Cut Off

by Robertson, Edward W.

  "Weird," Ke murmured. "You'd think they'd use their own claws."

  "Maybe they don't like getting their hand-things dirty."

  "What if they came all this way to set up awesome gardens? I bet if they'd asked, Earth's leaders would have said yes."

  "Not ours," Tristan said. "Why do you really suppose they did it?"

  He laughed. "They came for our shit. That's what alien invaders do."

  They made it all the way to the outside circle without finding another of Robi's fallen charms. The walls enclosing the bowl were blank black lava. Six orange doors were set around the circumference, including the one they'd come through. They searched the grounds around each for metal charms or human tracks. Finding nothing, they made another sweep of the rows, hoping to turn up sign of her there.

  That too failed. With the daylight fading, Ke hunkered down beneath a tree full of knobby green fruits. "Unless you've got a better idea, we start knocking down doors."

  The offshore wind was picking up, tousling branches and vines, drawing Tristan's eye every other moment. "It's not like we're going to want for food. Maybe we'd be better off lying in wait."

  "For what? These douchebags to set up signs?"

  "We don't know—"

  She made a cutting motion with her hand. Ke froze. Slow as the hands on a clock, Tristan shifted further behind the brush, bringing him with her. Across the round space, a collection of lines moved behind a row of hedges. The alien glided forward on its profusion of appendages, tentacles trailing behind it, gently brushing the flowers of a half dozen different species. Though it was moving in their direction, it showed no haste or fear or anger. That she could see, anyway. She knew well how blank they looked, how their rubbery faces betrayed nothing.

  It disappeared behind a privet of coffee bushes. Beside her, Ke breathed shakily through his mouth. The scrape of its tentacles neared. Its legs appeared just two rows away, its upper half hidden behind a low tree heavy with orange, golf ball-sized citrus. As the alien moved past, she kept her eyes trained on its two thick tentacles, the ones they raised in times of focus, but these remained beside its body. It disappeared into the vegetation.

  Ke removed his hand from the front grip of his shotgun and squeezed her knee, bulging his eyes. She stayed still. A slurping noise sounded from across the garden, followed by a man's voice, singing loudly and badly, "We Are the Champions."

  She rose to a half crouch. Ke grunted in surprise. She crept down the dirt alley, laser in hand. The drunken song continued, leading her on; she reached one of the spokes leading to the edge of the stone enclosure and stopped beside a gnarled grape vine. Twenty feet ahead, the alien stood before an orange door that had just finished opening. The thing's two tentacles stood half raised. Ke's shoe scuffed behind her and she pointed her index finger down. He stopped. The alien's tentacles lifted three inches. It glanced halfway over its narrow shoulder, then entered a dim room beyond the door.

  The door closed as slowly as grass springing back after it's been stepped on. Pistol in hand, Tristan hurried forward, keeping the rock wall between herself and where she'd last seen the alien. Before the door resealed, she stuck her left hand between it and its fleshy frame. The orange closed on her, sucking at her skin. A shudder wracked her body. Envisioning the alien whirling, racing to the door, and snipping off her fingertips with its pincers, she forced herself to calm down and go still.

  Ke flattened himself against the wall beside her, keeping watch on the surroundings. "What are you doing?"

  "Don't you hear it?"

  His eyes widened. "She's in there, isn't she? What are we waiting for?"

  The man quit mid-song, then started over at the beginning, muffled by the door. "We're going in. Don't say a word."

  "But they can't hear us."

  "It's not them I'm concerned with."

  She forced her hand forward against the moist, rubbery matter. She pocketed the laser and speared her second hand into the gap, using her left arm as a pry bar. The orange was impossibly strong, but she strained all her muscles, leaning against it. It opened with a wet susurration.

  The room beyond was twelve feet high and sixty long. Rows of orange cabinets lined each wall, six feet high. Thirty feet down, the alien stood before one, reaching inside. A woman shrieked as she was lifted up, arms thrashing. A desk covered in monitors and control equipment sat beside the doorway. While the alien was distracted, Tristan crept behind it, beckoning Ke to follow. The alien finished its task, lowered the woman back into her orange box, and moved down four spaces to the next one. All the while, the singing man continued to drone away. As the alien unsealed another box, Tristan's mind identified the voice: it was Lewis.

