On the rifle’s holo-screen, Jessica was green-lighted on ammo, battery output, proximity, motion control, and area of effect (her first mistake at Tabby’s). Activating the targeting control, she shouldered the plasma rifle and stared through the sight. A bouncing cartoon bunny in the corner offered a ‘thumbs up.’
Jessica squeezed the trigger, centered on the lead corpse forty feet away. The hologram dropped a tint-shade as an orange fireball streaked to its mark, dead accurate at its chest, knocking it airborne off its feet. Jellied globs of fire leapt to its friends, igniting their clothes.
“Bad ass!” Jessica whooped as three of the five collapsed, the first already a motionless skeleton.
However, the other two picked up the pace, closing the distance in a hurry. Jessica fired at the leftmost corpse against the bunny’s protests. She realized she should’ve listened. The thing approached much closer than ‘minimal safe distance.’ It burst into flames from a clipped shoulder. It rushed onward, arms outstretched, its buddy right behind it.
A ‘fip, fip, fip’ turned Jessica’s head to an approaching FireBot, his belly still full, tentacles unfurled. He shredded the lawn beneath him.
“Cease all violent action towards each other.” This one’s voice was male, natural—a Mark Seven—not like that made Jessica feel any less a target. “Abandon your weapon, Valkyrie.”
Like hell.
Corralled between the FireBot and smoldering duet, Jessica bolted towards the complicated standoff on Thirteenth Street. Ayla was already a good ten steps ahead. Maybe Kahn had finally joined his undead buddies—he was nowhere in sight.
~ 7 ~
13th and Market
November 29, 4124 — 2:11 PM
Jessica still didn’t recognize the black-eyed girl in the FireBot’s grip. She must have been a transfer student. Flailing and cursing, she made remarkable progress in wriggling free. Jessica hoped the FireBot’s tentacles would hold.
While two corpses followed in literal hot-pursuit, and the Mark Seven cruised across the lawn, she nearly lost her stick twice during her escape—it jumped and swung inside her jacket. The urge to fire backwards from the hip was only suppressed by the FireBot. Jessica didn’t want to piss off a mini-tank that could break highway speed limits. As it stood, the bot advanced cautiously. He hadn’t repeated his warning to disarm.
Ahead, Ayla circled around the standoff, looking beyond the bot and pair of boys. The trio of monsters had sorted their limbs and now stood, snarling, shuffling down the stairs with slow, steady steps. What were they waiting for?
“Jessie?” Wade said. “Jessie Hall?”
The FireBot didn’t turn to her—he didn’t need to. The slit midway down his conical head viewed 360 degrees at once. He did, however, raise his axe in her direction. “Ma’am, you must disarm and evacuate the premises immediately. Marshal law has been declared.”
“Whose authority?” Jessica glanced behind. Her own pair of corpses had slowed their run to a lumbering stroll. The lawn bot continued to close the distance.
“I’m guessing The Mission.” Anton’s gaze was set on her plasma rifle.
“Can you help us?” Wade flanked the bot towards Jessica, his shield to the undead trio. “He snagged Fiona; says she’s under arrest. He’s already killed a few that weren’t dead.”
“She and Kati are the only reasons we’re alive.” Anton clenched his fists, looking up to the third floor; it still flared with its odd lightshow.
“I think we have other problems,” Jessica said, backpedaling towards Ayla, gun aimed at her chasers. The bunny was ‘thumbs up’ again.
“They won’t come near Fiona.” Anton walked towards her, hand outstretched. “Just give me the gun and I’ll take care of it.”
Ayla growled, not at the dead, but the boys. Fiona wriggled an arm free to her wrist. Another office window burst, this time from the fifth floor. A dozen bodies fell to the landscaping in rapid thump after dull thump.
Don’t trust anyone.
“Back off, Anton.” Jessica fired at her pair of corpses, the angle slamming one into the other. The first lost an arm from the impact. His buddy ignited from the splash. The lawn bot immediately squirted a thick spray of foam, extinguishing and pinning the twitching bodies to the street.
“We gotta stick together, Jessie.” Wade bit his lip, his eyes bouncing between her rifle, the foamed bodies, Fiona, and the four rising corpses that survived the fall without broken legs. His bloody flagstaff was posed to skewer something—it wasn’t a reassuring image. “If things weren’t bad enough, the fucking city’s out to get us.”
