That Which Devours

“I’m Doc, I try to keep these assholes alive. Sit down.”

I sat on the bench, and Doc beat me to unlacing my boot, yanking it off without being careful. It hurt, and I winced. I ignored the fact that my feet smelled and instead focused on the blood on my sock.

“You haven’t been taking your boots off at night, that’s one way to get a fungus,” grumbled Doc.

“I crashed in a shuttle and have been moving non-stop to get here, with no one to watch my back,” I growled back. I heard buzzing near my shoulder but didn't respond. There wasn't a chance I'd mention Noseen to these guys. They didn’t need to know.

Doc chuckled. “I like your fire, kid.”

I almost said I wasn’t a kid, but then he pulled my sock off. The scabs ripped off, and I swore.

“This doesn’t look bad. The boots had your back.” He poked one of the oozing holes with a finger. “It isn’t warm. If I had some spray I’d use it, but I don’t.”

I thought back to the medkit on the shuttle. I’d left it there with John, he’d seemed to need it more than me. “Don’t have any medspray with me. Only a bottle of booze.”

Doc licked his lips. “Booze? I’d take a bottle if you're handling them out.”

Hawk stepped up behind him and smacked him lightly in the head. “Now's not the time, Doc. Is Alex’s foot gonna be okay?”

The Doc stood up quickly. “Doesn’t need stitches, holes are too small. Slap some glue on it and don’t get them wet. They should heal quickly.” The Doc scurried out of the room and into the open door. It only took him a few moments to come back, this time with a clean pair of socks.

My eyes widened at them. They almost looked untouched. He tossed them at me. “You're gonna want to let your feet air out and use new socks.”

I easily caught them and moved to my other foot, unlacing my boot and taking it off. That foot also smelled. The sock was grungy and I tossed both the dirty ones into my inventory. “Is there any way to plug the holes in my boot?” It felt so good not wearing my boots and stretching my toes out. The idea of a shower came to mind, and I almost groaned. I knew there wouldn’t be water for it, with everyone obviously being low. Being clean was rare, but taking a cool shower and getting all the sweat off myself sounded amazing, even so.

“I don’t have the right supplies to fix it.” Hawk shook his head sadly. “So what else do you have in your magic bag of tricks?”

“I have some water, but I gave a good amount of it to Jimmy,” I said carefully. While I hadn’t seen either of them use a crystal tool, that didn’t mean they couldn’t. If I lost the inventory crystal to one of them, I’d be screwed. “Same goes for ration bars.” I pulled out the bottle of moonshine and one eyebrow rose up on Hawk's face. Doc’s hands twitched. I set it on the bench behind me. “I need a crystal big enough to replace one on the shuttle. My brother John is working on the shuttle as we speak.”

“You weren’t the only survivor,” stated Hawk, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees. “Xander isn’t gonna wanna lose his only pilot.”

“Xander? You mean Alexander, the commander?”

Hawk nodded. “If you want one of our crystals, we will need your help securing the fence. I saw that plasma crystal you have. You can cut down that tree…”

“I want that moonshine,” muttered Doc.

“Doc, now is not the time to get drunk. I know you have needs, but we need to secure our home.”

“The first chance I get I’m outta here. Gonna head to the mines,” added Doc. “Fewer monsters.”

My eyes narrowed as I glanced at Doc, trying to learn more about him.

[Doc, Level 10]

He wasn’t that much higher than me, and he lived out here. It didn’t make sense, though if he was a drunk, which it seemed he was, it was no wonder he wasn’t in the colony. Everyone needed to pull their weight there, not to mention the rules against alcohol.

“Do you have any antibiotics on the shuttle?” Hawk said, motioning to the cot. “I don’t want to lose Denver like we lost Marvin.”

“Gonna miss his cooking, that's for sure,” said Doc, who took a small step closer to the table.

“Marvin was a great guy,” said Hawk, glaring at Doc, who stepped back. “Don’t speak ill of him like that.”

That answered the question I hadn’t wanted to ask about the fifth person who was supposed to be here. Though, with Denver down and Doc clearly not useful in battle, that only left Jimmy up in the tree and Hawk.

