by Grant Price
‘What the hell is going on?’ Cassady muttered, dropping the binoculars again.
Ghazi turned to him, his liquid eyes shining with urgency. ‘Revolution, Cassady. Like Wyler said. It’s happening right now.’
‘Do we go?’ asked Hearst.
‘Just wait,’ said Ghazi. ‘I want to see this.’
More gunfire rattled between the buildings. A convoy of heavy vehicles raced towards the city on the orbital branch from the south. The air shuddered under the weight of the cries coming from the buildings. Thousands of voices screamed murder, defiance, surrender.
‘We could help them,’ muttered Ghazi.
Cassady glanced at him. ‘Are you mad?’ He received no response.
‘No time for this,’ said Hearst. ‘Need to go.’
‘Let’s do it.’ He shook Ghazi, who was transfixed by what was happening in the valley. The mechanic reluctantly tore his eyes away. ‘Come on.’
They raced back to their trucks, Hearst stumbling as she went. Cassady threw on his harness and hit the accelerator as Ghazi jumped aboard, his attention still firmly on the city. Warspite burst forward and bounced along the trail. He didn’t slow down for rocks or dips. Now out of the trees, they had no cover at all. One of the branches of the orbital road loomed in the steep valley to their left, great stilts holding it aloft. His sweating palms slipped against the wheel. In the distance, the trail disappeared over a ridge. He hoped they would find cover beyond that.
Ghazi tracked the battle through the binoculars.
‘What’s going on? Have they seen us?’
‘No. Men and women on the rooftops dressed in red. Same colour as the banner. They’re firing everything they have onto that convoy arriving from the south.’ He thumped the dashboard. ‘A revolution. They’re fighting to live.’
Cassady’s attention didn’t leave the trail. ‘Calm the hell down. Any reinforcements beyond the convoy?’
‘On the circular road, yes. Quad bikes, same as the ones that cornered us by the bridge. And a few six-wheeled vehicles, similar to Orion. They look like battering rams. There’s a real fight going on. I wish we could get closer.’
‘What in the hell is wrong with you?’
His question was met with silence once again.
‘Just keep an eye on what’s happening overhead. If those drones come back, we’ve got no place to hide.’
Something exploded behind them. He glanced at the side mirror in time to see Orion lurch to the left. One of the tyres threw out shredded rubber. The rig threatened to tip over. Cassady caught a glimpse of Hearst wrestling with the wheel before the pantech turned side-on and drove head-first off the trail. It picked up speed as it hurtled down the slope into the valley.
Warspite bit into the earth and the two Runners dived out and raced to the edge of the incline. The gunfire sounded like rainfall. More vehicles appeared on the orbital road.
‘Get control,’ shouted Cassady.
The red pantech crunched over loose rocks and patches of grass. The bare wheel squealed. The taillights flared for a moment and then died. It rocked from side to side, four of its eight tyres leaving the floor.
‘Brakes are gone,’ whispered Ghazi.
‘She’s going over.’ Cassady held his breath.
Somehow Hearst brought Orion back under control. The wheels hit the ground and locked in unison. One of the rear doors popped free and swung outward. The vehicle slithered along the shale and shuddered as it approached the stilts that held up the orbital road. The underside of the cab thudded into a boulder and it stopped dead with a sickening crunch. A hissing noise rolled up the slope. White smoke rose from under the hood.
They waited. The cab doors remained shut. Ghazi still held the binoculars in his hand. Cassady grabbed them and held them up.
‘Do you see her?’
He didn’t respond. He trained his sights on the driver’s door. Open it, he thought. Wake up and put your hand on the handle and push it open. Show us you’re okay and we’ll come for you. But the only movement came from the wisps of smoke spiralling out from underneath the hood.
‘Cass.’
‘We have to get down there.’ He threw the binoculars back to Ghazi. His fingers dug into his thighs. He paced at the edge of the trail, looking for a way to descend the slope. He would have to slide through the gravel and mud and hold on to the exposed plant roots.
