Return To Lan Darr (16 page)

“So you’re not gonna rip me to shreds or steal all my stuff?”

Lemic shakes his head, “No. Help you leave so you not stuck here like us.” He limps slightly and ushers Allan down a narrow alley.

“Well, that’s good to hear. I don’t know what to expect anymore. Everything is backwards here. Next time, just say hello first. I could have done without the clanging of the cans.” Allan passes more homeless and filthy people, all with the same glowing eyes. “Okay, I gotta know, why are all your eyes glowing? You’re all different species.” 

The crowd follows like curious children. Though they are all hunched, using makeshift crutches, or as thin as fish bones, they keep up.

“We came here, just like you. Big party. We stay. After while… they move us out of homes and make work Hubbu fields. Fields sprayed so bug don’t eat flowers. Spray toxic.”

“Oh man.” Allan’s forehead scrunches. “Get out then. Peebland is really nice this time of year. Lan Darr is great too. I’m going to Lan Darr. Come with me.”

“Toxin make it so we cannot travel by Hubbu. Never travel by Hubbu again. If we try, Hubbu rips us up into pieces and not put back together again.”

“Geez, so you are stuck. But if there is work then why are you all so poor?”

“They don pay. We work for Mesas, according to needs, according to ability. We assigned ability, but if not able to meet ability, no food and no home.”

“So you’re not free to make changes in your lives or how things work?”

“No. We supposed to be equal here. No one able to do what other cannot. Royals only ones allowed to live like kings.”

Lemic stops Allan at an intersection with a road. “Mesas!”

A furious shuffling of bodies surrounds Allan, and someone tosses a filthy blanket over his head. Allan shifts the blanket to look out a frayed hole. A dozen large, furry, camel-like animals come down the street with riders dressed in plated armor and pointed helmets. The armored figures hold torches in one hand and clubs in the other. Small slits in the helmets hide the soldiers’ faces.

Lemic speaks to a soldier, trying to dissuade him from searching the crowd. The soldiers continue down the road, buying the ruse. 

Lemic yanks the blanket off Allan’s head. “Safe for now, but we hurry.” Allan and the crowd speed across the intersection.

The soldiers push between long lines of creatures that extend down the street whose glowing eyes resemble strings of Christmas lights. The dome is at the end of the road, a glowing bulb that towers over the three-story buildings.

Allan pauses in the alley and waits until Lemic reaches him. “I’m supposed to go into that dome?”

“Yes, that is where the Hubbu is kept. Lan Darr is blue pollen.”

“What are the others in line for?”

“They go to work to get food rations. They still healthy to do ability.”

“How am I going to get in with all those guards and soldiers?”

“We distract. You go.”

Allan doesn’t like the sound of that plan, but he is at the mercy of Lemic and the others. They all appear to be selflessly helping him for some reason. Allan feels sad for them. They were trapped by the misdirection of opulence. Allan almost fell for it. He was enamored by the fun, the party, the lure of irresponsibility. For a moment he actually thought that doing nothing but leisure activities would fulfill his life. His thoughts remind him of his father, but instead of cringing, he feels a warmth run over his scalp, prickling his hair follicles. He understands his dad just a little bit more than he ever had before. 

Allan is led from one dark alley to another and ordered to wait at a corner. Lemic puts a hand on Allan’s shoulder. “Two doors here.” He points a thin finger. “Main door on street. Other door in alley. We distract. When guards leave alley door, get to it as fast as can. Inside will be storage area. There you find your Hubbu color.”

Allan nods. “Won’t you get hurt? Why are you guys helping me?”

Lemic smiles, showing off three huge gaps where teeth used to be. “It is all we care about now, helping others. It is only thing that keeps us alive. I learn, thinking of self very lonely. Thinking of others true happiness.”

Lemic and the others strip their ragged clothes from their skinny bodies and run into the road. They light the clothes on fire and shriek when they twirl them over their heads. Others in the long lines do the same. The crowd rushes to the street-side door.

Allan watches from the corner. A ruckus louder than a rock concert fills the air. The soldiers and guards collide with the flame-toting banshees. Fighting begins.

As the racket on the street intensifies, the four soldiers that guard the alley door run to join the fight. Allan hits his motor button. His chair speeds down the alley. Allan avoids a pile lying in the street. At the last second, he notices there are two motionless glowing eyes staring up into the sky.

Allan is almost to the door when a soldier comes at him from the side. It swings a huge club and smashes it into Allan’s wheel. The tire locks up and Allan is thrown forward. His shoulder lands on cobblestone, he tumbles and bangs his head on the foot of the door.

