Another thirty minutes rolled by, and Jared almost left the building to investigate. Before he made that decision, they heard a faint creaking, followed by a low droning sound that grew louder and paused. Jared withdrew from the peephole he was using and silently prayed there was nothing that could sense them through the walls.
A faint whirring and beep were the only warnings Jared received before a high-pitched alarm blared through the wooden barrier they stood behind. With no choice, Jared threw open the door to find a small spherical device with blinking red lights sitting on the dock in front of him.
The sphere had a lens on the front and a shimmer of red light washed over Jared and Carla as it scanned them. The shrill noise emanated from the tiny device. His path decided for him, Jared whipped out his phase pistol and burned a hole through the tiny device.
“We’ve got to move!”
“Scarlet, they have found us! Don’t come yet, we’ll see if we can find”
Jared paused in mid-stride as he watched half a dozen of the balls roll out from the closest street. He also heard the faint metallic clang of something else approaching from just beyond his sight.
“Never mind, come now!”
“On my way! I need five minutes to get there.”
Five minutes. Jared wracked his brain for a way to avoid a confrontation, but nothing surfaced. I need to hold out for five minutes.
“Carla, stay close and follow me.”
Jared sprinted up the dock, carefully aligning his shots as he picked off the small spherical machines. One by one, they fizzled out as his phase rounds burned clean through them. Right before they rounded a corner, Jared glimpsed a metal leg entering the street in the same direction the scanner probes came from.
The color drained from his face as he recalled what had happened to the explorers who’d reached the floating city. If these machines were anything like those and had phase rifles, he and Carla were in serious trouble.
“Hurry, Scarlet! Those robots we saw kill the other explorers are here and coming for us.”
“I am coming. Hold on!”
They silently sprinted down a side street. After running several blocks, Jared darted into an open home and shut the door.
“Carla, I don’t think this will work. When Scarlet and I went back to New York to find her family, we saw some of these scanners. Somehow, they followed the path we took months after we’d traveled it. I think they’re going to find us.”
Jared peered out one window, looking for any signs it had followed them. Jared grabbed his second phase pistol and handed it over to Carla.
“Take this.” He shoved the pistol at her.
She backed up a step and held her hands in front of her. “I don’t shoot weapons. I-I was one of those who didn’t want to.”
“Carla, I understand where you’re coming from. I know several people from my colony who felt the same way, but if we don’t take out these machines, they will take us out. Us or them. Those are the options. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to take them out solo. It depends on how many there are. They all carry phase rifles and the only way we make it out of this is if we work together. You, me, Scarlet, and Attis. Scarlet is several minutes away still, so we are on our own.”
No sooner had he finished speaking when the robots rounded a house up the street.
“Here they come.”
Carla accepted the pistol from Jared, and he gave her a quick demo on its use and the handgrip safety mechanism. Satisfied she knew how to fire it, he extracted his Colt and checked to make sure all the chambers held a round. Rotating the cylinder back into the revolver, he cocked the hammer and waited for the robots to draw closer. There were five of the robots, and a dozen of the spherical probes roving down the street.
“If they pass us by, we’re going to sit here and do nothing, but if they find us, we take out the walking machines first and then the rolling balls. As far as I can tell, the balls are harmless.”
“O-okay.”
Jared gripped her shoulder firmly. “We will make it out of this. I promise.”
He truly meant that promise. He’d do anything he could to make it happen. The steady metallic thudding of the robot’s footfalls kept a steady beat in tune with his pulse. They were almost directly outside the building now and the spheres continued whirring through the street making beeping noises and flashing their scanners. The robots reached the house they hid inside, and it seemed like they would pass on when suddenly they paused and swiveled to face it.
“Come. Out.”
The metallic tone brooked no argument. They expected immediate obedience, but Jared did nothing to alert them they were inside. So far, the robots hadn’t raised their weapons, but they faced the building, waiting for his response. Jared looked to Carla to see the fear he felt mirrored in her eyes. Pursing his lips, Jared said nothing, nor did he move.
The robot amplified its voice and issued the mechanical-sounding command again. “Come. Out. Immediately.”
Jared cringed; the sound was ear-piercingly loud. From his vantage, he could see the street in front, but he doubted the robots could see him unless they also had scanning abilities like the small spheres rolling around. That thought gave Jared pause.
They are robots, so it’s possible.
When neither Jared nor Carla made a move to leave the building, the robot on the far right raised its metal fingers, and they all raised their rifles, pointed directly at him.
Yep, they can see me.
“Carla, get ready to move. It looks like they’re focused on me right now. See if you can find a back exit and leave the building. I can outmaneuver these things, but I doubt you’re fast enough.”
Without a word, Carla crawled into an adjacent room to look for a back exit. One robot left the formation in front of him to circle behind the door.
“Carla, you’re about to have company! Keep that pistol ready.”
