“What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know.” He doesn’t pull his eyes away from the hovercars and officers. “I can’t breathe. Everything is fuzzy.”
“Can you pull it together?”
“Yeah, I can.” He runs both hands over his face.
He notices the wet bandage and peels it from his head, dropping it to the ground. DNA evidence. We shouldn’t leave it here, but what does it matter? Rabbit’s DNA is all over Len. Their genetic material all mixed up. His saliva on her lips. I swallow at the hard snarl of grief building in my throat. Rabbit's in shock. So am I. But not all my instincts have fled.
“We can’t leave that here.” I poke him and pick up the bandage. “We’re fugitives now dummy. Everything is evidence. Everything we do leaves a trail.”
He says nothing in response, so I slide down the ravine to the river and toss the bandage in. He joins me at the shore.
“It’s safer to walk down here, out of their direct line of sight,” he says.
I shrug. I’m certain we’re leaving footprints behind us, but there’s nothing we can do about that. We can’t stealthily and quickly escape. We’re on foot. They have hovercrafts and thermal scanning and—oh shit, they have thermal scanning.
“Thermal scanning Santiago. They’ve got thermal scanners on the drones. And we’re crawling with RFIDs in these Academy clothes. We are so screwed.”
Rabbit surveys his clothes and our equipment in mute surprise, as if he’d never considered such a possibility before. Of course he hadn't. He never planned to escape.
“We’re not going to make it to Mexico. We’re not going to make it another 500 feet.”
“Walking in the river would keep our core body temperatures down.”
“But the cold and current might kill us.”
“Prothero’s gonna kill us. I’d rather be cold than—” his voice breaks and he stops moving to close his eyes—”dead.”
He stops to regain equilibrium. I stop with him. I need a little equilibrium too.
“We’re going in the water then?’
“Unless you have a better idea.”
I veer off towards the river and hoist my pack up onto my head like we learned in field exercises, then wade into the water up to my neck. Rabbit follows suit. The water is so cold it momentarily steals the breath from my lungs. That’s fine. There’s not much to say at the moment.
Ten minutes pass in silence as the current carries us away from the dead and back towards the base.
Rabbit interrupts the quiet.
“Hold up. The band's back on.”
“Oh god finally, I can’t feel my toes.” I breathe a sigh of relief as we head back to shore. I duck my head under the water before we hit the sand and feel the caress of the water pulling the blood and brains out of my hair. There were brains in my hair.
I toss my pack to the ground and flop my water-logged head down on it. Stones and scrubby grass patches poke my back and provide an uneven cushion, but since I'm numb with cold from the neck down, it hardly matters. Rabbit grabs the EMP gun, fires another round at his wrist, and our tech goes dark.
“We’re not moving fast enough,” he says, face set in a scowl. “The EMP is slowing us down. I’m slowing us down.”
It’s true. Our progress through the water is a struggling crawl and the nearest train station is an hour away on the other side of Fort Columbia. We’ll have to travel past a heavily fortified military base to make it to the very first stop on our destination. With an entire arsenal of soldiers who will be looking for Rabbit Santiago, because according to the registration on the plasma rifle—he killed Clinton Fuller. Then again, according to the prints and DNA evidence also on the rifle, so did I. I killed Clinton Fuller.
“What do you suggest?” I ask quietly. The thought of killing someone, even an asshole like Fuller, has a sobering effect.
It doesn’t seem possible, but Rabbit's scowl grows deeper.
“Nothing.” He climbs to his feet, dripping wet. “There’s nothing we can do about it. At least, not now.”
Huh. He might not be a super telekinetic wizard like Len, but maybe he has a kernel of intelligence rattling around inside his shaggy head.
“Back to the water,” I mutter.
The thought of dipping a single part of my body back in the freezing river makes the teeth in my head chatter. Rabbit doesn’t hear or at least pretends he doesn’t. The only option left is to suck it up. Within the first few minutes of re-entering the water, my teeth clack together uncontrollably. My lips might be turning blue. Everything is numb and I can’t even form words. It’s just so damned cold.
Our progress is painfully slow. Every fifteen minutes our tech resurfaces and Rabbit wipes them out of existence with the single pull of a trigger. The mood in our little party is sullen and soaked. Maybe it paints me out to be a terrible person, but at the moment the only thing driving me forward is the promise of a hot shower in one of the train Commons. And maybe a warm blanket to snuggle up in. It’s only half an hour away now.
I’m envisioning my numb fingers closing around a steaming mug of hot chocolate when the sound of dogs barking breaks the silence off to our left. They’re probably a few thousand feet away, but getting closer. It’s hard to tell if they could pick up our scent from each of our brief adventures out of the current.
“Oh god. We forgot about the dogs,” I whisper hoarsely. The icy waters have closed their fingers around my throat. It’s difficult to breathe, let alone speak.
“They won’t smell us out here,” Rabbit says, but his words are coated in doubt.
“You don’t sound so sure.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, hell. What do we do now?”
He stops and turns to look at me. At the same moment our bands thrum to life and throw dim splashes of light on our faces. His lips are dark and deep bags hang under his eyes.
“You look awful,” I say.
“So do you."
