Onliest

by J Daniel Batt

Syn leaned in. “Are you okay?”

  Pigeon dropped her head down and said, “I’ve never been hugged before.”

  Syn recounted her experiences and whispered back, “Me neither.”

  She reached around Pigeon again, holding her tightly. Pigeon’s thin arms returned the gesture. The two remained locked in each other’s arms, statues themselves amongst the frozen menagerie.

  Pigeon let go first and grabbed Syn’s hand. “I have one more thing to show you.” She whisked Syn away, into the dark paths leading away from the carousel.

  “Why’d you do this?” Syn asked as they walked.

  Pigeon glanced back. “I wanted you to know that not everything on this side is rotten.”

  Syn nodded. “I know that.” She remembered the Barlgharel, Huck, Arquella, and Bear. She remembered her time with Kerwen in the orchard. Her own sense of joy right then reaffirmed that.

  Pigeon brought her to a large building with a series of garage doors. The structure was set back by itself, and each window was dark.

  Pigeon said, “Shhh. No one’s here, but be careful. Don’t be loud. No matter what you see.”

  Syn started to ask, and Pigeon hushed her again. Pigeon added, “I mean it. You’re not prepared but you can’t scream.” Pigeon tapped against some unseen pad, and the lock opened with a sharp click-clack metallic grating sound. Pigeon pushed open the door. They stepped in, and the smell of rotting meat slammed into them. Syn started to gag. Pigeon grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

  “What is that?” Syn asked.

  Pigeon flicked on the flashlight, and the room was bathed in red light. Syn knew instantly where she was. A workshop. Much like hers with large benches, scattered tools, cabinets, odds and ends, piles of parts. There was even a stool on wheels like hers.

  “This is Neci’s,” Pigeon said.

  Dark patches of a thick liquid dripped from the center table. Syn held her hand above the largest puddle and found it to be warm.

  Pigeon motioned Syn to follow around a corner, to the larger section of the workshop. Syn did and her mouth opened aghast.

  Pigeon held a finger to her lips, and Syn stifled a scream.

  Across the tables in this area lay two large bodies—Syn recognized them as two of the three men that Taji had led up from the lower levels. Dead.

  Syn started to examine them, but something moved and caught her eye. Beside them, dozens of broken bots lay scattered. In the stack, something jostled again, and Syn discovered a small, red eye-bot, much like Huck, wiggling about for her attention. Next to it, a chrome sphere, identical to Arquella, squawked out in a noise-filled blurt, “Help us.” Its voice faltered on the last word, and only a low hum and static projected from the bot.

  “I thought Neci hated machines,” Syn said.

  “She does,” Pigeon answered, “But she needs them.” The girl picked up the wriggling eye-bot. “At least, she needs what’s in them.”

  Syn furrowed her brow. “Huh?” She returned to the two burlys nearby. The larger of the two had several long incisions in its skull. About it lay several of the inhibitor switches and various assorted parts Syn recognized as pulled from bots. Chunks of flesh and organic matter sat in a bucket nearby. The room was littered with bits of bot and human. “It’s a butcher shop.” Not a workshop, Syn added to herself.

  She ran her finger through a pile of black, grainy powder. Lifting her fingers to her nose, she smelled sulfur. Is this gunpowder?

  Pigeon whispered, “We didn’t know about the other Disc, so we were desperate. We set the world on fire, and let them burn. Some survived, but we were able to rule them. This is how. She took the living and the dead, alike.”

  Syn said, “Is this how she does it? She takes the machines’ parts and put them in these…these corpses?”

  Pigeon nodded. “It was right after she killed her companion. At least I think that’s where she got the idea. In the center of the scrapped machine were pieces of flesh. Brain tissue, I think.”

  Syn nodded. All bots had a small organic component that helped them process. “TyTech,” Syn said and shivered. She hated the idea of something living inside the bots’ shells, but she wasn’t sure why.

  “Huh?”

  Syn said, “The builders called it TyTech. Just a way to speed up the machines. Makes them smarter.”

