Viper (Second Wave Book 1) (4 page)

“It’s ok. I don’t plan on running
unless we have to and where we’re heading is only a day’s hike. Your people
might even find us before we get there.”

Viper smiled sadly before pointing
to the wall and his message. “Can you understand that?”  

Lara looked at the wall again.
“Most of it. But the important thing is that your people understand it. I don’t
need to find you; I already did. They need to find you now.”

Viper looked curiously at Lara’s
smiling face. “Read it back to me please, so I know I got it right? My eyes…”
Viper’s voice trailed off, and he hoped that she would just read it to him.

Lara looked at him a moment before
turning back to the wall. “Dread hunt ten boy good plus one good. I’m assuming
you’re telling them a reference to where you would hunt when you were ten years
old? To tell them the direction?”

Viper was speechless for a moment,
his mind racing with questions. “Yes, that’s exactly what I was telling them.
My brother, Dread, will know where we are heading when he sees it.”

Viper stared at her while she
looked at the wall, willing his eyes to focus more clearly on her. He wanted
nothing more than to see and memorize her features.

“You guys have some interesting
call signs. At least, you told them someone was with you, and that I was a good
guy. Are you ready?” Lara said, turning to look up at Viper.  

Lara sucked in her breath at the
black that swirled like a storm in Viper’s green eyes. “What the fuck?”

Viper looked around quickly,
cursing his inability to see anything. “What is it?” Viper asked moving to put
her behind him.

“Um… your eyes look…” Lara grabbed
Viper’s jaw and turned his head from side to side, studying the black swirls in
the early-morning light.

“What?” Viper asked, wondering if
there was some visible injury to his eyes that he wasn’t aware of.  

Lara was trying desperately to
understand what could be causing his eyes to look like that. She wondered if it
was even safe to move him, or if she should stay here in the cave and wait for
his people.

She was no doctor, but the only
thing Lara could think of that could cause something like that would be a brain
bleed or a serious tearing in his eyes. The black in his eyes had to be blood,
there was no other explanation.

“There are black spots in your
eyes. It could be blood leaking or blood that leaked from the initial injury. I
don’t know if it’s safe for you to travel. We could risk permanent injury if we
continue to move you.” Lara had to tell him the truth. The decision was his to
make. If he chose not to risk the permanent loss of his eyesight, then she
would stay and defend him here if she had to.

Viper turned to fix an unfocused
stare on her. She didn’t understand his beast swirls? He felt like an idiot.
She was human. He’d just assumed that she would magically understand when she
read the wall. Hell, he thought, even he didn’t understand what was going on.

“It’s fine. A childhood… illness.
If you think we need to leave, then we need to leave.” Viper assured her,
unwilling to be the reason she put herself in even more danger.

Viper could feel her intense gaze
on him. As if she were judging his honesty and well-being. He could feel the
tentative tendrils of energy as they reached out shyly, and he held his breath,
waiting for the inevitable collision with his own.

He was disappointed when Lara
nodded her head sharply and turned away from him. He watched her blurry form bend
down and grab one of the packs and her rifle.

He remained standing silently when
she turned to him and checked to make sure the knife she had given him at the
clearing was secured at his waist and the 9mm in his waistband.

Lara looked briefly into his eyes,
still worried about the black swirls. “Grab the other pack. We’ll do it just
like yesterday. We covered six miles yesterday; we need to do ten today in
order to get to the next safe shelter. Let me know now if you can’t do it.”

Viper didn’t hesitate to respond.
“I can do it.”

Other than his head and his vision,
he actually felt pretty good. Whether it was the sleep or the energy she had
inadvertently shared with him yesterday evening or both he didn’t know, but he
did know that he couldn’t let her do that again.

He could hear the weariness in her voice,
and he knew that she probably hadn’t slept at all last night. The guilt swamped
him at what she was doing to keep him alive, when it was his duty to keep her
safe.

“Ok then, let’s go. Let me know if
you need to stop for anything.” Lara said, then took his sleeve in her left
hand and led him out of the cave.