“Firing. In. Five. Four. Three—”
Jared froze as he realized they were about to open fire on him. His hesitation almost doomed him, but he got his body in motion and launched himself out the window directly at the line of machines. He tackled the middle robot, pressing the phase pistol to its head and ending its life, just like he’d done to the one he’d encountered inside one of their drop ships weeks earlier.
The lights in its body winked out of existence, and he rolled off the lifeless hunk of metal. He activated Maximum Muscle and vaulted on top of the adjacent building. They focused on him completely, leaving the building and Carla behind. The three remaining robots swiveled in place and chased after him. Unprepared for their next move, Jared’s jaw dropped as all three of the robots crouched and jumped to follow him, the pistons on their legs easily providing enough force to propel them to the top of the building.
He dropped to the other side, sprinted down two houses and spun. As soon as the head of a robot crested the lip of the roof, Jared squeezed off two shots and watched in satisfaction as the head exploded in a shower of sparks.
“Yes!” Fist pumping, Jared prepared to fire at the remaining two robots, but they didn’t appear over the edge.
Where are you?
A loud crash to his left answered his unspoken question. Diving forward, an energy blast sizzled past. The heat from the round seared the back of his neck, making him realize just how close it had come to killing him. They were smart and able to strategize. He needed to take the offensive before they managed to corner him. Jared advanced in the direction the shot had come from. He launched himself from behind the building at a sideways lunge, immensely grateful for his foresight as a round sizzled in the air right where his head would have been.
What is it with these things and headshots?
Taking advantage of the machine’s missed opportunity, Jared sent a volley of rounds into its body, ripping the chest and neck apart. The m
etal body crumpled to the floor. Not wasting time, Jared turned in the opposite direction and ran. He wanted to put distance between himself and the last machine. Once in a defensible position, he’d turn to confront it.
He briefly thought about running back toward Carla’s location, but he didn’t want to lead another of the robots in her direction in case she ended up in the crossfire.
“Scarlet, I destroyed three robots already. There’s one chasing me, and another one went after Carla. Please find and help Carla first. I can handle this last one.”
“We are almost there.”
Jared finished his mad dash across the street, leaping into the broken window of a two-story building. As soon as he cleared the windowsill, he reached behind him to grab the threshold and halted his movement. Taking up position to the left of the window, he sighted down the street, waiting for the machine to show itself. Several minutes ticked by. Nothing happened.
Jared worried it had gone after Carla, but a moment later, he realized what had happened. The high-pitched whine of the drop ship picked up tempo, and he watched the ship hover off the ground.
“Take out that ship! It probably sent a warning to the cities already, but we can’t let it get back with any of the recordings and scans it took.”
“Got it.”
The next thing he heard was a great rending noise. Looking in the ship’s direction, Jared watched Scarlet drop straight down on top of the ship, forcing it back to the ground. The pitch of the engines escalated as the pilot attempted to force it off the ground. The shriek of Scarlet’s claws on the ship’s hull grated against his nerves. Deep furrows appeared on the wings and body as she tried to gain purchase on the bucking ship. Jared watched all this happen as he jumped from the building and raced down the street toward them.
She used her wickedly sharp claws to sever the thrusters from the rear of the ship. The engines ripped free of their mounts and spun erratically through the air as the last of the power propelled them forward. One of the engines detonated high overhead, and another smashed into a house, obliterating it entirely.
Scarlet didn’t even notice or flinch as the waves of fire and concussive force from the engine explosions rolled over her body. The heat was nothing compared to the extreme temperatures she’d experienced in the depths of the earth.
The ship banked hard to the right, no longer able to sustain flight after Scarlet had eliminated the engines on one side. Still, the whine of the remaining engines increased in volume as the pilot pushed them to the max, trying desperately to get away from whatever held the ship fast. It was no use, Scarlet was too strong, and missing half their thrusters, they couldn’t stay airborne any longer. Another swipe of her claws and Scarlet removed the thrusters on the other side. Abruptly, the ship dropped like a rock.
The landing struts crumpled under the weight of the ship and Scarlet. They weren’t made to withstand a forced landing like that, and Jared only hoped it hadn’t crushed the cargo hold too badly. He wanted to get into the ship and retrieve any valuables before they left.
“I’m almost there. Please make sure the robots don’t leave the ship. Oh, and take out the phase cannon up front so it doesn’t shoot me when I get in range.”
“Done. I hear movement, but the ship is useless, and they are trapped within.”
“Okay, thanks. I want to try and salvage some stuff. Hopefully, it’s not destroyed too badly.”
When Jared reached the scene of the ship’s demise, he chuckled at Scarlet’s handiwork. She wasn’t kidding. The ship was a complete wreck. Not just from her wanton destruction, but the explosions from the engines had really done a number on it. The robot that had run from him, and the pilot of the ship were likely already slags of metal, and Scarlet had simply heard their death throes. With the immediate threat over, Jared turned around and ran through the streets looking for Carla.
He found her a short distance away from the house they’d originally hid in. She leaned against a building, the fifth robot slumped against the concrete steps a few paces away. Carla cradled her arm in one hand while she brandished the phase pistol awkwardly between them.
