by J. M. Preiss
Hector quickly went into cover of the next building. Jacob and Mason followed. They both were cradling their unactivated rifles in their right arm.
As they went from building to building, electric lights started to light up along the streets. Guards came out of the Great House and raced to where the cages were. Hector guided Mason and Jacob to a squat stone building.
"The power is kept in there," Hector pointed. "But the door is locked by a means that the Elders do not reveal."
"Don't worry about that," Jacob said. He looked at Mason. "Distraction, Captain?"
"That's what I'm thinking, Lieutenant," Mason replied.
"What's the captain and lieutenant you are referring to?" Hector asked.
"Later," said Jacob. "Alright, three count after deployment. I'll hit the door; you hit the tree line above the cages."
Mason nodded.
Jacob took in a breath. "On three. One. Two. Three!"
They both hit the deploy buttons on their rifles and started counting.
One.
The guns unfurled and assumed their active positions. Lights flared to life along their body.
Two.
Mason and Jacob shouldered their weapons and took aim.
Three.
They both pulled the trigger simultaneously. A sharp crack resounded throughout the village. The door on the power storage building exploded where the door handle had been. A tree above the cages burst into flames.
There were shouts all throughout the village. People started to come out of their houses and point at the fire that had started out of nowhere. There were screams to get water from the well to stop any fires that started on the wall or nearby buildings.
As the ruckus was increasing in volume, Jacob, Mason, and Hector bolted across the street to the storage building. Jacob hit the door shoulder first, and the door shot open. Inside, the lights were dim, but it was easy to see uncountable numbers of power cells.
Hector's jaw dropped. "Where did all this power come from?"
Jacob shook his head. "You've always been getting it at this amount, I would gather. Come, we need to be quick."
"But what are we here for?" Hector asked.
"Power," said Jacob. "Grab as many cells as you can."
"That's stealing!" Hector shouted.
Mason shook his head. "No shit. That's what the elders have been doing. Return the favor."
Jacob looked at Mason, took off the second pack, and tossed it at Hector. "You'll have to take Mason's load. Put as many cells into that as you can and put it on."
Hector stood dumbfounded staring at the pack as Jacob began filling his.
"Come on!" yelled Mason. "We don't have the time for you to be shocked."
Hector fumbled and almost dropped the pack. He nodded and began filling the pack with cells.
"So what's your plan for the cells, Jacob?" asked Mason.
"Don't know yet," Jacob replied. "But I bet you a month's energy ration that it will come in handy."
"Good point," Mason said.
They quickly finished filling the packs with the cells. When Hector put it on, he was surprised when he felt it sucking into his back and blending with the furs he was wearing.
Jacob trotted to in front of Hector. "Is there any way out of the walls without being seen?"
Hector shook his head. "I don't know of any. The walls are solid and continuous. We have to go through a gate."
Mason cursed.
Jacob thought for a second. "Mason, grab some cells."
"Why, oh," Mason said. "This isn't going to be pretty."
Jacob and Mason grabbed an arm full of energy cells and hurried out of the power shed. They deposited them before the palisade wall.
"Nothing on this side of Repose outside of the wall?" Jacob asked.
"Uh, no," said Hector.
Jacob and Mason backed away and pulled Hector back with them around the front of the storage building.
"I don't see what stacking power cells up in front-," Hector began.
Jacob quickly aimed his rifle and fired. Another sharp crack shot across the village. It was instantly followed by a strong report. A bright explosion lit up the night sky and blasted through the wall. Burning shrapnel, snow, and other debris flew through the air.
"C'mon!" Jacob shouted.
He grabbed Hector by the collar and ran for the opening. Mason followed with a slight limp, but he kept up the pace.
They ran through the new hole in the wall and into the dark forest before them.
Chapter XIII
They ran for what seemed like hours. They were finally forced to stop because of Mason's injury. The exertion and heavy breathing finally overwhelmed his pain tolerance. They all picked a tree to lean against facing each other and slid down to the ground.
"Well, nobody should follow us," said Jacob. "We should've made it far enough away from Repose."
Hector nodded. "We are outside of the hunting grounds of the Forest Tribe now." He looked around at the surroundings - bleak forest for as far as the eye could see. "Given some time, I can tell you exactly where we are."
Jacob looked around. "That would be quite some feat seeing as there is no point of reference but by all means." He gestured.
Hector harrumphed. He reached under his furs and brought out a small box. It was not all that dissimilar to a mapping device. There was a slight click and lights came to life on it. A few moments later, he clicked it off and put it back under his furs.
"We have made it halfway to the River Tribe territory," Hector said. "If we continue that way," he pointed off in a direction," we will reach their village of Respite in two days."
Jacob blinked a few times. "I thought you said we were halfway to their territory?"
"I did," replied Hector.
"Then how is it two days to their village?" Mason asked.
"River Tribe territory is quite large, larger than Forest Tribe." Hector shrugged.
"Sounds like it," said Jacob. "Anyways, what was that device you used?"
"It is a triangulation device. All of the tribes, as well as Cago, have a transmitter that it can ping. From that, it can give us a rough estimate of where we are," Hector explained.
