I became aware of movement. “Arianne?” I called out softly.
“Yes,” she replied.
“You’re awake.”
“Your powers of deduction never cease to amaze me.” She flicked on the headlamp, which she must have placed on her own head while I was sleeping. “I woke up hours ago, dotted with bruises. You wouldn’t know anything about how that happened, would you?”
“You get clumsy when you’re unconscious,” I suggested.
“I see.” Arianne reached into the backpack, pulled out two nutrition bars and a bottle of water, and handed them over. “Well, at least I’m still alive and not in some cell.”
I ripped open the packaging and began on one of the bars. “Is that your way of thanking me for carrying you all the way here?”
“That would obviously have to come after you expressing your gratitude for your rescue.”
“Rescue? It was pretty cozy in Burnett’s cell.” I still hadn’t fully processed Burnett’s holographic speech. Was Celeste or INSH the good guy? Both? Neither? “Since I followed you out, I’ve been in mortal danger, and there’s still no end in sight. The mibs are probably scouring the tunnels looking for us, and up above, the enemy devastator and fighter planes are ready to shoot on sight. A quick death may be the best I can hope for.”
Arianne punched me on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit. Look on the bright side. There are many more thrills waiting for us. A mib search party did pass above our heads. I had my hand over your nose and mouth, ready to press down if you made any noise. But you didn’t start snoring.” She sounded regretful.
“Sorry to disappoint your desire to smother me.”
“The searchers passed back, going the other way, not so long ago. We should probably make a move—if you’re done resting.”
I took a last swig of water, capped the bottle, and returned it to Arianne. “Let’s go then.” I climbed up the metal rungs of the ladder. Behind me, I heard Arianne zip the backpack and follow. When I reached the top, I carefully shifted the stones that covered the opening then squeezed out.
Having only one headlamp between us made things awkward. We tried side by side and Arianne in front, but the best was Arianne behind and slightly to the side, aiming the light in front of both of us. We made reasonable progress like that, continuing farther down the tunnel, mainly in silence. I replayed Burnett’s holographic message over and over in my mind, trying to work out if he and INSH were right about everything he’d said.
Every now and again, explosions on the surface shook the walls around us. Each time, we paused and waited for the ground to still and the dust to clear before continuing onward. Remembering what had been decided at the Grand Council meeting, I had hoped that the Bolivar would have stopped its bombardment by now, but no such luck.
We were just about to resume after an explosion when Arianne put her finger to her lips. “Do you hear something?” she whispered.
I listened hard for a few moments but heard nothing and shook my head. I was about to start moving forward again when I heard something faint. I grabbed Arianne’s arm and pointed frantically at her head. She switched off the light.
But it was too late. There was a distant shout: “There’s a light up ahead.”
“Quickly, turn it back on, and let’s go,” I said. When the headlamp came back on, I took off at a run, stumbled in the darkness, then paused, waiting for Arianne to catch up. I matched my pace to Arianne’s so I didn’t outrun the circle of light. With slippery rocks underfoot and boulders strewn across the path, progress was slow, though the bad ground would delay our pursuers as much as it did us.
I heard the odd shout in the distance, but we were surely out of firing range. Still, it was dangerous to have the light showing them exactly where we were. So when we reached a fork in the tunnels, I came to a stop and had Arianne turn off the light. Frowning, she complied. I didn’t have time to explain. In the dark, we weren’t such an easy target, and, more importantly, I wanted to look for a way out. We needed to get to the surface, or we would be captured sooner or later.
We were plunged into total blackness. Shit! If we still can’t see daylight, we don’t have much hope of making it to the surface before we’re caught. But the initial pitch dark was due to my lack of night vision. As my eyes adjusted, a glow came from the leftmost tunnel. I took Arianne’s hand. “Leave the light off,” I whispered before I led her forward.
