by Eric Warren
“One more floor,” Jonn said.
“Wait.” They’d reached the landing and Arista happened to gaze out into the parking level. One of the hoods of a vehicle had been propped up. But if this area hadn’t been used in a hundred years why would it be open like that? Her gaze went to the floor to see tracks in the dust; a boot print and some kind of scrape beside it. Someone had been here recently. “I’m going to take a look. You two stay here.”
Arista made her way over to the vehicle, noting she was leaving a track in the dust as she moved. It appeared the refractor couldn’t make someone completely disappear after all.
The car was an old model she didn’t recognize, though the tires had long since rotted away. She inspected the open hood, noting the battery connections had been disturbed. She reached over to touch the battery itself, but pulled her hand away. Something told her it would be a bad idea. Inspecting the unit, someone had recharged the battery using some of the internal components jury-rigged together like an elaborate circuit. A husk wouldn’t do this, at least not one under Charlie’s control. Which left two possibilities: either it was a random autonomous machine looking for a charge, or it was Frees.
She stared at the ground where the dust had been disturbed the most, then followed the tracks leading away from the car over to the ramp that would take her up a level and on to the street. But the disturbance pattern in the dust was erratic, like he’d been dragging something with his right leg. She couldn’t quite make it out. She returned to Jonn standing in the open stairwell.
“Blu, still there?” she whispered.
“Still here,” came the reply somewhere to her left.
“I think Frees has been here. Someone’s wired that battery over there to reproduce a charge.”
“How do you know it was him?” Jonn asked.
“I don’t, I’m making an educated guess,” she replied. “But I think we should follow the tracks, they might give us a clue as to where he is.”
Jonn’s shoulders dropped. “Which way?”
“Tracks, in the dust over there, leading to the ramp,” she said, not bothering to point as he wouldn’t see her anyway. He paused a moment then made his way over there, Arista right behind him. She glanced to her side to see a pattern forming in the dust as if from nowhere.
“You really think he was here?” Blu asked.
“It’s the best thing we have to go on,” she replied. “I just hope he hasn’t made it too far ahead of us.”
They emerged on the street level to find the metallic cage gate broken and shoved up on one end, the trail in the dust ending there.
“Could that be…?” Blu’s muffled voice said.
“We’ll have to turn off the refractors to get under it. We can’t fit otherwise.” Arista said.
“No, stay hidden,” Jonn replied, walking over to the gate and forcing it up along its tracks, giving them enough space to move under.
“Thanks,” Arista said. But out here on the wet streets, there was no more trail. “Which way?”
“The gate is in that direction.” Jonn pointed. “If he’s headed back there, he probably would have taken a similar route.”
She scanned the surrounding buildings for any hint of husks; finding none. If they were out there, they were doing a good job hiding themselves. Frees wouldn’t have kept himself out in the open, not after what happened at the palace. The husks knew what he looked like. And there probably weren’t any other rogue machines running around. The entire population had been turned to Charlie’s whim and any deviation from the norm would be punished.
“Here,” Jonn said, finding an alley that ran beside the parking deck and the next row of buildings. “We’ll take this to get there. I’d rather not stay on the street any longer than I need to.”
Arista glanced down, realizing their feet were still causing puddles to ripple and wet footprints to appear on the sidewalk. It wouldn’t take a husk long to figure out what was going on. She agreed, they needed to stick to the alleyways.
***
Ten minutes later and still no sign of Frees, Arista began to think she’d misjudged him. What if he actually left; said enough was enough and decided it was time for him to go and never come back? This would have been the perfect opportunity. Arista was trapped somewhere he couldn’t reach her. He was back in his own dimension, and he knew what he needed to do to free the machines. What if he went after Charlie all by himself? A final act to restore hope and balance to his people, paving the way for Arista and the others to take up where he left off.
Her stomach dropped and she felt like she might throw up. What if he was already dead? And she’d wasted all that time because she’d been too embarrassed to talk to him. She could smack herself for being so stupid. All she wanted was a few minutes with him now, to tell him how she felt and how sorry she was for not saying anything sooner. A new urgency bloomed within her and she picked up the pace, pushing past Jonn.
“Hey,” he said, as the refractor temporarily destabilized then regained its form. “What are you doing?”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Arista said. “We can’t afford to slow down.”
“I’m on a completely new leg here,” he replied. “Or did you forget already?”
“I agree,” Blu said, her footprints catching up with Arista’s. “The longer we leave him out here alone the more likely he is to get hurt.”
Jonn mumbled something under his breath but Arista chose to ignore it. Rather, it was better to focus her attention on the task ahead. Speeding along, she inspected every tiny turn-off, back garden space and delivery alcove they passed. But there was still no evidence of him. And the longer she looked the more frantic she became, her thoughts and worries invading her mind, building gruesome scenarios of what might have happened to him. If they didn’t find him soon, she might lose it.
“The gate is right up ahead,” Jonn said, keeping his voice low.
She recognized the area. This alley ran parallel to the side street she’d taken to circle back around to destroy one of the husks that had been shooting at them. They had to be out there somewhere, waiting.
