It had been hard work to get this far but not as hard as Sarah had feared. Logan had done most of the work; pushing his way in front of his captive and hacking at the deep green vines with a machete he had improvised out of the remains of the Galileo 12.
All Sarah had had to do was stagger along behind him, trying to keep up and trying not to fall over. She had fallen over once, tripping over an unseen knotty root or bush and tumbling over to land with a thump. Logan had roughly yanked her back to her feet, "Be more watchful," he had warned gruffly. "You’re no good dead."
Sarah had expected nothing less from her kidnapper. Expectations had changed shortly after they had reached the edge of the marsh. It was a strange looking marsh; dotted with short trees that grew out of the sickly sweet swamp water. The trees here were a little shorter but, crucially, further spread a part.
Logan had started talking to himself after just a few minutes. He had begun to look for a way across and then suddenly stopped.
"Maggie?" he had asked, "Is that you?"
---
That had been more than ten minutes ago. Sarah had found herself a place to sit on a nearby fallen log before Logan had started to movie.
"Wait!" called Sarah, "I don’t think you should wade in…" but Logan paid her no attention. He slowly pushed his way deeper into the marsh, sinking down to his waist in the thick, soupy waters as he waded further in.
"It’s dangerous!" Sarah called again, "You can’t see where you’re going! Don’t leave me! There’s no one else there!" but once again her kidnapper had ignored her.
---
They had reached the edge of the marsh some ten minutes ago Sarah, the girl, had quickly been effected by whatever naturally occurring chemicals were carried by the gasses.
"Sarah!" Logan warned as the Imperial girl staggered forwards, her wrists still bound, "Don’t go in!"
She didn’t listen. Sarah splashed into the watery marsh. Frantically Logan looked around before finding a long vine hanging from a nearby tree. One chop, two chops and the lengthy planet came free. "Here! Catch this…" he shouted as he threw the ropy plant into the marsh water behind her.
To Logan’s dismay, the stupid young girl ignored the rope and pushed deeper into the marsh. Her white shirt slowly turning a transparent green as it sucked up the fetid water. Logan knew that he would have to go into the marsh to fetch her back but he also knew that wouldn’t be safe - whatever was causing her to hallucinate might also start to effect him if he got too close.
---
It watched from the nearby tree tops. Curious. Both the new creatures; the male and female, seemed to be extremely sensitive to the marsh gas. They had started to shout, twist, stagger around but ignore one another within just a few minutes of arriving.
It licked its lips. The girl was ripe and young. She should be his! He needed her soon!
This was a risk though. It knew it wasn’t immune to the marsh gas either. The last time it had tracked this far the marsh had made it feel dizzy after a few minutes – much slower than it had taken effect on these two strangers – but an effect never the less.
The beast considered its choices… perhaps now was a good time to snatch the female. |