Another explosion sounded and his gaze was involuntarily drawn to the city. The fire in the tall building had reached the lower floors. The wind snatched more screams from the streets and dumped them on the trail.
‘Help me find a way down,’ he said.
‘We can’t,’ said Ghazi.
‘Why the hell not?’
‘She’s gone.’
The two words hung between them.
Cassady launched himself at Ghazi. They fell back, landing heavily on the track. He swung blindly with his right and clenched his teeth against a sudden hot pain in his knee. A fist struck him in the temple and streaks of white flared before his eyes. Another blow took the breath out of his lungs. Ghazi rolled on top of him and he felt his arms being pinned. A white-haired silhouette blocked out the rest of the world.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Ghazi panted. ‘We have to get out of here.’
‘No chance,’ he managed to hiss through the pain.
‘Either you come with me now or I leave you here.’
‘That’s my rig.’
‘I’m going on. We’re not throwing this away now. Every minute counts.’
‘I don’t give a damn about those scientists.’
‘Neither do I. This is about our own survival. We need to get out of here. Climb down into that gulley and you lose your life. Look how close those stilts are. She’s practically underneath the road.’
‘They can’t see her from up there.’
‘You can hear what’s happening. You saw the drones. The Koalition isn’t going to stop sending reinforcements. They’ll be all over this hill before we make it down. I’m sorry about Hearst, but she knew the risk. She wouldn’t sacrifice herself for you and you know it. Let her go. Or I’m gone.’
‘Ghazi,’ he pleaded.
There was no response. He looked into the man’s eyes. He wasn’t lying. The person he’d come to rely on the most would leave him if he had to. Survival trumped compassion. So why not let him go? It was over anyway. Show him you can face death alone, without the fear that seized you so long ago and never relinquished its grip.
‘Okay,’ he gasped.
‘Okay what?’
‘Let me up. We’ll go.’
‘Co-seat.’
‘Yes.’
Ghazi stood and hauled him to his feet. Cassady took a last look at the stricken pantech at the bottom of the valley. The smoke had stopped. Everything was still. He shielded his eyes with his hand and peered at the cab doors, willing them to open. Warspite’s engine murmured and the wheels rolled.
He ran to his rig, jumped onto the running board and yanked the door open. Ghazi didn’t look at him as he clambered into the co-seat. He pulled his jacket around him, feeling more powerless than ever. A reflection of the city smouldered in his mismatched pupils.
‘That’s no way for somebody to die. She deserved better than that.’ He looked at the man he no longer recognised. ‘We’re next. You know that.’
‘We may yet save ourselves.’
The truck threaded across the open ground and over the ridge. A copse of trees stood out in the distance. The ivory buildings glittered. The red flag with the symbols fell without ceremony and landed in the trees. More drones appeared in the sky and released their gas over the landing platforms. Bodies fell from the roofs. Another convoy of heavy vehicles swung around on the orbital and raced towards the towers. Neither Cassady nor Ghazi passed comment. The track they were on arched right and then down into a crease in the earth. The city disappeared and the dense wood welcomed them. They were invisible again. And they were alone.
Ghazi sat in the cab with his whittling knife and the chunk of basswood. The elephant was nearly finished. He ran the blade in the direction of the grain. Shavings fell into his lap. He blew on the newly cut area and rubbed a thumb over the wood. He held it up to his eye. Yes. It was ready. He set it down on the dashboard and the inanimate animal stared back at him, no more alive than anything else in the vicinity.
They were close to the border. After the white city, they’d headed for the town Lupo had said was abandoned. It had taken all their remaining juice. The mud trail had joined a steep single-lane asphalt road that looked as though it hadn’t been used in years, and they’d followed it without encountering anybody as it had wound its way down the elevated terrain. The town, a patchwork of dilapidated brick and mortar buildings, had appeared on a hillside at dusk. Other than the green puddles of grass and weeds that stretched across the streets, it was devoid of life. After making a reconnaissance with the binoculars, Ghazi had guided Warspite into a building that offered a good view of the road in both directions, and they had set up tripwires around the perimeter. A short while later Cassady had disappeared without a word.
