The Cyber Chronicles 02: Death Zone

by T C Southwell

  He turned back to it. "Is it dangerous here? Outside, they call this the Death Zone."

  "Life here is always dangerous, especially further in. Things change with little warning, and there are odd beasts too. I choose to live here on the fringe, where Flux-reality is not a threat, but still there are Real-reality creatures that are almost as bad, though not as common."

  Sabre pondered this. "We have to cross over to the other side."

  The mosscat's eyes narrowed in its black bandit's mask. "You'll have to cross real Flux-reality, and that's really dangerous."

  "Will you help us?"

  "Well now, that's a big favour." Its ears twitched back, and it sat pondering this for several minutes. "I'll go with you for a while, and if you prove capable of dealing with the dangers I might continue with you, otherwise I'll leave. Of course, if you can't deal with the dangers you'll be dead anyway." It smirked.

  Tassin scowled and yanked the dagger from her belt. "It is evil, I say kill it!"

  Sabre turned to her in surprise, and the mosscat stepped back. She had been silent for so long that he had almost forgotten her views on the Death Zone.

  He shook his head. "We need its help to get through the Zone; it knows the way."

  "It will lead us into a trap!"

  The mosscat made a spitting sound, like a miniature sneeze. "That's a hell of a conclusion to jump to, lady."

  Sabre turned back to it and received a shock. It had changed; its nose seemed longer and its fangs more prominent, its chubby hands were more slender and now sported claws. A foxy aspect replaced its air of podgy amiability, and its yellow eyes glowered in its black mask.

  He studied it. "She's just scared, mosscat. No need to get angry."

  The mosscat looked mollified and relaxed, becoming chubby again. "She should be, in the Flux. But I won't lead you into any traps. And I'm not an it, I'm a he, and mosscat isn't my name, it's -" He made a purring sound.

  Sabre tried to pronounce it, but the nearest he could get to it was 'Purr'. The mosscat looked disgusted, but shrugged philosophically. He was quite able to pronounce their names. Sabre turned to find Tassin glowering at him.

  "I am not scared. I do not trust it," she said.

  "Him."

  "Whatever."

  Flickers of green and brown shot through the landscape, and Sabre looked around. Purr stiffened, becoming alert. "Be ready for Change," he announced.

  With a ripple, the terrain warped and transformed. A peculiar half-light replaced the jungle. Moist black earth now surrounded them, and bloated white fungi probed through it, raising ragged, rotten looking parasols of soft flesh to the dingy light. Tassin made a sound of disgust and moved away from a dirty grey mushroom that had appeared beside her, and Sabre stood up to study the new landscape. The pool was still at his feet, and the rock in the tree trunk that Purr had pointed out as Real-reality now sprouted from the side of a grotesque orange growth with frilly gill-like protrusions all over it. Sabre looked down at Purr as he gave a wistful sigh.

  "I preferred the last one," the mosscat mourned.

  Sabre scanned the terrain. A huge, armour-plated worm moved ponderously through the fungal growths in the distance, too far away and slow to be a threat. He hunkered down again to fill the water skins from the pool. There was no sound, as before, and no smell, for which he was grateful; the fungi looked distinctly rank.

  "Is there somewhere we could rest, Purr?" he asked as he plugged the last water skin.

  The mosscat nodded. "Sure." He turned and headed away, wending his way between the huge growths.

  Sabre glanced at Tassin, who glared at the mosscat. "Come on." He beckoned to her, and she approached, holding her ragged skirts out of the slime.

  "This place is disgusting," she muttered.

  "Be glad that's all it is."

  Shooting him a dark look, she preceded him after the mosscat, who waited ahead. Her stumbling steps revealed her fatigue; only pride and stubbornness fuelled her now.

  The mosscat led them to a large, flat-topped grey rock, which he assured them was Real-reality. Sabre kicked it to test this, and found it solid. The fungi, by contrast, yielded to his finger when he poked them, allowing it to sink in as if into soft clay. When he pulled it out, his finger was clean and the fungi undamaged. Tassin wrinkled her nose at his experimentation and climbed onto the rock. Sabre unpacked the bedrolls and spread them out to soften the hard surface, and Purr groomed his grey fur with pudgy hands.

