Gears of War

by Jason M. Hough

  “No,” Kait said. “It didn’t get that far.”

  “A mercy,” he said.

  She nodded.

  Speaking carefully, Del said, “Their numbers are growing every day. Too big for any village to stand against them on their own.”

  “Good thing you’ve got all them robots then, huh?”

  Kait shook her head. “The DeeBees aren’t effective either. Even they have been coopted somehow.”

  “A lot of ‘somehows’ in this story, Kait.”

  “Yeah, well, unfortunately the Swarm haven’t exactly been cooperating with our fact-finding efforts.”

  He grunted at that, then spat into the dirt beside him. No one else seemed to notice, but Kait saw the redness in the spittle that hit the dirt. She ignored it for now.

  “What’s this village called, anyway?” Del asked.

  “It’s called Pasco’s Village.”

  “Right. ’Course it is.”

  Sal worked his jaw for a moment, his focus back on Kait.

  “Alright, so… and? Still don’t see what this has to do with us.”

  Here goes nothing, Kait thought.

  “The Swarm are staying away from major population centers. So until we can find a way to defeat them, we’re bringing everyone in to New Ephyra. It’s the only way we can protect you.”

  Salvador Pasco burst into laughter.

  His clan joined in, but not quite with the same enthusiasm. Either her words had gotten to some of them, or there was something more going on here. She thought of the blood in Sal’s spit, and wondered.

  “Fat fucking chance!” he exclaimed when he’d caught his breath.

  Kait leaned in, unperturbed. “This is me talking here, Sal. Not the COG. It’s the right move. Trust me, will you? I’ve seen the Swarm. Fought them. They took my mother from me. Almost got my uncle, too. They wiped out our entire village, and a dozen others. Yours will fall next. We know they’re close. We know they’re coming. Listen to me, Sal, you need to come with us. Not just leave, but leave with us.” She paused, then went for broke. “Right now.”

  Sal stared at her for a long time, as silence returned to their palaver. Finally he spoke.

  “You’re dear to me, Kait Diaz. Always will be, and I owe a debt to your father that can never be repaid.”

  Kait wasn’t sure what that was about, but let it go.

  Sal went on. “But it goes against every bone in my body, everything I’ve ever stood for, to set foot in a COG city. Especially for protection.”

  Kait sighed.

  “So thanks,” Salvador added, “but no thanks.”

  “You refuse, then?”

  He opened his mouth. Almost said yes, but then her tone registered.

  “Hang on… hang on… what if I do?”

  Kait shrugged. “You’re coming with us, one way or another.”

  “Are we now?”

  “Yup. These men have their orders.”

  A ripple of tension tore through the room. Hands to hilts. Eyes narrowing.

  “What orders, exactly?”

  “It’s pretty straightforward.” Kait gestured toward Del, and then toward the wall, beyond which lay the fleet of Minotaurs and the soldiers standing around them. Somewhere far beyond all that, New Ephyra. “Don’t let the human race go extinct because of stubborn old feuds and stubborn old bastards like you.” She grinned, in case he took that last bit too seriously.

  Pasco wasn’t smiling, though.

  “How about this—” he said after a moment.

  Kait cut him off. She’d anticipated it. “You’re going to suggest that I stay here with you, and we send these Gears packing, right? That I join your village. That we can handle ourselves the Outsider way.” She shook her head, slowly, with finality. “Sal, I mean it. The Swarm is as bad as I’ve said. Worse, even. The old ways aren’t going to work.”

  “They’ve got me this far.”

  “And no farther,” she replied. For his benefit, and his alone, she glanced down at the bloody spit he’d fired into the dirt. “I changed your life once before, Sal. Now I’m changing it again.”

  At last she saw it. The subtle shift in his features. The softening of that familiar intense stare.

  She’d won.

  Whatever that meant.

  7: WAKING NIGHTMARE

  Marcus Fenix sat beside Kait in the Minotaur’s cab. He’d been silent for several miles now, but wasn’t asleep. She was driving, and stole glances at him from time to time. In each instance his gaze was on the rust-colored horizon to their right.

