by Mark Lingane
The city quieted as the days trickled past with no word. The silence crawled out of the desert, poking fear and doubt into everyone until whispers became rumor, and rumor became fact.
Melanie paced frantically along the top of the wall, staring out into the west, all day every day, snapping at those who tried to call her down. Finally, upon the horizon she saw movement and screamed at the guards until they opened the gates. They had to restrain her.
The guards that could be spared dashed out, bringing home a handful of men from the departing party.
“There are so few of them,” Melanie whispered.
The bodies of the nearly dead on badly made stretchers—dragged in by the exhausted, barely alive—crawled past. Men in states of delirium tried to run, although their legs failed; distant and crazed they crashed into the walls. The cries, the screams, the silence. Each as unbearable as the other.
Lastly, Nikola staggered in, so covered in blood he was only recognizable by his size. Inside the gates, he sagged. The peak of his sword drove into the ground, the blade bending as his legs gave out. His arms shook as he knelt, trembling as he tried to hold himself up. His legendary strength gave way and he fell unconscious.
Melanie scanned through the survivors; she hadn’t seen Gavin. She frantically searched through the bodies lying on the ground, but the endless blood disguised them all.
She fell in between the bodies, sobbing at her distress. Sebastian placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Follow me,” he said.
He closed his eyes and tried to block out the misery. The darkness wrapped around him and his outlined world appeared, but he couldn’t detect anything. He sunk deeper, looking for any faint signal and the pain grew. He slowly stepped forward swinging his hands in front. Then left. Then right. He drifted through the bodies. A spark nearly extinguished. So dim.
“No,” Melanie cried. Sebastian was in the heart of the dead. “Please, no.”
She pulled back the blood-soaked sheet and clasped her hand to her mouth as she burst into tears. Gavin laid there, pale-faced, eyes closed. The grief welled up inside of her, overtaking, hurting. The spark flickered, and he held his breath. Sometimes when you look too deep, there are things you cannot see, and there are things you do that one day you regret. The spark went out. Melanie sobbed as she held on to Sebastian. He knelt next to Gavin and placed his hands over his heart, closing his eyes. In this state of heightened sensitivity, any sudden surge could … Albert’s words came back to him.
“For Melanie,” he murmured. The world was full of energy. As gently as he could, he let the power drift, and the spark spat into life. Sebastian rested for a moment, slowly lowering his sensitivity levels. He stood feeling drained, shattered, hollow. The ground under him was black, charred.
“He’s alive,” he rasped, as he staggered and collapsed backward.
Melanie fainted. Medics rushed in and whisked her and Gavin away. Sebastian remained in the heart of the dead, surrounded by the lost, his head spinning.
What could he say? In the jaws of victory, no one had wanted to listen.
What could he say? He glanced back over his shoulder through the open gates. He shouted. What could he say? Close the gates. They are coming.
Isabelle awoke to a rhythmic chanting accompanied by clapsticks. She stood for the first time and slowly ventured out of the cave into the brilliant light. The sun was fierce, forcing her to shield her eyes. A dozen Aborigines performed a ritual circle, dancing and singing around a mound of bones.
A Steam Academy soldier stood in the shade of a Coolibah tree, talking to Ari. She could smell tea and spotted the billy boiling by the billabong.
An old lady motioned her over and offered her a cuppa.
Isabelle sat and sipped.
“It’ll be good for your throat,” the old lady said. “You have the markings of the Omega.”
“I’m sorry,” she rasped. “I don’t have any clothes.”
“You shouldn’t hide them, as they define you and your son’s future.”
“How do you know?”
“I can read them.”
“You read the markings?”
“Of course. We all can.”
Isabelle glanced around at the people. They were covered in white paint mimicking the swirling lines and dotted patterns.
“I never seen them etched onto skin before,” the old lady said. “I’d be interested in knowing what you were up to at the time.”
Isabelle didn’t respond and stared into the cup.
