Chapter 4: Green Guys

A woman screaming off in the distance interrupted our inventorying.  I closed my backpack, stood up, cupped my ears.  “Off in that forest line, I think.”

“It might be Jadon!” said Marci.  “We have to go!”  She grabbed her pack and started running.

“Hey!  We shouldn’t . . . ah, damn.”  I chased off after her, never getting to say, ‘rush in without taking precautions.’  Tak shouted something, but I couldn’t make it out.  I trusted they’d follow.

I couldn’t catch up to Marci, not with her lead, and she seemed to be gaining ground, getting further and further ahead, when she reached the tree line and disappeared under its shadow.  Familiar trees, pines and poplars, I ducked under a low branch and hoped if it was Jadon, she was ok.

I came to a small clearing.  Just in front of me, an uneven, dirt path wound through the forest, two large human-like creatures with greenish-red skin were harassing a woman atop a horse.  One was holding the reigns, another grabbing her, trying to pull her down.  The woman hit and hit at them with her riding crop.  Marci was facing off against a third, who carried a nasty-looking wide-bladed sword.

Marci screamed as the brute stabbed her, staring into her eyes and smiling.  She took hold of his arms, pushing against them, trying to keep that sword from going further and her arms suddenly alit in blue lightning, a cracking sound of a power line failing, and he went stiff, shaking, fell sideways.

Marci fell to her knees, and I rushed over, shouting her name.

One of the brutes punched the woman in the face, then pulled his sword out, turning to face me.

I didn’t have anything but my bullwhip.  Taking it off its hook, the whip uncoiled to the ground.  I swung it around my head, lashing it out at the guy’s face.  It cracked against his cheek, red stripe forming.  I was stunned for a second, thinking, ‘I can use a whip?’  I’ve never seen one before, let alone held one!

He snarled, rushing toward me, blade over his head.

I cracked the whip against his nose, and he pushed his head back, stiffening up, grabbed his face.

Then he shook his head, dropped into a crouch and came at me with a snarl.  His face was gushing blood, the whip had blasted his nose open, but he slashed downward at me.

I stepped sideways to the right, and the sword caught me in the arm.  He pulled it toward him, slicing along my bicep.  I smashed the butt of the whip into him, hitting his temple, and his eyes became sluggish, he collapsed.  I tried to run over to Marci, but suddenly my arm was screaming in pain, blood pouring out of it and the world was narrowing to a tunnel.  Something rushed past me, more shouting and yelling and I found myself on my knees.

Hands holding up a small red, glass jar in front of my face.  “Hey, hey, drink this if you can.  It worked on Marci.  It’s a healing potion.”

“What?”

“You’re in shock.  I got you.”  Dylan, it was Dylan.  Hand on my back, holding one of those tiny red vials up to my mouth, cap off.

“Marci’s ok?” I asked, feeling very cold and shaking a little.

“Yeah.  Now it’s your turn.  Drink up.”

He pushed it against my lips and upended the bottle into my mouth.  It tasted like grenadine and soda water.  Almost as quickly as it had passed my lips, I started feeling better.  Yeah, Dylan was holding me steady.  I was on my knees.  Takao and Ave were talking with the woman, Bentley was sitting with Marci, who no longer had a sword in her belly and looked great for someone who was about to die moments ago, though pretty pale.

Fred was standing over the guy I’d fought.  The other two were laid out on the ground.  Fred grabbed his arms, dragging him over to the other two bodies.

“What happened?”

“It looks like the one who attacked Marci died.  You’ll have to ask her why.  Fred and Avery took out the one accosting the woman over there and the guy who attacked you.”

I shook my head.  “We’d just killed three people?  That isn’t us!”

“Hey, you were defending yourself.”

“I knocked him unconscious.”

“When we got here, he was about to finish you off with his sword.  And you’d have lost this arm without this crazy red . . . vial?  Potion?  I guess it’s a potion.”

“Yeah, ok.  Wow.  I suppose it was self defense, but I don’t like it.”  The whip was lying beside me.  Picking it up, I coiled it, then stood, and returned it to its hook on my belt.  “This is going to sound strange, but I’ve never used a whip before.”

