Project Terra

by S. J Woods

  “I’m going to get more water.” Norah announced, stepping into the trees at the same moment as Tommy called out to them, pointing into the sky.

  “Look at that!”

  Dane and Teonie followed Tommy’s arm, chests filling with dread, as a familiar grey disc circled on the horizon. The disc flitted close to them, but never near enough for them to get a good look.

  “Do you think it’s the tech-jammer?” Dane asked nervously. “Holding them back?”

  Teonie nodded. “Watch them drop. That’s it. That’s the border. They’re backing off the minute they drop connection.”

  They watched as the disc looped them slowly and Dane’s blood turned to ice at the chilling message of the 360-degree rotation.

  We know where you are.

  The disc completed another loop and then hovered in the spot for a little while, before releasing the transparent capsule which floated like a butterfly to the ground. The capsule opened up and, from their view point, they saw a small group exit. Dane counted six people, dressed in the dark uniform of the Apatian Military. They were only a few miles away, as the crow flies, but with the terrain and the gradient, Dane estimated they were an hour’s walk away. Teonie was thinking the same. She clutched at Dane’s hand and he didn’t notice how tightly he was squeezing it back until he felt her pull away and looked down at the white marks on both their hands.

  “We need to get out of here.” Dane said, voice tight with fear.

  “We can’t outrun them.” Teonie countered.

  “We can’t sit here waiting for them.” He was already packing up the camp. “We need to move.”

  Alyssa had finished re-wrapping Rose’s infected foot, and she was on her feet helping immediately.

  “Where’s Norah?” She asked suddenly, the urgency in her voice making Dane and Teonie look up sharply.

  Rico shook his head. He had spent all morning at Rose’s side. He hadn’t even noticed her wander off. He scooped Rose up, his face a gritty, determined mirror image of Teonie’s.

  “Norah!” Dane called out, feeling his chest balloon with panic.

  There was a terrifying moment of horror as they waited for her response to their calls, but she emerged from the trees moments later.

  “We need to go.” Alyssa told her sternly. “The AMS are coming and Rose is very poorly.”

  Norah’s eyes widened in fear. Dane watched as she tipped out the last of the water from the container she was carrying and dropped it back into the bag. There was no need to tell anybody twice and immediately the group set off.

  Dane lifted Rose easily from Rico as if she weighed no more than a child. Her eyes fluttered open, but they were glazed and unfocused. He felt the heat of her fever radiating from her and he filed this concern away, fixing his all on the immediate threat.

  “Where to?” Alyssa’s voice was eerily calm.

  “We can lose them if we head west into the forest,” Teonie was thinking on her feet now. “We’ll overshoot Port Layton on the far side, but the forest follows the canyon. It’ll add a few days on.”

  She glanced at the barely-conscious Rose, unaware in her brother’s arms, as she said this and Dane knew that she was being generous with her estimate. A few extra days was the least of their worries, he knew. Moving west meant they were quicker, no longer fighting gravity and the trees were, thankfully, enough to completely camouflage them from every angle. Every noise had them spinning around, weapons poised ready, but they made it another full day without detection, even with the added burden of Rose’s infection.

  By nightfall, she was beginning to show signs of improving. The feverish colour had started to fade from her cheeks, leaving her skin a slightly paler olive than usual and warm, not hot and sweaty, to the touch. She had insisted on walking some of the way towards the latter part of the day, still wobbly and clutching at Rico’s arm, but it was progress. Their pursuers were nowhere in sight, but Dane and Teonie stayed alert, knowing that they would be tracked eventually.

  “They’ll know we’ve gone off course.” Teonie whispered to Dane as they conferred around the campsite. “They must know we’re heading for the Port. I’ve got a horrible feeling that they’re heading us off.”

