by S. J Woods
The sight of the wreckage was enough to fill them with immediate, short-lived relief. Dane was shocked that a technological master-piece, crafted by leading experts, had been crushed and torn on impact like a cheap replica. Even the ordinary air-capsule had managed to survive a rough crash-landing, yet this military vehicle was twisted beyond recognition, metal limbs strewn across the ground. The transparent capsule, from the underbelly, lay metres from the remains of the craft, cracked and dented. Smoke billowed from the body as it burnt itself from the inside out.
“I didn’t think it would crash.” Teonie spoke first, weapons drawn now, facing the burning vehicle.
Dane shook his head in disbelieving agreement.
“Should we check for survivors?” He said, even as the thick smoke told him that wasn’t necessary.
“What we need to do,” Teonie said decisively. “Is get out of here. Fast.”
Dane signalled for her to go on. He wanted to be sure, to let them get a head start.
She paused for a beat, as if she wanted to say something, but they both knew that time was everything right now and she ran back to the others, urging them up and onwards. Dane waited, tensed, still ready for action until the burning craft fell in on itself and, with a backward glance, he rushed to catch up with his family.
They had been pushing themselves hard the whole time they had been on the move, but there was an urgency now like never before. They had been spotted and they knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the AMS would be back.
They raced from cover to cover, hearts pounding with the exertion and the fear. They picked their way across a narrow stream, emerging into a field of tall grass that towered above even Dane.
“Do you think we’re visible from the sky?” Rose asked nervously as Dane pushed his way through the vegetation.
“I don’t think so.” Dane tried to sound confident.
Rose was quiet for a few moments before she spoke up again.
“What was that gun that Teonie had?”
“It’s not a gun,” Dane replied. “It’s a device that stops technology working.”
“It’s more than that.” Teonie pushed forward, leaving Rico to bring up the back of the group. “It’s a high frequency magnetic energy that repels the radio waves that all technology relies on. This device is the prototype and I’ve calculated it covers a radius of a few hundred metres, maybe a kilometre, depending on the range. It basically stops anything from connecting to a network. That means, while this is turned on, no discs can enter our immediate location and renders any wrist-devices unresponsive. De Sierto must have something like this on a huge scale, plus some kind of barrier that not only scrambles the radio waves, but stops the devices from physically passing through, even when they’re no longer transmitting. What they have done is genius!“
“What you’ve done is genius.” Dane glanced over his shoulder and grinned at her.
In the shadow of the meadow, Dane could see her eyes dancing with passion as she talked about the technology that fascinated her. Her mouth fell open at his words and she looked up at him, meeting his eyes and smiled shyly back.
“So, while you’ve got that switched on,” Rose ignored the look that passed between her brother and Teonie. “The discs can’t get close to us?”
“That’s right.” Teonie agreed confidently. “No stun-gun would work. No Artificials could come near us.”
“Why didn’t you have it on all this time then?” Tommy had been listening into the conversation and he pushed ahead so that he was walking side-by-side with Teonie.
“Ugh!” Teonie made an exasperated noise. “Because I’m an idiot. I didn’t even think, but I’ve learned my lesson now. I’ll keep it on.”
“So, what you’re saying,” Tommy scrunched his face up in concentration. “Is they can’t touch us right now?”
“Well, no,” Teonie grimaced in response. “They just can’t use technology.”
“Oh.” Tommy’s face fell a little and Rose took his hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
“We’ll be ok, Tommy.” She told him. “Dane and Teonie are the bravest and the strongest.”
“We are.” Teonie agreed sounding more confident than either of them felt.
“And you’ve got me and Rose.” Rico joked from behind Alyssa. “We’re no Dane and Teonie, but we’re not too bad.”
Rose chuckled, her face lighting up as she looked back to smile at Rico. Dane frowned at the familiar gesture. He’d noticed they’d been spending a lot of time walking together, but the look Rose was giving Teonie’s brother was almost flirtatious.
