Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 09

He switched to the visual spectrum and enhanced what he saw. That caused him to lean forward a little and then clarify the image.

As he judged what he was looking at, the distant circle in the grass where he'd killed the men that morning was now really blazing. There was a column of thick fog rising above flames which looked to be white-hot. He looked away, straight up then at the ceiling, listening at the heavy sound of the rain which had by that time actually grown stronger since he'd last paid it any mind.

Checking his vessel's weather algorithms after selecting Earth weather patterns, it looked as though the weather was indeed taking a turn for the worse. The barometer was falling again and the wind was up even more. He checked what he could get from broadcast signals and it wasn't much, and what there was came in Spanish.

He quietly wished to be able to understand it because it sounded very nice to him just to hear, the few times that he'd actually heard someone speak to him when he'd been on vacation - before they'd turned around and noticed what he looked like.

He went back to the visual and noticed a blob moving closer, so he backed the field of view out a bit and saw her trotting toward where he sat.

He opened the forward hatch as far as it would go. He was parked with the hatch under some overhead cover, but the way that the wind was blowing, he wanted to provide at least the little bit of shelter that it would give.

A few moments later, she stood under the open hatch cover and looked up at him. Her gaze went from his face to his genitals where it stayed for a moment.

Then she was back to looking at his face, but she seemed to have some trouble with that.

Not with looking at his face.

Twice her gaze left his eyes to head downward a little more slowly and in each case, her eyes went on a little roundabout journey, taking in the details of his landscape.

But she always ended up in the same place, pausing for a second or so before seeming to force herself to look him in the eye once more.

The effect was a little bit distracting for D'Jymm. Then he thought back to the actions of the men in the circle, what they might have done to her before he'd gotten there. He had no idea.

He looked at her and waved her forward, but she stayed where she was. There were features that he saw now which he hadn't noticed earlier in the day, but he told himself that for the most part, she'd been in a great deal of terror and pain. Who'd look good at a time like that?

Now, at least she looked more relaxed, though not knowing her, he thought that maybe she was still somewhat tense. She was thin, but it was a body type that he could have sworn he'd never really seen here before, not in this country, anyway. The curves were there, but overall, she seemed a bit tall for the people that he'd seen in this part of the world before, but he had to admit that his observations had been made a good distance from here and they were made while not knowing why everybody seemed to be upset with or over him.

He thought that she looked frustrated, but he waited, trying to adopt a neutral sort of stance. At the same time, she looked to be trying to force herself off the porch as it were.

Finally, she began to speak rapidly.

The sound of her voice was simply incredible to him and he smiled genuinely, but he knew that he had to ask her something because by his count, she'd already asked him three questions. She smiled a little uncomfortably in return and then he held up his hand to stop her.

She looked at him curiously, as though she didn't want to stop. He sensed that she was growing impatient and a little desperate in needing to communicate something to him.

"No ... "he began, "No habla espan - espanole." He pointed to himself, "Habla inglese."

She took a second to think it over and then she nodded, "Ok."

He nodded and looked at the weather and the way that she was soaked, "Please, come inside out of this rain."

She shook her head, pointing, "My cousin. She has my - our ... she has our children. The stupid cabrons there in the town, they want to kill us! We - We are the last here, my cousin and me - and our little ones.

"Señor, you don' know us, but to her and me, you look very strong and we need help. Please help us!"

Her statements confused him, but he felt that she was being genuine.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"They blame us for something older than most people here know. They say that we - people like us made the oil place close, but it was long time before that it closed. They say that if they kill us, then the oil people come back. They killed my father and my mother, my uncle and my aunt and they killed my husband. Now they want us - to finish the last of us."

"These men," he began, beginning to feel things inside of him, "are they like the ones out there today? And last night?"

"Si," she nodded pointing toward the refinery, "My cousin hides inside the fence, but we know they will come soon. Can you help us?"

"I want to be clear," he said. "What do you need?" he asked, "As I did before?"

