Chapter 2
We'll die here thought Robert. I don't want to die here. I want to go home.
He was rummaging around the damaged half of the ship. Alexander, tired of the boy's constant, silent presence, had sent him away to look for anything that might have survived the crash in the rear section.
"Found anything?" asked Joanna, appearing from behind a girder.
Robert shook his head, "It's all broken."
Joanna nodded, "Why don't you talk to us more often?"
The boy gave no reply. Turning away, he went back to looking through the wreckage, even though he knew he would probably find nothing.
Joanna tried to get Robert to talk again, but each time she came near, he would move away and start moving another pile of twisted metal around.
Shrugging her shoulders, Joanna resigned herself to the fact that Robert probably would never say more than a few words at any time. Leaving the boy to his pointless activity, she wandered round the valley they had crashed in. The ground was firm beneath her boots as she walked up a steep slope. As she reached the top, the grass grew sparser until it gave way to a brown, sandy soil that made the going difficult. When she finally crested the rise, Joanna stopped in awe. Before her, stretching to the very edge of sight, was paradise. There was no other word to describe the beauty of the world they had discovered. Turning to look back the way she had come, Joanna beheld dark storm-clouds rushing across the sky towards the valley. Half-running, half-sliding down the hill, she looked for the others, finding Robert where she had left him.
"Find everyone else," she breathed, "Tell them a storm's coming, looks pretty bad."
Robert said nothing, but he started looking.
Rosemary was trying to cook a meal on the galley stove when Robert appeared in the doorway.
"Dinner's almost ready," she said, smiling, "Hungry?"
"Storm," was all Robert said before disappearing again.
Rosemary was slightly bewildered, but she understood and called to Alexander,
"Robert says there's a storm coming, better get inside till we find out how bad it is."
Later, when all the moveable items had been stowed away inside, the crew sat around the galley table, the only part of the ship that could be sealed against any bad weather. Edward had salvaged a deck of crumpled playing cards and was busy shuffling them when the first bolt of lightening flashed across the sky.
"One...Two...Three...Four..." Rosemary was about to say five when the thunder came. They could feel the deck trembling with the force of it.
"If it's that bad now, what'll it be like when it gets overhead?" asked Edward.
"We'll be alright," said Alexander, "This crate was built to take greater punishment."
No sooner had he spoken, than thunder crashed and roared overhead. The ship shook violently, any loose objects falling to the floor. Edward grabbed the table reflexively.
"You were saying?" he asked sarcastically, before the lights went out.
When the storm eventually passed, the crew left the ship to see if any damage had been caused. Once outside, Rosemary climbed onto the top of the hull. Down the centre ran a long black scorch-mark.
"I think we were hit by lightening," she shouted as she leapt down.
"Bad?" asked Joanna,
"It looks like it hit the main power cells. The ship's as good as dead."
Alexander grimaced. Without the ship, they had no hope of leaving the surface.
"Is there nothing we can salvage?" he asked,
"Nothing electrical," replied Joanna, "My watch has stopped."
"Ion storm," said Alexander, it was not a question.
With the passing of the aerial maelstrom, the Dragon was little more than a burnt-out husk. The crew resigned themselves to the fact that they could no longer count on technology to save them from the dangers of this false paradise.
Later that day, as the sun slowly set over the strange planet, the crew were almost at the end of the long climb out of the valley. Some turned to look back on their derelict spacecraft; the others looked towards their destination. Alexander had climbed the slope earlier that day and had spied a clump of trees a few miles beyond the valley. It had been decided that the crew would leave the valley and build a camp amongst the trees. What everyone seemed to be forgetting was the fact that the food and water reserves would not last indefinitely now the ship was unable to recycle any consumables. They would have to make do without any technology until they either died or were able to leave the planet.