“I’m a bit rusty,” Alyssa chirped in, surprising them all. “But I reckon I could still hold my own.”
She placed a hand gently on Norah’s shoulder before continuing. “Did I tell you how I was the fastest soldier in my force?”
“No!” Norah looked impressed.
Probably because you never talk about anything. Dane felt like responding, but he kept his mouth shut, but then Norah spoke again, her wistful tone piercing Dane’s heart like slivers of glass.
“Was my other mama a good soldier too?”
Dane felt Rose and Alyssa’s sharp intake of air as they all froze at the question. He had never heard Norah talk of her mother before. Dane commanded his body to keep moving forward.
“The best.” Alyssa replied emphatically, her voice catching a little with emotion. “And your father. They were good soldiers.”
Alyssa’s words circled Dane’s mind a few times as he tried to comprehend why her words were making him feel a familiar uneasiness. He looked sharply to Teonie and she understood his unspoken question.
She frowned, shaking her head slightly. There was no way they’d have been on the list; the programme had ended not long after Arielle.
“Not much further until we’re at the mountain.” Alyssa said through the uneasy silence that had fallen. “Is it much further from there?”
“Crossing the range is the tricky part.” Dane replied, glad of the distraction. “If we manage to cross at the right spot, it’s not far to the Port on the other side.”
He held back from saying that this would be where they bore the most risk of being caught.
“And then we head to De Sierto?” She continued to probe them.
“That’s the plan.” Teonie agreed.
“It’s been years since I was there.” Alyssa reflected, surprising them all. “We used to go at least once a year.”
“Who went?” The words slipped from Dane’s lips before he could stop them, and Alyssa’s face lit up with pleasure at his interest.
“My family,” Alyssa replied, smiling her thanks as Teonie let her pass her so she was walking next to Dane now. “When I was a child.”
Dane kept his head fixed firmly forwards, feigning concentration on pushing aside the long grass to create a path for them, but he felt his eyes pull to the side, involuntarily drawn to looking in wonder at Alyssa’s sudden enthusiasm. He was aware that he needed to reply, but the newness of any bouts of interest from his mother left him feeling equal parts sceptical of how long this would last and tongue-tied, scared of saying the wrong thing and causing her to clam up for good.
With every second that he failed to respond, he felt himself growing flustered and annoyed. It was ridiculous, he chastised himself, that he didn’t know how to hold a conversation with his own mother. Since he’d learnt about the list and the medication, he’d felt relieved that his mother’s lack of involvement in their lives wasn’t her fault. But he still couldn’t bring himself to forgive her, he realised as he swept through the foliage. He had attributed the uneasy feeling that had been fluttering in the deep of his stomach to the horrific situation that they were in, but, as he felt Alyssa walking next to him, and his body, involuntarily tensed at her closeness, he understood that he was still harbouring a lot of resentment towards her.
It’s. Not. Her. Fault. He told himself firmly, lengthening his strides. Say something.
&nb
sp; His mouth felt incapable of forming any words and his mind was blank.
“Tell me about when you were my age.”
The knot in Dane’s stomach loosened as Rose swished through the grass, her voice clear and politely interested. He glanced over his shoulder at Rose, feeling grateful but envious that she seemed to handle the relationship so much better than he did.
Dane listened as Alyssa started to speak, her words weaving pictures of growing up in Apatia before the attack that locked the country down. At first, he was only half-listening to her tales of summers on the white sands of the pretty, sub-tropical island with her parents and her sisters; still caught up in trying to process his own emotions that ran in tandem with her words. This was the mother that he had wanted, that he had known she could be. Funny, interesting, engaging with her children and the people around her.
Just be in the moment. He urged himself, annoyed with his inability to let things go. Over the course of the last few weeks, he’d narrowly dodged death more times than he cared to count and, fingers crossed, he’d be doing it again. There was no good to be had in dredging over his bitterness at the family life he felt he’d missed out on.
