Höllenbadt: Book two of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  Eight miles out from the equestrian centre just beyond the perimeter of the depot, they could see a type of machine they had never seen before. It appeared to be a collection of different machines and odd parts, and was painted all over in a dull black finish. It looked a bit absurd and ungainly but they remained cautious.

  “I think that’s enough. Obviously that thing over there is responsible. There are charred remains of something not far from where it is now. We should go.” The other two agreed.

  They rode off then leaving the machine to blend into the darkness. After two miles with the first light of the day, now adding to their lanterns, they suddenly heard the machine behind them. They had been unaware it was following until it appeared one hundred yards behind. This time its red lights were on - styled it in such a way that it appeared to have eyes and horns. Their lanterns swung wildly as they broke into a gallop, but the machine continued to follow them, and gain ground. It then chased them for the next two miles remaining about fifty yards behind.

  “We should lead it away from the centre,” one of the riders shouted as they came to a fork in the road. They took the left turn to ride along the floor of the valley – the machine still came. They galloped on, but it remained at fifty yards behind, not closing and not falling back either. Still they rode, for at least another mile, and still the machine was there, silently following. It was obvious it was trying to get them to lead it to where they had come from, but the men knew this and were willing to keep leading it away. Another left turn leading away from the side of the valley where the centre was. Then another and they were now effectively doubling back to where they had first seen the machine.

  Unfortunately for them, the driver could see this was happening, and through with the chase, engaged the weapons array and fired two laser pulses twice. The first struck and vaporise two of the riders, the second, both focused on the third and remaining rider, obliterated him and his steed in a second. The driver then brought the machine to a stop and considered the course the riders had taken him over the past ten minutes. Turning around, he had decided to back track and take the opposite direction at the first left turn.

  When the machine arrived at the equestrian centre, everyone had left. The group had decided to leave when they saw a glow from the laser pulse lights for an instant. They had a head start of fifteen minutes and were taking an old dirt track through the forest behind the centre, straight into the hills. This extended to twenty-five minutes as the machine spent time surveying the centre – looking for anyone to kill.

  “Quick, bring these old trees down and block the trail,” a man shouted as he directed to three others who had fallen back from the main group to delay the pursuit. “This might slow it down for a few minutes.” They fell three old trees and then rode on.

  The machine came in silence – it floated a couple of feet above the ground. It reached the fallen trees and only stopped for twenty seconds as it blasted the tree trunks to oblivion. It was catching them, and now they were only one and half miles ahead.

  “Set these and wait,” John said giving two other men a small package each – he held a third package. “They are explosives I made. Gunpowder mostly. This might stop them.” The two others were a little surprised to see what John had made. “Go!” he said and they went about setting the explosives in shallow holes in a group on the trail. Then all three of them retired to some trees to hide and wait.

  They saw it coming, so they lit the fuses – the old burning type. It was now a game of timing and they watched hoping the machine would be in the right place at the right time. As they watched, they could see the small fuses glowing orange in the early light, burning their way towards the explosive packs.

  John had done it. When the machine reached the place where the explosives were buried, all three of them almost went off in unison – only a one second gap separated the first two and the third. The machine came to a stop but with no visible signs of damage. It was however, unable to proceed as the explosives had damaged its vulnerable underside. John and the other two immediately then raced to their tethered horses and rode off in pursuit of the main group.

  “We were able to stop the machine,” John said when he and the other two riders caught up with the lead riders of the group. “But there will be others and no doubt they can communicate to each other.”

  “What shall we do then if they catch up to us?” another man asked.

  “We cannot let that happen. All we have are a few explosive packs left and some guns. They will be no match for more than one of them.”

  “Should we split into two or three groups?”

  “That might be an idea, but they will send more machines and so likely they will track all groups. No. I think we should stay together and keep pressing on into the mountains.”

  “We could become trapped,” the lead rider said.

  “We are going to have to take that risk. Surely even above the snowline, we could find a trail that is still passable at reasonable speed. Those machines won’t be too fast. They only just fit on this trail. Any wider and they would be hitting the pines. That is one thing on our side. But…we need a lead scout group to leave now. Three riders together.” They had already chosen who was to be in the scout group, so the lead rider indicated they should go on ahead with a wave of his arm.

  The group continued on eager to put as much distant between them and the stationary machine. It sat still where it had come to a halt, but was now resting on the ground, with its sole occupant seated inside. He was waiting for others to arrive after having directed them to his position, and advising of a potential larger target moving ahead. A strange effect was beginning to take hold on the location. Now, with the winter sun high, the usual hub of life that lived just below the snow line was absent and the scene for a hundred yards around was silent. It was as if the machine’s presence had dulled all life, bringing with it a sense of dread.

