Fledge

by JA Huss

"Well, the gravity fluctuates as you go up. That's why the flight wasn't so hard. The G was decreasing as we went up. So anyway, when we get up in there, it's gonna feel weird – your perspective, that is. Just let me take you to a booth and try not to puke."

  I laugh. "OK."

  He grabs my hand and starts climbing the stairs. As we go up it gets darker and my breathing picks up the pace a little.

  "Close your eyes now, Junco."

  I do, and he takes my elbow and leads me. My body is swaying wildly and I can see what he meant by the gravity curve. It's not the same from step to step, very erratic.

  "OK, open your eyes, but don't move."

  Holy shit! I'm standing on the side of the wall looking sideways at the giant viewing transparency. He pushes me back a little and I fall into a long lounger and then I am lying down instead of walking sideways. My head spins a little and Kush blocks my eyes with his hand. "Close your eyes if you get dizzy." I do, and then he leans back with me. "It's weird, isn't it?"

  I laugh and open my eyes. The darkness above me is filled with tiny pricks of light and I smile. "Very fucking weird, Kush."

  He looks over and smiles.

  We sit there for a long time like that. Silent. Looking. Thinking.

  "I already know you're from Earth, Junco."

  I don't bother turning away from the stars to face him. "Did Isec tell you?"

  I feel him shake his head. "No, you've been on the newscreens for the past two days. Ever since the morning Lucan brought you back."

  "What? It's been three days since the last fight?"

  He lets out a heavy breath. "Yeah, Fight Three is tomorrow."

  "I slept for two days straight?" Wow.

  "Yeah, we all figured out what happened afterward. They had you on the screens, your testimony. There was a big inquiry and some people accused you of lying."

  "Yeah, like Lucan."

  "No, he didn't. The Archer of Justice did though."

  "Huh, well, Lucan accused me of lying to my face, so same difference."

  "Did you lie?" He looks over at me.

  I return a snarl. "Please, Kush. If I did, I wouldn't tell you. Besides, it's not even possible to lie under the drugs. That's what they told me anyway."

  He shrugs. "I didn't bring you up here to talk about that stuff."

  "Then why did you bring me up here?"

  "Junco, it is very hard to get your attention. I figure I'd have a captive audience. And," he says with a smile, "you can't exactly escape, can you?"

  I laugh. "I'm sure I'd have better luck getting down than I would have had getting up."

  Despite his confession he remains patient and aloof.

  And we just lie there, observing.

  At some point he puts his arm around me, pulls me close into his golden brown wings, and I doze off. I wake only once, when his hand slips down my belly and I feel a tingle on the skin near my SEAR. I grab his hand and gently move it up higher and then go back to sleep.

  I'm pulled out of the best sleep I've had in a long time as Kush is carrying me to the exit of the observatory.

  "Gotta go down, Junco. Fight will start in a few hours and Isec's been up here half a dozen times wondering when you're gonna come talk to him."

  I nod as I look up at him. "OK."

  He sets me down at the stairs and holds me by the shoulders as I make my way to the platform. I wait on the landing, not really wanting to take the leap. Kush bends down and I hop on, grateful. When he jumps off the ledge I feel like I did that night when Moju, Tier, and I were heading out towards the Ramah tunnels. Exhilarated. Kush was right, there's lots of stuff all up and down the mast. I look around and make a mental note to come back after I'm done killing people.

  At the bottom Isec is pacing around like a mad wreck and when I'm on the ground he releases his breath in a rush.

  "Relax, kid. We're fine."

  He shakes his head. "No, this fight is different, Junco. Way different."

  I sigh. "Well, let's go sit down and make a plan then, OK?"

  We settle on my bed, the soft blanket from Lucan's house heaped around Isec as we talk. Kush sits in and listens, but doesn't interrupt to make suggestions. On the sidelines I guess. Isec has few details of the actual fight arena, but he does fill me in on the new rules. I ask for them on the vision screen and they pop into view. The only real difference is that the fight will not end until our numbers have been cut to seventy-five individuals and weapons will be hidden throughout the field. I glance around the room and try and estimate how many of us are left from the original one thousand.