“You know it’s time. You got nowhere left to go. Time to stop running. You broke the rules, even though you knew the consequences.”
“How could I have known?” Isabelle said.
“You can tell yourself whatever truth you want, but you cannot hide.”
“I was hoping if they never found us it would break the cycle.”
“You can’t break time. You can’t cheat the readings. What’s been done,” she pointed at a swirl drawn in the sand, “will happen. Ari brought you back. You getting a second chance to put it right.”
The old lady paused. “Not you, of course. But you know who. He needs you more than ever.”
“I can feel it,” Isabelle said.
The old lady smiled. “I bet you can. Tingling away on your back. Do you get the dream?”
“From the future?”
“There is no future when you dance with the Omega.”
“I see the images. The light. The red warrior. Is it him?”
The old lady shrugged. She slowly stood with Isabelle’s assistance. “Soldier boy,” she shouted, “get your lily backside over here.”
The soldier shook Ari’s hand, then joined the elder.
“Parker, I remember you,” Isabelle said.
“I’m probably not the one you should be remembering, but it is good to see you well after all these years.”
“Oi, Parker, where are me smokes?” the old lady said.
“Have you decided to help us?”
She looked out at the tribes coming in from the horizon. “You got your answer there.”
He smiled and passed her a cardboard box. “You can be a gentleman sometimes. Next time make it a twin pack.”
He nodded.
“You want another brew before you go heading back? You got time.”
“I’ve got to collect some other men, but I believe you will say I do,” Parker responded.
28
IT ALWAYS WAS going to be a trap.
The Zeppelins hadn’t been much of a threat once the ground force had been taken out, a simple task that the cyborgs had enjoyed. No one knew how many cyborgs existed, but thousands had attacked. The dragons had swooped in out of the sun and the hydrogen had exploded with such intensity that nearby dragons had been taken. That’s what the handful of survivors had said. Those who had returned were either in hospital or being debriefed in an attempt to ascertain how it could have gone so wrong.
Nothing was as harrowing as opening the gates, not even the main gates, to a defeated army, vitriol sapped from men too embarrassed, terrified, and scarred to look anywhere other than at their feet. Families that had lost a valued member, or more, wept and wailed. The emotion of the loss crippled the city, sinking into Sebastian, and he found himself crying over these people he had never known.
And the menace was coming here.
For the first time, he felt he could do something about it.
When his sensitivity had been at its strongest, Sebastian was able to detect the cyborg skynet a day away. He told people, but the shock seemed to numb the population, stunning them into a trance. In the end, there were only a few people he could rely on, as always.
“Melanie, they’re coming.”
“I’m not leaving him,” she replied. She hadn’t turned away from Gavin to talk. The smell of disinfectant permeated the hospital.
“I need you. I have a plan, but I can’t do it alone.”
“You have a city full of p
eople.”
“But they’re not you.”
“I said no. I’m waiting for him.”
Sebastian lost his temper. “He’s not as great as everyone says.”
The ringing slap caught him across the face. It was a surprise, but not as much as the electric shock that discharged between them. Melanie picked herself up off the ground. Her gaze switched between her hand, Sebastian, then finally to Gavin.
“Did you do something, something to bring him back?”
Sebastian hesitated, then looked away. “No.”
She reached out, wrapping her arms around Sebastian, and pulled him close.
“What do you want me to do?”
Melanie and Isaac chased after Sebastian as he frantically ran through the streets.
“We only have a few minutes,” he shouted over his shoulder.
“Minutes? What can we possibly do in minutes?” Isaac cried. He had his owl tucked under his arm.
Melanie was in full combat uniform. She wore it always lately. Sebastian had noticed most of it was carefully tailored leather, something that he assumed appealed to Gavin. And she had done her hair. Don’t get him started on the boots!
Finally, the remaining army had mobilized as the lines of enemy soldiers approached the gates.
They ran up the stairs to the tesla tower control deck. It was still heavily damaged from the previous battle, with parts of it held together by patchwork repairs.
