by A. G. Taylor
At Makarov’s side, Ilya, the Russian boy from the training zone, teleported into existence. Meanwhile, out of the trees surrounding the edge of the park, the dark shapes of twenty robowolves stalked silently forwards. The robots stood guard a few metres from the table, their red eyes locked on Robert and the others.
Makarov cast an eye over them and nodded approvingly. “The Spire can be a heaven for those who obey my rule. A hell for those who do not.” He smiled nastily. “Sarah Williams fled. She has deserted you.”
Robert made a choking noise and his vision swam with tears. He wanted to throw himself at Makarov, to kick and tear at the man, but it was as if concrete had been poured over his body. He tried to yell with frustration, but found even that was impossible. Makarov had all of them in the grip of his mind.
“I sense you all trying to fight against me,” Makarov told the group, “but as you can see, I’m far too powerful. I was perfecting my mind-control techniques when your grandparents were in nappies. Furthermore, I have an alien with a brain the size of a planet on my side.”
Robert looked across at Nestor, who was powerless other than to roll his eyes in desperation. He’s crazy, Robert thought to him.
No arguments there, Nestor shot back. What do we do?
I don’t know, Robert replied, suddenly wishing more than anything in the world that his sister was with them. Sarah hadn’t given up on them. Makarov was lying – he sensed it.
“You should feel privileged,” the Russian continued, clearly enjoying his captive audience. “You are the first to experience the next stage of human evolution. In less than two days, meteorites will rain down on every major city, carrying the virus to all parts of the world. Below, the majority of humanity will live as slaves to my master, the Entity. Meanwhile, we, the immune, will rule as kings in the clouds.” He leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh, but then his face darkened.
“Of course, we have the matter of your group disobedience to deal with first,” Makarov said, looking up at the swirling snow around the pyramid and then back to the unmoving children around the table. He smiled broadly, revealing brilliantly white teeth. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to make things a little less comfortable for you all around here. Maybe then you’ll begin to appreciate how lucky you are to have me.”
25
If anything, the blizzard seemed to grow in intensity as Alex and Sarah approached the buildings. They had to hold hands to stop from losing one another in the wall of snow that was being driven towards them. Occasionally Alex would look back, expecting to see the red eyes of one of their pursuers approaching through the pulsating mass of white, but nothing had yet appeared. It was only a matter of time before they were overtaken, however. Visibility was down to just a few metres, so it was impossible to tell how far they had travelled or how far it was to their destination. For all he knew, they could have wandered off track in the storm and were heading round in a circle.
Sarah pulled on his arm and yelled something inaudible above the howl of the wind. Alex looked round to where she pointed and made out the shape of a chain-link fence. They’d made it to the perimeter of the factory. Spurred on by this knowledge, they doubled their pace. They reached the fence and followed it along for a minute before coming to a gate swinging open in the storm.
As they moved through into the factory area, Alex looked up at a towering sign written in both Russian and English:
MAKAROV INDUSTRIES COPPER MINING – WARNING, DANGER AREA
Do you think it’s safe? he sent to Sarah, who shrugged.
Safer than being out here. Let’s get inside!
He wasn’t about to argue. Ahead, the factory buildings loomed above them like dark giants – hardly welcoming, but the best offer they were going to get in the storm. They staggered towards the nearest structure and found a door. Alex tried the handle, but it was locked. The door itself felt flimsy and rotten, however. Taking a step back, he aimed a kick just under the lock and the door flew open with a crack of metal against wood.
They staggered into a small, windowless room, bare except for numerous items of cold weather gear hanging from hooks on the opposite wall. Sarah pushed the door closed to hold back the storm. They collapsed on the floor, exhausted from the trek across the plain.
“Boots!” Alex cried as he spied a rack of clothing. Pulling himself to his feet, he grabbed a pair of heavy boots with a thermal lining from a hook, tossed them to Sarah and took some for himself. They eagerly shed their sodden trainers and put on the dry footwear. Alex found gloves, scarves and hats for them as well.
