Walk the Plank Read online

  EL-MASRI: Did it?

  DAMANIS: A little. We hit the atmosphere and everything began to shake and move. I held on to my pallet strap, but even then I was being whipped back and forth as the strap rotated around its anchor. I’d be slammed to the floor of the container, whip around in an arc and be slammed down again on the other side. I curled into a ball as much as I could and put my arms around my head to protect it, but it wasn’t enough; I lost consciousness a couple of times in there. If I hadn’t wrapped the strap around my arm, I would have been flung up into the container with the others.

  GANAS: What happened to the others?

  DAMANIS: People began to be slammed into wall and floors and into each other, harder and faster as we dropped. A couple of times people hit me, but I was down near the floor, so most of the time they were hitting each other or the walls. They were screaming as they were flying about, and every once in a while you would hear a snap and then someone’s screaming would either get louder or it would stop. After one really hard bump, a woman hit the floor next to me headfirst and I could hear her neck go. She stopped screaming. There were at least fifty of us in the container. I’d guess about ten or fifteen people died during reentry, and maybe that many others broke their arms or legs.

  SPURLEA: It was a good thing you held on to that strap.

  DAMANIS: [laughs] Look at my leg now, Doc. Tell me again how lucky I am.

  GANAS: Is the ibuprofen helping now?

  DAMANIS: A little. May I have some water now, please?

  GANAS: Yes, of course.

  EL-MASRI: Once you made it through the first part of the atmosphere, did things settle?

  DAMANIS: Some. The autopilot kicked in and stabilized us, but then the parachutes deployed and everyone who was still floating was jammed to the floor of the container. That was more broken bones, but then at least everyone was on the floor of the container, because gravity had finally taken hold. Then there was a crashing sound, and everyone was thrown around. We were going through the trees, or whatever you have here for trees. Then there was a final crash, the container fell on its side, the doors flew open, and we were finally on the ground.

  GANAS: Your water.

  DAMANIS: Thank you.

  SPURLEA: What was your physical condition at that point, Malik?

  DAMANIS: I was hurt pretty badly. I’m pretty sure I had a concussion. But I could walk and I didn’t have any broken bones. I unwrapped myself from the pallet strap and I headed for the door, and as I got outside some of the crew who had gotten out before me were standing in a small clearing, looking up and pointing, so I looked up where they were looking.

  EL-MASRI: What were they pointing at?

  DAMANIS: It was the other cargo container. It was tumbling and falling. The autopilot must have gotten damaged or something, because it wasn’t stabilizing itself and its parachutes didn’t deploy. We watched it tumble for twenty, thirty seconds, and then the trees got in the way and we couldn’t see it anymore. But then a few seconds later we heard the sound of trees breaking and a huge crash. The container had hit the ground at close to full speed. If anyone had still been alive in that container before it hit, they didn’t survive after. At least I don’t see how they could.

  EL-MASRI: Did you see any other containers falling?

  DAMANIS: I stopped looking after that.

  EL-MASRI: Malik, will you excuse me for a moment?

  DAMANIS: Yes, sir. Does this mean we’re done talking now? Can I get that shot now?

  EL-MASRI: Hold on a minute, Malik. I’ll be back to ask you some more questions.

  DAMANIS: My leg is really hurting, sir.

  EL-MASRI: It won’t be long. Aurel, Magda?

  [Door opens, closes.]

  EL-MASRI: Why did you bring that recorder out here?

  GANAS: Malik isn’t going to say anything unless you’re there.

  EL-MASRI: Is it turned off right now?

  GANAS: Yes.

  EL-MASRI: Where did Malik come from? What direction, I mean?

  SPURLEA: The couple who found him said they saw him come out of the forest to the east of the colony.

  EL-MASRI: Do we have any people looking for the containers in that direction?

  SPURLEA: Magda?

  GANAS: We sent out five teams, and they all headed in different directions, so at least one of them is headed in an easterly direction.

  EL-MASRI: Recall the other teams and have them go east as well. There’s a chance our supplies are in that direction.

