by J D Stone
“Can he even open his mouth?” Ben asked.
“Only a little bit,” Katie replied. “He’ll have this wrap on for at least six weeks. It’s the only way to stabilize the jaw.”
“Hopefully he likes applesauce,” Cameron said.
“What happens if he yawns or sneezes?” Ben asked.
“Then he could dislocate it again, and we’d be back to square one.”
Cameron clicked his tongue and patted Alex on the shoulder. “Good luck with that, buddy.”
“If he can’t talk,” Ben said, “then it looks like we’re not gonna know about this biker gang for a while.”
“I asked him some yes or no questions earlier,” Cameron said as he moved a thumb up then down. “From what I could get out of it, he saw a campfire in the woods on his way back, and he had the brilliant idea to sneak up and check it out. Didn’t get within fifty feet before the guard caught him. He shot that one, but they caught up to him on their dirt bikes.”
“So that explains that one gunshot me and Danna heard that night,” Ben said. “You’re lucky they didn’t kill you then and there!”
Wincing, Alex nodded his head.
Cameron continued: “So after he got caught, they forced it out of him who he was and where he was from.” He gave him an understanding nod. “Must’ve been rough, bro.”
Ben glanced at Alex, and he could see even through his bandage-wrapped face that he was ashamed. Ashamed for giving up the retreat, ashamed for his betrayal.
“On the bright side,” Cameron said quickly, probably sensing Alex’s embarrassment, “a dozen fewer psychopaths walk the earth. A couple of them still had tethers on their ankles, so I bet they escaped from a nearby prison.”
“After the Surge hit, would you call it escaping?” Katie asked.
“Good point.”
“All in all, a broken jaw and a sprained ankle,” Katie added cheerfully. “Not a bad price.”
“Eeezy ‘or you da zay,” Alex croaked. He dropped his head back into his pillow.
Katie’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “Sorry.”
“HULC got beat up a little bit, too,” Cameron said quietly.
Ben glanced sharply at his brother. “He’s wrecked?”
“I don’t think so, but there’s a lot of ripped wires and broken hoses. Dad built it to bust rocks on Mars — I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I’ll try not to,” Ben muttered, lying. His headache was getting worse.
“All right, guys,” Katie said, ushering them out. “Let’s give him some rest.”
“Alex, hang in there,” Ben said, giving him a thumbs-up. “I’ll stop by later, okay?”
Alex tried to move his thumb upward. Instead, he just closed his eyes and turned away.
Ben stepped outside of the infirmary and leaned the crutches against the wall. “Don’t need ‘em,” he told Cameron, who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
He tested his ankle and found that he could walk. If Alex has a broken jaw, then I’m not using crutches. Stepping gingerly, he went back to his room, grabbed his gun and baseball cap, and headed to the stairway.
Cameron was keeping a safe but watchful distance. “You’re not gonna take the lift?”
“Nope.”
Cameron shook his head and shrugged. “Fine,” he said, walking toward the lift. “I’m gonna check out those freaks; they’re still laying in the dust.”
Ben nodded and continued his descent. As he passed L2, he heard giggling down the hallway. He paused for a moment as if shocked by a sound long since forgotten. Curious, he stepped into L2. Danna was leaning against the doorway to the garden room with her arms crossed.
Noticing Ben, she beckoned to him with a nod, and Ben limped toward her. When he was two feet from the door, she motioned for him to stop and she held her index finger to her mouth and gave a slight nod for him to peek inside the room.
He stuck his head around the corner; and there on the bench in the middle of the garden room was the Stranger and Danna’s sister, Izzy. She was picking out the names of the vegetables to him. Handing her penguin to the Stranger, she ran to the corner of the room and brought back a tiny clay pot with a seedling popping through the soil.
Ben had never seen Izzy smile before, nor even talk to anyone other than Danna. He cocked a bemused eyebrow at Danna. She crossed her arms again and gave a half-shrug.
They both peered back in the room.
