by Jack Lance
Arc piloted the bike like a professional, weaving at high speed though the glowing night traffic. Holographic signs that pointed to other roads and exits hissed by overhead and to the side of the highway. Arc took the bike to the highest possible speeds through the east of the city, and as the highway ended he took it back down onto the regular road system that led the rest of the way through the factories.
“Look.” Dane pointed as they saw the bike enter a district and slow down beside a river. “I know where they’re going.”
They watched as Arc rode the bike down and through the river and then began scrambling up each of the short flights of rickety steps.
“That’s Red Sector.” Barron said.
“But of course. They say the simplest plans are the best, I guess.” Nash grinned, then turned and pointed at the door with both hands. “Let’s go!”
They walked out of the dark room and turned down a bright red corridor.
In the soot cavern, Arc scrambled the bike around the valleys between the dirt piles, eventually reaching the end and riding up a pile and jumping out and down onto the concrete flat. He sped up and through the hacked doorway and then through to the dark basement within. He skidded left, kicking up a couple of the wooden boards, then sped up the stairs to the ground floor before he could fall through the gaps. He bunny hopped up into the murky scarlet gardens then stopped, panting as he leaned over the bike.
Through his teary eyes he caught sight of the tree he had seen in the first moments he had spent in the prison, leaning fiercely to the side as if some hurricane force had tried to uproot it.
He started the bike and rolled beneath it as carefully as he could, occasionally skidding and spraying black water from the charred grass toward the groups of men and women here.
He snarled the engines of the bike as he took it through to the base of the falls, and then looked up at the steps leading behind the fountain he remembered so vividly.
Arc sighed slightly, while in the corner of his eye he saw a flicker of positronic lights.
He looked across the hazy gardens and saw the robot, Zep Teppi ducking under the fallen tree canopy and then running across in his direction. Arc sighed as he approached.
“Err Bailey? Mr Bailey?” Zep said as he reached him. “You must return to your cell immediately! You are very far behind with your medication.”
Arc watched the sincere look in his black eyes within the rest of the light.
Then Arc said “You’re silly.”
He pushed Zep Teppi with a limp hand, who then doubled back over into the pond with a heavy splash.
Arc angled his bike at the left line of stairs and wheelspun the back tire down into the mud, spraying the muck into the pond over the robot. He then took it swiftly up the steps and through the small curtain of water leading into the wet cave.
There he saw Kane connected to the door, and smirked cruelly. He lay the bike on its side on the damp rock plateau, and began checking the wire between Kane’s leg and the door.
Kane began to choke on seeing him.
“I dunno. Maybe I did the wrong thing. This is your fault you know.” Kane said slowly.
Arc ignored him as he fiddled with the levers behind the open keypad. He connected the two that were required and the resulting charge sparked and shocked him enough to double back. He looked at it a moment wondering something, then stepped back beside Kane as the door groaned a few times and then began to slide up.
In Arc’s eye the light slowly grew until the door rose to the top and slammed into place.
“Arc.” Kane said, and Arc’s eyes flicked to him. “It is Arc, isn’t it? It’s all on file. I done wrong, Arc. Make it right again… please.”
Arc didn’t reply, and Kane watched as he ran out through the glare of the light.
The biometric connection to Kane overloaded causing a magnesium flare in the open pad on the wall and the burning wire fell to the floor.
Arc stopped outside amongst the footprints of the others, and spotted the plane in the dip of the dark valley. He trotted down the valley to it and strode around the fuselage, checking it over.
Now this is ideal.
“Like you’re an expert.” Arc muttered.
“Psst.” Arc heard a voice, and followed it up the other side of the valley to a low ridge of rocks, that he now saw was a hiding place for the others in the escape. A few of them were waving for him to come, so Arc trotted further up the valley to them, and crouched down behind the rocks at their side.
“What ya gonna do now then?” Faye whispered loudly.
“They can’t hear us.” Arc said gesturing toward the power plant, and the flashes of gunfire just beyond it.
“Uh oh.” Farnon said, as he watched the battle through the binoculars. “Your boys are getting pushed back a little.”
There were two huge gunshots from within the gorge, and the robots ran out, some scrambling along the walls like locusts. They all leapt to the concrete foundations of the power plant and ran through the main walkway leading between the valley and the mountains. Some fell as more gunshots caught them, and they crawled along the wet concrete trying to keep up with the others. The rest skidded left and right along junctioning pathways, finding cover behind transistor towers and the like.
The flickering from their craniums died out and the power plant filled with shadows.
The first squad crept around the corner of the edge of the gap between mountains. The Sergeant stayed ahead with two others, scanning the fences and machinery with night vision goggles, while whipping laser sights of the rifles though each nook and gap.
“Check your six.” a voice came over their hip radios from the Generals in orbit. “Keep it together squad.”
“Good advice.” one of them muttered sarcastically.
“Can it, Wells!” the Sergeant snapped at him over his shoulder. “Look alive! Lantians are faggots, but even faggots can aim a gun, and get off a lucky shot or two.”