  Tassin eyed him. "You changed back there, I saw you. What else can you change into?"

  Purr sneezed, and his fangs grew longer. He glared at the Queen. "I don't change, I adapt. It depends on my mood, but I have various aspects, none of them monstrous, I assure you. I can't become bigger or sprout wings and fly. I merely shift to suit my mood, or the climate."

  "So if you get angry you sprout teeth and claws?"

  "Something like that."

  "I do not trust you."

  Purr sneezed again, becoming chubby, and gave a purring chuckle. "Fine, I'll leave, and you can manage alone."

  "No!" Sabre glared at Tassin. "Leave him alone, he's agreed to help us."

  "I do not need his help!"

  "Do you think you can find your way through the Death Zone alone? Half the time you can't see the sun." He gestured at the mist above them. "And even when you can, you don't know whether it's the Real-reality sun, or Flux-reality."

  Purr nodded. "That's true."

  Tassin turned to him. "So how will you find your way?"

  He shrugged. "I just know which way is which. I was born here."

  Tassin scowled, bit her lip and shot Sabre a hard glance. Purr settled down, snuggling into his bushy, black and white-banded tail. She turned her back on him and lay down, clutching the hilt of her dagger. Sabre sighed and stretched out between them, exhausted. With the discovery of water and the possible danger of their new surroundings, the cyber had raised his metabolic rate back up to normal, which drained him. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that the cyber would alert him to any danger.

  Chapter Two

  A soft scraping woke Sabre, and his eyes flicked open as he gripped his knife. He sat up and looked around. Tassin still slept, curled up like a baby, and Purr was flattened at the edge of the rock, watching something. Sabre crawled up behind him and lay down on his belly next to the mosscat. Purr started violently at his silent arrival, lifting several inches into the air as if yanked up by invisible strings. The hair along his spine stood up in stiff spikes, and his legs looked a lot longer than Sabre remembered them. Sabre smiled at Purr's comical reaction to his stealthy approach and peered over the edge of the rock. Below, a strange creature crawled past, its claws rasping on a nearby boulder. A shiny black carapace clad an almost spherical body, which crept along on six long, spiny legs. A ring of jet eyes circled the body, and a pair of slender, serrated pincers was tucked under its forepart.

  "Real-reality monster," Purr whispered.

  Sabre nodded, studying the beast as it crawled away, its spiny legs digging into the soft dark soil. It barged between two fungi, pushing through the Flux-reality. Purr relaxed as it disappeared amongst the fungi and returned to his roly-poly aspect with a soft sneeze. Sabre looked over at the sleeping Queen, glad she had not woken to see the horror. As he gazed at her, flashes of green and brown flickered through the rock.

  "Change," Purr muttered.

  The landscape warped, smearing like water colours running in the rain, and transformed into scintillating pillars of gemstone and crystal sprouting from a sheet of what looked like alabaster. Bright sunlight sparkled on facetted diamonds and coloured crystals, and emerald sand drifted against ruby rocks.

  A blood-curdling scream jerked Sabre's attention from the priceless scenery. It came from the direction in which the Real-reality monster had vanished, and he looked at Purr, who resembled a fluff ball. He smoothed his fur self-consciously and groomed his tummy.

 
"The big monster caught a smaller one. That's what happens when you hide behind Flux-reality and a Change comes along."

  Sabre shuddered, glancing at Tassin, who tossed and sighed. "What happens further in, when it's all solid?"

  "That's what makes it dangerous. In a landscape like this, an ordinary rock stands out, but in a more normal Flux-reality you can't tell the difference. Also, it's very dangerous to be in Flux-reality when it Changes, you can get caught inside something nasty, like a rock or tree. Here, you can still pull free, but there, you're stuck until it Changes again."

  "How can you avoid that?"

  Purr shrugged. "Always camp on Real-reality when you can find it. If you're moving, you've got a few seconds to find some. Flux-reality tends to avoid Real-reality up to a point."

  "How long between Changes?"

  "It varies. Sometimes a few hours; sometimes only one or two. The last one was a long one, six hours you slept, and no Change."

  Sabre gazed around. "What causes all this?"