  While she was still trying to make out what that meant, the alien raised a thin young woman from the box. The woman's head lolled, spilling dark hair past her shoulders. Ke's body went tight. In the gloom, Tristan watched as Robi waved a clumsy hand at the alien's face. It arrested her wrist with a tentacle, turned her from side to side, set her back down, and moved two boxes further away.

  This time, it extracted Lewis. His chest was bare and his arms looked less thick than the last time she'd seen him.

  He was alive, though, and stared his captor straight in its unblinking face. "What's up, Red Lobster? What you got for me today? Grapefruit smoothie? Coffee enema? Or another bouquet of lilacs to munch on?"

  It ignored his patter, pressing a small dark instrument to his ear and neck. He was still blathering away it replaced him in his box and let the lid slurp closed.

  It only checked two more on its way to the end of the room. Either most were empty, or the occupants' tests were on a different schedule. Tristan moved her thumb and forefinger to the two trigger-buttons of the pistol, but the alien exited through a door in the rear.

  "Give it a minute," Tristan breathed.

  Ke nodded, gazing across the room from under his brows. A short time later—exactly sixty seconds, if she'd had to guess—he popped to his feet and ran down the passage between the two rows of boxes. The boxes were unmarked, but there was a small gap between one lid and the next. He counted these down to Robi's and pounded the box's side with a meaty thud.

  "Robi? Can you hear me? Robi!" His voice bounced from the stone ceiling but was absorbed by the orange cabinets, skewing the acoustics surreally. He bit his lip, then pounded the box again. "Robi!"

  "Ke?" Her voiced was heavily muffled. A thump came from the inside of the box. "Is that you?"

  "Move back. We'll have you out of there in just a second, okay?"

  Squishy steps retreated across the box. Tristan aimed the laser at the lid and pressed the triggers. The beam scorched the edge of the lid, producing the smell of burnt clams. The lid retracted with a jolt. Tristan turned off the laser and Ke vaulted up the side of the neighboring box, kneeling on it as he peeled back the stunned lid. He flopped it over like a tired, old mattress and jumped inside. Robi's hands appeared on the edge of the box. Ke boosted her from inside and she swung her feet over the ledge. They had stripped her to a bulky diaper. She reached down to Tristan, who had to fight every urge in her body to run, and let herself drop. Tristan caught her. She set Robi down and stepped back. Ke leapt from the top of the box, landing in a crouch, then swept Robi up in a hug.

  When they unclenched, Tristan moved behind her for a look at her neck, but it was smooth and bare. "Have they given you any injections?"

  "One," Robi said blurrily, rubbing her arm. "Knocked me the fuck out."

  Robi staggered. Ke moved to grab her. A chill flushed down Tristan's spine. She backed up half a step. All the signs pointed to the probability they hadn't infected Robi with anything. But Tristan had no doubts about the purpose of the facility. She had been in one just like it herself. Seen the woman she'd shared a room with die of a new disease. Tristan had survived her treatments, though—never felt so much as a sniffle—and there had been no sign in the world that anything more had ever come of it. It was bizarre—freakish, really
—that it would once more rear its head here, on Maui, and for a moment she had the paranoid vision that the aliens had been stalking her for years. Perhaps they'd embedded a tracking pin in her. Followed her here to continue their work in secret.

  She shook away these thoughts. She wasn't special. If they'd come to Maui, it was probably for the same reasons she had: it was isolated, it was tropical, and there had never been many people here to begin with. Easy to make a living in peace.

  Anyway, she had other worries. Robi might be carrying a new virus. One tailored to take down those who had been immune to the first. If that were true, however, there would be no convincing Ke to leave her behind. She couldn't be angry at him for that, either. Were it Alden, she would do no different. To protect Alden, then, she'd have one option: put them down. Leave them here. And return to tell Alden the aliens had killed them both.

