Last Refuge

by Allen Kuzara

  Through clenched teeth, Nick said, “Get this over with. If you’re going to kill us, do it already. I’m tired of listening to you.”

  “I’m not done with you yet,” Higgs said. “And you have options, believe it or not. Number one: cooperate. Show us how to control the drones, and we’ll kill you before we have our way with her. Number two: resist and pretend you are a hero after all. Then we’ll make you watch. And when we’re all done with her, we’ll hurt you until you tell us what we want to know.”

  Higgs got back in Nick’s face. Higgs’s perspiration drenched the collar of his shirt, and Nick could smell his rank breath. “Which is it going to be?” Higgs asked.

  Nick couldn’t think, couldn’t work through his options. He looked at Lusa and shuddered at the thought of what they would do to her. Defeated, he said, “The command display.”

  Higgs picked up the wrist console from the floor. “This thing?”

  “Yeah. Press the call button. My drones will come here. I’ll show you how to use them.”

  Higgs looked back and forth between Nick and the command display until he seemed to understand Nick was telling the truth. Then a sickening grin came over his face as he mashed the button.

  CHAPTER 22

  THE FEW MOMENTS Nick had to wait were spent thinking of a way out. He looked for weaknesses, holding the situation up in his mind, rotating, looking at it from different angles, and trying to poke holes in it. He couldn’t. Yes, his drones were capable of defeating this band of convicts. But he didn’t have his headset or his command display. And if there were one thing that prison had taught these fake soldiers, it was how to detain someone; he and Lusa were locked up in the strong arms of their own personal guards.

  He stared at Lusa. She looked back and then down to the floor. He hated that. He wanted to save her, to come to the rescue, but he could tell by the look in her eyes he was just another figure in her nightmare.

  Just then, Nick heard footsteps at the entranceway, and the cons each pulled up their guns defensively. For a split second, hope emerged as he wondered if someone else other than the drones might discover them. But then his heart sank twice over: Delta Three walked into the showers, and he remembered this whole base was full of escaped convicts, men who were pretending to be soldiers for their own advantage, to fool any unsuspecting souls like Lusa and him or, maybe, just to remove the stains of guilt from prison. Either way, no one was coming to save them.

  “Alright, start talking,” Higgs said with his knife blade up to Lusa’s cheek. “I’d really prefer it if we could keep her pretty, but it’s up to you Mr. hero.”

  Nick looked at her, and she looked back this time and said, “Don’t tell them anything.”

  Higgs slapped her hard, and her head slumped down. Then he turned back to Nick and played with his knife blade menacingly.

  Nick gave it one last thought—knew he had no chance to escape, no way to avoid being tortured and killed.

  “Remember,” Higgs said, “play ball and we’ll make it quick.” Higgs gestured with his knife across his own throat. “And if you don’t, well, you’ll get an eye full,” he said nodding his head toward Lusa.

  Nick didn’t need the reminder, but he still struggled with making the choice, either one meaning that his life was about to get much worse. Finally, the path of least resistance became clear. “I already told you; use the command display.”

  Higgs picked it back up off the ground and looked at it more seriously.

  “You have to thumb through the commands,” Nick explained anemically.

  Higgs went through several commands and finally selected TARGET.

  “Hey, why aren’t they doing anything?” Higgs demanded.

  “You have to tell them what to target,” Nick told him, “either with the glasses or verbally.”

  Higgs took a moment, piecing together what Nick had told him. Higgs looked at the command display, which he hadn’t yet put on his own arm, and the glasses and headset laying over on the floor. He stepped toward them, glancing back first at Nick as if to be sure he wasn’t falling for a trick, then picked them up and placed them on his head.

  Higgs looked around the room and finally pointed at one of his men and said, “Target him.”

  The man immediately reacted, nearly jumping straight up in the air with fright. “Hey, Higgs man, what ya doin? Cut it out.”

  “Alright,” Higgs said, “cancel that. Target…” He spun around the room, “him,” he said pointing at Nick.

