Dazzle Ships

by E. E. Isherwood

  In my head I counted to five. I tried to calm myself for what I needed to do.

  I ran.

  In my head I imagined all the dead sisters getting shot out like a shotgun blast, but to my great relief that isn’t what happened.

  I looked back once, when I made it to the edge of the bag hole. Instead of shooting out, they kind of slid out like a thick gel.

  I didn’t wait another second. I ran for the grotto exit, intent to catch my companions.

  A giggle caught my attention.

  “Wen!” Then, a second later. “Alex?”

  I shot over to where I’d heard the laughter and found Wen almost completely covered in plastic bags. She lay inside a small depression that had been cleared of bags, then re-covered once she was in the hole.

  “Wen? What are you doing? Where’s Alex?”

  She laughed manically, not sounding at all like herself. “I remember. I remember!”

  “That’s, uh, great. We have to run. Where’s Alex? He was with you.”

  “I remember it all. Why I came here in the first place. Who I am. Accident. All wrong. I have to tell them who we are,” she said with a nervous laugh.

  “Wen!” I shouted. I almost slapped her to get her attention. I was a second away. But she looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.

  “Elle! You’re back?”

  I nodded in haste. “Where. Is. Alex?” My calmness belied my horror at what I knew was filling up the ditch we all dug around that grate.

  “Alex?” Her eyes narrowed. “He’s not one of us, Elle. He doesn’t belong.”

  I imagined her as one of the sisters. He most certainly wouldn’t belong there.

  “But where is he?” I shook her. I hated getting upset but I’d never been under such pressure.

  She didn’t respond, even to that prodding, but she did look me in the eye when we both heard a loud moan. From very close.

  We both turned our heads to see one of the cloaked men—his robes were a deep brown—on all fours not far away. He’d just made it out of the ditch.

  I couldn’t abandon Wen, though in my anger I wanted to. She was being supremely unhelpful when I needed her the most.

  “We’re leaving,” I said simply. I got into a crouch and grabbed her arms and pulled her until we were both on our feet.

  When she saw all the beings hovering around the bags we’d cleared from the hole, I sensed it finally sank in with her.

  “Run,” we said in unison.

  3

  “Follow me,” I shouted. I glanced over my shoulder as I ran, just to ensure Wen was going to keep up but also to see how many people were coming out of the hole.

  Too many.

  There were two men in the dark robes, that I could see. Many more of the sisters peered at me from over the edge, like prairie dogs searching for raptors.

  That wasn’t quite right. They were the raptors—we were the mice.

  “Left!” I shouted.

  Wen turned left at the last second, and I trailed behind.

  “Elle, no. This the way back to those guns.” She slowed to a jog, seemingly thinking about going back and taking the other path.

  I stopped but immediately pulled at her arm. “We have to go this way.” Even if I wanted to listen to her, Felix and Scarlett were ahead of us. I wasn’t going to leave them.

  Wen brushed her fingers through her hair, thinking.

  “Come on,” I insisted. I let her go and resumed my jog, hoping she’d take my hint.

  When she caught up I sprinted ahead, intent on catching my new friends. I needn’t have worried. They were only a short ways ahead, though I found myself impressed how fast they were moving by helping each other.

  I pulled up right behind them as we all came out above a roadway I recognized from the night before. We were still shadowed from the dam by the hillside, but another hundred yards and we’d see the bridge. From the bridge we could be absolutely certain the guns at the dam could train on us.

  I deliberated with Wen the whole run-shuffle to the highway.

  “We can’t, Elle. I can’t go through that again. Now that I know why I’m here, I can’t risk dying.”

  It was the last thing she said before we stepped on the pavement. The road was still clogged. Rows of cars and trucks all the way up to the bridge. The big barricade boxes blocked the otherwise clear spans of the bridge. The huge parking area sat on the far side of the river with an untold number of vehicles. The tell-tale crane was visible in the hazy distance.

  Scarlett and Felix both leaned against a white box-like truck, panting.

  “Wen, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We can’t run from these things. We have to find those people who saved us last night. They have weapons.”

  “Your shotgun! Where’s your shotgun?”

  She dropped her head in what looked like shame. “I don’t know. I think I left it. I wasn’t myself back there. Do you have yours?”

  I think I literally grabbed my hair and pulled. She was beyond frustrating.

  I tried to assure myself one shotgun wasn’t going to be enough to stop all the dead things following us—

  As if on cue, they came out of the narrow canyon we’d just come through.

  —but it would have made me feel better about our chances.

  “Just run for it,” I said in resignation. I thought of lots of alternatives to the bridge, but everything included long treks across the wasteland. Climbing up and down the canyon was only slightly preferable to walking around the entire lake—assuming that was even possible. The bridge was the only possible course Scarlett and Felix could traverse, much less survive.

  We started through the field of cars and trucks and I was desperate to think of a way to save us.

  “Wen, can you get Scarlett? I’ll help Felix.”

  The slight pause yielded immediate dividends for us. Rather than the two weaklings helping each other, we paired up and made better time. I chanced a look behind before we moved out, sure we were going to be overtaken. Once the people chasing us came out of the canyon, they fanned out in a broad line to weave through the cars after us.