“Carla!” Jared dropped to his knees to check her injury. She had a wicked burn across her left arm exposing the muscle and tendons beneath. Tears streamed down her face, and every slight movement pulled the skin around the wound taught, inciting a hiss from Carla.
“Hold your arm steady. I’ll wrap it up. Are you injured anywhere else? What happened here?”
“I got him.”
She cried, sobs wracking her body which only caused more pain and tears.
“It’s okay, Carla. We’re here, and the robots are gone.”
Jared followed her gaze to the downed robot. The entire side of the building bore evidence of her fight. Pockmarks and burns from phase rounds peppered the side of the house. Only a single hole went clean through the robot’s head. Jared wondered how many shots it had taken to do that, unless she’d kept pulling the trigger after it was already dead. The important thing was she’d lived to tell the tale. If this fight showed him anything, it was that everyone in the colony needed to learn to handle and shoot weapons whether they wanted to or not.
As gently as he could, he pried the phase pistol from her grip, stuffed it into his pack, and pulled out a bandage to wrap her arm.
“This is going to hurt, but we’ve got to move as soon as possible. I’m sure these ships have a way to send warnings back to their city, which they probably did the moment the ship took off. We destroyed five of their robots, dozens of their scanners, and a drop ship. I’m positive there will be more incoming. Where’s Attis?”
A loud squawk drew his attention above to where Attis was perched on the roof directly above Carla. He was too big to fit into the narrow street that ran behind the house.
“Can you walk?”
She answered by staggering to her feet and into the street. Attis alighted next to her, and Jared helped her clamber onto Attis' back. She gripped his fur with her free hand, and Jared asked Attis to be as careful as possible. Whether the griffon understood him or not, he didn’t know. He instructed Attis to take Carla back to their home by sending pictures to him.
“Carla, Attis will take you home. Please don’t alarm everyone about this. You can tell Vanessa and Elle what happened, but please let them know we’re safe. Scarlet and I will be along shortly, and we’ll brief everyone when we get there.”
Carla agreed, and they launched into the air. Jared turned back to the dead robot and unceremoniously picked it and the phase rifle from the ground. He jogged back to the downed drop ship and deposited the lifeless hunk of metal. Jared spent a few minutes collecting the rest of the robots and their weapons. He put them in two piles, intending to have Scarlet pick them up. He found some duffle bags in a nearby house and stuffed as much of the weapons and robot parts in them as possible.
While he made the piles, he’d heard the metallic clanking from the ship, confirming Scarlet’s words that one of the machines had survived.
“Scarlet, can you open up a hole for me to get inside?”
She walked over to the cargo doors and quickly sliced the hinges holding it in place. The door held fast, but a sharp kick from Scarlet dislodged it. Jared jumped back as the door toppled forward and thumped into the ground. He ducked inside the hold and found the source of the noise. One of the robots weakly tried to pick up a rifle lying a few paces away, but the bottom half of the robot had fused to a melted section of the wall where one of the engine explosions had torn through the ship. Jared didn’t hesitate, and put a round into its head, ending the struggle.
Quickly, Jared ripped open all of the compartments left intact. Just like the previous drop ship he’d been inside, there were several weapons, battery packs, and medical supplies. None of the uniforms survived, but he still had a couple he’d taken last time. His job completed, he left the hold to d
iscuss next steps with Scarlet.
“All right, here’s what I think we should do. We’ll take these two piles of bodies and the duffle with the spheres and deposit them many miles from here in some secluded place. Then, you and I will take our loot back home and wait this out. The cities will probably send a response force, and we don’t want to be anywhere near when that happens.”
“Why are we putting these bodies somewhere else? Would it not be better to take them to have Pete study them?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do, but we need to make sure there’s no way the cities can trace them back to us. If they have a way to track them, I’d rather they lead away from our new home. We’ll head in the opposite direction, and then we’ll circle around, well out of range for their ships.”
“There is much about your technology I have yet to learn.”
“You and me both. If they don’t find the bodies, Pete will have his hands full for quite some time as he figures out how they work. Maybe he can even reprogram them to work for us.”
“That would help us significantly.”
“Exactly. That’s best-case scenario. Even if he can’t reprogram them, maybe he can salvage parts from them and figure out how some of this more advanced tech works. I’d love to take parts of this ship, but we’ve no idea what everything does or what would be valuable. For now, let’s follow this plan and see where it leads.”
Jared vaulted onto Scarlet’s back, holding his bags of loot. She picked up the piles of bodies and jumped into the air.
Scarlet flew to the opposite end of the lake from their home, and they found an empty building to stash all the parts. It only took a moment, and they were back in the air. They headed west for at least half an hour before she banked and turned south. The drop ships always came from the east, so it made sense to fly around.
“Make sure you stay low as well, Scarlet. I don’t know what kind of technology they have for long-distance scanning, but I remember radar and sonar from my studies growing up. It could see large objects in the air above a certain altitude. They probably have something more advanced these days, but we can at least do everything we know to evade detection.”
Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Page 9