  The drones didn’t move or react. “I said, target him,” Higgs repeated. Then he mashed the same button again on the command display and repeated the verbal command. After the drones remained still, Higgs turned on Nick. “Hey, what’s this? You trying to trick me or something?”

  “No. No trick,” Nick said honestly. “I don’t know why—” Then he caught Lusa’s gaze out the corner of his eye. She was trying to tell him something, nodding her head at Higgs. Mouthing something that he couldn’t quite make out.

  “Cause this deal is starting to go south,” Higgs came back, “and it’s like my daddy used to say, there’s only one thing worse than a thief, and that’s a liar.” He stepped closer to Nick, the tip of his knife placed up against Nick’s Adam’s apple. Then Higgs added, “I hate liars.”

  Nick felt the prick of the blade promise to puncture his skin and windpipe, but he couldn’t help the slow smile from spreading over his face.

  “You better wipe that grin off,” Higgs said, “or I’ll wipe it—”

  “There’s something I forgot,” Nick interrupted, and he felt Higgs remove some of the pressure from his blade.

  “Yeah, what’s that?”

  “You have to address them by name before they will follow orders.”

  Now it was Higgs turn to smile. “Oh, that makes sense. What’s their name, Mr. hero?”

  “Delta Three.”

  “Okay then,” Higgs said, “Delta Three, target this man.” Higgs stepped back several feet from Nick and pointed at him as if he needed to get out of harm’s way. The drones didn’t move.

  “There’s one more thing I forgot,” Nick said, still smiling. “They only follow orders from Vaughn…or from me.”

  The words had barely been spoken before Higgs began to charge Nick’s position.

  Quickly, Nick shouted, “Delta Three, kill these men!”

  Before Higgs reached Nick, one of the drones stepped between them and engaged him with his own knife blade. To Nick’s surprise, Delta Three began carrying out his orders without the use of their rifles.

  Nick saw the two men holding Lusa each receive a tossed knife blade into their abdomens, and Nick knew they would have howled with pain if their punctured diaphragms had allowed them to breath, let alone scream.

  The two men holding Nick released him, knowing they were under a greater threat from the drones. Nick looked for a weapon, not trusting his hand-to-hand fighting abilities.

  The row of bystanders that had lined the wall was quickly being cut down, one by one. The drones apparently had superior fighting skills than the cons, and Nick wondered if this was navy training or, more likely, something Vaughn had built into the chips.

  Nick saw one of the guards that had been restraining him get punched in the face, his head bopping backwards, and then, before he could regain his focus, the drone grabbed his head with both hands and twisted. Nick heard the sound of crunched celery over the cacophonous shouts, grunts, and punches.

  He picked up the dead man’s rifle and looked for a target. As before the drones were hyper efficient and were taking out convicts faster than Nick could aim. Plus, he didn’t really want to fire if he didn’t have to; the sound would be conspicuous, and he was already contemplating their ultimate escape.

  At the far end of the room, he spotted Higgs, still fighting blade-to-blade with the drone Nick recognized as Six. Higgs retreated several steps back and slung his blade toward Six who dodged expertly but fell to the floor in the process.


  In a flash, Higgs snatched a pistol off a dead con, and much to Nick’s horror, grabbed Lusa from behind and raised the gun to the side of her head.

  “Any one move, and she gets it!” Higgs shouted.

  The room became quiet, and it was only at that moment Nick realized Higgs was the last con alive, at least if you didn’t count the crying man lying in the corner who was bleeding out faster than a stuck pig.

  “Okay, let me tell you how this is going to go,” Higgs said. “I’m gonna move real slow like, and—”

  Suddenly, a knife blade flew through the air and stuck into the side of Higgs’s neck. The con stood there motionless for a second, then Lusa pulled away from him, and he dropped his weapon and appeared to be reaching for the knife. His eyes bulged, and his lips moved. But no sound coming from his mouth. Then Nick saw Two walk up calmly and retrieve his blade from Higgs’s throat.