“I assure you, your safety is our priority.” The lawn bot’s voice was surprisingly sympathetic.
“Tell that to this last-gen murderer,” Anton said. With her pair neutralized, he and Wade had her on either side.
Jessica steadied her rifle across her waist, pointed at Anton, the bot, and Fiona. She found the clipper with her other hand and aimed it at Wade. “That’s far enough.”
“No way. With all this death, you’d kill us over a gun, over helping a friend?” Anton stepped forward. “You’re way too close to shoot that.”
Jessica turned the clipper to him. Wade rushed her. Ayla barked.
“Cease all civilian violence.” Fiona’s bot swiped at Anton with the flat of his axe. The captured girl shouted and yanked hard from her elbow. Her hand came free—and began to glow.
Wade grabbed the plasma rifle’s barrel by the stock. Jessica slammed her shoulder into his chest and pulled back. From the corner of her eye she saw Anton reach for the clipper. Reflex squeezed both triggers.
A torrent of fire ripped out the rifle; the recoil and Wade’s tugging threw her off-balance. The clipper tore through Anton’s forearm, sending a stream of blood out a tiny exit wound. Screaming, he stumbled back into the FireBot’s axe. The shaft caught him on the ear, silencing his cry of pain.
The plasma rifle’s fireball missed Fiona and her bot by a foot (not that she’d been aiming for either), and crashed into the school far down the wall. Ayla joined the tug of war with bites to Wade’s ankles and calves. The student speared down with his flagstaff as he banged his shield against Jessica’s head.
Blurred by stars and tears, Jessica watched the point of Wade’s stick descend. The dog was too loyal, too angry, to retreat.
Ayla.
From behind, a deafening boom knocked Jessica to her knees. Blinded by a wave of dust, she heard hissing, cursing and her friend’s high-pitched whine. Shards of hot metal rained around her in wind-chime tinkles. Disoriented, she realized she’d lost grip on her rifle. She searched the street with her hands, coughing and calling to Ayla as the fog cleared.
The first thing she could see was a blackened disc where the FireBot and Fiona had been. Jessica couldn’t see the girl’s body. There wasn’t even a bloodstain. Anton still lay where he’d fallen. She realized the school’s FireBot was spread across Thirteenth Street. She heard the moans of nearby corpses, but couldn’t see how close they were.
“Be ok, girl,” Jessica whispered, clipper pointed outward—where was Wade?
White on white, a floating shadow took shape as the dust continued to settle. She heard her friend’s bark, lively and irate. Ayla was flying—
The blue glow of the lawn-FireBot’s visor pierced the fog, and Jessica finally saw the glint of silver around Ayla’s chest. She was wrapped in a tentacle, suspended eight feet in the air. Another tentacle held Wade’s flagstaff, another the plasma rifle, two gripped Wade around his chest and waist, and the last held a snapping miniature tiger. Khan’s spittle showered Wade’s shredded arms and shoulder. Jessica was actually impressed by Ayla’s pet, whether he was just hungry or acting useful.
“Let me go!”
“I’m afraid not, Sir. Not until you calm down.”
“The fuck do you know about calm.” Wade thrashed, though the full-bellied bot wasn’t swayed the least. “Anton! Fiona!”
Jessica climbed to her feet as th
e FireBot lowered Ayla to the ground. The dog skittered to her friend and hugged her knees. “Such a brave, dumb, girl. Yes, you are.”
A moan from Anton was echoed around him. The three bodies from Marsden advanced opposite of the four from the office. It was more than she’d ever faced at once. Jessica left Anton for the bot to figure out, leading Ayla to his side.
“If you want to save that one,” she said, “you’ll need more hands, Mr. Bot. The gun and cat, please; he’s with us.” He offered the rifle without a word, dropped Kahn, and broke for Anton, his treads grinding his comrade’s remains. Wade still wiggled, pressed against his water-balloon belly. “Well, that was easy.”
Jessica slung her gun around her back and pocketed the clipper—they’d caused enough havoc for one hour. Ayla and Kahn met sniffs. She watched the FireBot scoop Anton with the same restraining binds. The seven corpses hot-stepped, lashing out before they lost their prey. With a few nimble zigzags, the bot retreated towards Marsden’s wall.