The soldier looms over Allan, appearing as tall as a giant. Its armor is shaped like powerful muscles, and the helmet eyeholes are dark. It raises the club over its head. Allan covers his face. Before the club is brought down, a fireball is tossed from the window of an upper floor. The fireball lands on the soldier and spreads over it like a cloak from the bowels of hell. The soldier flails, dropping the club. It screams then falls to its knees.

Allan snatches up the discarded club and brings it down on the head of the burning soldier. Bam! “You!…” Bam! “broke…” Bam! “my chair!” The soldier crumples into a heap. He hits the soldier a final time, noting it has stopped moving.

Allan, gasping for breath, crawls to his toppled chair, tips it up, locks the brakes, and hauls himself into the seat. He grabs the wheel rails and thrusts them forward. One of the wheels is bent and squeaks horribly, but it still rolls. He returns to the door and turns a crank until it opens.

Inside is a warehouse the size of a football stadium. Twenty-foot-tall crates, organized in a grid, fill the interior. Each crate is color-coded. He finds the crate with a blue flower painted on the side and circles it, looking for a door or window. He only finds a ladder that leads to the top. Allan grits his teeth. He can’t climb a ladder straight up. There’s no way.

Chapter
17

Running Again!

Jibbawk and Rubic had just gotten away from the huge dinosaur creature when Rubic notices dark shapes flying in the sky. They swoop back and forth, high above them.

Jibbawk sees them, too, and points. “Run!”

A spear speeds silently through the night and nearly stabs Rubic’s head.

Rubic ducks and runs hard, following Jibbawk along the crest of the sand dune. One of the black-winged creatures swoops at Jibbawk, but Jibbawk dodges it.

“Why are they attacking us? What did we do?” Rubic shrieks.

“I do not know! Ssstop and asssk them, why don’t you.” Jibbawk is more nimble on its ostrich-feet than Rubic is, especially on the sandy hill.

A Peeble swoops from the night sky, releasing a spear. The spear impales Jibbawk’s backpack, throwing Jibbawk off balance so it tumbles to the sand.

Rubic slides to a stop and pulls the spear from the pack. Jibbawk gathers its feet and sprints away. Rubic eyes the spear’s colorful flags and intricate carvings. He looks up, still crouched. A dozen black-winged Peebles fly in circles above him like vultures. A spear stabs the sand a foot from Rubic. “Oh God!” he yells. He grabs the spear and pulls it from the sand and runs. He slides and stumbles and almost rolls down a steep decline, but stabs the sand, gaining stability from the spear like a walking stick.

Jibbawk pauses and scans a nearby valley. “Good news!” it yells as Rubic catches up.

“I need some good news!” Rubic answers as he ducks under the swoop of a Peeble, so close he can feel the breeze from the beat of its wings. “Ahhh! Get lost!” He jabs the spear at a bat-creature that comes at him, but misses.

“We get to eat well tonight!” Jibbawk, while running, takes the punctured backpack off and wrenches open the damaged lid. He pulls up the shelves, taking out the pistol. It has a typical handgrip, but the rail of the gun has two bulbous protrusions on each side like cystic tumors. Jibbawk takes out the goggles and slips them over its eyes. Without missing a step it crams the shelves back into the backpack, forces the lid closed, and re-hooks it on its shoulders.

“Eat well? Tonight? What?” Rubic gasps for air.

“Yessss. I will roassst one of these creatures over a fire before this night is done!”

Rubic sees a spear coming at the last moment and dives to the side. He wants to focus on surviving the attack not eating the attackers. How did Allan ever get along with a creature like Jibbawk? There had to be something about their connection that Rubic couldn’t remember.

Jibbawk aims the pistol into the sky and fires off a bright white laser shot. It speeds through the air silently, and harmlessly sails into space. Jibbawk and Rubic head down the sand dune and into another lush oasis. Rubic descends faster than his feet can move, so he braces them forward and skis down the sand. Jibbawk aims and fires off a few more rounds. None of the shots hit.

“Sssilly thing.” Jibbawk tosses the pistol over his shoulder.

Peebles swoop from every direction; their black shapes backlit by the bright planetary rings and starlit firmament. A spear glances off Rubic’s arm, causing him to fall to his knees. The pain doesn’t register over the drum of his heart and the gasping of his lungs. He chucks his spear and dives toward the pistol Jibbawk had tossed away.

Jibbawk is as nimble as a quail, and Rubic loses sight of him. The Peeble flock follows, waiting for an advantage. As Rubic descends into the valley, he has trouble seeing. The shadows and dark shapes of trees and bushes trick his eyes, and he stumbles over everything.

