“Is this ammunition?” Ziggy asked, pulling out belts upon belts of bullets. The leather had almost completely degraded, but the little pellets of metal were sound.
“You’re damn right it is!” Tyna took hold of the gun, cradling it carefully in her arms. “I’ve read about these, but I’ve never touched one,” she confessed. “Are there any more?”
Ziggy investigated, pulling out two handguns and something round with a loose metal ring attached. “What the hell is this?”
“Don’t touch that!” Tyna yelped suddenly. “That’s a grenade. Put it down. You don’t know if it’s become shock sensitive after being stored outside of an airtight container.”
Everyone turned to give Tyna a look. She blushed slightly.
“Look, I just… have a passing interest in old-world weaponry, alright.” She inspected the guns. “These should be fine. I’m going to take some ammunition upstairs and try these out, see if they work. I think I can remember how to load a gun.”
“What are you going to shoot upstairs?” Sirius asked. Tyna gave a wicked smile.
“I’m going to shoot at those damn dogs. Anyone with me?”
Three hands instantly shot up in the air, but Sirius was already in the driver’s seat and looking over the dashboard, the steering wheel, turning the key in the motor. Nothing but a few sad chug-chugs came from beneath the bonnet at first, before it rolled over, roaring to life for a moment before dying again.
“Needs fuel,” he muttered. The canister he’d found was a good start, but it might not be enough. “Try and find more cans like that one. If we put enough fuel in this beauty, she might actually be able to carry us back to the city.”
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Tyna asked, the rifle slung over her shoulder as she readied to climb the crumbling stairs to the second floor.
“I think I am. We’ll talk about it when I’m sure I’m not just pipe-dreaming here. Get up there and shoot some dogs.”
The sound of gunfire broke the night’s silence about half an hour later. After at least a dozen missed shots, one made its mark. The sound of a bullet hitting wet flesh could be heard even from inside. A cheer went up as Sirius worked tirelessly with the vehicle, three canisters of fuel now set down beside it. He alternated through the night between the driver’s seat and buried deep under the hood. The others took turns sleeping and helping out, but Sirius didn’t rest. He was in his element, his blood felt electrified with new life. Machinery and oiled parts, he could understand. The tools flowed like extensions of his own body. By the time that dawn peaked over the eastern horizon, he was turning the key to the sound of a rumbling roar beneath the hood.
He stuck his head out of the open window and gave his own yell of victory. At his request the others pulled the rust-encrusted chains that would open the garage door at the far end of the room, clearing obstacles so that Sirius could pull out into the sun. Having never driven before, he did have some trouble swerving around the corpses of the dogs that were already attracting flies. Nevertheless he brought it round with relative smoothness, and hung out of the window, grinning at them all.
“Reckon we’ll all fit?” he joked. Tyna rolled her eyes but smiled.
“We’ll just have to see. Are we ready?”
They loaded the guns, the remaining and unused canister of fuel and anything else to hand that might be useful into the vehicle. It was noticeably heavier once they were all aboard, but the tracking of the wheels allowed it to plough through the sand with ease. It was as though the spirits had placed this for them to find. To save them.
No, not to save them, he thought. So that they could save themselves.
His chest and limbs and neck and back ached as they always did, but today it didn’t feel like an ache. Despite the pain and the lack of sleep, a fire burned deep in the boy that had his knuckles turning white on the wheel. It almost hurt, the anger and furious joy that overtook him. Tyna sat next to him, crammed into the front passenger seat with Celeste, and gave him a concerned look.
“So… what’s the plan?”
“I don’t have one. Currently, it’s “ram through the damn gate and over as many of them as I can”, but I’m open to suggestions.”
“They’re gonna see us from a mile off from the dust this thing is kicking up,” Ziggy pointed out as they roared out into the desert, scattering a couple surviving dogs. “We won’t have the element of surprise, that’s for sure. The ones watching on the wall will alert the guard.”