  Two-fifty, I guess. Damn.

  Collectively we've killed seven hundred fifty people in the span of about a week.

  On Earth we call this internecine. Mass murder. Mutual slaughter and destruction.

  Here, apparently it's called growing up.

  When it comes time to line up we still have no idea what the floor plan will look like but neither does anyone else. I make us line up near the front this time. Kush is like tenth in line, then Isec, then me. We stand there, shifting our weight from foot to foot, agitation growing around us, nerves fraying, and the buzz of what's to come percolating up from the depths like a salamander lifting up out of a muddy river bank after the spring thaw.

  I've never seen the initial process of fight day since we've never been at the front. Our attention is focused on a large metal door as it creaks to life and draws up into the ceiling. We file in and step onto the cube patterns where our feet should go.

  I study the lines that criss-cross the holding room, trying to get a sense of what shape it might be. I glance over at Kush and he shrugs. Isec is red-faced and panicked. "Isec, dammit, don't fucking crumble on me now, you understand? Stop it!"

  He nods out a yes at me and takes a deep breath.

  I look up at Kush as the rest of the people file in and take their spots on the pattern and he raises his eyebrows but says nothing.

  Studying the lines again, I see the pattern. I've seen it before at least, but I cannot recall where. I search my memories but only come back with a vague reference to an early childhood education workbook.

  It doesn't fit.

  More and more people are shuffling around and Isec is doing some kind of meditation. "Isec!" He opens his eyes. "I'm only like six feet away, buddy. We'll do it together, OK?"

  He smiles and the quiet of almost time pokes its head into the room.

  What is this pattern?

  Are you asking me?

  I smile. Absolutely. What's the pattern?

  The floor vibrates and my feet are stuck – I watch Isec lose it in real time.

  It's a maze.

  And then we are being rushed upward into battle.

  Chapter Eighteen

  One second I'm locking eyes with Isec's little flushed face.

  And then the darkness envelopes us.

  He's gone.

  My eyes adjust and my night vision kicks in even as I lurch forward, and then slam into the mirrored wall that now separates the two of us. I stop, and the screams start. There is no one around me because I'm positioned in a small nook. I hear footsteps approach and I ready myself to attack.

  They move slow and deliberate and I hear the hands dragging across the wall, trying to understand where they are.

  No one else has night vision.

  The hand stops when it gets to the edge of my nook and the green face on my vision screen is filled with panic. It's a girl, not that much older than Isec, and she's breathing so hard I swear she's gonna pass out. She waits, listening in my direction. Trying to decide if someone is there or not.

  Screams around us jolt her into action and she runs forward, then slams into the wall and falls to the ground.

  I step out and walk towards her. "Don't move. I'll pick you up, OK?"

  She starts crying.

  "Look, kid, if you cry I'll just kill you. I'm not in a great mood. I'll pick you up and you follow me, but stay out of the way, got it?"
>
  She nods as I pull her to her feet. I place her hands on a belt loop at my waist. "Hold on, but if I start fighting you let go and drop to the floor, all right?"

  She nods.

  "Good, now no talking unless you're gonna save my life. Let's go."

  Substituting for Isec already?

  Shut the fuck up.

  I know there are people fighting ahead of me and when I turn the corner I can see them flailing around in the dark. I reach for the SEAR because I'm in a hurry and Lucan can go fuck himself.

  I walk up to them, within a foot or so, then push the little girl off me. She slumps to the ground as I flick my thumb over the tiny little imperfection on my weapon. The SEAR comes to life and faces all around look in my direction, stunned.

  I cut them down with one elegant swoop of the blade and turn it off.

  "Let's go."

  "What was that?"

  "Shut up and stay close."

  We move forward and we repeat the action half a dozen more times. My score card is up to twenty-five when we turn the corner and find the honey hole. A large group of cowards is in control of a cache of weapons, swords mostly, but some small plasma knives too. I scan them and see they have night-vision goggles on as well.

