Chapter 11: Red Means Life Part 3

Alix gripped the tree branches as the tree continued to tremble. She and Figaro had waited a good while for the onslaught to stop, but it had only worsened. More parvolopes had joined the fray, rushing toward Alix’s tree from the direction of the mountain. There were so many clamoring around the tree trunk that Alix could no longer see the forest floor at all, only the writhing bodies of parvolopes below. A good number of the first parvolopes that arrived had been trampled to death. Their bodies now acted as stepping stones for the living as the frenzy drew on, all the parvolopes in a desperate rush to climb up the tree. Their blood streaked the tree bark where they relentlessly beat their hooves against it. 

“This is absolutely bonkers!” said Figaro. He clung to Alix’s shoulder and extended his eye lenses, looking down at the parvolopes. “For as long as we’ve observed this species, they’ve been the most peaceful little scamps in the forest. This lot look like they’re all rabid.”

“This looks even worse than rabies, honestly,” Alix replied. “I don’t know if the source of this behavioral shift is a virus, a parasite, or something else, but it's definitely biological. A foaming mouth is never a good sign.”

Figaro turned his eyes on her. “You think it could be like with locusts? They start out solitary, harmless, then the right environmental triggers launch them into physiological changes and swarming behaviors.” 

“Hm. That’s possible. But what the hell triggered them to such extreme behavior?” Alix grit her teeth as the tree shook again. The screams from the parvolopes below were so piercing Alix thought her eardrums might burst. “They’re all swarming our tree, too. Either we’ve picked the wrong tree or there’s something about us that’s got them losing their minds. I mean, I know I’m irresistible, but this is ridiculous.”

“The treeboy smelled your energy bar on you earlier. Maybe the parvolopes caught wind of it too. There must be some ingredient in it that triggers the change in them,” Figaro suggested. 

“But I already ate it!”

“There could be crumbs of it still clinging to your jumpsuit. Also, no offense, but it's not like you brushed your teeth afterward,” said Figaro. “Or since the Aexon kidnapping, come to think of it. Kind of glad I don’t have scent sensors right now.”

“Damn it, you’re right.” Alix hurriedly swiped at her jumpsuit, but she doubted it would do much good now. She had to think, had to come up with a plan before the parvolopes brought the whole tree down. The raygun was on low charge, so she couldn’t just start blasting even if she wanted to. She took the bar wrapper from her pocket and tried throwing it down, but it simply got caught in a lower branch, doing nothing to distract the parvolopes from her location. 

Alix could feel that same awful panic from earlier creeping over her as she fought to think of a solution. The red leaves around her felt suffocating. It was as if her every nerve was alight, her every muscle tensed to launch into a mad run.

A mad run would only end with her death. 

Alix shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn’t freeze up like she did with the treeboy. She had to think, and she had to act. 

Alix looked around again, this time not at the raving parvolopes below, but at the other animals that had initially fled up the trees. They’d given her and Figaro a good warning before. Maybe now she could look to them for further guidance. 

The treeboy and another of his kind were hanging from a nearby tree, claws securely wrapped around the large branches. Some of the smaller mammals were huddled in tree hollows. The malars had long taken flight and left the area entirely, but Alix unfortunately lacked the wings necessary to try that tactic. Then she spotted a lone talozi, hanging from a vine just one tree away from her. 

Talozi were small, primate-like creatures, with tails longer than their bodies, black fur to match the tree branches they spent most of their lives traversing, and enormous yellow eyes that could take in the whole world. They also happened to congregate in huge nests built within the largest tree species found in the entire continent thus far. The kind of tree that would be mighty hard even for a crazed mob of parvolopes to topple. 

Alix felt the tree shift again under the increasing weight of the parvolopes, and made her decision. “Hang on tight, Figaro. We’re going to follow that little guy home.”

“What, the talozi? Are you crazy? How’re you gonna keep up, swing from vine to vine? You’re not Tarzan, goddammit!”