  It didn’t take us long to close the distance to the bridge. We were about twenty-five yards from the box containers at the edge. The worn letters on the outside formed the word “SARATOV.” I was surprised we’d made it that far without the guns firing. The screaming barrage was already playing in my head, if only to reduce the shock when it happened for real. Which I knew was coming at any second.

  “Try to get to that first box. If we get that far, we should be able to get across using the bridge’s edge to hide us. Just keep your head down,” I added. I’d caused our problems going the other way on the bridge when I ignored that same advice.

  I was surprised again when we made it to the containers without a single shot fired. A plan had been evolving in my thoughts the closer we got to the site of the battle. But where I expected drones to hover above us and beam their lights in our eyes, there was nothing.

  “Where are you?” I asked the dam.

  The pursuit was drawing close. I saw many of the dingy skirts on the hillside next to the highway as well as walking among the cars not far behind. I didn’t see the cloaked men. I hoped they got lost.

  We could use just a little luck.

  “Keep going. The dam people—” I snickered, remembering Alex’s joke—“aren’t going to fire at us.”

  Wen did a double-take as we looked at each other. “You sure?”

  I nodded. “I’ll wait here until you guys are almost across. I might be able to cut off a few of the leaders if they chase you.” I spun my staff at my side, lighting it up.

  I knew there was no if. Not at this point.

  I handed Felix over to her and they all stepped out from behind the big box. The two black sentry drones guarding the approach were much less threatening in the daylight.

  “I’ll see you in a few,” Wen said without looking back. “I have a lot I need to
tell you.”

  “I can’t wait,” I said truthfully. The whole girl-in-the-wasteland gig wasn’t suiting me very well. I wanted to find Alex and track down the Commander and get it all over with so I could get back to my boring life. I shuddered despite the daytime heat as I recalled Xandrie’s disappearing hand. And what of Saint Valerie?

  I wasn’t born for that kind of excitement.

  I watched the trio walk far out onto the bridge, and stepped a few paces onto the deck, intent to follow. The dead were very close now. I could hear them moan. I had to make up my mind.

  Nothing was working as I’d hoped. I needed to go big, as Alex would say. Take things “uphill.”

  I faced the dam, upset that of all the times for it not to lash out at intruders it had to be now.

  What if?

  The culmination of my plan sprang into my mind and I snapped my fingers to acknowledge it. One simple thing could end this whole mess.

  I watched Wen guide the two others almost all the way over to the box containers on the far end. A quick run and I could be over there, too.

  I bit my tongue, savoring the pain in a way that might minimize the damage I was about to inflict upon myself.

  “Elle, are you ready to be the hero?” I said in Alex’s voice.

  “Why, yes. Just point the way,” I replied.

  I knew the way.

  I ran from my friends.

  4

  It felt liberating to have the wind in my hair as a I ran. I waved my staff to get the attention of the dead sisters trailing behind. Once I’d gotten a few cars up the line I was able to get onto the hillside that led directly to the dam. From there I finally saw the cloaked men crawling along the edge of the highway. They saw me and gave chase.

  “Follow me!”

  My friends shouted my name from far away, but only for a few seconds. I could only assume they realized they had no choice in what I was doing. They were clear and free as long as they kept quiet.

  I yelled some more, to be certain.

  “Over here you—”

  What were they? Alex called them walkies but they were just dead husks. Their life had been sucked out of them. The blue light had stolen the inner spark from Valerie. The thing walking around out there was nothing more than … than ...

  “Jerks!”

  That will tell them.

  Ugg.

  I reassured myself I soon wouldn’t have to worry about such trivial matters. Once I got the people in the dam to launch their drones, such things would no longer matter. It was a fair trade, if I was able to do what I needed to save my friends.

  I ran up the gentle hillside at almost a lazy jog, picking around small boulders, tiny green sprigs of trees and endless red rock. The sisters weren’t that fast out in the open and they often stumbled and fell in the difficult terrain. The men in the robes were a little faster on all fours, but spent long periods waiting and sniffing the air as if they didn’t want to get too far ahead of the women.

  “Don’t get lost,” I shouted when I reached about the halfway point. From there I could see the road on top of the dam and the blue lake beyond. I checked behind and saw little figures on the far end of the bridge. Scarlett, Wen, and Felix appeared safe.

  I waved and smiled when they waved back with excitement.

  “Yay, I’m dying for you all,” I said in my sarcasm mode. “Hope it’s worth it.”

  With Felix I couldn’t help feel cheated. However old he was—I didn’t buy that he was over two hundred—he couldn’t have much time left. Wen might survive no matter what I did. I pretended she was going to make it. Yet there was no question I was doing right by Scarlett. She’d have a chance to have her baby.

  I smarted at the thought. I’d run away from having a baby. A decision I hadn’t second-guessed until that moment.

  The wide-open hillside was perfect for anyone shooting guns from the top. There was nowhere to hide. No trees. No large rocks. And the sisters made no effort to even try to find such things. They walked right out in the open in nice, tidy clumps.

  “Where are you?” I shouted around me, hoping someone was seeing the threat walking up the hill. “Shoot them!”

