The Long Weekend in the Woods - Chapter 9

Pollock

After the surly girl announced they were going in, I scrambled to finish as much last-minute preparation as I could. There wasn't enough material to insulate or reinforce everything, so I had to pick the most vulnerable places. Connections to the engine, contact points with the "cage". As many locations where I had to use substandard wire as I could, which was not anywhere close to all of them. I had people cutting up their rubber hip waders to try and make this work. And the ungrateful buffoons made me promise to reimburse them!

I don't believe for a moment those waders cost $200.

The panda was trying to help, but was too distracted to do much good. Kept looking out into the woods, ears and bob tail twitching every so often. We heard an explosion at one point and the panda almost took off to investigate. I had to remind them it would ruin everything.

"I can smell Calvin and Casanee's blood!" Certainly not encouraging. Fortunately the scent of one of those gas canisters drifted along shortly after and convinced the panda they were still fighting. That they were still OK.

Whether I would be is another question. I was trying to remain calm, but I was also trying to find the scout an escape route if this didn't work. One of the other bears that was close to the edge of the hill signaled that our guests were ascending the slope. I signaled the little raccoon engineer, and she started her engine. It roared to life, and I winced.

"Is it always this loud?"

"I don't know. It's never run this long." I saw an apprehensive look in the panda's eyes that I'm sure was present in mine as well. What level of hearing did these things have? It's difficult to imagine they won't notice, unless they are entirely focused on chasing those two.

On cue, "those two" crested the hill, each carrying large bags. The fool was holding up better than I expected, but they both looked ragged. All of us hidden in the rocks above sunk down a little lower. A pair of bears had hold of the ropes to pull the cage walls into place from where they where hidden in the leaves on the forest floor. My hand hovered over the switch to activate the field. They dropped the bags and the surly girl kicked over the limbs we placed to mark the spot. They ran out of my line of vision as they approached the base of the bluff below me, but I could hear Calvin gasping. The panda started to rise up to do something, make a comforting gesture probably, but I pulled them back down.

The creatures had reached the ridge, and I focused on them as they slowed. More of them than I expected. Hopefully we set the panels far enough apart to hold contain them all. They took a moment to register their prey was trapped, then they began to advance. Their pace increased again slowly, but they'd be in position in only a few seconds more.

Then the engine clattered loudly. I heard the raccoon behind me trying to tighten something, but every single creature had snapped their head up to look at the bluff. They shouldn't be able to see us, and we were downwind, but they clearly weren't deaf.

They were confused, though. They still wanted those crystals, and a few took halting steps towards them. But others were backing up, or glancing at the slopes around them. I waited, hoping, but more of them were retreating. I heard the panda mutter, "No, darn it" and tense up.

I wondered if the locals would try to kill me if we never had the opportunity to see if my device worked. I decided not to find out. I concentrated, made a few gestures, then stood up. Everyone turned in my direction, including the creatures. I spoke one word.

"Barrier."

A variation on what I used against Cassanee the day before. A containment spell, in the form of a wall rather than a sphere. The way back down the hill was blocked off. Of course, I'd be lucky to maintain it for half as long as the sphere the other day, especially with a bunch of creatures hammering away at it. They hadn't yet, but their way out being cut off was certainly panicking them. I could feel it each time one collided with the wall, draining a little more from me to maintain it.

"Someone do something," I hissed, not taking my eyes off the wall. I could hear the panda sigh, and rifles being cocked. But at the bottom of my vision I saw someone rush towards the confused mass of creatures. The fool.

What the hell was he doing?

Calvin

I didn't know what the sound was the startled the Amilgars, but I couldn't believe we went through all this and it was gonna crap out at the end. The big pink wall of energy was a surprise, but it had to be Pollock. Gunning them down was an option, but it still felt off to me, if we could avoid. But like Cass said, easy for me to say.

So I charged. I saw a shocked look on her face as I did, which might be a first. My brain was flashing "WARNING! This is REALLY STUPID!", but it does that a lot on these adventures. I've learned to ignore it 90% of the time, anyway.

The plan, if you can call it that, was to get their attention on something other than the barrier or the noise they didn't trust. I'd actually thought about going for the crystals when they were still undecided, thinking maybe they'd react if they thought I was taking off with them again, but the situation changed too quickly. Now I had to make them see me as the threat, and maybe I could lure them back in. Great plan, I know. Really spectacular.

I still had my wrench, so I took a swing at the head of the nearest Amilgar. The helmet shattered, and he or she staggered. A couple of others turned my way. I swung at one of them and it cracked the arm guard they blocked with. A third one took a step towards me, so I hopped back a few steps. It snorted and followed, two more behind it.

Before they could fully charge, that familiar orange cloak flashed by on my left, shattering a chest plate with one stiff-fingered strike, before smoothly floating around a wild swing from the victim. More Amilgars were taking notice, registering the calls of their pals. But most of them were still focused on the barrier, and it was starting to flicker. I took another step back, pulled the gas gun from my pack and fired at the barrier, just above their heads. Fortunately, the barrier was still holding. It would have been really embarrassing if the canister passed through and exploded down on the hill side. The smoke made them all back away, and they started looking for the source. I felt a lot of eyes suddenly lock onto me as the immediate threat.

I hadn't been paying attention and one of them rammed into me. At least it hadn't been channeling any energy from the crystals. I only flew back 10 feet instead of shattering into a million pieces against the bluff. I managed to sort of backwards roll to a crouch, and held a hand up behind me as a signal, hoping CAP hadn't already charged down to help. Cass was still gliding between the ones closest to us, striking here and there. Nothing debilitating, just pissing them off. Swift strike to the ears, or across the nose, then moving back, towards the bluff. I kept swinging at anything that came within range, and if I noticed one too focused on her, I'd rush in and take a cheap shot. Not too much farther now.

Then one of them jumped above us, leg guards glowing. At the apex, it seemed to push off the air and rocket towards us. That's when my old friend got involved, making a perfect flying tackle in midair. They crashed to earth back in among the other Amilgar. Cass and I both pressed the attack to keep them focused on us, rather than dogpiling our panda. There was a muffled "THUD" and one Amilgar went flying back over our heads. CAP was up and swinging, trying to fight towards us and drive the Amilgars where we needed them.

But we needed to bunch them up. I stop and started just swinging wildly, trying to discourage them from advancing any closer to the bluff. CAP was grabbing any of the ones close to the hillside, giving them a good swat to stun them, then tossing them back towards the rest. Cass was dancing across their heads, keeping any of them from trying that jumping stunt again. I'm pretty sure some of Jerry's guys were firing stakes from either side to keep them away from the slopes on the side.

A series of ropes appeared from beneath the leaves, pulled taut by someone up above. Several metal panels were pulled up with them, and the Amilgars were boxed in. They immediately started to panic, but there was a crackle of something, then a low hum, one you felt more than heard, from the panels. The Amilgars got less coordinated, not able to smash into the flimsy-looking panels effectively, but that only seemed to freak them out more. Understandable, but when the armor of a few of them started to glow, that was a bad sign. Even if whatever they did ended up being clumsy, it wouldn't take much to tear that trap apart.

Then CAP lobbed one of those Aura Lock grenades in there, and it seemed to slow them down enough for the sub-harmonic to take full effect. There were a lot of low grunts and soft, distressed squeals, but nobody was trying to make a break for it.