I stretched my hand out in front of me and took tentative steps forward. I moved very cautiously at first, but as my eyes continued to adjust and see shapes ahead, I sped up. Still, I couldn’t trust just my sight in the gloom, so I used my lead foot to test the ground ahead before I committed to a step. We were moving much slower than before, but I hoped that the mibs would also slow down when they could no longer use our light to track us. They would have to suspect that we had stopped to hide, and they wouldn’t be sure which tunnel we took.
The tunnel began to bend farther to the left, so I kept as close to that side as possible, knowing that would take us out of the field of vision of our pursuers. From the distant shouts, it seemed that our maneuver had confused them as much as I’d hoped. Even better, the farther down the tunnel we got, the more the light increased. I released Arianne’s hand as the path widened, and we were able to continue at walking pace.
Behind, beams of light stabbed at the darkness, and there was a clatter, followed by a curse.
“Look.” Arianne touched my forearm.
We were nearing a side tunnel flooded with daylight. When we reached it, the reason for the light was clear. A long-ago cave-in had opened the tunnel to the sky. Boulders, rocks, and rubble formed a makeshift ramp to the top.
“Quick. We better be out of here when the mibs arrive.” Arianne scrambled up the nearest boulder.
I hurried after her. As much as I was glad to be out of the darkness, it had protected us. We needed to get out of sight.
In places, the rocks were unstable and gave way beneath our feet, but we didn’t slow. We fell, got up, and kept climbing. We were making enough noise that the mibs would have no trouble tracking us, and the intense shouting behind us proved that they had found us.
As we climbed higher, the broken skyscrapers of New York crowded into view. The last section was the trickiest part of the climb. Most of the rubble didn’t reach all the way to the top. The only way to continue was by climbing a narrow, nearly vertical slab of concrete. I reached it before Arianne did. Steel bars sticking out from the concrete served as handholds and footholds, but they were also sharp. I managed to navigate around the steel without more damage than a scratch on the arm and a tear in my trousers before getting to street level.
I turned back to help Arianne. As I lowered my hand, a flash of light and an explosion of dust forced me backward. Arianne, who had been reaching up, lost her grip and tumbled off the face of the concrete slab. She landed on a boulder, rolled down the side of it, and came to stop. Below, several mibs had seen us. One had his gun out, and another shot from him caused an explosion of dust from the rock Arianne had just fallen off.
I wanted to go down and check on her, but instead, I straightened and waved my hands in the air. “Hey, dumbasses,” I shouted, running lengthways along the cave-in. “How long have you been looking for me and still haven’t caught me?”
A portion of concrete crumbled just below my feet. They certainly weren’t using stun anymore. Although Larsen wanted me alive, she apparently preferred me dead than escaped. “Missed again,” I shouted, continuing to move sideways and hold their attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Arianne had regained her feet and was climbing up the concrete slab again. Red laser light flashed past my eyes.
Seeing Arianne reach street level, I turned and ran directly away from the cave-in and out of sight of the mibs.
Chapter 6
I took shelter behind a hunk of rusted metal that I realized was an overturned truck when I got closer. Arianne joined me there.
“What now?” I asked her.
“You’re the one whose plan we’re following,” she said.
“A plan usually involves following some intelligent and reasoned stratagem. I’m just trying to get away from those who want to kill me.” I stuck my head out around the truck then pulled it back rapidly as laser fire hit the roof of the truck. The mibs had climbed up after us. “Whenever I’ve been above the surface, I’ve been in the sky.”
“Except when you crashed.”
“Thanks for reminding me. We better move.” Shouts and footsteps told me the mibs were spreading out. We kept our heads down and raced to the next notable cover—a large mound of rubble. “You were supposed to know what to do when we reached the surface.”
“I didn’t expect there’d be Bureau agents still up our ass. And the last time I was here, it wasn’t like this.” She nodded up at the sky, where the gigantic devastator hovered, making even the skyscrapers look small. It rained missiles upon the entrance to Under Nyork. The American Conference’s defensive guns must have already been destroyed, since there was no return fire. Around the Bolivar, dozens of fighters swarmed, snaking around the skyscrapers and occasionally diving lower to shoot at targets on the ground.