“I’m actually starting to feel warm again,” he said as he pulled the scarf around his neck.
Sarah clapped her gloves together to get the blood flowing. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find someone in this place.”
Alex put a hand on her arm as she moved to the internal door. “Take it easy. You saw the sign – Makarov owns this factory.”
Sarah acknowledged his point with a nod. “Okay. Let’s go slow. If it looks like trouble, we fade out, alright?”
“Alright.”
She opened the internal door and they stepped out onto a metal walkway. It overlooked a factory floor that stretched on for hundreds of metres into the distance. Everything was on a massive scale: furnaces the size of houses stood idle, while huge pouring vats hung silently from the ceiling. What light there was came in through grime-covered skylights high above. Alex hit a bank of light switches by the door, but nothing happened – no power. The factory was deserted.
Dead.
“Looks like we’re the only people home,” he said, picking up a heavy-duty torch from a shelf by the door and turning it on. He swept the wide beam across the silent machinery below.
“Come on,” Sarah said, moving to the steps leading down onto the factory floor.
“If there’s no electricity, there’s no phone either!” Alex replied as he followed her.
Sarah turned on him. “You got something better to do?”
Alex shrugged and waved the torch around the shadows. “No.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Are you scared?”
“No way!” Alex called after her as she started off between the rows of smelting furnaces. “I just don’t like the idea of wandering around a factory owned by Makarov. It doesn’t seem like a sensible place to hide out when we’re being chased by a pack of his robots.”
Sarah gave no response, so there was nothing to do but follow.
They carried on between the machinery in silence. The stillness of the place was strangely oppressive and Alex began to think he actually preferred it out in the storm. High above their heads, metal chains dangled from the sides of catwalks between the machines. They clattered against one another in the breeze blowing through the factory. Where a giant sliding door stood open on the far wall the snow billowed in, creating a high drift that covered much of the machinery there. All around, in the aisles between the furnaces and work stations, tools and protective equipment such as helmets lay abandoned.
“Looks like this place was cleared out in a hurry,” Alex whispered, tapping his boot against a discarded wrench the size of his forearm. “What do you think happened here?”
Sarah looked around. “I’m betting the local meteorite strike—”
She stopped speaking abruptly and grabbed Alex’s arm, dragging him to the side of one of the smelters. He opened his mouth to protest, but she placed a finger to her lips.
Quiet! There’s something here. Look!
Alex peered round the side of the furnace. In the distance, at the top of the snowdrift, the unmistakable shape of a robowolf stood framed against the swirling blizzard. As its head turned left and right, the searing crimson eyes scanned the factory for any movement below.
Do you think it saw us? Alex thought, turning back to Sarah.
She shook her head, but bent down to pick up a wrench from the floor. I don’t think so, but we should be ready for it.
Alex nodded
and removed an oversized hammer from a hook on the side of the smelter. He stole another look in the direction of the drift. The robowolf had gone.
It disappeared! he told Sarah urgently. Perhaps it moved on.
Doubtful, Sarah replied, backing away. She didn’t see the movement in the aisle behind her, but Alex did.
“Sarah!” he cried out as the robowolf leaped from the shadows towards her, eyes flashing brilliantly. Alex threw the hammer with all his strength at the charging metal beast. The tool hit it full in the face, sending it off course just enough for Sarah to leap to one side. As the robot passed, she brought the wrench down on the back of its neck. With a howl, the robowolf rolled forward, completely out of control, finally smashing headlong into the side of the furnace. The clang of metal against metal reverberated around the silent factory.
“Run!” Sarah cried as the robot struggled to right itself. She and Alex tore round the side of the smelter and sprinted down the wide aisle that bisected the factory, heading in the direction of the snowdrift.
