by Scott Baron
A pocket of air jolted the ship into a disconcerting shimmy.
“Oops. Best get that sorted,” Daisy grunted as she set to work putting the vessel on course again. “LA is coming up pretty fast. Better stay on my toes so I don’t take out one of those towers.”
“Yeah, that would be bad, Daze. Smashing into buildings? Hard for them to miss something like that.”
“That, and I probably wouldn’t survive the impact.”
“That too,” Sarah said with a grim little chuckle.
The ground was approaching fast. Too fast.
“What the hell?” Daisy swore as she reached for the emergency release, just as the chute finally deployed, but far too low. She looked out the window and realized the error. “Donovan set it for sea level, but this far inland the city is on a slight elevation. Fuck, I’m going to crash right into––”
The emergency thrusters burst to life, arresting her fall as the ground rushed up to meet her. They cut off seconds later, letting the craft drop the remaining distance. The ship hit hard, but remained intact as it slid to a halt.
“I am so thanking Reggie for convincing me to keep that on board if I make it back,” she said as she scrambled out of the ship.
Daisy quickly pulled the chute and stashed it, then dragged the camo net she had hastily rigged up from the storage bin on the side of the craft. In less than three minutes, it was covered with the net and what neighboring debris was on hand. It was camouflaged as good as it could be, given the situation.
Just in case, however, Daisy took the backup communications device from its secure stowage and lugged it into a nearby building, hiding it carefully before returning to grab the rest of her supplies. If her ship happened to be found, at least the comms unit was safe.
She strapped the sword to her backpack and started off at a careful jog in the direction of where Vince’s ship should have landed.
Running in low-g on the surface of the moon was taxing and had kept her in shape, which she was grateful for, but it was nothing like running in full Earth gravity. Fortunately, her other training with Fatima and Tamara had kept her cardio capacity at its peak, and after ten minutes, she found herself settled into a comfortable rhythm. After a half hour, she reached the sector where Vince should have touched down.
“Okay, time to get eyes on it,” she grumbled as she entered the stairwell of a tall tower. “Stupid stairs.”
“At least it’ll be a pretty view,” Sarah joked.
“You’re such a bitch.”
“Aww, you love me.”
Daisy reached the thirtieth floor and decided that was high enough. At least she hoped it was. Burning up all her energy this early wasn’t exactly part of the plan, but then, how much of a plan had she really arrived with?
Get to LA. Find Vince. That was about the sum of it, she realized.
Nothing else to do now but carry on.
She pulled her binoculars from her bag and scanned the city from her perch while chewing one of Finn’s energy bars. It only took her a minute to spot the downed ship a few dozen blocks away.
“Looks intact,” she noted, stowing her binoculars and slinging her bag back over her shoulders before descending to the streets below.
She was cautious in her approach. With no idea what had happened, and in a Chithiid-active part of the region, she had to be. Thirty-five minutes later, as the sun was setting lower in the sky, Daisy finally reached the ship.
“Hull seems intact,” she quietly noted. “Keep an eye out, Sis.”
“Already on it,” Sarah replied as she soaked in everything she could through Daisy’s eyes.
The ship’s door was open, but hadn’t been forced. Daisy unsheathed her sword and silently slid inside.
Empty.
“Daisy, look. The comms uplink is still here. Seems to be fine.”
“I see it. But there’s no sign of Vince.” She surveyed both the ship and the area around it. “No signs of a fight that I can see. You catch anything?”
“Nope. I think you’re right. Whatever happened, it didn’t happen here.”
A single, faint bootprint marked the dust near a long-abandoned vehicle. She pointed her Vince-detector at it and the faintest of lights glowed on its face.
“Looks like he went that way,” Daisy said. “Which means we go that way too.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Hours had crept by as Daisy tracked Vince’s progress through the winding streets. Only the occasional bootprint in the dust and gentle nudge from her tracking device kept her on course.
Many months had passed since Daisy’s first, last, and only visit to the city, but things hadn’t changed much. The Chithiid were slowly and methodically advancing through the unprotected and unincorporated areas, dismantling them as they went, while the centrally defended hubs remained intact, though devoid of human life.
More than before, however, there were signs of recent fighting. Periodically, Daisy came upon bits of cyborgs freshly destroyed by alien weapons.
“Looks like one of Habby’s crew,” she noted, kicking the well-made fedora off the decapitated head of one of the metal men. “Why are they venturing up here, though? As long as they stay underground, they’re pretty much left alone.”
“With that crazy AI, who knows what their motivation is.”
“True, but his center of operations was in a different part of the city. One of the safer ones, way across town. I mean, the cyborg survivors that flocked to him all seemed to stay relatively close by, so what gives with these?”
“Runaways, maybe?”
“Not likely. And running from what? They all seemed quite content there in their little cyborg hive. No, this feels like something different.”
That prior visit had also been different in another way. Daisy had been on the run, escaping from the Váli and her crew, fleeing under the mistaken belief that there was an AI rebellion trying to overthrow humanity. Little did she know she was part of a much larger plan. Unfortunately, being woken before that bit of information could be fed to her through her neuro-stim meant that she woke up more than a little bit out of the loop.
