(Flipside 02) The Savageside [A]

by Jake Bible

  Ivy’s team complied and weapons were dropped. They put their hands behind their heads and did not move after that.”

  “Single-file line!” the voice ordered. “Walk to the gate and wait there for instructions! Move other than that and you will be shot!”

  Ivy’s team complied and the waiting for what was going to happen began.

  ***

  The rollers were hidden as well as they could be. If any inquisitive Russian decided to have a good, long look through a pair of binoculars, then they’d probably notice a couple of weird humps of grass out in the plains. But Cash was fairly certain that wouldn’t happen.

  He hoped it wouldn’t, at least. They were moving into completely uncharted territory for the first time in a long while. No future hints from future friends to help them achieve their goals. It was good old do or die.

  “There she is,” an operator said and Cash looked at where the woman was pointing.

  Olivia was crouch-walking through the grass, headed straight for them.

  “My turn to go,” Cash said. “You know when to move?”

  “Yes, sir,” the operator said.

  “Then it’s your call,” Cash said. “I’ll join you at the base as soon as I’m done with Olivia.”

  “Good luck, sir,” the operator said. “If we’re wrong about the bubble—”

  “We aren’t,” Cash said. “Good luck. Stay alive.”

  “Copy that, sir,” the operator said as Cash got out of the roller, crawled along under the camouflage mesh that lay over the vehicles.

  Cash waited for Olivia to reach him then he gestured for her to follow.

  They both crouched their way back up over a small hill and down the other side. Once out of Flipside BOP’s line of sight, Olivia stood up and so did Cash.

  “Where are we going?” Olivia asked, glancing back over her shoulder.

  “I’m taking you where you need to go,” Cash said. The tone in his voice made Olivia give him a sideways look. “Sorry. It’s not going to be fun for you. Not at all.”

  Cash handed her his rifle, his pack, and the spare magazines from his belt.

  “What is this for?” Olivia asked. She didn’t argue, and took the items, but she gave Cash a look of confusion that bordered on suspicion. “Tre? Where am I going?”

  “There’s a comms unit in the front pocket of the pack,” Cash said. “You know what? Hold on.”

  They stopped and he grabbed the unit, holding the small ear piece out to Olivia.

  “Put this in. When you get to the other side, you may not have time, so best you do it now,” Cash said. “In fact, I pretty much know you won’t have time. Rifle up and at the ready. Head for the diner. Once you are close enough, either Brain or Lakshmi will contact you. Could be a random operator, but I doubt it. Brain seems to know you’re coming.”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” Olivia said. “The diner? You mean the diner I used to work at?”

  “Yes,” Cash said. “You’ll understand once you’re over the other side.”

  “Tre…”

  “Trust me. Please.”

  “I do trust you. I’m just fucking confused.”

  “Welcome to the new reality. I think Brain is the only one of us not confused and he seems out of his AI mind half the time. You’ll see.”

  “You keep saying that.”

  “Because it’s true. And it’s the only answer I have for you.”

  They crested one more small hill and Olivia nearly dropped the rifle. Half a kilometer away was the border of a shimmering bubble. Inside was a landscape made of fire and lava and nightmares. Inside the nightmare were landmarks that anyone that had spent time in the small town of Fossil Park would recognize.

  “Is that my old apartment complex?” Olivia asked. “I thought it had all been chopped to bits.”

  “It was. Then reassembled. Then chopped again. Until Brain got back Topside and stabilized things,” Cash said.

  “You call that stabilized?” Olivia snapped as she watched a flock of giant wingers circle over what had once been her home. “That is not stable, Tre.”

  “Rifle up and at the ready,” Cash said and patted the weapon.

  Olivia complied and put the rifle to her shoulder.

  “When you cross over, the bubble will collapse,” he said. “Keep going. Head for the diner. Kill anything that goes after you. Do whatever Brain or Lakshmi tell you to do. Never stop moving. That’s how you survive.”

