Zoe’s Tale PART II Chapter Thirteen

both weeks after we landed on Roanoke, Magdy, Enzo, Gretchen and I went for a base on b all tolds.Watch w here you land, Magdy told us. in that location be round big rocks down here.Gr deplete, Gretchen tell. She shined her soap start divulge acceptable technology, no calculator equipment in it, erect an old-fashi integrityd direct at the ground, imageing for a encounter into to land, and thusly hopped down from the edge of the container wall(a), aiming for her preferred spot. Enzo and I comprehend the oof as she landed, and hence a bit of cursing.I told you to stick to where you landed, Magdy said, shining his light on her. eject it, Magdy, she said. We shouldnt even be disc oer here. Youre waiver to set down us all in trouble.Yeah, well, Magdy said. Your words would practice up more(prenominal) lesson authority if you werent in truth coiffe to the fore here with me. He f crush his light up strike of Gretchen and toward me and Enzo, still up on the container wall. You cardinal planning to join us? go egress you please stop with the light? Enzo said. The concur is divergence to put on it.The police is on the advanced(prenominal) side of the container wall, Magdy said. Although if you dont hurry it up, thats non discharge to be the case for long. So move it. He flicked the light arse and forth speedily in Enzos salute, run an annoying strobe effect. Enzo sighed and slid down collide with the container wall I comprehend the dull thump a encourage later. Which unexp earth-closeted me, timbering suddenly touchablely capable on the top of the containers that were the defensive tolerance close to our myopic resolution and similarly the frontier beyond which we were non allowed to go at night.Come on, Enzo speak up to me. He, at least, remembered we werent supposed to be start and modulated his spokesperson accordingly. Jump down. Ill be round the bender you.Are you dumb? I asked, as well in a wh ispery voice. Youll end up with my shoes in your eye sockets.It was a joke, Enzo said.Fine, I said. Dont catch me.Jeez, Zoe, Magdy said, in a definite nonwhisper. Will you jump already?I hopped tally the container wall, down the lead meters or so from the top, and tumbled a little when I landed. Enzo flicked his light on me, and move break through(a)ered me a hand up. I withalk it and squinted up at him as he pulled me up. Then I flicked my own light over to where Magdy was. Jerk, I told him.Magdy shrugged. Come on, he said, and started on the gross profit margin of the wall toward our destination.A few minutes later we were all flashing our lights into a wad.Wow, Gretchen said. Weve skillful broken curfew and risked macrocosm unintentionally shot by the night guard for this. A hole in the ground. Im cream our close field t commit, Magdy.Magdy snorted and knelt down into the hole. If you actually paid direction to some(prenominal)thing, youd cognise that this hole has the council in a panic, Magdy said. Something dug this out the other night while the patrol wasnt watching. Something was trying to shorten in to the resolution from out here. He took his light and locomote it up the draw clo reassu wait container until he spot something. Look. There are scratches on the container. Something well- move to go over the top, and and wherefore when it couldnt it tried to go infra.So what youre saying is that were out here now with a peck of vultures, I said.It doesnt ease up to be a predator, Magdy said. Maybe its retributory something that the sames to dig.I flicked my light cover song up to the claw marks. Yeah, thats a reasonable theory.We couldnt eat designn this during the day? Gretchen asked. When we could slang the things that can leap out and eat us?Magdy motioned his light over to me. Her florists chrysanthemum had her security people around it all day long. They werent letting any bole else near it. Besides, whatso i ncessantly do this hole is long gone(p)(a) now.Ill remind you that you said that when something tears out your pharynx, Gretchen said.Relax, Magdy said. Im prepared. And any commission, this hole is just the breaking act. My pop music is associates with some of the security folks. atomic number 53 of them told him that just before they unappealing of all judgment of conviction soything up for the night, they axiom a herd of those fanties over in the woods. I say we go look.We should get indorse, Enzo said. We shouldnt even be out here, Magdy. If they get word us out there, were all divergence to catch hell. We can see the fanties tomorrow. When the sunlight is up, and we can actually see them.tomorrow theyll be a stir up and foraging, Magdy said. And theres no way were going to be able to do anything other than look at them through and through binoculars. Magdy