Free Brynin 3 by Thadd Evans Page B

went off.
    All around us, the swarm of undulating arcs droned louder. Suddenly, they began making a screeching noise, one that resembled a saw cutting metal. Zeeeeee!
    One guard shouted, “Time to use your G’s!” His fellow workers scrambled to put on gas masks.
    Someone fired, shooting a canister. It exploded, sending ochre-colored fumes in every direction.
    Even through my face-plate, I smelled a mustard-like gas. Soon my throat and eyes started burning. I cranked up the suit’s ventilation.
    The Oiins buzzed louder, then started flying away, wanting to avoid the fumes.
    As my stomach churned, the remaining insects flew toward a distant hill.
    Within moments, the fumes dissipated. The bottom of my face mask opened. “I’m surprised you didn’t put on the gas masks earlier,” I gasped.
    Boma removed his gas mask and took a deep breath, upset. “After you put them on, it’s difficult to see well enough to hit anything. I wish Obno would give us the latest equipment rather than this outdated shit.”
    His gas mask automatically folded, and Boma attached it to his sleeve. He hurried toward a collapsed guard while others did the same. Boma stooped, touched the guard’s wrist, then announced, “Zat is dead.” After cursing softly, he spoke into his tablet, “This is Boma. Alip, anybody, can you hear me?”
    A faint voice came out of the device, “Wha?”
    Boma tapped the tablet with his hand. “I can’t understand a single word. We’ll have to come back for his body later.”
    Everyone hiked on as the late afternoon sun-like star moved toward the horizon.
    The guards, all Ulthe warriors, frowned because they knew that any one of them might be next. The sad look on their faces also meant every one of them recognized that today, tomorrow or sometime soon might be their last day.
    Worik, with a frightened expression on his face looked at Nebo. “In the last few months, I’ve made more money as an Obno employee than I have in the last eight years.”
    Nebo nodded, his face tensed up.
    Worik scowled. “I’ve got a bad feeling that all of us are gonna die before we go back home.”
    Nebo grimaced, but didn’t say a word.
     

Chapter Twenty-Four
     
     
    Dusk had come. To our right, at the top of an adjacent hill, a great many four-foot tall, mocha–colored, furry creatures with long ears and narrow snouts barked. Soon they hopped down the slope and went past us.
    Boma squinted, trying to see them more clearly. “Those are Finas, a harmless species that eats wild Oza berries and Nopa leaves. They’re migrating toward the Baqqar plain, a spot that’s about thirty miles north of here.”
    “How did you find out about the Finas?” I glanced at him.
    “I opened a database and discovered that the Tiel eat a lot of them. Be on the lookout. There might be some Tiel in that grove of Zeeo.” He pointed at it.
    I didn’t see any Tiel.
     
    After hiking by a dried–up streambed, everyone threw his or her compressed tents to the ground.
    I said, “I’ll stand guard for a few hours.”
    Nebo announced, “When your shift ends, I’ll take your place.”
    I gave him a thumbs up. Everyone climbed into their tents and started whispering nervously, terrified.
    I took a compressed chair off my sleeve, expanded it, placed it in the grass and sat down. Somewhere in the darkness, beyond several dimly lit Mus Nantus, a bird chirped. I rested my flamethrower on my knees and yawned.
    Inside the tents, guards switched on lights. The wind started blowing harder, making it less likely that the Oiins would attack. I took a protein wafer out my sleeve, tore off the wrapper, and ate. Near the top of a hill, a few silhouettes—small birds, barely visible in the dim light—started whistling.
    Somewhere in the dark snakes hissed, but I couldn’t see them. I said, “Ey.inf.on.” My left eye switched to infrared.
    Eighty yards from me, a nine-foot-long Eoim, an ivory-colored snake with lime green spots, hissed and slithered away.