by JM Guillen
Sil pulled up next to me, as did Delacruz, on the opposite side.
“They’re quite intelligent.” Sofia watched me as she spoke, her voice almost too quiet to be heard over the engines. “They can move far quicker than you might expect, and if they catch you in their feelers, you’re paralyzed in seconds.”
“Good to know.” I nodded, peering across the field. “The reticule is in that direction.” I pointed toward a distant rock outcropping. “If we get separated, make that your heading.”
“Copy that.” Delacruz faced Sil, and I assumed she shared the message.
Charging through the field, the sickly sweet scent of the flowers washed over us, smelling like nothing so much as blood.
That aroma called to me, sang my name.
The sweetness of blood calls, ever sibilant, that nectar of ancient and terrible Gods. I inhaled, letting the awful imagery slip through my mind. It screamed, primal and sweet, and tickled warm in my nose. I could practically taste it, the bounty of a thousand manic, wild hunts, the cry of the prey as it squirmed beneath me—
I caught myself, shaking my head. It took every bit of will I had to pull myself back.
What the fuck? I took a breath, eyeing one of the jellyfish that had drifted closer.
I needed to focus. Whatever sick on-again off-again thing I had going with Mr. Fukui’s aberrant buddy had to wait.
Attempting to avoid one of a jelly’s myriad tendrils as they drifted over the wicked thorns, I pulled to the left. The creatures whispered as they passed, strange sibilant mutterings that came from above.
Suddenly amber light burst from the aberration closest to me. The pulses came fast, as if it sensed something worth being excited over. It drifted toward me, its feelers stretching toward the area my rail had just passed only moments before.
Great.
Sofia had nailed it. These things moved far faster than I had thought possible, sensing my presence somehow and responding almost immediately.
I glanced over my shoulder. Sil and Sofia veered left, which I thought a good move overall.
The creature following me picked up speed, electric pulses rippling through its translucent body faster and faster.
Halfway across the field, another of the gargantuan floating jellyfish began to do the same, flashing an excited, amber glow.
“Nope. Not today.”
I swerved right, trying to keep an eye on the one I had just passed. It moved toward me with an instinctive, relentless eagerness. When I glanced back, I noticed a third creature bursting with that same amber light, in a slightly different pattern than the first two.
A fourth creature, approximately thirty meters to my left, reversed its course mid-drift and headed straight for me.
Fuck. Three of the monstrosities had drifted close enough to cause problems. I swerved to the right and gave the dune buggy a bit more gas.
Delacruz pulled even with me, approximately twenty meters to my left. She gesticulated wildly in front of her, yelling something I couldn’t hear as she pointed forward emphatically.
“Okay!” I gave her a thumbs-up.
Almost immediately, the jelly on my far left zoomed closer, swimming through the air as its body pulsed with angry electricity.
As I veered away from it, I realized that they were herding me this way.
Two more glided up along the other side.
I pulled back on the gas, thinking to slow until I could jam the transmission into reverse.
No. Another of the creatures lurked behind, less than five meters away. Its long, barbed tendrils explored the ground in my direction, seeking hungrily.
“Dammit!”
I hit the gas and barreled forward, away from the creature’s appendages. That took me careening toward two of the others, one to each side.
“Can’t catch a break, can I?”
I glared at the two creatures and unslung the AK-47 from my shoulder.
Hopefully, these things hated being shot as much as I did.
Unloading three quick bursts into the one on the left, I veered toward it in hopes that the pain would drive it away. The bullets shredded their way into its soft body, and immediately the thing began to pulse an ugly, lurid red. Its tentacles retracted back all at once, and it jerked away.
Pleased with how well bullet therapy seemed to work, I aimed at the second one and fired.
An identical response followed, the creature jerking away with a rapid, instinctive movement.
Delacruz frantically tried to wave me down, but I didn’t see what her concern could be. Two other aberrations floated near me, but I would easily outpace them on the rail. Hell, she should probably be pleased that—
A brilliant searchlight sliced through the mist from somewhere ahead of us. It groped about for a moment before falling directly upon me, forcing me to squint against the furious light.
“Oh. Fuck!” I veered off to the right, hard, but the light hung with me.
Machine gun fire cracked the air, and the ground behind me erupted with the shots.
Dammit! That must be the first of the watchtowers on Sofia’s map—I could see the tower clearly once I looked.
Originally, she had intended to use the Gatekeeper to bypass it. Without that, our best hope had been to slip by quietly, taking a wide route, and loop back.
The most important word in that sentence happened to be quietly.
I sighed and cursed myself for being an idiot.
Nothing was ever simple.
46
Amid a hail of gunfire, I throttled my rail, steering hard to the right, away from Delacruz and Sil. My thoughts raced, trying to scan the map, mind the machinegun, dodge the searchlight, and not get eaten by aberrant monsters.
Multi-tasking was fun.
Fortunately for me, giant carnivorous jellyfish still drifted all around, floating along by unknown means. More than once, the tower’s automatic weapon swiveled toward me, promising quick death, but caught one of the abominations instead.