Jacob looked at Mason. "Full of surprises, isn't he?"
Mason chuckled then grabbed his side in pain. "Don't make me laugh," he said in a deadpan voice.
"Sorry," said Jacob. He turned his attention back to Hector. "So how accepting of outsiders is the River Tribe?"
Hector shrugged. "I wouldn't know for certain. I've never dealt with the River Tribe. We were just told by the Elders to never trust the River Tribe."
"Did they give you a reason?" Jacob asked.
"Nope," replied Hector. "A lot of the things the Elders do are not explained to us, and we don't ask questions. They only make good decisions for us. Except," he trailed off.
"They seem to have their own agenda," finished Jacob.
Mason sat up more on the tree he was leaning against. "That does seem to be the case," he said. "Why else would they be hoarding power cells and lying to the village about it?"
There was a sharp crack in the forest. They all turned to look in the direction the sound came from, the direction from whence they had come. Mason and Jacob activated their rifles and took up defensive positions.
Without warning, there were multiple sharp cracks. Trees exploded in smoke and fire, and snow was instantly vaporized.
"Cover!" yelled Jacob.
Hector scrambled to a better tree and hunkered down behind it. Mason and Jacob leaned around the corner to see what was attacking them. There was nothing visible in the darkness of the distant forest.
Another collection of sharp cracks resounded through the forest and set more trees on fire near the group.
"Contact! Two o'clock," yelled Jacob.
Mason swiveled to the location, and together, they fired multiple shots. There was a scream of pain that was silenced instantly. Another group of sharp cracks, di
minished now, replied.
"Eleven o'clock!" hollered Mason over the cacophony.
They swiveled once more and replied in kind. The forest dropped silent except for their breathing.
"Moving forward," said Jacob.
Mason nodded and took up position to cover him.
Jacob shot forward to another tree, then another, and then another. There were no more cracks. He angled his movement to head towards where the scream had come from. When he reached it, he stopped and stared.
"You're going to want to come see this, Mason," he said over his shoulder.
Mason got up and walked over to where Jacob was. Hector followed behind.
Lying on the ground before Jacob was a man in furs much like Hector. At least, it looked like a man in furs on the outside. The smoke holes in its chest told a different story. Laser rifle wounds were cauterized mostly, so the red blood oozing out wasn't surprising. The inside of the wound didn't appear to be what was expected though.
"What does that look like to you?" Jacob asked Mason.
"I have no idea. Hector?" Mason and Jacob looked at Hector.
Hector shrugged. "You would know more than I would. I recognize him though. He was Jeffery, one of the Great House guards."
Jacob knelt closer to the body of Jeffery and set his rifle down beside him. With two fingers, he poked at the ooze coming out of one of the wounds then rubbed his thumb and fingers together.
After a few moments, he said, "It's not blood."
"What?" asked Mason. "It's a chest wound, surely it's blood."
"Feel it for yourself. I'm telling you: it isn't blood," said Jacob. "It's thicker, almost oil-like."
Mason looked at Hector. "Do your people use anything like this?"
Hector shrugged again. "Not to my knowledge, but I'm simply a hunter."
Jacob shook his head and looked closer at one of the wounds. It mostly looked right. The skin was charred, but there were no charred ribs around it. A chest wound normally had charred ribs. Jacob sat back for a moment.
Laser rifle wounds were all similar. First thing noticed for a laser rifle wound was a small amount of bleeding. It cauterized the wound, but not perfectly. Next, upon closer examination, you would find charred skin around the wound from the immense heat. Inside the wound, dependent on if it was a stomach wound or not, you would find charred bone. The heat was so intense that it vaporized anything it directly hit. There would then be massive organ damage from the heat. The way a laser rifle killed was not too dissimilar from a normal kinetic weapon. The pulse hits the body and burns through to the interior. The remaining energy then superheats the surrounding tissue causing any moisture to flash boil, which causes massive internal injuries. Rarely does a laser rifle over penetrate, but it can happen on the extremities.
Jacob came out of his reverie and leaned back over the body. He looked for charred bone again. "This wound is wrong," he said.
"What's wrong about it? It's a laser rifle wound," Mason stated.
"It is, and at a distance it would pass off as a standard wound," Jacob said. "This wound doesn't have any bone though."
"That just means it passed through between the ribs cleanly," Mason said off-handedly.
"Except you and me both know the wound pattern from a rifle is such that it is larger than the space between the ribs." Jacob turned to Hector. "Do you have any care for this guy?"
"No. Why?"
"Just asking. If you did, I'd ask you to turn around," Jacob said as he pulled out a small box. He hit a button and a long knife blade constructed out of it.
"What are you," Hector trailed off as Jacob made an incision from the wound down a number of centimeters.
Jacob then made an incision perpendicular to the first one where he stopped. Using the knife, he then peeled back the flesh. "No ribs."
Mason peered at what Jacob was doing. "That's because you didn't go deep enough."
"Of course I went deep enough," Jacob replied. "Look how thick the flesh is. That's more than enough to cut through to the ribs."
"Huh," said Mason. "Did the knife encounter any resistance?"
"Felt like it was running against something," Jacob said. "Didn't feel like I would expect ribs to feel like though. It was smooth."
