The Arabella Grimsbro Collection by Matt Youngmark

Author:Matt Youngmark [Youngmark, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atherton Haight
Published: 2020-06-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter XVIII.

In the Atmosphere Factory.

Ha! I WAS THE BEST AT PLANS. The one tiny flaw in my execution, though, was that it was a rare moonless night on Barsoom, and I had no idea which way east was.

I never did find Kantos Kan out there. I did find a bunch of those milk plants that the green Martians squeezed their sole choice of beverage out of, though. They were goofy as hell, too—each one produced, like, a good half gallon. I guzzled as much as I could, got sick and threw it all back up, then went back for more.

This book was the best.

When morning came, I trekked over to the east of the city (I had been southwest of it, so not even particularly close) and spent the day trying to keep out of sight while I searched for my arena pal. “East” was a pretty general term, though, and by sunset, I decided it was hopeless. I really was hoping to see Kantos again, partly because this ordeal was slightly less torturous when I had a friend to talk to. But mostly because I had no idea how to get to Helium without him.

Dicking around in the hills outside Warhoon wasn’t doing me any good, though, so I decided to wander off into the wilderness. I travelled by night and slept by day, hiding as best I could under protruding rocks and whatnot. I was hoping to stumble across a city or canal or something, but several nights passed with no such luck. I was occasionally attacked by wild animals, but my telepathy was apparently getting better, because I would inevitably pick up a muffled, animalistic, “DINNER DINNER DINNER” right before one pounced.

Which got me to thinking—could I maybe catch and eat one of these things? Normally they scurried off once they realized that I had spotted them, but the things that had tried attacking me so far had been about the size of coyotes, and I was a VERY HUNGRY Martian superhero. If I just let one pounce, I could probably turn the tables on it and snap its neck or something? Then find a way to make a fire to cook it over? And not starve to death?

It was worth a shot. And later that night, I got my chance. I heard the familiar, wordless hunger in my head—“Dinner dinner dinner.” Wait for it. “Dinner dinner dinner.” Come on… “Dinner dinner dinner DINNER DINNER DINNER DINNER—”

“POUNCE!”

I spun around just as the thing hit me, and my knees immediately buckled under its weight. It was huge. It was either the parent of the other critters who had previously tried to eat me or a whole different kind of animal—I couldn’t really tell because multiple sets of limbs were pinning me down, and all I could see was a hairy face trying desperately to bury its fangs into me as I struggled to keep my hands around its neck.

We lay there for a minute locked in our big, dumb death hug, but my strength was giving out.

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