Space Runners #1

by Jeramey Kraatz

  Jasmine glanced around at her team. Everyone stared at one another, unsure of what to do. She took a wary look at her gloved hand before inhaling deeply and nodding.

  “We should spread out,” she said, motioning to the Mustangs. “We’re too big a target grouped together like this, and, for all we know, there will be robots dropping bombs on us in a few seconds.”

  The EW-SCABers all stared at her.

  “You heard her,” Benny said. He looked up at Ricardo, who seemed to approve. Then he turned back to the group. “But stay in teams of two so no one ends up alone. Come on, guys. Go!”

  They started to scatter. Benny gave Drue a thumbs-up. “Let’s watch each others’ backs, yeah?” he said.

  Drue nodded and crouched, like he was ready to leap out from a hiding spot and ambush some unseen enemy.

  Benny didn’t know quite what to do, so he just spun around a few times, looking for signs of the room changing. Then he blinked, and when his eyes opened again, he was in another world.

  Quartz-like boulders dotted the landscape around him in a rainbow of colors, jutting out of the grassy earth. They were twice his height, some taller. The sky was streaked with thin white clouds and lit by three small orange suns. Everything was so bright, so vivid. He felt as though he’d just been transported into some sort of painting or cartoon.

  There was a strange sound, too. Something he couldn’t quite place until he climbed up the tall embankment beside him and froze, his brain unable to fully comprehend what he was seeing.

  Water. A surging river a hundred feet wide at least, cutting through the landscape, disappearing over the horizon in what must be a magnificent waterfall.

  For a moment Benny forgot that everything he was seeing was fake, the river nothing more than a computer program. All he could think was that this was more water than he’d seen in his entire life. That his caravan could live on land like this forever. It was the kind of thing his father always dreamed about, and now it was there, in front of him, so real looking that he was sure he’d drown if he stepped into it.

  “Get down!” Hot Dog shouted somewhere off to his side.

  A flash of light shot out of the dense forest lining the other side of the river, and the ground near Benny’s feet exploded in a shower of dirt and debris, causing him to tumble backward down the embankment. He jumped to his feet and dusted himself off as soon as he stopped rolling.

  Fifteen yards away Hot Dog shook her head. “You’ve obviously never played a first-person shooter before.”

  “We didn’t exactly have arcades in the Drylands,” Benny muttered. Above him, one of the hearts blinked out. “Aw, man. Already?”

  Nearby, Drue was pointing his fist at the ground, causing chunks of dirt and grass to fly into the air. He tried to lift one of the giant quartz pieces beside him but it didn’t budge. Still, he didn’t seem put off. He just flexed his fingers as he locked eyes with Benny.

  “Let’s go mess up some robots.”

  The two of them carefully climbed back up the embankment and took cover behind another outcropping of the gemlike rock near the river, where the grass gave way to black sand. Farther up the bank, the rest of the Mustangs were making their way to the water with cautious steps. Hot Dog and Jasmine stayed close together, within Benny’s earshot.

  “Okay,” he said, peeking around the corner of the rock. “So who tried to explode me?”

  As if on cue, a dozen metallic beasts flew out of the trees. Benny could only stare wide-eyed as he watched creatures of silver, gold, and bronze shoot across the water, leaving faint chem trails behind them. Their bodies were segmented, like insects, but their faces were closer to human skulls. Five sharp-looking appendages opened and closed like claws as they darted through the air. In the trees, larger robots seemed to be patrolling at ground level, shaking the underbrush.

  Benny wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t anything as creepy as this.

  One of the flying enemies paused partway across the river, catching sight of Benny and Drue. Its grinning jaw unhinged, and some kind of neon-yellow energy shot out, bouncing off the side of the quartz they hid behind.

  “Whoa!” Benny shouted. “Laser-shooting psycho bee bots!”

  “They don’t stand a chance against Drue Bob Lincoln.” Drue paused. “Against us.”

  Benny nodded, and swung back around to face the oncoming hordes.