  “Well, she figured out how to reverse it. Plant the connectors in the dead bodies, and they would still function. They don’t need to eat, although they still tend to, out of habit. They run and run until they just run out of energy. There are more than enough bodies to work with. Taji’s the best at finding the really good ones.”

  “All this time, she’s been chopping up the bodies to make her own slaves?”

  Pigeon nodded. “She used her own companion’s parts in her prize.”

  Prize? Syn narrowed her eyes, confused momentarily, but then she remembered the golem that did not resemble the others. The one always with Neci. The one that appeared the most human.

  Pigeon continued. “She keeps him perfect. She calls him Admiral. Some of the Sisters sent their companions away when they discovered what she was doing. We hunted down most. In fact, only one is still unaccounted for.”

  Syn spoke, her eyes going wide, “We found another companion on our side. He was dead. He fell from the needle.”

  Pigeon answered, “That must’ve been the missing one. Spot. Laoule’s. He was in hiding. His name was Spot. He ran away a long time ago. A few weeks ago, some of the golem flushed him out. They caught him and brought him back. Laoule was too attached to him. She helped him escape. She left with him. They fled to the needle. I don’t know what happened after that. Neci didn’t tell me. She sent Taji soon after we heard the explosion. When we found your companion, we thought we had found Spot, that perhaps he had come down somehow.”

  “Oh,” Syn began to put the pieces together. She had heard Laoule. The dead charred girl in the gate room. The first real human voice Syn had ever heard. So, the companion that had invaded Syn’s Disc belonged to Laoule. “What happened in the room where you found Blip? There were all these dead…children.” Syn struggled on the last word, and the memory of hiding amongst the bleached skulls of infants and toddlers caved in upon her. The shiver the image created rippled through her.

  Pigeon shut her eyes and didn’t answer for a long time.

  “Please.”

  Pigeon nodded. “We went there because of Laoule. We were still hunting Spot. What you found…” Pigeon paused. “When Neci started gathering up the remaining living men to make into…” She motioned at the corpses on the table, “She would have us kill off the women and children. Said they were a drain on our already thin resources. I guess they probably were. Perhaps she just hated anything weaker than herself. Laoule had been hiding the children and keeping them safe in that room. She’d go back to them. But one got out and thought Taji was Laoule. Laoule’s secret was out. Neci killed them all. She let Laoule live thinking that she had been punished—she made her watch as she killed each of the kids, one by one.”

  Syn gasped and tears flooded her eyes. “Why did you bring me here?” Syn stepped over to Pigeon.

  Pigeon looked at the ground. “You said you’d show her how to get to your Disc. I showed you the carousel so you knew this place could still be saved. And I showed you this so you could see what she’ll do to your world. She’s wicked. Twisted.”

  Syn turned around and stared at the chaos. In her workshop, Syn repaired bots. In Neci’s she took the living and the dead—both bot and human—and merged them into something horrific.

  At that moment, the room went white. The overhead lights flicked on. Syn and Pigeon stepped around the corner to see Neci standing in the doorway, accompanied by her favorite burly, Admiral. The carnage of the room was revealed in the clear light. Blood and chunks of flesh were splattered across every surface. Large knives hung from hooks in the corners. Box after box of destroyed bots were stacked everywhere.

  Neci took
a step further, “Girls, this room is off-limits.” She wore only a long, thin gown, and Admiral was completely naked. Syn almost gagged again at the scarred, sliced flesh of the burly. Across his skin, a dozen long cuts had been made and stitched back together, leaving grotesque scars. There were patches of oddly mismatched skin that Syn assumed were torn from other corpses. Neci frowned, “Pigeon, can you please tell me what are you doing in here?”

  Pigeon didn’t respond. Instead, she took a half step back to stand behind Syn.

  Syn gestured at the table behind her. “What are you doing in here?”

  Neci walked toward her and then around to gaze at the other part of the workshop. After a moment she said, “I’m building our future.”

  Syn turned back to Pigeon to see her reaction, but the girl had disappeared. In the briefest instance, the little girl had left. Syn was jealous.

  Admiral stepped behind Neci, towering above her. Neci put out a hand and rested it on his chest. “Have you met my husband?”

  Syn tilted her head. “What?”

