Drifters

Where the Andes meets the Amazon, Bolivia

Sophie woke up tied by the wrists, hanging over a cliff. The rock she was pressed against was a lovely reddish tan color, covered in grassy vine things. An ant the size of her thumb was crawling along one of those vines, getting very near her face.

Squeaking in alarm, she scrambled to get her feet against the rock and pushed herself up and away from the giant insect. She twisted her hands, grabbing the rope holding her, getting into a semi-comfortable position.

And then the view caught her attention.

Giant rocks stuck straight out of a thick jungle. The rocks couldn't properly be called mountains; it was as if someone had taken a proper mountain and cut the sides off, leaving straight rock with plants growing on top. Between the enormous rocks was a carpet of green, only parted where thin rivers wove through.

Sophie let herself swing back against her cliff, staring wide-eyed at every detail. She wondered if this truly was Earth, and not some alien planet with different geographical rules. She desperately wanted to climb every individual rock and trek along the meandering jungle rivers.

It took a few moments for her to realize that was, in fact, what she was supposed to be doing. She was hanging there like an idiot, staring, when she was meant to be climbing down.

Sophie looked up and noticed she wasn't too far from the top. Surely it wouldn't take long to get there, and then she'd go down. Besides, it would be safer to untie her wrists if she was on a flat surface. Or at least, if she wasn't hanging off a sheer cliff.

Smiling at her luck of having been chosen to climb here, she put her feet on the rock again and pushed herself up.

Peter slapped a bug off his face, debating pulling his poncho over his head and letting someone guide him blind.

Marie lowered her spyglass, looking down before taking a step around a tree. "She's fine, she's climbing up the mountain."

"Up?" Razan asked.

Peter slapped another bug, looking up at the cliff Sophie had been hung off of. "Makes sense; she probably wants to find a safer place to climb down." He took his hat off and waved at the mosquitoes gathered around his head.

"That or she doesn't want to risk falling as she unties her wrists," Marie said, pulling her hand back from the tree as a huge beetle angrily flew off it away from her. "Well, on we go."

"Yes, Captain," Razan said, calmly going the other way around the tree.

"Yes, Captain," Peter echoed, walking behind Marie.

She slapped at a bug on her hand, glanced at Peter's growing swarm of mosquitoes, then frowned at Razan. "If you were to tell me your blood's so hateful insects leave you alone, it's not that I wouldn't believe you…"

He paused, looking between Peter and Marie. After a moment he silently pulled his backpack off, rummaged a bit, and took out a bottle. He held it out to Marie, bowing.

She took it, then laughed. "Somehow I never thought to ask if there was a magic cream to make bugs leave you alone." Marie opened the bottle, poured some out, and handed it to Peter.

Peter looked the bottle over, smiling at the picture of a mosquito with a red X over it. "This would make life easier in a lot of places." He took some out and rubbed it on his face.

"You don't have anything like this in your part of the world?" Razan asked, taking the bottle back with a bow.

"Nothing that's truly effective," Marie said. "Mostly we rely on smoke or incense. A smell that fills a room and keeps bugs out."

Peter nodded, wiping his hands on his pants. "Thanks for sharing."

"Happy to be of help," the samurai said dryly.

Marie continued walking, followed by Razan with Peter in the rear.

Now that he wasn't fighting off insects, Peter could appreciate the jungle around them. He couldn't name a single plant, other than "tree" and "flower", and even basic descriptions failed him for a few things. The sounds of insects and birds fought for attention in his ears, almost drowning out the sounds of their footsteps. He stepped over a rotting branch, smelling damp dirt and wood.

This was not what he was used to. He was fairly certain that if he stopped for five minutes he'd never find Marie or Razan again. And yet, somehow, he liked it. The greens and dark browns surrounding him at every angle were… pretty. In a way.

Something above them let out a blood-curdling screech, and he flinched down into a crouch, staring up.

"Monkey," Razan said, also looking up into the trees.

Marie shook her head, watching for movement above them. "Parrot."

Razan pointed. "Monkey."

Peter had never seen a monkey before. If that was indeed what the strange, grey-muzzled, creepy-looking thing with round, soulless eyes staring down at them was, he never wanted to see another one.

It didn't look natural. It looked like the unholy offspring of a bat, raccoon, demon, and black cat.

"Strange, usually monkeys throw things," Marie said with a shrug. She turned away and kept walking.

The monkey screeched at them again. Peter decided he liked being in the jungle just a tiny bit less.

