Mars, The Bringer Of War

by George P. Saunders

  “You -- will die, if you stay.”

  “We all die one day, Sal,” Simpson said gently. “Just a matter of time.” He then looked to Lisa, who was in and out at this point: “Jersey, we may not be able to have that drink we were planning, but how do you feel about a bug barbecue?”

  Lisa smiled weakly and nodded. “You cook, I’ll clean.”

  Sally hesitated only a moment longer, then joined Mars and the others. The wind was picking up and Simpson sighed, as Sally’s awkward form disappeared over the next bluff. He looked to Lisa, and touched her face.

  “Let’s keep those folks safe, what say you?”

  Lisa lifted a hand, and gave a thumbs up.

  “Why not? My schedule, for once, has finally cleared...”

  Wes Simpson leaned in and kissed Lisa on the mouth. Her breath had suddenly turned acrid, but to Wes, it was the sweetest taste he’d ever known. He looked away from her now, at the distant storm clouds … and a horrendous funnel forming out of the base.

  Like a thief in the night, His vengeance will come down on you. His father’s voice bellowed across time and light years, from beyond the grave. Praise Jesus, High and Great.

  Oh, Wes … the day of reckoning is up on you.

  So true, Wes Simpson thought, and shuddered. So very true indeed.

  The Sels and the robots they controlled stayed well ahead of Ravers, who barely kept pace enough to keep them in sight. They were stymied only briefly by the wallface ahead of them. Ravers, panting, negotiated his way through the irksome snakepit, blasting away the beasts whenever they appeared. High above on the lip of the cliff, he caught sight of Wes Simpson.

  The one that got away at the cave. The Big Man from Texas. No matter, he’s as dead as Mars. Unless I can give them more time.

  Least I can do for breaking my word to them. The very least...

  The momentary confusion past for the Sels, and suddenly, each robot activated a thrust rocket that elevated their huge bulks upward on a vertical vector.

  Ravers ran for the dangling rope that had been left by the group and began to climb.

  Mars ran. He took the rear position, urging Anna and Barry to pick up their speed. Sally, the Sel Drone who hated her own kind, their need to conquer and kill, needed no such urging. She kept a roughly parallel course to Mars, her head constantly twisting backwards to monitor any possible pursuit.

  Mars allowed a chorus of recriminations plunder his mind and conscious, even now, on the run of his life. He couldn’t help it. The words were damning, eviscerating.

  And true.

  I’ve left more people to die. How many more? The boy? Anna?

  He did not think of himself as a potential casualty. He could not say why; the thought of expiring at the will of the Sels was a repugnant and unacceptable scenario for him. It simply didn’t enter into his consciousness. Yet, his fear and insurmountable empathetic terror for Anna and Barry drove him ever forward.

  You did all you could, an errant mind fairy chirped. Mars realized this was true … but Christ on the proverbial pony, it was hard to swallow.

  “Run, goddamnit,” he shouted to Barry, who tripped just ahead. Mars grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket, and dragged the boy into yet another run. Barry did not protest, instead trying to comply with Mars’ slavish speed.

  Barry tripped again, and Mars caught him, not wasting further time. He slung the boy over his shoulder, and onto his back.

  “Piggyback time,” he said, puffing.

  “I’m not a kid anymore,” Barry protested.

  “Duly noted. Sit back and enjoy the ride,” Mars said, and ran faster, Anna keeping neck to neck with him.

  The first Sel attack robot loomed over the edge of the cliff. Simpson had the thing in his sights and fired the pulse rifle. The blast from the weapon knocked the Sel alien off the robot’s back; it screamed all the way to the bottom, before it splattered across the rocks. The alien robot functioned on automatic and fired its tracer beam at Simpson. Simpson dived to his right, rolled, and fired again at the next alien robot and its attendant warrior.

  A claw seared off of the alien by the pulse ray, and it screamed in fury and pain. But this alien was able to respond, taking aim at Lisa, as she fired at the robot’s eyes.

