by Kacey Ezell
“Death?” Susa asked, her voice strained and frantic
“Here,” Death managed to croak as the contraction raged inside her body. She closed her eyes tighter and hunched over her kitten, trying to protect it from the hammering light. “They are coming.”
“Entropy!” Susa cursed, and Death heard the sizzle of an energy weapon fired in atmosphere. Something heavy hit the outside of the CASPer. “They’re already here. We have to fall back.”
“Can’t,” Death panted, and once again, she pushed down and out. Another release, another slide, and another kitten wriggled out into the world. Death reached down to gather it up to her chest as well, and for the first time, she tasted smoke in the air.
“The building is on fire,” Susa said. Death squinted her eyes open to see her molly climbing awkwardly over the lip of the CASPer cabin. Susa hooked her leg on the internal structure and reached in toward Death. “We can’t stay here. Come on, kita, we’ve got to go.”
Death pulled her two kittens in close to herself and felt Susa’s gentle hands slip under her bulky, useless body. Birth was so debilitating! She should be fighting, protecting herself and her newly born kittens…but another contraction hit and all she could do was let out a small cry.
“I’m here, little love,” Susa whispered as she pulled Death close. “I’m right here. CONASON!”
Death closed her eyes once more and heard the sound of another CASPer stomping close.
“Looks like they’re neutralized for now,” he said. “But this building could come down at any moment. We have to get out of here. I can carry you in the CASPer arms until we get to a vehicle.” His voice was amplified through the external speakers of the CASPer, and it made Death’s head ache. She closed her eyes against the uncomfortable swaying as Susa climbed from one CASPer to another, and then fought not to push through the next contraction.
“Death?” Susa asked.
“Two,” Death panted. “Are here…Another…wants out.”
“Oh, sweet merciful…okay, kita. Hang in there, I’ve got you. Conason, could you step on it?”
A tiny corner of Death’s mind wondered what, exactly, Susa wanted Conason to step upon. Certainly, the big CASPer was capable of crushing something, but it didn’t seem the most efficient way of taking out a threat. And then her mind went blank of any thoughts at all as they surged forward in a horrible, jerking, swaying motion at speed.
Death retched, and emptied the contents of her stomach all over Susa.
She felt the molly flinch, and then hug her even tighter. Death’s body wrenched into another contraction and this time she couldn’t stop herself from pushing back. She felt Susa reach and jerk to catch the third kitten that crawled from inside her. A great sob escaped from Death’s tightly closed lips.
“I’ve got it!” Susa said, her exultant words barely audible in the wind of their lurching passage. “Oh, so tiny! It’s beautiful and strong, Death! I’ve got your kitten!”
Death felt Susa try to nestle the third kitten up close to her belly, where she held the other two. The first kitten was busily rooting and kneading to find a source of milk, but the second one had fallen still. Death tried to speak, tried to tell Susa about it, but another wave of contractions hit, and she was paralyzed.
She didn’t notice when the swaying and lurching stopped, for her focus had once again drilled down to a single pinpoint intensity.
Push.
Get them out.
Make them live.
Push.
Somewhere, distantly, she heard Susa’s shout, and a rumbling that sounded like mountains falling all around them. Blackness crowded in from the edges of her vision, and Death spiraled down…
“No! Stay with me, kita! Your kittens need you awake!”
Another lurch, along with the panicked sound of Susa’s voice, brought Death back to awareness. The blackness receded as her body’s latest contraction eased, and Death blinked her eyes against the punishing light of Earth’s primary star.
“Bubba!” Conason yelled, his voice booming from the external speaker of his suit. “Are our people all out?”
Death panted during the short respite and swiveled her head to see the mechanic, now soot-stained and weary looking. He stood next to the leg of Conason’s CASPer, while the other suited mercs gathered around.
“All that were living,” Gnad said. “I think I’m the only one not in a suit who made it out—”
“Mr. Conason,” Susa said, her voice low but urgent. “My mistress is still in active labor. I must get her somewhere safe immediately.”
