The injury turned out to be much more serious than I initially thought. My leg hurt a lot, so much so that Fred was forced to administer a large dose of painkillers, which made me feel like I was in seventh heaven, a strange feeling that simply cannot be described in words. It seems that I experienced an overdose, everything around me seems to be floating. Ooh...butterfly?
The arrow that hit my leg turned out to be saturated with a poison of unknown origin, but the symptom emerged almost immediately: burns, severe pain, fever and even dehydration, because of which I risk causing the consumption of all the fresh drinking water in the group, so through force I decide not to do it I take deep throats and quench my thirst only a little at a time, but my throat is sore from dryness as if I had just eaten a whole table of the hottest peppers.
“Come on, drink.”
Fred told me, bringing the neck of the flask to my lips.
“It’s either this or you die. The dehydration is simply colossal. Your skin almost peels off."
«It hurts.»
I took deep breaths and exhales, sweating profusely from the heat, as if a whole stream was pouring out of me. The rag that Fred wrapped around my leg was already stained with blood, but the senior medic was in no hurry to change it because he was afraid that he would seriously harm me.
Another symptom, the blood simply refused to clot and continued to flow. The cells of the body refused to recover normally due to the poison, and I heard this from Fred’s words. The poison should have already left the body along with a stream of sweat, but still the wound healed very, very slowly. I was wrapped in bandages like some kind of mummy and inside this mummy I was turning into scarlet liquid, unable to walk. It's just unbearably painful!
It's like being fried in a microwave or dissolved piece by piece in a replicator. It's still hard to describe the pain I felt throughout my body. Out of desperation, I appointed Will as my deputy. Crap! I can't even believe that Will is my deputy. He'll kill us all! Oh well... I hope he doesn't cause us any more problems than I did.
My death is now closer than ever, but still, after a couple of days of this horror, everything began to return a little to normal, but Fred was in no hurry to remove the bandages from me because they were tightly connected to the skin of my body and removing the tissue would mean damaging the outer layers of the body. I wouldn't want to rip my skin off. Crap!
Now we took refuge inside a cave, which was conveniently located in the middle of a rocky hill on our way, thanks to which no one had yet found us after the battle with Gobe, but then we had a new problem. The path to the east was closed to us.
While I was writhing in pain, Itami did a little reconnaissance and found out that in the east there are vast swamps through which it will be impossible to pass, or rather, it is possible, but it will take a lot of time, which we, unfortunately, do not have.
“So we are now changing our route to the south?”
Will asked me, sitting next to me, and I, barely understanding what was happening around me, first realized what I heard, and then, after thinking a little about his words, I nodded in agreement.
“In the north is Gobe, and in the east is a swamp.”
I answer, barely moving my lips.
“So we can only go south, to the lowlands.”
Even just thinking was difficult and almost unbearable for me. Even simple thoughts, let alone words, make me feel dizzy.
“Most likely there are bodies of water there.”
Anzhey intervened in the conversation, leaning against the rock and cleaning the parts of the disassembled rifle along the way.
“I wouldn’t want to waste time on the way back if there’s nowhere to go there.”
"You don't have to worry."
I reassured Andrzej by remembering something.
“I remember on the map there really is a lake there and there were some settlements near it.”
My words suddenly attracted the attention of the entire platoon resting inside the cave. Even the sentry paid attention to me and immediately turned towards the exit, continuing to look at the vegetation outside the cave.
"Another civilization?"
Will clarified.
"I don't know."
I answered honestly, looking away at the natives.
"I hope they help us."
In my dull eyes, I saw concern in the looks of Alza, Ripun, Niana and Zaden. They were clearly afraid of the outcome, which ultimately happened. We should have listened to the fear of these natives and killed these green-skinned creatures right away. Although we have killed hundreds of these Gobe, most likely they will chase us to avenge their fallen relatives. We need to be ready to meet them again. I'm sure sooner or later we will meet again.
“Who are they?”
Lecith asked curiously looking at the natives.
“They look like people, but they’re not them, right?”
The same situation with Lecith, after cleaning off the dirt, I was surprised to see a pleasant-looking man, a dark-haired, green-eyed guy with a muscular, tall body. Any earthly girl would chase such a handsome guy, and any other guy would be jealous of his appearance.
Apparently beautiful people live on Ecostate, otherwise I can’t explain how he can be so beautiful with such behavior. Now Sigrun does not take his eyes off him and turns to Fred for drugs.
