Nihala

by Scott Burdick

  “Nighthawk?” Ohg raised an eyebrow.

  “Since no one knows who my father was, I use my mother’s last name.”

  Ohg stared hard. Suspicion etched into the slant of his mouth.

  A deep rumbling interrupted their conversation, followed by the incongruous scent of crushed magnolias.

  A voice boomed from above. “In the name of Lord Shiva, symbol of grace and love, I think you should give her a chance!”

  A blur of machinery loomed over them, and Kayla dropped into a defensive crouch. Ohg’s eyes narrowed at the sight of a large contraption descending from the sky. A huge creature straddled the back of the machine. The Monads faltered for the first time in their project.

  Ohg waved for their attention. “This is one of Jesus’ angels, sent from Heaven to help us all!” They sighed in relief and continued their rock hauling.

  “You know I’m a Hindu, Ohg,” the creature said as the machine neared.

  “This is no joke, Ganesh!” Ohg shouted. The machine settled onto the ground, and Kayla blanched at the sight of the enormous, ten-foot-tall creature sitting atop it. With golden-hued skin, the head and tusks of an elephant, the body of a corpulent man, and four arms—it seemed like something a child might conjure in a dream. Around his neck hung a wreath of magnolias.

  “You’re the god Ganesha,” Kayla said. “I’ve seen carvings of you on the carts of the Hindu traders in Potemia.”

  The giant rotated the grip on the right handlebar, and the great machine gave a final rumble, expelling incense-laden fumes from chrome pipes that twisted like horns. Then the engine went silent. Ganesh swung his silk-swathed legs off his machine and placed his hands palm to palm in front of his chest and enormous stomach.

  The Hindu God bowed. “Namaste. I’m honored that you recognize me, my dear.” Elaborate designs tattooed the center of his forehead and descended his long trunk. Bands of gold wrapped around his curved tusks like flattened serpents.

  Would anything ever make sense again?

  “I’m Kayla.” She returned his bow awkwardly.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Ohg shouted at the giant, who cowered before the diminutive figure half his height, and a tenth his weight.

  “I wanted to help.” Ganesh shielded his face with his trunk. “I finished fixing this old Z-12 VBat chopper and thought this a the perfect excuse for a test ride—”

  “Are you crazy?” Ohg shouted. “You could be killed!”

  The giant god shrugged.

  Kayla looked back and forth between them. “You said it didn’t matter if—”

  “That’s his actual body!”

  Ganesh nodded in an exaggerated expression of guilt. His great ears flopped back and forth and set his many earrings jingling.

  “And he’s wanted by the authorities!”

  “Well, so are you,” the Hindu god said.

  “Which is why I’m not using my real body to come here!”

  Kayla’s mind swam and she swayed unsteadily. I don’t know if I can take any more.

  Ohg threw his arms in the air while Ganesh assumed a pose of contrition. Ohg paced while Kayla stared at the elephant/man/god in open-mouthed wonder. When Ohg turned away, Ganesh smiled and winked at her, careful to replace the look of solicitude the moment the blond boy’s gaze swung toward him.

  “Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little?” Ganesh asked. “Patrols ended hundreds of years ago. No one cares about Earth or Gene-Freaks anymore.”

  “What are Gene—” Kayla started to ask.

  “And I want it to stay that way!” Ohg shouted. “If they find this standard-issue travel-body I’m wearing, they will assume it is someone from Ixtalia joyriding with a black market body—but if they find you, a Gene-Freak Outlaw with an implanted Mind-Link, our secret will be blown. They’ll realize we have access to—”

  “I would never let them find out,” Ganesh said and removed a metal disc from a pouch fastened to his belt.

  “A fission bomb!” Ohg’s face twisted with fury.

  Ganesh wilted. “I found it hiding in an old military stockpile, the poor dear.”

  “You know weapons of any kind are forbidden in Middilgard.”

  “What is Mid—”

  “I never took it there, I promise,” Ganesh said to Ohg. “I store it outside and only bring it with me when searching the undercity for bike parts. In case the government ever found me.”

  “I feel a lot better knowing you’d be vaporized,” Ohg said sarcastically.