Sophie paced along the edge of the cliff, looking for a good way down.

Well, "edge" wasn't the proper term, it was more of a steep slope which became vertical.

There were no perfect places to climb, so she decided to go for the way with the most plants on it. If plants managed to hang on to the rock, so could she. Probably. Or at least she could hang on to the plants.

She debated using rope, but the one she'd been hung with wasn't nearly long enough. Besides, she had her bail device. If she fell, it wasn't like she'd die.

Before turning to face the rock, Sophie tried one last time to find her group. She knew more or less where they ought to be, but couldn't spot them through the dense green canopy. Shrugging, she hopped down to a tiny ledge.

This cliff wasn't meant for climbing. It hadn't been specifically designed by an alien race to be a mild challenge for humans. Somehow, that made it even more fun. Sophie swung and dropped and hopped from one ledge to the next. Every time she landed perfectly she wanted to cheer, and every time she nearly fell she wanted to laugh.

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After an hour she stopped for water and a snack, sitting on a ledge barely wider than her hand. She swung her legs over the lethal drop, admiring the view.

Sophie wished she could climb next to Rani; racing her would be so much fun. Then she wished Marie could have climbed with her; Sophie always learned so much from her, and Marie undoubtedly had dozens of fascinating climbing-related stories.

And then Sophie wished her mother were here. The woman would rant and rave and scream, and Sophie would just push… And she'd be gone forever.

The idea entranced her for a good five minutes. It would be so very easy. She wondered where the nearest deadly cliffs to Birmingham were.

And then she remembered she had a job to do, put her almonds away, and continued climbing.

Marie beat the hell out of a plant with her cutlass. It was some kind of vine, with small yellow flowers, and it was completely blocking their path. A colony of ants had apparently claimed the plant; they disliked her interrupting their pathways between trees.

Behind her, Peter and Razan were keeping an eye on a troupe of monkeys which had decided to follow them. Both men had knives, and Razan had his swords, but there were no long-ranged weapons in the group.

Marie had nothing specific against monkeys, but she did have something against being attacked by wild animals. If those little bastards started throwing things, she absolutely would have shot at them if she'd had her pistols.

She'd learned her lesson. Next time, she'd come fully armed.

With one last whack, the plant parted in half, allowing them passage. Satisfied, Marie put her cutlass away and stepped through.

She gestured to Razan's blades. "You can cut down the next one."

"I would rather die," he said flatly.

Marie smiled, then frowned as a giant tarantula skittered away from her boot.

"I'd offer, but I'm not sure how quickly my knife can cut through vines," Peter said, still watching the monkeys.

"I'll lend you my cutlass; it needs to be sharpened anyway," she said.

Razan pulled something off Marie's back and tossed it away. "If I may ask, why aren't you more careful with your sword?"

"I'm careful enough," Marie told him.

There was a pause, then Razan tried again. "Why do you treat your weapon like it's a worthless rock?"

"Because if you're scared to use your weapon, then you're scared to use your weapon," Marie said. "This is a tool to keep me alive, it ain't a work of art. It's done more for me than make people bleed. What use is something that can only cut humans?"

"What use is it if it breaks cutting a vine?" Peter countered.

"It won't," Marie said. "If I thought it might, I would have used my dagger."

"Still, a good blade isn't cheap," Razan said. "Care should be taken with them."

She turned towards him, an eyebrow raised. "Would you like to guess at where I got my cutlass? And every other weapon I came here with?"

The samurai hesitated, then looked resigned. "Off someone you killed."

"Precisely."

"Still, you can't kill people here when you need a new weapon," Peter said.

"Can't I?"

Before he could answer, Razan flinched with a yelp. Above them, the dozen or so monkeys screeched and started throwing things. Marie pulled her cutlass out again, trying to move faster through the dense vegetation.

"Should we kill them?" Peter asked, running after her.

"If they come down? Yes," Marie said. "Those bastards have a nasty bite, but they don't usually get close."

"Yes, Captain."

Razan grumbled, unsheathing a sword.

Sophie was being eaten alive. It had taken the bugs a good while to notice her, but now that they had, she wished she was wearing one of the Mask's outfits. She was sure she could climb in a diving suit. Maybe.

Regardless, there was nothing she could do. She needed both hands to climb, so she grit her teeth and let them bite.

Lamenting the red, itchy welts popping up all over her body, Sophie continued to climb. The rock was becoming covered in loose layers of dust and dirt, making it dangerous to jump from one ledge to the next. She had to land perfectly, or risk slipping. Thankfully the rock was also slightly more sloped; she didn't need to travel sideways as much.