“We have to get out of here!” Sarah said breathlessly as they ran. Behind them, the sound of the robowolf’s feet pounding the concrete floor grew closer as it flew down the aisle after them.
“Then what?” Alex demanded, grabbing one of the discarded tools from the ground as they ran. He spun in time to see the robowolf throw itself at him. He swung the tool and connected with the side of the robot’s head, jerking it round. The robowolf staggered to the left, but then slowly turned to face him again. Its eyes glowed an even deeper red – the right pupil flickering on and off as if damaged from the blow. The robot advanced towards him, slowly and deliberately, herding him back towards one of the machines. Concentrating hard, Alex began to fade out, but realized that it would be several seconds before he attained full invisibility.
“Sarah, get out of here!” Alex yelled, but she shook her head, coming up behind the robowolf with her wrench raised.
“Not leaving you!”
She swung her weapon, but the robowolf anticipated the attack this time, wheeling round and to the side. As the wrench swung uselessly through the air over the robot’s head, it struck out with its right foreleg, knocking Sarah down. Alex leaped forward, but the robowolf extended its claws and swiped at him. He let out a cry of pain as the talons ripped into his upper arm, drawing blood. Staggering back, he became fully visible again, unable to keep his concentration because of the pain. As the robowolf advanced, he could have sworn he saw something like a smile pass across its metal jaws. Alex pressed himself against the side of another furnace and tensed, preparing for the next blow…
“Don’t move, boy!”
Both Alex and his attacker looked round as one at the sound of a thickly accented Russian voice, deep and commanding. A tall man, dressed in a thick coat with a hood that obscured his face, stepped around the side of the furnace. In his gloved hands he held a sledgehammer raised high above his head. Before the robowolf could evade the blow, the man brought the sledgehammer down squarely on its skull. The robot staggered as the head of the tool smashed through its metal cranium, exposing the wires and circuitry of its brain. The man swung his weapon up and down again with a grunt of effort, hitting the robowolf in the same spot. The skull of the robowolf detached from the body and cartwheeled across the aisle.
Stunned, Alex and Sarah looked from the robowolf’s collapsing body to one another and then to the stranger. Their rescuer tossed the sledgehammer into Alex’s arms, causing him to stagger under the weight. Without a word, the man produced a large hook from the belt of his coat and stood over the body of the robowolf. He drove the hook through the wolf’s steel-plated back leg and used it to start dragging the carcass down the aisle.
“Bring the head,” he said gruffly, not looking at either Alex or Sarah. “And pick up any bits from inside. You don’t want to leave anything lying around for the other wolves to find. Hurry!”
Alex looked at Sarah, open-mouthed, but she was already on her feet to retrieve the fallen skull of the robowolf. Looking around the floor, she collected several pieces of circuitry and set off up the aisle after their rescuer. Alex brought up the rear, lugging the sledgehammer.
They turned a corner and went down a narrow walkway walled by racks of tools. The man bent and opened a steel trapdoor set into the floor. Turning, he unceremoniously kicked the body of the robowolf through the gap. It landed a second later with a crash and the man followed down a set of steps. Halfway through the trapdoor, he looked back at Alex and Sarah, who hesitated on the threshold. The man pulled back his coat hood, revealing his face for the first time. He was in his mid-fifties, and although his face was lined from years of exposure to the elements, his eyes were bright and intelligent. The left side of his head was marred by a series of fresh-looking scars that seemed to have been caused by the claws of an animal. His greying hair grew long and fell over his face, obviously to hide the worst of his wounds.
“Well, are you coming or not?” he snapped impatiently. “You can stay here for the rest of the wolf pack to arrive if you like. Just don’t lead them to my hideout.”
Alex glanced at Sarah, who shrugged. What choice did they have?
They started after the man, taking the stairs down as quickly as they could. As they descended, he pulled on a cord and the metal trapdoor swung closed with a mighty clang, blocking the way back to the factory.
