States of War

by Kevin Partner

  "I can fly!"

  Rounds bounced off the fuselage as the helicopter lifted and swung elegantly on its axis to face the soldiers on the roof. A line of smoke streaked out from beneath the nose and exploded in a hail of masonry and dust.

  "That was fun!"

  "Get us out of here, Alison!" Solly called.

  "Okay. Where shall we go?"

  Scott said something Solly couldn't hear above the noise of the rotors as Alison hovered.

  "He says we should go to Edlington Airfield. It's not far."

  "I have the coordinates. Let's go!"

  The 'copter dipped to the right and took off across Seattle, zipping between buildings. There was no doubt about it, Alison was having fun.

  "I want to go back to Arbroath," Paulie said. "Can't we land?"

  "The airfield is only fifty miles as the helicopter flies, Paulie," Alison said. "There's nowhere safe for me to land here."

  That was debatable, Solly thought. There were plenty of flat roofs to come down on, though they couldn't be sure they'd be able to get down from there. It seemed to him that Alison didn't want to interrupt her fun.

  "How's Scott?" Solly said.

  "He's got a bullet in his shoulder," Ross responded. "He's unconscious."

  "Then we need to get him seen to, somehow. And then I expect answers."

  Chapter 10

  "Come on, Marvin. We need to get there before Mom."

  Luna tried out a withering stare, but the big man crouching over the camping stove pretended not to notice.

  "I ain't going nowhere until I've had a bite to eat," he said. "Ain't you heard that an army marches on its stomach?"

  "That doesn't sound very comfortable," Luna responded. "Wouldn't legs be better to march on?"

  He turned to her with a grin. She was a funny one, that was for sure. And manipulative as heck, that was for surer. "Here, have some soup and we'll get going in a bit."

  He poured the liquid into a camping mug and handed it over to the girl. She sniffed it as steam rose into the cold air.

  "Chicken?"

  "Chicken."

  "I don't really like chicken."

  "Everyone likes chicken."

  "I don't."

  "Figures."

  "Can I have something else?"

  "Nope."

  "It's hot."

  "Wait a bit."

  She sat back against the wheel of the abandoned car and looked sulkily around. Eventually, she drained the soup and let Dany lick the bowl. Tucker threw over a roll of beef jerky that Luna also claimed to hate, but the dog loved.

  "Are we gonna have to walk much farther?" she said.

  "Not too much." Marvin Tucker drained his soup in two mouthfuls, breathing out a huge cloud of steam. It had been too hot, but he wasn't about to admit that to a ten-year-old girl.

  He pulled the map from inside his deputy's coat and unfolded it onto his knees. It was a tourist map, and he wasn't entirely confident that the scale was accurate. Furthermore, he didn't know exactly where the militia base was. Truth to tell, he hadn't paid much attention when he was there with the sheriff, the pastor and Graf. He'd seen a little of the city when they'd followed that work detail, but they'd gone barely a mile from the base and only in the one direction.

  They were on foot because the car he'd hot wired on the outskirts of Arbroath had finally given up the ghost and he'd decided that the closer they got, the less conspicuous they should try to be. The girl hadn't liked it much, and if she told him one more time how much warmer it was in LA, he'd … he'd. What would he do? Suck it up.

  "Come on then, pumpkin," he said, hauling himself up against the car and looking around for signs of trouble. It was a clear and frosty day with a cobalt blue, cloudless sky, but it was no time to get careless. No time to enjoy a pleasant hike.

  There were walkers here. That's what he called them, anyway. Folk just drifting through the ruins with no destination in mind. From time to time, he'd been glad they had the dog with them. These travelers didn't bother with cars because most had nowhere to go, so getting there quicker didn't have much appeal.

  Some of them, however, had been heading south for Arbroath. He'd gotten sick and tired of repeating the same warning. He knew they weren't listening. They wanted to believe in the myth because it kept them going for a few more days and weeks. That's what humanity was reduced to—living day by day.