They pulsed an angry, fierce scarlet and moved away from the bullets as quickly as possible… which drove them directly in my path.
Whoever drew duty on the searchlight had been well trained at their fucking job.
I continually tried to ditch the light by gunning the FAV, slowing, and then slamming it into reverse.
But no. The damned light clung to me like a psychotic ex-girlfriend.
Fortunately, whoever held the position of lead machine-gunner couldn’t quite keep as steady a bead on me.
I should have been dead. Hell, I should have been dead twice over. Still, I didn’t think I should taunt fate and focused on out running the weapon’s range.
While not being eaten by monsters, of course.
I took a hard right and hit a small gully, which propelled my rail a half-meter into the air. Pushing the throttle when I hit the ground, I tried to head directly away from the watchtower to defeat the automatic weapon by distance alone.
If they fired an M-60, as I suspected from the massive volume of rounds per minute and the likelihood of the sights being off, I needed about two hundred meters to thwart the gunner. Beyond that, I just couldn’t know. Searchlights existed that could track targets over a kilometer away.
The automatic weapon barked again, and I heard it bite into the ground behind me, tearing into stone and throwing up sod. When I heard the first metallic ping on my chassis, I swerved right so hard I almost flipped the thing.
I couldn’t outrun a machinegun. Not for long.
I triggered the Adept, hoping that it would give me just a bit more dexterity with the FAV. Worst case scenario, if a bullet hit a tire and sent my rail tumbling wildly through the air, perhaps I could land without killing myself.
“Fuck.” I frowned as I realized that two of the jellyfish, still well aware of me, drifted into my path, tendrils eagerly writhing.
I turned a little more to the right, now angled slightly back toward the watchtower. One of the jellys adjusted almost
instantly, throwing its innumerable tentacles out wide, trying to catch its prey in a vast net.
The machinegun fired again. I heard bullets sing past my head, far too close for comfort. It seemed the gunner was beginning to compensate for the sights.
The field stretched around me, vast and mostly empty. I couldn’t even see Delacruz or Sil anymore, and I hoped they had slipped past.
More bullets hit the FAV, a few pinging off the metal rack on back and one ripping a hole in the passenger seat.
The force of the shots made me wince. I had no doubt that one would soon send me careening out of control.
In the vastness of the empty field, I needed one thing desperately: cover.
The next barrage of shots gave me an idiotic idea. If I had any friends handy, they would have violently disagreed with my plan, but honestly, I felt a touch short on choices.
Bullets barked through the mist and chewed up the ground around me only to be intercepted by one of the gargantuan creatures. Scarlet light burst through the jelly as it retracted from the pain.
They were the only cover I had.
“Oh God.” I needed to get closer to them.
I frowned, thinking of what Wyatt would say.
Peering into the mist, I searched for the telltale orange of weapon fire. When it came, far too quickly for comfort, I noted its location precisely and veered so one of the great aberrations floated between me and the tower. I gunned the FAV, heading straight toward the jelly and the watchtower.
For the first time since being alerted to my presence, the watchmen couldn’t directly see me. Their light shone squarely upon the macabre creature, while I hid in the shadow cast by its tendrils.
“There we go.” Once I’d maneuvered just a bit closer, I drew my weapon again. My face savage with glee, I fired, my weapon thudding mildly against my shoulder.
In pain, with confused fury, the creature retracted, moving further from me and closer to the watchtower.
This could work.
The gunman tried for me again, aiming low.
Bullets savaged the ground to my right, sending up slivers of stone and shredded flowers, but missed me by more than two meters.
I scarcely paid attention as I replaced my half-spent clip getting ready for some real action. I’d already picked out my next unwitting jellyfish ally.
As soon as the machinegun stopped firing, I pulled hard to the left. I knew my cover floated just a very short distance away, but the space between us stretched indefinitely. I awaited the inevitable gunfire.
It never came.
The searchlight also didn’t move, remaining focused squarely upon the writhing tendrils of the huge aberration.
Then, the machinegun fired again, but the operator took the same shot as before, trying to hit me as if I still hid behind the first creature.
A mistake. I almost laughed out loud but instead pushed the FAV’s throttle as far as it would go. I wanted to be quite far away when the tower guards realized they’d lost me.
Cool air whipped around me, carrying the sickly sweet smell of the flowers with it.
I actually saw the watchtower, silhouetted against the hills, as my path took me closer. Then I also caught the orange bursts from beneath it.
More weapon fire.
Uh oh.
Staying as far in the shadow of the floating beastie as possible, I peered off to one side, trying to track the situation. I couldn’t see much, but it looked more and more like bad news.
Like a firefight.
Against Delacruz.
“Dammit!” I had hoped that she and Sil had kept going, making for the waypoint I had pointed out to them. It hadn’t been exactly optimal that the watchtower had seen me, but since it had, why not just slip by?
I couldn’t believe that Sofia had simply been caught. No, she had come back, obviously deciding that the best way to get the focus off me was to get it on her and Sil.
Not the choice I would have made for them.
The searchlight remained in place, and the automatic fire had entirely stopped. Still I did my best to use the cover I had, just in case, while remaining out of range of those seeking, hungry tendrils.
