Jade says, “Well, now I feel like a dumbass. Bringing us to that stupid skull.”
“You tried, at least.”
Those words depress me. I say to Plissken, “So what the fuck’s it gonna take to put this thing down?” I punch the gross walls. At this point, I just want to cause damage.
We’re all just piggybacking on a city-destroying city.
Plissken says, “Nothing you can do will stop this creature.”
I punch the walls more. A bit harder.
What was the goddamn point of all this? My big brazen attempt at being a hero. Shit got me nowhere. Got DeVille killed. Got Lovelace killed.
Hey, at least you can be folded into a suitcase now.
Plissken says, “I, on the other hand, can stop the creature.”
I stop mid-punch. “How’s that?”
“A nuclear explosion of sufficient size will destroy the monster. It needs only be big enough to cook the brain matter here—by which I mean an explosion two blocks in diameter. Quite an easy task for a nuclear explosion, really.”
I don’t like where this is going. Not one bit. “Ooookay... Neat. The ‘how’ of this remains a bit of a mystery though, dude.”
Plissken dips toward me. “You’re still carrying Lovelace’s body. I had hoped that we could fix her exoskeleton in Boston, but there are more pressing matters at hand. Her chest contains two small nuclear reactors. Her power plants. I can weaponize them. I can create plasma bombs from them that will not add more radiation. Something that will be ‘clean’... so to speak.”
“Great. Do it. Then let’s get the hell outta here.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Now I really don’t like where this’s going. “Oh, of course it’s not that simple.”
“I will need to take the bomb to the nerve cluster at the top of the cavern and plant it there. It is, as far as I can tell, the centermost point of the nervous system we want so much to destroy. Placing the bomb there will ensure total annihilation of brain tissue.
“You two will need to evacuate quickly.”
Turing stares at his father.
I grimace. Look up at the ceiling of the cavern. Fifty feet up. There’s a nodule there. Flabby and purple. A cross between an eggplant and a light bulb. It pulses. Glows a little. That’s where Plissken wants to put his bomb—the remains of his daughter’s body.
I say, “I can climb that. I can plant the bomb. Let me do it.” And I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m a little kid terrified of losing my best friend. Even though that’s all I am.
Plissken says, “I’m the one with the highest chances of surviving. Are you an explosives expert? A physicist? One accustomed to dealing the complex chemical and atomic structures?”
“No. Who gives a shit. All I gotta do is plant the bomb.”
“You also need to detonate it, and detonating makeshift nuclear devices is not a task you are up to handling. There will be no magical ‘boom’ button for you to press and flee from. You are not an expert or a physicist or someone who knows anything at all about this. Look at you. Half of your armor is open. An EMP blast might not shut your mech suit down, but the explosion and the sudden atmospheric stresses would liquefy you.” Plissken pauses. Hovers for a second. “No, you are not any of the things needed here.
“But you are my friend, and this world needs you.”
I’m going to cry. I’m trying really fuckin hard not to, but I am going to cry.
I open my helmet up a little. Stick a cigarette in my mouth. Light it. Inhale. Blink the tears from the corners of my eyes.
Plissken says, “Now, please, give me my daughter’s body.”
* * *
Takes Plissken ten minutes to turn Lovelace’s carcass into a city-killing nuclear device. He says it’s technically a plasma bomb now, since he added some special sauce to it.
Not that I care.
Lovelace looks like a brick of jumbled parts.
I say, “Plissken, come on. Let’s just leave. Let’s get outta here and get heavier weapons and take this sonuvabitch out when we’re better armed.”
“You sound like a spoiled child.”
“I’m totally aware of the fact that I sound like a spoiled child.”
“Do you have any idea how much death this creature can rain down? It is feasible that there will not be a Boston if we allow the monster free-reign.”
“Or we beat it to Boston and hit it with everything we’ve got when we’re at full strength.”
“We’ll never be able to travel faster than it can. We’ve lost our tank and, it would seem, our helicopter. Please stop. This is stupid. To be sure, I would rather not have to do this. I am not a suicidal jackass like you.”
“Those pet names are how I know you care.”
Plissken Just hovers for a moment. He doesn’t sigh or give me attitude. He watches me. Finally says, “I do care. That’s the issue.” He floats up to my side. Where the Alpha suit’s been torn away.
He says, “We’ve survived incredible things together. I could not have asked for a better partner—in spite of your whining.” He reaches a claw hand out.
Goddamn it.
I choke back a sob. Take his hand in mine.
We shake. Up and down.
I say, “Adios, buddy.”
I try to smile. It doesn’t work.