  The blood spattered against the opposing wall, and Higgs grabbed for his throat with two hands before falling to the floor and spasming. A few seconds later, he stopped moving, and Nick realized it was all over. The drones had killed the cons without firing a single shot.

  CHAPTER 23

  “ARE YOU OKAY?” Nick asked Lusa.

  She didn’t answer and quickly began dressing herself. Nick watched for a moment, noticing her smooth brown skin contrasting with her white bra and panties. Then he looked away, realizing he was gawking. He felt guilty even seeing her this way, especially after what Higgs had done to her, what he would have done to her.

  “Delta Three, defensive positions,” Nick said. “Two and Four, go outside and cover us. Lay low so no one notices you and tell us if someone’s coming.”

  The team scattered, demonstrating yet again far more intelligence than Nick had given them credit for. Nick remembered how they had elected to engage the cons sans gunfire. Nick hadn’t had time to even consider it, but somehow, they had made the better choice given the situation. Maybe they weren’t so dumb after all.

  “Didn’t you see me?” Lusa asked.

  Nick thought she was referring to him watching her get dressed, so he was confused.

  “When I was trying to get your attention?” she went on. “With Higgs. What took you so long?”

  Then Nick understood. He had had the answer the whole time but hadn’t realized it. The drones wouldn’t take orders from Higgs. Not then. Not ever, unless Vaughn reprogrammed them.

  “I guess…I’d given up,” Nick confessed.

  Lusa’s disapproving look softened. “Don’t do that again,” she said. “We can’t ever give up. Not like that.”

  She was right, and if Nick hadn’t been elated to be free from death’s grip, he would have felt intense shame.

  Lusa placed her arm on his shoulder, and he raised his eyes to meet hers. Her eyes were warm, kind again, the ones he remembered seeing first around the campfire. “What now?” she said.

  He regained his focus. “Now, we get out of this place.”

  “Should I send for my drones?” Lusa suggested as she put on her glasses, command display, and headset.

  “No. Not yet. It would make too big a commotion. Someone might wonder where they’re headed and come find us.”

  “Then what are we going to do? We can’t stay here.”

  “Right,” he said. “We gotta move.” He thought for a second. “There’s one way into this base and one way out: the front gate.”

  “Yeah, but how? I mean, they’re not just going to stand there and wave goodbye,” she said.

  “I know that. We need a diversion.” He grabbed her by the shoulders like he was going to shake her and said, “I’ve got a plan.”

  “DELTA THREE, REPORT,” Nick said over his headset. One by one, the drones chimed in. Lusa sat on the truck’s bench seat next to him and did the same thing for her team of drones. When they were done, she turned and gave Nick a look.

  “Ready?” he asked her.

  “No. Are you?”

  He smiled and said, “I never am.” Then he felt electric shock run up his arm as he realized Lusa had grabbed his hand. She leaned over and kissed his cheek lightly.

  “For luck,” she whispered.

  “For luck,” he repeated. Then he gripped the wheel and tried to ready himself for what would come next.

  When waiting became more painful than his fear of moving forward, he tapped his command display. Up came a blinking command labeled DETONATE. His finger twitched and he hesitated before tapping it. Swallowing the last of his fear, Nick smashed the button, and instead of waiting for confirmation of the orders, he grabbed the keys to the truck and turned over the engine.

  Lusa reached for his hand as if she was concerned about him making the noise, but then explosions shook the glass window and they both saw the fire in the sky erupt from the northwest corner of the base.

  His truck’s engine rumbled loudly, though the continuous daisy chain explosions that were working their way around the perimeter of the base made it sound like a whisper.

  “Alright, Delta Three. Let’s roll,” Nick said over the headset. Lusa made similar commands to her drones.

  Lights flickered, and Nick saw the headlights of the two tanks beside them come on. Then on the other side of them, another troop transport truck, like the one Nick was driving, came alive and he knew it was game on now.

