Thus Falls the Shadow

by Martin Swinford

  Rilk glared at me for a moment but then shook his head.

  “You're right,” he said with a rueful smile. “I should. I'm sorry.”

  I held his gaze and then nodded.

  “Ok.”

  “Am I forgiven?”

  “Of course, but no more surprises!”

  “Not even nice ones?”

  I couldn't help it. His cheeky smile always got the better of me.

  “Come here,” I said.

  We stood, and I leaned my head against his shoulder, my arms around him. As always, I was comforted by his sheer physicality. I felt his arms come around me and I felt the whisper of his stubble as he bent his head and spoke quietly in my ear.

  “I am sorry. When I'm with you I forget there's ever been anyone else.”

  “Me too,” I whispered back. “This thing we have, this 'us', it is the most real thing.” I felt him nod gently, the tip of his nose furrowing through my hair.

  We stood like that until the alarm sounded to prepare for acceleration. I turned to Rilk as we were being strapped in and said, “Just tell me again that this is going to work.”

  “Of course!” he replied. I thought for a moment.

  “You know when you said you'd done this before?”

  “Yes.”

  “The whole pulling out of a top speed dive when your only seconds away from impact?”

  “Ye-es.”

  “When was that actually?”

  “Ah.” Rilk pursed his lips. “Well, you know that 3D holovid I used to play all the time?”

  “Planet Invasion 3?”

  “On that.”

  “What?”

  “It's a good simulation!” Rilk at least had the grace to look embarrassed.

  “So you've never actually done it?”

  “Of course not!” He actually looked affronted. “You think I'm that crazy?”

  “I do now!”

  He grinned from ear to ear. “It's going be fine,” he said. “Besides it's too late to worry now. Here we go!”

  My reply was lost in the sudden crescendo of engine noise and I was thrust violently back into my seat.

  Seventeen

  THE REEDS SLIPPED BY on either side as the speeder wound its way through the swamp. My left ear was almost overcome by the roar of the engine and the buffeting of the air as we skimmed over water and weeds, through gaps in the reed beds which parted before us and closed after, our world reduced to an envelope of green that reached far above our heads. In my right ear I felt the nagging pressure of the helmet ear piece, its silence increasing the feeling of isolation. Rilk sat to my right, his body moving easily with each bump or dip. At the front Hans manned the twin barrelled machine gun, his eyes staring unceasingly for any sign of danger. At the back Waldo drove, laughing to himself with a wild look in his eye. Guy covered our wake, watching for any sign of pursuit.

  Somewhere behind us four more speeders raced towards the city. Martha led the second, no doubt with Bex close at hand, it felt strange that she wasn't with us. I glanced across at Rilk who smiled and gave me a thumbs up. I made the sign back but being honest I felt anything but OK. My mouth was so dry that I was constantly trying to swallow, I felt sick and I gripped the speeder hard just to keep my hands from shaking. My thoughts were running too fast, a constant stream of, “You shouldn't be doing this, this is crazy, you're going to get killed, you're going to get Rilk killed, you don't know what the fuck you're doing, you're not a soldier....” on and on. Again, I looked across at Rilk and tried to calm myself. “He's the reason you're here,” I told myself. “Watch his back, keep him safe. Just keep your head down and stick with him. You can do this.” I felt myself start to calm down, swallowed again and looked ahead as the reeds gave way to small patch of open water. Suddenly the air was alive with hundreds of brightly coloured birds, scarlet and gold wings flashing in the light that glinted off the water. United in the air they coiled and swirled, the whole flock moving as one to bend upwards out of the way of the speeder. For a brief moment we passed through an arch of living colour, before it disappeared behind us and we dived into the forest of reeds once more.

  At that moment my earpiece clicked on.

  “Hey sweeties!” Martha's voice sounded strangely close. “Almost there, so it's time for a little music to guide us in. Thought we'd have a little girl power. Bex, this one's for you!”

  There was a pause and then the singing kicked in.

  'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want...'