  "Magic, of course. These worlds that pass through here are all real somewhere. The Flux-core rotates, and the worlds spin past. The closer you go to the Core, the faster the Changes come. No one goes too close to the Core, where the Changes are mere minutes apart. That's very dangerous."

  "Huh. I was supposed to destroy it."

  Purr snorted. "That's impossible. You'd never get close enough."

  "Monsters are leaving the Zone and attacking villages outside. The people want it destroyed."

  Purr stopped grooming his tummy and gazed at Sabre. "Not everything that lives in the Flux is a monster."

  "Wouldn't you be happier outside?"

  "Would people accept me?"

  Sabre sighed. "Probably not."

  "Exactly."

  "How long will it take to cross the Death Zone?"

  "That depends on the terrain."

  Sabre dug in a pack and pulled out some dried horse meat. Purr wrinkled his nose. "I can get some fish for you."

  "Where the hell will you get fish?" Sabre gestured at the crystal countryside.

  Purr gave a purring chuckle. "In a Real-reality stream, of course."

  Sabre would have gone with him, but could not leave the Queen unguarded, so he settled down to wait as Purr vanished into the precious terrain. When the mosscat returned an hour later, he carried three fish, one in each hand and one in his mouth. His fur was as short and sleek as an otter's, adapted for swimming. Since there was no way to cook them, Sabre cleaned the fish and woke Tassin.

  The Queen grumbled, rubbing swollen eyelids, then exclaimed in delighted wonder at the new scenery, smiling for the first time in days. When he offered her a raw fish, she took it with a grimace. A few days ago, he reflected, she would probably have thrown it in his face, but hunger had stripped away her inhibitions. While he ate, Sabre worried about the fact that the scanners remained blank. The cyber had not warned him of the monster; it seemed the scanners did not work in the Death Zone, and he wondered why. His bio-status information remained, and the flashing amber light had dimmed, indicating that his dehydration was lessening.

  As soon as they had eaten, they set off into the crystal forest. Tassin gazed at the jewels with awe and stuffed some into her pockets while she walked. Sabre marvelled at her childlike ability to become distracted by new toys, and guessed that the gems would vanish with the next Change.

  Gearn stared across the burning sand, mopping his forehead with a linen handkerchief. The wolf trotted ahead, nose to the ground, following the clear tracks of two horses. Gearn sat astride a fat bay gelding, prodding the lethargic horse often to keep it going. Behind him, Murdor plodded, too large now for even the biggest horse to carry. He stood over two metres tall, and his body had grown in proportion, magically enlarged and strengthened. The broadsword that hung in a scabbard from his belt looked like a toy. As he walked, he picked up rocks and crushed them, chuckling. Gearn glanced back at him, irritated by the constant chortling. Murdor met his eyes and grinned.

  "I can't wait to meet this puling man and crush his flesh instead of stone. It'll feel good to make blood flow."

  Gearn forced a weak smile, shuddering. They had no need to carry supplies, for whenever they needed food or water, Gearn conjured it, using the collection of potions and magical items in his pack. By following the warrior mage's trail, he was confident he would avoid the curse, although sometimes his skin crawled, his magical aura alert to danger.

  After four hours of walking through sparkling gem trees, the tell-tale flickers of brown and green shot through the land.

  Purr yelled, "Change!" and raced for a dull brown boulder ahead. Sabre grabbed Tassin, who yelped in surprise, and dashed after the mosscat. Leaping onto the rock, he hauled her after him, almost jostling Purr off. The boulder was barely large enough for the three of them, and Sabre was forced to hold Tassin close to him. Her eyes widened as the landscape warped and changed.

  The swirling whiteness of a snowstorm engulfed them, fat flakes drifting from a bitter grey sky. Sabre helped Tassin off the rock, sinking knee deep into soft snow. There was still no sound or smell, but the cold was real enough. A shaggy creature approached, and for a moment he did not recognise Purr.

  The mosscat padded over the snow on broad feet, perfectly adapted to his new environment. Tassin rubbed her bare arms and shivered, her teeth chattering. Warmth suffused Sabre as the cyber increased his metabolism, snow melting on his shoulders. He dug in the pack and pulled out the ragged petticoats they had used for shade cloth in the desert. These he wrapped around the Queen's shoulders, and she clutched them to her.