  Several of the flying robots appeared to have already been affected by the gravity gloves, crashing into the water or onto the riverbanks. The Mustangs were proving themselves a force to be reckoned with. Benny tried his best to lock on to one of the bronze beasts flying his way, but it was too fast, too agile for him to catch.

  So instead, he improvised. As the robot he’d been trying to take down dove close to the river, he targeted not the metallic insect but its surroundings. A jet of water shot up when he smashed the button on the side of his finger, knocking the robot off course and sending it spiraling through the air, landing somewhere behind him and Drue.

  “Nice trick,” Drue said. “We are totally space heroes.”

  “Mustang marines,” Benny said.

  “Elijah’s secret squad.”

  “The Moon platoon!”

  “Oh, that’s got a nice—”

  There was a high-pitched electronic whine, a flash of light, and then Drue went down, cursing. Benny spun around to find that the robot he’d downed hadn’t been destroyed—though it was having a hard time getting back in the air.

  He got the robot in his sights and shoved his fist forward again, using the antigravity to send his enemy soaring into the sky and then back down, crushing it against the ground.

  This time it wasn’t getting back up.

  “That hurt,” Drue said, getting to his feet and watching as one of the hearts above him disappeared. “I mean, not bad, but still. These suits aren’t messing around.”

  Benny turned his attention back to the battleground, but it looked like the robots were retreating. The Mustangs were actually winning, though he could see that several of his other teammates up the river had also taken damage.

  “Is that it?” Drue asked. “That was nothing.”

  “I don’t think so,” Jasmine said as she darted to join the boys behind the quartz, Hot Dog covering her. “They’re just retreating to regroup. If we want to defeat them, we’re going to have to go on the offensive.”

  “No problem,” Hot Dog said. “Let’s kick some metal butt.”

  “Uh, big problem,” Drue said. “There’s a raging river between us. I’m a good swimmer, but even I couldn’t make it across this thing.” He twisted his lips in confusion. “Also, I don’t really know how holographic water works.”

  “Okay, so let’s build a makeshift raft of something.”

  Benny glanced around, but there wasn’t much in the way of raft-building materials on their side of the river. They’d have to be resourceful and work together, but the only thing they had was . . .

  He stared down at his glove for a moment before looking back up at Drue.

  “I’ve got a better idea,” he said, a smile spreading across his face. “I’m going to punch you.”

  14.

  “I’m sorry, what?” Drue asked.

  “Just trust me,” Benny said. “I think this will work.”

  “Wait, let’s talk about—”

  Benny balled up his fist and shoved it forward, coming within a few inches of his teammate’s stomach. He smashed the button on the side of the glove and Drue flew back, shouting as he sailed over the water, flailing his arms and legs.

  “Oh crap! Oh crap, oh crap, oh . . .” He came to a stop as Benny pulled his fist back. Drue looked around and patted his arms and legs, the fear in his eyes starting to fade. Slowly, he placed his hands on his hips as though he were some kind of superhero floating in midair. “Actually, this is kind of cool.” He twisted himself around, face scrunching in determination as he pointed across the river. “G
et me over there!”

  As Benny navigated Drue through the air, he shouted to Jasmine and Hot Dog.

  “Look! It’s working. We can get our team to the other side.”

  Jasmine looked at Hot Dog, hesitant.

  “Um, I don’t want to hurt you, but—”

  “Can it, Jasmine, and just shoot me already,” Hot Dog said. “I’m not letting him beat my kill count.”

  And then there were a dozen kids flying through the air, following Benny’s lead. Some of them brought their teammates over once they were on the enemy’s side, but then the robots started firing again and the airspace over the water became too dangerous to try and pass through.

  “Okay,” Benny said to Jasmine as they crouched behind the quartz, “so what do we do now? We’re useless over here.”

  “Not at all,” she said. “We have a better line of sight and can cover the rest of the Mustangs this way. It’s actually the best plan, I think.”

