Chapter 40

Chapter Forty
Gray tinged the long shadows coming from the forest edge by the time Connor reached the closest tree trunk. Being closer didn’t change much: A few meters beyond that tree, no sunlight slipped past the strangely rippling triangular fronds. The chalky, metallic taste was stronger, and a coppery smell hung in the air, a sharp note over a deep, animal musk.
He held up a gloved hand to halt Kalpana and Rudy’s advance. They sank to their knees. Now free of their environment suits, the camouflage systems of their combat armor and helmets helped them to melt into the stringy, gray-green moss and dark purple stalks that rose from the ground closer to the trees.
Something about the forest felt even worse than expected, and the three of them had agreed that they should expect anything.
It seemed like the trees were alive, but not like typical plants humans used to terraform colony worlds. There was so much movement, so many sounds.
That was it! The sounds of life were…wrong.
Connor took a step into the forest, then stopped and squinted at the tree to his left.
Then he stepped back.
What he’d taken for bark on the tree was moving.
In fact, the whole tree was moving—shrinking in and expanding out, like a chest when someone breathed.
Above him, the fronds flapped, but they moved out of time with changes in the wind, and they didn’t seem even seem beholden to that wind for direction.
Nothing about the trees looked remotely “normal.”
He leaned closer to the bark and cautiously plucked a bark segment away.
The orange-red segment wasn’t wood flesh at all but something like a bug—multi-jointed legs, multi-sectioned body, a chitinous shell. Before he could shift his grip on the thing, it twisted free and produced two needle-like forelegs.
Then it struck his gloved thumb.
Connor shook the thing off his hand and backed away. Even through the glove’s armor, he’d felt the strike. It was a pressure rather than a sting.
The headset draped over his left ear scratched, then Rudy’s voice was there. “What’s going on?”
“These trees.”
“What about them?”
“They aren’t.” Connor pulled his glove off and squeezed the tip of his thumb. No blood came from the skin, but there were red spots where the forelegs had managed enough force to push the glove armor in.
Rudy grunted. “Okay. What are these not-trees that look like trees?”
Connor pulled his glove back on. “Well, to start with, the bark is bugs. And the little guys have some wicked mandibles or forelegs or something. I felt it through my glove.”
“Venom?”
“It didn’t penetrate.”
Kalpana brought her helmet visor down. “Don’t take chances.”
“Right.” Connor brought his own visor down. It wouldn’t stop spores or extremely small bugs, but the big things on the tree trunk wouldn’t be able to get through. “Wait a second.”
He reached out to where the bug had been on the trunk and ran his gloved fingers over the surface, coming away with a yellow-gold fluid.
Sap.
Except it wasn’t thick. It was more like a watery blood.
On closer inspection, the fluid came from two holes in the grayish flesh. Veins moved beneath that flesh when the trunk flesh moved.
Connor dropped to his knees. “These definitely aren’t trees.”
Kalpana snorted. “Kinda got that already.”
“No, I mean—” He yanked his knife from its sheathe, felt around the base of the trunk, then drove the point of the weapon into the ground.
Which shuddered.
The tip of the blade came out of the ground with the same yellow-gold fluid.
He scraped the loam-like soft material away from the area.
That revealed a broad area of the same gray skin. Yellow-gold fluid seeped from the wound.
Connor moved deeper into the black. “This isn’t possible.”
Rudy’s voice was there again. “What? What isn’t possible?”
“These tree-things.” Connor brushed the loamy covering from the base of another trunk.
More of the gray flesh ran under the ground.
Another trunk, another test, and he found more flesh.
He glanced up, squinting at the flapping fronds.
Except they weren’t fronds or leaves of any sort. And they weren’t vines.
There was a leathery nature to the leaves, and what Connor had considered veins like you might see with leaves were…veins. And the stems connecting the fronds to the tree trunk that wasn’t a tree trunk weren’t stems but a beak-like head dug into the flesh of the trunk.
He concentrated on the sounds coming from the forest.
Breathing. Rattling. Flapping. Scraping. Distant chittering.
Life.
Darker shadows on the forest floor caught his attention, and he moved deeper in.
“Lieutenant? Where are you going?” Rudy must have moved closer, if he could still see Connor despite his moving out of line of sight.
“I’ve found some tracks.”
Those tracks were huge: as wide across as Connor’s thigh was long and almost three times that in length.
And they sank deep into the loam, exposing some of the gray flesh in parts.
Connor backed out of the forest, squinting at the tree-like things the whole way. With each step, the sounds of life seemed to grow louder, nearer, and more threatening.
Something stopped his retreat: a hand on the back.
He twisted around to find Rudy staring into the dark. “What’s our move here?” The sergeant’s voice was low, even though he was speaking over the radio.
“We can’t go in there.”
“I gathered that much. What is it?”
“The whole thing…there’s skin or something under the ground.” Connor exhaled. “Those tree things? They’re like spikes. Bugs and birds or bats or whatever analog you want are drinking blood from them.”
“That’s not sick at all.”
Meaning it was. “This thing goes on for kilometers. And there were tracks in there. Big tracks.”
“No way through, then.”
“No way. We need to get that shuttle working.”
Rudy waved back to Kalpana. “Fall back. Cover us.”
The scout keyed her mic and rose from her position, creeping to a position maybe fifty meters back. “Clear.”
“Let’s go, Lieutenant. Nice and easy.”
Connor backpedaled, constantly scanning the darkness for movement that might indicate the thing that had created the huge tracks was coming close.
When the two of them reached Kalpana, she stood. “Want me to cover?”
One sniper wouldn’t be enough to stop a charge, and there was a dread building in Connor’s gut that whatever was in the forest just might be considering that.
He shook his head. “We back up as a group—nice and slow. And when I say go, we run.”
A grim smile settled on Kalpana’s face. “I can respect that.”
They made it about a hundred paces moving cautiously before the shadows made it look like the trees that weren’t trees swayed. More of the winged creatures took to the air with nerve-rattling screeches.
And a bulky shadow shifted at the edge of the tree line.
The amulet on Connor’s chest warmed, and his resolve evaporated. “Run!”
He waited until the other two had a few steps, then turned to follow, always slowing to keep them ahead and help them along.
The whole time, whatever was in the forest seemed ready to charge.
It was in his mind. It was in his heart. And it was coming for him.