“And you have now?”

“Yeah, look at that guy’s nose.”

“I don’t know.  You might want to take one of their swords.  Your whip didn’t stop him from cutting you.  And our supply of healing potions is limited.”

“I don’t know how to use a sword.  Well, who knows?  Maybe I do.  Yeah, good call.  I’ll go do that.  And see what else they have, I guess.”

“If you’re ok, I’m going to see what’s going on with the woman.”

I looked down at my torn sleeve, blood drying on my shirt under it, a bit on my pants.  “I’m ok.  I didn’t get my arm nearly sliced off.  Looks like my clothes’ll need a wash.”

“Take as much time as you need,” Dylan nodded, began walking away.

“Right, yeah.  Hey!  Thank you for the help, I really appreciate it.”  Figuring the sword can wait, I went over to Marci first.

She was sitting on the ground beside Bentley.  Overhead, a thick canopy kept the sunlight from fully reaching the ground, making it cool and slightly dark.  Neither of them were speaking, just staring off into the forest.  I sat down on the non-Bentley side.

“Marci, are you alright?”

“Yeah.  Still in a bit of shock, though.  That fucking hurt.”

“I know!  I got sliced open, too.”

“Your shoulder is all bloody.  And your sleeve is hanging off your arm.”

“Yours too.  Well, not hanging off your arm.  I mean, you have a big hole in your dress.”

She looked down at her clothing, “Oh yeah.”

“Hey, before you, well after he stabbed you, electricity seemed to appear all over your arms and then . . .”

She turned her blue eyes to me.  “I’m still processing it.  It felt like releasing anger.  Like shouting or punching something.  But not quite.  I was afraid and wanted him gone, out of my sight.  Jesus, I thought I was going to die.”

I patted her on the arm.  “Me too, me too.”

***

Tak stood in front of us, “You guys are ok?”

I got to my feet, “Yeah, fine.  Those vials really are healing positions, I guess.  What’s going on with the woman?”

“It’s not Jadon.  And she hasn’t seen her.  Looks like those . . . things were attacking her.  For her possessions and horse, she says.”

“If she lives around here, maybe she has shelter.  Like a room we can use for the night.”

“Inn.”  Bentley stood up.  “In game terms, anyways.  Or maybe they have a barn.”

Looking up at the sky, Marci said, “This planet has a twenty-five hour day, making it close to Earth.  I’d say we still have several hours before it gets dark.”

Bent frowned, “A twenty-five hour day?  That’s going to suck for us.”

“No,” I said, remembering my psych classes, “people naturally fall into a twenty-five hour sleep pattern if, like, you remove their clocks and don’t make them get up for work on a routine basis.”

“No kidding!”

“Yeah, it’s crazy.”

“Great,” Takao said.  “Enough time to set up a lean-to, but not enough to hunt or do any serious foraging.  Besides, her family, uh, her people, group, I don’t know, they might be able to tell us what’s going on.  So, that’s where we’re going.”

“Sounds good.”

“Here, help me up.”  Marci gave me her hand. 

I pulled her off the hillside grass.

“Thanks!”

“For sure.  I’m going to check through their stuff.  Equipment?  Packs?  You know what I mean.  The dead guys.  And I’m taking one of their swords.”  I thumbed over at where the bodies now lay.

“I’ll join you.”

“You’re sure?”  We headed over.

“Biologist, right?  I want to see what these things are.  You think they were people once, like Fred and Ave?”

“God, I hope not.”  The bodies were laid out, all three of them.  Marci and I knelt down beside the leftmost.

“Red blood.”  She took it almost gently by the hand, turning it over.  “Nails are bigger, thicker.  Look at these muscles!  No wonder he could stab me so easily.”

“Looks like a coin purse on his belt.”

“Undo the belt there.”

I gave her a look.  “You want to examine this creature that closely?”

She cocked her head.  “No.  But it’s necessary.  Don’t be squeamish.  We’re doing biology, not pornography.”

“Yeah.”  I undid the belt, stripping it off him, and that gave me the sword and sheathe and coin purse, too.  “Man, how many belts am I going to end up wearing?”

