Extensis Vitae: The Shattered Land

by Gregory Mattix

  “Movement one o’clock,” Anna whispered. “Oh, God, there’s two more of them, I think.”

  Reznik gritted his teeth. This wasn’t going to be pretty. As fast as the mutants were, he’d be lucky to take one of them out before the others could reach the truck.

  “I’ve got movement all around now,” Anna said in a shaky voice. “The other one is right ahead of you. That’s four of them so far. What do we do?”

  “The only thing we can do. Take them out,” he replied tersely. “See if you can shoot the one at twelve o’clock. I’m going for the one on the left. Wait until I shoot first, and then let the other one have it.”

  “Okay, I’ll try.”

  Reznik could see all the mutants now. They looked as though they were waiting to see what his group would do before they made a move. Reznik was happy to enlighten them with a barrage of lead. The .50 cal shattered the silence with its thunderous report. The mutant he was aiming at ducked down just as he opened fire. The rounds from the big gun pulverized the outcrop of rocks, creating a small avalanche down the hillside.

  The Tachibana barked behind him, and one of the other mutants staggered. And then they all charged, covering the ground in great leaps that made tracking them difficult. The one Reznik had shot at suddenly appeared and leaped off the hill. He fired again and clipped it in the shoulder, sending it into a spin. Its arm was blown off, and the mutant landed hard on the stones below. He put a few more rounds into it before whipping the .50 cal around to try to track the others.

  The three remaining mutants were nearly on the truck. Anna fired again but missed. Reznik tried to get a bead on them, but they were in too close.

  Suddenly, the night lit up as red bolts of energy began raining down in the space between the truck and the charging mutants. Reznik’s group and the mutants all froze in surprise. Thrusters roared, and a wave of heat buffeted the group on the truck.

  Reznik glanced up to see a ship hovering overhead, a large laser cannon mounted under the nose blasting the ground between them and the mutants. Blat blat blat blat. One of the creatures was dumb enough to try to resume its attack on the truck. It howled as the energy beams burned holes clean through it. The other two promptly fled into the night.

  “Everyone all right down there?” someone called out. “Sorry to cut it so close.” Marcus was standing on the lowering hatch, dressed in a bio-rad suit. The ship spun around and gently settled to the ground a short distance away.

  “Marcus! Boy, are we ever glad to see you!” Reznik found himself grinning foolishly. He hopped out of the truck bed and approached the ship. A couple grunts in Thorne uniforms deployed from the drop ship with pulse rifles ready. They took up positions a few yards away, scanning the night for any further sign of the mutants.

  Reznik clasped hands with Marcus as he stepped off the ship’s ramp. “Holy shit, that was a close one. How did you pull this off?” he asked with an admiring glance at the ship.

  Marcus grimaced. He wore a fresh uniform, and the wound on his head had been properly dressed. “Well, let’s just say Bethany won’t be pleased that I commandeered this ship.” He shrugged. “Oh well, I’ll have it back by dawn and deal with her then. Let’s get you guys loaded up and back to Planter’s Ridge, shall we?”

  Reznik gave his group the all clear, and everyone got out of the disabled truck and began filing up the ramp of the ship.

  Marcus’s eyes went wide when he saw the swollen bellies of the pregnant women. “Oh my,” was all he said.

  “Yeah, I was hoping you could give me your assessment of what this means,” Reznik said under his breath. Rin had walked up to join them, nodding her greeting to Marcus. “Nothing good will come out of it that I can see.”

  “I’m a bio-tech engineer, not a medical doctor,” Marcus said. He adjusted his helmet and looked thoughtful. “I could definitely give them an exam and see what I can find out—to satisfy my professional curiosity, even if I can’t be of much help. Between radiation sickness and whatever is growing in their wombs, I’m not optimistic.” He sighed. “I should have grabbed the medic, but Bethany would probably rip my remaining ear off if I brought any more personnel with. I think our best bet right now is to get them back to Planter’s Ridge and get them fed, cleaned up, and made comfortable.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Reznik removed what was left of his arsenal from the lockbox of the truck and joined the rest of them in the hold of the drop ship.

