by Eli Ingle
“Almost there,” said the Mayor, sounding cheerful.
Arriving at a stone archway that had no door, the Mayor paused.
“Leave us here,” he instructed to the robots. “Through here,” he told the group and ducked his head as he went – he was too large to comfortably walk underneath it.
The group followed and found themselves on a large stone balcony that overlooked a barren courtyard of grey stone. People were lined up in rows all facing the balcony. The Mayor moved to the front and was greeted by a wave of rhythmic applause. To Rigel, it sounded more manufactured than heartfelt. Rigel, Rona, Laurie and Erdiz moved outside and stood a few paces behind the Mayor, who was still receiving his applause. After a moment of enjoying it, he raised his hands. Silence fell completely the moment his hands went up.
“Citizens,” boomed the Mayor, his voice needing no microphone. “You have my thanks for gathering here today. We have two orders of business and shall attend to the more pleasant one first: you know all too well of the poor missing children, Rigel and Rona. Well, rejoice, for today they have been found!” He paused and the rhythmic, superficial clapping resumed before stopping after ten seconds. It sounded as though the sound was a recording. “You may rest assured that they will be returned to where they belong. Please show them your pleasure at their return.”
He stepped to the side and swept his hands from the children to the audience. Rigel and Rona stepped forwards and into greater view. The clapping resumed again before stopping suddenly. Scanning the faces below him, Rigel saw the lifeless, dead look on each face and knew that they would find no help there. The Mayor stepped forwards again, making the children skip backwards to avoid his huge gait.
“Now to our second order of business: we must attend to the man you know as Ludo, who many of you will remember left some years ago to be the caretaker of our new city further to the rim. Citizens, it saddens me to inform you that our man Ludo is a traitor! We sent several families out there to begin inhabiting the new city and he betrayed them by failing to protect them and look after them. Instead, he starved them! When they didn’t die quickly enough, he murdered them in their beds!”
The audience stared up passively as they were informed of this, their expressions unchanging.
“I hereby sentence him to death as punishment for the lives he took!” the Mayor declared, his enormous hands raised high. The rhythmic clapping began again.
“No!” shouted Rona. The Mayor ignored her.
“Sir, you can’t do that!” protested Laurie. “He never did any of those things!”
“He did whatever I say he did,” corrected the Mayor. “Now I ask you to be silent unless you wish to join his execution.”
“I think not,” said Laurie. “Let’s go. Now!”
Turning on their heels, they hurried towards the archway, determined to get to Ludo before it was too late.
“I’d prefer you to watch,” said the Mayor without turning around.
The robot guards outside the archway were blocking their exit. Pressing in, they forced the group back onto the balcony and prevented their escape.
“And just to make sure ....” The robots turned them around to look out over the courtyard. Rigel heard clicking, and turning his head slightly, saw that the robots had pressed their gun hands against the backs of Laurie’s and Erdiz’s heads. From the ammunition clips hung from their wrists, Rigel knew that this time they were not just devices to knock them out.
“Kids, you’re going to have to do something about this one,” muttered Laurie, looking desperately at them.
Rona gave Rigel a look full of hopeless despair. He could feel it too – the fatigue associated with using their power was beginning to creep through his veins. Rona held back a sob.
“Laurie, we can’t,” she said, head hanging.
“What?”
“Our powers have nearly gone, ever since we got here. We’re useless and can’t do a thing. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand,” the Captain said, looking between them.
“Neither do we,” replied Rigel, feeling sick after finally acknowledging it.
“Well, great. Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
“I thought they might come back ....”
“Silence,” said the Mayor, holding up a hand. He clapped once and the audience below him turned smartly to face the other direction. “Bring out the prisoner!” he boomed.
Ludo was brought through an archway, a bag over his head and his hands and legs shackled. Four human guards escorted him, rifles on their backs and hands on his arms, leading him to the centre of the back wall. He was turned to face the audience and the bag taken from his head. The guards walked to the front of the audience and saluted the Mayor.
“When you’re ready,” he commanded, saluting back.
The men turned to Uncle and unslung their rifles before cocking them and putting them to their shoulders. Uncle was looking around, bewildered and terrified.
Rigel did not know what to do – any action against the Mayor would result in Laurie’s and Erdiz’s own executions, but he could hardly stand there and let them shoot Uncle without trying to help. He tried to reach out with his mind to the soldier’s rifles, attempting to expand the bullets in the barrel so the guns would not fire, but the bullets had barely grown to double their size when a wave of nausea overwhelmed him and he drew his powers back into himself, nursing himself and feeling ill. Clawing back up the wall, he held onto Rona, who put an arm around his shoulder.
“At least you tried,” she murmured.
Yes, but it wasn’t enough, he thought.
“Ready,” shouted the captain of the guard. “Aim.” The soldiers tilted their heads to look through their sights. “Fire.”
Dry clicks echoed across the silent courtyard. The soldiers shifted their feet, looking embarrassed.
“I said fire!” the Mayor roared.
Four clicks rang out as the guns failed to fire.
“You did this!” the Mayor boomed, turning on the Light Ones. Rigel felt sick.
