by Mark Lingane
“Look, the train. They never fixed it. That’s so sad. Not even a grave for the train,” Isaac said.
“Or the people,” Sebastian added. He looked around glumly.
“It shows that we’re broken,” Nikola said. He was looking pale again, almost gray.
“The bodies are still here.” Melanie pointed to bleached white bones concealed among the blackened remains of bodies. The occasional piece of clothing, barely more than scraps, flapped forlornly in the wind. Ashes were being blown around in small eddies in what remained of the carriages.
@summer was on her knees scouring through the remains. She picked up a small scull. “This was a child.”
“The dragons weren’t discerning when they came swooping in,” Sebastian said, looking around at the scene. “It was a pretty scary time.”
“You were here?” @summer asked.
“Yes. I don’t think I realized how bad it was before. If I knew then what I know today, I could’ve saved them all.”
He kicked the remains of an old case. It flopped open, revealing more ashes and a handful of half-melted personal items. An old timepiece caught his attention, surprising him by having survived. He picked it up. It had stopped. A time. A date. A place. It all ended here. It was, he felt, symbolic. It was a precise point in time where everything ended for all these people. He dusted it off. It had an inscription on the back, which he couldn’t make out. He twirled the timepiece in his fingers. It seemed wrong but he placed it in his pocket. He needed to remember who he had once been.
“But you survived against dragons?” @summer looked at him with an expression of suspicion, awe and surprise.
“Obviously. I’m still here.” He spread out his arms, like a second-rate magician reappearing after a trick.
“No one survives the dragons,” she said. “I’ve seen them destroy whole towns of thousands of people.”
Sebastian made a note of that comment. No one could observe something like that without it having an impact. Some part of you had to die after witnessing such horrific atrocities. He shrugged. “I guess I got lucky.”
“This has got to end. The cost has been too much,” Nikola said. He was still sweating heavily. His face suddenly went ashen white and he staggered uneasily.
“Guys, sweepers out to the north,” Isaac shouted. He pointed back out along the track they had followed.
“We need to hide,” Nikola rasped.
“Hide?” Isaac yelped. “Out here? Where?”
“I know a place,” Sebastian said. He turned to face Melanie.
“Oh no, not there.” She gave him a dark look and shook her head to reinforce her comment.
“Where then?”
The two stood looking at each other, their faces blank. Isaac became more agitated, hoping from foot to foot. The approaching party was more visible now.
“No,” she said, again.
“We have no choice,” Sebastian said. “If you can come up with one other defensible position, then I’ll agree.”
There was another long pause as she closed her eyes. She opened them with fury burning deep. “Fine.” She pointed a finger at him. “But I’m going to remind you of this moment, and there’s going to be major payback.”
They saddled up and Melanie led the small party to her past.
The swearing went on for some time. Nikola flinched occasionally under the ferocity of the language. He tried to interject at moments when Melanie had to breathe, but she simply launched without fear or hesitation back into her litany of abuse that turned the air blue.
“Are you finished yet, young lady? Of course, I use the term in the loosest possible sense.”
They were all sitting around in the cave, except for Melanie, who was pacing back and forth. The bikes had been stored far back within the cave for protection.
“After everything, everything,” she said, waving her hands around, “I can’t believe I’m back in this stupid, stinking cave. What did I do to deserve this?”
“Maybe see this as part of the cyclical nature of life, as a time to reflect,” Nikola said.
“Reflect? On what?”
“Family. Friends. Life choices. That kind of stuff.”
“Well, all my friends are here, and don’t get me started on”—she choked on her words as emotion got the better of her—“my family. It’s because of them I ended up in this hole to start with. I was forsaken by them.” She turned away, closed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest.
“You know they didn’t, yet you carry this vendetta against them. They still search.”
She wheeled around. “They can search all they want, because I like my life now. I like who I am and the direction I’m going. I had none of that before. All I had was condescending smiles, low expectations, and a future so short and bleak that each day was hardly worth facing. Then I met that boy, damn it.” She indicated a surprised Sebastian. “And he changed everything. He became a friend without judging me, without asking, just allowing me to be. He brought me out of the cave and gave me a future. Family sucks. I’ll choose my friends over them every time.”
“I understand,” Nikola said.
“Do you?”
“Yes. But you need to make peace with your past one day. It’ll always hold you back until you address it.”
She turned away and stared ferociously at the back of the cave.
Nikola went to the cave opening and stared out at the horizon. He stepped out into the open air. The muskiness of the cave was making it hard for him to breathe. He hiked a little way into the woods and found a rocky outpost to sit on. It gave majestic views out onto the plains. He could see the cyborg skynet approaching. They didn’t have long, but at least they would have plenty of warning.
39
“THE ANGRY LADY is very angry,” whispered @summer.
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, she has issues. This cave was a very sad place for her. She thought she’d never get out of it.”
“The angry lady says that all her friends are here. That isn’t many.”