  “Take us up,” Marcus called to the pilot. The two grunts hopped back in as the hatch rose. The drop ship’s thrusters fired, and the ship lifted off smoothly into the night.

  Chapter 21

  The townspeople gathered outside the Planter’s Ridge inn, anxious to find out news of the women. Their friends and loved ones were allowed inside, while everyone else was stopped by Hank and Rhonda at the door. Reznik and Marcus had gone inside the inn to check on the women and meet with Hank and Rhonda. Anna and an old lady who apparently served as the town’s midwife examined the women in a back room.

  Rin sat outside across the street and away from the commotion. She wasn’t really interested in hearing the praise and thank-yous although somewhere deep inside, the goodwill she had earned felt good. She was even less interested in the mob of people anxious to chat her up and find out details of the rescue.

  The drop ship sat just outside the town’s wall. One of the Thorne skins stood watch impassively. Rin was waiting for Marcus to walk back to his ship so she could ask him about something on her mind.

  Dawn had yet to break, so Rin sat on the low stone wall sipping the cheap whiskey from her flask and watching the lightening sky. The space where the slavers had been chained outside the inn was empty. Hank had said they had been sent on their way, weaponless, and told they would be shot on sight if they were ever seen around Planter’s Ridge again. Rin thought it would be ironic if they were picked up by a rival gang and enslaved themselves.

  She could feel the familiar itching sensation as her nanites mended her injuries: the puncture wound in her trapezius muscle, the cut on her scalp, and the broken rib. The minor cuts and bruises were already gone. Her leathers would need a good washing and patching, but that was nothing new.

  A planet shone brightly low in the lightening sky. Orange rays were just beginning to burst over the horizon. I’ll be on my way again soon. My obligation to Reznik is almost complete, and then I can try to make things right. She wondered where Ayane was—if she was even still alive. The key was to find her niece, and then once she was free, events could play themselves out. Seijin would bring the might of the organization down on their enemies. Rin just had to find out where in the vast Thorne empire they held their important hostages. The traitor would need to be rooted out, but she had already mentioned as much to Seijin and hoped he would take care of that angle. And then there was vengeance. But that could wait, for as the saying went, it was a dish best served cold.

  Rin drew her katana and removed a cleaning cloth from a pocket. She worried at some bits of gore still caked on the blade, rubbing them off and polishing the alloy until it regained its fine sheen.

  The crunch of gravel underfoot drew her attention. The young woman, Abby, was making her way across the street toward her. She clutched a thin coat around her, as if to conceal the abomination growing in her belly.

  “Mind if I join you?” Abby asked.

  Rin shrugged, not really interested in conversation, but the young woman had had a tough enough time already, so she didn’t send her away.

  Abby smiled and sat on the low wall by her. She withdrew a crumpled pack of cigarettes from a pocket and lit one with a flick of her lighter. She inhaled deeply, tilted her head back, and blew a long stream of smoke into the air.

  After a few moments of silence, Rin finally asked, “How did you manage to get past the mob?”

  “Snuck out the back door,” Abby said with a grin. “I can’t take the attention of those mother hens any more. It could have been worse: we only got kid
napped, raped, irradiated, and forced to drink that infected water. But at least we weren’t starved. They fed us roasted pork every couple days.”

  Rin looked over with raised eyebrows and saw that Abby was being sarcastic. She put on a brave front, but Rin could see the pain beneath her bravado. At least she tries to keep her sense of humor about the whole thing.

  “Are you sure smoking is the best thing in your condition?” Rin looked askance at her, a slight smile on her face.

  Abby spat into the dirt. “Like I could give a damn about whatever kind of monster is growing in my belly. I told them I wanted it aborted, but they said it was such a late term that it would be too great of a risk to my health. Stupid bitches.” She scowled. “I don’t want to give birth to one of those… things. I can feel it kicking in there sometimes…” She shuddered and took a long drag on the cigarette.