  “You awake?” she asked, knowing full well he was, but needing a conversation starter.

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re so damn quiet.”

  “I’ve been thinking about this strategy of Jinn’s.” The man turned in his seat slightly, away from the view and more toward her.

  “Bringing Outsiders to the city?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about it?”

  “It’s too slow.” He ran a hand over his face, trying to hide a yawn and mostly succeeding. “A lot of effort we just undertook for, what, fifty people?” Before she could say anything he went on. “And that one went smooth. You knew the leader. Won’t be the case every time.”

  She’d considered this herself. “So we turn five of them into ambassadors like me. After the next five villages we’ll have twenty-five, and so on.”

  “You really think they’ll put the armor on, just like that?” Marcus stared at her. Kait pretended not to notice.

  “I didn’t even think I’d put it on,” she admitted. “Still not sure about it.”

  “Proving my point.” He lifted a canteen and took a swallow of water, then tossed the metal canister up onto the dash.

  “Did you ever meet my father?” she asked.

  “Hmm?”

  “Gabriel Diaz.”

  Marcus thought about it for a moment. “Don’t think so. Sorry.”

  “He fought in the Pendulum Wars. Worked in the motor pool.”

  “There were hundreds of motor pools, Kait. Every base had one.”

  “I just mean—”

  “It’s not a place I spent a lot of time. If the pool is doin’ its job right, you don’t need to spend time there. Maybe it’s a testament to your dad’s skill that I never met him, because when I did meet the wrenches it was usually to give ’em hell for fucking up.”

  Kait guided the Minotaur around a boulder in the road, and switched the headlights on. It was getting dark.

  “It’s a shit job,” Marcus went on. “No one ever thanks you, and if you make the smallest mistake it’ll cost lives, just about guaranteed. If you’re thinking less of him because he wasn’t on the front line—”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Then what?”

  “Hoffman called him a brilliant tactician.”

  “When did you meet Hoffman?”

  “A few weeks ago.” She shrugged. “He was waiting for me when I left Jinn’s office.”

  Marcus digested that for a second.

  “Okay… and?”

  “I’m just not seeing how ‘brilliant tactician’ and ‘motor pool’ go together.”

  “Sure he didn’t say ‘technician’?”

  In reply, Kait just shot him a look.

  “Maybe he used the wrong word, then,” Marcus suggested. “Hoffman’s… well there’s no nice way to say it. He’s not as sharp as he once was.”

  Kait decided not to press the matter. Partly because she didn’t feel like going through the context of her meeting with Hoffman, but also because there was a Scion standing on the road ahead, holding a Mulcher chain gun against its hip and smiling at her. Its fangs gleamed red in the last light of the sun.

  The creature stood perfectly still, though, and Kait knew this for what it was—another waking dream. The evolution of the Swarm-fueled nightmares that had plagued her sleep since Reyna’s death. This vision seemed an echo of the Scion that had tried to stop them outside
Settlement 2, and Kait was determined not to fall for the cruel trick her mind was trying to play on her. She ignored the horrid glare that bored through the windshield and into the most primal part of her brain. Gritting her teeth, Kait resolved to drive right through the apparition. She couldn’t let these hallucinations affect her.

  She couldn’t let them win.

  “Kait! Scion!” Marcus shouted.

  Kait, certain the creature had been only in her mind, realized too late how wrong she was. Marcus grabbed at the wheel, but she gripped it even harder, holding it steady. She mashed down on the accelerator.

  The Outsiders in back all cried out in surprise.

  As they zoomed toward the creature, the Scion hefted its Mulcher and opened fire. Bullets from the rotary barrels poured into the radiator grille at the front of the vehicle and on into the engine block. The dashboard before Kait went dark. The headlights, too, and the hum of the engine ground to a halt.

  In the gravel and soft dirt, the Minotaur immediately started to lose speed.

  Out of ammo, the Scion tossed its weapon aside. Free of the burden, it easily stepped out of the oncoming Minotaur’s path and leapt onto the driver’s door. Hanging on with one hand, it punched its other fist through the small window.

