The Fires of Yesterday (The Silent Earth, Book 3)

by Mark R. Healy

  “Get the kids,” Targen said, his eyes not leaving mine. “We’ll do them first.”

  “What are you talking about?” Liv said, her voice sounding strained. She was evidently struggling to come to grips with what was happening. “What’s the point of that now?”

  “You don’t understand shit, do you?” Targen spat. “We’re following through on Cabre’s last order. Barke! Get in there and get those kids. Now!”

  “Yessir!” The soldier jumped into action and began heading up the path.

  “Targen, what are you doing?” Liv said. “I don’t understand this. What’s the point of slaughtering these innocent children?”

  “They’re enemies of Ascension.”

  “What? Is that what has become of us? Is that what has become of Ascension? Butchering children to prove a point?”

  “Didn’t you hear Cabre? He ordered us to do it.”

  “It didn’t make sense when he said it, and it’s not making sense now,” Liv said. “What happened to us? What happened to Ascension? This is not what we’re about.”

  Targen’s mouth bunched into a knot. “Don’t you dare tell me how to run this army, Major General. You’re talking to the new General now. I don’t need your pontificating or your empty moralisations.”

  “Don’t you see we brought this upon ourselves?” She pointed out toward the skyscrapers. “This is what happens when we start making the wrong decisions. Cabre made a promise and he broke it, and now he’s paid the price. If he’d just held up his end of the bargain–”

  “Sir, the children are gone,” Barke said from the doorway.

  “What?” Targen yelled. “Check in the back rooms, you idiot.”

  “I did, sir. They’re, uh… they’re not in the house.”

  Mish, I thought grimly. Brave girl. Take them and run. Run for your life.

  “I could, uh… check down the street?” Barke said uncertainly.

  “Go!” Targen roared, and the soldier flinched at the sound of the Major General’s voice. “Wilch, go with him and round them up. And be quick about it.” He looked down at me. “Don’t want to keep our guests waiting.”

  I wriggled at my bonds again, trying to slip free. They felt slightly looser than before. Perhaps Mish had bought me enough time to get out of these shackles.

  “We’re not killing those children,” Liv said adamantly, stepping closer. “I won’t have their blood on my hands.”

  “Stand down, Major General,” Targen warned.

  “No,” Liv said, drawing herself up to her full height, standing a good head above Targen. “I’m not going to do that. Not this time. I’m not going to let you twist Ascension any further.”

  “You’re not in a position to decide what I can and can’t do, Liv,” Targen said.

  “In the end Cabre lost sight of what Ascension are truly about,” Liv said, “and so have you.”

  “Ascension are about justice,” Targen said, not intimidated by her size and proximity. “An eye for an eye. That’s what we’ve always been about.”

  “No, this isn’t justice. Cabre gave his word that he wouldn’t harm Brant and the others.”

  “Yeah. And then they killed him.”

  “Only when he betrayed them.” Her voice softened. “I’m telling you that we’ve lost our way, Targen. These weren’t the principles Ascension were founded upon. We were supposed to protect clanks like these. Now look at us. We’ve become a parody of ourselves.”

  “Well, times are changin’,” he said. He glanced down the street to where the two soldiers drifted between the houses as they attempted to find the children. His brow creased and he shook his head. “Screw this, I’m done waiting.” He lifted the rifle toward me. “See you in the next life, fucker.”

  “Targen, wait,” Liv said, stepping toward him with her hand outstretched.

  Targen turned on her and pulled off a shot, hitting her in the neck and sending pieces of synthetic flesh flying through the air. Liv made a strangled sound and was knocked backward and off her feet. She hit the road heavily and lay there unmoving on her back, and as Targen sauntered over toward her he put two more rounds into her torso.

  He stood over her, his eyes demonic.

  “You can’t understand how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he said. “Now Cabre isn’t here to protect you, you got what you deserved.” He worked his head in a circle as if to free up his neck muscles. “This might well be the best day ever,” he added cheerily.

