The bend of the world, p.20
Escape, page 20
part #3 of Final Days Series
* * *
Roland
"It has to be here somewhere." Roland had forgotten that Carrie had sent a dozen people to clear out the supply station. They'd only taken what Carrie had deemed imperative, including things like replacement water filters, but they'd left it a mess, rendering his bin location useless.
He scoured the space for the device he'd seen in Hound's office, but he couldn't find it anywhere. Thunder boomed through the insulated hull, shaking the entire station. Roland felt around in his pocket for the familiar comfort of his pill bottle. He hadn't thought about it in so long, but the noise, the day's events, mixed with the pressure growing in his chest, was becoming insurmountable. He fell to the ground, turning on his side.
He breathed deeply, trying to gather his wits, but the attack hit him with a ferocity he hadn't felt since the week after his grandmother had died, leaving him alone in the world. He lay in a fetal position, rain pelting the sides of Eden Fifteen with such force that he thought he might be under attack. Roland clutched his head, screaming through the booms of thunder, and that's when he spotted it.
His vision focused, and the ache in his chest subsided as he saw the boxy device. He rolled to his back, jumping to his feet, and crossed the room, kicking some empty blue bins out of the way as he stopped near it.
Roland bent over, using his knees to lift as he found the device far heavier than he'd expected. The fear and anxiety were gone, replaced with self-assurance and determination. He returned the mask to his face and exited the messy room, the box gripped in two hands. His gun was tucked in the jumpsuit, and he hoped he didn't need a quick draw.
He was far from the busy part of camp, and he didn't see another soul over on this end. His chest tightened as he noticed the commotion on the opposite side of the colony. Blue lights glowed from a strange landed ship. It was far too small to be their allies. It had to be Hound.
His first instinct was to turn and run into the forest, but he pushed it aside, continuing toward the others and into danger.
* * *
Kendra
She gasped as the first glint of metal emerged at the top of the ramp. The floodlights illuminated half of the crops, and each flash of lightning gave them a better understanding of what was coming their way.
Kendra used a pair of binoculars to see the entire picture. The ship wasn't as big as she'd first thought, but the bipedal machines emerging from inside looked extremely deadly. They wouldn't need many of them to bring an end to what remained of humanity. The first one had to be ten feet tall: long thin arms dangled at its sides, while thick legs carried it over the ramp slowly as its unusually small head turned. Instead of eyes, it had a visor that had flickering green lights dancing through it.
The robot was a thing of her nightmares, ever since seeing a movie as a kid about time-traveling cyborgs. Everything about these human-shaped machines set off warning bells. Another came forward, then another, and soon a row of twenty stood in a straight line, flanking the ramp.
"What are they doing?" Tom asked behind her, his words muffled by his mask.
"Twenty targets. Each about ten feet high," Kendra muttered.
"Are they armed?" Eve asked. Kendra lowered the binoculars and saw the advancing squadron. They were just as imposing from a distance.
She wiped the lenses, staring through the device again. "They appear to have built-in armaments." Something akin to a machine gun was bolted to the left arms, and more weapons were mounted on their shoulders, as well as their hips. They stopped, no longer walking toward camp, and Kendra peered toward the ridge where Belidar was supposed to be arriving from. Come on, hurry up.
Evan stepped forward with a rifle in his grip. "What are we waiting for?"
Kendra lifted a hand. "One minute."
The robots stilled, and she caught movement from inside the ship. She shifted the binoculars and saw a form stepping onto the ramp. It was hideous. Four arms waved as if they were under water. Tentacles hung and writhed from its neck, and the entire creature was so pale she could see through its skin. Organs pumped and bulged beneath the surface as it walked down the decline, stopping as it stepped onto the mud. One of the arms was holding a device, and she recognized it as the voice amplifier Keller had used when they'd first arrived.
