Desolate Tides (Earth Exiles Book 5)

by Mark Harritt

  Slowly, they both lowered their hands. They watched as large boulders shifted and tumbled off the landslide, hitting and driving back the mech. The mech shrugged off the impacts and started shifting more rock.

  Rieci’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not sure helping the mech with the landslide is a good idea.”

  Geonti shook his head, “No, I don’t think so either.”

  Rieci looked around him, “So, how do you want to help?”

  Geonti looked at the dead and dying around him, “Slit throats? I’d hate for one of these bastards to be faking.”

  Rieci grimaced, “yeah, that would be bad. You slit and I’ll pull overwatch.”

  Geonti grinned, “Okay. Let me know if you want to switch.”

  Geonti moved his rifle to his back and pulled his knife free. They went around checking for survivors, and then made sure that the survivors didn’t. A few of the dead weren’t quite as dead as they pretended. Rieci shot them a few more times, and then Geonti used his knife to make sure it was finished. Since they didn’t know what the future held for them, they started looting the bodies to find food and water. They took other items that might help as well, plus a few souvenirs.

  Anything they deemed as potentially useful, they put into a pile. Behind them, the mech was still shifting dirt out of the way. The rocks were loud as they bounced down the landslide, smashing into other rocks with loud pings and cracks. Some of the rocks shattered, which was even louder.

  Finally, they found the last throat to be slit, the owner of the throat in question being less than helpful with the procedure, trying to delay the inevitable. Rieci suddenly remembered he was thirsty. He pulled his canteen out and started drinking. There was plenty of water and food with the green men, but it needed to be tested before they drank or ate it.

  As he drank he stared at the mech. It had stopped shifting boulders, and it scooped great handfuls of dirt to push it down the sides of the land slide. Gravel and dirt flowed down to create smaller mounds alongside the hill of earth and stone.

  “What do you think is down there,” Geonti asked.

  Rieci shrugged, “I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

  The mech changed his technic. Now, it dug deeper into the mound, dirt and rocks arcing through the air. Rieci and Geonti had to retreat, afraid that a boulder might fly out of the mound and crush them. They moved away from the mound to the other side of the junction.

  Whatever the mech was digging for, it would take time for the mech to get to it. Since they were home, they went back to their rooms and switched their tattered clothes for something clean, and grabbed their kits. Rieci came out out of his room dressed for war instead of hunting. Rieci hated to admit it, but he had felt naked the entire time he was killing men without his kit on. Now he had his ruck with everything he needed to move cross country. He’d stuffed the ruck with extra food. He grabbed some more bags and made his way back to the junction. Geonti was already waiting for him, also dressed up in his soldiering kit. Rieci threw some of the bags at him, and they started putting the food, water and other items into the bags. When they were done, they piled up the bags and left them on the canyon floor.

  There was nothing to do, so they watched the mech dig. Dirt flying through the air is only entertaining for a very short time, so soon, they grew weary, and they sat down among the shattered debris that used to be green soldiers, far away from the mech and the landslide.

  With the mechs in place at the ends of the canyons, Rieci and Geonti started to doze. Rieci didn’t know how long his eyes had been closed when he heard the distinct ‘brrrippptttt’ of the rail gun. His head jerked up and he looked over at Geonti. Geonti was sitting straight up, staring at one of the canyons. Both strained to hear anything that might indicate that their position was compromised.

  “What do you think?” Rieci asked.

  Geonti kept staring at the canyon where the sound of the railgun had echoed from, “They’re probing, I guess.”

  Rieci stared toward the canyon as well, and then, when he didn’t hear anything, he looked over at the landslide. He couldn’t see the mech. He reached over to slap Geonti on the shoulder, and then pointed at the landslide, “Where’d he go?”

  Geonti stared at the landslide, then shrugged, “Don’t know.”

  Rieci used his chin to point toward the landslide while he grabbed his kit, “Let’s go check.”

  They moved cautiously, afraid one of the boulders would come flying out. But nothing happened as they moved closer. Quickly, they moved to the bottom of the landslide, dirt from the excavation trailing down the side.