“It wasn’t me! I tried and failed.”
“Or me,” said Rona. “But I wish it was.”
The Mayor pointed to the children. “You take them away,” he told the robots. “Leave the adults – we’ve no use for them. We’ll have them shot as well.”
“No!” shouted Rona.
“Run!” demanded Laurie.
There seemed to be no options left: it was either run or die.
Charging to the balcony, Rigel grabbed Rona’s hand and they jumped over the edge. Rolling as they had been taught to lessen the impact, they got to their feet and began running away from the Mayor as fast as they could.
Up on the balcony, the robots made a grab for Laurie and Erdiz but they were quicker, ducking down and following the children over the edge.
“Shoot them!” ordered the Mayor.
The robots charged to the edge and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd, hitting many passers-by as they aimed for the fleeing Laurie and Erdiz. The crowd screamed and ran in all directions. Ludo was lost amidst the crowd. Laurie was hit in the leg. Grabbing onto the wise-woman, they dodged and weaved through the quickly dispersing crowd as a barrage of gunfire cracked the floor beneath them, sending up chunks of rock and dust.
Diving through one of the archways, they were safe from the gunfire from the balcony.
“What now?” asked Rigel, pressed against the stone and panting hard.
“We get out of here,” said Erdiz.
Laurie groaned, pressing his hand against his leg, blood seeping between his fingers. “Yep. Out of here. Now.”
“But what about Jhoan?” asked Rona.
“Damn it!” cursed Laurie.
“Let’s look at it logically,” said Erdiz.
“I don’t think now is the time to look at things logically,” snapped Rigel.
“We don’t know where Jhoan is,” per
sisted the wise-woman. “He could have been moved from where we were and we’re in immediate danger. The logical thing to do would be to escape and then attempt a rescue mission at a later date.”
“We don’t leave men behind,” growled Laurie.
“We do today. You’re losing blood and need medical help. If we stay looking for Jhoan then we could well lose you in the process through bleeding out. I’m calling this one and we’re getting out of here.”
“You’re the boss, boss, bossss,” slurred Laurie, already too pale.
“Here.” Erdiz pulled off her belt and made a tourniquet around the Captain’s leg. “Can you walk?”
“Only since I was like, one and a half.”
“Ugh. Give me a hand with him, would you?” Erdiz slung Laurie’s right arm over her shoulder whilst Rigel and Rona took the other side. “Right. One, two, three, go!”
Into the street, they clung to the side, hobbling along as they tried to stay in the shadows. People from the crowd were running around and only succeeding in getting in the way. Robots were pursuing the travellers and still shooting anyone they saw, completely out of control. Smoke from the guns and dust from the blasted stones were drifting across the street, helping to obscure the travellers from view, but also making it harder to see any objects ahead of them or potential enemies.
They reached a corner. Erdiz peered around it.
“This way,” she said, beckoning them to keep to the edge they were following.
Just as they were about halfway down the street, they heard sirens begin to wail and fill the city with their mournful sound. More citizens were running past, heads down and moving fast. Laurie grunted as Erdiz and the children shifted his weight before moving along again. There was clanking behind them, approaching fast.
“Get back,” hissed Erdiz, pressing them into the wall. Laurie sucked in air as the sudden movement jolted his leg.
Flashes of orange light filled the air as one of the robots fired into the street before running off again.
“Come on,” said Rigel.
Hobbling down the street, they found a guard who looked to have been caught in the crossfire. He was lying still and bleeding heavily. Erdiz bent down and took the heavy pistol out of his hand and several rounds of ammunition.
As they rounded the next corner they heard heavy shotgun blasts and the sound of exploding metal. In the middle of the street, they saw a tall woman dressed as a guard. She was holding two sawn-off shotguns and was blasting several robot guards to pieces.
“Backup! I need backup! These things have gone insane!” she was screaming but to whom, Rigel could not tell – there did not seem to be anyone else around.
“Let’s go another way,” whispered Erdiz.
“Halt! Who goes there?” The woman had turned around and was barely visible through the smoke.
“Go, go, go!”
As fast as they could run with Laurie, they hobbled back down the street.
“I said HALT!”
Erdiz shot her pistol over her shoulder but at such a bad angle that the shot went wild. The woman ran up to them and put her guns to the backs of Erdiz’s and Laurie’s necks.
“Drop your weapons. I said drop them!”
Sighing heavily, Erdiz dropped the pistol to the ground and held up her hands.
“Turn and face me slowly. Put your hands on your heads.”
“We can’t, we have to hold our man up,” said Erdiz. “He’s been hit.”
“Turn and face me then.”
Inching around, they turned to face the woman. There was clanking coming up the street. Surprising them all, Erdiz karate chopped the woman in the neck, pulled one of the shotguns from her and pointed it at her face.
“Duck,” she said.
The guard dropped to the floor just as the wise-woman pulled the trigger, exploding the head of a robot guard that was moments from shooting the woman. Flipping it end over end, she grabbed the barrel and offered the handle to the woman guard, who took it and stood up, looking at the robot.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
“What did you do that for?!” demanded Rona. “We could have let it shoot her and then run for it.”
