Session 11

Scant light from the stars filtered through the canopy. Sweating from the sweltering night with a soggy cigarette hanging from his mouth, Spike kicked the underbrush. "Ya under there, Faye? No scream. Guess not."

Pushing through the dense bushes, Jet scowled at him. "How would you feel if she was injured and suffering somewhere."

Spike paused and glanced over his shoulder. "Would an honest answer get me kicked off the ship?"

The only answer he received was a rough grunt as Jet returned back to search.

"Face it, pard, you're as pissed off as I am about this. Just remember how many times she left us stranded after wrecking your precious Bebop. Now we're wasting half the night looking for her. By now we could be back on the ship eating for the first time in days!"

Jet's hand ripped bark from a tree. He hated Spike's words, but worse yet, it was the burn of how logical they were. Still, he couldn't abandon Faye. Not to this place. He reached into the bag at his side and pulled out a couple of cans. "Let's take a break. Here, you need something to drink."

Catching the can, Spike leaned against a tree and took a long gulp. "No clue what this is, but I doubt it was supposed to taste like this." He sniffed the opening and grinned. "Heh, fermented. It's no fine whiskey, but I wonder what the proof is."

Like a possum, Ed hung upside down from a tree branch in front of Jet. "Ed wants a drink too."

Carefully, Jet pulled out a bottle of water. "Here, this should be safe."

"Nyooo, Ed wanted the good stuff!"

Spike chuckled and held up the can. "You're not missing much. Not so certain I'd call this good."

Wiping his brow, Jet heaved a sigh as his other hand gripped his stomach. "I gotta say, Spike, I'm glad for once you haven't made a big deal out of the food issue."

He finished the can and shrugged. "No point in making a deal of that. I'm not going to volunteer to be a guinea pig to find out if any of this stuff is edible."

Jet nodded. "Maybe if we found some mushrooms."

"Mushrooms!" Ed swung from the tree. Below her Ein danced around barking.

But it was Spike's revolted expression that burst Jet into laughter. "I'm just joking, buddy. Same with eggs. I know. We've had enough."

"Still." Spike tossed the can into the air and caught it. "I admit that at the moment I could probably stomach that or any of the rest of your lame ass cooking."

Jet raised a hand. "You know, you could always cook."

Gagging, Ed flopped on the ground. "Remember the last time he cooked? Pyyyyucccck! Icky icky charcoal bricky!"

But Spike missed the whole jab, he stared at Ein instead. The little dog cocked his head up, twisting his ears. Bending down, Spike reached out and gestured him closer. "We've been going about this all wrong, haven't we boy. Heh, you tracked down mushrooms before. Can you use that nose of yours to find Faye?"

Ein snuffle sneezed and shook his head.

"Was that a yes or a no?"

Ed ambled up on her hands and feet. "Ein can find Faye-Faye, right boy? Go!" She pointed.

Ein spun in a circle with his nose in the air. Once, twice, a third time. Then he slowly pealed off through the thick brush. Too thick for the guys to follow easily. Ed left them behind, swinging along the branches with Ein's tail in plain sight. It felt like forever until at last, Ein stopped and barked at a bush.

Drawing up into the tree, Ed chewed on a finger. "Nyaaa? Where is Faye?"

Ein barked again.

Behind them followed a chorus of the guys fighting with the dense growth, branches snapping and slapping. Jet snarled as they broke through, "Overgrown banzai tree! If only I had my scissors." Knocking the leaves off his jumpsuit, he glanced around. "Why are we stopping here?"

They followed Ein's muzzle into the bush. The shrub moaned.

"Whuh?" Jet parted the branches. Nestled inside he found a berry stained Faye surrounded by nothing but leafy limbs. Not a berry in sight. Her pale complexion rather green.

Peering over Jet's shoulder, Spike glared down at the sight. "Well if this isn't a familiar situation. Only difference this time is there were no wrappers. Tell me, Faye, how did they taste? Did you save any for the rest of us? Doesn't look like it!"

Jet reached down and grabbed her wrist, pulling her out. Faye doubled over with a wet-belching sound.

But Spike wasn't finished, he clamped a hand on Jet's shoulder. "Still worried about her? Looks like she made out alright for herself while we've been searching high and low. Good thing too, because she could be seriously injured! We wouldn't want that would we. After all she's such a generous soul, saving some of the food she found for us. Right?"

Grumbling, Jet placed a hand on Faye's shoulder. "Come on, Faye. On your feet."

She tried and stumbled forward, gripping her belly tight.

Spike lifted an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest knowingly. He waited as more than a minute ticked by before Jet fixed him with a stare. "Someone's gotta carry her."

"Freeloader Faye?" Spike's head shook. "No way. I'm not going to burn calories I don't have because she gorged herself sick. You want her on the ship? You carry her."