  “Sure,” Benny said. If he trusted anyone to devise a strategy, it was going to be Jasmine, based on her track record so far—though he was pretty sure part of the reason she was saying this was because she didn’t want to be slung through the air while all the fighting was going on. Not that he could blame her.

  For the most part, things seemed to go well. The Mustangs were getting better at using their gloves, and managed to drive the robots back into the trees, racing in after them. Benny was able to take down a few more robots that darted out of cover, saving the hearts of several teammates. He couldn’t tell what was going on past the trees, exactly, but he hoped things were okay.

  Still, he didn’t like being out of the action for too long.

  He was just starting to get antsy and ask Jasmine to send him over when he spotted Drue running out of the trees, chased by three flying robots. Drue managed to knock one into the other, causing them both to go down in a shower of sparks, but the third got the better of him, and landed a shot directly in the boy’s stomach.

  Drue fell backward, rolling across the beach. His second heart blinked out as the robot swooped down, attacking him with the claw on the bottom of his body. No, not attacking—the robot snatched Drue’s gravity glove, leaving him defenseless. Drue scrambled across the sandy bank, yelling something Benny couldn’t make out over the sound of the water. Then he disappeared behind one of the quartz pieces, outside Benny’s line of fire.

  “No!” Benny shouted. “I can’t get you out of there if I can’t see you!”

  But it was no use—Drue couldn’t hear him, either. Benny turned to Jasmine, but an errant shot from across the battlefield had knocked her down the hill. She was just now getting to her feet.

  More flying robots began to spill out of the trees. One made a beeline for Drue’s hiding spot, but Benny managed to catch it in midair, sending it flying off course. The enemy exploded against a tree.

  There was no way Drue was going to survive on his own unarmed.

  Benny took a deep breath. The way he saw it, there was only one choice—only one way of saving the boy who, despite sometimes being a pain, was probably the closest thing to a friend he had on the Moon so far. He turned his back to the river and shoved his right fist into the center of own chest.

  “This is a bad idea,” he muttered as he pressed the button on the side of the glove.

  He shot into the sky, involuntarily shouting out of a mixture of excitement and fear. At first he wasn’t even sure which direction he was going, but after letting go of the button and retriggering the antigravity a few times, he managed to get his bearings and set himself upright. Then, after taking a moment to congratulate himself on not immediately crashing and burning, he flew forward, the river churning twenty feet below him.

  “Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall,” he repeated to himself as he jetted over the water.

  And he didn’t. At least, not until he was hovering over the sand on the opposite bank from where he’d started. He even managed a pretty soft landing, all things considered.

  He found Drue leaning against a rock, breathing heavily.

  “It’s too dangerous over here,” Benny said. “We need to get you back to the other side.”

  “Stupid robot,” Drue spat. “Where’d that thief go?”

  There was a crashing sound behind him as a metal behemoth on three spiked legs burst out of the dense forest, splintering two trees. Its skull-like face turned to the two boys, sizing them up in a split second. Then it raised a cannon-like arm in their direction.

  “What the—?” Benny said.

  “Crap!” Drue shouted. “Those things are tough! Watch out!”

  They didn’t have time to get out of the way, but Benny could do something. Without a second thought, he pushed Drue aside and twisted his body, shielding his friend from the blast. Benny’s space suit only simulated the pressure of whatever weapon the robot was using, but it still caused momentary pain to course through him. He fell hard, his breath knocked out, leaving him gasping for air on the sand as Drue tried to get to his feet. Above him, one of his hearts flickered and disappeared.

  The robot moved forward, its metallic limbs clicking, cannon recharging. Benny struggled to aim his glove, but it was hard to steady himself when he was still trying to breathe. Drue was on the other side of the quartz, staying out of sight.

  Benny was pretty sure this was the end.

  That’s when a big tree limb crashed against the robot’s head. The branch rose again, then came back down, over and over until the metal monster crumpled in on itself and fell over in a shower of sparks.

  Hot Dog stood behind the mangled machine, smiling, her fist aimed at the floating log.

