ScareScapes Book One: Phantom Limbs!

by Jake Bible

  “Fruit!” I snap. “Can you see?”

  “Yeah,” Felix says. “Take my hand.”

  I fumble in the dark until I find his hand and he starts to lead me down the passageway. My other hand trails along the wall and I count the junctions we pass. Six. None of this feels right.

  “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” I ask. “Maybe it’s just dust.”

  “No, no, it’s pollen from the pine trees,” Felix says. “I can tell the difference.”

  “When have you studied pollen?” I ask.

  “Just one of the many things I do when I’m bored,” Felix says.

  “You’re always bored,” I say.

  “Yep,” he replies. He stops. “Hold up.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “Quiet,” he whispers. “They’re coming.”

  I listen hard and can just make out the sound of loader tracks.

  “Behind us?” I ask, my voice low.

  “Yeah,” he whispers back. “Come on.”

  We keep moving forward for a few minutes until we reach the wall.

  “Portal,” Felix says, letting go of my hand so he can get the hatch open.

  He cranks the handle and gives it a shove, but it barely moves. I put my shoulder against it and push with my legs. It is slow going, but eventually we’re able to get it wide enough that we can both slip through. It takes almost as long to shut it.

  “Whoa,” Felix says as we turn around and face the dome. “How long were we in there?”

  The reflected daylight is gone and the dome above is completely transparent, showing nothing but the twinkling lights of far off galaxies and the faint glow of the last star we passed. It’s like a weird twilight and my eyes are having a hard time adjusting. The domescape is all hulking trees and shadows.

  “We’re on the other side of the forest,” I say. “Come on.”

  “We circled all the way around?” Felix asks. “How did we do that?”

  “By running for our lives,” I reply. “Good reason, don’t you think?”

  We walk for a few minutes across the uneven ground of a meadow that looks like it’s being tilled under to make more room for crops. I don’t know why since there’re only us kids, but I’m sure Supply knows what it’s doing.

  I laugh at that thought.

  “What?” Felix asks as we get closer to the forest. “What’s so funny?”

  “Just laughing at how much we rely on the AIs,” I say. “We barely know our way around the whole ship. We don’t know how to grow our own food or really how to repair anything. We leave it all up to the AIs.”

  “Speak for yourself. I can repair anything.”

  We both jump and Felix lets out a frightened squeak.

  “Just me,” Bessie says, walking out of the shadows of the forest. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “We got turned around after being chased by killer robots,” I say.

  That gets her attention.

  “You…what?” she asks. “Killer robots?”

  “Loader bots,” Felix says. “A lot of them. They tore the place up, and would have torn us up if we didn’t run.”

  “Fruit,” she says then looks around. “Where’s Landon?”

  “We, uh, don’t know,” I say. “He charged some of them so we could get away.”

  “He what?” she growls. “You left him behind?”

  “I didn’t want to,” I protest. “But he kept yelling for us to run as he took off. I couldn’t exactly stop him.” I hook a thumb at Felix. “And I had to get my little brother out of there.”

  “I got you out of there,” he says, tapping his cheek below his cybernetic eye.

  “We got each other out of there,” I say.

  “And ditched Landon!” Bessie shouts. “How could you?”

  “You weren’t there,” I say. “You don’t know what it was like.”

  “Ridiculous,” Bessie says. “Some captain you are.”

  “Hey!” I yell, stomping up to her, getting my face right in hers. “I didn’t ask to be the captain! I’m just a kid like you! If it wasn’t for the fact that technically we’re over a thousand years old, Pilot would be running everything! But, by his math, we’re adults and we have to act like it!”

  “So, that’s why you ran out on Landon?” Bessie sneers. “Because it’s the adult thing to do?”

  “Hey, shut up,” Felix says.

  “Don’t tell me to shut up!” Bessie and I snap at the same time.

  “I will because you need to,” Felix says. “Where are the twins and Ajay?”