Rubic retreats under a tall tree. The tree’s canopy overhangs the trunk like an umbrella and creates a shelter underneath. The sky is obscured, but not the valley. Jibbawk is gone.

“You jerk of a bird,” Rubic hisses. “Someone ought to eat you.” He clenches his teeth and tries to think of a way out of his situation.

Peebles land all around the tree. Rubic can see their dark silhouettes as they fold their wings and approach with spears drawn. His heartbeat deafens the night sounds. They get closer. Blood tickles his arm as it drains from his wound. He suddenly feels the pain register. Rubic knows he’s lost.
This is it for me. I won’t be able to help Allan. I’m sorry, kid. I failed you.

Rubic looks at the alien gun in his hand and tucks it under his belt at his lower back. Fighting will get him killed for sure. His only chance is to reason with them. “I’m not going to fight you! You’re going to have to kill an unarmed man!” Rubic holds up his hands and steps out from under the tree. 

The siren song dances through the night air. The sleepy, dreamy song of death! It gets louder. There is some confusion in the Peebles.

Rubic moves back under the tree’s canopy and presses his back against the tree trunk. His eyelids grow heavy, but he knows how to beat the hypnotic lullaby. He claps his ears to make them ring. Dizziness rolls over his brain, but the ringing fogs out the song. Some of the Peebles leap into the sky successfully, others fall down, asleep. Checkmate.

Jibbawk emerges from a dense bush, stopping at the feet of the sleeping Peebles. He’s holding the bell horn of one of the dinosaurs, blowing into it like a trumpet.

When Jibbawk is sure the threat is past, it stops and looks at Rubic, “Thisss will come in handy!” it says, triumphantly swinging the horn over its head.

Rubic looks away, simultaneously feeling relieved and horrified.

Jibbawk crams the horn into the backpack like a dirty sock and grabs a spear. It raises the spear and aims at the heart of a Peeble. “You will taste better than sugar!”

Rubic catches the spear. “Oh no you don’t. These beings are intelligent. You can’t just eat whatever you want. Look at this weapon. They used tools to craft this. It’s got colorful flags, for crying out loud!”

Jibbawk looks sideways at Rubic for a moment. Its muscles tighten and then they release. “Fine. Thisss one time we will do it your way.”

Rubic steps back.

“You’re wounded.” Jibbawk notices the blood on Rubic’s sleeve.

“I’m fine.”

“I know, but just in casssse.” Jibbawk rips off the sleeve in one quick motion.

“Hey, was that necessary?”

Jibbawk inspects the wound. “You are able to continue. Your blood is clotting nicccely.” Jibbawk spins and marches away.

Rubic looks at his arm. The cut is long, but not deep. He picks up his sleeve, wads it, and presses it to his wound. After running to catch up, he says, “Let’s get off this planet, please, before I freak out. You might have to use that sleep horn on me to keep me from screaming like a little girl.”

Jibbawk ignores Rubic, though Rubic can sense an exaggerated roll of its eyes. “The map shows me where Hubbu plantsss have made holes. We’re near a large one, the one Allan used to leave this placcce.” Jibbawk taps the goggles it’s wearing. “My goggles will tell me what color the pollen was ssso we can sssee where he’s gone.”

“Music to my ears.” Exhaustion paints itself over Rubic’s thoughts. He’s never wanted his bed as desperately as he does now. His feet drag and he stops trying to see in the dark.

After hiking over two more hills, moving quickly over the tops so as not to be seen, Jibbawk finds the Hubbu signature. It stops next to a large patch of Hubbu flowers. The color is hard to see in the monochromatic light of the planet’s ring.

Jibbawk looks at Rubic, its goggles focus themselves. “He’s gone to Katonaay.”

“So that’s good, right?”

“Wrong.”

“Don’t say wrong. Say, great. Say, yeah. Say anything but wrong!”

“They don’t let people leave Katonaay.”

“Oh come on!” Rubic flops down on a large boulder. He kicks sand like a child. “I really don’t like being hunted or on anyone’s menu!” He’s so tired his brain can’t seem to motivate his muscles to move. He wonders how Allan survives all this. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m a goddamn fish out of water here.”

Jibbawk reaches out and grabs Rubic by the neck and pulls him face to face. “There’s one thing I cannot sssstand. Men throwing hissy fitssssssss.” Rubic chokes, unable to breathe. He’s petrified, unable to respond to the change in Jibbawk’s demeanor. Jibbawk releases Rubic.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Rubic chokes out while rubbing his neck. In normal situations on Earth, Rubic is tough, durable, and resilient. But he’s never been tested like this. Nor has he ever feared anyone as much as he does Jibbawk. Rubic recognizes Jibbawk’s overpowered strength, but was not threatened by him until now, and the moment he saw him, of course. He thought they were on the same side. Bonding even. Now Rubic knows without a shadow of a doubt that Jibbawk will kill him in an instant to get what it wants. The only thing keeping Rubic alive is that they both want Allan.