  “Are you saying he’s not really a god?” Kayla asked.

  Ohg threw his hands in the air. “Of course not!”

  “You know why I had to come, don’t you?” Ganesh lowered his gaze and opened his hands in a gesture of helplessness.

  “Yes, I know,” Ohg said. “There’s nothing we can do at this point, so you might as well take her with you to Middilgard, but no detours.”

  The giant snapped to attention and saluted with all four of his arms.

  “Take me where?” Kayla asked. “I don’t understand any of—”

  “Listen,” Ohg said. “I’m offering to take you to a Gene-Freak haven where you’ll be safe—on a trial basis.”

  She hesitated. What is a Gene-Freak? And safe from what?

  “It’s your choice to come with us or stay here,” Ohg said. “I don’t have time to stand around chatting, so a simple yes or no will suffice.”

  I don’t understand any of this, but what choice do I have if I want to find answers?

  “I’ll go with you,” Kayla said, “if you promise to tell the Monads the story of Jesus each morning.”

  “You’re certain that story is the truth?”

  She averted her eyes from his probing gaze. “If there’s a chance it’s true, they deserve to hear The Word of God and decide for themselves if they want to follow Him.”

  “Well, it’s no matter to me,” Ohg said. “They’ll believe whatever I tell them, and if you think your God is capricious enough to grant them entry into Heaven based solely on my whim … then fine, I promise.”

  Ganesh mounted his flying machine and lifted her onto the seat in front of him. A carving of a mouse perched on the handle bars.

  How could I forget!

  “Puck!” she called, and her little brown friend emerged from among the rocks, scurried up her leg, and settled into a coat pocket.

  “Puck is also from Potemia,” Kayla said.

  Ohg raised an eyebrow as Ganesh revved the engine in preparation for takeoff. The rumbling vibrated through the ground and set small stones to bouncing. The Monads dashed after a few small rocks that rolled down their growing hill.

  “Aren’t you coming with us?” Kayla shouted to Ohg.

  “I’m already there,” he said.

  Then the machine rocketed into the sky.

  Chapter 10

  Kayla held tight to Ganesh. Ohg and the Monads receded beneath them, their clearing a tiny smudge within the vast, deserted city. How long would they move their rocks back and forth? Centuries, millennia, or until the sun burned itself cold?

  “Hold on!” Ganesh gunned the throttle, and the machine surged forward. The mounting speed whipped Kayla’s hair into a whirlwind until Ganesh pressed a button and the hurricane vanished. A glowing energy encircled them, blocking the rushing air like an invisible glass capsule.

  Behind them, the milky dome of the Wall stretched into the heavens.

  The bike rose higher into the air, until even the pyramids shrank to dots. Kayla gasped at the height and pressed herself against Ganesh’s silken vest.

  “Worry not, little one,” Ganesh said. “I will keep you from falling.”

  She forced a smile and surveyed the astonishing view below. Here and there, mountains rose up, but the unbroken city flowed over the peaks like an unstoppable tsunami of concrete and skyscrapers. “Is everything covered?” she asked.

  “The Grand Canyon of North America, the Mariana Trench on the Ocean floor, and a few
dozen other places were set aside, but no one goes there any longer, of course.”

  “The city continues underwater?”

  “You can see for yourself.” Ganesh pointed to a distant shoreline looming on the horizon. The city plunged beneath the waves, and the cycle dipped lower, skimming over the surface. Great domed structures shimmered in the depths. Most had broken to pieces, but a few still gleamed like great bubbles beneath the protective waters.

  “The average number of housing units rose to twenty per person as robotic construction took over.”

  “Why would anyone need more than one house?”

  Ganesh scratched his head. “Economic growth, I think, but I don’t really know.”

  “What about the whales and fish in the ocean?”

  The elephant-god shook his head. “All dead, long ago.”

  The waves passed in a blur. Within a few minutes, the far shore rushed toward them. When the ruined metropolis surfaced, Ganesh angled upward and continued overland.

  A plume of smoke rose in the distance.

  “Is that where people live?” she asked.

  “Only a robotic mining operation. A few dozen remain scattered around the planet.”

