So Close to Home

by Galen Surlak-Ramsey

  “Ha!” Tolby roared. “Do it again!”

  “Whenever you’re ready,” I said, prepping myself for another game of horseshoes with hand grenades.

  The next grenade he threw flew out to our right flank where the other Nodari were still trying to get around us. I knocked it a little ahead of the six, but it was still close enough to blast them apart.

  “Was that all of them?” Jainon asked after a few tense moments of silence.

  “Clear here,” Jack replied, eyes fixated on our right flank.

  Tolby and I said the same. We had a brief celebratory cheer before a sea of swarmlings came charging out of the orchard and right at us.

  “Go!” Tolby shouted.

  His words were unneeded. Everyone had already scrambled to their feet and were now sprinting across the park. I was far too weak to do anything but limp along. The others occasionally turned and waited for me, and as they did, they pumped shot after shot into the seething mass of teeth and claws. For every one they dropped, three more burst from the tree line.

  Tolby pulled his last grenade off his belt and gave it a throw. “Dakota! Hit them in the middle!”

  I staggered as I came to a halt and nearly fell over when I turned around. I was so hurting for air I’d barely managed to smack the grenade in time with my psychokinesis. The device got a little bit of a boost, but it wasn’t much. It fell short of the line of swarmlings when it detonated, killing a few at best and stunning maybe twice that in the blast.

  “Focus, Dakota!” Jainon yelled. “We can’t afford anything else!”

  I nodded, knowing she was right. My joints flared with pain, and I stumbled to the side and dropped. Tolby and Jack called my name, and the fire from our little group intensified. There were some other shouts as well, but it was all I could do to keep from passing out.

  Large paws grabbed me and hoisted me up. Air blew out of my lungs as Jainon slung me over her shoulders. “If we survive this, Dakota, the first thing we’re doing is enhancing this body of yours.”

  I would’ve argued if I had the energy and wherewithal, but because I was still fighting off the pain from the Nodari venom, I didn’t put up any sort of fight. When this latest attack subsided, I was still across her shoulders, bouncing along as she ran full tilt across an open field toward the first line of buildings at the city.

  A rough, crackling voice suddenly filled the comms. “Rogue Team, south gardens, what is your situation?”

  “About to be overrun,” Tolby replied with a calm voice. “Need a danger close strike, fifty meters south of our position. Sending coordinates now.”

  “Confirm. Danger close at fifty meters?”

  “Confirmed!” he barked. “Send it, now!”

  It was probably only a dozen seconds at most, but it felt like a lifetime. At first, all I heard was a faint whistling, and then the ground exploded behind us time a dozen times. Each eruption sent massive jets of earth and debris flying into the air, plus whatever was left of shattered Nodari bodies.

  Did that stop the Nodari horde? No. Of course not.

  Though the swarmlings had taken a beating and lost untold numbers, still they came. Worse, they were rapidly closing on Jack, who trailed our group by thirty meters. Jack ran like the wind. I can’t fault him there, but the Kibnali were far faster, and sadly, so were the swarmlings.

  “Jack!” I yelled before feebly tugging on Jainon’s shoulder. “We’ve got to help!”

  “We die if we do,” Jainon said.

  “We can’t leave him!”

  “We can, and we must.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Bottoms Up

  “No, you—”

  A loud…brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt, for lack of a better description, cut me off. A massive stream of plasma bolts flew overhead and mowed down the remaining swarmlings with a godlike vengeance.

  Jainon slowed enough for me to be able to look up over her shoulder without falling off. Ahead, Tolby had come to a halt near the entrance to a two-story building. Standing next to him was a trio of Kibnali soldiers crouched near this massive robot that towered over them. It sported dark-red armor plating across its wide body. Its left arm held a three-fingered claw while a cannon with a smoking barrel hung off its right shoulder.

  “Heavy fighting in the streets,” one of the soldiers said. “I don’t suggest you stay topside if you’ve got wounded.”

  “They’re not in the tunnels?” Tolby asked.