Jibbawk plucks two large flowers then grabs Rubic, pulling him close. “I’m ssssorry for being rough, Rubic Wesssterfield. Sssometimes I get a little frustrated. I did not plan on going to Katonaay.”

Rubic feels the heat from Jibbawk’s breath. It’s rank like rotting roadkill. Jibbawk raises the flowers and shakes them, raining down pollen.

The pollen works its magic, and a moment later the two arrive on Katonaay.

“Gaaa, I hate that,” Rubic mutters. He shakes off the sickly feeling of being twisted up like Playdough and reformed.

The two land in a jungle at night. It’s swampy, hot, and misty. Jibbawk, without saying a word, trudges off.

Predictably, Rubic follows, knowing he cannot survive alone. The trees are tall with thick dark canopies. Rubic shivers.
I don’t like any place where they won’t let you leave. ‘They’, whoever they are, will come out of the shadows and attack at any moment. They’ll have bazookas or magical hammers or ten heads, and they’ll pound me and Jibbawk into the ground.

Rubic sees Jibbawk snap its head toward any noise, no matter how distant or small. Obviously, this place makes Jibbawk nervous. And Jibbawk doesn’t scare easily.

After an hour of hiking, Rubic begins to think the dangers of Katonaay are hyped. It’s nighttime, but there are no singing dinosaurs to knock him out and slurp him up, no lightning storms, and no swooping, spear-toting bat-creatures attacking from above. At least, not yet. The jungle is dark and dense. Rubic begins to feel hidden and sheltered.

“Don’t you want to look at your map to find the cluster of Hubbu signatures first, then look at them with the goggles?” Rubic crawls over a root as thick as a car, a root Jibbawk simply leaps over.

“Katonaay is a shipping waypoint. Many worlds send large packages here by Hubbu. The locals take a percentage and sssend the goods off to their dessstination. Ssso there will be lotsss of Hubbu sssignatures everywhere. No way to dissstinguish between them. I need to look for sssomething out of place. Allan will not have arrived unnoticed and neither will we.”

The two emerge from the jungle into a grassy area that ends at a cliff. Rubic can see a city in the jungle far below. “Can your goggles see down there?”

“Yesss, now be quiet.” Jibbawk’s goggles zoom in as it inspects the valley below.

Rubic paces in the grass. He’s pestered by biting flies and smacks them off. The night sky here looks like Earth’s. There is no gorgeous planet ring, just a lot of stars and a half moon and some clouds. He doesn’t recognize any constellations and wonders how far from Earth they really are. His late brother and wife never let Allan cross the street without an adult. Under Rubic’s watch, Allan ends up a dozen light years away all by himself.
Poor kid. This is all my fault. I never listened to him, but should have. Maybe he is not by himself. Allan met some people on Lan Darr that helped him get home.
Rubic wishes, as deep a wish as he’s ever asked for, that Allan finds help to stay strong, to stay alive. Rubic tries to remember Allan’s story. He remembers someone named Asantia and a Mizzi character. He just can’t remember the details.

“There,” Jibbawk says and points down to the city far below.

Rubic falls to his knees next to Jibbawk. “Where? You see him?”

“He’s created quite a racket down in the city. The army seems to be looking for him.”

“How do you know that?” Rubic asks.

“I’ve heard stories. When sssomeone, anyone arrives in Katonaay, they ssseduce them with pleasantries.” Jibbawk looks at Rubic sideways. “You would probably fall for their ruse.” Jibbawk returns his gaze to the city below. “But if someone tries to escape, the army arrestsss you. They have an enormousss army. It is the reason no one comes to Katonaay.” After a moment it adds, “I believe Allan isss at the dome.”

Rubic can see the huge dome at the right side of the city. It’s glowing softly in the dark, surrounded by the speckled lights of homes and buildings. Without the zoom on the goggles he can’t see much else. “How do you know he’s in the dome? You can zoom that close?”

Jibbawk watches intently. “I can sssee the army heading toward the dome’s gatesss.”

“How do we get down there? We gotta do something!” Rubic stands.

“If you go down there you will never sssee him again. But it is niccce you’re not sssniveling anymore.”

“Fine then, what do you suggest?” Rubic kneels down again at the edge of the tall cliff.

Jibbawk watches through his zoomed-in goggles. The lenses extend over a foot. “Interesssting.”