Daugher of Ash

by Matthew S. Cox

  “I’m just saying I don’t want you to think you belong to me now or some screwy tribal bullshit.”

  “Oh. I don’t.” She patted the shotgun, seeming happier. “I understood that when you did not stop me from taking this.”

  An hour passed with neither woman speaking; the constant drone of the unmuffled engine somehow managed to go from annoying to hypnotizing. Alejandra gathered her hair down, keeping one hand on the old machine gun and her eyes on the horizon. Her shout snapped Kate out of a stupor in time to react to an enormous pothole approaching. The buggy went up on two wheels as she swerved, gun pod sparking along the pavement. Kate screamed; if not for the sidecar, the rickety vehicle likely would have rolled. It hit the ground hard, slamming both women to the right before coasting forward. It took a moment to shake off the pain in her arm.

  Kate downshifted, gave it a little gas, and got back up to speed. Alejandra didn’t even give her a scornful look for almost crashing. She clutched the wheel in a death grip for a few minutes, relaxing once the adrenaline of a near crash faded.

  They drove for some time without speaking, the constant vibration of the engine in the harsh seat numbed Kate’s butt.

  “Strange that they let you operate a gun like that,” said Kate, after the quiet became intolerable.

  “There are worse things than men who take slaves,” Alejandra shouted over the motor. “And the gunner is always first to get shot. They put me here to die. I was always fighting to get away, and I am not pretty enough to be worth the trouble.”

  Kate swallowed her anger, quite aware that several gallons of ethanol sat in a thin plastic bottle a short distance behind her. “Got a home?”

  Alejandra scowled at the horizon, away from Kate. “My husband found a powerful bow that can put an arrow through the shell of a great crawler. The raiders came demanding tribute. When they saw it, they wanted it. He gave me to them instead.”

  “I…” Anger whitened Kate’s knuckles on the wheel.

  “Our elders cower like mice before the raiders. They ride into our village several times a year to demand tribute. They take supplies, weapons, and sometimes slaves. All this they say is in exchange for protection, but only from them. They do nothing if other bandits attack. So, no… I do not have a home. I will not go back there.”

  Shouting over the engine lost its appeal, and the pair remained quiet for the better part of several hours. With the approach of darkness, Kate pulled off the road into an ill-tended meadow between the highway and a decaying strip of old stores. The last vestiges of sunlight gleamed like flames upon shards of broken glass still clinging to window frames. She stalled the engine on purpose and brought the buggy to a halt. Within a few seconds, complete silence gave way to the chirp of innumerable insects.

  “Unless this thing has lights, we’re stopping.”

  Alejandra grasped the roll cage over her head and vaulted out of the gunnery pod. While she shuffled away to find a bush to water, Kate got out on the other side and wandered a few steps closer to the old structure. Blue signs mentioned food and fuel; two things she doubted remained in any noticeable quantity. Motion in the tall grass gave away the position of a cautious deer. One fireball seared the skin from its face and charred the skull, leaving the animal dead on its feet and convulsing.

  By the time Kate dragged the animal closer to the buggy, the effort to keep the grass from igniting had left her ready to sleep. Alejandra hobbled over, looking worried and wide-eyed.

  “My God, you’re a ghost!”

  “I’m not a ghost.” Kate eyed the bracelet. The battery indicator flashed red. “This is why I didn’t give you my shirt before.”

  She shut it off.

  Alejandra covered her mouth. “You’re naked.”

  Wow. Thanks for pointing that out. I didn’t notice. “Don’t remind me.” Kate squatted over the deer.

  “Let me check you for bugs; the grass is not safe.”

  Kate muted a laugh as her finger seared the animal’s skin open like a blade. “Ticks don’t like me.”

  Alejandra took a knife from a sheath strapped to the side of the buggy and busied herself chipping at the shackle around her right ankle. Kate pulled the deer apart with her hands, tossing the viscera to the side in a smoking pile. Alejandra lost interest in her battle with the welded metal, gawking. Kate heaved a large chunk of cooked venison to her traveling companion before taking enough meat from the kill to satisfy her abnormal appetite.

  She ate until she could consume no more, and glanced over at Alejandra who still had not taken one bite. “You should eat.”