“Most of the dials look dead,” Isaac said. He tapped the cracked glass of one dial, which fell off and shattered on the ground. “Are you sure this still works?”
Sebastian heaved on the large wheel under the remains of the dials. They heard the rush of gas and some of the dials sprang into operation.
“Isaac, you control the hydraulic pressure. Melanie, you aim. I’ll do the electricity stuff.”
“What am I aiming at?” Melanie asked.
“Any point where you can see a big group of cyborgs. Isaac, you turn the steam wheel left or right to keep the needle in the green band on the dial.”
Isaac grasped the wheel to test how stiff it was. His muscles strained as he spun it one way then the other. He gave Sebastian a nod.
“How do you operate this?” Melanie shouted.
“You have crosshairs on the top. The right lever moves it up and down, and the left lever moves it left and right. As you move it, steam will escape from the hydraulics, and Isaac will need to maintain the correct pressure. When you have the target, you let me know and I’ll earth the dish. Then the electromagnetic wave will come out. Ready?”
Melanie nodded. “Let’s do this.”
After the bickering and arguing stopped about whose fault it was when nothing happened, the small team began to show some semblance of coordination. But their first shaky attempts only landed close to the mark, without actually hitting anything.
“How do I know if I’ve hit one?” Melanie said.
“He’ll fall over, or something,” Sebastian said.
“No blood?”
“No.”
“What’s the fun of this?”
Sebastian went still. A solitary figure slowly and defiantly walked out toward the skynet. A cyborg broke away from the army and met the figure midway. Sebastian glanced over to Melanie. She was arguing with Isaac.
“Stay here, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Sebastian emerged out into the turmoil on the street. He could feel the distress. A beaten city wasn’t going to put up much of a fight against a rallying enemy. But in the heart of the gloom and pity, Gavin stepped out. No matter how annoying he was, it took guts to do that. Or delusion. Probably both. A loud boom emanated from the heart of the cyborg skynet, then another. A war drum. People cowered under the deafening thump. Sebastian ran toward the western quadrangle. The nature of recent events meant it was surrounded by the military support services—weapons and medical. People were drawn toward the gates, making it difficult to squeeze between them. He crashed into the back of a man, who turned, revealing his old school teacher.
“Sebastian, what are you doing here? You must get to somewhere safe this instant,” Oliver said.
Sebastian pointed out to the gates. “What’s going on?”
“Gavin is facing the leader,” Oliver said.
“No one stopped him? He’ll be killed,” Sebastian cried.
“Yes, his skills have improved incredibly. The cyborg will have no chance.”
“No, not the cyborg, Gavin will be killed.”
“Oh, I don’t think so. He’s brave and masterful.”
Sebastian quelled the urge to scream. Desperate faces surrounded him. They all believed Gavin could do something. This is insane, he thought. Half of him wanted to run away, shouting, see how far you get with him. But he’d seen people like his father and Nikola face up to what they needed to do when the time came. He couldn’t run. Several rows of soldiers encircled the gate. He tried to squeeze through, but a soldier knocked him away.
“Hey, let me through.”
“Get back home, kid,” the soldier replied.
Sebastian tried two more locations with the same result. The drum continued to pound.
A panel in a wall opened up. Hugo leaned out and beckoned him over.
“Come with me.”
“Hugo! Do you know a place where I can get a clean shot at the cyborg?”
“You don’t have a weapon.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You need to hide. It’s going to be a wipeout.”
“I just need to do this. Take me to somewhere I can see the lead cyborg.”
Hugo paused before he finally nodded. They scrambled through hollow walls, drains and crawlspaces until they emerged above the gate but below the walkway. Sebastian peered out through the grating. He could just see Gavin and the cyborg. Their voices drifted up.
The cyborg casually waved his gun toward Gavin. “I see you before, boy. I see you on the train. You are stupid. Now I kill.kill you good.”
“You don’t scare me.” Gavin placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest.
