Shadow Zone

by Pam Uphoff

  Ajha nodded. "It wouldn't feel very good for very long!"

  Near the lake the ground softened and he pulled the heat from it. Froze it deep enough to walk on. Far enough out into the water that it was more ice and little mud. He stopped where he could cut off the stems of reeds below water level and carefully scoop and splash water. A lot of it seemed to be sinking into his hands, his bare skin was drying remarkably fast.

  Fean knelt beside him, eyeing the water.

  "Yes, it's muddy. Think of it as valuable minerals." He dropped his pack, pulled out a small pan and scooped more, drank it. Splashed face, scalp, drank more. Lots more. Stopped to look at Fean, studying him. Grinned. "Good plan, Make sure the boss survives before jumping off the cliff." He kept scooping, splashing water down his back, drinking . . .

  "Guess it's going to work." Fean scooped up a dainty handful. And watched it sink into her hands. "Holy One." She pulled out her own pan and started splashing, drinking. Ajha baled water onto her back, and she reciprocated. He was too damned scared to even laugh at their dead serious parody of a water fight. And drank more. Am I insane? We should have run for home.

  "I guess we need to drink our body weight in water, more or less." Ajha stuck his leg out carefully to brush a reed. It leaped and squirmed into the fabric of his pants. Stung. "More water. Ouch, lots more water on my legs before we dare touch anything."

  And when he finally thought he'd had enough, he waded into the lake and submerged himself. The reeds he touched mostly ignored him. A few burning stings, and green patches on his skin . . .

  Fean slid carefully into the water. "It's just a mud pack, good for the skin, right?"

  "Right. And we only have to stay alive until the Disco people show up . . . "

  They swapped glances and Ajha waded back to his pack, sinking into the thawing mud. He pulled out the flask, took a sip. Handed it to Fean, scooped up more water and drank again.

  And looked back at the buildings in the shadow zone.

  Movement to the far right . . . outside the shadow zone, on the target world. A truck . . . Two more trucks driving out of nowhere.

  "A gate. They've got a working gate again." Fean scowled. "They must be bringing in something they need to merge."

  "Well. Let's go see where they're going, and what they're doing." Ajha slid a bit on his ice ramp and headed for shore.

  "Yep. I'm as ready as I'll every be." Fean waded back to the semi-firm path they'd made and grabbed her pack. Ripped off the reeds that had merged with it, and headed for higher ground.

  Three kilometers down the road they found an intact, working facility.

  A three floor building and a broad flat one floor facility. The unnoticeable spell got them through the front door.

  The aroma drew them through the lobby and into a cafeteria.

  Not that the food looked very appetizing, but Ajha found himself reaching for a thick white mess in a glass and chugging it down. Gritty, chalky . . . Calcium from the target world, to merge with our bones.

  Fean was right there with him, and they drew some odd looks. But most of the people looked confused, sleepy or both. Or amorous.

  Ajha looked at them and his skin crawled. Merged. Q talked about three days of sleep, sex, stumbling around disoriented until the merge settled down and her spells helped her become the dominant personality, and the other spells changed all the DNA into hers . . .

  "There are close to a hundred people in here. A hundred people they've essentially murdered to make themselves younger." He kept his voice down. Hunched his shoulders, grabbed a red drink—don't think about it!—slugged it down, grabbed another white one and hustled though the far door to get away from everyone here.

  And walked into an abattoir.

  Bodies on rolling gurneys. Stripped. Breathing. A spot of blood at the temple. A doctor turning away from one. The gurney was rolled away. The doctor walked to the next body. A line of old men, naked, eyeing the bodies on the gurneys. The man first in line reached for the body on the first gurney. Got a knee on the mattress, rolled over on top of the unconscious man . . . sank into him.

  Ajha unslung his pack, pulled out his gun and shot the doctor.

  Then the men standing in line to merge with the unconscious victims.

  His gun jammed on the third shot.

  Guards rushed in, looking right past them.

  Ajha's pistol knocked the first one flat. He kicked the second, took his rifle . . . Fean shot three in quick sequence . . .

