by G J Ogden
“You just had to open your big mouth,” said Summer, after several seconds had elapsed without any further power fluctuations.
Ethan was about to protest, but Summer had moved away to collect her bow and quiver. Slinging both over her shoulder she turned to Yuna. “Tell it to us straight, Yuna, what are the odds of that power thing failing completely?”
“It’s bound to be a bit glitchy, it hasn’t been used for a long time,” Yuna answered, but then Summer cut across her with clinical sharpness.
“I don’t want optimistic guesses or wishful thinking. Worst case scenario, yes or no, will it hold?”
Yuna stared back down at the backup generator’s control panel, and then back to Summer. She sucked in her lips to wet them and then swallowed hard.
“No, it will not.”
Yuna’s answer seem to spark a fire in Summer and accelerate her thoughts and actions, while Ethan was still wiping sleep from his eyes. First, she turned to Gaia.
“How much of the serum have you managed to make?”
“Three samples. The fourth will be some minutes more.”
“Three will have to do. Give one to Page now; we may not have the opportunity later.”
There were more thuds and crashes, and Ethan ran to the door, peering through the small porthole window to check outside, catching glimpses of shapes moving and shadows flickering in the darkness.
“They’re inside the building. It won’t be long until they find us in here.”
Gaia grabbed a vial of the serum and slipped it into a protective metal canister. She ran this over to Page and handed it to him.
“Guard that with your life, young man.” Gaia fixed him with a penetrating stare.
Page slipped the canister into his webbing pouch and clipped it shut. “You can count on it.”
He turned to leave, but Gaia suddenly grabbed him by his shirt cuff, “Wait! I forgot something. Come with me, quickly!” She dragged him over to the workstation and took hold of his left forearm. “I need to upload the formula to your data device. Please, connect your terminal here, it will be simpler to upload it manually.”
Page did as Gaia instructed and waited as she operated the console and initiated the transfer. There was a heavy thud at the door and shouts from outside; nothing that was recognizable as words, but they were the utterances of beings that were still at least partly-human.
“Yuna, go with the hermit and get onto the roof. Go!” Summer called out and Yuna nodded and ran, though the hermit was already waiting for her. The old man ushered her through the partition first and then slipped in to the darkness after her.
Ethan and Summer backed away from the door, Summer drawing an arrow and nocking it in readiness. The lights flickered and the protective wall shimmered, alternating between translucent and opaque, at first too quickly to distinguish the two states as anything more than a blur, but then the transitions slowed, allowing a clear view to the corridor on the other side. Figures pressed their bodies to the glass, hammering with their fists. Ethan counted them… three, five… seven, before the lights stopped flickering and the wall again became opaque.
“How long, Gaia?” Summer shouted, as she reached the narrow opening in the partition with Ethan by her side.
“Done!” Gaia shouted, and then Page yanked the jacking cable out from the console and let it automatically whip back into its compartment on his PVSM, before drawing his sidearm, chambering a round and clicking off the safety. Gaia placed the other two samples in metal canisters matching the one she had given Page, slipped them into her black medical satchel and ran for the opening.
“Page, go with her,” Summer called out.
“But what about those things?”
“You need to get that serum back to your base, that’s all that matters now. Leave the roamers to us.”
Page vacillated, gritting his teeth, but then ran for the opening and slipped through.
The ceiling lights flickered and shut off; then the consoles shut down accompanied by a low, descending whine. What light remained was filtered through the outer window, blanketing the room in a cool, blue sheen. With the power gone the reinforcement to the wall that separated the lab from the corridor had failed and the hammering fists of the roamers outside suddenly became vibrant and distinct.
“Get ready!” Summer shouted then the glass shattered into thousands of tiny fragments and the roamers bolted inside.
Summer’s first arrow had sunk into a roamer’s chest even before the glass had hit the floor, and she had reloaded and shot again within seconds. But though Ethan had counted seven when he had glimpsed through the window earlier, there were now too many to count.