“I’ve heard it’s advisable to stay out of the buildings,” she continued. “Pilots like to shoot at them, and they aren’t stable at the best of times. Inside a city, you’re more likely to die from falling rubble than from a direct hit.”
“Right now, we’re more worried about been shot by mibs than fighters or rubble.”
“You sure abo—”
A V-Tip fighter flew low over our heads, drowning out Arianne’s voice. Strafing laser fire cut down the two mibs who were out in the open. The rest sprinted back toward the cave-in.
“We better make a run for it,” Arianne said.
“We’ll be seen.”
“That’s going to happen anyway, and I’d prefer to be in motion when it does.” With that, Arianne took off, hurdled a lump of metal, then sprinted for the nearest building. I followed, twisting to look over my shoulder and follow what was happening behind me. The V-Tip continued to fire at the fleeing mibs. A second plane had joined the fight and was heading our way. And a third wasn’t far behind.
Arianne took shelter behind the wall of a toppling skyscraper, and I slid in beside her. “I thought going into a building was the worst thing to do.”
“We don’t have many options. We can’t stay in the open with three planes chasing us.”
I thought back to times when I’d pursued stragglers through the city as a pilot. Most of the time, they would either be cut down in the open, or we would shoot at the structure where they’d decided to hide until it fell down on top of them. “Come on, after me.”
We ran through the building, toward the back. Behind us, there was an explosion. I looked back to see the front wall collapsing as two V-tips opened up on it. Red pulses of laser fire hit several concrete pillars. A flying chip sliced through my cheek. I stopped looking behind me and concentrated on going as fast as I could.
A billow of dust chased us the last few meters, but we got out before anything heavier than dust landed on our heads. I didn’t stop sprinting, continuing straight across the street. I knew how tracking down rogues in a city worked—the first pilot would have communicated with the others so that another plane would be watching the back of the building. And a quick glance at the sky confirmed there was a plane just overhead.
V-tips were extremely maneuverable, but they couldn’t hover, so a plane patrolling a section of street would edge toward one end of the street, then work back toward the other. Luckily, the plane was moving away, so it had to turn around before it could fire at us. I scanned the other side of the street until I saw the type of building I was looking for. “That way.” I pointed, shouting over the roar of the V-tip, whose pilot had engaged full thrust to turn.
I glanced up as I ran, and quickly realized that we weren’t going to make it before the plane had a clear shot. I slowed until Arianne caught up with me, then I grabbed her arm. “Follow me, no matter how stupid it seems.”
She panted out long breaths. “That’s not comforting.”
I jogged directly toward the V-Tip. “When I say left, run left faster than you’ve ever run before,” I shouted over my shoulder.
The V-Tip dived toward us. Too fast, I thought. That will give us a chance. I imagined myself behind the pilot’s ear in the cockpit, watching the target grow large in the sights. The range was a little long, so the pilot’s finger would be hovering over the trigger button, waiting, waiting, until …
Now. “Left,” I yelled and charged into motion, throwing myself to the side. At that exact instance, the V-Tip opened fire. A series of deadly laser bolts blew holes in the pavement just where Arianne and I had been a split second earlier. Then the firing stopped, and the plane thundered past us. He had been moving too quickly to be able to adjust his sights before he was past, over-anxious to get the kill while we were out in the open.
I changed direction again, heading directly for the original building I’d picked out. The thrusters of the V-Tip screamed, but the craft turned too late to catch us in the open. We dashed though a large main entrance, and I headed straight for the left-hand side of the building. Most of the internal structure of the building was intact, though that wasn’t going to last long. The floor shuddered beneath my feet as the V-Tip opened fire behind us.
