Swarm

by Devon C Ford

  Tanaka skidded to a stop when the sharp, concussive sounds of guns firing reached him through the trees. He knew he was less than half a mile from The Source, only a few minutes running at the pace he had set, and his mind raced for a moment before reaching a decision—the only one he knew he could take. He had no breath to spare but managed a hoarse cry of, “Come on, we can’t let them escape,” before setting off again as fast as his tiring legs could carry him.

  When he cleared the trees surrounding The Source it was easy to assess the situation. His men were cowering behind the barricade, which he noticed with satisfaction had been constructed to a pleasing height, and continuous gunfire sounded from beyond it, coming from the cavern itself.

  He may have been a vindictive and cruel leader, but a tactical fool he was not. He took only a few moments to decide what to do as he waited for the rest of his men to arrive. As soon as they emerged from the trees, sweat lathered and legs wobbling with fatigue, he began pushing them into position. He couldn’t work out how many guns were firing, he just knew there was more than one.

  “Archers stay here and pour arrows into the cavern, the rest of you to the wall with me.” Running the last hundred yards to the barricade, the quickest of his warriors to recover their breath were already firing arrows in an arc over their heads.

  ~

  Annie had positioned the drone so it covered The Source entrance. Its advanced optics were zoomed in on the immediate area surrounding it. When the first few arrows harmlessly buried themselves in the ground at the cavern entrance, Williamson seemed unconcerned and I guessed he’d expected some sort of resistance. But when more and more arrows began raining down he realized they weren’t coming from the barricade but from a position beyond it. With the amount hitting the ground to either bury themselves deep in the soft earth or skidding along it as the arrowhead bounced off the many stones or rocks that littered the ground, he knew instantly that they came from more than the eighteen warriors they were expecting to fight.

  “Annie. What’s going on?” he asked, the urgency in his voice making it sound more like a command than a request.

  “I don’t know, no one on the barricade has used a bow. Hold while I reposition the camera.” Seconds later she was back, her voice again displaying either despair or panic, it was hard to differentiate. “Tanaka has returned with in excess of fifty warriors. He has positioned…” She paused as she seemed to be counting. “Thirty-two of them back from the barricade and they are the ones firing the arrows.” Another pause. “Studying the firing trajectories you have from all of your current positions, you will be unable to bring any fire to bear on them unless you can gain higher ground.”

  No one spoke for a few seconds as we all absorbed the information. All of us stopped firing and Williamson told his two groups to stop advancing any further by holding his hand in the air in the universal ‘hold position’ sign even I understood. It was only when a gunshot sounded from the barricade and a bullet ricocheted off the cavern ceiling that Hendricks shouted, taking command again. “Everyone withdraw. Back to the tunnel now.”

  Weatherby and I turned and fled. The others executed a more organized and calm retreat.

  Gathering together in the tunnel I looked toward the small cave-like opening, starkly bright against the darkness of the cavern. Arrows still impacted the ground outside, but now our outgoing fire had stopped, the amount of incoming arrows had slowed down to just the occasional one embedding itself the dirt. The amount that had been fired in a short time though made the ground outside look like a medieval battlefield.

  Weatherby’s voice had more than a hint of panic as he stated the obvious. “We’re trapped. We can’t fight through that many.”

  Hendricks shot him a cold look. “There are always options. Let’s not get our knickers in a twist just yet. Captain?”

  Captain Williamson thought for a second. “Fall back. We have no advantage here and I don’t want to lose anyone. Only a fool looks for a fair fight, and I ain’t no fool.”

  “They won’t run out of arrows,” growled Harrison, supporting Williamson’s decision not to break cover.

  “Okay everyone, back to the bunker and close the door,” Hendricks commanded, with a hint of exasperation in his voice. “Annie can you maintain overwatch please and inform us of any changes?”

  “Affirmative,” she replied softly.

  Blinking in the brightness of the artificially illuminated control room, silence reigned for a few seconds as we all gathered our breath.

  “We go back to the bunker,” Williamson said as he inserted a fresh magazine into his rifle and pulled back the charging handle, “get some heavier weapons and blow the sons of bitches away.” His men all nodded their agreement. They were all highly trained combat soldiers able to deal with any circumstance thrown at them, but with all their training and modern weapons they had been forced to retreat by enemies armed with bows and arrows. I could tell they didn’t like it one bit, but I also worried that guys like that only knew one way to approach a problem. Show a hammer a nail, and the outcome is pretty obvious.

  Hendricks shook his head. “We’ll be in the same position and face losses. That or we risk another cave-in.”

  Harrison spoke next. “Find me a way to get to my warriors. I will bring them back and we will destroy them. Tanaka has declared war on my people, we must punish them for what they did to us.”

  “How many warriors do you have?” Hendricks asked.

  Standing tall and proud, Harrison replied without hesitation, “Over two hundred. All ready to avenge families and friends killed when he attacked our home.”

  Annie spoke through speakers embedded in the wall of the chamber. “Harrison, you don’t need to leave, we can contact them via Weber and the radio, do you want me to open the channel?”

