That Which Devours

It took a couple of seconds for what he said to sink in. “You want me to hike across the jungle to the compound I’ve never been to, and get a crystal from a bunch of crazy dudes. Then bring it back.” At least he had used his words. It wasn’t like we could leave the shuttle behind.

He scratched his hair again, frowning. “When you put it like that, it sounds harder than it could be. The meteor shower probably caused all sorts of upheaval in the jungle. The sooner you leave, the better.” He sounded more confident in the plan the longer he spoke. “Once we move Greg out and get his body buried, you can take supplies from the crates. I even have an inventory crystal that I can let you borrow. It will lighten your load.”

“What about getting a new crystal back?” I asked. You couldn’t put a crystal inside a crystal, both would shatter.

“The guys at the compound can help you. They are used to living out here, and for them this should be easy. Plus, we have trade goods to create booze. That’s in high demand.” John motioned toward Greg. “I’ll search Greg’s body.”

“No, I got this. Just don’t move.” I let my arm fall from under his shoulders and he balanced using the wall. I moved closer to Greg, kneeling, and then I patted each of his pockets. All I found was a lighter, and a pocket knife. I held the goods up to John. “It’s something.”

John hesitated then spoke. “There are body bags in the panel over there.” He pointed toward the left side of the ship. “Use one. It will block the smell and make it easier to carry the body.”

I didn’t ask why the ship had body bags as I pulled one out of the compartment. There weren’t many inside. Everything else I ignored as I laid it out next to Greg, then lifted him up and into the opening. First his feet, then his shoulders. Thankfully, he faced downward and I couldn’t see his face. Somehow it made this easier. Once it was zipped up, I felt a little better.

“Can we open the ramp?”

“We could,” he said hesitantly, “but I don’t know if that's a good idea. I don’t know what is around us. The upper emergency hatch would be better.” He pointed to the hatch on the ceiling that I hadn’t noticed before.

“Alright, I'll peek out and see where we are.” I wasn’t tall enough to reach the ceiling, so I moved a cargo container under the spot to open it up. I slowly cracked the lid, peeking out in all directions. The surrounding trees were very bare of leaves. Nothing moved as far as I could tell, so I opened it the rest of the way, swinging it flat onto the top of the ship.

“Okay, I’m going to move him out and toward the side of the shuttle,” I said after a moment.

“Check for any exterior damage. Loose panels, wires, anything like that,” added John.

I lifted the bag, surprised at how easy it was to shove it through the opening. My brother said nothing, just watched as I got it through the hatch. Then I heaved myself up out of the hole and onto the top of the shuttle. The moving air felt good on my face, cooler than it was inside the shuttle. I’d never been claustrophobic before, but I recognized a slight easing of tension in my stomach being out of the enclosed shuttle.

Again, nothing moved other than a few leaves in the light breeze. The wind blew and different odors reached me. My eyes watered almost immediately as I scented something that smelled fantastic. My mouth filled with drool. Shaking my head, I focused on what direction to go. Both sides of the shuttle had built-in hand holds that I could climb up. Behind us, trees were bent and broken where we had crashed through before hitting the actual ground. One side was more forested than the other, and not having any better ideas, I lifted the black bag and went towards the closer trees. Unfortunately, a roar in the distance caused me to flinch and drop the bag hard. It fell off the end of the shuttle to the ground.

My knife was in my hand and I faced the south, waiting for anything else to move, or for the roar to come again. My heart pounded as I tried to guess how far away it’d been. A few seconds went by, and nothing else moved. I unfroze myself and began to move faster, climbing down the side of the shuttle and then carrying the bag into the trees, but not too far. I didn’t want to lose sight of the ship through the foliage. I placed him under a large downed tree where nothing would step on him, since I didn’t have any real way to dig a hole. At the very least, it would provide some protection.

“Sorry, Greg, this is the best I can do. May you find peace wherever you are…”

I hurried back to the shuttle, but before I climbed up I did a loop looking for anything broken, like John had asked. The front of the ship looked fine, though it had hit a large boulder. Some scrapes showed on the surface, but nothing looked loose. The stubby wings on either side looked intact as well. Behind us was the trail of downed trees through the jungle, which seemed longer than it should be. The rear ramp would have a hard time going down with how the shuttle rested on the base. I bet it couldn’t be completely lowered in the position it was in. Based on the sun, the shuttle pointed almost directly north.

I climbed back inside, shutting the hatch behind me. Instead of the safety I’d expected, it felt like a prison. Or, like we were in a lunchbox and something was just waiting to be hungry enough to open it up and eat the juicy morsels inside. I felt the tightness in my belly come back.

John leaned on the other side of the shuttle, the cargo box open and a small pack on the ground next to him. He was filling it with things. “How does the ship look?” he asked without looking up.

“Somehow intact… It doesn’t make much sense.”

“That’s because you haven’t spent the last month reinforcing every single panel in case you crashed the only shuttle we have. It’s one of my skills.” He motioned toward the front of the ship. “I don’t know how to do it with glass yet, hence the window.”

“So it's fixable, if you can get a crystal.”