  Dane nodded grimly. As soon as he’d seen the squad exit the military capsule, he’d been overwhelmed with a sickening dread that their days were numbered. There were only so many passable routes out of the Keys. The rising water had plunged half the old continent into the sea over the last hundred years and had taken a huge chunk of the lowlands of South Apatia. What was left was mountainous and barren. Dane had used satellite images to pick out three routes that were possible. He hadn’t even thought to plan an escape from the west, which was where they were headed with their detour. His eyes moved involuntarily to Teonie’s bag, never far from her side, housing the tech equipment. The jammer was fixed at her side, permanently on since their near-miss.

  “We can’t escape them.”

  Dane turned to his mother’s voice, surprised and annoyed by her interruption. She looked older, he realised, taking in the lines and the tiredness on her face. He felt the familiar flare of irritation at her presence.

  “What else can we do?” The calm demeanour he’d been faking finally cracked. “Shall we just give ourselves up and hope they do the moral thing? Hope they don’t kill us all as witnesses to whatever crazy cull they’ve been running? Come on!”

  He leapt to his feet and grabbed Alyssa roughly by the arm. She made no attempt to shake him off, but Teonie jumped to her feet and pulled him away.

  “Alright, Dane!” She slid between them. “She’s right. They’ll be waiting to ambush us. We can do this, but we need to think.”

  “Whatever.” Dane snapped, eyes flashing angrily. “If we’re still alive in the morning, we’ll figure it out then.”

  Alyssa opened her mouth to speak, but Teonie tugged her away and it wasn’t lost on Dane that his friend already knew him better than his own family: knew to give him some space to cool down. He wandered away from the group, his simmering anger at the situation giving him a second burst of energy even through his exhaustion. He turned his back to them as they shared out the meagre rations and settled down for yet another uneasy night’s sleep.

  A sharp crunch behind him had him wheeling on the spot and he was surprised to see Rico, not Teonie as expected.

  “Two look-outs tonight,” Rico said looking embarrassed and Dane could tell that Teonie had sent him. “Teonie and Alyssa will do the next shift.”

  Dane pressed his mouth firmly shut to stop him saying the derogatory comment about Alyssa that was on the tip of his tongue. Rico looked down at his feet and turned to move away, before Dane realised that he had read Dane’s annoyance as being directed at him.

  “Sorry.” Dane reached out and touched the boy’s shoulder in what he hoped was a friendly gesture. “I’m tired, stressed and irritable. It’s good of you to offer to do this.”

  To kill time, Dane talked Rico through the basics of the specialist training that he’d had out on the base in North Apatia. The similarities between Rico and his sister were more than just skin deep, Dane thought to himself, impressed at the speed with which Rico seemed to understand. He asked thoughtful questions, sweeping out his hands and legs correctly at Dane’s verbal instructions.

  “Maybe you should run us all through a little crash course.” Rico suggested.

  Dane agreed, and they both fell quiet as the gravity of the circumstances, where combat seemed inevitable, sunk in. They sat in silence for a little longer; listening into the darkness for any sign that the enemy was approaching. Dane felt himself growing stiff and turned to Rico, ready to ask him if he wanted to move around a little when a succession of coughs followed by the unmistakable sound of someone vomiting pierced their solitude.

  Dane’s first thought was that it was Rose. She’d shown signs of improving, but maybe she’d pushed herself too hard, or maybe the infection was worse than they’d thought. He rushed tow
ards the sound, Rico at his heels and was surprised to see Norah doubled over, covered in vomit and retching violently. Dane sank to his knees, sweeping back her damp hair from her face and trying to angle her away from the stirring sleepers around her.

  “What’s the matter?” Teonie was first to respond, on her feet and casting her eyes around the camp with impressive alertness.

  “It’s Norah.” Dane told her. “She’s sick.”

  Alyssa was stirring and she rose groggily to her feet, turning to peer at the young girl.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” She cooed, surprisingly maternally. “What’s the matter?”

  Norah coughed up another stream of bile and groaned, leaning back against Dane.

  “It hurts.” She moaned, closing her eyes as if against the pain.

