Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor Read online

  I knelt down beside her as she writhed in agony, grabbing her by her shoulders and dragging her back lest her legs cross that boundary as well. Her arm was turning a bright red.

  Mike looked at her and shook his head. He started to say something, then stopped and just knelt as well, one hand on her leg as if that would calm her.

  Within about thirty seconds or so, though, Alfhid did start to calm, but probably because the intense pain was fading. She lay on the ground while we looked on with concern. Frankly, I didn’t know what to do.

  She seemed to gather herself, then looked up at us. “Well, I guess that was a completely dumbshit thing to do,” she said with a weak laugh. She lifted up her limp right arm with her left and looked at it, then shook her head ruefully.

  “What were you thinking of?” asked Lindadawn.

  “I can’t say I really know,” she replied. “It seemed like a good idea at the time, though.”

  Borlinga knelt and took a hold of her arm, massaging it. “How does it feel?”

  “Well, it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch when I stuck it in, but it doesn’t feel bad now. Just numb.”

  “That makes sense. The pain input would be there to discourage any biobeast or natural from crossing over. So now you just need to wait until your nanos repair the nerve damage. But what doesn’t make sense is that with the power off, the barrier is still up.”

  “I’m sure there is an independent back-up for the barrier, some self-contained unit. What if there isn’t a viable atmosphere on the other side, and there’s a hiccup in the power. We would lose all our good, breathable air in here. Bad for ratings, you know, to lose your entire cast at once. “

  Mike had to chuckle at Borlinga’s phrasing. “Well, yea, you’re probably right,” he conceded. “Most of the net-sleuths contend that the Reservation is on a habitable planet, but even if that’s true, you don’t want biobeasts out there. So maybe they have an independent power source for that, or a battery system.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “If it is a battery, then shouldn’t it be running out soon?”

  “Good point,” Borlinga said. “Or bad point for us if there isn’t a breathable atmosphere out there.”

  She turned to Alfhid. “Can you stand up?”

  Alfhid nodded and got to her feet, a little wobbly perhaps, but she did it.

  “Well, since the barrier is up, there’s no use for us to stick around here. We might as well get back to the others.”

  We turned round and climbed back up the stairway, going slow for Alfhid. I had a momentary thought of offering to carry her, but I don’t think she would appreciate it, and I don’t think I would, either. Alfhid was a pretty big girl, and climbing the steps was taxing enough without her as an added burden. If the game was still on, maybe I would have offered. That would’ve looked good to the viewers. But gaming aside, perhaps altruism fades when real survival is at stake, even for something as minor as climbing a set of stairs. That thought bothered me, but I still didn’t make the offer.

  It was easier at the top. The path led us back, and Alfhid was better able to move. We walked in silence. Even in the circumstances, I kept looking at the view. It was pretty magnificent. The Reservation was laid out in front of us. The River Beagle rushed below us, Haven Island splitting it. We could see a tiny Hamlin waiting for us. Past Haven, the lush green jungle led up to the cone-like form of Fuji-yama. It looked peaceful, but we knew hidden there were various constructs, both biobeasts and golems, and naturals which posed serious dangers. These dangers would not be fixed by a simple resurrection now.

  When we got to where we had to climb down to Ratt, the question arose if Alfhid could make it. She assured us that one-handed or not, she could do it. Despite that, caution seemed appropriate, so as the biggest one there, I went down directly in front of her so I could help her if she needed it. Luckily, the climb was pretty easy. Still, she slipped once and fell into me, her butt pressed up against my face. She still had her feet, so it wasn’t hard to hold her as she tried to use her good arm to grab hold of something and pull herself back up, but her sheer blue shorts offered very little in the way of a barrier between her butt crack and my cheek.

  She pulled herself up, then looked back at me, with a smile. “If a guy gets that close to me, it’s either marriage or mortal combat. Take your pick, Outerworlder.”

  “Well…” I acted like I was considering it. “…the view is pretty good from here. So if you have a good job, and you promise to take care of me, I think I’ll let you marry me.”

