[Danny]

i decided to post the latest chapter separately, since i don't know how many people saw it on the old boards, and people wouldn't notice it in that big block of text.

CHAPTER 18

“He’s coming round. Look, his eyes are opening.”

“Rettick? Are you alright?”

Rettick opened his eyes to see the concerned face of Tillyn and the ever-stony face of Gormanul looking down on him. He sat up, and passed out again.

When he came round again, he sat up more slowly, and looked around. Drak was still out cold on the floor. Volt lay on a stretcher beside the mangled remains of his wings. One of his arms was twisted at an unnatural angle. Briori sat beside Volt, holding a medikit. Lork had apparently awoken from whatever it was Volt had injected into him, and was standing at the doorway of the flyer trying not to look at anyone.

Rettick tried to speak, but his mouth was too dry. “Where…”

“Greeb’s gone off to scout out the area with Nad and Frag. They won’t be long.”

Rettick looked down at Volt. “He…”

Tillyn followed his gaze. “He’ll live, if any of us do. His wings were damaged irreparably, but they seem to have protected him from the impact.”

Impact? thought Rettick Oh Shit, that’s right, we crashed, didn’t we. Crap.

He looked at his surroundings. The interior of the flyer was smashed up, but the hull seemed mostly intact. Remarkably, the See-Thru™ Windows had survived the impact. The lights had gone out, and he wondered why he could still see, as he’d always been told that mo light reached the ground in the forest. A quick glance out of the open door gave him his answer. They’d never reached the ground; they’d hit one of the huge upper branches. The one they’d landed on was easily as wide as the Flyer Hangar in the factory, and he could see other branches that looked even larger. He’d never believed what he’d been told about the scale of the forest until now.

Greeb popped his head round the door. “How’d you like your Giant Bugs?” he said, holding up a scorpion almost as big as him, “Boiled or Fried? Or Raw, which is all we’ve got.”

Tillyn looked dubiously at the scorpion. “How do we know that thing’s not poisonous?”

Greeb grinned. “We saw a small furry creature eating one. That reminds me, how’d you like your Small Furry Creatures? Baked or Grilled?”

Tillyn sighed. “Raw’ll do me.”

“That’s good, because that’s –”

“– All you’ve got. We know.”

Briori looked up at Greeb. “Why are you so cheerful, anyway?”

Greeb sighed. “You and Lork don’t know this, but I didn’t actually have a jon at the factory I used to work at Rupture Farms. I loved my job. I was the Security Gate Operator, so I got to sleep a lot. When the place closed down, I realised I’d been presumed dead, so I took the advantage, and stowed away in crates to the Factory, because it’s far away from Cartel Central. It’s closer to the Wild Lands and the Great Forest. That’s why I chose Grozit’s factory: because I wanted to explore unknown places; I didn’t want to be cooped up in a factory all the time.” Greeb sighed again, “Well, I haven’t had much chance so far.” His eyes lit up. “This is my chance! We have the opportunity to actually live in the Forest!”

Lork turned from the doorway. “Live here? You’re crazy! Fuck it, we’re gonna Die here! There are hundreds of creatures out there who’d love to make a good meal out of you or me! This place just isn’t safe for us, we belong back in civilisation!”

Greeb suddenly became angry. “You call the Cartel Civilisation? Even this place is more civilised than back there! Things may kill and eat us, but they never mean it personally, they need to kill to survive.” He advanced on Lork. “Back there, the Glukkons enslave us, humiliate us, and torture us, and that is worse than death. And do they need to? No! They wouldn’t all die if they just gave us some rights, would they? And what about the other slaves: the Mudokons had the right idea. Just kill them all!”

Lork drew himself up to his impressive full height, which was almost twice that or Greeb. “You’re insane! If it wasn’t for the Glukkons we’d still be crawling around on our fucking hands!”

Incensed, Greeb swung a fist up at Lork’s face. It was a futile gesture, as Lork caught his fist easily in one hand. Lork raised his fist to return the blow, but stopped. He was staring at Greeb’s upper right arm. Greeb followed Lork’s eyes, until he was staring at his own SRM tattoo.

Lork looked Greeb in the eyes. “You, you’re one of these Revolutionary nutters, aren’t you?”

Tillyn stepped forward. “In fact, he was our leader.”

Lork looked between Greeb, Tillyn, Rettick, and Gormanul, in a state of rising panic. “Your leader?”

Briori looked around in confusion. “What’s going on?”

Lork indicated the others. “We’re surrounded by these crazy revolutionaries!”

Briori sighed. “Do you really think it makes much difference out here?”

