Earthbound

by Adam Lewinson

  Not sure why that guy should have trusted Pace, but I guess he had that kind of trusting way. The fourth teller nodded. “35. 15. 17. 22. 23. 16. 0.”

  Pace smiled with appreciation. “Alarm?”

  “You can shut it off. There’s a switch underneath that desk right there.” The fourth teller nodded his head toward a desk near the vault. Pace went over and fiddled around until he found the switch. He flipped it. Then he opened up that safe just as the fourth teller instructed. The door popped open and inside was, I kid you not, the biggest haul we’d ever seen. Easily twenty times bigger ‘n any we’d seen. No wonder they had so many tellers, they needed them to count all that money. Adding that to what we had hidden in the Old City, we’d amassed a pretty huge haul.

  Pace had that stronger looking teller help him load up shoulder bags. Then when they were full, I’d take ‘em and put ‘em on a desk on the way to the back door. Unlike the other vaults, where the money was kinda loosely arranged, this gold was neatly wrapped in sturdy paper stacks so we could load it up much quicker. When they’d emptied out every penny, Pace pulled out his revolver to keep an eye on things so the stronger looking teller and I could load up the horses. Not that Pace couldn’t have handed that but I could do it quicker. Then when we were loaded up, Pace led the stronger looking teller back inside. “Sorry, I have to tie you up now.” As that guy got tied up, my job was to drag their chairs as far away from the safe as possible. I pulled them across the room to the front door, and then flipped over a desk and put it in front of them as cover. Didn’t want anything flying off hitting them in the face.

  “W-what are you gonna do?” the fourth teller asked, concerned about getting killed no matter which way events unfolded. I pulled a brick of C4 out of my pocket, one of the ones I found in that old warehouse, and slammed it against the locking mechanism on the vault. That was our contingency plan if we couldn’t get the combination for some reason, but we always had a preferred use in mind for the C4. Pace put in the fuse, and it was a very very long fuse. He unrolled it all the way to the front door. That made the fourth teller seem even more nervous. “W-what’s that for?”

  “Just keeping my word,” Pace said with a reassuring smile. “You wouldn’t tell me the combination, right? So we had to blow the safe right open. Fortunately this fuse is so long we’ll be halfway out of town before it blows.”

  “You sure it’s not enough to kill us all?” the third teller wondered. It was a fair question. Hadn’t really used C4 before.

  “You think I used too much?” I whispered to Pace.

  “We’re about to find out,” he said.

  The tellers all seemed kinda grateful. Then Pace went ahead and stuffed stacks of gold coins in each of their coat pockets. Then they seemed even more grateful. Wasn’t their fault they were being robbed. They’d earned it.

  Then Pace lit that fuse, so we high-tailed it out to our horses. Becca was there by then. She’d bought a sturdy brown mare, maybe five years old or so, with good strong legs. Seemed like a runner. That’d come in handy. Becca was trying to figure out why the saddlebags were so full all of a sudden. I felt bad but we quickly shoved what she bought wherever we could in her new horse’s saddlebags, and we tossed the rest.

  “Wait!” Becca complained. “What are you doing?”

  “Sorry Rebecca,” Pace explained. “But we’ve got to go. Right now.”

  Becca looked at both of us. And in that moment, she understood.

  “You effers!”

  “Language, Rebecca,” Pace scolded. Then he hoisted her up on her horse and leapt himself up on Flashbound. “It’ll be a great story to tell our grandchildren someday.”

  “Grandchildren,” Becca moaned. “Not likely.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said, “before something we did attracts a lot of attention.” I was talking about the C4 of course.

  But as we started to ride off, something ahead of us was blocking our path. It was a man. No, it wasn’t human. It was metallic. Well, kinda both. Metallic but shaped nearly like a human.

  “What the eff is that?” Pace said.

  “It’s not a Mankin.” I knew that much. “Too tall. Too… lifelike.”

