Arija shuffled through the sea of corpses to the front door to make sure there wasn’t another wave of Dwellers waiting. The crunch of rusted gears under her feet made her wince, the sound reminiscent of cracking bone.
Kip reappeared in the kitchen cradling several rolls of cloth in his arms. He tossed them to Ypsilon. “Here ya go. I use them for wrapping pipe fittings, but they should do for humans too.”
Maza remained stoic, his face unreadable as Ypsilon applied pressure to his wound. But as the adrenaline from the fight wore off, Arija could tell he was hurt worse than he let on.
Arija watched as Ypsilon wrapped Maza’s torso but, with every pass, blood soaked through. “Hey, that might need a little more. We should get you to the clinic in Aparat.”
“That’s a good point,” Adal added.
Kip scoffed. “Don’t worry, guys. I have all the stuff here I need here to fix him right up.”
Ypsilon finished up the last roll and applied more pressure, the blood soaking through to her hands. “Wanna get on that, then?”
Kip rolled his eyes and produced a small satchel from his pocket. As he pulled up a chair next to Maza, Arija went back to searching the bodies for signs of what happened. They just looked like standard Dwellers. Nothing stood out as wrong or strange. Most of the dead wore similar light grey overalls. That’s when Arija noticed that all the overalls looked more than similar. They looked identical. Down to the logo on the front right pocket. A circle of gold stitching surrounded a pile of metal bars stacked on what looked like railroad tracks. “Check this out,” she said to no one in particular.
Adal strolled over and picked up a piece of shredded fabric with the emblem on it. He studied it, his face quizzical.
“What do you make of it?” Arija asked.
Kip appeared next to Adal. “That’s the symbol of Aesop’s Station. It’s a small ore collection and refinery town not far from here.”
Adal shoved the ripped fabric into his pocket. “What do you think this means for that station?”
The corner of Kip’s mouth turned down. “I… uh… They’re good people. They wouldn’t…”
“Damn it. You’re about to ask us to go checkout some bullshit in the middle of nowhere, aren’t you?” Adal murmured.
“You know damn well I am,” Arija broke in before Kip could answer. “There could be more of these things there, or survivors that need help.”
Ypsilon stood and walked toward Adal and Arija. “Yeah, I don’t know if you were watching the fight at all, but I’m gonna go ahead and say survivors are probably a no go.”
“Look, we have to go. If for nothing else, we need to make sure that there aren’t any more of these things terrorizing the Machine,” Arija reasoned. “Kip, do you know what this is? Is this something that happens in the Machine?”
Kip stared, wide eyed. “I have no idea what this is. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Adal and Ypsilon were both shaking their heads but Arija couldn’t let this go. “I’m going to do this, even if I have to do it alone.” She paused for dramatic effect. “But I won’t actually be alone, because you’re coming with me. Remember what happened the last time we split up Adal? You almost screwed a demon and I almost got recruited into a cult.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Adal protested.
Arija was already shaking her head. “Nope. You’re coming with me, the rest of you stay here. Clean up and see what you can find out about what happened.” Arija turned and walked to the door. She wasn’t going to give them time to argue. They had to act and each one of them was a boiling ball of stupid and emotion. Someone had to take control and she sure as hell wasn’t going to wait and see who would do it.
“Excuse the shit out of me, Queen Bee, but you said what now?” Ypsilon growled, one eyebrow raised as if she was shocked Arija dared to give her an order.
Arija smiled. She knew how to play into everyone’s ego. “Yeah, I need you here to help protect the house. You’re the only one I trust to keep everyone safe. Maza needs to rest and I want Kip and Van doing some research on these things. They’re the smartest people I know and if anyone can figure out what happened, they can. Adal doesn’t have a choice here. I need back up in case there’s more killer Dwellers out there. And as much as I hate to admit it, he’s actually pretty good backup.”
“You do have a point there about me being able to keep everyone safe. With Maz out of commission for a while, you’ll need muscle.” Ypsilon nodded.
With no more complaints from the group Arija said, “Great. Kip, how do I get there?”
