Alliance

by Andrew Stride

  The Femesumma looked back at Huey. “What do you have planned for them?”

  Huey was silent.

  “You won’t get anywhere near the telepoint.”

  “We got this far and took you by surprise,” said Clom.

  “I’m just one Femesumma. You’ll be up against an army.”

  “Why do you keep referring to us as devils?” asked Sie.

  “What else would I call you? You must know by now that you are the creation of the Formless Ones.”

  “That doesn’t make us devils and by referring to us that way, only shows your ignorance.”

  The Femesumma’s smug expression was quickly wiped from its face. “You’ve got some nerve speaking to me like that.”

  “You may think you’re something special, but your meddling enabled the Formless Ones to evolve and that unforgivable act is what your race will be remembered for,” said Shou.

  “You really think you have all the answers, well think again,” said the Femesumma.

  A beeping sound silenced the heated debate and only Huey and the Femesumma knew its significance.

  The Femesumma’s eyes suddenly widened. “You aren’t seriously going to leave the tunnel at night?”

  Huey looked casually at the flashing light on the instrument panel. “They won’t be expecting it.”

  The Femesumma yanked on his restraints. “Let me off of this thing. I’m not ready to die, even if you are.”

  “If that’s what you want, but we won’t be slowing down to do so. It’s your call,” said Laja.

  “That RDUs going to get us all killed,” shouted the Femesumma.

  Laja had had enough and a single strike to the head knocked the Femesumma out cold.

  Robin winced and rubbed his own head as if he had been struck himself.

  “What was he talking about?” asked Shou.

  “Nothing crosses the plain at night,” said Huey.

  “And we are!” said Shou.

  “Don’t you think we should at least put it to a vote?” said Clom.

  Huey looked over at Laja. “Well?”

  “The RDU has got us this far and by the sounds of it the Femesumma will think twice about following us,” said Laja.

  “We’re no good to anyone dead,” said Sie.

  Huey seemed preoccupied and then announced that they had five minutes before the lights of the carriage were turned off and they should hold onto something because it was going to get rough.

  When the lights went out, all that was left illuminating the carriage was Huey’s glowing eyes and the dials on the console in front of him.

  A hush had descended upon the darkened carriage. The only sound was the muffled whoosh of air from their transit through the tunnel and this was suddenly replaced by the howling wind, which told them that they were back outside and at the mercy of the elements. A moment later, something of considerable size slammed into the side of the carriage, hell bent it seemed, on forcing them off the track.

  The carriage was holding up, but was it really built to withstand this kind of punishment? They received another almighty thump in the side and this time a couple of the interior storage compartments burst open, littering the space with items of clothing and personal equipment.

  Huey was quiet, concentrating on the task of getting the group safely across the plain and Clom wondered if it had any idea how fragile life was. Probably not, since it was made of steel or whatever the hell fancy material it would have them believe it was constructed from.

  It was dark and maybe that was just as well because they couldn’t see what was out there waiting for them. Their imaginations had conjured up all sorts of horrors and the wailing wind only added credibility to these.

  Lim visualised a couple of giants out there, both fighting over the carriage and neither wanting to give in and this would ultimately result in them having to share it.

  The idea that there might be giants fighting over them was a possibility and they could all hear the wind getting stronger and then something hit the window above Shou’s position. Hard enough to put a crack in it.

  These storms were a natural occurrence on Vulsumar, but that didn’t mean the Formless Ones weren’t guiding one of those vortexes in their direction? Anything was possible, except perhaps the idea that they might actually survive this.

  Sie had her eyes tightly closed and wanted to put her hands over her ears, but like everyone else, she was holding on for dear life, while the carriage groaned and creaked under the pressure.

  A bright flash outside lit up the interior and a loud tearing sound could be heard over the wind. Huey knew what this meant, the Formless Ones had ripped a hole in the fabric of this dimension and they were about to come under intense scrutiny and there was nowhere to hide out here.

  It was too late to turn back and Huey wasn’t showing any sign that he’d even considered the idea.

  They had attracted the wrong kind of attention and carriage shook violently. This time there was some structural damage. Debris rained down on them and knowing that it would be impossible to outrun the Formless Ones, Huey hit the brakes.

  To the casual observer, this was a really bad storm, but there was more to it than that and a closer look would reveal a dark seething mass bearing down on its prey. The Formless Ones knew where to strike for maximum effect and they worked together, hammering on the carriage while feeding off the emotions of those inside it. The Formless Ones were known for their tormenting and knew when they’d got the best out of their victims and these souls were about ripe for picking. Having dined on their emotions, the Formless Ones now needed death to finish off the meal because death was their ultimate feast.

  There was no point in just destroying the carriage, the Formless Ones wanted carnage and for this, they wreaked a segment of track and waited in anticipation. Huey may have already hit the brakes, but there was no way the carriage was going to stop before it reached the damaged part of the track.

