Ash Kickers

by Sean Grigsby

  On the Feed, Duncan Sharp, leader of PC First, appeared on the floating screen. I forgot what I was about to say to Brannigan and listened in to the broadcast.

  A voice over said, “The activist group, known as PC First, will host a benefit tonight in support of volunteer smoke eater families who recently lost loved ones to dragons. Duncan Sharp spoke with us this morning at the Parthenon Convention Center where the gala will be held.”

  Mrs Wilkins stood beside Duncan Sharp as he spoke to a group of news drones and curious citizens. Something big and covered by a tarp stood behind Sharp as he snarled out his diatribe.

  “Mayor Ghafoor has recently suggested putting a stop to dragon blood supplies because the rats invading our city have put fear into her and those too weak to see that the problem isn’t our medicine, but those who would seek to take everything we’ve worked hard to achieve. So, tonight at the first of many fundraisers, we are going to be providing infusions to any natural citizen of Parthenon City for a low cost that will benefit the families who lost brave heroes trying to protect us. And what’s more, we’ll show you what the so-called professional smoke eaters have done to this poor woman’s late husband.”

  “No way,” I said, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.

  Sharp turned to the tarp behind him and ripped it away. There, in a glass container only slightly different from the one Yolanda had been using, floated Wilkins’ wraith, radiating orange light and acting a fool for all the Feed cameras.

  “This is your chance to see a wraith up close and personal,” Sharp said with a grin.

  Mrs Wilkins frowned at that, but she was too deep in this mess to argue with the carnival side show Duncan Sharp had turned her husband into.

  “These dumbasses are going to bring the phoenix right on top of them,” I said, wanting to throw something against the wall. “And everyone there with an infusion is going to catch fire and blow the place up. It’s going to be chaos!”

  Brannigan sniffed. “Then it looks like you have some work to do.”

  Yeah, just put it all on me.

  “I’ve got to go,” I said, and hurried toward the door.

  “I’m proud of you!” he called from the living room.

  I stood there at the front door, one leg outside, trying to think of how to reply. I’d never thanked Brannigan for everything he’d done for me, from rookie school till now. I wished I could have said I was proud of him, too. But I wasn’t. I used to be. Now, there was nothing left to discuss. Sometimes you just have to let people bury themselves, because trying to dig them out will only put you six feet under as well.

  I had no intention of throwing in the towel, not while the phoenix was still flying over Parthenon City. Words meant jack shit to me. Actions were what proved things, changed things. I should have told Brannigan where he could stick his pride.

  But I closed the door and didn’t look back.

  “What do you mean, stay indoors?” my daddy said from my holoreader. “We never go anywhere. That barbecue at your boss man’s house was the last time we left the house. I might as well call your mama The Warden.”

  I was a mile out from Central Fire Station. The night was looking like a potential shit storm and I wanted to give my parents a call, just in case it was the last time I’d get to talk to them.

  “I’m just saying that some crazy people are going to make things a lot worse and I don’t want you or Mama going out.”

  “And you expect me to sit here calmly while you’re out there?”

  It was a fair question, but that’s exactly what I expected him to do.

  “You’re either bursting into the house crying or out there gallivanting with monsters and Satanists. Tammy, you just need to come home.”

  “There’s no cult, Daddy.”

  “I know what I know.”

  Naveena and the other ash kickers stood outside the fire station. I had to get off the holoreader, so I swallowed down a few tears and told my daddy, “I love you.”

  “Tamerica?” He must have heard the tremble in my voice, but I didn’t give him a chance to go on.

  I hung up.

  “Let’s giddyup,” I shouted as I jogged toward Cannon 15.

  “Where we headed?” Naveena asked.

  “Eastern enclosure.” I didn’t forget the promise I’d made to Brannigan. Far from it. Seeing Naveena should have urged me to tell her everything. Instead, I decided Brannigan had asked me to deliver an emotional bomb, and I needed my crew’s focus intact. I locked into my power suit and kept my secret.