Sebastian looked around at the handful of people. Everyone he knew had a handful of people they could count as solid, dependable, and wouldn’t mind if you laughed if they got hurt.
He looked at @summer. “How many friends do you have?”
“Three thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two.”
“How many? I don’t think I’ve even met that many people, let alone done enough with them to call them friends.”
“Remember, a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.” She gave him a heartfelt smile.
After suppressing the urge to vomit all over his shoes, Sebastian thought back on all the strangers he had met. Most of them had been shooting at him, or chasing him.
“With nearly four thousand friends, are there any strangers left?”
“LOL.”
“What’s a LOL?”
“That’s what you do if someone says something funny. LOL.”
“Do you mean laugh?”
“What’s a laugh?”
“Well, all of my jokes for a start.” He smiled but the cyborg just looked back at him. Sebastian let out a nervous laugh. “Ah, like that.”
She gave him a quizzical look. “What was that sound?”
“That was a laugh. That’s what we do when something’s funny.”
“LOL.”
There was a slight pause. “Are you laughing at what I said?”
“Did you want me to?”
“This is weird.”
“LOL. I’m sorry, it’s a nervous LOL.”
“Okay, this is getting confusing. Did you say the word LOL or were you laughing, sorry, LOLing at yourself?”
“I was just LOLing.”
“What do you do if someone tickles you?”
“What’s a tickle?”
“When someone does this.” He leapt forward and wriggled his fingers under her arms.
She stepped back with a look of absolute horror on her face.
“What’s the matter? You’re not LOLing, I mean laughing.”
“You’ve invaded my personal space without my granted permission.”
“Eh?”
“You touched me.”
“Only your arm,” he said, waving his hand in the general direction.
“It’s against the End-User License Agreement.”
“The what?”
“If you wish to engage in any kind of consensual tactile behavior you must agree to the EULA for @summer14rose. Termsandconditionsmayapply.”
“What was that really fast bit at the end? It sounded suspicious to me.”
“Termsandconditionsmayapply.”
“This is getting difficult and long-winded. So, what happens if I agree to your EULA?”
“Will it be for domestic or business use?”
“Business use for consensual tactile behavior sounds very inappropriate to me.” He gave her a distrustful look.
“Of course, you could always #like me on my page.”
“On second thought, this is getting too complex. I think I’ll get some fresh air.” He got up and stepped outside the cave.
Nikola heard footsteps approaching. He glimpsed Sebastian’s hair through the trees, and gave him a wave. Sebastian sat down and idly swung his foot back and forth, his boot grazing the sand and dislodging the occasional stone.
“You look glum,” Nikola said.
“Sorry. What you said back in the cave about family made me think about my mom.”
Nikola smiled. “I think about her, too. We were good friends for a long time.”
“You knew her when she was young?”
Nikola nodded.
Sebastian looked into the big man’s eyes. The memory of his mom had brought a spark back to Nikola’s tired features. “What was she like?”
“When we met, Isabelle was, we both were, so young. She was brought to the Academy when she was eight, and boy, was she an explosive firecracker. If she didn’t get her way on anything there was a huge tantrum.” Nikola smiled. “And I mean huge. Her problem was that she was so much smarter than everyone else around her. She couldn’t communicate with them.”
“I can’t imagine her ever being like that.”
“Few remain the same as an adult as they were as a child. She eventually found better people, which allowed her to settle down. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first day she was brought to the Academy, this tall thin girl, hiding behind her long fair hair. You’ve got her hair and her eyes. She had eyes that were open to the world. She wanted to believe in everything, and when you’re like that, you’re like the world, full of wonder.”
He looked out over the majestic, distant plains. “It took us a few years to become good friends. We fought for years. I think I was the only person who wouldn’t let her get away with anything. And of course, she could never beat me in combat training.”
“Do you think Melanie could have, when you were younger?”
“It’s a good question. Melanie certainly is ferocious, but she has trouble focusing. She has multiple passions, which may cause her terrible grief if she has to choose one over another. But Isabelle was never unfocused. That was what made her formidable. We went to the graduation ball together. Did you know that? She asked me at knifepoint. As if I was ever going to say no to her. It was a great night. She let down that huge fortress she held up to the world and we … it was a great night, unforgettable, delicate, joyous and, well, it was a great night.”
He looked away, closed his eyes and sighed. “Then the cyborg attacks became more focused on the city. We fought together side by side for six months. Then one day she was gone. The attacks quieted down. I got a note from her saying she was in Talinga and it was best for everyone. She had married and that was that.”
“That’s so different to how I remember her. It’s like for my whole life she was lying to me about who she was.”
“She believed in duty.”
“You said she was brought to the Academy.”
“Yes. Do you know why you were living out in Talinga?”
“No. Did she want to be bored to death?”
“Maybe you can do some genealogy. I think you’ll be surprised.”
“Why was she so different?”
“Maybe she could only be one or the other. There could be no transition. She was either warrior or mother. If she’d tried to mix them, she would probably have been terrible at both.” Nikola wiped away a tear. “I miss her.”