  My hands would not come free of the flexicuffs, but I didn’t let that stop me. While Targen’s back was turned I struggled to my feet and drove at him as hard as I could. He half turned as I reached him and I hit him flush in the ribs.

  The average clank would have been laid out flat on his back from a blow like that, but Targen barely felt it. In return, I ended up sprawling on the ground, landing heavily on my shoulder. I grunted in pain.

  Targen glanced at me as if I was a fly that had bounced off his chest.

  “I want you to know,” he said, looming above me and blotting out the sky, “that I’m not going to let you get off as quickly as Liv got off. I’m going to make sure that you feel every last second of what I have in store for you.”

  Malyn appeared with a scream of rage, hurling herself at Targen in the same fashion I had, but he stretched out an arm and caught her around the neck easily with one hand. She dangled there above the ground, her hands behind her back and her legs flailing as she made choking sounds filled with anger and desperation.

  “And you,” he said with a smile. “I’m going to have all kinds of fun with you.”

  He tossed her across the street and she fell into a heap on the dying grass by the sidewalk. Targen returned his attention to me and lifted the rifle again.

  “Where do you want it first?” he teased, squinting down the sights of the rifle as he slowly moved his aim up and down my body. “Knee? Foot? Hand? Let’s see here–”

  A massive hand suddenly clamped down on his rifle and ripped it from his grasp. Targen turned, his outrage turning to surprise as he saw Liv towering above him, her face ghoulish, a great chunk of flesh missing below her ear where she’d been shot.

  “You attacked an officer of Ascension,” she said, her voice twisted and garbled, and then her massive fist slammed forward, connecting with the side of Targen’s face like a pile driver.

  Targen reeled backward from the impact, teeth scattering across the asphalt like a handful of pebbles. He tried to open his ruined mouth as Liv advanced but only a strange squealing noise came out.

  “You attacked an officer of Ascension and your penalty is death,” she said calmly, with that oddly distorted voice. She grimaced as she drew her fist back even further, and when she swung again, the force of her knuckles impacting his metal skull was like a wrecking ball, the violence of it snapping his spine and most of the synthetic tendons in his neck, causing his head to loll backward and dangle down his back grotesquely.

  Targen’s squealing stopped and he fell backward. He was dead before he hit the ground.

  32

  I watched Liv standing there above me, outlined against the gloomy sky as she looked down upon Targen, expressionless. I wasn’t sure what was going on in her mind – whether she was about to turn on me – or if perhaps she was in such a state that she wouldn’t notice me should I attempt to make my escape. Trying to confront her physically did not even cross my mind. From what I’d just seen, I might as well have tried to injure a wall of granite.

  “What happens when you realise everything you believed in was bullshit?” she said sadly.

  I picked myself up slowly, deliberately, so as not to alarm her. She sounded desolate and lost, and I suddenly felt pity for her.

  “You find a way to move on,” I said. “At least, that’s what I did.”

  She looked at me sharply, as if wondering if I was making fun of her, but then seeing my expression, she relaxed.

  “They were good men, once,” she said, her eyes ret
urning to Targen’s prone body. “Most of them, anyway.”

  I said nothing, and Liv lifted a hand to her neck, prodding at it gingerly. She looked out across the city again and tossed the rifle away, moving over to slump against the bonnet of the Humvee that was parked there. It groaned and creaked as her weight lowered onto it. Her head drooped disconsolately.

  “Somewhere along the line they lost sight of what was right,” she went on to no one in particular. “They lost sight of what we came here to do. We were here to make life better for those left behind. The ones who had no one to fight for them. I never heard Cabre talk about making clanks live forever or restarting the Grid. Not in the early days. That wasn’t our goal.” She looked up at me. “What the fuck happened?”

  I walked slowly toward her. “Liv–”

  “How long would it have taken for us to lose sight of everything, I wonder? To throw it all away for the promise of immortality, or whatever it was Cabre wanted.” She gestured helplessly. “Were we even any better than the Marauders in the end?”