She nodded, reaching to get the sling of the ancient M-2 rifle from her shoulder. "Yes. Like that and more if you can. The men in the village, they have three floaters that they use to hunt us if many want to come. Each one holds seven."

She held out the rifle and he took it, wondering what she wanted then, but he watched as she struggled a bit to peel her wet clothing off. A moment later, she began to shift before his eyes.

He thought that he might be ready for her appearance when she came, but he found that he'd been absolutely wrong and had to try not to stare.

Her fur was a rich, golden brown like dark honey and to his mild surprise; it was short like his own. Her long, dark blonde hair was still tied back into a ponytail high up the back of her head.

He blinked, taking in her short muzzle, much shorter than his own and very attractive to him. There was some fur on the sides of her face and it went almost straight back but for a bit of an upward angle. The ears that he saw were held erect like his own and though they looked to be the same size as his, she was smaller and so the ears looked larger on her. He also noted the tail, but what held his gaze in a lock were her eyes.

He'd never seen that shade of green before in anyone's eyes. They were a thin color, like watery-looking jade and they sat under her perfect eyebrows.

She held out her hand for the rifle.

He nodded and gave it back before he bent to pick up the weapon system that he'd repaired. Shrugging the harness on, he connected the feed chute and turned the system on. The barrels rotated twice and the feed chute filled with cartridges. When he looked up, she looked confused, "What is that?"

He switched it off and repositioned the weapon on his back.

"Something loud," he said. "Let's go."

"I can lead you there," she said cocking the rifle and setting the safety, "My cousin has our patojos - our little ones with her. We have to protect them. They are barely two years old and these loco pendejos want to kill them!"

As they half-trotted out into the wind and rain, he asked her something which had been on his mind for a time. "You said that your cousin said I looked strong. Does she know me?"

"Yes, you saved her from being hunted last night."

He said, "Those men, who are they? Why are they so ... single-minded about hunting you? And what is your name?"

She spat into the wet grass, "They are morons. I am Daniella."

"Not a moron," he smiled and she saw it.

"Not often," she replied.

She thought about it for a moment and decided that he needed to know something, so she began.

"The people here, all around, they were mostly one kind of people. They ... we, have been here forever. No one really knows. But we all came from the same people from long ago.

"Not everyone, but almost. People always move around, no? That is something that humans of all kinds do."

She nodded toward the hulking refinery which they could just see in the distance, "Something like that, there were not many of the people here who knew how to build it and make it to run. The workers, the builders, they came from everywhere, all over the world. The closer it gets to being finished, the fewer of those ones remained. Then the ones who will run it came.

"Those ones, my father was one of them. They came from the north, Mexico."

She looked down at herself for a second and said, "My father was from Mexico. My mother taught me her way. By my blood I am half of each, but my heart is the way of the people here long ago.

"We speak an old way here, many of us and some could speak Spanish, but it was a little different.

"Most of the ones who came then to run the machines, they are Mexican and speak a Mexican flavor of Spanish." She shrugged, "Probably anywhere you go where they speak some Spanish, it changes a little.

"One day, somebody far away decides they will close the whole thing. Most of the workers go after that, but some stay and they live here with the rest, marry each other and have children. The children are stupido like their parents, but now they are grown idiots. It is these ones who want to kill us even more - the same ones who would not speak to any of us from families who were here before.

"But without the machines running, there is no money here. There is no work unless they want to be farmers. But the farmers, they were here long before and they do not want to give their land to people from the north." She groaned, "There has been so much trouble here, all around for many years."

Her voice came to him as a bit of a croak as she said, "I have spent the last two years and more since I came back hiding from them, moving whenever they seemed to be really looking for me. I have hidden everywhere, but now there is no place else to go that they do not know of. I have nowhere to go anymore. That is why I ask you. I cannot ... "

They fell silent as they neared the area of the refinery. It looked suddenly foreboding to him for the dark way that it stood there showing no lights. He slowed then, almost stopping and he held up a closed fist to Daniella and she slowed, trying not to scuff her feet in the dust. They stood there a moment, listening to a pair of male voices drawing near.