"That doesn't make any sense," said Mason. He looked at Hector. "Any thoughts? You're the hunter."
Hector looked like he was going to be sick. "A hunter of animals, not people." He started to walk off. "I'll just be over here."
Mason shrugged and looked back at Jacob. "Maybe it's nothing. He could have some kind of birth defect."
"Maybe," Jacob said. "Something just doesn't seem right though."
Jacob wiped his hands in the snow and pulled off his pack. He retrieved the bioscanner from it.
"Those are only supposed to work on the living, you know," said Mason.
"I know, but they can also analyze things if you tweak with them enough," Jacob replied.
"I don't want to know how you know that," Mason said.
Jacob harrumphed as he messed with the controls. He ran the scanner over the entire body. It didn't make any sounds.
"I'm telling you it isn't a scanner like that. It only detects living things." Mason crossed his arms, his rifle still in his right hand.
"And I know that if you increase the sensitivity and change the parameters slightly, you can use it to scan for fading electrical impulses inherent to living beings," Jacob said. "This thing isn't getting any readings."
"That's because it doesn't work, kid."
"It works. I've done it before." Jacob tweaked with it some more and passed it over the body again.
"I don't want to know why you had to do that, but ok. You're the guy with the special training." Mason walked away.
Jacob shook his head and altered the parameters again. This time, when he passed it over the body, it gave a beep. "That's odd."
"That's what you wanted to happen," Mason said from a few meters away where he was leaning against a tree looking into the darkness.
"What happened?" asked Hector.
Mason looked at him. "Bioscanner," he said simply. "Device that can detect life signs at a distance. Boy scout over there tweaked it so it could tell what was once alive."
"What's a boy scout?" Hector had a puzzled look on his face.
Mason shook his head.
Jacob sat back on his heels. "I didn't have it set to detect life signs."
"What?" asked Mason.
"I set it to detect electrical impulses in general," said Jacob. "This thing was never alive."
Mason chuckled then grabbed his ribs. "What did I tell you about making me laugh? Also, this is no time for jokes."
"No joke," said Jacob. "It was never alive."
Hector furrowed his eyebrows. "Of course Jeffery was alive. Don't be foolish."
"No, he wasn't," Jacob said again. "Look, I know that I am doing this right. The readings are pretty conclusive." He started pulling furs away from the rest of the body. "Doesn't it bother you that the scanner didn't detect them before they set in on us?"
"Well, uh," Mason trailed off. "You know, that's a very good point. Maybe we just forgot to switch them back to normal range."
"Did that," replied Jacob. "It never went off."
"You just never felt the vibration then." Mason was working on standing up.
"Neither did you?" asked Jacob as he pointed at Mason's waist.
"I," Mason trailed off as he looked at the bioscanner hanging at his waist. He flipped it up and checked the settings. "Ok, that is strange."
Hector cocked his head to one side. "What's strange?"
Jacob looked at him. "We both had our scanners set back to normal mode. The only thing was we made sure they were set to silent, vibrate only. They never went off."
"What does that mean?" asked Hector. "I've never heard of one of these, uh, bio thingies."
Mason pulled his off his belt and tossed it to Hector. "Look at the screen. See those three dots?
Those are us. The device can detect life signs up to a range of about a hundred meters more or less. Very useful little thing."
Hector stared at the device in his hand. "How does it do that?"
Jacob chuckled. "We're soldiers, not scientists. Couldn't begin to tell you."
Hector cocked his head again. "What's a soldier?"
"We'll explain some other time," said Mason as he walked over and retrieved the scanner from Hector. He looked at Jacob. "So why are you taking off the dead man's clothes?"
"Checking a hunch. And it isn't a man," said Jacob as he finished removing the furs. "Well, it may look like a man."
"What do you mean?" asked Hector. "Of course it looks like a man, it is one."
Jacob pulled open the jumpsuit and looked over Jeffery's chest and abdomen. There was a strange marking just above the diaphragm. He touched it.
There was a barely audible click, and what looked like a panel lowered and then slid back up into the chest, opening only slightly because of the wound above it. Inside was a glowing green light.
"Uh, Mason?" asked Jacob.
"What is it now, kid?"
"Come look at this," Jacob said as he stood up.
Mason walked over and whistled when he got next to Jacob. "Ok, so that's not normal."
"What's not normal?" asked Hector.
Mason motioned for him to come over. When Hector got next to them and looked down, he did a double take.
"What," he trailed off.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Hector," said Jacob. He looked at Mason. "Advanced mod?"
Mason shrugged. "Maybe, but I have never heard of a mod requiring a full power cell to operate, and last I checked, there were no torso mods either. That's basically a new body to do something like that, and the central nervous system is a might bit more complex than what had to be done for my arm and leg."
Hector looked at Mason. "What do you mean?"
Mason shook his head. "Explain later," he said.
Jacob knelt down and forced the panel open more. There were some flashing lights.
"Guess those are status lights," he said. Looking closer, he could barely make out inscriptions below them. A brain. One for each arm and leg. Torso. The one for the brain and torso were a solid red. The others were flashing amber.