Star runners, p.14
Star Runners, page 14
Austin stood and stretched. He shook his head. Throwing a tantrum in the middle of the swamp wouldn’t help anything. He had done worse jobs at the fruit stand. He remembered one Halloween when a few hundred pounds of pumpkins had rotted at the bottom of a truck. The orange goo transformed into a casserole of gray mold and dull brown sludge topped with a dose of scurrying maggots. The cleanup resulted in one of the worst afternoons of his life, complete with a wretched shovel and sopping wet work gloves. He could never go back to that job. Ever.
He ignored the memory and focused.
The Tizona hunting parties would be coming soon. He stepped to the small island’s edge where the water met the mud and plunged his hand into the cold. The clay would work as a paste. With a suction sound, he pulled up a handful of the clay and let it plop to the mud like a wad of dough, same as when Mom used to make cookies. He scooped some of the swamp water and dropped it on the pile of clay and rubbed it together. He applied it to his face and covered his uniform. Soon, the dark blue of the uniform had turned a murky brown. Sharkey had said camouflage was crucial when trying to avoid capture in an unsafe territory. Smearing this muck across his body should help.
Austin stood and felt the hardened clay crack over his skin. He took his Tizona hat off and crumpled it into his pocket. He stuck mud and moss into his hair. If they wanted to play hide and seek in the middle of a swamp, he’d play all the way.
After debating the direction of the campus, Austin figured he would head west. He wasn’t sure why, but sitting still wouldn’t help and changing direction was a bad idea. He sank knee-deep into the swamp and trudged toward the nearest set of trees. His legs caused ripples to trail across the water, disturbing the glass-like surface of the swamp. The sun cast long shadows across the wetland.
Austin moved from a group of trees to a rotting log. Movement in the swamp would become more difficult when the hunting parties searched. He glanced at the sun. They’d said the first teams would start searching that night. Ignoring his rumbling stomach and increasing dizziness, he decided to find a spot to hole up for the night. He found a fallen tree surrounded by brush and rested. He wouldn’t risk a fire, not at night. Perhaps in the morning.
He looked at the damp wood around him.
He probably couldn’t start a fire out here anyway.
Night fell as Austin dozed in and out of consciousness.
He heard a motor nearby and the splashing of a wake rippling off the trees. He didn’t move. It could have been one of the hunting parties, he thought before the weariness took him.
* * *
He woke and brushed insects from his face. The boat patrols continued for most of the night. Flashlight beams cut through the haze of the swamp. Voices echoed in the distance. Austin wondered if a student had given up or if the staff had caught one yet. He pulled moss over his head and stared into the sky. The brilliant field of stars twinkled, and he imagined he were somewhere else: a warm beach during the first part of the night. The weariness wore on, dreams infiltrating his conscious mind. He imagined being on a camping trip with Mom and Dad. It helped pass the time.
When the sun rose on his second day in the swamp, Austin decided he would shake off the chill by risking a fire. It took him a good portion of the morning to discover dry land again. After what seemed like two hours, he found another small island. He tore down the broken branches. Shivering, he worked to create a fire. His teeth chattered as he exhaled. He found a dry twig and rubbed it against bark the best way he remembered from Sharkey’s class.
By midday, a small fire burned. The smoke was light, but he didn’t care if it sent a signal to the entire coast. The warmth was intoxicating. He closed his eyes and rubbed his chest, rocking in front of the crackling fire. The smell of burning wood reminded him of a cookout: sizzling steaks dripping into the fire, hot dogs turning black. He laid on his shoulder in front of the fire and let the warmth wash over him. He glanced at the darkening sky and wondered if Skylar had made it. How many of his classmates remained in the swamp? Was he the only one left?
His heavy eyelids clamped shut, and he fell into a dreamless sleep.
When he woke, darkness had fallen over the swamp. The boat patrols made noise in the distance but seemed far away. He fought off stiff joints, rolling his head around on his neck and reaching his arms toward the sky. His back popped. His poor excuse for a fire smoldered and popped.
