The Burn Zone

by James K. Decker

  Almost there...

  Red emergency lights lit up all along the wall, and a klaxon began to sound, echoing off into the night as the wall of buildings ahead rushed forward to meet me.

  Another turret opened up as I turned the emitters back on, stopping the bike fast enough to make my tail-bone bang onto the seat cushion. More rounds whined past and now I could actually see the guards stationed along the wall below, one pointing up in my direction as two more fought to reposition the turret. One soldier pulled out a handgun and aimed it toward me as I closed in.

  I heard the pops as the row of red lights flashed past beneath me, the klaxon so loud now that it hurt my ears. A bullet punched through the windscreen, leaving a single hole in the middle of a web of cracks. Two more rounds hit the bike’s underbelly as I cleared the wall and then plunged in between two buildings on the other side.

  The street below was filled with a cheering, waving mass of people. As I rocketed past a building face, I saw rows of parade-goers lined up on the fire escape there, shouting as I passed. Masked faces turned upward to follow me as I came in way too fast, and the crowd surged as people scrambled to get out of the way. Up ahead, a set of blue lights flashed and a siren chirped, changing in pitch as I streaked past.

  In the rearview display I could make out a sliver of the rim wall between the towering buildings. Red lights still flashed there, but I couldn’t see the other bike. The klaxon was still going, but they’d stopped firing.

  I sailed over the sea of bodies, whipping out of the side street and into an explosion of colored neon lights, flashing signs, and dancing, singing, screaming people.

  The main strip was alive, all four lanes filled with a parade of multistoried floats, marching soldiers, dancers, stilt walkers, and fire-breathers, all moving through a polyethylene blizzard of confetti. Above the procession, enormous balloons depicting the different forms of jiangshi lumbered between the buildings, staring down at the crowd with their huge iridescent eyes.

  I banged a left, and my turn went wide as I veered toward the parade line. I banked, just clearing the side of a massive balloon being towed down the street below by a large utility vehicle. Trailing streamers that made up the jiangshi’s seaweed hair slapped against the bike’s windscreen as I tried to peel away, thumping along the balloon’s outer skin. The bike bucked underneath me as I pushed through, cracks from the bullet hole splitting along the length of the windshield until it finally snapped. Half of it broke loose and hit me in the shoulder as it spun off into the air behind me. I bumped the balloon again, then pushed off it with one foot and dove down over the heads of the cheering crowd.

  Up ahead, the parade trailed off like a giant, electric caterpillar, the floats and balloons crawling forward down the length of the strip. Floodlights crisscrossed through the sky above while bottle rockets and bags of red dye jumped up out of the blanket of parade-goers like bubbles popping over the top of a soda glass. Designs of sparkling light paint covered the surfaces of the behemoths as they lumbered, venting waves of streamers and confetti in their wakes.

  The thumping beat of music swelled as I closed in, so loud that it managed to drown out a crowd that covered every inch of sidewalk below as far as the eye could see. Masks of monsters grinned up from the blanket of bodies, while fists pumped in time with the music. As I passed, costumed dancers writhed and stomped on the tiers of a gaudy float temple, shaking the grave markers above them. Another siren whooped briefly before the techno beat snuffed it out. Blue and red flashing lights were piling up down the street behind us, angry strobes against the frantic light show.

  I slipped around the street corner between the face of the building and the temple float next to it. On my left, people were hanging out of the windows hooting and hollering, while on the right a row of skull-masked dancers at window level were writhing, shaking tasseled bronze pasties at guys who leered and whistled across from the building next to them.

  The bike’s main emitter sputtered out with a series of loud, electric snaps. Dropping down past two more rows of dancers, I leaned on the horn as the crowd tried to make a hole below.

  When the last guy was clear, I killed the engine. The bike dropped the last six feet and crashed down onto the sidewalk.

  ~ * ~

  Chapter Twenty-four

  03:46:11 BC

  A packet of dye struck my chest and exploded in a cloud of red powder. Another came right behind it as the crowd surged back in around the crashed bike.

  I tried to see through the sea of flailing bodies, but between the costume streamers and the shower of plastic bits, it was hard to see much of anything. I stood up on the airbike’s seat and squinted into the bright parade lights that shone down from the massive balloons above, cocking my head to bring up the 3i display.

  Vamp, where are you?

  Here.

  The underbelly of another bike veered out over the street above while people cursed at it from the windows. It banked back around to the corner about thirty meters away, and I caught a glimpse of Vamp riding on top, Nix tucked in behind him, as he signaled down at me. He brought the bike down, buzzing the crowd in a tight, descending circle to try and clear them out of the way so he could land. As he dropped down toward the street, he pointed back behind us.

  Behind you.

  I turned and looked up in time to see a security vehicle coming in fast from above. Its lights were going full tilt, and in seconds the siren wail rose over the cacophony of music, fireworks, and screaming. The car dove down at a sharp angle, and the crowd around us back-pedaled into one another, trying to scatter as the aircar closed in.