Alix ignored the little bot. The talozi swung over to a nearby branch higher up in the canopy. Alix hurried to follow, scrambling to the edge of her tree’s branches and throwing herself at the same tree as the talozi occupied. She nearly missed, her fingertips grazing one branch before grasping another. One wrong move of her hand and she would have hurtled down into the horde below, but there was no time to think about that because the talozi was already jumping to the tree behind. Alix hauled herself up and launched herself at the next tree, head smacking right into the trunk. A mass of vines broke her fall, but it was mere seconds before she could feel them beginning to snap beneath her weight. Several of the parvolopes seemed to have caught on to Alix’s escape attempt. They all turned their attention away from her original tree and stampeded toward her new location, some so weakened by the ongoing struggle that they swayed and wobbled through their run. Alix scrabbled over to sturdier branches before the vines under her could snap completely. 

The talozi was keeping up a harsh pace. It was already three trees north of Alix, and had only paused to glance back at the parvolope horde with a twitchy curiosity. Alix threw herself to the next tree in the talozi’s direction. Luckily this one was closer, and Alix was able to grab on to its branches with little difficulty. That didn’t stop Figaro from yelping in her ear, though. 

“This is insane!”

“Yep!” Alix crawled from her branch to that of the next tree, the wood bending as she grappled onto it. 

Figaro yelped again. His limbs entangled themselves tighter in Alix’s hair. “For the love of God, be careful!”

“Can’t!” Alix swung and kicked off a lower branch to the next tree. Ahead of her, the form of the talozi was getting smaller, putting more distance between itself and her than she could allow if she was going to pull this off. “No time to think, no time to worry, only time to just do it.”

She picked up the pace as she swung herself between branches, the adrenaline drowning out every thought other than GO. If she’d had the space for other thoughts, however, she would have marveled at the strange euphoria that was blossoming within her as she followed the talozi with increasing speed. She was moving on pure instinct. Alix simply knew where to reach for, or how hard to kick off or swing herself. She wasn’t bogged down by doubt or caution. She wasn’t even bogged down by hopes or fears. There was only the next branch, only the rush of air as she swung, only her target in the distance leaping between branches with the same glorious swiftness as she had. 

Alix gave no attention to Figaro’s panicked wails. Nor did she bother to glance behind and see if the parvolopes were gaining on her. All she had to do was not fall. Nothing else mattered. 

After a little longer of following the talozi, Alix realized with a start that her journey through the trees was nearing its end. Just up ahead, the usual trees of the forest thinned to make room for the master of them all, the Gargantua tree. 

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The Gargantua tree was three times wider than Earth’s largest tree at about ninety meters in circumference, and at least one hundred meters tall. Larger than a football field, in other words. Its massive trunk was obsidian black, its largest branches wide enough that three people could walk across shoulder to shoulder, and its scarlet leaves were so prolific that they blocked out the sun, casting the entire surrounding area in shadow. 

The talozi ahead of Alix hopped from the branch of the closest normal tree onto one of the hulking branches of the Gargantua. Alix followed it, jumping from the smaller tree onto the Gargantua branch. She felt herself snap back into reality once her boots hit the solid wood of the branch, the adrenaline finally dropping back down as she caught her breath. She looked back in the direction she came from. 

The parvolope horde was still barrelling toward her, but the pursuit had weakened them considerably. Their numbers had thinned as parvolopes had dropped along the way. They looked like ants as they threw themselves at the Gargantua’s trunk in a vain attempt to reach Alix. Their bleats were hoarse, and the strikes of their hooves against the Gargantua didn’t so much as send a shiver through the great tree. 

“Oh my God . . . I can’t believe I just did that. Can you? Figaro?” Alix turned her head. Figaro was not on her shoulder, but still clutching her hair. 

“No,” said Figaro. “No I cannot.” 

“It was kind of fun.”

