by Liam Clay
And now, the Eater responds. Its front cannon belches a yellow orb high into the air. I watch with dread and fascination as it arcs upward, plummets down, and detonates five meters to our left. A pulse of light encompasses the GTV... and I fall off my chair. Every muscle in my body is spasming: eyelids fluttering, biceps tensing, legs flailing like a scorpion-stung mouse. Little by little, I regain the use of my limbs, until I'm able to stand. But if a miss can do that much damage to my nervous system, what will a direct hit do?
“Hey Lucy!”
“Avoid the orbs, I know!”
I climb back into my chair. But this time, I aim for the cannons. My first shot goes wide, but the second paints the Eater’s rear platform in vivid green. The gunner there jumps to his feet, clutching at his helmet. Peace is in the next alcove over. She fires her 5cm, and the man’s head is blown clean off.
An orb overshoots us and explodes directly in our path. The GTV absorbs most of the pulse, and I only lose control for a second. But Lucy must have caught it full in the face, because we veer hard to the right. Our wheels tear into a dune, and we start to climb at a severe angle. All I can do is keep firing at the Eater, which is closing fast now. I take out another cannon, but then an orb lands right on our roof. My extremities catch fire, from my toes to my balls to my earlobes. Then someone - I think it might be Ryo - screams, “Hold on!” from the cockpit. I feel our wheels turn, and now we’re screaming straight back down the dune. All I can see is sky. Then we hit something, so violently that my chair breaks free of its cradle and falls right out of the alcove.
I land face down on our bedroom door. My whole body hurts, but what else is new? Crawling out from under my chair, I encounter Peace doing the same thing. The GTV’s nose must be buried in the sand, because the hallway is tilted at a crazy angle. We travel to the cockpit without a word, collecting squad members as we go. There’s no time to don armor, so we make up for it by grabbing a shit-ton of guns. It’s me, Peace, Tikal, Delez and Ryo. I’m not sure where the others are; the GTV is a mess of overturned gear, and they could be lying under any of it. Thirty seconds after impact, we're pounding down the ramp and onto the sand.
The GTV has rammed the Eater. I mean fully broadsided it, like fucking T-boned the thing. Parts of the enemy vehicle are on fire, while others are being eaten by green mist. A jagged hole has opened in its side. We climb through. This must be where the welders melt down their salvaged goods for transport. Huge vats occupy one side of the space, and the other is stacked high with malformed ingots of dark metal. It’s even hotter here than in the Worldpool Jungle.
In some circumstances, it makes sense to bellow as you charge an enemy. But this is not one of them. Rather than curdling our blood, the welder’s vocalwork gives us enough warning to spill his all over the floor. We examine the corpse. His red coveralls have no military application whatsoever; these people must not be used to prey that fights back. An ovular corridor takes us further up the Eater’s spine. Blast doors break it at intervals. These should be shut tight as a drum, but the vehicle’s wiring must be fried, because they are opening and closing spasmodically.
We're almost to the centipede's head when the shooting starts. Taking cover behind one of the blast doors, I return in kind. But the fucking things keep sliding open, leaving us exposed for century-long seconds of time. Then Ryo gets hit. He is crouched right beside me, and so I hear the bullet shatter his collarbone. Shielding the boy's body with mine, I lay him down against the curved wall. He’s still conscious, but his eyes are rolled back and pink froth coats his lips. There is nothing I can do for him here. We need to end this right now.
I start by creating a holographic giant of a man, unarmored except for a massive shield. Then I send him running down the corridor, slotting in behind the shield myself. The welders are hiding behind the cockpit's doorframe. They concentrate their fire on the behemoth, avoiding his defensive device. When he doesn't fall or even slow down, their rate of fire escalates dramatically. And then drops off as he disappears. I'm fetched up against our side of the doorframe now. Pulling out a grenade, I pull the pin and wait.
With a second to go, I toss it through the doorway and jump back. A red storm sprays the corridor, and then I'm inside the cockpit. There are two welders to my immediate right. I hit one in the face with my rifle, and shoot the second through the chest. The kickback throws me into the arms of a small man with a pencil moustache. He squeals and retreats to the pilot's seat. And now my squadmates are here, lashing the remaining welders with automatic fire. Thinking myself safe, I turn away from the carnage... just as the small man pulls a gun from a compartment in the pilot's chair.
I shift to the side - too late. The bullet bites into my left oblique muscle and I hit the wall, rifle slipping from numbed hands. Tikal shrieks with wordless rage, and fires on the man until nothing remains of him. His death isn't enough for her, but there are no others left to kill. My legs give out, and I slide down into a seated position. Things go hazy.
.
“...always knew he was different. But this? You can practically see the wound knitting back together. And those strands there. Are his bones reinforced with epoxy or something?”
“I doubt he knows. Amy would have, though.”
I’m splayed out on a bench in the GTV's cockpit. Turning my head, I see Ryo lying across from me.
“Look, he's awake.” Delez's face comes level with mine. “Anex, can you hear me?”
“How's Ryo?” I whisper.
“Rajani has stopped the bleeding, but his collarbone is messed up pretty bad. She wants to operate.”
