastes. “We have a busy day. I’m going to get ready so we can get out there and start our investigation.”
“Oh yeah,” Tyler said. “I scouted the site for signs of non-earth life but came up with nothing.”
I stopped licking off Miranda’s plate. “You what?”
Miranda paused at the bedroom door and turned. Her brow furrowed. “It was agreed we’d go in the daylight, when it would be easier to look for evidence.”
“I know. I know.” He held up his hands. “I was up all night and just thought it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek.”
“You could have disturbed evidence,” Miranda said.
“There really wasn’t anything to see,” he replied.
“Well, we won’t know now, will we?” I asked.
Miranda gave a sigh, grabbed a bag from her room, and then went into the bathroom. Moments later bathwater began to run.
“That was a really dangerous thing to do,” I said to Tyler. “There could have been hostiles at the site.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” He scratched his chin. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to be more careful.”
Miranda stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a large fluffy orange towel. “I don’t think I’m doing it right. Can you help me in the shower, Max?”
The orange juice I was drinking from her glass came out my nose. It had a cleansing tingle to it.
She frowned at me. “Tyler?”
The golden retriever was at her side in a heartbeat. “You need to pull down on the spout to get the water to come out of the showerhead,” he said.
I pulled out a pair of graviton bars and planted them firmly in the air above my head and began doing overhand pull-ups.
Tyler came back from the bathroom. “Are those graviton flux devices?”
“Yep,” I answered when I reached fifty pull-ups. I then switched to underhand pull-ups.
“Did you know they can create black holes?” he asked.
“The guy who sold them to me said there was only a slight chance they could destabilize when you put them in reverse.” I repositioned the bars above waist level to do dips. “They sure are useful, though.”
“Did you hear that the Endarri system was consumed by a black hole believed to have been created by a pair of graviton flux bars?”
“I don’t watch the news—too depressing.” I moved the bars to hover a few inches off the ground to hold my feet so I could do sit-ups.
Tyler’s voice was a little high pitched. “They’re banned in nineteen systems.”
“Not here though,” I replied as I finished my sit-ups.
“That’s because they don’t know about them!”
“Probably better that way.”
Miranda came out of the bathroom in standard issue cargo pants that I would bet were filled with a week’s worth of supplies and all standard issue agent gear. Her white T-shirt had “Sweetheart” printed on it in light pink letters. “Your turn in the shower, Max.”
“Gotcha,” I replied. I returned my graviton bars to my belt, grabbed my travel bag, and went to the shower. I cleaned up quickly and then dressed in my cargo pants, including the standard issue belt and equipment, and a white T-shirt with the letters “gl hf” on the front and “gg” on the back.
I dug in my pack and found my metabolism boost pills. I kept digging and found a single Power Protein drink tucked deep into one corner. There had to be more, I thought. I packed two dozen before leaving. I turned the pack inside out, but there were no more. I put my lone Power Protein drink in my pocket and hoped that I wouldn’t need more than that.
When the three of us were ready, we stepped out into the cool predawn morning. The resort consisted of many small cabin-like buildings tucked away behind trees far enough from each other to make you feel like you were alone in the woods, unless you noticed the bright orange paint on everything.
“Did you bring sky packs?” I asked.
“We’re only a few miles away.” Miranda patted my stomach with the back of her hand. “It wouldn’t hurt you to walk.” Then she poked my stomach again. “Do you have a six pack?”
“Sorry. This is my last one.” I pulled out the Power Protein drink and handed it to her.
She looked momentarily confused, then said, “Thanks.” She examined the label. “Three thousand calories?”
“Yeah, and they have the guts to call it a meal replacement. It’s more of a snack.”
“Um, thanks. I’ll save it for later.” She tucked it into her pocket.
Tyler led the way through the woods with Miranda right behind him. I followed at a leisurely pace. Something about the forest bothered me. I kept an eye on the still branches above and the tangled undergrowth around us. I was hearing small sounds in the woods that made me wonder if we were being watched, but there was no one in sight.
Then I heard a twig snap and a scuffle. I saw Miranda stop ahead of me, and I ran to her.
“What was that?” she whispered as I approached. We both scanned the foliage around us. She grabbed my arm. “Where did Tyler go?”
“I hope he went to get more bacon.”
Miranda pulled out her Voltaic Fusion Pistol. The leaves to our left rustled.
“Tyler!” she shouted.
I grabbed her arm. “Shh! There’s something out there.”
Moments passed as we studied the forest around us, but now nothing moved and there was absolutely no sound but a soft breeze high in the branches overhead.
“Don’t move!” A man holding a pistol and wearing a tan sheriff’s uniform approached. When he blinked, I noticed his eyes turned a cloudy black for a moment before returning to normal.
Miranda took a step back and something snapped with a loud crack. She gasped. I dared a glance down and saw that a giant metal trap had slammed shut on her leg. A bloodstain was growing on her pants where the glinting jaws of the trap gripped her calf. Her shin was bent at a slight angle.
“I told you not to move,” the man said. He leveled his gun in our direction with lightning speed. Bang! The sheriff fired his pistol as I stepped close to cover Miranda with my body.
“Got it,” the sheriff said, indicating a tuft of fur on the ground behind us.
“What was it?” I asked.
“Might have been a chipmunk,” the sheriff said with a smile.
Miranda moaned a little. “I’m stuck.”
I whispered to Miranda, “If you hadn’t noticed, this guy is the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later type.”
“Questions are for pussies,” the she
riff chimed in.
I stopped shielding Miranda with my body but she clung on to my arm. She was in obvious pain.
“You don’t ask questions?” I said.
The sheriff frowned at me. “Pussy.” The sheriff put away his gun and walked closer. “In my native language we don’t even have the concept of a question. It’s a sign of weakness.”
I studied the sheriff carefully. His skin was sienna, and his hair was long and black and pulled into a pony tail. He was lean but had a hard, muscular look about him. He might have been Native American, but his eyes told me he was something else too. I decided that, if he was a threat, he wouldn’t have holstered his gun.
He nudged the jaws clamped on Miranda’s shin with his foot, and she groaned. She looked like she might pass out. “You’re really stuck in there,” the sheriff observed.
“Get me out,” she moaned.
The sheriff pulled out a small device that looked like a black universal remote. He pushed a few buttons and the trap released and sank back into the ground, as invisible as it was before Miranda stepped on it.
The sheriff sniffed the air. “We probably should get under cover before it comes back.”
“Before what comes back?” I asked.
“Something is taking people,” the sheriff said.
“What?” Miranda said.
“I don’t know what it is, but I keep finding bits and pieces of the folks it leaves behind. I’ve set traps to try to catch it, but no luck yet.” He pointed through the woods. “I have a place a few hundred yards through the forest. We can take care of your leg there.”
Miranda’s face was white and she leaned heavily on me. “We need to find Tyler.”
I didn’t like Tyler, but if he was in trouble, then I was responsible for him.
“What’s your name?” I asked the sheriff.
“Sheriff John Henry, but my friends call me sheriff or sir.”
I pointed at the sheriff. “Do you feel safe with John?” I asked Miranda.
“I can handle myself,” she answered.
“You go get your leg taken care of, and I’ll try to find Tyler.”
She hesitated and her eyes went narrow like she might argue, but the perspiration on her forehead indicated she needed medical attention quick. She closed her eyes momentarily and then nodded.
“You have a place over that way?” I pointed in the direction John had already indicated.
“You can’t miss it. You might watch out for the goat, though. He’s a bit protective,” he said.
“I’ll look for Tyler and catch up with you.”
I watched John take Miranda into the woods and then headed in the direction I had last seen Tyler.