“No it was not.”

“Oh, Figaro, don’t act like I didn’t get you here in one piece. I don’t know what’s in the air around here, but it must be doing me some good. I was channeling my simian ancestors back there, like I was born to swing from branches.” Alix glanced down at the parvolopes, the smile fading from her face. “Those poor bastards. I wish I could do something to help them.”

“Somehow I don’t think they share the sentiment,” Figaro remarked. He finally eased himself back down onto Alix’s shoulder. “The best thing you can do is just try and get as far away from them as possible. If it’s the scent from your bar that’s driving them daffy, maybe they’ll cool their jets once they lose it.”

“I hope you’re right.” Alix began walking down the length of the Gargantua branch toward the trunk. “And I hope we didn’t just run too far off course.”

“This isn’t one of the Gargantua trees the botanists' division tagged?”

Alix shook her head. “This is too far south. The four Gargantuas they tagged were all north of the station. We’ll have to get high enough for a good view, then hopefully we can figure out our bearings relative to the station.”

“This is gonna be a harder climb than your average tree, Boss,” said Figaro, looking around at the massive branches above them. “How are you even going to get from branch to branch?”

“Easy,” Alix answered. She reached the tree trunk and gestured to the vines hanging down from the base of the branch above. “We got ourselves some built-in ropes.”

“For the love of . . . You say that like there isn’t a fifty-fifty chance of slipping and hitting the ground hard enough to crater it.” Figaro entangled himself back in Alix’s hair, clutching the black locks fiercely. “What happened to all that fear back with the treeboy, huh?” 

“I’m not sure. That’s a good question, actually.” Alix reached up and grasped the vine above. She gritted her teeth as she hauled herself up, getting flashbacks of the rope-test in her Survival 1101 course. “Maybe the chase cleared it out of my system. Whatever it is, I hope I stay this way.”

The next hour was spent alternating between scaling the Gargantua via the vines, and taking much-needed breaks. The climb gave Alix some time to think through her and Figaro’s persisting problems. For one, Alix still needed a food source, and to refill her water flask. For another, Alix needed to figure out a way to get the scent of the energy bar off of her, just in case that really was what had triggered the parvolopes to swarm. They’d never make it back to the station if they were constantly on the run from a crazed stampede. Lastly, it would be a real problem if they were too far off-course, since solar-charging in a shady forest like this would only supplement Figaro’s waning battery life so much. Alix wasn’t sure if she could get through this without Figaro at her side. Figaro had been her constant teammate nearly from the beginning of Alix’s career, after she’d lucked into finding him on a trip to a Martian city. The idea of braving the rest of the journey without him wasn’t one she could accept.

After a while, Alix’s strength began to fail her. It grew harder to grip the vines or pull herself up, and her short breaks did little to restore her energy. She was going to have to take a long one.

“I can climb one more,” she told Figaro, staring up the length of the vine. “And then I’ve got to take a proper rest.”

“One more is all you really need, then,” said Figaro. His eye lenses were extended, and he was staring at the trunk farther up. “There’s a hollow just ahead, big enough for you to fit through. You’ll be able to kick your feet up in there without any predators popping up to say hi, if we’re lucky.”

“Perfect.” The thought of a nice hidey-hole to curl up in gave Alix the strength to begin climbing the next vine. She ascended it inch by painful inch, her knees, ankles, and wrists all sore to the bone. When she finally reached the top and scrabbled onto the branch, she felt tired enough to pass out then and there. 

“Holy shit,” said Figaro. 

“I know,” Alix groaned, staring down. She nearly got vertigo from seeing how high they’d come. 

“No, I mean the hollow!” Figaro jabbed at Alix’s cheek. “Look!” 

Alix turned her head right, toward the trunk. The hollow was large enough for her to walk through, as Figaro had said. But it wasn’t empty. From the inside, hundreds of enormous, yellow eyes stared out at them. 

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