  The Formless Ones were not disappointed. The carriage left the track at high speed, ploughing a deep channel as it went and anything that wasn’t tethered down was being thrown about. After the windows started to shatter, material from outside began pouring into the carriage, ripping away the interior panels and pushing everything towards the rear.

  The occupants remained conscious during their ordeal and it felt like an eternity before the carriage finally came to rest and thankfully its reinforced shell had remained intact. The carriage had been built to withstand high-speed collisions to maximise the life expectancy of the passengers and track failure must have also been foreseen. Luckily the passengers of this particular derailment had some extra protection, a protective shield, but there were still casualties and in the darkness, Laja managed to locate everyone except Huey.

  There had only been one fatality, the Femesumma and a gaping wound on the side of his head had surely brought with it, a quick death and Laja covered him with some of the clothing that was scattered about. The Femesumma was dead. An accident, but the Femesumma wouldn't see it that way.

  The storm stopped them from leaving the carriage, not that they were in any fit state to go anywhere. The wind howled throughout the night, making sure no one got any rest and satisfied with its work, the storm left them just before dawn.

  Robin and Mica had been up most of the night tending to a number of cuts and abrasions, although Shou had not been quite so lucky. He had had a run in with one of the support beams and as a result, his left arm was broken. Treatable Robin assured him and better than a broken leg.

  “Where’s the lump of steel that got us into this mess?” asked Shou.

  “Missing, although I’m going to see if I can find what’s left of it,” said Laja.

  Laja stepped outside and looking over the wreck in daylight only confirmed how lucky they had been. The carriage had left quite a scar on the landscape. There were shards of shiny pieces of metal sticking out of the ground all the way back to where they left the track and Laja imagine
d that Huey was buried around here somewhere.

  Laja began his search and followed the scar until something caught his eye, which at first looked like another piece of wreckage with sunlight reflecting off it. On closer inspection, it turned out to be Huey and he’d begun to unearth himself with his one free arm. Laja was able to lend a hand and with Huey’s head now clear of soil, he tried to speak, but Laja couldn’t understand him.

  “Largit, yod uk?”

  It didn’t sound like the RDU they had come to know as Huey and Laja wondered if its circuits had been damaged. He prepared himself in case he was going to have to shut it down, better that then run the risk of it exploding or turning rogue.

  With a bit of assistance, Huey managed to break free and he looked pretty scuffed up and hardly recognisable with all the soil and debris stuck to him.

  “Whears duff udders?”

  “I can barely understand what you’re saying,” said Laja. “Duff udders? Oh, the others. They’re okay, considering. They’re still in the carriage.”

  “Wed ned toe git outa ear.” Huey pointed to the track and then at his wrist, to indicate the time and the urgency. They needed to leave now.

  Laja left Huey and went back to the carriage and got everyone on their feet. They emerged a bedraggled bunch and walked over to where Huey was waiting. He’d managed to tidy himself up a bit, but still wasn’t making much sense and Clom was quick to say that he never had.

  They had managed to make Shou a sling for his arm out of cables and insulation and he was comfortable enough.

  Together, they followed the long scar the carriage had carved last night; right up to where it had parted company with the track. Here a huge section was missing, which would make it impossible for the Femesumma to following them. Huey knew it would take more than a broken track to stop the Femesumma and they could just as easily head them off from the other direction.

  It seemed that Huey’s speech problem was here to stay and no one but Laja was able to understand him. He wasn’t very popular at the moment anyway, for having nearly got them killed. With his speech the way it was, he couldn’t exactly argue his case and this resulted in a quiet spell.

  They needed something to raise their spirits, as the silence had given them a little too much time to dwell on their predicament, but all they got was a scare. Huey felt the ground vibrate and was sure a train was coming, so they distanced themselves from the track, just in case.

  Huey pointed in the direction they were headed and tried to explain that a team would be coming out to repair the damaged track, but nothing materialised and they blamed Huey’s false reading on his overall condition. Huey was quick to defend himself, even though they couldn’t understand his side of the argument.

  An hour went by and Huey stopped abruptly and everyone thought his systems had finally given up and he had come to the end of the road. Wishful thinking on Clom’s part, because Huey was fine, after all, he was built with military grade materials and he alerted them to what he was interpreting as a column of smoke.

  “Couldn’t it be a dust devil or another of those vortexes?” asked Clom.

  “Dars notting wong wid mi iys.”

  “What’s it saying?” asked Shou.

  “I think it said, there’s nothing wrong with its eyes,” said Laja.

  “It was bad enough when we could understand him,” said Clom.

  They proceeded with caution and a stationary train came into view and Huey turned to the group, as much to say, I told you so. There was smoke coming from the damaged front carriage, which even from this distance, could be seen as badly misshapen.

  “What do you think?” ask Joeum, not to anyone in particular.

  Just then, their attention was drawn to a strange sound. A low rumble that could have been mistaken for a ground tremor, only Huey knew it wasn’t and he uttered a single word, which sounded like, Idovex. Laja shrugged and then they heard it again and this time it was more obvious that it belonged to something living, an animal of some kind, an idovex. Whatever the hell that was.