  Ajha turned and started shooting the naked men rushing him. The orderlies. Other people pulling unconscious bodies out of trucks, off trailers . . .

  "Look at the clothes! Those are Oners!" Fean paused to examine and young man. "Drugged. They must be gassing them, loading them like firewood and hauling them to the target world. Bastards!"

  "We need to . . . to keep them safe until it wears off . . ." Ajha fired a burst at two Helios who charged around a corner. "Then get them out of here."

  "Right." Fean looked around. "How the hell do we do that?"

  Chapter Twelve

  7 Safar 1405 yp

  Scrublands Base, World EH 2946

  "They're moving toward gate four! Tanks in front, infantry behind them." The yell came from the peak of the pavilion roof.

  Ebsa winced. "That's the gate vehicles can get to."

  Ra'd turned to the Colonel. "Do you have any anti tank mines or charges?"

  "Yep." The colonel led off at a run.

  Ra'd, on his heels, looked back at Ebsa. "Get the crawler. We need to hit them fast, preferably on their side of the gate."

  "Right!" Ebsa turned, hesitated. Looked at Wxxo. "You'd better get Disco to come close the gates. We'll try to find Ajha and get back here fast, but . . . we understand if you can't hold it." He turned and ran.

  Locked the gun safe door in the open position. Strapped into the driver's seat. Pulled out and headed down the road. He spotted Ra'd with a crate, stopped. Got right under way. At the gates, their own tanks were doing nothing.

  "The Helios sabotaged them. The mechanics are working on them." Ra'd peered through the gate as Ebsa charged it. "I only see two tanks coming. We'll beat them through. I think you can get between them. Do so. You drive, I shield. And drop tank busters."

  "Right." Ebsa eyed what looked like a fairly steep slope on the far side. Have to be careful to not roll it. Not much maneuvering is going to happen. He took aim and roared through the gate. Ra'd was thumping around in the back, the door open on the left, a window on the right, mines thrown . . .

  Ebsa slewed left to miss the first tank, then turned the wheel back right to cut between it and the tank behind and to the left of the first. The crawler jolted as the second tank made contact with their rear quarter. They bounced off and kept going. Loud whumps behind. But Ebsa was more worried about the infantry ahead. He could drive through them, but . . . "Close the door!" And they had things that looked like they might be more dangerous than the rifle fire that was peppering Ra'd's shields. They were spreading out . . . the distance down slope to the road was about right . . . If he cut hard, right there . . .

  "Ra'd, strap in fast!"

  Ra'd vaulted into the seat beside him clicked the restraints. "Damn, there's a couple hundred of them. Going to run over them? They'll swarm us . . . "

  "Ha! There speaks a man who's never driven a doodlebug. Pull your shield in as tight to the outer skin as possible."

  Ebsa had been drifting right, now he pulled a sharp left turn. Speed, slope and momentum were all it took. The crawler rolled. Round of side and top, to fit through the round gates, it rolled very well.

  "You fucking maniac!" Ra'd cursed through three rolls.

  Ebsa put the left side wheels in reverse and the next time the wheels hit the ground, floored it. The crawler slewed to face a bit up hill, tipped . . . thumped back down on its wheels.

  All wheels, reverse. Thump thump crash onto the road, slew around, all wheels forward, floor it. They raced away from
the carnage strewn slope.

  "I sure do hope we're going the right direction, because I don't really want to go back that way, just yet." He ignored the red dripping down the windshield.

  Ra'd cleared his throat. "You are going to have to teach me this 'doodle bug driving technique.' It sounds interesting. Insane but interesting."

  Silence for a long moment. Well, not from the crawler. A loose panel was banging and thumping somewhere in the rear, and a grinding noise that was probably bearings . . . Poor thing wasn't actually designed to roll . . .

  Ra'd had his eyes closed, glowing brightly enough the Ebsa hardened his mental shields.

  Ra'd pointed forward and left. "Ajha's that way. He says the Helios have opened a shadow zone and the overlap is starting. He said to get into it, find water to merge with, and then come help them hold a merge center full of kidnaped college students. I think he was appalled that we'd come, and desperate for help."