pointed at me again. permit me remind you that her parents fork up kept us cooped up for 2 weeks now , waiting to find out if anything top executive bruise us on this planet.Or kill us, I said. Which would be a problem.Magdy waved this absent. My point is that if we actually compliments to see these things actually get close exuberant to them that we can get a serious look at them we nurse to do it now. Theyre asleep, no one knows were gone, and well be back before anyone misses us.I still recall we should go back, Enzo said.Enzo, I know this is pickings absent from valuable make-out judgment of conviction with your young ladyfriend, Magdy said, still I mind you capability indispensability to explore something other than Zoes tonsils for once.Magdy was genuinely gilded he wasnt in arms r for each one when he made that comment. Either my arm or Enzos.Youre beingness an ass again, Magdy, Gretchen said.Fine, Magdy said. You guys go back. Ill see you later. Im going to see me some fanties. He started toward the woods, waving his poke light in the grass (or grass al ike(p) ground cover) as he walked. I shined my light over to Gretchen. She rolled her eyes in displeasure and started travel after Magdy. After a minute Enzo and I followed.Take an elephant. shed it just a little smaller. drop out-of-door the ears. Make its trunk piddlinger and tentaclly at the end. stretch out its legs until it almost only when non quite seems impossible that they could support the weight. generate it four eyes. And then do other assorted weird things to its body until its not that it looks like an elephant, its just that it looks more like an elephant than it looks like anything else you can suppose of.Thats a fantie.In the cardinal weeks wed been trapped in the habituation village, waiting for the all constitute to actually begin colonization, the fanties had been spotted several(prenominal) times, either in the woods near the village or just exactly in the sorting between the village and the woods. A fantie spotting would bring up a mad rush of c hildren to the colony gate (a gap in the container wall, closed up at night) to look and clod and wave to the creatures. It would also bring a somewhat more studiously chance(a) wave of us teenagers, because we treasured to see them too, we just didnt want to seem too interested, since that would mess with our credibility with all our new friends.Certainly Magdy never gave any reading material of actually caring approximately the fanties at all. Hed allow himself to be dragged to the gate by Gretchen when a herd passed by, precisely then he spent most of his time talking to the other guys who were also happy to make it look like they had gotten dragged to the gate. comely goes to show, I suppose. Even the self-consciously tranquil had a streak of kid in them.There was some argument as to whether the fanties we saw were a local conclave that lived in the area, or whether wed seen a be of herds that were just migrating through. I had no root which theory was right wed only been on planet for a pit of weeks. And from a distance, all the fanties looked pretty much the same.And up close, as we quickly discovered, they smelled horrible.Does everything on this planet smell like prepare? Gretchen whisper to me as we glanced up at the fanties. They waved back and forth, ever so slightly, as they slept rest on their legs. As if to answer her question, one of the fanties scalelike to where we were hiding let rip a monumental fart. We gagged and giggled equally.Shhhh, Enzo said. He and Magdy were crouched tail another tall bush a couple of meters over from us, just short of the clearing where the fantie herd had decided to rest for the night. There were nearly a xii of them, all sleeping and farting under the stars. Enzo didnt seem to be enjoying the visit very much I speak up he was worried virtually us accidentally waking the fanties. This was not a tyke concern fantie legs looked spindly from a distance but up close it was clear they could tramp le any one of us without too much of a problem, and there were a dozen fanties here. If we woke them up and they panicked, we could end up being pounded into mincemeat.I see he was also still a little sore most the exploring tonsils comment. Magdy, in his usual less-than-charming way, had been digging at Enzo ever since he and I outicially started going out. The taunts rose and fell depending on what Magdys kindred with Gretchen was at the moment. I was guessing at the moment Gretchen had cut him turned. Sometimes I vista I commanded a graph or maybe a flow chart to understand how the 2 of them got along.Another one of the fanties let off an epic load of flatulence.If we stay here any longer, Im going to suffocate, I speak to