Even though he couldn’t see very
clearly, Viper could tell that Lara knew exactly where she was going. She
hadn’t been exaggerating when she had told him that she knew the forest. It had
surprised him at how well stocked the cave had been. It was obvious that she
had spent a lot of time out here if she had supplies stored.

After several hours of uneventful
hiking, Viper’s curiosity finally got the better of him. “How long have you
lived out here?”

Lara was surprised at the question
and smiled to herself. “All of my life. My parents lived in an old farmhouse
that my mother inherited from her father when she got married. It was right on
the edge of the forest.”

Instead of giving Viper the answers
he wanted it only created more questions for him. “How did you end up in the
military? Weren’t your parents worried for your safety?”

Lara cleared her throat, choosing
her words carefully. “My parents loved me very much and wanted me to be happy.
When I chose the military, they had high hopes that I would find my niche in
the world. Settle what they called my restless spirit.”

Viper considered what she didn’t
say as well as what she had said. “You never felt like this was where you were
meant to be?”

Lara was uncomfortable with the
conversation and his intelligent observations. It was one thing to feel like an
outsider, a reject, around other people. For some reason, admitting she was a
stranger in her own hometown made her feel like the most unwanted person in the
world, and she didn’t want him to know that.

“I just always felt that I was
meant to be elsewhere, doing other things.” Lara said vaguely, her tone of
voice telling Viper that she no longer wanted to speak of it.

She had unwittingly told him some
of what he had wanted to know anyway. She may not remember who she was, but she
knew something was wrong. It was a start; he thought.

Lara returned her focus to the
forest around them, listening carefully for any signs that danger was near
them. After several hours of silence, she felt it was safe to take a break.

Lara carefully pulled the pack off
of her good shoulder and set it on the ground at her feet. Turning to Viper,
she pulled his pack off of his shoulder and helped him over to the fallen log
she had stopped in front of.

“Are you all right?” Viper asked,
concern evident in his voice.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just thought we
could use some water and food. We’re halfway there, so this was a good place to
take a rest.” Lara answered while rummaging around in her pack.

Lara placed a bottle of water into
Viper’s hand and when he had a hold of it, she went ahead and opened the cap
for him. Grabbing another one for herself, she sat heavily on the log beside
Viper and downed the whole bottle in one long drink.

She had hated to admit it to Viper,
but she really needed the break. She was exhausted. The nights without sleep
prior to coming out here had already taken its toll on her body. Finding him
and trying to do a detour, the long way around, to keep him from the assholes
trying to hunt him, didn’t help things much.   

Pulling her pack closer to her
feet, Lara rummaged around in it again, looking for the extra protein bars she
had packed before realizing that she had already given Viper two for breakfast,
so he could keep his energy up. Besides the guy was huge and needed the
calories. John had been the same way; she thought with a small smile.

Lara looked longingly at the last
two protein bars before handing both to Viper. She had more supplies where they
were headed, and she knew she could wait until they got there to eat. With his
injuries, Viper needed the nourishment more than she did.  

“Eat those, you need them. I’m
going to scout ahead; I'll be right back.” Lara said as she stood and stretched
her tired, aching muscles.

“Are you all right?” Viper asked
curiously.

He could tell by the sound of her
voice and the subtle difference in the way she was walking that something had
changed since yesterday. Not for the first time, he cursed his still pounding
head and blurry vision that kept him from checking her himself.

“Of course, I’m just a little
tired. Have those gone before I get back.” Lara said, unable to keep the commanding
tone out of her voice.

Viper grinned at Lara, “Yes,
Ma’am.”  Then he tore into one of the protein bars. He hated the stupid things,
but had to admit they served a purpose, and he needed to heal so he wouldn’t
complain.

His eyesight seemed to be improving
but not fast enough for him. It wasn’t only the fact that he hated to be so vulnerable;
he couldn’t stand that he was a burden to Lara. He was supposed to be the one
to protect her, and he wasn’t comfortable being a victim.

With the rest of his wounds almost
healed, his body felt much better. In another day, he would be back to
one-hundred percent. It was his head that was worrying him. He still couldn’t
communicate with his beast, Zaxin. The trauma had to have been severe in order
to impact his beast and create such a problem with his vision.

