Final Days: Escape

by Jasper T. Scott

  “Okay, how do I target with this thing?” Roland wiped some rainwater from the tablet’s screen, and saw the range options. He could kill everything electrical within hundred-yard increments. Eden One was a few hundred yards ahead, maybe closer, so he couldn’t go that far. If he fried the doors, and their alien allies arrived for pickup, the colonists would be stuck inside for ten minutes until they reset. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

  “One hundred it is,” he said, glancing up at the incoming robots. They acted confused now, as if someone had lost control of them.

  People were shouting all around them, and Roland cringed as a couple of people stumbled toward them, drawing the attention of the nearest pair of angry robots. Roland tried to wave them away, but it was too late. A laser shot from one of the giant metal monsters, hitting the ground a yard away. He fell on his back, the tablet knocking free from his grip. Eve was dragging him, and he fought her, trying to grab the dropped device.

  “Roland, stop it!” Eve was stronger than she looked, and he stopped resisting as he saw the second robot turn toward them.

  “Uh-oh.” The other two colonists hid behind Eve, dropping their tools. Roland wondered what they’d expected a shovel and hoe would do against these monstrosities.

  “Don’t let them kill us!” the man shouted.

  “We have to run.” Eve spoke slowly, but Roland couldn’t leave. He glanced at the tablet, which was caked in mud.

  He began to reach for it as the whirr of the nearest robot increased to a steady whine. “What’s it…” Roland couldn’t finish the question as the ground erupted into flames, a trench cutting deep into the soil, sending wet crimson grass high in the air. Clumps of soggy earth pelted them as they ran toward Eden Six. They circled around it, and felt the building shake as the robots targeted their hiding spot.

  Eve froze, panting with her gun held at her chest. “You have to distract them,” Roland told her.

  “I can’t. Did you see what they can do?” she asked.

  “There’s no choice. If I can’t shut them down, we’re all dead!” Roland shouted over the noise. Eden Six shook again, and part of the hull broke off, crashing a yard from their standing position. It landed on the woman who’d been holding the shovel. She twitched once before falling still. The man didn’t say a word, just stared at his dead friend.

  “Fine. But you make this quick!” Eve said. “I suppose I owe the camp at least this much.” The last was said quietly, as if she was trying to atone to someone for her actions alongside Reverend Morris.

  She pointed to the right and nodded at him. The moment she ran past the cover of the building, Roland heard her whistling loudly at the robots, firing a couple of rounds in their direction. It was time.

  Roland tried not to think about anything but reaching the tablet. He didn’t look up, only pumped his legs as hard as he could, retracing their steps toward the EMP device. The robots didn’t attack as he slid like a runner heading to home base, landing at the tablet. He quickly wiped it off, working over the smudged mud as he changed the settings to one hundred yards again.

  He peered around, seeing at least six of the enemy within range. It would have to be enough.

  Roland took a deep breath, and as he was about to press the button, the loudest crackle he’d ever heard rang from the adjacent valley. Another bang, and he diverted his attention to the sky where Belidar and his people were coming from. The sky flashed bright yellow, an intense glow that made Roland think a mushroom cloud was about to blow over and across the valley. The noise was intense as the light rose higher in the air.

  His heart hammered in his chest as he realized what it was. Their ship. The Froggers had done it! With renewed vigor, Roland tapped the icon. Nothing happened.

  “Son of a…” A second went by, and one of the robots targeting Eve turned toward him. The shoulder turret whirred, adjusting its aim.

  The boxy device activated with a screech, pulsing light emerging from the round disks. Roland’s tongue jolted, feeling like he’d licked a powerful battery. The nearest robot paused in mid-step. He took a good look at it now, moonlight reflecting off its shiny exterior. The clouds had disbanded, allowing them some visibility. A few vines of mist rose from the damp ground, but they were generally in the clear. Roland removed his mask, feeling the aching indents of the strapping and edges.