She had a few more problems, as well. One being sunburn. The other being hunger. It was well into the afternoon here, but her stomach told her it was noon and she'd missed breakfast.

But the bottom of the cliff wasn't far! Maybe half an hour at most, and she'd be at the altitude of the button.

Thinking of that made her realize she didn't know precisely where the button was. Peter usually took care of the compass and directions. She hadn't climbed straight down, and she didn't know where along the cliff she'd started.

Suddenly her foot slipped, and it took all her strength to hold on to the rock. Sophie whimpered, her heart racing.

She was so close. She couldn't fail now.

"Nop?" she called, eyes still tightly closed.

There was a brief flash of blue light. "Yes?"

"Is there lunch available?"

"There will be, yes. Noon is in eighteen minutes, at which point we will give all climbers a platform to eat on," the raven told her.

"Thank you." She opened her eyes. "May I request the platform early?"

"You may, but keeping the platform up for longer than the allotted hour will incur penalties."

"Oh." Sophie tried to adjust her grip on the ledge, but her arm refused to move. She had to rest, to sit or lie down. "If- If I send it away eighteen minutes early, would I still be penalized?"

"Yes."

She tried to accept that. Agree that it was fine. Wait another eighteen minutes.

But her fingers ached, making her palms sweaty. Sophie knew she was at a real risk of falling. She didn't want to do anything that would get them penalized, not again, like in the ocean, but she wasn't strong enough. She kept being too weak.

"May I have the platform, please?" Sophie asked, trying not to cry.

There was a flash behind her, and she stepped back to find a solid surface under her feet. She spun, half-collapsing to her knees, then curled up on her side.

Every muscle ached. Every inch of skin itched or burned. She was starving, and exhausted, and…

Sophie fell asleep.

A bird appeared in front of Razan, and he immediately slashed at it. Thankfully he recognized the raven half an instant before his sword struck, and he pulled back before true damage could be done. He stopped, bowing.

"Forgive me."

"It is noon," Nop announced. "Would you like lunch now, or-" She was cut off as a green fruit hit her in the wing and she spun to the ground.

"I think we'll wait," Marie said, blocking another fruit with the flat of her blade.

There were flashes all around them, and suddenly the monkey's projectiles bounced off a translucent barrier.

"Thank you," Peter said, collapsing against a tree.

Nop righted herself. "That's better. We apologize for having put you in a hostile location."

"Not a problem at all," Marie said dryly, still watching their enemies.

"As I was saying," Nop said, "would you like lunch now or later?"

"I assume if we say 'later' you'll remove the barrier?" Marie asked.

"Yes."

She finally put her cutlass away. "We would like lunch now."

Razan found a good place to sit and did so. He kept his eyes on the monkeys, seeing one try and fail to get through the barrier.

"We would also like our guns," Peter said, sliding into a sitting position. "If you could get them to us."

"Apologies, but we cannot," Nop said.

"Never hurts to ask," Marie said, taking off her jacket to check it for damage.

Razan slid his backpack off and got comfortable as a stack of thin sandwiches appeared in front of him. He bit into one, decided he wasn't able to identify what the paste between the bread was, and continued eating. It didn't take long for him to finish.

"How long may we have the barrier for?" he asked the raven.

"Another forty-nine minutes," she replied. "Feel free to use this time for a nap."

"If you insist," Marie said, leaning back against a tree with her eyes closed.

Peter finished his different-looking sandwiches and did the same. Then he sniffed and looked down at his poncho. The monkeys had thrown many things, but their favorite thing to throw had been feces. Razan planned on burning his clothes once this was over, but he had no particular attachment to them. He watched Peter try to shake something off the poncho, fail, and give up. Peter pulled his hat over his face, getting comfortable.

Which left Razan alone and wide awake.

The monkeys had given up throwing things, and a few of them had left. They weren't a danger any more.

Razan remembered the requirements to win. Two people had to push the button, and one of those people had to be Sophie. If he left now, it was possible he and Sophie would find the button before they caught up.

He was no stranger to sitting in one place for long periods of time with nothing to do, but ability did not equate enjoyment. Sitting inside the barrier, keeping a pointless watch, when they were supposed to be racing, felt detrimental to their goal.

As quietly as possible, he found his compass then slid his backpack on. Bowing to Nop, he stepped out into the jungle and slid between the trees.