  Rieci looked up, then looked over at Geonti. Geonti looked up, then shrugged. Rieci didn’t say anything. Instead, he started climbing the slope of the excavated landslide. It was steep, but climbable. He was cautious as he climbed, afraid that he might start an avalanche of dirt and stone. It took twenty minutes to get to the top.

  Rieci stood up and looked over into the center canyon. His jaw dropped. It was one thing watching the mortars shoot. It was something completely different when you saw what kind of hell the mortar shells created. There was nothing there that looked like the canyon that he remembered. A pockmarked, shattered landscape greeted him. Behind him, he heard Geonti curse. He looked around, and saw the shock on Geonti’s face.

  “There’s no way anything survived that,” Geonti muttered.

  Rieci had been so overcome by the shattered landscape in front of him that he’d momentarily forgotten about the mech and whatever it was doing. He jumped when the mech levered itself out of the hole that it had dug.

  “You will help me,” the mech informed him.

  The top of what would have been the mech’s head was about eye level with Rieci.

  “Sure, what do you need me to do?” Rieci answered.

  “You will come down into the hole

  Rieci stared down into the hole. While he watched, dirt cascaded down the side. He couldn’t see the bottom, “Ah, do I have to?”

  Whoever was in the mech evidently wasn’t one for small talk, “You will come down into the hole.”

  Rieci turned to look at Geonti. Geonti looked into the hole, “We could always run.”

  Rieci looked at the mech, then back at Geonti, “You really think we could get away from that?”

  Geonti shrugged, “it was just a thought.”

  Rieci sighed and looked at the mech, “Okay, I’ll come down.”

  The mech didn’t need any more confirmation. It disappeared back down into the hole.

  Rieci handed his rifle to Geonti and then shrugged off his backpack and handed it to him as well. Geonti sat the ruck down next to his feet and he kept hold of the rifle. Rieci turned and sat down on his butt, wriggling toward the side of the hole. It was steep, and he figured he stood less chance of breaking something if he slid down on his backside.

  He slid slowly at first, but then he started picking up a little speed. He slowed down by leaning back into the dirt, grabbing onto stones as he passed them. With the perpetual fog, the lateness of the day, and the steep sides of the hole, it was dark inside the excavated pit. Finally, his boots touched a hard surface. It was dusty, covered with gravel, but it was solid.

  He looked over at the mech. The mech pointed down. Rieci walked over and looked at what the mech was pointing at. It was a hatch. Suddenly, Rieci understood why the mech needed help. It couldn’t open the hatch because its gauntlets were too big to manipulate the latch.

  Rieci moved to the hatch, wondering what the hell the hatch led to. He bent over, and started to brush dirt away. When he saw the surface without dirt, a sense of urgency seized him. Now he understood what the mech had been trying to uncover. He was standing on the back of a mech, and there was probably somebody inside.

  “Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” Frantically, he put his hand on the mech’s touch pad. It still had energy. He felt the lock to the door shift with a clunk. He grabbed the handle and tried to pull the hatc
h up. The hatch shifted a little bit, but there was still dirt in the way and it wouldn’t open completely.

  He kept the hatch partially levered open and turned to the mech, yelling, “Hey, I need your help!”

  The mech put a hand under the hatch, and pushed against the dirt, levering the door all the way open.

  Rieci pointed at the hatch. “Hold that open!” he ordered.

  Rieci got down on his knees and looked into the open back of the mech. A face stared back at him in a halo of pale green light.

  “What took you so long?” Jennifer asked.

  Rieci’s brows furrowed, “What do you mean?”

  “You told me you were coming for me six hours ago,” she told him.

  “That wasn’t me. Probably him,” Rieci hooked his thumb over his shoulder at the mech. He held his hand out to help her up.

  Jennifer held her hand up, palm out toward Rieci, “Hang on. I was told that you needed this.”