  “Back in the orchard,” Bessie says. “I left them there because the relay I was working with went dead. I’ve been searching for a live one since. Every time I thought I found one it would just quit on me. I’ve been walking from relay to relay until I got here.”

  “Shouldn’t be in the forest alone at night,” Felix says. “Space wolves will get ya.”

  “Ha ha,” Bessie smirks. “But it wasn’t night until a minute ago.”

  “This is messed up,” I say. “Power out, no AIs, psycho loader bots, the dome switching to night.”

  “Landon missing,” Bessie adds, glaring at me.

  “Yeah, that too,” I say, the guilt weighing heavy on my shoulders. “We’ll find him. But let’s get back to the others and regroup. We need a plan.”

  “Fine,” Bessie says, turning on her heel and walking back into the forest.

  We’re only a few meters into the forest when we hear screaming and shouting.

  “The twins!” Felix yells.

  “Ajay!” I shout.

  We take off running towards the orchard. Luckily the path is clear and there’s enough starlight filtering down to keep us from tripping. I could get to the orchard faster by getting my cyber legs going again, but I don’t want to get separated from Felix. Or Bessie. We have to stick together now, especially with Landon missing.

  Instead of getting louder as we get closer, the screaming is fading.

  “That’s not good,” I say as we burst from the forest and into the orchard. “Where are they?”

  “There!” Felix yells, pointing across the meadow towards the portal hatch. “The loaders have them!”

  “How?” I ask. “Loader bots are too big to get through the hatch!”

  “They aren’t going into the hatch,” Bessie says as she runs across the meadow. “They’re being pulled down into the ground!”

  She’s right. A loader has Ajay clamped in one of its claws while another loader has a twin in each claw. They’re yelling and screaming and beating at the bots, but it doesn’t do any good. Slowly they are lost from sight as they lower right into the ground.

  By the time we reach the spot they were at, all we see is torn up grass and loose dirt. Bessie gets down on her knees and starts digging with her hands, sending clods flying this way and that. After a foot or so she hits metal and we help move the dirt out of the way, clearing a good bit of space.

  “It’s a hatch,” Bessie says. “Comes right up into the dome.” She studies it for a second then smacks it with a fist. “But no handles. I don’t know how to open it.”

  “Probably only opens from the inside,” Felix says. “Too thick for me to scan through.”

  “What now, Captain?” Bessie asks, plopping her butt down in the dirt.

  I’m exhausted and more than a little terrified, but I can’t give up. Felix looks over at me and I try to give him a reassuring smile, but by the way he cringes I must fail pretty badly.

  “What do the bots want?” I ask. I stand and start pacing. “Why would the bots take the twins and Ajay?”

  “You mean instead of squashing them like they tried with us?” Felix asks.

  “Please,” Bessie snorts. “If a loader bot wanted to squash you then you’d be squashed. Do you know how precisely calibrated those things are? They can pick up a piece of fruit without bruising the skin if they need to.”

  “You weren’t there!” Felix snaps. “They t
ried to kill us!”

  “Did they?” I ask.

  “What?” Felix says, surprised by my question. “Izzy, you were there.”

  “Yeah, I was,” I say. “So were you. And we got away.” I spread my arms, taking in the whole dome. “We didn’t have any of this space to escape to. We were trapped more than a couple of times and the loaders still didn’t get us.”

  “So?” Felix asks.

  “If they are calibrated as finely as Bessie says then we shouldn’t have been able to get away at all,” I say. “We thought we got lucky when they got their claws stuck each time, but it wasn’t luck, was it?”

  “I don’t know what you’re rambling about,” Bessie says as she stands up. “But I’m going to go look for Landon and the others.”

  I ignore her as I try to grasp at a thought that’s just out of reach. I think back on when we first saw the loader as it came at us. It was in the galley, but why? Did it know we were going there? Was it waiting because it figured we’d need food and supplies from there?

  “But it’s a bot and can’t think like that,” I say.

  “What?” Felix asks. “I missed the first part.”

  “I’m just thinking,” I say.