  The robot took the hit full in the face, and lost its maneuverability hovering. It teetered, eventually dumping its rider to a similar death as the previous alien. But the rider was able to fire off one last round, and this one found Lisa. She screamed, as the red-hot light smashed into her mid-section. She glowed green for a moment, a human flare, then disintegrated into a million motes of subatomic ash.

  Simpson screamed himself, and ran toward the hovering robot, now impaired beyond further functionabilty. He dived for it across the eight feet of space that separated the cliff from the robot drone. He caught its neck and hung in mid-air, yelling at the mindless machine.

  “Fuck you, sucker,” he snarled, then looped his leg around the thing’s back, and side saddled over, as if he were mounting a bronco. He still held onto the pulse rifle and the last act of his life filled him with one of the most pleasurable experiences yet. “Eat this, you godawful killer.”

  He fired the pulse rifle into the robot’s skull, blowing it, and himself into several large, fiery pieces, as the body in toto plummeted to the ground below.

  Ravers, clinging to the rope only fifty feet below, had paused in his climb to watch the tragic events above. He followed the disintegrating remains of the robot and whatever was left of Simpson to the ground. He nodded, impressed. Two down. That was more than he ever expected from Mars’ small group of civilians.

  Two robot sels remained, and they did not linger to contemplate the losses to their formation. They moved out of sight directly overhead, taking up pursuit again of Mars and his people.

  Ravers dragged himself over the cliff lip, and rested on all fours, watching the robots again travel over the ground using their eight appendages. After a moment, he was again moving himself.

  The relatively smooth features of the land suddenly changed, and Mars realized they were again in trouble. Flat tundra changed dramatically, this time in the form of a deadwood. Tangled underbrush, translating into gnarled logs, formed a natural bridge over a lake of swirling sand thirty feet below. Various rock islands protruded through the swirl, but Mars already felt that something ominous and completely alien (and therefore hostile) lurked in the moving collage of silt that stretched for a quarter of a mile in any direction.

  “Any way around this?” Mars looked to Sally.

  “Long way. No have time. We cross,” Sally said matter of factly, and Mars was not surprised.

  “Not a good idea to fall,” Sally spoke again.

  Mars again regarded the swirling sea-lake running under the tanglewood bridge. He nodded. “Right.”

  “John, I’m going to backtrack. They’re right behind us, and maybe I can keep them busy,” Anna said.

  “Not a chance,” Mars said, pulling Anna toward him, and onto the tangle-bridge. “Lead the way.”

  Anna didn’t resist what was clearly a non-negotiable point. She’d known Mars for too long to push certain issues; this was not an issue she would win. There was no point in further discussion. Minutes were gold at this stage of the game. She turned and began to make her ways across the narrow and cluttered mass of the bridge.

  The first shot from the Sel robot missed Anna by six inches. Mars wheeled on himself, and returned fire as the second Sel robot appeared next to its companion. Anna lost her balance, as the heat from the alien thermal blast cut through the tangle support branch she was gripping. It cracked a moment later, and she fell.

  Mars had seen her plight out of the corner of his eye and he dove for Anna at the very last second. She was well over the side, suspended over the swirling dust, but he had a good hold. Unfortunately, Anna was now completely exposed and in the open, perfect for picking off by the Sels.

  Sally took up position behind a large bould
er, dragging Barry with her. For the moment, they were completely safe. If there were going to be immediate casualties, it would be Mars and Anna. Mars fired again, and this time enjoyed a momentary sting of hope, as his blast seared through the Sel rider on the first robot and vaporized it within seconds.

  Both Sally and Barry could see that notwithstanding the direct hit on the one Sel, one more remained, and Mars and Anna were still wide open to attack. Barry held his laser pistol in shaky hands, but he was able to fire off a shot at the last Sel, even now trying to take up final position against the two astronauts on the bridge. The Sel roared with fury, as the blast from Barry's weapon seared through a claw, and it turned on the boy and fired. Barry ducked behind the massive boulder, as the charge slammed into the rock.