  Glass shards flew into Kait’s face. She barely had time to shut her eyes, and felt the lacerations across her cheek. Then a huge meaty fist had her hair, pulling her toward the window. The Minotaur had a heavily armored cab, with small windows, but this beast seemed determined to pull her through.

  Marcus grabbed her right arm. Grip strong as iron, he tugged her back. The steering wheel was free to turn as it pleased, and it went hard right.

  “Brace yourselves!” Marcus shouted to the Outsiders in the back.

  Kait could feel the six-wheeled Minotaur tilting sickeningly up onto three wheels. There was a shriek from the left-side tires, and the world tumbled as the truck rolled onto its side.

  The Scion was crushed as the heavy cab came down hard onto the gravel road and began to slide. Kait felt the grip on her hair loosen, then fall away completely. The creature was gone, smeared under the vehicle. Replacing it at the broken window was a spray of gravel just inches from her face, cutting into her cheek, forcing her to keep her eyes closed.

  All at once the sliding stopped, and silence fell over the cab. Kait opened her eyes, tentatively. The air was full of dust that coated her throat the instant she took a breath. Marcus, beside her, coughed and twisted in his seat. With both legs he kicked upward, thrusting his door wide open.

  “You okay?” he asked, already climbing.

  “I think so. It’s the people in back I’m worried about.”

  “Can’t help them much if that Scion brought friends. C’mon.”

  She fumbled with the latch on her seat harness as Marcus’s feet disappeared out the passenger door. Gunfire erupted all around them, and in the distance she could hear the sound of the rest of the caravan pulling to a sudden stop. Someone in the passenger compartment behind her was moaning. Others were shouting confused questions or half-hearted orders.

  “SWARM!”

  It was Marcus’s bellowing shout that seemed to give everyone focus. Kait heaved herself out of the cab and drew her pistol. There was movement all around. Yelps of Juvies. Grunts of nastier things. The air was choked with dust. Ten feet visibility, tops. She tried to blink her eyes clear, and mostly failed.

  Something moved in front of her. A pale, scrawny, naked thing. She fired without thinking. The Juvie screamed and fell, lifeless, into the road.

  “Protect the Outsiders,” Marcus said.

  Kait nodded, following orders instinctively now. Something she’d ponder later, maybe. Climbing along the truck to the rear, she hopped down. The canvas covering was intact on this side, but she doubted the length that had been dragged through fifty feet of gravel had fared so well.

  Sal was fumbling his way out of the rear gate. He had an arm up in front of his face, and was coughing. A wet, thick cough that wasn’t just from dust.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “I’ll live.” He gestured toward the inside of the Minotaur. “A few broken arms, I think, but no worse than that.”

  Kait nodded.

  “Is it them?” he asked, taking an offered rifle from someone still inside the truck. “The so-called Swarm?”

  “Yeah,” Kait replied. “Now you get to see what we’re up against.”

  Before Sal could reply, a shadow came out of the dust, from above. Like a huge gaping mouth.

  Kait barely had time to scream before the Snatcher took her.

  8: ONE MORE SUNSET

  Time seemed to slow.

  Kait stared into the wide-open belly of the Snatcher as it landed over her. The innards were slime and gore, reeking of meat gone bad. This would be the last thing she ever saw, she thought, and then she was falling, fast. A sharp pain registered across the backs of her calves. She hit the dirt and the wind rushed from her lungs.

  Above her, the Snatcher’s gaping midsection snapped closed, robbed of its prize. Still it continued on as if it had grabbed her, perhaps not yet realizing it had missed.

  There was a hand at her throat. Sal, grasping her by the top of her chest plate. With surprising strength, the wiry old man heaved her back to her feet in one smooth motion. It hurt to stand. She understood then that he’d kicked her legs out from under her, in effect forcing her to dodge the Snatcher’s grasp. An amazing bit of clear-headed thinking, given the chaos around them.

  Fighting for breath, she stared into the eyes of a man who’d saved her life once before, and now had done it again.

