What Tomorrow May Bring

by Tony Bertauski

  Sigrid gasped. “What was that?”

  “It looked like something flying by,” Suko said, “but then I lost it,”

  Leta craned her neck, looking skywards. “Probably just one of the transports.”

  Suko narrowed her eyes. “Maybe—I don’t know. Let’s just be careful. I don’t feel like getting zapped.”

  Khepri looked uneasily at the dark forest and the river before them. “Let’s get moving. I don’t feel like walking back, either.” She began to wade out into the river. It was about twenty meters wide, and shallow. The dark, murky-brown water was barely moving.

  “Gah…!” Khepri said, as she moved further out in the water.

  “What?” Sigrid asked.

  She turned back with a disgusted look on her face. “It’s all swampy—muddy. I keep sinking.”

  Sigrid nudged Suko and grinned. “Well, at least I don’t have to carry you across.”

  Suko gave her a swat on her rear.

  The other three girls waded in. It was slow going—Sigrid’s feet kept getting sucked down into the clinging mud. She fell over and had a horrible feeling as her hand got sucked down as well. Suko grabbed her belt and yanked her up. “Now, who’s carrying who?”

  Sigrid gave her a sly look. “Shouldn’t that be, whom?”

  Suko swatted her again.

  Three of the girls made it across, but Khepri had stopped just short of the bank, still up to her knees in the murky water.

  “What is it?” Suko asked.

  Khepri crinkled her nose in disgust. “I lost my boot in the mud!”

  “We’ll come help,” Suko offered.

  “I’ll find it!” Khepri said, clearly irritated over the missing footwear. Losing a boot would not be good, given the distance they still had to travel. “What the…” Khepri said, standing up straight.

  “What is it?” Sigrid asked.

  “Something just—Gahh!” Khepri screamed, leaping back out of the water—closely followed by the biggest snake Sigrid thought could ever exist. The other girls screamed in unison as Khepri fell back on her rear in the mud.

  Sigrid had no idea how long the creature was but it looked at least twenty centimeters thick at its middle. It was the same murky-brown color as the mud by the shoreline and had no eyes in its round, bulbous head. The girls drew their pistols, but before they could fire off a shot, the snake slid back into the dark water, disappearing below the swirling surface.

  Sigrid’s heartbeat pounded in her ears. Nobody moved; they were all still aiming at the spot where the serpent had vanished just a moment before.

  Khepri finally broke the silence. “Found it!” She held up the muddy boot in her left hand. They all burst into laughter—they also moved well away from the edge of the water.

  “I hope we don’t have to go back this way,” Leta said.

  Suko nodded. “Well, let’s make sure we’re not the ones walking back. Come on. We need to find that crate.”

  According to the map, their best route was up a steep, slippery hill. Scrambling up the nine-hundred meter slope took far longer than any of them liked. Sigrid worried they wouldn’t get there in time—and that she was the one slowing them down. At the top of the hill, they were relieved to find that the forest gave way to a grassy clearing, sweeping down into another valley.

  Suko pointed north. “Straight that way. Another nine-point-three kilometers. If we follow that ridge, it should be somewhere near the base of that hill.”

  Sigrid unhooked the sniper rifle from its harness and sighted down the scope to the spot. The forest was tangled and dense there. She adjusted the scope, zooming in to 40x, then again to 80x; the stabilizer in the stock kept the weapon perfectly steady. Gradually, Sigrid pulled back, scanning along the ridge-line.

  “Shit,” she said. She spotted something—something moving. She sighted again and focused on the team of four girls ahead of them moving along the ridge toward their target. “Dammit!”

  “What?” Suko and Leta asked both at once.

  “There’s another team up ahead,” Sigrid told them, without taking her eye from the scope. The other three girls crouched low, instinctively. “I think they’re going for our cargo.”

  “Shoot ‘em!” Khepri urged.

  “I can’t! The stun-round’s only good for eighty meters.”

  Suko was already taking off after them. “Come on!”

  Khepri threw her arms up in the air. “Wait! They’re too far ahead.”

  Suko turned back, smiling excitedly. “Yeah, but they still have to wait and hold for extraction. They might get there first—but we can still win. We can do this!”

  Leta grinned. “Then, we better get moving.”

