by Mark Lingane
“Third from the left,” he croaked.
Memphis closed her eyes, cut the wire and jumped on top of him for a final kiss before death.
00:00
The number flashed as Memphis wrapped her arms around Sebastian. She held as tightly as she could. Nothing happened. She looked over her shoulder at the disconnected cable. The light went out. She sighed and lay down on top of Sebastian.
“You are the worst bodyguard ever,” she whispered.
“I’m new to it,” he rasped.
She gave him a tight hug, then rested her head against his chest.
“I’m sorry to say this,” he said, “but they’ll come down and kill us if we don’t move quickly.”
She looked at the crumpled and caved-in concrete wall. “Can you move?”
“Help me up.”
She grabbed him by one arm and tried to pull him up. She struggled. “How heavy are you? You must be made of lead.”
There was another arm next to her. Tyler reached down and lifted him up. “Good job, young lady. I’m very impressed.”
They looked around at the 49th men lying on the ground in various stages of consciousness.
“I never thought in a million years I’d be helping the enemy to safety,” Tyler said. “I suppose I should get out of this Charger uniform before someone shoots me.”
“Thomas was up to something. A helicopter came for him. He was going to fly out to the southern gates. Did he say anything to you?” Sebastian was having difficulty standing up, and he sagged against the wall.
“He wasn’t part of my command. I’d lost the rest of my men, so I had to hook into his. They were down a tackle, so it worked for them.”
“If he’s let in a force from the south, how long until they get here?”
“Five, maybe six hours,” Tyler said. “It depends how determined they are. The base will be overrun. We should try and get people to safety.”
Memphis frowned. “The whole city, how do we do that?”
“We can’t surrender to the infected,” Sebastian said. “What they’ll do is worse than death.”
“Fine,” Tyler said. “Then we defend.”
“Are you sure? We don’t know what’s coming.”
“We’ve already survived the nuclear bomb, so let’s push our luck against a potentially huge army.”
Alan Finchley of the 49th Division slowly woke. He looked around at the men being helped out of the room. He staggered to his feet. He spotted Memphis, who was hanging on to Sebastian’s arm.
“Young lady, I’m so sorry to have been less than gracious about the loss of Brad.”
“Brad is his son,” Memphis whispered to Sebastian.
“It’s something I will need to come to terms with.”
“Brad’s not lost,” Sebastian told them. “I found a place. I took Brad there, and he’s waiting for me to return with better medical supplies.”
“Brad is still alive?” Alan said.
“Only just. At least I hope so.”
35
WHEN TYLER RETURNED, he had changed out of his Charger uniform into a 49th Division one. He was tucking it in as he walked in the room.
“You!” Alan roared.
Tyler went white.
“I’m heading off to get my son,” Alan said. “You’re in charge. Set up the defenses.”
“You want to go running at the enemy? There might be thousands of them. You don’t want to think of a more tactical way?”
“I must get Brad right away. Farm boy,” he said, pointing at Sebastian, “take me there now.”
“Where did you get the uniform?” Memphis asked Tyler.
“I found it lying around.”
“You took a dead man’s clothes? I was just beginning to think you were a decent person.”
“Oh, he wasn’t dead.” He flashed her a mischievous smile.
By the time the senior command had made it up the stairs and back out into the clean air, the area was swarming with 49th soldiers. They swept in over the area with precision attacks that had the small Charger and outlaw force captured within minutes.
Sebastian pointed to an outlaw who was showing signs of being infected. He had a large slash across his face that was weeping green ooze.
“If you see someone looking like that, just kill them,” he told Tyler. “They won’t have anything of value to say.”
“You don’t tolerate anything infected,” Tyler said.
Sebastian shook his head. “They took something very precious from me.”
Alan was shouting at the men with renewed purpose. A medivan was being prepared, along with several heavily armored escorts.
They walked briskly past the surviving outlaws and double-crossing Chargers, now rounded up into makeshift cells. Will and Edward were being overtly triumphant, compensating for their humiliating capture. Several men snarled at Tyler as he went by. Thomas sat against a wall, nursing his head, dressed only in his underwear, which was now dirty and stained.
They passed by the R&D lab, and Sebastian took the opportunity to see if his steambike was still there. It was standing in the center of the main lab, just where it had been left. He wheeled it out, and joined the convoy collecting by the administration building.
Tyler was organizing the soldiers, and appeared to have fully settled into his new position. He received many strange looks from the older men, obviously wondering who this new upstart was, but he seemed to be getting things back in order, and they had learned not to argue against people like that, just in case it ended up in extra paperwork.
Alan was in the cab of the medivan, giving orders to Sebastian, who wasn’t listening. Instead, he was revving the steambike’s engine.
Tyler approached. “My, what a fine machine you have there.”
“Yes, it’s shiny. For the first time ever.” Sebastian had a broad smile on his face. “It even sounds better. I think the R&D men have improved it.” He noted an oil smudge on the first intake and tried to polish it away with his sleeve.
