Scavenger: Evolution: (Sand Divers, Book One)

by Timothy C. Ward

  Rush didn’t have a clear shot, or really an idea of where to shoot. He switched to dive view and a mop of green tendrils suctioned Jeff’s arm into their center on the other side of the wall. The tendrils snapped and stung a crying and shivering Jeff. The same bright color of the tendrils traveled like roots through the wall back to where he came from—toward The Depository.

  Jeff screamed louder than his mother. His face clenched and a tear spilled down his reddening cheek. He gasped against the pain. “Cold!”

  The floating form of the mop of tendrils made Rush think of water. Yes. Water. Non-lethal when sprayed, but strong in enough force, and could disrupt the hold.

  “Back up,” Rush told them. Jeff slapped the concrete in a desperate display. The mop had its tendrils wrapped tightly down his arm, pulsing as though feeding. Whatever had him wasn’t letting go and Jeff knew it. Rush blinked into a focus on his imagined body and a pool of water he was collecting below.

  “No.” Carroll said. She and Jeff’s mom wrapped their arms up under Jeff’s and strained to pull him away from the wall.

  Rush pumped his arms to churn the imagined water into waves that circled up against a rising wall behind him. “Move. Last warning.”

  They didn’t. Jeff’s scream caught in his throat and he coughed, his face sideways and pressed against the wall, turning purple as he struggled to breathe. Rush’s hands swung backward in one more circle before opening his palms and hefting the wave over his shoulders. He threw it down. The force crashed into Jeff’s shoulders and knocked Jen and Carroll from their grip. The pink EM aura carried them away from Jeff as they slid onto their backs. Singer’s feet sent sharp supports into the floor to keep Rush stable against the tide.

  When the water level lowered, Rush uprooted from the floor, took two long strides toward the wall and threw a punch of suit power half a foot from Jeff’s arm. The force rumbled through the concrete and distorted the M-MANs into fanned smoke. Rush pivoted on his front foot, lifted his heel to the wall, and shoved Jeff out from the M-MANs hold. Jeff slid on his back between his mom and Carroll. Both ladies reached up and brought him into an embrace.

  Behind them the M-MANs spread across the kitchen floor like a green tide, nearing where Carroll placed her hand for support.

  “Get up!” he shouted at her. He threw an EM wave at the tide. The M-MANs splashed up, but spilled over and flowed on.

  “Lift—” Something bit his other arm, laced around his bicep, and squeezed. A chilled, frozen pain struck bone. He swung his arm away from the hole and shook it off. His last shake threw him off balance and he crashed onto his other side. The pain was so sharp up his arm he didn’t feel the landing. Tears came unbidden.

  Carroll and Jen had Jeff on his feet and pushed open a door behind Avery and Viky, who hovered over him unsure how to help. He kept his right arm up and its extension of EM clenched against the surging strength of M-MANs. Viky favored her good ankle as she leaned on the wall. Dixon took Cool into the room Carroll had entered. Rush gritted his teeth as he lost ground to the encroaching M-MANs and struggled to think of a way out of his circumstance.

  “Singer…help.”

  POWER 80%. CHARGE TO CLEAN ARM, 12%.

  Is it asking for permission? “Do it!”

  A surge set his arm straight and clenched up into his jaw, as the tingling shiver vibrated his body from the electrical shock sent from the Poseidon’s shell. He planted a hand and pushed up while Avery helped. Rush switched to dock view to save power, but kept his right hand clenched against their growing field.

  Carroll flicked a switch and lights blinked to a room full of stainless steel counters. Knives hung on magnets. Most of the walls had thick paneled doors with thermometers in the corners. A rotting husk of meat on one of the counters filled his nostrils with the scent of rancid decay.

  “Go!” Carroll shouted, helping Jeff’s mom carry him through a narrow walk space between counters caked in slimy green food.

  Concrete crumpled from the doorway in a line through the floor, racing for their path. One strand trickled up the legs of a table. As it spread across the counter, the table crumpled in on itself.

  Carroll and the group parted doors to leave the room, Rush at the tail. The table continued to curl in on itself, forming into something three feet tall with the compacting strength of a fist crumpling paper. His efforts to curtail its growth had zero effect. 62% power in his suit. Sixty-two?

