Metal Boxes - Trapped Outside (16 page)

He took a step toward the door and missed his footing, crashing to the deck—the floor—whatever you called a cave bottom. Jay clamped her teeth to the back of his collar and lifted him to his feet. Shaking his head to clear it, he watched his feet carefully on the uneven floor, hunching over as he left the back room of the cave.

The front room was a huge cavern. Dozens of wounded men and women were scattered about, some sleeping, some reading, and some playing various games on dataport displayed hologram boards. Lanterns and candles lit the room with a twinkling of bright dancing light reflecting cheerily off the rock walls.

All activity ceased as Stone stepped into the room followed by Jay and Peebee squeezing out of the hole and popping back to full size. Marines all over the room smiled at him and saluted him with thumbs up, clenched fists and the guy-to-guy raised chin. He smiled back, acknowledging each salute with a pointing index finger that meant right back at you and you’re the one.

One woman raised a bloody left stump, her arm ending at her elbow. He smelled her wintergreen breath and felt the tinge of an odd spicy flavor burning his tongue. Her blonde ponytail bobbed as she acknowledged his presence.

Jay said, “
Bad marine. She is mad and likes to kill. Not mad like angry. Mad like crazy in the heart. Other marines don’t know this, but she can’t hide it from us.
”

Peebee agreed. “
She won’t hurt us because of Mama, she is madder now and wants to kill more.
”

Stone walked over to the woman. She started to struggle up off her pallet, but he put a hand on her shoulder. He smelled pepperoni pizza with jalapenos, with licorice, and wintergreen overtones. She did indeed have hidden desires to kill, but she liked him and wouldn’t hurt him or anyone close to him. Her wintergreen respect was too strong to deny, but her licorice odor told him she was obviously good at hiding her murderous streak.

He held out his right hand, offering to shake hands. “I’m Ensign Stone. We haven’t met, have we?”

She smiled and shook his hand. “Not up close and personal. Private Tighe, Melanie, sir.”

“How did you lose the claw, Melanie?”

She wiggled the stump of her left arm in the air. “I don’t know what those things were. The briefings said they were night stalkers. I swear I buried my knife in the guts of the one that did this to me, but well, it just wasn’t there and my knife passed clean through.”

Stone nodded. He recalled seeing the group cut through the meadow, indiscriminately killing as they passed by.

Tighe said with respect in her voice, punctuating the thick wintergreen odor, “I hear tell you killed a male drasco single handedly.”

Stone laughed. “I hear the same thing, but it wasn’t quite like that.”

Melanie laughed with him. “It never is. Sir, can you get the doctor to let me out of this hole and get me back on duty? I may be missing a hand, but I am still all marine. Just sitting around all day is going to squeeze all the juice outta my coconut.”

Stone nodded. “I’ll see what I can do, Melanie. I’ve got to find Major Numos and see what kind of mess we’re in. Why don’t you trail along until I can find the doctor?” He thought it would be nice to have someone at his back who had the will to attack a night stalker with a knife.

Not leaving the protective rock ceiling, he stepped into diffused daylight at the cave’s entrance. Overhead was a patchwork of camouflage tarps spreading from high canyon wall to canyon wall. The quilt-like overhead almost completely blocked out the sky, protecting them from possible overhead reconnaissance. There were a dozen cave openings of various sizes scattered about the canyon walls. Some were set high in the walls, and some, like the one he emerged from were no more than a few feet above the canyon floor. A small stream trickled down the middle of the canyon in a series of stair steps, fed by a spring waterfall about halfway up the canyon wall.

A ten-foot rock wall barricaded the box canyon’s open end. It looked hastily constructed and was still being modified. There were gun and mortar emplacements scattered along its length. The wall also dammed up the small stream, creating a freshwater pond. The pond was filled with people in various stages of undress, splashing and playing in the water.

Before he stepped into view, he said, “Corporal Tuttle.”

Tuttle jumped to her feet and stepped into view. “Dammit, sir. You scared the pee-waddling out of me.”