  “While you think, I’m going to act,” Bessie says. “Catch ya later, fruitheads.”

  “Hey!” Felix shouts. “Rude much?”

  “Come on,” I say. “We better go with her.”

  “Back inside?” Felix squeaks. “Are you crazy?”

  “No,” I say. “But we need to stick together and we need to find the others.”

  “The bots have the others!” Felix yells. “And they’ll get us if we go back in there!”

  I point at the hatch by our feet. “They’ll obviously get us if we stay here.”

  Felix looks from me to the hatch to Bessie and back to me.

  “I don’t like this,” he says.

  “I don’t either,” I reply.

  “You don’t have a flashlight,” he says.

  “I have you,” I reply.

  He purses his lips, looks at the hatch, at Bessie, at me.

  “This fruits,” he says.

  “I know it does. But we don’t have much of a choice.”

  “Always a choice!” Bessie shouts back at us. “I’ve made mine!”

  “Come on,” I say as I grab Felix’s arm. “Let’s go.”

  We jog up to Bessie as she reaches the portal hatch.

  “I have my flashlight,” she smiles at me. “I hear you lost yours.” She digs in her emergency kit she still has draped across her shoulder. “Good thing I snagged one of the twins’ before I hiked into the forest. Always be prepared.”

  “Were you a Space Scout?” Felix asks. “Before we went to sleep?”

  “My dad was,” she says quietly then reaches out and opens the hatch.

  We stand there and listen, waiting for a loader bot to grab us with one of its claws.

  Nothing.

  “You first,” Bessie says, giving Felix a shove. “You have the magic eye.”

  “I’ll go first,” I say, stepping through the hatch. “I’m the captain.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Bessie snorts. “You keep reminding us. Yet you say you don’t want to be. Hmmm.”

  “Eat fruit,” I say. “Ready?”

  I look at Felix and he nods; Bessie gives me a sarcastic salute.

  Back into the darkness we go.

  Chapter Four

  “Another dead end,” I snap, exasperated. “How are the walls moving?”

  “Dead end?” Bessie asks, pushing past me and Felix. She kneels next to the wall that blocks our way and laughs. “The walls aren’t moving. This is a bulkhead.”

  “Oh,” I say. “That makes more sense.”

  “You thought the walls were moving?” Bessie grins. “Cute.”

  “I forgot there were bulkheads that can be locked into place in case of an atmospheric breach,” I say. “Cut me some slack. It’s been a weird day.”

  “According to the dome it’s night now,” Felix says.

  “Hey, I don’t need lip from you too,” I say. “Back me up here.”

  “Relax, Captain.” Bessie smiles. “We all have off days. Or nights. Whatever.”

  She walks back to the last junction.

  “This leads to the galley, doesn’t it?” she asks.

  “Yeah,” Felix says.

  “Is this what happened before?” she asks. “You were herded in one direction?”

  “I wouldn’t say we were herded,” I reply then pause. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. We were herded.”

  “So why send us back to the galley?” Bessie asks. “Doesn’t make sense.”

  “I want to know how the loader bots moved around so fast,” Felix says.

  “Because they’re huge,” I say.

  “But not fast,” Felix says. “Or we would have been caught.” He taps my leg. “Even with those sticks of yours.”

  “Finally took them for a real test drive?” Bessie asks.

  “Kinda had to,” I reply.

  “And?”

  I shrug. “It was scary as fruit.” Then I smile. “But fun.”

  “Good for you,” Bessie says, surprising both me and Felix. She sees the looks on our faces. “What?”

  “Was that a compliment?” Felix asks. “Did you just compliment Izzy?”

  “No.” Bessie frowns. “Shut up.”

  “We’re wasting time,” I say, giving Bessie a smirk. She just frowns deeper. “If we’re supposed to go to the galley then that’s where we’ll go.”

  We walk past all the damage the loader bot caused in the passageway; holes in the floor, gouges from the tracks, warped corners. Bessie has to struggle to keep her jaw from hanging open.

