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?? CHAPTER 29 ??
Ryle
The flooding has begun. I can hear rushing water, distant though it is, muffled by the soft patter of rain. I can smell the changes in the air. It is coming. I have to get her out of here. There truly is no time left. We may not make it as it is.
She wakes as I lift her. “No more,” I say. “We go.”
“But-”
I press my lips to hers, cutting off her protests. I care for her so much. More than the mating bond can account for. If I have to, I'll bind her and carry her to the caves.
But, bless this planet, it doesn’t come to that. A voice booms over the ship’s comms. “We’re ready.” It’s the soft-spoken male human, Arjun.
I let Maysee get to her feet, and I gather her things. We rush for the bridge; she speaks so quickly that I can’t catch all the words. She’s relieved, though, as relieved as I am.
Our relief is short-lived. When we reach the bridge, Arjun stands in the doorway, and Faith lies unconscious in the captain’s seat inside.
“What did you do?” Maysee demands.
“Viv helped me. Those white berries,” Arjun says, “Viv powdered some and gave it to me. I mixed it with some melatonin and a shot of bourbon, and here we are.”
He could have killed her, the foolish human. But, I understand. I was prepared to do something drastic to get Maysee to the caves myself. I would do anything it took.
“I will carry her,” I say. “Do you have your things?” He gestures at two packs near Faith’s feet.
“I, uh, I should show you, though,” Arjun says, backing away from us into the bridge. “Look. I think... I don’t know how much time we have.” He gestures at a screen. It displays a warped 360 degree view around the ship - the cliff and the sea in one direction, the forest in another. And in the distance, in the forest, a storm rages.
Can we outrun this?
I won’t carry Faith and leave Maysee to the floods. I won’t.
“Are we too late?” Arjun asks. “Did we wait too long?” He takes fistfuls of his hair and holds tight. “Shit. I shouldn’t have let her keep working. We should have gone with Tess and Stella. Shit!”
Maysee places a hand on my arm. “Look.” She points to the cliff. There’s a large human vehicle there, made for pushing dirt. “The bulldozer. We couldn’t figure out how to get it down the cliff. Stella was working on it. But maybe...”
I cut her off. “I will try.”
I run. The rain is just a light mist now, but the ground is damp. Getting muddy. I skid to a halt in front of the human Bull Dozer. Whatever that means. I find the ignition easily enough and turn it on, but it does us no good up here. We need to lower it down the cliffs to the beach. The walking path is too thin, though, just as the humans said. Not only that, it’s getting muddy. Unstable. It’s going to be treacherous for us, nevermind a massive construction vehicle.
I peer over the cliff. It’s far. And sheer. A straight-down drop.
I examine the Bull Dozer. It seems well constructed. Sturdy. It has to be, to do the work its designed for.
Did the humans ever consider just... tipping it over?
I open the too-tiny door and push my hand to the acceleration pedal. I guide the Dozer to the edge of the cliff.
There’s no time to try anything else. No better options. No options at all. “Hold together,” I tell it. And slowly, I inch it forward.
When it begins to tip, I rush behind it. I grab the back bumper and dig in my heels. Slowly, I slide. Anything I can do to slow its descent, to carefully drop it rather than let it hurtle the full distance to the ground, I’m willing to try.
The further it tips, the more my arms strain with the weight of it. Still I hold, and slide a bit further, and hold. My fingers grow numb and my neck and back ache, but I will get this thing over as slowly as I can.
Finally, it’s dangling over the edge, with only me holding its weight. None of its tracks remain on the ground. With one last plea to the planet itself - “Please don’t break it” - I release the bumper and let it fall.
It makes a horrible crunching sound when it hits the ground, sending a wave of sand up into the air. Glass breaks. Metal screeches. The Dozer rolls once, twice, teeters just at the edge of the high tide. “Stop, stop, stop,” I plea under my breath.
It settles upright. I punch the air in victory.
