Earthbound

by Adam Lewinson

  Becca stood on the front stoop of her storefront. She wasn’t looking at the robots or the laser fire or thinking about her own safety. She wasn’t even looking at Pace. She was looking at me. And she seemed so sad.

  If we kept riding in her direction she might get hurt. Or worse. That I couldn’t abide. I stopped Charon abruptly.

  “Ash, what are you doing?” Pace yelled with immediate concern.

  I glanced over at Becca so Pace could see what I was doing. “Follow me,” I announced as I turned Charon around. “Hyah!” We started running right toward the robots. That was nuts. But those things would follow us wherever we went. I had to keep Becca safe. It was ultimately the only thing I could do for her.

  Miraculously we avoided the robot’s fire until our horses connected with their flimsy bodies, knocking them over with each step. At close range, Pace and I had no problem shooting them in their little brains. They could only discharge their weapons to the sides or forward – not up. So while I was concerned about our horses, I wasn’t concerned about us anymore.

  We made it through the pack of robots – it seemed like there were six or seven dozen of them. And when we were clear to the other side, we just rode as fast as we could. I was relieved, our horses were fine. Might have to replace a horseshoe or two, but that was about it. After I reloaded I shot backwards, nicking a few of the robots behind us, and then I started to relax a little. We were gaining distance on them. Sure enough, they did rotate their bodies and switch directions on their tracks, but that took them a few seconds which helped us increase our distance. Regardless our horses were faster. We’d made it.

  We kept riding, craning our necks to watch their bodies fade into just a glint of metal on the horizon. I turned around to get my bearings. We were heading toward Black Eagle Falls. Seemed fitting. We were leaving Great Falls for good. I should say goodbye at my mother’s grave.

  I listened for hoofbeats or rumbling metal following us, but heard nothing. Soon though, as we approached the falls, I couldn’t hear anything anyway except the water.

  We rode up a hill near the river’s edge. We dismounted and hit the dirt. We had a wide open view of the flatlands where we had just ridden through. Nothing. No robots. No posse. It was almost as if they decided we weren’t worth chasing.

  “You think it’s clear?” I asked.

  Pace nodded. Then we got up, mounted and jogged the rest of the way to the falls. When we dismounted again I was a little concerned that we weren’t putting more distance between us and the settlement. But, then again, no one was following us.

  Pace shouted and waved his fists in the air. Then he opened up his shoulder bag hanging on his saddle and pulled out a handful of gold coins. He tossed them into the air.

  Pace grabbed me by the shoulders and just screamed at me through his big smiling mouth. Funny, I’m not the type to celebrate or express emotion or whatever, but eff it. I wanted to scream too. So I did.

  “Have you ever seen this much money in your life?” Pace asked.

  “Never!” I dug my hands into Pace’s shoulder bag and felt the coins’ weight. It was an amazing feeling.

  I noticed Pace tugging at his arm, the one that had been shot at. “How’s the arm?”

  He removed his coat and shirt to get a look at his wound. “Fine actually,” he said, examining his bare upper arm. He seemed surprised. There was a dark line along it, maybe a few inches long. “It just stings.” The laser was so hot that it cauterized the wound the instant it connected. Handy for cutting through something. Not so handy if it made contact on the wrong place on your body. Pace put his shirt and coat back on again.

  “So those were… what... robots?”

  “Robots…” Pace pondered that thought for a moment. “I suppose.”

  “We never seen anything like that in our lives! Where the eff did they come from?”

  “I’m wondering if they were created by the Great Plains Holding Company.”

  “Those robots… built by the bank?”

  “That would make sense. With all that money they shave off the top, they can invest in one seriously high-tech security system. That’s amazing! Who knew anyone on this planet had the technology to design anything this advanced? Let alone manufacture it! This gives me hope, Ash. Gives me hope that there’s more on this planet than you or I have ever imagined. Now we just need to find it and get our piece of it.”

