Smoke Eaters

by Sean Grigsby

  I began blasting ghosts like nobody’s business. Williams took out any droids that ran or shot at us, while I focused on the undead. Everywhere I turned there was another wraith to zap.

  I checked the wraith-catcher remote. Only half full.

  Ahead, the black smoke parted violently, and a wraith flew toward me, glowing like a radioactive firefly. It slashed my cheek. Icy fire swelled in my face.

  “Son of a bitch!” I shouted. “I hate…” Zap! The wraith was gone “… you…” I trapped another one sneaking behind Williams “… dead motherfuckers!” I shot another two at each side of us.

  At the corner of my vision, farther into the smoke, more white light throbbed, teasing me. The job wasn’t done.

  “Come on,” I told Williams.

  We ran toward the glow, and when we got there we saw Donahue sprawled with his face toward the smoke-stained sky.

  Four droids each had a hold of his armored wrist or ankle. Chief was screaming and cursing the robots for the bastards they were. He didn’t see the wraith floating toward him from behind. The droids didn’t pay the ghost any attention either. They were too busy pulling Donahue in four different directions. The droid at his metal leg fell backwards when it popped from the socket.

  “No!” I ran, ready to slash them all to hell. But the wraith was an even greater threat, so I lifted the remote.

  “Chief,” a voice screamed to my right. Naveena.

  She ran toward Donahue as well. One of us was bound to reach him before–

  A fat scaly with a face like rocky lava bounded through the smoke behind Naveena. She didn’t hear it coming over the surrounding screams and roars. She didn’t see it.

  I power jumped and tackled her. The scaly soared over us, biting at the empty air. Williams lit it up with laser shots, but they didn’t have any effect. Naveena was already back on her feet and burying her laser sword into the scaly’s head.

  But we were too late for Donahue.

  The wraith got to him first. There was no preamble, or any hesitation its former human self would have taken. It just latched onto Donahue’s head with both white claws and ripped his face off. Chief was still screaming when the rest of the droids quartered him. His gory torso fell to the ground, and the robots toppled over, each with a different piece of him still in their grasp.

  I screamed. I cried. I’d never had so much hate bubble up in my guts toward these inhuman things, metal and scales and ethereal glow alike. But even in my rage, even in the blackest part of the smoke, I knew they were only tools used by one man. One asshole I’d be seeing very, very soon.

  But first.

  Naveena took the two droids on the right. She chopped them into a million rusty pieces. I zapped the wraith and began my own slice-and-dice routine against the droids. Williams had to grab my shoulder to stop me slashing at metal men that weren’t there any more. They were just piles of gears now.

  The smoke began to clear as other smokies finished off the last of the dragons. I didn’t see any more wraiths or droids.

  Donahue’s eyes stared into the distance. He’d bled out, even from where they’d removed his metal leg. His mouth was open, like he had one last thing to say, one last criticism to give me, one final piece of wisdom for Naveena. But he was robbed of it.

  A thud hit the ground behind me. Naveena had fallen to her knees. She said nothing.

  “Is it over?” Williams asked.

  “No,” I said. “We need to triage.”

  “Need to what?”

  Naveena spoke. “Separate the ones who can be helped from those who are too gone for it to matter.”

  I nodded. “Tell the other smokies to start gathering the protesters. If they can’t breathe on their own, consider them gone. Anyone who can walk, can help.”

  Williams gave a thumbs up and ran over to the closest smoke eater. I knelt beside Naveena.

  “Donahue rescued me,” Naveena said. “Back on E-Day. That’s how I found out I was a smoke eater. He found me hiding in the middle of a burning playground. I’d gone to pick my little brother up from school. Did I ever tell you that?”

  Donahue had. “You were under the jungle gym.”

  She nodded as tears streamed down her face.

  “I have to go check on my wife.”

  “I’ll go with you.” She wiped away the tears with the back of her armored wrist.