  She laughed. Leaning into the cliff, she lifted her bad arm with her good one to her lips, kissed it, then held it out so she could blow me the kiss.

  Borlinga was above us. She looked down and said, “If you two lovebirds would stop flirting, maybe we can get down?”

  “That’s OK, Corter, dear. She just wanted you to herself.”

  We could hear a “hurumph” from above, but we started down again.

  Ratt was watching us as we got to the bottom. When she noticed Alfhid holding her arm, she stood excitedly, still holding the rope, asking what happened.

  Borlinga moved over to take the rope from her. “Hurt her arm, Alfhid did.”

  We laughed at Borlinga’s change in phrasing. Ratt glared at us.

  “That’s hardly a laughing matter!” she scolded us, rushing to Alfhid’s side. And that caused another outbreak of laughter.

  “And marry Corter she must!” she added, not content to leave it at that. All of us laughed even harder, loud enough over the roar of the river for Hamlin to hear us.

  “What’s going on down there? Can we get out?” he shouted from his position.

  I waved up at him. “We’re coming back!”

  Ratt was holding Alfhid’s arm. “You’re marrying Corter? I don’t understand.”

  Alfhid leaned over and kissed Ratt on the forehead. “Just a joke, sweetie. And my arm’s OK. It doesn’t hurt anymore, and the nanos should have it fixed in no time.”

  “Well, OK.” She didn’t look convinced. “I still don’t think that’s a laughing matter, though.”

  Now we had to figure out how to get all of us back. We didn’t trust Alfhid to be able to hold on one-armed, but Mike hadn’t shown the ability to hold on with two arms. We decided to send over Ratt and Borlinga first with Alfhid and me holding the rope, and they made it without a problem. Then I took off my jeans and made a belt around the rope, then around Mike. Lindadawn went first, and then Mike immediately thereafter. With my jeans holding him on the rope, and with Lindadawn’s help, he was able to make the crossing. I made a mental note that if we had to do anything like that again, we had to make safety belts out of whatever vines we had left.

  With just Alfhid and me left, I made sure the rope was securely tied around her chest and under her arms. Before, the two of us had been standing on the bank and holding onto the rope. We had to change that this time. Alfhid had to go last as we needed to tie the rope on her. And she couldn’t stand up and hold on to support me. I made a loop with the rope, making sure it was secure around her. She eased her way into the water, back to the far side, the rope looped around the protruding rock, as Borlinga had done on the initial crossing.

  She set herself, feet braced against the rock, pulling the rope tight.

  “OK, soon-to-be-husband, be gentle with me.”

  I stepped into the water, and holding onto the rope, managed to walk at least five of six meters before I began to lose my footing. I let the current lift my feet as I made my way, hand-over-hand across. The water was splashing into my eyes and up my nose, but I made steady progress.

  I looked up to see the others holding the rope down, providing a pivot point so that it wasn’t lifted up by the length going up to Hamlin, but with my weight in the water, that probably wasn’t necessary.

  I cracked a smile at their intense concentration when the water pressure on me ceased and I suddenly started moving downstream. I looked back and saw Alfhid in the water
. Not on the edge, but moving in the current. The rope must have slipped, and now we had no anchor on the far side.

  I had to get across immediately. With both of us in the water, the three on the rope could not hold it down, and it would lift up until we were anchored by one point only: Hamlin on top of the cliff. And the two ropes together were long enough that the far end, Alfhid, would be in the raging torrent of the main current.

  I started to lunge as hard as I could to get across. The rope started lifting, and Ratt was pulled off the ground. Mike sat down against the strain, and Borlinga stumbled on him, losing her grip. The rope lifted higher, while Ratt hung on with determined ferocity.

  As the current swept me downstream, it also brought me closer to the bank. I was too heavy for the rope to immediately lift up, so the rope was going down from Hamlin to the four already across, then mostly horizontally to me downstream. But the three of them were being half-dragged and forced to half-stumble their way along the bank. The rope was no longer at a nice 90 degree angle.

