Jacked Cat Jive by Rhys Ford

Author:Rhys Ford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 9781640809680
Publisher: DSP Publications
Published: 2019-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

I SPENT the first hour of my watch pacing the perimeter of our camp. Avoiding Kerrick seemed the best way to keep him alive, especially since he’d stalked off away from the pond with a righteous stomp. Dinner was a hastily gulped down Italian-style hero and potato chips Cari had stuffed into the space by the cooling unit Sparky told us about. It was her surprise dinner, something she thought we would enjoy on our first night. It was good—greasy and full of cheese and a few hot peppers. Ryder ate it in layers, because he’s a freak that way and likes to take things apart the first time he eats something. Kerrick sniffed at it and then chowed down as though he were suffering through the experience.

It was very difficult not to laugh when the pepper seeds hit the back of his throat. There are times when my sense of humor is on a par with Jonas’s youngest child, who thought flaming bags of dog poop were the best thing in the world. Ryder passed him a bottle of water and kicked me in the foot when he went by.

Sure, I could have told Ryder that water would only make it worse, but why would I spoil my fun?

I’d spent a little energy topping off the water tanks from what was in the pond and running it through the transport’s filtration system. We hadn’t used much of anything, but it was always good to grab resources as we went. After everyone settled in, I dimmed the lights inside, leaving the main cabin door open but rolling down the screen to keep any bugs from flying in. I took one of the suction stools with me and attached it to the cave floor a few feet away from the door, close enough so I could lean on one of the centipede’s enormous tires.

With the lights mostly off, the cavern came back to life as its glowing subterranean creatures reemerged from their shelters. The soft glow from the transport’s running lights would keep most invasive underground species away, especially the kangaroo rats with their love for electrical wiring, but beyond the reach of the lights, the cave lit up like a field of stars.

There were spots in the world where being underground plunged you into a black so pitch-dark it felt as though your breath lightened it every time you exhaled. San Diego’s caverns were a far cry from that kind of stygian depths. Some chambers were open to the sky, while others had natural chimney shafts punching through their ceilings, letting in air and sunlight. This cave had no opening, but the creatures living in its cracks and crevices more than made up for it as they spread out a tiny galaxy around me. Grateful for the quiet, I opened the tumbler of hot coffee I’d brought out with me and settled in for a quiet two-and-a-half-hour stretch.

A few minutes later, the screen door opened and Ryder stepped out of the transport carrying another stool.

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