by Mark Lingane
“Why is this place such a mess?” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of big, bad wars. But since the meltdown we’ve had two major conflicts that consumed the whole country. History’s divided into two ages. The First Age was about coro—big food and drug wars. Then we had the Second Age, which was dominated by two big families on either side of the country. The Accession Wars ended about fifteen years ago. It was east versus west, family versus family. The east lost, but they thought they’d been betrayed from the inside, so nothing was ever settled. The Peacemaker believed the east would attack at any moment, so he built the Great Wall.”
“What were the Accession Wars over?”
“I don’t know. Does anyone know what goes on in the minds of the leaders? They make decisions and the small people die.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing the Great Wall. I’ve never seen anything that big.”
“It’s actually not that great. It is more of a symbol that says you lost, and don’t you forget it. Still, it seems to have worked.”
The water boiled and the two nibbled on the rehydrated fish. After a few unsuccessful attempts at chewing, Memphis surrendered.
“You can have mine if you want,” she said.
“I wouldn’t want to deprive you.”
“You’d be doing me a favor.”
“Okay.”
“Really?”
“I’m real hungry. I’d eat just about anything.”
Memphis relinquished her ration and he started to eat. He hesitated as he approached the part where he’d have to actually swallow the stuff. He closed his eyes and forced it down. His stomach and mind had a brief battle, but his fatiguing body won the debate. He lay back on the sand, placed his hands behind his head, and stared up at the sky.
“The stars are bright out here.”
Memphis lay down next to him and placed her head on his chest. “Your stomach’s making disturbing sounds.”
“Where did you learn the history stuff?”
“My mother taught me.”
“You don’t mention your father much.”
She went quiet.
48
“WHERE IS Q-backer Baxter?” the Peacemaker asked Clint. “I pay him. This is not acceptable customer service.” He was calm to the point of disturbing. He stared patiently at the screen, unflinching and quietly determined. Time stood still.
“H-he has m-major issues to address in the south, Peacemaker,” Clint replied, still using the self-appointed rank of center. He stuttered under the pressure. He was glad the Peacemaker was only an apparition on the screen and not standing in front of him.
“Did you force the Forty-ninth command to the Raiders’ base?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t keep them there.”
“Our own numbers are growing thin. These infected people take their toll. We have to keep them under control as well as advance to the north.”
“You’re not losing, are you?”
“No, sir. We continue to press forward with our primary objective. Success will come. The truth will prevail.” He felt a trickle of sweat roll down his temple.
The Peacemaker snorted. “It had better.”
Clint coughed uneasily. “But we’ve found the north to be resilient. They’re exceptionally and unexpectedly organized.”
The Peacemaker paused. “Where is the Forty-ninth command right now?”
“I, that is, we are not one hundred percent exactly sure.”
“What? Where did they head after they left the Raiders’ base?”
“All we know is that they left with the tesla vermin and the girl.”
“And where are these children right now?”
“We … don’t know.”
“Find them. It’s simple. You know where they were. You know where they’re going. Draw a line between the two places and search it.”
Clint struggled under the pressure from the cool retort. “We don’t have the people. To search across the Nevada desert, we’d need to organize support forces from the south. We’d have to make agreements with those willing to help. At the moment, we’re only getting interest from Arizona, and they’re unreliable.”
“I thought you said Q-backer Baxter was already doing this?”
“Yes, yes, he is. But to bring other divisions in, well, there’s a feeling among the other divisions that a significant troop buildup could send the wrong message to the east. Most people don’t want another conflict so soon after the Accession Wars. As well as the reduced number of soldiers, many have wound back their defenses in recent peaceful times.”
“Haven’t the people heard what the Chargers have done?”
“Us?”
“No, no, I mean the Forty-ninth Division, what they’ve done. Everyone should know what traitors they are.”
“I’m sure the message is travelling as fast as it can, but the digital stations are failing. Some of the messages seem to be scrambled and contradicting the Church.”
“I think you’ll find the Church has the exact same expectation of the children. However, telling the Master you’ve lost them will be much worse than telling me.”
“Why are the children so important? We will, I mean, we are winning here, and the attacks on the north are strong.”
“Just get them,” he roared.
There was a moment of silence. The Peacemaker’s face was flushed with anger. Clint had never seen rage like it. The sudden snap had been so complete and ferocious he had to question if he was speaking to the same person.
“One thing I’ve been wondering about, sir,” Clint said, gulping nervously, “is how did we end up in a treaty with the outlaws? I thought we fought against them.”
The Peacemaker was still breathing heavily, but his rage had quickly cooled. “I believe you were mistaken. If you check your records, you’ll find otherwise.”
Clint signed off. He had already checked the records and, of course, the Peacemaker was correct, down to the exact phrasing. He wished he could contact Q-backer Charlie Baxter for guidance. He flinched. There was more hammering on the reinforced door, followed by a deep scraping sound of metal on metal. He could hear the screams.