  We hadn’t taken two steps when we heard a roar come from the front of the building. Above the steps, the overburdened metal net snapped like spider web as the hulking monster inside stood and stretched its wings. We’d been wrong. The Behemoth was still alive and now it was awake.

  Screams surrounded us. Protesters ran in all directions.

  The Behemoth’s headless neck no longer spurted fire, but the other two heads looked even more pissed than I remembered. The few protesters who’d run for the building and abandoned their friends froze on the steps when the Behemoth awoke. With clumsy turns they ran back toward us. Two of them didn’t make it. Each remaining Behemoth head snatched a protester in its teeth and gobbled them down like blood-filled gummy bears.

  “Cancel the triage,” I radioed to everyone. “Our main priority is that dragon.”

  “Line up on me and Brannigan,” Naveena said.

  The Behemoth took two giant steps that shook the ground and sent shivers up my spine. I really thought I’d gotten a grip on my breathing, but I was huffing like I’d climbed a skyscraper. The other smoke eaters ran or power jumped over to us.

  “I thought that thing was dead,” Williams said.

  “How the hell are we going to kill it?” asked another smoke eater.

  The Behemoth finished choking down its meals and eyed the line of us standing in its way. I’m sure we looked like army men stacked in front of it. The two horns on one head flickered with an electric glow, causing the other to curl its head and snarl, like they were having a conversation.

  “Killing it would be easy,” I said into my radio, and the words tasted like bile. “But we need to keep this thing alive.”

  “What?” Williams’s yell sent feedback through all of our helmets.

  Naveena turned to me with a glare, but then comprehension filled her eyes. “Brannigan’s right,” she said. “We need its blood to help everyone here who’s hurt.”

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” Afu ran up with a severed dragon head in his hand.

  “We have to get to Jet 1,” I said.

  The Behemoth jerked both heads in my direction, as if it had understood what I said, and breathed a wall of fire, daring us to cross. Then, with two flaps of its enormous wings, it sent the flames toward us and sprang into the air.

  “Shit!” I ran along the wall of fire, looking for an opening. “Everyone with lasers, focus on its wings.”

  A million lasers filled the sky, most of them hitting the Behemoth’s wings and tearing jagged holes through the leathery skin. With a roar, the dragon pelted us with another of its EMP blasts. I twirled into the air and landed on my side. The others had fallen over into similar positions, and all of our power suits were dead.

  “This shit has to quit happening,” Naveena groaned.

  The Behemoth continued to flap its damaged wings, only managing to hover, caught between the ground and the endless sky.

  “Our equipment is shot,” Afu said.

  Williams said, “So is the scaly.”

  “Yeah, but it still has fire and teeth.” I scanned the ground for a useable weapon. Dead bodies and pieces of droids littered the ashy dirt. Maybe one of the police droids’ laser arms still worked?

  My ass.

  The Behemoth blasted more fire and glided forward. We had no weapons, no power to jump away. A few of the smokies began digging into the ground, as if that would save them. As if they forgot the scalies came from underneath.

  I stood there, ready for what came next. Hopefully it would be quick. As a firefighter, I always accepted burning to death as a possibility, I did my job anyway
. Having a dragon chew me to pieces had never been on my radar, though. I wanted to avoid that at all costs.

  Naveena grabbed my hand, and when I looked over, she was staring straight at the oncoming Behemoth. No fear, no remorse. This was just another day, brought to a fiery close.

  I raised my arms in the air and laughed like a witch who’d smoked too much cannabis. Everyone beside me stared like I’d lost my mind. I pointed up, just beyond the Behemoth. That’s when the other smokies cheered and jumped. The dragon roared, still breathing fire, unaware of what flew behind it.

  Plasma engines cut through the sky. Coming in hot, just behind the Behemoth, flew Jet 1. Its laser cannon glowing hot with contained energy. Jet 1 fired, striking the Behemoth square in the back. The flames died in its mouth and it collapsed midair, coming down with a heavy thud in front of us.

  Afu ran up to the scaly and kicked its side. “Yeah, that’s right, asshole!”