  Whatever that thing was, at the end of its arm was a metal hand holding a weapon the likes of which I’d never seen. Polished steel and rounded, looking kinda like a handheld turbine engine – I’d seen a few of those turbines on those old jets back on the air force base. Whatever that weapon was, it looked powerful.

  A metal leg took a step forward and that thing was now close enough that we could see it. It had a face. A human face. Scratch that – a near human face. It looked like it had human flesh, more pale than usual, but there was a steel exoskeleton surrounding it – maybe to protect it. What I remember most was the eyes. The glinting silver eyes.

  We stopped our horses and stared. I admit, all three of us kinda froze. Never seen anything like that in our lives.

  Then that weapon, whatever it was, started to whir. The cylinder on that turbine engine was spinning, getting ready to fire. Wasn’t sure what kinda bullets would come out of that thing but we were right in the line of fire. There was no place we could go. We were dead.

  Almost. That thing got distracted. We all did. By a large, um, explosion. In the bank. Turns out I used just a little too much C4. That building just kinda erupted. And the force of the blast blew those four tied up bankers through the front windows, landing on their backs, with the table landing in front of them, shielding them from much of the showering glass and wood splinters. I was relieved they’d be fine, at least for the moment. There was still that new robot to deal with.

  Turns out the robot was distracted too. As it lowered its weapon and eyed the explosion, all three of us took it upon ourselves to ride out of the way. Pace and Becca to the right of the thing, me to the left.

  Then that thing whatever it was just started shooting at us.

  It wasn’t bullets coming at us – it was laser fire, but the blasts were bigger and more combustible than the ones that came from Mankins. The ground seemed to open up a gaping hole on impact. And those blasts were getting too close to those bankers. I didn’t kill them and I didn’t want this robot to kill them either.

  “Get Becca outta here!” I shouted. “Take Charon too!” I leaped off of Charon and sent him in Pace’s direction. It was gonna be too hard to maneuver those blasts while I was riding. And if anything happened to Charon, well, I’d never forgive myself. If I was still alive to even do that. I took cover on the side of a building, hoping it would be enough.

  Becca screamed my name. But I couldn’t pay no mind, I could only see to it that Pace was making sure her horse was riding her off to safety.

  Meantime, the three gunmen emerged from the saloon with their shotguns to see what all the commotion was about. Bad move.

  “What the eff!” the gunman we were talking to yelled. The other two gunmen had the good sense to flee. But not this one. He was just standing there, petrified. Pissed his pants no doubt.

  “Get out of the way!” I shouted. But he couldn’t process anything, let alone what I was saying. I just saw that metal arm raising up to aim at his forehead. “Oh man!” I moaned to myself. I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t help myself. I dove toward the gunman and knocked him to the ground, just before a laser blast woulda cut him in two. We rolled to the side, and then I slapped him hard and good across the face. “Get with it! You’re not gonna survive this if you don’t get your wits about you!”

  I took a split-second – too long, really – to make sure the gunman heard me. He nodded and tried to get a grasp on his shotgun.

  “W-what is that thing-” the gunman stammered.

  “Just keep down!” I shouted.

  Then my eyes were back on that metal thing. He really wasn’t a robot. I can’t call him a robot. There was something definitely human in there. It was in the shape of a regular six foot tall man. Except the arms and legs were solid metal, and the torso w
as wrapped in the same kind of exoskeleton that covered the face. And the movement. No robot could replicate that. It was too fluid. It was too fast. And it was firing right at us. But the gunman wasn’t getting it. I knocked the gunman out of the way yet again.

  Fortunately Pace didn’t leave me hanging. He had dismounted as well and sent Becca and both horses on a course out of town. He pulled out his pistols and ran at this creature, blasting him with everything he had. The creature took the shots calmly as the bullets just sorta bounced off his tough metal flesh. Not even a dent. It just kinda stared back at everyone.