  The gauge on my right forearm showed the suit’s power charged and ready to go. I grabbed a laser axe and flicked it on, taking a few practice swings and listening to the satisfying sound of the blade going phoom, phoom through the air.

  “We’ll snag a wraith and bring it back here to Yolanda. Then we need to haul ass to the convention center downtown.”

  “What the hell’s going on over there?” Afu asked.

  “I’ll tell you on the way to the enclosure.”

  Yolanda walked out of the fire station. “You’re going to need the wraith once I’ve finished with it.”

  “I’m with you there,” I said. “But that dumb woman is showing off her dead husband so a bunch of neo-Nazis can inject more people with dragon blood. I’m pretty fucking sure we’ll be able to find the phoenix without a problem.”

  “The wraith isn’t just to attract the bird,” Yolanda said. “You’re going to need the reversed polarity to destroy it.”

  I dropped my axe and it sizzled against the asphalt. “And when were you going to let us know that important little detail?”

  “That lawyer interrupted me. Plus, I had to look over my data a bit more. You’re going to have to release it from the remote at a close range to the phoenix. But… that might be a little dangerous.”

  Afu snorted. “Is anything about this job not dangerous.”

  “This part is especially so,” Yolanda said. “Because the phoenix may explode.”

  “And probably come back again like the resurrecting bastard it is.” Naveena shook her head.

  “Not likely,” said Yolanda. “This explosion may be a teensy bit on the… nuclear level.”

  You could have heard a dragon scale drop out there on the fire station’s front pad. Renfro’s jaw fell open.

  “The fuck?” I said.

  “It’s a very slight possibility,” Yolanda said. “Maybe a little more than slight. Slight and a half.”

  “Will it kill the phoenix?” Naveena asked. She licked her lips, a nervous twitch Brannigan had always thought was a form of flirting. “And I mean for good?”

  “Most definitely,” Yolanda said. “But it might vaporize you as well, if you’re too close. Nuclear or not.”

  I grabbed my helmet and sat on the truck’s side bumper. “There’s got to be another way. I’m not going to blow up the city just to kill that goddamn bird. The mayor would fire us all and put the army in our place if I even offered her the idea.”

  “Don’t have to tell her anything.” Naveena looked at me from the side of her eyes. “Do ya?”

  “I don’t see another option,” Yolanda said. “I’ve been using this reversed polarity idea on Harribow and it seems to have stalled any further degradation.”

  Renfro’s eyes got as big as dinner plates. “He’s not going to turn into a nuke is he?”

  Yolanda shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

  I groaned and put the laser axe back into the truck, slamming the bin door shut. “We’ve wasted too much time talking about this. Let’s roll.”

  Calvinson got into the driver’s seat of Slayer 5 while Naveena got into the seat beside him. We were down too many smoke eaters for them to find a temporary replacement for Harribow, and it wouldn’t feel right if we did. It was a silent reminder of what we were working so hard and fast for. I got into my seat and swallowed against a rise of bile in my throat. Afu buckled in. Renfro started the truck.

  I could fe
el it in my gut and in my bones, even before we left the fire station: this was going to be a long night.

  We weren’t far from the enclosure when Renfro said, “Um, Captain.”

  I looked up from my holoreader. I’d been staring at the blank screen, hoping Brannigan would message me, saying he was on his way to take the lead.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He didn’t say anything; he pointed toward the night sky just ahead of us, just above where the enclosure would be. I sat forward and bent my neck to see what he was trying to show me.

  A fiery streak flew across the purple and pink sunset. It had wings, and if I held my head out of the window, I would probably hear the phoenix’s tea kettle screech sounding out over the ashen wasteland.

  “Pedal to the metal,” I said.

  “Um…” Afu said.

  “What now?” I turned in my seat to look at him. He’d crawled to the other side of the truck and pointed out the window.

  “We’re not the only ones heading for the enclosure, Cap.”

  I squinted as I looked outside. On a parallel road a quarter mile away, the last bit of sunlight struck against long metal barrels and rugged treads. Army tanks and spider vehicles were kicking up ash as they raced toward our same destination.