  SPURLEA: You think pirates are going to eject cargo, Chen?

  EL-MASRI: I think whoever took over the Erie Morningstar was interested in the ship, not the cargo. That’s why they kept the captain and the helmsman and made everyone else walk the plank. It’s entirely possible they tossed out the cargo with the crew. If they did, then we need to find it. We need those supplies.

  GANAS: What about the survivors?

  EL-MASRI: What survivors?

  GANAS: Malik said that at least some of the crew in his container survived the landing. Do you want our people to go looking for them, too?

  EL-MASRI: I think our first priority is looking for those supplies, Magda.

  GANAS: That’s pretty harsh, Chen. These people literally fall out of the sky and crash-land here, and you’re not in the least concerned about them.

  EL-MASRI: Look. I’m not going to apologize for the fact that when push comes to shove, I’m going to put the people of this colony before everyone else. This is why you all hired me as your colony leader, remember? You wanted someone with frontier experience, who was familiar with the tough decisions you have to make on the bleeding edge of human civilization. This is one of those decisions, Magda. Do we prioritize finding supplies for our people, who are healthy but won’t be very soon if we don’t get the soil treatments and seed stock and emergency rations that were in the cargo shipment the Erie Morningstar had in her, or do we prioritize a bunch of people we don’t know, the majority of whom it would seem are injured or dying, who would be nothing but a drain on our almost nonexistent resources? I’m the colony leader. I have to make a choice, and I choose us. Now, maybe you find that inhumane, but at the moment, ask me if I give a shit. This soil here kills everything we plant in it. Almost everything that grows or lives here we can’t eat or is trying to kill us or both. We’re down to the last three weeks of stores, and that’s if we stretch. I have two hundred fifty people relying on me to save their lives. That’s my job. I’m doing it by telling our people to look for those cargo containers first. End of story.

  SPURLEA: At the very least, you should ask him to try to describe where he landed so that we can narrow down where we’re searching. Wherever it was, he was able to walk to here from there in only a slightly better condition than he’s in right now. That means it’s not too far away. The more we know, the better we can find the cargo containers, if they exist.

  EL-MASRI: You ask him.

  SPURLEA: If I ask him, all he’s going to do is keep asking for painkillers. That was the deal: He talks to you, and when he’s done I’ll give him something. So you need to do it.

  EL-MASRI: How long until you know about his blood work? Whether he’s got the Rot all through his system.

  SPURLEA: I checked on my PDA while you were talking to him. The cultures are still growing. I’ll know for sure in the next thirty minutes or so.

  EL-MASRI: Fine. Magda, please let the search teams know to focus east, and that we’ll hopefully give them more detailed information on where to look soon. Tell Drew Talford to send it wideband. It’ll be faster than you trying to raise every party one at a time.

  GANAS: What do we do if one of the search teams happens to find the Erie Morningstar survivors?

  EL-MASRI: Note where they are, but steer clear of them for now. If we find the cargo containers with our supplies, we can go back and deal with them. But for now, let them be. We have other priorities.

  GANAS: Here, Aurel. Make sure to record everything Malik s
ays.

  SPURLEA: Will do.

  EL-MASRI: All right, let’s get back in there.

  [Door opens, closes.]

  DAMANIS: I thought you had forgotten about me.

  EL-MASRI: We wouldn’t do that, Malik.

  DAMANIS: That’s good to hear. I’m sorry to take up so much of your time. You must be busy as colony leader.

  EL-MASRI: Well, talking to you has been helpful, and you can be a little more helpful to me still, Malik.

  DAMANIS: How can I do that?

  EL-MASRI: I need you to tell me everything you can about where you landed and how you got here from there. That will help us find where you land, and might help us find the rest of your crew.

  DAMANIS: I’ll tell you, but I don’t think you’ll find the rest of my crew. I think they’re all dead.

  EL-MASRI: You said that at least a few of your crewmates were alive when you landed. You’ve survived so far. So it stands to reason some of them might have as well.

  DAMANIS: Unh.

