by Nathan Lunn
“You are going to do this again, and without any sort of pain, otherwise we are going to have a problem. And you don’t want to hear how I deal with my problems. Clear?”
The shopkeepers nodded so fast they could have got whiplash, and moved to grab another two oxygen suppliers from the pile, shoving Kye out of the way in an attempt to get to them quicker. Alexis moved to his daughter, stroking her cheek and whispering unheard words of comfort, before standing and moving to the front of the shop, paying no attention to Kye or Julie, who stood paralysed in their place.
“Daddy, where are you going?” The girl wailed, tears brimming at the corner of her eyes again as her fists balled up.
Alexis turned around as he opened the door, face stern as he spoke. “I’m getting you some painkillers. It’s just a few building rows away, don’t worry. Be good for these men.” He shot one more look at the shopkeepers, waiting by the fitting room curtains, and spoke to them only. “And you both be good for her, feathers. I won’t be long.” He turned and left, and as the men busied themselves with fitting the supply to the child, Kye and Julie reeled to the window, watching Alexis stride off up the street. Julie spoke into the commlink with urgency, speaking at a fairly normal volume now that the shopkeepers had both moved to the fitting room,
“Get to our position now, Alexis is here with his daughter. We’ve found him.”
***
“Alright, where are they?” Danny barged into the shop, drawing fast silences from Julie and Kye as they stood close to the window, watching out for Douglass to arrive. Eddie tailed near, moving straight to the pile of sun screening goggles. Grabbing them and holding them next to the goggles around his neck, a bemused smile crossed over his face, before he put them down and joined the others at the front of the shop.
“He’s out right now. The child is in the fitting area,” Julie spoke, waving a hand at the curtained room. “Good thing you got here so soon, he’s not likely to be long.”
“Right.” Danny nodded and stormed towards the curtain, stopped by a hand grabbing his – Julie pulled him back to the window and hushed, “What are you doing? They’re busy in there with the girl!”
Danny nodded, as the rest looked on at him. “Exactly! Best time to take her out, whilst she’s busy with the feathers.”
An incredulous frown exploded across Julie’s face, and her grip tightened on Danny’s arm. “What do you mean ‘take her out’? We aren’t going to kill her!”
“Of course we are! She’s the enemy! Look there’s no time for this.” His voice started to rise. “I’ll go and handle it.” He shook her hand off and started to move to the curtains again – Kye moved to stand in his way, blocking him before he could make it the whole way. He swayed on his feet, eyes rolling a little in their sockets.
“Danny, no.”
Danny laughed and looked around. “Seriously? Why did you all grow a conscience now? Eddie?”
Eddie stayed quiet, uncomfortable at being placed on the spot. Julie spoke up, as Kye started to breathe through his nose, nostrils flaring. “She’s just a little girl, Danny. She doesn’t deserve this.”
Kye chimed in, a sorrowful tone taking over his voice. “She isn’t even older than Charlie.”
Danny’s voice exploded, fists balling up. “She’s a brat! All of them are, and we need to teach them a lesson!”
Julie persisted, shooting worried glances at the window and the curtain. “We’re supposed to be better! We need to be better. If we do this, we’re just as bad as they are.”
Kye nodded, as Danny looked around, astonished.
“We aren’t better than they are! Haven’t you seen that yet?” He moved again, catching Kye’s hand on his chest and a hard shove.
“Fuck off, Danny.”
Danny raised his hands, a vein popping out of his forehead. “You fuck off, drunkard. I’m doing what none of you assholes are capable of. At least I have the balls to take care of all of these rich pricks.”
“Only those responsible, Danny! You are not killing that girl!” Kye’s voice echoed through the empty shop, and the group sat in the silence that followed, waiting with bated breath.
The shop employees pulled back the curtain, ghostly pale, as the girl moved out to the front of the shop, surprisingly confident in stature, a plastic cuff successfully fitted around her arm, and a plastic tank empty on her back.
“It’s you. It’s you guys?” She spoke, her voice seemingly a whisper in the lull of the yelling. She took a step away from the group as Kye moved himself firmly between her and Danny, his hand already to his holster and gripping his own handpistol. Kye spread his palms, and spoke, his voice slurring worse as his yelling forced a further bout of lightheadedness.