  Everything went silent for a moment. The robot’s visor flickered before turning dark, and it toppled over, crashing to the ground, which reverberated all the way to Roland. He peered around, seeing the other five attackers within their vicinity tumble. One more thud sounded from behind one of the nearby Eden stations, meaning there were only three of the robots left. He picked up the device, which was warm to the touch, and ran toward Eden One.

  He didn’t realize the thing was still transmitting the electromagnetic pulses until he spotted the ship overhead. It was one of Hound’s.

  “Roland, we got him!” He heard Kendra’s voice calling to him from near the residences. He stared up at the descending ship. “Hound. He’s dead!”

  The last three robots were wandering around near the fields, seemingly without purpose, firing random shots around camp. He needed to disarm them. But before he did that, he had to deal with this incoming threat.

  He waited until it was within the one-hundred-yard range, and he picked the device up like the love interest in an Eighties movie, professing his love with a boombox. The pulses shot into the sky, knocking the lights from the vessel. The thrusters cut out, and it began to fall directly above him.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  Andrew

  “Over there!” Andrew pointed. A group of people were sheltered behind Eden One, with what looked like giant humanoid robots running toward their position. Lasers flashed toward the Eden station, charring the walls. “Don’t we have any guns on this thing?”

  “You know how to activate them?” Keller countered.

  Before Andrew could reply, a bright flash of light tore out of the middle of the camp, and the wraparound viewscreens of the cockpit canopy and the glowing controls all winked out along with the lights. Pure darkness enveloped them. “What the hell?” Andrew muttered, and then came a sickening plunge as the ship fell like a stone.

  “Keller do something!” Andrew roared as he fumbled with his seat restraints, finally taking the time to buckle them properly. It felt like he was blindfolded and strapped to a roller coaster plunging for a broken section of track.

  “The controls are dead! Brace for impact!”

  Keller flicked on his angle-head flashlight, just in time for Andrew to see the terror in his dark eyes. “It was nice know—”

  Andrew felt himself thrown against the seat restraints so hard that the vertebrae in his neck popped. His teeth clacked together and he tasted blood. The sound of the ship hitting the ground was deafening, setting off a sharp ringing in his ears.

  He lay there, dazed and slumped against his seat restraints, for what felt like forever. His senses gradually returned, and he turned to see Keller unbuckling and falling on the dash. He picked himself up and nodded to Andrew, his lips moving, but his words muffled.

  The urgent look in his eyes made Andrew move. As he unbuckled he smelled, then saw, the acrid smoke gushing into the cockpit. Their fighter was on fire.

  Keller grabbed his rifle from where it lay pinned between their seats, and led the way up the corridor behind the cockpit. Andrew’s rifle had flown free, and lay between the dash and the dark, sloping viewscreens. He reached for it, noticing that a tree branch was poking through and hooked on the strap. He yanked it free.

  “Come on!” Keller called.

  Andrew turned and ran on wobbly legs, climbing the grated floor of the fighter to reach the still-open hatch halfway along its length. The smoke grew thicker as he went, choking him. He coughed into his sleeve. Keller stood in the entrance, waving to him. “We’re lucky you didn’t shut it.” He coughed violently into the crook of his arm. “Might never have gotten
it open if you had.” Keller clambered out over the bent and mangled ramp, jumping down five feet to a carpet of leaves and sticks below.

  They’d crashed into the forest at the edge of camp, splintering and flattening at least a hundred trees in the process. Andrew climbed out and jumped down beside Keller, then flicked on his own flashlight.

  “Let’s go,” Keller said, jerking his head toward the gleaming silver cylinders of the Eden stations. They turned and ran, jumping over fallen trees and weaving around thick walls of interlocking branches, heading for the hazy silver glow of lights from their camp.

  They emerged behind Eden Sixteen and raced across the field, heading for the sound of rifles rattling out bullets and the flashes of laser light from Hound’s killing machines. Eden One swept into view, along with a huddled group of colonists. Andrew picked out a few familiar faces as they drew near: Kendra, Val...

  They were firing on a pair of approaching robots. And a shadowy mass was rolling toward the colonists from the other side, from the direction of the lake.