  Borlinga had jumped back on the rope, making four of them on it again, but Ratt was already suspended, and she shouted furiously for Alfhid to get her butt over. I was close now, but I had to get over before I rounded the tip of our island and hit the main current. With one hand on the rope, I made a desperate lunge just as my feet hit bottom. I wrapped my free hand around a rock, and stumbled ashore. I turned to look just as Alfhid hit the boundary between the calmer water and the torrent. She was flailing away with one arm, but she made no discernable progress.

  I grabbed the rope with both arms and pulled back with all my strength. The force of Alfhid in the current dragged me along the rocky bank, threatening to send me back into the water. Only the decreasing angle of the rope to the shore enabled me to fight it. I was finally able to plant my feet and stop, but the strain was hard. I tried to pull in, but my arms just weren’t strong enough. I could see Alfhid’s panicking face as she kept going under.

  Now we had three pivot points. Hamlin was on top of the cliff. The other four were essentially under him, if not a bit downstream. And I was downstream, the force pulling against me horizontal. If I let go, the force would soon be pulling directly against Hamlin, and there was no way he could pull Alfhid to safety from that vantage. There would be too much rope weight added onto the force contributed by the pull of the river on Alfhid’s body

  Someone ran into me and grabbed the rope. I barely noticed it was Borlinga.

  “Hold on for a moment. The rest are coming.”

  I concentrated on just remaining steady, but I could feel the others join us one by one. If they had all come at once, then the upwards pressure on the rope as I became the new next pivot point from Hamlin would probably have been too much for me to hold on. Ratt snuck in front of me, the others behind me.

  “OK, on my count, heave. Heave!” I shouted. “Heave!”

  We pulled Alfhid back to us maybe a meter or two when the rope slid through our hands, and she went back out maybe tree meters. We had lost ground.

  “Just walk her!” Lindadawn shouted.

  We turned, and even stumbling over each other, we were able to start moving back upstream. Each step was agonizing. I had the rope over my shoulder, hands grasped on it, and the strain was getting to me. I didn’t know how much longer I could go. Each time someone slipped or fell, our progress stopped. Then it was hard to get going again. Ratt stumbled against me from behind, but she was small enough that I didn’t falter because of that. Behind me, I don’t think she could exert any horizontal force on the rope, but her pulling down was adding more pressure to my shoulders.

  “Ratt, move ahead of us. Get to the front!” I shouted at her.

  She didn’t hesitate. There wasn’t much room along the edge, but she scrambled up and around us like a mountain goat, jumping to take the far side of the rope, the side leading up to Hamlin. We started moving forward better when the pressure against us fell away.

  Had Alfhid fallen out of the loop?

  I spun around, still holding the rope. Alfhid was still there, but now in the calmer water of this side of the island. She clung weakly to the rope against the rocks, but she didn’t make a move to climb out of the water.

  “Hold on!” Lindadawn shouted, then went racing down the edge of the bank.

  Ratt pushed past me to join her. My arms trembled, but holding the rope now was much, much easier. The two reached Alfhid, then stepped into the water and dragged her out. With Alfhid on solid land, I sat down in a heap. My nanos were going to have their work cut out for them. My muscles ached.

  Downstream from me, maybe thirty meters away, Alfhid finally sat up, coughing up water. She looked up and weakly blew us a kiss. Somehow, against any odds I would have laid, we had gotten her back.

  Hamlin shouted worriedly several times over the edge, lying down, face pointed toward us. We shouted back, telling him that we were OK. Alfhid wasn’t moving anywhere soon, so we decided to send Ratt and Borlinga up as the two lightest. Ratt wanted to stay with us, but the logic of mass deemed otherwise. With the rope tied around their chests and under their arms, they climbed while Hamlin hauled them. Mostly, it was Hamlin hauling. Ratt was off the cliff face more than she was on.