When he gathered strength to stand, Austin leaned against the nearest tree for several minutes. The way before him had little land or trees. The pains in his stomach intensified. He needed food and water. Tomorrow would be the third day. He wouldn’t make it a fourth without some water. He doused his fire and set off.
He spent the rest of the precious daylight heading north and northwest. As the second night fell over the swamp, Austin leaned against a moss-covered tree. He struggled to sleep. Instead, he stared at nothing for hours. The next day would decide his fate. If he found nothing to eat, he might have to give himself up. If only he had a container of some kind, something he could boil water in, he could risk drinking the swamp water. Staring at the murky brown water, he considered it a last resort.
The insects grew louder as night fell. He leaned against a tree and hoped for sleep.
That’s it, he thought. Insects.
Sharkey had droned on about the “amount of food sources available.” As he’d listed different plants and edible leaves, roots and mushrooms, as well as the nutritional value of insects of all shapes and sizes, Austin had turned out his instructor. After all, the guy had been a security chief the entire semester, and Austin was supposed to accept him as a survivalist? He shook his head.
His stomach rumbled. He opened his eyes and ran his tongue over his cracked lips. He gazed at the sky and the clouds rolling in from the west. After heading through the swamp for two days, he didn’t feel he was any closer to the campus. His body ached. His knees pounded. His sore feet had shriveled like raisins. He rubbed his arches and wondered how much farther his feet could take him.
Two boat patrols passed nearby. A light mist fell, coating everything with a thin layer of water. The cloud cover blocked the moonlight he’d had the first night. Something crawled up his arm, and he grabbed it. It felt like a cricket; tiny legs struggled between his thumb and index finger.
He had to eat something.
Imagining the cricket was covered in chocolate, Austin thrust it into his mouth and swallowed. The legs scraped against his tongue like plastic fork prongs. He gulped, and the insect slid down his throat.
“Good lord!” he said and coughed a few times.
I had better win this thing.
* * *
A short time later another boat patrol rumbled by, this time using a trolling motor Austin had seen fishermen use at Lake Allatoona. He pressed himself into the dirt and watched through the thickets. Two men stood at the front of the air boat holding bright flashlights, while another sat at the back controlling the motor. He squinted and peered through the swamp, enjoying his first good look at the boat used by the Tizona staff.
It had been an airboat with a massive fan on the back that had dropped him off here in the middle of nowhere. Austin crawled forward a bit to get a better view of the men at the front of the boat. One was tall and slender, the other shorter and muscular.
“Austin Stone! Can you hear me?” Nubern called into a megaphone.
He hesitated. Sharkey said the school would use tricks to get students to fail the Gauntlet. The goal was the campus. Anything else would be a failure.
“Austin, come on now,” Nubern said. “You’ve done well, but the contest is over.”
He pushed a branch out of the way and watched the boat drift.
“It’s time to stop. Your mother has called and needs to speak with you. I am sorry to say she is not doing well, so, please, come in the boat and we’ll take you back to the campus!”
Austin flinched at the thought of Mom being sick, but he remained silent.
“We’ll have to tell her something! If you don’t come into the boat, we’ll tell her you didn’t want to speak with her! What else can we say? Tell us!”
Austin grimaced. Nubern wouldn’t act like this.
Nubern lowered the megaphone and touched Sharkey’s shoulder. The airboat cranked, exploding through the silence. Birds fluttered through the treetops. The boat made a wide sweeping turn and traveled east. Could it be possible he was heading in the correct direction? Where else would they be going if not back to campus?
Satisfied, Austin crossed his arms over his chest and rocked. Soon, morning would come, and he would be walking on campus.