“I’m stopping here,” Arista whispered. Blu’s footprints beside her came to a halt as well and Jonn came up behind her. “Anything?”
“I’ve got a few signatures that could be him,” he replied. “Or they could be husks. Its impossible to tell. But they’re out there.”
She stared at the gate, its surface dark. It didn’t look like it had been used in a while, which should have made her feel better but didn’t. All it meant was Frees hadn’t gotten to the gate and activated it. It didn’t mean he wasn’t dead.
“If I can draw them out and he’s out there too, he’ll know it’s us. But it means putting ourselves in front of another line of fire,” Jonn said.
“We have no idea what you’re walking into if you do that,” she replied, straining to see anything that might give them an idea of what they were up against. “They could take you down seconds after you get out there; it’s too big of a risk.”
“Then we need to leave,” Jonn said. “Because we can’t just stand here. We need to continue the search.”
Arista huffed, craning her neck up and staring at the sky. Jonn was right, they couldn’t stay here and wait for Frees to show up. They had to keep looking. As she stared up into the inky night, she noticed two of the stars were a distinct off-blue color. And very close to each other. She tilted her head to get a better look and that’s when the two stars rushed down at alarming speed.
Arista jumped aside in time to see the husk land not more than a foot from where she was, beside Jonn. He turned, startled but alert, and grabbed the husk by the face.
“You will not escape!” Charlie’s voice came from the machine as Jonn broke its neck and tossed the head in the opposite direction.
“We’re compromised!” Arista yelled, her refractor having dissipated by her jump. It was in the process of reconstituting itself when another husk appeared a
t the end of the alley. “Blu, stay hidden,” Arista said.
Blu’s refractor fell to reveal her with her interface in hand. “No way, these things are using an easily discernable wavelength, all we have to do…” she paused, hitting a button on the interface, “…is exploit it.” The husk at the end of the alley jerked its head as it walked toward them, glitching until it collapsed on the concrete. And there it continued to spasm.
Four more husks appeared behind the first one.
“Uhh,” Blu said, “I can only do one at a time.”
“Then we need to get out of here,” Arista said, turning and running out into the middle of the street, her refractor half-constituted. A husk landed right beside her. She placed her thumb and pinky finger together, then smashed the side of the husk’s face with her hand. It fell to the ground, lifeless. “C’mon,” she yelled. Blu followed but Jonn stayed in the alley, tearing the husks apart as they reached him.
“Jonn!” Arista yelled.
“You go! Get to Japan! I’ll hold them off!” he yelled back.
“But we haven’t found Frees yet,” she said. “We can’t leave with—”
Blu placed her hand on Arista’s arm. “We might have to.”
“Dammit,” Arista said under her breath, running to the gate with Blu right behind her. “I don’t even know if I can activate this thing, Frees had all the codes.” Jonn who’d made his way to the middle of the roundabout, managing to keep the husks at bay. She counted six of them now, but he seemed to be operating from a place of pure fury.
“Arista, focus!” Blu said.
She cursed herself and turned back to the gate, studying the controls on the side. What was that code Frees used when they came back from Japan? Something like O-seventy something?
“Need a hand?”
Arista glanced up to see Frees standing beside Blu, ragged but no worse for wear. Blu looked as shocked as she was at his sudden appearance. Where had he come from?
“You’re alive!” she said, grabbing on to him.
“What else?” he asked, losing his balance against her pull. She glanced down to see his right foot missing, having been replaced by a piece of bent pipe that acted like a peg.
“Frees, what…?”
“No time to explain, where are we going?”
“Back to Osaka. We need to talk to Mitsu and Takai. See if they can help us locate Charlie,” Blu said. “And Arista doesn’t know how to operate the gate.”
“Yeah, she’s never been very good at it,” Frees said, working the control panel. The gate lit up, the center swirling gray.
“I missed you too.” Arista smirked. “Are you okay?”
He finished inputting the coordinates. “I am now,” he replied.
A primal scream erupted from Jonn as he continued to hold the husks back from them. How he was doing it was beyond Arista, but somehow he wasn’t allowing them to pass.
“It’s ready,” Frees said.
“We can’t just leave him,” Blu replied, staring at Jonn fighting off the husks.
“I don’t think we have much choice,” Arista said. “We need to go before they overwhelm him.”
Frees stared at Jonn a moment, mentally fighting a battle with himself. “Dammit,” he said under his breath. “Hand me your weapon.” He held out his hand to Arista, pulling his own pistol out from his pants. “I’ll get him.”
“Wait, Frees,” she said, “we should just go. He’s not worth it.”
“I know he’s not. But I can’t lower myself to his level of depravity. He’d leave us. I won’t do the same.” He took her weapon. With one in each hand he held them out in front of him, firing off shots that clipped the husks’ heads. Jonn turned to see what was happening, relief spreading over half his face. He ducked down, giving Frees a better clearance and made his way back to him.
“You’re a lifesaver,” Jonn said, passing him.