It was quiet. He should’ve been pacified, but something bothered him. One of the batteries, the unit Sergei had given them at the stockade, was playing up. He’d had to spend ten minutes tinkering with it before the yellow LED light switched on. He didn’t know what was wrong with it, and there wasn’t much he could do about it now. At least it was charging. Tomorrow, when they hit the border, they would probably need all the juice they could get. There was no Wyler to show them a back door this time. He prayed the unrest would keep the Koalition occupied until they were out. They just needed another few hours.
He slipped one of the last blitz pills into his mouth and swallowed it dry, then grabbed the wooden elephant and left the cab. His boots left prints as he wandered through the rooms. Faint, painted lines on the floors suggested the building might have once been a workshop or a garage. Now it was the realm of dust balls and sand. There was no furniture, no provisions, nothing they could use or scavenge. The smell of mould and slow decay caught in the back of his throat. In one room he found an adjustable spanner in a pile of rubble, but its jaws and screw were rusted solid. He stood it upright in the pile. On a whim, he took the elephant from his pocket and placed it next to the spanner. He said a prayer for Hearst and asked for her forgiveness. Then he went outside.
It was already dark. The wind turbine spun silently on the roof. He spotted Cassady sitting with his back against a wide, one-storey building whose doors had been removed. His legs were stretched out in front of him and his shoulders were slumped. He looked thin. Worse, he looked defeated. Ghazi felt underneath his own shirt. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve counted the ribs.
Cassady didn’t lift his head when he approached. ‘Find anything?’
‘Place is dead.’
He found a spot on the ground beside Cassady and stifled a yawn.
‘I failed them,’ his partner muttered. ‘They’re dead because of me.’
‘That’s not true.’
‘Hearst, Kaja, Brandt, Renfield, Wyler, Victor and Tagawa. The list is much too long. They trusted me. I was supposed to get them through.’
‘Victor and Tagawa could still be alive.’
Cassady shook his head. ‘Why pretend?’
‘It isn’t over yet.’
‘You’re right,’ he snarled suddenly. ‘All we have to do now is find a way over the border and through land we’ve never laid eyes on to get to a place that might not exist.’
‘You knew that from the start.’
‘I didn’t think we’d be the only ones left.’
‘Lupo did. Faustine did. That’s why they sent four trucks.’
‘Goddamn it.’
Ghazi rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. The artificial kick of the pill couldn’t shift his bone-deep tiredness. ‘I’m sorry about Hearst. Truly.’
‘You were quick enough to leave her.’
He hesitated. ‘If we don’t obey our will to survive, what chance do we have? I listened to my instinct. It told me to go. That’s why I’m sitting here talking to you now instead of lying dead on the mountainside.’
‘You’re so sure of death.’
‘No, there are no certainties. But the likelihood was there all the same.’
‘How can you be so detached?’
‘I’m not. But I can’t afford to give in to my emotions now. Not while we’re still in danger.’
Cassady grunted and turned to him. ‘Would you have used that gun on me?’
Ghazi didn’t avoid his gaze. ‘You know the answer.’
They looked at each other, not saying anything. Finally, Cassady nodded.
‘Okay.’ The word was equal parts resignation and resolve. He shivered and scratched at the greasy hair on the sides of his head. ‘Do we have any food left?’
‘The rations Tagawa found on the mountain and a 24-hour box. Everything else is gone.’
‘Let’s break open the box. We’ll eat it all.’
Ghazi checked on the battery before they ate. The LED was still on, but it wasn’t charging. He disconnected the lead, cleaned the end and checked the port. He plugged it back in again and watched, but it remained unresponsive.
‘One of the batteries took some damage,’ he said when he joined Cassady out on the deserted road. ‘Charge won’t reach halfway.’