“. . . but Penny doesn’t like to get dirty,” Izzy explained to the Stranger with an air of importance, “which is why she always stays on the bench.”
“So, she has never once helped you plant flowers?” the Stranger asked, holding up the stuffed penguin.
Izzy giggled and shook her head.
“Yet she likes roses,” the Stranger said, rubbing his chin. “I think Penny’s making you do all the work here.”
Izzy giggled again. “Here, let me show you—”
She looked up and saw Ben and Danna watching them. She froze, as if turned to stone, and her cheeks flushed.
The Stranger immediately stood up, and giving Ben and Danna an understanding wink, he cleared his throat.
“Well, Isabel and Penny,” he said in a playful yet formal tone, “I must be going now. I do hope you’ll invite me back soon.” He pretended to shake the penguin’s fin, and then he gave it back to Izzy.
She clutched the penguin and held it close in her arms, not taking her eyes off Danna and Ben.
The Stranger knelt in front of her and gazed deeply into her eyes. “Thank you,” he said. For a moment, Izzy matched his gaze but then looked down and nodded.
With one last smile, he stood up and walked to the door.
“Bye, Mr. Theo!”
He turned around. Izzy stood tip-toed, holding still as if in breathless expectation.
“Bye, Isabel,” he said, giving her a nod.
Danna shook her head in disbelief.
“I’d like to help out,” the Stranger told Ben and Danna as they walked down to L3.
“You just did,” Danna said. She shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t know how you did that.”
“I have — or had — a couple of nieces about her age,” the Stranger replied. “I tried to be their favorite uncle, so I developed some tactics.”
“Well, thank you,” Danna said. “I really mean that.”
“She’s basically been a shell since it all happened,” Ben said. “She’s seen everything. Everything.”
“Poor thing,” the Stranger said. “She truly deserves the world.”
Ben followed them into L3, where Joey was towing HULC into the garage with the Gator. One glance at HULC and Ben’s shoulders curled forward like his chest was caving in.
“Ouch,” Danna said, scrunching her cheeks.
Ben limped over to the power suit.
“We were extremely careful,” Joey said with grave reverence.
“No worries,” Ben replied woodenly. “I appreciate it.”
He worked his way around HULC, inspecting every inch. The damage was not as bad as he thought it’d be. The vagabonds ripped several Bowden cables, and the belt-screw drive and possibly the controller might need to be replaced. His face grew sour. He might not have the proper parts.
“Everything all right?” the Stranger asked, coming up beside him.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Ben mumbled. “Not sure yet.”
“It truly is a magnificent machine.”
“He did his part yesterday, that’s for sure,” Ben muttered. He wanted to kneel and start moving things, but he held himself back and headed outside.
The day was hot like yesterday but cloudier, and Ben could see the wind rustle through the oak trees on the far side of the basin. The burnt-out truck had been towed to the side of the crumbled rock mound, out of sight from the basin’s entrance.
Two group members, unsure who exactly, were exchanging duty shifts in the east OP. Cameron was two hundred yards out crouching next to the vagabonds
. To his left, Aiden and Cody stood at the far south side of the basin holding shovels. He went that way.
“Hey, guys,” he said. “Need help?”
“From you?” Aiden asked, wiping sweat from his brow. “You should be resting that ankle.”
“Actually, feels good,” Ben lied again, straightening his shoulders.
More than ten fresh graves had been dug, each a rectangular mound topped with black jagged rocks. To the left of the graves was a blue tarp with two long shapes underneath.
“Two more to dig,” Aiden said. “And these guys stunk even before you ripped ‘em up. Rigor mortis set in too; heavy as logs.”
Ben wondered whether Aiden was really that desensitized to death or if he was just putting on a tough-guy show.
“Pretty sad what happened to HULC, right, Ben?”
Ben turned around and saw ten-year-old JB McGuire’s sunburnt face staring up at him. He was one of the youngest at the retreat. He timidly picked at a callous on his hand.