  When I turned back, Vamp had the bike down. I could make out the headlamp shining through the crowd across the street. He and Nix were struggling to reach me while a second security vehicle zipped out from over a side street and disappeared behind the giant parade balloon that filled the sky above us. Its enormous, leering face gazed down over the procession of floats below it, light paint flashing in brilliant patterns down the sides of its serpentine body. Long feathery fins trailed from both sides, rippling in the wind as it swam through the air.

  People scrambled as the sirens grew louder, shoving each other to try and get out of the way. The ship’s floodlight snapped on and a cone of bright white light shone down over the parade-goers. Bits of paper and other assorted road trash were caught in the gravity field and formed a cresting wave in the air before sprinkling back down over the crowd below.

  “Coming through!” I yelled, pushing my way through the crowd toward Vamp. All I could see was a wall of sweaty chests and armpits. “Move!”

  This is a madhouse. We’ll never even make it to the gate.

  I chanced a look back and was able to spot the vehicle’s flashing lights through the crowd. A uniformed man stood up on the side of my abandoned airbike, pointing in our direction.

  Pushing on, I managed to reach Vamp and Nix and signaled toward the opposite side of the street. Vamp signaled back to me as he tapped the side of his head.

  Check eyebot.

  I brought up the 3i map and saw that the security team that had just landed back behind me was now visible as a cluster of red markers on the map, and there were two more growing at each of the block’s street corners.

  A path between them was clear, at least for now. I pointed again, then squeezed through the crowd and ducked under the street barrier as a group of stilt-walking ghouls approached through the falling plastic flakes. Firecrackers popped overhead as I dashed out across the street, Nix and Vamp hot on my heels. A forest of rhythmically swaying stilts began to close in, towering in front of a pair of giant, glowing, googly eyes that stared out of a monster face behind them. I darted between the moving stick legs and made for the sidewalk as one of them lurched to try and avoid me. The crowd oohed as the guy perched up on top almost lost his balance.

  “Halt!” an amplified voice boomed from back behind us.

  A shot boomed over the racket, and the crowd around us
cringed, ducking their heads as one. A big shirtless guy clipped me and I pitched forward and went down into a forest of legs and stomping feet.

  “Vamp!” I screamed. “Nix!”

  I tried to get up and got knocked down again. I couldn’t see anything, and as I turned, a knee thudded into my forehead.

  “Vamp!”

  I was woozy but forced myself to stand, grabbing the belt of the guy next to me and hauling myself up. I spun around but didn’t see Vamp or Nix anywhere. I’d lost them.

  Another shot banged through the air, and a man standing next to me stumbled back. A plastic bag slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a glass pop as blood began to bloom through his T-shirt along his left side. He stared, confused, as the blood began to burble down his side to stain the hip of his shorts red. His eyelids fluttered and he fell back onto his butt.

  Through the crowd, I spotted Ligong aiming down the sights of a pistol while people scrambled to get out of the line of fire. I tried to push through, but the crowd had squished together to form a tight knot.

  Vamp, where are you?

  Sam, look out.

  Red laser light flashed in the corner of my eye. I had turned to look for the source when I saw a glowing dot drift down to my chest.

  Someone grabbed my wrist. I turned and caught a flash of pink and the ruffle of a suit jacket as Nix scooped me up in one arm just as the shot went off.

  I heard the bullet slam into him as his arm tightened around me, and one hand slipped down to cup me under the butt.

  Hold on.

  The next thing I knew, we were in the air. His leap took us up over the heads of the people piled up around us, and through the snapping tails of his jacket I saw some of them follow our arc, pointing and staring. Festival-goers on the other side of the mob scattered, one pitching off the curb and down between two parked cars, as Nix landed nimbly on his feet and skidded forward, grinding across a patch of street sand to where Vamp was waiting. He held me to his chest and I looked back through the crowd to see Ligong appear through a break in the crowd, her gun aimed in front of her.

  The crowd panicked. All of them tried to run at once, spilling into the streets in a hail of honking car horns. I heard the shriek of tires followed by the crunch of plastic and fiberglass as the towering float next to us stopped too quickly and was struck from behind. The tiers of the float teetered, and something snapped inside its frame. A platform above gave way and several dancers fell, gold tassels trailing as they went down into the rows of costumed marchers below. Ahead, people dove to get out of the way of the renegade haan who was barreling toward them with a human girl in his arms.

  Up ahead, Vamp waved us forward. Nix dropped me onto my feet as Vamp whipped his arm around and threw something back behind me that caused a thump and a collective groan from the people there. When I turned I saw people spattered with bright red festival dye, some wiping at their faces. Ligong was there, her face looking like it had been covered in a mask of red war paint as she blinked, trying to clear her eyes. She forced one eyelid open and stared right at me as she took aim with the pistol.

