Carrion Crew

14

They had been dodging around under a dark, thick canopy, following the thin trail the Drifter had sliced out. Twist threaded Dasher through thick pines. The wheels spit out orange needles and cones in their wake, then suddenly that thin, blue line of sky was not above, but in front of them. Twist jammed the brakes and jerked the wheel. The small car half-spun, then rolled up onto its right two wheels, and Ash saw they were about to slide over a small cliff that was the peak to a massive hill. But little Dasher skidded to a stop and slammed back down onto all four wheels.

“Woo!” Twist shouted with a big, stupid grin. “And that's why I love Dasher! If we were in the hauler, we'd be still rolling down that thing!”

Ash looked out of the window. At her angle, there didn't appear to be any room for her to get out of the car without immediately beginning her descent. That, she definitely did not want to do. She peered down the slope and made out the bottom.

“Damn, Twist,” she said in one, airy breath.

“Close, huh?”

“No, Twist, look down there!”

Twist got out and walked around the car. Ash opened her door and was glad to find almost a full foot of flat ground to walk on. The two stood side-by-side and surveyed the scene below.

“Is that...” Twist started.

“There's too many trees to tell for sure. Don't get excited.”

“But Ash, it looks like someone's building a ship down there!” Twist pointed and nearly jumped up and down like a child.

Ash pulled his hand down. “Shut up! They can probably hear us down there. Voices carry in the woods, and if that's where the drifter went, I doubt they want us there.”

“Maybe they do. Let's go down for a look.”

“Bad idea,” Ash said, though she had been considering the same thing.

Twist ran back around the car. “Come on!” he shouted.

Then two enormous snaps cracked the quite of the woods.

“What are you doing?” Ash hissed.

Twist held out a thick brach of dead pine. “They'll help us down the hill so we don't go sliding down all out of control.”

“You're out of control!” Ash yanked the stick from his hand. “With all of that noise, we might as well just wait for them to come and get us.”

“Well,” said Twist, prodding the ground with his own stick, “let's start down. If we save them some of the climb, they might be more forgiving of us trespassing.”

Ash glared after him, but Twist was already heading down the hill in a noisy scramble. With little choice left to her, Ash followed. At least this way when they got caught, she'd be close enough to hit him with the stupid stick.

The night settled quickly and without warning. The low visibility was a curse of one kind, slowing Ash and Twist in their descent. It was also a blessing, because that slowness muted Twist's clumsy racket. They reached the bottom of the hill without raising any alarms, and were stopped by a crude fence that circled the enormous clearing ahead. 

The scene in the clearing troubled Ash. For one, it didn't look like it had settled properly, and for two, the middle of a forest seemed an unlikely place to set down a spaceship. Then she noticed some of the work being done. Shadows and silhouettes darted in and out of bright, white lights that were focused in on the ship. The figures were mottling the hull with mis-matched patches, making the craft look like it had been infected by a strange, metallic disease. Meanwhile, other men used small trucks to pull and stack timber on the far side of the clearing. Ash thought briefly of alien lumberjacks before realizing what she was looking at.