After encountering Habby and his troop of fleshless cyborgs under the city, Daisy had made a hasty escape, trying desperately to get a message to the other humans she believed to be in other cities. People who could help her.
She had just reached the commandeered shuttle and was about to send her distress call when both cyborgs and Chithiid invaders encountered one another in the streets of L.A., with her stuck in the middle.
A fevered battle ensued, the cyborgs charging in close, using sharp pieces of debris as weapons, while the four-armed aliens fought with both pulse rifles as well as their odd power whips in unison. The strong beams projecting from their wrist-mounted devices may have had limited range, but in hand-to-hand combat, they were quite handy.
At the end of it all, a new squad of aliens swooped in on the site, leaving Daisy ducking for cover as they advanced on her position. It was only then that an unexpected savior appeared.
Vince, and a small team consisting of Reggie and Tamara, opened fire on the Chithiid, stopping their attack in its tracks. The aliens knew they were defeated, and, with no functioning communications, they opted to commit suicide, using a powerful bomb to take out not only themselves, but also the human combatants.
Daisy, quite unexpectedly, understood them, and when a lone human stood up and called out a surrender—in their own language, no less—they stopped in their tracks. That pause allowed Vincent and the others to cut them down.
It saved all their lives, but Daisy was nonetheless livid. She had offered a surrender, and they had honorably accepted it, a point she was making when Tamara, who she thought was dead, blasted her with a stun rifle before unceremoniously dragging her back to Dark Side Base, where the true nature of the world as she knew it was made clear.
There would be no margaritas on the beach, as she and Sarah had planned. There would be no festivities at all
. Earth was a planet of the dead, and the home she had known had never truly existed.
And now she had come back. Something she’d sworn she would never do.
“Hey, what’s that?” Sarah said.
Daisy had been lost in thought as she walked and had missed the faint sounds over the crunching of her boots on the ground.
“That sounds like talking?” she murmured. “Yeah. I’m sure of it. Someone’s talking up there.”
The voices were getting closer.
“Daisy,” Sarah said. ”That’s not English.”
“No, of course not. That’s––” She froze in her tracks. Her mind had been translating so easily, she forgot to register alarm. “Shit!”
Daisy spun on her heel and took off running.
There was an underground access a few blocks that way, she realized as she ran for her life. For a split second, she allowed herself to look over her shoulder. A pair of Chithiid were rounding the corner.
No time!
She abruptly altered course, sprinting to the nearest building. Fortunately, the thick glass doors were unlocked. Heaving them open, she ran inside and ducked down behind the vacant security desk.
That was close, but I don’t think they saw—
The glass façade smashed to pieces, thick safety glass tumbling to the ground in waves.
“Over there. Behind that desk!” she heard a Chithiid call out.
“Not going to catch me being a sitting duck.” She grunted, jumping over the top just as the alien reached her. It was not expecting an offensive attack, especially from such a small being, and found itself caught with its weapon not aimed at her when she struck. A careless mistake it quickly regretted.
Daisy kicked and punched all the visible weak spots she could reach, then threw a powerful Muay Thai kick that connected with the wrist of the alien’s arm that was holding the pulse rifle. The elongated weapon flew from its numb grasp and skittered across the floor.
“That little human kicked me!” it shouted out, lunging at Daisy with all four arms.
The lithe human evaded its grip, however, and rather than fleeing as it expected, she once again launched an attack, jumping up and delivering blow after blow to the Chithiid’s face and torso.
“Get out of the way. I don’t have a clean shot!” the other alien called out.
The stunned alien pushed her off of him and stumbled backward as its partner took aim. Daisy dove behind the desk as a plasma bolt flew past her.
That was close!
She looked around, searching for anything to use as a weapon.
“You have one behind you now, dumbass!”
The sword!
Daisy dropped the backpack and unsheathed her weapon, diving over the counter, swinging as she did. The Chithiid was taken by surprise, and the blade cleanly arced down on its wiry arm. Daisy heard the bones crack, but her sword had failed to even nick the skin.
“Gloves!” Sarah shouted in her head.
“Shit!” she growled, yanking them from her hands.
While the broken-armed alien cradled its damaged limb, its associate had recovered and launched itself at her. Daisy stepped aside, swinging the sword as she did. It was a low blow, literally, severing the tall creature’s left leg from its body. It tumbled to the ground, scuttling on four arms to defend itself from the unexpectedly deadly human.
Daisy lunged as it tried to protect itself, her sword driving through three outstretched hands and burying itself deep in the creature’s torso.
Must’ve hit something vital, she noted, as the alien didn’t even have time to let out a cry in its last moments of life. The sword grew warmer in her hands, and she could have sworn it felt happy as it drank in the sticky blood.
More yelling. A team of Chithiid was coming to help.
Where did the other one—
A shadow towered above her. The injured alien had recovered its weapon and flanked her as she fought. It had her dead to rights and was taking aim at her head when weapons fire from across the courtyard erupted, the plasma bolts flying past both Daisy and the startled Chithiid, which was forced to turn its attention to the new attackers.
