by Chris Lowry
The hovercraft lurched toward the edge of the clearing, aimed straight at trees.
“Up,” Lt said. “Higher.”
“I’ve got it,” Annie grunted as she pulled back on the yoke and sent them racing toward the treetops.
“Up!” Lt shouted again.
She made it, taking off a few branches and leaves with the bottom of the flying machine.
“Made it!” she cheered.
Lt relaxed slightly and patted her on the shoulder.
“We still got to get back down, Warbucks.”
She chewed the corner of her lips and tried to make sense of the controls under her fingertips.
The hovercraft made erractic jolts and jumps in the air as she experimented, but Lt thought she was getting the hang of it as the flight smoothed out half way in.
John and his men didn’t seem as happy with it.
“I ain’t too worried about another patrol seeing us,” Lt shouted over the blowing wind.
“When they see how green you boys look, they’re just gonna think we’re one of them.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
John directed them toward another encampment hidden in the trees further back in the woods.
They followed the creek downstream for miles before he pointed with a shaking finger to a new direction.
Annie hauled on the yoke and after a few minutes of consulting the ground and indicating course corrections with finger jabs, they settled on a new path to their destination.
“Looks different from up here,” John offered.
“How far?” Lt asked.
“Over that ridge,” the man nodded toward a ridge that rose in the distance, just a few miles away.
“Look for a place to land,” Lt said. “We come in on an enemy flier, they’re bound to take some shots.”
Annie nodded and began casting around for a clear spot to put the hovercraft down.
She found one, a mile from the camp and circled back in a lazy spiral to coast just above the leaf covered glade.
The hovercraft paused over the ground, blowing up leaves and dirt as she brought it to a slow and easy halt, then grinned at Lt.
“Don’t get cocky, kid,” he said as he hopped over the side.
He reached back up and offered her a hand down and she landed lightly next to him.
Lt turned and surveyed the woods between them and the encampment. A mix of trees, pine, oak, and evergreens scattered under the forest canopy turned the ground into a dappled mix of light.
“We about a mile out?” he said to John.
“It’s just a twenty-minute walk,” the man answered.
Lt nodded.
“Or a five-minute run,” he said. “Spread your men out over there and give Warbucks your pistol. You come with us and we’ll set up a little greeting party. On my signal.”
“Who are we greeting?” John asked.
Lt didn’t answer, and the man turned over his pistol without another question.
He instructed his men to go where Lt indicated and followed after the Suit.
It wasn’t five minutes.
It was less than four.
The first sentry showed his position when a bush between two pines waved sideways.
The second crunched a branch across the clearing.
Lt, Annie and John hid behind trees and didn’t move.
He hoped John’s men were doing the same.
The woods around them grew quiet, the insect hum and chorus of chirping birds going silent as mother nature began to watch the drama in the clearing unfold.
A half dozen grungy men in woodland camo stepped out of the trees and advanced on the empty hovercraft.
Lt waited a ten count to see if there were more, but no one moved in the forest.
He let the men get close to the alien vessel and made a motion with his hand to tell Annie and John to stay put.
Then he stepped out of his hiding place.
“Welcome to the party, pals.”
The patrol whipped around toward him, rifles ratcheted to their shoulders as they aimed at Lt.
But no one shot.
“Another one,” a tall man with a long beard and black circles under his eyes breathed.
He didn’t lower his rifle, but he took his finger off the trigger.
“Russel send you too?”
“Who the fuck is Russel?” Lt said. “Drop your weapons. I’ve got you surrounded.”
The men glanced around with nervous looks, rifle barrels jittering.
“Shit Warbucks, that was the fucking signal.”
Annie leaned around a tree trunk and aimed her pistol.
John joined her from the other side.
“That it?” the man with the long beard sniffed.
Lt nodded his head and they turned to see the four other men stepping from the woods behind them.
“Now I could let them start shooting, but I might want to make a different impression seeing as how this is our first meeting and all. John the Baptist here says you boys like fighting Licks. I like fighting Licks. I figure we might could fight some Licks together and kill a whole lot of those fuckers.”
One of John’s men collected the rifles from the squad and the rest corralled them into a straight line.
“That’s not up to me,” said the man with the long beard.