  “How do you know?” Olivia asked.

  “Because you told me,” Cash said. “You told me how you survived.”

  “I—what…? Fuck you,” Olivia said.

  “You’ll see,” Cash said and laughed. “Sorry. It does get annoying.”

  Cash squeezed her shoulder.

  “I’ll see you in a couple years or so,” Cash said. “But it won’t be me. It’ll be earlier me. You’ll get to say you’ll see to me over and over, if that makes you feel better.”

  “It doesn’t,” Olivia said.

  “I know.” Cash stopped squeezing her shoulder and hugged her. Then let her go and gave her a shove. “Move out. Now.” He chuckled. “That’s the last time I ever get to order you around.”

  Olivia gave him a hard look then nodded. She walked off down the hill to the border of the time bubble.

  Cash stood and watched her go. He watched her hesitate at the edge. Then he watched her stiffen and step inside the bubble.

  Just as had been predicted, the bubble disappeared, leaving a clear view of Flipside all the way to the horizon. No more nightmarish landscape. Not that Flipside wasn’t a nightmare in of itself.

  Cash backtracked to the waiting rollers. Except for a driver and gunner, the entire squad was gone. Cash hopped into one of the rollers and nodded at Flipside BOP.

  “Wait for the signal. Then we head straight for the gates and do not stop until we are inside that base and it is ours once again,” Cash ordered. Then he activated comms. “How we looking?”

  “At the wall now, sir,” a voice replied. “We weren’t spotted. Everyone inside is too shocked to see a long-lost team reappear.”

  “Yeah? Well wait until they fucking see us,” Cash said. “Good luck, everyone. Shoot true and shoot to kill.”

  Eighteen

  Ivy and her team were marched inside the main gate, which was closed immediately behind them. The guards took them about twenty meters in before they were ordered to stop and to get on their knees, hands still behind their heads.

  No one on Ivy’s team said a word even when they were asked questions by the guard. It was several minutes before two figures, flanked by guards, walked across the base and up to Ivy’s team.

  “Ms. Thompson?” Petrov asked. His face was grey and gaunt, but there was still steel in his eyes.

  Tressa, on the other hand, looked hollowed out. She looked like a ghost of the woman she had once been. Ivy almost gasped when she looked up into the face of her former sister-in-law.

  “Operator Ellison,” Tressa said robotically. “Operator Morgan. Operator DeLuca. Operator Blumhouse. Operator Cosio. And Operator Nochez.”

  Petrov snapped his fingers and a guard handed him a clipboard.

  “Nochez is not on this list,” Petrov said.

  “She was part of Operator Lewis’ team,” Tressa replied. “They were who Operator Ellison’s team were looking for.”

  “Interesting,” Petrov said.

  He gave the clipboard back to the guard and moved in close to Ivy, crouching down so they were almost eye to eye. “You are looking well, Operator Ellison.”

  Again, he snapped his fingers and a different guard ran up with Ivy’s rifle. She gave it to Petrov, who turned it over and over in his hands.

  “Your rifle is looking well, too. And despite the layers of dust and grime on your clothes, they are in good order. Better than clothes that have spent six years out in the field should look.”

  Petrov stood up, checked the chamber of the rifle, then
put the butt of the weapon to his shoulder before putting the barrel to a spot between Ivy’s eyes.

  “I would like to know where you have been and why you look so well fed,” Petrov said. “Is there another base out there we do not know of? How did you get here? On foot? Surely not. Where did you hide your rollers? The paperwork said you left in two rollers. Where are they? Who else is out there?”

  “I have no fucking idea what you are talking about,” Ivy said. “I really have no idea what is going on at all. We left this base two weeks ago. We ran into trouble, our equipment malfunctioned, as it always does out in Flipside, then we hiked back here on our feet. There are no rollers out there. There is no other base. We thought we were coming home.” Ivy shifted her eyes to the side. “But this isn’t the home we left and I don’t know you. How about you tell us what is going on?”

