Timeline: Past
Point of View: Claudia
Location: Red Planet (forest of man-eating trees)
At first Claudia thought it was a trick of the light, the bright red sun above casting its will across the ripples of the water. She walked towards the river water, worried that she’d see bodies floating under its waves. She stared for awhile at its surface, trying to see what was underneath. She could see nothing. She wondered what creatures were below its surface.
She took a risk. When her feet touched the water, she realized that her initial assessment of the water was correct. It only looked red, as everything on the planet looked red, because of the low light of the deep red sun above. She could see her feet below the moving water. She looked across the river and saw that it was maybe twenty to thirty feet across. It was moving swiftly, she could see that much, but couldn’t tell if it was unsafe to cross. If it was too fast she could be swept under before she made it to the other side. If that happened, she would drown. If it was shallow enough to walk across, though, then the strength of the current might not matter.
Before the subject of crossing was to be considered, though, she first had to decide if it was worth crossing. As it was, there was no need for getting to the other side. She was here for cover and because she was thirsty, that was all. She could follow the shoreline for as long as she needed, looking for food. Staring out across the water, the forest of odd trees seemed to get thicker. She could get lost in there. But what did that matter, anyway? She was lost as she was, with no where to go, no where that guaranteed safety.
First things first, she needed to drink.
Claudia had always been one to take in knowledge easily and retain it (probably because she had to as her parents required it of her), but she didn’t think it was only that. She believed it to be also a lucky draw of her biological code at birth. She had taken this ability for granted for most of her life, as she skated through school. Now, however, she was incredibly thankful for it, as she stared at the water. Her body demanded she drink it now, right now, god dammit, but her mind kept those urges at bay.
She had to first evaluate that it was safe to drink. The water had a current at least, this was good, but she didn’t know where it was flowing from. It was clear enough to see her feet, but still had a dirty sheen, likely from the sediment that it picked up. Was there bacteria in there though, things she couldn’t see, something that would cause destruction on her internal organs? Beyond that, was it even water at all? It looked like water, despite the red hue. She bent down and scooped some of it into her hands and watched it flow through her fingers. It was warm to the touch but not hot, felt like tap water from the sink. It was a weird thing to consider, what water felt like, another thing she’d taken for granted back home. She’d never really ever considered that water felt like anything at all. Water was just water, and it existed everywhere.
Before she tasted it, she should boil it to make it safe. It would kill any organisms that were in it and would theoretically make it safe to consume. At least she thought it would. It had to. She may be on another planet, but physics had to remain consistent at the very least. Yet, to boil it, she needed to contain the water, and she had nothing to scoop the water up into (disregarding this fact that she didn’t have a means to create fire to boil it either).
She’d been here for a couple days now, and was devastatingly thirsty. Part of her wanted to take the risk, to drink the water and deal with the consequences. Chances were that she’d be just fine. But it was an equal possibility that she would not be, that she would die a slow painful death through vomiting and diarrhea, or through organ failure.
She considered another option, which was a filtration system. She’d seen on a television show once that you could use the ground itself to filter water. If you dug a hole deep enough, water would filter through the ground from the water source, letting through water that was generally clean (as all the organisms couldn’t pass through the soil as the water did). It was worth a shot, and seemed like her best option.
She looked at the hard ground, with those wormy organisms wagging, the mock red grass. She wasn’t particularly pumped to put her mouth around anything that came from that dirt. Additionally, she’d slept on this ground the previous night, and the ground had been hard. She looked at her small fingers, at her fingernails, clean trimmed.
She knelt down on the ground, felt the grassy worms wriggling at her knees, and started to dig. The ground here was softer than she’d anticipated it being, being closer to mud then hard compact soil. She broke through the layers meticulously, her fingers becoming numb as she worked. Sweat beads dropped from her forehead as she grew more fatigued, her headache increasing. Eventually, she saw water begin to pool at the bottom of her small hole. She dug a little deeper, then sat back and waited for the hole to fill with the red-tinted water.
It was clearer, but it was still muddy. Sandy soil was best for filtering water, but she didn’t know what this dirt was, looking closer to a red mud than gravel. It would have to do. She laid flat on the ground, cupped her hand, and drenched her mouth with as much of the water as she could muster in her small hands.
She wasn't one to eat ass, but she could guess at what shit tasted like.
The water tasted like shit.
She almost threw up, but kept it down. Some of the mud had mixed with the water, this was unavoidable, and the water didn’t taste fresh or cool. It was like warm toilet water. Even worse, warm pool water. Yet, her thirst was satisfied, and so she drank more. When her gut felt full of the stuff, she splashed some of it on her face. Then she sat back to make a plan.
She needed food. She could feel the rumble deep in her gut, her body confused from the calories being drained without replenishment.
She looked at the base of one of the trees that had tried to consume her.
“Fuck that,” she said, and the tree shook as it heard her, agreeing with her sentiment.
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The only option then, it seemed, was to continue walking along the coast, and hope she came to something that was worth putting in her body.
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It was becoming night as she walked, the red sun now down and the small white one halfway through its trek. So far she’d come across nothing new, and hadn’t broken through the trees. She felt weak and tired, ready to sleep but pushing herself just a little bit longer. She felt herself becoming a bit unstable, a bit top heavy, a bit wobbly. She considered getting more water, but knew she needed sustenance. She considered the trees again, but one look at their jello surface shut those thoughts right up.
Then, looking at the trees closer, she saw movement. The movement was from deep within them, several rows behind. There had been something standing there, looking at her. She was certain of it. Suddenly she felt deeply vulnerable.