  And when Pace was out of ammo, that thing raised up its arms. The chamber of its weapons, whatever those were, opened up automatically and some thin steel rods came up out of its metallic forearms holding shiny cartridges. Smoking spent cartridges popped out of the weapons and fell to the ground while the steel rods replaced them with the new cartridges. I heard them snap into place. So then I knew how they reloaded. What good that would do me.

  I took that moment to pull out my Bowie knife and cut the ropes binding the bankers. Everyone ran for cover as that thing started firing. I couldn’t tell cause I couldn’t afford to observe that closely, but I could swear that thing’s aim was far more precise than the Mankins. That thing had a sharpshooter’s aim.

  “What’s the plan, Pace?” I shouted. I wasn’t really looking for guidance. I really just wanted to make sure he was still alive.

  “No clue,” he replied. Fine. At least he was still breathing.

  Finally the blasting stopped so that thing could reload. Those thin steel rods came up out of its metallic forearms once again with those shiny cartridges. We had a few seconds to counterattack. But a few seconds to do what, exactly?

  Next thing I knew, the gunman was up on his feet.

  “Hey,” I yelled, “hit the ground!”

  But the gunman wasn’t listening. Instead he was talking.

  “I ain’t dying today.”

  Then he pointed his rifle directly at the creature and opened fire. He had ten rounds in his cartridge and he blasted away using up all of ‘em, one after the other, each time stepping closer and closer to the thing. All shots hit its target. But not once did that thing wince. Well, once. One bullet seemed to bounce on the inside of the exoskeleton around its chest and nicked where the ribcage would usually be. The creature recoiled a little, and some kind of silver liquid seeped out of the wound.

  So it could bleed. Good to know.

  I raised my revolver to give the gunman some cover fire, but he was in my line of sight. I didn’t want to shoot him to save him. “Get out of there!” I shouted. Instead the gunman just stood there and reloaded. He seemed pretty calm actually. Brave guy after he got his wits about him. He raised his rifle to shoot again but the creature quickly reached out – its weapons almost instantly holstering somehow inside its hips – and grabbed the nose of the rifle and crushed it in its fingers. The gunman had really hurt it. Good for him!

  “Ribcage!” I shouted as I ran from cover and headed straight at the creature, blasting away at its exoskeleton. Pace followed my lead and we were firing away. We didn’t give the creature enough time to react I guess, or its wound was slowing him down, cause it just kinda took our punishment. Several shots must’ve connected underneath that shell it had. Silver gunk was just spewing out all over its chest.

  I tossed the gunman my spare pistol so he could join in the fun. And he did.

  That creature took a good tumble backward. Seemed like we’d disabled it. It wasn’t pulling out any weapons out of its ass or wherever. It was just kinda shaking.

  Feeling confident we’d felled it, we lowered our weapons and stared at the thing.

  “That’s not one of those Mankins,” Pace said.

  “A lot tougher than a Mankin,” I said.

  I pounced on top of the creature and stared it in its steel eyes.

  “What are you?” It wasn’t a question. More of a demand.

  The thing started to sputter and finally its lips curled to create a word.

  “Bion.”

  Then its body shuttered, and lights out.

  I got up and we all kinda looked at each other. We’d taken out our first Bion. Didn’t bother me much in that moment. I thought it was just a different kinda robot. Hell, I could kill a dozen of ‘em if I had to.

  “Guess this Shādo Shay means business,” the gunman commented. He was right. The Great Plains Holding Company was definitely stepping it up. The gunman kicked the Bion body for good measure to make sure it was really out of commission. “I reckon there’s a reason why this thing was after you,” he stated.

  “I reckon so,” I replied.

  The gunman still had my spare pistol. Couldn’t tell if he was pointing it at us. Couldn’t tell if we were gonna have a problem or not.

  Finally the gunman nodded. And then he turned the pistol around and handed it to me, handle first.

