Quantum wrath, p.27
Quantum Wrath, page 27
“How?” the other locals demanded as one.
“Maybe the mercenaries took it as a sign he’s weak,” the bald man said with a shrug. “Or occupied with something else. And that’s why they chose to strike now.”
“How does that change anything?” the green-eyed man asked impatiently.
“Because maybe he really is weakened,” the bald man murmured. “Maybe now they’ve crippled his operations, and he’s panicking. Trying to regroup.”
Every face in the circle lifted a little.
A local who hadn’t spoken yet leaned forward. She was short and blunt-featured, and her face looked marginally hopeful.
“Other than you,” she said with a nod at the bald man, “I think you’re all being a bit pessimistic. Think about the time they thought some of their men were ambushed and robbed–”
“And then it turned out they were just on a bender out in the twinkly trees?” the green-eyed man snickered.
“All we got then was nightly home inspections,” the woman continued without breaking stride. “And they just roughed people up a little during those. It was nothing compared to the raids. Think about it… Regular raids are like peacetime shit for us. It means nothing big is going on. When he’s really worried about something, it’s inspections.”
“Why?” one of the evacuees said with a frown. “We get the Unit men in Amaroy sometimes, of course, but instead of these raids you’ve got here, they go on killing sprees every now and again, always claiming they’re hunting mercenaries. But my question is, why go easy on people with the inspections when shit is really serious?”
“Catch more flies with honey than vinegar, maybe,” the short woman said with a shrug. “That, and raids tend to be chaotic. Too easy for someone to slip through their fingers.”
“Might be you’re right,” the green-eyed man admitted, and he looked visibly calmer. “But still…”
“Be prepared,” the gaunt woman finished. She looked at the evacuees. “If it’s just inspections, don’t resist. They might push you around a little, but don’t react, and you’ll be just fine.”
The evacuees looked reassured, and I mirrored their facial expressions.
“‘Least I’ll probably be safe,” the bald man joked as he got to his feet. “I’m working nightshift at the tavern. They’ll want a good stiff drink after a night of intimidating, threatening, and generally terrifying people. They always do.”
“I wish we were so lucky,” I sighed. “But I bet most of the permanent residents aren’t even safe, are they?”
The man grunted in agreement. “The only exceptions are anyone near the wells. But then again, why would those Unit bastards trouble their own homes?”
An idea leaped into my mind, but I needed time to mull it over, so I chuckled along with the group as everyone got up to go their separate ways.
I swung one leg back across the bench to face Lu, and she mirrored my movement.
“What are you thinking?” she asked softly.
“Not here,” I said.
I shoved the last of my pastry in my mouth and took my time chewing to play things casually. Then I got to my feet and headed down one of the streets at random with Lu at my side.
I thought about all the questions I’d discussed with Lu before we left our room today.
At this point, they were questions I didn’t think could be answered by listening to people in the city.
At least, not average people.
But something I’d heard the bald man in our conversation say had given me an idea.
Chapter 15
I spoke in a low voice while we walked that an average person wouldn’t be able to understand as anything more than a low mumble, but my superpowered companion was well able to pick up on it.
“That guy said that anyone who lives near the wells is safe from the inspections,” I explained. “And then he said, ‘but then again, why would those Unit bastards trouble their own homes?’ Meaning, we now know where those Unit guys live.”
“So, what, then?” Lu asked with a keen glint in her pink eyes. “We stalk one all the way home, jump him, and–”
“No,” I sighed and rubbed my temples. “They’d never talk to us. Not under threat of death, or even under torture, probably.”
“I think you’re underestimating me,” she said with a devious grin.
I rolled my eyes. “I said no. But I think there may be a way for us to do some listening. We’ve seen how sharp the transitions in the outer city can be between the rich areas and the crawler-infested places, after all.”
“So we could pose as crawlers and eavesdrop,” Lu breathed. She sent me an admiring look. “Excellent thinking, Heathy.”
“It’s an idea,” I said. “And not a perfect one. We’re bound to stand out among the crawlers, especially me. Sure, we can fake the glassy eyes and zombie-like state, but… Well, I’m–”
“Fucking huge,” Lu finished with a nod. “Not skin and bones like the crawlers. Hmm… Wait a second. Didn’t we see some people possibly forced to become crawlers during the raid? They shoved that stuff into their mouths.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And we now know there are fresh crawlers on two sides of the city. I think I know roughly what directions those are in.”
I thought this through for a long moment, and finally I nodded with something like a decision.
It wasn’t a sure thing that we’d learn something useful. After all, maybe the Unit men would all head back to the obelisk again. Or maybe they’d go home and end up having some of the sound-canceling security we’d seen at the weapons lab in place at their own residences.
But it seemed important to at least try.
“It’s worth a shot,” I said. “But, Lu… Look at me.”
I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her, and I grabbed her by the jaw so she was forced to look me in the eye.
“What?” she mumbled with her plump lips all pushed together.