  “Not as much as they are out here,” he replied. “They’re pressing hard for our anti-air and orbital-defense cannons.”

  “Then we use the tunnels to get to the facility,” I said. “Right?”

  “Going that way may take longer,” Tolby said. “And if we get caught in an ambush, we might run out of options fast when it comes to escaping.”

  Jainon slid me off her shoulders. “Can you stand?”

  “Yeah,” I said, promptly wobbling and falling over. “Or not.”

  “This venom is working against her faster than I’d thought,” she said, ears flattening.

  Tolby growled. “We need to move. Every second we waste puts her closer to death.”

  “Agreed,” Jainon said.

  “I’d offer an escort if we could, but we’ve been sent to reinforce another squad,” the soldier said. “We’ve got to ensure those cannons hold until the 39th Flotilla gets here and beats them back.”

  “Then do your duty,” Jainon replied. “The gods will watch after us.”

  The soldier handed Jainon a small purple card. “This will get you in the tunnels,” he said. “May Inaja bless you with good fortune.”

  “Thanks, and may her luck be your luck,” I said.

  As our saviors left, Tolby led us inside the building with Jack helping me to my feet and supporting me along the way. “Your pick, Dakota,” Tolby said. “Do you want to stay topside or head through the tunnels?”

  My stomach soured. I almost puked, but I ended up dry heaving, which exacerbated my massive headache tenfold. “I don’t care,” I said, half crying. “All I want at this point is a stiff drink.”

  To my surprise, Jainon perked and grinned. “Let’s get her drunk,” she said. “If the alcohol levels in her blood are high enough, it’ll inhibit the Nodari microbes.”

  “How much?” Jack asked.

  “How much do we need to get her drunk, or how much will it slow them down?” she replied.

  “Both.”

  “As much as we possibly can without killing her, and if we’re lucky, she’ll have another hour to live. Maybe two.”

  “Welp,” I said with a hard swallow. “Given I’d rather be dead than suffer this much longer, I say we get me plastered, smashed, sloshed, fluttered, and totally tit-faced in the next sixty seconds. So, where’s the pub?”

  “Right across the street,” she replied.

  Tolby and Jainon stayed in front, and Jack, with my arm slung across his shoulders, helped me limp over. Purple benches and black stone tables filled the pub, along with a sea of glass shards covering the marble floor. Holodisplays of Kibnali and various scenery hung on the walls, and included in the decoration were a dozen scorch marks and chunks of Nodari.

  “Clear here,” Tolby said, briefly ducking his head into a side room.

  “Back is empty, too,” Jainon said after she peered into the kitchen. As Jack brought me to a corner couch, one of two that wasn’t covered in Nodari blood or outright destroyed, Jainon slung her rifle and grabbed a bottle from behind the bar and popped its top.

  “Holy snort that stuff reeks,” I said as she brought it over. “I’m supposed to drink that?”

  “If you want to live, yes,” she said.

  I cringed as I took the bottle, and nearly threw up when I brought it close for a second whiff. “A dead rhino that’s been baking for a week probably smells better than this.”

  “It’s not that bad,” Jack said. “Down it and let’s go.”

  “Says the man holding his nose.”

&nb
sp; Jainon snatched the bottle, took a deep whiff, and thrust it back into my hands. “It’s fine. Drink.”

  I grumbled for a few seconds, and then before I could think myself out of it, I shut my eyes, held my breath, and chugged as much as I dared. I downed about half the bottle before jerking forward in a coughing fit. My stomach cramped, and I nearly upchucked. But after a few seconds of fighting with my internal organs, everything calmed. Warm butterflies took root, and a light, happy feeling spread through my soul.

  “Is it working?” Jack asked. “It can’t be though, right? I mean, no drink hits someone that fast.”

  “Ours are modified to be rapidly absorbed,” she said. “In fact, the…”

  Her voice trailed. Well, my attention trailed. She was still talking. I think. If I really thought about it, which was a pain in the butt and not nearly as much fun as pulling on my lower lip, I could make out her voice, but that was about it.