“And do what? There hasn’t been an outside threat to the walls for as long as any of us have been alive. Most of those guards have never even seen action,” Tyna smirked. “I”d say through the gate is a good start. Through the gate, then through the gaol. Me and anyone else that wants to try their hand at some target practice will go in with guns. They’re loaded. We’ll get whoever’s in there out, easy.”
“And then?”
“We rally any of the Missing Ones that are stuck in there, and anyone else that wants to join us.”
“And then?”
“Spirits alive, Selene, can you cheer up?” Frankie snapped at her friend.
“What? It’s a good question! We have no idea what we’re doing, and guns or no guns we’ll be sitting ducks to the shooters!”
“Who’s to say the Skyborn guard even exist? Have you ever seen one?”
“I have.” Tyna said quietly. She seemed about to go into a discussion regarding the elusive snipers that the Skyborn claimed to be the greatest soldiers in the city, but a panicked noise came from the back.
“Zak? Zak?!”
Kaz was shaking their twin, but they weren’t responding, eyes slightly lidded and rolled back, mouth slack, slumped against the other. Sirius looked back and cursed. The same sickness that Doki had suffered seemed to have taken one of the twins, too. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before the wound festered completely and its host was unable to be saved. They had to do something.
“Hold on Zak. We’re gonna get you help. That’s the first port of call.” Sirius bid everyone to brace themselves as he stepped the accelerator further towards the metal, wheel clutched in his hands so the vehicle wouldn’t spin out of control as they sped across the dunes, onto the salt flats. Here it was a clear run, no troublesome mounds of sand to maneuver around. They crossed the blinding white wastes in a time that seemed almost absurdly fast compared to how long it had taken them to pass them on foot. Within an hour the city was in sight.
“Assume that they’ve seen us, but keep going,” Tyna told Sirius, clutching the tooth that Celeste had given her so hard it was in danger of breaking the skin and making her palm bleed.
“Do I go through the gate?” Sirius asked. When he was given no answer he asked again, louder this time.
“Well, I don’t think it matters,” Celeste murmured. “There’s… nobody on the wall.”
There was a dead silence. Sirius pulled the vehicle to a halt around five hundred yards from the gate. They looked up the twenty-foot mound of re-purposed rubble and rock, seeing that she was right. Usually patrols would snake their way up and down the wall, but today, it was bare. Sirius killed the engine and stuck his head out of the window. Silence.
“Alright, we need to act now anyway. I’m going through the gate. When I do, I’m going to pull up. Kaz, Yama, Harley, you take Zak to the nearest doctor that you find and put them at gunpoint if you have to.” Tyna twisted around to press a handgun into Yama’s hands, who blinked at it and swallowed heavily.
“Hey, you killed that first dog last night. I believe in you,” the older girl said kindly.
“The rest of us will hit the gaol. See who we can drag out of that hellhole. One of you meet us at the city center, and tell us where Zak’s being kept.” The engine bellowed as he turned the key again and revved it. “Let’s do this.”
The run up to the gate was terrifying. Half of them had to cover their eyes as it rushed towards them, a deafening clang and a crash announcing that they had breach
ed, the inch-thick metal buckling and swinging open instantly. It jolted the vehicle something fierce, but Sirius’ passengers were heartened greatly at the cry of victory that escaped his lips. They screeched to a halt on the first street, looking around warily. Again, there was nobody to be found. None of them had ever seen Ulead this quiet. A slight rushing sound that might have been many voices speaking in unison floated by on the breeze, but then again it could have simply been the wind between the buildings.
“Spirits protect you,” Celeste called out to Zak, Kaz, Harley and Yama as they stepped out of the vehicle and ran for the cover of a nearby alleyway. Zak hung limply over Kaz’ shoulder, unconscious as their twin gave a jaunty salute and disappeared among the buildings. Sirius readied the vehicle once more, running his hand over the steering wheel for a moment and marveling at the feeling of power that it imbued him with. They looked through the large windscreen down the nearest street.