  “What the fuck's this?” Rilk's voice cut in.

  'So tell me what you want, what you really, really want...'

  “Martha likes to play music as we go into attack,” explained Hans. “Says it keeps us focussed.”

  'I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna...'

  “She's on some cultural kick man,” Guy's voice rumbled in my ear. “This is like, hunerd-n-eighty years old.”

  “I really, really, really wanna...”

  “Last time we had this weird shit called 'Sisters are doing it for themselves',” Hans added.

  '...Zigazig aah!'

  “Waldo said he'd rather watch sisters doin it to each other,” Hans continued.

  “Hur hur hur.” Even Waldo's laugh had a leer.

  “He got a slap!” Guy's deep laugh joined in as a counterpoint to Waldo's hyena impression.

  'If you wanna be my lover...'

  The music pumped on but I was becoming aware of other sounds. Over the rush of air and whine of motor I could make out the staccato cracks of machine gun fire, and the deeper thump of big guns.

  “Almost there!” Rilk's voice in my ear.

  A flicker of light bathed the swamp in a momentary lurid glow followed closely by an almost subliminally bass boom. The reeds around us sighed low as the concussive force of the blast hit us. Waldo cursed loudly, wrestling with the controls as the speeder was thrown up and to the side.

  “Hit something big!” Guy grunted.

  “We're getting close!” Hans' voice.

  We slashed through a final bank of reeds and surged into sunlight, speeding now across a sandy plain. I could see the city ahead, wreathed in smoke as the battle raged. A group of three ships attacked, holding a tight formation even as a barrage of gunfire went up. As they crossed the wall they split, rolling right and left, strafing the buildings as they discharged their deadly cargo. At this distance their bombs looked like a shower of tiny droplets but this was a deathly rain, as the percussive blasts that followed testified. As one of the gunships banked left and headed towards us a steak of light reached up from the city. Almost above our heads it touched the ship. The flash was so bright my visor instantly darkened, protecting my eyes but rendering me momentarily blind. When it cleared the ship was gone, replaced by a cloud of debris that rained down around us, while the heat of blast faded from my skin.

  I looked back to see the other speeders emerge from the swamp and fan out behind us. I felt a sprinkle of sand on my hand and turned to see a plume of sand erupt from the ground, closely followed by others. It took me a moment to connect them to the rattle of gunfire coming from the city ahead.

  “They've seen us.” Hans sounded strangely calm.

  “Ok, this is it!” Rilk responded. “Waldo, get us there fast, Guy ready the charges, and Hans?”

  “Yup?”

  “Keep their heads down!”

  The recoil of the machine gun shook the boat as Hans opened up. Ahead the wall loomed much larger and I could see the muzzles of the guns that sought us.

  “Come on, come on!” Rilk muttered as we got ever closer.

  For a moment a figure appeared above the parapet only to be hurled backward by the machine gun bullets, his scream audible even over the din of the attack. A second appeared and then ducked down as a tiny speck arced towards us.

  “Grenade!” Hans shouted.

  The speeder slewed sideways, engine screaming as Waldo wrenched at the controls. I clung tight as we heeled over, the dec
k now almost vertical, and heard the thud as the grenade hit the bottom of the speeder and bounced clear. I felt a split second of relief before the grade detonated, and then all was noise as the blast hit us. Waldo could do nothing now as the speeder spun out of control, dug its nose into the ground and then cartwheeled. Sky and sand whirled crazily round my head as the ground came up to meet me very fast and everything went black.

  Eighteen

  MY NECK WAS HURTING. I felt the sand move under my hands as something, someone, dragged me by the collar. I reached up, tried to slap them away. Shouting, another blur of noise in a storm of sound. My legs kicked impotently against the ground. A whine and a spurt of dirt to my right. Trails of smoke across the sky above. More shouting and suddenly I could hear words.

  “Will! Get the fuck up!”

  I tried to speak, spat sand from my mouth and tried again.

  “Get off me!” I croaked.

  “Down!” I slammed into the ground and heard Rilk thump down beside me.