“We have to leave!” Ethan shouted as Summer sank another arrow into the face of a third roamer, and followed it a second later with an arrow deep into the throat of a fourth as it clambered over a desk towards them
“Summer, now!”
This time Summer did move, and Ethan followed grabbing the handle and heaving the sliding door shut, screaming at the top of his lungs as his muscles burned with the effort, but oily hands slipped through the gap, jamming it open. Ethan heard bone crunching as the door crushed into them, but dozens of bloodied fingers bent around the edge and pulled back, overpowering Ethan. He let go and ran, darting through the maze of right-angled passageways as the partition crashed open again behind him.
“Push them over!” he heard Summer shouting. “The racks, we have to collapse them!”
Ethan caught up with Summer and found her pushing against one of the tall metal shelving systems.
“I can’t move it, help me!” Summer yelled at him, her face red and knuckles white. Ethan could hear the roamers closing in, and reached up, placing his hands beside Summer’s.
“Push!” he cried.
Together, their combined strength began to overwhelm the fastenings that held the racking units in place. Screaming and roaring they pushed harder and then the rack gave way, tumbling forward and smashing into the next, causing a domino effect that sent the whole lot crashing down. Caught in the middle, they could hear the frenzied shouts of the roamers as the metal framework pressed down around them like a cage.
“It won’t hold them for long,” wheezed Ethan, breathing heavily and shaking his throbbing fingers, which felt like they were on fire.
“It will have to do. Come on!”
Ethan followed Summer around the final two bends and then up the mesh stairwell and through the door to the roof. Ethan slammed the solid metal door shut behind him.
“It bolts from the inside; how do we close it?!”
There was a rush of sound, and Ethan turned around to see Page, holding an object that appeared to be glowing with the heat of the sun.
“Get back, I’ll seal the door!”
Ethan and Summer backed away and let Page forward. Slowly and methodically, and with a hand that was far steadier than Ethan’s own at that point, Page used the device to melt together the seams of the door, turning it effectively into a single, solid sheet of metal. When he had finished, he shut off the device and backed away, breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his brow.
“It’s a rough seal, but it will at least buy you some time.”
The reactor of the UEC shuttle droned into life, building in volume and pitch as the power levels built up. Ashley jumped out of the hatch and ran to join them.
“The reactor is hot; we’re ready,” said Ashley.
From their vantage point on the roof, Page could see all around the rectangular laboratory building, and despite the darkening twilit sky, he could see shapes moving through the trees and along the shoreline. Then he spotted the crawler that Ethan and the others had arrived in, still parked beyond the overgrown woodland area bordering the shoreline; a woodland that seemed to be alive with movement.
“You should all come back with us,” said Page, realizing at that moment just how desperate the situation was for anyone who remained.
The hermit huffed. “Not l
ikely lad, a trip in that crawler contraption was bad enough.”
“But there are too many of them out there!” Page protested. “It’s too dangerous for you to stay here.”
Ashley shook her head. “Karl, we’re low on fuel; we barely have enough power to break us two back into orbit, let alone with any passengers.” Then she looked at Gaia and Yuna and each of the planetsiders in turn. “Besides, you can see it on their faces; they don’t want to leave.”
The hermit nodded. “This is our home, and its where we all belong. No damned monsters are going to chase us away.”
Page scowled and pulled Ethan off to one side. “Ethan, think about it. Kurren’s regime is gone, but so is a lot of our leadership. We could really use dependable, strong people like you. People of good conscience.”
Ethan considered his time on the moon base; in many ways it felt like a dream, but one that was so vivid and real that sometimes he could close his eyes and imagine himself back there. He envied how that small pocket of the pre-Fall civilization had a chance to start again, and part of him would have loved to help it grow and flourish into something better; but it was not his world.
“Thank you, Karl, but as the hermit said, our place is here,” said Ethan, placing a hand on Page’s shoulder, which already seemed to be weighed down by invisible forces. “Besides, if it’s dependable, strong people you want then you only need to look in a mirror.”
