Tree: Live to give, give to live (Numbered Book 3)

by Magus Tor

  “Go, go, go!” he shouted.

  He risked a glance behind him and saw Jonathon leaping into the pod, closely followed by Lukas. In that brief second, a barb shot out of the drone, piercing Nicholas's upper arm just as he turned back. But Nicholas was too well trained to bow to the pain. His finger tightened, the stunner emitted a deep blue current, and the drone collapsed to the floor in a jumble of metal. And then the noise started.

  It was a deep, resounding ring, but piercing and shrill for that. Nicholas didn't wait to hear it; he jumped into the pod.

  “Go!” he shouted one more time.

  Aurelia punched the icon, and the hovering pod jerked up into the sky and flew off, leaving the courtyard behind it.

  Nicholas groaned and lay his head back on his seat.

  “Let me take a look,” Elza said, bending down and carefully pulling Nicholas's uniform down so she could see his arm. “Got any med supplies in those boxes?” she asked, looking at Jonathon.

  Soon, she was expertly removing the barb as a very pale Nicholas bit his lip to stop from crying out.

  Aurelia turned in her seat, kneeling backwards to get a better look. “Doesn't look too bad,” she said.

  Elza shook her head. “Went straight through the fleshy part on top of the arm. It should be fine, just needs cleaning.”

  “You're lucky that you turned around at just the right moment,” Jonathon observed. “Now, care to tell me what the hell that was?”

  The wailing of the alarm had only just faded into the distance. “It was a security drone,” Nicholas explained. “Must have followed from the shuttle bay; had some sort of tracking device in it.”

  Now it was Jonathon's turn to pale. “Lukas,” he began.

  “I know,” Lukas answered, hurriedly keying a message into his personal screen. “That means that the sec Workers will find the supply depot. Don't worry. Everyone will have got out when the alarm sounded; I’ve just got to tell them not to go back.”

  Aurelia thought that he didn't seem unduly worried by this, and said so.

  Lukas shrugged. “It happens, more often than you think. We're used to moving around quickly. There are plenty of safe places in the City if you're careful and know where to look. I really should have considered the possibility of a sec drone, though,” he added with regret. “That was completely avoidable.”

  Elza finished sealing Nicholas's wound and placed a gauze bandage over it. “Try not to lift anything for a day or so until the sealing has set properly,” she advised.

  “Thanks,” Nicholas said, colour already returning to his cheeks. “Now what about that food?”

  “Still hungry after all that?” Jonathon laughed. “Here you go.”

  He opened up one of the boxes that he and Lukas had brought in, and soon they were all feasting on military grade rations. Well, feasting might not be the right word, Aurelia thought, chewing on something that was supposed to be synth cheese but had a remarkably similar consistency to gum—but at least they had sustenance. When they were done, Elza cleared up the wrappers, while Lukas hopped over the seat to check the control console. He put in new coordinates and surveyed the state of the charge.

  “Gonna be a close thing,” he said. “But we'll get near enough. Not much to do now but wait.”

  Peeking into a box, Aurelia found blankets, which she handed out. Nicholas, military trained as he was, took his, wrapped himself in a cocoon at the back of the pod, and was soon snoring like a sailor. Jonathon climbed over to the front and started an earnest discussion with Lukas that Aurelia could catch only a few words of. The hum of their voices was comforting, though, as she lay on the floor, wrapped in her blanket next to Elza.

  “Strange being back, isn't it?” Elza said.

  “I'm not sure I really feel back at all yet,” Aurelia answered, snuggling deeper into the warmth of her blanket. “I mean, I've barely set foot on Earth, really.”

  “You missed the rain, didn't you?”

  “Yes, yes I did.”

  “Me too.” There was such sadness in Elza's voice that Aurelia wondered why she'd ever left Earth.

  “How long have you been on Lunar?” Aurelia asked her.

  “Close to eight years,” Elza said.

  The inside lighting of the pod had been dimmed, and Aurelia could just make out Elza's regular profile next to her. “And why did you go? I know you were head hunted, but you don't really speak about the past.”