  The sickness continued all night, long after Norah had emptied her stomach of the day’s rations. Dane watched as day started to break and the little child was still falling in and out of sleep, waking to gag uselessly, crying out in pain at the rawness of her throat and the knotted muscles of her abdomen.

  “What do you think is wrong?” Rose moved carefully over to Dane’s side, taking cautious steps in her heavily bandaged feet.

  “I don’t know.” Dane shook his head, distracting himself by gesturing at her feet. “That potion Ma applied seemed to work on you. Maybe you should try another one while we’re waiting here?”

  “Oh, that must have been it!” Tommy, who’d been like Dane’s shadow since he was woken by his sister, exclaimed. “The water that Norah got. She was trying to copy Alyssa.”

  Rose and Dane exchanged horrified looks and rushed over to Norah.

  “Sweetie,” Rose bent down and slipped an arm around her. “Where did you get that water from yesterday?”

  Norah slumped back against Rose’s arm. There were huge, dark circles underneath her eyes and she looked exhausted.

  “I didn’t go as far as the little stream that Alyssa found.” Norah answered wearily. “There was a little puddle.”

  Rose said nothing and Dane felt his stomach sink. Why hadn’t any of them been watching her? Goodness knows what bacteria or disease the stagnant forest water was harbouring. What could they do? He had no idea how to even begin to treat an illness that he knew nothing about. Would she just get better or would she get progressively worse? He turned away from Norah, not wanting her to see the panic in his eyes and, as he did, he came face to face with Alyssa.

  “Dane,” Alyssa’s voice was laced with fear. “She needs medical attention.”

  “She might not.” Dane said uneasily, hearing the doubt in his own words. “You know we can’t do anything out here…”

  He broke off, stumped by the bitter irony that every front-line medic in the country was an Artificial. Sure, the Organics still worked in science and technology, making the breakthroughs, but no human was trained in any more than the basics of first aid. With an abundance of Attendants that were programmed to avoid the historic horrors of human error, there was no need. Which left them, out here, helpless to heal, unless Alyssa had anymore of her old-wives-tale medicine up her sleeves.

  One look at the terror on her face told Dane that healing skin-deep injuries was Alyssa’s limit and he moved away from her, feeling his anger at the unjustness of the situation bubbling uselessly. He broke through the line in the trees, forgetting about the threat, caught up in his thoughts for Norah.

  The sun was still rising in the distance and, from their position, high up on the mountainside in the patchy forest adjacent to the rocky ridges that would have taken them to the canyon above the Port, Dane had a clear view over the horizon. He could still see a grey disc far out in the sky, and he offered up a silent prayer of thanks for Teonie’s device. He swept his eyes across the foreground in the direction that[A1][A2] they had seen the approaching threat. For a moment, he saw nothing. Just the earthy colours of the land, contrasting against the pink morning sky. A flash of light, like the rays of the sun reflecting off something, caught his eye and he squinted into the distance, willing it to show itself again.

  Teonie had followed him from the camp, and she saw it before he did. Closer than comfortable. Little more than a few miles away and heading straight for them. Three figures easily discernible, but there could have been more, hidden from view. She pointed them out to Dane and they watched them move in and out of sight for a few minutes.

  “It’s too late.” Teonie said, her voice chilled with terror. “They’re coming straight towards us.”

  TWENTY-SIX

  They had known that this day would come. It wasn’t naivety that had them cornered like defenceless animals in the mountains, they both knew that. They had done their best, and Dane said as much to Teonie as she fought back the wave of emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

  “You’re talking like this is over.” Teonie’s voice was calm, but he could hear the storm of emotion beneath her words.

  Dane couldn’t keep the frustration out of his own tone.

  “Are you crazy?” He spat. “There’s at least six of the best soldiers in Apatia on their way. What are we? Two soldiers, four kids and a doped-up old woman. And two of those are sick. We hand ourselves in. The kids have done nothing wrong. Norah needs medical attention.”

  Teonie’s eyes flashed with rage.

  “No way!” She shook her head vehemently. “You think they won’t kill us all?”