  Luna rinsed out her mug with a little water and handed it back to him. They had been sheltering in the carport beneath a three apartment building and the wind tickled his face as he stepped back into the road. They were heading uphill and passed houses set back along steep lanes—it didn't feel like a city at all. Ivy covered embankments lined the right hand side of the street as they moved north before descending again and finding themselves back in unmistakably urban Seattle.

  They passed a Wine Outlet store that, Marvin was willing to bet, had been one of the first places to be looted after the Long Night. Not that he blamed them. He'd give a lot for a bottle of decent whisky. Heck, he'd settle for half a bottle.

  "Hold on," he said. "I recognize this place. I reckon we came up this road last time. Must be getting close." He pulled the map out again and checked it. "Now, we've gotta be real careful. We're gonna keep close to the buildings and if we see anyone coming, we'll have to get out of sight quick. If they catch us, we're goners."

  "Okay."

  That was her only response. Tucker smiled and allowed himself a brief eye roll. She was either hiding her fear very well, or she was, like most kids of her age, completely ignorant of how the world worked. Especially this new world. But he liked her attitude, and it made her a whole lot easier to get along with. The dog, too, was remarkably calm. It seemed they were both relying on him to keep them safe.

  "Quick!" he grabbed her arm and pulled her and Dany into the gap between two buildings. They crouched beneath a sign that said Garth's Auto Repairs and waited. The rumbling noise that had first alerted him got louder until an APC appeared in their line of sight momentarily.

  Luna went to get up, but Tucker pulled her back. "Wait!" he hissed as a military truck followed by a jeep followed the APC up the road they'd just walked along.

  "Where do you think they're going?" Luna whispered as they waited in the gloom. "Arbroath?"

  "Maybe. But that ain't our concern. I want to see if that storage place the sheriff used last time is still safe. If it is, that's where we'll go."

  "Are you sure Mom will go there?"

  Tucker shrugged. "I ain't sure about nothin', pumpkin. But when she finds out the preacher got captured, I reckon she'll hightail it up here as soon as she can. And if we're waitin' for her, well, maybe I'll be in for a promotion."

  Luna looked at the smiling face. "Why do you call me ‘pumpkin’? It isn't my name."

  "I just like it," Tucker lied. "It's easy for me to remember. Don't you like it?"

  "Sure I do," she said as they stepped into the bright daylight of the main street.

  As they walked along, Tucker tried to keep his mind focused on the mission at hand and the little girl walking alongside him, rather than his sad memories of another child she resembled.

  The following morning they were inching their way towards the square building that overlooked the base, keeping out of sight and approaching from the rear.

  Three times they were forced to duck into the shadows or blindly through open doors, to avoid patrols and work parties. Lad Melua, the militia leader, was now overseeing a much bigger operation, with groups of workers and their attendant guards, heading out in all directions.

  He could see that the yard in front of the base was a maelstrom of activity with men and women in fatigues moving back and forth with military purpose. Others in civilian dress were walking in small groups, fetching and carrying. Columns of smoke or steam trailed into the air and the meaty aroma of cooking mixed with the tang of diesel oil.

  They were sheltering behind a rusty metal container full of garbag
e when the gates opened, and a black car slid through and along the road in the opposite direction to the one they'd taken.

  "Mommy!"

  Marvin grabbed the girl and pulled her downwards, his hands over her mouth. Luna struggled against him, wriggling so much he was forced to tighten his grip. "I'll let you go if you promise not to call out!" he whispered. Dany began growling quietly while her head bobbed up and down as if looking for someone.

  Suddenly, Luna stopped struggling and nodded. "It was Mommy! I saw her running after that car!"

  "Where?"

  She pointed towards the street that ran parallel to the one the car had taken.

  "Are you sure it was her?"

  The girl nodded. "Yes. There were two people with her. Two men, I think. I couldn't tell who they were."

  Dany pulled on her lead, encouraging him to move in the direction Luna was pointing. So that was it. Outvoted by a child and a dog. In truth, he was happy to be moving—the area around the militia base was far too busy now for comfort.