  “I…” The woman shook her head as if coming out of a trance. “Sorry.”

  “Yeah, so… that’s why you shouldn’t touch me.” Kate threw the uneaten portion of her chunk onto the deer carcass.

  “Are you cold?”

  “Not right now. As soon as I go to sleep, I’ll cool off, then I’ll wake up freezing. I’ll get hot again, try to go back to sleep and wake up again. It’s a shitty cycle.”

  “I’m sorry.” Alejandra nibbled on her food. “Thank you for hunting.”

  Kate wandered off a ways to relieve herself. When she returned, Alejandra had a crude metal jug in her hands, drinking from it. Evidently, her former owners had brought water along. She gulped down a few hasty mouthfuls and put it down before she boiled it.

  With the din of crickets surrounding her, Kate rolled onto her side, curling up. “You don’t have to stay out here in this crap. There’s a real city in the east, and another in the west.”

  Alejandra shook her head. “No. To the west is a great wall of flames”―she held her hands up, waving fingers as if to illustrate fire―“that marks the entrance to Hell.”

  “Damn primitives.” She rolled over to face Alejandra. “It’s a load of crap. Some tribal probably got too close, got toasted by a laser cannon, and the story mushroomed.”

  “What is a laser cannon?”

  “I almost forgot how comfortable soft dirt can be.” Kate reclined, and explained about lasers, technology, and the great cities.

  “I am not sure I believe you.” Alejandra stretched out, resting her head on her arm. “If this city is as you say, why are you here?”

  “I’m searching for a cure,” muttered Kate, close to sleeping. “I gotta go West… kill an abomination.”

  Alejandra’s next words blurred into the onrush of dreaming.

  ate sat bolt upright amid the horrendous noise of a prewar machine gun firing. A ratty blanket slid down her chest and gathered in her lap. Out of instinct, she swatted the oily material away before it ignited without recognizing what it was. Awake before her brain could ascribe meaning to the clamor, Kate froze, staring at green-brown bodies swarming out of the tall grass, illuminated by the staccato flashes of muzzle flare. They ambled closer at a slow, staggering gait, some with arms raised, others trudging with their limbs at their sides. Dull green slabs of leathery skin separated by brown-red patches of exposed, dry muscle covered the creatures’ bodies. No fluid leaked, though the air filled with the stench of rot.

  A dry, crusty hand seized her by the ankle, dragging her into the oncoming throng. The scrape of dirt and rocks across her unprotected front broke the shock of sudden consciousness. Jagged fingernails, yellowed and thick, raked down her back and pressed into her arms and legs. Moaning, shambling figures gathered her into the air; hands everywhere, sandpaper tongues slid over her skin as several mouths bit her.

  Kate screamed, for a moment incapable of anything close to coherent thought.

  One by one, they ignited as her skin heated up to its usual blistering temperature. A clump of tongue fused to her left bicep, stretching and snapping loose as she wrenched her arm away from one of the moaning bodies. The creature didn’t react to having its tongue ripped out so much as it panicked at its hands burning.

  “Eww! Shit! Fuck!” Kate flailed at the clump of burning flesh. The army of desiccated humans found themselves unable to hold onto her as their
dry skin ignited on contact. Kate swore and screamed as the crowd pinched and squeezed random parts of her body. Seconds felt like minutes as she slipped through their flailing limbs and hit the ground. One dove on her, biting at her throat. She got her hands up, holding him back by his chest. The creature had far more strength than its appearance suggested, and forced its way down with ease. Smoke hissed out from under her palms as it overpowered her. Kate brought her knee up into a blank groin. Its chest burst into flames where her fingers melted skin; its face caught fire when dry lips brushed her throat.

  Howling in agony, it dove away and rolled.

  “What the hell―?”

  Alejandra opened up with the machine gun. The entire buggy shook and rattled with the recoil. Orange tracers streamed overhead. Kate curled into a defensive ball, gripped by a rare moment of terror. Dull, dry slaps came from above and behind her, as did the occasional raking grab for her legs that ended with burning and moaning. Another one fell on her, losing its tongue on her back as it licked. It, too, fell away, on fire. She crawled to the side, heading for the road. Once she got out from under the rain of bullets, she jumped to her feet, shivering in terror at the wall of green bodies.