He tuned out his nagging inner-voice and focussed instead on Rose, Tommy and Norah’s happy interjections at Alyssa’s cheerful tales. As much as they’d tried to protect the children from understanding the full extent of the danger they were in, after harsh days hiking and two air-craft crashes, Dane was more than aware that Tommy and Norah were both feeling a little unsettled and anxious, despite their attempts to reassure them, but hearing the excitement in their voices as Alyssa painted pictures with her stories of De Sierto, Dane felt gratitude override the other feelings.
“We’re close to being back out in the open.” Teonie interrupted his thoughts and he looked above the overgrown meadow to the range, looming over them. “We should probably rest again while we can.”
They both automatically turned their eyes up to the empty skies, knowing, but not daring to say aloud, that it was only a matter of time until the real hunt began.
TWENTY-FIVE
The ascension was tough: they knew that it would be. The sun burned down in a cloudless sky and the groves of protective trees fell away as the land grew steeper, leaving them with no protection from the harsh elements.
The horizon remained empty of any approaching craft, but neither Dane nor Teonie could shake the feeling that danger was coming and so they moved on cautiously, taking opportunities to rest whenever they could.
Alyssa surprised Dane; remaining upbeat and positive, encouraging and supportive to the exhausted, fearful younger children. Dane wondered whether the medication had finally left her system from her marked change in attitude. She had been out of the Military for years yet she pushed her physical limits, struggling through the intense hike, hefting bags and children, murmuring encouraging words to Rose, whose sore feet were now bloodied and visibly slowing her down.
“You’re doing great,” She encouraged her daughter. “When we rest, I’ll try to make a poultice to ease the discomfort.”
Rose nodded her head, trying to smile through the tears of pain. Teonie shot Dane a worried look. They both knew that there were days and miles left. A glance backwards showed that they had covered little distance; the gradient slowing their progress and by nightfall, they settled into the only cover they could find, everyone except the soldiers falling into immediate exhausted sleep.
“Go first.” Teonie instructed Dane and for once, he was too tired to argue.
He put all his trust in Teonie, falling into a deep slumber, knowing his body needed the time to rest and repair. Teonie shook him awake a little later and he stared up, blinking at her, as he came around. In amongst the chirps and the rustle of the night, Dane heard muffled sobs and quiet murmuring.
“Who’s that?” He struggled into a sitting position.
“Rose.” Teonie told him, her voice heavy with concern. “Your mother is with her. She’s in a lot of pain.”
Dane held out the jacket he had been using as a blanket to her and she took it gratefully, settling into his space. He left her to sleep and moved over to the silhouettes of his mother and his sister, who were hunched at the edge of the trees. Alyssa was crouched next to her daughter, using the moonlight to see as she re-wrapped Rose’s swollen, raw feet.
“Ok?” He slipped down next to Rose, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded, but she stayed silent and the brave smile from earlier was gone.
“That’s the last of the pain-killers.” Alyssa told them both, gesturing with regret at the basic medical kit. “What she needs is something for the swelling.”
She looked fixedly at Dane as she said this, her eyes telling him there was more she wanted to say.
“You mentioned a poultice?” He remembered, addressing his mother.
“If we can find the right leaves.” She looked around at their surroundings, but in the darkness everything looked the same.
“We’ll try when dawn breaks.” Dane gave Rose’s hand an encouraging squeeze.
He would carry her if needed. He watched on as Alyssa settled Rose, smoothing her brow, gently persuading her to sleep. He turned away from the foreign scene of Alyssa’s tender motherly love, instead scanning the night sky for any signs of the AMS.
Teonie had kept to her word; leaving the jammer throwing out its defensive shield, preventing anyone or anything getting too close, but the crash had been hours ago. Why wasn’t anyone coming to investigate the lost aircraft or the personnel? With every passing hour, Dane felt his anxiety growing. Something told him that this was deliberate. The same nagging instinct that had told him to trust Teonie, the animal sense or the luck, whatever it was, that had led them to survive. The National Park around them was in darkness; no signs of any forces, any human life. On the other side of the mountain that they were scaling was a canyon leading to Port Layton, the coast and freedom.