  “Not if we don’t give them reason to.”

  Teonie stared at him in disbelief, pacing wildly like a caged animal. Her boots turned over the dead leaves at her feet, and Dane watched, hypnotised by her motions and the finality he felt.

  “They killed my cousin.” Teonie finally spoke, her words crisp with determination. “They killed your father. They turned your baby sister into a lab test. I didn’t have to come back for you. I did it because I thought you were tougher than that.”

  Dane felt a pang of grief at her words.

  “What do you want me to do?” Blood was pounding in his ears and he struggled to keep himself from shouting. “I’ve got to do what’s best for my sisters. Tee, I’m sorry. I really am.”

  “What do I want you to do?” Teonie reached out, gripping Dane by the shoulders and he felt the strength in her. “I want you to not give up! I can’t run with Rico, knowing there’s a good chance you’ll all be killed.”

  It hit Dane that running was still an option for the Perez siblings and guilt quietened his helpless fury, leaving a bitter taste at his lips. He hadn’t even considered how much faster Teonie would have been without the burden of his family slowing them. She had been honest that Rico was her priority, yet she was still risking both their lives trying to help the Alexanders and their two young charges. Dane realised with sickening clarity that, on their own, Teonie and Rico would have been at the Port by now.

  “Tee,” He covered her clenched fists and held them firmly in his own hands. “I am so grateful for everything you’ve done for us. If I thought we could escape them, I would. You two go on. You’ve done enough.”

  “Without you?” Teonie shook her head again. “Dane, I can’t walk away knowing you’re condemning those children. Please! We’re losing time.”

  The plea in her words pulled at his heart, constricting his blood flow and cutting off his oxygen. Dane turned away, struggling to breathe.

  “Guys.” Rico was behind them, his face pale and concerned. “We need to move. I can see people coming.”

  “You two go.” Dane found enough breath to speak the command.

  Rico looked from his sister to Dane and back again, reading the situation with maturity above his years. “And leave you all? No. Absolutely not.”

  “There’s got to be something we can do.” Teonie was back to business, Dane could see she had snapped her work head into play.

  “There’s six of them.” Dane reminded her grimly.

  “There’s seven of us.” A small voice surprised them, and they turned to Tommy, his expression anxious bu
t steely in his determination.

  Teonie was the first to break the shocked silence, clapping Tommy on the shoulder in solidarity.

  “You hear that?” She looked at Dane, a glint of fearlessness in her awesome blue eyes.

  She gestured back towards where Alyssa was caring for Norah, with Rose sat, resting her injured feet, and then back to the small circle they were stood in.

  “I don’t want to make it out of here without you all.” Teonie said. “I could probably make it; just me and Rico. Probably. But I don’t want to, and I know my brother feels the same. Too many people have paid the price for this country. I won’t let you. It would be pure luck that got me and Rico to the coast. I’m not the best soldier. I can’t survive like you can out here, but I don’t need to. Together, we’re everything and I know we can do this. We just need to play to our strengths.”

  Rose and Alyssa had drifted over, as Teonie spoke, and Dane watched the determined agreement on the faces of his family and friends around him.

  “Anyone got any ideas?” He was outnumbered.

  None of them were going down without a fight.

  “We need to separate them.” Teonie said, springing into action. “It’s the only way.”

  “Agreed.” Dane nodded his head, already palming his weapons. “We need to hide the kids.”

  “There’s a thick bush we can squeeze into.” Rose volunteered. “I’ll probably be useless because of my feet. I’ll take Norah and Tommy.”

  Dane gave her a grateful smile and pulled her into his arms for one final embrace before she led the children into the thorny thicket. He followed them, embracing the children before handing Rose their father’s rifle. The stun-guns were useless while the tech-shield was on. In the back of his mind, he knew that if anything happened to Teonie, this could change, but he chased the fears away, needing to focus. He had no idea if the gun even worked, but he wanted to leave her with something. He smoothed away the tracks from around the hiding place.