* * *
Rain soaked him to the skin and the Tizona uniform stuck to his body. The mud paste he’d smeared over his body the first day had washed off. After eating two more crickets, Austin set off in the rain. Water collected on nearby leaves, so he was able to drink. He felt tired but strong. He hadn’t felt like this since Mom and Dad took him to a baseball tournament in Knoxville when he was in eighth grade. By the time he’d played his seventh game of the weekend, he had struggled to lift the bat.
Boat patrols intensified. Once he had to drop into the water when dry land was not close enough. His knees plunged into the mush of the swamp floor. He leaned his head back, so only his face was visible. With some luck, the patrol didn’t stop. He pressed onward toward the campus. It had to be close, just a little farther to the west. To keep his mind off potential encounters with snakes, alligators, and whatever else the swamp could throw at him, he imagined telling Mom he’d passed the first semester with honors. He could hear the sound of her voice, the excitement building with each step of the story. Or perhaps meeting Kadyn in Savannah for a coffee, talking about all the experiences of their first semester in college. His semester has probably been much different than hers.
As he pushed aside a fresh layer of green scum floating in his path, his head spun. He leaned against a tree and peered westward. The campus had to be close. How much farther could it be? The night he was taken from campus, the boat had traveled maybe ten minutes, at most twenty. He turned around, a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was he going the wrong way? Could campus have been east?
He plopped down on the best excuse he found for dry land. His rear sunk into the mud, and he collapsed on his back. He needed to rest. Whatever energy he had gathered from eating insects and drinking muddy water off leaves had passed. It felt like the land moved beneath him.
The sky turned an ashy gray. Soon, the light would be gone and the third day would be over. He dragged himself through the mud to a rotten stump. He lay down and rested his head. If he died out here, would they even notice? Would anyone at Tizona even care?
He lifted his hand and dropped it again into the mud. He wondered if he could rise again. If a patrol passed tonight, he might have to call out.
No, he was going to finish this thing. Campus had to be west. If he just rested a minute, he would be able to continue.
* * *
Two air boats passed nearby, beams of light shooting from their flashlights like lasers in the darkness. The swamp sent off steam and gasses like a sauna. Austin’s fingertips had pruned so badly, his skin was peeling.
“Austin! Your mother wasn’t too happy you decided not to check on her!”
He sighed and sank into the mud. Not this again.
He crawled forward. Each movement felt like the last, but he forced his body forward. When he thought he couldn’t manage much more, he convinced himself one more thrust would take him to the campus, just one more.
The air boats whined around him like mosquitoes, but he stayed so low to the ground he figured they wouldn’t be able to see him unless they were right on top of him.
“The Gauntlet is over, Austin!” Nubern yelled. “Please, give it up! It’s time to stop. You are endangering the rest of your classmates.”
No, I’m not. I’ll keep going.
Despite the darkness, he slid through the mud and into the water. His muscles burned. He reached his foot down to rest on the bottom of the swamp floor but felt nothing. Where was the bottom? He moved his foot in search of solid soil. The water was too deep.
He pressed on, swimming in the same direction. There had to be something up ahead.
The impact shocked him, his face crashing into crumbling bark. Pain flashed, and he cried out. The salty taste of blood filled his mouth, clashing with the bitterness of the swamp water. Reaching with all his strength, he plunged his finger nails into the rotting tree and kept his head above water.
“Austin Stone!” a different voice echoed in the swamp. “This is President Pierce. The Gauntlet test has gone on long enough. You have the entire staff worried. Your mother is terrified, and all the other students have quit. If you do not turn yourself in soon, you will be left out here.”
He smiled. There’s no way they would do that.
“Come in and get a hot meal.”
Austin lowered his head. I am going to get to campus.
“Austin, it’s Nubern,” he said. “We are going to have to go back. We won’t be back until morning. We just found Skylar a little while ago.”
He perked up.
“It’s, uh, it’s not good, Austin. She’s banged up. You two were the only ones left out here and, well, she’s hurt too bad for us to wait. If you delay us any longer, it could be bad for her. We need to get her to a hospital.”