“Don’t do that,” Tyler said. He handed over a small medipack cover, green with a white cross. “Here, use this.”
“Don’t you need this for your medipack?” Sebastian said. “Or is it from the Forty-ninth?”
“Neither. I got it from one of the outlaws. To a cynical man like me, it seems that they get their medical supplies from the Peacemaker along with the rest of us. It’s a nice business he’s got going.”
“It would be funny if he orchestrated the attack.”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
Sebastian took the cloth and polished out the smudge. The bike gleamed fiercely in the low light.
Tyler put his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Your face looks a little pale. Is Memphis not going with you?”
“Hey, I’m up here,” Memphis shouted, waving over Alan’s shoulder in the cab of the truck.
“Good luck, Sebastian. I hope we’ll meet again.” Tyler stood back and saluted.
Alan saluted back. Tyler found the intensity in Alan’s eyes disturbing, all consuming. “Actually, sir,” he shouted to Alan as the truck moved off, “I was saluting Sebastian.” He smiled and waved as the truck disappeared into the mist.
The rescue team drove over the bridge with Sebastian leading the way. Several heavily armored vehicles surrounded the medivan. The mist was still thick, but Sebastian roared ahead on his bike, oblivious to what lay ahead. The bike had never felt so fast and responsive, and the wind in his face was exhilarating. He took the opportunity to jump over any lump in the buckled road, grinning from ear to ear, although his eyes told a different story. The interaction with the nuclear device had hurt him. He could feel it, but he wasn’t sure how it was going to affect him in the future.
They made good time, arriving at the small abandoned shed just before sunset. Moisture hung heavily in the air, trees dripped with water, and the earth smelled damp. Night was quickly rolling in.
The medical team ran inside to see to
Brad, while the armored vehicles set up a defensive barrier around the decrepit building. The medics worked on Brad with urgency, and he was soon stable, although weak. The medics complimented Sebastian on his quick thinking on using the coagulant.
He smiled. “Sometimes, I wish I didn’t need to know how to use these things.”
The radio tech set up a transmission station and patched into the satellite system. He placed one earphone over his ear, ready for instructions from Alan.
Alan had collapsed next to Brad as soon as he saw him. Sebastian observed a menacing intensity about Alan. He was passionate and driven, and Sebastian could see the darkness that had made him a remorseless soldier. What he poured out to his son was disturbing. He alternatively snapped at the medics if he thought they were doing something wrong, and almost howled over his son. Brad was unconscious during this drama.
Sebastian was worried about Alan. It seemed obvious to him, but no one else seemed to notice that the q-backer was at his breaking point. He was sure the men were afraid to say anything to their leader.
Alan had given up his bedside vigil and was pacing behind the radio tech, Joey Maxwell, who was waiting for a reliable line back to the capital.
“Anything come up on the comms?” Alan asked yet again. His voice bubbled with impatience.
“Just descrambling the frequency, sir, but nothing consistent. We’re getting electromagnetic interference from somewhere.” Joey pointed to the display showing a jagged line ripping from one side of the screen to the other.
Alan showed his indifference to the young tech’s problems by turning his back on him. “Just get on with it and fix it. Time is important.”
Alan wandered off between the armored vehicles, his boots squelching in the muddy terrain. The men were staring intently out into the darkness. The island city was still glowing, but the surrounding areas were dark.
There was a commotion inside the shed. Alan sprinted back, barreling through the door and nearly taking it off its hinges. Brad was awake. Alan knelt down beside him and took his hand.
Sebastian went outside to give them some privacy. He trekked out to the north of the shed and sat behind a small hill. He’d had a father once. He’d seen him lowered into the ground when he was twelve. He didn’t have anyone anymore who would be as relieved to see him as Alan was to see Brad.
Rain started to drizzle down. Memphis came over and sat next to him. She placed her hand on his shoulder and looked into his depressed face.
“Alan’s a bit intense,” she said, after Sebastian hadn’t spoken for a few moments.
He nodded and gazed out into the dark hills. “I’ve seen it before,” he replied eventually. “People so ripped apart by grief they lose themselves. Do you know what a faraday is?”
She shook her head.
“The short version is, it’s the opposite of me, a dark cyber version that’s been genetically enhanced. There was a faraday back home who’d always been hated, unloved by her parents, and she snapped and went totally evil.”
“What happened to her?”
“I had to kill her. She was too dangerous, and she was never going to change.”
She moved a small distance away from him. “Sounds like you’ve killed a lot of people.”
“Not people, just cyborgs or infected.”
“But they were people once, you said.”
“They turned us all into killers, for the sake of war. All I ever wanted was to do was hang out with my friends.”
“Our actions don’t define who we are, not inside.”
He paused. “Sometimes I feel like the devil’s hiding underneath my skin.”
She looked away. She knew she had it hiding beneath hers.
