Chapter 10
A lush green forest rushed by Elita's eyes as she ran. Small branches cracked as she pushed by them in her hurried panic. She could hear 'IT' breathing, growling and crashing through the forest behind her. She kept running towards the thin areas of the forest, where she could see the light streaming in.
"Maybe it will be like the monsters from my childhood and will just melt in the light," she thought desperately.
Reaching the edge of the forest, Elita hesitated for a moment. Primal instinct told her running across the field meant she would have no cover, but staying meant the beast would catch her. Her fight or flee response was tearing her in two.
Choosing to take her chances in the open, she darted across the field. She tried to keep her body low to the ground as she ran, so that she could be partially hidden by the tall grass. For a brief moment she thought she might actually be safe here, until the ground went from being firm to spongy beneath her feet. Slipping slightly, in a blind panic she stomped down hard with her foot and it went 'plunk' through the marsh. Coming to a screeching halt she desperately pushed with her other foot trying to free herself, only for it to pierce through the thin layer of dirt and plant matter. Losing both of her feet to the murky water she began to sink.
She desperately grabbed at the long grass that surrounded her, only succeeding in widening the new hole. In her struggles she only made her predicament worse, sinking deeper and deeper into the ground. All the time she could hear the beast closing in.
As the marsh water reached her neck she reached her arms up in vain towards the sky. Sorrowfully, she hopelessly thought, "I am going to drown, well I guess that's better than being eaten alive," with tears leaking out of her eyes as the water slowly closed over her head.
She could feel the shock waves in the water surrounding her, as something came bounding across the marshlands towards her. Suddenly something strong gripped her hand as it was just about to slip under the water. With a swift tug it pulled her out of the water, and threw her over its shoulder and started to run.
"Thank you," she spat out as she dislodge some of the water from her mouth.
After a few minutes without a response, she said assertively to her savor "You know? I hate to complain, but I'm not your luggage to just throw over your shoulder."
"Would you have preferred to drown, my pet?" her wraith master shot back.
"Wait a minute; I thought you were chasing me."
"No, something much larger and feral is chasing us." He responded calmly, given the circumstances.
Resigning herself to being carried like a duffle bag, Elita stared back at the forest they were running away from. Birds where flying madly out of the trees, and the whole area quaked as the beast tromped through the forest, toppling trees and trampling anything that got in its way. Her view was then diminished as they reached the forest on the other side of the clearing.
"Where are we going?" she yelled anxiously.
"Away from that thing, but in the end I do…" he said as suddenly stopped running.
"Do what? Why did you stop?" Elita asked nervously as she squirmed around to see in front of him.
"Oh yeah, I could see that being a big problem," she said as she managed to slide down from his grip.
They were facing a fifty foot tall wall made of solid metal. It had no rivets or welds, just a solid continues piece of metal running through the forest as far as they could see.
Turning to her master Elita said, "Maybe it has a door way somewhere, if we just keep running alongside it, we might find it."
"Yes, that would seem logical," he said as he walked up to the wall. It was cool to the touch and smooth as glass. "There is no way I could climb this. It is too smooth," he turned and looked back at Elita. "You will not be able to run fast enough to keep up with me, so I will have to carry you again. Would you prefer a different position then the one you where protesting so much about before?"
"Yes, I could ride on your back, like a little kid would."
"Fine," he said as he knelt down so she could wrap her arms around his neck and he hooked his arms under her knees. Standing back up he began to run along the side the wall. They could hear the beast change direction as they did.
"That thing just doesn't give up. How does it know where we are?"
"Scent probably, plus we are not moving in complete silence." The Lt. Commander answered in exasperation.
Elita bit her lip. "Oh so I'd just keep quite then. Or I'll give our position away," she thought.
"No, my pet, I was meaning that I cannot run through the forest with you and not make a sound."
"How did you…I didn't even say that."
"You did not need to; you are close enough that I can sense your emotions."
"Oh."
They had traveled a good distance from their original location with the wall, when they came into a small clearing. Looking at the wall they could see two large gates that were sealed shut. As they both looked up they could see two guard towers flanking the gate on either side.
Letting Elita slide off his back, the Lt. C. walked up to the gates. He could hear a low buzzing noise coming from them. As he gingerly extended his hand towards them he felt a sharp, but non lethal electric zap come off of them.
"I see," he muttered as he walked back to Elita.
Looking up at the guard posts a sudden look of understanding washed over his face, "Ahh, I know where we are now."
"Where!" she said in a panic.