“The Fleigensacks should have an adjusted altimeter. Change the dial on the back of it to ‘detect’ and select the ‘ore’ setting. The density of the settlement will lead you right to it.”
“Let’s go.” Arija waved at Adal to follow.
“This is some bullshit,” Adal protested, but he reloaded his gun and followed her to the front door.
“What was that, Adal? I missed it.”
“Uh... Nothin’. Maybe we should get some more ammo and stuff first.”
Arija raised an eyebrow. “Oh, good idea.”
Maza let loose a deep chuckle. “Hey Adal, don’t get your ass beat.”
Arija’s heart pounded in her chest as they soared through the Machine, the faint hum of vibration from the mechanical wings on her back helping her mind wonder. She swiveled her head from side to side as she kept a sharp eye out for signs of Kleinmasch or anything else that could attack them. Fortunately, she saw no signs of Pajak’s little friends.
After only a few minutes, she spotted smoke billowing from a tower. The side of the tower was decorated with big copper lettering that read ‘Aesop’s Station: Where Friendly Meets Function’.
“Let’s post up for a second before we go in. This could be either a trap or a meat grinder,” Adal shouted to Arija as he flew up next to her.
She nodded and waved to a small platform just beneath them. Arija landed and retracted her wings into the backpack she carried. She made her way across the platform towards the town with Adal right behind her.
Entire areas were covered in mangled machine parts, buildings were destroyed, and several vehicles were on fire.
“You sure about this one?” Adal asked. “I mean ‘yup, place looks fucked’ kinda works for me at this point.”
“Really, Adal? What if there are more of them in there or survivors? That isn’t how we do things and you know it.”
“Fine,” Adal huffed. “I’ll tell you what, if we get killed, I get to say I told you so.”
Arija laughed. “We aren’t going to get killed. If anything, you’ll do something dumb, I’ll save you and we’ll barely make it out.” When Adal didn’t answer she added, “Ok, you lead, I’ll cover you. Ready?”
As they made their way into town, Arija felt in her bones that this was stupid. They shouldn’t be here. She forced the feeling down. They needed to see if there were any survivors. The crackle of fire and the smell of smoke assaulted her senses, but she kept her eyes focused, searching for anything that moved.
Adal’s pistol swayed from dead Dweller to dead Dweller as he walked in front of her, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. “One of these things even flinches, I’m shooting it. Ain’t going out like that. Seen that movie.” He kicked a torso missing all its limbs as they passed. “Just checking.”
Arija kept the sights of her rifle trained on the horizon and rooftops. They were surrounded on all sides by tall buildings. It would be easy for the Dwellers to drop down on top of them as they passed underneath.
After several tense minutes of slow progression, Adal and Arija made their way to the center of the station. The still air made the hair on Arija’s neck rise to attention.
“This feels off,” Adal finally said.
Arija could feel it too. Something felt wrong. “We need to go.” Movement caught her eye. “There!” She pointed towards one of the roofs.
Adal brought his weapon up and fired.
Arija peered down her scope, scanning for movement.
“There!” Adal shouted, firing several shots at another building.
A shadow moved from one building to the next. As the silhouette crossed her scope, Arija fired. She fired again and again, round after round, the two following the creature as it moved with expert speed from roof to roof. Arija grunted. She was usually a really good shot and, while it was much harder hitting a moving target, she typically didn’t have this much difficulty.
Both of their weapons clicked empty.
“Shit,” Adal said, giving Arija a look.
Arija couldn’t see the shadow figure moving any longer, but if they made it apparent they had to reload, the creature would have time to attack. She slowly moved her hand to her pocket where she’d stuffed more ammunition. Adal followed her lead, keeping his eyes locked on where the figure had last been seen.
The sound of slow, lazy clapping sent a chill down Arija’s spine. “Wow. It has been a long time, has it not, Topsiders? It’s good to see you’re looking so well.”
“No fucking way,” Adal said as he turned towards Pajak.
Arija lowered her rifle. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Adal tossed his pistol to the ground and marched with lethal resolve towards Pajak. His fists clenched at his sides.