  Not long ago, she might have done so. Thought nothing of it. The cost of keeping Alden safe in this new and awful world. Now, though, she knew it wouldn't be so simple. She would be scraped to the core by the doubt of what she'd done. The possibility Robi had been perfectly fine. They hadn't installed a neck-tube, after all; she'd only been here a few hours. On top of that, Lewis was here, and alive, and he'd been in their custody for weeks; if the treatments he'd been hollering about were experiments, so far they'd all been failures. There were too many pointers to the contrary to do what her instincts demanded be done.

  "Can you walk?" she said.

  Robi blinked, mouth open in anger at her clumsy limbs. "Won't know until we go."

  "We need better than that. We've got miles ahead of us."

  Ke scowled. "What else are we going to do, build a toboggan? If she can't walk, I'll carry her."

  Before she could reply, suppressed shouts blared from two boxes down. "Hey!" Lewis called. "Hey, I know you! Who's out there?"

  Tristan dropped her voice. "I'm not implying anything. I'm trying to get an idea of what we're facing next."

  "I know you!" Lewis hollered. "Tristan?"

  "That thing just woke me up," Robi said, then shuddered violently. "I'll be fine in a minute."

  "Hey! Hey, Tristan! You can't leave me in here."

  Anger flared up Tristan's neck. She moved beside Lewis' box. "I'd tell you to watch me, but you can't see anything from in there, can you?"

  "Then I'll scream," he said. "Give up the game. And you'll join me in here."

  "Scream as much as you like," Tristan said. "They can't hear you. And I don't care."

  She turned toward the front door, gun in hand. The others followed, Robi leaning on Ke's shoulders for support. Lewis' screams followed them down the hallway. Other voices sprung up, a chorus of scared moans. Tristan shot the front door open and cleared the exit. Sunset was coming on fast and she reoriented herself to the shadowy garden. Once she knew which way she was headed, she trotted around the path circling the walls of the bowl until they reached the first door they'd come in through. It had recovered, resealing itself, but another shot from the laser sent it slumping again. Outside the dark tunnel, Tristan and Ke got out their goggles and fit them around their heads.

  "You don't have lights?" Robi said.

  "Don't worry." Ke held out his hand. "Keep your feet on that orange shit. Hang onto me and everything will be fine."

  "What if something happens to you?"

  "Then steal my goggles and run like hell. Deal?"

  She grinned. "Deal."

  Tristan beckoned them through impatiently, then swung the limp door closed behind them. Shafts of weak light poured from its edges. Ahead, the downward ramp was blacker than night. She turned on her goggles and the world appeared in green. She took point, glancing back often to adjust her pace to the others. Soon, Robi was able to walk on her own power, then to jog. The mat on the floor kept the ground smooth, but Tristan kept her pace light so Robi wouldn't trip when the way ahead leveled out or hit a sudden rise.

  After a couple miles, Ke called for a rest. Tristan kept watch on the uphill approach while they passed around water bottles and macadamia nuts.

  "How are you feeling?" Ke said.

  "Good. I think." Robi looked around blindly. "I mean, what did they do to me?"

  "I don't think they had time to do more than prep you," Tristan said.

  "How would you know? Spend a lot of time in the alien ER?"

  "When they first invaded, they caught me and Alden," she said. "They kept us for weeks. Orange cubicles just like those."

  Robi took another swallow of water. "What happened?"

  "Injections. Experiments. The woman I shared a lab with died, but the rest of us were fine. After a while, they gave up and dumped us in the desert. If they couldn't take us down in weeks of trying, I don't think you've got anything to worry about."

  Robi nodded, trying to look at Tristan, but she couldn't see a thing and her gaze was aimed at Tristan's shoulder instead. "Feels disgusting, though."

  "I know."

  "That man in there knew you," Ke said.

  "From Lahaina," Tristan said. "From a group who decided the end of the world was a good excuse to put an end to monogamy."

  "Mad you weren't invited?"

  She snorted. "More that they tried to bully us, and when that didn't work, to kill us. Besides, they were all about ten years too old for me."

  "Weird." He laughed, shaking his head. "Got to wonder how freaky people are getting now that there's no one around to shame them."