“Can't the nanovax fix it?”
“That stuff isn't a total miracle cure. It will stave off infection, but it can't set bones or mend them. What about you, though. How are you feeling?”
“It's weird for you, isn't it? Seeing proof that I'm a lab experiment.”
He grimaces. “Am I that obvious? Guess my bedside manner could use some work.”
“It's okay, Delez. I know what I am.” Then I consider his comment about my epoxied bones. “More or less, anyway. Come on, help me up.”
“Not a fucking chance, buddy. You just got shot. You're not going anywhere for a while yet.”
“But I only wanted to sit up!”
“My ass, you did. Now quit squirming. If the bleeding starts again, Rajani will have to leave Ryo to help you. He could die.”
“Wow. Low blow, man.”
But I follow his orders, and it does feel good to just lie there. The pain in my stomach is no more than a dull throb; the Medgician must have dosed me with something. What a strange juxtaposition she is: half arms dealer, half healer. I wonder which profession she puts on her tax returns.
“Are we in the clear?” I ask.
“As far as we can tell. The crash site is a hundred clicks back, and no one has come after us yet.”
“And the GTV?”
“Is pretty smashed up, just like the people inside it. She should get us back to the Thresh though, which is all that matters right now. But we got lucky. Lucy could ram a hundred more Eaters like that and never get it right again.”
Then Ryo groans, and the Fractal excuses himself. A few minutes later, Tikal replaces him.
“How are you feeling?” She asks. Strangely, her mouth is turned up in a smile.
“Not too bad, all things considered. You’re almost glowing, though. I'd get shot more often if I knew you liked it so much.”
She reaches down to touch my cheek. “Sorry. It's just that... when you got hit and I thought you might die, I lost my mind a little.”
“I saw.”
“Oh. I was hoping you didn't. But my point is, I haven't felt that kind of anger and grief since my father died.”
“You've never even mentioned him before.”
“I know. There are a lot of things I've never told you. But maybe I'm ready too, now. What I felt back there couldn't have been residue from the link. I refuse to believe it. And if you die, I d
on't want to regret keeping you at arm's length.”
I take her by the hand. “I’m with you. Once we cure the Afflicted and take Rajani to Medival, our work out here will be done. We can retire from this fucked up life we've created, and have a go at being normal people. What do you think?”
She smiles. “I think you've just doomed us both. One last job before retirement? We're going to die for sure now.”
“Shit, you're right. No retirement, then. We can become security consultants instead. Charge exorbitant prices just to make a few software recommendations, stuff like that.”
“Sounds good to me. What would we call it?”
“Something boring. That way if we do a bad job, there's a chance the client won't remember who they hired.”
“I don't think anyone is going to forget who you are, Anex. Or me.” She adds as an afterthought.
“That's true. Speaking of which, my feed will definitely not be a part of our new life.”
“But what would your viewers do without you?”
“Once people see how dull my life is becoming, they'll lose interest pretty quick. It might actually be fun to keep it live, just to watch my ratings drop off with every day we don't kill anyone. Nobody wants to watch me eat toast every morning, or try to get stains out of my new cardigan.”
“Hmm. I don't really want to watch that, either. Do we have to become total lames?”
“I suppose there must be a happy medium. Maybe we could take up an extreme sport. Base jumping from the Aviary, or something like that.”
Our conversation drifts from there, following no particular path. We used to fall back on sex when the words ran dry. Which they did a lot, because there were so many out-of-bounds topics. The past and the future, fears and plans, ex-lovers and family. But somehow, having the serious stuff on the table frees us up to talk about unimportant things, and to just have fun with each other. My side eventually starts to hurt, though. Tikal gives me some pain killers, and then she leaves me to rest.
CHAPTER 21
If the GTV holds up, we should reach the Thresh by the day after tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how Tesla reacts when we do. The headwoman must have thought we were out of her hair for good. I doubt she would go so far as to sabotage the uninstall process, but I can definitely see her refusing to let Den back into the family. I would be happy for the artist to stay with us permanently, but she deserves to be with her people.
By nightfall, we have reached the desert's edge. Which is great, because the novelty has definitely worn off. If I never have to clean sand out of my ears again, it will be too soon. I move back to my bunk, and various people stop in to see me. Rajani, to check on my wound; Den, to thank me for helping Ryo when he got shot; Tikal, to open up about her pilot father (who sounds like he was almost as badass as she is). Francis pays a visit as well, and we spend some time convincing each other that Amy is going to be okay. Everyone leaves relatively satisfied - until Peace darkens my doorstep.
“I have to talk to you.” She says, shutting the door behind her.
“No problems there. That's about all I can do right now.”
“But at least you are talking. With Tikal, I mean. Me and Delez aren't. I mean, we are. But not about the stuff we need to be.”
“Stuff like what?”
“Like about moving in together, and whether that's actually what I want.”
“But the link is gone now.”
“That's not what I'm worried about. Everything is just happening really fast, you know? I'm not sure if you've noticed, but it's fucking dangerous out here. And it feels like every time we survive another battle, one of us makes a declaration of love in the moment. Moving in was just the latest one. So I'm wondering how you and Tikal are handling it.”