  Mars swung Anna first to the right, then to the left; Sally was already positioning herself to catch the woman on the last swing. She did a second later, just as part of the bridge collapsed. It was a small part, but Mars went tumbling down into the sand.

  "John!" Anna screamed.

  Mars hit the sand and was surprised that he didn't feel more pain from the thirty foot drop. But the sand was so fine, and so deep, that the landing was considerably buffeted. He stood, and looked up at the others, now all behind the protective shield of the huge boulder. The Sel robot and its driver hovered far overhead; Mars was momentarily puzzled as to why it had not continued to attack.

  Sally saw it first and growled. Anna then caught sight of the huge wave-like motion only fifty feet from where Mars stood.

  "What is it?" Barry said.

  "I don't know," Anna said. "Looks like some kind of wave, but --"

  And then she saw the head breach the sand, and the dimension of the alien thing plodding toward Mars became terrifyingly clear. Anna screamed.

  "John, get out of there!"

  Mars looked around himself, all points on the compass. He saw the mammoth head of the dragon and realized he had only seconds within which to react. Suddenly, a blast of green hell charged the sand two feet away from him. He snapped his head up and saw the Sel opening fire on him once again.

  Not a good place to be at the moment, he thought from someplace a million miles away. This could get ugly.

  The Sel alien above disembarked from off its robot counterpart, and edged toward the tumblebridge. It again fired off another shot at Mars below, missing the big man only by inches.

  Mars began to run. Behind him, the dragon continued to pick up speed; it was slow, but Mars reminded himself that this was the alien's natural environment. He was barely able to maintain a good clip, without sinking in a good half foot with ever step he took.

  Anna distracted the alien on the bridge with a few shots that did little more than cause the Sel to snarl at her and pot-shot back at her. Sally held Barry close, as the boy also tried to take some clean shots at the Sel. But the Sel knew that their angle of firing was weak, and he could move forward on the bridge with relative impunity. It continued to lumber toward the center of the bridge, looking for a clear window for firing.

  Mars continued to run. He slipped, fell, dragged himself up again, the mucilaginous texture of the sand impeding his speed further. Sally yelled down to him.

  "Go to the rocks," she hollered in a strange high-pitch snarl that was almost indecipherable.

  "The rocks, John," Anna yelled again. "The rocks."

  Mars glanced at the rock island just ahead, a patch of stones that were more or less flat and protruded above the sand line by at least two feet. He ran hard, chancing only one glance behind. The sand dragon's mouth was open now, a thousand razor sharp teeth oozing some kind of vile greenish ooze.

  Mars fell again. He looked up at Anna, her face a wash of panic. She hesitated for half a second, then jumped. When she hit the sand it was with both feet cushioning the fall.

  "Hey, you," she screamed.

  The sand dragon arrested its pursuit of Mars for just an instant. It gave Mars the time he needed to get on his feet once more and dive for the rock island. The sand dragon's attention shifted to Anna.

  She looked around herself and spotted yet another rock island forty feet from her new position. The Sel high above fired down at her and the impact of the thermal blast hit some kind of gas pocket just under the surface of the sand. A small, concussive explosion hurled Anna through the air. She landed in a heap, stunned, disoriented, her bearings momentarily lost.

  The sand dragon continued to bear down on its new prey, undeterred by the Sel warrior above and the random shots into its natural habitat. The Sel paused now, waiting for the inevitable conclusion to the sand dragon's predatory efforts. Ready to enjoy the show.

  "Anna, the damn thing is coming after you," Mars yelled.

  Anna shook off the mental cobwebs, turned to see the alien dragon move closer to her. She was on her feet again, this time diving for the rock island directly in front of her. She pulled herself fully onto the shale mesa, just as the huge jaws snapped empty air, missing her leg by an inch.

  Anna twisted on her backside to stare the sand dragon. It's eyes were fiery red, and it let out a low growl that chilled her blood. But she knew she was safe; apparently, the dragon couldn't leave the environs of the sand sea.

  Couldn't. Or wouldn't, she thought.

