Please read forgivingly (and if you have the time corrections are welcomed).
No
one spoke as they walked through shadows, none of the marines wanted
to think about their lost friends or wonder what they were going to
do next. They instead concentrated on the march, paranoid that the
killers were following them, watching all the time for any sign of
attack.
Chase
could not help but think about it all. They had lost a lot of good
men but they had also lost their only way of getting off the planet
or even contacting anyone off planet. Now their only option was to
find Colonel Castleman, he was the planet's military liaison so if
anyone would know how to get a mayday out it was him. He could only
hope the Colonel was still alive and the young cadet was taking them
in the right direction to find him.
“Se-se,”
When they stopped for a short break, Chase called her over to sit
beside him on the trunk of a fallen tree.
For
several hours Se-se had been walking near the front of the group with
Sergeant Felton, learning what she could about the marines and what
they knew about what had happened to her world. If the Sergeant was
being honest with her there was very little either of them knew and
if they wanted to find out they had to survive long enough. She was
subdued when she answered the Captain's call and sat down with him.
“Are
you doing okay?We're not going too fast for you, are we?”
“We're
only walking,” Se-se dismissed the concern. “We can run the rest
of the way if you really want to get there quickly.”
“How
far away are we?”
Se-se
frowned. Castleman had taught them all to use their own sense of
direction, not to rely on personal computers but she was used to
heading out from town not from the farm. “About twenty miles, I
think.”
“You
could run that?”
“Sure,
why not?” From early childhood she had joined her Aunt and Uncle on
daily runs and later Castleman had encouraged all of the cadets with
timed orienteering and assault course competitions. She had no way of
knowing quite how fit she was compared to the average person.
“How
sure are you that the Colonel's going to be there?” Although the
hut had been described as a base it did not sound very defensible.
There
was a shrug. “I'm pretty sure he went there at the start, I don't
know if he'll still be there, but he'll have left a message if he's
gone somewhere else.”
“That's
good enough for me.” It was all they had to go on so it had to be.
“So what were you doing in that barn? If you were hiding in the
forest, why come back there?” Chase was careful to ask gently, he
did not want to demand information and make the girl upset, not when
he was relying on her.
“I
was looking for,” Se-se stopped, shutting her eyes tight against
the tears. “For anyone who was alive. “
“I'm sorry.”
“I'm sorry.”
“We
knew something was wrong. A ship came and everyone went to town, then
there was shooting and, and the forest was the safest place to be,
but I couldn't stay there forever, I came back. Everyone in town
they're all,” she had to stop again.
Chase
did not know what to say. Nothing he could say would make it better.
“We
have to find the Colonel, he'll know what to do.”
What
would they do if the Colonel was dead? Or if they simply could not
find him? Chase was not about to voice his concerns in front of the
girl, she was upset enough already. He tried to speak to her a little
more about the attacks but she did not know much and he hated to push
her.
When
they set off again she drifted to the front of the group with Braddow
and Chase found Felton walking beside him.
“How
much have you got out of her?” Felton asked quietly, her mike
temporarily switched off.
“Very
little, but that's no surprise.”
“She's
holding out. She knows more than she's letting on.”
Chase
looked across at his Sergeant in surprise and unhooked his own mike.
“She's just a girl who's been incredibly lucky, what's the
problem?”
“There's
luck and there's luck. She's tooled up for survival, she didn't just
run into the forest and she's far to good with that rifle.”
“This
is a rural colony, they all know how to use a gun.”
“Back
at the farm she killed that guy without any hesitation and it didn't
phase her.”
“Are
you saying we shouldn't trust her? Because she was being shot at by
the same bastards attacking us.”
“I'm
saying she's not all innocent, that's all, and I think she knows more
about what's going on than she's admitting.”
“I
don't think any of this is straight forward. I know she's not telling
us everything but can you really blame her? If she can get us to
Colonel Castleman it doesn't matter what secrets our cadet is
keeping.”
“That
might come back and bite us in the arse.”
“Let's
hope not.”
Felton
treated Chase to look, rehooked her mike and returned to her place on
the march.