Daisy grabbed her backpack and raced around the corner. No sense staying to fight when you’re that outnumbered, she reasoned, when, from behind a column in the building lobby, a figure stepped out to her side. Daisy spun, quickly dropping her bag and letting her hungry sword fly to its next target. Only at the last moment did her eyes go wide with shock.
“Shit!” she cried out, flipping the sword at the last possible second, striking with the flat side instead of the edge.
“Ow!” Vince cried out as the blade bounced harmlessly off his head. “Jeez, Daisy!”
A teenage boy ran up from the back door to the lobby area. “Vincent, we have to go! More are coming. Hurry!”
“Humans?” Daisy said, stunned. “Or was that a cyborg?” She had no idea what was going on.
“Come on!” Vince replied, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her with him. “I’ll explain later. Now run!”
Daisy didn’t need to be told twice.
They bolted for the rear doors, while a barrage of pulse blasts peppered the front of the building. The Chithiid jumped up and returned fire, but it suffered several fatal hits as its pulse rifle fire was answered. Its weapon dropped to the ground, its body following moments later.
That wouldn’t stop the attack, however, as a half dozen armed aliens dropped from a small work ship as it swooped low over the street. They quickly fanned out in a flanking formation as they covered each other with suppressing fire.
The humans fired back as they fled, dodging the Chithiid as best they could, running and weaving between the abandoned vehicles on the street and the buildings nearby.
Daisy caught a glimpse of them as she followed Vince out the back door and down a side street that led them to a large plaza.
That’s a lot of open space.
“This way!” the boy called out. “Hurry!”
Vince and Daisy quickly followed, hugging the periphery and staying to the shadows as best they could. No Chithiid were anywhere to be seen, but the firefight could be clearly heard nearby, and just because they weren’t standing out in the open didn’t mean aliens weren’t lurking in wait for an easy target.
“There, past the large tree,” the boy said.
Daisy saw his goal. A subterranean tube network access lift. There were no stairs.
“How do we know that thing has power?” she asked. “We should find a staircase.”
“It has power,” the teen said. “Alma makes sure this one is always working.”
“Alma?” Daisy asked.
“Long story,” Vince said. “Come on, let’s go!”
Again with the running, she thought, but at least there was a definitive goal in sight. The trio sprinted across the one open space they couldn’t avoid as fast as they could. Daisy felt an itchy tension between her shoulder blades as she waited for a pulse blast to strike her down. Fortunately for her, one never came.
The boy pushed the call button, and the faintest of vibrations could be felt in the ground as the lift ascended to fetch them.
“Come on, come on,” she muttered impatiently. “We’re sitting ducks out here, Vince.”
“I know, but it’ll only be a minute longer. Hang in there, Daze, we’re almost in the clear.”
“Oh, you did not just say that.”
“What?”
“Tempting fate, man. Not cool.”
Vince couldn’t help but smile. “Nice to see you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Daisy was proud of herself for not impaling the poor fellow who stood in the lift when the doors unexpectedly opened silently behind them.
“Come on, you two,” the boy urged.
Ten seconds later, safe inside the metal shell, they began their descent into the belly of the city. Daisy only hoped whatever surprises awaited her there were more pleasant than the four-armed ones
that had greeted her above.
They soon arrived at the lower platform of what was once a busy hub in the sprawling transit tube network. A pair of scruffy older men were waiting, seated on a crate. At their feet, a woman lay on a makeshift sled. Her unseeing eyes didn’t betray her non-living status nearly as readily as the gaping hole in her chest did.
“Damn monsters got Evie,” the older of the two said. “Shot her right through her back.”
“Where are the others?” the boy asked.
“Coming, I reckon,” the other man answered. “We scattered when the second wave came. Most took to the streets, but a few managed to reach the other access shafts. I figure we give them until morning. If they haven’t reached us by then, they’re not coming back. Not never.”
“That’s a double negative. I wonder if he––”
Not now, Sarah.
The older man turned to Vince and Daisy.
“Who’s this one?” he asked, sizing up Daisy head to toe.
“She’s one of my people,” Vince answered. “The ones I told you about. She’s here to help.”
“Looked more like she was the one needing help,” the boy said with a dismissive snicker as he sat on the dusty tile floor.
Why, you little shit.
Daisy got a better look at the unlikely heroes seated before her. Pale, somewhat small in stature. They seemed as if they had grown up a bit malnourished and lacking in adequate vitamin D.
Of course. They live underground, so no sunlight, she realized. I wonder if they’re all this vitamin D-deficient.
Looking at the faces of the two men, the boy, and the dead woman, Daisy noticed something else. A certain similarity in their faces.
“Vince, can we talk a minute?”
“Sure. Excuse us, fellas,” he said, leading her a little way away from the others.
“Okay,” she said when they were out of earshot. “What the hell is going on here? Those are actual humans, Vince. Not cyborgs. Proper humans. They were supposed to have all been wiped out.”