  EL-MASRI: Why are you shaking your head?

  SPURLEA: Malik, did something else happen to your crew before you came here?

  DAMANIS: Yes.

  EL-MASRI: Tell us about it. It could be useful to us.

  DAMANIS: After we landed, those of us who were mostly uninjured started helping those who were worse off. There were about ten of us at that point. We went back into the container so we could see who was living and who was dead. The dead we moved to one side of the container. The living we moved out of the container so we could see how badly they were injured. About half had broken bones but were still conscious or still able to move around. The rest were either unconscious or not able to move because they were too injured or in too much pain. We went back into the container and took the clothes off the dead to make slings and braces, and to make bandages where people were bleeding or had open breaks.

  SPURLEA: So, ten relatively uninjured, about ten or fifteen somewhat injured and the same number severely injured. The rest dead.

  DAMANIS: Yes. May I have some more water?

  SPURLEA: Of course.

  DAMANIS: When we were done with that, those of us who were still uninjured got together to discuss what to do next. Some of us wanted to find your colony. We knew it was down here because that’s why we were over your planet in the first place, and we knew you couldn’t be too far away. But none of our PDAs survived the fall and we couldn’t signal you, or use them to keep track of whoever wandered off. Most of us wanted to build a better camp and get ourselves squared away, find some water and some food before we did anything else. I said we should move the dead out of the container and the living back in, so they would at least have shelter. One guy, Nadeem Davi, started talking about how we should consider the possibility of using the dead for food. We argued about that so long that we didn’t notice what had happened to the forest.

  EL-MASRI: What had happened?

  DAMANIS: It had gone dead silent. Like it does when there’s a predator around, right? Everything that could get eaten just shuts up and hides. We finally noticed it when we all stopped talking. It was dead silent except for our injured. And then—

  SPURLEA: And then a pack of animals was on you.

  DAMANIS: You know about these things?

  EL-MASRI: We just call it “the pack.” We don’t call them anything else because we’ve never caught one by itself. You don’t see them, or you see dozens of them. There’s nothing in between.

  DAMANIS: I didn’t know that. I saw them coming out of the woods and they reminded me of the stories my grandmother told me of hyenas in Africa. There were just so many of them. One or two for every one of us.

  EL-MASRI: We lost fourteen people to the pack early on before we learned not to wander too far into the woods alone. We go out in groups of four or five and always go armed. They seem to have gotten good at recognizing rifles. We don’t see them as much as we used to.

  DAMANIS: They made up for it with us. They went for the injured ones first, went right for their necks and open wounds. There was nothing we could do for them. Some of the less injured tried to run or crawl, but the pack went for their injuries, too. Like they knew that was going to cause us the most pain and drag us down so they could have us. Then at least a couple dozen got into a smaller pack and headed toward those of us who we still uninjured. Some of us tried to run, and didn’t notice that there was another small pack flanking us. Nadeem was one of those; he went down fast and six of them were on him before any of us could do anything. Then the rest of them came right at us.

  SPURLEA: How did you manage to escape?

  DAMANIS: I didn’t at first. One of the pack things bit into my calf and took a chunk of it. I managed to kick it off and then ran as fast as I could in the other direction. By that time the rest of the crew was down and I guess the pack decided there was more than enough where they were. They didn’t need to follow me. I just kept running until my leg gave out on me.

  EL-MASRI: Do you remember which direction you mostly ran? North? South?

  DAMANIS: I don’t know. Mostly south? I remember the sun being to my right when I could see it, and I think it was morning here when we landed. So, south?

  EL-MASRI: What happened then?

  DAMANIS: I rested, but not too long, because my leg was already beginning to hurt, and I didn’t want it to stiffen up on me. I kept heading south, and after a while, maybe ten minutes, I came to a stream. I remembered reading somewhere once that if you ever get lost in the woods that you should find a stream and then walk downstream, because sooner or later you’d find civilization that way. So after I drank some water and washed out my wound, I just started walking downstream. I walked and then I would rest for a couple of minutes and then I would start walking again. Eventually I came out of the woods and saw your colony. I saw a couple of people in a field.