“Hey, we’re not going to hurt you, okay? We are just having a grown-up argument, alright?” Danny’s grip tightened as the girl’s hand moved, pointing her finger towards Kye.
“Don’t patronise me. I know what you were talking about, and I’m not scared. My father is going to be back soon, and he’s going to kill you all.” The pistol flew into Danny’s hand and he fired, the shot impacting with the vase of wilted flowers atop the desk and throwing them to the floor. The employees cursed, one with their hand frozen over the controls to the desktop hidden behind the desk, the other reaching for the fire exit door handle.
“No fucking moving. Capiche?”
The man nodded (his fellow employee doing the same), inexplicably turning a lighter shade of white. He looked almost sickly in the shadows cast by the large windows.
Julie shouted at him, “Put down the fucking gun, Danny. No one needs to be shot.”
As Danny spun around, the girl moved her hand towards her head, finger outstretched to tap her temple. With a yell, Danny’s pistol moved aim, firing over her left shoulder to rip through the red curtains. She froze, hand shaking and a tear running down her face.
“You see?” Danny laughed, his voice rapidly raising in pitch and volume. “Do you fucking see this shit?” Each curse was emphasised with the point of his pistol; the girl flinched with each push. “She’s going to tell him, and we are going to be fucked. This is the only way we can be assured of our safety.”
Kye followed his gaze to the girl, trying to reason with her. “Put your hand down please. We aren’t going to hurt you, we can let you leave.”
Julie, her voice desperate, shouted from the front of the store, “You can go, just leave and you’ll be safe. You aren’t going to tell, right?” The girl nodded her head slowly, shoulders shaking as she started to silently sob.
Danny laughed again, an unhinged barrage of high-pitched howling. “Why should we trust her?” Danny turned to look at Julie for a moment, his gaze elsewhere. "She’s – look!” He pointed his pistol back on her, as her finger moved from her temple. Tears on her cheeks, but defiance in her eyes, she moved it back down to her side. “Oh, fuck! That’s it!”
Julie screamed, “Danny, no!”
A shot rang out across the shop, slamming into Kye’s outstretched and disfigured arm, swallowing it into the swarm of nanotechnology. He fell to the ground, reduced to one knee due to the close range of the shot. Danny swore, as the girl screamed, shouting profanities from behind the makeshift shield.
“He’s fucking coming, Kye! What are you doing?” Lining up his pistol again, he moved behind the pile of Oxygen Supplies, ready to fire. Kye stood slowly, as another shot slammed into his misformed arm, too high to have been aimed directly at the girl. He laughed, as Danny paused – Eddie gripped onto his pistol and raised it as Julie did the same, her own on Danny and his on Kye. The girl was crouched behind Kye, tapping at her temple rapidly – the employees cowering behind the desk in fear.
Danny spoke, slowly and purposefully. “Move out of the way, Kye. Have you really lost sight of who the enemy is?” Kye’s arm glitched, sharp ridges running as it failed to fully set on a shape. He swayed, and Danny yelled, “It’s her! Now move out of the fucking way before I have to shoot you again! I’m
doing what we have to, to survive!”
“You’re doing what you want to, you psychopath!” Kye yelled back. His arm glitched out again, the spikes stretching aggressively close to Danny and the rest of the group. Danny pinched the brow of his nose, squinting his pained eyes shut in a grimace. Kye saw an opportunity and moved, roaring as he charged forward, slamming into Danny with enough force to throw him to the ground. His pistol scattered between Julie’s legs as she jumped back, hearing a slight click to her right as Eddie trained his pistol onto hers. He fired, and as her own mangled pistol flew to the floor, she turned. He was quick to raise his aim at Julie, subduing her to a standstill with a warning look. Seeing their opportunity, the shopworkers lunged for the fire door, grabbing it open and throwing themselves out of the open space, feet scrambling on the floor as they desperately ran away. Kye and Danny continued to scuffle on the floor, trading punches as Douglass arrived, pulling up and into the front of the shop with a loud crash, denting the door and shattering the windows.