The creature spoke, the language horrible and magnificent at the same time. It was like an echoing children's choir under duress. It stopped, and she heard something in stilted English before it spoke again. "Welcome to Eden. I hope you enjoyed the stay. It's time to deal with this once and for all. I gave you every chance to let it go, but you wouldn't. Now you die, and we move on." The arms continued to wave as the real Lewis Hound kept talking. "Drop your weapons, and perhaps I will let a few of you live. Carrie, don't make the mistake of opposing me. You know better. You've seen what I am capable of. Convince the others before it's too late."
Kendra looked at her sister, who was stepping toward the crops, her mouth agape. "He's... that's him."
Hound was as alien as she could have expected. Evan knelt in the mud, his scope tracking as the being moved. The shot rang out, and Kendra found the binoculars, searching for Hound, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Everyone back!" Kendra shouted as the robots began to advance. Gunfire erupted from their weapons, laser pulses shooting from their shoulders, sending shards of floodlights raining down on Kendra and the others. She covered her head and ran.
Evan took another shot, and Kendra was about to grab the man's shoulder to drag him away when he paused, falling to the muck. He had a hole the size of a bowling ball through his chest. A scream caught in her throat, but she powered through, picking up the dropped rifle.
"Withdraw! We need a more defensible position!" Kendra called, and the others didn't need to be told twice. They ran toward the residences, mist rising all through the camp, the ground being torn apart behind them by enemy gunfire.
THIRTY
Andrew
Andrew and Keller took turns watching out the entrance of the tent with their rifles, checking for signs of more alien predators creeping up on them. They had a big tree at their backs, but the sides and front of their shelter were exposed. Andrew was chilled by his sodden jumpsuit and wet hair, but it was a strange mixture of heat and cold that came and went in waves. His body itched all over from the soaked fabric clinging to him, and his left arm pulsed hotly inside the compression wrap. Some of the feeling had returned to his hand, but he could barely make a fist, and doing so hurt like hell. Apart from nerve damage, the muscles were obviously torn to pieces.
Outside, the rain had slowed to a trickle, but the mist was still too thick to negotiate.
"I never should have agreed to come along," Keller said.
"Maybe not, but there's no point whining about it now," Andrew replied from where he sat guarding the entrance of the tent. "The only way out is forward. We wait for the storm to abate, then find Hound's hideout. Maybe we'll get lucky and find that he left one of those fighters there for you to fly us out."
Keller snorted. "There were four. We stole one, and Hound took it back. I assumed he's probably locked the other three down tight. We were lucky the first time that the entrance wasn't code-locked."
"Maybe we'll get lucky again," Andrew suggested.
"Is the rain letting up?"
"Yeah, but the mist is dense as a damn sheet."
"We don't have any more time to waste. We should go."
"Because getting lost won't waste any time," Andrew muttered, but Keller was right. "Come on then," he said as he crawled out of the tent. Rain pelted his hair and jumpsuit, but nothing close to what had been assaulting them a moment ago. Andrew searched for signs of trouble, then turned to Keller as he came out of the tent. He didn't bother trying to collapse the shelter. There was no time for any of that.
"On me," Andrew said, and set out at a brisk pace, scanning the muddy mess of leaves on the forest floor.
"What are you looking for?" Keller asked.
"Last time I found the pond that conceals the entrance of Hound's lair by following animal tracks." The pond was a source of fresh water, so it made sense that animals would go there to drink. "There we go," Andrew said, stopping to examine a set of muddy prints. They weren't the giant pawprints of the alien wolves, but rather the smaller dime-sized pock marks of an eight-legged animal. He'd never seen the animal it corresponded to, nor would he like to. "That way." Andrew pointed as he followed the muddy tracks leading from the river. They soon joined up with two more sets, and all three of them wove through the trees in the same direction.
"How do you know we're following the tracks in the right direction?" Keller asked.
"I don't."
"Fantastic. If I get stuck on this godforsaken planet with you..."
Andrew barked a laugh. "Don't worry. I'm not keen to spend the rest of my days with you either."
Ten minutes later, the trees parted to reveal a moonlit clearing and a dark, gleaming circle of water. Andrew heaved a sigh of relief. "Would you look at that?"