“Look!” Tyna called out, pointing. A single Airborn guard, recognizable even from this distance by the tunic and spear, stood at the end of the road where a junction appeared sharply. He was simply stood there, staring in absolute disbelief and horror at the buckled gate, the monstrous vehicle. Sirius gave a wicked, sharp-toothed grin.
“Watch this,” he murmured. He stepped on the gas just the slightest fraction, so that the engine growled and rumbled. The Airborn guard started, look like he was about to run. “Oh no you don’t...”
The guard panicked and fled. The boy opened his lips to let out a nefarious laugh before letting the beast he bridled shake to life once more and give chase, spraying sand and dust over the fronts of every derelict store that they passed, avoiding hitting the guard just as he dived into a back alley. Laughing as they passed him the truck rocketed towards the town center, blissfully unaware of what awaited them at the heart of this poisonous city.
Chapter Eight
The gaol was first on the agenda, and by the time that Sirius screeched to a halt in front of it everyone’s blood was up from the guttural roar of the engine. They gripped their weapons, some with more confidence than others, and all but Sirius clambered out of the vehicle. With Tyna’s instruction, they flooded the gaol doors with a sudden and desperate wave of attack, though when the flimsy barricade broke and the youths rushed inside, they discovered only one rather startled-looking guard watching over the prisoners. He instantly surrendered, putting his hands up and cowering away from the rumble of their spears.
“Please don’t kill me! Please- AH!” he squeaked when Tyna reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his tunic.
“What’s going on. Where is everybody,” she demanded, shaking him slightly. The guard whimpered.
“There’s a riot in the city center. Oh god, you’re those missing kids, aren’t you? Don’t kill me, I swear, I have a family, I don’t even care about the Skyborn or the harvest or any of it, please-”
Tyna gave him a bit of a shake, if nothing but to keep him quiet.
“Just open the cells, will you?” she sighed impatiently. One by one the Missing Ones that had survived the ordeal in the tunnels were set free, along with a couple dozen other Earthborn suffering extended stays in the dirty cells for petty crimes.
“Where did they take the other Harvested?” Tyna asked a few of them as they headed for freedom. “Did they do it?”
“They have them in the chamber again. I don’t think they’ve harvested them, but they’re not letting them out, either.”
“Maybe that’s what this riot is all about. We should get down there. If there’s enough people standing up… Ziggy, this could be huge. I think this is what we’ve been waiting for.” Her dark eyes shone, and her friend nodded with a smirk.
“Right. Let’s get back to the truck.” They did so, among the sudden flood of escaping prisoners, climbing into the vehicle and telling Sirius the news. His face lit up.
“You’re telling me the place is empty because people are actually…”
“I know. Come on, we need to get down there and see what’s going on.”
They hurtled towards the city center, having to slow down once they neared it due to Sirius’ wild driving and the people milling about with a lack of aim in the middle of the street, some lobbing rocks and bricks when they saw the vehicle, probably thinking that it was filled with Airborn guards. A quad-bike was in flames at the side of the road, alongside a couple other small vehicles. More rubble than usual was strewn across the street. Several Airborn businesses had been raided, and for now, there were no guards to be seen. The people outside were not the meek and mild cattle that Sirius had often balked at being in the midst of. Their eyes had taken on an animalistic gleam, lips pulled back over teeth, a wild look in each of the faces that he passed. When they neared the center square, they could barely move for all the people crowded into it, staring up at the nearest skyscraper, their howls and shouts of fury echoing around the city.
“Not our children! Not our children! Not our children!”
The Airborn guards that had been tasked with holding the skyscrapers and their doors against the tide of bodies were beginning to struggle. They were grouped in a tight formation in front of the doors, spears out and pointed at the crowd as they jeered and bayed for justice. Every time the mass of bodies moved, it pushed those at the front of it ever more dangerously closer to the tips of those spears.