  They got up and walked briskly down the tunnel. Between the trip up and her nerves during their brief visit aboveground, Tristan was tiring faster than usual. But there was no option to stop or slow down. Not until they were outside with Alden. It was this thought that drove her on, through mile on mile of featureless tunnel, until she heard the smack of the waves and smelled their salt and parted the curtain of vines to stand on the beach. Her legs gave out then, not entirely from exhaustion.

  It only stung a little when they hiked to the house and Alden embraced Robi first. By now, Tristan expected no different. Alden disengaged from the girl and squeezed Tristan tight, lifting her from her feet, and she felt then how strong he had become.

  He drew back. "You got her."

  Tristan smiled crookedly. "Did you ever doubt it?"

  "Not once I saw you."

  She didn't like the idea of sleeping this close to the lava tube's exit, so they headed upstream to Ke and Robi's to sleep. She wanted to launch the canoe early in the morning, but found herself unable to get up from bed until close to noon. She supposed it was for the best that they'd have the rest of the day to prepare for their departure, which Alden had already convinced the other two to be a part of. While he and Robi sorted their most vital supplies, Tristan and Ke headed into the hills. Outside Sam's, Ke found the whistle and blew. It took three tries before she replied.

  "Look at that," Sam said. "Wasn't sure my favorite shotguns would make it home."

  Ke grinned. "And only down two rounds."

  "Found this lying around, too." Tristan passed over the laser.

  Sam eyed it. "One of these the trigger?"

  "Both at once. Careful where you point it. That thing can turn a pile of rocks into a mini Kilauea."

  She hefted it, feeling the weight of its battery. "Been a while since I had a new toy. How about intel? Bring me any of that?"

  "I won't bother to try to convince you to leave," Tristan said. "But they've got a facility. I think they're developing new ways to kill us."

  "Seems to me they blew their wad with the first try."

  "Could be. But they don't seem to think so." She turned to go, then stopped. "Are you here to survive? Or would you fight?"

  Sam squinted into the morning sun. "It would have to be a pretty good cause. What makes you ask?"

  "Always useful to know when you might have an ally."

  Back at Ke's, they gathered up medicine. Tore down his water filter and packed the material into two portable water coolers. Stacked small tubs of po
i and dried fruit and fish. Collected the seeds Ke had stored in one of the sheds. Put together the ammunition they used and set aside what they didn't. They wouldn't have room for much more than they could carry, and they still hadn't touched Tristan's goods, but Ke showed no sentimentality nor mercy toward the goods he'd put together in his years in Hana. It was time to go, as simple as that. When Tristan went to her house that afternoon, she applied the same attitude toward her possessions, keeping an eye on the shore all the while.

  She returned to Ke's house to spend the night. At first light, they headed down the stream to the canoe. As the sun poked from the sea, they launched into it, striking out for the island resting in the haze.

  III:

  NEW WORLDS

  24

  As the rain fell, they cupped their hands and licked up the drops, then swam back to the ship, where water was collecting in the bowls. In the morning, they sailed north along empty black coasts and dried lava flows, anchoring beside a beach the color of coal. A road switchbacked up through several dozen houses. As Ness and Sprite turned up oranges, cantaloupes, and three boxes of pasta that had managed to survive the years unscathed, Sebastian fished.

  Ness had to wait until noon to figure out their precise location. He had intended to bring them straight in to Maui, home of the medical lab. Instead, they had barely passed within sight of the southern tip of the Big Island, more than a hundred miles off course.

  "I almost killed us," he signed to Sebastian.

  "Yet here we are," Sebastian replied. "So who is it that cares?"

  Ness had to laugh. With a few days of food, and over a dozen gallons of fresh rain water, they set sail again, following the coast of the island and crossing the strait between it and Maui. They made anchor at a gravel beach fronting a bridge that had collapsed into a small ravine. The slopes were grassy and barren. A single green mountain rose and rose until it disappeared within a wreath of clouds. Rust-colored bluffs burst from the top of the wreath like an island in the sky. They made their way up the scrubby green terrain. Winding gulches creased the land to all sides.