Chapter 2: Surprise, Surprise

Tuesday Oct 25^th, 5:00am

I rouse from sleep before the Sun. I unfasten the straps that keep the door flap tied, roll back the leather buckskin material, and sit halfway out of my temp shelter to look at the sky. I can tell by the positioning of the Moons that the Sun will not wake for about two more hours.

I lay back down and try to rest for a little while longer. I can’t. I’m too anxious, too eager for the trip ahead.

Mud Hoppers are bound to be roaming about the stretch I must traverse. They often attack lone travelers and stragglers…easy pickings. The government knows there is a chance I won’t reach my assignment. They don’t care. They’ll just send someone else. Some 16-year-old straight out of training.

We really don’t know a whole lot about Hoppers yet. We don’t know how they got here. We don’t know how they think. None have been caught alive, and we’ve never been able to locate any of their technology. We’ve never even found their homes or base area. None of the City Governments want to risk their own citizens in such a dangerous search.

We do know that Hoppers don’t fight with weapons. They attack only with their claws and teeth. They typically aim for the throat. In just a few bites, they can have a person’s head completely severed from their body. They can jump forward about six feet and will sometimes throw themselves directly at their opponent to knock them on the ground. From there it’s an easy shot at the neck.

But honestly, it’s not that I dread what lies ahead. I mean, it would be a shame to leave my parents without a child…but now that I have been assigned to the troupes, this is my destiny. I will likely die with my throat in the jaws of a Hopper anyway, be it now or later. It isn’t so much the dreadful possibilities that keeps me awake. It’s the not knowing. The anticipation.

I could die. Which wouldn’t make much of a difference to me, I suppose, since I’d be dead. Or I could kill my first Mud Hopper. Or maybe a couple of Hoppers. I could distinguish myself from other troupsemen? Start making a name for myself. And as a small-framed light skin who didn’t join the troupes until after spending my first few years of Adulthood in a different assignment…well, that’d really be somethin’. I have a lot to prove. And I’m ready to prove it.

I will fight for the People. I will fight for my loved ones. And I will fight for myself.

6:00am

The Second Moon has long passed the First and is finally leaving its friend in the sky once again. The First sits far to the North East, but won’t sink into the eastern horizon until the Sun is above the western. I’ve heard it said that in the Days Before, Earth had only one moon. That the First Moon, the Silver Moon, was the only light of night; and that the Second Moon, the Golden Moon, is basically just a large piece of debris that got pulled into orbit by the planet’s gravity during the Destruction. I don’t know if that’s fact or legend, but I can’t imagine a night without both.

I’m running out of these idle musings to keep me still. More sleep would be beneficial, but I can’t sleep, so I might as well head out. As quietly as I can, so as to not rob my hosts of that precious last hour of sleep, I pack my things and fetch Angeles. I’m still strapping my bags to him when one of the women emerges from her shelter. I give her the things they’ve let me borrow and thank her for their hospitality.

And then, I’m off.

12:30pm

The Sun is directly overhead and I’m about a quarter of the way to where my new troupe is stationed. I pull Angeles to a stop to compare my compass and map. I think I’m still going in the right direction…..I think. Hell, how can ya tell? There are NO landmarks out here. I’m on a stretch devoid even of the unimpressive shrubbery of the Outlands. It’s all sand.

It should be pretty straight forward. Straight northeast for a while, then straight north. But if I incorrectly calculate when I need to turn, I could be too far east by time I’m supposed to reach Awmutto Outpost. And if I go too far, I won’t even be able to see it.

I sigh as I survey the landscape from under the brim of my hat. I can’t see anything but the ground and the sky and…

And wait. Is that a cloud of sand in the distance? There is no wind today. Nothing to stir up dust. Nothing but…

I grab my binoculars from a coat pocket and tip my hat back a bit. It takes me a second to focus, and when I do, at first I only see the dust as it settles back to the ground. And then I see something on the ground.

As it rises, my heart dives into my stomach and adrenaline shoots through my viens.

It has a humanoid torso and limbs, but definitely isn’t human. It rises from a crouching position but can’t fully straighten its long, thin, yellow legs, which I know are connected to webbed, frog-like feet. Its gnarled yellow hands are close in front of it, its long black claws resting together. Even through my binoculars I can see drool dripping out beneath the long fangs on each side of two jagged teeth. And above them, I see huge, black eyes….staring in my direction.

Angeles must see it too. He starts nervously prancing about and I try to calm him. And myself. “It’s okay. We got this. This is what we were trained for. We know what to do. It’s okay.”

Slightly shaking, I shove my binoculars back into my pocket and pull out my gun.

It hops forward a couple of times, and now I can clearly see its outline on the horizon without the binoculars. Then another one hops forward to its left. And still another to the right.

I wait to see if there are any more. They’ve learned from past encounters that if a human has a gun, the human has the advantage over them. Thus, if there are three or less in the scouting party and one falls dead, the others will scatter. If there are four or more and one falls dead, the rest will rush forward and attack. If there is a large group, my only hope is to run, as I know Angeles is more than ready to do.

I let them come a few hops closer before I try to aim. Angeles is too anxious to stay still.

Bang. Sand flies up just beside the middle Hopper, but doesn’t phase it. Bang. The second one hits it right in the chest! It drops dead! Without even thinking, I let out a YEAH! I’m so elated, it’s all I can do to refocus myself so I can take out another one as they flee…

But, wait. They aren’t turning back. They just stand as high as their legs allow and stare at me, as if waiting. As if anticipating something.

As Angeles trots in a nervous circle I glance around to see if there are more coming from behind me.

Nothing.

I start to panic. I was the top of my class in training. What did I miss? Or what am I forgetting?

Angeles senses it before I do. He turns suddenly and bucks. His front legs aren’t quite back on the ground when it hits me. All of its weight, from the front left, knocking me off onto the sand. Its hands pin my shoulders to the ground, the claws on its thumbs piercing the skin at the bottom of my neck on each side.  Its legs straddle mine as it sits on my thighs, making it impossible for me to move them. Although the fall knocked the wind out of me I somehow managed to grab both hands around its neck, and it’s all I can do to tighten my grip and hold its head away from my throat as I gasp for air. Saliva falls onto my cheek and runs down the side of my face as I stare back at my own reflection in each of its large, black eyes.