Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

Fenris whined and tugged at the restraint. But Callum held firm. The dog was a new lifeline and he wasn’t about to let him get away.

As they set off, Fenris pulled so hard against his new lead that he could only breathe in wheezes and grunts, which seemed to echo far and wide.

“Why don’t we just fire off a couple of rounds on the rifle?” Ava said.

But despite the noise, Callum felt a quiet confidence, not least because Fenris seemed to know exactly where he was going. He led them a short distance inland away from shore. Then he turned north and took them through a winding valley littered with strange, near-spherical boulders. Some were several metres in diameter, some perfectly round, others oval like gigantic eggs. Some were smooth, others criss-crossed with a web of mineral veins, and together they created a Martian landscape unlike anything Callum had ever seen before.

“I wonder what has caused these rocks to be this way,” Darya said.

“They’re concretions,” Ava replied, her voice low. “They form within sedimentary strata on the seabed over millions of years. Either a cavity in the sediment in-fills with minerals of a different kind, similar to the fossilisation process, or a sediment nucleus gradually enlarges as minerals accrete to the surface, similar to how a pearl’s produced. Either way, when the surrounding sediment erodes away, you’re left with these beautiful formations.”

“You’ve seen them before?” Callum asked.

“Not these ones,” she replied. “But I’ve visited formations in Koutu and Moeraki in New Zealand, and a few others in the States. They’re interesting because they quite often contain fossils. They sometimes form around them. I know for a fact that some of the concretions on North Island in New Zealand contain the fossilised bones of prehistoric marine reptiles.”

Callum stopped suddenly and held his hand up. Ahead of him, Fenris had ground to a halt and was standing with his ears and tail erect, sniffing at the air.

“What is it?” Darya whispered.

Callum shook his head. They were approaching the end of the valley and the land was rising steeply, the trail veering east, back towards the coast. Callum tugged gently at the leash. “What is it, boy? Can you smell something?”

With a sudden growl, Fenris burst forward and tore the end of the belt out of his hand. Before he could regain his grip, the dog had raced off around the corner and out of sight.

There was a scrabbling noise up ahead, and Fenris howled out.

Callum brought the rifle back into his shoulder, but a second later the dog reappeared, Lungkaju by his side.

“Oh, thank God!” Ava shrieked, her voice swollen with relief. She ran over and threw her arms around Lungkaju, almost knocking the rifle from his hands. “You beautiful man!” She smothered the side of his cheek with kisses. “You beautiful, beautiful man!”

Darya was close behind her. “I can’t believe we find you,” she said, throwing her own arms around him.

“Believe it, sister,” Ava said. “We’re saved! We’re gonna go back to the ship, take a shower, get some food and forget that any of this ever happened!”

By now Callum had made his way over, and Darya pulled him into the group hug. For the first time in what seemed like days his chest felt light. His heart wasn’t racing with fear any more, but excitement. He glanced at his watch. And there was still an hour until his video link-up with Jamie.

“My friends,” Lungkaju said. “You are alive. I cannot believe it—”

“I can’t tell you how good it is to see you,” Callum said, grasping his hand and shaking it. “My mind ran away with me. I was starting to think that we were stranded here.”

“My friends—”

“I thought we were going to die,” Ava said.

“It has been like nightmare,” Darya added.

“My friends, you—”

“Look, we need to get off this island as soon as possible,” Callum said. “There are creatures living here – we had a run-in with them earlier this morning. We’ve got to get out of here before somebody gets killed.” Before he could stop himself he continued, “I’ve arranged to speak to Jamie in an hour’s time. Do you think we can be back on the Albanov in an hour? Where’s the Kamov?”

Darya squeezed the back of Callum’s arm suddenly. She was staring at Lungkaju, her expression changed from delight to puzzlement. “Lungkaju, what is wrong?”

Lungkaju’s smile had disappeared. His eyes were closed, and his face looked so much more haggard than Callum remembered; he wasn’t certain, but he thought that he could smell the same tang of smoke on the man’s clothing as he’d smelt on Fenris.

Looking hard into Callum’s face Lungkaju said, “I am sorry, my friend. But the Albanov is gone.”

There was a brief silence before Ava said, “Gone? What do you mean, gone? Where the hell would it go?”

“No, Doctor Lee, I am sorry, but you do not understand.” He passed his sunken gaze across each of their faces, before returning it to Callum’s. “I am sorry, but the Albanov has been destroyed. We cannot leave the island.”

5

“This is a joke, right?”

Looking as if he hardly believed it himself, Lungkaju replied, “I am sorry, Doctor Ross, but no. We do not know what has happened, but there was an explosion, and the ship has been destroyed.”

For an instant all that Callum could think about was Jamie. He’d been making progress, slow but sure, winning back the boy’s trust one video call at a time. They were becoming friends again. And now… in an hour’s time it would all have been for nothing. Lost. He could see the look of disappointment on his son’s face as he gave up waiting. He could see the excitement leave his lips once more and the dullness creep back into his eyes.

Deep inside his pocket, his hand clenched around the quartz pebble. “What about everybody on board?”

Lungkaju shook his head. “The five of us and the soldiers are the only survivors.”