Into the Dust Storm

by Logan Brookfield

  ‘I’m here, it’s OK, just relax. We produce our own recreational drugs too so if you ever want to smoke or inhale something, just ask.’

  Carl got up and shook his head. His legs felt heavy and his knees were like cotton wool. ‘No, I’m not interested in anything like that, I need to get back.’

  Elias placed a hand on Carl’s shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, you can get back soon, but first let’s watch the show.’

  ‘What show?’

  Elias started walking through the tightly packed dance floor calling to Carl to follow him. Carl pushed through the crowd trying to keep track of where Elias was going while shaking his head, attempting to clear the hazy feeling that still lingered from the drugs he’d inhaled. They came to another set of double doors; these were made of metal and again flanked by two armed men. Elias nodded and the doors opened.

  They walked down a narrow walkway which was flanked on either side by tiered seating. Ahead was some kind of stage area with a circular cage in the middle. Every seat was filled with a baying crowd of about fifty, all shouting, screaming and waving their arms. Elias pointed to a row of seats and Carl sat down. ‘What is this place?’ Carl shouted, trying to make himself heard over the din.

  Elias leaned in. ‘It’s another way we entertain ourselves around here. Watch and see.’

  A loudspeaker whistled then crackled into life. ‘Welcome to episode fifty-seven. It’s good to see a full house as always,’ the voice boomed over the speakers.

  The crowd cheered louder and Carl looked around trying to make sense of the situation.

  Two men entered the circular cage; both were bare chested and only wore black leggings. They stood either end of the ring. One was very muscular with cropped dark hair and raised and lowered his shoulders then shook his arms as if warming up, and the other was slimmer, less bulky looking with cropped blonde hair. He slammed his fist into the palm of his hand repeatedly.

  The speaker crackled into life. ‘Combatants ready!’

  Carl looked at Elias and back at the cage. Both men ran at each other, the dark-haired one threw a punch while his opponent crouched down and tackled him around the waist sending them both reeling across the canvas floor. The dark-haired man was now on his back while the blonde man continuously slammed his fists into his head. Somebody threw two short metal poles into the ring and both scrambled to grab a weapon. The dark-haired fighter raised the pole above his head and brought it down across the jaw of his opponent, who reeled back, collapsing on the floor. He walked over to where the fallen man lay, trying to gather his senses to defend himself but it was too late, the heavy iron pole crashed through his skull. The fallen fighter convulsed as blood dripped out of his ears.

  The victorious combatant raised his hands and the crowd went berserk. Many of the crowd stood up and lunged forward, trying to grab any remnants from the fight to use as trophies.

  Carl shook his head in disbelief. ‘So this is what your advancement in technology has created. Cage fighting?’

  ‘Carl, relax, they choose to do this and the rewards for the victor are immense.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘Get down now,’ the commander barked at the group. ‘Men, take up a defensive position and be ready to fire on my order.’

  Edmond, Janelle and the doctor crouched down behind a rock as the soldiers spread out and lay on the ground, sub-machine guns pointed in the direction of the threat.

  ‘How far away is it?’ Edmond asked.

  The commander adjusted his field glasses. ‘It’s difficult to say. It seems to be moving in a zigzag pattern; maybe it’s being defensive in case we fire on it,’ he said, squinting to try to focus through the haze.

  Edmond peered over the top of the rock. ‘Can you see any weapons on it?’

  ‘It looks just like a…wait a minute…it’s now starting to move directly towards us. It has a large body and six, maybe eight legs.’

  ‘Is it hostile?’ Edmond said, crouching back down.

  The commander stowed his field glasses and knelt down, staring along the steel sight of his weapon. ‘We’re about to find out. We need heavier weapons, it’s huge.’

  Out of a cloud of dust emerged a six-legged machine, silver in colour and as tall as five men. Its body was cylindrical with lenses that looked like round black eyes scattered over its torso. Each leg was composed of several long pieces of metal, joined at a mechanical knee joint and fed by a collection of pipes and wires. Its feet were large and flat and stopped the hulk of a machine from sinking into the soft sand. Beneath its belly was a large cargo net full of scrap metal and wood. Its fast pace had slowed down considerably as it approached the group, then it stopped abruptly causing its cargo to swing back and forth beneath its mass. Its eyes and sensors surveyed the land ahead as it beeped and whistled, trying to use its electronic map of the land and pre-programmed knowledge to make sense of the situation.

  A shot rang out and the bullet ricocheted off the right side of the machine.

  ‘Hold your fire,’ the commander said. ‘Do not fire until I say.’

  The worried soldier stared at his leader. ‘But it’s almost upon us, sir; if we don’t take it out it might kill us all.’

  The machine moved sideways very slowly, then stopped near a half-buried rusted corrugated sheet. It extended a three-pronged claw and grabbed the corner of the metal, pulling it out of the ground. Holding it up to one of its eyes, it turned the piece of metal over then back again several times, as if to examine it. It then placed its find in the net under its body and continued walking past the group, towards the destroyed escape module.

