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

Slowly, carefully, he retracted the mechanical arms and took the Centaur down.

2

The mist had lifted. As far as Callum was concerned, whatever beauty he may once have seen in the glacier, the ridge and the rugged valleys and foothills had lifted with it. The swathes of red and yellow moss along the distant coastlines made him think of blood and bile. The green moss, which was much more frequent inland, looked like rot on the face of a blackened corpse. The air smelt stale, and the retreating mist had left behind a crust of rime, which crunched like brittle bone underfoot.

With Darya’s help, he had used a wodge of undershirt and his belt to make a temporary tourniquet for his leg. It was a deep puncture midway up on his thigh. But despite all the blood, it seemed to have missed his major arteries.

When they had rescued what kit they could from the emergency tent, Lungkaju removed the tourniquet, disinfected the wound and began to apply a proper field dressing.

“I’m sorry,” Callum said. “I should’ve warned you sooner about those things.”

“It is not your fault,” Lungkaju replied, taking a swig from his flask. “It is my fault for not killing it.”

For a time, neither man spoke.

Callum: “Fenris saved my life.”

Lungkaju sighed deeply and forced a smile. “I told you he liked you, Doctor Ross.” He paused to begin wrapping the bandage. “He was a good dog. A good friend.”

Callum placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I do not want those things to eat him,” Lungkaju said suddenly.

Callum stared at him. “I’m not sure I understand.”

Lungkaju’s voice had regained its natural command, but his eyes were still swollen with grief. “We cannot bury him in this rock and there is no wood to make a fire. But I cannot just leave him here… for them.”

“We can build a cairn,” Callum said.

“A cairn?”

“A tomb. Out of rocks.” He picked up a nearby boulder. “Last time I checked, we’re not short on these.”

Lungkaju seemed to consider it for a moment as he wrapped the final length of bandage and fastened it above the knee. “Will you help me, Doctor Ross?”

Callum and Lungkaju carried Fenris from where he lay and, with the help of the others, wrapped him up in a length of tent fabric. They lowered him into a natural hollow at the base of a promontory. Lungkaju removed his pendant bearing the carving of Ngana’bta, placed it on top of his friend’s body and said goodbye. Then, taking it in turns to stand guard, they began collecting boulders and packing them into the hollow around the body. When the ground was level, they began building up.

As the last of the tent fabric disappeared, Lungkaju started to sing. It was a haunting melody, sombre, beautiful. Though Callum couldn’t understand the meaning, the sound itself spoke to him.

They worked tirelessly, packing stone after stone onto the mound. All four of them threw themselves into the activity, slotting the chunks of broken stone together to create something lasting. Even Ava seemed to lose her fear temporarily, finding focus in the raising of the cairn.

When it was somewhere between knee and waist height, Lungkaju stopped singing. The sudden absence of his song was deafening and it brought the others to a standstill. Their muscles ached and their breath steamed into the air.

“Thank you, my friends,” he announced. “But that is enough.”

After passing around the water canteen, they stood silently before the grave.

It was Lungkaju who eventually broke the silence. In a low tone, he said, “Just promise me one thing, Doctor Ross.”

Callum waited.

“If you ever come back here, please do not dig up my dog.”

Callum had no idea whether he was serious or not, until the shade of a grin broke out across his face and he let out a chuckle.

As much with relief as anything, Callum joined in. “You have my word,” he said.

After resting briefly the group gathered up what provisions they could. “The compound is only three or four hours’ walk from here,” Lungkaju said, shouldering his pack. He turned to Callum. “How is your leg?”

“Nothing a handful of painkillers won’t fix.”

“If it gets worse then you must tell me,” Lungkaju said. “I may need to change the dressing or it could get infected.”

“Where is Ava?” Darya asked suddenly.

“I’m over here.”

The three of them turned to see that she had wandered away unnoticed and was now on her knees, pouring over one of the dead creatures.

“Ava, solnishko, we need to leave,” Darya called.

“Sure thing,” she replied. “Only, if anyone’s interested, I think I can put a name to these damn ugly faces.”

The three exchanged a glance, then hurried to her side.

“You know what they are?” Darya asked.

“I think I might just do. Though I hardly believe it.”

Callum was shocked to see that she had her hands virtually inside the dead creature’s mouth. It rang of that same academic tenacity he’d witnessed in Darya when she’d examined the polar bear. “So what’s the story?”

She prised its jaws open wider and began examining its teeth. She placed the thumb and forefinger of her hand around one of them to form a frame. “Do you recognise that?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Do I recognise it? Of course I recognise it. Over the last twenty-four hours, we’ve become rather well acquainted.”

“No,” she said, scowling. “Do you recognise the shape of it? The shape of the tooth?”

Callum made up his mind to humour her. He knelt down and stared at the selected tooth. Viewing it up close, it did look familiar. But where had he seen it before? His eyes followed the shark fin-like outline, with the apically oriented serrations…

“It looks like one of those fossilised teeth,” he said, suddenly. “Like the one you gave me back on the Albanov. Only bigger.”

She smiled at him. “I knew you’d remember.”

He laughed reflexively. “So what are you saying? That this is a dinosaur?”

“Not per se,” she replied. “You probably wouldn’t’ve seen these exact same creatures walking around back