More than once, those barbed appendages got a bit too curious, a bit too clever for my taste. They seemed uncannily aware, and I couldn’t discount their speed.
As I drew close to the watchtower, I saw one of my worst fears playing out.
Two soldiers stood outside the watchtower near a long ladder, firing on Delacruz and Sil, pinning them behind an outcropping of stone. Their FAVs idled only a short distance, and they might easily go on their way.
If they could just reach the vehicles.
A long twenty seconds went by as I approached the watchtower, passing through an area of the field that lacked great jelly-monsters for cover.
Dangerous.
However, the machine gun mount sat atop the tower, which meant that, if I got close enough, it couldn’t aim low enough to hit me.
If.
I ghosted along the edge of the watchtower’s shadow at half-throttle and dropping. I wanted more speed, of course, but the FAV growled far louder when revved flat out. This forced me to be exposed for a long moment but also let me slip up behind the two soldiers.
My heart pounded as I slowly rolled toward them. When I came to a stop on the far side of a large boulder, I hopped out of my FAV, AK-47 in hand.
I kept my disruptor holstered and katana sheathed. With the Adept alone, I didn’t know if they would quite stack up against men with automatic weapons.
Delacruz popped around the edge of their cover and fired in a quick burst.
The two men began to take turns firing back, keeping my allies pinned.
She had seen me though.
I could just make out the edge of her face, and it gave me all the confirmation I needed. I held up one hand, cautioning her, and she nodded.
As I peered at the men, a dark and terrible joy filled my heart. The scarlet and primal moment burned within me, the only moment that ever mattered. My pulse sang hymns of battle and blood, punctuating unspeakable emotions with every throbbing beat.
The world became red.
Screaming wordlessly, I cried out with fury and fire and the passion of death as I sprayed the men with gunfire.
From behind the cover of my boulder, I took them entirely by surprise.
One of the men fell without even turning around, but the second died in mid-turn, startled when my shots caught him in the face and chest.
Their deaths felt like absolution from a dark and terrible God. Striding forward, I still fired, even as their corpses fell to the ground.
For a long moment, I stared at them.
They had died on an alien world, far from everything they knew. Their blood watered the ground of this terrible place, joining with Ar’Ghosa in a way that even Delacruz might not comprehend.
My chest heaved like a bellows, and sweat covered me.
“Bishop!” Her eyes looked like two full moons as she stared at me in horror.
For a seeming eternity, I simply stared at her. Her word made no sense. I blinked, finally drawing my mind from the savagery of death. “You green, Delacruz?”
For a long moment, she didn’t speak. She just gazed at me, as if trying to read some secret word written on the inside of my heart. When she responded, her whisper felt sharp. “I’d ask the same.”
“I’m fine.”
“Why in the hell did you discharge your weapon back there?” She gestured toward the field. “I told you the tower was close!”
“I didn’t understand.” I blew out my breath. “I’m sorry. Stupid of me.”
That same long, searching look. “Doesn’t matter now.” She turned to Sil, who finally stood up from behind their cover.
I used the moment to check the men for ammunition clips. One of them had carried an AK, and his belt stored a few clips he’d no longer need.
My companions peered up at the watchtower, and
my gaze followed theirs.
Did more men await us up there?
“If we go on while there’s others in that turret, they’ll pick us off.” I ran my fingers along my beard.
“These two may have warned other towers that we’re here.” Delacruz scrutinized me. “We can’t take long.”
“Roger that.” I stepped to the nearby ladder. The watchtower stood approximately three stories tall, and I’d be a sitting duck during the climb. “Cover me.”
Delacruz nodded, but I noted that she didn’t banter. Something lurked in her eyes when she looked at me, a wariness that I hadn’t seen there before.
She’d seen me when I’d slipped, when the blood lust of Fukui’s monstrous associate had come through.
How did I explain something like that? ‘Don’t worry, I think I have a mild case of aberrant possession,’ didn’t sound encouraging.
So I said nothing.
I hung my weapon over my shoulder and climbed the ladder, while Sofia covered me.
We didn’t have time for unanswerable questions.
47
Sadhana either hadn’t expected any trouble from this direction or had already sent all available forces elsewhere. Whatever the case, when I used my katana to nudge open the trapdoor in the bottom of the watchtower, no one tried to shoot my head off.
I took that as a good sign and pushed into the empty room.
Control panels along two of the walls flashed tiny, unheeded alerts. Two uncomfortable office chairs sat empty before them. A screen door opened on a small perch housing the searchlight and the mounted machine gun.
I stepped closer to the controls. What could these possibly be for?
“Anything?” Delacruz sounded a touch nervous.
“Looking!”
I tried to make sense of the dials and switches by an old-fashioned telephone handset. A few obviously adjusted radio equipment, which emitted soft static through an undersized speaker. Several labels around a large radio dial read The Derricks, Watchtower Three, and Site One.
I decided not to make any calls.
Toggles for an alarm system glared, shiny and round. An apparent perimeter-defense panel contained switches labeled Modulate and Sonic Blasts.
