Valkyrie Hunter

We set up off while it was still dark outside. Miranda insisted we clean up the brush before we left. I couldn’t see the point but she was adamant. Well away from the way station we began to drop the brush along or trail. I saw the logic of her actions it disguised our footprints. I was just glad to be out in the open. Ella walked a little ahead of us constantly scanning our surroundings with the image intensifier on her coil gun. It grew lighter as we moved down the mountain and the trees grew higher. With the return of the light out came the insects. Great swarms of tiny biting insects all keen on my blood. I wasn’t the only one affected so it wasn’t just being a formerly human thing. Only Miranda seemed unaffected.

“How can you remain so calm!” I growled at her scratching a welt forming on my face from an insect bite. “These insects are driving me crazy.”

Instead of answering Miranda called out. “Cinders hold on!”

Ella stopped but the expression on her face said it all, she wanted to be as far way from this place as I did. She waited until Miranda was close before speaking. “Triple ‘M’?”

“Look at you,” Miranda said to her. Close up she looked worse than I for insect bites. “The bloodsuckers have been at you as well as Gwen. I need to fix that.”

“How?” I asked.

“See that bush break off branches and smear the sap on you.” Miranda pointed to a greenish-blue bush remarkably clear of the bloodsucking insects.

I broke off a branch and green sap leaked off the broken end instantly I noticed that the insects cleared a space around the sap. I wiped the sap on my face. The sticky green sap tingled for a moment and numbed the area. So it had dual properties keeping the insects away and easing the sting of their bites. Ella copied and after a while we looked strange with tracks of green sap on the exposed parts of our bodies. The effect was as if we had painted ourselves like some gung-ho commandos. A thought occurred to me I’d seen the Confeds in green and grey patched combat armour I wondered if this was where they got the idea. With our streaks of green on the grey of our thermal suits it did seem that way. We marched on each step took us further down the mountain. It seemed to be a trek down an endless downward slope. The further we went the further the terrain changed. The terrain became rougher several times we had to take a longer route around where huge boulders blocked the way. The trees grew taller and the treetops denser.

Suddenly Ella signalled a halt. We crouched down the treetops obscuring the sky. Miranda put her fingers to her lips. She didn’t have to do it I already knew the drill. I crouched silent my ears and eyes on alert sweeping the surroundings my hand on the pistol at my hip. Not that it would do much against an armoured target but I knew how to hit vulnerable spots. At least my Valkyrie training was doing some good. Then I heard it, the sound of a shuttle circling further down the slope somewhere ahead of us. We waited the sound grew fainter then Ella signalled for us to move. I was worried about the shuttle. Even if it could not find a place to land it must have detected us.

“Do you think they detected us?” I asked Miranda my voice quiet.

“No we are still within the mountains, too much interference. The only way they can spot us is visually.”

I considered it a good thing with the amount of tree cover we had. I reflected that this was the same as what had happened to us on Davenport. Albeit without the humidity and the constant rain. We were hunted then and we were hunted now. At least this time I was with people whose home terrain it was. Hitching my pack to a more comfortable position I followed Miranda and Ella downwards. My legs ached and I yearned for a rest. Miranda seemed to want to push on. She had an agenda something she wasn’t telling me. Several more times we halted hearing the shuttle’s engines always in the distance. It started to get dark.

“It’s getting dark,” I told Miranda.

“I know, I was hoping to reach the way station before it was dark but we couldn’t move with a shuttle overhead. Luckily we aren’t far.”

I gritted my teeth and followed like I had the choice. I reckoned we had enough food five more days. Water wasn’t a problem there were plenty of streams filled with cold snow melt. In fact there were too many of the darn things. The water from them was starting to creep though my boots.

It was fully dark by the time we reached the way station. I was expecting another outcrop of rocks what I encountered was far from that. It looked like a rundown wood cabin from the outside. The roof at an odd angle, the windows boarded up. The exterior was total contrast. Inside was a concrete room with two platforms for sleeping and to my relief a separate washroom with running water. To my surprise it even had working lights a fact I was glad of the image intensifiers gave me a headache.