  “This is nuts,” she says.

  “Yeah,” I reply.

  A few more turns and we are at the mess hall.

  It’s a wreck.

  “Fruit,” Bessie says. “I’m surprised you got away.”

  “Me too,” I say. “It wasn’t fun.”

  We stand there, waiting.

  “You first,” Bessie says.

  “Thanks,” I say and walk into the mess hall.

  Half the tables are flattened, crushed from the weight of the loader bot. The floor is mangled from the loader’s tracks and I follow the trail back to the galley. When I reach what used to be the galley doors, I stop and whistle at what’s in front of me.

  “Well, I guess we know how the loaders are getting around,” I say and look over my shoulder. Bessie and Felix are still all the way back at the mess hall doors. “Hey! Come on!”

  They reluctantly walk over to where I’m standing. I point into the galley at the huge hatch that sits open. The track gouges lead right to it. Or away from it since the loader came up out of the hatch on its way to chase the living fruit out of us.

  “Where does it go?” Felix asks, his curiosity beating his fear as he squats next to the opening. He grabs onto the side and ducks his head down inside. “It’s deep.”

  “Hey, get back from there,” I say, grabbing his uniform and yanking him away from the hatch. “You fall in and then what do we do?”

  “Follow after,” Bessie says as she starts searching the galley.

  “What are you looking for?” I ask.

  “Something we can use to get down there,” she says. “Like a rope.”

  “Cables,” Felix says, pointing at the ruined doorway and walls. Multiple severed cables stick out like broken vines.

  “Good call,” Bessie says. She walks over and starts to tug, but they only budge a little. “I can’t get the right leverage.”

  “Here,” I say, going to her and wrapping my arms around her waist. I brace my legs. “Hang onto the cable. Don’t let go. I’ll do the rest.”

  She grips the cables with her cybernetic hands while I walk us backwards with my cybernetic legs. Slowly the cables start to come free from the wall until we have enough to dangle over the edge of the hatch into
the tunnel below.

  “I’ll go first,” Felix says. “Since I can see.”

  He grabs onto a cable and swings his legs over before I can protest. He climbs his way down, landing safely before looking up at us and smiling.

  “It’s a tunnel,” he says, his voice echoing up to us. “And it’s long.”

  I look at Bessie; she looks at me. We both look down at Felix.

  “How long?” I ask.

  “Long long,” he says. “Like length of the asteroid long.”

  “Any branches?” Bessie asks.

  “Why don’t you come down and look?” Felix grumbles. “I’m not liking being down here by myself.”

  Bessie hooks a leg over, grabs onto the cables, and lowers herself down. I start to do the same thing then get an idea.

  “What are you waiting for?” Felix asks.

  “Move out of the way,” I say, standing by the edge. “I’m going to jump.”

  “You’re what?” he screeches. “It’s like twenty feet!”

  “Here goes nothing,” I say as I step off the edge.

  The landing is jarring, and I feel it in my hips and back, but my legs hold easily.

  “Whoa,” Felix says. “That was cool.”

  “Show off,” Bessie says then shines her light down the tunnel. “Sure is big enough for a loader to move through.”

  “Two could move side by side with cargo,” Felix says. He points at the rough floor. “And looks like they have.”

  I turn about, looking one way and then the other.

  “If we go this way we’ll get to the main cargo bay, I think,” I say.

  “And why would we want to do that?” Bessie asks.

  “That’s where the loaders came from,” I reply. “If we’re going to find answers then it will be there.”

  “That’s crazy,” Bessie says. “You want to go towards the loaders?”

  “I don’t want to, but we need to,” I say. “We were led back to the galley. The hatch opens onto this tunnel. The tunnel leads to the main cargo bay. I think.”

  “I’m siding with Messy on this,” Felix says, getting a smack upside the back of his head for the use of the nickname. “Ow! You hit harder than you think because of those hands!”

  “I was actually holding back,” Bessie says. “But I’ll hit even harder next time if you call me Messy again.”