"Yes. These are the natives."
Meanwhile, Itami answered that he was sitting next to them on the cobblestones.
“I teach them English. Yes, Ripun?
"What?"
The pale-skinned native, dressed in a jacket, was perplexed.
“What do you have to say? I don't understand."
"I. Teach. You. Our. Language."
Itami translated the words with gestures, and then translated the entire sentence.
“I teach you our language.”
"Ahh..."
Opening his mouth, Ripun understood and nodded, agreeing with the signalman.
"Yes. Teach say. Thank you."
The progress of natives learning English remains very modest. They practice talking to all the fighters including myself and Itami, and also try to pronounce sounds that they cannot pronounce.
After spending so much time with them, I had already begun to notice their fatigue from constant English lessons, and yet they never once resisted learning, continuing, albeit through force, to practice speaking a language unknown to them.
I hope that when they become more or less familiar with the English language, they will be able to help us establish peaceful contact, but not with the Empire, but with some other civilization of this planet. The very fact that there were no lands of this very Empire to the east of that anomalous rainy forest told us that not all was lost and peaceful contact was still possible, and yet we were already in other lands far from the native home of these natives and it was unlikely whether even these natives could know the languages of other peoples of this planet.
This fact told us that it would become much more difficult to establish contact because, most likely, other nationalities or even other intelligent species live on these lands, which may even have other methods of communication. I can only hope that these peoples or other species are in contact with each other and, even if they do not understand each other, have translators in their ranks who could communicate in the language of these fugitive natives.
I hope so... but only a little.
Alas, our platoon should not chill in one place all day long just because of my injury, and therefore Stern will again drag me on his back. If it weren’t for this droid operator, who broke his arms and legs during the crash and put on an exoskeleton, we would definitely have been delayed in place or I would have ended up dead. Alas, the droid operator himself could only grumble about the need to carry an extra load on himself in the form of a pile of meat and bones, as he puts it.
Yes, Stern is not a particularly pleasant person, and yes, the battery charge of his exoskeleton will sooner or later run out and then someone will have to drag not only me, but also him.
"I hate this planet."
Stern grumbled, sitting surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites and with an empty tablet in his hands, clearly wanting to return to his usual job of controlling droids and assigning commands and programs to them.
“I want to get out of here.”
“And you’re not the only one who wants this.”
Sigrun said cheerfully that in the morning she checked his exoskeleton for functionality by twisting a couple of nuts inside and welding some kind of plate.
"We all want to go home."
"I didn't ask you."
Stern snapped sternly.
“If you didn’t ask, then you better shut up and don’t make any sounds.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“How can I remain silent here when all this crap is going on around me? A? If you are so smart, then tell me why should I endure this? Why can’t I express everything that I think about you on you?!”
"Enough."
I said sternly, raising my palm, still feeling not very good.
“The last thing we need now is for you to kill each other over quarrels. Just rest and then we’ll continue on our way.”
"South?"
Will asked me.
"Yes to the south."
I confirmed.
“If anything happens, we’ll all put together a raft together and get across the lake to the other side.”
“Damn, do we still have to build a raft?”
Forn grumbled, lowering his head.
"If necessary."
I answered.
“We have all the necessary tools and equipment for woodworking, so I think building a raft will not be difficult.”
"It's clear."
Will responded, crossing his arms over his chest.
“So we’ll learn to row with oars. Yes Sigrun?”
"What about me? I can row oars."
The black girl grinned.
“The first thing I did when I first arrived on Earth was learn to swim in normal gravity.”
"Fuck."
Will said with defeat in his voice, realizing that he had failed to make fun of the girl.
Everyone soon accepted my instructions and got down to business. It will be some time before we hit the road, and while we were resting, Will decided to remind me of something.
“Boris, listen, do you remember that creature that approached us?”
"Yes I remember."
I answered.
Will was referring to the animal that he detected with the bioscanner immediately after the fight with Gobe. It approached us and hid behind the dense vegetation and watched us. Another anomaly of this planet, rather not of itself, but of its living inhabitants. The bioscanner can detect complex life forms within a kilometer or even more than two, but the creatures of this planet notice us much further and are approaching us.
The same Gobe appeared suddenly and were already building formations even beyond the visibility of the bioscanner, when they decided to attack us in the night. This took us by surprise, and we barely had time to prepare to repel the enemy attack.
The creature Will spotted yesterday was a humanoid, judging by the tracks it left on the ground. It could hardly be Gobe, the footprint was larger, and the signature was completely different and more similar to a human one, almost like that of the natives from the Empire.