  He released his EM shield, took his DL out and fired at the table’s center. The EM blast blew through, but pieces refilled the hole, working around the inconvenience. The mass was growing into some kind of metallic canine. Rush backed up as he shot rapid-fire bursts at the head. Pieces broke off and grew back between each shot. The dog had a firm form by the time Rush backed through the doors.

  His visor read 75% in his DL.

  Metal scraped off tile in swishes Rush imagined was the dog finding its footing and making a charge for the door. Rush held the trigger on the DL and let the doors swing back together. The dog broke through and hopped off the ground higher and faster than Rush anticipated. He swung the DL up and fired at its chest. The machine exploded, disintegrating all but the back half as a million shards of falling nanobots sprinkled the floor.

  “Rush, come on!” Avery shouted from a doorway on the other side of the dark room.

  Rush ran between circular tables to the light emitting from the open doorway. At the door he glanced back to see the dog wiggle around on the floor while its torso slowly gave birth to a head.

  They took a carpeted hallway that cut left and then a quick right toward an open area with tall pillars. Dim yellow panels lit their way. Cool and Dixon went ahead, trying but failing to find an unlocked door. Rush looked left through the pillars to a tall double door. Above them, ‘Denver Ave.’ was carved into a stone plaque.

  Cool pulled on the handles, but they didn’t budge.

  “Stand back.” Rush motioned the group to part. He focused on the doors and went into the diver’s half trance. He still hadn’t caught his breath. His arms and head began to shake from the force coursing through him in his new suit. His stance hardened into stone as his EM release strained to cut through the door. Veins bulged in his temples. Breathe. He continued to focus his suit’s power. A soft spot gave way in the door’s center. He transferred to his imagined body and threw a jab into the point of weakness. He stepped back, inhaled and drove a deeper punch. Step, reach back, breathe, jab. Left, right, left-right…Rush punched back and forth, up and down, forming a circle large enough for the group to climb through. He relaxed back into his real body and fell onto his rump, sweating and huffing for air to fill his lungs.

  “Thank you,” Dixon said.

  Rush smiled at the young man’s forgiveness. Dixon ushered his wife into the hole first. Jen pushing Jeff into the hole next blocked the look Rush was waiting for from Carroll. The addition of her forgiveness would have been better, but he understood if life didn’t decide to grant him all of his wishes at once. Just get them to safety.

  Cool waited back. Viky put a hand up to appease Jen. “After you get your wife,” Cool said, “are you going to find us?”

  Fish would want him to say yes. An “I’ll try,” wouldn’t suffice...“Yes. I will.”

  Cool smiled. “Thank you. Please do.” Viky put her hand on his back to nudge him with her. Cool planted his foot and looked back at Rush. “I’m sorry my mom doesn’t like you.”

  Rush laughed. “It’s okay.” They needed to get moving. Rush glanced backward. No dog. No noise. When he turned back, Cool was stepping into the hole in the door. Rush guessed he didn’t need to say anything else. He hoped he’d see them again.

  Viky paused.

  “You need to go,” Rush said.

  Footsteps clapped the carpet in a quick stride of fours from the dining room.

  “Rush!” Avery was on the left side of the open area checking a door. He pointed his pistol at the noise of footsteps and fired.

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nbsp; The metallic hound leapt past the corner of the wall and landed in a dead sprint for Rush’s face. He fired his DL. The shot hit the dog in the lower back, pressing its spine down so its hind legs skidded over the carpet. Rush lumbered up to standing, took two long strides and stomped Singer’s foot through the mutt’s head. Its particles shattered and glistened in shards across the carpet. The rest of it hit Singer’s shin, stuck, then began wrapping itself around its calf.

  Singer had 36% power. Wow. What was that door made of?

  He might not have enough to cleanse his leg and reseal the door.

  “Singer, amputate leg extensions.” They clicked and he jumped backwards. The headless M-MAN dog clawed up the top of the right leg, melding into the metal like two liquids in one jar and fell over.

