Guns of Mars 4

A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon

CHAPTER 2.1

Three short days and two long nights passed without any sign of the bronze man.

Kal Keddaq slowed the pace of his flight. His food supply had dwindled and he fell to turning over rocks to seek eyeless grubs for extra meals. His mounts were worn down from lack of proper watering. As they rode north there was less and less lichen to graze on. The lack of water was troubling. His last skin had only enough for perhaps a mouthful or two for himself and to dampen the tongues of his thoats.

This presented him with a dilemma. He did not wish to die of dehydration. At the same time, he needed the thoats to survive. One to ride and one to carry the waterskins he hoped to fill once they reached the edge of the ice cap. He could not walk on foot and hope to reach the pole. Neither could he return south without a full supply of water.

In the end, he resorted to an ancient Warhoon remedy to buy them another day. He shared what was left of the water evenly with the animals. He then emptied his bladders into the waterskin and drank a few swallows of the bitter brew. It left a musky taste in his mouth and burnt his throat. It was unpleasant, but it would serve.

Toward the end of the fourth day, he came to the first patches of ice. There was a thin sheath of frost forming on the rocks as the sun sank lower. Before his eyes, fingers of hoar frost reached out across the tops of the rounded stones. He dropped to his knees to lick at the stones as did his mounts. It was not enough but it would restore them sufficiently to go on. Kal stood and looked to the north. The shimmering lights of the aurora danced along the horizon.

The pole was close. All the ice in the world.

The night was colder here, and he forced the thoats to lie close to one another to make a nest for him between. He lay shivering through the night wrapped in a cloak. He ached to see the new dawn turn the black sky to grey.

Even the scant warmth offered by the sun was enough to melt the frost from the night before. They would have to reach the ice pack by the end of this last ride or die. Kal pushed the thoats to near exhaustion.

Entirely spent himself, Kal dozed fitfully in the saddle. He was nearly unseated when his thoat halted its progress with a sudden jerk. He scanned the plain all around for what might have startled the beast only to find the featureless stone desert empty of life. A stuttering mechanical sound from above made him look up. An airship soared high overhead to cross above him at an angle to the north-northeast.