Chapter Seven: Damian Freeman
Never in my life had I thought I'd want to leave another human being to die. Dr. Miles proved me wrong, very very wrong. Her incessant whining and ceaseless complaining strongly made me want to drag her back and throw her back into the hole I found her in. It had been two long hours since I found her, two and a half hours since I had left what was left of the ship, her constant whining and demands to rest or set her down made the short journey much longer than it needed to be. From where I stood, I could see that while it was heavily damaged from the crash, the ship was still partially intact. That meant there was at least a slight hope of survival or even better, escape. The comm satellite stashed amongst the propulsion jets on the rear of the ship could be launched into orbit and we could send an S.O.S. to Earth, as well as gain access to GPS, which could prove invaluable. My attitude fell once more when Dr. Miles said she needed to rest. Again.
"Sure, you can sit down and catch up with me later"
She let out an exasperated sigh as she kept hobbling forward with my support. Dr. Miles had started to list off her many reasons why she thought she was better than me when I heard it, someone shouting nearby.
"Shut up!" I snapped.
She stopped talking, offended, but she closed her mouth before saying anything and I could tell she heard it too,
"Get off the ground! You're in danger!"
It was Victor out other scientist, and he was twenty feet off the ground, sitting awkwardly on a tree limb on the edge of the forest. I quickly glanced around looking for something to climb on, but the nearest thing to us was the very tree Victor currently sat in. I turned around again to scan our surroundings when I saw a mound of grass begin shifting as something beneath the ground started to move in our direction and I jumped in surprise. Without hesitation, I grabbed Dr. Miles by her good leg and picked her up in a fireman's carry. I took off running as fast and hard as I could in the direction of the trees, as we neared the treeline, I saw several more underground shapes begin to shift, giving chase. I jumped and threw Dr. Miles up and onto a tree branch, which she gripped onto and held herself to. I ran up the trunk and swung myself onto a higher branch before averting my attention back to the ground. I watched in horror as several mouths swung around, searching for the prey that had so narrowly evaded them. After a minute of searching to no avail, the creatures slowly sank back into the ground, disappearing entirely. I reached for the radio on my belt to contact the Lieutenant. Two things happened at once, I felt empty space where my radio had been, and I saw it sitting about 50 feet out in the field. My Radio.
Dr. Miles saw my gaze and followed my gaze before she decided to make our situation worse by running her mouth,
"Not much of a rescue, now is it?"
I nearly threw her out of the tree at that moment, but stopped only because her expertise could mean the difference between life and death out here. I carefully snapped a branch of the tree and thrust it to my left, then I launched out of the tree, rolling as I hit the ground, which allowed me to come up sprinting and I took off, sprinting right towards the ship.
I didn't know exactly how fast the worms could move, but I sprinted long and hard before I reached the ship. A pit filled my stomach as I stood frozen at the edge of the wreckage. The camp was empty, there wasn't anybody in sight.
Twice had the worms nearly caught me on my desperate scramble back to the other two survivors. I climbed the tree that didn't contain the doctor and found myself a space to sit down next to Viktor, keeping my distance from Dr. Miles to avoid throwing her to the wolves, or worms in this case. I snapped a dead branch of the tree and it popped loose unexpectedly, jamming my shin, tearing a hole in my pants and drawing blood. I swore and threw it angrily, watching as it stuck into the dirt, sticking straight up in the air.
Suddenly, that gave me an idea. I snapped off another one, pulling out my combat knife and getting to work on my new plan. After I had whittled four spears and explained my plan to Victor, we got ready to act. We would drop down and stab the worms, using the first two spears to keep sight of them and the second two to finish them off.
I tossed down a small stick and one of the worms moved to investigate; revealing to us its location. We sprung from our tree, using the gravity to our advantage and sinking both spears into the worm. We immediately jammed our second two into the worm, making sure to keep hold as it thrashed wildly before speeding off with our first two spears lodged in its hide, the other three worms were in close pursuit. Victor and I shouted victoriously at the fleeing creatures before helping a quiet Dr. Miles out of the tree.
" Maybe you aren't half incompetent after all" she remarked.
I knew that was the closest thing to a compliment we were ever going to get from her, so I accepted it.