Whirling around in surprise, Eddie and Julie ran to his side, helping him up out of the hovercar – thankfully unharmed save for a few dents in the front fender. Douglass coughed, running into the store as he waved them towards the vehicle.
“Go, go get in and start driving, Julie!”
Danny and Kye, unfazed by the crash, had continued their fighting, brutal kicks swinging into each other’s ribcages and hard fists slamming into blocking forearms. Kye’s enhanced arm was holding back, maintaining its form as Kye slipped back into muscle memory. Douglass pushed past them, skidding a little on the multitudes of minute shards spread across the shop floor. He ignored the occupants, heading straight for an Oxygen Supply. Slipping it over his arm, he moved to the desk and coughed the huddling girl out of the way, grabbing one of the pre-filled tanks from below and connecting it up with a hiss of pressure escaping. He threw the other pre-filled tank to Kye’s flailing legs, as he tightened the cuff around his own, grabbing onto Kye and Danny and straining weakly to pull them apart from each other. The girl had taken refuge behind the shredded curtains by now, and was tapping vigorously at her temple, screaming into the space for her dad to come and save her.
Julie roared over the whining engines and scuffling fighters through the car window, “Douglass, get them apart and in here! He knows we’re here, he’s gonna–” The car’s wing mirror exploded as a thick metal bolt smashed through it, cracking it to the floor and sending her screaming back into the car.
Eddie slid in his seat, peering out the back window before ducking below the seats and yelling, “Fuck, he’s here. Some sort of Crossbow attachment!”
A laugh came from the girl behind the curtains, as she spoke, Douglass finding her voice amidst the chaos around him, “Oh, you’re all so fucked now.” Walking down the street, priming the crossbow for another shot, was an enraged Alexis. His cord snapped back into place, and he lifted it to his shoulder – another shot slammed into the back window of the car, shattering it and spreading shards over the hunched Eddie in the backseat.
“Shit, fuck,” he yelled, scrabbling for his pistol and blindly firing over his head towards the back of the car. In response to this, a third bolt passed through the cracked window and into the pistol, piercing clean through and pinning it to the passenger side headrest.
“Jesus!” Eddie screamed, pulling his hand back down and sucking on the newly formed cut that was bleeding there. “Danny, get the fuck in here!” Radio silence from the other side was not reassuring, and Julie screamed into her commlink, afraid to lean out of the side window again.
A fourth bolt hit the car again, cracking through the brake lights and puncturing the fuel line. The pungent smell filled the air as it started to leak out, and as Alexis drew closer, he brought out a small rectangular device from his pocket, flicking it open with his thumb as he snarled towards the stuttering vehicle. Spotting this through her sole remaining mirror, Julie grew desperate, tapping at her temple to check the connection whilst she yelled, “Fuck, fuck. Douglass he’s gonna blow it, what should we do?” She was gripping the wheel until her knuckles turned white, and Alexis was slowly continuing forward, unflinching and unfazed by the smell. Julie and Eddie started to cough, choking as Douglass’ response came through.
“Go.”
Julie questioned him, head snapping between the shop and the mirror, “What? What do you mean?”
“Just run. Stay on the commlink.”
Eddie nodded in her front mirror, and she cast a final dismayed look to the shopfront. Unable to see inside, she gunned the hovercar into action – a loud bang sounded as the engine choked into life, emitting jets of blue flame as it lifted into the air – the heavy gust pushed Alexis to his knee, roaring in rage as the car lifted from the carrier and passed over the printed housing, black smoke drifting to the floor in thick hot clouds.
20
Kye felt something hit his leg. His thumb was locked around Danny’s throat, his other arm pinning down his chest. Danny was fighting back, wrapping his legs around Kye’s and kicking out, struggling to hit the kneecaps he was aiming for. Muted screams passed through his ears, a shadow flickered in the corner of his vision. A hand landed on his shoulder, pulling him apart, away from Danny – suddenly, he was swaying, off balance. A fist slammed into his jaw, eliciting a loud crack, and he felt a spurt of energy spread from the pain. With a renewed vigour, he pushed him back to the ground. Another scream to his left cut through the white noise, throwing his next swing off balance and sending him skidding to the floor. His punctured skin erupted in thousands of needle-sharp points of pain as the tiny glass shards embedded themselves in his palm. He scrambled away, his back slamming into the desk as he surveyed the carnage around him. High-pitched laughter bounced around the room; Danny rolled on the floor at the end of his feet, his thrashing foot slapping a heavy tank over to the base of the desk. A look to his left confirmed his suspicion: the girl was standing behind the curtains, shouting words at Douglass that Kye couldn’t interpret in his airy state.