  Unsure of what to say, I simply said, “Liv. Thank you.”

  She scowled. “Don’t thank me. I didn’t do it for you. I don’t even know if I did it for me. I just did it because it needed to be done.” She got up and the Humvee creaked again. She walked toward me. “I always looked up to Cabre so much. I would have done anything for him while he was alive. I would have laid down my life for him. Maybe that was the problem. I was so blinded by loyalty… by my belief in what he was doing, that even I’d begun to lose my way.”

  She reached behind me and snapped the flexicuffs apart like paper, freeing my hands. Then she moved over to Malyn and did the same.

  “Thank you, Liv,” Malyn said.

  I looked around, realising that the soldiers were still out there hunting the children.

  “Mish and the kids,” I said to Malyn. “We have to find them.”

  Malyn nodded and began to move away, but Liv called after her.

  “Wait,” Liv said. “Let me handle this.” She raised her voice. “Wilch! Barke! Report!”

  The two soldiers appeared moments later from within houses down the street, still empty-handed.

  “We still haven’t found the targets, Major General,” Barke said.

  “That doesn’t matter,” Liv said. “Come back here, right now.”

  The two soldiers trotted up the hill, stopping abruptly when they saw Targen lying on the street half-decapitated and Liv with a gaping wound in her neck and face.

  “What–” Barke said, noticing Malyn and I were now free of our bonds. “What’s going on? I heard gunshots, but figured Targen was executing the prisoners.”

  “No,” Liv said, drawing herself up again as she addressed them. “Targen attacked me, unprovoked. He tried to kill me. I had no choice but to put him down.”

  “This is bullshit,” Wilch said nervously. He half raised his rifle. “Something’s going on here.”

  “You point that at me, soldier,” Liv said ominously, “and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

  “But what about them?” Wilch said, glancing at me. “What about the kids?”

  “I’m letting them go,” Liv said. “They’ve committed no offence here today.”

  “But Cabre–”

  “Cabre is no longer the leader of Ascension,” Liv said. “You don’t take your orders from him anymore.”

  “Well, I’m not taking them from you,” Barke said impudently.

  “Then get the hell out of my sight,” Liv growled. “You are dismissed. Return to Ascension City immediately.”

  The two of them looked at each other, then jogged toward the Humvee, keeping a wary eye on the three of us.

  “No,” Liv said calmly. “Leave it. You can walk.”

  They were about to protest but, seeing the look on Liv’s face, decided against it. Muttering curses under their breath, they made haste up the hill and ran out of sight.

  Without waiting any longer, Malyn and I began to search down the street, calling out for Mish and the children to come out of hiding. An agonising three or four minutes passed where we could find no trace of them. They seemed to have vanished into thin air. I went first to all of the places that might be familiar to them: the coop, the spare lot where they’d built some little forts, the copse of saplings down by the gully, but they were not there.

  After much calling and cajoling with assurances that everything was okay, they eventually emerged from under a pile of discarded junk beside one of the houses at the bottom of the hill.

  They came running to me and I got down on one knee, embracing them all in a giant bear hug and placing kisses on their heads. I saved the biggest hug for Mish, holding her tight as I whispered in her ear.

  “That was amazing, what you just did,” I told her. “I can’t believe how brave that was. I’m so proud of you.”

  She blushed as she returned my embrace, placing her arms around my neck and squeezing tight.

  “I was really scared,” she admitted. “That’s not a very grown-up thing to be, is it?”

  “Being scared? That’s very grown-up,” I assured her. “It’s how you handle the fear that makes you a grown-up. And you handled it great, Mish.”

  She smiled and we began to lead the children back up the hill. Malyn came jogging toward us and fell in at our side.

  “Thank god,” she said. “All present and accounted for?”

  “Every last one,” I said.

  “Hey, Daddy,” Atlas said, taking my hand. “Did you hear the thunder?”