  “You saved my life,” he explained. “For that you get a head start.”

  Didn’t need to tell us twice.

  We ran for a while until we caught up with Becca and the horses, waiting for us a safe distance from the settlement.

  “Is that thing dead?” she asked.

  “It is,” Pace answered.

  She seemed relieved. And then she turned on us with a passion.

  “You’re all idiots. You keep this up you’re all going to die. Especially you, Asher.”

  Then she got up on her horse and rode off.

  I wondered why she singled me out. Dying is dying – one person doesn’t especially die, you’re just dead. Was it because she cared about me the most?

  10.

  “What’re you gonna name your horse?” I asked Becca.

  She ignored me. She ignored me for a long time. Man she was steamed.

  “What’re you gonna name your horse?” I asked again.

  “Asshole,” she said finally.

  “That is no proper name for a horse,” I replied.

  “Not the horse. You!” Becca said.

  Becca was right actually. I was being an asshole. So was Pace. Things were changing now. We had plenty of gold to get us anywhere we wanted to go. And that Bion robot. Wasn’t sure we could handle too many more of them.

  “Pace,” I said, “I think we made a grave error. I promised to keep Becca safe and we almost got her killed. We can’t keep doing this with her. We’ve got to stop.”

  “Finally!” Becca shouted. “A voice of reason!”

  Pace mulled this for a moment. “But I love it! And I’m good at it! We both are!”

  “I know,” I said. “Robbing banks was never gonna be a forever thing anyway. Let’s get out while we’re still walkin’.”

  Pace reluctantly nodded. “All right. No more bank robbing. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” I replied.

  Becca still seemed angry but I could tell this made her pleased. “It’s about time you came to your senses,” she scolded.

  And then Pace added something. “Now we just need that transport.”

  “Pace!” Becca yelled.

  “It’s the only way to get our gold out of here!”

  “Just leave it behind. Take what you have right now!”

  “But it’s our life’s work!” Pace explained.

  I thought maybe Becca would cry or something. Or get angry. But no. Instead she had that hard look she would get when she was beyond emotion. And then when she spoke, it was like she knew what I was thinking.

  “I’ve got no more tears for either one of you,” she announced. “You just need to know what you’re doing.” Yeah, I was starting to think I’d undo everything if I could invent some kind of time machine. Saw a movie about that once. Saw it with Becca as a point of fact. “You can walk away right now. With me. And we can take what we can. Or if you go for that transport, you’ll likely lose everything. Including me. Your decision.”

  “Home sweet home,” Pace announced, when we finally arrived back at the
hideout. But it was funny, it didn’t feel like home anymore. It all felt very temporary.

  It was late so we all went straight to our respective sleeping places.

  “I bought you a sleeping bag,” Becca said from her sleeping bag. “But you tossed it to the ground to make room for your gold.”

  “That was nice of you,” I said.

  “Lay out some gold and sleep in it. See if it keeps you warm.”

  There was no changing our minds. We were going to get that transport.

  Becca seemed kinda resigned to the fact that we were gonna do it. She seemed kinda all over the place actually. Emotional one moment, cold the next. But she knew she couldn’t change our minds.

  The night before the transport we packed up everything we could. Bundled it all nicely by the door so we could quickly grab it and toss it in the transport.

  Didn’t drink much that night either. Wanted my wits fully about me. It was likely gonna be easy but didn’t want to take any chances. This was too important to all of us.

  Kept thinking about what Becca had said. That we’d lose her. I reasoned if we stayed alive when we robbed the transport, everything would be fine. We just needed to stay alive.

  I fell asleep, I dunno when. Not sure why exactly I woke up. Heard something I suppose. I looked up and didn’t see Becca by the fire. Didn’t see Pace either. You probably know me well enough to know by now. I go with my instincts. I’m not necessarily one to think things through much. And my instinct was telling me something was wrong. So I got up and drew my revolver. No telling what was going on.