  She reached down into the mech, and pulled the hard drive up by the handles and set it outside the mech. That’s when she noticed that she was at the bottom of a hole, “Oh hell! That’s why I couldn’t see anything on the cameras and the hatch wouldn’t open.”

  Rieci was confused. He reached down and grabbed the hard drive and stood up, “What do you mean?”

  Jennifer pointed at the dirt and rocks, “That. That’s why I couldn’t see anything.” She grabbed her helmet and scrambled up out of the hole. When she was clear of the hatch, she motioned to the mech, “You can let go now.”

  The mech let go and the hatch slowly closed as the dirt pressed down on it.

  “Who’s in the mech,” Jen asked.

  Rieci shook his head, “I don’t know.”

  Jennifer looked up at the mech, “Who are you?”

  The mech didn’t say anything for a few moments, then spoke, “A.I.”

  Now it was Jennifer’s turn to be confused, “I?”

  The mech paused again, “I will show you.”

  It assumed the sumo stance. Rieci and Jennifer waited for someone to come out of the hatch. Nothing happened.

  Jennifer handed her helmet to Rieci, “Hang on to this. I’m going up there to see what’s going on.”

  Rieci took hold of the helmet, and Jennifer scrambled up the side of the mech. She got to the top, and she could see Geonti, who was peering down into the hole with curiosity.

  Jen waved at him, “Hey Geonti, how are you?”

  Geonti waved back, “I’m doing well, but it might be a good idea to hurry.”

  Jen had been so happy about breathing fresh air, that she’d completely forgotten about the tactical situation. She slowly nodded her head, “You’re probably right.”

  Jen moved to the hatch. She pressed her palm against the lock and the latch unlocked with a clunk. The hatch slowly opened. Jennifer stared down into the mech, a confused look on her face, “There’s no one in here.”

  Rieci was confused as well, “There has to be. There’s no one else here.”

  Jen’s head snapped away from the open hatch, “What do you mean there’s no one else here?”

  “We’re it. Geonti and I were on the other side of the valley, out there,” he waved toward the front of the canyon, “And we came back over here to see if anybody was still alive There isn’t anyone else. We’re all that’s left.”

  A look on intense pain settled onto Jen’s face, and her hand went up to her mouth, “You mean they’re all dead?”

  Rieci held up his hands, trying to calm her down, “No, no, that’s not what I meant. Some of them are gone. The dead are back there, but that’s not everybody.”

  The pained expression stayed on Jen’s face, “What about Mike? Do you know what happened to Mike?”

  Rieci shook his head, “No, I don’t. We didn’t see him among the dead.”

  “Then he’s alive,” She said.

  Rieci didn’t know if it was a statement or a question, “I don’t know that either.” He went on to explain about the shuttle that was shot down.

  Jennifer squatted down over her heels, her hands over her eyes. Rieci didn’t know what to tell her. He wanted to comfort her, knowing exactly what she was going through. Then he heard railguns firing again. Jennifer looked up, her grief evident on her face.

  Rieci pointed at the mech, “If there’s no one in there, then you need to get in. If there’s going to be trouble, you’ll be safer in there.”

  “What about you and Geonti?” Jen asked.

  Rieci shrugged, “There are two other mechs, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  Jen looked down at Rieci, “Throw me my helmet.” He tossed it up to her, and she grabbed it as it arced toward her. Jen put her helmet on, and started to jump down into the mech. She paused and looked down at what was left of the buried mech, “We need to do something, we can’t Just leave that mech here. I don’t want anybody getting a hold of our tech.”

  Rieci grinned and pulled out a grenade that he’d pulled off one of the green soldiers, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

  Jen nodded, “Okay, be quick. If there’s no one around, we need to get the hell out of here.”

  “Hey!” Rieci yelled at her. He held up the hard drive, “You might need this.”

  Jen motioned with her hand for him to hand it to her, which was no easy feat considering how much higher than him that she was. He had to climb up most of the way to hand it to her. She got on her knees and leaned over to grab it from him. When she had it, he let go and dropped back down to the ground. She disappeared inside of the mech, and a few minutes later, after she’d installed the hard drive, the hatch closed.