“Are you still tasked with watching my six?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you still stuck in your tin can?”

She slapped her right stump against her chest. “Yes, sir. The suit keeps me jacked up on pain meds while making sure my wrist heals without infection. The doctor says if I can stand to be in the suit until we get to a medical unit, then getting the marines to issue me a new hand should be a no brainer. Of course, with my luck, supply will issue me a left hand instead of the right.”

He gestured with his head and turned to walk away. He could smell her following, her odor wafting over him. He could also smell a dozen men and women following her as she followed him. He said over his shoulder. “How long can you stay in there?”

Tuttle chuckled as she followed along bracketed by Jay and Peebee. “Sir, I’m a marine. I will be in here as long as it takes. It does cut down on sex, still I can pop the faceplate open for a quick blowie if you need one.”

Stone smiled. “I just may take you up on that, Tuttle. I’ll let you know.”

Peebee said, “
What’s a blowie, Mama? Can I get one
?”

Jay started to explain what Tuttle meant as Stone took that moment to stumble on a rock, barely catching himself before crashing to the dirt. Jay was there in an instant, giving him a shoulder to brace against. He wasn’t sure he wanted people to know he could talk to drascos. They would either lock him up as crazy or lock him up as a freak. He decided to keep those conversations to himself for a while.

Tuttle said, “The doctor told us that if you ever got up again it might take a bit of time for you to get used to your new size.”

Stone stopped and stared at the big marine in her giant combat suit. “Um, what?”

“Which what, sir? Which part?”

“Both. What do you mean ‘if I ever got up again’?”

Tuttle shrugged. “The medical corps doesn’t know what happened to you, what is still happening to you, what to do about it, and if you would ever wake up. They are constantly arguing about it. I believe there’s even a pool going on about when you would bite the big one—not me, though, sir—I rooted for you the whole way.”

“How much did you lose?”

He could see a sheepish look on her face. “Only twenty credits, sir.”

Stone asked, “And what was that bit about size?”

Tuttle slammed her faceplate closed, then popped it open right away. “I measured you at six-feet-four, sir. The doctor said something in the drasco blood or sperm triggered a growth spurt. I believe you got six or seven inches growth in the last three days.”

“Three days?”

“That’s how long you were out. The doctor is concerned you might just keep growing. She was also concerned your body would consume itself since we don’t have the equipment for glucose intravenous feedings. She said not eating or drinking for three days isn’t good for a human especially when it uses all of its reserves for unprecedented growth. Hell, sir. You’re the big talk around the camp.”

Stone patted his stomach and ran a hand over his backside. He felt flat, hard and all of his muscles stood out in rippling relief. Any leftover ice cream pudginess was long gone.

Tuttle continued, “Doc Menendez says you should be dead. You didn’t have enough fat reserves to sustain your growth. There was something about the body starting to consume your internal organs. Doctor Triplett is sure you would wake up at any moment and go raging crazy since there is only one of you. She said you would keep growing, but she’s kind of crazy herself.”

Stone shook his head. “Mom is over six feet and Dad is six-feet-four, so I don’t suppose I’m too far from where I would have grown anyway, I mean, I was only five-feet-ten and still just a growing boy. Wait, what does Triplett mean, I’m one? Is she still spouting on about her theory of threes?”

Peebee said, “
I have three babies.”

Jay agreed
, “I have three babies, too.”

Stone nodded, “Drascos do seem to come in threes, but I’m still not convinced the rest of her argument is valid.” He continued down the path to where he knew Numos and Allie were sitting.

Tuttle said, “The crazy old bitch is still wandering around telling anyone who will listen that Jay and Peebee are dangerous, should be put down, and autopsied.”

Stone said, “Why is she still free?”

“That’s a question for someone higher up the food chain than I am. Besides, Agent Ryte keeps a close eye on her. Not as close as earlier, when Triplett tried to convince us to surrender to the Hyrocanians. That got the old woman a right thorough beating and she’s shut up about it since then, but she won’t let go of the drasco thing. Oh, don’t worry, sir. I won’t let her get within a hundred yards of Jay and Peebee.”