  Pace retrieved a flask of whiskey from his pocket. He held it up and saluted me. “This is all pretty effing amazing!” He took a swig and then handed the flask to me. I held it up to salute him back, and then drank. I didn’t need it though. Whatever I was feeling, I didn’t want to numb it with alcohol.

  “Shouldn’t we get going?” I asked.

  “In a minute. Horses need some rest.”

  The horses were fine. Charon was for sure anyway. He’d run farther distances than that without a break. I suspected Pace just wanted to catch his own breath though. Or maybe capture what he was feeling so he’d never forget it.

  I turned my attention to Black Eagle Falls. It was an impressive sight, all right. It wasn’t the mightiest of the Five Falls, but it was the first heading downriver. There’s something to be said for that.

  I looked out and imagined my mother out there. The falls are pretty inaccessible, so she’d have had to creep out along the broken chunks of concrete, making her way to the top of the falls. And then fall. I used to tell myself she slipped. But no. It had to have been on purpose. No one has any business out there unless they’re courting death. I wondered if her skull smashed against rocks or chunks of the old dam before she fell the full twenty-five feet. Or if she survived that part of the fall, only to drown in the rush of water heading east. Either way killed the same, but drowning sounded more torturous.

  I took off my hat and took a moment. She deserved better than my father. But even so, he didn’t kill her. No, she killed herself once she saw I was just like my old man. She couldn’t put herself through that again. Looks like I proved her right.

  Pace stood alongside me and removed his hat as well. “I apologize, Ash. I should have remembered…”

  “S’okay.”

  We stood in silence for a moment and I thought of her. I realized I had a hard time picturing her face.

  I put my hat back on and took another swig of whiskey. That one I needed. I was starting to think about the few people I cared about. And who I was leaving behind.

  “You don’t suppose those robots are tearing up the town right now?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. We got half of ‘em anyway. And last we saw they were heading in our direction.”

  “I’m just a little worried… about Becca. Maybe we should go check on her.”

  “If we go check on her, then I’ll be worried. I told you we can’t go back to the settlement. Ever.” I knew the consequences for robbing the bank, but I guess I didn’t want to believe it. But it felt a lot more real thinking I’d never see Becca again.

  Pace seems to know when I’m distraught, even though I try hard not to show it. He put a hand on my shoulder to reassure me. “Don’t worry. She’ll be fine. I promise.”

  I nodded. “So now what? What’s the plan?”

  “You tell me,” Pace replied. “You jumped right in before I had time to plan our getaway.”

  “Oh right.” Didn’t realize I effed that part up. Never was one to think things through.

  “Any ideas on where we can go to hide out for awhile?”

  “Actually yeah. I do.”

  5.

  We rode silently west down what used to be called Central Avenue heading between the crumbling skyscrapers. In this part of the Old City, the skyscrapers were so tall that it seemed like the sun was setting even though it was mid-day. We had to ride around huge chunks of fallen concrete, which gave me some sense of relief. No one had the balls to try to find us here.

  After about ten blocks, Pace was surprised when I dismounted. I started to feed and water
Charon, so he took the cue to do the same for his horse. I stared up at the hundred or so floors above us and the thin strip of blue sky separating the tops of the skyscrapers. A couple hundred years ago that was probably awe inspiring. But now, it just made me think of death. Isn’t there an expression about what comes up, or something like that? I dunno. I just know that shit falls down.

  “You thinking this is a good place to stop?” Pace asked.

  I just nodded. I felt my stomach rumble, so I grabbed a strip of buffalo jerky out of my saddlebag. I took a bite, but then realized something. The food I had on hand wasn’t very much, and when exactly would we have the chance to resupply? I wrapped the jerky back up and put it away. I could be hungry.

  “Well, this looks about as good as any,” I said. “Follow me.” I started to lead Charon into the lobby of one of the skyscrapers.

  “You sure about that, Ash? These buildings could come down on our heads any time.”

  “Worth the risk,” I said.