“If we do this…” I said in a low voice. “Do not, under any circumstances, actually lick the fucking rocks. Don’t even touch your hands to your face afterward if you can help it, not until you can clean them off. I’m not fucking around on this. It could ruin everything. For you, for me. Earlier, you said you don’t wanna end up with a demon crawling out of your chest. Well, getting that Tress shit in your system is a one-way ticket to doing that… after undergoing the misery, torment, and–”
“I understand,” Lu broke in, and her pale, pointed face was as solemn as I’d ever seen it. “I wouldn’t do that to myself. Or… I guess… to you.”
She seemed to realize that this was on the verge of sounding sappy, and she rushed to go on as she yanked her face out of my grip.
“I meant, it would be a huuuge dick move,” she added. “Forcing you to choose between leaving my ass in the nasty addictive dust and dragging a hopeless, Tress-obsessed, withdrawing zombie around with you? That’s maximal assholery, even for me. I promise, Heathy, I won’t fuck around on this one.”
There wasn’t a trace of mischief or overdone innocence in her eyes, and after a few moments, I felt fully satisfied that she understood how serious this was.
“Good,” I grunted.
I moved on quickly, mostly because the possibility she had presented disturbed me more than I cared to admit. The idea of Lu with glazed eyes and cracked lips, with her tongue rasping over the stone as she succumbed to a lifetime of addiction…
No. I wasn’t going to go there.
“There’s another thing to consider,” I said. “If inspections do happen, then where are we going to stay before and after we pose as crawlers? Chilling out in the street isn’t exactly an option, especially if we want to sleep that night. For one, we’re still not entirely sure if there’ll be a raid. And if there’s just an inspection, well, there’s no way in hell the two of us are going to pass one of those, either. Imagine if someone looked into the leather bag. We’d be utterly fucked.”
“Hear me out,” Lu said. “What if… we stay in the volcano?”
I opened my mouth to say ‘fuck no,’ then slowly closed it again.
I thought about the roomy, out-of-sight ledge just beneath the volcano’s rim. The central chute that led to the volcano below was narrower than a chimney, and there wasn’t even a slope that led to it. We could sleep there for the night, even.
“Maybe,” I finally said. “Although how the hell we’re going to get down in the morning, I don’t know. The far side of the volcano is pretty deserted, but still. Walking around the side of it might seem a little odd in the daylight.”
“I have an idea for that too,” Lu said brightly. “Okay, so by now I’m sure you’ve realized that I can do all sorts of cool things with my voice.”
“The ‘cool’ part is debatable,” I said, mostly to avoid fanning the flames of her ego. “But yeah.”
“It’s cool,” she insisted in a wounded voice. “But anyway, one of those cool things is that I can throw my voice.”
“What?” I furrowed my brow at her. “Like a fucking ventriloquist, or something?”
“Yep.” She let the word pop off her lips. “I know what you’re thinking: Is there anything she can’t do?”
“There’s plenty, trust me,” I muttered. “Like deflating your head a little, for one. Or thinking before you leap toward certain death. Or resisting shiny pink shit.”
“Or sprinkles!” Lu tossed in with a shit-eating grin.
I kept my face neutral.
“Regardless, how are you thinking this would help us get away from the volcano unseen?” I asked.
“I was thinking I could imitate the calls of one of those creepy little monkeys,” she said. “I’m a pro at bird calls, so why not this, too? Remember the chirpy noise that one made before they all attacked that little boy with the ice cream cone? Like this: Eeeeee–”
“Not now,” I growled as I clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Ah.” Her voice was muffled against my fingers, and she shot me an apologetic look as she peeled my hand away. “Right. Maybe I got a little too enthusiastic. But it could work, right?”
“Could,” I said grudgingly. “Alright, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll try out this trick once when we’re still in the city. See if you can send the monkeys running to wherever you throw your voice to. But it’s your job to scare those little fuckers away if they come toward us instead and try to haul your ass off to their monkey lair. If it works, though, then we can do it.”
“Deal,” she snickered. “Go team!”
“We’re not a team,” I informed her.
“We totally are,” she sighed with obvious satisfaction. “And you totally love it.”
“What I want to do now is go confirm what these fresh crawlers look like,” I barreled on. “Then we’ll listen around town more, and then head to the volcano just after sunset. The raid we saw didn’t happen ‘til moonset, but who knows, inspections might be earlier. We’ll hang out in the volcano, and if inspections happen, we’ll wait for them to end and see if any of the Unit dudes go to their houses. Then we’ll sneak down– no need for the monkey trick at that point since it’ll be dark– and go join those fresh crawlers. As long as what we see of them now doesn’t rule that out as an option.”
Lu nodded briskly, and she followed me without question as I strode off toward the direction the green-eyed man had pointed earlier. I skirted around one of the foul-smelling power plants and then headed toward the rim of the valley.
We paced through the tunnel-like streets, and I noticed more people who looked like evacuees doing purposeful things, like sweeping the carved-in patios of restaurants, or plucking up garbage and tossing it into sacks. One was even scrubbing vigorously, and unsuccessfully, at a region of rust on one of the carved metal street signs.