As soon as we aimed in his direction, he immediately disappeared. The creature knew that we had noticed it and chose not to make contact with us, running back into the safety of the forest. Then we did not pursue the unknown creature, mainly because we were then busy looking for shelter. What’s also strange is how one of the fighters noticed an extinguished fire in the evening, which clearly could have belonged to the humanoid who ran away from us.
“These Gobe and that unknown creature they saw us”
Will spoke with a bit of fear in his voice.
"We simply cannot hide from them.."
"That is how it is."
I confirmed gloomily.
Honestly, I don’t even know what to do in cases when our usual methods of camouflage simply did not work and the inhabitants of this planet sensed us literally kilometers away. I do not exclude the possibility that that creature and Gobe are of the same species and could somehow have perfect observational abilities or even smell our scent from many kilometers away.
It is quite possible that the second is because our smell can stand out among the general incense from everything else on this planet. If this is true, then we are guaranteed to be detected and therefore we need to always be prepared to meet the enemy, even now.
«I don't want to go crazy with paranoia.»
With difficulty, I close my eyes and begin to fall asleep, and to my surprise, I quickly fell asleep despite the terrible paranoia that I am experiencing right now. I thought that because of her I would not be able to fall asleep for a long time, but apparently due to the weakness of my body, I can fall asleep at any desire. And it would have been just an ordinary dream, but it turned out to be not just lucid, but actually somehow anomalous.
I saw before me strange images from the past, a foggy city, cold dark traces that dissolved in the light. People moved around me like shadows and whose faces could not be seen, and in the distance stood a pale-skinned, blonde girl with sparkling blue eyes. She is dressed in a golden summer dress, and on her head is a large white hat with a pink flower. She smiled at me and waved her palm as if she saw me as the most beloved person in her life.
She called me, ready to accept me as I am, wounded in body and soul, almost dead. I couldn’t set foot near her, even though I wanted it with all my heart. I knew who she was and I simply couldn’t believe that she had grown up to be such a beauty, my beloved little sister.
Looking at her, I was filled with regret. I regretted that I would not be able to see her soon; rather, I would even see her children or even grandchildren, but not with her in the form she appeared before me right now.
“Sorry, Christina, I won’t be back to you soon.”
I said it out loud.
I still wanted to admire her beauty, but after my words her face darkened, and the blue light in her eyes seemed to fade a little. It was as if she heard me. Strange thoughts flow through my head, of course she could hear me, it’s just a dream. Her voice becomes clearer and clearer, after which I fall into horror when I hear another voice, equally familiar, that it seems the whole world disappears from my hands.
“You won’t be fooled, stupid barbarian.”
I don’t know if I was able to widen my eyes in a dream, but I’m sure I was able to. I was very surprised.
«Yasmi?»
I guessed, taking the opposite steps and filled with fear and anger.
Her face was different, but her voice was the same as I remembered her. Yasmi. This bitch is responsible for the death of my brothers in Arms, my acquaintances and friends. She killed John and Uwon, as well as a dozen more soldiers from our combined platoon. I just hate her.
«How dare she wear my sister's face?!»
I was angry inside myself, clenching my fists.
Before giving in to emotions, I sternly asked her:
"What's happening?"
Yasmi grinned maliciously and the world around me began to distort in stormy black and white streams, as if I was in a cosmic whirlpool, but at the same time there was absolutely dead silence around. While the world around me was changing, the girl answered me:
“Sod wants your faith, Sod will fulfill your wishes, swear allegiance to Him, dedicate your soul to Him and get the gate that leads to the world of your dreams and you will see those whom your soul desires.”
I was surprised by what I had just heard from her and even believed her words. I really wanted to go home right now, to my family, to get out of this nightmare as soon as possible, but at the same time, with the last threads of my mind, I understood that there were no easy ways, that I could be deceived.
«What do you mean I can deceive? And now aren’t they deceiving me?»
At that moment, I realized that I had not questioned a single word of hers, as if she had always spoken the truth and kept her promises. Why did I think that? Why? When did I start to trust her? This... this is impossible!
I just wanted to shake all these sweet words out of my head and forget about her existence once and for all.
"Get out."
I said and turned away from her.
I don’t know how it happened, but the next moment after I turned away from the false image of my little sister, she was right in front of me and gently grabbed my palm with both hands with deep love, breathing into my chest and said:
“Brother, please come home... I miss you... I love you.”
