James Axler – Rat King

from her fellow valley dwellers, her eyes flashing loathing from within the

shadows.

Tod looked up to the skies and sniffed. “I’d say we better get across real soon.

There’s a change in the air, and we don’t want to get caught out here when it

happens.”

Mac nodded. “Okay. You and Tilly get across and stand guard on the insiders as

they come across.”

Ryan watched with interest as both Tilly and Tod crossed the divide. The ragged

woman was no surprise, bounding across the three-yard gap in the chasm with a

lightness of foot and a grace that landed her safely on the other side. Tod, on

the other hand, was a revelation. Despite his height, considerable bulk and the

size and weight of his homemade blaster, Tod made the leap look like a step into

the void, covering the distance with ease.

“Your turn,” Mac said when Tod and Tilly were facing them across the gap, the

annoying grate of humor returning to his voice.

“Me first,” Jak said simply. He took a short run and launched himself into

space, arms and legs bicycling to gain those precious few extra inches. He

landed on the other side with a puff of dust around his feet.

Ryan looked around at his companions.

“I’ll go next, lover,” Krysty said, looking less than enthusiastic. She psyched

herself up by taking deep breaths, calling on Gaia to give her the strength to

propel herself across the gap.

Her concentration was so intense that she didn’t even realize that she had made

the run-up until she was in midair, sailing across the divide. Her limbs felt

weightless, buoyed by the air currents around and beneath her.

It was a feeling so exhilarating that she was almost sorry when she touched down

delicately on the other side. But almost immediately her strength felt

completely sapped, her limbs heavy. She collapsed into a heap as Jak rushed to

her.

He was stopped by a knife that thudded into the dry, hard ground at his feet.

“Leave her, or the next one is in your guts, red-eye.”

Jak stared across at Tilly with the eye of one who was keeping the score, but he

held his tongue and stayed where he was.

On the far side Dean chewed his lip. He was younger than the rest, in some ways

fitter. But he was still growing, his frame sometimes outreaching the strength

of his musculature. It would be a real test of his stamina and ability to get

across.

“Let me go next,” he said. And before Ryan could say a word, Dean ran to the

edge of the chasm with measured strides, flexing his knees and getting as much

spring as he could into his leap.

As he flew through the air, he could feel his lungs almost burst with the effort

and the amount of oxygen he had taken into his body.

As he began to dip, he knew it wasn’t quite enough.

On the other side, Jak could see the slight decline in Dean’s flight and knew

the youngster was hitting trouble.

Dean knew that he wouldn’t quite make it. He flung out his arms to grasp at the

loose dirt on the edge of the chasm as he slammed into the rock-studded wall.

His fingers grappled for purchase as the showers of dirt flew into his eyes,

mingling with the sweat of exertion and fear that made it hard to see what he

was doing. He moved his feet, frantically searching for some kind of foothold

from which to propel himself up.

The rocks under his toes moved as he put the slightest pressure on them,

slipping free from the earth and thudding into the darkness, setting off

mini-earth slips. The sounds echoed and receded into the distance below, a

darkness Dean dared not look down on as the cold, dry earth scored his cheek. He

was losing ground, slipping down farmer until…

It seemed like an eternity to the youth, but it was only a couple of seconds. A

couple of seconds in which Jak would pluck him out of trouble. Ignoring Tilly’s

sore-throated roar to stay where he was, and taking no note of the badly thrown