Nearly there.
Dane watched over Alyssa, from a distance, watching over Rose. Rose stirred often, murmuring, even crying out in her sleep and at first, Dane thought nothing of it, but by day break, he knew that she was frighteningly unwell. Dane watched as it took several attempts to rouse her and then, with growing concern, the length of time she took to respond. Her complexion was pale, feverish, a clammy sheen of sweat coating her shivering body. She rose, unsteadily, with Alyssa and Teonie’s help and Dane felt his heart sink when she bore weight on her bandaged feet and cried out sharply.
Dane rushed over to her side and lifted her from the ground, cradling her against his chest. Alyssa held her bandage-wrapped feet, one at a time. She didn’t need to peel back the dressing for them to see the problem. The covering of the instep and the heel of Rose’s left foot was heavy with blood and pus.
“It’s getting worse.” Teonie said calmly, but her eyes flashed panic as she met Dane’s gaze.
It was clear infection had set in.
“She needs medication.” Alyssa tried hard to hold back the panic from her tone. “We have nothing?”
Teonie shook her head, her expression grim.
“Not even for the fever?” Alyssa asked desperately. “I’ll see if I can find what I need for the poultice; draw the infection out, but just anything to keep her comfortable until then?”
Dane moved to the medical kit, which he already knew was bare. The kit had been sparse to begin with and several days’ worth of blisters, cuts and burns had depleted their reserves.
“We could try this.” Tommy stepped forward, surprising them all.
He had been doling out the morning supplements, but had stopped to show his concern for Rose, but now he moved back to the container and pulled out a tiny rectangular box and held it up.
“They’re Alyssa’s prescribed supplements.” He said sheepishly, and Dane physically recoiled, surprised to the extent that the boy clearly understood more than they realised.
He shifted Rose awkwardly in his arms, movi
ng his eyes from Tommy to Rose before settling on his mother uncomfortably.
“My prescribed supplements?” The colour seemed to drain from Alyssa’s face and her voice trembled a little as she stepped towards Tommy hesitantly. She held out her hand and Tommy relinquished the box.
They watched on, baited breath, as Alyssa turned over the pills in her hand.
“You haven’t been giving me these?” It was posed as a question towards Dane, but he was pretty sure that she already knew the answer as she continued when he shook his head gently in response. “I feel so different. Like I’m real. They keep you in a bubble. Maybe they’ll help Rose.”
Rose had rested her head against her brother’s shoulder and her eyes had already flickered closed. As if on cue, she flexed her sore foot and groaned in pain.
“Teonie?” Dane looked to his friend for guidance, frantically trying to weigh up the risks.
“I don’t know.” She gave a helpless shrug.
Dane carefully laid her down, taking care with her feet, and she fell back into the uncomfortable half-sleep. Alyssa moved back into the trees, her face twisted in concern as she set about searching for what she needed to help her sick child. His initial concerns had been Rose’s illness slowing them down, but as he looked back, at Rico kneeling over her, stroking her hair back from her brow, he felt a pang of pure worry for her wellbeing. At home, she’d always been the picture of health. They all were; thanks to the expertly engineered, bespoke nutrition and hydration tailored to their individual needs. Tiny pills twice a day, supplemented by daily physical food to keep them evolving correctly.
Alyssa returned from the grove, accompanied by Tommy and Norah carrying a container filled with water. Alyssa set to work with steely determination, saying nothing as she improvised with the tools they had to grind some leaves into a thin paste.
“Can I drink this water?” Norah asked, holding up the container.
Alyssa, distracted by her task, shrugged.
“It’s gone.” The young girl announced, disconcerted.
Alyssa ignored her, peeling back Rose’s dressings now the poultice was ready. Rico helped Alyssa to coat the last of the fresh bandage in the mixture.