  The Sel above now took aim at Anna, his field of vision fairly unrestricted at least in her case. Barry took another shot at the Sel, but could only hit the thick logs that comprised most of the superstructure.

  Mars could see that Anna was in immediate danger of being wiped out of existence. She knew it, too, though there was little she could do about her exposure. The sand dragon still lurked near the island, churlishly eyeing her with the fervent hope she might somehow be driven again into its world of silt.

  "The bridge, kid," Mars yelled upwards. "Fire at the bridge."

  Barry understood and began firing multiple rounds at the bridge structure where he perceived it to be the weakest. The shots found their mark, and the bridge collapsed after a few more thermal blasts. The Sel warrior fell screaming into the sand. Considerably larger and heavier than Mars and Anna, when the Sel impacted the sand sea, half of its body sunk beneath the surface. It struggled to free itself of the trap, forgetting for the moment the one other inhabitant of the area.

  The sand dragon's massive head lolled away from Anna to the Sel, roughly seventy feet from the rock island that she perched on exhausted. Mars was around twenty feet from her, but it might have been twenty thousand miles for all the chance either of them would have of reuniting across the sand where the dragon moved. At the moment, however, the sand dragon's priorities had shifted. It was now bearing down on the Sel warrior.

  The Sel looked up too late to save itself. The massive jaws of the sand dragon opened once, and closed mercilessly over the huge alien. A muffled roar of agony pierced the air, and then only the sound of chewing prevailed.

  Another pair of eyes had witnessed the demise of the last Sel warrior, eyes that had followed the Hunt from the very beginning, and eyes that were now filled with surprise and even fury.

  His warriors were not supposed to end up dead. This was not proceeding as planned.

  From his position on the high bluff half a mile away from the sand lake that held Mars and Anna virtual prisoner to the huge predator within, the Controller realized that this small piece of experimentation would have to be ended. Now.

  John Mars could never be allowed to make it to the spacecraft. Rules or no rules, fair or not, the Controller understood that this kind of thing, were it ever to get around the Sel society at large, could affect a generally high level of morale. It was, after all, exciting to discover new life so soon in the new galaxy -- and life that was entertainingly warlike in nature -- but it was a different thing altogether to be defeated by that new life ... no matter how primitive.

  It couldn't happen.

  The Controller stood eight feet tall, with a tail and stinger almost as long. It possessed only four appendages, in addition
to the massive legs; not strictly a warrior, the Controller was more of a Problem-Solver. Stronger, faster, and more equipped to deal with complex situations, the Controller broke into an easy run toward the sand lake.

  It would be a pity to see John Mars die at last, but enough had been learned about the human. Now, the cost of his continued existence, was becoming alarmingly high.

  The Controller increased his speed.

  Mars watched the sand dragon disappear under the surface of the sand, the Sel warrior's body still twitching horribly in a paroxysm of agony. In another moment, the sand became still once more. Mars glanced up at Barry and gave the thumbs up. Barry smiled back.

  Sally was more concerned about the damage to the bridge. She inspected it, giving a probing kick and pull here and there, then looked down at Mars.

  "Bridge still good," she said through a hiss.

  But Mars could tell that this was true, even at this angle and so far away. Mars yelled up to Sally. "Take the boy and head for the ship."

  Barry stepped forward and yelled down to Mars. "Captain, you may need this."

  He threw the laser pistol in a high arc. The aim was good and Mars caught the weapon easily in both hands. "Thanks, kid."

  "We'll wait for you," Barry said, and then was ushered off by Sally. Mars then turned to Anna.

  "The shore is only twenty yards away," she offered.

  "Too risky," Mars said. "We don't know how long that thing takes to eat. It may be finished already and just waiting for us to screw up."

  Mars and Anna regarded one another silently. He offered her a grim smile, which she returned. A strange, errant thought fizzled through his mind, filling him with a fleeting sense of calm.

  Maybe I'll wake up and realize this was all a dream. I'll be next to Anna on some beach in Mexico, and --

  The laser blast seared into his arm and he went down in stunned agony.

  "John!" Anna screamed, then turned on herself to regard the shooter.