The Changelings Part 19

I jerked upright into a sitting position, yelling "Tony! Get up!" I scooted as far away from the lump of clothed somebody as I could and rammed right into Tony's still half-asleep form.

"Ow! What?"

"Get up. Something's here."

Tony sat up quickly, pus.h.i.+ng his knotted hair to the side and scrubbing his eyes and face to wake himself up more fully. He squinted at the lump, trying to focus. "Who or what is that?" he asked, cautiously.

I stared at it but didn't notice any distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics. We couldn't see its face the way it was lying there. And out here, it was possible the thing didn't even have a face. I stood slowly, backing away as quietly as I could.

Tony did the same.

After we were a few feet away, I felt more comfortable. "I'm gonna poke it with my stick. You get ready with your axe."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea, Jayne."

"Do you have a better one?"

"Yeah. Let's leave it alone and go."

I thought about the communication with the trees I'd had, before I went to sleep last night. I was sure they wouldn't have let something malicious get through to us; so that had to mean that this thing, whatever it was, wasn't planning to cause any trouble. At least, it wasn't planning to last night.

"I'm just gonna try to wake it up. I won't hurt it."

I took Blackie in hand and tiptoed over to the pile of clothes. I gingerly touched it with the blunt end of my stick, nudging it just a little.

"Hey. You. Get up."

Nothing. No response.

I poked a little harder.

"Yo! Wake up!"

"Uhhhhnnnmmm ... "

I looked at Tony. That groan sounded suspiciously human. It sounded a little bit like ...

Tony walked over, crouching over the figure on the ground. "Becky?"

"Uhhhnnmm ... "

"Holy s.h.i.+t!" he said, his face going white.

I jumped to Becky's other side, pulling on her shoulder to turn her over.

Her face was covered in bruises and scratches. She had dried blood caked around her mouth and nose. Both of her eyes were blackened and swollen.

"s.h.i.+t, Becky, what the h.e.l.l happened to you?" I wanted to help but I was afraid to even touch her. If her face was this bad, I could only imagine what the rest of her was like. She looked like she'd been run over by a truck.

"Jayne?" she asked weakly, not opening her eyes.

"Yeah, it's Jayne and Tony." I looked up at Tony. "Get her some water."

Tony ran over to our packs and brought back a bottle.

"Here, Becky, drink this water." I tipped the containter up to her mouth, forcing her to take small sips.

Her eyes fluttered a little as she tried to open them. She could only get them to open a slit. I could see that the whites of her eyes were b.l.o.o.d.y-looking too. Someone had really done a number on her.

I had a million questions and they all started pouring out of me at once. "Can you tell us what happened? And where are the others? Are they okay? How did you find us?" I stopped when I felt Tony's hand on my arm, telling me to shut the h.e.l.l up.

"Sit me up," groaned Becky. "I want to get up a please."

Tony and I helped her upright. She sat there, hunched over for a minute, either gathering her strength or just unable to move anymore, I couldn't tell which. I was amazed she was even able to do that much. I know if someone had kicked my a.s.s that bad, I'd be on my back for at least a week, demanding ice cream and cookies every half hour. Even out here I'd do that.

"We were attacked when it got dark. Jared got away. I saw him run before I got hit the first time. Finn ... " She couldn't finish. She started to cry. The tears slid down her cheeks, silently, making salty paths down her dirty red and purple skin.

I looked at Tony. I was afraid from her reaction that Finn hadn't made it a that he'd been killed. I couldn't believe someone we came here with might not be going back. It was too ridiculously awful to even consider.

"Did you see Chase or Spike?" I asked gently. I didn't want to push her, but I needed to know.

"I ran away. I saw Finn go down, but when I left, Spike and Chase were still there, still fighting. They were back to back." The sobs shook her body now.

I rubbed her shoulder gently, making whatever comforting noises I could think of.

"I feel so guilty that I left them there. And Finn ... "

Tony tried to make her feel better. "You had to leave. It sounds like you were outnumbered. You have to take care of yourself in this place."

She snorted, sounding both bewildered and angry. "Outnumbered? Ha! That's a joke. It was the five of us against one."

"One what?" I asked. Tony and I already knew that a single certain type of creature could be like ten normal people.

"I don't even know what it was. It was there and not there, too fast to watch. You never knew where it was going to show up next. It kept appearing, hitting me, tripping me, slapping me down. I had my knife but I don't think I even got a single nick on the thing."

"Did you see what it looked like?" I asked. I wanted a description, thinking maybe there was a way the trees could help us.

"Not really. It was a man. Maybe just a boy. He was small, not much bigger than me. I saw him standing in front of me for barely a second. He, or it, looked angry. I'm not sure why a it's not like we challenged it or did anything. One minute we were setting up camp, the next minute we were getting our b.u.t.ts kicked."

"What happened with Finn?" I asked softly, waiting for more tears.

She took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled strongly. "He had his bow and arrows out. The thing was attacking Spike, and Finn let one of the arrows go. The thing turned around fast, and actually caught the arrow in its hand, in mid-flight. Then, in a flash it appeared in front of Finn and jabbed the arrow into his chest." She stopped talking and dropped her face into her hands, hissing at the pain she caused herself. "Ow, that frigging hurts." And then she started crying again.

Tony rubbed her back while I stood, pacing in front of them.

"What do we do now? Go find them? Or continue our search for the next waypoint? This is so messed up; I don't have any idea what we should be doing right now. Doublef.u.c.k!" My pacing was helping, clearing my mind of the worst bits of panic. "I think we need to go back. If they're as messed up as Becky is, they're going to need help."

"We could be walking into a minefield."