  “You didn’t think I’d miss the fun, did you?” It was Renfro coming over the radio. I could imagine him giving us a thumbs up from the cockpit of the jet.

  “I didn’t know you could fly,” I said.

  “I can drive anything.”

  Puck broke in. “He had my help, damn it.”

  The smokies on the ground cheered, but just like bad house fires I’d beaten before, there was still overhaul to perform, and that was always the toughest part.

  “We still need to gather the wounded,” I told everyone.

  “Brannigan’s right,” said Naveena. “Listen to him. Follow his lead.”

  I was taken aback that she would actually let me run the show, not that I craved the position. I just knew no one else had been trained in mass casualty incidents.

  “All right.” I motioned for everyone to circle around me. “This is what we need.”

  Chapter 35

  We cleared out the Slayer bay to make room for beds and cots and anything else we thought could hold a patient. The propellerheads were in rare form, travelling back and forth from the disaster scene and carrying patients to where they needed to go.

  IVs of Ieiunium curate were wheeled in from the lab and injected into the most needful first. As the propellerheads drew more blood from the unconscious Behemoth, more curate was made available, and even citizens with a mild case of the vapors got an IV.

  There were going to be a shitload more smoke eaters – if Yolanda’s theory was correct.

  We’d gotten smarter with experience and had Yolanda remove the Behemoth’s ignis glands and hamstrings. I wouldn’t call it cruel. We could have just killed it. Still, we’d make sure the Canadians didn’t find out. The propellerheads could now reverse engineer the nonlethal cannon and reproduce it in smaller form, fitting every power suit. We could draw dragon blood and cure existing diseases while basically immunizing the public from dragon smoke.

  The future looked so bright, I’d have to wear therma goggles.

  Sherry was the first person I had to see. I didn’t even care if anyone saw me crying as I ran to where one of the propellerheads had told me to look. My wife lay on a bed in one of the labs with an x-ray cervical collar around her neck and an IV of blue shit plugged into her. She smiled when she saw me.

  Ejecting from my power suit, I wheeled a chair over to her side. I kissed her, gently, to avoid hurting her neck. “I never thought of you as the damsel in distress.”

  “I’d like to see you take a robot hand to the throat and live to talk about it,” she said, wincing from the pain.

  “Fair enough.” I looked toward the IV, watching the drip, drip of curate.

  “Kenji,” she said, suddenly worried.

  “He’s in a lab right now. I’ll get him back to his old self. We have the technology.”

  I was terrible at mechanical stuff, but I’d find a way. Maybe get a propellerhead to help.

  “They told me this blue stuff will completely cure me,” Sherry said. “Sounds too good to be true.”

  “It’s not. This shit will make you even better than before.”

  “I’m still not cleaning the toilets.”

  We both laughed.

  I gripped her hand, never wanting to let go. But there was something important I had to do.

  When I got back to the Slayer bay, the smokies had gathered just on the other side of the door. They all looked up at me when I entered.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  A few propellerheads broke through the line, pushing a hovercot into the building. The body they carried had been covered with a sheet, but the area around the face was damp with blood.

  Donahue.

  We all watched him enter headquarters in silence. Only the distant groans of a few citizens echoed inside the bay.

  “We need to elect a new chief,” Naveena said.

  “Can’t that wait?” I said. “We need to nail Rogola while he still thinks we’re licking our wounds.”

  “It’s like when there was still a US president.” Puck stepped closer. “Your old ass should remember that. If something happened to the commander in chief, the vice president was sworn in.”

  I lifted my hands. “So, swear ’em in and let’s go already.”

  “Donahue had a will,” Naveena said. “And maybe it’s not all that legally binding. But we have a code to uphold, and we all want to follow his wishes.”

  I crossed my arms, feeling the cool sweat trapped in my cotton uniform shirt, and waited for her to continue.

  “He wanted us to vote on it.”

  I looked at each face gathered around me like a sweaty lynch mob. No one spoke, they looked tired and miserable. I was tired and miserable.