"Me...me too."
I said, leaning closer to her. How I wanted to be in her warm arms.
«Boris, this is not true!»
I shouted to myself.
«She's manipulating you!»
I know. I know that all this is not true, but the lies are closely woven together with the truth and mixed inside my mind. I didn't know what to do now. I wanted to escape from reality and at the same time I understood that this was not an option, that I would perish if I trusted it.
With great effort I stopped myself. I was ready to kiss her forehead, essentially swearing a promise to her, but I couldn’t do that, or rather, I convinced myself that I wasn’t worthy of it. I don’t want to give in to illusions, I don’t just don’t want to, I can’t. What kind of person am I after this? Ten years ago I promised her that I would return home. I left her when she was five years old, the little girl cried when I flew to the moon, and now she will soon be in her twenties and I still don’t know how she lives.
«What should I do?»
"Come to me, my love."
The girl said piercingly looking into my soul with her blue sparkling eyes.
At that moment I wanted to laugh at her words.
“She...she would never say that.”
"What?"
The girl was surprised and I pushed her away from me, which is why I heard her surprised exclamation in response.
"You do not love me?"
"Enough. Get out."
I shook my head.
"I thought you…"
“I don’t know how you do it, Yasmi. Just stop it! I'm not going to be with you! I'm not going to serve Sod or whathis there's a name! JUST LEAVE!”
“Tch! Damn barbarian."
The girl clicked her tongue with contempt and the world around suddenly took shape.
The strange black and white distortions stopped, and I found myself in the middle of a strange place. I had never seen this place, some kind of temple of the pre-space era through the mosaic of windows through which the sun's rays penetrated. This time, the white-haired Yasmi really stood in front of me, dressed in a light translucent robe, showing me her nakedness under the thin fabric. I think she looked much younger now than when I first met her.
She was alone in the middle of the temple, and a shining swarm of stars floated smoothly around her, like planets around the sun. Her white eyes shone and seemed to burn through me, but her gaze was full of anger, as if through her the deity itself was angry at me, in which I had never believed and was not going to believe.
"Barbarian from heaven, I give you one last chance."
The girl said gloomily, but so majestically and terribly, as if she could really threaten me and was confident in her words.
I, in turn, remained unshakable even though I felt inferior to her. I convinced myself that I was human and would not kneel before the faith of some natives. I am human! I don't believe in Gods! I'm not going to serve what I can't see with my own eyes!
"No."
I said sternly, remaining in place.
"Insolent!"
The girl screamed, distorting her face in anger, and after that the stars that were circling around her instantly froze.
“I died because of you! Sod was angry for my death and now I'm here! You simply must pay Sod for your crime! You must become His slave! You will never get out of His possessions, from the power of His divine essence, you are doomed to remain here forever and be in His hands! No one has ever left this world, and you will never leave it.NEVER! You have no choice, barbarian! You either swear allegiance, open your soul to Him, or YOU WILL DIE!”
“Are you dead?”
I was surprised, ignoring the rest of her words.
“But... you ran away. No. I mean… you’re talking in my sleep right now.”
Now she crossed her arms over her chest and spoke the following words to me as if she were communicating with a mentally retarded person.
“You are here because your spirit has weakened, you nonentity. How stupid are you that you don’t understand such simple truths? I would subjugate you, like your pathetic fellow tribesman, but you are a barbarian from the stars, not saturated with His flesh and His waters, and His spirits avoid your touch.”
Her face was filled with anger, the world around her seemed to be bursting at the seams, but somehow continued to exist. I still vaguely understood what was happening and why this dream did not seem like a dream to me.
"I don't understand."
I said and received a dissatisfied grumbling from the girl in response.
“Mortals like you will never understand His ways. You are in this world forever."
"I don't think so,"
I doubted it, causing the girl to first be surprised by my words and then laugh.
“You are poisoned by the shackles of doubt. I will not leave until you believe in Sod and become His eye. Accept your fate."
I could only sigh after such words. I just don’t want to stay here, I feel even worse here, not physically, but mentally. I was tired of this dream, so I waved my hand and said:
“If you’re not going to leave... then I’ll leave.”
"NO…"
After that I instantly woke up. The light that penetrated inside the cave hit my eyes, and the platoon soldiers were already collecting things for the further journey. I turned my head in different directions, and my head hurt badly, as if they were turning a drill in my ear.
«What was that?»
I tried to understand.