“We wouldn’t have got far,” insisted Erdiz. “Better to be captured by her than shot by one of those things.”
The woman seemed to notice the Light Ones for the first time.
“It’s you!” she said, pointing at them. They stared back silently at her. “I could capture you and take you back to the Mayor. Get a promotion and pay rise and finally make my life a bit safer.”
“Do you really know which side you’re on?” asked Rigel. “You only think we’re bad because you’ve been told that and that we need to be captured. You don’t actually know anything about us – we were only just travelling through here and then we were captured and almost shot. We’re innocent and I don’t know why the Mayor is trying to take us away but we haven’t done anything wrong. We need to escape from here and if you don’t let us, we’ll kill you.”
Despite the grim look on Rigel’s face, the woman still laughed. “I’d like to see you try,” she replied.
“Or you could just let us go on and say nothing. Erdiz saved your life by shooting that robot – you’re in her debt now.”
“This is true,” she conceded.
“Attention! Attention, attention! New Mayoral orders! Shoot everyone on sight until the group of escaped renegades is found! Repeat: Shoot everyone on sight until the renegades are found. Transmission over.” The voice sounded tinny over the loudspeakers set into every street corner. The woman guard looked up as she heard the transmission and shook her head.
“Now even I’m not safe out here, thanks to you,” she said, her head still shaking side to side. “Gods I hate it here! And I hate you even more for doing this! At least before I knew what my hours were and I got paid and at the end of the day I could go home and eat food. Now look at me – shooting everyone on sight because the loudspeaker tells me to! I hate it and I hate you!”
“Then why don’t you just capture us and take us in?” asked Rona. “You’ve already got us.”
“Because I’m going to help you escape,” said the guard.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I’m going to help you escape,” she repeated. “But I’m coming with you. I’m done with it here. There’s no lucky break. I’m off. Come on, we don’t have a lot of time and it’s dangerous out here in the open. Pick up your pistols and let’s move.”
Erdiz and the Light Ones stared at each other before shrugging. The wise-woman bent down to pick up the guns. Laurie must have passed out – he had not said anything for some time.
“We’re going to have to shoot people. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Just checking. I don’t want you chickening out at the last minute and getting us all killed. Let’s move now!”
They hurried down the street amidst the smoke and sounds of gunfire and screaming that floated through the air and mixed with the wailing, unceasing sirens.
“By the way, once we get out of here you owe me one hell of an explanation,” the guard said.
“You’ve got it,” replied Erdiz. “Oh, let me tell you my name, it’s—”
“STOP!”
“What?”
“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare tell me your name until we’re out of here – any of you. If we’re captured they’ll torture us; you can bet on that. If no-one knows names it’s safer for anyone who is left.”
“Okay.”
“Now enough talking. Shut up and run.”
Down the street they found no more assailants to run into but at the end, they arrived at a crossroads that was open enough to blow the smoke away and leave them visible to any guards, human or robot, that might be looking for them.
“Wait there,” said the woman and ducked out into the middle. Gunshots and the sound of ricocheting bullets filled th
e air. She dived back into the smoke a moment later. “Four of them on the roof corners, covering the area. My guns don’t have the range. Swap.” She offered one of hers to Erdiz, who took it and gave her the pistol. “This thing loaded?” She broke the gun and checked the barrel, nodded and clicked it back together. “Right, I’m going to need one of you two.” She pointed to the children.
“Why?” asked Rigel.
“They won’t shoot once they realise it’s you. I’ll use you as a distraction to shoot them.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Run out there and they’ll shoot at you so weave about a bit, shout out who you are and then they should stop. Simple.”
“Oh yeah, easy peasy,” he grumbled.
“What?”
“Doesn’t matter; just make it quick,” he said and dived out from under Laurie’s arm and into the open.
The crossroads were barren except for several dead bodies lying on the floor. Rigel tried not to look at these as he charged forwards, his hands in the air, shouting “Don’t shoot! It’s me – the child you’re looking for! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” Several shots were aimed at him, narrowly missing as he ducked and weaved but as soon as they heard what he was saying, they held fire. The woman guard dived out of the smoke and shot one on the left and right before the others even knew what had happened. Running into the middle, she grabbed Rigel in a headlock, making the other guards pause for fear of hitting him. She shot the other to her right, twisted Rigel away and shot the one to her left. Her aim was deadly: all the guards fell with one shot.
“All clear!” she shouted, making Rigel wince. “Go! Go! Go!”
Erdiz and Rona appeared, dragging Laurie with them. Rigel moved over to give Rona a hand on her side.
“This way,” their guard instructed them, leading them down into another smoke-filled street.
Patchy smoke drifted past their eyes but up ahead they could see the shadowy forms of people running down the street. The woman pulled a canister off her belt and yanked the pin out, holding the handle down.
“Is that a grenade?” asked Rona.
“Smoke grenade,” corrected the guard and threw it. It sailed through the air before hitting the floor. After a second, thick white smoke spewed out of it and completely obscured the view of the street. “Over to the edge,” she instructed. “Stay close and move fast.”