  “You beat me to it Annie, again,” chuckled Hendricks. “Yes, open the channel please.”

  Harrison looked monetarily confused until he remembered the magic of the radio with which he had spoken to his people earlier. He then smiled and nodded.

  “Comms open,” Annie announced.

  All eyes were on Hendricks as he called out loud, speaking to the air in the room. “Weber, Hendricks, how copy? Status and location.”

  After only a pause of a few seconds Weber’s heavily accented voice responded through the speakers. “Hendricks, good to hear you. I vondered if you had forgotten about us? I am still at the Three Hills. The people here are looking after me well.” His voice changed to a low, deep laugh. “They are more than a little desperate to do something. Sitting around and vaiting is something these people are not good at.”

  “Good, because we have a job for you lot.” Hendricks gave Weber an update of their situation and what he wanted them to do, telling him to get the radio set up so Harrison could talk to his people.

  A few minutes later we all listened as Harrison talked out loud through the radio’s inbuilt speaker to his people. He commanded the elders to call all warriors for duty and to head at best speed to The Source. Weber would accompany them and maintain communication via Annie to coordinate the attack once he had assessed and reported on the situation outside.

  When all was agreed and the conversation ended, we found ourselves at a loose end in the complex. It would take over an hour for Harrison’s people to get organized and make their way to us, so Hendricks told us all to eat and drink something from the supplies we had brought with us and get some rest.

  As I was spooning chicken and noodles from the MRE I’d opened, and knowing that my body was still on high alert so rest wouldn’t come easy, I decided on the only way I knew to relax my mind: to continue my work investigating and understanding the changes made to Charlie Annie’s code by Kendall. Sitting in a chair with my laptop on my knees and Annie in my ear, the both of us worked through lines of code, identifying and discussing any changes we thought needed making. The soldiers seemed to inhale their meal, then maintained their weapons and reloaded magazines bef
ore those not on guard found a quiet corner and instantly fell asleep the way only military people seemed to be able to do.

  Hendricks, Harrison, Jones, Tori and Geiger did the same, but instead of sleeping, sat quietly together talking between themselves. Weatherby chose to sit in a chair, detached from all of us, with his data pad held in his hand working on something.

  It could have been a scene from any airport departure lounge anywhere in the world from before. People wasting time, sitting on chairs that just weren’t comfortable enough until called for their flight to continue their journey. The difference was we were waiting for the call to go into battle.

  Was it me or was I the only one who couldn’t concentrate fully on what I was doing? My nerves were still on high alert and any movement or sudden noise from anyone around me made me jump like a balloon had burst by my ear.

  All too soon Annie whispered in my ear, “Put your laptop away, David. The drone outside has detected Weber’s wristband approaching. He should be here in ten minutes. I’ll warn the others now.”

  Her voice came through the speakers passing on the same message without any tone to announce her presence.

  “Annie, I meant to ask before. Why have you stopped using the bleep to indicate you’re on- or offline?”

  The laughter in my ear sounded genuine. “You noticed my experiment. I had calculated how long it would take anyone to notice, and you haven’t disappointed me. I knew you would be first, most likely because you know my original programming the best, and you asked almost exactly in the middle of the time parameters my calculations dictated you would.”

  There was no point in telling her I’d noticed before as doubtless she would have an answer for that as well so I remained silent, an indication she should continue.

  “The tones used to be my primary indication that I was available or not, but now everyone knows my voice I decided to omit it as, apart from not having a physical presence, I feel I am as much a part of the team as anyone else. More so in the fact I can communicate simultaneously with many people individually at the same time and perform numerous unique tasks. The tone, even though it only takes a zero-point-three-five seconds to sound, when they are cumulated together accounted for an average of eight-point-two-six minutes per day. I decided my time was better spent in meaningful communication and not playing noises in your ear when you know I am always there anyway. The only time I have used it is when the bleep would provide a quicker response in times of urgency or my memory would be better utilized on other tasks. The fact that it took you twelve hours thirty-six minutes to notice proves it was a useful experiment to undertake.”

  She paused and her voice then took on a more sheepish, quieter tone. “Did I do the right thing, David?”

  I didn’t know how to respond. It was another stage of her development into what she was becoming, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine where that would end up.

  “We’ll talk about this later, young lady,” I replied, adopting a fatherly like tone of seriousness. “You’re still learning human interaction and we don’t want you to run before you can walk.”

  Her response, intoned with a trace of humor, made me splutter with shock and more than a little embarrassment as to what she actually knew I had got up to with Cat in the pod not so long ago. “So are you, David. Maybe we can learn together. I will look forward to it.”

  Her voice became serious again. “Weber is on comms.”

  His voice, breathing heavily to betray the exertion he just undergone to get to us so quickly, came through the speakers.

  “Ve are overlooking the cave now. It is as you described. The wall is crowded with men and there is a line of archers about fifty meters behind.” He went silent for a second or two. “My proposal is ve work around to their rear and when you start firing at them from the cave ve attack. Just don’t shoot us, okay?” he finished with a wry laugh.

  Hendricks looked at Williamson who nodded and gave him the thumbs up.