  “I’ve noticed you’ve been watching him.” She took a step toward Syn, looking her over from head to toe. “We’re so much alike. When I heard you were fixing those machines, I knew we were much more similar than the others. We can build things. We have the same mind. And we have the same desires.” She glanced back at Admiral. “I can make you one.”

  “Your husband?” Syn was still focused on the strange use of that word. But as she asked it, she saw what Neci had created. A companion. Admiral was more than a guard. He was her lover. Syn’s eyes went wide. “How could you?”

  Neci shook her head, dismissing the question, and ran a hand across her own stomach. “I’m so glad you’ve chosen to take us to the other side. It’s important to me that we leave this place. It’s not safe for us. It’s not safe for me…or my child.”

  Syn took a step back, bumping back into the cabinet behind her. “Your child?”

  Neci glanced back at the emotionless face of Admiral. “Ours. And yes.”

  “Oh,” Syn muttered. Her fingers gripped the countertop behind her and curled tightly, holding her steady as the world swam around her. Neci was going to be a mother. She was pregnant. She was going to have…Syn breathed out the words, “A child.”

  Neci nodded, reaching forward and putting her hand on Syn’s cheek. “So, you see why we have to go over there? I can’t have a child here. Not on this side.”

  Syn pulled away from Neci and spun around to face the metal cabinet. She couldn’t look at Neci. Everything was spinning. She couldn’t leave Neci to raise a child here, in this world. Her fingers felt slick, and she looked down to see she had placed them in blood. She shook her head. The Crimson Queen indeed. She couldn’t bring Neci the Butcher to her side. She looked back up at the cabinet and saw Neci’s reflection in the dirty aluminum. For a moment, it was a mirror, reflecting Syn and a nightmare version of herself. Syn breathed out, “No,” but the word had no weight.

  Neci put a hand on Syn’s shoulder. “Please don’t go this way. Things are so close to working out. I can give you whatever you need. I told you I could make you one. I won’t be the only mother then. We could fill the world with new children.”

  Syn’s mind erupted with images of motherhood: a young child in her arms, caring for a new human, raising it in the green fields of her Disc. Then another image took its place as Syn remembered hiding amongst the pile of children’s bones. “You had children on this Disc,” Syn grunted.

  “What? No. This will be my first.”

  Syn hissed, “There were children here, and you killed them. I’ve seen their bodies.”

  Neci sighed, “Not those. Those were human. See—that’s yours and the others’ problem. You keep thinking we’re human. We’re not. They made us to be better than them. We aren’t human. Not like them at all. I’m talking about filling Olorun with our children. Children that can survive the world we’re heading to.”

  Syn shook her head and glared at the dirty reflection of Neci in the cabinet door. She spun around and seethed, her hands balled into fists, “Not my world. Not that one either. I’m not letting you anywhere near my Disc. It’s mine, and I won’t let you destroy it with your rot!”

  Neci backhanded Syn so hard that she slammed against the ground. Her cheek ripped, snagged on one of the rings Neci wore. A splatter of blood stained Neci’s cloak, leaving dark red spots against the field of lighter crimson. Syn lay on the ground and looked up at Neci while blood still flowed from her head. She could feel the tears welling up inside.

  Neci spoke, still calm and controlled, “My Disc. Discs. My ship. I’m the Queen of Olorun. Not you.” She stood above Syn, glaring down. “I won the right to rule. Not you.” She pointed up. “And not her!”

  Neci gave a sharp kick to Syn and spat on the ground, “I’m the first to be a mother. I’m the Queen. And you and your small mind don’t even get it. You’d rather be with those stupid machines than with your own sisters. You’ve had it all, and you think you’re better than us—you think you deserve the right to Paradise and not us. But I’m not going to let you win. I tried to be kind, tried to get you to be honest. I’ve tried bargaining. I’ve pleaded. I’m done trying. I’m finished! You’re going with us, and you’re either going to open the door of your own free will, or I’m going to make you do it.”

  “You can’t,” hissed Syn. “I’ll stay here!”