Sirius killed the engine and climbed out of the open window onto the roof to get a better look. The others did the same, Tyna joining him in standing on the monstrous vehicle. Once people saw that they were devoid of the garb of guards, they began to get excited.
“Hey!” one called up. “You on our side here? Think you can get that big truck through those bastards and get those doors open?”
Tyna smiled at him, but didn’t respond.
“What do you want to do?” she asked Sirius. “We could drive straight through them. I don’t think anyone here would say no to getting out of our way.”
Sirius looked at her, confirmed that she was joking. He shook his head and smiled slightly. Tyna grinned back.
“You’re a twisted individual. Look, I’m no good at this stuff, but if I hit the horn, it might get their attention enough.”
“For what?”
“So that you can talk to them, stupid.”
“Wait-”
It was somewhat raspy, like a voice unused for years, but the horn blasted outwards and resonated off the surrounding buildings, instantly quietening all but the furthest reaches of the crowd and turning their attention to the truck. Tyna found herself alone, stood there upon the roof, spear in one hand, knees knocking slightly. She swallowed, looking out towards the sea of faces, some hostile, most questioning. Taking a breath and squaring her stance, she began to speak.
“People of Ulead.”
It came out in a croak. Sirius looked up at her from his place standing beside the truck and waved his hand, indicating that she needed to be louder. Tyna cleared her throat. “People of Ulead,” she tried again, this time impressively projecting the words across the crowd. “I’m one of the children that left this city’s society to live on the fringes of it, at the age of seventeen. I could no longer bear the tyranny that takes place here, so I tried to carve out a life of my own. Two days ago, we attempted to save your children from being torn apart, pieces of them plastered to the opulent monsters whose doors you now knock on.”
A spattering of murmurs ran through the crowd. Sirius felt a cold satisfaction creep into him. They were listening. “We crossed the desert with the few of our own people and those that we saved. Thirteen of us was all that was left after the city guard found our hiding place, murdered our friends, and attempted to drag us all back under the fist of these-” she stabbed a finger in the air at the skyscrapers, “animals. They fool you with displays of culture and decadence, but all they’re doing is leeching the life from our children in order to escape the death that they’re so afraid of. Is the answer to bring it to them? Perhaps. Hav
e they done this sort of thing before? We know they have. Fifty miles out into the desert there is a town, where people like us, Earthborn and Airborn, attempted to leave and make their own lives. But they were found, they were murdered, and a clean water source was befouled so that nobody else would be able to escape!” she heard gasps and angry voices. It was doing the job, that was for sure. A flash of confidence overtook her. “But why bother? Why should we risk my life, or yours? Why should we break down those doors, when all we have to do… is simply stop working for them?”
Sirius watched as citizens looked at each other, some confused, some as though enlightened. “Let them rot and starve in their towers! Let them look down at us as we make a new life for ourselves, for our children, for-”
Something whistled over Sirius’ head. He looked around, trying to figure what the source of the noise was, and wondered why Tyna had stopped speaking. That’s when the clang of her body hitting the top of the truck made his blood run cold.
“Tyna!” he shouted, scrambling up to the top and bundling her up in his arms. She opened her closed eyes wide and stared at him, a strangled noise of pain escaping her lips. Sirius looked down to see a blossom of blood appearing through the fabric of her tunic, where a bullet had ripped through her shoulder. “It’s alright. I’m here, I’ve got you…”
There was an angry rumbling throughout the crowd. The chanting started again, louder and rougher this time, and another wave of movement surged them towards the doors of the skyscraper. The guards tasked with holding them tried to turn and flee into the building, but they found the entryway barricaded and blocked. They had been forsaken. Their screams of terror and pain as the crowd descended on them were terrible in the afternoon air. It was a scene meant for the dead of night, for when blood seemed like no more than black paint until you touched it, smelled it. Here in the light of the day, no horror was hidden from view.
Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction: The Missing Ones: A Dystopian Adventure Page 10