"What is that one saying?" he whispered to Daniella.

"He is calling out, saying that he has candy to give, and to come to him," Daniella said. "I think he knows that our children are here and he tries to make them come to him. I will kill him for this if I can."

Then another voice said something in a harsh tone to the first person. "The other one," Daniella whispered, "He says 'Would you shut your fucking mouth?' But the first one, he just goes on."

They stepped off the paved path and stood in some grass. D'Jymm felt something and looked to his right. A man was there, a little more than a hundred feet away. He had just thrown a flare into the air.

He watched it sail down and land in the grass maybe thirty feet from where they stood.

D'Jymm exploded into motion as he ran and snatched up the burning flare, putting as much as he could into sprinting. It took only a moment and he was before the thrower, who stood wide-eyed as he tried to backpedal and run forgetting all about the weapon in his hand.

But D'Jymm had him by the shirt and swept the man's feet out from under him with his leg and crashed the hot end of the flare deep into his chest.

Turning, he saw two men standing in a moment of shock, their automatic weapons forgotten for the moment. He drew his pistol and fired.

The nearest of them stood for an instant and then fell, leaving some of his brains on the head and face of his companion.

Daniella stared as she watched D'Jymm look away to his left after hearing the whining sounds of heavy machine floaters being urged along at speeds which they were never designed for.

Daniella thought that he'd lost his mind, turning away from armed threats. She raised her rifle a little slowly so as not to attract attention with the motion and she flicked the safety off. D'Jymm stood with his arm outstretched, holding the pistol while looking away.

"Chingao!" the second man said in disbelief and anger as he lifted his weapon.

D'Jymm fired and a hole appeared just above the point where the man's nose met his skull. Daniella noticed that D'Jymm hadn't seen what he'd done. She watched his head turn toward her and he trotted back.

"How did you do that?" Daniella asked.

He shrugged, "Just something I do." He holstered his pistol and reached around to pull the multi-barrelled thing on his back around to his side.

"I can't feel inside the metal buildings, but I don't feel any others nearby outside," he said to Daniella, "Try to find Maria and your children. I'll go deal with those floaters. Be careful."

Daniella nodded and looked farther along the dark pathway. She'd just begun to walk when she realised that she'd never told him her cousin's name.

She went to one knee as she heard more men running toward her. As she sighted on the closer one when he came into view, she saw the other one's expression change and he fell on his face. She watched as he saw the long arrow sticking up from his companion's back and before he could turn to look back, she fired.

He went down, but he'd been wearing a vest so she shot him three more times as she walked up.

Maria came running up then, her bow in her hand with two small, fur covered children scampering behind her on all fours. One of them saw Daniella and ran straight to her. She scooped him up and thanked to her cousin.

--

D'Jymm ran toward the lights of the floaters' noisy approach, trying to make for the tall grass out ahead of him and he reached it just before the sweeping beam of the searchlight mounted on one floater swung near him before moving on.

Hunkered down on one knee, he turned the system back on and listened to get their direction precisely. He already knew how far away they were. He could feel it. He closed his eyes and imagined where the front floater was, the one nearest to him at the moment. Once he had the spot more or less where he felt the most accuracy in his mind, he opened his eyes and looking at the weapon in his hands, he extended his left index finger along the line of the side of the thing, pointed as best he could at the unseen floater. The barrels moved left a tiny bit as he adjusted.

He pulled the trigger and the weapon sang.

Three hundred yards away, men were dying, screaming as the nearest things in their immediate world began to be shredded, just as they were being shredded themselves.

They could see nothing, and the men in the other floaters stared, looking for the glowing lines of tracer ammunition. Though it showed a bullet's impact point, it showed the point of origin just as well.

D'Jymm wasn't using tracer rounds. He didn't need to see the glowing lines to walk his fire onto his foes.

He didn't need to see when he felt this way.

He saw the flames from the dying floater's demise as the fuel tanks caught and began to blaze. A man jumped off and managed to escape, but he was the only one. D'Jymm closed his eyes and moved the barrels to the right, squeezing out a very short group of shots and then letting go.

