Fragment

9:02 P.M.

The alpha spiger launched its two-ton body off its rear legs and catapulting tail, lunging up the hillside in a thirty-foot leap, as it followed the tracks of the Humvee up the slope in the moonlight.

Behind the red beast two smaller spigers the size of polar bears, the two members of its pack, pounced up the hill.

Drool lubricated their vertical jaws and their eyes darted rapidly on stalks, canvassing the hillside around them in vibrant, vivid detail. An army of parasites, from scavenging disk-ants to centipede-like worms, coursed through the giants’ fur like sea monsters battling all attacking bugs to a standstill and protecting its wounds so they could heal.

The alpha spiger bore a deep scar on one side of its face where a wolf-sized rival had slashed its head before it had bit the youngster in two. The others in its pack had devoured the spiger’s other half.

The alpha spiger spotted the Humvee rolling to a stop on the slope above. It doubled its speed.

Nell and Andy packed the cases to the brim with the haversacks of each hendropod and started stuffing as many fossils as they could squeeze into the rest, even slipping some inside their pockets, reluctant to leave anything behind.

“Nell,” Andy said. “Thank you.”

“What for?”

“Coming back to get me.”

“Oh! No problem, sweetie.” She laughed and gave him one of her signature hugs.

“I thought I was dead,” he said, tearfully. “I couldn’t believe they saved me. But the hendros really took me in, Nell, they really did. Considering what they’re going to do to the island…” He paused, eyes closed tight. Finally he sighed, and opened his eyes to meet hers. “Anyway,” he said, “thanks.”

“Thanks for finding them, Andy.” Nell let him go and squeezed his shoulder. “Your name will go down in scientific history as the one who saved the hendropods from extinction. Come on-we don’t have much time. We need to go.” They each carried two stuffed cases up the stairs, leaving the fifth case for a second trip.

The cataract of the Milky Way filtered through the screen of the tree’s dome-like canopy. A heavy branch reached out over the cliff from which a row of branches protruded like monkey bars.

They watched as the hendropods turned headstands on the wide branch and, with their four long legs, reached out and grabbed the side branches. The creatures swung across, rotating with one limb after another.

When the hendropods reached a pulley that hung from the bottom of the branch, they jumped down the thick cable into the big basket.

“Mmm. I don’t know…” Andy quavered, assessing their precarious escape route. “Hey! Where’s Thatcher?”

The others shot quick glances around.

“I’m not waiting for Thatcher,” Zero announced. He jumped out to catch the first rung of the “monkey bars” and then swung over the seven-hundred-foot plunge hand-over-hand on the side branches.

Geoffrey went after him. They both made it look fairly easy.

“Lookin’ good, guys,” Nell called as they slid down the cable into the basket.

“Uh, how are we going to get these over there?” Andy pointed at the cases.

“Uh-oh,” Nell said. “Hend-”

As Nell started to call them, the hendropods sprang back up the cable and swiftly spread out along the “monkey bars,” forming a chain back to the main branch. As she handed them off they tossed the cases along the chain to Zero and Geoffrey, who caught them in the basket.

“Your turn, Andy,” said Nell.

“I can’t do this.”

“Come on, Andy!” shouted Zero. “Just don’t look down!”

“I didn’t know you were afraid of heights,” Nell said.

“Who isn’t afraid of heights?”

“It’s not that far, just go!” she said.

Andy jumped with a terrified yell and caught the first branch.

“Hand over hand!” shouted Zero.

Andy glanced down the sheer cliff face and began thrashing his legs wildly.

Hender stood by Nell on the main branch. The four other hendropods hung from the monkey bars, watching Andy.

“Go Andy!” Hender said.

Andy reached for the next monkey bar and grabbed it, but when he swung for the rung after that his hand missed and he fell.

She heard Andy’s scream. Hender jumped from beside Nell and plunged down the cliff as she looked down.

Hender grabbed Andy’s ankle with an outstretched hand as two hendropods leaped from the rungs in sequence.

Like the pieces from a Barrel of Monkeys game, one hendro stretched a hand out to grab Hender’s tail while hooking tails with the one behind it, who held the tail of a fourth, who clung to the ladder with all six hands.

As Andy plummeted down the face of the cliff, the hendropods’ tails stretched to the limit and then sprang back and jerked him upward like a bungee cable.

At the top of the recoil, Hender handed Andy off to the fourth hendropod at the top of the chain, who quickly passed him to a fifth hendro hanging from the pulley.

The fifth hendro dropped Andy, who had been screaming throughout, into the basket.

Zero and Geoffrey patted his back with amazed congratulations as Andy popped his head up, speechless.