It was already more interesting.
Suddenly it became too interesting. Through Darius’ eyes they saw something rise up from the ground. A pit worm! They had to be avoided!
The wagon lurched as the horse skittered to the side. But the monster’s snout oriented on the man, and began to suck. Air whistled into that mouth, and a short distance away there was a jet of air carrying out the exhaust. The principle was similar to the way the floaters used air to float and to bring in food or blow out stones. But here the suction was what counted, for the pit worms swallowed their prey whole. Then they closed their aperture shells and digested what they captured. A few days later they would blow out whatever remained undigested. In the interim they were invisible, because their shells covered the two ends of their burrows and dirt settled over them. A floater could float over many without noticing. Since they did not hunt by day, it didn’t matter.
Darius was drawn into the mouth. It was just a round hole, with dust sucking in. The suction was so strong that the man was in the mouth before he could flee. But he held his pole crosswise, so that it came up against the snout. He hung on to it, though his feet were drawn into the maw.
Burgess knew that this was not enough. The worm would simply close its maw on the man and withdraw into its hole, carrying him along. Then it would start digesting his feet. The wooden armor wouldn’t help, since the digestion was fluid and chemical. Darius had to get free immediately. Burgess could do it.
Seqiro picked up this assessment. Then the two human women were opening the wagon. They let the back panel fall down so that it formed a ramp. Burgess could not float up an incline, but he could float down one. He sailed out of the wagon and over the ramp, flowing into the dirt beyond. Then he righted himself and moved to the side, where the worm was already withdrawing into its hole, carrying the man’s lower body along. He moved up right next to it, poked his outtrunk in next to the man, and started blowing. He shot a steady stream of dirt and pebbles into the orifice.
Colene and Nona, understanding what he was doing, got down and scooped more sand to Burgess’ intrunk, so that he did not need to move. Thus bolstered, he poured more through, filling the worm.
Soon the worm, realizing that it was sucking in the wrong substance, desisted. The terrible draft died down, and Darius was able to wrench himself out of the maw. “Thanks,” he gasped as the worm disappeared and slammed down its shell plate.
Thanks? A member of the hive defended the hive and all its members. There was no other way.
“Are there more of these suckworms?” Colene asked. Her accompanying thought was trying to place this monster among those she had seen in the pictures her teacher Amos Forell had shown her, but she couldn’t, quite. She thought there had been a wormlike thing armored at both ends, but that was all.
There were many. They tended to cluster, so it was better to avoid the region. Because they were hidden under the dirt, it was hard to be sure one was near until it lifted its shell and began sucking.
“But trying to circle around something when we don’t know where it is will take too long,” she protested. “It’s not that far to the anchor site. We need a better way.”
“Also,” Nona said, “there won’t be any other predators, where there are suckworms.”
“What alerts the suckworms?” Darius asked. Any weight on the ground close by, or any disturbance. They were sensitive to vibrations and compression of the ground. They remained hidden until the disturbance was close; then they popped up to suck it in.
Darius picked up a rock. “Then maybe this will do it.” He threw the rock a short distance ahead.
Nothing happened. He threw another, with no reaction. But the third brought an eruption. “So it’s clear up to there,” he said. “You folk get back in your cage; I can handle this.”
They helped Burgess into the wagon, and joined him there. They closed it up and tuned back in on Darius’ perception. He was throwing more stones, verifying the safe route through before leading Seqiro there.
“Hey, horsehead,” Colene asked. “Can you tune in on the suckworms, so we know where they are more directly?”
In time, yes. Immediately, no. Their minds are small and foreign.
Slowed by the necessity of checking the route with stones, they proceeded at a painstaking pace. Unable to help, Burgess settled down to sleep, and the women did too, depending on the horse to wake them if they were needed. They lay on the dark floor on either side of Burgess, where they were able to reach up and touch a contact point at need. This was not comfortable for any of them, physically, but a certain rapport remained even when they weren’t touching, and that made it comfortable emotionally. Burgess was gradually coming to appreciate emotion; was good to feel.
JUST how slow it was they didn’t realize until the three were abruptly wakened. Light was coming; it was dawn.
There was sound. Burgess recognized it: hivers!
“Hey, you out there, get a wiggle on!” Colene cried. “Hivers coming!”
“It’s chancy,” Darius responded. “We have threaded an interminable bed of worms, and there may be more.”
Not when light came; the worms did not suck by daylight.
“So go, go, go!” Colene cried. “It can’t be far to the anchor, and we don’t want to be trapped out here by the hivers.”
The man and horse broke into a run. The wagon ride got considerably bumpier. But there remained some distance to go to reach the anchor point. Burgess had chosen it for seclusion and convenience for himself, not considering how close it was to the wilderness.
There was a honk. That was a hiver, sounding alarm! Now they would come.
The region of the anchor came into sight. Burgess verified it through Darius’ eyes. But the hivers were already closing in on it. They did remember where it was, and would cut off the party before it got there.
“Damn!” Colene muttered. “So close…”
“Burgess,” Darius called. “Have the hivers ever encountered armor?”
No. It was an alien concept.
“So they won’t be able to figure its weaknesses in a hurry?”
True. They would blow sand and rocks at it.
“And not try to interfere with the wheels?”
They had never encountered wheels before.
“Suppose we just charge right through them?”
They would get out of the way and blow rocks from the sides.
“Hear that, Seqiro? We’ll just gallop right at the anchor and through it. They won’t get in our way.”
“But swerve around the bigger rocks!” Colene called. “We don’t want to tip over!”
Indeed, the wagon seemed about to fly apart. But they charged recklessly at the group of hivers near the anchor. Rocks and sand struck the wood panels and bounced off. Darius and Seqiro were struck too, but suffered no damage.
As they came to the anchor, the hivers floated aside, not wanting to be struck. The hivers continued to hurl dirt, but though it made for a choking environment, it didn’t stop the motion. They were almost to the anchor, moving at speed.
Then a front wheel struck something. It jumped and came off. The axle dropped to the ground and the wagon plowed into the dirt. The three of them inside were thrown against the front panel. It broke loose and fell outward on the horse, while the two women tumbled to either side and Burgess jetted frantically to keep from being turned over on his top.
The hivers, surprised by this display, halted their firing. But Burgess knew that would not last long. He slid down off the panel and back onto the main body of the wagon.