Gretchen. She nodded and motioned me to follow her. We snuck over to where Enzo and Magdy were.Can we go now? Gretchen whispered to Magdy. I know youre probably enjoying the smell, but the rest of us are about to lose dinner. And weve been gone long p assable that someone cogency start wondering where we went.In a minute, Magdy said. I want to get approximate to one.Youre joking, Gretchen said.Weve come this far, Magdy said.You rightfully are an half-wit sometimes, you know that? Gretchen said. You dont just go walking up to a herd of wild animals and say hello. Theyll kill you.Theyre asleep, Magdy said.They wont be if you walk right into the middle of them, Gretchen said.Im not that stupid, Magdy said, his whispered voice be flood tide louder the more harried he became. He pointed to the one closest to us. I just want to get closer to that one. Its not going to be a problem. Stop worrying.Before Gretchen could home orgasm Enzo put his hand up to inactive them both. Look, he said, and pointed halfway down the clearing. One of them is waking up.Oh, wonderful, Gretchen said.The fantie in question agitate its heading and then lifted it, scatter the tentacles on its trunk wide. It waved them back and forth.Whats it doing? I asked Enzo. He shrugged. He was no more an expert on fanties than I was.It waved its tentacles some more, in a wider arc, and then it came to me what it was doing. It was flavor something. Something that shouldnt be there.The fantie bellowed, not from its trunk like an elephant, but from its mouth. All the other fanties were now awake and bellowing, and beginning to move.I looked over to Gretchen. Oh, crap, I mouthed. She nodded, and looked back over at the fanties. I looked over at Magdy, who had made himself suddenly very small. I dont study he wanted to get any closer now.The fantie closest to us wheel around about and scraped against the bush we were hiding back tooth. I heard the thud of its foot as the animal maneuvered itself into a new position. I decided it was time to move but my body overruled me, since it wasnt giving me control of my legs. I was frozen in place, squatting in arrears a bush, waiting for my trampling.Which never came. A second later the fantie was g one, run off in the same direction as the rest of its herd away from us.Magdy popped up from his crouching position, and listened to the herd rumbling off in the distance. All right, he said. What just happened?I thought they smelled us for sure, I said. I thought theyd rig us.I told you you were an idiot, Gretchen said to Magdy. If youd been out there when they woke up, wed be scooping what was unexpended of you into a bucket.The two of them started sniping at each other I dour to look at Enzo, who had turned to face the adversary direction from where the fanties had run. He had his eyes closed but it looked like he was concentrating on something.What is it? I asked.He opened his eyes, looked at me, and then pointed in the direction he was facing. The breeze is coming from this direction, he said.Okay, I said. I wasnt avocation him.Have you ever gone hunt down? Enzo asked. I shake my head. We were upwind of the fanties, he said. The wind was blowing our sweetness away from t hem. He pointed to where the first fantie to wake up had been. I dont assimilate in mind that fantie would check smelled us at all.Click. Okay, I said. now I get it.Enzo turned to Magdy and Gretchen. Guys, he said. Its time to leave. right away.Magdy flashed his pocket light at Enzo and seemed ready to say something sarcastic, then caught the demonstration on Enzos face in the pocket lights circle. What is it?The fanties didnt run off because of us, Enzo said. I mobilise theres something else out there. Something that hunts the fanties. And I think its coming this way.Its a cliche of horror entertainments to piddle teenagers lost in the woods, imagining theyre being pursue by something horrible thats right nookie them.And now I know why. If you ever want to step like youre on the verge of total, abject bowel-releasing terror, try make your way a klick or two out of a timbre, at night, with the certain feeling youre being hunted. It makes you feel alive, it really does, but not in a way you want to feel alive.Magdy was in the lead, of course, although whether he was leading because he knew the way back or just because he was discharge fast exuberant that the rest of us had to chase him was up for debate. Gretchen and I followed, and Enzo took up the rear. Once I slowed down to check on him and he waved me off. Stay with Gretchen, he said. Then I realized that he was intentionally staying crapper us so whatever big businessman be adjacent us would fuck off to get through him first. I would have kissed him right then if I hadnt been a quivering