Pajak let out a manic laugh. “My my, you haven’t changed at all, Adal. As much as I’ve dreamt of this day, we have other business to attend to here.”
Arija examined Pajak. What did he mean by we?
He looked different with his arachnid legs missing. More human. His silver skin offered a high contrast with the black leather suit and long jacket he wore. His sadistic grin stretched across his long face, sending a familiar sickness through her stomach. Arija scanned the dark alley Pajak had come from.
As if in answer to her thoughts, a mechanical voice spoke from the darkness. “Indeed. This fortuitous meeting is not at all expected, but nevertheless welcome.” A cloaked figure stepped out of the dark and Arija spun her weapon around, pointing it at the newcomer. She hadn’t had time to reload, but she hoped they hadn’t noticed.
Arija studied the figure, her eyes roaming the leather plague doctor mask. “Who the hell are you?”
“Had to get some new muscle, huh, Pajak?” Adal asked. “What happened to the last one? Oh wait, that’s right, we killed him.”
“Careful, Topsider. The good doctor has ways about her you can’t even imagine.”
“So, you’re behind the crazed Dwellers,” Arija asked, her voice catching. “What did you do to them?”
Pajak clapped like an excited child. “Oh good, you’ve met the Prowlers.”
“Met them and killed them,” Adal growled. “And you’re next. Arija, you handle gothic Big Bird. I have Daddy Soon-To-Be-Broke Legs.”
“If you have the mettle, I would enjoy testing it again. Be warned, this will not go as it did before. I am through playing with my food,” Pajak snarled.
Adal shouted as he charged at Pajak, his hands at the ready. He lunged, swinging his fist. Pajak stepped to the side and twisted Adal around, slamming him into the wall. Pajak clasped the back of Adal’s neck and pulled him up into the air. Adal kicked off the building and the two toppled back.
Adal pushed himself up. He swung a savage right hook to the side of Pajak’s face. Then another to the chest. The villain let out a small, surprised shout and grabbed Adal once more, lifting him into the air. He threw Adal to the ground.
Arija focused back on the cloaked figure in front of her. “How did you make those Dwellers do what they did?” Arija slowly inched her fingers towards her pocket.
“These stupid creatures are worthless and should be exterminated.”
“That didn’t really answer my question.” Arija paused, a smile coming to her face. “Looks like you have a whole new problem though.”
“What might that be?”
“Me.” Arija tossed the rifle at the Plague Doctor with one hand and pulled the small reserve pistol from her pocket with the other. She fired from her hip, not wanting to give the Plague Doctor the chance to react. Shot after shot rang out as she raised the weapon to her face to align the sights with her target.
The Doctor moved incredibly fast, her body gliding through the air as she dodged each bullet with expert precision. When Arija’s pistol clicked empty, her heart sank.
“My turn.” The Plague Doctor lunged at Arija and drove her fist into Arija’s chest. The air evacuated her lungs and she soared backwards to the ground. Sliding to a stop at the base of a building, Arija coughed, blood trickling out of her mouth as she gasped for breath. Her lungs burned. Her heart slammed in her chest as panic took hold. She couldn’t breathe. Forcing her body to respond, Arija sucked in a gulp of sweet, delicious oxygen.
She rolled to her side, her hand at her chest. Adal was bleeding from his lip, and he was clutching his side.
“What was that you were saying about dealing with you?” the Doctor asked as she approached Arija.
Arija coughed and grunted. “See, what I meant to say was….” She swung her left leg and took the Doctor’s legs out from beneath her. As her enemy fell, Arija rolled to her side and jammed her elbow into the Doctor’s chest, producing a satisfying grunt from her enemy. The delicate tissue beneath her elbow flexed. This creature wasn’t a Dweller.
The Plague Doctor blocked Arija’s next hit and rammed her knee into Arija’s side. She shouted in pain and punched the Doctor, using the force to push away. Arija jumped to her feet, fighting the pain from the initial hit.
“Check the feet!” Adal shouted.
Arija stole a fleeting glimpse toward Adal, who was going hand to hand with Pajak. He shifted his feet rapidly and, as Pajak prepared for a kick, Adal caught him with a flurry of jabs and hooks. Several met their mark before Pajak blocked and countered with a burst of powerful hits, sending Adal once more to the ground.