Smoke nearly curled out of Jet's ears. "I'll remember this, buddy." He bent down and hefted Faye into his arms. She groaned and rested her head against his shoulder. Her stomach churned audibly with every step.

"You do that." Spike shot over his shoulder. "Now, we might still have enough time to get back to the ship if we hurry." He started off in the direction he'd been heading.

Jet stopped him. "Where are you going? The ship is that way."

Spike's nose scrunched up.

Ed and Ein both looked in other directions before they all faced on another, panic in their eyes. Spike barked, "Shit! We've lost which way the ship was!"

A gurgling sound answered him followed a second later by a retching sploosh. Jet stood bolt upright. All down the back of his jumpsuit was soaked in foul mixture of berries and bile. He cringed as Faye's head tucked into his chest. She whimpered, "Don't … don't eat the berries. Oh God, … they're bad."

His shoulders fell as he took a few steps. "Gee, thanks for the info."

From a distance, Spike failed to conceal his amused grin behind a fist. He turned a touch too slow to fully hide it.

Jet took a sloshing step and groaned. "Uhhh! It's in my boots."

Spike and Ed broke into laughter.

"It's not funny! Let's get back to the ship. I need a shower." Still carrying Faye, he lead the way.

Hours passed with the crew trudging through the tangled wood without a path in sight. The horizon began to lighten. Faye of the poisoned berries still huddled in Jet's arms. She'd hurled a few more times, but had managed to miss him in the process. Such a small blessing.

Spike paused and narrowed his eyes.

"What is it?" Jet blinked.

He ran his hand over a branch. "We've been here before. Damn it, Jet, we're walking in circles."

"No … can't be." Jet shook his head. "This is bad. Ed, how long before we're not alone?"

Agile as a panther, she swung up into the high branches of a tree before calling down. "Minutes til the dinos wakey-wake."

The guys sighed. "Great. This is all we need. Specially with Faye being dead weight."

Spike lifted a shoulder. "What's the plan? Keep walking, or find a place to hide for the day?"

"I don't like it, but I think we have to call it for the day. This heat is killing me."

To Jet's shock, Spike didn't even argue. Out of the corner of his eye he swore he glimpsed fatigue betrayed in the too slow blink. But Spike cupped his mouth and called up, "See any buildings?"

Ed scanned the horizon in the faint light before cheering, "Yes! That way!"

Without a word, Spike pressed on in the direction she pointed. Ein waddled beside him with the computer still strapped to his back. Wearily, Jet carried Faye along. "You hear me? When this is over you are going to owe me big time! Laundry, I mean every thread of fabric on the Bebop will be hand washed by you. And I don't want to hear one word of complaint."

Edging up to the building, they entered the ivy dripping structure. Claimed by the foliage, it was difficult to tell what the tall building had once been. It was tall and relatively narrow. High up, bent rails careened down into the canopy from T towers. Spike eyed a pod like device crushed from a collision with the ground. "Looks like some kind of suspended train. Maybe to see the park?"

Ed chewed on a finger. "Not go no more."

"To put it mildly." Spike padded inside the musty tower, rays of soft light stretched out over the valley tinting the foliage. It would have been beautiful, if he had been in a better mood. All he could ponder now was how they could have been crashing on board the Bebop if they hadn't spent so much time getting lost finding Faye. He could have been stretched out on the couch while Jet wiped up something in the kitchen instead of plagued by a hunger he dared not acknowledge. Food, air conditioning, the damn lazy fan. His right hand tightened into a fist. A target. He needed a damned target to spend this pent up rage on. Faye was damned lucky Jet still held her.

Light poured into the rusted and crumbling walls of the tower. The ascending notes of the solar charge sang out a song of death. Spike's eyes turned toward nearby shadow. Bright colors caught in the rays of light. Orange feather scales mottled in purple and blue stripes. Massive, rather like the thrasher.

A bright red eye whirred open and focused on Spike standing about fifty feet from the metallic beast. The grinding gears screamed as the massive creature pressed up from the floor. It opened jaws lined with serrated teeth, glistening stainless steal. The allosaurus towered on two powerful hind legs, flexing each of the three claws on each hand. It was the ancestral cousin of the T-Rex. Smaller, tighter packed, legs like pistons for pouncing, built for ultimate slaughter.

Murder gleamed in its cold dead eyes. The beast opened its mouth and shook the bones of the crew with a roar as it stomped the ground.

Faye clung to Jet's shoulders like a child.

Wild light flickered in Spike's eyes as he met the gaze of the savage beast. He slammed a foot onto the ground and screamed back, "You want a piece of me? Come get it, Blinky!"


See You Space Cowboy …