  I backtrack and pull the girl with me. "Lie down on the ground and do not move. You understand?"

  She looks up at my face in the darkness, scared shitless.

  "If they come near you, you don't move. Play dead."

  "Where are you going?"

  "To kill everyone I can to make the fucking fight stop. If those assholes are just going to stand there hoarding the weapons we'll be here all fucking day before we get down to seventy-five people."

  I get down and crawl, sniper style, over bodies and through thick sticky puddles of blood until I reach the corner. I let my body drop to the ground and then, a fraction at a time, I push myself up so my eyes can look around the corner.

  There are a lot fewer screams in the arena now. Which means people are hiding and not fighting.

  I watch each of the guys, all pretty big, as they strut around in their eye gear. I've used night vision before, it's standard for night patrols. And there's one thing I know about them, they really fuck up your peripheral vision. I whistle and they all turn in my direction. I let them get a good look and then duck behind the wall and wait.

  They argue and are just about ready to dismiss me when I hear my name mentioned.

  I peek out and smile at them. "I'm gonna kill you," I whisper.

  The dumb ones come at me and I step out when they are within reach and the SEAR blinks into existence, slices through all three necks before they can come to grips with what they're seeing, and everything goes dark again.

  The others back away instinctively and I am thinking about how much trouble I will be in when this is over when I hear Isec scream somewhere beyond the group. They fling him out into the middle, then kick him in the head and I feel the heat rise up in my face.

  I run at full speed and the first guy braces himself for contact when I flip up in the air, do a twist, and thrust my foot into the neck of his buddy behind him. He goes down choking as the SEAR comes out and slices off the hands of the first guy. He slumps down, writhing in pain from the metabolic effects of the weapon. For a few fractions I'm transfixed by the melting of his skin and connective tissues, but then I jolt myself up out of it and the SEAR finds a neck, then a leg, and then there is just me and Isec.

  I pull him up and start stuffing weapons in his hands. "Isec, fucking snap out of it, take these, goddammit!" He does, stuffing them into his pants and shirt. "Keep one ready, Isec! Jasus, think, kid, or you're gonna die!"

  He arms himself and pulls it together. I grab a pair of night goggles off one of the heads and slap them over his eyes so he can see. "Better?"

  He nods.

  "OK, look – everyone is hiding, trying to wait it out. But we'll be here all fucking day unless we go do some damage."

  He nods at first, but then understands what I'm saying, and shakes his head instead.

  "Yes, Isec. If you want to get out of here we have to go kill."

  I pull him with me and start to follow the guys who ran. "You call out the clock from behind, OK?"

  Silence.

  I turn around and grab him by the neck. "Fuck, Isec, answer me when I'm giving you orders!"

  "OK, Junco. I got it."

  I let go of him and we move forward.

  Vision screen, give me all the data you have on the arena.

  It floods with so much data I can barely see. Scale back to everything I need to know within twenty feet.

  The screen clears out enough for me to see, but it's still packed with shit. For one, the group of guys are huddled just around the second corner. "Keep up, Isec," I whisper, "we're going kamikaze. And if I catch you hiding or not using that knife to kill everyone you can, I'll kill you myself, Isec. You get that?"

  "Yes, Junco."

  "They're around the second corner, all of them. When I say go, we run full out and I'll make the first cut and you finish them off."

  "OK."

  "And stay the fuck out of the way of my SEAR knife, Isec. Unless you want to die a very hasty death. You stay back!"

  He lets out a breath and I whisper, "Go!"

  I run, making a lot of noise, and the first head pops out to take a look. I charge at him and he steps back behind the wall and I follow. Another guy grabs me from behind, holding my arms. I lean forward with all my weight and then double back-kick him in the shins as he holds me. He falls backward but his fingers are not ready to let go and make a mad grab, flailing out to grasp whatever is in reach. The pain in my wing almost overtakes me and then the blood is everywhere. I spin around and cut his torso in half, then turn back to find my first target. He's got a little plasma knife raised, thinking he's some kind of ancient warrior out on the steppe, but I slice open his gut from sternum to groin and he falls.