  I thought of the explosion, and in turn Arsha, and my euphoria at finding the children suddenly vanished. How was I going to tell them about what had happened? I hadn’t even had time to come to grips with it myself yet.

  “Uh, yeah. It was loud, huh?”

  “Are the bad men gone?” Loren said, craning her neck up the street to where Liv sat on the ground by herself, her legs crossed and head bowed.

  “They’re gone, Loren,” I said. “We won’t see them again. There’s only the good guys left here now.”

  “Did they bring Arsha back?” Myron said.

  I touched him lightly on the head, trying to rein in my emotions.

  “We’ll catch up with her again later, okay, buddy?” I said. Myron nodded uncertainly, and I could only hope the quaver in my voice had gone unnoticed.

  We reached Liv and, before I could stop him, Atlas went and climbed up into her lap as if she were a big comfy couch.

  “Hello, I’m Atlas. Who are you?”

  Liv started at the sight of him looking up at her, coming out of her self-absorbed state and glancing over at me in confusion.

  “Uh… I’m Liv.”

  “What happened to your ear?” he said.

  “Atlas,” I admonished, moving over in order to take him away, but Liv held up a meaty hand to indicate it was okay.

  “I got a little scratch there, Atlas. Nothing to worry about.” She stared down at him, then reached up and gently placed her huge hand on his head. “You forget how beautiful and perfect they are,” she said. “The little ones.”

  “Yeah. You do.”

  Malyn appeared at my side, uneasy. “Hey, man, it still isn’t safe here. We could have more Ascension guys roll in at any minute.”

  “She’s right,” Liv said, easing Atlas away and getting ponderously to her feet. “You should take the children and go.”

  I looked around. “Okay. I’ll carry as much as I can, but without Arsha here to help, that’s not going to be much.”

  “What are you carrying?” Liv said curiously.

  “Grain stores, water, clothing. The children themselves.” I sighed. “There’s just so much.”

  Liv glanced about the street, taking stock of the situation. Her eyes lingered on the vehicles parked nearby.

  “Take the transport,” she suggested. “There’s more than enough room for them in there.”

  I looked at her sceptically. “You’d really give that to
us?”

  “I think Ascension probably owe you that, for what you’ve been through. Like I said, we used to be about helping clanks. It’s time we started that again.”

  “So what’s the destination, man?” Malyn said.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “How far is that transport going to get me, Liv?”

  “There should be enough in the tank to take you a half day’s ride from here, maybe more.”

  “Good,” I said.

  “You got a place in mind?” Malyn said.

  I scratched lightly at the scar on my cheek as I considered. “South. I’ll try to outrun this damn smoke in the sky and find someplace where the sun is shining, if I can.”

  Liv walked over to me. “I was out at the coast a couple of weeks back,” she said. “I was checking up on the construction out there. I think I told you about it. The one that’s going to pump seawater back to Ascension City.” She squinted down at me. “It was sunny there.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  “Well, maybe ‘sunny’ isn’t the right term. There was still smoke in the sky, but not much. Sunlight was getting through, that’s for sure.”

  “But… how?”

  Liv shrugged. “I’m not an expert on weather patterns, or anything like that, but maybe the winds coming in off the ocean help to disperse the smoke. Or maybe it’s just far enough west to be out of the path of the soot cloud. I’m not sure.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” I said.

  “Yeah. Just head south, out of the city here, and then west. If you take the transport, you’ll reach the coast in half a day, most likely. The Ascension pumping operation is well north of here. With any luck, they’ll leave you alone.”

  Malyn clapped me on the back and managed a smile. “You aren’t going to get a better offer than that, Cleanskin.”

  I walked over to the transport, and Liv hobbled over to assist in opening the rear storage compartment. There were rows of metal racks running the length of the interior, and stacked neatly at the end were an assortment of containers that Gunrix had brought to collect samples. They varied in shape and size and looked as though they would accommodate a wide variety of specimens.