Page smiled and nodded, and then stretched out his hand; Ethan took it and they shook hands warmly.
“As you wish, Ethan. Stay safe, and good luck. I’ll try to bring the healing rain as soon as I can.”
“Same to you, Karl.” He released Page’s hand and half-turned to re-join the others, but he knew he’d left something unsaid, and had a nagging urge to speak his mind, in case there was not another opportunity.
“Tell Maria she did good,” Ethan said, keeping his voice hushed so only Page could hear. “Tell her to forgive herself, you know? I’m not really great with words for things like this.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell her,” said Page.
“And tell her I’ll be thinking about her, when I look up at the sky.”
Page’s eyes widened. “Sounds a little cheesy, but okay.” Both of them laughed.
“I’ll let you phrase it better then!” said Ethan, realizing it did sound corny. “But I think she’ll know what I mean.”
“Karl, we need to go… Reactor’s hot,” interrupted Ashley, with a restrained urgency.
The two men exchanged a final, respectful look and then Page ran back over to the UEC shuttle. Ethan looked the vessel over, and couldn’t help but notice the dents and scorch marks and scars that littered its wedge-like exterior. Ashley climbed back into the cockpit and, through the glass, Ethan could see her flipping switches and pressing panels, preparing the battle-worn vessel for another trip to the moon.
Page re-emerged from the hatch holding two small devices that were about the same size as knife handles. Ethan ran over to him, wondering what had brought him back outside.
“Karl, come on!” Ashley called out from inside the cockpit, but Page ignored her
“Quickly, take these,” said Page, handing the devices to Ethan. “They’re grenades; explosives. Last resort stuff, you understand?” Ethan nodded. “To arm them, you twist this ring and depress this plunger.” Ethan tried to follow Page’s hurried actions, but didn’t fully catch his instructions. “Then, you have five seconds to get the hell away from them, before they detonate, got it?”
Ethan nodded, despite not really understanding; there wasn’t time for a detailed lesson. Page drew his sidearm and offered it to him.
“Here, take this too. You need it more than I do now. I hope, anyway!”
Ethan shook his head and pushed the weapon back towards Page. “As Maria will tell you, I’m more of a danger than a help with one of these things.”
Page laughed. “Fair enough, have it your way, planetsider.” The roar of the engines rose to a level that made it difficult to hear. He looked back and saw Ashley urgently waving at him through the cockpit glass.
“I hope we meet again, Ethan,” Page yelled over the increasing roar of the shuttle’s engines.
Ethan nodded. “Me too. Now get the hell out of here, before she leaves without you!”
Page smiled and then ran back to the ship and disappeared through the hatch, which instantly hissed shut behind him.
The roar of the engines rose to a peak and Ethan and the others backed away to give the shuttle clearance to move off, but despite the added distance the resulting blast of pressurized air as the shuttle’s thrusters fired almost knocked him flat. He stumbled back and was caught by Summer; he glanced at her briefly, holding the two grenades gingerly as if they were fragile artifacts, and then watched as the shuttle climbed higher in a straight vertical ascent, before it roared forward and then almost immediately angled its nose towards the sky and accelerated rapidly. Within seconds it had all but vanished, taking on the appearance of the mysterious lights he used to watch from underneath his tree on the mound outside Forest Gate, except instead of falling towards the horizon, it streaked upwards to the stars.
“What do those things do?” asked Summer, after the roar of the engines had softened to an echo, reverberating through the air like distant thunder.
Ethan looked at the grenades and realized he had already forgotten everything Page had told him about their operation. He carefully placed them into the pouches attached to his weapons belt.
“I hope we never need to find out.”
Chapter 28
The dull thud of flesh hitting metal focused Ethan’s attention away from the wispy vapor trail – the only remaining evidence of the shuttle’s departure – back to the door that Page had sealed shut. Summer drew the knife that Ethan had given to her from its scabbard, flipped it over and held the handle out towards Ethan.
“You might need this.”