The Runner pushed half the contents of the ration box across to him without changing his expression. ‘It doesn’t matter now. Eat something.’
After they’d finished devouring the virtually tasteless packets, Ghazi lay back with his head against the concrete. His stomach complained at the sudden influx of food, and the blitz pill made it difficult for him to clear his mind. But at least things were straight between him and Cassady again. That was enough.
Cassady cleared his throat. ‘What was with you back there, by the city? You looked hypnotised.’
Ghazi propped himself up on an elbow. ‘I don’t know. I saw something. A spirit I haven’t seen in the north for a long time. Something more than a desire to just survive.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘They were working together. Pulling in the same direction, fighting for something worthwhile. Not like us with our uneasy truces that crumble as soon as they meet the first bump in the road. We collaborate for survival’s sake and nothing more. What we saw was a movement. It made sense to me, and I wanted to be part of it.’
‘You don’t even know what they were fighting for.’
‘No, but Wyler said enough to make me think they were on the right side. Imagine if they win against the Koalition. Novus could be our Eden, Cass. With the technologies they have, the water reserves, the manpower, we could start again. Export it into the surroundings and rebuild. Slowly, but surely. It’ll take decades, maybe even centuries, but at least we’d be moving forward. All we’re doing now is prolonging the inevitable.’
‘You’re too quick to trust. Let’s say they do win, whoever they are. What if they take this place for themselves, man the borders and destroy anybody who comes too close? New management, same procedures.’
Ghazi didn’t respond straight away. When he did, his voice was quiet. ‘All the same, it’d be worth finding out, don’t you think?’
Cassady didn’t answer. Ghazi didn’t push it. The white city burned in his eyes, and he relived the moment when the crimson banner with its five slashing lines raced down the outside of the tower and hung there, defiant, vital, able to be seen for kilometres around. A surge of excitement momentarily displaced his exhaustion. That was where he needed to be. He was sure of it.
Half an hour passed in silence. The cramps in Ghazi’s stomach subsided and his thoughts settled enough for his eyes to close and his head to drop to his chest. Then a noise at the top of the hill shook him awake.
‘Hear that?’ whispered Cassady, the tension clear in his voice
.
‘Yes.’ He swallowed. A vehicle was approaching the town. Together, they jumped up and ran to the building where Warspite slept and hid by the door. Cassady blinked rapidly, one hand curling around the handle of his machete, the other flat against the doorframe. Ghazi pressed up close behind, the pistol grip slippery between worn-out fingers. The fact that he had a full clip to loose on whoever was out there offered scant comfort. An engine whined and the crunch of tyres against gravel filled his ears until it became white noise. The dusty leather of Cassady’s flight jacket was undercut by the sharp tang of sweat. Twin beams turned the road a sickly yellow and light seeped through the open doorway. They had come this far, but they couldn’t run any further. They could only die. He readied himself for the end and hoped it would be quick.
‘Wait,’ said Cassady.
‘What?’
‘That engine.’
Without another word, he stepped out into the middle of the road and held up his hands.
‘What are you doing?’ hissed Ghazi. But he wasn’t listening. He walked towards the light.
Ghazi held his pistol out in front of him and left the cover of the building. The hood of a large rectangular vehicle hid behind a pair of powerful headlights. It stopped a few metres away and the transmission whined and died. The doors swung open and an elegant form leapt out from the driver’s side, a rifle slung over its shoulder. On the other, a body limped down the steps to the road. Together, they approached the two men standing with their mouths open in disbelief.
Tagawa’s face was grimy and his dark uniform was spattered with mud. A cut graced his forehead. Victor’s arm lay in a sling and he grimaced as he walked. There was no trace of the boys who had left the stockade.
‘Told you we’d see each other again,’ said Tagawa by way of greeting.
Cassady smiled and stuck out his hand. ‘I didn’t believe you for a minute. I’m glad I was wrong.’