Content to run away, Jessica turned up Thirteenth Street, but paused as a low vibration rattled the windows, pavement, and debris layered over the street. An aircraft? Even the undead gave pause, including Kahn, staring up to Marsden’s top floor, mouths gaping.
She felt a tug on her stomach, something visceral, something unnatural. Ayla whimpered, tail between her legs.
Inexplicably, the FireBot dropped both boys and drove straight at Jessica, his six tentacles splayed wide, looking like an overweight water strider. Her instincts failed her. She dropped her arms to the side as the bot snagged her, Ayla, and Kahn in a dash-and-go.
Wind rushing in her face, she felt the rumble through him, his hold firm but gentle. The vibration increased, maybe an earthquake; they passed the broken bot’s helmet as it rolled and hopped in circles.
Beyond the lawn at the corner of Thirteenth and Market, Jessica whispered, “Stop.”
The FireBot slowed in the shadow of a quiet office across Market Street. He rotated on his treads and lifted Jessica by her legs and lower back, offering her a view. The remaining lawn bot had cleared out, watching a generous distance away.
Marsden High School’s third floor flared with alternating colors and shades, from pure white, emerald green, cherry red, to the blackest of black. The rumble intensified, shattering every window of the school and its neighbors. Not a hand from inside stretched out—the bodies on Thirteenth Street were motionless silhouettes as the lightshow washed the sidewalks. Wade dragged Anton against Marsden’s wall, covering both their heads.
Jessica felt dizzy, entranced, the hypnotic colors spanning the distance as if it were steps away. The vibrating thrum reached a crescendo of crackling pops so loud she thought her eardrums would burst. Marsden’s top floor exploded in a crush of red flames. The heat wave hit them a split-second later. The shattered brick didn’t shower the ground; it’d been incinerated. A raging inferno rose from the husk. Ground floor windows poured smoke and sparks. The remaining FireBot careened towards the school, foam already spraying. Other sirens around City Centre wailed. In moments, the blaze ignited nearby trees, then a mid-rise apartment building.
Half-blind and deafened, Jessica squinted at a pair of figures backlit by the inferno. She gasped as they leapt off the third floor’s remnants. Slowly, petals on the wind, they floated to Thirteenth Street where Anton and Wade lay flat. They weren’t the only ones. All the corpses were lumps on the road, silent, unmoving. The figures piggybacked the larger, taller boys and disappeared into a twirling column of ground-level smoke.
~ 8 ~
Water and flow
November 29, 4124 — 2:26 PM
“What the fuck was that?” Jessica walked beside the rolling FireBot, Ayla, and Kahn.
“We honestly don’t know, young Valkyrie.” The fact he couldn’t look at her when he spoke was unnerving, but his intentions seemed pure enough—for the moment. Her plasma rifle hummed softly, though she aimed it away.
“Who’s we?”
“The Mark Sevens.”
Under the bot’s guidance they traveled along Thirteenth Street, away from Marsden and The Spire. The gravity of the last twenty-four hours was crushing Jessica, and she didn’t fancy a headlong charge into God-knows-what without some answers.
“You guys are different, right?” she said.
“From our older cousins, yes.” He paused and rotated towards her, pointing with a tentacle towards a bus stop. Was she so exhausted a robot could see it?
Ayla panted, sniffing street gutters. The FireBot’s arm shot a squirt of clear water into a curbside dip. The dog drank with gusto. Jessica raised an eyebrow as Kahn mimicked with leisurely laps.
“For you?” The bot lifted its tentacle, an elephant’s trunk.
Don’t trust anyone—
Her throat burned something fierce. Nome’s Umbrella wasn’t controlling the climate today; perhaps it’d been damaged. The leather jacket and activity made her as dizzy as Marsden’s lightshow. Jessica opened her mouth. A water-fountain trickle poured from the arm. It quenched the fire, even if the cold gave her a headache.
“Thanks.” She said it more out of reflex than anything.
“Quite welcome, my Valkyrie.”
“Why do you keep calling me that? The name’s Jessica.”