  Edmond stood up as it walked past. ‘My God it’s huge. Lower your weapons, men, there’s no threat. It looks like a garbage scavenger. Something sent out to retrieve metal and wood and return it to base…wherever that is.’

  The soldiers stood up and watched the machine as it ignored them and walked on. Each of its legs moved in a wave formation, creating a smooth movement across the rugged terrain.

  ‘Where do you think that came from?’ Janelle asked.

  ‘No idea but somebody built and programmed it. That’s quite a complicated piece of technology. Do you think it could have been built for war, Commander, then later modified to collect raw materials?’ Edmond said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

  The commander shook his head. ‘It’s possible. Anything is possible. It doesn’t seem to have any weapons now though and it’s been programmed to ignore humans and keep collecting by the looks of it. There must be a base nearby, somewhere it returns to with its booty once it can’t carry any more.

  ‘Can I use your field glasses, please?’ Edmond asked, holding out a hand. ‘One can only imagine what an army of giant spiders could do. That’s an awful lot of tech for something that just collects rusty metal.’

  The commander handed over the binoculars and Edmond pressed them to his eyes, trying to follow the mechanical beast as it disappeared over a ridge. ‘Somebody is maintaining that thing and somebody programmed it too. My guess is that its home isn’t too far from here, perhaps in the direction it came from.’

  ‘What if there are more of them and what if the others are hostile?’ the doctor said.

  Edmond handed back the field glasses. ‘If there are hostile machines roaming this part of the land then we’ll bump into them one way or the other. Or one of the other groups will. We might as well head in the direction it came from, or even follow it back if we can. We can survey its base from a distance and make a decision, but that thing ignored us, even though we shot at it. That means it had no interest in us, even if we were hostile towards it, and that must be a good sign.’

  ‘It’s either very intelligent and doesn’t see us as a threat,’ the commander said, ‘or it’s quite stupid and just a dumb waste scavenger.’

  ‘Probably both. The way that round bounced off it we’d need larger calibre weapons,’ Janelle said.

  The commander turned his radio on and pressed the talk button on
the mic. ‘Gold leader and blue leader, this is red leader, over.’ The speaker crackled with feedback but there was no reply. ‘Please come in, this is red leader, over.’

  Edmond took a sip of water. ‘We haven’t lost contact already, have we? They can’t be more than a few miles away from us, at the most. Is it the terrain that’s blocking us?’

  ‘I don’t think it’s the terrain,’ the commander replied. ‘I think we’re being jammed, possibly by that thing,’ he said, nodding in the direction of the garbage spider, which was now heading back their way. ‘OK, people, defensive positions, please, and no firing until I say so.’

  The civilians took shelter again near the rock and the soldiers spread out and trained their weapons on the approaching six-legged beast, which was now moving at full speed on a collision course for the group. As it neared, it reduced its speed, moved to the right and slowly walked past, beeping and whistling.

  ‘Is that one of the main doors from the escape module in its net?’ Edmond asked, craning his neck for a better look.

  The commander kept his weapon trained on the torso. ‘I think you’re right. It must have been alerted to us by the explosion, then decided to take a look and scavenge what it could carry.’

  Janelle stood up. ‘It’s ignoring us again and looks like it’s returning its collection to wherever it came from. We can’t keep up with it but look at the footprints it leaves behind. We could follow its tracks. It seems to be making a straight line south, which is the direction we’re going anyway.’

  The metal spider became a small dot as it sped away, and then disappeared into a shimmering haze on the horizon.

  ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like that,’ Edmond said. ‘There must be a sophisticated society somewhere out here, people capable of creating such tech.’

  The commander took a sip of water. ‘Or it’s the remnants of some ancient but now forgotten society and just roams the land carrying out the last thing it was programmed to do. Did you notice the solar panels on the top of it? In theory that thing could go on forever, only needing to stop during the night, and as long as it has no mechanical problems it’ll just keep doing what it was designed to do until it breaks or wears out.’

  ‘OK, let’s go, people. We could do with finding some better cover than this before night falls and those tracks will only last until the first dust storm,’ Edmond said, placing his backpack on his shoulder. ‘Check we’re not leaving anything behind too, please.’

  The group scanned the ground checking for any dropped items then placed their bags on their backs and started to head further into the wasteland. The mechanical beast’s tracks were as straight as a die and ran as far as the eye could see, and since its cargo net was full, it was probably heading back to its home.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Elias felt the pistol in his waistband and looked at both armed sentries who stood either side of him. Each sentry had his weapon raised, stock pushed firmly into the shoulder while they closed one eye and peered down the steel sights.

  Elias looked up towards the top of the perimeter fence to see that the heavy-calibre machine guns were angled downwards, waiting for the instruction to open fire. Whoever or whatever was outside had tripped the outer security sensors, which had trained the attention of every auto weapon onto it.

  The double doors clanked three times with each metallic thud.

  ‘Lower any weapons, this is your one and only warning. I’m opening the gate,’ Elias shouted as he pressed a button, which caused the tall gates to creak and groan then slowly open.

  As the outside world slowly revealed itself, Elias could see a young man, dressed in a black military all-in-one jumpsuit. His hands were held up, level with his head, and lying on the ground in front of him was an automatic weapon.