  The animal sounded angry, the result of having been hit by the train perhaps and while they stood there trying to imagine what this thing might look like, it suddenly made an appearance. Emerging from out of the ground, close to the stationary train.

  They stood still. Apparently, this thing had bad eyesight, which was a blessing, since it was pretty monstrous and had a good turn of speed.

  For those familiar with the meat eaters of the Jurassic, this thing would have fitted in perfectly. The beast may have resembled a dinosaur, but the chances of it evolving into a bird were probably rather slim, but that didn’t mean someone in the future wouldn’t be looking for a possible link.

  The Idovex had been putting on a display of dominance and since the train hadn’t got the message and moved on, it was time to crank things up a notch and the animal charged and put another sizeable dent in the side.

  The Idovex was just another hazard out here on the plain and it was thought that they were attracted to the vibrations of approaching trains, or the electric current. Accidents weren’t that common, as the Femesumma had cleared most of their nests close to the track, but they must have missed this one.

  “Nests! There’s more than one of those things?”

  Clom had barely got his words out, when two more Idovexes appeared, a little smaller than the first, but still pretty big.

  “We’re screwed,” said Shou.

  They watched as an RDU appeared from the back of the train and opened fire and there was a defiant roar from the lead Idovex.

  A lone Femesumma came around the front, firing its weapon, but this did little to disperse the Idovexes. They just looked more determined. The Femesumma retreated, limping back to the train, but an Idovex was upon him in a flash. There wasn’t a lot they could do but watch as its sickle-like claws cut the Femesumma clean in two. Mica looked away, this was horrible and the group started to back up.

  Huey had other ideas and stood watching the Idovexes and after some body thrusting and snapping of jaws, they disappeared back underground.

  Huey didn’t want to waste an opportunity and he took off towards the train and even Laja seemed hesitant to follow him.

  Somewhat reluctantly they hastened after Huey and closed in on the train’s position.

  Now a little closer, they could see a gaping hole in the ground near the track and it echoed to the sound of weapon fire. So that explained where the RDU had got to. It could have been that the RDU was winning, but they weren’t going to stick around to find out.

  There were three carriages and avoiding the damaged one for obvious reasons, they clambered aboard the second, while Huey went to work on uncoupling them.

  Huey’s fingers seemed to dance across the keypad and with the damaged carriage detached, there was nothing to stop them taking the train for themselves. It was only when they filed through into the third carriage that they encountered a problem. They weren’t the only ones on the train and were confronted by several heavily armoured Femesumma.

  Just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, the train was hit with considerable force and something smashed through a window. The object bounced a few times, narrowly missing the group and after hitting a partition wall, it came to rest at their feet. It was the head of an RDU and it was pretty mangled. It wasn’t the only RDU out there, but the other one wasn’t doing too well either, because it had just zipped past the windows of the carriage with an Idovex hot on its heels.

  A battle-scarred Femesumma ordered everyone onto the floor and Huey was shown off the train at gunpoint. The Femesumma may have come out here to fix the track, but now they’d recaptured the humans, so they decided to quit this place and leave the RDUs here to fight it out with the Idovexes.

  It was a few minutes before the train got going as there was an Idovex on the line.

  The group cursed their misfortunes at getting recaptured so quickly after their escape and with Huey gone; they were
at the mercy of the Femesumma, yet again.

  The train pulled away and picked up speed rapidly and Huey’s first thought was to go after it and was about to do just that when he heard someone calling his name. He knew he hadn’t imagined it since it was only the humans that referred to him as Huey.

  Clom suddenly materialised, but there wasn’t time to ask him why he had got off the train because there was an RDU closing fast with an Idovex right behind it. Huey’s electronic voice rose to the equivalent of a shout and without thinking, Clom threw himself at him.

  “Hod un,” said Huey and he turned on a dime and flew off across the wastes.

  This was more like it, thought Clom and the Idovex was struggling to keep up. If only the same could be said of the RDU, which had begun firing at them. Huey was doing what he could to be evasive, but he had to think of Clom, who would be thrown off if he tried anything too extreme. The best solution Huey could come up with was to fly backwards and in this position, he could shield Clom with the bulk of his body and still return fire.

  Everything looked the same out here on the plain, an endless expanse of nothingness and Huey wanted to bring this chase to an end as quickly as possible, but he wouldn’t do that by normal means, so he would have to think creatively.

  Without warning, they dropped like a stone and Clom looked over his shoulder to see they were plummeting towards a river and a very fast and furious one at that. There was nothing but churning white water below them and Huey wasn't slowing down.

  “Huey!” shouted Clom. As if Huey hadn’t realised the impending danger.

  Clom held on for dear life while bracing himself for impact and finally, Huey did what Clom had been praying for and slowed their descent. They had dropped into a canyon and the RDU was still in hot pursuit, which Huey had anticipated.

  Huey had been dodging and returning fire for a few minutes and in combat mode his armoured shell was hot, but Clom was holding on through the pain.