Sebastian sat staring ahead and would not say a word more. His memories of his dad were distant now, worn away by a life of despair. He could never remember his dad sitting by his bed when he was sick. His dad had never been by his side. Something stabbed deeply into him at the thought of missing out on such things. In this dying world, he couldn’t see the good of anything. He knew he had to fix it, save it—it was his destiny—but he found it increasingly hard to find a reason why.
The losses he had experienced as he walked across distant lands had left him with nothing more than a couple of treasures in his backpack, and broken memories of his childhood. In his head, he was screaming, I don’t want to be me anymore.
The static in the headset lessened and Joey picked up the familiar tone of the capital. He ran over to the shed.
“Q-backer, sir, I’ve secured a line. I can send a signal with the medical situation so they can ready the med facility for Brad.”
“Can he move yet?” Alan asked the medics.
One of the medics nodded. “He has so much adrenalin in him he could probably run there,” she replied. She flashed him a smile. “He’ll just be a little lightheaded and happy. If he’s anything like you, he’ll be good to go in no time.”
Heavy fire erupted outside the hut. They all spun around to face the door. The thud-thud-thud of large-bore machine guns made the walls of the shed shake. Alan charged out to the armored vehicles. Machine guns were firing to the south. The heavy recoil of the larger guns had the vehicles rocking with their methodical boom. There didn’t seem to be any return fire.
Joey jumped on the communications system.
“What the hell’s happening?” Alan yelled.
The lead gunner shouted something and pointed out into the darkness, but his words were lost in the noise.
“South gate compromised, sir,” Joey said.
“By whom?” Alan shouted.
“The Chargers and some others, sounds like outlaws and other forces from lower southeast. But they wouldn’t team up, would they? Why are they doing this?”
“Because they’ve always done it,” Alan shouted, his face red with fury. “What about the east gate?”
There was a moment of tension as Joey scanned the frequencies. “It’s under attack, but they can hold it. The static’s terrible. Only the south failed. We’re on a plain with no protection. This area isn’t safe, sir.”
“How long until we have to move?”
“We have to move now,” Joey replied grimly.
The machine gun fire had brought Memphis and Sebastian running back to the shed. Inside, the medics were packing up. Brad was being transferred to a stretcher.
“What’s going on?” Sebastian said.
“We have to find a safe place.” The medic’s face was contorted with concern.
“Who’s attacking us?”
“Everyone, it seems. Can you help lift Brad into the truck? Young lady, come with me.”
Within minutes Brad had been slung up on a suspended cot inside the truck, and Memphis found herself assisting the medic in monitoring his statistics.
Sebastian started his bike. The water was cold. He concentrated on the atoms in the water and blasted them. The water instantly boiled and he collapsed sideways to his knees. The pain was unbearable. His sense of balance completely disappeared. He managed to pull himself upright as the first of the trucks took off. Enemy fire smacked the ground around him. He revved the engine, jumped on, and accelerated after the others.
The terrain was rough, but he did his best to head in a straight line. Every bump he went over, every unexpected hollow, had the world veering awkwardly, and it took all his concentration to stop himself from crashing. The weapons on the trucks stopped firing and the lights on all the vehicles, apart from the headlights, went dark. As the convoy roared along, the sounds of enemy fire diminished in the distance.
He rode up to the side of the front armored truck. “Where are we going?” he shouted.
“To the hills,” the driver shouted back.
He sighed. He didn’t expect to be back so soon. Maybe he could visit the dam. The nuclear weapon had done something. Maybe the hydrogenerators at the dam could heal him.
36
THE TRUCK LURCHED from side to side, but Brad lay r
elatively still in the suspended stretcher. The medic had him sit up while she administered another painkiller and took his blood pressure. She disappeared to the front of the truck, sat at a small desk, and wrote her notes.
Memphis sat by Brad, space being at a premium.
He lay back and felt the painkillers roll over him. “Meet the reaper and boast your sins,” he mumbled.
Her head snapped up. “What did you say?”
He slowly turned his head and looked at her, blinking slowly. “Nothing. It’s just an old family saying. Although, I’m the only one who says it now.”
Memphis unbuttoned her shirt and exposed her shoulder. On it was tattooed the exact same phrase. “You killed her in front of me. I was seven,” she hissed. Fire leaped into her eyes.
Brad tried to focus on what she was saying. The horrors of war rose up in his conscience. “I’m sorry, but it was war. These things happen. We all lose friends and loved ones in the heat of battle.” The female pronoun registered in his mind. “Who are you talking about?”
“My mom. You killed my mother,” she cried.
The medic looked back over her shoulder.
Brad held up his hand and signaled to her that it was okay. His head reeled with the accusation. War was always difficult, but with his mind clouded by the drugs, he couldn’t recall such an incident.
“Do you know what you did to me?” Memphis said. “Do you know how a seven year old survives alone? Let your mind wander down into the horrific world of the ruthless, depraved and without conscience. And that’s where you’ll find me.”
Brad rolled over to face her. His eyes were heavy. “You put yourself there. I put myself here. We all face our challenges. We either beat them or they beat us,” he murmured.