Hawk turned to look at me and I realized he was waiting for an answer. “I don’t know. We have some spray, but I don’t know if that’s helpful at this point. Once the shuttle's up and running, we can move him out of here. Either to the mines, or to the colony.” The scientists were the ones with a healer, like a real one with the class and everything, but I didn’t want to offer that. That flight was much longer, and he might not make it. And there was no guarantee they’d help, anyway.

“That could work. You could give Doc here a lift to the mines, while you're at it.” He leaned back on the bench, his back resting on the table. “Maybe it’s time to close this place…” he sounded hesitant for the first time. He was not the hesitant kind, clearly, but he also struck me as someone better with the here and now than the longer term strategy. “Especially if it's only me and Jimmy. We can’t collect water, hunt, and man the tree at night with only the two of us. Five was hard enough.”

That worried me. This compound was the communication link between the mines and the colony. “Maybe we can get people who will do shifts out here. The colony should be growing, after all.”

Hawk's head snapped toward me. “Growing? Who’s having kids in this godforsaken mess?”

“The scientists said five new kids will be ready in a couple of months," I said with a shrug.

“Xander has lost his mind. The colony is already stretched thin trying to figure out this planet, and he wants to add babies to the mix?” Hawk stood up and paced around the open area. “That stuck-up bastard just can’t let things lie.”

Hawk grumbled several other things, but I couldn’t hear them. My attention moved to Doc, who had taken a few closer steps toward the table. I snatched the bottle back into my inventory.

His face paled and he wobbled.

“Doc, you’ll get it after we fix the fence, but not a moment beforehand,” growled Hawk.

“Then I’ll get one of the crystals out front, right?” I asked for confirmation.

“Yes, you can have one of them. Not sure how you're gonna carry it back intact, but I’ll have to take that risk, and you’ll have to figure it out.”

I didn’t mention having one of them come with me, or, heck, all of them. Not yet. First, we had to figure out what we were going to do to fix the fence. I flexed my toes, spreading them far apart and then curling them in.

“Can you fill up one of our jugs halfway? That will give us plenty of water until we can make a trip out to the spring.”

I nodded, and to my surprise, Doc grabbed one of the containers and set it on the table. Standing, I pulled out my last full jug and emptied half of it. My own water levels were getting low. While my canteen was full, I only had this half jug to refill it with and a long walk back to the ship, somehow carrying a not entirely light crystal.

“Where’s your spring?”

“North of here,” said Doc. “Not far, but we can’t reach it with those cats out there.”

“Once the fence is secure, it won’t be hard. It’ll just take the three of us. You filling jugs and us keeping watch,” said Hawk. “It'll be easier with your help.”

If the three of us went, I could fill jugs and add them to my inventory. No one would need to carry them back and we could all be on guard. But it would take longer, and I was already going to be pushing the time I’d promised John.

“Let’s focus on the fence first.”

Hawk nodded, then sat back down at the table. Doc brought out three metal cups and filled them up with water before taking a seat at the far side of the table.

“We need a distraction,” said Hawk. “While you deal with those trees.”

Doc grinned and it looked a little unsettling. “I have those crystal blasts I’ve been working on. Toss a few of them out there and we might even take out the rest of the cats.”

Hawk slowly frowned before shaking his head. “Those aren’t stable, and we still don’t know why the C4 didn’t blow with the rest of the batteries.”

“I’ve gotten two to blow up when I wanted them,” argued Doc.

So, Doc dealt with explosives, was a drunk, and knew something about medicine. Who the hell was this guy?

“No explosives, and that’s final,” growled Hawk while slamming his hand on the metal table, which shuddered. “There's that carcass which I can snag. I can just make it look hard, like they have a shot at getting me. As long as they come from the tree side, I should be good. If they come from this side, I can rush to the tree and climb. Jimmy can keep them off me.” Hawk stared at me. “That means you gotta cut that tree off the fence and get those crystals grounded. They can’t climb through the fence in any other location. The tree and leaves are interfering with the crystals.”

“I bet I can sneak over," I said with a grin. My stealth had gotten better as I’d traveled through the jungle. "The distraction doesn’t need to start until I begin cutting. That way, you’ll have less time you need to be out in the open.” I frowned, thinking of my foot. “But it might be better to wait until we have shadows this afternoon.”

“They can see dang good in the dark, better than we can. I’d be a sitting duck out there," argued Hawk.