They
continued for hours, until it was full dark and the marines glasses
had switched to low light vision. Even then Se-se led them unerringly
through the forest without the benefit of light enhancement.
“Are
you sure this is the right way?” Shaw asked as Se-se strode on.
“If
you don't trust me find it yourself.”
“We
don't know where we're going.”
“I
do. This is my home.”
“Then
find us somewhere safe to camp for the night.” Chase did not want
to stop but he knew they had to get some sleep or they would be no
good for anything productive after all they had been through already.
Se-se
turned to look back at the Captain. “You want to stop?”
“No,
but we need to at least for a couple of hours.”
“Alright,
I'll go ahead.”
“Braddow,
go with her.”
Se-se
rolled her eyes but accepted the bodyguard, she suspected the Captain
had no intention of letting her go anywhere on her own. It would be
easy to slip away, to leave them at the mercy of the forest but while
she did not need them to find the Colonel she had no idea whether she
might need them later. They had been as surprised as her when those
aliens turned out to be humans and they were being shot at just like
her, both things that were incredibly hard to fake.
Their
camp for what remained of the night was a clear area in the rift made
by two mature Steran trees as they fought to deprive each other of
precious topsoil by pulling their roots like scoops to form mounds
around their trunks and over long years leaving a trench between
them. It was large enough to hide the marines from casual view and
the last rains had been long enough ago that it was dry.
As
they settled down there was a resigned feeling from everyone, they
knew they all had to rest but none of them felt like sleeping. Se-se
had cried so many tears already she did not dare cry more now in
front of the marines. The marines did not want to show their own
sorrow in front of each other or the girl but they were all feeling
the loss of their comrades.
Chase
spent the time reviewing his helmet camera's recordings, searching
for clues he might have missed the first time. There was nothing left
in the town or at the farmsteads but death, all caused by the same
heavy rifles that had been used against them where they had found
Se-se, their lone survivor. They had been led into the trap, had
Se-se unwittingly been bait? Only when they had been close enough to
the farm had Se-se come under attack and their transport was
destroyed at the same time. Their attackers had made sure the marines
were dead no matter where they went and young Se-se should have been
just as dead. How long had they been tracking her before making their
move? Were they all still being tracked or had they really escaped?
If Castleman had escaped with other survivors and the attackers knew
it could they be using Se-se to find find him just as he was? It was
so easy to get paranoid in the dark forest, to see those alien faces
in every shadow and behind every tree, to see plots at every turn.
Should they have stopped or should they keep going? They needed to
rest, no matter who was after them it was stupid to run his men
ragged, especially when they had already spent the last few weeks on
an endurance exercise; they were starting on empty.
He
was so consumed in his worries that Chase did not notice Se-se rise
from her roll mat and drift silently across the rift until she was
beside his discarded backpack.
Chase
may not have noticed but Felton had taken it upon herself to keep an
eye on the young colonist and watched unmoving while she lay
supposedly asleep only feet away.
That
little madam was brazen enough to go through the Captain's pack while
he was inches away. What was she looking for? If she went for any of
the munitions there would be hell to pay. It was a thorough check,
each compartment was examined. Felton held her breath as the girl
opened the compartment she knew Chase kept a 'slap-stick' breaching
charge in, but Se-se only looked at it for a moment before putting it
back and locking it away. Only one thing from the Captain's pack was
kept and when Felton saw what it was she relaxed. It looked like
Se-se was just another colony brat after all.
Whenever
the marines landed on any colony worlds on exercise they were always
mobbed by the children for their ration pack chocolate & caramel
bars, available only as a rare treat outside the core worlds. Felton
remembered chasing after soldiers when she was just a child and
begging for the bars but she knew plenty of her friends attempted,
with mixed success, to purloin them by other means. She would not say
anything and make Se-se give it back, that would be heartless, she
doubted Chase would even notice the loss and the girl would enjoy her
acquired treat.
Felton
made her decision shortly before closing her eyes and willing herself
to find some badly needed sleep.
FraidyKat Runs - to exhaustion and beyond
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