"Yeah," I agreed, "a minefield of seriously f.u.c.ked up s.h.i.+t. You remember how to use that axe, Romeo?"

Tony blushed. "I'm sure I could, if given the right circ.u.mstances."

"Well, if I recall correctly, those circ.u.mstances include you getting very p.i.s.sed."

"I'm sure if we see our friends in trouble, I'll be p.i.s.sed enough."

"Good. Becky, can you remember how you got here?"

"No, I don't think so. I fell down after that thing hit me for about the tenth time, and when I looked up, a path in the trees opened in front of me. I crawled in and the trees closed behind me. I followed the path that kept appearing, hoping it was you and your tree-hugging stuff. Eventually I ended up here. I saw your fire and sat down next to it. That's the last thing I remember."

Tony looked at me, frowning in confusion. "Jayne? What's she talking about?"

"Wellll, I did ask the trees to protect us from harm. It's possible I was picturing Becky's face at the time when I said 'us'."

"I thought you said the trees would let us know if someone came around? If she were a bad guy she could have slit our throats while we slept." Tony scowled at the trees around us, as if they could see him scolding them for their shoddy guard-duty work.

"Actually, I think I only asked for protection from those who would do us harm. Becky doesn't fit that profile. I guess next time I should be more specific."

Tony narrowed his eyes, still looking at the trees. I could tell he wasn't totally ready to swallow the whole idea of the tree-love, even though he'd felt it himself. He'd missed all the really good stuff when he was mooning over Her Ugliness, the hag, so I couldn't blame him for the doubt. It was still hard for me to believe sometimes.

"I think the trees helped me last night. I know they did, and I'm so grateful. Thank you, Jayne. You and the trees saved my life. Will you tell them thank you for me?"

I walked over and sat down next to her, taking her hands in one of mine. I put my other hand into the earth next to me. "Thank them yourself."

I connected to the trees, allowing them to feel Becky's grat.i.tude. She closed her eyes, tears coming out of the corners to track down her face one after the other. She smiled, though, and sighed with a happy tone. "Gosh this feels good."

Tony was looking at Becky with a funny expression on his face. "Becky, do you feel okay?"

She laughed. "Well, everything considered, I guess so. At least I'm alive."

"I'm asking because your eyes aren't as swollen as they were, like, five minutes ago."

She opened them, now actually able to expose both of her eyeb.a.l.l.s. And they weren't b.l.o.o.d.y-looking anymore. "Hey, I can see you guys now." She smiled and turned her head back and forth. "And my face and neck don't hurt as much."

I could feel a vibration in our connection a an energy thrumming through my body, going from the trees, through me, to Becky.

"Guys, I think the trees are doing some kind of healing thing on the Beckster."

"Okay, stop now," said Becky, a little breathless, severing her connection to me by pulling her hands away. "Wow. That's some pretty powerful stuff." She put her hand up on her chest.

"What happened?" asked Tony.

"I don't know. The feeling got too intense. It started out as a fluttering, then grew into a humming and then the vibrations started getting, I don't know, more vibratie ... too vibratie. My heart is still racing."

"Vibratie? I'm pretty sure that's not a word," said Tony.

"It's the only way I can describe it. The vibrations were too vibratie."

I hadn't felt what she was talking about. The vibrations just hummed along quietly for me. But I was glad that she was able to heal at least a little. I had been afraid she wouldn't even be able to walk, and that would have caused us a ton of problems a as if we didn't have enough already.

I stood and brushed myself off. "So, what's it going to be? Going back to Becky's camp or getting to waypoint number three?"

"Becky, did you guys get to waypoint two yet?"

"Yes. We saw your flags on one and two, so we knew you were ahead of us."

"How did Jared take it?" I asked.

Tony shot me a dirty look.

"What?" I said, innocently.

Tony shook his head, saying nothing.

"He didn't say anything. Are you still hung up on him, Jayne?"

"Yeah, maybe. Can you blame me? There you are, getting your a.s.s handed to you last night by a ... lightning boy or whatever ... and Jared takes off to save his own a.s.s. And I'm sure you noticed the old yellow flags already there on the waypoints a yellow, same as Jared's flags. Coincidence? I think not."

"I ran away, too," said Becky, softly, guilt lacing her voice.

"Yeah, but that's different. You hung around a while and tried to help; and you're half the size of Jared. He's a big guy. He should have stayed to help Chase and Spike ... and you too."

"No use arguing over it now," said Tony. "I think we should go back and check on the others. I wouldn't feel right just walking away, knowing they could be hurt like Becky was."

I sighed loudly. "I had a feeling you were going to say that. Fine, let's get going. Becky, can you walk? If not, we can leave you here. I'll ask our friends to watch out for you." I glanced up at the trees.

"No, I'll come. I wouldn't feel right staying behind. But can I eat one of your crackers or something? I left my bag back there and I'm starving all of a sudden."

Tony dug out a package and handed it to her.

Becky scarfed the food down without even stopping for a breath.

"Wow, you really were hungry," he said, impressed.

"I know; I don't know why, though. I ate dinner last night, not that long ago."

"I'll bet it's the healing stuff. The trees probably sped up your metabolism or something," he suggested.

We nodded. Made sense.

"Come on guys," I said as I started to walk. "We're burning daylight. Let's go."

Becky was able to lead us back to the spot where she had been pummeled by the boy-thing, as the fog lifted from her memory. The trees kept clearing a path ahead of us, helping Becky show the way.

As soon as we got there, we could see that something bad had happened. Becky walked over to where a bunch of plants and ivy had been trampled. "This is where Finn was." There were brown stains on the ground, but no Finn. "That's his blood," she said, starting to cry again.