  Elza sighed. “What's the point? The past is the past. I was a lot like you, once. I was head hunted into the Resistance; a talented med Worker with first-class credentials, I was a shoo-in for a job at Lunar Hospital. I was recruited by the Resistance within my first week of being up there, just like you. And I agreed immediately.”

  “And then what?” Aurelia asked. The woman's voice still sounded so sad that she knew she hadn't heard the whole story.

  Elza shifted in the darkness. “You know what then,” she said. “I ended up as head of the Hospital. I had talent, but I also knew how to play the game, be seen with the right people, although a lot of that was probably due to my work with the Resistance.”

  “Then why are you so sad?” Aurelia reached out and touched Elza's hand.

  “Because I gave up so much,” she said, quietly. “I left my parents, my brother, and now they're gone. I never paired, never bred. And I tell myself that in the end all this will be worth it, that my personal concerns aren't important. But when I come down to Earth, I remember. I remember what it was like to be normal, to follow the rules, to feel safe and protected and loved.” She was quiet for a moment. “That's why I don't come down here often,” she added, with a small laugh.

  Aurelia squeezed the thin, soft hand she was holding. She hadn't really realised how much older Elza was than she, though it made sense; the woman definitely didn't look like she was approaching thirty. And in a world where the incapacitated were injected, thirty was generally more than half a lifetime.

  Workers paired and bred early. Time was of the essence. And though she wanted to tell Elza that it wasn't too late, that she still had time, in truth Aurelia knew that she probably did not. She knew that the woman had given up her hopes of personal happiness to work for the happiness of others, and wondered whether she'd be able to do the same thing if she were in Elza's position.

  She really didn't know what to say, so she kept silent, kept holding Elza's hand until she felt her relax and knew that she was asleep. Then she turned over, herself, and closed her eyes. She listened to the soft laughs and conversation of Lukas and Jonathon, thinking about what she would be able to give up for the Resistance if she had to. She'd already given up her job, the career that she'd so desperately wanted. But that all seemed to matter so little now. Would she give up Jonathon? As she fell into a dreamless sleep, she hoped desperately that she'd never be put in the position of having to choose.

  She awoke to whispered orders, and it took her a second to realise where she was. The light coming through the windscreen was brighter now, a gentle grey light that looked like dawn. Then she remembered that she wasn't under the Lunar dome anymore, and that it was probably later than she thought. The grey was pollution, hanging low over the Earth. Jonathon and Lukas were still up front, still talking, but she could see from their quick movements and hear from their sharp whispers that all was not well. Wrapping her blanket around her shoulders, she shuffled forward until she could hear them better.

  “Ten minutes, more or less,” she heard Lukas say.

  “What's going on?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

  “The pod charge is almost gone,” Lukas answered, not turning to look at her, his eyes scanning the ground below them.

  “How far out are we?” Jonathon asked him.

  Lukas sucked air over his teeth. “Tough to tell. I turned the navigation system off to save power, but I estimate we'll have about a half day’s walk or so once we land. As long as we land safely, that is.”

  His eyes moved back and forth over
the terrain, and Aurelia realised that he was looking for a place to get them down safely. The ground here was rocky, and finding somewhere flat to land was obviously a problem.

  “If we stop now, can't we hover and jump out?” she asked.

  Lukas shook his head grimly. “Hovering uses more power than flying; we don't have enough juice for that,” he explained. “Besides, it's best to get us as close as possible. We don't want to walk further than we have to.”

  The red, rocky ground looks more like Lunar than Earth, thought Aurelia.

  “Best wake the others,” Jonathon said, turning and smiling. “We've got to be ready to jump if necessary.”

  She nodded.

  “Pack up as many supplies as you can; you'll find bags back there in one of the boxes. Concentrate on water as your first priority,” Lukas said. “It gets hot out there during the day.”