"When I was a young boy I was sent with my hive brothers to train in a camp like this. You must survive anywhere from a day to several months. The training starts when you are just about to reach puberty and continues through 'The Change.' They send us to these camps so that you will have the skills to survive on your own if necessary and to protect the hive. And in the end the final test they give you is to prove if you are worthy to serve on a hive."
"And if you fail?"
"You die. There is no place for a weak wraith on a hive. That final test has a lot of bearing on what rank you will receive when you start to serve as an adult on a hive. Also in certain situations several adult male wraiths are pitted against one another to prove that they are worthy of a commanding position. Of course that situation only happens when the Queen chooses to seek a new Commander or other high ranking officers, but cannot make up her mind. That was the last time I was in this place, when my brother and I fought for our positions on this hive. I just do not understand why we would be here right now. "
"I don't care about understanding, I just want it know how to get out."
"I think in this situation we will have to slay the beast."
"Slay it; I am worried it will eat me."
"My dear, are you not worried that I would do the same eventually?"
"No, so long as you've feed recently."
"Well, as long as we do not get stuck here for a while then you have nothing to worry about. I have fed quite recently."
The Lt. C.'s attention quickly turned towards the forest. The beast was quite near now. He reached for his stunner to find it was not in the holster. Looking around he saw a large fallen branch, gabbing it and finding it to be quite solid he motioned for Elita to stay behind him.
They could hear the beast's heavy breathing through the trees, as it crashed through the foliage towards them.
"Just stay behind me, and if it goes badly run. If I cannot beat it then you have no hope at attacking it with a frontal assault, so you will have to trick it somehow."
"Yes, sir"she said obediently as she hid behind him.
He growled slightly as she said sir, "If we survive we will need to work a bit more on becoming more familiar with one another."
"Oh," she said in a trembling voice.
The leaves in the tress started to shake in front of them and one of the trees toppled over as the beast emerged into the clearing.
"What the hell is that!" Elita screamed.
"I am not sure, it almost looks like as if it could not make up its' mind on what it
wanted to be. I see our Weapons Expert's body seems to make up the bulk of the creature. However why is the Queen's newest offspring, Ubs, coming out of the side of it, and what are those weird creatures protruding from its skin?"
"Oh those are Gragles. They are a mythical creature from my home world. I use to have nightmares about them when I was little."
"Ahh..Now this all makes sense," he said as he lobbed his stick at the monster.
"What are you doing? That was the closest thing to a weapon we had," she yelled at him.
"It does not matter, this is all a dream," he said as he turned around and leaned down to kiss Elita. Closing her eyes she felt his warm lips against hers. When she opened her eyes again she could see that they were back on the Hive.
"I thought you weren't going to force me to link with you again, for a while at least," she said in a small voice.
"I did not link with you in that way, my pet."
"Well then how do you explain…You were intentional poking around in my head."
"It was not my intention to cause you distress. However I had forgotten how easy it is for us to share dreams when I have connected with you recently. Besides it seems we existed in my mind more than yours, since the landscape was a place I have been before."
"Oh, so you just conveniently forgot," she said in a sarcastic tone.
He let out a low growl of annoyance, "It has been some time since I had a personal worshipper, so yes I forgot." He tightened his arms around her torso, and rolled onto his back so that she would have to lie on top of him. "Now let us try to get some sleep. We both have long days tomorrow."
"Fine, but why did that thing look like the Weapons Expert and Ubs?"
"Our collective subconscious is worried about such things, except for the Queen's child. I am not worried about her."
"Yeah, well she is a little demon child." She said as she rolled to the side.
He chuckled slightly, "So I have heard, now go to sleep."
"Why are you worried about the Weapons Expert? I know why I am worried him because of Marilla, but why are you?"
Letting out a slight growl of building annoyance he continued with gritted teeth,
"Because we suspect he is doing treasonous things. Before you ask, no I cannot reassign his worshipper, without claiming her as my own. I already have you and I have no interest in her. Go…to…sleep."
Snuggling up to his chest, and fiddling with one of his long braids. "Well then, I'm just going to try to be her friend. Maybe I can help her some way."
"Fine just be careful, now sleep," he said with a slightly louder growl at the end.
"Oh I will be careful, but you know..."
"Elita! Be quite and go to sleep," he snapped at her.
"Fine, I'll shut up and go to sleep, G.P."
He started to drift back to sleep till something she said yanked his attention back. "G.P.? Is that the name you came up for me? Why?"
She looked at him, held her finger to her mouth and went "Shhh…" Then she laid her head down onto his chest.
He let out low rumbling growl, as he thought, "She is just doing this to annoy me. Besides G.P., that is not even a proper name. Never mind it could be worse, I could have gotten Speedy like the Chief Scientist got from his worshipper. I will just have to find out later what it stands for."