"Okay, let's keep going."
The trail faded to nothing, and they had to burn their way through virgin jungle. Elmo made no argument when Renchett called up three replacements to do the burning, incinerating the fungus with their MEWs set on low-yield heat ray. Eventually they reached a water course where a tiny stream danced down the hillside in a series of sparkling waterfalls.
As the terrain began to flatten out, the going became more difficult. The ground underfoot, which had previously been dry, turned into semiswamp. The mold now had the consistency of thick, clinging soup, and the men found that they were sinking almost to their knees. Even with the grav in their boots assisting them, progress was exhausting. With each step, swarms of tiny creatures flew up in billowing clouds. They tried to stick to the troopers' suits and helmets. The suits shook them off with spasmodic twitches of their black hides, but the visors had to be constantly wiped, otherwise the displays became distorted and unreadable. There was also another annoyance: The wheezing rasp of Siryn's breathing was audible in everyone's helmet.
"Something should be done about him."
"It looks like the jungle's going to do it."
Siryn had fallen well behind the rest of the column to the point where if he dropped back any farther, he would be out of sight.
"Hey, Elmo, Siryn isn't going to make it."
Everyone in the company heard Hark's voice, and they stopped to see what would happen.
"Shut your mouth, Hark. That fool isn't about to get any preferential treatment. He can hump his pod same as the rest of us."
Siryn chose that moment to give up. He stumbled forward and fell helmet-down in the muck. Elmo slung his weapon over his shoulder and walked back down the line. The column halted, and the recruits stopped burning the fungus.
"You all want to see what happens to cowards in my twenty?"
He stood over the fallen rookie.
"Get up, boy."
Renchett was starting back from his front position "Leave him alone, Elmo."
"Stay where you are, Renchett." Elmo bent over Siryn. "Are you going to get up?"
The rookie's voice was little more than a gasp. "I can't."
"Then take off your helmet. You ain't fit to wear it." Renchett was on the move again. "You're crazy Elmo."
"I told you to stay where you are." Dyrkin was also coming down the line. "You can't kill him," Renchett said. "I said take off your helmet." "No!"
Elmo reached down. He was almost gentle as he lifted off the helmet. "Now the mask."
Siryn didn't say a word. There was a soft sucking noise as Elmo pulled the mask away from his face. He pushed the rookie down and held his head under the dirty water. It was only a matter of seconds before the boy stopped breathing.
"You're insane!"
Renchett was almost on top of Elmo. The overman straightened up. His MEW was in his hands and pointed at Renchett's stomach.
"It'd give me a lot of pleasure, Renchett."
Renchett halted. His own weapon was unslung but not aimed. Dyrkin caught up with him. Elmo continued to hold his gun level.
"You too, Dyrkin?"
Dyrkin also halted. "You didn't have to kill him. He could have been moved out."
"Sometimes there has to be an example." "We all know what a corpse looks like."
"The new meat have to know that this ain't no picnic."
"Are you just going to leave him there?"
Elmo took a step forward. "You got a better idea?"
Both Renchett and Dyrkin were silent. Elmo smiled.
"Not so brave now? So what's it going to be? Are you going to get back in line or do you want to join this one in the swamp?"
There was a long moment of silent tension, then the two longtimers turned and walked back to their places in the line. Elmo actually laughed.
"Hope the rest of you sorry bastards took a good look at that. There's just one leader in this twenty, and I don't want any of you to forget it."
Hark hefted his MEW. Elmo had made a bad mistake, and sooner or later someone would see that he paid for it.
"Okay, get moving and let's not have any more delays."
The burning started again, and the smoke drifted back down the line. The twenty resumed their slow progress. They moved as if there were an extra weight on them; an ugly sullenness had been added to the heat, humidity, and fear. They continued cutting their way through the jungle for another forty minutes, and then the fungus started to open out a little and there was no longer any need to keep up the continuous burn.
"You can spread out some."
The column, which had bunched up behind the burners, opened up a little. The spaces between the men increased. The resentment seemed to decrease a little as the men became more watchful. This kind of country was a favorite with the chibas. There was enough space for an open order attack but also enough cover for them to lay an ambush. Hark cracked his mask for an instant and breathed out hard. Sweat had started to collect in the base of the mask, and that was the only way to get rid of the accumulation. If it built up for too long, it would start getting in his mouth. He would be glad when this day was finally over. He was tired and hungry and heartily sick of putting one foot in front of the other. When a trooper felt like that, he was no good to either himself or the twenty; he would fall into a dull semi-trance and never sense the danger until it was too late. Hark was close to that state when Renchett's voice rang in his helmet.
"Hold up there! Everybody stop!"
Hark came back with a start, angry that he'd allowed himself to drift. He held his weapon at the ready and quickly looked around, but there was nothing that he could see.
Renchett's voice was immediately followed by Elmo's. "What are you trying to pull now, Renchett?"
"I ain't trying to pull nothing. You'd better get up here and take a look at this."
Twelve
The bodies had been hideously mutilated. Although they were in an advanced state of decay and the mold worms had been at them, it was still all too obvious that they had been skinned by whatever had killed them. It was possible that they had been skinned alive. Their genitals had been cut off and stuffed in their mouths. There was no sign of their suits. They had been arranged in a neat line. It was as if they had been placed there just waiting for someone to discover them. The entire twenty gathered around and stared in silence. Hark sneaked a look at Elmo. He was as green behind his mask as any of the replacements.
"What the hell did this?"
"Chibas?"
"Chibas don't work this way; they just kill." "Miggies don't have the smarts." "Unless it's some new kind of psych war programming."
"Designed to get to us?" "If it is, it's working on me."
One of the new men was gulping and pulling off his facemask. He turned away and vomited.
"Don't breathe in!"
The man coughed twice, wiped his mouth, and put the mask back.
Renchett was staring'down at the bodies, shaking his head. "I've done some weird stuff in my time but nothing as weird as this."
Elmo finally found his voice. "Burn them!"
Half the twenty leveled their weapons.
"Stop! Don't fire!"
Dyrkin, who had started walking away from the group, was waving his arms. The troopers hesitated. He started pulling the nearest men away from the bodies.
"Get back! Get away from them!"
Elmo glared at him from behind his visor.
"Have you gone crazy?"
"The goddamn things are quite likely to be booby-trapped. There may even be a proximity fuse. Everybody get back."
Helot was the first to react. He'd been bending over one of the corpses, conducting some kind of morbid inspection. He jumped back as if he'd been scalded.
"Damn! He's probably right."
The longtimers stumbled away from the corpses, pushing the replacements in front of them. This time Elmo didn't argue; he simply moved with the rest. Everyone seemed to be looking to Dyrkin for guidance.