  SPURLEA: That would be the Yangs. They found him out in what was supposed to be their sorghum field.

  EL-MASRI: Go on, Malik.

  DAMANIS: I tried yelling to them and waving my hands, but I didn’t know if they could hear me or not. Then I passed out, and when I woke up I was here, and Doctor Spurlea was trying to fix my leg. That woke me up.

  EL-MASRI: I don’t doubt that.

  DAMANIS: And that’s everything, sir. That’s everything I know.

  EL-MASRI: All right. Thank you, Malik.

  DAMANIS: You’re welcome, sir. Can I have my painkillers now? I’m really going to start crying soon.

  SPURLEA: Absolutely, Malik. Give me one minute to talk to Chen here, and I’ll come right back and hook you up.

  [Door opens, closes.]

  EL-MASRI: Well, at least now we know how he got the Rot. That pack bite would do it.

  SPURLEA: And if it didn’t, washing the wound in the stream water did.

  EL-MASRI: You can’t blame him for not knowing that the stream is packed with the Rot’s bacteria.

  SPURLEA: Believe me, I don’t. His blood work just pinged, by the way.

  EL-MASRI: Bad news?

  SPURLEA: Don’t make it sound like you care, Chen.

  EL-MASRI: Just tell me.

  SPURLEA: He’s got it in his blood. He’s got about twenty-four hours before the septicemia blows him up from the inside.

  EL-MASRI: We don’t have enough painkillers for you to let him ride out that whole time, Aurel. That’s how we got into this situation with the painkillers in the first place.

  SPURLEA: I know.

  EL-MASRI: You’re going to take care of this, then.

  SPURLEA: When I go back in I’ll give him enough to get him to sleep. I’ll take care of it from there.

  EL-MASRI: I’m sorry I have to be like this to you about it.

  SPURLEA: I understand, Chen. I do. I’m just certain that when I die and meet Hippocrates, he’s going to be sorely disappointed in me.

  EL-MASRI: He’s going to die anyway, and painfully. You wouldn’t be doing him any favors.

  SPURLEA: I’m
going to change the subject by saying, Look, here comes Magda.

  GANAS: The easterly team found the containers with the crew from the Erie Morningstar.

  EL-MASRI: What’s the report?

  GANAS: Everyone’s dead. Death at impact at one site. Death by the pack, it looks like, at the other. They’re less than a klick apart, with the death-by-impact site being the most northerly one. The team took pictures, so if you want to have nightmares tonight, you can look.

  EL-MASRI: No other containers?

  GANAS: If they’re there, they haven’t found them yet.

  EL-MASRI: Have them keep looking. Give all the other search teams the coordinates and fan out from there.

  GANAS: How is Malik?

  SPURLEA: The Rot’s in his blood.

  GANAS: Jesus.

  SPURLEA: Just another perfect day here in New Seattle.

  EL-MASRI: Look at it this way. It’s unlikely to get much worse.

  GANAS: Don’t jinx it.

  EL-MASRI: Thank you, Aurel, Magda. I’ll let you know when or if we find those supplies.

  SPURLEA: Thank you, Chen.

  GANAS: There goes a right bastard.

  SPURLEA: We knew what he was when we hired him.

  GANAS: I know, but it’s painful to be reminded of it so frequently.

  SPURLEA: Without him we might be dead already.

  GANAS: Which is also painful to be reminded of so frequently.

  SPURLEA: Come on. We have to give Malik his painkillers.

  GANAS: Did Chen tell you to finish him off after you did?

  SPURLEA: He did.

  GANAS: Will you?

  SPURLEA: I don’t know.

  GANAS: You’re a good and decent man, Aurel. You really, truly are. How you ended up on a wildcat colony is beyond me.

  SPURLEA: You’re one to talk, Magda. Let’s go in.

  GANAS: All right.

  SPURLEA: And turn that off. Whatever I do, I don’t want a record of it anywhere but on my conscience.

  Also by John Scalzi