by Isaac Hooke
In answer, Renaldo only quivered.
Will glanced at the creatures. Should we go before our friends here finish?
There were three creatures sitting on the sidelines—runts who had been unable to jostle for a place among any of the tankers. They sat between the vehicles, hoping for a turn.
The idle creatures in a group of otherwise occupied bioweapons were always the most dangerous. They would soon grow bored, and hunger would drive them to search for new prey. If it picked up the scent and found the humans, the fight wouldn’t necessarily be easy: a runt among bioweapons was still formidable, compared to a human. Or a cyborg. Also, the resulting commotion would attract the bigger creatures, and the jig would be up.
The closest of the three unoccupied bioweapons was the Tasin missing a foreleg. Keeping an eye on that one, Rhea slowly crept past the stairwell opening. She flattened her body against the adjacent wall and edged forward. The others followed, similarly hugging the wall and advancing crabwise beside her, forming a chain of nervous humanity.
She glanced over her shoulder and was relieved to find Renaldo following on drag. She hated the thought of having to go back for him. Because she would have.
The light from the headlamps only reached so far, and soon Rhea was in complete darkness. She kept her LIDAR operating, and it outlined the dimensions of the parking garage ahead with white polygons. The Tasins were none-the-wiser: they couldn’t detect LIDAR, unlike say the Aradne security forces.
She reached a bend and followed it. In seconds the Tasins were out of view. She continued, and when everyone was past the bend, she glanced at the silhouettes of her companions, who appeared outlined in blue on her HUD, thanks to their link. From their body language, she could sense relief. Renaldo had slumped visibly.
Don’t get too relaxed, Rhea said. We’re not out of this yet.
She led the way through the empty stalls, past the occasional, looted shells of vehicles. She glanced over her shoulder often, leaning forward to gaze past her companions. There was never any sign of pursuing Tasins.
The concrete floor sloped downward, eventually leading to another bend. When she took it, even she couldn’t help but feel more relaxed, as they continued to put more distance between themselves and the creatures. A part of her hoped they’d find an alternate exit somewhere here, something that wasn’t on the map, a path that the bombing had opened up, perhaps leading to the basement of another building. She knew it was wishful thinking.
They attempted to check the stairwell here, hoping for a shortcut, but the door wouldn’t even open; seemed the roof had collapsed on the other side.
You know, I thought stairwells were supposed to be designed to be the last things to collapse, Chuck commented. So that people would have an escape route in case, you know, there were problems.
Seems someone ignored that design rule, Will sent.
Rhea quickened her pace as she continued down the sloping ramp. She zig-zagged from one side of the parking garage to the other, descending two more floors until she reached the fourth and final level. As expected, there were no alternate exits. No escapes. But at least they had found what they had come for.
Ahead, parked in the middle of the ramp, was an SUV in pristine condition. In addition to scouting, the advance team had dropped off three vehicles at strategic fallback points across the city. The fourth level of the parking garage was one of them.
Rhea was a bit relieved to find the vehicle where it was expected, and not already stolen. But of course, it wouldn’t be; salvagers didn’t pass this way with all that much frequency. Not even the Aradne security forces would have known about it: the advance team had taken advantage of blind spots in the satellite coverage to strategically deploy the vehicle right under their noses.
No, she was more worried about another betrayal among her men than anything else, but it looked like the daily scans had been successful in preventing another Anderson incident.
Will approached the driver side door. “Just so you know, I’m overriding self-driving mode.”
Rhea nodded. “I trust you more than whatever AI is installed.”
“Shouldn’t we switch to mental communication?” Renaldo said softly. He cringed as if at the loudness of his own words.
“Their hearing isn’t that sensitive,” Horatio said.
Will entered and took the wheel. Horatio sat in the front passenger side, and Rhea squeezed in beside the robot. Chuck and Renaldo piled into the back seats. Everyone shut their doors as quietly as possible: this usually involved closing the door until the latch clicked, and then pulling hard to seal it the rest of the way.