  I was nearly hoarse from screaming as hard as I could, but knew I only needed to be heard once and it would all be over.

  “Come on,” I said in a dejected tone.

  I estimated maybe fifty or a hundred sisters were on the hill with me. There were at least two cloaked men, but a few more slinked around behind the girls. I’d seen a couple walking over the tops of cars down on the roadway.

  I peered down at them, but spun around on the rock and gravel just in time to see one of the boulders lift off the ground. It was the same type of drone from last night. And the rock didn’t lift as much as tilt—to reveal a cavity underneath.

  The wash of the fan rotors came over me as it hovered just over my head. The black machine was balancing on four little fans and had a low-profile chassis, though it wasn’t very sleek. I recognized the green laser—it was beaming out of a clear orb on the front part of the underside. The big gun was the piece that had my attention.

  All around me other rocks popped up and more drones floated out of them.

  Near the top of the hill other pieces of rock rose upward as if being pushed from below. A long row of about ten silos rose twenty feet above the surface, each unfolding its own black tube. When they were all ready, they turned as one to face their guns down the hill at me and the sisters. I could imagine them firing those loud nightmares from the night before, now that I could see them.

  Well, we got ‘em angry.

  I’d stopped in my tracks to watch the scene. It bothered me that I would get caught in the crossfire, though.

  Without thinking it through I jumped into the hole from which the first drone had come. It wasn’t much deeper than the drone was tall, but it was deep enough I could get all but my head below the edge. I figured it would give me a little extra time. It wasn’t the dying as much as the fear of not seeing if my sacrifice had worked.

  When my sneakers slapped onto the metal surface at the bottom of the pit I shouted in surprise as the earth rattled and my eardrums popped.

  The screaming beams lanced out, right down the hillside all around me. I had the rock lid as my shield so I was hopeful they couldn’t tag me inside, but the drone remained just above me like it was considering where it should aim its gun.

  Down there.

  The beams were every bit as impressive in the daylight. The strong green rays swept the poor sisters in the open desert below my position. Some were sliced side to side like a knife through a chicken patty. Others walked in such a way the beam punched right through their midsections before re-orienting for a second pass.

  The wailing and screaming was almost as loud as the thunderclaps caused by the beams shutting off and turning back on.

  No, not the beams. It was so confusing. There were explosions in the field in the middle of the crowd. The booming noises were the projectiles ripping through the air.

  The drones snuck away from their little bunkers and hovered on the edge of the field, as if waiting for the all clear to go find any stragglers. The sisters closest to the cars managed to evade most of the green beams, just as we had done in our engagement, because the vehicles blocked much of the penetrating light.

  Of course the explosions blew many of the cars apart.

  I looked from my hidey hole and each of the ten towers had two distinct guns attached. The shorter barrel shot out the green and white piercing beams; the longer tubes recoiled with each explosive shot.

  I smiled. It was a good way to die.

  Except when I looked down the hill through all the smoke and commotion, I saw drones floating out over the open air near the bridge. My trick wasn’t as effective as I’d hoped.

  I think I cursed. I don’t remember. What I did next was totally by instinct.

  I hopped out of my burrow, got my footing, and ran as hard as I could up the hill
.

  5

  I made it about ten feet when I stumbled to my knees. My staff provided support on the uneven ground so I saved myself from dying flat on my face.

  When I made it back to my feet, I purposely ignored the towers looming over my head. If they wanted me dead it would almost be a waste of their resources to turn their guns downward onto little old me.

  Yeah, never mind me!

  Crossing the remaining fifty yards took much longer than I wanted. I fell down two more times and both my elbows were bloodied in the second crash. The hill got rockier and steeper nearest the top, and it looked to me like a bunch of construction debris had been tossed over the side.

  The last ten feet were the most dangerous. Though I still wouldn’t look at their barrels as I struggled up to the tower I’d chosen, I sensed the towers on either side of mine had decided that yes, I was a threat. A pulse of green light touched my shoes and I managed a hop just as the pulse of white-hot energy burned into the rocks.

  A second shot nicked my staff, causing it to grow as hot as fire in my hand. I tossed it ahead so it was right next to the middle tower. I cleared the final rise of the hill and chased it. I moved to one side, so if I was going to die it would only be by one laser, not two.

  “I give up!” I shouted to the battlefield.

  Quieter, I added, “I surrender.”

  Huffing after the exertion I sat on my haunches and dared the laser to fire down on me. The turret on top of the pillar faced me. I was one haircut away from oblivion. My only regret was not having the energy to protect my friends.

  Should have run down the hill.

  Maybe. I might have been able to defend them with the staff, though even that seemed unlikely now that I could see the spread of machines arrayed against us. A pregnant woman and an old man stood no chance.

  “Come on! I’m dead,” I yelled at the tower.

  I held up my hands, palms out, showing I was done. Given up.

  When the gun refused to fire I got to my feet and looked to my left, toward the parts of the dam on the eastern shore of the river. A complicated series of wires and wire-poles stood above me; wires hung on tall multi-legged poles even higher up the hill and seemed to go over the top.

  It was all very nice, save the beams and explosions still erupting around me.