  Rush turned to the door, focusing his suit’s power on the thicker portion of the doors surrounding the open circle. Rigid muscles clenched from neck to feet as he entered the door’s field. His imagined body had to palm the excess back over the center, like spreading dry clay. He rubbed imaginary water in with his elbows to soften it up and smoothed it over. A warning flashed red and buzzed loudly in his ears. Power at 5%. Already?

  He had to shut it or the other M-MANs would know where they went. Pretending he could stand on both sides of the door, he pushed up into the center, down from above and in from the sides until the hole was closed.

  The alarm and buzzing noise in his visor became so bright and loud that he fell to his knees. He tried to let go of his imagined body so he could take his visor off, but the throbbing pain was too great to move, let alone lift his hands to his head.

  “Singer. Help.” He couldn’t hear himself over the alarm.

  No words appeared in his line of sight. The pain in his head drove through his eyes. He shut them and curled into a ball on the floor. Vomit rushed up his sore throat and sprayed the inside of his suit, splashing back hot on his face.

  Cool air tickled his wet neck and ears. His visor peeled off his temples. The warning alarm ceased. He opened his eyes to Avery leaning upside down over him.

  “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Rush wanted to punch Avery for pretending to care after stabbing him in the back. But he could barely shake his head.

  Avery helped him out of the Poseidon and pushed the dive button on Rush’s chest, but it didn’t matter, his power was gone. A drip of sweat fell from Rush’s hair to his neck, impressing a chill down his back. Avery put Rush’s arm over his shoulder to carry him.

  “Gotta move Singer.”

  “What?” Avery stopped.

  “Can’t leave there. Draw attention…to their path.” He’d be damned if he went through all that only to let the M-MANs follow Cool into Denver.

  “Okay, maybe I should get in.”

  If Avery took Singer and betrayed him again, how would Rush get it back? He still had his knife, but could barely lift his chin off his shoulder. It was too late to ask Singer for a way to lock Avery out if he needed to.

  “It’s out of power,” Rush said. “Won’t move.”

  “Does it have a power cable? I could plug it in somewhere and wait it out.”

  “Don’t know. Don’t think so.”

  The lump of dog and Singer’s calf stretched out of the carpet. A flap unfolded, exposing the side of the dog’s newly grown head. Its mouth gasped open to share that the teeth had found their long points.

  “We need to go,” Rush said, watching the dog’s eyes peer back toward him.

  “Can I use your gun?” He indicated the DL on the floor. Rush hadn’t realized he’d dropped it.

  “Need my suit to use it. Give it to me.”

  Avery did.

  “Help me.” Rush pointed at the slowly standing dog. It struggled to wiggle its one-eared head and neck off of the wet mass of its body.

  Avery put the DL in his hand. The dog twisted its head and snapped its jaws. “Move the suit. I’ll keep this thing down.”

  Avery went to pick up the Poseidon. Rush downed his visor and tapped the dive button on his suit. Nothing. In the dark of his visor down, the dog’s teeth chattered. The lack of a growl unnerved him. The chatter intensified. Rush took off his visor. Three dogs walked around the corner from where he’d come. They dipped their heads in preparation to pounce.

  “Avery.”

  The dogs sprung into a snarling sprint.

  He lifted his DL, holding the trigger as he rose to his feet. He let loose on the trigger. A sonic wave shimmered in the air. Particles exploded from the center dog’s head. It spun backwards as the other two were thrown sidelong into the wall. Avery, carrying the Poseidon over his shoulder, lifted his pistol.

  “Let’s go.” Avery backtracked to the other side of the open area as he shot holes in the dog to the right.

  Rush held the DL trigger until the dog on the left leapt at his shooting hand. He let go. The canine’s torso ballooned and exploded, shooting the legs four directions. First Dog lifted a paw out of the carpet and tried scratching its way free. Rush’s shot silenced the chattering teeth as it removed a chunk from jaw to arm like a swift breeze.

  Rush turned and hobbled toward Avery and the door he had open.

  Avery flicked a switch and lit a storage room with cages of packed materials and metal containers rolled against them. The door on the other side had a key pad access. Rush shut the door and pushed a button in the center to lock it.