  “OK,” I said. “I vote Captain Jendal. She’s got the experience and doesn’t take shit from anyone.”

  No one responded.

  “Come on guys!” I pushed through them, wondering if I should take the cannon truck or something more inconspicuous to city hall.

  “I appreciate that, Brannigan,” Naveena called, “but we already have a majority. We want you as chief.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. My mouth wrenched into something that was part frown, part surprised gape as I turned back to all of them. I stared at each face. Some, like Afu and Williams, nodded as if to say, “Believe it, asshole. You got the job.”

  I cleared my throat and leaned in so I’d only have to say it once. “No thanks, guys. See you later.”

  I ran for a car outside, because staying there any longer would cause them to try to weasel me into Donahue’s position, just like I had been weaseled in to the Smoke Eater Division in the first place.

  I picked Donahue’s truck, ironically. I was backing out when Naveena threw open the side door and hopped in beside me.

  I groaned. “Aren’t these vehicles supposed to lock when you put them in reverse?”

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  Time being of the essence, I didn’t argue. I just drove.

  “So, how are we going to find Rogola?” Naveena asked.

  “We don’t have to find him,” I said. “At least, not his physical body.”

  Chapter 36

  Rogola’s receptionist was about to press a button to alert the mayor, but Naveena beat her to it.

  With a finger to her lips, Naveena wheeled the receptionist into another room. I would do this by myself.

  Jenkins jumped at my entrance and ran for the door, throwing his holoreader at me, as if it was a useful distraction. I shoved him with a stiff push of my arm, and like a rubber ball Jenkins bounced off the nearest wall and lay still on the floor. Hell, I hadn’t pushed him that hard. Jenkins was either playing possum, or had fainted from being touched.

  Rogola had watched this silently, his hologram fingers steepled against his lips. “You can’t find much loyal help these days. Or at least any with enough balls not to run.” He stood and looked down at Jenkins. “If you can hear this, Jenkins, you’re fired.”

  “Interesting choice of words,” I said. “Hosed. Sacked. Let go. Th
ey all mean the same thing, but I’ll just put it bluntly and tell you: you’re finished.”

  “Now, before you go into your righteous spiel about getting even or justice or some other nonsense, maybe you can hear me out for a second.” Rogola moved to stand behind the hologram chair and leaned against it. The image flickered, shimmering blue. “We haven’t been very cordial to each other, you and I, it’s true. But given how things have progressed, how you’ve shown that you’re good at getting things done… I could use someone like you. I think you could be fire chief.”

  “Of what? A bunch of droids?”

  “There will be positions for those who show they’re team players. Plus, droids don’t have to be paid. The droid factory only gets paid for each unit. That means more money for you.”

  “And even more for you.” I tightened my lips and breathed hard through my nostrils. “That’s what it all comes back to, right? More money?”

  “Of course not. It’s about helping this city.” Holographic sweat beaded down the side of his face. He softened his eyes, putting on a look of sincerity, as if he actually believed he was the good guy in all of this.

  “You think summoning dragons to poor people’s houses is helping?”

  Rogola harrumphed. “Those hovels were barely standing. When we move in and rebuild, things are stronger, cleaner, better.”

  “And having wraiths and dragons attack civilians? Droids killing Chief Donahue or strangling my wife?”

  “Well, you were all supposed to die, weren’t you?” Rogola snapped out the words, clicking his teeth. “But that didn’t happen. Like I said, we haven’t been on the best of terms. But I’m a flexible man, Captain Brannigan. I can see the universe is telling me I’ve approached all of this from the wrong angle. I’m offering you the olive branch.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, not much grows around here anymore, outside of a building,” I said. “Least of all olive branches. And even if they did, I wouldn’t side with you, no matter what you promise me. I don’t do what I do for money or power. And I won’t tolerate assholes who do.”

  The mayor threw his chair, and it disappeared out of the hologram camera’s view. “You bastards can’t even find me. The only person who knows where I am was lying on the floor behind you.”