  Spurred on, the four girls tore down the grassy slope, running much faster now, clearing the distance with superhuman speed. They stopped twice for Sigrid to scan ahead with her sniper scope, but there was no sign of the team ahead of them. When they got within five hundred meters of the target they slowed, moving much more cautiously; each girl held an eSMG in her hand as they spread out into the tangle of the forest. They knew the other team would be waiting somewhere up ahead.

  Sigrid’s heart was racing in her chest as she scanned the thick undergrowth around her. She was so intent on scanning ahead and on her flanks that she didn’t see the half-buried log in front of her, and she tripped, sprawling forward in the dirt. She banged her knee, and her weapon fell from her hand.

  It was also what saved her. Just as she fell, Sigrid heard the telltale whoop-whoop of two shock-rounds whipping by over her head and smacking into the tree beside her. Leta wasn’t as lucky and she was struck; Sigrid watched her fall, twitching onto the forest floor about twenty meters away.

  Sigrid rolled behind a tree without thinking, ducking as two more shots whizzed by her ear, crackling through the air. She looked around frantically. She couldn’t see Suko or Khepri. A wave of panic swept over her. Had they run off or had they also been shot? Her heart hammered out a frantic rhythm in her chest—she couldn’t find the eSMG she’d dropped! She didn’t want to lose.

  She heard the crack of a twig and footsteps coming closer—heavy footsteps. Too heavy and clumsy to belong to any of the girls.

  Sigrid forced herself to calm down and concentrate. Pulling her sidearm from its clip at her hip, she rolled out from behind the tree. The man in the strange olive-green uniform almost tripped over her as he ran by.

  Sigrid rolled onto her back, leveling her sidearm at him. There was a frozen moment where the two of them simply stared at each other, both surprised by each other’s presence. The man snarled; it was enough to snap Sigrid out of her shock, and she fired three shock-rounds into his chest.

  Nothing happened. “Shit.” The man was wearing body armor. The paper stunners were useless.

  Startled at first, the man regained his composure and stared down at the teenage girl lying prone before him. He laughed as he leveled his huge pistol at Sigrid’s face.

  But Sigrid was lightning fast in response. Her genetically modified reflexes took over and she scissored her legs and flipped up onto her feet before he knew what was happening. He fired, but the blast was late. She stepped in close and grabbed hard at his wrist, twisting it forcefully.

  The man grunted in pain and surprise and dropped the gun. Angry, he swung his fist at her head. Sigrid was glad to be so short at that moment; she barely had to duck, and she brought her knee up hard into the man’s crotch, following through with as much force as her five-foot-tall body could muster.

  Groaning loudly, he sank to his knees.

  Gouging, biting, hair-pulling…hitting below the belt. Rosa had drilled it into them. There was no such thing as a fair fight. All vulnerabilities must be exploited.

  Suko and Khepri ran up; Khepri gaped at the man “What the fuck…?”

  “He’s wearing body armor,” Sigrid said. Khepri raised her pistol and shot him pointblank in the face.

  “Garr…sonofa…” He snarled, flailing and twitchi
ng violently before passing out.

  “Holy shit!” Suko said.

  “Who the hell’s that?” Khepri asked. She nudged him with her foot, making sure he was unconscious, before tying him with a set of plastic binders.

  Suko picked up his assault rifle. “And what’s he doing with this?” She pulled out the magazine—it was full of shockers, similar to the type the girls were using.

  “Do you think it’s part of the exercise?” Khepri asked.

  Suko shrugged. “I suppose. Hey—where’s Leta?”

  “Leta!” Sigrid leapt to her feet. She’d totally forgotten her. She darted off toward the place where Leta had been shot, barely taking three steps before tripping over the damned log again. “Mother fu—” Sigrid looked down. She’d been mistaken. The obstruction wasn’t a log. It was the body of one of the girls.

  “Jia…” Sigrid turned her over, brushing her dark hair out of her face. Her eyes were open and glassy. Sigrid could see that she was dead—stabbed in her chest and abdomen.

  Suko dropped to her knees beside her. “Oh my God…”

  Khepri shook her head in disbelief. “What the fuck?”

  All three went instantly into defense mode, scanning the area carefully.