  I smiled. Not at the drink, which was nice, but at the realization I now possessed a secret weapon when it came to drowning out the noise she and Tolby would make during their wild escapades. And speaking of Tolby, I really needed to do something special for the big furball, on account of how awesome he was and how much he looked after me. Even if he didn’t believe in the power of the lucky elephant, he deserved a hug.

  “Hey, Tolby,” I said, mushing my words. I tried to stand and walk over to him but ended up losing my balance and nearly making out with the floor.

  “And she’s drunk,” Jack said.

  Was I? I did a self-diagnostic. Numb? Check. Double vision? Check. Inability to…damn it. What was I trying to remember? Ah well, screw it. Probably a check. So that made at least eight out of nine checks for…for…

  “Dakota!” Jack yelled, getting in my face.

  I jumped in fright. I probably would’ve been a lot madder if I didn’t get lost in his eyes a second later. “That, mister cool man, was not cool whatsoever,” I said. I flopped toward him, throwing my arms around his neck. “But you know what? I forgive you. Cuz’ we’re buds.”

  “Guess that answers what kind of drunk she is.”

  “I’m not—” The room spun when I tried to talk and jerk back at the same time. Or maybe it was spinning already. Who knows? Who cares? “Okay. I’m drunk.”

  Tolby came to my side and steadied me. “How’s the pain?”

  “What pain?”

  “Perfect,” Jainon said. “We need to go.”

  My brow furrowed. “Go? Where? We just got here, and I want to do some karaoke.”

  “Nodari invasion ring a bell?”

  “Is that still going…hic…going…hic…hic…on?”

  Tolby snatched me up, sending me on what had to be a ten-super-vortex rollercoaster ride that ended with me over his back. “Hang on. We’re moving.”

  “Ooo, I don’t think that was a good idea,” I said, feeling super queasy.

  Tolby didn’t reply. Jack grabbed my weapon after I dropped it, and the group left the pub. The Kibnali streets went by in a blur of jarring movement that was punctuated by the occasional streak of plasma fire along with an accent or two of massive explosion.

  We dropped down into a dry canal at some point and followed it a short distance before ducking into an alcove. Tolby and Jack were looking back the way we came, and as such, I had a good view of what Jainon was doing. She stood at a large, sealed door and tried to work the console nearby.

  “This one’s no good either,” she said with a grunt of disgust.

  “Is it broken or not granting clearance?” he asked.

  “No, it’s not broken,” she said. “But this card isn’t working here either.”

  Tolby growled. “Nodari fighters are still sweeping the air,” he said. “Let me try and hack it with my PEN again.”

  “You fried the last console,” I pointed out.

  Tolby straightened and eased me off his shoulder. “You remember that?”

  “Um, duh. I was there,” I replied, leaning against the wall. I was glad to be off his back since being carried that far for that long wasn’t what I’d call a luxurious ride. Now that I was standing, however, I wasn’t too thrilled with the headache that plowed over me either.

  “That was at least ten minutes ago,” Tolby said, concerned.

  “Yeah, so?”

  “That means you’re sobering,” Jainon said. “Between your liver and those microbes, the alcohol in your system is being broken down much more rapidly than I’d thought it would.”

  The Kibnali high priestess stuck the bottle in my face. “Drink up. We need to buy you more time.”

  My face twisted in revulsion, but I complied. It wasn’t so bad the second time, mostly because I was still intoxicated enough that the smell didn’t get to me. I still ended up coughing and spitting, but I did stay standing, even if the wall at my back was doing most of the work.

  “Ha! Got it!” Tolby declared.

  I looked up after wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. The door he was at slid open, and a long, well-lit tunnel free of all signs of war and strife greeted us.

  “I knew you could do it,” I said, slurring my words again as I dove back into the sea of drunken bliss. “That’s why I pay you the big bucks.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Detox

  True to the soldier’s word, the tunnels were free of Nodari. Thank the furriest gods who blessed our escape. Even better, we happened upon a small transport that looked like an oversized golf cart with a bulbous rear end that we all piled into. It wasn’t the speediest thing in the world, but it did move at a fair clip faster than we were running, and I’m sure Tolby and Jainon appreciated not having to carry me around another five kilometers.