It’s my turn to scowl. “Let’s go back to shore.”
We make another foray onto dry ground and it’s only once my body leaves the life-draining tendrils of the Columbia that I realize I can’t force myself back in. We’re gonna have to take our chances on land. Rabbit does his EMP business—the light fades—and we lay on the gritty edge of the river gasping air into our defrosting lungs. I take the opportunity to glance around and realize we’ve reached the far edge of the base. A guard tower climbs into the sky several hundred yards ahead of us. The docks lay beyond that.
I nudge Rabbit and tilt my head towards the docks. The lights in the guard towers blink on, filling the night with a flood of white light. The illuminated circles sweep the river water in wide, arcing rotations. The sounds of the dogs and soldiers grow steadily closer. A siren peels through the muffled din, startling me. I grab onto Santiago’s shoulder and he glances over at me.
“It’s OK,” he whispers. This time he actually sounds reassuring. “This is standard procedure. They don't know where we are.”
“Standard procedure,” I echo in a dull, unhappy voice.
“Exactly.” He stands, catching my arm and dragging me up with him. His hand melts around mine. It’s warm—warmer than my own. He loops our fingers together and pulls me forward. It’s stumbling, fumbling progress over the earth.
“We’re a few steps ahead. We can make it,” Rabbit says.
We make a bit more progress on land and then the docks emerge into full view. There are guards posted at each tower. The towers climb up out of the water—enormous metal and stone structures supported by huge concrete pylons—leaving about twelve feet of gap between the current crest of the river and the docks.
Cargo containers sit piled up along the walk, between the base gate and the docks. They could provide some cover, but there's no way to bypass the electrified razor wire fence. Thermal scanners and security cameras are everywhere. This port is heavily fortified. There’s no easy passage through this part of the river.
“I'm waiting for another bright idea.”
“Back in the water. We have to swim under the docks. It's the only way to avoid the tech and guards.”
“I said a bright idea.”
“It’s our best shot. Doesn’t get any brighter.”
“Should we dump the packs? They'll sink us like stones and we've got a long way to swim. They are probably crawling with RFIDs and nano tech anyway.”
“I need to get something first."
He drops to his knees and unzips the pack. I do the same with mine. My stuffed dog, Toto is the only thing I can carry. He might get a little wet, but at least the drugs and stipend allotments inside him are sealed in a plastic baggie.
I glance over to see what precious cargo Rabbit unearths from Len's bag. There wasn't anything personal left of hers to pack, aside from her tin box. Sure enough, when I turn the hateful treasure is gripped tightly in his hands.
“Oh hell no.” I reach to pull it away from him.
He sweeps it out of my grasp and glowers at me.
“I'm not getting rid of this. Eleni died for this box.”
“She died because your best friend shot her but—you know—I guess that's a minor detail.”
“She died to protect the Contras. She died protecting us,” Rabbit says.
“She died because of what's in there. You really wanna drag that kind of burden around with you?”
He doesn’t respond. Instead, he grabs out a large baggy of rations from the pack, dumps out the contents, then stuffs the tin inside. It pulls against the sturdy plastic but Rabbit persists. He zips the ration bag closed and stuffs it up inside his shirt, tucking the shirt material down into his pants and wrapping his jacket around it.
“You're such an idiot. You look like such an idiot.”
“At least I’m not holding a stuffed animal.” He points at the fake terrier.
“This stuffed animal is gonna save our lives. More so than that sad bastard box of yours.” I poke his chest.
He bats my arm away, retreats to the water, and submerges himself. I grab my bag, feed it to the hungry churning mouth of the river and follow his lead. The water is thousands of tiny needles pricking my skin. My limbs are already exhausted, trembling with effort. I don't even want to imagine what kind of ridiculous figure I cut, splashing underneath the pillars.
I resurface once the comforting womb of the docks folds over us. We’re in the shadow of the structure and I can see the rust of the metal slats and cobwebs and all sorts of grimy dust that has lodged itself in every nook and cranny underneath the dock. Rabbit’s head bobs to the top of the water and his lips are dark again, the bags under his eyes deepened.
“Only five more to go,” I whisper, my voice echoing.
He nods and we roll under the water again—two flailing humans doing our best to avoid detection. I emerge two docks down the row and see Rabbit is already clearing the last dock.
“Jerk.” I surge down into the depths again, my whole body wracked with shivers.
My arms and legs are cramping up by the fifth dock and I can no longer hold my breath long enough to stay fully submerged. The icy waters push against my mouth, threatening to spill down my throat. We’re traveling west with the current, so this should be much easier than if we were fighting it, but I can’t seem to move faster than a snail crawl. I’m about to give up, lay flat on my back and let the tide carry me away when Rabbit’s steely fingers grasp mine. We’re directly underneath the last dock, out of the line of sight of any cameras or guards. He pulls me close to him and his icy lips brush against my ear.
“We’re gonna swim down past the curve. The dogs or the spotlights will catch us if we don’t. I’m hoping the cold and the water interferes with the signal cast by the band long enough for us to move on without being detected.”
I arch an eyebrow. “So you’ve never thought of escape huh?”