  “That’s another one for me,” she said.

  “Benny, my man,” Drue said cautiously, peeking around the side of the rock. “Did you just . . . lose one of your hearts for me?”

  “We said we’d watch each other’s backs, didn’t we?” Benny asked.

  Drue looked confused for a second, and then smiled meekly. It looked different from the grin he usually had plastered on his face.

  “Thanks,” Drue said. “Seriously.”

  “No problem.”

  “Now . . . how about you let me use your glove?”

  “In your dreams,” Benny said, getting to his feet.

  The trees around them rustled as more Mustangs streamed out of the forest, some chased by robots, others shouting into the open air that they’d almost won—that most of their enemies had been destroyed. Not everyone looked happy, though. A few teammates like Alexi and Ramona had lost all of their hearts and were now practically see-through. Benny realized there were holograms projected onto them to make them look like ghosts walking around the simulation, but still, it was a little spooky.

  “Let’s finish this up!” Benny shouted, catching a flying enemy in the air with his gravity glove and sending it diving straight into the river.

  That’s when the rumbling began.

  It started off soft, like the slight vibration Benny had felt beneath his feet the night before, but soon the entire world around him seemed to be shaking, as though the ground might open up and swallow the Mustangs.

  “What’s going on?” Hot Dog yelled.

  The answer came in the form of a clawed metal hand that reached up over the edge of the horizon where the river turned into a waterfall. It was skeletal, huge—big enough to scoop up two Space Runners in a single swipe. Veins running through it pulsed with blue light. A second hand appeared on the other side of the riverbank, and then a head popped up over the center of the river, shaped like some kind of inhuman skull with an elongated, protruding jaw and two black horns sticking out of the back. There was only one socket for an eye in the center of its forehead, and inside a floating blue orb pulsed with energy as the enormous robot hoisted itself up farther, until its full metal torso rose above the horizon.

  “What the heck is that?” Benny asked.

  “Haven’t you ever played a video game?” Hot Dog asked.
“This is the final boss. We take it down, and we’ve won this thing.”

  She pointed her fist at the metal giant and pushed the trigger button a few times.

  “Perfect,” she said. “These things are useless against it. I don’t suppose anyone found a rocket launcher in the trees?”

  The gargantuan monster lurched forward again, and suddenly its jaw split open, exposing more of the orb. A wave of blue energy shot out, coating the opposite side of the riverbank and taking out the hearts of any Mustangs in its path.

  “Jasmine!” Hot Dog shouted. She spotted the other girl and used her glove to float Jasmine over before she was caught up in the blast. Jasmine screamed and thrashed her arms and legs, though Benny wasn’t sure if this was because of the giant that had appeared or the fact that Hot Dog had plucked her off the riverbank with no warning.

  Benny tried smacking the robot’s face with a downed tree trunk, but it didn’t even make a dent in the thing. Drue ran around, trying to find something to fight with, while the rest of the Mustangs attempted—and failed—to use their gloves against the beast. When Jasmine was finally on the ground again, Hot Dog grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “Okay, you’re the smart one,” she said. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know!” Jasmine shouted. “Why would I know?!”

  “Well, then guess.”

  “Um, the eye maybe!” Jasmine said. “In the center of his head? If that’s a power source, maybe we can corrupt it.”

  “Yes!” Hot Dog said. “Every boss has a weak spot. That’s so obvious—why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Yeah, but we need something to hit it with,” Drue said as he jogged over to the robot Hot Dog had taken down. “We need one of those robo-cannons.”

  “Why don’t we just throw a big rock at it?” Benny asked.

  He focused on one of the big purple shards of quartz sticking out of the ground. It was at least seven feet tall and twice as wide as Benny. He pointed his knuckles at it and held down the glove’s side button, but the thing didn’t budge.

  “I’ve tried that,” Drue said. His voice was strained as he tried to wrench the weapon from the downed robot’s grip. “They’re too heavy.”