  I’m not sure how long it took for us to get to the Progenitor facility, but once we did, Jack used his implants to hook into the network and open the door. Again, nothing greeted us, which I was thankful for, but seeing how according to the map there were no less than ten other entry points, it was hardly a guarantee that we wouldn’t encounter anything up ahead.

  The other part to all this that wasn’t peaches and ice cream was the fact that once again, I was sobering. I could stand. I could run. I could feel my joints flaring, and worst of all, we were out of alcohol. Thus, we raced through the facility as fast as we could, only stopping to check nearby maps to ensure we were still headed in the right direction.

  “This place is going to make me sick,” Jack said.

  “I’m not a fan of it either,” Jainon added.

  The reason for their discomfort was obvious. We had entered a new section of the art gallery, and the exhibits here took surrealism to an entirely new level. The floors were painted with curved lines and swirls that made them look as if they were continually wobbling and bending.

  The walls were done in a similar fashion, and side rooms, too, and all of them had odd dimensions that made big things seem small and small things seem big—like a funhouse, but this was no fun at all. Most of the space on the walls was taken up by holograms of distorted places, but there were a few windows where one could stick a head inside and glance around a miniaturized, ordinary art gallery full of paintings and sculptures and fountains and the like. Maybe the Progenitors were trying to give patrons the view Alice had when she’d eaten the wrong piece of cake.

  What really put the icing on the proverbial weird cake was the lighting. Lights on the ceiling flickered in strange patterns and produced dancing dots along the walls and floors, which gave a sort of a hypnotic feel to it unless you were epileptic, in which case you probably wouldn’t have gotten ten meters down the hall without going into a seizure.

  Then again, due to the venom inside of me, I couldn’t be too sure that I wasn’t hallucinating half of it. Hell, Jack might’ve said something completely different for all I knew. That thought was disconcerting, to say the least. How many of my senses could I actually trust?

  “Jack,” I said. “We’re walking down a hall that’s like a bad trip throug
h a mystery funhouse, right?”

  “I’ve never had the displeasure of having a bad trip, so I can’t say,” Jack replied. “But yes, we’re going through a funky hall, and truth be told, I’m carrying you more than you’re walking.”

  “Okay, good,” I said with a heavy sigh. I had no sooner relaxed than a new thought came to me. What if I’d only imagined having that conversation with him? “Jack, did I ask you about us walking down a funhouse hall, or was that all in my head?”

  “No, you asked me. Again.”

  “Sorry.”

  Jack and I spun around at the sound of plasma shots. Tolby, facing the rear, had his rifle shouldered. Down the hall, a couple of Nodari swarmlings lay on the floor with their heads a smoldering mess. “I think they’ve discovered the art gallery,” Tolby said. “We need to get to the medbay quickly.”

  “I’m going as fast as I can,” I said. I paused a moment and wiped off some sweat from my brow. My tongue felt puffy, and the inside of my mouth I was sure had turned to sandpaper. “Trust me. I didn’t need them trying to munch on my butt to get me to move.”

  KN-B and his obnoxious buddy KN-C swooped down on us from a side room, each one of their eyes a flurry of pulsating colors. As with our first meeting with the pair, they talked in rapid succession, leaving little room for anyone to get a word in edgewise until their rants were finished.

  “Isn’t this exciting?” KN-B said.

  “So exciting!” replied KN-C.

  “We’re so happy you’re here to see our grand triumph!”

  “So happy!”

  “We would love to know what you think!”

  “Would so love!”

  “I think you’re lucky Tolby and Jainon didn’t blow your head off coming at us like that,” I said, leaning on Jack and limping along. “Remember what happened to KN-E?”

  “That was a tragic event,” KN-B replied.

  “So tragic!”

  “But we have found a way to avoid such things!”