  “What happened?” I started to raise my head and then ducked as more bullets kicked up the sand around us.

  “We crashed,” said Rilk. “Fuckers got us with a grenade.”

  We were lying in a shallow depression behind a ridge of sand just high enough to give us cover.

  “Where are the others?”

  “Don't know, comms are out.” Rilk rolled onto his side, jacked the mag out of his gun and started reloading. I spat sand from my mouth and looked down the length of my body. I felt like everything hurt, but I couldn't see any blood which I figured was a good sign.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked.

  “What we came to do. We blow the gate.” Rilk stopped long enough to look me in the eye and then returned his attention to the gun.

  “You're joking right?” I asked.

  “No,” he replied. He slammed the mag back into the gun and rolled onto his front. “This is combat, Will. We get given a mission, we do the mission. Doesn't matter what goes wrong, we keep going. The rest of the team are counting on us to blow the gate, so that's what we're going to do.” He started to worm his way up to the lip of the ridge. “Once we get to the wall we'll be out of the line of fire, it's just getting there that's a bit dicey.”

  “Dicey? It's fucking suicide!” I grabbed his shirt and held on. “You're going to get us both killed.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I've got a plan!” Rilk suddenly grinned in a way that I found rather alarming.

  “A plan?” I asked. “It better be a good one!” I ducked as another salvo of bullets passed overhead.

  “It's a beauty.” Rilk was still grinning. “Do you wanna hear it?”

  “I've got a bad feeling about this.” I shook my head. Rilk smiled.

  “Run like fuck!” he said.

  “You what?”

  “Run like fuck!”

  “Run?”

  “Like fuck!” He laughed and then wriggled out of the straps of his backpack.

  “That's your plan?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he replied as he unzipped the bag. “Don't you like it?”

  “No, I don't like it!”

  “Why not?”

  “You know I hate exercise!” I watched him take a number of black cylinders out of the bag.

  “Here.” He passed me one, it felt too heavy for its size. “Magnetic,” he said. “We'll take a side of the gate each, one as high as you can reach the other at knee level.”

  “Is that going to be enough?”

  “It'll be fine,” said Rilk as he checked the charges. “It's not built to keep out armies.”

  “What is it built to keep out?”

  The monster exploded from the swamp with a mighty roar. Scaled and finned with a maw full of teeth, it shook itself free of mud and weed before swiping at a speeder with one giant claw.

  “Them!” Rilk looked at me wild eyed. “Ready to run?”

  “Suddenly I feel like I need the exercise!” I replied. “Let's go!”

  It probably only took fifteen seconds to cover the distance to the wall but it seemed like an age. I felt wildly out of control, charging head down through a cacophony of noise, feet splashing through puddles then slipping on sand, gun banging heavily on my back, oxygen burning in my lungs. I was expecting to get hit any second, shaking with adrenalin, terrified but exhilarated. I had forgotten that feeling, the feeling of being utterly alive.

  To my right I could see Rilk pulling ahead of me, almost at the wall, we were going to make it! I put my head down for a final burst of speed, when something slammed into my left shoulder, spinning me round and knocking me to the floor. I rolled onto my front, tried to pull myself up. My shoulder was on fire, my left arm numb, but a voice in my head was screaming 'keep going' as I half ran, half crawled the last few metres to the wall.

  “Are you hit?” Rilk screamed from the other side of the gate. I glanced down at my shoulder. There was a rent in the body armour, but no blood.

  “I think I'm ok!” I shouted back. “Ready to blow the gate?”

  Rilk gave me a thumbs up in answer and then started placing the charges. I placed the first, feeling the magnetic pull as it clipped on to the gate. The second was more difficult, with my left arm numb and the charge in my right hand I somehow pushed myself up against the wall and then leaned round to slap the charge against the gate as high as I could.

  “Ready?” shouted Rilk.

  “Ready!” I shouted back. He reached down and flicked the trigger on the nearest charge. I spun and threw myself down in the shelter of the wall.