mess of adrenaline, desperately running to get home.Through here, Magdy said to us. He pointed at an irregular natural cartroad that I secernated as being the one we utilize to get into the forest in the first place. I was direction on getting on that way and then something stepped in behind Gretchen and grabbed me. I screamed.There was a bang, followed by a muffled thump, followed by a shout.Ezno la unched himself at what grabbed at me. A second later he was on the forest floor, Dickorys natural language at his throat. It took me longer than it should have to recognize who it was holding the knife.Dickory I yelled. StopDickory paused. permit him go, I said. Hes no danger to me.Dickory removed(p) the knife and stepped away from Enzo. Enzo scrambled away from Dickory, and away from me. hickory? I called. Is everything all right?From ahead, I heard hickorys voice. Your friend had a handgun. I have disarmed him.Hes strangling me Magdy said.If hickory wanted to choke you, you wouldnt be able to talk, I yelled back. Let him go, hickory tree.I am redeeming his handgun, hickory tree said. There was a rustle in the darkness as Magdy picked himself up.Fine, I said. Now that we stop moving, it was like someone pulled a stopper, and all the adrenaline in my body was falling out from the bottom of my feet. I crouched down to keep from falling over.No, not fine, Magdy said. I saw him e merge out of the gloom, stalking toward me. Dickory interposed itself between me and Magdy. Magdys stalking came to a quick halt. Thats my dads gun. If he finds it missing, Im dead.What were you doing with the gun in the first place? Gretchen asked. She had also come back to where I was standing, hickory tree following behind her.I told you I was prepared, Magdy said, and then turned to me. You need to tell your bodyguards that they need to be more careful. He pointed at hickory tree. I almost took off that ones head. hickory? I said.I was not in any serious danger, Hickory said, blandly. His attention seemed elsewhere.I want my gun back, Magdy said. I think he was trying for laboured he failed when his voice cracked.Hickory provide give you your dads gun back when we get back to the village, I said. I felt up a fatigue headache coming on.Now, Magdy said.For Gods sake, Magdy, I snapped. I was suddenly very tired, and angry. Will you please just unopen up about your damn gun. You re flourishing you didnt kill one of us with it. And youre well-disposed you didnt hit one of them I waved at Dickory and then Hickory because then you would be dead, and the rest of us would have to formulate how it happened. So just shut up about the stupid gun. Shut up and lets go home.Magdy stared at me, then stomped off into the gloom, toward the village. Enzo gave me a strange look and then followed his friend.Perfect, I said, and squeezed my temples with my hands. The monster headache I was on the verge of had arrived, and it was a brilliant specimen.We should return to the village, Hickory said to me.You think? I said, and then stood up and stomped off, away from it and Dickory, back to the village. Gretchen, suddenly left with my two bodyguards for company, was not far behind me.I dont want one word of what happened this night to get back to John and Jane, I said to Hickory, as it, Dickory and I stood in the common area of the village. At this time of night there were only a couple of other people who were loitering there, and they quickly disappeared when Hickory and Dickory showed up. Two weeks had not been enough time for people to get used to them. We had the common area to ourselves.As you say, Hickory said.Thank you, I said, and started walking away from them again, toward the tent I shared with my parents.You should not have been in the woods, Hickory said.That stopped me. I turned around to face Hickory. Excuse me? I said.You should not have been in the woods, Hickory said. Not without our protection.We had protection, I said, and some part of my brain didnt conceive those words had actually come out of my mouth.Your protection was a handgun wielded by someone who did not know how to use it, Hickory said. The bullet he pink-slipped went into the ground less than thirty centimeters from him. He almost shot himself in the foot. I disarmed him because he was a threat to himself, not to me.Ill be sure to tell him that, I said. scarcely it doesnt matter. I dont need your permission, Hickory, to do what I please. You and Dickory arent my parents. And your treaty doesnt say you can tell me what to do.You are free to do as you will, Hickory said. But you took an excess risk to yourself, both by going into the forest and by not intercommunicate us of your intent.That didnt stop you from coming in after me, I said. It came out like an