  “Let’s find Leta,” Sigrid said, and they moved off with due caution.

  When they found Leta, she was struggling to sit up.

  “Owie…” she moaned, rubbing the tender spot on her chest where the charge had hit. The stun-round was still stuck to her so Sigrid pulled it off, unhooking the little barbs carefully. Leta was still a little woozy and so the girls had to steady her. She pulled open her shirt looking at the angry welt on her breast. “Bloody well hit me in the boob.” She giggled.

  Khepri cocked an eyebrow and muttered, “…not like it’s hard to miss…”

  Suko elbowed Khepri firmly in the side, forcing a grunt from her. “What?”

  Leta shook her head to clear the fog. “Anyway, I’m okay. What happened?”

  The girls told her of the man, how he’d attacked Sigrid, and about Jia, and how they’d found her stabbed to death.

  “This is insane,” Leta said. “This can’t be part of the exercise. They wouldn’t kill us…” A doubting look spread over her face. “Would they?”

  “Fuck it. I’m calling for Evac,” Suko said. They’d forfeit the exercise, and there would be hell to pay, but none of them were worried about that anymore.

  Suko keyed her communications implant—another element of their new bionics. Her eyes shot open in surprise. “I—can’t get through! Something’s jamming me.”

  Sigrid felt a heavy knot form in her gut. “If someone’s jamming our signal…”

  “Someone doesn’t want us to get out of here,” Leta said.

  Khepri shuddered. “What do we do? Do we go back?”

  Suko shook her head. “No way. What if there’s more of these guys—what if they go after the others? We have to go after them.”

  Khepri’s jaw dropped. “Go after them! With what? Shock-rounds? We don’t even know how many there are.”

  “Fuck it,” Leta said. “Let’s kill ‘em all.”

  “How? Where!” Khepri protested.

  Suko gave her a firm, but calming look. “If someone’s jamming us—if someone’s really after us, then they’ll go for the cargo beacon. If they’re not, then Jia’s team should be there. Either way, that’s our target. We have to at least check it out.”

  “Fuck, ya,” Leta said.

  “Wait,” Sigrid said. “What if this is one of Rosa’s tricks…?”

  “Then I’ll kill him,” Suko said drily.

  There was nothing more to be said. The girls gathered their gear and headed to the target drop.

  A dense thicket lay between them and their target. The four girls approached the area cautiously using all the tricks Rosa had taught them. They advanced quickly and in silence, flitting from cover to cover, little more than shadowy blurs in the dark woods. Not a twig was broken, or a leaf disturbed. All the time, they watched their flanks, scanning ahead with their thermal and chemical optics for anyone hiding in the underbrush.

  At the bottom of the hill, just as Suko had predicted, they found the container—guarded by five men in the same green uniforms. Like the first man they’d encountered, they all wore light body armor and bulky night-vision goggles. All of the men carried assault rifles.

  “Shit,” Leta said.

  Suko looked at Sigrid. “Any sign of Jia’s team?”

  Sigrid pulled out the sniper rifle and scanned. She shook her head. “Just these guys.”

  “What are we going to do?” Khepri asked.

  A familiar, determined look came over Suko’s face. “We take these guys out.”

  “With what?” Khepri looked at her weapon in disgust. “They gave us bloody toys.”

  Leta growled, “You know Rosa’s training. We don’t need weapons. We can take these assholes.”

  Sigrid continued to scan the men through her scope. “I can get one easy. Maybe two before they know something’s up.”

  Suko’s eyes were still fixed on the scene before them. “Well…the others won’t likely stand around waiting to be shot. We’ll need to get close.”

  Leta’s face lit up. “Ooh! I have an idea.” She started pulling off her shorts and shirt. “Rosa’s always going on about misdirection, right…” In a matter of seconds she had stripped herself down to her underwear.

  All the girls had gone through a rather healthy growth spurt thanks to their modifications and enhancements, but the process provided an added effect on Leta and her more obvious womanly attributes. Leta untied her hair to release the tight ponytail she kept and shook out her voluminous curls. They cascaded over her shoulders and down the curve of her bare back, reaching down to the narrow tuck of her waist. At nearly six feet, the term statuesque hardly did Leta justice. Her full, curving hips gave way to a pair of long and stemmy legs; the simple bra she wore labored to contain her shapely breasts. Sigrid felt positively like a child in comparison.