“I do too,” Sebastian said, and burst into tears.
“It’s hard to believe we’re talking about the same person,” Nikola said through a half-laugh, half-sob.
40
ISAAC HEARD A faint scratching sound and turned to look out the cave entrance. The world slowed and he collapsed to the ground as a bright red beam shot into the cave. He felt his cheek. It was wet. He held up his hand and saw blood. He shouted.
Gavin had been standing next to Melanie with his arm wrapped around her, attempting to calm her. She started to twist as soon as the beam exploded against the back of the cave. She threw her arm into the Gatling gun support, clipped it into the ammunition pack and started to fire in one smooth motion. She moved to one side of the cave entrance.
Gavin was knocked sideways as she twisted, falling against the cave wall and having the wind knocked from him.
Nikola took up station on the other side of the cave entrance. The two sent wave upon wave of bullets into the outside. Melanie fired in long sweeps, with Nikola joining in on short counterpoint rounds. Blast upon blast of lightbeams came back into the cave, breaking the rock, and filling the air with dust and rubble.
To the surprise of everyone, @summer leapt behind Melanie and fired several shots from her laser pistol. It started to glow red after several shots, but she smiled as she fired.
They alternated firing patterns but there was no respite from the enemy fire. The laser blasts coming back into the cave were unrelenting.
“Any ideas, Commander?” Melanie shouted as she allowed her Gatling gun to cool momentarily. Another blast sliced into the wall next to her, shearing off a large chunk that exploded in a small ball of rubble and debris. She shied away as the pieces rained down on her.
Nikola fired another quick burst toward Melanie’s side and then repeated it on his own side. “We don’t know how many there are or where they are,” he shouted. “Best choice is to get out of here, then kill them all.”
“Oh, good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble. Do you want me to run out into an impenetrable wall of firepower first, or after you?”
“How about we go together?”
“I’ll go.”
“This is no time for bravery. I’ll let you.” He gave her a smile.
There was a long, loud whistle, followed by an explosion. Another burst of intense laser fire followed. Then the lightbeams suddenly stopped. An eerie silence descended over the scene.
Through the dust filling the air appeared the silhouette of a large human-like creature. Its great swinging arms appeared to swirl in the dust. The creature hissed and groaned each time it moved. It strode toward them with no hesitation. It stopped and slowly stepped out of the dust clouds to reveal a man wrapped in a metal exoskeleton that was mimicking and enlarging his actions.
The man raised his mask. “I have to admit,” said Colonel Parker, “that Dr. Gatling might be onto something with these gun-machines.”
Nikola slumped against the wall. “You’re a sight for weary eyes, Colonel.”
Parker moved toward the mouth of the cave, surrounded by steam and hissing pistons. Dust swirled up around every step, then settled back down. There was a click and the big metal arms drifted upwards, accompanied by another long hiss, and he stepped out of the exoskeleton. He saluted his commander and returned Melanie’s salute.
“We tried to make a break for Camooweal,” Melanie told him, “but there were too many of them. They came in on the biggest wave I’ve seen. An arm
y bred for one duty—the destruction and annihilation of mankind.”
“That could be overstating it a bit,” Nikola said, “but there were a lot of them.”
“You seem to have picked up one.” Parker nodded toward @summer. “I tell you, these are strange days.”
Parker took a sip of water from a flask he had tucked away in his uniform. “You’re a hard man to track down, Commander.”
“I was hoping for impossible.” Nikola gave his old friend a weary smile.
Parker nodded. “Impossible for anyone who couldn’t follow our old code. And I got some help from the locals.”
Nikola turned to the others, who had been watching this reunion with interest. “Colonel Parker and I go back a very long way. We were friends at … what age would we have been, seven?”
Parker nodded. “If not younger.”
“We had a secret club, with a code, a badge and a special salute. We were going to save the world.”
“Funny how it worked out.”
“How have you fared with my requests?” Nikola asked. “What can you tell me?”
Parker looked at the others, back at Nikola and nodded toward the cave entrance. Once the two men were out of earshot, they sat down on boulders.
“It’s been a busy week,” the colonel said.
“What did you find?”
Parker took a deep breath. “I went straight to Carranbine. It’s a sorry place. Completely overrun by cyborgs. They rounded up all the people and sent them out for assimilation. Anyway, the courthouse was still in one piece. I created a diversion and managed to get in and out without too much bloodshed. My own, that is.” He fished in his pocket and withdrew a folded-up piece of paper. “Ralph and Margaret Whyte, both in their fifties. They had a young daughter called Kerry. Cyborgs came. They handed her over to them.”
Nikola looked at him with astonishment. “Their own daughter? That’s terrible.”
“It got me thinking. Why would you hand over your only child on a standard tesla sweep?” Parker looked at Nikola. “I have a feeling she may have been a tesla.” He reinforced his comment with a nod.