After many hours of toiling through sweet-smelling grasslands, they reached the trees and set down the little items of essential equipment that they had salvaged from the wreck. Robert went into the midst of the trees and began to climb one with apparently practiced ease. Edward sat by himself, knowing that he was better not getting involved with the others, that his opinions and ideas would simply cause disagreement. He especially wanted to avoid Alexander. There was something about that man that made Edward's flesh crawl.
Fortune was apparently with them as the sun set.
Edward managed to prove of some use by getting a fire started and cooking a meal. Even Alexander gave some praise for the meagre fair that was produced, although he decided against asking what was in the soup, it tasted strangely good.
After dinner was over, Rosemary got up and walked to the edge of the trees, trying to see into the pitch black of the night. When her eyes had finally adjusted to the gloom, she found that she could actually see to some distance. About two miles in one direction she could see where the ground sloped away into the valley. To her right, she saw another expanse of trees, and to her left there was lush grassland.
A soft step behind her heralded the approach of Edward. Rosemary found it strange how he stepped slowly, deliberately gently, as though he did not want to be heard.
"Beautiful night isn't it?" he asked quietly, "So peaceful. It's as though we were the only beings alive on this world."
Rosemary was about to tell him to go when Edward knocked her to the ground. Before she could regain her feet, Edward was on top of her, holding her arms down with one hand whilst with the other he forced her head over to one side, exposing her neck.
"It's been too long," he hissed through clenched teeth.
Rosemary tried to scream but the sound stuck in her throat. Edward began slowly bending his head forward, bringing his mouth down to her exposed throat.
"Much too long," Edward whispered before opening his mouth wide. Rosemary could feel his breath on her skin, felt the pressure of his teeth about to sink into her neck.
Then the pressure was gone as was the weight from on top of her. Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Rosemary saw Edward struggling violently whilst Robert was slowly chocking the life from him. The youth wore a neutral expression on his face, as though he was doing nothing more than crushing an ant. Rosemary screamed for Robert to let go. Her screams brought the others. Alexander grabbed Robert and tried to force him to surrender his hold on Edward. Joanna tried hitting the boy round the head. When she finally succeeded, Robert was knocked unconscious.
"How's Edward?" asked Alexander. Joanna checked the limp form in front of her. She shook her head.
When he came round, the first thing Robert saw was Alexander's grim countenance staring at him, one side lit by the fire, the other in shadow.
"Why?" Alexander asked, "Why did you kill him?"
"He was trying to hurt Rosemary," said Robert, "I won't let anyone do that." He shut his mouth firmly and sat up.
Rosemary was sat with Joanna on the other side of the fire. The latter turned and stared at Robert. Rosemary was taking long, slow gulps from a tin cup; her breathing in between was heavy.
"What do mean, he was trying to hurt Rosemary?" asked Joanna.
"He w-wanted to k-kill her." Robert stuttered, turning away from the others.
Alexander told Joanna to keep an eye on the youth whilst he tried to find out what happened from Rosemary.
"Don't be too hard on Robert," she almost pleaded, "He had to do it."
Alexander had to force himself not to shout, "He had to do it, what the bloody hell does that mean?"
"Edward was nothing more than an animal. He would have killed us all given time."
"This sounds like bullshit to me," spat Alexander, "He may have been a pervert, but even he could see we need each other."
Rosemary shook her head, "He was jealous of me. Edward knew about my destiny, he wanted it for himself. I see that now."
Alexander was beginning to feel he needed a quick exit before Rosemary fell back into her delusions of grandeur.
"Edward didn't understand, and neither do any of you. Robert's the only one who isn't corrupted like the rest of you."
"Look, Rosemary," Alexander interrupted, "I think you'd better get some sleep, we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow and I'll need everyone to give 110% now we don't have Edward."
Rosemary lay down and covered herself with a blanket.
Alexander sighed deeply and stood.
"We'd have had to do more than our share even if that bastard was still alive."
Despite his concern for her sanity, Alexander couldn't help but smile.
"We can bury the stupid fucker in the morning," he said to himself.