  Returning to the back of the pod, Aurelia went first to Nicholas. His eyes snapped open, and he was fully awake at her first whisper. She quickly told him what was going on, and he nodded, immediately starting to empty the remaining boxes in the pod. Elza woke more slowly, and it took her a few blinking, blurry seconds to understand what Aurelia was saying, but soon she too was going through their supplies.

  Seeing that Nicholas and Elza were doing everything necessary, Aurelia went back to the front.

  “Find anything?”

  Jonathon shook his head, Lukas craning forward as close to the windscreen as he could get.

  “Wait,” Lukas said. “There.” He pointed.

  There was a small area of dangerously sharp, pointed rocks that looked like small teeth jutting up from the ground. But beyond it, Aurelia could see a flat expanse of clear earth.

  “If we've got enough charge to make it over those rocks, then we can come down over there,” Lukas said. He was already changing the course of the pod.

  “And if we don't?” Jonathon asked.

  “Then we get spiked,” Lukas said, calmly. “There's nowhere else; we've got to try.”

  Aurelia felt a pull as the pod accelerated towards the rocks. The smooth hum of the engine became higher. Halfway there, her heart pounding, her mouth dry, she thought they'd make it. She turned and shouted to the others to prepare for landing, and saw a neat row of bags stacked by the door. They were as ready as they'd ever be.

  The pod had cut the distance to the rocks by about two thirds when the engine's whine deepened and stuttered.

  “Charge is gone,” Lukas said, matter of fact, his eyes fixed on the potential landing point.

  Another stutter, then a high-pitched moan, and there was silence. The engine of the pod had cut out. As far as Aurelia could see, they still had another hundred metres or so to go. They weren't going to make it at all. She was about to yell the command to jump when she saw Lukas rip a plastic panel off the console in front of him. Under the panel was a set of manual controls, though she didn't see what good that did them without any power.

  “Hold on tight,” Lukas said, gripping the control stick in front of him. “We're gliding in, and it's going to be close.”

  His mouth pursed, and his eyes narrowed in concentration, but the pod was still in the air. Fifty metres to go. The pod was losing height, but Lukas kept it pointed in the right direction. Twenty metres. The ground was so close that Aurelia could see grains of dirt. Ten metres. Not able to watch their progress anymore, she instead looked down and saw the black shadow of the pod slide over the first few pointed rocks. The shadow ate more and more of the sharp spines, but the pod began to shudder, and there was the groaning of metal as a rock scraped the bottom.

  Aurelia's stomach dropped, but even as she watched, the shadow of the pod glided out over smooth soil. She heard Lukas shout in glee, then the whooshing sound of the pod hitting sand. A shudder. A jolt. And they were down.

  Chapter Six

  “Everybody okay?” asked Jonathon.

  There was a strange silence. The only sound was the ticking of the metal pod cooling down. For a second or so, no one spoke. Then there was a rustling of movement as everyone checked that they were in one piece.

  “Best get that door open,” Lukas said.

  Nicholas reached over and slid open the door, and a thick, heavy heat washed into the cabin. Aurelia felt her skin grow clammy with humidity, and she noticed with a grin that Elza put up a hand to check her hair. So even the selfless Elza could be vain.

  One by one they climbed out of the pod, Lukas reaching back in to hand each of them a bag. The soil crunched underfoot, and there was an eerie stillness and quiet about the place.

  “Where are we?” Aurelia asked Lukas.

  “About a half day or so from City 02,” he said. “This is desert. There's no water for miles around.”

  She looked around her; the place looked completely devastated, and she wondered who or what had done this. “Was it the War?” she asked with awe, her eyes wide open, drinking in the bleak view.

  Jonathon laughed. “No, it's always been like this. Deserts were pretty inhospitable, so no one wanted to live out here. No point in bombing it if there were no people.”

  “But I thought City 02 was surrounded by jungle?” Aurelia said.

  “It is,” replied Lukas. “But only a couple of kilometres. Jungle might not be the right word—the plants feed off the swamp land. It's thick and dark in there, but it's passable if you know where you're going.”