  "Hey, we're heroes. Danger is our life blood. I mean, adrenaline beats boredom hands down." Ebsa peered forward. "Truck convoy ahead."

  "Pass them on the left. I'll toss a few tank killers. Overkill, but, as you say, beats boredom."

  Whatever the trucks were carrying exploded spectacularly.

  "Next one, throw further behind us!" Ebsa yelled back, dodging into the right lane to avoid a couple of oncoming cars.

  Ra'd picked up the 20mm and stepped to the door.

  Two sharp cracks, and the cars were just another smoke cloud in the rear view mirror.

  Ebsa pulled out and pushed the pace.

  With periodic explosions behind. The tanker trucks were fun, flaming fuel floating on the leaking water . . . No traffic behind them any more.

  He dodged into the right lane again as they approached an intersection. The traffic was splitting left and right. Dead ahead, a smoky area . . . no, the edges of the dark area were too well defined. "Shadow zone, dead ahead."

  "Ajha's only a couple of kilometers ahead. He says to go into the shadow zone, touching as little as possible, find water to merge with." Ra'd was quiet for a minute. "He says that the reports he read said that merging was not universal all over either world, but that the shadow zone enlarges in leaps, and finally destabilizes and takes the whole world."

  When the road split, Ebsa bore left then spotted the lumpy traces of a merged road and turned into the shadow zone. The light dimmed a bit, the sky was . . . strange, clouds rushing from each side and colliding . . . flicks and flashes of light up in the clouds, a few rain showers . . . diluting the red trickles off the roof, and finally running clear. Don't think about it. Every one of them had merged at least once, killed a captured civilian. "Well, there's water, but I suspect it's already merged."

  "The clouds are climbing, if we can get close to the target side, there could be unmerged rain." Ra'd peered ahead. "There's a cross road . . . "

  Ebsa slowed and turned left, bumped over a very uneven surface. He had to dodge potholes and lumps but kept heading toward the brighter light . . . rain sluiced down and Ra'd opened the door and reached.

  "Damn . . . it sinks in. Stop here."

  They spread a tarp, stood in the runoff from the roof of the crawler, wallowed in the water they collected. Drank.

  "One, this is strange. We can still go home, after this, right?" Ebsa shivered as the wind picked up and the water stopped sinking into his skin.

  "Have we had enough, or is the rain merging before it hits the ground now?"

  "Either way, let's go find Ajha."

  Ra'd scowled and pointed. "He feels like he's right there, in that building."

  "Where that truck is backing in? Let's go see what the Bad Guys are up to." Ebsa left his seat belt off this time and they bumped over the remains of a road. He turned and sidled up to a side door of the building.

  Ra'd was out and through that door in a rush, a weapon in either hand, pistol belt, extra ammo . . .

  Two shots, a curse, three shots.

  Ebsa bolted out and into a weapons and ammo dump. He shot the man to the left taking aim at Ra'd, swept a glance around. No more threats.

  Ra'd dropped his gun. "Jammed. It's not properly merged—which is what they are doing here."

  Ebsa eyed the set up. "Those are all Oner weapons."

  "In color coded boxes. Bet they stole them from our army's camp this morning. I think they must be bringing them in, half through Helios, half through the Target world."

  "And merge them so they have working weapons. That's, well, I'd say clever, but it's not like they don't have experience. They must have been scouting the camp, found the gate to the target world and realized they had the perfect opportunity for this." Ebsa swallowed sickly, as he suddenly realized why the analysts were missing, and some soldiers.

  Ra'd was experimenting, checking cartridges, inspecting the disassembled weapons on the table. He rejected parts rapidly, assembled four automatics and moved on to the next table and a different weapon.

  Ebsa started with the ammo. Big tins, possibly of discards, smaller tubs that were being loaded into magazines.

  He rejected several magazines, and loaded all the rest. Moved to the next caliber.

  Armed to the teeth, they explored deeper into the building. Ra'd raised his gun, hesitated and shrugged. Walked past an amorous couple on the floor. Cafeteria, mostly automated. The few staff eyed them but took no action, the diners ignored them, wolfing down nasty looking pabulum . . . Actually some of it looked pretty good. He and Ra'd both grabbed and drank as they prowled onward. An elevator lobby, doors to stairwells propped open. Glass front doors looking out on a road, the light getting even dimmer. The trucks rattling past had their lights on. Mostly.