  The gun stopped without warning, triggering an angry, desperate growl from Alejandra.

  “Bad round!” yelled the woman, as she scrambled to clear the dud.

  Kate stared at the unbelievable horror staggering closer. “H-how do those things even work?”

  “The bullets are not old. The bandits make them. They just do bad job.”

  Panic ebbed as the warmth of her psionic curse chased away the night chill. She gathered a fireball and hurled the seething projectile into the center of the throng. One body immolated in a half-second, becoming a walking torch, a burning man-shaped pile of tinder. She fed the essence of flame, willing the energy to spread to either side.

  Alejandra pulled a useless bullet from the chamber, tossed it to the side, and tucked the ammo belt back in place. The discarded round landed too close to Kate for comfort, causing her to scoot away as the woman slapped the mechanism down and racked the bolt.

  “Careful!” Kate whirled at a moan behind her.

  Dozens more scuffed across the road from the other side, some dragging their legs, others at close to a jogging pace. Kate backed up, startled when she bumped into the gunnery pod. A fireball into the second group ignited a handful, but as fast as they went down and burned, more filled in the space. They swarmed right up to the buggy, trapping Kate on the pod side. One kept walking into it from the right, reaching over the empty driver’s spot, as if he could not understand why Alejandra eluded his grip.

  The machine gun erupted again; Kate whirled. Bodies in front of the buggy broke apart like stacked dirt. Flaking, chunky bits sprayed wherever the tracer stream went. Every now and then, a bullet ricocheted off a hardened plate of keratin. The sight of biological matter repelling a bullet snapped Kate out of a daze.

  “There are more behind us. We gotta run!” yelled Kate, stopping herself from grabbing Alejandra’s arm. “Run!”

  The woman kept firing. “I can’t run. Chain.”

  “Shit!” Kate threw another blast of flames to the rear, sending four or five to the ground.

  A fleeting memory of what she did to the soldiers as a child came back. Her level of fear was sufficient to summon a blast capable of killing them all, but it would take Alejandra too. Kate grumbled, ashamed of the terror these creatures’ appearance triggered. Fucking zombies? Really? This can’t be real. I’m sleeping. She burned ten more, fireball after fireball. Baseball-sized blue spheres occasionally passed clean through their target and ignited one behind it. Damn scientists; this has to be nanobots or something.

  There’s too many. I’m going to pass out.

  Alejandra screamed, half out of fear and half out of desperation. The dancing brass serpent in Kate’s peripheral vision grew short. Almost out of ammo.

  “Fuck.” Kate eyed the driver’s seat.

  She didn’t have time to run all the way around the mass of bodies. She could climb over Alejandra and burn the hell out of her, or dive headfirst into the crowd. Kate closed her eyes and ran forward, arms across her face.

  Hands grabbed and squeezed anywhere they could get a hold. Fingers scraped down her skin, igniting like matches as they tried to force their nails into her flesh. Inhuman moans of pain bellowed around her; the air stank to the point she gagged. Gaping mouths full of yellow teeth flashed by as she punched one, elbowed a second, and kicked another. A hulking rotter emerged from the crowd, blocking her path. No longer able to hold back the urge to vomit, she leapt into a hug.

  This is not fair. This is not what I meant by human contact.

  The giant burst into flame and roared. It spun in circles, grabbing at her back and shoulders. Kate threw up again at the sensation of bubbling, burning flesh in contact with her entire body. More hands grabbed at her from behind and ignited. One snagged her hair, pulling her over backward. Her grip on the titan faltered, the melting body slipped out of her grasp with alarming ease, leaving her holding steaming sheets of skin. The hand in her hair dragged her over dirt and scrub. The giant collapsed, body caving in, lost to the consuming fire. Kate reached over her shoulder, seizing the arm by the wrist and squeezed until she seared its hand off at the joint. One grabbed her foot and bit down on her toes, howling with a mouthful of flames. She jerked her leg back and drove her heel into its nose, caving in the skull with a sickening crunch. When she sat up, an arm reached around and clawed at her stomach, retreating with a pained moan before it could break skin.