She walked on, keeping her eyes locked to the spot where she’d seen the figure. It had been a figure of some kind, not her imagination. She knew it was. She became frighteningly aware that the base of these trees was remarkably thick. Not all of the trees, but most of them, well thick enough for something to hide behind with ease. Could she, too, use that to her advantage? Maybe, but probably not. Whatever was out there lived in these trees.
In the far distance, back the way she’d first come, the missile bombardment began again. It was far too distant to feel the impact, but it could still be heard, as missiles made contact with the ground. The trees vibrated as the sound waves filtered through the bark. As the trees vibrated, she could see the things shape again, hiding behind a tree.
She pretended she hadn’t seen it and kept walking. She kept a brisker pace, but prevented herself from running. The white sun continued its decent in the distance. Soon it would be dark again, and she’d barely be able to see the way ahead of her.
She watched her peripheral as she passed the point in the distance where the figure had been, but couldn't see it. As she walked passed the tree, she watched behind her through her peripheral, certain she should have seen whatever it was that was there. There was nothing behind the tree now, and she hadn’t seen the figure flee. She was getting more nervous now, couldn’t help herself, and she started to run.
She dodged the trees as she ran, careful not to touch them. If she touched them, they would hold her, and whatever was chasing her would be able to reach her before she could escape the hold of the tree.
She turned abruptly and saw it behind her, galloping up to her from behind as quiet as the trees. It was maybe fifteen feet away now, but she could tell it was far faster than she. It ran on four legs, tall like an adult lion or a deer, but was built thickly and purely of meat. Above those four stampeding feet were two arms, with hands that held some kind of sharp spear or ax. It was tough to see in the dark, but she could see that the end of the weapon was sharp. The creature twirled the weapon into its right hand and held it behind its body as it ran.
Of all aspects of the creature that instilled fear, its head was the worst, because it wasn’t really a head at all. The concept of a head indicated a neck that separated it from the body, but in the case of this animal, it was all part of the same body. The body started at the back legs and then curved upward around the its hands. At the top of this body were a series of complex eyes, more than she had time to count, and below this a gaping maw with thousands of tiny sharp teeth that spun inside its mouth like a buzz saw.
“What the fuck!” She said unconsciously, the trees growing angry at the sound of her voice. She turned and ran toward the river. She didn’t have a choice now. She had to cross. She could hear the thing behind her, almost galloping. Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. It was getting closer, the vibration of the trees around her confirming that fear, even if she couldn’t see the thing behind her.
She reached the water, eager to take a leap of faith into its depths, when she felt a wallop of pain erupt in her side. She’d been hit as if by a hammer, and she flew through the air. When she hit the ground her head was in the river, but she rolled back out of the current to find herself close to the base of a tree. Immediately the tree, hearing the sounds she’d made, seemingly tried to reach out to her, it’s red bark growing outward in her direction.
She rolled onto her hands and feet, not taking the time to fully appreciate her luck of not landing against that carnivorous tree, and tried to stand. She felt the concussive force again, this time on her ass, and she fell face-forward into the red water again. She couldn’t see or breathe as the water rushed past her face, nearly dragging her along with the current. She was lifted into the air.
Her face was turned toward the maw of the creature, its teeth buzzing round and round, its eyes fixated on her. It held its weapon at its side, and she could see that the weapon had no point at all. There was a blunt weight at the end of the stick. A primitive tool. She was confused to see it, thinking again of the missiles pummeling the ground outside of the forest, but couldn’t give it enough thought just yet.
She was on her knees, the creature gripping her hair as it examined her. Around and around those wicked shark teeth spun in its mouth as it examined her with eyes scattered around its body. It was thinking. What about she had no idea. If this were an animal, it likely would have consumed her by now. Instead, it was thinking. She might still die, but she wasn’t dead yet, and the creature didn’t seem eager to kill her.
It closed its mouth and made an odd sound, something like sharp blades grinding against each other, their edges dulling with the impact. At first the sounds seemed random, but she eventually heard a pattern in the way the sounds left its mouth. There were gaps in between the slices, spaces between words.
Each of its eyes were trained on a different aspect of her body. Some on her face, some on her body, some on her hair. The creature didn’t have any hair, it’s dark skin smooth but marred by wounds. She looked at its hands, gripping the mallet hanging low at its side, and saw that it only had three long beefy segments, barely resembling fingers, wrapped around its handle.
More of the cutting and grinding sounds left its mouth, and the “words” seemed to come more aggressively now. It was demanding something of her, asking her something, but she couldn’t begin to guess what those questions might be.
She twisted and yanked, trying to surprise the creature, but instead it tightened its grip on her hair and she screamed as pain shot through the roots into her scalp. The creature’s hold was surprisingly strong. I’m cutting this fucking hair the first chance I get, she thought to herself.
The creature put the mallet up against her throat and pushed, and she felt herself struggling to breath. She found it interesting that the creature knew how she breathed, and wondered if she was the first human it had ever seen. This thought made her sick to her stomach, and she wasn’t really sure why. Probably because of the implication of what that might mean, regardless of the answer.
“I don’t understand you,” she tried to say through the pain in her throat, and the creature pulled back on the mallet a bit. “I’m sorry,” she said, this time with a little more ease.
The grinding, cutting, and buzzing sounds continued again, and the creature dropped her to the ground. It turned around and began dragging her by the hair as it did.
“Owe!” She yelled, “Stop that!” But of course, it didn’t understand. Or didn’t acknowledge her, at least.
It stood, now on its two back legs, and passed her gripped hair from its left forefront hand to it’s left middle hand, and began walking back the way they’d come, more slowly this time, away from the shore of the river.
Claudia tried desperately to keep up, walking while crouched in order to stop the pain pulsating from her hair down her spine, wondering where it was taking her.