@redFive shrugged. “No. I kill you.”
“You cannot kill me. I am a tesla.”
The cyborg laughed. “So? Any tesla is a small.small problem.”
“You won’t get past me, because I am much more powerful.”
@redFive laughed. “If you can defeat me, we leave.”
Beneath Sebastian, a small group of soldiers assembled by the guardhouse. He could see they were preparing to charge out and rescue Gavin.
The cyborg fired a beam to the left of Gavin’s feet, forcing him to lurch to the side. He then fired to his right and Gavin jumped back.
“Tesla dance!” @redFive laughed. “You have no weapon.”
The cyborg withdrew a long, black dagger and threw it into the dirt between Gavin’s feet.
“You pick it up,” @redFive said.
Gavin slowly bent over. As he reached out for the grip, the cyborg fired and the dagger skipped away several feet behind.
“Who’s the idiot? He looks familiar,” Hugo whispered.
“Gavin,” Sebastian replied.
“I remember him now. He came in on the train up from Birdsville. He faced off a small team of cyborgs who jumped the train, water looting.”
“But that would be before his training.”
“Yeah, they smacked him down ’til he was three shades of black and blue, so beaten up he couldn’t see out his eye. I would love to have seen the cyborg if that’s what winning looks like. He didn’t stand a chance,” Hugo said. “But everyone said he was brave. Some said he used his powers.”
“What powers?” Sebastian hissed.
“Maybe under pressure.” He glanced over to Sebastian. “Who knows how any of us react until we experience a true threat.”
“Is that why he’s a total pain now, because everyone thought he was brave?”
“You weren’t here when they hunted down the teslas. Expec
tation and perception makes people unpredictable.”
Sebastian concentrated on the dagger, feeling its shape and weight. If he could align the molecules and get it to fly into the cyborg, hopefully his neck so blood would spurt out …
Gavin placed one foot back and raised his hand …
“But you not win.” @redFive smiled as he stepped aside.
“Holy cow, what’s that?” Hugo pointed to a massive black tube being rolled forward by four cyborgs. A low hum vibrated out of it. A black claw jutted out from the front. A blue ball appeared in the claw and grew in size and intensity. The hum fell through the octaves. Hugo grabbed Sebastian’s arm. “If that weapon doesn’t hit him, it’s going to hit us—”
Gavin dived aside as the cannon released. The plasma ball shot across the short distance to the city. The wall cracked under the impact. The power exploded out of Sebastian, then he and Hugo tumbled to the side, cascading down the internal cavities. The wall held, but they were now tumbling, crashing through the crawlways.
The dust settled. Gavin wiped it out of his eyes. He cautiously rose.
@redFive stumbled backward, the dagger sticking out of his chest. He fell as electrical charges crawled over his armor, crashing into the sand. The cyborg’s body twitched. A huge cheer erupted from the wall. The army as one lifted. Sebastian could feel the mood swing.
“You promised. Now go,” Gavin shouted. He stepped uncertainly backward as the color drained from his face.
The men charged out as Gavin collapsed onto one knee. The cyborg force fell into confusion and the first rows quickly fell under a barrage from the soldiers lining the top of the wall.
Sebastian and Hugo burst out through the panel as dust and debris billowed around them. Hugo pushed Sebastian aside as a sheet of steel scythed down, narrowly missing them.
Sebastian, on wobbly legs, ran back to the tesla tower. Another hum started then fell, followed by an intense flash of light, and he was thrown to the ground. The walls cracked and sheared. Large metal strips tore along the first weakened point. The cyborgs ripped at the metal, pulling it apart, forging a way through the great walls. Men struggled to find anything that could be used as a barrier. Wood and metal were placed across the breach, but the cyborgs marched through. Some of the smaller cyborgs were pushed aside as larger ones pushed their way from behind and hammered against the makeshift defenses. The metal buckled and the wood shattered. Strong arms reached through and wrenched the pieces apart.