  Ganesh made a wide detour around the smoke.

  “Anything you’d like to be seeing, my dear?” he asked. “I could take you to a great tower rising from the highest mountain in the world into lower Earth Orbit, though it doesn’t reach quite that far anymore, after being abandoned like everything else in the real world.”

  “The real world?”

  “This one—the world of atoms.” Kayla’s mouth opened for a follow-up question, but Ganesh prattled on like a tour guide who couldn’t be bothered with details. “How about the Great Yellowstone Volcano? It’s still smoking, you know.”

  “Didn’t Ohg say no detours?”

  “Ohg is always worrying.” Ganesh laughed. “Which is why he’s survived so long, I suppose, but sometimes he goes overboard on security.”

  Kayla frowned. “Security from what?”

  Ganesh’s eyes grew sad. “The government destroyed most Gene-Freaks like us after outlawing the practice four hundred and fifty-six years ago, but a few of us survived the Great Purge.”

  “Are you saying that you’re—?”

  “I’m four hundred and seventy-three years old.” Ganesh frowned at a sudden engine vibration. He smacked the side with his enormous fist, and the rattling ceased. “That darn flywheel. I could use the molecular printer to replace it, but that seems like cheating.” He patted the side of the machine. “Is that better, dear?”

  “Why is Ohg worried, if the government has stopped looking for you?”

  “Gene-Freak hunting trips, for one, but that ended long ago, mostly.”

  “Because everyone died?”

  “No one has died in centuries, and the human population is over sixty billion.”

  “Sixty … billion? But where is everyone, then?”

  “In Ixtalia,” Ganesh said.

  What had the little metal robot said? Ixtalia is the place to be, Ixtalia is for you and me!

  “Where is Ixtalia?” Kayla asked.

  Ganesh frowned. “Where? I guess I never thought of Ixtalia like that. Ixtalia is … nowhere—or rather, everywhere. That’s it. Ixtalia is everywhere and nowhere!” He smiled, glad to have settled the question.

  Kayla shook her head. She’d have to wait to ask Ohg about this. “If you’re sure it’s okay. I guess I’ve always dreamed of seeing the Holy Land.” Ganesh stared blankly. “Israel, Bethlehem, Jerusalem—”

  “Right!” Ganesh exclaimed, eager to comply with her request. He started turning, but then paused. “I am forgetting … too dangerous. All the radiation, you know … from the Nuclear Holy War.”

  Kayla slumped, and a void opened within her soul. How could God have allowed such a thing? “We’d better just go to … wherever it is you’re taking me,” she said.

  “Okay, then. Next stop, Middilgard!” Ganesh continued on his northeasterly route. As they flashed across a mountain range, the city below thinned into lone buildings, then reassembled into an impenetrable mass on the other side. Ganesh decreased speed and angled earthward. “Middilgard’s entrance is beneath that—”

  An alarm flashed on the control panel. Ganesh swiveled his head and locked onto several specks diving toward them.

  “Government drones,” he said. “Hold on!”

  He gunned the engine and plunged toward the city, jerking the machine to the left and right like a fleeing rabbit.

  Kayla peeked around his body at five gleaming objects gaining fast.

  “We can’t outrun them!” she shouted.

  “Our one chance is the surface.” Ganesh angled the bike into a screaming dive. “Those older models are controlled by speed-of-light radio transmissions. They’ll react slowly in tight maneuvers. We wouldn’t stand a chance against current drones.”

  The ground drew closer, and their machine vibrated and jerked from the stress.

  “Who’s controlling them?”

  “The government decommissioned such antiquated models centuries ago, so they must be joyriders going Gene-Freak hunting.”

  A burst of energy flashed by and detonated on the ground. One of the skyscrapers toppled in slow motion. Ganesh steered right for it.

  “They’re almost on us!” Kayla shouted.

  The bike swooped under the collapsing building as the drones reached them. Three of the drones pulled up, while two others stayed on their tail.

  Kayla screamed as chunks of concrete hurtled toward them. But their energy field plowed through, and they emerged safely on the other side—only to have Ganesh violently bank back the way he’d come.