  Neci laughed. “That’s what I was afraid of. I’m going to make sure that’s not an option. I have a final alternative to force your hand and the bitch above. You will both do as I want. Can’t stay here when this place doesn’t exist.” With another sharp kick to the side, she pointed at Admiral, “Shove her back in her room, and stay there with her. I don’t want her getting out again.”

  Neci left and the large burly leaned down to Syn. She shifted away, but there was nowhere to escape to. He held her two arms and lifted her to her feet, gently setting her down. He turned her around and pressed his large palms against her shoulders. She shuddered at his touch. There was something primal in his nudity. All she knew of human culture was from film, and she knew that he was revealing something that was to be private. And yet, here he was, so close to her. And yet, as he ushered her away, he was not harsh. There was a strange calm about his actions. He never hurt her the entire slow march back to the room through the dark.

  She imagined Pigeon somewhere in the shadows watching her be escorted back. Pigeon had said, “I showed you this so you could see what she’ll do to your world.” Syn sighed. There was no future for a world that Neci lived in.

  35

  Reclaiming

  “All things that fall from heaven are to the blessing of the faithful.”

  —The Vision of Kanc, Archives of the Ecology

  Syn’s body ached. The throb of Neci’s kicks still radiated throughout her arms and legs.

  Outside her room, outside the city, something boomed in a voice like that of an angel announcing the apocalypse, “All things that fall from heaven are to the blessing of the faithful.”

  Syn crawled from the bed and wobbled to the door. It was unlocked, and the burlys that had guarded it were gone. Admiral himself was absent.

  The roar came again from far outside. “The Expected is to be delivered unto us.” She had heard that term before. The Expected. But where? The fog of sleep plagued her mind.

  Syn walked down through the main dining area with its open ceiling and large, roped-together plastic assemblage of tables, and then through the door out to the walkway. It was a maze to the main gate. She came out to see Neci, Kerwen, Taji, Pigeon, Admiral, and ten more burlys all standing and staring at the closed main gate. Before them, on either side of the gate, two rough towers rose. Atop these, hunched like frogs, sat two more burlys. The one on the right was an enormous thing, towering above the others, his broad shoulders squared, and made Syn wonder if he might just be a part of the furniture stacked there. She looked several times to separate hi
m out from the columns supporting the thin, crumbling roof of the tower. The other burlys deserved the name. Tall, brutish, and rough. The one on the right tower was a different animal altogether.

  From outside, the voice bellowed, “In peace we ride to your walls. In peace we’ll leave. But we are guaranteed the Expected.” The buildings and the walls rattled as the voice spoke. The tin warbled as it vibrated against metal struts.

  Taji spoke to the gathering, “How many of the fanatics are there?”

  Syn cocked her head at this. Fanatics?

  Pigeon was walking back from the wall and spoke up, “At least two hundred. Probably more. I lost count.”

  Taji swore.

  Kerwen chirped, “Thanks, Sheep.”

  Syn cracked a grin. Despite all that happened, Kerwen was still Kerwen. She must’ve giggled or snorted and gave a slight hum of acknowledgment or appreciation. She must’ve done something because Kerwen turned and looked at her, followed by the other heads in the group twisting back toward her.

  Taji grunted, “Perfect. Don’t have to hunt for her to throw her to the wolves.”

  Neci sighed. “We’re not giving her up.”

  “They might be wanting to kill her,” Taji said.

  The tall queen of the Sisters cleared the distance and grabbed ahold of Syn’s hand and pulling her back to the group. “We’re not killing a Sister, now are we?” Her elbow nudged Syn’s arm. “Besides, the machines don’t dictate to us, and I don’t think that’s why they want her.”

  Syn cocked her head again. The Ecology was here? Had they come for her? Had Huck gone for help? She had forgotten about him until just that moment. And why was Neci acting kind again? Her mood switches were disturbing, and Syn felt that the kindness would switch into murderous rage in a flash.

  Neci turned back to Syn and held out her arms, “I know we had a rough night, but I want you to know that I value your sport. You play a good game. Well done!” Syn stayed locked in place. Neci wrapped her arms around the quiet girl and squeezed tightly. “When it’s over, it’s over,” Neci chimed. Then she followed it up with a simple command. “We are all traveling together, despite whatever the machines want.”