Monsters

Meg pulled the chain over her head and gave the locket a quick squeeze. She untangled her wet hair from the chain.

“You dressed yet?” Paul’s voice echoed in the steep canyon.

“Almost.” Meg called, pulling her clothes on to her still wet body. The pool at the base of the waterfall was ice cold, but even with her dirty clothes on, it felt great to be clean. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d bathed. Shoving her feet into her shoes, she hiked up the trail. “Your turn.”

She’d had ulterior motives for insisting she get the first bath. And it worked. The boys had gathered plenty of firewood. Her least favorite task. Once the last of the seven boys had headed down into the pool, Meg took off the locket. Mother had made the chain, telling Meg a story about each bead she had worked into the silver wire. Meg started at the green bead and began quietly reciting the words Mother had drilled into her. “Green is the valley of our home. Yellow is the rising sun, at your right hand. Blue is the lake, shaped like a hand, where fish are plentiful.” She went through the beads, remembering the landmarks they had passed. She paused a minute when she reached the heart. Made by her grandfather for her mother and another for her uncle when they were children. He’d pieced it together from whatever bits of metal he could salvage after the first attack. With a sigh, she finished reciting the meaning of each bead.

They’d had to skirt a few encampments of the monsters. The aliens hadn’t fared any better than humans had in the war. Their ships had been destroyed and the hope was that the few who escaped the planet would not come back. Perhaps they had learned humans would not go quietly. Even traveling a wide arc around the monsters, Meg had managed to find the next landmarks.

Not for the first time, she debated teaching the boys how to find her uncle’s stronghold. They were almost there. Eight more landmarks to go. But they’d called her a useless little girl.

“I’m not useless,” she whispered to herself. Then to prove it, she found the coiled wires and strings in the cart they took turns dragging. She had seen a couple narrow trails crossing the way down to the water. With luck, they were still in use. Animals needed water. She rigged a handful of snares. As Meg set the last one, she heard the boys talking and splashing.

“She’s slowing us down.” That was Andrew’s whiney voice. He was her age, thirteen. But where she was just skinny, he was very thin, but muscular and good with fishing, not that there had been much water large enough for fish in weeks.

“And how do we know she really can find the fort?” That was Terry, Andrew’s older brother. Just as skinny but a foot taller.

“She can find it. She’s been able to identify landmarks the day before we reached each one. She’s got to know.” Paul. He was the only adult. He had just turned twenty when their valley had been wiped out. He declared himself the leader since he was the oldest and since…, Meg pushed it out of her mind. But saying he was the leader didn’t mean the other boys hadn’t fought him over it every day.

Meg put the locket back on and clutched the silver heart through her thin T-shirt. No, she told herself. She wasn’t going to tell them the importance of the locket and the landmarks it detailed. She headed back up to their encampment. It had been days since any sightings or signs of the alien monsters. She intended to make the camp comfortable enough to stay a couple days.

“What’s with the tent?” Paul asked when the boys filed back up from the water.

“Fresh water. We’re hidden halfway down the slope. Lots of plants and wildlife. We need to rest and restock.” Meg grunted as she rolled a large rock into the center of the small clearing. She pointed to several other rocks. “We should make a proper fire so we can cook. Bring a few more rocks.”

The boys just stood. Andrew and Terry crossed their arms and glared. The four other boys, they just called them all “the cousins”, looked at Paul.

“That’s a great idea. Get to it.” Paul took over the rock Meg was struggling with. “We need to set the snares to—”

“I already did,” interrupted Meg. “On a few small trails. Leading to the water. Once the sun starts to set, there should be plenty of small animals coming out to get to the creek.”

Paul nodded. “Good. Thanks. Kyle, you and your cousins can set up the other tent right there. Andrew, we need a little more firewood. See if you can find some bigger pieces.”

“We can’t have a big fire. The monsters will see it.” Andrew whined.

“Shut up, Drew,” Paul ordered in that tone that caught everyone’s attention.

Meg tensed. That deep, almost feral growl only came out twice before. She fought to keep the memory away. The gentle, caring Paul had ordered them all to stay in the cave where they’d hidden during the first attack on the valley. He’d stood just inside the cave, holding an axe. For two days he’d stood, nearly unmoving, until the townsfolk had managed to chase off the aliens. Then a week later, when the second attack came. Meg pushed the image out of her mind, but it worked its way into her consciousness anyway. Paul standing with a bloody axe. The deep purple blood of the blue-skinned aliens dripping into the pebbles at the mouth of the cave. Paul had used that voice again, declaring the killers of half the children in his care to be monsters.

“You all right?” Paul sat on the ground next to Meg.

She shook her head, then nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are we getting close?” Paul spoke so quietly Meg wasn’t sure she heard him at first.

She whispered in return, “About ten days. Maybe twelve.”

“So close.” Paul added a few more twigs to the slowly growing fire. “Don’t tell the others.”

Before Meg could ask why, several of the other boys crowded around the fire.

The snares worked well and they dined on fresh roasted rabbit. With the first full bellies in a week, the boys were cheerful for a change. Paul just had to suggest they stay two more days to smoke more meat to carry with them and they all willingly agreed. It ended up being four days before they headed out. A heavy rain kept them inside their tents, then another day to dry everything out. Meg went over the instructions again in her head. Follow the creek in the canyon upstream to a giant stone fish. Then head in the direction the fish swims through the notch. If she told the others to look for a stone fish, they would laugh at her. But it wouldn’t be the first time on this journey.

They found the fish, a huge rock the size of a whale with a ridge down the center of its back. Meg climbed up and sighted down the length of the ridge. Sure enough, in the hills in the distance she spotted a gap. It took two more days to cross the plain to the gap. With each new landmark, Meg silently thanked her mother. When the last clue sent them to the top of a table, they found themselves facing a large mesa.

“It’s up there.” Meg pointed.

“I’m getting sick of this stupid treasure hunt,” Terry complained. Andrew whined his agreement.

The cousins insisted on camping at the small spring at the base of the mesa.

“No. You don’t understand. This is it. The end. If my uncle is still alive, they’re up there.” Meg said as she searched for a way up.

Paul listened to the argument, and made his declaration. “It’s going to be dark in about two hours. We don’t want to get stuck halfway up in the dark. Let’s camp here by the spring and we can climb in the morning.”

The night was warm and clear, so they skipped setting up the tents and with nothing to cook, they skipped the fire as well. Having seen no trace of monsters in a long time, they even skipped setting up watch. So no one noticed that they were surrounded shortly before dawn.

Someone shouted and the travelers bolted awake. A strange woman was sitting on a fallen tree at the edge of the camp. “Who are you? What do you want? Where are the adults?”

Paul stood up. “I’m the only adult.”

“Right. You show up here, past the aliens, by yourselves? Just by luck.?” Several other people barely hidden in the trees laughed.

“I had instructions to get here. I’m looking for my uncle. Marcus Trainer.” Meg untangled herself from her blanket to stand up.

The woman stiffened. “Your uncle, you say?”

Meg nodded. “My mother’s brother. She is, was Missy Colton. I’m—”

“Megan?” The woman stepped up to Meg. “Prove it.”

“What?” Paul said. “We barely got away with our lives. How—”

Meg held up her hand to stop him. Then she pulled the locket out of her shirt.

The woman pulled an identical locket out of hers. They opened the lockets to find the same photo inside, two children.

“I’m Marcus’s wife. Shonda. He’ll be glad to see you. Is this… are you all who survived the attack? We sent scouts, but they said the village was gone. Burned to nothing. We thought...”