“You really look like you’re straight out one of those ancient adventurer movies.  Well, I guess I don’t look any better.”

“You look great!”  I pulled back.  “I mean, uh, normal.  That dress, it suits you.  And the ears-”

“The ears?”

“Kinda cute.  I was going to say kinda cute.”

“Just kinda, hey.”  She rolled her eyes.  “Help me pull his pants down.”

“I mean, what I was thinking when I went back to sleep last night, was, ‘hey, I could totally peel the pants of a dead humanoid creature that tried, and came very close to, killing me.’”  I grabbed the legs.

Marci, her blue eyes looking as young as ever, “Ready?”

“Yeah.”  I pulled, she pulled, we both recoiled.  “Oh my god.”

“Yup, he shit himself.”

“This is why I went into anth and not bio.”

“So you could look at dried poop and not the fresh stuff.”

“That’s archaeology.”

“Right.  Ok,” she turned her gaze to the body.  “Everything looks normal.  Big muscles on his legs.  Legs are straight, not curved.  Wider hips than normal.  Help me get this guy’s armor off.  I think they’re endurance runners.”

“What, like, running marathons?”

“Ok guys,” said Fred, “you’re freaking out that woman.”

Marci and I both turned our heads at the same time.  She was, indeed, watching us.  It was the first time I’d looked at her out of combat.  She was wearing a brown dress than didn’t quite reach her knees and black leggings stuffed into high leather boots, leather vest atop the dress.  She crossed her arms.

“Right.  Well,” said Marci, “I want to know what’s going on, what these things are.  They certainly have the same skeletal structure as we do.  Almost.  It’s like they’re bigger, stronger versions of us, but with green skin.  Oh, wait.”  She pushed off the brute’s helmet, started feeling its head.

“I have green skin.”

“That you do, Fred, that you do.”

“Head’s a little smaller than ours.  Look at the forehead?  Just over half a human’s, and it slopes pretty quickly, not longer in the back like neanderthals.  And thick muscle attachment sites on the sides.  Look at the teeth!”  Marci pried the guys’ jaw apart.  “Canines are elongated.  And the premolars are higher on the outside.  There’s only one set of molars, at the back.”

“These guys have a nasty bite.”

“They’re definitely carnivorous.  These teeth are made for tearing flesh.”

“Did they speak at all?”

“Mostly snarling.”

“I wonder.”

I opened the guy’s backpack, rummaged around inside.  Something dry that resembled particle board, but lighter, one of those red potions, some dried and salted meat, short strips of thin rope.  “Another of those potions!  That’s good news.  Some salted meat and I think this is something like pemmican.”

“Pemmican?” asked Fred.

I held up the particle board.  “It’s dried meat and nuts and fat.  For traveling, lasts a long time.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, this isn’t pemmican, pemmican, from you know, North America, but it’s these guy’s version.”

“North America.”  Fred nodded, walked slowly away.

I turned to Marci, “Was I oversharing?”

“Hmm?”  She dropped the guy’s arm and looked up.  “I think your hypothesis about the nanotech is right.  These guys used to be human.”

“That’s very, very disturbing.  The nanotech turned this planet, it’s entire populace, into various creatures?”

“I wonder.”

“Hmm?”

She looked at the corpse, then up at me, tilted her head, “Was this some kind of attack?  From an alien enemy?  It effectively erased an advanced civilization.”

“An attack?  Maybe.  Yeah, I could see it.  But alien, I’m not so sure.  Would aliens understand us enough to produce something like this, like a game world?”

“I don’t know.  Not enough information.”

“We’ll have to gather what evidence remains and somehow inform the Victoria.  Anyways, I think maybe you should take one of their leather shirts.  They’re thick.  I think it’s a kind of armor.”

“Oh.  Yeah.  I suppose I can, but gross.  These guys really stink.”

I looked at her for a bit before answering, “You just pulled down this guy’s, uh, used pants and are worried about his leather armor stinking?”

Marci flipped over her left palm, saying, “Research,” then her right palm, “fashion.  The two are not the same.  But, yeah, it’ll help if anyone tries to stab me again.  I think I’ll air it out on my backpack for a while, though.”