“Really sorry.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Ben mumbled in reply. He couldn’t take his eyes off the graves. Directly behind the freshly dug graves was a row of tiny white crosses stuck crooked in the rocks.
“Friends?” the Stranger asked, coming alongside Ben. “The ones with the crosses?”
“Yeah, friends,” he repeated. He paused as if thinking for a moment. “We’ve all been together from the beginning, you know? Except for Katie; but she’s no different, I guess. We’re kinda like a family now. All our parents are gone. Grandparents. Cousins. Everybody. We just have each other.”
“And I heard about Ron,” the Stranger said somberly. “I’m sorry.”
Ben watched the pebbles crumble down the grave mounds like miniature black avalanches. A slight breeze swirled in the basin. Looking once again at the shapes under the tarps, he turned around.
“We got this,” the Stranger said, nodding to Danna. They both held shovels.
“I’ll keep at it, too,” Aiden added.
Cody and JB were clearly pleased.
“You gonna start fixing HULC right now?” JB asked eagerly.
“No,” Ben replied, rubbing the top of his forehead. “I’m going back to bed.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Fire
“BEN, WAKE UP.”
He awoke to his brother standing over him. Ben rubbed his eyes and squinted at Cameron. “What time is it?” he asked groggily.
“Midnight. Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Ben looked past his brother, and for a moment he thought he saw his dad standing in the doorway. He blinked twice. It was the Stranger, wearing one of his dad’s parkas.
The man nodded gravely.
Cameron tossed Ben’s coat on his cot. “We’re going outside,” he said, reaching for the crutches.
Ben waved away the crutches. “Nah, I’m good,” he said as he stood up and stretched. “Feel great.”
“Yeah, I forgot you’ve always been a quick healer,” Cameron said. “Darnedest thing.”
Ben and the Stranger followed Cameron up the stairway to L1. Aside from whoever was on duty in the OPs, everyone was asleep, and all was dark except for the dull secondary lights that ran in a single line above the hallways. Ben could hear the slight hum of the geothermal energy lines.
Holding a lantern, Cameron led them down a little-used passageway carved into the volcanic rock, which ended abruptly at a steel rung ladder. He climbed up until only his boots were visible, and Ben heard a metal pop then felt a gentle rush of cool night air against his face.
Cameron came down a couple of rungs and reached for the lantern. “Can you climb?” he asked, pointing to Ben’s ankle.
Ben nodded and tested his ankle. Some soreness, but not too bad.
“Okay, well watch yourself.”
Ben knew about the secondary escape hatch, but he’d never used it before. It opened to a small outcropping on the north side of the retreat and joined the barely visible pathway leading up to the mountain lookout.
He climbed up and out. All was silent except for the tiny rocks crunching and breaking under his boots. He looked down. Beyond the edge of the outcropping was a twenty-foot drop.
Someone grabbed his arm.
“Be careful,” Cameron said with a smirk.
Ben rolled his eyes.
He followed his brother and the Stranger twenty feet up the pathway until they reached a small cave. It was about six feet deep and high enough for them to crouch in and sit comfortably.
Cameron set the lantern down at the mouth of the cave and clambered out. After a minute, he returned with an armful of firewood. Not long after, a healthy fire flickered in the cave, casting dancing shadows on the walls.
“One of my favorite places here,” Cameron said, letting out a deep breath.
“Can’t somebody see us up here?” the Stranger asked.
“Nah, we’re too far high and too far in. But we still have a good angle to look out below. Geometrics and all that.”
They sat on the cave floor, which was a blanket of fine black sand. Cameron took out his knife and began to whittle.
Ben looked out upon the barren, rocky landscape. The night was dark, but the stars were out, sparkling like diamonds scattered across infinity. He never learned the different constellations; he could only identify the Big Dipper, Mars, and possibly Venus or Mercury — he didn’t know which one. He had asked for a telescope for Christmas. Well, the last real Christmas, two years ago.