"You must be wearing a rabbit's foot."
"No argument here. Stay sharp. Last thing we need is for Hound to sneak up on us, or another one of those wolves."
Keller snorted but said nothing. Andrew led them to the water's edge and waded out to the center of the pond. His boots thunked on the metal hatch cover, and he bent down to open it. The long, shadowy stairwell materialized, just as before.
Andrew nodded to Keller, who was watching the mist-shrouded edges of the pond where they stood, his rifle sweeping back and forth.
"Ready?"
"Go," Keller whispered.
Andrew slipped under the hatch and hurried down the stairs, leaving the cover open behind them for a quick escape. He felt for the bomb in the front pouch of his jumpsuit, reassuring himself that it was still there. The beams of their angle-head flashlights bounced along the walls and ceiling of the stairwell as they ran to the entrance at the bottom. Andrew stepped up to the door and tested the handle.
"Locked. Damn it!" Andrew hissed.
"Maybe we can just leave the bomb here," Keller suggested. "It'll cave in the entrance."
"But there's a hangar entrance. Hound can still enter even if we destroy this one."
"Well..." Keller glanced behind them to the top of the stairs. "I don't know that we have a choice."
"Stand back," Andrew suggested.
"What?"
"You heard me!"
They both retreated quickly, climbing the first few steps, and Andrew aimed at the handle with his rifle. "Plug your ears," he suggested. He pulled the trigger and held it down on full auto. The rifle pulsed and roared against his shoulder, vibrating hard. It was nearly impossible to control with his left arm wounded, but he managed to riddle the door with holes. A few bullets plinked off and shattered concrete walls around them, narrowly missing warmer targets.
"Let's try it now," Andrew said. He grabbed the handle with his right hand. This time the door gave a few inches as he pulled. Andrew threw his weight against it, and it gave another half an inch. "Come on!" he said, tugging with everything he had.
The door sprang free, and he went flying into the wall. The back of his head hit concrete, dazing him.
"I think you got it," Keller whispered.
Andrew rounded the door and stepped through, sweeping for targets. Not seeing anything, he moved quickly, searching for support beams or other structures that would maximize the effect of the bomb. The inside of the control center was exactly the way he'd left it: rows of screens and empty control stations lined the floor. Beyond that were the illuminated cryo tanks full of specimens, and Hound's personal control hub, surrounded by live streams of hidden cameras strategically planted around their camp.
Andrew found what he was looking for near the midpoint of the echoing chamber: a solid pillar that ascended to the darkened ceiling above. "This is it," he said as he bent down and planted the bomb. "Are you ready to run for it, Keller?"
No reply.
Andrew glanced up and searched the room. He found Keller walking toward a door on the left side of the room. "Keller!" he called. "Get back here!"
The other man rounded on him with a finger to his lips, then pointed to the door. Andrew returned the bomb to the front pouch of his jumpsuit with a frown before crossing the room to join him. "What?" he whispered.
"The hangar is through that door. Don't you want to see if there's another fighter we can use to escape?" Keller asked. He went to the door and turned the handle.
Andrew followed him through into a vast, shadowy chamber. Three streamlined silver fighters sat on the floor, with a gap where a fourth should have been. Keller swept the room for targets and Andrew checked their six, before they hurried across the room to the nearest vehicle. Keller spent a moment running his hands along the mirror-smooth sides of it. Andrew guarded the entrance. "You know how to get in or not?"
"Give me a second!"
The ships had no windows or visible seams of any kind. Keller didn't even seem to know what he was searching for.
Something growled, drawing Andrew's attention. He saw the tigerwolf slowly creeping near the entrance of the hangar.
"We might not have a second," Andrew pointed out, tracking the beast with his rifle.
Keller glanced away from the fighter. "Just shoot it!"
Andrew's finger tightened on the trigger. A musical voice echoed through the room, followed by a deep, halting translation: "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The words sent an icy shiver down Andrew's spine. For a moment, he wondered if they'd come from that wolf, but the creature's mouth hadn't moved.