  The building groaned as it fell, breaking into pieces like a shattered clay pot filled with gravel.

  As predicted, the drones reacted with a slight delay. By the time they completed their turn and followed, Ganesh flashed from under the avalanche. The mountain of steel and concrete crushed the drones in a double fireball.

  The three remaining drones circled and sped after them. Ganesh’s machine swooped through the streets, dodging left and right. The drones lost ground.

  “I think we’ve lost one of them,” Kayla shouted, looking behind.

  Ganesh pointed to the missing drone soaring above. The other two split up, leaving only one on their tail.

  “Despite their delayed reaction time, their coordination is masterful!” Ganesh shouted.

  The missing drone streaked around a corner in front of them. Ganesh yanked the bike into an alley. The bike’s energy field tore into the face of the alley wall, expelling a trail of sparks that sizzled earthward. The entire machine shuddered, and the force field strobed, then vanished, leaving them at the mercy of a hundred-mile-per-hour wind.

  “Vishnu’s toes!” Ganesh wrestled with the machine to keep it aloft. The third drone swooped in from above, trapping them. A flash of light erupted, and Ganesh dived toward the ground. Kayla screamed. They whooshed through a ragged hole in the street and into the undercity. The first drone clipped the opening and exploded. The roar of the other two drones announced the continued pursuit.

  The bike’s limited headlights barely kept pace with their speed. Ganesh had fractions of seconds to react to the twists and turns of the underground city. The drones gained on them.

  “Hurry!” Kayla shouted.

  A ball of red fire missed them by inches and tore into the ceiling ahead.

  “Look out!” she screamed as they entered a waterfall of rock. Ganesh maneuvered frantically, avoiding slabs of the falling ceiling. As he dodged the last section, a corner of the boulder clipped their machine and tossed them into the far wall.

  The engine slid across the stone and bathed them in sparks. Ganesh wrestled clear and opened the throttle. The bike surged forward under the last of the collapsing ceiling.

  The drones veered into a side corridor to avoid entombment.

  “They’re gone!” s
he shouted.

  The abused engine shuddered, coughed, and died. The machine plummeted toward the ground, its forward momentum aiming it straight at a wall, where the corridor branched at right angles.

  “Hold on!” Ganesh encased her in all four arms as they crash-landed. The metal undercarriage shrieked across the concrete and bathed them in sparks. Ganesh jumped free and rolled. The bike fire-balled into the wall.

  They came to a stop. Ganesh groaned.

  Kayla scrambled free of his arms and knelt beside him. “Are you alright?” She helped him to his feet. Numerous minor cuts covered his body, and his upper left arm hung at his side, broken in several places.

  “Are you okay, Kayla?” His face twisted with worry.

  “I’m fine.” In her pocket, Puck was also okay, if a bit skittish. Ganesh examined her arms and legs for any wounds, but his body had absorbed most of the impact. He exhaled a sigh of relief—and burst into tears.

  “Ganesh, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m the worst protector—”

  “You saved my life!”

  Ganesh straightened and wiped away his tears. “I haven’t saved it yet, but I will.”

  “We’ve got to run!” she said.

  Ganesh shook his head. “If we run, we will both die.”

  The distant echo of the drones grew louder.

  “We at least have to try,” Kayla said.

  Ganesh grasped her hands and gazed into her eyes. “Long ago, I failed to protect someone I loved. I’ve waited over four hundred years for my chance at atonement.” The Hindu god removed the fission bomb from his belt. “Kayla of Potemia, even though we’ve just met, I’m asking you to help me redeem myself.”

  “Oh, Ganesh!” Kayla threw her arms about his neck and hugged him. The giant hoisted her behind a slab of fallen concrete, and the echoing roar grew to thunder.

  “Promise me in the name of your god,” Ganesh said, “that you will remain here while I reclaim my soul.”

  Tears covered her face, and her lower lip trembled. How could she refuse him? “Okay, I promise.”

  Ganesh hugged her one last time and lumbered toward the burning motorcycle.

  The drones rounded the corner and hovered. The four-armed Hindu god walked toward them with his fist held aloft.