Stone shook his head. “She is now. She’s only about twenty yards away.” He pointed behind them. “She’s hiding behind that big boulder.” Tuttle spun around, but Stone continued, “Not to worry. She’s more frightened of me and the drascos than the other way around.”

He stepped around a curve in the trail. “Can anyone join this conference or is it only for marines?”

Allie was on her feet and in his arms before he could put a question mark at the end of his sentence. He hugged her back and kissed her hard. Looking deeply into her eye, he was surprised that he could look her in the face. Squeezing her, he realized they now fit together like a two-piece jigsaw puzzle. They stood together for a long time, but far too short for his tastes. She finally pulled away from him, but didn’t let go.

He asked, “Are you all right? Last I saw, you weren’t moving well.”

Allie smiled, “It was just a pinched nerve. Menendez and my nanites fixed me up right away.”

Numos snorted. “Not exactly. The doctor fixed the pinched nerve. You’re on light duty until we get you to a real hospital to repair the fractures in your back.”

Stone stared at her. “You broke your back?”

She shrugged, “It isn’t much, just a few hairline cracks. My nanites will fix them if we don’t get off this planet, they’re already fusing the bone around the cracks. A decent hospital can fix me in an afternoon, but we don’t have the tools Menendez needs. They blew when the compound went up.”

Word had spread of his being up and about and people began to gather in waves, each one saluting him or shaking his hand, then settling to the ground. MCPO Thomas hobbled into the ring of people, supporting LCDR Butcher. Both men were still healing from injuries. Stone started to salute Butcher, but the man knocked his hand away and wrapped him in a bear hug. Stone was surprised at the man’s sudden display of emotion, then realized he shouldn’t be. Almost getting killed does strange things to a person’s overall perspective of the world and the people around them.

Butcher said, “Dammit, Stone. You had us all worried, sir. I’m glad to see you up and about even if it did cost me twenty credits in the ‘when you would kick the bucket’ pool.”

Stone laughed. “Thank you, sir—I think. How are you?”

“Menendez has done miracles with my broken ribs and collapsed lung. I’m afraid we’ve had so many injuries she’s going to work herself to death.”

Stone nodded to Thomas, “Master Chief, how did you get injured?”

Thomas shrugged, “I just tripped over a rock. I guess I’m too old to go hiking on these unsettled planets, sir.”

Numos spoke for the first time, “Nonsense, he attacked a giant land lobster-like thing that tried to get at Commander Butcher.”

Thomas said, “Well, yes, that was what I was doing when I tripped over the rock. I didn’t kill the thing and wasn’t doing anything heroic. I just had a hankering for lobster. Your marines saved Butcher and me. Shame it only looked like a lobster and was inedible. Besides, I’m just trying to live up to the example of our valiant governor. He attacked and single-handedly killed a giant male drasco.

Stone waved his hand. “It wasn’t like that.” His statement brought a chorus of raspberries from the gathering crowd.

Numos said, “Okay. Someone give us the playback for Ensign Stone.”

A dozen displays popped on, they were the same scene shot from multiple angles. They overlay each other and blended into one three-dimensional video of the rampaging male drasco.

Peebee hissed and hunkered down on the ground. “
I don’t like that.
”

Jay wonked in wordless anger.

Stone said, “Easy, girls. It’s just a picture and it won’t hurt you any more.” Even though it meant letting go of Allie, he put a calming hand on each of the girls.

He watched the video. He clearly remembered tripping and falling under the huge beast. In the playback it looked like he purposely dived under it, sliding between its talons. There were hoots, grunts, and shouts of “ooo-rah” from the spectators. The small group of officers and senior NCOs were clustered in the middle of the open space with lower ranks of enlisted the farther back the crowd went. Stone looked at S3C Dollish squatting hesitantly in the back row. He stared until the boy looked back and then he nodded, giving the spacer personal recognition.