“So, what now?” Chuck asked.
“We wait for the bioweapons to come,” Rhea replied.
10
Rhea stared out into the darkness, at the LIDAR-illuminated fourth floor of the parking garage.
Chuck thrummed his fingers on the back of her seat.
She turned around and told him: “Can you stop that?”
Chuck stopped.
When she turned forward again, the thrumming resumed.
Will glanced at her. From the blue silhouette of his face, she could tell he was smiling.
Rhea growled, and the thrumming instantly ceased.
“Probably a good thing you stopped,” Renaldo said. “You wouldn’t like to see the Warden angry.”
“No,” Chuck agreed. “I apologize, Warden. I guess I’ve become… too familiar with you. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.” He glanced at Will. “I used to believe she was infallible. Unbeatable. She’s still the Warden. A good leader, and brave, but I know now she makes mistakes like the rest of us. She gets afraid, like all of us. That’s one of the drawbacks of hanging out with one’s hero too long, I guess. As I once said, familiarity breeds contempt. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not quite contempt I feel. I still respect the hell out of her. I’ll still follow her to the gates of hell, at least I think I will, but I do so no longer in utter awe of her. That’s why I’m not afraid to thrum my fingers a bit, to playfully annoy her. Because I know she’s not so different from me.”
“Okay, just to be clear, you say you still respect her?” Will asked. “That means you’ll obey her—and my—commands? Otherwise you’re of no use to us.”
“Yes, I will obey her,” Chuck said coldly. “Not you.”
Will snorted, then returned his gaze to the fore. “Better hope my pistol doesn’t accidentally go off in your back one of these days.”
“And you better hope the same, Salvager,” Chuck said.
“Enough you two,” Rhea said. “We need to work together. Save the pissing contests for when we’re back in Rust Town.”
That seemed to diffuse the situation, at least somewhat. Everyone remained quiet, at least for the next minute.
“You sure none of the satellites saw us go in here?” Renaldo asked into the silence.
“None,” Horatio said.
“Their forces will arrive eventually,” Chuck said. “They know our general neighborhood after all, thanks to the drones we shot down.”
“They’ll be conducting a building to building search, no doubt,” Will said. “But it could take them all day. Which is too bad. They’d make a tasty treat for the bioweapons. And a good distraction for us.”
“Maybe they’ll go away,” Renaldo said.
“Who, the bioweapons?” Chuck asked. “No. They’ll come.”
Renaldo swallowed. “I used to think I’d be safe with the Warden, no matter what happened. That she’d protect me, because I was one of her most loyal followers. Now I’m not so sure.”
Those words hurt, and Rhea bit down an angry response, saying instead: “I will protect you.”
“I know you plan to,” Renaldo told her. “And that you’ll do your darnedest to protect us all. But like Chuck said, I also know you’re not infallible now, and though you might try to save me, you could fail, despite your best intentions.”
“One of the drawbacks of hanging wit
h your hero overlong,” Chuck repeated.
“But you already should have known I wasn’t infallible,” Rhea said. “All of you saw me fall to the bioweapons in Rust Town. It was live streamed across the world. I failed then.”
“Not really,” Renaldo said. “Because you rallied us all to fight back. You succeeded. And no one really believed you could actually die. Especially considering how quick your recovery was. Sure, we had to pay for a new body, but your mind, your beautiful mind… I don’t know. I guess I thought your mind would always survive, no matter what happened. Protected by your cyborg body.”
“You wanted to know what the real Warden was like,” Will said over his shoulder. “Well, now you know. Ignorance is bliss, huh? Welcome to the inner circle. There’s no going back from this. She’s human, just like the rest of you. A legend, perhaps, yet human all the same. And she can die like anyone else.”