  ‘I’m the commander. My apologies if we spooked your perimeter guards but we mean you no harm.’

  Elias looked around while the two sentries took a step forward, keeping a bead on the young man while their fingers hovered over their triggers.

  ‘Welcome.’ Elias nodded. ‘When you say we, who else is with you?’

  From behind a nearby hill, Edmond, Janelle and the team emerged. They held their hands up as they slowly walked towards the gate. ‘We’ve come in peace; we followed your robot spider thingy back here,’ Edmond said. ‘If we’re not welcome we’ll be on our way if you could spare some water, please.’

  Elias sighed. ‘With all our technology and efforts to keep us hidden, we constantly get discovered by people following our metal homing pigeon back here,’ he whispered.

  Edmond and the team stopped in their tracks, unsure if their appearance was a good thing or not. It was impossible to read the situation but everyone started to become nervous with an impending feeling that things were about to go south. Edmond’s eyes darted around the top of the fence as more faces emerged, staring down at them and more military hardware pointed in their direction.

  ‘Welcome travellers, welcome to Hope Point,’ Elias said, breaking the ice with a forced smile.

  Edmond relaxed his arms and placed them down as the rest of the group slowly followed suit.

  Elias waved a hand and his men lowered their weapons. ‘What brings you this way and how may we help?’

  Edmond took a few paces forward and stood next to the commander. He dabbed sweat from his forehead with a white handkerchief while holding out his other hand towards Elias. ‘I’m Edmond, pleased to meet you.’

  Elias paused and looked down at the ground, then back up again trying to buy a little time to think. The only Edmond he had heard of was the leader of the Cloud people, but he surely perished in the destruction of the Lasell. He stepped forward and accepted the hand. ‘I’m Elias and I’m the mayor of Hope Point,’ he said, fixing his stare on Edmond.

  Edmond felt uncomfortable with the overly long handshake. He gently tried to pull away without seeming ungrateful about the gesture. ‘We are the survivors of the spaceship Lasell. Man’s last hope and saviour, which was obliterated in an act of terrorism. We crashed back to Earth and were lucky to survive.’

  Elias released the hand but kept his gaze firmly on Edmond. ‘How strange you say man’s last hope and saviour, and yet we weren’t part of it. As you see over my shoulder, we have a thriving community here and don’t really need saving. Funny how men put so much effort into saving themselves without seeing the wider picture.’

  Janelle stepped forward in an attempt to interrupt the awkward encounter. ‘We’re sorry if our visit has startled you. All we ask is that we stock up on water and a few provisions and we’ll be on our way.’

  ‘I’m aware of who you are, Edmond, and I’m aware of the city you built,’ Elias said. ‘We tried to forge an existence here while you built that glass city for the lucky few while you oppressed the unlucky majority.’

  Edmond tilted his head to one side. ‘Well…I’m not sure…’

  ‘It’s OK, Edmond, I’m not here to judge you or punish you for your decisions. What you did was wrong and I hope one day you’ll realise just how wrong it was. Maybe you’ll even find the humility to make amends somehow.’

  Edmond gave a subtle nod. He didn’t agree with the statement but felt somewhat powerless to argue against it. He and the survivors were low on water and supplies and if they were sent back into the deserts would probably perish within a couple days. The Cloud people and their ideology would be no more than a pile of bleached bones in the sand.

  Elias stepped aside and beckoned the visitors in with a hand.

  The young commander and Edmond walked through the gateway followed by the rest of the group. ‘Thank you, you’re very kind. We certainly won’t impose on you any more than we have to,’ Edmond said.

  Elias walked alongside. ‘You may stay here a day or two, fill your bellies and rest. You can help yourself to food and water from our stores but you can’t stay. I can’t take the risk. This town depends on me and I won’t jeopardise their security.’

  C
hapter Eighteen

  Carl and Amy knocked on Elias’s door and waited. The evening was cool and the town quiet. The invite to dinner had been accepted on the thinking that it might lead to more answers, although every answer in Hope Point seemed to create another bunch of questions.

  Elias opened the door with a broad smile. ‘Welcome, both of you. Thank you so much for accepting my invite.’

  Amy entered first. ‘Please forgive our clothes, we don’t have any more.’

  ‘Nonsense, you look radiant, and you, Carl, look much better after some rest, if I may say.’

  ‘A good night’s sleep and a hot bath certainly helps,’ Carl said as he entered.

  Elias handed them both a small glass of white wine. ‘We brew this ourselves. It’s quite a fruity little number. I think you’ll like it,’ he said as he opened the door to the dining room. ‘I’ve got some additional guests that you may know.’

  Carl entered the room and scanned the table. He recognised the military attire of the soldiers. His eyes quickly moved to the balding man with the glasses perched on the end of his nose. ‘Edmond,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t understand. How is this possible? I thought you were dead.’

  Edmond stood up. ‘Hello, Carl, it’s good to see you and Amy looking so well. To answer your question I am very much alive, at least I think I am,’ he said, pinching the skin on his arm.