“Good question. I think we're dealing with the same issue you are. When you expect to die at any second, you tend to blurt some shit out. But I think we might have turned a corner yesterday.”
“How?”
“By talking about the future. After the fighting is over, when we can build something resembling a normal life.”
“After the fighting is over.” She repeats, rolling the words around on her tongue. “I'm not sure that’s going to work for me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I'm a murderer, Anex.”
“We all are.”
“Not like I am. Tikal was a soldier. You and Delez fought turf wars in the Underworld. All of you killed, yes. But the people you were up against chose that life, too. They knew what they were getting into. Whereas I was a serial killer.”
“You were being manipulated by the Australians. And besides, all those people watched your parents die and did nothing.”
“That didn’t make it okay to shoot them in the head. Do you know that I had other chances to escape the mines? But I never took them, because I felt like that was where I belonged. On the dark edge of civilization. And the same goes for the Hive. I thought we would be in survival mode there - in a place that would make what I am necessary. But put me in a functioning society? I don't know, man. I'm afraid the demons will start to claw their way back out.”
“Jesus, Peace. I never knew you felt this way. Is this the real reason you don't want to move in with Delez? Because you don't think you deserve it?”
“I know I don't deserve it.” Leaning against the wall, she runs slim hands through her electric blonde hair. “And he wants kids! That is too much.”
I have no idea what to tell her. Peace and I have toppled a government, and saved an entire world from a would-be tyrant. And when you do shit like that, there's a tendency to think that your personal life will become easy to manage by comparison. But that's not how it works. So I just hold out my arms. She looks at me like I've lost my mind - and then rushes over to give me a hug.
“We're quite the group, huh?” I say into her neck. “I don't know how the others put up with us. Den, Ryo, Jinx and Rajani, I mean.”
She pulls back.
“I've been meaning to talk to someone about that. Those kids deserve a better home than we can give them. Jinx too. So we need to get them accepted back into the Thresh while we're there.”
“And if Tesla refuses?”
“Then we fucking depose the bitch.”
.
We reach the terminus gate an hour before sundown on the second day. I'm not sure which entrance it is, and I don't much care. We made it, and with the Silencers intact - nothing else matters. So much work for ten rings of liquid steel. But those rings could save an entire society. Or what's left of it.
This time, we open the gate and drive the GTV right through. This terminus town isn't the same one we visited last time, but the differences are negligible. Antique storefronts frame a dirt road leading to an old-world train station. We see no people.
Delez is behind the wheel. He drives down the street, around the station and onto the tracks beyond. We all remember getting blown off the rails here last time, but the GTV isn't up for mowing down the fences between fields. The engine keeps over-revving, and its left side cameras are all down. As for the Thresh, not much has changed except the smell. All those unpicked crops have melted down into a ground-hugging sludge, and the resulting miasma is literally visible, it's so pungent. It hovers over the fields like a monster from a horror movie, daring anyone to enter its domain.
We discussed making the Mezareen ranch our first stop, but decided against it. Every Afflicted we cure will shift the power balance in the Thresh, and by the time Tesla knows we're here, she could already have become irrelevant. And so at Jinx's suggestion, we are heading to the Hub to look for Todd.
Meanwhile, Rajani has just operated on Ryo. The procedure went well, and she says that he should make a full recovery. This puts us all in good spirits. But our mood takes a hit when we reach the living wall that surrounds the Hub. There is no way the GTV is fitting between those hedges. And so the next morning, we are forced to abandon it yet again. Rajani offers to stay back wit
h Ryo. Den does too, but we convince her that she will be needed if we encounter Tesla. There is talk of leaving me behind as well, but I refuse to let that happen. The Medgician doesn't press the point; either she doesn't consider me a health risk anymore, or she doesn't care if I keel over. As we prepare to enter the maze, Lucy pats the GTV's side.
“Never thought I would miss something that is such an obvious compensation for a small penis.”
Tikal laughs. “Whoever designed it probably has stuffed animal heads and an industrial strength barbecue in their house. But anything that can chop a giant armored centipede in half is okay by me.”
We set out. I am using a piece of heavy-duty plastic piping as a crutch. It helps, as do the meds Rajani gave me ten minutes ago. I've got more pills in my pocket as well. Me and drugs don't have a great history, but the pain still has a sharp edge to it, and I'm not ready to go off them just yet. The hedges close in. I didn't like this place the first time we were here, and the sentiment has not changed. What I wouldn't do for one of those Mezareen ATVs. But luck is with us, and we find a path through fairly quickly.
The destruction on the far side is as complete as I remember it. The Spoke looks down on it all, and I have to fight the urge to hide. No one is up there to bomb us this time (I hope). Jinx is a bundle of nerves, and I can't blame him. He is so close to righting some of the wrong that he caused here. But no one has been cured yet, and there is still a lot that could go badly.
“Where do you think Todd and the other Afflicted will be?” Den asks him.
“I'm not sure. Let's start by checking the mosque.”
“Didn't it get blown up?”
“Yes, but it wouldn't have been easy, getting the really sick ones to move. So they might still be there.”