The morning brought fresh challenges for the motley band of survivors. Robert was his usual, silent self. Rosemary, also, said little and spent most of her time as close to Robert as possible. Joanna spent most of her time sketching crude images in the dirt; here a rough drawing of a space transport, there what looked to be a circuit diagram, but was quickly smudged out.
At about two hours after sunrise, Alexander, the self-appointed leader of the band and thus the first to explore their surroundings, suddenly came bursting into the clearing where they had made their camp.
"Climb!" he shouted, leaping into the branches of the nearest tree. The rest stood for a moment, trying to comprehend the order. When they saw what Alexander was running from they, too, climbed trees and prayed that they would be out of reach.
The creature resembled nothing in any of their experiences.
It was a roughly spherical creature with a thin, whip-like tail that ended in a bony ‘club'. Its four limbs were little more than trunks of flesh. It possessed no snout, just a deep maw of jagged teeth and two thin slits for eyes. About half-way down its back there protruded another tail, except that this curved towards the mouth and waved viciously back and forth. It was tipped with a wicked-looking barb. The creature looked around at each of the band and bellowed when it realised they were out of its reach.
Robert, seeing the plight of the creature, began howling with laughter. Grabbing a bunch of large acorn-shaped nuts, he began pelting the monster as it circled the clearing. Eventual, enraged by the unceasing missile shower, the creature half-walked, half-galloped over to Robert's tree and placed its front limbs against the trunk. The tree itself was similar in dimensions to a mature oak. However, the creature possessed tremendous strength and snapped the trunk as though it was no more than a twig in the hands of a child.
Robert cried out as the tree toppled, carrying him down towards the waiting monstrosity below. Rosemary screamed his name and began her own descent. Alexander and Joanna, both in the same tree, did likewise.
Grabbing a log from the fire he had lit that morning, Alexander ran towards the creature and thrust the flaming brand in its face. Instead of the expected terror and flight, the beast's maw creased in what could have passed for a smile and, before he realised what was happening, Alexander was flung aside by one powerful swipe of the barbed tail. Joanna picked up a branch she had been fashioning into a spear for the sake of having something to do the night before. With her improvised weapon, she managed to impale the monster and force it away from Robert. The youth was cowering amongst the branches of his tree. When he saw Joanna attacking his antagonist, Robert stood and cheered manically. Running to Joanna's side, Robert picked up stones from the ground and threw them at the wounded creature.
"Rosemary!" yelled Joanna, "Get the little shit away from this thing; I can't hold it off forever!"
Rosemary ran to Robert, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away to another tree. Meanwhile, still shaken from the force of the creature's attack, Alexander hastily ran to Joanna's side. The creature was bellowing and stamping with rage, the makeshift spear stuck firmly above one eye.
"Get its leg!" yelled Joanna, the monster's thrashing almost tearing the spear from her grasp.
"What with?" called Alexander, his head swimming slightly.
"I don't give a fuck!" came the reply, "Just cripple the bastard!"
Grabbing another burning log, Alexander rushed behind the beast, avoiding its wildly flailing tail, and dived in between its limbs. Stabbing upwards with all his strength, Alexander thrust the flaming brand into the belly of the monster. It howled with pain and tried to trample this new attacker. Withdrawing the brand, Alexander stabbed again and again, the smell of burning flesh almost choking him. With one last effort, he thrust the log up and felt it puncture the beast's hide. Blood frothed and spurted from the wound, dousing Alexander in a hot, sticky red torrent. Lurching madly, the creature at last succumbed to its wound and collapsed, Alexander scrambling to safety just in time.
"What the hell was that?" gasped Joanna, trying to get her breath back.
"I don't know," said Alexander, "I was just looking around when it crashed out from some bushes and started chasing me."
"Well at least we've got a source of fresh meat," put in Rosemary as she and Robert joined the others.
"I don't eat meat," said Robert sulkily.