  “Two weeks?” Tressa asked. “It’s been six years, Ivy…”

  “Not for us,” Ivy said. “We walked out of a time bubble this morning. Or it was morning there. Not night like here.”

  “Walked out of a time bubble,” Petrov said. “A time bubble where you only left this base two weeks ago.” They were statements, not questions. “Mr. DiCenzo was right about the quantum chaos. It is too bad he isn’t here to appreciate this news.”

  “Not here? What happened to Mike?” Ivy asked.

  “No questions,” Petrov said, wagging a finger at Ivy, the rifle still pressed to her head. “I don’t quite believe you yet. How can you convince me that what you are saying is true? What happened to Operator Lewis’s team?”

  “Dead,” Ivy said. “Some disease. We never caught it, thankfully. Nochez here survived. She must have an immunity.”

  “Ah, she is lucky,” Petrov said. “The disease was a nasty thing to live through. Most of the people in this base suffered briefly then got better. Some of us never suffered at all, immune like Operator Nochez. But, that does not answer my question. How can you convince me that you are telling me the truth?”

  “I can’t,” Ivy said. “We left two weeks ago and now we’re back. You say we’ve been gone six years. I cannot think of a way to convince you of the truth.”

  Petrov waited for a few seconds then lowered the rifle and held it out. The same guard retrieved it and retreated behind Ivy and her team. Petrov sighed.

  “We will double our patrols,” Petrov said. “Maybe go look for this time bubble of yours.”

  “Sir, there is a strange light on the horizon,” a guard said. “It does look like morning to the west.”

  “Morning is in the east, idiot,” Petrov said.

  “I can take you there,” Ivy said. “Shackle me and I’ll take you there.”

  “You think I will fall for a trick like that?” Petrov laughed. “No. I will send out a patrol to confirm. If it is true, then you and your team will live and become productive members of this base.”

  Petrov clapped a hand on Tressa’s shoulder and she gave a full body flinch.

  “Just like Ms. Thompson here has become a valuable member of this base. Same with everyone that wanted to continue living and wants to keep living to see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully, a way back to our—”

  There was a shout from the opposite side of the base. Then quiet.

  Petrov sneered.

  “Ah, so you are simply the distraction?” Petrov shook his head and held his hand out once more. The rifle was returned to him. “Did you know you were also going to be the sacrifice? How many are with you?”

  “Honestly?” Ivy said. “I don’t know.”

  Then she moved, twisting her legs out from under her to strike Petrov in the shins. Her team moved too and gunfire erupted from everywhere. Not just from their area, but from everywhere. Shots rained down from the wall’s walkway.

  ***

  “That’s the signal!” Cash shouted. “Go, go, go!”

  The rollers tore free of their camouflage as they raced toward Flipside BOP. They screamed around the wall until they were parallel with the main gate. The gunners on top of the rollers didn’t fire .50 caliber machine guns, they fired RPGs. The rockets sped toward the gates, connecting on target and blowing them off their huge hinges.

  The drivers whipped the rollers around as the gunners then switched to the .50 caliber machine guns mounted to the tops of the vehicles. None of them aimed up at the tops of the wall. They knew the guards up there had already been taken out by the rest of the squad. A squad that had silently scaled the rear wall and killed each guard one by one until they had the positions they needed to execute the mission.

  Cash couldn’t help but gasp as his roller entered through the broken gates. What he saw was not the same base that he had left over a year ago. Over a year ago to him, at least. He knew it was going to be hard to explain to Tressa and the rest once he had them secure. But unlike with Olivia, he would try. No “you’ll see” speeches for them.

  They needed to know what the stakes were and that they had to get things up and running fast for any of them to survive.

  ***

  Olivia was Topside for three seconds before she was running and gunning her way to cover. The wingers above spotted her right away and swooped down for an easy meal.

  Olivia did not make it easy for them.