  The front doors had fallen aside, and the entrance was pretty wide for walking Charon right on in. On the way inside I noticing an old sign halfway secured alongside the door. I recognize the word BANK. I knew how to spell that, of course. And before BANK were the letters U and S. US BANK. I wondered who US was.

  “Ash… where the eff are you going?” Pace followed out of curiosity.

  The lobby was vast, with large pillars from the floor to the sixty foot ceilings. I guessed those pillars helped support the structure. It looked fairly secure, I had to admit. Straight ahead was some kind of big desk, and behind that some kind of electric staircase I’d never seen before. No, scratch that, maybe I saw that kind of thing in a movie once or twice. Anyway, it didn’t work anymore of course. To the left was a glass door that had been shattered, which led to what looked like an old-fashioned bank. Everything was sleek and metallic, and it definitely reminded me of the kind of banks I’d seen in movies before.

  “So I was thinking we could hold up here,” I said.

  “Here!” Imagine Pace’s surprise.

  “What better place for bank robbers to hide out than in a bank?”

  “We’re going to stay here. In that lobby of this skyscraper. As our hideout.”

  “That’s my plan.”

  “What the eff kind of a plan is that?”

  “You’re the thinker. This is the best I could do on short notice.”

  “Ash, let me make sure I’m understanding you. This Old City is uninhabitable. And you intend to inhabit it.”

  “Right.”

  “Effing crazy.” Pace was getting heated. “You do realize that this building could collapse on us any time?”

  “We should be fine. I know a lot about the old city. These buildings housed a lot of important people leading up to the Exodus. Government figures and people like that. I’m sure they built this place extra sturdy. Sure, it’ll collapse sometime in the next hundred years, but probably not today.”

  “Real comforting.”

  “You were comfortable in the Old City when you were trying to impress Becca. Why not now?” I’d called Pace on his bullshit. All he could do was pull out his flask and take a swig. “Besides, it’s too dangerous for a posse to come looking for us here.”

  “That’s exactly my point. If it’s dangerous for a posse looking for us, then it’s dangerous for us too!” Pace handed me the flask. While I was mid-swig he said, “gonna run low on supplies pretty fast. Whiskey first. That’s all I got.” I stopped swigging.

  “Why didn’t you bring more?”

  “That was part of my plan that you didn’t give me a chance to finish!”

  “Eff. No whiskey.” I guess me just jumping into things did cause problems.

  “Let’s do an inventory and see what we have.” We started pulling things out of our saddlebags. But not much. “We don’t have any bales of hay for the horses. “Don’t suppose we’ll find any hay around here.”

  “No chance. They can just sleep over by that electric staircase. They’ll be fine.”

  “You want the horses to sleep in here?”

  “Can’t have them sleeping outside. That’s dangerous.” I was right of course. Wolf packs. Bear. Who knows what. And the cold. Best way to keep them alive was to keep them in shelter, and in our line of sight.

  “You know we’re gonna have to muck this out. They’re gonna shit here.”

  “So are you. What’s the big deal?”

  Pace was getting agitated again. “It’ll be a big deal after a day or so!”

  He was completely against my plan. But we had no other options, at least for the moment.

  We inventoried what we had. Water would be the first to go. We didn’t have anywhere near the full ration of ten gallons each per day that the horses required. That was one of the big problems in the Old City. There’s no drinkable water. None. There’s plenty of standing water in the flooded section of the city, but drinking it is like suicide. Our supply was finite. Eventually we’d need to find pure drinking water. And our salt licks would run out pretty quickly. Didn’t have enough food either. We found lots of canned food as we rummaged around nearby buildings, especially amongst the ruins of what looked like a market. But two hundred year old canned food. Who’s gonna take the first bite?