  Andrew recognized them a split second later. Tigerwolves. At least a dozen, maybe two. He pointed to them as he sprinted the remaining distance to reach the colonists. “We’ve got trouble!” he breathed.

  “Wolves and killer robots,” Keller grunted. “Son of a bitch.”

  A few guns tracked toward them at the sound of their approach. “Hold your fire! It’s us!” Andrew cried.

  “Dad?” Val came rushing in and slammed into Andrew, knocking the wind from his lungs. He wrapped her in a tight hug and breathed a sigh into her hair.

  “You’re okay!” she sobbed.

  “Back at you, kiddo,” he said, with a knot in his throat choking off his words.

  The shriek and flash of a laser discharging interrupted their reunion, and they broke apart as another barrage of bullets roared out.

  “It’s not over yet!” Kendra cried. “Here they come!”

  * * *

  Kendra

  Seeing Andrew return alive sent energy coursing through her body. He was the shot of adrenaline Kendra needed now. Val pulled away from her father, and her injured cheek left a splotch of blood on his jumpsuit. He stared at his daughter with the fierce love and worry he always had, keeping her close to him, despite the incoming robots.

  “Stay far enough apart to confuse their targeting!” Kendra shouted over the escalating whirring noises coming from the agitated machines. They appeared to have rudimentary programming, and with Hound dead, she guessed they were relying on those basic functions again. The lead robot stepped closer to them, firing a blast from its shoulder, but the shot went too high, landing at the far end of camp.

  “They’re disoriented. Everyone be patient!” Kendra yelled. They still had a decent number of defenders here, but as she unfocused on the enemy, she spotted the bodies of their fallen colonists around the camp. There were too many losses.

  “What about the tigerwolves?” someone asked. Kendra’s ears were ringing, blocking out most sounds. Carrie was dead. Tony might not survive. Val’s face was slashed up, and from the looks of it, something had nearly torn Andrew’s arm from the socket.

  Her own body ached, had dozens of small cuts over it, and her head pounded with each racing beat of her heart. If the predators attacked them now, she didn’t expect to make it. She stepped toward them, gun firmly in her grip. Whatever happened, they were going to go down fighting. At least they’d killed Hound. She suppressed a grim smile at that. Morris had been defeated too, and they’d made allies.

  She peered at the sky over the adjacent valley. The flashes of yellow continued, and she was sure the glow was coming nearer. Belidar was on his way.

  Her resolve hardened, and she heard Andrew behind her, groaning as he lifted his rifle. Keller stood a few yards ahead, their stances identical.

  The predators slunk into camp, keeping low to the ground, stalking their prey. Kendra noted for the first time that they weren’t moving for the humans. They were heading toward the robots, who didn’t seem to notice the sneaking four-legged animals. The one in the lead glanced in their direction, its yellow eyes reflecting in the moonlight.

  “Atta boy,” Andrew whispered beside her.

  “What…?” Her question was cut off as the twenty or so creatures attacked. They bounded over the soggy grass, leaping for their targets. The first robot went down with a resounding thump, while the other two began firing at the ground. Kendra witnessed one of the predators being torn up by high-powered lasers, and she darted forward. “Attack!”

  Their group didn’t hesitate now. With the robots distracted and under duress, they fired with everything they had. The nearest enemy was within twenty yards, and Andrew stopped, firing at its head. The green visor flickered and turned off as the robot dropped to a knee. The humans were on it, bashing at the metal hull with garden tools and axes. Sparks flew into the night sky as the metal blades connected with its shiny exterior.

  Keller raced over to the first one, stepping around an attacking predator, and fired a close-range bullet into the robot’s visor. It all happened so fast, and the colonists watched in awe, panting as their chests heaved from exertion.

  Eve and Keller began walking away, smiling and patting each other on the back as the robot sat up. Kendra’s breath caught in her throat, and she shouted out a warning. She locked gazes with Keller, and he seemed to pick up on the danger. He dove, tackling Eve as the pulse shot from the robot’s weapon. Kendra fired three times, each bullet finding the intended target. The enemy twitched, collapsing to the wet grass with a splash.