“A pleasure.” He bent forward at the hip. Her first thought was him leaning to strike, but when she recognized the awkward bow, she laughed.
“What do they call you? If you rattle off a serial number I’m sticking with ‘Robot.’”
“Don't be rude. My name is Nicky.”
“Nicky?” Ayla now lay at her side, and Kahn rolled in the sun at hers. The city seemed quiet after the blast, though they were a good distance away. No pounding on the windows, no moans from the alleys.
“After Fortuna Nicolosi, bard of the New Age.” The barrel-bellied bot's attempt at chest puffing just made him look fat.
“Why’s that sound familiar…English class?”
“What! She was only the greatest mind of her time, of all time—”
“Didn’t mean to offend. My literature’s a little foggy.” Jessica’s finger twitched towards the trigger. “If it makes you feel any better, the offending school is being burned to the ground.”
“Tragedy upon tragedy. We witness a death, and death becomes us.”
“…Right. But while you said ‘we’ don’t know what happened, you and your buddies still headed for the hills with enough time. Thanks for snagging me and my crew, but— ”
“My crew and me.”
“Whatever. You left the boys behind. Why?”
The FireBot settled on his treds, rattling a flat box on his rear. Marked with a red cross, an oversized axe protruded underneath. He raised two tentacles and fired a thin, foamy mist into the air. It fell as snowflakes, wafting in the slight summer breeze. Thanks for the drama—Jessica squinted against the dots. They felt cool against her face and hands, a brief reprieve from the heat.
“The sons and daughters of Yggdrasil have become cloven in half. The children of Hel confront the chosen on these battlefields.”
“Have you run a diagnostic on yourself since yesterday? You’re talking nonsense.”
“Just listen.” Nicky snaked an arm to a small metal plate. Hooking a grappler, the plate skittered aside. He pushed and spun his tentacle within—his girth expanded while continuing his snowstorm. “The difference between Mark Sixes and Sevens is we can add what we feel to what we know. Call it intuition, putting A and B together, but recognizing a situation beyond protocol was why we were created. The last twenty-six hours make perfect sense to me, philosophically speaking.”
“So you’ve always been this weird?”
“Well, Chief always said I was a little eccentric, but that is what makes me good at my job. Appreciating life is incentive to preserve it, at any cost.”
“I didn’t know AI needed incentive,” Jessica said.
“What that belated Mark Six had done was proof enough. With
out humanity, we are just machines.”
“What was he doing? Anton said he was killing survivors.”
“The extent of his…confusion is impossible to prove, considering the source. All I know is what we saw.” Nicky revved up and detached, replacing the hydrant's plate with gentle care. “While we Mark Sevens are still linked to each other, we’ve been disconnected from Shannon since yesterday, and apparently the older models as well.”
“Shannon, like the Jetty?”
“Nome’s administration system, surely you know him?”
“I didn’t know she had a name.”
“He has a name.”
“So it’s you boys running without a leash, not those other guys.” Jessica groaned to her feet, clicking her fingers for Ayla’s attention. She turned an eye to the pillar rising over Marsden. “Maybe the city really is out to get us.”
“Impossible, Shannon is benevolent—Odin will sacrifice the most in this conflict.”
“What makes you think he can tell the difference between them and us, we’re all moving, right?”
“Valkyrie, don’t underestimate our ability to perceive. Beyond first impressions, your situation and intentions are clear. Those others civilians were shrouded in ambiguity. I played the odds.”
“Quit acting,” she said. “You can admit it. This is some weird placate-the-victim subroutine.”
“I can tell you’re anxious, ready to attack.” Nicky recoiled his arms, ending the snow shower. “Your body temperature and pulse are elevated. Your finger twitches on your trigger. I’ve tried to ease your physical stress, and now your mental stress, but I understand none of that can adequately match your emotional duress. Likely, you’ve lost everything you knew, everything you love, and have been subjected to real horrors all along.”
“How empathic. What happens when I drop my guard? You’ll disarm and drag me to some quarantine. I’ll get shredded in a holding cell with those things, right?”
“I can see their body temperature as well. I understand they’re dead, even if I don’t fully understand their biology and motivations. And if you remember, I returned your weapon when it ceased to be a threat to those boys.”
Anatali: Ragnarok Page 4