  “You were only taken, what, a week ago?” Abby nodded. “And you already look nine months pregnant. How do they know you won’t rupture if your term goes on for weeks or months?”

  Abby paled visibly. “God forbid that. I just assumed those things grew super fast or whatever.”

  Rin felt pity for the girl. “I have no way of knowing; I was just thinking out loud.”

  “Please, will you help me?”

  “Help you how?”

  “Cut this thing out of me. I know you are good with your sword. I don’t think I can do something like that to myself. As a woman, you should understand what I’m going through.” Her eyes were pleading.

  Rin let her breath out slowly. “Don’t ask me to do this. There has to be another way.”

  “Like what? I’d rather kill myself than bring another one of those monsters into the world.”

  “Will nobody else take your side? There has to be somebody else you can ask for help. What about your uncle? Maybe he or his people would know what to do.”

  “I thought about that. He would most likely just tell me to suck it up and strangle the damn thing after I pushed it out. There’s not anyone else I’m very close to around here—I pretty much have been looking after myself since my father died over a year ago. A couple of my friends were killed when those monsters attacked. There was a boy I kinda liked, but he was killed in the attack also.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “Isaac was a hero… if he hadn’t sounded the alarm, the whole town would probably have been slaughtered and every single woman carried off.” She dabbed at her wet eyes.

  Rin let her talk, and when she wound down, the hard, nasty part of her wanted to tell the girl to piss off and go cry on someone else’s shoulder. Since when am I the person to give anyone any kind of sound advice? But she held her tongue—perhaps because Abby reminded Rin a little of herself when she was younger. “I think you should hold off a bit and see what the others decide to do. Maybe they will come to their senses and change their minds or figure something else out, okay?”

  Abby gave her a sad smile. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good idea.”

  Just then, Marcus came out of the inn across the street, talking to Reznik. They walked over to the wall and shook hands, and then Marcus slipped through the fence and started walking back to his ship.

  Rin got to her feet and sheathed the katana. “I’ll talk to you later, Abby. Right now, I have to catch Marcus before he leaves.” Abby nodded silently and took another drag on her cigarette. Rin jogged after Marcus.

  ***

  Marcus’s mind was racing as he thought about the implications of the women’s pregnancies. They had only been impregnated for a week at most and looked ready to burst already. The metabolic attributes of these creatures are amazing. It translates to a greatly accelerated gestation period as well. He had seen how deadly the creatures were. If these things were allowed to breed unchecked, they could overrun the wasteland within a year or two. His recommendation would be to exterminate the lair and try to eradicate the alien organism in the process. But what to do about these hybrid fetuses the women have in their wombs? The obvious answer was to abort them before childbirth, which he had recommended to the townsfolk, but some of them were adamant that they shouldn’t, due to the women’s frail health and the late-term pregnancies. He wondered what their reactions would be when they birthed abominations. Maybe I can get a hold of one of the fetuses to take back to study. Barbosa would probably be ecstatic if I brought a hybrid fetus back along with the adult specimen.

  “Marcus, could I have a quick word?” A woman’s throaty voice interrupted his thoughts.

  He turned to see Rin jogging toward him. He was surprised since the woman had never showed any interest in talking to him before and only rarely spoke at all.

  “Oh hi, Rin,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

  Rin glanced pointedly at the skin standing at the top of the ramp.

  “Would you excuse us for a minute?” Marcus asked the grunt. The man nodded curtly and went back inside the drop ship.

  “Marcus, I am in a bit of a bind, and was wondering if you could point me in the right direction.” She paused as if unsure of the best way to ask. “A friend of mine was abducted, arrested, or whatever you want to call it, by what we suspect were soldiers operating for Thorne Industries,” she said bluntly. “Any idea where political prisoners are held or what type of bureaucratic process one would need to go through to gain their freedom?”