  The rest run and I follow. At some point I look back and see Isec is gone, but I keep going, the data screen feeding me intel as I pass over hallways that have no bodies and stop to kill anyone who happens to be hiding in the others. Fucking cowards, if everyone went out and did their killing we'd be done by now. The screaming is back in full force and I'm just about to take off the heads of two tall girls when the buzzer sounds and the lights come on.

  The walls drop into the floor and the fight is over.

  I search, find Isec, search, find the little girl, search.

  "Kush?" I yell it. "Kush!"

  "Junco, over here."

  I whirl around to find him. He's breathing hard and covered in blood, a sword in his hand dripping with blood.

  He's alive.

  And he did his killing.

  "Exit to the right. Exit to the right. Exit to the right."

  The voice keeps insisting, but I wait as Kush rushes towards me. My vision starts to waver and it's only then that I notice the blood is still pouring out of my damaged feathers, flooding the floor around my feet. I start to fall but Kush picks me up and leaps into the mast. I feel my body bounce as he rushes me across the dorm and when I finally force myself to take a look around he's tapping my finger on the cafeteria food machine. He places me on a table and my whole body is sticky and wet from the blood. He rolls me over on my stomach and lifts my wing and stretches it out. I lie still as he massages something into the broken feather shaft and then after a few minutes I hear a long sigh.

  Kush leans down into my face. "Junco?"

  I grunt, but don't speak. Just don't have the energy.

  I taste his blood-covered fingers as he smears a paste across my lips and gums. "Swallow it, Junco."

  I do.

  I hear him pull up a chair and listen as Isec's small voice asks if I'm OK.

  I want to wait and hear the answer, but the blackness takes over.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I come to with a sharp sting to my face. "Junco!"

  "Shit, don't
hit me, dammit."

  I hear a laugh and when I open my eyes Kush is smiling down at me. "You're so lucky you're already Aves. You lost a lot of blood."

  I try to sit up but fall back down. "Help me up, Kush."

  He pulls me up so I'm sitting on the table and steadies me as I wobble back and forth for a few seconds. "What the hell happened?"

  "Someone snapped two of your primary wing feathers."

  I just stare at him and when he doesn't elaborate I shrug. "So?"

  "Oh, OK. You don't know. You can pull them straight out and be fine, but break them down near the shaft and you bleed to death, Junco. It was a pretty dirty trick, but this is Fledge after all."

  I turn to look behind me, then grab my left wing and pull it out to see the damage. My normally golden flecks are stained dark brown from dried and coagulating blood. Sure enough I have a gap where the two longest feathers near the tip used to be.

  "I pulled them out, Junco. Then," he lifts up a food ration that has a small packet attached to the outside, "I used the extra starch from the mapolina packet to stop the bleeding. You just dunk the ends in there and it soaks up the blood and makes it clot."

  "Mapolina?"

  He holds up the packet. "You know, mapolina. That gross shit they feed us constantly because it's cheap."

  I smile weakly. "OK, mapolina." I let my wing drop back down. "How did you know what to do?"

  He grins. "Politicos, Junco. We come to the General Fledge on purpose. Train for it for years. They teach us shit, like how to use what's available for healing."

  "Thank you, Kush. You saved my life I think."

  "Nah, you were already healing yourself. And the color is already back in your cheeks, so you're making blood as we speak. I just sped it up a little, that's all."

  "Well, thanks anyway. You're a good friend."

  "Come on, let's go take a shower."

  I walk out of the cafeteria with him but head over to the lounge area instead. "I'm gonna sit down for a while. I'll take a shower later."

  He nods and walks off.

  I sit in the lounge area to wait for the crowds to leave the showers because showering with Kush and Isec is not going to happen anymore. The news is on the screen and I fiddle with the controller until the sound comes up.