26
Sarah and Alex followed their rescuer down a narrow corridor under the factory floor. Light was provided by a series of bulbs gaffer-taped to the low ceiling. The man had to duck to stop from knocking them down with his head as he passed underneath.
The corridor stretched ahead for about fifty metres, before ending at a short set of steps leading down into an underground room. Sarah judged it was about the size of their entire apartment back in Melbourne, although it felt cramped because of the sheer amount of stuff contained within: workbenches piled high with electronic components, racks of tools, boxes brimming over with old bits of scrap. In the corner she made out a single mattress on the floor and realized that this was where the man lived. Underground, it was significantly warmer than in the factory above, but the place still wasn’t exactly luxurious.
“Where are we?” Alex asked as they stepped into the room.
“It used to be a storage area for the factory,” the man replied as he dragged the remains of the robowolf across the room and hauled it up onto one of the workbenches, scattering junk in the process. “Now it’s just about the most desirable property for a hundred kilometres in any direction.”
Shedding his coat, he walked to a bank of car batteries and attached a crocodile clip to one. Immediately, a series of electric heaters positioned around the room hummed into life, casting a ruddy hue across the benches and shelves. Alex walked over and inspected the electrics – everything was battery powered, from the heaters to the lighting.
“Who are you?” Sarah asked as the man returned to the bench and started opening up the belly of the robowolf with a pair of metal cutters.
“Call me Yuri,” he replied with a grunt as he prised open the guts of the robot and yanked out a motor. He pointed to the object Sarah cradled in her arms. “Bring me that head.”
She walked to the bench and handed Yuri the skull of the robowolf. He held it up, inspecting the exposed brain before reaching inside to remove a circuit board. With a grin, he dropped it on the floor and brought his boot down on the component repeatedly until it was little more than dust.
“Homing chip,” he explained, aware that Alex and Sarah were looking at him with concern. “Hard-wired into the brain of every one of those monsters. I just hope we got it before the rest of the pack realize we’ve taken this one down.” He waved his hand around the room. “Take a seat and don’t touch anything.” He looked at the arm of Alex’s coat, which was slick with blood where the robowolf slashed him. “There’s a first-aid kit on the shelf over there. Sort yourself out before you leak all over my floor.”
Alex moved closer to Sarah. Do you think he’s all there?
Looks like he’s been living alone down here for a while, Sarah replied dubiously, casting another look around the room. Take your coat off and sit.
She collected the first-aid kit and went over to Alex, who’d taken a seat in a battered armchair. The wound on his arm wasn’t as bad as it could have been, considering the razor-sharp talons of the robowolf.
“You were lucky the cut wasn’t deeper,” Sarah told him as she applied antiseptic to the four parallel cuts on his upper arm.
“Lucky, right,” Alex replied, gritting his teeth as she bandaged the wound. In the background, Yuri continued to work away at the motor, seemingly oblivious to their presence.
The cuts tended to, Sarah took the first-aid kit back to the shelf and cast another look around the overcrowded den that was Yuri’s home. The air had a stale smell to it, but at least the heaters were doing their job. The temperature quickly became too much after the freezing air above. Sarah unzipped her coat and threw it down on a sofa by the door. Yuri looked up sharply at the movement.
“Don’t make yourself at home. There’s plenty of space to hide out under the factory. You two need to find your own room. I can spare you some food and clothes, but then you’ll have to do your own scavenging.”
“If you didn’t want us down here,” Sarah demanded, “why did you help us in the first place?”
Yuri closed the housing of the motor and gave it one last look over. “Because you were bringing the whole wolf pack down on my hideout, clattering around like a pair of fools up there. And because I needed this for Laika.”
He turned and gave a whistle towards the open doorway of a darkened anteroom they hadn’t noticed before. Something stirred within and there was the sound of metal feet moving on concrete. Thinking of their pursuers, Sarah instinctively backed away. Alex rose from his chair and stood beside her, ready for action.