“I know, Doctor,” Conason said. “We have a fallback location, but it is not in this immediate vicinity. I don’t think carrying you the whole way would be wise, and all of our vehicles were lost in the garage when the building came down.”
“I’ve got a truck, Boss,” Gnad said. Conason stilled, then turned his cumbersome, suited body to face the tired and bedraggled figure of the mechanic.
“You do?”
“Yeah, it won’t fit inside the garage entrance. I was going to ask you about parking it in the CASPer bay, but then we got this contract.” Gnad said, grinning. Death slow blinked toward him, though she didn’t think he could see her very well. Since their rocky meeting, she had actually come to like the mechanic very much. He told amusing tales and had a way of scratching behind her ears that was most delicious.
“Get it, Bubba, thanks. The rest of you, I don’t know who sent those drones, but it’s obvious they’re after our client. So, this is now a vehicle escort mission. Doctor, you and your mistress will have to make do in the back of Bubba’s truck for a little while.”
Susa looked as if she’d protest, but Death lifted her head slightly.
“That is well, thank you, Mr. Conason,” she said. Her voice was raw and hoarse, but he must have heard her, because that ended the discussion.
“Right. Form up on me, then kiddies. Let’s get this cat and her kittens to safety!”
* * *
The second kitten, the one that had gone so dreadfully still, started to move again as Bubba drove up in what had to be his truck. Death felt a wave of relief crash over her as she guided the tiny (so impossibly tiny!) body to her abdomen to nurse.
“What is that?” she heard Susa say, cuddling Death close while trying not to jar her or the greedy kittens. Even the little latecomer began nursing enthusiastically, once it figured out the logistics. Again, Death turned her head to see past the barrier of Susa’s arms. At least Conason had finally set them down on the solid ground.
They stood on the dirty, cracked concrete that fronted one of the downtown roads. A white vehicle with Human writing on the side pulled up to stop in front of them, causing the CASPers to aim their weapons at it. The door opened with a thick ker-chunk, and Bubba Gnad stuck his bearded face out from behind a tinted window.
“Don’t shoot! It’s just me!” he said, with a grin. Even from this distance, Death could see a distinct pinkness to his ears and face. He was blushing?
“Bubba, what on Earth is that thing?” Conason bellowed through his speakers. “‘Biological Emergency Response Team’? Are you kidding me with that zombie bullshit?”
“Just because you got no taste in literature is no reason to crap on mine!” Gnad shouted back. “Black Tide Rising is a classic! Besides, it’s a truck, ain’t it? And look, I even put a few toys on it.”
He must have toggled a switch or something, because the large cross arm mounted to something piled on the back began to spin, and a hatch opened in the front side fender of the truck. From this hatch, a six barreled, belt-fed weapon emerged.
“See? I got twin miniguns on either side! I figured an area of effect weapon might be helpful in clearing a path, you know what I mean? I got a few other surprises, too. And with the radar on top, I can keep track of you guys in your CASPers—”
“Okay, Bubba, we get it. You like your toys. Let’s get the clients loaded in and get gone, please! I doubt that’s the
last we’ve seen of those drones,” Conason said. Gnad nodded, and reached to open the rear door of the cab. Susa carefully laid Death on the back seat, and then climbed in beside her and began gently prodding at her abdomen, away from the nursing kittens.
“Little Dama,” Susa said lowly, using the Hunter language. “Have your contractions stopped?”
“I…” Death said, thinking back. “The last one was in the hangar, when you pulled me out…”
“I still feel one more kitten inside you, sweetling.”
Panic rose up within Death, and she swallowed hard to push it down.
“You must get it out,” she whispered. “If the fluid sac has broken, the kitten must be born, else it will die inside. You told me this.”
“Yes,” Susa said softly. “And were we at home, or even back at headquarters, I could go in and get it. But here, now—” she broke off, her tone frustrated as Gnad turned the engine over, and the strange truck roared to life.
“I don’t care,” Death said, gritting her teeth. “Bubba! You have a knife?”
“Course I do, Kitty,” he said. He’d taken to calling her that at some point over the last season.