Looking up at the bright dot of Mars, he imagined those small colonies of brave families on that red planet, trying to survive, trying to live, and now, perhaps, forever cut off from the rest of humankind. Maybe that made them lucky. Maybe, like him, they escaped. He felt like he could understand.
A chill breeze gently blew across his face, and a trace of salty ocean air mingled with the wood smoke. He shuddered and inched closer to the fire.
“Hot chocolate,” the Stranger said, handing him a thermos.
Ben pursed his lips. He didn’t want to accept anything from this guy as if by doing so he’d be obligated to trust him or even be his friend.
Mind your manners, he heard a familiar voice say in the back of his mind.
Ben took the thermos and mumbled a “thank you.” The hot chocolate steamed his face as he opened the thermos and he took a sip. Delicious. He muttered another thanks and gave the thermos back to the Stranger.
They were silent for a moment as if they all knew this was the very moment for which they gathered in the middle of the night.
“Well, we’ve got a lot to talk about,” Cameron said, breaking the silence by stating the obvious. “Better get to it.”
“I’ve already spoken to your brother a little bit,” the Stranger explained to Ben, “but we’ll start from the beginning because obviously, this involves you, too.”
Cameron looked at Ben with that look that only a big brother gives. “You okay to talk about this?”
“I’m fine,” Ben replied curtly, annoyed by the look that Cameron was giving him. But he realized that this was going to be a mature conversation, so he swallowed his pride.
He turned to the Stranger and asked coolly: “Who are you and how do you know my dad?”
The Stranger glanced at him and smiled apologetically. “Truth be told, I don’t personally know your father.”
Ben paused, taken aback. “What are you, then, a con man? Are you making this all up?” He looked at his brother, who stayed stone-faced.
“Ben, chill,” Cameron said calmly. “Let him go on.”
Ben crossed his arms.
“Do you know why your father resigned his commission from the military?” the Stranger asked.
“Because they weren’t listening to his doom and gloom warnings. He’d say all the time” — Ben imitated his father’s voice — “there’s nothing a human brain could do that couldn’t be done by a computer. And once it got to the point that AI could imitate us, they could become more po
werful than us.” He scoffed, then added: “He also said he wanted to spend more time with us.”
The Stranger leaned forward, and the shadows from the fire shifted and illuminated new contours on his face. “The year he resigned, the government took your father’s robotics and AI research — all of it — and handed it over to the United Nations.”
Ben blinked. He’d forgotten about the United Nations. Heck, he’d forgotten about countries. Didn’t matter anymore.
“The deal was that the UN would let America build more defense systems in Eastern Europe if we fork over Dad’s research,” Cameron explained. “Top secret.”
“Install twenty nuclear warheads in Poland and the Ukraine, to be exact,” the Stranger said.
“So what?” Ben asked. “Didn’t that stuff happen all the time?”
The Stranger’s face darkened. “You see, the government never told your father about the UN deal. In fact, they hid it from him.”
Ben shrugged. “Big deal. It’s not like they had to tell him.” He raised an eyebrow. “How did he find out?”
The Stranger picked up the thermos and unscrewed the cap. “A top military official — a good friend of your father’s — was involved in the deal. He told him what happened.”
“And so Dad resigned,” Cameron said, snapping his fingers. “Just like that.”
The Stranger took a sip, then said: “Afterwards, your father took the teaching position and then focused his research efforts on mechanized hard suits.”
“Like HULC,” Ben said. “As well as larger ones — mini-mechs.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I get all this. He met with a bunch of companies, and I think it was Lockheed that offered him like a billion dollars for HULC. He said no.”
“Yeah, but Dad never told us the real reason why he turned them down, right?” Cameron asked.
“It wasn’t because DARPA wanted Dad to manage the AI and robotics research?” Ben asked.
“To an extent,” the Stranger said slowly.
“So, I guess it has something to do with why Dad resigned, then.”