“Gwen go with Cinders and find something we can make these beds more comfortable.” She paused. “I’m afraid one of us will sleeping on the floor.”

Ella pulled off her pack and put it on the floor. “Come on Gwen we best get this done.” Which were more words than she had spoken to me since we had left Miranda’s home.

I had been hoping to dry my feet it looked like I’d have to endure wet feet for longer. I followed Ella in to the darkened forest. My image intensifiers gave an eerie feeling to our surroundings. She led me deeper into the forest before she halted.

“Good we can talk here without her overhearing us?”

I was startled by Ella’s sudden turnabout. “What wrong?” I said alarmed.

“I’m worried about Miranda,” she stated bluntly.

“Why?”

“Because this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to get her.”

“Who?” I was puzzled. But it made sense in an obscure way. She had all these way stations built for some purpose. She had deliberately planned for a situation such as this.

“Those that want her secret.”

“Secret?” I had given up on my pledge not to repeat others’ words but there always seemed to be more questions than I had answers to.

Ella squatted indicating I should join her. As she did I did noticed that she swept her surroundings first.

“We can talk here in comparative safety.”

“About?”

“Miranda. She never told anybody how she rescued Elder Sigridun or what happened. What she says can’t have happened. Anyway she came in contact with an Old One. I can tell you Miranda’s one of the only Old Ones I’ve met that is the most mobile. They all have whole team to look after them.” Ella paused. “What I’m trying to say and failing miserably is that despite her age she only looks like a woman in her middle age. Humans aren’t that long lived nor do T’Arni look that good at her age either.”

Mouse or Digger I couldn’t remember who had told me the Elder’s interference had awakened my Keeper DNA which, they had used to remake themselves. How I didn’t know and I wasn’t going to contact them and ask. I hadn’t told Ella or Miranda how deep my connection to the Keepers went. I began to suspect, well I’d suspected that from the moment I had met Miranda that the Elders had inadvertently awakened her Keeper DNA. If so what did that bode for me? I shuddered at the thought.

“You alright?” Ella said. “You look as Miranda calls it someone walked over your grave.”

“They did in a way,” I replied. I hadn’t meant to be that honest. “Do you think there is a link here?”

“I wouldn’t be talking to you if I didn’t. Someone or someones wants to know the secret of her not ageing.”

I thought about what little I knew about the Keepers questions kept popping into my mind. Questions like how old were the Keepers? Scout was the only one that actually looked younger. Or how long they lived for. According to Kelli the Ancients lived for millennia or even more than that. It was too much speculation for the moment. I had to concentrate on the here and now. “Ok I accept that. Does that mean I’m like her?” I hadn’t meant to vocalise that but Ella answered.

“None of her children did. All lived normal Valkyrie lives.” Ella hesitated. “You are different and before you ask you may look like a human but your blood and your soul are Valkyrie. Don’t deny it, it might not be what you were born with but it is what you have become.”

“Ok everyone keeps reminding of that. It doesn’t answer any questions?” I took a deep breath calmed myself down and considered the option. I had to look at this through an investigator’s eyes. “What are the facts?”

Ella nodded thoughtfully. “Good we needed a fresh pair of eyes. This isn’t first time as I have stated that Miranda’s been pursued since becoming an Old One. The only good thing is the geology of these mountains have kept her here where she was safe.”

“That was until I came along. What I don’t get is why use me to get at her?”

“Your connection to her. You’ve said yourself none of this makes sense. So look at it from her point of view. You are precious to her through your link to her brother and through your link to her children.”

“Two lines that now are one,” I quoted what Miri had told me.

“Exactly my point. She feels guilt for Jenna’s death keenly even after this time. Someone and I cannot confirm if I am correct or not targeted the colony in an effort to flush her out of these mountains.”

“Now I’m here and she’s fleeing for her life?” I felt guilty about that.

“She’s not fleeing she has a plan.”

“Plan?”

Ella stood without answering that. “Come on Gwen we can continue this another time. She will be wondering where we’ve got to.”

Together we gathered brush for the beds. Ella had given me a lot to think about.