He Rabbit-scowls and then a small, tight smile flashes across his lips. “Maybe once.”
“Or twice.”
“You gonna be able to swim the whole way? It’s far.” Rabbit casts his eyes over to the curve. It must be at least half a mile. Twenty minutes or longer, with the way we’re moving.
“I was on the swim team in secondary,” I say. “Mostly diving, but I could do a decent 750 free.”
“Me too. I was a lifeguard in secondary.”
“Then let’s do this.” I take a deep, even breath, duck under the water and kick away from him.
We come up for little breaths of air roughly every minute, but I’m not keeping accurate time. It’s probably less, though I remember managing that much in swim meets. Sometimes I see Rabbit. Sometimes I don’t. Mostly I don’t because he’s either ahead or behind me. The tin box gives him more trouble than he cares to admit. He should dump it in the river. Let the current carry it away. Even with what seem like frequent breaks to the surface, my lungs burn. It’s been a couple years since I swam this hard and even with the rigorous National Service training, my body is not in this particular kind of shape. Swimming uses different muscles than running or climbing or jumping. My legs are doing alright, but my arms are giving out a little more with each stroke.
“Almost there,” Rabbit says the next time our heads bob up for oxygen.
I blow water out my nose and head back under. He’s right—we have less than a few thousand feet to go. I’m trying to keep an ear open for sounds of helos or dogs or drones but so far all those noises are far away. We’re on the opposite side of the base now and they wouldn’t be expecting us over here yet. They are probably still combing the fields and maybe searching into The Dalles. That would be a logical place for us to run. We probably confused them by running straight back at the base, instead of east.
A few more feet and I break through the murky brown water into the fresh air, gasping and shuddering. Rabbit emerges moments later, shaking water off his head and gazing around with stunned eyes.
“Geez, I’m out of shape,” he laughs, brushing a trembling hand through his hair.
We scoot towards the shore, letting the current carry us further downstream even though we’ve already crested the curve. The more distance we can gain the better. We finally stumble out of the water and collapse in a heap, nearly on top of each other. Steam billows off our bodies. Rabbit, despite his long submersion in the Columbia, is creepily warm.
We catch our breath and don’t speak for a full minute.
“You still got that stuffed animal?” he asks, panting.
I nod and hold Toto up.
“You still got that stupid tin?”
He nods and pats the exterior of his jacket.
“I’ve got another idea,” he says.
“I hope it’s better than the last one.”
“Much.” He rolls over onto his knees and shakes his body like a wet dog.
He unzips his jacket and flings it off to the side. Next he strips off his shirt and pants until he’s dripping wet in nothing but his underwear. Then, he sits cross-legged on the shore and clicks on his band. It thrums to life with a stutter. My own band freezes against my skin but I’m too numb from the low temperature of the water to feel anything but miserable and lethargic.
He taps a few buttons and enters a line of code. The band flashes and squawks with a horrible feedback, then produces a pleasant sounding chime.
“What did you do?” I ask, peering over at him.
“I re-synced my band. I should have done this before but I was too worried. I wanted to get past the base."
He rolls through more lines of code, tapping and squinting at the virtual read-out.
“Clarify that for me please?”
“I can’t deactivate the signal, but I can relocate it. I can confuse the triangulation systems and make it look as though the band is transmitting from another location. There’s just one problem—the only other time I’ve done this—I used the unique hardware code embedded in Clint’s band.”
I shrug. “So what?”
“That’s the signal I’m transmitting from now. They’re gonna know pretty quickly it’s false. Unless I can find another military band with the same frequency as ours—I’m not gonna be able to pull this stunt off. And there’s a limited range. We’ll be traveling out of it within oh, probably five miles or so,” Rabbit says, contemplating the tech.
“At any given time they will know our location within five miles? Is that what you’re telling me?” I ask.
“It’s better than the alternative. We need another EMP or something else to confuse the GPS but this will work. For now.”
“Whatever. As long as we’re not painting a bright red beacon on our tails, I don’t care.”
“We’re under the radar. For now.” A shudder rolls over his body.
“Here—take this jacket.” I shed my coat and hold it out to him. “It’s RFID free. I couldn’t have Prothero tracking me on my drug runs.”
He takes it with a nod and slips it over his shoulders, zipping his torso up and out of my sight.
“Speaking of drug runs—I can get us on the train. I have connections. Just let me do the talking," I say.
“Does anyone ever tell you to stop?”
“Nope.”
I unzip the stuffed dog and let the contents fall out onto the ground. The water hasn’t infiltrated the inner baggies, but the outer baggy is damp. I shake it out and retrieve a tiny vial of liquid Ecto.
“Is that—?” Rabbit asks.
“Yep.”
Our ticket to boarding the train.
Tin Road is now available on Amazon.
If you like Metal Heart and Tin Road, the final book in the Trilogy, Iron Curtain, will be available Spring 2021!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’ve always loved stories set in the future, because they highlighted the potential for human achievement and for things possibly “working out.” I’ve also always placed a lot of faith in humanity to ultimately do the right thing when it came to solving major issues that might bring about the ruination of the human race.
Metal Heart: Book 1: The Metal Heart Trilogy Page 30