Lincoln isle

by Richard Johnson

  Chapter 2

  We watched it cross overhead then come down, but no explosion meant that there could be survivors. No, no one really survives Lincoln, they just manage to put off death a few hours or days.

  I turned to my Sergeant and asked, “Think we should go help them?”

  The Sarge was not human. Not completely. I think he was one of those people whose mother was raped by a monster like in the fairy tales or horror movies. They rarely survive because if the mother manages to live past the rape, the pregnancy kills her. If she survives that, the baby miscarries and if by some miracle the baby is born alive, the doctor or midwives make certain that he never lives to be seen by the parent. Sarge lived, spent his life in a cage in a freakshow until he got away and was found by a Vartanian Agent who was the first person to treat him decently. Sarge fell in love instantly. She wasn’t really that nice a person, Agents rarely are, but dealing with aliens for a few centuries makes you really tolerant of strange looking people.

  He looked over and replied, “No need. By the time we get there, they won’t be alive.”

  “We should try,” I insisted. I didn’t like leaving people to die if I could save them. It’s why I became a cop.

  “You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”

  “Probably not.” I had deserted one day and carried a wounded man back to our lines after being told to let it be. The Sarge respected that. I respected the Sarge too. Didn’t like him but respected the hell out of the guy.

  “Go then. Bring them back if you can. If not, dump them and get back by nightfall!”

  “Alone?”

  “Anyone want to help save some corpses?” he called out. There were no volunteers so he looked at me and dammit, I had to go now or loose face. So I grabbed my gear, took some extra pulse-packs and headed out, tightening my body armor. I’d give my left nut for a Shield and a mega-watt Phaser right now.

  Sundown! That gave me about ten hours. I grabbed a Walker, daring the rider to stop me. He just laughed and handed me a kidney-belt and mouth guard then checked to be certain the canopy sealed and the gatling gun on the roll-bar was loaded and working.

  Walkers are like a giant mechanical 6-legged Spider. They are slower than a car but over rough ground, they cannot be beat and will climb a sheer cliff if necessary. They just shake you apart and I often get motion-sick in them.

  I locked the Walker onto where I thought the aircraft went down and let it go, trusting the computer to read the radar, sonar and visuals and find the best path. No one can drive a Walker, you just point it and let the computer operate all the legs and hope the thing sees a pothole before it steps in one and breaks a strut.

  A moment later I was climbing over rough ground heading NE. Lincoln Isle is volcanic so the ground is mostly rough with places where the sand collects and there is a lot of forest. I had to climb over a lot of lava flow, through a forest and onto the dunes. Assuming the aircraft hit the land and not the gulf which no sane person would enter. We didn’t know everything that was here, no one did and the Vartanians didn’t care. They were alien mercenaries, not scientists. The Draconians were curious, but they wouldn’t come without a company of Lanai Warriors to keep them alive. The Cylons would just nuke the isl from orbit.

  I was heading down the first ridge toward a stream when the Screamers attacked. The gatling took three out easily as they attack in a pack, but the fourth came into under the gun’s shadow. That means the roll-bar was in the way and the gat couldn’t depress far enough so the Walker had to twist direction to get the screamer between bars. By then it was almost on the Walker and I had my handgun ready. The gat took it out and blood splattered the bubble, damn those things stank.

  Instead of cleaning the Walker, I touched ‘hurry’ and the thing moved faster, from a fast walk to a trot. But the faster they go, the greater the chance that it could drop a leg into danger before the sensors picked it up.

  Safety features kicked in and the Walker slowed at the stream, then crossed safely, carefully putting foot after foot on the best rocks until it was across and up the next ridge. I crossed another stream and sped up along the slope to the Dunes when sonar picked up a Worm!

  The gatling gun couldn’t hit a buried Worm but maybe it could scare it away so I locked the gun on the sonar trace and found it was heading in the same direction. That meant the Worm had detected the crash too. So now it was a race. The Worm had evolved to travel underground as it chased surface prey, the Walker could move really fast over level ground, until it got bogged down in the sand. Which is exactly what happened.

  The sand slowed the Walker which sunk in with every step as the Walker had to pull one foot free before it could move forward but the scope did see the downed aircraft in the distance so I locked the Walker onto that as a Destination and the Worm as Target and moved as fast as the thing could move. The Worm outpaced me easily.

  I was maybe a half mile away when I saw the people staring at me, a giant Spider, so I opened the Hail and yelled, “Get off the sand! Get into the aircraft!” the fools just stared so I fired a burst at the Worm, hoping more to scare it than hit anything.

  All that happened was the people scattered and the Worm turned then returned to chase them.

  I fired burst after burst to turn the Worm but no luck so I tried to warn them again. The Worm burst free long enough to grab someone then I hit it as it dove.

  Sonar showed it still moving, sonar is supposed to confuse the Worms and give them a migrane but this one ignored the pulses and chased another person who got pulled down as I fired round after round into the sand hoping to hit the monster.

  No luck but the rest of the people were now on rocks or on the plane (not in the craft) and so safe. The lava flow that bordered the Gulf kept most of the water things in the water and stopped the Worm so I focused on the aircraft.

  I reached the plane at the same time as the Worm, but it couldn’t trench in that sand. The experts said the Worms had no real brains so couldn’t think or reason, they were that primitive, but then, they never saw a Worm herd people to an underground tunnel they had dug as a trap.

  I stopped the Walker and called, “I’m here to help you. As I get close, one at a time, jump onto the cargo hold in back.” Then I turned and backed up, letting the computer do the manuver. The first person jumped easily and then the second got knocked by the third who wouldn’t wait. Not that I could blame him. But the Worm rose up, pulled the second off the frame and dove before the gat could lock. I fired a few rounds but even the pulser couldn’t do much damage to the Worm other than burn a few holes in the hide and really pissing it off.

  As the third man (second passenger) loaded, the Worm breached under the body of the Walker and lifted the craft up and then down as the legs on one side folded. It then smashed through the canopy and I fired round after round as it tried to grab my passengers, the gat being unable to lock.

  Finally it gave up and dove and the Walker righted itself, the hatch sprung and unable to latch. A second Walker would have taken the Worm out as it breached but…

  I calmed down a bit, then headed to the lava for the others, climbing the flow easily where I picked up the other two and let them scream for awhile. My helmet dimmed the sound as I planned.

  According to the map, I could walk the lava flow back to the volcano and then the ground would be too hard for the Worm so it would abandon the chase. Problem is that the Worms may not have much brains but they made good use of what little they did have.

  “Listen up” I called, waiting for their screams and questions to die away. “My name is Krappa. Listen to me and I’ll get you out alive. We are going to follow the lava flow where the Worm cannot follow but the Walker isn’t made for comfort so settle down, grab something and don’t let go.” Then I tuned them out. I didn’t want to listen to them scream and all they would have were questions I couldn’t answer.

  If I went slow, I could
keep the jostling to a minimum but it would add an hour or more to the trip back. Setting the controls to ‘max-ease’ I let the computer take me back when the UAV flew overhead, then hovered.

  “How you doing, Krappa?”

  “Not bad. Worm took two but I saved four. Bringing them in.”

  “Be careful, Zeds on the plane.”

  “Can you x them?”

  “I got a couple but they reached the trees and I didn’t want to risk the UAV. I’ll stay overhead and keep you informed.”

  “Thanks!” I liked UAV pilots. They stay in a safe bunker and fly the toys by remote control but they can see anything, go anywhere and so long as the signals don’t block, they give really valuable intelligence to the grunts. Like where the Zombies from the aircraft were. At least now I knew why they abandoned the aircraft and preferred the worms.