by Nathan Ward
“We must rest now, I’ll take the one on the end… you two are free to take whatever ones you wish, just let me warn you, if you’re sharing… don’t keep me awake!” warned Enrique with a obvious wink as he then turned and began to walk away towards his stable where he had chosen to rest for the night.
Sasha and Murdock stood gazing in to each others eyes as neither said a word but both recognized that the night was still and peace had descended – it was a rare moment, and one they wanted to share. Sasha reached out to Murdock and felt for his hand, not sparing a second to look away from his beautiful deep brown eyes that were glistening in the moonlight rays that were beaming down through the holes in the wooden roof.
She grasped it tight and he kept hold of her hand as she slowly began to lead him in to the closest stable, where they would sleep in peaceful quietness just for a while, together, because on a night like this after all they had been through, warmth and togetherness mattered so much. The night was still and sleep was calling. Murdock pulled shut the gate behind them and the barn was silenced, all that could be heard now was the subtle breeze, whistling in the evening air.
Chapter 7: On the Road Again
The night was young, but it had shaped up to be one of the most beautiful since normality was lost. The subtle glow in the sky had lingered on before falling to moonlight and star shine, but as the early hours of the morning crept in, the sky had started to lighten with an early glow.
Storm clouds had moved away from the green land and taken a course for the second sector that had been torn apart by the nuclear wars that had broken out over the country. Not a blade of fresh green grass could be found; all that remained was endless miles of dust and demolished buildings. The main road that had once led through this once highly populated town was now buried deep under the dust and ash. Its peoples corpses could occasionally be spotted along the side of the path, a cold reminder of the fact that once there had been life here, but the majority inevitably had become food for the ever growing hives of Mutated Howler creatures, or worse, been transported to the nearest body mountain - a sight too horrible to imagine and only pictured correctly in the minds of those who had stacked them there - the piled up dead, corpses stacked like firewood as the stink of death rose up and dominated the air, all bodies mounted together ready for UNA purification.
The Ruins of the Nuclear conflicts between rebellions and UNA factions seemed to have been made redundant, from what Josh could see gazing out of the foot round window as he passed through the dead town.
The entire land felt dark and mysterious with not one UNA soldier in sight, the surroundings had been entirely abandoned, which came as surprise to Josh who had half expected some form of program to be in full swing to rebuild where things went wrong.
Josh could hardly focus on his thoughts with the intense wailing and screams of pain coming from the end of the cell, Henry was in immense agony – clutching on to his groin area which was drenched in a dark crimson and had begun to leak on to the under carriage, creating a small pool of the contaminated blood that gushed from left to right with every sudden movement. In addition to the blood, the injury had clearly done other damage too, shattering nerves and destroying bodily function, because his clothing was also soaked in urine and once in a while, it would slip out in a trickle and mix with the blood, but Henry knew nothing of what had happened to his body, only that he was in pain and needed to cry out.
The vehicle must have been travelling beyond eighty miles per hour, glued to the rural path which was infested with bumps and pot holes. The journey was becoming a test for them all; Steph had just curled in to a ball while Thomas kept a tight grip on to a metal bar that was attached to the roof. Josh didn’t know what to say nor do, he could barely hear himself think because of the noise.
He had begun to feel sorry for his fellow team member, Henry – who continued to roll about unable to contain any self preservation from the agony he was in.
But Josh also knew that if he had done precisely what he was told like everyone else he would of at least felt a little less shitty. Having said that, Josh had really started to feel like death, boiled – and stirred.
The UNA vehicle suddenly slapped on its breaks, throwing Josh, who had chosen not to hold on, crashing into the opposite side of the carrier. He quickly attempted to compose himself, rubbing at his right brow as he got back on to his knees.
A slate of metal shifted open revealing the driver's robotic face in the front cabin.
“Shut that fucker up! Or we will throw him out for the mutants to feast on his flesh!” Hissed the driver, trying to keep its voice down.
The opening then slammed shut, reconciling the passenger cell.
Josh turned to look back at Henry whose situation hadn’t changed in the past few seconds. Then he looked down at the base of the vehicle chassis and just glared at the crimson trail that had begun to flow in to every segmented panel. After his attention had given him enough time to wander back, Josh felt a subtle wetness in his hand – so he lifted it to meet his gaze and to no surprise at all he noticed it was partially covered in fresh crimson. Josh raised his stained hand to his brow again were he gave it another subtle rub, using the same two fingers and returned it back to his sights, realising the blood was his own - he must of split open his eye brow when he stupidly hit his head as a result of not holding on while the vehicle was in transit. As the wound throbbed and ran warm, a single thought went through his head:
I need to be more careful...
A split second later he thought on something else as he recalled what the driver had said.
“What was it talking about, what mutants?” Josh questioned.