  He followed her, catching sight of the black vehicle as it moved along. It was traveling incredibly slowly given that the streets had been cleared, just slowly enough that he could keep it in sight. That troubled him, but all Luna could think of was finding her mother, so he allowed her to lead the way. He kept a tight hold on Dany and scanned the streets and buildings for any sign of trouble.

  Two blocks along and they found it. Trouble. They were running along a tree lined road with a park on one side and a row of two story apartments on the other. Marvin had stopped to take a quick breather, much to the annoyance of Luna, when a figure in a white coverall emerged from the balcony of one of the apartments and called a warning.

  "Quick, we gotta run!" Tucker said, leading them across the road towards the park.

  "Hey, stop right there!" a voice called from behind them. "Stop, or I shoot!"

  Tucker lifted Luna over the cast iron railings and hoisted the dog after her. He glanced behind him to see a man in olive military dress running after them, handgun leveled. He lifted his leg onto the top of the railing but couldn't push hard enough to get over.

  Splinters exploded feet away from him as a round thudded into the trunk of a tree. Luna's hands grabbed the arm of his shirt and he thrust his foot down hard, finally cresting the ironwork and landing in a heap on the other side. "Thanks, pumpkin," he wheezed as he got to his feet.

  He led them along the treeline, trying to keep out of sight of their pursuers. He could hear them calling and wondered how many there were.

  A sudden weight thrust him sideways and, with a crack, he landed on the path. A man had jumped out of the trees and was now straddling Tucker's chest as he brought his handgun to bear.

  And then the weight vanished. Dany had launched herself at his attacker and was now mauling his arm as he thrashed at her, trying to point his weapon.

  Tucker got onto his knees, fighting the vise that was gripping his head and struggling to see through the red stars that were swimming across his vision. He drew his own handgun and pressed it against the man's temple.

  "You can let him go now, girl," he said to Dany, stroking her head. She persisted for a while, as if to make sure Luna was now safe, before releasing him. "You two go on ahead, I need to talk to this fella."

  "You're not going to shoot him, are you?" Luna called as she began to walk along the pathway. "Promise me!"

  There was no time to argue with her—there was no telling how many others were following them. "Sure, I promise! Now, run along. Quick!"

  As soon as she was out of sight, he looked down at the man beneath him and pushed his handgun deeper into the flesh of his face.

  "I oughta kill you, just as you was fixing to kill me, but this is your lucky day. I don't break promises, especially to kids, so I ain't gonna shoot you." The man's panicked expression softened a little.

  "Thank you," he whispered.

  "But I can't have you followin' us," Tucker continued, as he pulled his hunting knife from its sheath. He pressed his hand against the man's mouth, ignoring the wide-eyed look of terror as he raised the knife in his other hand. With surgical precision, he stabbed it down into the thigh, being careful to avoid the femoral artery. The man convulsed in agony, biting down and grazing Tucker's hand, but he kept it there until, after a moment, his would-be attacker fell back, unconscious.

  Luna had almost reached the park exit when he caught up with her. In the distance behind them he heard their attacker calling out. "We gotta run for it," he said to her, pointing across the road to a bus station. He didn't want to look at what might be inside the buses, so he kept Luna's attention on the streets beyond.

  And these streets had certainly not been cleaned up by the militia work teams. Cars covered in dust and airborne debris blocked the road and it was all Tucker could do to keep Luna from seeing what lay inside many of them. Here and there, the remains of what had once been citizens going about their business lay along the street, in doorways and behind the windows of the apartment blocks.

  He finally brought them to a halt and stood, hands on his knees, panting to recover his breath. "Well done, dog," he said, patting Dany's head.

  "And well done, you," he continued, turning his attention to Luna who was also breathing heavily and studiously keeping her gaze on the sidewalk.

  Tucker got the map out of his back pocket and opened it up. "Well, would you look at that?" he said. "We're only a couple of blocks away." Given that they'd run blindly from their pursuers, he'd expected to have gone seriously off course but there it was: the Lee Corporation building.