  Mike was bigger, but Hamlin mostly hauled him up, too. Lindadawn and I waited with Alfhid until she seemed more herself again, even if pretty weak. When she said she was ready, Lindadawn went up. Logic said I should be next so I could help Hamlin bring her up, but that supposed she would be able to tie herself in one-handed. So we decided that I would wait until last. After Lindadawn got up, she had Hamlin rest a bit while I prepared Alfhid.

  “Thanks for back there,” she told me when we were alone.

  I didn’t know what to say. “Oh just be quiet. Let’s get you up the cliff.”

  “No, really. I was sure I was a goner. I know you kept me from drowning. The others, God bless them, they were willing, but it was you.”

  I felt embarrassed. “Well, you would have done the same for me.”

  “I would hope so, but you did it.”

  The rope was tied, and I signaled them to begin to haul her up. Just as her feet left the ground, she leaned over and kissed my cheek.

  “If the game were still on, I’d want you to win.”

  It may have been corny, but I felt a little something when she said that, even when she looked down again and added with a laugh, “I mean, if I couldn’t win, of course!”

  She slowly made her way up, good arm grasping the rope and legs trying to keep her from banging too hard on the cliff face. Hands reached down and pulled her over the ledge.

  The rope came back down for me. I know Hamlin had to be getting tired, even if he had more help now, so when I went up, I tried to mostly climb under my own power. I think I did a pretty good job at it, maybe needing support only once or twice. I made it up and was happy to be off the rope. Hamlin might have been happier. Although smiling, he looked exhausted. He probably felt worse than I did.

  The others had already told him about the barrier, so we made our way back to the camp. We were out of food, and we still had to haul up more water, but spirits were higher now that we had taken some proactive action. We were not just waiting for whatever the fates wanted to throw at us.

  Chapter 19

  We woke up the next morning to find Mike gone. There was no sign of him anywhere. We searched the camp, which took only a few moments. We checked around the bridge. We went over into Indian Country and even checked the snares. While there was a dead rabbit in the drag noose, which we gratefully harvested, there was no Mike.

  Hamlin even climbed back on top of the camp walls and looked downstream to the trout cove, but there was no sign of him there, either. I think all of us had the same fear. Mike had been pretty down on himself since Yash’s death, and the incident crossing the river seem to further depress him. Could he have been so down that he’d killed himself, maybe jumping into the river below? No one said so out loud, but by looking at t
he others, it was a pretty safe bet that the rest had considered the same thing. We hadn’t felt our telltales vibrate, so he could be alive and out there somewhere, but we were all asleep when he disappeared, so we may have missed them signal his death.

  We butchered the rabbit and ate as we waited around. I decided to broach the subject about the transponders. During the night, I’d noticed that mine had gone completely dark. Alfhid, being topless, had noticed the same thing, but had decided to remain quiet about it. Hamlin also hadn’t a shirt, but he hadn’t even noticed his going dark. The others took quick looks. Only Ratt’s had a faint rose glow which could be seen only if she cupped her hand around it. It looked like we had lost that faint connection with civilization. While we hadn’t much connection with much of anything since October died, the moral blow of losing our transponders hit us hard.

  By afternoon, we collectively assumed that Mike was gone, not to return. We were down to six of us.

  Chapter 20

  We all had a fitful night’s sleep. A gnawing hunger ate at my belly, and I know the others were hungry, too. And I think Mike’s disappearance affected each of us more than we let on.

  By morning, after hauled up water, we tried to figure out how long we had until rescue could arrive. Mike would’ve come up with a firmer figure, no doubt. But the best we could do was to decide rescue could be in as little as three days and as much as over a week. We just had to last until then.

  Which meant we had to get more food, at least once. We were already starving, having eaten only three rabbits in three days, and our effectiveness was compromised. Hamlin especially seemed affected. His skin was taut over his muscles. I guessed his big body needed a lot of calories just to keep breathing.

  We still could have waited a day or two, but by then, we would be getting weaker. So we decided to go out while we still had some strength left. We would go retrace our route back toward the landing strip and try to find the fruit Alfhid had seen, collecting anything else along the way we could discover.