  Before sundown it became clear that our biggest problem was gonna be the cold. Cold’s never been much of a concern for me. My old house in Great Falls was drafty but I could always keep a fire going in the fireplace if I wanted to. I don’t think it was ever colder inside than maybe fifty degrees in the middle of the coldest nights, and I could handle that just fine. But the Old City was a different story. I figured it was gonna fall to maybe two degrees outside and ten degrees inside the shelter of our lobby. What remained of the concrete walls kept the room slightly more bearable than outside. We spent some time finding wooden boards and other things we could use to cover up the shattered windows. Anything to help block out the wind. Fortunately we both had bison-hair blankets that we always rode with for our horses. They’d be all right. Me and Pace both had on long underwear, which would help. My bison-hair coat and gloves would help keep it tolerable for me. But for Pace, his jacket was leather. Of course it was leather. He used to be able to afford that kind of luxury. But he’d trade it now in a second for bison-hair.

  I started up a fire near one of the broken windows for ventilation. I guess that was one good thing about the Old City – there was plenty to burn. Lots of loose and fallen scraps of wood from buildings. Some of it was too rotted to burn but other pieces were not too bad. Course there was plenty of kindling in Riverside Park. We could easily grab some twigs and branches. But we didn’t have an axe. No way to chop down a tree and get real lumber.

  When it came round for dinner time, Pace cracked open a can of beans.

  “That all we got?” I asked.

  Pace just gave me a look. Yeah, if I hadn’t rushed things, I know.

  “I gotta piss,” I announced, heading over by the electrical staircase and loosening my belt.

  “Hey!” Pace protested. “Do that outside!”

  I grumbled. “Fine, for now. But if it’s the middle of the night I’m pissing inside, and so are you. Too dangerous outside at night.”

  I went outside to take a piss. And while I was listening to my stomach growl, I heard something rustling through some nearby debris. Smart thing to do would be to stop pissing, but I dunno about you but once I start pissing there’s no way to stop ‘til I’m out of piss. So instead I took my dick in my left hand and grabbed my revolver with my right. Sounded like it was something small, not a bear or anything, but it could be a wolf cub. Nope, it was something else I’d seen around the Old City here and there. A feral cat. Scrawny, mangy, old. I put away my revolver and my dick. The little guy looked kinda curious at me. Probably hadn’t seen a person before. He let me creep toward him. “Hey little guy,” I said. But what I thought was “dinner.”

  Felt bad killing that cat actually, but that�
�s how life goes, right? Everyone is food for someone else. I brought the cat back into the hideout and Pace nearly gagged.

  “Get that thing out of here!” he yelled.

  “What’s your problem? Never ate a cat before?” Don’t think he ever did cause when I pulled out my Bowie knife and skinned the darned thing, Pace turned kinda pale and moved over to the corner and threw up whatever was in his stomach. Gross.

  Wasn’t much meat on that cat anyway, so I was kinda glad I didn’t have to share. Paired kinda okay with the beans, washed down with a swig of whiskey. Pace didn’t eat though. Something about a loss of appetite.

  When it came time for bed, well, that’s where the lack of planning really stung me. Pace had, fortunately I guess, grabbed the sleeping bag that he was using with Becca. Bison hair, very warm. But a pretty snug fit for two. Pace laid the sleeping bag out by the big desk. It was probably the best spot. No broken windows, no chilling wind from outside.

  “I guess we could share it,” Pace suggested.

  “I’m no girl,” I grumbled. “No way I’m sharing that with you. Floor is fine.”

  I laid down on the stone floor. It was freezing cold.

  “It’s too cold.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Use your horse’s blanket.”

  “It’s fine!” No way I was gonna let Charon suffer for my shortcomings. But there was no way I could sleep. So I got up, stole what was left of the whiskey and propped myself up in a corner by the fire. I’d drink myself to sleep.

  “You’re drinking up all our whiskey!”

  “We’ll buy more tomorrow!”

  It was inevitable. We needed to head out the next morning and resupply, to make up for my lack of planning.

  That night as we tried to sleep, the Old City was plenty loud. Lots of wolves howling. Coyotes yelping. Owls hooting. I learned there was a whole bunch of owls sharing the skyscraper with us. And vultures. The vultures that nested in a hole in the drywall watched us ominously. I figured they’d swoop down and peck out our eyes. But they left us alone. At least until we stopped breathing of course.