Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

“Fine,” I said, not even trying to mask my frustration. “Let’s get this done.”

17

I sat behind the wheel of the crawler, remembering what had happened the last time I drove. Ricky sat to my right and Tong was in the passenger side seat. Stacy and Arun had tied themselves to the rear of the crawler with thick straps. Stacy chose the rifle and Arun had her blaster. The third firearm was in the cab with me. If things got bad, I planned on rolling down my window and laying into whatever was out there, bad aim or not.

We even secured Mutt to the back bed with a strap around his neck so he didn’t try and jump out. The leash gave him free rein to roam around the crawler bed but not enough to make a run for it if he smelled something interesting.

“Here we go,” I said, staring down the wall of rolling mist in front of me. I slowly edged the crawler forward. All the lights the vehicle had at its disposal were on high, illuminating our path.

Not for the first time, the mist struck me as something unnatural. By that, I didn’t even mean alien. It almost seemed made by someone or something. The way the mist stopped at a solid line as if a wall were keeping it in place gave me the creeps.

One look at how Ricky was faring beside me was enough to steel my resolve. His breathing was shallow, and his skin had taken on a pasty sheen.

“Stay on this path,” Tong reminded me. “Only three kilometers by your measurement and we’ll be there.”

“Take it slow,” Stacy said from her spot behind the cab of the crawler. “Take it slow and we’ll make it.”

I eased the vehicle forward until it crested the wall of mist so thick, it might as well have been soup. Even with the aid of the lights on the crawler, I could only see two, maybe three meters in front of me. That was where visibility was lost and I was on my own.

I gripped the steering wheel tight enough to make my palms hurt. I leaned forward in my seat, craning my neck, and squinted, trying to figure out what might be out there. To be honest, I wasn’t even really sure I wanted to know.

“My people have a story about a creature that lives in one’s imagination,” Tong said slowly. “It is a creature of nightmare that grabs on to those impure of heart and rips them from limb to limb.”

“Not the time for stories,” Stacy said over the comms. “Tong, we really have to teach you something called timing.”

Tong remained quiet, staring out the window in wonder.

I kept the crawler moving slowly as to not lose the path in front of us. One of the worst things that could happen would be if I went off path and we were lost in this mist swamp for good.

Slowly, the landscape began to change. The trees became sparser, their spindly trunks further and further apart. The hard dirt softened under the crawler’s giant wheels, and the road soon threatened to be lost to us as we continued on.

“The way the road is turning into muck, we’re going to be out of a clear path soon,” I said over our comms.

“Keep this same heading,” Tong said, pointing with a thick finger out the front of the windshield. “The road to the installation was straight with no deviation.”

I glanced down at the control panel on the dash of the crawler. One of the things the vehicle came equipped with was a compass. I locked on to that now and let that guide me as we continued.

“It’s colder here,” Arun commented as if she were thinking to herself out loud. “The mist muffles your voice too.”

We went on like this for minutes that stretched into what felt like hours. Inside the cab, it was dead silent. Save for our breathing, no sounds penetrated the thick walls of the surrounding mist.

Mutt whined once and Stacy gave him a few pets, reassuring him it was going to be okay.

Just when I thought we might make it to Tong’s installation without seeing one of those creatures, motion to my left made me take my foot off the acceleration. I wasn’t sure what I had seen in the mist, but like Doctor Allbright had said, it looked big. It appeared again, this time gliding through the fog no more than a few meters to my left. The ground shuddered under what must have been its considerable weight.

“Guys,” I said as quietly as I could.

“I saw it,” Arun whispered back. “To the left. I can’t tell if it was one or more than one.”

We sat there for a moment considering our options.

Slowly, I eased my foot off the brake, and we continued on. The armor I wore was bulky in the crawler seat, but I’d be grateful for the extra protection if I needed to get out.

“Two kilometers in,” I said, keeping track of how far we’d traveled. “We’re almost there. We should—”

The entire crawler suddenly buckled hard, jerking to a stop. I turned my head from side to side, scanning for movement, but saw nothing. Then Mutt went ballistic as Stacy and Arun opened up with their weapons, firing into the gloom.

“Go! Go! Go!” Stacy screamed over the comms.

“Behind us!” Tong yelled.

I looked into the rearview mirror and saw something that would haunt my memories forever. Two reddish-pink tentacles appeared out of the mist and gripped the rear gate of the crawler.

Stacy and Arun were firing at the tentacle holding us in place. To their credit, they were hitting their marks.

I slammed my foot onto the gas pedal. At the same time, enough blaster rounds struck the tentacles to make the creature think twice about its hold. The beast let out a deep bellow steeped in pain before finally releasing us.

As soon as the rear tires hit the ground,