  “The fuck was that?!” he shouted.

  A raised eyebrow and quick sideways glance was all Kait could manage.

  “Well, hot steamy shit,” Sal muttered. “Maybe you were right after all.” He thrust a rifle into her hands. His rifle, then took another from a shadowy figure inside the truck. His second-incommand, she realized. They’d brought weapons, along with all their other important belongings, and were handing them out.

  “This truck’s dead,” Kait finally managed. “We need to get to one behind us.” That meant trekking across a hundred feet of gravel road, exposed save for the still-choked air and the growing darkness.

  “We run for it,” Sal said. “Full sprint. No stopping. Everyone got that?”

  Kait wanted to say that she’d give the orders here, but realized she would have said the same thing that he had. So she just nodded, and decided maybe it was best to let this man tell his villagers what to do.

  Sal took one more glance at the place where the Snatcher had been. Then he spat a glob of red into the dirt there, and, with a clap on Kait’s shoulder, took off into the dust. She limped after him, her calves still stinging.

  They were halfway to the next Minotaur when the Snatcher returned. Kait only knew from the sound it made—that sudden shriek like a missile coming in at supersonic speeds. Behind her someone managed to make the shortest scream she’d ever heard, and then the sound was cut off. The Snatcher vanished back into the night, with a human being trapped in its belly. Who it had grabbed, she didn’t know. Not the time to find out. She ran harder, willing her legs to work despite the pain.

  Del emerged from the dusty cloud ahead of her, a pistol in each hand. He smiled, then shot at something just behind her. Kait heard another Juvie fall, but there were more coming from the rear of their group.

  “Marcus?” he asked.

  Kait shook her head. “Lost track of him.”

  Their eyes met. What she saw in Del’s face matched her own fear. They’d lost him to a Snatcher once before, and though they’d found him alive later, it had been a very near thing. Kait had no desire to give the Swarm a second chance.

  “Get everyone to the truck,” Del told her. “Load ’em in. I’ll find Marcus.”

  “You’re not going out there alone,” she said, and found she meant it. Nodding, Del turned to two other Gears who had
followed him up from the rear of the caravan.

  “Rustad, Lovings?”

  “Sir?” the larger of the two answered.

  “First truck’s down. If we distribute everyone among the rest, we can get moving again. See to it while we find—”

  “No can do,” the big Gear said. He was huge, larger even than Cole. Lovings, his armor named him.

  “Why not?”

  “Rear truck’s gone.”

  “Gone?!”

  The man winced and nodded. His companion, Rustad, spoke up.

  “Pouncer’s quilled it. Tires, engine, everything. It’s not going anywhere.”

  “How many injured?”

  Rustad lifted her shoulders. “None.”

  “They’re going after the trucks,” Kait whispered. At that instant, Marcus Fenix strode out of the haze. He flicked his Lancer casually toward the dirt, sending a spray of gore in a neat arc.

  “Really getting tired of these assholes,” he growled.

  “We’re down two trucks,” Del told him, before anyone else could speak.

  “Thanks for letting me know, but you two are in charge here.” In the near distance, whoops and shouts of victory went up along the caravan. Kait opened her mouth to shout them quiet, to tell them this was far from over, when she realized they had it right.

  The sounds of the Swarm had faded.

  “That’s weird,” Del said.

  “Definitely weird,” she agreed, “but it’s an opportunity and we need to take it.” At Del’s nod, she continued. “Get everyone from the rear truck and spread them among the other vehicles. There’s no room for all of us, though—the Minotaurs aren’t built for this many. Those of us from the lead truck will have to stay here and wait for evac.”

  “Now hold on…” Del said.

  “Is there another way?” she demanded.

  Del cast about, thinking, perhaps hoping to spot two functioning Minotaurs conveniently parked at the side of the road. There was nothing, though. Just dust and the growing stench of death.

  “Kait’s right,” he said finally. Then he glanced at Rustad and Lovings, jerking his chin toward the functioning trucks behind them. It was all the orders they needed. The two Gears nodded and jogged off into the haze, already barking commands to the others.