A shower of light flipped through the window and a strong smell overcame Kye’s nostrils. Standing shakily to his feet, he looked out the window to the hovercar, gasping and coughing at the stream of steady fuel escaping out of the newly formed hole. Douglass grabbed his shoulder from behind him, waving him over towards the exit door behind them both. Danny had crawled to his side, hand over his nose – Kye couldn’t tell if it was due to the blood dripping or the smell filling the room. Douglass pushed past, grabbing a random-sized oxygen supply from the pile and shoving it into Kye’s chest. He nodded, preoccupying himself with fiddling on the cuff and tank as Douglass moved his way out of the room, passing through the doorway. A shout came through as he managed to assemble and place it on, his head clearing a little better as the stronger rush of oxygen returned to his system; the noise disappeared and he heard Julie screaming, panic instantly gripping his heart and taking his breath from him.
“What? What do you mean?” she yelled.
Confused, Kye turned to look at Douglass, leaning out of the doorway and staring at something down the street. The girl to his right ran out of the front end of the shop, yelling for her father to come and get her.
“Just run. Stay on the commlink,” Douglass said, before turning back to Kye and Danny and ushering them out of the shop through the back exit, both dripping bright red spots of blood onto the white plastic flooring. A bang sounded from behind them, a gust of hot wind engulfed the shop and a momentary flash of blue stunned Danny, whose eyes were still recovering. Kye heard a roar from over the building, followed by a scream and some unintelligible muttering from the daughter – setting his sights towards the back pathway in front of them, he looked at Danny and Douglass.
“We’ve gotta get out of here.” He spat more blood to the floor, casting a glance at Danny, whose head was sullenly down, resigned. “Julie? Hello?” The shortwave connection started to falter as the distance between them furthered, so much to the point that
she was only able to stutter out a final broken sentence, “Fuel… broken badly… island.”
Kye sighed, spat again and wheeled towards the direction of the Commerce Port. “We gotta move. Let’s get ourselves a car and head down to find them, they must be on the way to Zobel’s Island,” Kye spoke, looking at Douglass first then Danny. He met his sight, and wordlessly nodded. Kye nodded back, and they started to move away from the smoking shop door, not noticing the steady stream of blood falling off them as they ran.
The Commerce Port was as active as before, and the continuous stream of moving workers and citizens had allowed them to effectively and stealthily steal a vehicle from the stream of those leaving the Carrier. Seemingly unnoticed, they pushed off, and quickly turned the car back around, passing by the immense vibrating engines just close enough to shake the interior of the vehicle. The awkward tension and silence was broken when Douglass reached towards the back of the car, scrabbling about in the seat pockets and muttering to himself, “Really must patch this up.”
Danny sat beside him, lips pressed tightly together – and Kye was busy focusing on his driving up front, plugged into the commlink manually to help them avoid detection. His blood red hand moved slick on the steering wheel, slipping up his turns and spreading the iron smell all around the hovercar, working its way into their nostrils and souring the taste of what little amounts of saliva were accumulating in their dry mouths. A sharp rip sounded from the backseats, as Douglass tore the fabric of his shirt in two, placing one of the strips in Danny’s lap and sticking his arm forward to give the other to Kye. Gingerly taking it, he muttered a quiet thank you and wrapped it around his dripping hand and knuckles, noting how fast the blue cotton stained purple. He chuckled to himself, cracking the silence again as he noted, “Hey, now both of my hands are purple.” The comment didn’t land as gracefully as he had hoped, and as the silence thickened, he doubled down, chattering as he angled the car into a steep dive. “Good thing the car has enough fuel to get us down here at least, huh?” He looked at the readout that popped up in his vision, and added, “Though not much further after that. Can anyone see them?”