Then his mind fell even deeper in to the past, pulling up distant but painful memories, those memories had come to the front of his mind with razor sharp clarity, remembering his life before and the decisions he had to make back then. As the weight of it all pressed into his thoughts like lead, his mind became clouded with shadow and negativity as if he had leaned too far into a well of madness and been drawn down into the spiral where only confusion, regret and hopelessness dwelt. That feeling was taking over and now he wanted to itch until flesh peeled off and became lodged beneath his fingernails, because it felt like every bad decision he had ever made was now scratching at his skull - and now everybody could see it was causing him incredible torment as his facial expression warped from fear to total anguish as his thoughts reeled off silently in his head at the speed of a run away train:
'Every decision has caused ripples, these ripples have taken their course and made their way back at us and started to tear us all apart, I can't be held responsible for everyone's lives, I don’t even think I have the strength to make the right decision for myself any more. I feel like I have done wrong by posing as someone I have never been, a leader – but I have to do what I can to correct my wrongs!'
These many thoughts hurtled helter skelter through his mind as Josh remained knelt in the river of crimson, bombarded with the shrieks of agonizing pain being expressed by his teammate.
Josh reached out and yanked Henry towards him, keeping a tight grip of his bloody overalls; he used his other hand to firmly cover his mouth, which immediately sent Henry in to even more of a panic, enough to draw his mind away from the catastrophe of his mutilated ball sack.
Josh turned his head and glared in to the boys’ fragile eyes and firmly ordered:
“Keep quiet!”
Then what came as more than a surprise to everyone, was silence, followed by the creaky sound of the heavy vehicle doors that squealed as they opened wide releasing the UNA soldiers from their front cabin.
The six soldiers disembarked, followed by Williams who collapsed her helmet and had begun to observe the surroundings, keeping every step slow and cautious, ready to respond to any hint of a threat.
One of the soldiers removed a hand held device from its belt and started to point it directly in front of itself which once turned on it would emit a s
harp bleeping sound to notify the user of possible life signs ahead.
“It’s still picking up a signal dead ahead,” Said the soldier, grasping on to the device.
“Advance with caution,” Ordered Williams, turning her gaze towards the ruins at the side of the road which once would have been a UNA outpost, designed and placed to intercept travelling rebels.
The squad carefully maneuvered in to the half light, becoming less visible to the roaring warmth of the bright vehicle headlights.
Williams hung back, suspecting at any moment things would take a turn for the worse. Her eye sight was far more advanced than that of a human, so she had no trouble viewing her mechanical counterparts advancing towards the active life signatures. She had her suspicions of what they were about to find, which led her to cast her mind over all the possible outcomes that were laid ahead:
'The humans lives are in fatal danger.'
That ongoing thought continuously pulsated around Williams augmented mind and what baffled her was how she had managed to become so independently thinking, apart from the hive mind of the UNA intelligence.
Every second that her robotic heart ticked over a beat, Williams was becoming more and more self supportive and self aware which was far beyond the initial programming, - it was never meant to be possible but somehow, it was now.
Williams turned her attention away and made her way past the side of the vehicle and to the back, where she grasped the top of the ramp and effortlessly ripped it down to the ground, releasing Josh and company – but Williams was met with a solid fist to the face, knocking her off her feet.
Josh quickly jumped out of the back taking a brief look left and right to make sure the coast was clear. He turned back and lifted Henry out of the vehicle, who had right away started to shout as the pain once again became too much to handle.
The UNA soldiers turned to witness Thomas and Steph climbing out of the back of the carrier, they quickly raised their rifles taking aim and unleashing a few rounds of lead toward the escaping humans. The bullets found themselves embedded in the ground, kicking up dust on impact which soon became a handy smoke screen allowing Josh, Thomas, Steph and Henry to make a break for it.
“Are we doing this?” yelled Thomas as he ran.
“We’re doing it! We’ll head in this direction away from the ruins, it’s the safest route I’m sure,” replied Josh, keeping a tight grasp on the mutilated boy.
“But how long do you plan for us to keep doing this for? We’re tired, Josh!” yelled Steph, almost breaking down in tears, fallen to her knees.
“I… I need to fix this, I need to do this for everyone, for you... for our daughter!” Josh told her sincerely.
Thomas helped to pull Steph to her feet and she was met by Joshes lips planting a stamp of love on to her forehead.
“We have to stick together, move together. Ready?”
The group effortlessly nodded in understanding but none of them could continue to hold themselves up, they had begun to feel so incredibly heavy that every step was becoming a fifty fifty chance of collapse – but they soldiered on, moving in to the dust cloud minimizing the chances of being taken out by the UNA gunfire.
The soldiers could barely pin point the direction the escapees had taken with the thickening dust clouds emerging from around the UNA carrier. One of the soldiers decided to move forward, hoping to catch a lead but managed to misplace his step and made a sudden drop in to a giant pot hole, it crashed down against the solid concave which broke its short lived fall and put an end to the chase. Instead the UNA android was in a whole new world which didn’t compute as being there a few minutes ago; it had just appeared out of thin air.
The other five soldiers crowded around the edge of the crater and looked down upon their fallen comrade.
“Everything okay, unit 3?” asked the soldier stood on the end, glaring down.
The soldier designated Unit 3 had risen to its mechanical feet and begun to return the gaze back up at its squad.