  The first winger to reach her lost a good portion of its chest. It nearly crashed directly on top of Olivia, but she managed to dive inside the broken doorway of one of the old apartments. Not that it made much difference since the apartment’s four walls had been reduced to two walls and the roof was wide open for the remaining wingers to land and screech down at her as they fought with each other over who would get first bite.

  Olivia ended that debate with five headshots. Having learned to aim a sling perfectly over the past few years, firing a rifle was like lobbing softballs at the beasts.

  Of course, dead wingers meant falling wingers and Olivia saw her mistake instantly.

  She scrambled back out of the doorway and crawled up over the first dead winger’s body as the six inside fell into the open apartment, crushing the last remnants of furniture and cracking the flooring where Olivia had been only a second before.

  Olivia was back up on her feet and turning in a circle to get her bearings, the rifle at her shoulder, her finger on the trigger. Then she remembered to reload and ejected the spent magazine while popping in a fresh one in, all in one fluid motion. Way easier than loading a short arrow into a sling, for sure.

  “If I’m here, then the diner is a few blocks that way,” Olivia said, making her way across the parking lot of the apartment complex.

  A parking lot that was nothing but buckled and cracked pavement with steam rising up through many of the cracks. It truly was a post-apocalyptic landscape she’d found herself in. Olivia had to trust her sense of direction. She left the parking lot and stuck to the side of the street that was just as destroyed as everything else.

  No more wingers were in the sky. Well, none that were close enough for her to worry about. But Olivia did hear the distinct sounds of teeth calling back and forth to each other as they coordinated their attack by triangulating her location. She didn’t recognize the species, but she did recognize the coordination tactics and knew close to where the first attack would come from.

  Olivia sidestepped into a broken storefront and crouched down near what may have once been a display for potato chips. It was hard to tell considering most of the interior of the store was filled with hardened lava.

  “There you are,” she said to herself as the first predator appeared from out of the shadows across the street. Close to three meters tall, the predator was a good-sized raptor. She had no clue the species, but she had called them “nellies” back home.

  Back home…

  Olivia thought that was a funny way to think of it.

  She’d called the predators nellies because they were so negative—“negative nellies”—always arguing with each other as they went in for the kill. The things were so homicidal that each o
ne wanted to be the member of the pack that made the first kill.

  Olivia did not fire. She listened and waited.

  A dino call echoed from somewhere behind her. Luckily, the store had four walls still. Or the part she was in did. It sounded like the call from behind her was coming from what had probably been the stockroom.

  Olivia grinned as she waited.

  She heard the crunching of the predator’s claws on the cold lava behind her. The raptor saw her, she knew it. Then the crunching continued, but grew quieter as the raptor retreated. A second later, the call came again, a slightly different tone to the sound, and Olivia knew the predator had just alerted its pack to her location.

  Good. They were coming to her.

  Olivia held the rifle in one hand despite it being a .338 with quite a kick. She had no doubt she could handle the weapon. In the other hand, she pulled a fresh magazine from her belt, keeping it at the ready for when she needed it.

  And she did need it.

  The pack of raptors struck all at the same time.

  Olivia was up on her feet and turning in a circle, her finger squeezing the trigger over and over until the rifle clicked empty. She ejected the empty and slapped home a new one and continued to fire until there was no more movement around her.

  Then she stopped firing, ejected that magazine, and slapped in yet another fresh one before she walked over to a struggling raptor, put the barrel of the rifle to its head, and pulled the trigger.

  “Well, hello Olivia,” Brain’s voice suddenly erupted in Olivia’s ear. “Sounds like you are back. Are you injured?”

  “Turn the volume down,” Olivia said, wincing. “I’m already half deaf from this fucking rifle.”

  “Sorry about that,” Brain said. “Is that better?”

  “Yes.”

  “Excellent. I am tracking you via your comms unit. From what I can see, you have open ground between your location and the diner. If you would care to join us, that would be wonderful.”

  “Is Lakshmi there?”