  The gate blew with a sound like a thousand giants punching. The moment of silence that followed felt like a disconnection from the world, but then noise poured into the vacuum and I lifted my head. A cloud of dust hung in the newly created gap between the walls, screams and shouts rang from within, a fighter roared overhead. I looked across to see Rilk struggling to his feet. He started towards me but jumped back as Martha's speeder shot through the gap between us, closely followed by the other two. Shots rang out, punctuated by the cries from within the walls. The noise rose then fell as the fight moved on and I coughed on the acrid smoke and pulled myself to my knees.

  “Here.” Rilk grabbed my good arm and pulled me up. “Are you ok?” he continued. “Let's have a look,” and he started to undo the buckles and zips of my armoured vest.

  “Time and place!” I said and then “Ow!” as he eased the jacket off my injured shoulder.

  “Just bruised I think,” he muttered. “Yes, the bullet didn't go through. In fact...” He probed with his fingers inside the rent in the armour. “Hold out your hand!” I reached out and accepted a small misshapen cylinder.

  “The bullet that would have killed you!”

  “Really?” I held it up between thumb and finger. “Such a small thing,” I mused.

  “Keep it,” Rilk suggested. “Bring you luck.”

  I looked up at him, and then just leaned forward and rested my head on his shoulder.

  “Hey.” He put an arm round me. “Are you ok?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded, rubbing my forehead up and down the rough material of his jacket. “I just feel suddenly weak.”

  “It's ok,” he said. “You're alright.”

  We stood there as the dust cleared and the ships roared overhead. A moment of order snatched from chaos, peace stolen from the maelstrom of war.

  Nineteen

  “WE SHOULD PROBABLY go,” I lifted my head and stared over Rilk's shoulder. A heat haze pulled a veil across the plain, a line of light that reflected the sand so that it hovered between earth and sky. From beyond I could hear the muted roars of the giant lizard as it crashed its way back into the swamp. A flicker of movement in the distance formed a shimmering line before resolving itself into two indistinct shapes moving slowly towards us.

  “What's that?” I murmured.

  Pulling away from me, Rilk turned and stared into the distance.

  “I think the big one's Guy,” he said
after a moment, “and probably Hans as well?”

  “So where's Waldo?” I asked. Rilk just shook his head.

  Waldo was dead, neck broken when the speeder hit the sand. Hans explained what happened in a matter of fact way while Guy just stood red eyed, his grief somehow accentuated by his burnt face. I was surprised and somehow encouraged by the big man's grief. It was nice to know he cared.

  “We're not just going to leave him out there are we?” I asked.

  Hans shook his head. “The ship will pick him up.”

  “We have a tracker,” Guy rumbled. “Here.” He pointed to the back of his neck.

  “It's part of the deal,” explained Rilk. “Pick up, funeral and a cash payment to your next of kin.”

  “It'll come as soon as it's clear.” Hans added.

  “Speaking of which,” said Rilk, “I think the bombing's stopped.”

  We stood still and listened. It was definitely quieter.

  “Is it over?” I asked.

  “We better go and see,” Rilk replied.

  Guns at the ready we scrambled through the rubble of the gate, but there was no one left alive to fight. Instead we were greeted by the scattered bodies of the defenders, anonymous in their brown camo. At my feet a man lay face down and compelled by a macabre curiosity I flipped him over onto his back and immediately wished I hadn't. One eye stared up accusingly through the lens of his goggles, the other a bloody ruin behind shattered glass. His beard and moustache were matted with dust, his lips pulled back from teeth clenched in eternal pain. I felt the horror that comes with the awareness of that slight but so significant difference between life and death. For a moment I felt that each breath would be my last, that it would escape my lungs and never return, that I would choke and fall and lie in my accuser's embrace.

  The spell was broken by the solid weight of Rilk's hand on my arm.

  “It's always a mistake to look,” he said. “Come on.”

  Beyond the gate we crossed a wide trackway into the shadow of the first buildings, walking down narrow passages between blocks of corporate ugliness.