  Everyone ducked as the gun went off and the slug pounded into the wall next to me. I crouched low and scanned the side street ahead, thinking that if we could disappear into the sprawl we could lose her. At least long enough to get to the gate where, without the twistkey, she wouldn’t be able to follow.

  I checked the map. Red pixels had begun to appear sprinkled up and down the parade route. Even with the incomplete data I could already see they were forming a net to close in on us with.

  Where was the gate? I zeroed in on the GPS marker, and my heart dropped. I’d lost the bike too soon. The hub was three whole blocks from where we were.

  “Damn it! Come on!”

  Vamp and Nix followed as I bolted, into the alley, sprinting through the blanket of confetti that had accumulated between the buildings there. I darted between the alley shop fronts where shoppers were clustered under flapping canvas signs, then around the side of a metal trash bin where a second narrow alley branched farther into the maze of buildings.

  The way opened up into a little blacktop cubby nestled between several buildings where three guys and two girls were hanging out zoning under a string of paper festival lamps. Two of the guys and one of the girls were leaning back against the graffiti-covered brick face passing around a hand-rolled cigarette, while the other girl stood bent over in front of a shirtless guy with her hands on her knees. Her skirt was hiked up and the little bit of rear-end padding she had rippled each time he thrust into her. They both looked bored until the moment a girl, a guy, and a haan all clomped to a stop in the middle of the group. The girl getting pounded went to stand up suddenly and cracked her head on the U-clamp of a rain gutter. She staggered and fell forward onto the pavement as the dude behind her stood there with his dick pointing due north.

  A shot went off and I spun around to see that Ligong had entered from the alley behind us. The gang snapped out of it long enough to scatter, leaving the girl on the ground with her bare ass still sticking up.

  “Wait,” I said, holding out my hands. Ligong stalked closer while two more soldiers marched in behind her. “Just... wait!”

  Before she could pull the trigger, a gust of wind blew down hard from above, and the lights from an aircar filled the cubby. Everyone looked up as a siren chirped, echoing through the small space as a military police car dropped down toward us.

  One of Ligong’s soldiers took aim with a Gauss rifle, but before he could get a shot off, heavy gunfire erupted from underneath the descending vehicle. His body jerked, and the front of his armor flashed hot red as the rounds bored through the plating there. His chest exploded in a shower of blood, muscle, and bone while his arm, carried by the weight of the weapon, slid right out of the armor’s sleeve. It tumbled across the pavement, his body thumping down after it. The girl had regained consciousness and was back on her feet, staring in horror as she pulled her skirt back into place.

  I looked up, shielding my eyes, and saw a face I recognized through the car window.

  Kang.

  The back door opened, hydraulics hissing over the sound of the engine as the car floated over the cracked pavement.

  “Come on!” Kang shouted. Ligong was signaling toward the vehicle while the girl turned tail and disappeared down the alley.

  Kang had already screwed me once, and I didn’t like the look of the back of that car. There were no interior handles to open the doors again, and a metal grate separated it from the cab. It would be stepping into a cage, but right now the alternative was worse. I climbed in, the other two hot on my heels.

  “Stop!” Ligong barked over an amplifier.

  Bullets thudded against the outer plating of the aircar as she fired at us, her aim following as we rose past the second floor of the buildings on either side. Pressed in the corner next to Vamp and Nix, I cringed as a round thumped into the safety glass right next to Kang’s head.

  He leaned back and slid open a small window in the grate that separated us so he could look back.

  “You okay?” he called back.

  “Just go!”

  Kang looked down over the dome of his armored shoulder pad and spotted Ligong below as she gave up on the pistol and picked the heavy Gauss rifle up from the ground, shaking the severed arm away from it. I saw her aim it up toward us and squint through the scope.

  Kang turned the stick and the aircar yawed just as the shot went off. A thin trail of smoke flashed past the window and I saw the round punch through the brick face of the building that appeared in front of us. His hand moved to the console, gloved fingers dancing across the array of controls there while he kept one eye down on the street. A heads-up display flickered onto the windshield in front of him where a camera’s reticule locked on to Li-gong below and then zoomed in. A motor grumbled under the seat somewhere and I saw a gun turret’s long black barrel move into view as Ligong adjusted her aim.

  “Go!” I
yelled. “Up! Up!”

  The rail slug popped through the vehicle’s thick glass, and in a flash, Kang’s head exploded into a shower of gristle that painted the cab’s interior red.

  The vehicle shuddered, threatening to stall, as his body slumped over in the seat. One lifeless hand slipped off the control stick, then flopped down as we began to list toward the building face to our left.

  “Shit!” Vamp spat. “Goddamn it!”

  “Hang on!” I said.

  I slipped my arms and head through the opening in the grate, almost getting stuck at the shoulders. I managed to grab the control stick and then wriggle the rest of my body through as another hole popped through the glass inches from my nose.