  An image of the map he read came to mind. He knew where they were, and the room behind them was a dead end.

  A dent poked inward on the door.

  “We have a problem,” Rush said.

  “I see that.”

  Metallic footsteps skittered across the floor on the other side of the door. Thunk! The metal popped further into the vague shape of a dog’s head.

  “No, the problem is we’re trapped. The room behind us doesn’t go anywhere.”

  “I still have about half power in my suit.” Avery lifted the husk of Singer as though looking for a way to get in. “Can I use this?”

  “I don’t know. Your suit is older. Even with power, it—”

  Thunk. The first dent in the door expanded closer into their room.

  Avery fit his arms into the braced sleeves. “You have a better idea?”

  Thunk. A third dent punctured below the second.

  Avery closed the compartment around his chest, his visor over his eyes. He shivered from head to toes, then relaxed. “Ally.”

  “Sentry Stenson, confirm,” Singer said over speakers near its neck.

  For now. “Yes.” Rush had an idea. “Show Avery a map.”

  He stood face to face with Avery. “Can we dive to the floor below?”

  “Yes,” Singer said.

  Rush held onto Singer.

  A dog’s snout punched through the top dent in the door. It wiggled the opening wider as the door assimilated into its growing form.

  The floor fell out from under his soles as they plummeted into darkness.

  SCAVENGER: Twin Suns

  Chapter 7

  Rush landed on a soft floor and fell back into a wall. Avery grabbed him and pulled him in. A hole of light filtered down from the ceiling to illumine a tunnel from them to the floor above. The door screeched and shook against its frame. The metallic dogs crashed into it in fits.

  Avery reached out over Rush and pushed him. “Come, there’s a hall up ahead, but I’m down to 2.6 percent power. I don’t want to go through what you did when you ran out.”

  Without his visor working, Rush walked forward in the dark, guided by Avery’s touch on his back. Their pace increased from walk to run. Avery lifted Rush and dove forward, turning upward. They passed through a wall with Rush facing the ceiling and landed on top of Avery. Rush smacked the back of his head on something hard in Singer’s frame. He and Avery slid into a wall on the other side. Avery coughed and yellow vomit splashed on the face mask. Rush reached around the back of his helmet. He pushed down until he found the release and lift
ed the helmet. He removed the visor. Avery’s eyelids fluttered and he looked off, momentarily unaware of his surroundings. Rush slapped him. Avery coughed and more vomit spilled onto Singer’s front, dripping onto the concrete of the bare, transport hallway. The smell was almost as bad as the kitchen and its rotten food.

  “Avery, wake up.”

  In his vulnerable state, his head lolled over and hanging, Avery reminded Rush of the old friend he wished he could keep. Of the partner who’d fought and sweat to save him from the sand’s deadly clutches more times than he could remember. Please, just be good. I need to be able to trust you.

  Rush needed his friend.

  Behind him a loud crash of stone shot dust and debris out from the hole they’d made in the wall. Rush coughed and choked on the air stifled with dust. He fought to drag Avery away from the hole, into clearer air, then collapsed onto his rear and rested against the wall.

  Sparse lights on the ceiling gave the tunnel a bare source of lighting. The ground turned off to the right. The dust was still too thick to see where the tunnel went to the left.

  “That should keep those dogs busy for a while.” Avery coughed, and wiped his mouth on his upper sleeve, where Singer’s shielding didn’t cover. “Nice suit, but it’s a bastard when it runs out of juice.”

  “You saying you don’t want one for Solstice?”

  “Oh, I’ll take three, thank you.”

  Rush chuckled. “Nothing’s ever enough for you.”

  “Why take one when you can have three?”

  Rush had a chalky film on his tongue and a dry throat. He scraped his teeth over his tongue and spit on the floor away from Avery. He took out his canteen and shook the small amount of water left inside. “Want some?”

  “That’s okay.”

  “So what are we going to do now, Av? You betrayed me. I tried to kill you. What are you really doing here?”

  Avery pushed himself up straighter against the wall. “I didn’t betray you.”

  “Colorado’s ass you didn’t. What about Nedzad?”