Ethan took the weapon and gripped it tightly, while Summer unslung her bow. Reaching back into the quiver she was suddenly acutely aware of how few arrows she had left, but she drew one and nocked it in readiness.
Ethan turned to Yuna and was about to ask her to cover the door, but noticed she was unarmed.
“Yuna, where’s your bolt-thrower?”
The question sparked a momentary panic as Yuna checked herself automatically, as if the absence of such a massive and heavy weapon was not obvious enough.
“I left it in lab!” Yuna cried, finally realizing what had happened. “The power failed, and everything happened so fast, I forgot to pick it up. I’m sorry!”
“Don’t worry,” Ethan shouted, as more fists pounded against the door, but he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince. “We need to get off this roof. If they break through the door, a knife and a bow won’t do us much good!”
“There!” said Yuna, pointing towards a small domed section of the otherwise flat roof, on the far side of the long, rectangular building, closer to where they had first entered. “That should be the facilities section, where the main power generator and other utilities are housed.”
“But what if they’ve already got inside there?” said Ethan, as the pounding grew more furious and the door began to bow outwards.
“It would be a restricted area; cordoned off from the main lab. No windows and hardened walls and doors.”
A corner of the door split open and a hand slid through, slicing flesh against the jagged edge of the torn metal.
“We don’t have a choice, go!” shouted Summer. “Ethan and I will cover you, but hurry.” Summer enjoyed a fight, but there were limits, even for her.
Yuna, Gaia and the hermit sprinted for the dome, while Ethan and Summer walked backwards towards it as fast as they could manage, while still keeping watch on the buckling door.
“Ethan, you should go too; by the time they get close enough for you to use that blade, it will be too late, anyway.”
“I’m not leaving you
to face them alone,” Ethan replied doggedly.
“I didn’t say leave me!” Summer shouted. “You hold the damned door open and wait till I get inside.”
The top quarter of the metal door had broken away from the frame and Ethan could see more hands grasping and pulling at the metal, and more bodies hammering against it, trying to break it down through sheer force of will and the power of flesh and bone.
“You’d better be there, or I’ll come back out here after you!” Ethan shouted, and then he gritted his teeth and ran hard for the dome.
The door creaked and groaned against the growing strain and then seconds later it collapsed and clattered across the coarse, black mineral coating on the roof. The first of the roamers charged through, fighting and struggling with one another to squeeze through the opening, giving Summer precious seconds to attack. She carefully aimed the first arrow low, sinking it into the closest roamer’s knee and causing it to fall and trip up the others who had followed its frenzied charge. Summer backpedaled and shot again, using the same tactic to create a barricade of roamer bodies, before turning and sprinting towards the dome to put some distance between her and the advancing horde. Ethan was almost at the door to the dome, but she could also see that Yuna had yet to get it open; she had to buy more time.
Summer stopped and turned suddenly, sliding back across the surface like an ice dancer and loosing a third arrow into the eye of the closest enemy. She fired again and again, landing arrows to the groin and face of the next nearest attackers, but there were at least a dozen more racing onto the rooftop behind them. She reached behind for another arrow but grasped only air. She was out.
“Damn it!” she cried out and then turned and sprinted again, faster and harder than she had ever run in her life, legs and lungs burning from the intense effort. Ahead of her, Yuna had finally managed to unlock the door and she and the others were piling inside; all except Ethan who waited, knife in hand. He was shouting, but she was unable to make out his words before a hard thump to the middle of her back sent her tumbling head over feet across the coarse surface of the roof, stripping skin from her arms and knees like sandpaper, until her body slammed against the dome and came to a sudden, painful stop. Dazed and disorientated, she pushed herself up as a roamer leveled a charge at her. Her bow had spiraled far out of reach and so instead she held up her hands to brace against the impact, but before the roamer could reach her, Ethan tackled it, simultaneously driving his knife into its gut and deflecting it away from Summer. The roamer careened away like a loose rock bouncing down the side of a hill, but Ethan also landed heavily, striking his head on the coarse, moss-covered surface.