  Our truck’s holoreader buzzed with a flashing red screen. The words floating in the air turned my skin ice cold: NORTH, WEST, AND SOUTH ENCLOSURES HAVE BEEN BREACHED. DRAGONS ESCAPED.

  CHAPTER 32

  Kaboom!

  The tank at the front of the army’s cavalcade fired at the phoenix. The bird spun in a fiery spiral and dodged the cannon shell. It turned away from the enclosure and shrieked as it sliced through the air. The army vehicles were now on the menu.

  “All right,” I said. “If those idiots want to fight the phoenix, let them. It’ll give us time to grab a wraith and get the hell out of here.”

  Renfro slid Cannon 15 to a stop outside the city’s last remaining enclosure. As soon as I got out of the truck, people flooded out of the enclosure’s front door, running to their cars and speeding away as fast as they could. I tried to flag down a few of them, but they only bathed me in their headlights before veering out of my path, ash flinging from their fleeing hover-thrusters.

  I spotted Ted Sevier fumbling for his keys outside a burgundy coupe.

  “Where are you going?” I grabbed him by the arm.

  He looked like a cornered animal, eyes red, face covered in sweat, trembling inside his navy blue blazer. “We’ve lost control. The other enclosures have fallen. You’ve got to do something. I’m getting the hell out of here.”

  I didn’t understand the gibberish coming out of his mouth. “What do you mean you lost control?”

  The walls of the enclosure shook as something very large and very heavy slammed against the other side of it. The wraiths inside the walls attacked the glass, slashing it with their claws and even attempting to bite it.

  I turned back to Ted. “Did everyone get out?”

  “Yes. Yes, I think so.”

  I released him and he quickly got into his car and drove off.

  Radioing the other ash kickers, I said, “Something’s gone wrong with the enclosures. If we’re going to–”

  “Tamerica!” Naveena’s voice blasted through my helmet. “The phoenix is heading right for you!”

  I turned and looked skyward. The firebird dive bombed toward me like a loosed arrow.

  As I flattened myself against the ground, the phoenix’s scorching wings sailed overhead. It cruised to a stop just in front of the enclosure and hovered there, staring at the ghosts trapped inside the glass.

  With a heaving flap of the its wings and a squawk for good measure, every wraith inside the enclosure exploded into flames. The walls now contained an inferno. Then, like gunshots in the night, cracks began to ripple through the enclosure’s glass.

  “Renfro!” I shouted into my helmet. “Set up the cannons right now! This enclosure is about to bust. Everyone, we need to take the defensive. Surround and drown. Don’t let any of these fucking scalies get past us!”

  I turned back to put eyes on my crew. Instead I found an army spider vehicle gliding over the ash. A turret gun rose from its top, and then fired two rapid blasts. Blue laser streaks flew over my head. The first shot passed just under the phoenix’s right wing and slammed into the enclosure wall. It shattered, billows of glass and flames. The second shot hit the phoenix in the middle and sent it hurdling through the fire, into the enclosure.

  I covered my face as shrapnel pelted my helmet and power suit.

  “You fucking idiots!” I shouted.

  “We didn’t do anything!” Afu said over the radio. I’d meant it for the army and their careless-ass attack, but I realized only my crew could hear it.

  Multiple angry roars came from behind the smoke and flames. A scaly foot broke through and landed just in front of me. I looked up to see a white, crystalline dragon head looking down at me from at least fifty feet up. Training and adrenaline kicked in as I fired a few rounds at the scaly, the lasers striking the translucent spikes protruding from its cheek bones. My efforts only chipped off a few pieces of the spikes and made the dragon flinch slightly, as if the lasers were houseflies buzzing around its face.

  Then, with a snarl, the dragon opened its mouth and showed me a sparkling blue light at the back of its throat.

  Well, you don’t see that every day.

  Still flat on the ground, I hit my suit’s power jump. The thrusters threw me across the ground. I didn’t go far but it was enough to dodge the scaly’s attack which came out as a blinding cone of cold energy.

