When he awoke the next morning, Wolf was on the move, and the room was swaying around him. He remembered Fillan and peered down into the bottom bunk. The boy was awake, looking up.
“Hey,” said Coll.
Fillan smiled at him. “Hey,” he whispered.
Coll fastened his prosthetics back on and pulled his sleeve down before swinging out of his bunk. “Come on,” he said, yawning. “Let’s see what’s going on.”
Dolph was on deck. He glanced at them and grinned. “Still alive, little pig?” he called to Fillan. “Well done! Ready for some hunting?”
“Where are we going?” asked Coll.
“Helping the mayor with his Ant problem. See if we can salvage some anthryl.”
Rudy’s scout team were still out, so Wolf stopped on the top of a hill, visible from a long way off, so they could find her when they returned. Dolph arranged the crew into groups and pointed westwards, towards a small wood a kilometre away. The wood was surrounded by long sandy-coloured grass, and Coll could make out faint tracks as if someone had walked back and forth there.
“Keep in pairs,” said Dolph. He handed them each a zapper. “If you get in trouble, then holler.”
Fillan examined the zapper: a short grey tube with a handle. “What’s this?”
“It fires a charge that disables the Ants,” said Coll.
Fillan held his up and peered down the barrel.
Coll sighed, took it off him, and handed it back to Dolph. “Let’s … just use mine today.”
“OK.”
They headed out through the long pale grass, Fillan half trotting beside Coll. Fed, washed and in his new cloak, he seemed remarkably recovered, though he stayed next to Coll at all times. He was wearing Coll’s chain and had fastened his little bag to it.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
“Hunting Ants. Antoids,” said Coll. “Have you done that before?”
Fillan shook his head.
Coll shrugged. “It’s easy. Just don’t let them surround you.” He pointed towards the wood. “That’s probably the nest.”
“But why—”
“Shh.” Coll stopped. Up ahead, there was a rustling sound, and a metallic clat-clat-clat. There was a smell in the air like copper. He crept forward and peered through the grass.
A line of Ants walked along the trail.
They were a mix of colours: some steel, some rust red, some bright, depending on what they were made of. They looked roughly like insects, with six legs, a thorax and round heads with long antennae. But the thorax was a power supply, and the legs were articulated metal, and the ‘eyes’ were scanners. They were each a metre long and about as tall as Coll’s knees.
Coll pulled back. He waited until the line had almost passed, and then carefully threw a stone at the Ant third from the end. It hit with a soft dink and the Ant stopped. It looked at the stone, then lifted its head and moved it this way and that. Its mandibles slid over each other, as if thinking, making a sound. “Chick-chick?” it seemed to ask. “Chick-chick?”
It turned and left the path, pushing through the long grass. The two Ants behind it followed. “Chick-chick?” asked the one at the back.
“Chick-chick,” said the near one.
Coll waited until all three had walked into the grass, then lifted his zapper and fired, one-two-three, and the Ants’ metal bodies collapsed. One tipped over on to its back and lay with its legs in the air. Coll checked them carefully before lowering his zapper.
“There,” he said to Fillan. “Easy, see? You just have to make sure they don’t swarm you.” He fetched some rope from his bag and tied them together. “Three’s enough for one run.”
As they heaved them back towards Wolf, Fillan asked, “Where do the Ants come from?”
“All over,” said Coll. “They make a nest and forage for scrap materials. Then they use it to make new Ants. They use metal, plastic, even wood sometimes.” He grinned as he remembered the night-time horror stories the older children liked to tell. “Sometimes old bones…”
But Fillan shook his head. “I mean, where did they come from to begin with?”
“No idea.” Coll shrugged. “Old times. I guess someone made the first ones. They’ve got anthryl in them, like Wolf, just a bit. The Tocks will scrape it out.”
They left the meadow. Wolf was up ahead, and Coll could see activity around her, buzzing and urgent. Someone ran towards them, waving, and he recognised Luna, back from the scout trip. He waved back.
“Coll!” she shouted. “Leave that! Come on!”
Fillan pulled back behind Coll. Luna glanced at him and frowned in surprise, but then ignored him. “We found a supply cache!” she said.
She raced back towards Wolf, and Coll and Fillan ran to keep up. “What’s the rush?” panted Coll.
Luna grinned a hard, fierce grin. “Not just us,” she said. “Raven found it too. Come on!”
Coll and Fillan scrambled up on deck after Luna, as Wolf prepared for battle.
The crew was getting ready to move, tying down equipment and barrels, checking harnesses, and Alpha and the senior crew were standing at the head deck. And under his feet, Coll could feel Wolf’s excitement, her hackles about to rise, that thrum and whisper of her Call.