“Easily.” He let out a shallow breath. “I’ve packed rations, the kind from the colony ship, and water jugs in the crystal. Plus some bandages, and a bottle of good booze. The compound will recognize it.” He pulled a cloak out of nowhere. “Here’s my cloak, it will help hide you.” It was covered in a camouflage pattern that matched the jungle. “And you can borrow my inventory crystal. The pack will fit inside it.” John reached over his head and took the necklace off. It had been under his shirt. “I know you’ve got your crystal knife, which will help, too.”

I took the inventory crystal that hung on the leather thread and tucked it under my shirt.

“Just think about placing the pack into the crystal,” John explained.

The heavy pack vanished as soon as I picked it up from the floor.

“How will I know where to go?”

“The compound is north of here. You can just walk toward the mountain peak and the tall tree. You can’t miss that tree once you see it. The compound is in between us and that mountain. Given where I aimed us, it should be maybe a day, but I don’t know if you’ll make it before nightfall.” Again he frowned, then shook his head and tried to smile.

“Alright, at dusk I’ll climb a tree. Same if I get turned around, to make sure I’m on the right track.” I motioned to the cargo crate. “Do we have any trail markers, so I can find my way back?”

“That’s a good idea. It will slow you down on the way, but speed things up on the way back.” John dug some more in the crate but stopped. “I’m not sure I have anything good for you to use.”

“I’ll use my knife to carve into some trees then…” It was all I could come up with. “Plus stacking rocks. We all were taught to do that.”

“When you travel closer, you should be able to see the crystal fence. Especially if it's dark.”

I nodded.

John’s face was covered with sweat, and he looked pale.

“How about you sit down and rest for a little bit? Maybe eat some food and drink some water. It will help.” I helped him back to the front of the ship, over to the two chairs where Greg had been sitting for the flight.

“I already emptied my tools from the inventory crystal, but you better give that back. Dad got you the knife.” One perk of being able to attune to crystals was all of us siblings had our own thing. John and Benny got the Inventory Crystals, while I got a knife, as did dad.

“I will, don’t worry…” I said, watching him sip some water. “So, one day out, maybe a little more, and one day back. So, two nights, then I should be here with a crystal.”

“I’ll give you three nights before I worry.”

“You know Dad’s going to be searching for us,” I said with a smirk, imagining him searching through the jungle, calling our names.

John shook his head. “He won’t know we’re missing for at least a week.”

I paused. “I thought the compound could send messages through morse code.”

“Yes, they can, at night. If it's super clear and they climb the tall tree I mentioned. But, they only do it once a week. There’s a time slot and everything. The settlement doesn’t have anyone up on the mountain the other nights.” He nodded to himself. “You’ll be able to see the tree no matter what if you climb high enough. It's to the east of the compound, but it’s just outside of the fence.” John capped the water. “You need to get going.”

“Do you have enough supplies?”

“I have enough food and water to last a week. I gave you enough for four days.” His voice trailed off. “Out of all of us, you are the one best suited for this. You can fight with your spear. You're great at hide and seek, plus you’ve wanted to level for ages.” John's voice was filled with false encouragement.

“I know, I’m just worried about you,” I lied. I was worried about him, but I also worried about how long it was going to take me to hike to the compound. I could smell something faintly around him, but I didn’t know what it meant. A wrongness, something maybe acidic. It made the hair raise on the back of my neck.

“How about we check out your wounds quickly? Make sure that everything looks okay, then I'll head out and give you space to work on your repairs on the ship.”

John nodded, and I moved in front of him to check out the large cut on his side. It was doing fine and wasn’t warm to the touch. Most of the smaller cuts were closed and healing already, which was another good sign.

I moved toward his leg, but he held up a hand. “Something is itching on my shoulder.” He stood up and turned around. He must have landed on some glass when he fell to the ground. I had missed a cut just under his shoulder blade. It had scabbed over, but was warm to the touch. I relayed the information to him and he took his shirt off.

“I bet it isn’t clean,” said John.

An infection could kill him, though he was at a higher level than I was. I poked at it and he winced. It was really warm. Usually that meant it was infected. That had to be the weird smell.

“No way it isn’t infected.” I grabbed the med kit and pulled out the spray. There wasn’t much left. “I gotta open it back up, right?”

“Yep, I’m gonna lean against the wall.” John moved closer to the wall for support.

I pulled out my knife and got to work. Blood dripped down his back as I removed the scab and then sprayed the disinfectant on it. He whimpered as I pressed a bandage to the wound. It wasn’t large, maybe two inches. The gash stopped bleeding, and I used a new bandage to cover it up. “That’s all I got, unless you want me to use my knife.”

“It might be best,” he muttered. “I don’t think I'll be able to reach around to change that bandage.”

Before I could think too hard about it I removed the bandage and I made the tip of my knife glow. I carefully pressed it to the edges, ignoring the sizzling.

John groaned.

Then it was done.

I wiped up his back, cleaning the blood away before adding the dirty bandages to the rest in the bag. Once everything was cleaned up, all I could smell was the copper scent of blood.

My mouth watered.