Arc and the others watched from their hiding place just outside of the plant. They could hear their voices traveling on the wind.
“What is that horrible language?” Faye said. “It sounds like a load of clicks and snarls.”
“English. European.” Arc said. “It’s usually English, Spanish or Chinese. The higher ups speak Latin but they won’t be anywhere near here. They rarely leave the Prime worlds.”
“What are they saying then?” Bethany said.
“They’re saying we’re wimps.” Arc sniffed. “They’re just poverty mad soldiers. What do they know?”
“Here we go.” Farnon said, staring ahead through the binoculars.
As the squad stepped up onto the concrete pathway between fences, and the other squads crept up behind, the robots lit up and skipped out ahead of them on the path, their metal feet clattering against he stone.
“Crank it uuuuuuuup!” the Sergeant yelled and began firing.
Behind him, from huge speakers that had been dragged along the full length of the gorge, loud music blared out over the scene. Twenty to twenty first century death metal happened to be the choice of these particular brigades.
Two of the robots were shattered by gun fire but there were many more joining them by the second. The robots’ rifle fire carved through them, butchering the squad at the front and then the squads behind once the view had been cleared. Soon all of the troops had been turned to a hideous soup of corpses on the snow.
There was a silence as the blizzard poured wet snow over them and then the next wave of soldiers streamed out of the gap. The robots hid back at the sides and waited for a decent clear shot.
Another round of troops charged between the fences, and the gold robots spun out from their cover and began picking them off one by one.
Two jumped aside this time and took cover behind the fuse boxes on that side.
“What the hell is this, Sarge?” one of them yelled to the other over the raucous death metal.
“I don’t think our alien fr
iends have been entirely honest with us.” the older man yelled back. “Maybe we should fall back?”
“No Sarge!” the first shouted defiantly. “We came here to do a job, man.”
Just then a horde of reinforcements came charging and screaming through the valley behind him. The sergeant gave the other a thumbs up, then looked up into the sky as one of Arc’s airborne drones flew through the valley overhead.
A moment later there were napalm explosions from behind the reinforcements, then more engulfing them, and the last splashing down onto the two men.
They ran out from their cover screaming and on fire, and the soldier watched as his Sergeant was cut down by the robot’s gun fire. He cried out and ran aside, along a smaller track toward a dead end. A robot ran to get an aim, skidding on the black ice, then lowered his gun as he saw what the soldier was about to do. The flaming soldier reached the end of the way and leapt from the platform there onto a mesh of wires and mega-diodes. His body burst into blue flames as his screams were strangled out of him.
A red warning light came on, on the main fence beside where he had fallen, and above, the nearest wind turbine slowly ground to a halt.
The robot took a last moment’s look before returning to its position.
Randall, who had been watching all of this through the binoculars took them down and hissed air.
“This is fucking madness.” he said.
Thom looked to him and barked “Well, do you want to get out or not?”
“Not like this!” Randall yelled in his face.
“It won’t take much longer.” Arc said softly. “I promise. Just wait. I’ll go now, Thom. Can you go get my bike for me?”
“Sure I can. Just do what you gotta do.” Thom said and ran off down the hill, past the plane and up to the dome door.
“Let the robots do the hard work. Wait.” Arc said with authority, and followed Thom’s footprints down the valley.
Thom ran into the door, and around the wheelchair. He picked up the bike and was wheeling it past the chair when he stopped and leaned the bike against the doorway. With Kane still in it he grabbed the wheelchair by the wheel and the seat and picked it up. He carried it over to the back of the falls and kicked it through as Kane cried out in self pity.
Then Thom rolled the bike through the door and free wheeled it down to the plane.
“Thank you, Thom.” Arc said, and took the bike from him, and began wrapping the chains at the back of the plane around the bike.
“Why take the bike? Just fly there and back.” Thom said.
“There’s one more heletank out in force. I can only take the plane so far.”
“Good job I’m not in charge of saving her I suppose.” Thom said sadly. “I guess I’m not smart enough after all.”
“How smart do you want to be?” Arc said. “You can’t out think all of this. They’d shit all over you. Best if I go.”
Thom looked over his shoulder along the valley to its end, and the expanse of the first of the basin beyond it. It glistened in the moon and starlight.
Arc finished affixing the bike, then walked to Thom and slapped his shoulder hard.
“Just keep your chin up.” Arc said and pointed to the plant and the endlessly droning death metal. “Take care of that lot. You’ll need to survive in that jungle now.”
Arc pointed at the sky, and smiled one last time.
Thom ran off up the valley and Arc turned and marched up to the plane. He jumped up onto the rung and then into the archaic cockpit. He shut the lid and then powered it up, while looking over at the group that he had narrowed down from everyone else in the colony. They all still had their part to play, but as for Arc, now was the time.
He released the inertia clamps and let the jets push the plane along on its skates.
The others watched as the ion jets suddenly roared out and blasted the plane along the valley in the opposite direction to the citadels. It lifted and flew up and over the top of the dome.
“Now we wait?” Francine asked rocking her baby.