  Three hours after the incident, two other machines stopped on the trail to the rear and all three drivers were discussing their options. “We cannot just destroy it, the Agent will hate that. He wants results and he wants us to capture anyone we can so they can join him. If we get this lot, then he might see us favourably…might. We could use their animals for food – even horse meat has got to taste better than that crap we have been eating lately. I suggest we blast some trees so we can get your two machines around, and then continue to follow them along this trail.”

  “What if they take another trail?”

  “Follow them there too. Their horses are going to leave marks for us to follow and they won’t be stopping to cover their tracks. We have them scared. I’ll ride with you,” as he pointed at one of the drivers. “You blast the trees now,” he said to the other. Both of them did what he said, and within five minutes they had cleared a passage around the stationary machine. “We’ll come back for it when we can.”

  Fifteen miles ahead of them, the group was still on the same trail as the machines. There had been no other trails branching off, so they had continued along the same way as fast as possible.

  “We need to find somewhere to get off this trail. I wonder where those scouts are?”

  “There! Look!” One of the riders was pointing to a gap in the trees where they could see the trail about half a mile ahead on a ridge.

  “Everyone, pick up your pace for a bit if you can. We need to meet those riders as soon as we can.” About halfway from where they saw them and where the scout riders had been, they met up.

  “We saw you coming, so we eased off – let the horses take it easy. We have been going hard for a few miles.”

  “See anything?”

  “Yes. There is an old farm about five miles ahead. We checked it out and found a vehicle and some fuel. The vehicle looks pretty dirty though and will need some work to get going. And the fuel, it might need some filtering. It too looks dirty, but we think it will be Ok.”

  “Ok everyone,” the lead rider said. “Five miles as fast a
s we can. When we get there, only a small group will go in. I suggest three to look at the vehicle, and two for the fuel. If those machines catch up today, they will go through the place…literally. We need to outsmart them…”

  “Shouldn’t be too difficult…” someone shouted.

  “Yeah. They are probably not so smart, but they have machines with laser weapons…and communications. The remainder of us are to continue. If we see a fork on this trail, we take the right turn and keep climbing into the mountains. The others will catch up. Ok, let’s go.”

  When they reached the old farm, John was assigned to go over the vehicle with two others, and Steve was to check out the fuel with another. “It’s in that shed,” one of the scout riders pointed out to them. “We are going to keep going and find somewhere for the night.”

  John was going over the vehicle checking it for damage. It appeared to be in reasonable shape, despite it being a turn of the century utility. He rubbed a small section on its side, “F350,” he said. “Right, I’ll check the engine and you two look at the running gear.” Steve and the other man were already setting up some material they had found to use as a filter – the fuel was very old and dirty. “It’s good in one way that these places were just abandoned. Who would have thought back then that this fuel and the light truck would come into use all these years later?” When the two of them had filtered all the fuel, they had about sixty gallons in two large drums.

  John had been trying to clean the engine which had not run in so long, he was thinking it was likely to be inoperative and seized. It was another hour by the time he and all the others had managed to clean it up enough to test it using some of the fuel.

  “Oil! We forgot. Try and locate some. If there is fuel here, there is likely to be oil.” The five of them set about trying to find some oil, but were beginning to get desperate when they couldn’t see any. Finally, John saw an old metal tin and he looked inside. There was oil but it was used oil and it looked gluggy. “We are going to have to thin this out a bit, give it more viscosity. Look around for anything – even check the house. And hurry, we have taken too long and those machines will be coming. All the men ran hurriedly about looking for anything they could use to thin the gluggy oil. When four of the men had met back in the shed, one of them said, “no oil, but I saw what looks like a metal sheet we could use for a snow plough. It must be – look at those fittings on the front there.” He pointed at what looked like mounting brackets. “Here, help me put it in the back.”

  The fifth man then returned with a small plastic bottle in hand, “this is all I could find. The old label says vegetable oil. I found it inside the house at the back of an old cupboard. Lucky it is new…well, unopened, the oil is clear.”

  “Ok, we use that. I’ll mix it with this gluggy stuff while Steve pours in a little fuel. Don’t use much Steve – just a gallon or two so we can try and get it started. A few minutes later they were ready to try and start the light truck.

  “Ok, here we go,” John said as he crossed the ignition wires – there was no key to be found. The engine didn’t do anything aside from a few clicks.

  “Oh shit – the battery must be dead. I filled it but it looks like it is a no go.” He thought for a moment. “I know.” He went to his bag and took out a small energy cell he used to work on flux mechanics. “If I can connect this and modulate the output to match the voltage for the starter then it might work.” He quickly set about doing this and was finished within a couple of minutes.

  “Right this time.” He crossed the wires again and they got more this attempt, but it was only a few slow turnovers of the engine. “Well, at least it sounds like it is not seized…pray tell me how it isn’t. These things needed regular running to keep them going. Ok, another try.” This time they got a few more, but the engine would not start.

  “Steve, open the fuel injection cover and pour a little inside. It might help if we get some in there – the fuel pump might be a bit slack.”