As a Tezarian, Viper had a
parasitic species, known as a Beast inside his brain. The sentient species
lived in harmony with its host and increased their senses, strength and speed.
The beast was also what enabled the host to communicate along the universal
energy path known as the Shengari’. He needed his beast healed in order to
contact his brother Dread.

Tearing open the last protein bar,
Viper choked down the sand flavored lump, just as he heard Lara’s low whistle,
telling him that she was heading towards him.

Viper shoved the wrappers in the
pack at his feet and stood, bringing the pack to his shoulder as he did so and
waited for Lara to join him.

“Come on, we need to go. Now!” Lara
said grabbing his arm and pulling him back in the other direction.

“What is it?” Viper asked, feeling
her fear and apprehension the moment she touched his arm to guide him.

“They are close. A lot closer than
I expected them to be. We have to change our plans. If we keep heading where we
were going, we will end up right in their path. We need to head to an alternate
location.” Lara said, panting slightly from the increased pace and her own
fear.

Her fear was not only due to what
she had seen either, but what she hadn’t seen, she thought as she guided them
to the last place she wanted to go, but the only place left. Her cabin.

Chapter
Four

Lara was so caught up in replaying
what she had seen over again in her mind that she didn’t realize Viper was
speaking to her until he tugged on her arm.

Without turning to look at him or
slowing their pace, she asked in a whisper, “What?”

“I asked what you saw. I can tell…
by how tense you are and the sound of your voice that something has shaken
you.” Viper said, stopping himself from saying that her energy was screaming
her emotions to him. He knew she was scared and deeply worried.

“I was just surprised to see so
many of them this close to us. They are moving a lot faster than I expected and
with eight of them, they are covering a lot of ground.” Lara said, hoping that
would be enough information to make him stop asking about it.

She was still struggling to
understand what she had seen. There was no way in hell she could explain it to
him without sounding completely insane. She was even beginning to question her own
sanity. Either way, she needed to get Viper far away from them.

The fact that they were able to get
there so fast concerned her. It meant that, for some reason, they already had a
presence in the area, or they were using government resources in order to get their
personnel there.

There was no other way that those
choppers would go unnoticed in the airspace over a national forest without
someone being notified and someone else being paid off to ignore it.

The new American way, sell your
soul and your constituents for your cut of the silver that you raped from them
with unsustainable taxes, regulations and a ruined job market. She hated it.
Hated that so many elected officials despised the working class so much that
they had basically enslaved them.

Now they were being hunted. In her
own damn forest, they were being hunted. That pissed her off. If she were
alone, Lara would have relished the confrontation. The chance to take them out
and leave what was left of them to feed her animal friends for days.

With Viper’s allegiance unknown,
his inability to see and her shoulder, which was already swelling and hot to
the touch, she would be lucky to keep them alive until they reached the cabin.

Plotting an offensive was out of
the question. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t start deploying her counter measures
as they went, she thought with a grin.

Lara had years to create unique
security measures around the cabin. Natural ones that would have a low chance
of harming her animal friends, but would come in handy to slow down the assholes
that were after Viper. She just needed to buy them enough time for Viper’s
people to get to them. She figured once he was gone, the threat would most
likely follow him, and she could go back to her original plans.

They’d gone another half-mile when
Lara slowed to a stop. “Wait here a minute.” She said, dropping her pack on the
ground.

Curious, Viper nodded his head and
listened as she moved off into a darker blur of the forest. He assumed it was a
more dense area due to the variations of the shadows. He watched as Lara moved
around for a few seconds before heading back to him.  

“What was that about?” Viper asked
as Lara picked her pack back up and led them forward again.

“My grandfather maintained the
family’s old homestead here in the forest. It’s been my place since I was six,
I’ve maintained it ever since then. On our first trip there, he pointed out to
me some of the… security measures that our ancestors had put in place to
protect them from attack either from natives or unsavory wanderers.”