49
NIKOLA HELD ONTO the steel beam branching across the flight deck. Others were running around performing their duties, confident and focused, something he certainly didn’t feel as the voidship shook violently as it descended through the turbulence in the clouds. After the interminable wait for the void arm to swing around, then the days of constant shaking in something that could barely be trusted to make it through a moderate wind, his nerves were fraying. But they had survived.
The captain said they were only a few hours away. Nikola gritted his teeth and watched the madman constantly read the dials and the pitch of the ship then steer accordingly.
“Land ho!” cried one of the men.
Nikola caught a fleeting glimpse of the great expanse of ocean, then the waves as they crashed against the broken shoreline. He let out a sigh. The ship dropped out of the buffeting winds, and rocked urgently. Nikola lost his footing, and the others laughed at him. He gave the closest one a dark look, and the man instantly snapped his mouth shut.
“Where’s the landing point?” Nikola asked the captain.
“Not too far inland. These people don’t like the water, it being so toxic,” he replied.
As they passed over the land, Nikola pointed at some ruins. “What happened here?”
“The Reckoning. Started on the other side of the country and ended here.”
“But it’s just … nothing. Fragments of life.” The rubble of a broken civilization rolled under them.
“Lucky we was all living on the other side of the planet when it happened. And a thousand years before we was born,” the captain said, as he brought the ship lower and into calmer air.
Nikola let go of the beam and stepped toward the observation window. He tied his hair into a small ponytail and clasped his hands behind his ba
ck. He towered over the young man who was in the observation point.
“Have you seen this before?”
“Yes, sir.” The young man gulped as Nikola’s impressive physique hovered beside him.
“Explain it to me.”
“There’s nothing much to it. It’s mainly rubble for about an hour, then we get to the current void point.”
“Is it like the one we left from?”
“Sort of. They really don’t like us here, so the facilities are minimal.”
“Why don’t they like us?”
“There was an incident last year. The story goes that a voidship brought something over that caused a problem.”
“What was it?”
“A tesla.”
“What!”
“I know. Teslas are scum.”
Nikola’s hand wrapped around the man’s throat and lifted him up. “Care to say that—” Something flashed in the corner of his eye.
The ship had descended to docking height. The captain suddenly reversed the engine and threw the steering wheel to the left. The ship banked dangerously. He stared out the window, horror shaping his face.
“Oh no,” he whispered.
Standing on top of the docking station was an infected. It held a severed head aloft, and was waving it at the ship. Everyone on the flight deck stared at it as the zeppelin slid past.
Nikola looked down at the sea of infected that were swarming in waves against soldiers, who were fighting back desperately. It looked like the soldiers were losing.
“We can’t land,” the captain said.
“What else can we do?”
“If we hurry, we can catch the void arm around to Japan. It’s a much safer place—except for all the monster reptiles running around.”
“No. We will land here. You won’t stop me getting off this ship.” Nikola grabbed the captain’s arm and squeezed.
The captain’s face turned pale. He struggled against Nikola’s strength, looking defiantly into the big man’s dark eyes. “We can’t. If we land, we’re all dead, including you. I’ll ride the wildest sweep across the Pacific, but I will not land here.”
Nikola looked out the window, then back to the captain. “Then don’t. Get in close to the dock and lower the hatch.”
“You’re not going to jump. It’s impossible.”
“Leave it to me. I have a way.”
“Even if you survive the jump, which is a one-in-a-million chance, you can’t fight them all on your own. You won’t last a minute.”
Nikola smiled. “You wanted to know what was in the box.”
The rear of the voidship opened downward. There was a loud roar, and Nikola came screaming down the ramp on a sleek steambike. It sailed off the end of the ramp and out over the vast abyss between the ship and the docking station. The infected below gathered eagerly at the landing point, waiting for their next feast. Nikola smiled. He flicked a small switch on the handlebars and twin Gatling guns unfolded.
He was firing as he landed on the scaffolding, obliterating everything in front of him. The bike skidded to a halt. He leaped from the seat, ripping his sword from the scabbard strapped to his back. He sliced the blade into the head of the first infected as it crawled up the scaffolding. As they rippled up the sides of the tower, he twirled and sliced, killing until the blade dripped with blood. And still they came.
There were noises below. As he watched, the infected fell screaming from the tower onto the level below, halving the numbers reaching the top; soon there were no infected left to kill.
A lone figure wearing an exosuit clambered awkwardly up onto the metal flooring. He rolled onto his back and Nikola raised his sword, ready to drive it downward. The helmeted man rolled, raised a machine gun and aimed it at Nikola. The gun was smoking.
The visor helmet flipped open to reveal a middle-aged man. “Are you a tesla?” he asked.
“No, but I seek one,” Nikola replied.
The man lowered his guns. “Don’t we all? You’re aware there’s someone peculiar behind you?”