  On the fourth try, the engine turned over and then stopped, so John tried it again. It coughed and let out a bang, and then it slowly wound up. John gave it a rev and it wound up some more. “It’s not going at full idle speed yet, but this will have to do. Steve, put another couple of gallons in and everyone jump on. Maybe it will get better while we are driving.” A minute later later, John engaged the accelerator. “Alright, hang on.”

  They drove out of the shed and left the farm as fast as they could. The engine did gradually warm up and soon began to run, albeit somewhat rough. He swung hard to the left and set off to catch the others.

  The Agent’s minions’ machines were only a few miles behind, when the vehicle John and the others were driving, suddenly appeared on their holographic sensors. They could easily scan for distance to the fleeing group, so they increased their speed as much as possible along the wooded trail. The first driver whose vehicle had been stopped earlier, had taken to getting angry, and took over the controls of the machine he was in. “We cannot let them escape. This will mean a lot for us if we report of success to the Agent. Otherwise we will have to forget it and explain why one of these machines no longer operates.

  John had a plan, he knew they would not be far behind and the silent machines could be on them before they realised. Also, as it was the only trail so far, there was no means of escape along this single route. “We are going to start a wildfire. Here’s what we do.” He pulled the light truck to a stop. “Ok, I’m going to make a few more of those explosives. You two get about a gallon each of the fuel we have and start soaking it over the trees either side of us. When I have finished making these explosives, we need to set them one on the trail and two either side of us. Lets’ do it!”

  Steve and other man quickly set about splashing a gallon each of fuel on the trees, whilst John made the three explosives from gunpowder he had been given at the equestrian centre. “Lucky you lot have been so prepared – those bullets and gunpowder are coming in use. Without them we wouldn’t have many options.” A few minutes later they were complete with fuses and he gave one each to two men and took the third and placed it under an inch of soil on the trail – the others did the same at the base of trees Steve and the others had splashed with fuel. “Well, no time like the present. Drive up there about fifty yards. After we light the fuses, we run to the truck and get out of here.”

  A minute later all three men were sprinting towards the truck as the fuses reached their end. Three small explosions rocked the scene, immediately setting the forest alight and bringing down a few of the pine trees lining the trail. When they had jumped in the back of the truck, they looked back to see a fiery barrage across the trail and extending into the forest. “That’ll hold them up for a while. Hit the accelerator, we need to catch up to the group.”

  Ahead of them, the main group had seen the fire erupt from the trees and they hoped it did not mean the demise of their companions. Their fears then were quickly waylaid as the truck appeared around a corner following them. A natural sense of relief came over the group at both the men’s survival and the appearance of the truck itself – meaning there was now a better chance for them ahead as they pushed on towards the snow.

  “They won’t stop for long, as they have lasers and will clear a path around the fire. It just means we get some extra time. So we need to keep pushing on.”

  Just then the three scout riders also returned from yet another advanced ride. “We have seen the trail split into three a mile or so ahead. It could work to our advantage – so long as we choose the right trail to take.”

  “We won’t know that until we take it,” one rider said.

  “That’s right, so again it is another chance we take on getting out of here.”

  At the triple intersection, they decided to take the middle trail, hoping it would lead them higher. The left side looked to traverse the mountains and they assumed the right side trail would be similar – just in the opposite direction. Before they moved on, the lead rider instructed a coupl
e of horses to go down both the left and right trails to make some tracks as a decoy. “Double back but keep just inside the trees. That way it looks like tracks only going one way. It will make them think for a few minutes. And make some dummy cart wheel tracks too – use those two small spare wheels in the cart there. Then hurry back and throw them in the truck. John, you and the others following in the truck, need to make a bit of a mess as we go and cover our real tracks. Grab some broken branches and old growth and spread it over the trail just past the second corner as you go. It might make them think it is an old disused path and may again help us get a little time. I’m hoping those Agent minions behind us are a bit distracted. Situations like these generally put them under pressure.”

  Their plan had worked. The two machines were indeed stopped by the wildfire now extending about sixty yards either side of the trail. The forest was still damp from winter weather though, so it burned slow. They decided to focus laser fire from both vehicles together to clear a trail around the fire as their vehicles had no capacity to extinguish the flames, so this would take them at least twenty minutes before they could move on.

  The group ahead had their horses almost at a gallop – driving the horses where their noses flared, straining as best they could as fast as they could push them, with the truck at the rear. Fortunately they had chosen the correct trail as it continued to wind its way uphill, and then it met another, wider trail looking as if it could have once been a sealed road with its’ broken bits of tar seal in many places.

  “This is good,” the lead rider said as the decoy trail riders arrived back with the main group. “We can make better time and distance on this solid surface now there is snow about in patches. As we go on, it will get thicker until there is a consistent cover. Those trails will be muddy and very slow.”