“Little Dama! You can’t be serious? Here? In a moving vehicle with no sanitation? No anesthetic? I could kill you because his tire hit a bump!”
“No need to worry about that,” Gnad said, up front. “I modded this suspension myself. It’s the smoothest ride you’ll feel.”
“Still not helpful!” Susa snapped over her shoulder at him as she twisted in the seat to look at Death.
“Yes, it is,” Death said. “You can give me nanites later. After we get to the safe house. If the Horde doesn’t have them, I would be very surprised.”
“If you live that long!” Susa cried.
“Susa. I require this.”
“Death, no!”
“Yes.”
Tears streamed from the Human woman’s eyes. She swiped the back of her hand viciously across her eyes and reached across the back of the seats.
“Give me your knife, Bubba,” she said, her voice soaked in sorrow.
“Thank you, Susa.”
“Shut the fuck up, Death,” Susa snapped. “I love you, and I don’t want to hear from you right now. This is going to hurt. A lot.”
“I know,” Death whispered. “I am ready.”
But she wasn’t. She really wasn’t.
She’d been hurt before, but nothing could have prepared her for the feeling of being ripped open and having her last kitten pulled from inside of her. To Gnad’s credit, he drove as smoothly as possible, but he used plenty of speed, and every bump, swerve, and turn ratcheted up Death’s agony even higher.
“Stay with me, kita,” Susa whispered. “I’m sorry I was mad. We’re almost there. Just stay with me!”
Death tried to concentrate on her three nurslings, and on keeping them away from the lower part of her body where Susa worked. Bright spots appeared in her vision, brighter even than the cursed Earth sun. She found herself taking short, choppy sips of air.
“Got it!” Susa cried, and lifted a small, wet, bloody mass up. Death blinked and squinted at it, trying to see the kitten within. Just then, the truck hit a bump, and Death screamed as pain lanced through her.
“Watch it, Bubba!” Susa yelled.
“That wasn’t me! We’re being attacked! Keep your heads down, ladies! I got this!”
The night split open with the ripping sound of six thousand rounds per minute blasting out either side of their truck. Gnad’s wild laughter drifted back to them, while Susa ripped off her outer shirt to wrap the still form of the littlest kitten. She tucked it next to Death, within easy reach of a free nipple, but the tiny thing didn’t move.
“Come on, little one,” Susa said, her voice ragged from all the stresses of the night. “Come on! After all that, you’ve got to nurse. You’ve got to…shit!”
More thumps peppered the side of the truck, but Gnad just hit the accelerator, and they surged forward. Death felt a gray nothingness gather at the edges of her vision, pressing inward, pushing her down toward the oblivion she’d escaped earlier.
“Susa…” she whispered. “I’m trying…”
“Damnit! NO! Stay with me, kita! Death!”
“Here!” Gnad’s voice was faint, barely audible over the ringing in Death’s ears. “Heard her mention nanites, earlier. Didn’t want to interrupt, but I always keep one of these in my truck. It’s nonspecific, so I don’t know if it will work with her biology…”
“Give it to me!” Susa screamed. She sounded so far away. The grey closed in on Death, making her lose everything in the nothingness and the formless ringing sound. Somewhere, a thought drifted. There was something she had to do before it was too late…oh yes. Scramble. She started to bite down on the toggle switch in her back molar. She was so weak, it didn’t actuate right away. She kept at it, knowing that if she didn’t, her entire race would be compromised. As would her precious kittens. She had to scramble her DNA. She had no choice.
She bit down again.
A tiny pinprick. So small she barely noticed. Fire flowed into her body from the site, though. Searing, acid, burning fire as millions of nanoscopic healing machines located her hurts and began to repair them faster than thought. Something shoved itself into her mouth, holding her jaw open, preventing her from actuating the tooth switch.
“Don’t you dare scramble on me,” Susa hissed in the Hunter language. “Don’t you do it, Death! I’m not letting you die, do you hear me? These kittens need you. I need you. I am not letting you die!”
Something heavy hit the front of the vehicle, and, suddenly, they were airborne.