  “It’s a fucking ice dragon!” Naveena shouted through my helmet. “Get out of there, T!”

  I scrambled onto my feet and ran for the cannon truck as the ice dragon slammed another foot where I’d been lying.

  “Shoot it!” I said between huffing breaths. “Shoot it, goddamn it!”

  “Which one?” came Renfro’s voice.

  Movement to my right.

  I looked over to see a lindworm stampeding alongside me, seemingly unconcerned about my presence and just happy to be sprung from jail. At my left, poppers sailed in and out of the ground like cresting dolphins. The sky above me, dark already from the fledgling night, darkened even more from the mass of flying monsters filling the air with their flapping wings.

  The phoenix flew over, carrying a small drake in its talons and zooming fast and far ahead of the horde of flying scalies. They were all heading for the heart of Parthenon City.

  When the lindworm reached the army spider vehicle, it jumped on top and began biting at the metal and shooting blasts of flames. It took only seconds for the dragon to rip away the top hatch of the spider like a ragged can of tuna fish. A man’s screams came from inside and continued when the lindworm dropped into the vehicle and thrashed so hard, it looked like it would topple over.

  “Lower the cannon, Renfro,” I said. “Get back in the truck. We’ve got to get downtown.”

  Renfro hurried to lower the cannon as Afu chugged his huge legs and jumped back into the truck.

  I climbed into my seat as an army tank rolled up and shot at the ice dragon. The booming tank fire made me cover my ears, but it didn’t seem to do shit to the giant scaly, besides making it stumble a bit and then roar almost as loudly as the cannon. A blast of ice covered the tank and when the freezing light had subsided, what remained was a frosty tanksicle.

  The ice dragon took a single flap of its icy wings to leap into the air and came down right on top of the frozen tank. The metal shattered as the tank flattened under the ice dragon’s weight. It would have been bad enough for the dragon to call that the end of it, but it grabbed what remained of the tank in its claws and flew off toward the city.

  Renfro jumped into the driver’s seat, nearly chomped by a passing electro scaly’s snapping teeth.

  “Drive!” I said. “Follow the dragons.”

  “Where are they going?”
Afu asked.

  “They’re following the phoenix. And the bird is going to be heading for the convention center because those PC First fuckheads are going to put our orange wraith on full display. And that wraith is the only thing we have left to kill the phoenix.”

  Over my helmet radio, I called for a full response to the city, every damn smoke eater we had, no matter if they were on another call or off duty and halfway through a bottle of whiskey. I told the propellerheads to keep sending out the emergency response calls until every smoke eater in Ohio acknowledged that they were on their way.

  A dragon that looked like a rhinoceros bullfrog slammed my side of the truck. Renfro twirled the steering wheel to keep us all upright, but we were skidding hard and plowed into a group of wyverns. Scaly blood and guts splattered across the windshield, but Renfro, being the consummate professional he was, simply turned on the windshield wipers and smeared the gore into a thin paste across the glass.

  Several thumps racked the top of the cannon truck. I tried to look up from my window but could see nothing besides the edge of a heaving bat-like wing. The truck heaved and for a moment our wheels weren’t touching the ground.

  “Can you shake this thing off of us?” I asked Renfro.

  “Hold onto your butts.” He whipped the steering wheel to the right.

  The force threw me into the door, then Renfro pulled the same maneuver to the left and my seat belt nearly choked me. Poor Afu in the back was being tossed around like a marble in an empty soda can.

  “Damn it, Afu!” I shouted. “How many times do I have to tell you to put your seatbelt on?”

  “Dragon still has us,” Renfro said.

  Again, the truck lifted off the ground for at least two seconds before the wheels touched back down again.

  “On second thought,” I pointed to Afu, “get on the roof and chop this fucker’s legs off if you have to.”

  Afu nodded, secured his laser axe to the back of his power suit and moved to climb out of the window.

  “Wait!” I stretched myself toward the back of the cab and grabbed Afu by the metal collar of his power suit. I kissed him, kissed him like I’d never kissed him before, and like I never would again.