When the floater's engine began to falter, the machine ran on, until it sank into the sea of sopping wet grass to the point where it's nose hit the earth and it flipped over and landed upside down in flames.

D'Jymm missed the show, since he wasn't there by that point.

He was running, trying to get near enough before the others turned to run away. He stopped and sank down again, listening.

They weren't running away.

What he heard were the two other floaters running along slowly, trying not to make as much noise now. Aboard them both, not one man was showing a light.

In D'Jymm's mind, a similar scenario was playing out all the same and he pulled the trigger when the calculations in his head were complete. With the second floater torn up and coasting, he let the trigger go and tried to sink lower in the grass as he heard the throbbing of the third one getting nearer.

By pure chance, the third floater eased on by him, the gunmen on his side of the thing had been called to look at something that the gunmen on the other side were not sure of. They hunted on, drifting away from D'Jymm, who stood up and aimed directly at the fuel tanks before raking the seating area and then drawing back into the night.

He found Daniella with her cousin together and walking slowly toward where his vessel was. They were talking very quietly and each of them held one child. They were whispering in the old tongue, soft sounds comprised of mostly breath and just the barest hint of sibilance as they walked, trying to be quiet and looking around cautiously in the rain.

"Do you think that he made it, this wolfman boyfriend of yours?" Maria asked as she peered around nervously.

"What do you mean, boyfriend of mine?" Daniella smirked.

"I mean that I worry a little for him," Maria sighed. "When I saw him last, he was standing up in the grass and a floater was right there next to him. Daniella, I can see well in the dark just as you can, but then everyone was shooting and there were more explosions and screams as it all went dark. That's what I mean."

"I don't know," Daniella whispered, "This is a rotten part of the world to me now. I mean, it is ours by virtue of the fact that our people have lived here for maybe two - three thousand years and at the end, I feel like we are the losing ones. That oil thing has stood there quiet and mean-looking all of our lives. It was dead before we were born, yet it still gives us misery."

Maria looked over, "What do you think that it means, that this Nahual king appears now? I don't mean to sound ungrateful because he has saved our lives; yours, mine, our little ones. But there is nothing left, is there? Why does he come now? We could have used him twenty years ago and more."

Daniella shook her head, "As far as I know, he is no Nahual king. I do not think that he is a Nahual at all. Look, he has a spaceship. I think that he came here to fix it maybe and that he will be gone when it runs again - or maybe he is here to hide and will go as soon as he can. I do not think that he will stay here. What for?"

They heard the softest deep chuckle coming from behind them and they both gasped and spun around. He was standing there, tall and dark, his fur glistening from the rain.

They didn't know him by the numbers, but he was six feet, nine inches tall just standing easy as he looked at them, with no need to stand any taller, though he could reach seven feet if he had a reason to extend his legs a little more. And he weighed three hundred and eight pounds, with not one ounce of it being fat.

They didn't know the numbers and they didn't need to. The point was that he was magnificent.

"I thought that being a Nahual gave one another way to be - a different way to look. You changed for me, Daniella - well, not for me, I suppose, but I liked seeing it.

"You are Maria," he smiled. "I have seen you too, up in a tree. Why are you walking like humans naked in the rain?"

They looked at him and then at each other and shrugged, "We have never felt safe in our fur in this place," Maria said, "someone always tries to kill us."

His face lost it's smiling countenance. "Daniella said that she has no safe place to sleep this night. Is it that way with you also?"

Maria nodded slowly and the smile was back on D'Jymm's face, though he wasn't laughing any longer. "Come with me please. I have a safe place and food as well."

---

He didn't intend to mention it, given that he'd noticed that humans somehow felt concerned with their outward appearance depending upon the weather or the social setting. Maria was soaked to the skin and her clothing left little to the imagination like this. He appreciated the view, but given the fact that she had no fur, beyond what he'd seen between her legs a little while ago in the grass and what was on her head, he was more concerned with her health, though at least the rain here wasn't as cold as he'd experienced on this world in other places.