  Dirt gave way to the scratchy presence of paved road as the horde continued to engulf her. She fought her way standing, finding herself fifteen meters from the buggy, surrounded. Coarse hands touched her everywhere, trying to pull her to the ground. Their skin burned away before they could get enough of a grip. Covered in patches of burning flesh, Kate raised her arms. An azure flame appeared between her palms, rolling and expanding into an orb of heat as wide as her shoulders. She cringed as mouths glommed at her sides, legs and shoulders. One tried to bite her neck. She flung the pyroclastic sphere into the ground at her feet, feeding the heart of the flames into a radiant explosion.

  At least thirty of the creatures ceased to be, reduced to ash on the breeze. Those farther away didn’t evaporate; they fell, howling and convulsing as fire consumed them. She sprinted for the buggy, hurling a small stream of flame into one of the things trying to drag Alejandra out of the pod. With metal surrounding her, the woman fought valiantly to defend herself, swinging a machete through the small opening in the roll cage.

  Fire made it lean back, giving Alejandra the opportunity to take its head. It careened over sideways, replaced by another. Kate stuck one leg into the driver’s compartment and thrust an arm forward; an arc of flames spread open from her palm and ignited nine more. The sudden flare of heat and light made the crowd retreat several paces. She leapt into the seat and smashed the starter. The plastic button remained solid only long enough to engage the motor before it melted under her thumb. She slammed the gearshift into the reverse position and stomped on the accelerator pedal. Dirt sprayed forward as the buggy backed over four dozen ambling figures, knocking them aside like bowling pins. Kate stared at the destroyed start button, terrified of stalling out as she worked the shifter into forward.

  Alejandra stood in her seat, slashing over Kate’s head at the armored green and brown bodies reaching at them. A severed hand fell into Kate’s lap and ignited. She ignored it, focused entirely on the clutch. Harsh fingers in her hair banged her head into the roll cage as something tried to pull her through solid metal. Alejandra brought the machete down with a clank, freeing her. Strips of various colored cloth dangling from the woman’s skirt trailed over Kate’s chest and smoked.

  “I can’t see through you!” shouted Kate.

  The hips in front of her face lurched several times as metal hit metal and something out of sight moaned.
“Just drive. You’re straight.”

  Kate thrust her leg forward, shoving the pedal down. Acceleration pushed Alejandra’s side into her forehead, eliciting a wicked scream. The woman collapsed into the side pod, fetal and whimpering. Kate opened her mouth to apologize, but screamed as one of the creatures appeared in front of them with no time to swerve.

  It landed on the buggy, clinging to the roll bars with its head an inch from biting Kate on the nose. It seemed unable to comprehend its shoulders exceeded the width of the gap, and kept lunging into the bars like a battering ram, bending them in an effort to bite her. Wild, yellow eyes glowed with hunger and hatred. Much to Kate’s horror, it had surface thoughts. Simple thoughts… constant pain and hunger―and Kate looked like food.

  They’re alive…

  She kept her foot on the pedal, ducking her head left and right as each successive attempt to bite grew closer. Watching the creature bending the steel frame by ramming itself into it scared her mind blank for several seconds. When the third bite got teeth on her ear, she howled and grabbed its face, forcing her fingers into its mouth.

  Smoke oozed from where she made contact. Dried out skin flaked off, leaving her holding bone. He gurgled and lurched back, instinctively attempting to distance from the sensation of burning. The jaw came off in Kate’s hands. Alejandra shouted and brought the machete down. The strike beheaded the creature and sparked against the metal frame. Kate swerved left, tossing the body off the angular front. The buggy rocked as the large rear wheel bounced over the tumbling corpse.

  Kate held the jaw out to the side, cringing away from it. She relaxed her grip, but it stuck. A few shakes knocked it loose, but a patch of human leather remained on her palm. Kate held her arm out, waiting for it to burn away.

  “Okay. That… was nasty.”

  Tears streamed sideways in the wind over Alejandra’s face. A patch of skin above her right hip had turned cherry red. The woman lowered herself into the pod, ignoring the empty machine gun. Kate cleared her hand and shifted up to the highest gear the buggy had, risking that the moonlight would be enough to spot holes at seventy miles per hour.