Dora cupped her hand over the small pyramidal EMP shield she had brought, then smiled and said “Wait.”
Arc’s plane blasted up along the smooth curve of the dome to the top side and switched up the gears of the jets.
In the cockpit Arc reached back and pulled the straps of the lightweight parachute over his shoulders, and fastened the clip around his stomach. Then ahead he saw the control hut and antenna, and pressed the commands to gain a missile lock.
Once the three arrows within the cockpit window had grabbed a hold of the hut he released a missile that blasted ahead at the end of a wonky line of smoke. The missile flew straight through the glass of one of the side windows and erupted outwards in a huge disk of flames. It incinerated everything within, washing over the corpse of the Caretaker. Within the biosphere lines of fire spurted out momentarily at intervals down the central control tower. Then at the doors below, a huge breath of fire could be seen. The cars on the highway stopped, and some of the drivers got out and looked at one another.
The plane whistled over the fire and smoke, and then behind it the antenna groaned and toppled on its side.
Arc had done it simply for fun, but now the real fun would begin. Anyone else would consider it to be far from fun, and would run in the opposite direction if they saw it coming over the horizon. But Arc had seen this kind of thing a hundred times, but as part of a team, and not on his own.
The plane arrowed over the last of the top of the dome and out over the curve. A few minutes later and the dome had passed and he was flying over the basin floor, in the direction of the other dome.
He knew where the subterranean tunnel to the citadels was located. The location within the other dome had been clearly marked on Colec’s map. But between the dome and the plane was a long stretch of an open space where to the left was an even larger empty space led to the citadel zone.
To the right however, all the way to the craters rim, the ground was filled with a thick line of troops and artillery. A lot of this artillery, he knew, would be pointing in his direction right now despite the onslaught from the droids fleeting back and forth ahead of them.
It didn’t take long for them to begin firing at the plane. Mortars exploded in the air a distance away, and then as they began to improve their aim they exploded closer. Seeing their pattern, Arc slid the plane under and around them then jetted down toward the base of the dome, to the tunnel he and Jayne had entered by a season ago.
He was on course, and the last of the long line of deployed troops had passed by. They were swarming after him but it wouldn’t matter, since he was gaining enough distance to land and do what he had to do.
As he flew down over it the ground came closer and the motorway between domes, frozen beneath the ice became visible.
Left landing gear? Ih…uh?
Arc felt dizzy, and then fell against the side of the cockpit slightly. The ground continued to rush by, drawing closer with each second.
“Bailey? What?” Arc droned, and then heard the gently plucking notes of a music box. As his head fell against the side window he saw far in the distance, close to the craters rim, a house with crooked windows, and a snowman out front. All were being battered to hell by the Narcosia sleet storm. "Yeah."
Arc head butted the window and brought himself around, then glared in the direction of the house. There was nothing there, and Arc hissed, and snapped his head forward again.
The sound of the plane cutting the air over the ground got louder, and Arc carefully and precisely took the plane down onto a smooth stretch of driven snow. The plane slid over it, coming to a stop within walking distance of the broad tunnel leading into the officer’s wing in the dome wall.
He immediately got out, and after slipping in the snow slightly he scrambled to the back of the plane, and began unchaining the huge scrambling bike. He glanced repeatedly toward the place where he had seen the house, and then over his shoulder into the distance at the hord
es of troops running toward his position through the fluffy snowfall.
Oh deary bollocks.
Arc unhooked the bike and mounted it, then kicked the pedal and let the wheels spray the snow around in a bloom as he turned toward the tunnel. He raced inside and then up the stone steps and into the damp corridor. He raced along it, not knowing if he was drawing the attention of the demonic creatures he had seen or that remained to be discovered.
He took the bike through the place unmolested, then through The Shell pyramid and down the long steps to the square. The bike raced through it and down the cobblestone streets, and out of the district. After riding by the neighbourhoods torn apart by the squid he entered the northern metropolis and took a junction leading up to the biosphere. The bike raced out over the crystal highways over the dark, turbulent land below.
After a few junctions he took the bike down toward what would have been the savannah section, but was now damp and overgrown with massive conifers and bush land. He raced out from the safe tunnels of the highways and over what would have been a cement path, but was now washed over with mud and clogged with moss. The tangled overgrowth surrounding him squawked and moved, with huge eyes flickering momentarily in the lights of the bike. After racing through it all at speed he came out at what would have been the beach, and braced the bike against the huge winds.
He went rightwards along the rocky leftovers of the beach to the pier, which was now exposed as a tall and long tower of concrete reaching out over the empty basin of the sea.
He bunny hopped up onto it and raced along its length toward the doorway into the facilities within the dome’s wall.
As he drew near to the end he saw at both sides of the pier huge tentacles whipping up through the winds.
Arc slammed the gas and raced between them, decelerating as he entered the door that had already been blasted apart by Colec and the others, so long ago. He stopped the bike and turned to look, as the squid like creature gripped the pier and split a piece of it from the rest. It dropped it almost immediately, realizing that it has no nutritional interest, then began feeling around the open doorway with one of its huge arms.