Though the nanite agony continued to blaze its way through her vessels and tissues, Death managed to curl her body around the tiny, warm bodies of her four kittens. She felt Susa hugging them close, attempting to shield them from the impact as the truck flipped end over end and landed on its roof with a tremendous, world-shattering crash.
“Death?” Susa’s broken whisper penetrated the awful silence that followed.
“Susa,” Death mewed. “Yes. Here.”
“Bubba?”
“Here, Ladies,” their driver answered. His voice sounded oddly calm, all of the gleeful mayhem of earlier gone. “You’d best scootch out that back window if you can. I lost contact with the CASPers when the drone kamikazied into us, but some of them are probably still alive out there.”
“Conason? The others?” Susa asked.
“I don’t know,” Gnad said. “No telling. Best go now.”
“What about you?”
“Not going anywhere,” he said. He coughed wetly. “Got a piece of metal through my chest. Prob’ly going to hurt real bad in a minute. You just get them babies and Kitty, and run. Hide off the road somewhere. Conason will find you.”
“Oh Bubba…”
“Just go now, Doctor. That’s a good girl.”
“Thank you, Bubba,” Death roused herself to croak. “Thank you for my life, and those of my offspring. You will be remembered in my clan.”
“Well, that’s nice,” Gnad said, his voice sounding faint and pinched with pain.
“Come on, kita,” Susa said, and began scooting across the glass-strewn, crumpled ceiling of the truck. Death felt her kick out to clear a bigger hole in the window, and then Susa squirmed through, holding Death and the kittens close to her chest. Once outside the car, Susa crouched low and began a sort of shuffling run off toward the side of the road. Death could see the hulk of a fallen CASPer there. Susa headed for this and collapsed, weeping, against its metal side.
Something pinged in Death’s awareness. The nanite burn continued, though it was easing, and she was able to turn and look back at the wreck they’d escaped. A crumpled metal mass that must have been the drone lay half-buried under the inverted hood of the truck. As she watched, a line appeared in the mass, and a door slid smoothly open.
It wasn’t a drone. It was a ship designed to look like a
drone and still function even after being deliberately piloted into another object. It was a Hunter ship.
And as she watched, a grey-striped Hunter emerged from the opening and climbed up onto the wreckage of the truck.
“I greet you, Death From Above, of the Night Wind Clan,” the Hunter, a male, said in their language. Susa started to sob harder, her body shaking. Death felt her hands wrap around the precious weight of the last kitten, still wrapped in her shirt from earlier. With a quick pull, she detached the kitten from Death’s nipple and put it up under her shirt.
“It may not live,” Susa breathed in English, in between sobs. “But maybe I can save one of them.”
Death dragged in a breath so filled with love that she thought she, too, might weep. She swallowed hard and pushed away the last of her fear and pain, buried it in a box, and turned to face her adversary.
“I greet you, unknown Hunter,” Death said, in English. “Congratulations on finding me and defeating my mercenary guards.”
“They were more challenging than I expected,” the Hunter said. “These machines of theirs are fascinating! I had to remain cloaked lest they shoot me out of the sky. You are to be congratulated on finding such worthy protectors.”
“They are worthy,” Death called out, hoping Gnad would hear her words if he still lived. “I think you will find Humans to be full of surprises.”
“You think so?” the Hunter asked, flicking his tail in amusement. “I wonder—”
Boom!
Death curled into Susa, who ducked down behind the dubious shelter of the CASPer’s leg and pressed herself to the metal as Bubba Gnad revealed one of his truck’s other surprises—an explosives package that sent a column of flame into the midday sky. The shockwave rippled outward, echoing off of the derelict buildings that surrounded them and setting Death’s ears to ringing all over again. She felt flattened by the noise and the heat…and then panic hit.
Her kittens?
She looked down, frantically patting their still little forms. Dead? Or merely stunned by the blast and everything else?
First one, then two moved, and began mewling pitifully and rooting for the teats they’d lost. The third little body, alas, remained still. It was one of the small ones. The third one she’d delivered. An ache unlike anything she’d ever felt pierced through her. Death closed her eyes and lifted her head to scream her loss at the too-bright sky.