“I didn’t do it for you,” Frees said, continuing to fire. “Now get through the gate.”
Blu stepped in first, disappearing into the gray. Jonn put one leg in. “Arista?”
“Not until he’s back here!” she said. “Frees, c’mon!”
Without Jonn the husks advanced. For every one Frees took down another two would take its place; it seemed Charlie had congregated them all on this place. “Go on, I’m right behind you,” he yelled over the gunfire.
Husks continued to fall until Arista saw one pull out one of the drill guns. “Frees!”
He took note of her warning and fired at exactly the right spot, causing the drill gun to explode and take off the head of its user. “I think that’s enough,” Frees said, backing toward her.
Arista took a breath, he was almost within arm’s reach.
A husk launched itself at Frees over the pile of bodies he’d left in his wake. His bullets clipped it, but never landed. Frees stepped back to let the husk fly past him. But Arista watched with horror as the pipe he’d attached to his leg failed and Frees fell backward, the husk plowing into him and both of them landing hard. It reached up with one hand and slammed it down into Frees’ chest, breaking through his exostructure and ripping out all the components it could hold. Frees gasped, letting go of one of the pistols and grabbing the husk’s head, crushing it in his hand.
“Frees!” Arista made a dash for him. Only she wasn’t moving. She looked back to see Jonn holding her by the arm.
Another husk launched itself over the pile, landing on Frees and continued to dig out his insides. He flailed against the husk, trying to knock it off but he’d grown too weak and he wasn’t moving like he was supposed to. Two more husks scaled the pile and set their sights on the gate. Frees craned his head back to look Arista in the eye even as the husk continued to dig.
“Go,” he mouthed as his eyes turned from orange to ashen gray.
Arista lost all sense of time and feeling as she was pulled into a fog and Frees’ body disappeared.
TWENTY-FIVE
A cacophony of sound exploded around her as Arista felt herself being pulled along.
“Where are they?”
“They’re going to grab her!”
“Don’t let them touch anything!”
The gray fog enveloped her and for a moment Arista thought she was dead. She had died and this was the transition to whatever afterlife humans had been trying to interpret for thousands of years. And yet she still felt the distinct impression of being pulled, no, dragged along. Not that it mattered. Her chest had cracked in two and everything she was had spilled out; leaving only a hollow emptiness.
“Do something!” someone yelled, someone familiar. Blu. She was close, but Arista didn’t want Blu to watch her die. She didn’t want anyone to watch. It was a private affair. She’d lived her life alone and her death should be no different.
“Take her, she’s in shock,” someone else yelled. A man this time. A voice she also recognized, but not the voice she wanted to hear. It was the voice of the pretender, of the betrayer, the one who’d professed to love her but had turned on her instead. Who had made her afraid.
Arista snapped awake, gaining her footing. She was still in the fog between gates, the only thing around her was a hand hooked under her arm, pulling her backward. She resisted, and the hand let go.
“Arista?”
She placed her thumb and pinkie together, the rage gathering inside her. It was his fault. If Frees hadn’t gone back for Jonn nothing would have happened. Arista wheeled around, intent on striking him, but there was no one there; she couldn’t see anything but the fog in front of her.
“Hurry!” Blu yelled, “They’re coming through.”
Arista slid her eyes left and right, still gathering her bearings. She needed to get out of the fog. If she was going to kill Jonn she wanted to see his face when she did it.
She pushed forward, the fog parting, then dissipating as she found herself back on the mag-lev tracks she and Frees had originally arrived on when they first came to Osaka. But this time it was diff
erent. This time there were no trains running on this track or any others. And the station a few hundred feet away was empty of any passengers. The only people who were close were Blu and Jonn, both standing off to the side of the rails on the access platform.
Jonn.
Arista gritted her teeth then bolted for him, intent on smashing his face in.
“Arista, wait. We have to close the gate!” Blu yelled but she paid no attention. If she could just get her hand on him, if she could just watch the life drain from his eyes it would fix everything. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Frees was gone and it was Jonn’s fault and she was going to restore balance to the universe.
Blu stepped in front of Jonn, blocking her way.
“Move!” she yelled.
“Close the gate,” Blu ordered. “Charlie is sending more husks through.”
Arista broke eye contact with her and glanced to the ground where one husk in construction overalls lay decapitated already. The gate behind him still swirled and pulsated with energy. If more husks came through then she could destroy all of them too. She could destroy everyone.
But no, that would just waste her energy. Her true target was Charlie. After Jonn. More husks coming through meant Blu would be in danger and she wasn’t going to lose anyone else. She’d already lost her parents and Frees; that was the end of it. No more.
Arista screamed in frustration, turned and ran back to the gate as the ghostly image of a husk began to emerge. She slapped her hand on the gate itself and the system died, slicing off a sliver of the husk’s face, hand and right leg as it tried to pass through the barrier. The parts of the husk clattered to the ground as the gate went dark.
She spun again, taking her time to get back to Jonn who only stood there, his half-face stretched in some kind of incredulous worry.
That’s right, he should be worried.