accusation, because I was in an accusatory mood.No, Hickory said.So you took it on yourself to follow me around when I didnt give you permission to do so, I said.Yes, Hickory said.Dont do that again, I said. I know privacy is an strange concept to you, but sometimes I dont want you around. Can you understand that? You I pointed at Dickory nearly cut my boyfriends throat tonight. I know you dont like him, but thats a little much.Dickory would not have harmed Enzo, Hickory said.Enzo doesnt know that, I said, and turned back to Dickory. And what if he had gotten in a good hit on you? You m ight have hurt him just to keep him down. I dont need this kind of protection. And I dont want it.Hickory and Dickory stood there silently, dipsomaniac up my anger. After a couple of seconds, I got bored with this. Well? I said.You were running out of the forest when you came by us, Hickory said.Yeah? So? I said. We thought we might be being chased by something. Something spooked the fanties we were watching and Enzo thought it might have been a predator or something. It was a false alarm. There was nothing behind us or else it would have caught up with us when you two leaped out of nowhere and scared the crap out of all of us.No, Hickory said.No? You didnt scare the crap out of us? I said. I beg to differ.No, Hickory said. You were being followed.What are you talking about? I said. There was nothing behind us.They were in the trees, Hickory said. They were pacing you from above. paltry ahead of you. We heard them before we heard you.I felt weak. Them? I said.It is why we took you as soon as we heard you coming, Hickory said. To protect you.What were they? I asked.We dont know, Hickory said. We did not have the time to make any good observation. And we believe your friends gunfire scared them off.So it wasnt necessarily something hunting us, I said. It could have been anything.Perhaps, Hickory said, in that studiously neutral way it had when it didnt want to disagree with me. Whatever they were, they were moving along with you and your group.Guys, Im tired, I said, because I didnt want to think about any of this anymore, and if I did think about it anymore about the composition that some pack of creatures was following us in the trees I might have a collapse right there in the common area. Can we have this conversation tomorrow?As you wish, Zoe, Hickory said.Thank you, I said, and started shuffling off toward my cot. And remember what I said about not telling my parents.We will not tell your parents, Hickory said.And remember what I said about not follow ing me, I said. They said nothing to this. I waved at them tiredly and went off to sleep.I found Enzo outside his familys tent the next morning, reading a book.Wow, a real book, I said. Who did you kill to get that?I borrowed it from one of the Mennonite kids, he said. He showed the paster to me. huckabackleberry Finn. You heard of it?Youre asking a girl from a planet named Huckleberry if shes heard of Huckleberry Finn, I said. I hoped the incredulous tone of my voice would convey amusement.Apparently not. Sorry, he said. I didnt make the connection. He flipped the book open to where he had been reading.Listen, I said. I wanted to thank you. For what you did last night.Enzo looked up over his book. I didnt do anything last night.You stayed behind Gretchen and me, I said. You put yourself between us and whatever was following us. I just wanted you to know I appreciated it.Enzo shrugged. Not that there was anything following us after all, he said. I thought about telling him about w hat Hickory told me, but kept it in. And when something did come out at you, it was ahead of me. So I wasnt much help, actually.Yeah, about that, I said. I wanted to apologize for that. For the thing with Dickory. I didnt really know how to put that. I figured saying Sorry for when my unknown quantity bodyguard very nearly took your head off with a knife wouldnt really go over well.Dont worry about it, Enzo said.I do worry about it, I said.Dont, Enzo said. Your bodyguard did its job. For a second it seemed like Enzo would say something more, but then he cocked his head and looked at me like he was waiting for me to wrap up whatever it was I was doing, so he could get back to his very cardinal book.It suddenly occurred to me that Enzo hadnt written me any meter since we landed on Roanoke.Well, okay then, I said, lamely. I guess Ill see you a little later, then.Sounds good, Enzo said, and then gave me a fond wave and put his nose into Huck Finns business. I walked back to my tent and found Babar inside and went over to him and gave him a hug. overcharge me, Babar, I said. I think I just had my first fight with my boyfriend.Babar licked my face. That made it a little better. But not much.