EARTH-NET by Garrett

Author:Garrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-05T12:00:18+00:00

The first twelve hours of travel dragged as they bumped their way along the rutted track, avoiding great tree roots and skirting around bogs and ravines. The first day’s travel was primarily through the broken forest that dominated the Dianian lowlands. In contrast to Earth, the trees grew bigger, and where they were thickest very little light trickled through to feed the undergrowth. Hence, the road they traveled wound crazily between ancient twisted trunks and huge roots that gripped the soil like the claws of giant raptors. The forest floor was mostly bare dirt with the occasional juvenile tree struggling to reach the light. Far above, the giant fan like leaves spread out harvesting the continuous sunlight.

Though road metal and paving had arrived in the town, paving the hundreds of kilometers of maintenance tracks remained too big a task to attack in any meaningful way. The muddy trails deteriorated rapidly on Diana. Frequent storms washed out sections of the track and fallen trees occasionally blocked the trial. Progress was slow and exhausting. The six wheeled ATVs did remarkably well at providing a smoothish ride on the bumpy roads in town but on very rough trails they tended to wallow and rock sickeningly. Ray felt like she was stuck in the belly of a whale and felt nostalgic for the days when they would have traversed the trail on foot. She joked with Jonah about being eaten by whales during a period when he was awake, and they reminisced in sign for a while. Late in the day Ray bought Jonah’s attention to a camp spot that she had used before. A grassy glade near a small, clean stream. A huge fig-like tree grew at the top end of the glade. The great fins and folds in its trunk were large enough that you could lay your bedroll out within them, cushioned by the leaf mold. The large flat leaves provided protection from light rain and the sun in fine weather. As they made camp and set about making a meal, the gray clouds that had covered the sky all day gave way to rain. Jonah looked up at the sky,

“Tent?” he signed looking at Ray. Ray shook her head.

“Just drizzle. This tree will keep the worst off. You’ll see.”

Jonah nodded, looking upwards still with his hands on his hips.

A distance away from the meal prep area, Aymes sat stripping her assault rifle onto a well-used piece of tan towel. A second weapon sat to her left, propped up against the fallen log she sat on.

“Two guns?” Ray signed at Jonah.

Jonah nodded and frowned toward Aymes. “I’ve seen her do that a couple of times before. Aymes is creepy. She seems to have a sort of instinct for danger. I’ve been with her a long time and she always seems to know when shit is about to go down. The two guns thing is different though. She only does that when she feels that there is constant danger or that she could be attacked at any time.

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