  Back the other way, snag something else from the cafeteria as they passed through. The far door was locked, braced on the other side.

  They exchanged grins.

  :: Ajha, are you on the other side of the blocked door to a cafeteria? ::

  :: Yes! Is there water? I desperately need lots and lots of Helios water. They're bring people in through the Target to merge with Helios. ::

  "Tanker truck." Ebsa galloped back through to the glass doors, out to the road.

  The fourth truck was a tanker. He waved it down. The suspicious driver tried to run him down. Ebsa shot him through the side window, wrenched open the door and threw himself at the controls. Three tries before he found a brake. "Never heard of pedals?" he muttered, and hauled on the yoke to circle the building. Backing up wasn't going to happen, but he did get into the docking bay.

  Then it was just a matter of upshipping the hoses and spraying the unconscious Oners . . .

  "One, they look young! Where did they find you all?" Ebsa looked at a few of the ambulatory youths.

  "Karachi. They raided the university. I was watching what was going on across campus, and then suddenly I was sleepy . . . " The boy shivered, wet, but, well, if any of this lot got off without nightmares, they'd be lucky . . .

  Ebsa peered around.

  "There are thousands of them. How the hell are we going to get them out of here?"

  Ebsa spun, gun coming up . . . to see a soldier fighting to raise, to not raise, his own weapon. He looks like . . . Ebsa snapped out a stun spell and dropped him. And the two men behind him.

  "Are you insane?" Ra'd shouldered past him.

  "I think that's Offe. He was still in there, trying to not shoot me." Ebsa swallowed. "They're going to want to see some merged people. The doctors and scientists back home. Might as well bring them some."

  Ajha limped over, looking like he was about to drop. "Q gave me some spells. The ones that helped her were personalized, but maybe the generic spells I've been tossing around have worked . . . sort of. Don't risk your lives, but stun some of them." He sighed. "What are a few extra limp bodies to this mess we've got? We've got six trucks. We'll have to steal more . . . find drivers, load up the unconscious and run for the far side. If we can find a gate."

  Ra'd looked back in the general
direction of the crawler. "We have a radio frequency direction finder. For tracking dinosaurs. If we can adjust it to the radio signals from the laser relays . . . "

  Ajha straightened. "We'll just hope to hell we don't get shot by our own people."

  "We can lead off with the crawler, so we look a little bit legit." Ebsa looked over at Ra'd. "So . . . how many people can fit into a Bag of the Prophets?"

  Chapter Thirteen

  7 Safar 1405 yp

  Primitive World 65480

  :: Twenty minutes! Get everyone off this world in twenty minutes!::

  A mental shout that even had Ra'd's head jerking up.

  "Oh One Hell." Ajha on the radio. "That's Wolfson. That gate had better be there!"

  Ebsa led the way, the crawler grinding and clanking over grass turfs and bumps. They'd had to slice through sheet metal from the building that had collapsed and half merged with the exterior. I just hope the radio locator is working! It claims to be picking up something ahead.

  "I recognize this place. See that huge dead tree? Those two groves of trees maybe five kilometers on? It's right between them." Even with poor comm reception, Ajha sounded relieved. "We're going to be there in a couple of minutes . . . Oh, crap . . . "

  Ra'd leaped to the window, looked out. "More effing damned trucks."

  Offe staggered up, looking somewhere between punch drunk and dead. "Three trucks full of kids they've kidnapped?" The three merged analysts had, sort of, recovered.

  Three trucks . . .

  "We'll check them out." Ebsa turned gradually, not wanting to stress the poor damned crawler past all functionality.

  "Don't linger." Ajha called back. "At some point they're going to start closing gates."

  Ebsa nodded. "Hopefully yours is still open." He eyed the trucks, glanced back at the three merged analysts . . . in Helios uniforms. "Do you guys know how to drive that sort of truck?"

  Pause choked, faintly. "Yes . . . I don't like having memories like this in my head!"