Starfist: Lazarus Rising by David Sherman & Dan Cragg Read Free Book Online Page A

volunteered. "So I don't think this path was made by the monsters. And whoever made it came from a different direction than the compound. I think Military Operation is right. Whoever made this trail knew where they were going, and if we find them, we'll be among our own kind at least."
    "And that crushed-flat place, maybe that was where they lay in hiding, watching the monsters before they moved on!" Colleen said.
    "We need food," the other woman said.
    "We can find food in the river! Fish, clams, whatever," one of the other men said.
    "Look, this trail is relatively fresh, made within the last day or two at the most,"
    Military Operation said. "If we hurry, we can catch up with them. Goddamnit, we're starving, can't you feel it? We can't find enough food in the river to restore our strength. Besides, if there is a town or a city somewhere along that river, for all we know it could be five hundred kilometers from here—or the damned thing could just empty into the sea without ever passing anywhere near civilization."
    "Yes," one of the men said, "but there could be a town only five kilometers from here, and I still maintain we'll find more food along the river than along that trail of yours."
    "He's right!" Shaky shouted. It was the first words he'd spoken since the day before. "And who put you in charge?" he shouted at Military Operation.
    "Well, I'm following this goddamned trail," Military Operation said. Nobody bothered to correct him on his language this time.
    "All right. Who's for the river and who's for the trail?" Chet asked. He and Colleen voted for the trail.
    The six of them stood silently in the tall grass. "Well, if we find civilization, we'll come back for you," one of the men for the river said.
    "Same for us," Colleen answered. They shook hands all around. The three started off for the river, and the three who were taking the path watched them until their figures dwindled in the distance. A last wave and they started out on their own way.
    They followed the trail all that day. It was easy to follow. Evidently, the people who had made it did know where they were headed and were anxious to get there.
    All day long Military Operation constantly scanned the skyline and the surrounding geography, looking for the other people but also just checking. Several times he called for a halt as he went forward to a hillock or a ridge to survey the area before them, acting almost instinctively to avoid being seen until he was sure what lay ahead. He scanned the sky continuously and once shouted for them to fall to the ground. He'd spotted a high flier that turned out to be only a winged creature of some sort, soaring on the thermals, searching for much smaller prey.
    "I thought it could be the monsters, or something," he apologized sheepishly.
    Toward evening the trail skirted a small pond. The three did not hesitate to drink from it, although it was covered with a green scum, which they brushed aside with their hands to get at the cool water underneath.
    They rested on the bank. "At least we won't die of thirst," Colleen said. Military Operation smiled at her and thought, She's a good soldier. The man called Chet was too, he realized. "I'm glad you two came with me," he said. He found himself wondering, for what reason he could not say, if they could handle weapons in a fight. He shrugged. Wherever that thought came from, they had no weapons.
    "It'll be dark soon. What do you say we spend the night right here?" Chet suggested.
    They pulled up some bushes, gathered leafy foliage, and made themselves a small bower beside the pond, then settled down into it for the night.
    The second day dawned overcast and considerably cooler. Two hours into the journey, huge thunderheads rolled up from behind them and the wind picked up. The temperature dropped quickly. All the rest of that day it stormed. The three pressed on. At times they had to hold onto each other to keep from being knocked down by the gusts and the wall of cold rain