Plissken turns to Turing. They hold hands. Then Plissken pats Turing’s head. Says, “Take care of the human.”
Turing nods.
Plissken returns to the plasma bomb. He hefts it with both claws. Affixes it to his undercarriage. He says to me: “Follow Turing. I will wait until I cannot detect you within the blast radius. Go. Now.”
Turing jogs away.
I give Plissken one last look. One more hopeful stare that he’ll just chuck the bomb and follow. But he ain’t gonna. I know that in my heart, even if I don’t want it to be true.
Plissken says again, “Go, you fool.”
I nod to him. Rush after Turing.
Frankly, I’d would rather wait here and die with my only friend.
* * *
Turing and I run through the vile tunnels of the megaparasite.
I’m a gerbil panicking to get outta someone’s ass.
Turing seems to know where he’s going.
I don’t have a clue.
Jade says, “He’s taking us near the leg joints. So we can carve our way out and slide down. Or something.”
Turing rotates his head fully around. Nods. Li’l creepy.
We run full tilt. Apparently heading right for a wall.
I point this out and everyone ignores me.
Turing activates his lightsabers. Dives forward. Cuts a nice Turing-sized hole in the meat wall. Flies through. And is back on his feet running.
That’s not an option for me.
I drop my left shoulder. Plow into the weakened wall. I explode out the other side. Giblets of flesh cling to me. The wall’s hamburger.
We do the same to another lumpy structure. Then another.
Then the megaparasite gets the hint that maybe we need to be dealt with.
A pack of pinkos forms behind us.
Turing’s missile pod unleashes a storm of ordnance.
The warheads whip around me. They shoot between my legs. Right past my dick. Right past my face.
Every one of em hits a different ropey monster. The bleeding tunnel fills with fire and smoke and little fetid pieces of pinko.
I smile. “Fuckin awesome.”
Turing’s magnetic rail gun charges. Discharges. Fwap. A blue bolt slams into the pulsing wall in front of us. A leaking Alpha-sized hole appears.
There’s morning light streaming behind it.
Turing charges out the hole.
And I figure: Fuck it.
I follow. Leap.
I fall. Look down. Ready to embrace the hundred-foot drop... Then I’m not falling anymore.
A reverse Wile E. Coyote. I stopped falling when I looked down.
I say, “Uh, Jade?”
She says, “Goddamn tentacles.”
There’s three big ones wrapped around Alpha’s abdomen. One pins my left arm behind my back.
Jade says, “It’s chewing through our armor again.”
CARBYNE2: 54%.
I say, “All I wanna do is go home. Drink. I already gave up on the idea of having sex ever again. Why the fuck can’t I leave?”
The tentacles yank me back inside the megaparasite. Tunnel walls flash by.
I’m dragged in front of another meat-flower inside a new cavern. The vile flora looks just like the one on the building from before.
The petals unfurl. There’s a Momma Bear copy. Skin grey. Eyes red.
CARBYNE2: 31%.
Momma Bear says in my head: You cannot escape this. Don’t you understand yet? Your blood. We need to commune with you. Carefully, though. So carefully. The balance must be just right. Must serve to counteract with what is in you.
I cock an eyebrow. “Lady, I don’t understand. And I don’t plan to anytime in the near future.”
CARBYNE2: 28%.
I pull the Colt. Aim it at Momma Bear’s forehead. “Just let me go.”
CARBYNE2: 13%.
Momma Bear says: We cannot do that, Poppa Bear.
CARBYNE2: 2%.
Plissken’s saws appear in front of me. He slams into the tentacles. Flays them.
Momma Bear snarls. Screams.
I put three bullets in her face. Watch her skull crack and spew gore.
How many times do I have to watch her die?
CARBYNE3: 98%.
Plissken hacks away the last of the megaprasite’s tendrils. He looks at me. Dips once. Puffs his thrusters. “Now, you really need to leave.”
I turn tail. Bolt.
No looking back. No feeling bad. Just run.
I see the opening in front of me. It’s close.
Smart thing to do is look for a way to climb down.
So I don’t.
I leap.
A hundred feet to the ground sounds far. It ain’t. Not when your face is due to impact with it real soon. And also it’s still littered with psychotic monsters.
Jade says, “You asshole.”
I fight the air. Spin to get Alpha’s feet under me.
I land like a bomb. The four or five zombies under me turn to paste. The six other Keefs milling around get .45 slugs to the domes.
CARBYNE3: 1%.
Jade says, “Congratulations, you succeeded in just fuckin barely not getting us killed.”
“Hey, a win’s a win, right?”
I reload the Colt. Look over and watch Turing finish off a dozen shambling undead with his lightsabers.