“Then take me to your fucking leader,” said Lt.
He let John and his men march the group toward the camp as Annie fell in line behind him.
“He said another one?” she asked.
“I heard.”
“Do you know what that means?”
Lt shook his head.
“But we’re about to find out.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"Babe?"
"Hey Lt."
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Just hanging around."
He twisted on the end of the chain.
"Shit son, ya'll gonna have to quit getting captured or kidnapped or whatever it is that ya'll keep doin or we ain't never gonna have time to get them Licks out of here."
"Sorry, Lt."
Lt turned to Axel.
"Go on, cut him down."
"I'm afraid I can't," the hatchet faced man said.
"Why?" Lt tilted his helmeted head. "You ain't got a blowtorch."
"He was a gift to me."
"I get it," said Lt. "I really do. But see, I've got a problem. And if I've got a problem, then cousin, you've got a big problem. My problem is I'm going to kill every last son of a bitch in this room if you don't turn him loose. The big problem is, you got a lot of sons of bitches in this room. That's a whole hell of a lot of dead people on account of you being stupid."
Axel snickered.
"You can try," he said. "But we'll kill your woman. She's not in armor. And then we'll stop you cause Russel's son is watching you. He's probably got you in the crosshairs right now."
"Who the fuck is Russel's son?" Lt asked.
"Chief," said Babe.
"Chief's here?" Lt rubbed his hands together as he glanced around. "Watching?"
"He's going to shoot you as soon as I give the signal," said Axel.
"Well all right then, now we got ourselves a party."
Lt lifted his blaster and sent a shot through Axel. It ripped through his chest and out of the back of his chair, searing a smoking hole in the wooden wall.
Lt rolled his body in front of Annie, covered her with his armor as he searched for any other threat.
But no one shot at him. No blaster bolt came searing through the openings in the building.
Axel's men stared at him, some with open mouths.
"Now, who wants to play follow the leader?" Lt asked, gun roaming across the survivors. "Someone get up there and cut my man down and we're gonna get real friendly, real quick like."
One of the men raised his hand.
"You ain't got to raise your hand dumbass, just get up there and get it done."
The man nodded,
his scraggly beard bouncing against his thin chest.
"Now Blackbeard has gone and elected himself the leader of this here outfit," said Lt. "Any of you bastards got a problem with that?"
He glanced around at the heads as they shook no.
"I thought you were super human in those things," said Annie said as she stared at Babe dangling from the post.
"Super? Nah. More human than a human, maybe. It takes the strength you've got and magnifies it. Babe here, ain't strong enough to break these chains."
"He had a blaster," Babe reminded him.
"It ain't a criticism of you Babe, just an assessment of your current situation. Blackbeard, you want to cut my friend loose?”
Blackbeard unbolted the chains holding Babe and the big man settled on the ground. He worked out the kinks in his shoulders and stumbled across the floor to Lt.
"I'm going to save the hugs for later," the big man said.
"Fuck that," Lt growled.
He wrapped an armored arm around Babe and dragged him into a hug against his shoulder.
"God damn it's good to see you brother."
"It's good to be seen, Lt."
Babe tapped their helmeted foreheads together.
"Where have you been?"
"Babe, you would not believe this shit. I went up into outer space."
"Bullshit."
"I shit you not. Rode an XJ-S into the Lick High Command ship, blew it all to hell and got a ride home from my new friend here. Warbucks, say hi to the Babe."
"Isn't that guy still supposed to shoot you?"
Lt glanced at one of the windows.
"I figured he would have done it by now," Lt answered.
"Sir?" Blackbeard raised his hand again.
"You don't have to keep doing that," said Lt.
"I think he ran away."
"Chief ran off, huh?"
"He must have been afraid of you."
"Or going to warn his dad," said Babe.
"Then we need to hoof it," said Lt.
He turned to Blackbeard.
"I got a couple of rules for letting you live, Blackbeard."
"Sir?"
"Get all your folks together and get them in here."
"Shouldn't we hurry?" Babe asked. "They'll have time to fortify their position."
"One step at a time, Babe. We got to solve this little situation first, and then we're TCB-ing the shit out of our compound. You read me?"