“He made his own upgrades over the years,
and I added some of my own. That’s where we’re heading, so I’m setting them as
we go. We won’t be lucky enough to get them all before they start looking out
for the traps, but we’ll get a couple and injure a few more before they get to
us.” Lara said simply, seeing no reason not to tell him what she was doing.

She figured it was better he be
warned anyway. In case anything happened and she didn’t make it out, he would
know to look out for them.

Viper was getting worried now, the
tone of her voice and her energy was too fatalistic. “What did you see? I need
to know.”  

Lara let out a soft sigh; the breath
puffed the stray hairs around her face out adorably, and Viper couldn’t help
but reach out to the blurry image and push the strands back behind her ear.

“Please… I need to know.” Viper
said again softly as he let his hand trail to her shoulder and rest there a
moment. He could feel her energy spark and flash against his own, her emotions
screaming through her energy to him unchecked.

Viper could feel her panic,
confusion and indecision as she stepped away from him and began to lead him
forward again. He was deeply disappointed that she didn’t trust him enough to
tell him what she had seen.  

If he was honest with himself
though, he could understand why she was hesitant to trust him. He was just as
confused about this whole damn situation as she was.

They spent the next several hours
hiking in silence, the only breaks they took were the times they stopped long
enough for Lara to set one of her traps.

They were less than an hour from
the cabin when the first shot rang out, followed by a short burst of rapid
fire. Turning to the sky, Lara stood and watched as a huge flock of birds
erupted skyward at once.

“They are a good four miles behind
us, but they are heading this way. We need to get to the cabin. We will stand a
better chance there. Can you jog?” Lara asked, turning to Viper.  

“I’m guessing they hit the first of
your traps?” Viper asked with a small grin.

Lara was glad that he couldn’t see
her blush. “I think they bypassed the first one, or saw it. That was definitely
the second one. Can you walk fast?”

“I can jog. Let’s go.” Viper said,
nodding his head to Lara.

*****

Dreadhawk fle’ te’ Trugh, Viper’s
brother, turned towards the sound of the shots fired.

“That’s coming from South West, not
North West, like he said in the cave.” Niklosi Jevasari, Valendran tact team
member said, looking to his teammate Decano for confirmation.

“That’s correct.” Decano agreed,
before turning to Dread. It was his brother; he was leading this rescue mission,
and it would be up to him to decide if they would follow the sounds of gunfire
or stay on the North West course.

Dread turned concerned eyes to
Gibly, the Valendran Sibiox. The large cat, approximately the size of a bobcat,
was covered in soft, sleek black fur, giving him the appearance of a small
black panther. A sentient species, the Sibiox had come to the planet with the
Valendrans to assist them. 

“Sisan say that she can tell when
they changed direction. We need to follow the gunfire. I can track from here.”
Gibly said, not waiting for a response he trotted off in the new direction,
confident that the others would follow him.

“We will find him.” Niklosi said to
Dread, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I am concerned that I still cannot
reach him. He has to be injured greatly in order for him to remain so silent.”
Dread said, turning to follow Gibly in the new direction.

“Dude, the guy has got the blessing
of the Gods to have found someone to help him way the hell out here in the
middle of bum fuck nowhere! There’s nothing but animals, trees and freaking
bugs, but leave it to Viper to find help. It’s probably some hot chick too!” Traze
T’Alq said with a grin as he passed Dread and Niklosi and broke into a jog,
disappearing behind Gibly into the forest ahead.

“For once the man-child has a
point, my friend. We haven’t seen anyone since we got here, and yet Viper found
help. I would say the blessings are in his favor. Let’s just make sure we get
to him before his blessings wear out.” Niklosi said before stepping up his pace
to an easy jog.   

Dread watched as the two teams that
he had brought with him, began to follow Gibly more quickly, as if they all had
sensed the underlying urgency that he had felt when they entered that cave and
saw Viper’s message.

Dread knew he shouldn’t have come;
his emotions were wreaking havoc on his energy, and for some reason he was
getting false energy readings from the locations where Viper and his companion
had recently been. Like in the cave.