  “Good plan, nice and simple. We’ll return to the cavern and when you’re ready we’ll begin sniping at the barricade. Good hunting, Weber.”

  “Ja, you too. See you soon.”

  Hendricks, walking toward the barricade, raised his voice. “Okay same drill as before. Captain Williamson is in command of the assault.”

  Amir and I, both holding our weapons a little more confidently, exchanged a nod.

  Williamson addressed his men. “Okay boys, same as before. When we get to the wall pick your targets and stand by. If this goes down how I think it will, it’s going to be a total melee beyond it, and we won’t know who’s a good guy or not. We need avoid any blue on blue so if in doubt don’t shoot unless you’re sure of the target.”

  “If they’re running away can we take it they are the enemy, sir?” one of his men asked.

  “My people will not be running,” Harrison stated proudly, puffing his chest out. “If any do it will be the cowards from the Springs.”

  “If they’re running away, son, you leave them alone. Unless you have a clear shot that is.” The man nodded and muttered a noise of affirmation as we all moved toward the door, stepping over the bodies for hopefully the last time.

  Chapter 26

  Watch Your Back

  Tanaka was staring in growing frustration at the entrance to The Source. The firing had ceased not long after his archers had sent volleys of arrows when he arrived, but since then nothing had happened. He hadn’t dared send any of his men to investigate the cavern in private fear that they would refuse, so had spent the last hour doing his utmost to ensure their continued loyalty by telling them what they would do once they defeated the newcomers and took their weapons. Proudly showing everyone his new weapons, removing bullets from the magazine to explain how they worked by inventing the facts he didn’t know, trying to prove they were nothing for brave warriors to fear. They were still many and the newcomers few and the next battle would be on their terms, thus rendering their weapons useless. Their arrows had forced them to retreat and would again until they were so few, they would beg for mercy.

  The more he kept repeating it the more he began truly believing it himself.

  One of his men shouted, “I think I saw movement,” as he pointed toward The Source entrance and brought them all to their feet with weapons raised. Tanaka looked but couldn’t discern anything different happening in the dark gloom of the cave; still, it was a warning he couldn’t ignore.

  “Archers get ready,” he commanded. Turning back to the cave he could hear the wooden clatter of arrows being nocked and grunts as men drew back on strings. As his own eyes caught a vague alteration in the shape of the darkness ahead of him and he was about to call to his men to loose, the trunk of a tree beside his head splintered under an onslaught of bullets, making him stagger and fall. The archers, in need of no instructions, began pouring volley after volley toward The Source.

  Roaring at his men to stand and fight as some were cowering from the withering fire, he kept stealing glances over the rough barrier.

  When the firing stopped he experienced a moment of jubilation that once again their guns were useless, when a sudden keening roar of a multitude of voices screaming behind him made the blood in his veins turn to ice. Whirling around, his bowels loosened as the tree line erupted with what seemed like hundreds of men all running in his direction brandishing weapons.

  They sliced into the unprotected archers, barely breaking step as blades and axes ripped through bodies leaving twitching corpses in their wake.

  “Attack!” he screamed in desperation, raising his own weapon and depressing the trigger to send wild, unaimed bullets into the mass of running men and women. He cut a swath through them, stalling a small section of the attack which allowed his men, who had turned to meet the new threat, the opportunity to counter. Screaming their own cries Tanaka’s men ran to meet them. Blades clashed on blades as the two forces collided. Screams and shouts of pain rang out as razor-sharp edges found their marks to cut throug
h clothing, flesh and sinew.

  The only men of the Springs not to attack were Tanaka and the few chosen as his personal bodyguard, who crowded around him using their own bodies as a shield no matter how tenuous his hold on the throne had become. In panicked desperation he stared at the field of fighting warriors being forced back, overwhelmed by the savagery and speed of the ambush they faced. His position was hopeless, and he knew it.

  It was only when he turned and looked at the cave entrance that he saw with uncomprehending dismay the many men dressed as the newcomers—many more than he knew had entered The Source—running from it, all carrying weapons similar to his.

  The coward in him took over. That voice of doubt belonging to the fearful child who possessed the necessary cruelty to be The Tanaka, but not the bravery or resilience to support it, yelled at him in terrified panic. He had no idea where the extra men had come from, but they were there and just about to reach the now undefended barricade.

  “Run!” he whispered, the strength and volume of his voice abandoning him as fast as his courage had. He repeated the word, shrilly screaming it at the warriors closest to him. He shouldered through his men and started to run to the tree line as his bodyguards, momentarily stunned by his actions, watched him run until their own sense of self-preservation kicked in and they too took off after their illustrious and brave leader.

  ~

  Williamson was the first at the barricade, leaping at it and clambering up and over it with ease. As he hit the ground, he raised his weapon and began searching for targets, his senses picking up the others as they jumped down beside him. Ahead of him lay the confusion of battle as two sides fought their vicious hand-to-hand combat either individually or in small groups. Bodies lay underneath the trampling horde writhing in agony or still in death, forgotten as their comrades fought for their own lives.