“No damage sustained, I will need assistance…” replied Unit 3.
Josh and his team continued to move away from the scene, with each agonizing step leading them further away from the enemy. Their legs felt like they had gone to sleep and disappeared from underneath them, but they kept on moving forward. Any moment now, they were all ready to lose consciousness and fall flat on their faces but the will to survive some how kept them up right.
Josh kept looking back to see if they were being followed, expecting the glare of the UNA headlights, but expectations were a bit much on this occasion because instead there was just the dust cloud in the distance.
A short distance behind, Williams, who had already got back to her feet, began to head for the cabin of the UNA vehicle, clutching on to the door and pulling her body inside. With a bit of a shuffle she planted her ass into the drivers’ seat and started the ignition, the engine burst in to life unleashing a satisfying V8 roar of immense power. Williams drove her foot in to the throttle and spun the wheel to her right, sending the carrier in to a wheel spin followed by a drift and some counter steering, to set a hurried course in the direction of the escaped prisoners.
Chapter 8: The Fatal Decision
The voices of doubt were tapping through to his brain again, drumming out their rhythm of dread and defeat and crushing hopelessness and those thoughts refused to fade out:
'It could just be an endless path of nothingness; I could be walking us in to another ambush waiting to happen, what if I’ve made another fundamental mistake that in my mind disguised itself as a flawless plan?'
These what ifs began to circle faster within Joshes mind like a stuck record going around and around like the wheels on the bus and every time they became more and more of a torment, every step they took didn’t change the sight ahead, there was still an endless mist of nothing with a hardly visible horizon – it was just blended into one solid haze. The frustration infuriated Josh as he forced himself to keep walking, one foot in front of the other, heading into that haze as the frustration felt like chains pulling him back as he battled onward.
He dared to carry the faintest hope that luck would strike and the silhouette of something positive would emerge in to their sights – but his luck had run out and didn’t look like returning any time soon...
The UNA carrier continued to navigate its way in the direction that Josh had escaped. William's vision remained fixed on the heat signatures of the four escapees up ahead, bypassing the dust that had begun to build up on the windscreen which would have impaired human vision by one hundred percent.
Her eyes were no longer glowing blue, now they had returned to the natural human appearance but her brows were crossed, reflecting the androids determination.
Josh looked back, followed by Thomas and Steph who had now also noticed a faint glow slowly approaching, becoming brighter by the passing seconds like an angry wolf, hunting its prey. Thomas reached for his holsters as a natural reflex and was reminded by their emptiness that they were disarmed when they were captured.
“She’s coming!” yelled Steph
“And we’ve got nothing to fight back with!” responded Thomas as his eyes widened and reflected fear.
“But we do have our wits,” Josh reminded them, and then he turned back around and continued to carry the fatally wounded boy away from the now fast approaching UNA glare.
“And precisely what do you think our wits are going to do against machinery, disguised in flesh, designed to kill us?” demanded Thomas, becoming increasingly impatient as he looked to him, fixing his gaze on him intently as he awaited an answer.
Josh turned back, sweat ran down his face as he gave his reply.
“We outsmart the robot, it’s what we’ve always done because we invented it and we have learnt that no matter what we will make it through the night because for some reason, they need us alive!”
“But they were trying to kill us!” Thomas exclaimed as his eyes clouded with confusion and fear.
Steph fell to her knees and caught her breath.
“Then why are we running?” she said as she breathed hard, “Why don’t we just wait and give ourselves up?”
“Why?” fumed Josh as he looked at the others as if they had lost their minds, “Why? Because we are FREE – And I failed you all!”
Josh glared into the eyes of his weakened companions and his bone-weary wife, who had now sat down heavily on the ground staring up at her husband, completely spent.
“Can you forgive me?”Josh asked.
But Thomas and Steph both mutually believed that there was nothing to forgive, they knew Josh only wanted the very best for them all and no one could have anticipated the events of this day and how they had turned.
“You’re our leader, Josh. We chose to follow you. And you can’t win them all,”
said Thomas, as he tried to reassure Josh that his decisions were made with the entire support of those following him. Then he added, “It took balls to step up and take on the figure that we would rally behind; you have fucking big balls, Josh. And that's more than we can say for Henry.”
Josh held back a snigger and wiped away a tear that had fallen to his raw cheek.
“That means more to me than you could ever possibly imagine, no matter how you said it, I get that, and I've taken that on. Thank you, Thomas”
As Josh finished speaking he looked over Thomas’s shoulder and was met with the sudden and ferocious glare of the UNA headlights breaking through the dust clouds.
Josh lifted his hand to his eyes to shelter them from the vehicles intense beams of light, collapsing on to one knee and resting Henry's body on to the ground at the same time. The UNA carrier whipped in and had already begun to circle the four mortals, creating a prominent and consistent ring around them. Eventually the vehicle came to a sudden halt in the dirt, its headlights shut off and Williams disembarked – and then she headed towards the group who were now cowered together, surrounded by a thick haze.