"I read you," Babe nodded.
CHAPTER TWENTY
"What do you think they did with Babe?" Waldo whispered to Lutz as they stood five yards back from the fence.
"Nothing they can do to him, right?" Lutz said. "You've been in the Suit longer than I have. Are they impervious?"
"Imperverted what?"
"Impervious, Brainiac. They can't shoot through them, right?"
"Right," said Waldo. "Except blasters."
"Which went with Chief."
"You know, I never really trusted that son of a bitch."
"I guess you don't want me to remind you that you told Lt to bring them along."
"No," Lutz answered. "No I don't want you to do that."
"Okay then, I won't," he tilted his head to catch a glimpse of Steph sitting with Crockett. "She's all right though."
"Is she?"
"Yeah, she got us in through the wall, and we got these."
He tapped his left arm with his right hand.
"And she hasn't tried to kill or betray us," Lutz offered.
"Yeah, that too."
They stared through the fence in silence for a few moments.
"Do you think they would really kill Doc?" Waldo asked.
"I don't know. It wouldn't make sense for them to do it though. He's the only one who can make the Suits work."
"Maybe Chief’s Dad is that kind of bastard."
"Which kind?"
"The kind that says, if I can't have it, on one can."
Lutz nodded as he watched the guard through the fence shift from foot to foot.
"He does seem the type."
"When you were in prison, did you think about escaping?"
"All the time. Well, when I could think. They worked us hard, moving rocks, busting concrete. I think they wanted us tired so that all we could do was think about it. Not act on it."
"They're not making us tired here," said Waldo.
"You ever heard the expression, great minds think alike?"
"Are you complimenting me Lutz?"
"Don't get used to it."
The guard he was watching dance around in the universal rhythm of "have to go to the bathroom" disappeared behind a tree.
"Now," said Lutz.
He surged toward the unwatched gate.
"Now what?"
Lutz slammed into the fence with his shoulder. The door bounced open as the lock cracked, the frame dangling from the post by one hinge.
He ran toward the tree where the guard disappeared, Waldo on his heels.
They caught the man as he fumbled to zip up, juggled to raise his gun and the alarm at the same time. Lutz cracked him across the skull with his forearm and dropped him with a meaty thud.
"Doc," said Waldo as he ran past the downed guard and sprinted toward the warehouse.
It was Lutz's turn to follow him.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
“There’s something I want to show you, Lt,” Babe said.
He led Lt and Annie through the campground to a canvas tent at the end of a narrow row. They had to step over ropes tied to stakes in the ground, a high step obstacle course.
“I think I did these folks a favor,” said Lt.
“What?” Annie asked.
“Taking me off their hands,” Babe answered.
“That and killing the idiot in charge. Who set up this encampment? Don’t make much sense.”
“That was the guy,” Babe said. “As far as I could tell. But they do have one thing going for them.”
He stopped in front of the last tent and gripped the flap in his gloved hand.
“You waiting on a drumroll, Babe?”
Babe pulled the flap aside and the trio stepped into foyer five feet inside of the opening.
A man stepped from behind a bedsheet tacked to the roof to create a dividing curtain that separated the spaces.
"Ignore the fucking man behind the curtain," said Lt.
Annie gasped, but Lt was able to hide his surprise better. Or at least the helmet did the job for him.
They couldn't see his face. It was covered by a mask, his hair hidden under a green cap, and body buried in a green gown.
His gloved hands were covered with blood, splatters drizzling a pattern across his chest where arterial spray had gushed.
He ripped the gloves off and threw them in a bucket that overflowed with them and dropped onto a wooden barstool. He leaned back against the wall and removed his mask.
His eyes were intense, the color of brown leaves in the sun and they stared at Lt, Babe and Annie with sharp intelligence.
"A Gen One," he said finally. "I haven't seen one of those in years."
Lt nodded and his faceplate slid up.
"You a doctor?"
The man glanced down at the blood, and then the gore covered gloves in the bucket.
"If I'm not he's gonna be pissed I stole his clothes."
"Settle down there, Sawbones," said Lt. "You don't got to be an ass hat about it. We got us a Doc too and I wanted to see if you were a real doctor doctor or the kind we got."