Austin thought of Skylar in pain, thought of the possibility of being responsible for something happening to her. She had always been there for him since he’d arrived, his only true friend.
“I guess you’re willing to take that chance! We’re leaving!”
Austin cleared his throat and spit swamp water out. “Wait! Wait! I’m here! I’m over here!”
The beams found him. Austin squinted at the blinding light. Two boats used trolling motors to flank him. Austin loosened his claw grip on the tree stump and reached for the boat. Nubern stood over him, a pleased look on his face.
“Gotcha.”
Nubern pulled him from the water. Austin collapsed onto the floor. His body fell limp, and he struggled to turn over. When he did so, he stared at the boat’s passengers.
There, at the end of the boat, sat Skylar in a muddied Tizona uniform, her cheeks wet with tears. She had no visible injuries, no reason to go to the hospital.
She mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”
Nubern nudged Austin with his boot. “We get everyone eventually, Stone, sooner or later. You did well. You were the last one we picked up. Need to work on your sense of direction, though. You went the farthest away from the campus of any other student.” He turned to Sharkey. “Let’s head back to campus, Chief.”
Austin gazed into the featureless sky as the air boat’s engines rumbled to life.
11
Austin pulled the Trident starboard toward his targets. Three Tyral Pirates exited the asteroid field, heading away from him.
“I don’t think they see us, yet,” he said into his headset.
“Right behind you,” Skylar’s voice came back.
Austin eased more power into his engines and keyed for missile activation. He smiled. I wish I had one of these simulators at home.
When they reached firing distance, the three pirate fighters broke formation. Two veered left and the other upward. Austin stayed on the pair, achieved missile lock, and squeezed the trigger. The missile shot forward from underneath his left wing and zipped toward his target. The pirate fighter tried in vain to evade, but the missile soon found its mark. Through the view screen on his right, the enemy craft burned, spinning for a moment before it exploded.
Austin turned his attention to the other fighter, but Skylar had moved past him, zeroing in for the kill. As he moved in on her wing, he glanced at the sensors for the third pirate who had broken off at the beginning of the engagement. The ship parked behind some of the stray asteroids to avoid detection.
This artificial intelligence is awesome.
“Hurry up and finish him,” he said, adjusting his course to stay on Skylar’s wing. “We’ve got a lurker nearby.”
“Got it.”
Laser fire spit from Skylar’s Trident, sending burning flashes across the darkness. Most of the fire found its mark, sizzling on the pirate’s rear shields. Austin glanced at his sensors as the pirate’s rear shields collapsed.
“Finish him!”
The pirate slowed, escaping Skylar’s field of fire. Austin remained farther behind and in a better position to counter the pirate’s move. He squeezed the trigger. The fighter exploded instantly, filling his view with a fiery wreck.
“Hey! That was mine!”
He shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t want him getting away.”
“Next one’s mine.”
“You got it.”
Skylar shot in front of him, her engines at full burn. The last remaining Tyral Pirate headed back into the asteroid field.
“We don’t want to lose him in here,” Austin said, dipping under a large asteroid. “This thing’s dense.”
“I know. Never liked ‘roids.”
He couldn’t stay too close to Skylar without risking a collision, so he backed off, deciding instead to keep a track on their little friend. The pirate was good, weaving in and out of the asteroids.
Skylar grunted. “I can’t get a lock. I’m switching to guns.”
She fired into the asteroid field, shattering some rocks. The pirate veered off toward a massive asteroid. They pursued, but the pirate extended the distance.
“We don’t want to lose him,” Austin said.
“No, really?”
The pirate ducked behind the top side of the asteroid. Ahead of Austin, Skylar adjusted her course to the lower pole, apparently anticipating the pirate would come out the other end. He backed off and slowed his engines. After stealing her kill outside of the asteroid field, he better let her have this one or he would never hear the end of it.