  Marcus was surprised. He had assumed Rin was just some wandering wasteland warrior, not somebody with connections to people that CorpSec would take a personal interest in. “I’m sorry to hear that about your friend. I’m just a researcher and don’t really deal with the CorpSec side of the house. I could ask Bethany—she would know. Although, she might not tell me. She never discusses any of those security matters with me, but I’d be happy to inquire.”

  “Oh, no, that’s no problem,” Rin said a little too quickly.

  He wasn’t sure what the change in her facial expression was. Apprehension, maybe? He wondered if she somehow knew Bethany and wanted to avoid getting her involved. Knows her by her reputation, most likely.

  “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. If you ever do happen to come across her, could you please let me know? Her name is Ayane. She’s a twenty-six-year-old Asian female, and she may have developed a handicap. I doubt there’s a lot of political prisoners matching that description.” Rin smiled, but Marcus thought it was forced.

  “Sure, I’ll let you know if I come across anybody matching that description. I can leave you a message if you aren’t on the network… service is pretty spotty in the wasteland.”

  Rin thanked him and walked back to the town. Marcus watched her for a moment as she slipped back inside the wall. He wondered who Rin really was and why she was concerned with political prisoners. He also wondered why CorpSec would seize and imprison a twenty-six-year-old handicapped woman.

  Marcus looked at his HUD and cursed when he realized what time it was. He told the pilot to take them back to Outpost Echo. Bethany was going to be very pissed off about his late-night excursion.

  ***

  A scream from outside the inn interrupted Reznik’s meal of stew, fresh-baked bread, and flat beer. His hand went instinctively to the butt of the revolver on his hip. Rin, Hank, Rhonda, and Anna had all frozen at their meals as well, and everyone’s eyes went to the door. A few seconds later, it burst open.

  “Anna! Where’s Anna?” a portly gray-haired woman shrieked as she looked around in panic.

  “I’m over here. What is it, Margaret?” Anna asked, laying her spoon calmly on her plate.

  “Oh my God, it’s Abigail! She… she…” Margaret’s mouth opened and closed a couple times as she fought for the right words. Her face was pale with shock.

  Rin surprised Reznik by rushing over to the woman. She shook her gently by the shoulders. “Focus,” she snapped at Margaret. “What about Abby?”

  “She took a knife to her belly!” Margaret finally blurted out. She started bawling, and Rin guided her over to a chair.

&nbs
p; “Where is she now?” Rin asked. Anna, Hank, and Rhonda stood up and crowded around Margaret.

  “One of the girls found her in the bathhouse. She’s over at the store now… you have to hurry.”

  Reznik looked at the remains of his meal and suddenly lost his appetite. A sense of foreboding stole over his thoughts. That’s just the first one—there are thirteen more of them that might do this, he thought grimly. Would the worse outcome be to take their own lives or to give birth to those monsters?

  He followed the group across the street and into the tiny general store. He thought the townspeople were foolish for encouraging the women to carry their pregnancies to full term, and he wondered what the reactions would be when they saw what they gave birth to.

  Abby’s face was pale and sweaty, and her clothes were soaked in blood. She was lying down on a shabby cot next to a row of shelves filled with camping equipment. Two other women were holding her down and looked relieved when the group entered the store. Reznik winced when he saw the butcher knife sticking out of Abby’s belly.

  “Aw, Jesus, Abby… why?” Hank’s mouth sagged open and he stood aghast.

  A trail of blood led from the back door of the store to the cot. Anna shoved past Hank and knelt down to examine Abby. Reznik already knew it wouldn’t be good. Anna gently pulled the clothes away from the wound and shook her head sadly. The room was as silent as a funeral parlor.

  “I couldn’t go through with it,” Abby whispered. “It’s better this way.” Her eyes sought out Rin. A tear leaked from her eye.

  Rin surprised Reznik again when she went and knelt down by Abby. She said something quietly to Abby, and the girl just shrugged weakly. Abby raised her trembling hand and motioned for Rin to lean down. She whispered something in Rin’s ear. Rin nodded silently and held her hand as the spark of life faded from Abby’s eyes.