  “Which you do, I hope?” said Elza.

  Lukas nodded. “Did we get everything out of the pod?”

  Nicholas looked inside. “Everything portable that we should need, yes.”

  “Let's get going, then.” Lukas pulled out his screen and called something up. “You do nav training?” he asked Nicholas.

  “Sure.”

  “Here you go, then.” He handed over the screen, and Nicholas peered closely at it and nodded.

  Aurelia picked up her bag, heavy with water, and wriggled her toes inside her shoes. She was ready to get walking. “Let's go.”

  “Agreed,” said Jonathon. “It's only going to get hotter, so we should try and make as much distance as possible before noon hits.”

  Lukas grinned at Elza, put down the bag that he'd already picked up, and went to kneel in front of her. “If Madame would care to climb on, I believe your chariot has arrived?”

  Elza looked confused and then laughed. “That won't be necessary, Lukas, but thank you.”

  “I did promise to carry you,” he said, looking hurt. “I don't want it said that I don't keep my promises.”

  “I think I'll make it,” Elza said.

  She reached out and offered her hand to help Lukas to his feet, and Aurelia noticed a strange look cross Nicholas's face. Briefly she wondered what he was thinking, but he turned and started out before she could ask him.

  The going was tough. The rocky ground made walking difficult at first, and taking uneven steps to avoid the largest stones was tiring. As the morning progressed, the heat grew cloying, and Aurelia's uniform was soon soaked with sweat. She regarded the men, stripped down to the waist, uniform arms tied around their middles, with envy.

  “This is ridiculous,” said Elza eventually.

  They'd stopped for a moment and were all taking deep drinks of the warm water they carried.

  “What?” asked Aurelia.

  “I'm roasting,” answered Elza.

  Aurelia watched in shock as Elza undid the top of her uniform and peeled it down to match the boys. Underneath was the sleeveless white shirt that was standard issue.

  “Go ahead,” Elza told her. “It feels much better.”

  Aurelia thought for a second. Walking around in her underwear sounded weird; but looking at Elza, she saw that the undershirt actually covered more than she'd thought and was more than appropriate. Plus, Elza looked a lot cooler. With a sigh, Aurelia peeled off her own uniform top and tied the arms around her waist.

  Her skin tingled in the sun, but the ground was getting better. Most of the rocks wer
e gone now, and the earth had become a darker brown, rather than the startling deep red that it had been earlier. It seemed softer too.

  “Ground water,” said Lukas, when she asked. “We're closer to City 02 now, so water seeps under the ground and makes the earth softer. Look, see over there?”

  He pointed to the horizon, where Aurelia could see a dark-coloured line stretching out.

  “That's the jungle around the City,” he explained.

  It looked like it was going to take forever to get there. They'd been walking for a couple of hours, maybe a little more already, and Aurelia's feet were swollen inside her shoes.

  “You were the one complaining about having barely set foot on Earth,” teased Elza when they sat down to eat lunch.

  Aurelia grunted in reply and broke open a ration box. The food inside tasted no better than it had the night before; and with a dry mouth from the heat, it was even more difficult to eat. Aurelia forced herself to chew and swallow again and again, knowing that the energy she would get from the food was important, even if she didn't feel like eating.

  “Swap you your synth cheese for my synth chocolate,” Jonathon said, noticing that she was looking glum and coming to sit beside her.

  “You can't possibly mean that,” she said. The synth chocolate was the only vaguely palatable item in the ration box.

  “Sure do,” he said, handing his over. “Anything for love.”

  She smiled at him. “Thanks. How much longer, do you think?”

  Jonathon shrugged, and she saw how his dark hair shone in the dimmed sunlight. “As long as it takes, I guess. Should be at the jungle within a couple of hours, I think.”

  As they got closer to the jungle, a new problem appeared. The ground was now so wet that huge clumps of dark, black earth stuck to their feet, making walking a nightmare. But now the line on the horizon had materialised into a shifting mass of deep green, and Aurelia was longing for the cool that she knew must be inside.