They were outmatched. Arija was starting to regret not allowing Ypsilon to come with her when the Plague Doctor charged. Arija dropped her shoulder. She rolled the Doctor over and slammed her to the ground. She grabbed the arm of the Doctor and twisted it into an arm bar.
The Plague Doctor shifted and drove her boot into Arija’s chest. Pain seared through Arija’s entire body as her feet left the ground. The next thing she felt was the jab of a metal structure as she flew into the side of a cart. She ground her teeth, fighting the pain of the impact.
“Shiiiiiiiit!” Adal yelled.
Arija ducked as Adal slammed into the wall behind her. He crumpled to the ground next to her. His clothes were stretched and torn.
Adal grinned up at Arija. “I see you got your ass beat.”
“I have her just where I want her. What’s your excuse?”
“I don’t want him to feel bad about losing, so I’m letting him think he’s winning. All part of the plan.”
Pajak had joined the Doctor’s side. This wasn’t going to end well. Arija grabbed Adal and tugged him to his feet as she stood.
Adal slid a pistol into her hand, leaning in to whisper in her ear, “I’m smarter than I look, baby.”
“Are you ready to finally end this?” Pajak asked with a grin.
Adal turned to face Pajak and the Plague Doctor, revealing a second pistol, which he pointed at them.
“I mean, make your move. You should know I always keep a spare on me.” Adal laughed.
Arija rolled her eyes so hard she thought they’d roll into the back of her head. Sometimes Adal acted like he was in a damn movie. He always had to have a smart-ass one liner. Well, at least if they died, they’d go out how they lived: Adal acting like a fool and Arija trying to bail him out.
“You think we fear your weapons?” the Doctor asked. “I know you’re about out of ammo. And she’s already failed to land a shot. What makes you think you’re any different?”
Arija worked through a plan in her head. The Plague Doctor would be difficult to hit, but she knew she c
ould hit Pajak. She wasn’t sure how many hits it would take to put him down, but it’s not like they had much of a choice.
“Uhh...” Adal pointed at the Plague Doctor. A dense mist seeped from the beak of her mask. “I don’t want to sound crazy and all, but I think your friend is on fire.”
Arija furrowed her brow, scrutinizing the Doctor as her finger made the slightest twitch towards her pocket. “Don’t you dare do it, bitch.” Arija cocked the hammer back on her pistol.
“You know I hate that word,” Ypsilon said, breaking through the tension. “But in this case, I think it applies. So, carry on, Arija.” The Grinder landed on the ground in front of Arija, obscuring her view of Pajak and his beaked friend.
Arija sighed. She should have known Ypsilon would show up. “Really? You were supposed to be guarding the house.”
“Yeah, see about that, I do whatever the hell I want. And by that, I mean I don’t take orders.” Ypsilon rotated to look over her shoulder at Pajak and the Plague Doctor. She shrugged and brought her attention back to Arija like the two hooded figures meant nothing to her. “I sure as shit wasn’t going to let you two go off and get yourselves killed. Then what would I be left with? Just Kip and the Grinders back there? No thank you.”
“We can handle this,” Adal whispered as if the woman was embarrassing him in front of his friends.
Ypsilon ignored him, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. “Who are these assholes, gang? Looks like we got Robot Chicken and what… his handler?”
“Hey! We were doing just fine without you,” Adal tried again.
Arija huffed an exasperated sigh. “Listen Ypsilon, as much as I love when you show up out of nowhere to insult everyone, we kinda need to finish this up.”
Pajak cocked his head to the side, as if studying Ypsilon with fresh eyes. “Well you look… familiar.”
Ypsilon turned to address Pajak. “Who the hell are you and why are you talking?”
A deep rumble of laughter bellowed from Pajak as he took a step forward. The Plague Doctor reached out a single finger. Pajak paused mid step. Arija let her gaze slide over the Doctor. Is Pajak taking orders from her?
Ypsilon and the Plague Doctor Page 4