“I suppose so,” Chuck said. “Actually, I’m glad I could see this side of her. The human side. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. And I have no regrets about getting to know you as well, Salvager, along with your robot Horatio. It’s been the experience of a lifetime. I have no regrets. If I die here, I’ll still feel I’ve lived fully. I wanted you to know that. All of you. Going down, fighting side-by-side with the famous Warden of Rust Town and her stalwart companions? Can’t do any better than that.”
“Is that your way of apologizing for your earlier attitude?” Will asked.
“I suppose it is,” Chuck replied.
“Well, I’m sorry for saying I might accidentally shoot you in the back,” Will said. “I’d never do that. You can ask Rhea—the Warden—here. I’m not like that.”
“He’s not,” Rhea agreed. “He’s saved me more times than I can count. I wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t for him.”
“No, I believe him,” Chuck said.
“Just to clarify,” Horatio said into the silence that followed. “I’m not ‘his’ robot. I’m ‘a’ robot. I operate of my own free will. Will is my friend, not my master.”
“Sure thing, Faceless,” Chuck said.
Again, quietude descended, and the occupants stared tensely into the dark of the parking garage. They waited for bioweapons to appear on the LIDAR.
“Should’ve brought along some portable adhoc cams,” Will said. “So we could have eyes around the bend.”
“It wouldn’t make much of a difference…” Horatio said.
“Do you think Miles made it?” Renaldo blurted.
Rhea glanced over her shoulder at the Wardenite’s blue silhouette. “He made it. His entire team did. Without a doubt.”
The semis had secretly carried several vehicles stowed inside their tanks. Essentially mini tankers, these vehicles had debarked upon reaching the pipeline, using the canopy draped between the tractor trailers and the pipeline for cover.
While the larger tankers loaded water, the smaller vehicles filled their own reservoirs. When they had all topped up, they took advantage of an inherent design flaw in the transport system—the pipeline had been elevated off the ground by the architects in order to protect it from attack by bioweapons. So, when Rhea and her companions departed, the remaining Wardenites, led by Miles, simply steered their smaller vehicles underneath that gap between the pipeline and the ground, and retreated.
The maneuver effectively hid Miles and his team from view of the satellites in orbit. In theory, they’d be able to travel all the way to Rust Town undetected, simply by following the pipeline. There were motion sensors installed underneath the pipes, but the Wardenites, via their city contacts, had bribed a few employees at the monitoring station to look the other way. Hopefully, those employees lived up to their word.
When Miles and his team reached the walls of Aradne, the vehicles would swerve out from beneath their cover and into the ruins surrounding the wall, and then make their final dash to Rust Town in the open. Hackers from the slums were working on bypassing Aradne’s external camera feeds, and hopefully they’d be done by the time Miles arrived so his final lap could be hidden from the authorities.
However even if the cameras remained operational, and the security forces scrambled, likely more than a few of the water transports would make it to Rust Town intact. Especially considering that the Wardenites planned a riot to coincide with the arrival of the vehicles. That, and much of Aradne security was currently deployed above Rhea’s present location.
Once inside the settlement, the transports would quickly be hidden; then water would be doled out to the neediest residents in the coming week. It was a relatively simple plan. And it would work.
“So at least we’re not going to die for nothing then,” Renaldo said. “Though I just wish our deaths would buy Rust Town more than a week’s worth of water.”
“You’re not going to die,” she told him. “You said you felt safe with me? You are safe. I’ll never let anyone harm you.”
Renaldo nodded slowly. “But when you talked about failing in Rust Town, you reminded me that you couldn’t save everyone in the slums when the bioweapons attacked. You tried, but you’re not a superhero.”
“No,” she agreed. “I’m not. Far from it. Of course I couldn’t save everyone in the slums. But we’re not in the slums right now, and I don’t have an entire settlement to protect. Just three men, and a robot.”
“I can protect myself,” Horatio said.
“And I,” Will said.
“Me, too,” Chuck added.
Renaldo remained silent.