  The first tank rolled forward, then the second. Now it was Nick’s turn. As he tried to get it into first, he felt the gears grind and scrape. This old truck either needed an overhaul, or there was some trick to driving it that he didn’t know. Finally, he felt first gear catch, he popped the clutch, and the low geared truck jumped forward.

  Nick turned the wheel to get in line with the forward two vehicles and realized he needed to catch up with them. He shifted into second gear prematurely, and the truck bogged down. He mouthed expletives, the pressure mounting. But as soon as he got into third gear, he realized the old truck would make up the distance he’d lost.

  Nick checked the rear-view mirror and saw the drone operated truck follow behind them. It was the last vehicle in the caravan. Nick had decided on the configuration because of road trips he’d taken with his dad before Jimmy and his stepmom had come along. His dad had called this cruising pattern a meal ticket, the idea being that speeding vehicles moving together gave you a measure of protection from getting pulled over and ticketed. Not if you were first in line. No, you needed some idiot hotrodder to hold that position. And you didn’t want to be second either, because a cop might pull out after seeing the first car and grab you because they couldn’t catch the leader. You also didn’t want to be last for a similar reason.

  But Nick knew the stakes weren’t about getting pulled over. If someone managed to stop his truck, it was likely he and Lusa would pay for it with their lives.

  “Here we go,” he announced. Lusa manually rolled down her window. It felt like a mistake, especially after he and Jimmy had been on so many trips in crazy infested settlements. Windows up was the normal operating procedure, but this was different and they needed to be able to fire on whomever.

  The detonations continued at ten second intervals, and Nick knew their diversion was soon to end. He saw cons-turned-soldiers rushing about, trying to respond to the unexpected explosions. Some even crossed their paths but didn’t seem to notice or care who they were or where they were going.

  As Nick saw the final explosion blow in the southwest corner, the four vehicles turned right in the center of the base and faced north toward the main gates. The two tanks split apart, forming a forward line of assault. And for a brief moment, Nick felt like he was back in high school playing quarterback.

  The lights from the two guard towers, which had been searching in all directions for the invisible enemies, suddenly turned on the caravan. Smoke from nearby fires rolled over them and made the lights less blinding. A voice over the loudspeaker came on.

  “Unidentified convoy, halt.”

  “Delta Three, light ‘em up,” Nick com
manded.

  He saw the barrels of each tank rise in synchronous perfection before both fired on the towers. The shots surprised Nick, both the all-consuming sound and the physical recoil.

  As the convoy moved past the smoke cloud, Nick saw that the tops of both towers had been blown out. If not for the broken brick ruble lying on the ground below, there would be no proof the towers had ever been there.

  “That’s a problem,” Lusa announced.

  “What is?”

  “The debris in the road,” she said.

  Nick understood. The tanks could cross over, no problem. But their trucks were a different story.

  “We need to change plans, Delta Three,” Nick said over the headset. As he searched for another unencumbered stretch of fence, Lusa’s gun erupted in deafening fire. He glanced right and saw her firing on men who were taking cover.

  “They’re on to us,” she said.

  Tell me something I don’t know, was what Nick wanted to say but didn’t. “Delta, follow me,” he commanded as he dropped down into first gear and began a U-turn.

  The convoy’s momentum ceased, and it seemed like the entire base was upon them. Weapons fire sounded, both from the drones in the back of the two trucks as well as the surrounding soldiers. Nick knew they couldn’t last like this for long. Just as he straightened up and punched the gas, two bullets zinged through the windshield and landed on the bench seat between them.

  Nick and Lusa looked at each other for a frightening moment, then turned back to the job at hand. She fired out at any and all targets while Nick tried to peer through the shattered glass that now seemed like it was permanently covered by frost.

  Nick led the team back to the center of the base and turned west. He could see it now, a clear, barren stretch of fencing at the end of the road. Just as he began accelerating, a new object came into view. A slow, creeping vehicle that Nick knew had to be armored before he even saw its barrel.