"Why not?" Andrew demanded, his eyes searching the ceiling where he suspected hidden speakers were relaying the voice. Hound's voice. Was this what he actually sounded like?
The musical voice returned, high-pitched and oddly melodious, speaking in a language more alien than anything Andrew had ever heard. Once more, the translation followed: "Because if you kill my pet, then I'll kill your daughter."
Andrew's finger froze on the trigger. "You're bluffing."
"Am I...?"
* * *
Val
Val tore across the fields, running faster than she ever had in her life. Tony ran beside her, Kendra and Carrie leading the way. Carrie burst through the entrance of the residences and held the doors open as the rest of the colonists crowded through. Lasers chased them in, exploding on the walls of the building and in the backs of dying people. Screams split the air, and the sharp bite of ozone filled Val's nostrils.
She sobbed as she sprinted through the hallway to the stairs. Tony pulled alongside her, his arms pumping. He had his pistol out in one hand, and she had the tiny revolver Kendra had given her, but Val couldn't imagine how those guns would be of any use against the mechanized army they'd seen. Those robots were huge.
"Hurry!" Kendra cried from a few steps ahead of them. She reached the stairwell and yanked the door open.
Val flew across the threshold and up the stairs with Tony, leading a screaming, shoving crowd of at least fifty other colonists to the upper levels of the residences.
Hound's true voice echoed through the walls of the building, followed by the stilted English translation. The words were muffled beyond recognition, but the sound of their pursuit added fuel to Val's screaming muscles. She hit the second floor and pushed through the door into the corridor.
"Where are you going?" Tony called after her between gasps for air.
"My room!" she said.
"We should go higher!" he said, indicating the way they'd come. This corridor was deserted. All of the other colonists were busy taking Tony's advice. They probably thought the more floors they could put between themselves and the advancing army, the better. But they weren't thinking about what would happen when they wound up on the fourth or fifth floor with nowhere left to run. At least here, she and Tony could jump from the windows if they were cornered.
Val shook her head, speechless for lack of breath. She reached the door to her room and slammed it open. Tony barreled in behind her, and she locked it behind them.
"Help me drag the bed in front of it," she said.
Tony nodded and tucked his pistol into his belt. Val did the same, and then they each grabbed the edges of her bed and hauled the metal frame in front of the door.
"That won't hold," Tony said, shaking his head. "We should hide. Maybe they won't search the whole building."
Val grimaced, but gave in with a nod. "The bathroom." She pointed to it. They charged for the open doorway.
Before they even reached it, a whistling shriek issued from the window to the courtyard below. Val stopped and turned toward the sound--
A burst of light and heat and a deafening boom sent her flying into the bathroom vanity. With ringing ears, she peeled herself off the furniture and stumbled forward a few steps. Tony stood beside the entrance of the bathroom, bleeding from a dozen minor cuts in his face, arms, and torso. His hair was a wild mess, the Beretta held in a shaky two-handed grip, aiming at the gaping hole in the wall where Val's window had been a moment ago. Flaming scraps of drapery framed the gap, and the gleaming wedges of glass reflected flickers of the small fire. Metal hands slammed on the floor, and a robot's head surfaced as it began pulling itself up.
Tony fired, and the bullet plinked off its shoulders, crunching into the adjacent wall. He shot repeatedly with the same result, his muffled screams reaching Val's deafened ears as if from a great distance. She belatedly joined him with her revolver, but nothing was stopping the monstrous machine.
It pulled itself fully into the gap and stood with its head brushing the ceiling. A glowing green visor studied them from its unnaturally small head.
Tony looked to Val with wide, terrified eyes. "Run!" he cried.
A bright flash of light tore through the room and spun him around like a ballerina.
"No!" Val cried as Tony crumpled to the floor.
She fired at the robot until the gun was empty, all of its bullets spent.
She stood glaring balefully at Tony's killer, her eyes blurry and streaming with tears, and a scalding knot in her throat. She expected another flash of light to put her out of her misery, but that shot never came.