  They ran with renewed energy, knowing that they were nearly there. There were more walkers here and some called to them as they ran, but the sight of the big man in a deputy's uniform was enough for most to withdraw back into the shadows and they paid them no heed.

  And then, quite suddenly, they were again in territory that had been cleansed, and Tucker made them move more carefully. It seemed that a corridor had been cleared along the direct road between the militia base and the Lee Corp building and he didn't want to stumble upon a work group again or, even worse, a security patrol.

  They emerged right opposite the Lee building which rose, a squat black cube, in front of them. And then he heard the last sound he'd been expecting—the unmistakable whipping of helicopter blades. He pulled Luna and Dany into the parking area beneath the building opposite and pointed up. A helicopter appeared to fall over the edge of the roof, its rotors spinning but completely out of control.

  Shots rang out and he forced Luna further down, then dragged her backwards so they wouldn't be hit by the blast when it crashed. And then the engine picked up and, with a whining noise, the helicopter stopped feet from the ground. It hovered there for a moment and then flew upwards, twisted around, and fired a missile at its rooftop attackers. They crouched down, protecting their heads and then, when they looked up again, the helicopter had gone.

  Luna grabbed his arm. "Marvin," she said, looking up at him with an expression of wonder. "Mom was on that helicopter."

  Chapter 11

  If you didn't look too closely, you could convince yourself that the Long Night had never happened. Solly sat in the pilot's seat of the helicopter as Alison flew them east over Seattle. Ahead of them lay the black water of Lake Washington, but Solly was transfixed by the regular pattern of the streets below.

  They were only around fifteen hundred feet up and, from this altitude he could see the cars still littering the roads here. Burned out houses sat in what must once have been beautifully kept neighborhoods. Houses with long gardens and pontoons at the end, boats still tied up and waiting for their next pleasure trip. Houses inhabited by the dead.

  He saw some signs of life, however. Smoke rose in columns from several points on the ground and there were some discrete sections where the roads had been cleared of abandoned vehicles and, once or twice, he even saw moving traffic. It reminded him of the forest floor after a wildfire. There, down b
elow, were the first stirrings of life. The first hints of recovery.

  And yet he knew, or thought he knew, that the Lee Corporation wished to extinguish these fragile beginnings before they would have a chance to bear fruit. Why, though? He had wrestled with this question ever since he'd first become convinced that Khaled was more than just a conspiracy theorist.

  For what possible purpose would a company destroy its customer base? By definition, the Lee Corporation was in business to make money, but how were they going to do that if they'd killed everyone? Unless … Then it dawned on him. Unless the American people weren't its customers. Then who were?

  "What are you thinking about?" Paulie said, taking her gaze from the glass-like surface of the lake. "You've been sitting like a statue for ages."

  Solly looked across at her, as if surprised to find her there. His first thought, as he emerged from the deep and twisting pathways of his ponderings, was that she was very pretty. His second thought was that she was also dangerous. And she didn't like him much.

  "I was just thinking about the Lee Corporation," he said.

  "You're wondering what their end-game is?"

  He raised his eyebrows and then, very quickly, lowered them again. Too late.

  "And you're surprised that I might be wondering the same thing?" Paulie said, though, unless Solly was very mistaken—and it wouldn't be the first time—without any rancor.

  Solly shrugged and turned to watch the yoke moving of its own accord as if some spectral pilot was flying the aircraft. "Scott told you they're planning a second wave to wipe out everyone who's left, didn't he?"

  She nodded. "Yes, though he never explained why they would want to do that."

  "So, there are two questions: how and why. I mean, we know they used the BonesWare implants on the Long Night, but a lot of survivors won't be Bonesed up."

  "I've got one," Paulie said. "Mine was only fitted a few months ago—the old one broke and so I got an upgrade on my insurance."

  "An upgrade?"

  She was watching him now, appraising him. Solly found he didn't mind at all. "Just lucky, I guess. They didn't have any of the standard models left, so I got a top of the line one. I paid for Luna and Alejandro to be upgraded, too. Nearly cleaned me out, but it was too good an opportunity to miss."