“Even so,” Rhea told them. “I’ll do my best to protect all of you. Giving my life to do so, if need-be.”
“No,” Chuck said. “That’s not how this works. We’re the ones who are going to give our lives for you, Warden. Especially now that we know how vulnerable you are. As Renaldo mentioned, no one ever really believed you could actually die, especially not on a ‘simple’ diversionary mission like this one. We were all wrong. I guess we didn’t realize how close you came in Rust Town. No one did. You were still the Warden to us then, the Legend, not the Cyborg. If anyone survives this, it has to be you. Always you. I’m at peace with dying, if it means you live.”
“I’m touched,” she said. “But your protection isn’t needed or wanted.” She didn’t want to lose yet another Wardenite. Anderson’s death was more than enough, thank you.
Chuck didn’t answer.
“Do you understand me, Wardenite?” she asked.
“I understand,” Chuck replied, sounding halfhearted.
“I hope you don’t do anything stupid,” she said softly.
She gazed into the darkness, at the LIDAR wireframes overlaying her vision—white polygons outlining the bend, and the walls, floor and ceiling beside it. Hard, straight lines. Surreal in a way. Like a world empty of all color and surfaces and containing only pale edges.
She heard a faint clattering. CLICK CLACK. CLICK CLACK. Talons scraping across cement.
“They’re here,” Renaldo whispered.
Rhea stared at the bend. Nothing appeared. That clattering simply grew in volume, until soon she could hear distinct rattles within it, overlapping, as of several sources spread out in a line. The occasional moaning of metal permeated the din—likely the shells of looted vehicles being torn apart.
Finally, something appeared around the bend. A long, bent stalk, like a fishing rod, felt along the ground. Another appeared. Antennae.
These were followed by the thin, top-heavy stalk of an avian foot. Tipped by talons, upon contact with the concrete it produced a fresh rattle, one that rose above the general background clatter. Another foot appeared, followed by that armored, plated head, and that toothless, sucker of a mouth. The feathered body came next, so that soon the entire Tasin was in view.
One of the larger specimens, the creature seemed to be crouching, but its upper body still brushed against the cement roof. While it was big, there was still more than enough clearance on the left and right sides for the SUV to pass. The trick was not getti
ng struck by those powerful legs as they did so, because other than the occasional pillar or dismantled vehicle, there was nothing the SUV could use for cover.
Rhea withdrew her pistol.
You didn’t always need cover, not when you packed a sting.
Chuck and Renaldo produced their own weapons, as did Will. Horatio deployed the rifle barrels beneath his forearms.
Give the word, Will sent over the mental channel.
Not yet, Rhea said.
Another Tasin appeared behind the first, then a third. Each creature seemed to respect the space of the bioweapon before it: they kept an entire body-length of separation between them.
Say the word… Will sent.
Not yet, Rhea replied.
The two Tasins that followed the first spread out, with the second moving toward the left side of the aisle, while the third took the right side. Those feelers felt along the walls, pillars, and floor, searching. They were blind in the dark, following only the scent left by Rhea and the others. A scent that would be growing stronger the closer the creatures came.
Can they smell us with the windows closed? Renaldo asked over the mental link.
Our scent lingers outside, Horatio replied. Plus, the vehicle has a weak scent, too.
The third Tasin paused when it encountered the wreckage of a vehicle and began to rip it apart with its forelegs. Good. The racket would cover the minimal noise produced by the SUV’s passage.
The lead Tasin approached on a direct path to the SUV, no doubt driven by the ever- growing smell. Those antennae followed along the ground eagerly, with a seeming certainty that Rhea found unnerving. It increased its pace.
Two more Tasins appeared around the bend behind the other three.
Dude…. Will sent.
Hold, Rhea returned.
11
Rhea continued to wait.
The tense seconds ticked past as the creatures approached, and when the lead Tasin was three car lengths away, she finally transmitted: Go.