  He scrambled over to the hatch of the buried mech. Once there, he pulled a cylindrical grenade out, pulled the pin and then pulled the hatch up just enough to drop the grenade inside. Then he latched the back of the mech shut. He had absolutely no idea what the grenade did, but he figured if nothing could get through the armor, he was okay.

  He waited a few seconds, and nothing happened. He frowned. He should have at least felt a shock through his boots when the grenade blew up. He moved back to the hatch, and opened the latch. He pulled the hatch up, but then dropped it quickly as oxygen flowed in and flames flowed back out. He grinned. Now he knew what that grenade did, and, it worked better than he could have imagined on the interior of the mech.

  Jen spoke through the mech’s speakers, “Hey, Rieci, we need to go. The green men are starting to come back into the canyons. We need to leave, now.”

  Rieci didn’t say anything, he just grabbed onto the mech and started climbing until he got into position to ride it up out of the hole, “Okay, let’s go.” He pounded on the head of the mech.

  The mech climbed out of the hole much quicker than he could have. Geonti scrambled out of the way so the mech could get out. When the mech’s shoulders were even with the edge of the hole, Rieci jumped off and ran to get out of the way. The mech climbed up, out, and over the edge, then started climbing down the landslide. Rieci realized that he could use the mech as an elevator down as well as one up, so he waited until the shoulders were even with the top of the landslide, and then, quickly grabbing his kit from Geonti, Rieci scrambled back onto the mech. Geonti took the hint, and he followed Rieci’s example. He jumped to the other side of the head, and they both held on as the mech climbed down.

  Once the mech was back down to the canyon floor, Jennifer didn’t stop. She turned the mech and started running toward the box canyon in the back. She explained what was going on as they traveled.

  “We have multiple groups of green men pressing in. There is no way we can go back out the front of the canyons. There are way too many of them, and they have heavy guns.”

  “Big tubes?” Rieci yelled over the sound of the mech running.

  “Yes, big tubes, with infantrymen carrying them.”

  Rieci continued, “You’ll want to stay away from those. They pack a wallop. Probably big enough to punch a hole through the mech. When these three,
” Rieci paused for a second, not knowing what to call the mechs, “When these three . . . started attacking, the green men ran for the tubes. I think that the tubes could probably do damage to the mechs. Oh, wait, stop!”

  “What? Why do do you want to stop?” Jennifer asked.

  “We took food and water from the green men. We have to get it before we leave.”

  “Okay, but hurry.”

  “See that pile? I need you to move close to it,” Rieci told her.

  Jennifer stopped, and both men scrambled down to the pile. They each grabbed two of the bags, and tied them so that they could be slung to ride on both sides of their chests. Then they scrambled back up the mech.

  “Okay Jen, go.”

  They held on as the mech started running again.

  “Guys, the green men are coming in force. I have the other two mechs falling back to our position. You were correct, there isn’t anyone in the other mechs either. You’re going to ride inside them.”

  Rieci and Geonti exchanged glances.

  “You know that neither Geonti or I have any training in driving the mechs, right?”

  “Ai assures me that you don’t need any experience. He’ll drive the mechs for you. All you need to do is ride inside.

  Rieci’s eyes narrowed as he contemplated what Jennifer had just told him, “Who’s Ai.”

  Jennifer paused for a moment before answering, “Ai is the Artificial Intelligence that’s running the mechs.”

  Jennifer could have told Rieci that she’d summoned a demon, and that it inhabited and drove the mechs, and he would have understood just as much. The only part that registered was, one, something drove the mechs, and, two, all he had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride.

  “Okay, no problem. We can do that.”

  Geonti stared at Rieci like he was insane. Rieci shrugged. Truth be told, he always wanted to ride inside the mechs, and now he was going to get the chance. He was pretty happy about the turn of events. Geonti, on the other hand, looked like he was about to throw up.

  They made the box canyon in record time on the back of the mech. When they got there, the mech stopped and moved to the front of the box canyon.