We reached a side entrance with the rusted metal frame of the door in place. Only a narrow alleyway connected it to the adjoining building—that was why I had chosen the place. The trick was to sneak into the next building without the V-Tip pilots knowing. I stuck the top of my head out the door, making sure not scratch myself on the rusted metal, and watched the V-Tip buzz back and forth, shooting at the front of the building I was in. I waited until it passed out of sight, then I stepped through and quickly made my way across and through a similar doorway on the other side.
I turned back to check on Arianne; she was just behind me. “Were you seen?” I asked her.
She shook her head.
“Okay. We’ll try to put some distance from there. Hopefully, they’ll think we’re still inside it.” I instinctively kept my voice low, even though I knew the pilots couldn’t hear us. “Move at walking pace; quick movements are more likely to be spotted. If you hear a plane approaching, stay still.”
I expected some wise-ass remark from her, but she only nodded. Her face was pale, and I noticed several tears in her clothes and blood on the lower part of her trousers. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Just keep going. We can’t stop yet.”
We made our way to the other side. I then left Arianne to rest while I ran to a good vantage point to make sure that any planes were out of range or heading away from us. Only then did we venture out into the open, carefully crossing the alleyway to the next broken-down structure.
I did the same thing several times, choosing buildings that were as whole as possible where I could, both because they provided more cover and because they were more stable. Swarming V-Tips darted back and forth through the sky, some close, some far. We had escaped them once, but I didn’t like our chances of getting away whole if we were spotted again, especially with Arianne visibly struggling even at walking pace.
In the distance, the hulking devastator continued to pound at the entrance of Under Nyork with its main guns. Black smoke emerged from the surface, and I wondered what had been hit. How far into Under Nyork were the bombs penetrating? We got a good view of the building where we had lost our pursuers. It had been reduced to rubble, and still, two V-Tips continued to shoot laser fire down upon it while another two shot at the structures on either side. I guess we made the pilots mad.
I came to a wide street and crouched behind a wall by the main entrance. When Arianne caught up, she nodded to where an overturned bus leaned against a slab of concrete and twisted metal. “We could wait there. Hide out until
dark.”
It made sense. We’d already put distance between us and where we’d last been seen, and we had less chance of being randomly hit by the V-Tips if we weren’t in a building. I looked Arianne up and down, noting the sway in her stance and the tension around her mouth as she held in the pain. Even if she would never admit it, she was on the last dregs of her strength.
“Good call,” I said.
There were no nearby V-Tips in sight, but I heard the sharpening whine of an approaching plane. A moment later, a low-flying V-Tip roared into view, flying straight down the wide street. I waited until it passed us, then I took Arianne’s arm and quickly led her to the bus. I waited until she had climbed under. Then I double-checked the sky to make sure we hadn’t been seen, and crawled in.
She collapsed into a sitting position, and I slid in beside her. The niche under the bus was just big enough to fit two people comfortably. Only small patches of sky were visible, so I doubted the pilots would spot us from the air. Shoulder to shoulder with Arianne, I felt micro-shivers running up her arm.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Can we do that again?” She smiled weakly.
“Shift back there. I need to look at your leg.”
She twisted around so that her legs lay across my lap. I pulled the backpack from my back, emptied the contents, and handed over the empty bag. “Use that as a pillow.” I gave her a nutrition bar and a water bottle. “And get some of that in you. But slowly.”
Now that we had stopped running, she looked even worse. With the adrenaline fading from her body, the effects of her injury were clearly catching up with her. “Don’t get too excited now,” I told her as I unbuttoned her pants, “just tending to your wounds.”
That she made no coarse jokes worried me more than anything else. She shifted her backside to allow me to roll the pants down her thighs. As I got them past her knees, she winced. They were stuck to a wound on her shin. “I’d cut these pants off you, except you don’t have anything else to wear,” I said as I tugged the cloth free. “We couldn’t let you go out later with your legs showing. Those horndog pilots would spot that sight from a mile away, even in the moonlight.”
World War 97 Part 4 Page 4