Even Gibly had looked at Dread in
confusion when they had been in there. As if he too, could feel the duplicate
energy signature, the one that overshadowed Viper’s. What puzzled him was not the
strength, but the sense of familiarity. He felt like he knew who was with
Viper. Which he knew was impossible.

The only other survivor who had
been pulled from the wreckage of the transport had been one of Grai’s hybrids.
The two Tezarian’s, one Valendran and one Sibiox had all died in the crash or
from the injuries sustained in the crash.

All of their people were accounted
for, except for Viper, who they were tracking. Dread knew there was no way he
could recognize the energy signature; he knew it must be his worry and fear for
his brother confusing his senses. However, there was something about it that he
just couldn’t shake.

Several hours later, they came to
the place where they heard the shots fired from and what they saw did not ease
Dread’s worry at all.

“What the fuck! This is some
serious jungle damn warfare shit here.” Traze said, looking around at mess
around the forest.

“What the hell happened here?”
Dread asked, while Decano and Niklosi kneeled down to get a better look at the
two bodies on the ground.

The forest looked like it had come
alive and attacked the two dead Relian’s on the ground. The bodies were impaled
with what looked like sharpened tree branches. Dozens of long, thin sharpened
branches protruded awkwardly from the two bodies. The trees and bushes around
the bodies showed signs of being hit with sprays of gunfire.

Dread looked up as Decano said,
“Over here.”

“Damn, this may be old, but it
still works.” Niklosi said, impressed with how the trap had been hidden, set
and sprung on the unsuspecting Relian’s.

Dread looked on, with renewed
respect for whoever had helped his brother. Whoever they were; they at least
knew what they were doing and were trying to slow down the pursuing Relian’s.
If they were lucky, they wouldn’t be too far behind them.

“Gibly, you need to let Sisan know
that Viper’s friend set some traps and to look out for them. Stay alert everyone;
those traps may be old, but they can still do the job, so be careful.” Niklosi
ordered their teams.

“Man, I told you he was a lucky
dog! That’s one bad-ass mofo that he’s with! I take it back, there’s no way a
hot chick would have a clue how to even make one of those!” Traze said, his
excitement and admiration evident in his voice.

Lt. David Jacobs smacked the
man-child in the back of the head. “I suggest you never let any of our women
hear you say some dumb shit like that and don’t even think about going first.
Your ass is staying back here with me.”

“Oh come on man! I could have just
as easily spotted that trap!” Traze argued, while David just glared at the
young man until he finally shut up and moved behind the others, grumbling to
himself the whole time.

“I have to admit; it's pretty damn
clever. It was well hidden and would have been difficult…” Decano was cut off by
the sound of additional gunfire echoing through the mountains.  

“Gibly, does Sisan see anything?”
Niklosi asked, his senses on full alert as, he tried to determine how far ahead
the shots were coming from.

“No, it’s still in front of her.
She go run to look.” Gibly said, his black tail all poofed out as he looked
around alertly.

“We need to go. Now!” Dread said,
fear for his brother overwhelming him.

Niklosi, Decano and David nodded
before setting off at a run towards where the gunfire had come from, leaving
the rest behind to destroy the bodies and ensure the trap was disabled before
catching up to them.

It was another hour later before
they came across the next location. If Sisan hadn’t told Gibly where to look,
Dread wasn’t sure they would have even found the body this time. The trap had
been set exactly like the last one. Only this time it was completely
non-functioning. It was intended to be. They walked carefully around the pit,
near the base of the trap.

It was clever; Dread thought with
renewed respect for Viper’s companion. As soon as someone came to disable the
trap, they ended up in the spike covered pit. Like the impaled Relian,
currently occupying it.

Traze whistled low. “Holy shit
guys! That’s three dead in less than three miles. Maybe Viper’s forest ninja
will have all the assholes dead before we can get there!”

As much as Dread hoped that would
be the case, he wasn’t foolish enough to pin his hopes, or Viper’s life, on it.
“Gibly, has Sisan caught up to them yet?” Dread asked, hoping the feline would
have some information for them.

“No, she say she getting close.”
Gibly responded with a twitch of his whiskers, before he bounded up ahead of
them again.