Maybe this was how it was with evacuees in this dimension: People took on odd jobs to earn enough nuggets to stay afloat for however the hell long they were here. The people doing the jobs didn’t seem unfamiliar with menial labor, and the speed they had acquired the jobs with did lend more to the possibility of these evacuations being a long-term regular thing.
We climbed the slopes of the bowl-like valley between a region of withering crops. The bars around them glowed red as we passed, and Lu snorted and shook her head.
“Who would even want to steal these puny, shriveled plants?” she muttered.
I shrugged. “Someone who’s starving.”
When the ground leveled out, the buildings towered a little lower above us. They were still connected by the same railcar-like sky bridges and boxes. Over all, it seemed pretty similar to the outskirts of the city in the region we had entered by. And like that place, it transitioned starkly from warped and dented metal to pristine communities with gated wells.
It wasn’t long before we came upon one of the dried-out streambeds with the usual stooped forms huddled over them.
Some of these figures had the gaunt, haggard look of the crawlers we’d spotted before now.
But some of them didn’t.
I saw a pudgy woman with jet-black hair crouched on her hands and knees licking the streambed. Nearby, a burly, middle-aged man sat back on his heels and just stared at the stone like he wished he could become one with it.
These people were a bit glassy-eyed, but they didn’t seem quite as out-of-it as the long-term crawlers. When we got close, their heads snapped up, and they gave us fearful looks. Some of them even cowered away.
“Just passing through,” I grunted as I stepped over the dried-up region.
Lu skipped her acrobatic leap this time and prowled through on my heels. When we had passed, she sent an uneasy look back at the people.
“Those were normal people maybe like, a week ago,” she murmured. “And now they’ve got dried-up rock dust all over their faces.”
“Good catch,” I murmured absently.
“What?” she shot me a quizzical look.
I shrugged without taking my eyes off the road ahead. “That’s the type of stuff I take note of when I’m looking people over. It’ll help us look like real crawlers if we end up posing as them. Although it’s absolutely not going to be actual Tress-laced rock dust.”
“You know, Heathy,” she marveled as she looked up at me. “You act like you’re all brawn. But you’re a fucking finesse player, do you realize that?”
“If the game is making sure I survive shit, then sure, you could say that.” I shrugged. “You get used to it.”
“No, youuuu get used to it,” she corrected me. “Most people wouldn’t, though. They’d probably be out here with their faces plastered to the rocks now.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper at the end, as we were approaching another dried-up streambed.
This one was absolutely packed with people, so it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t so dried-up. There was actually a fine trickle of liquid passing through the channel that was carved across the road. A glance left and right showed that the twisted alleyways were stuffed full of people, too.
No wonder the trickle was only a trickle. These people were lapping it up almost as fast as it was appearing.
But more importantly, many of them looked fairly normal, too. Their clothes were a little more soiled, and some had rips and frays at the ends, but they weren’t as malnourished-looking as the other crawlers. Their hair was less lank and dull, and their movements had more vigor.
Although at the moment, every ounce of that vigor was channeled into consuming as much Tress as humanly possible.
Hell, these people would probably bite us if we even attempted to break through them. Some of them were already squabbling amongst themselves and shoving to get a better place.
“Yeah,” I sighed as I stood back a little. “We’re gonna jump this one.”
“Sure thing, chicken wing,” Lu sang as she took a few steps back.
We got a running start and cleared the line of crawlers in a single long bound. They didn’t even flinch away at our approach, but a collective rustle went through them the second our feet hit the ground on the other side.
I kept moving at a brisk walk and gazed over my shoulder warily just in case any of them tried anything, but their attention barely flickered now that they realized we were moving away. Their faces were glued to the pavement again within seconds.
And then just like that, we walked into one of the richer regions of the city within seconds.
I did a double-take as I glanced up at the colorful, pristine metal buildings and saw rows of crystalline windows. Some were cracked to release a thin trickle of smoke.
I didn’t turn my head to look as we passed by a gate with a well behind it, but I watched the statues surrounding it closely out of the corner of my eye.
None of them moved an inch, so far as I could see.
Once we had passed, I glanced over at Lu.
“This all seems pretty promising,” I said quietly.
We explored a little more, and I started to notice a rough layout to these richer areas. The gated areas were home to the wells, but when I risked a glance over, I saw that they also held rows of sheltered patios that faced each other. With the gate shielding them in, this region formed something like an enclosed courtyard. It almost looked cozy, in a weird, otherworldly, hyper-urbanized type of way. It looked like a place where a community of people could hang out and relax together. There were even some light orbs strung overhead that were full of the glowing, flitting fish of the street lamps. Some of the patios had chairs and odd, cylindrical objects that might’ve been for cooking.
But the sight of the water-filled lights and the well really fucking soured things.
That, and the statues that were a stark reminder of who it was that lived here.
I moved on, and we did a quick sweep of the surrounding region. The region of fresh crawlers was wide enough that I thought we had a decent chance of our plan paying off.
I identified the rough edge of the area that was closest to the volcanic area. It was a fairly quick path through the tunnel-like streets, and it looked like we would be able to climb down the back of the volcano, then straight up the adjacent side of the bowl-shaped valley.