Rettick stood up, staggering a little. “Exactly! This argument is pointless. I can understand how you feel about the Cartel, Greeb, but I can also sympathise with you, Lork. I think we need to get out of here, if only because we have a duty to those we left behind in the factory to give them the same freedom we have.”

Lork put Greeb down. “So where do you think we should go, then?”

“Well, we can’t stay here, that’s for sure. Despite what Greeb says, we won’t survive here for long. But neither can we return to the Cartel. Lork, surely you’re clever enough to work out that, if they send us out into the forest with faulty rifles and only enough fuel to get us out here, then they probably don’t want us back. I’m guessing we’re all troublemakers in some way, and Grozit used this as an opportunity to get rid of us. If we did get back there, they’d probably just execute us.”

Greeb looked up. “Well, where then?”

“I’ve been thinking about this since we left the Factory.” Rettick took a deep breath. “We have to go to the Mudokons.”

Lork snorted and turned his back on Rettick. Greeb and Briori stared at him in disbelief. Even Tillyn seemed slightly disappointed, although Gormanul was his usual stoic self.

Greeb was the first to speak. “The mudokons? Are you sure? After all we’ve done to them in the name of the Cartel? They hate us!”

Lork half-turned back. “And we hate them.”

Rettick insisted. “No, listen. They hate the Cartel more than they hate us. They probably know we’re as much slaves as they are. If we joined them in an attack on the factory, it would prove to them that we are their allies.”

Lork turned and approached Rettick. “I don’t think you quite heard me. We. Hate. Them.”

“Hate them or not, we’ll never survive without them. We can’t go back, as I’ve explained. The only other option is to survive alone in the wild, and do you really think we would survive long? It’s a long time since our race lived in the wild, and we’re not suited to it any more. We’d never survive without weapons.”

Tillyn spoke up. “But do you really think we can overcome centuries of hatred between us and the Mudokons? I don’t think they’ll accept us, and I’m sure there are many like Lork who’d never accept them.”

“And I think we could learn to survive out here,” said Greeb, “The mudokons lived under the thumb of the Glukkons for centuries, and they’ve learned to cope. We could do the same.”

“The Mudokons had the help of the native mudokons to learn how to cope in the wild.” Rettick became angry. “Don’t you see? Unless we’re going to cross the fucking Ocean to find our own people, the mudokons are the only people who can help us to adapt! Now, I’m leaving first thing tomorrow, to try and find my way out, to the mudokons. You people can do what you like, but if you’ve any sense, you’ll come with me.”

There was an embarrassed silence.

Tillyn raised his hand. “I’m with you.”

Gormanul followed suit. Hesitantly, Greeb and Briori raised their hands. Lork looked at the others and snorted, leaving the flyer in disgust. The others looked to Rettick, who followed Lork outside.

As he approached Lork, he realised that they were, indeed, on a high branch, and that it was even wider than he’d thought.

“Lork, why are you so averse to the idea of joining the mudokons?”

Lork tensed up a little at the first words, then relaxed a little.

“The process of turning sligs into Bigbros is not permanent. Unless we receive doses of steroids once every three days, we return to normal. The pain –” Lork tensed again “– The pain of this is agonising, and we become very tense and aggressive. It’s happened to me before, once. I was trapped behind one of the melting pots. No one noticed I was gone until four days later, and it took another two to find me.” He turned to Rettick. “I have two shots left. That’ll last me about a week. After that, unless we get back to the factory, I’ll start the change. And I don’t know about Briori and Frag. They might have even less doses than I do.”

Rettick said nothing for a while. “If we do get out of the forest, and join the mudokons, we can steal more steroids from the factory. Especially if we attack.”

Lork looked at him. “I just hope I last that long.”

Rettick nodded towards the flyer. “Let’s get inside. It’s getting cold.”

Everyone was looking at them as they entered, but they said nothing. There was another embarrassed silence. Rettick cleared his throat.

“Were Nad and Frag far behind when you returned, Greeb?”

Greeb shook his head. “Not really, they should be back soon.”

“How did you ever persuade Nad to go out there? He seemed scared out of his wits just by being here.”

“Someone ,” Greeb shot a look at Lork “told him that if we didn’t catch any food, he’d be the first to be eaten.”

Lork drew himself up. “It got him out there, didn’t –”

Rettick stood up. “Guys, I said that to lower the tension, not raise it! Let’s get some sleep. We leave first thing in the morning, right?” He looked at Lork, who said nothing. “Right?”

Lork slowly nodded.

Tillyn spoke up. “I’ll take first watch. When Frag and Nad get back I’ll fill them in.”

“Right”

They fell into an uneasy sleep.