I point toward the Sikorsky plant.
He gives a nod.
Gotta get clear of the blast radius... We have no idea how big it might be... And—
The air changes. Seems to halt. Smells a little stranger than it did a second ago.
The megaparasite stops. It rears on its hind legs. Starts scratching frantically at its abdomen. More and more. It rips at itself. Frenzied. Chunks of flesh the size of cars peel off.
The world goes blue.
A sphere of hot death explodes out from the center of the megaparasite. I can hear it scream. Millions of weird voices. Each one howling their demise as they burn in the cleansing fire of plasma.
The buildings atop the megaparasite crumble. Fall. They hit the ground with great thuds and thumps. Steel bends. Concrete breaks. Rooms in the offices shear off.
The megaparasite’s legs detach. They fall like redwoods. They smash infected caught underneath and make new massive dents in the dirt around Sikorsky.
The plasma ball collapses in on itself.
There’s a second massive blast that spreads out in a wave.
Then it’s all dust. Clouds from the explosion rise into the sky and melt into the wind.
I don’t notice that I’m on my ass until Turing runs by. He heads for the fallen buildings. Starts rummaging.
Dawns on me what he’s doing. “No fuckin way.”
Jade says, “I’m not getting any signals here.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Me and Turing dig through debris. A robotic rescue party.
I push walls. Bricks. Slabs of concrete. I wrap Alpha’s hand around big, melted beams of metal so I can see what’s been buried.
Then I hear a sad sound. A groan in an electronic voice.
The first noise Turing’s ever made.
I walk behind him. Look down.
Turing holds Plissken’s ruined body. The library drone’s frame is scarred. Charred. Burnt wires hang from cracks in his casing. Even his thrusters are gone.
Turing caresses his father’s corpse.
I kneel next to Plissken’s son. Put my real hand on the young bot’s shoulder.
Turing hangs his head.
I reach Alpha’s hand out. Open. Palm up.
Turing looks at me. He stares. Reads my face.
He places Plissken in Alpha’s palm. Slow. Gentle. He doesn’t want to let go of his dad.
I say, “We’ll figure it out. Somehow. We will.”
Turing nods.
* * *
The EMP from Plissken’s plasma nuke took out most of the electronics inside the Sikorsky plant. It fried all the little bots, too.
We scavenge what we can: My rucksack. My Hellion. Another big gun for Alpha.
I light a cigarette. Puff on it as we walk into the main area. Where the couches were.
Jade says, “Mom?”
And fuck me Suzy, DeVille’s sitting there. An assault rifle in her lap. Spent shell casings on the floor around her. She stares forward. Doesn’t blink. She’s covered in blood and grime.
I lean. Brush the gore-caked hair out of her face.
She smiles at me. Says, “It was so beautiful.” There are tears in her eyes.
I say, “What was beautiful, Flygirl?”
“The sky jellyfish.”
* * *
Jessica cleans herself up. Grabs her gear.
She runs her fingers along Plissken’s body. Says, “I’m sorry.”
I say, “So am I.”
* * *
We walk up the ramp to the Merritt Parkway.
Turing leads. In the dirty sunlight, I can see the damage he’s taken. All the nicks and scratches. Acid-scarring. Metal that’s been corroded away. Part of his head has a jagged line cut into it.
He’s still wearing the 20mm cannons of his dead sister.
DeVille marches by my side. She watches the sky. Stops. Points.
We look up.
Goddamn.
There it is. Far north of us. A shimmering, fluttering translucent thing that blinks blues and reds and greens. It’s enormous. With fine tendrils that hang from ridges on its side.
The sky jellyfish. Not just one. A dozen that float between clouds.
DeVille’s right. They are beautiful.
Jade says, “I’ve got something on the long-range scanners.”
I say, “More sky bugs?”
“No. This is on the ground. Way, way west of us. It’s... My scanners must be off. It’s like a carpet. Or a wall of flesh. It’s moving through Illinois. Only reason I’m picking it up at all is because it’s huge.”
“Well, that’s real great news.” I dig in the rucksack tucked behind my seat in Alpha for some whiskey. Take a pull. “Come on. It’s a long walk to Boston.”
We march. Broken, but not alone.
About the Author
William Vitka is a writer and journalist. He’s written for The New York Post, CBS News, Stuff Magazine, GameSpy, On Spec Magazine and The Red Penny Papers to name a few. He is currently a writer for Permuted Press, Post Hill Press and Curiosity Quills. He doesn’t think any politician can be trusted and believes there is always more blood for the blood god.
A Man and His Robot Page 23