When all else fails, lie like a shag rug. Gunnar mused, fighting the urge to laugh. Darkon wouldn't have helped Amy find her way out of the forest even if he had the use of his legs. Pushing aside some tree branches, he held them until Amy had passed.
They picked their way through the black woods, crossing the remaining distance to Darkon's base. Once they had reached the site the ground opened beneath them. Dropping the two of them into what at first seemed to be a small hole dug by a rather clumsy hunter.
Gunnar had been expecting this, of course, and so he was quite able to land on his feet. Amy, however, was about as unprepared as anyone could be. She landed rather ungracefully on her butt.
"You could've warned me about that drop," she hissed.
"That would have spoiled the surprise."
The place was almost pitch black, lit only by the dim bioluminescence of the teknopods. Not nearly enough for human eyes, and Amy blinked like an owl in the stifling darkness.
***
This place, whatever the hell it is, gives me the creeps. Amy thought, shivering slightly. Not that she's tell Fritz anytime soon, him or his mysterious friend. No one called Amy Macmillan a coward, not if she could help it anyway.
"You all right?" Fritz asked, his voice coming from somewhere to her left.
"Just fucking marvelous," she sneered.
What a complete idiot. Amy thought, pulling some leaves out of her hair and combing it with her fingers to make sure there weren't any more.
***
Gunnar watched as Amy pulled the last leaf from her black hair. One of the teknopods had noticed her. Opening in a manner reminiscent of a venous flytrap, a long whiplike vine extended and quickly wrapped itself around her waist.
Snapping closed in much the same manner it had opened, and cutting off Amy's enraged screams, the pod filled with dark purplish-magenta fluid.
Smiling, Gunnar turned away from the newly occupied teknopod, quick walking through the maze of other pods. Standing in front of the pod that had until recently held him in deep hibernation, he looked to either side. On the right, completely nude and curled into a fetal position – like he himself was not so long ago – was a black haired boy.
Gunnar's smile softened, it was Ness. Although Fritz and Cain had been closer friends, it was next to impossible to get close to anyone in the Carter family without being drawn into it. Gunnar remembered comparing them to a black hole, once when he and Cain had been sitting out on their back porch just staring at the stars.
The two of them had a good laugh over that, and the younger twin had conceded the point. Fritz had assured Conrad, who had come out to stare at the stars for awhile too, that he had meant that in the best possible way. But he still hadn't managed to avoid the headful of noogies that the eldest of the Carter siblings had dealt him.
Gunnar ran a hand through his short blonde hair, leaning against the teknopod. In a low voice, and not caring that the currant occupant couldn't hear a word of it, Gunnar began to chitchat with him.
"Hey Ness, Darkon says it'll be awhile yet before you're out of there. It gets kind of claustrophobic in there doesn't it? Don't look at me like that, I was just stating a well known fact."
Gunnar paused, looking at Ness' eyes. Had his been closed that tightly? He couldn't be sure. Maybe he could go ask Darkon, but the Warlord had very little patience for stupid questions.
"Anyway, I guess you should know that I got a new name when I came out of there. Yeah, I'm called Gunnar now. I know it's a little strange. Hey! I never insulted your name, Loch Ness, okay so maybe I was thinking it, but I didn't say it."
Gunnar sighed softly, the smile vanishing. Giving Ness' pod one last look, he turned away and headed for his own. Divesting himself of his clothes, not particularly wanting this set to be disintegrated in the teknopod fluid the way his original outfit had been, he climbed back inside.
The stuff was warm and sticky, and Gunnar couldn't help feeling like he should be suffocating. But he was breathing somehow or other. He slowly drifted off to sleep, idly wondering what Ness' new name would be…
The next morning found the Radam base much the same way the night had left it. Amy's screams had quieted sometime during the night, and now the deep and ever-present serenity of the forest was unbroken once more.