  Suko grinned. “This is your plan?”

  Leta wasn’t done yet. With a wink to Suko, she took out her bowie knife and slashed a large gash in her hand.

  Suko held up a hand, trying to block the ghastly sight. “Gah!…what are you doing?”

  Leta let the blood pool into the palm of her hand before rubbing it over her face and chest. She grabbed up handfuls of muddy earth from the ground, slathering the muck all over her arms, face and stomach. “Do my back,” she said.

  Picking up on the plan, the girls joined in, with Leta adding even more blood from her injured hand. The effect was ghoulish.

  “One last thing,” Leta said. The girls watched as Leta contorted her face, her mouth curving down. She seemed to heave and convulse a little before the tears came as she made herself cry. “There—that should do it,” she said, pouring forth an impressive stream tears.

  “Dear God…” Suko said, torn between horror and amusement.

  “This’ll distract them!” Leta said. “A little…misdirection. Just like in our training. Wait for me to get close, then move in.”

  Sigrid grabbed Leta by the arm. “Are you crazy? They’ll kill you.”

  “I don’t think so. Look, they tried to stun me the first time—and you. Besides,” she said, “you guys got my back.”

  “Yeah, but they killed Jia…”

  “Just be ready to move in.”

  Still very uncertain, Sigrid let go of Leta’s hand, and the girls headed toward their target and the group of men guarding it. Suko moved to the right in a flanking maneuver, while Khepri slunk around to the left side. Sigrid found a spot where she could cover them all with her sniper rifle. When the other girls were set, Leta strode forward, putting on quite a show; she thrashed through the thicket in the darkness, sobbing and making quite a racket.

  Through her scope, Sigrid watched as the men’s attention shifted. She could hear Leta calling out to them, “Help—help me, p
lease!” Three of the men moved cautiously toward her, but the others kept watch on their flanks. When Leta crashed into the clearing—a sobbing, half-naked, bloody mess—the other men couldn’t help but turn to stare at her.

  As Leta collapsed on the ground, crying, the men hurried to the beautiful girl in distress. The men on the perimeter also began to head over to witness the drama.

  Sigrid had one of them in her sights; she saw the pale flash of his exposed neck and squeezed the trigger. He stood up, stock straight, convulsing as the little slug unleashed its charge of electricity. Before he hit the ground, Sigrid aimed at the man on his left and fired, hitting him in the back of the thigh. The man went down in a heap.

  The men on the perimeter were completely focused on the chaos in the middle of the clearing when Suko and Khepri rushed silently out from behind them. Both girls fired their eSMGs. Suko hit her target in the unprotected area by the man’s rear, but Khepri missed. She was still rushing at the man when he turned, leveled his assault rifle and blasted her. Khepri screamed and fell—unconscious or dead, Sigrid didn’t know.

  Sigrid fired again; the shot glanced off the man’s armor, but it was enough to distract him. Suko jumped on him from behind, tackling him to the ground.

  Leta was unarmed and had to improvise. She leapt on the back of the only man still standing. Her legs wrapped around his waist as she held his neck, clamped in the crook of her elbow, while her free arm provided extra leverage. She looked like a wild animal, bloody and filthy, and with her red hair flailing madly about as she clung to the man’s back. He clawed at her, stumbling, trying to throw her off, but she kept her grip, even as he fell over backward, landing hard on top of her, until he finally went limp.

  Sigrid turned the scope back on Suko. She was pinned down, wrestling the last of the men. Both of them had their hands on his assault rifle, grappling for possession. Sigrid aimed, looking for an exposed spot; she couldn’t let anything happen to Suko…

  She heard, more than felt, the thwack of the stun charge as it hit her in the rear. There was no pain; that would come after the effects of the stun wore off. The rifle fell from her hands and she slumped to the mossy earth, face down in the mud. Her head swam and she kept losing focus, but she didn’t lose consciousness. Her genetically modified body could handle the effects much better than the men. She experienced a moment of terrible panic when she tried to breathe and choked back a mouthful of dirt, but someone grabbed her from behind and flipped her over. She spat out mud and a twig, and concentrated on breathing through her nose.