Nikola glared at the man, assessing his strength. He found little to be worried about. He held out his hand to help the other man up. The man hesitated before taking Nikola’s hand and struggling to his feet, the exosuit groaning and hissing. On top of the precarious tower, the two faced each other, with the burning city below.
“You are?”
“I am Nikola Tasman of Australia, former commander of the Steam Academy, the collected military services, the western quadrant, and associated regions and allies. And senior officer on the Pacific seaboard. I come looking for my son.”
“You didn’t happen to bring your army with you, did you? Ours seems to have been wiped out. But after what I’ve seen, maybe you and your friend are an army. I’m Q-backer Charlie Baxter of the Chargers, commanding officer of the division. You can call me Charlie.”
Nikola gave him a brief smile.
“Who was that person behind you?” Charlie said.
“Who? I didn’t see him. It’ll be interesting to find out who and what they are.”
“Wait, are you saying your son is a tesla?”
Nikola nodded. “Sebastian,” he said.
Charlie watched the muscles of the enormous man bunch and tense, as though he was getting ready to strike. “Sebastian said he had no family.”
“He’s unaware of our relationship. His mother left me before he was born.”
“Maybe there are some things we can talk about.”
Charlie checked that the way was clear before signaling to a distant building. A large bolt shot through the air toward the tower. Charlie stamped on it, pinning it to the metal flooring. The wire attached to the bolt retracted slightly, bringing the bolt down onto the platform. Charlie pressed a button on the bolt, and spikes sprang out and buried themselves into the metal. The wire went taut.
“Follow me,” he said, as he handed over a pulley.
“Do I look like a teenager?”
Charlie hooked his own pulley onto the wire and leaped off. He sailed out over the cavernous space below and disappeared into the building.
Nikola shrugged, and did the same. He sailed over the heads of the infected below as they milled around and erupted into swarms of attacking frenzy. Like packs of rabid dogs, Nikola thought. The infected were charging mindlessly at shadows and at each other, at lightning speed. Then they were gone and it was dark.
He found himself wrapped in a thick blanket. He heard Charlie shout a command to subdue him, and then he felt punches land, blow after blow. He did his best to protect himself, but they were unrelenting. He tensed, and waited it out. When the punches started to diminish, he slid out a knife from his sleeve and sliced through the blanket. He grabbed the first man he saw, picked him up by the throat, and punched him in the face. He dropped the unconscious body and looked around at the stunned soldiers surrounding him. He towered above them. They seemed frail, diminutive, and scared.
“Who’s next?”
Charlie stepped forward. Weapons unfolded from his exosuit and swung around to face Nikola. In the blink of an eye, Nikola had ripped the sword off his back and rammed it into the tiny gap between Charlie’s helmet and his head. The point nicked into Charlie’s throat.
“You are with me, or you are against me,” Nikola said. “And, quite frankly, I don’t like your chances.”
The weapons folded away and Charlie lifted the visor. “A truce. We will talk,” he said.
Nikola slipped his sword back into the scabbard and stepped back. He followed Charlie into a room with a large table and several chairs. The rest of the soldiers followed. Charlie sat, and the exosuit hissed and squeaked as it moved into position.
“Do you live in that thing?” Nikola said.
“I must, thanks to your teslas.” He indicated for Nikola to sit opposite him.
“Sebastian didn’t do this,” he said, pointing to the exosuit.
“No, others came before him. Some of the testing instructions
we received had devastating results.”
“Instructions? Who from?”
“The Church of Truth. The Church is an ally in the east that helps us combat the northern divisions. About one year ago the Master, the eastern warlord in charge of the Church, said teslas would start arriving on the zeppelins. There would be other things from across the sea, but they were flown directly to the east. He said one particular tesla would arrive who was stronger than the others, and there were procedures to go through to test tesla strength. We were told to ship them to the east if they failed the tests. They all failed. Then Sebastian turned up and there was no doubt he was the one.”
“So, your Master knew a year ago that Sebastian was going to come here. How is that possible? Well, I know one way it’s possible, but I don’t like the idea.”
Charlie sighed and clasped his hands together. “You need to know that Sebastian helped us, but he wasn’t made welcome,” he said in somber tones.
“I hope you didn’t take any liberties.” Nikola’s forearms clenched, and his muscles stood out in thick ribbons.
Charlie cleared this throat. “We were as cordial as the Church decrees. You don’t know the destruction his kind have done before.”
“So, you’re saying that Sebastian wasn’t the first one to come here, and that teslas aren’t the only things brought over from our land. There’s a lot for you to explain to me. Is anywhere here safe?”
“No. We fight for our lives every moment of every day. And the infected claim us one by one. We’ve been pushed out of our headquarters, to this building. It’s all we have left.”
“You haven’t thought of leaving?”
“We await instruction, and reinforcements. The Master has promised to send support, and he speaks the truth.”