  "Come on, keep walking, it will warm you," he advised.

  Purr shook his head. "No. Too dangerous. We can't see the monsters coming."

  Sabre glanced around and cursed. Visibility was reduced to less than a metre, and he had to agree with the mosscat. They seemed to be in the middle of a blizzard, and without the scanners he was as blind as everyone else. Sabre sat down on the boulder and pulled Tassin onto his lap, enfolded her in his arms and held her close. She snuggled up to him, warming her hands on his chest, her cheek nestled against his neck. He marvelled at how her fiery independence evaporated as soon as he was the only form of foot warmer available, then brushed the cynical thought aside. She was little more than a child, and needed his protection no matter how much she denied it. Purr curled up in the snow, and they settled down to wait.

  Tassin clearly enjoyed the intimacy she had not shared with him since the mountain cave. He was ill at ease, however, and shifted, fidgeted and glanced around, trying to ignore her presence. Once he looked down at her suspiciously, but he could not accuse her of anything other than being cold. He found her proximity discomfiting, confused by the strange feelings it evoked.

  Cybers were not supposed to have emotions, but with his freedom had come odd reactions to things that previously had not bothered him. He wondered if what he was experiencing was normal, or if his reaction to this, like so many of his other responses, had been changed by his training and the years of subjugation by a computer's cold control.

  Even a damaged cyber could not afford to have emotional attachments, but was he still a cyber? He was still part man, part machine, but now that the human side was in charge, what did that make him? The mosscat gave a purring chuckle, his eyes gleaming, and Sabre schooled his features in an effort to hide the confusion Purr had obviously noticed, making the mosscat chuckle again. Sabre spent the next three hours acutely aware of the girl pressed against him, willing the next Change to come soon.

  When at last the brown and green flickers came, he lifted Tassin onto the rock, ignoring her sleepy protests. Purr was already on it, but before Sabre could join them, the world warped and Changed. A shaggy tree trunk appeared centimetres from his nose, and he jerked back in surprise. As soon as he tried to move away, however, he became aware that his feet were stuck. His ankles vanished into the shaggy tree, swallowed to the calves. Quelling a spurt of panic, he reminded hi
mself that the Flux-reality was not solid yet, and he could still get free. He leant back and pulled steadily on one leg. Purr noticed his predicament and offered encouraging, if unnecessary advice.

  "That's it, just pull, it'll come out."

  Tassin hopped down and gasped when she saw the reason for his immobility. "Are you all right?"

  "I'll be fine," he said, "as soon as I get my feet out of this damned tree."

  The wood clung to him like semi-set cement, and sweat popped out on his brow as he struggled. He glanced around at a warm forest of massive trees, some ten metres in diameter, towering over a floor of soft brown leaves. Purr had resumed a tropical garb of short fur, and Tassin shed the petticoats, stuffing them back into the pack. Sabre could not meet her eyes, embarrassed by their prior closeness, and scowled at the tree trunk as he pulled his feet from the Flux-reality wood. When at last he got free, he was hot and sweaty and rather cross.

  The new Flux-reality seemed to be a pleasant one. Inviting pathways wound between banks of thick ferns and moss-covered tree trunks. Sunlight filtered down to pattern the lush forest floor with golden dapples. Tassin exclaimed in delight when they came to a sparkling blue lake, but Purr tested the water and declared it unreal. They skirted it and walked on, following the twisting paths that this world's creatures had made. The eerie stillness pressed in on them, only the soft sounds of their footfalls breaking it. Birds flitted amongst the trees, pausing to puff themselves up in silent song, unafraid of the strange intruders who trod the deep paths. When a shaggy brown creature shambled out of the trees and whiffled a long snout at them, Sabre stopped in alarm.

  Purr chuckled. "Flux-reality. No sound."

  Sabre detoured around the beast, and it watched them go, then shuffled away. After an hour of walking, Sabre became aware of a thudding sound, and looked at Purr. The mosscat's ears, which appeared to have doubled in size, swivelled. Heavy footfalls approached, and Purr nodded.