  She crouched, helping Eve to her feet.

  Keller bounced up, eyes wide. “Thanks.”

  “Anytime,” Kendra said, smiling at him.

  They’d done it.

  The predators formed a circle around them, and the leader stepped forward, head low to the ground. That’s when Kendra noticed Andrew had a translator on his head, and so did the animal.

  “Thank you for coming.” Andrew cautiously shuffled over to the tigerwolf. She couldn’t hear its response, but it pawed at its head once. Andrew plucked the multi-armed device from its long head and folded it, shoving it into his pocket. The animal howled, a throaty release, and the others copied it as they loped away, moving toward the far end of camp. Kendra had no doubt they’d be back to feed on the fallen, but there was nothing they could do to prevent that.

  “Where’s Roland?” Andrew asked, glancing around, and Kendra realized she hadn’t seen him in some time.

  “He was over there.” Eve pointed past them all to a dark section of camp, near the spot where Andrew had crashed.

  Kendra raced over there, wondering if he was hurt. “Roland! Where are you?”

  “Over here!”

  Relief filled her at the sound of her friend’s voice. The ship the guys had stolen from Hound’s lair was between them, smoldering as a fire still burned near the cockpit. She moved around the vessel, seeing Roland on his knees, trying to dig something out from under the wreckage of the craft.

  “What are you doing?” she asked him.

  His eyes were wild. “This device. It’s what stopped the first batch of robots, but it only works for ten minutes. Anything built with Hound’s technology will reset after that much time.”

  Kendra peered at the seven fallen ten-foot-tall enemies, and cringed. “They’re about to spring to life?”

  He nodded. “I think we have two minutes.”

  She pulled him away. The device was clearly broken, crushed under the weight of the ship. “We need to get out of here.”

  “You’re telling me!” Roland ran beside her, heading toward the others, who were all peering up at the incoming yellow lights. Belidar’s ship was taking its time. The last few minutes had felt like hours.

  When they were fifty yards from Andrew, movement caught Kendra’s eye, and she pulled the gun from its holster, tracking the shape.

  “Don’t shoot!” someone called.

  “You hav
e to be kidding me,” Roland muttered.

  Reverend Shelley Morris emerged from the shadows, hands in the air, dirt covering her face. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

  Kendra lowered her gun, and couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Roland

  Roland could recognize someone off their rocker, and it was obvious Morris had cracked. She’d never seemed young, but being in the woods for only a day had aged her a good ten years. Maybe it was the detoxing from her Communion water that had done it. Roland was sure the woman had been at least double-dosing.

  “Stay where I can see you, Morris,” Kendra said authoritatively. It was amazing how kind and tender Kendra could be at one moment, and the next she seemed like she’d be able to tear your heart through your chest. He imagined she must have made one hell of an FBI agent.

  Morris froze with her arms in the air.

  “We’re out of time,” Roland whispered, staring at the resetting robots. “We have less than a minute.”

  Maybe he was wrong about the EMP. In his mind, something like that would fry the circuit boards, rendering them useless. If that was the case, they had nothing to…

  The ground vibrated as all seven of the robots blinked to life.

  “Dammit!” he shouted. “What do we do?”

  Kendra frowned, but he could almost hear the thoughts churning inside her head. “We get to the others. We…”

  “Will this help?” Morris asked. She held out a flute-like weapon in both palms, like she was handing over an important artifact in an ancient ritual.

  “Where did you find this?” Kendra asked her.

  “Outside camp. After the commotion.”

  Kendra snatched it. “You know how to use this?”

  Roland nodded. “I think so. I saw your friends firing them.” He powered it up with the slide of a pointed button. It hummed in his fingers, and he turned it toward the first robot, now climbing to its feet. The thing’s visor flickered yellow, red, then stayed green. Roland fired the weapon, missing. He steadied his hands, trying to calm himself, and tried again. This time the blast cut through the robot, making a circle the size of a volleyball through its chest. Sparks erupted and it dropped to the grass, this time face-first.