by D. P. Oberon
Complete blackness engulfed her. Saradi tried scrambling out of the snow panicked, her mouth screaming, her ears ringing. Panic gets you killed, stress makes mistakes. The words echoed in her head. She stilled in the dark. She’d read about being buried under avalanches.
A spot of light tore through the dark and a hand yanked at her helmet, then fumbled lower reaching for her shoulder hauling her up.
Buckingarra yelped as he pulled Saradi free and fell on his ass in the snow. Peng lay on his stomach with Yoriko over him patting him on the head.
They all stared at one another for a moment. And then suddenly they burst out laughing.
“Don’t worry about paying for a ticket at Lunar Looney come join SOHIC Inferno the rides are just as fun and they’re free. In fact you get paid some!” Buckingarra chortled.
For the first time Saradi didn’t mind that he made jokes in moments of stress. Adrenaline coursed through Saradi. Her left foot started to twitch. She stared at it — she had no control over it. A bit of panic rose up inside her despite her mantra.
Chapter 30 – Claustrophobia
120 to 140 Hours In
They met in the dark in front of the yawning mouth that stretched out of the depths of the mountain. Waiting to swallow us, Saradi thought as Chengmedu’s face came out of the shadows. They stood there, their helmets opaque levels dialed to clear, and regarded one another.
Their squads staggered down the slopes behind them toward the burning orange flare that stuck at the hood of the cave like some macabre invitation to a secret nightclub. Flickering orange and black shadows danced over the squads’ armor.
“Chengmedu, where’s Bravo Two Three? There were three of them left,” she said.
“You made it?” he said. He smiled and reached for her hand then held it for a moment. And then as if aware of what he’d done he quickly let it go. “I shouldn’t have doubted,” he whispered to himself.
“Where are the others?” Saradi asked, feeling a sudden jolt of affection for the members of Bravo Two Six. They hadn’t given up. Every single one of them stood, slumped, or lied on the ground behind Chengmedu.
“Bravo Two Three had their hearts ripped out when Aariak Uki quit. They could’ve done it Sara. We came down that slope with them. They helped us fight against those damn sentry-bots and that avalanche. We wouldn’t have made it without them. But this was the final straw for Tonrar. She quit, and the others went with her.”
“So it’s just us then?” Saradi whispered.
“Just us,” he said.
Two squads left out of twenty, Saradi thought, gooseflesh covering her forearms.
She turned away from his gaze. “How long?” She never asked this to her squad, she didn’t want them thinking about the time. But some part of her couldn’t help it.
“I’m guessing we’ve done five days. It’s hard to keep track.” He coughed. Everyone coughed, she realized. Bodies pushed beyond breaking and then some, Instructor Ali had said.
“Looks like we have to go in.” Saradi pointed her rifle at the maw of the cave.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
“Hey,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Whatever happens, keep going. I think we’re nearly there, Sara.”
She smiled. “I’m gonna beat your ass, you big hunk of junk.”
Chengmedu laughed and let her hand go. “Okay, you pussy ass civvy.”
She gave him the finger as she retreated back to her squad. She felt a flicker of hope and joy inside of her. It had been good to talk to him. If Bravo Two Zero had made it here by themselves it would’ve been that more much more daunting to venture into the cave. But now they had Bravo Two Six with them.
“I hate caves,” Buckingarra said, staring into the deep dark hole with loathing on his face. “They fucking suck.”
“We’ve been ambushed, fell through an avalanche, been made to do thousands of sit-ups after each damn attack… I think a cave seems like a deal to me. I’ll take it,” Saradi said. She didn’t have trouble with small spaces. She guessed that Buckingarra was claustrophobic.
“Come on, let’s get some water from that pool and then we can head on in. We’ve got company so it shouldn’t be a lonely journey,” Saradi said.
There was a small pool outside the cave and they dipped their hands and drank. They all moved so slowly now. No food for five days. Just water. Some of them suffered hallucinations.
The mouth of the cave was large enough for all eight people to enter. The first thing they noticed as they made their way in was that it branched out two ways.
Saradi huff-laughed, shook her head, and met Chengmedu’s eyes from across the cavern.
“So much for doing it together,” muttered Buckingarra from behind her back.
“I’ll take left,” she said to Chengmedu. “Good luck Bravo Two Six.”
“Good luck Bravo Two Zero,” he replied before leading his squad down the right fork.
“Peng, get Ganmi to do a full scan and beam a 3D map directly to our helmets,” Saradi said.
“Roger that,” Peng said, and he didn’t even need to ask Ganmi. Ganmi decloaked and sprayed tiny las lights all around the cave. In a few moments an image of the cave projected into the helmets of Bravo Two Zero.
The squad members didn’t need lights. Their helmets could see in the dark and if that failed their eyes had upgrades enough to see clearly in the pitch black.
The left fork opened up to a cavern filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Their objective was simple: to follow the 3D map that lead into the cave, go through it, and then go out of it.
“What the heck?” Buckingarra spluttered. “It gets too narrow.”
In front of them was a slit in the ground encrusted with rocks. It was difficult to even shine their lights into the hole. Saradi began to feel a faint idea of what it meant to have claustrophobia. Humans were not meant for this, she thought.
“Are we all good? It should open up,” Saradi said with a confidence she didn’t really feel. Maybe that’s why she found it easier to talk to Chengmedu than her own squad. She had to be the force of optimism for her own squad whereas with him she could let her guard down.
“I’ll go first and you guys follow. Clear?” she asked.
None of them replied. Peng looked like he needed to sleep or would faint. Yoriko tottered on her feet and Buckingarra kept shaking his head.
Saradi moved to Peng and told him to sit. She fished in his hardshell and got out the stinjection. He didn’t even appear to notice what she was doing. She stabbed the stinjection into the armor slit on his thigh. It drained instantly.
Peng’s indrawn hiss and abrupt clearing of his expression told Saradi the stinj worked.
“Peng, you’re going to crash after this. But I need you right now. Clear?”
“Clear,” he said. “I feel great.”
Buckingarra and Yoriko fumbled for their stinjections. Saradi called out, “Yoriko and Buckingarra, no. We can’t have everyone amped up. I don’t know what’s beyond this. Peng is going to crash. Which means one of us is going to have to help him. The stinjection is a last resort.”
Saradi swallowed. In the last few hours she thought that Peng might just lie on the ground and quit. He and Yoriko seemed to be taking it the worst. Buckingarra was holding up, but now as she looked at him she wondered if the big guy would last.
After six hours of crawling through caves, they eventually reached a domed area with enough room for them to stand.
“Everyone stretch and sit,” Saradi ordered.
They practically collapsed to the ground. Their SOHIC armor looked bent and scratched, and their helmets user interface had been rendered dormant. Going through the last six days had been awkward for all of them. Most of their lives had been spent with their AIs active in their minds. Saradi wondered how much easier it would’ve been to have their AIs assist, but it was a moot point. She didn’t want to waste a single sliver of energy thinking about anything
irrelevant.
Saradi put up her knees. Her two SR2s dug themselves painfully against her sides. Her boots nicked with a dozen cuts. Her toes throbbed and she didn’t dare to take her shoes off. Something was wrong with her toes, she knew that.
“How many days left?” Buckingarra asked.
“One step and then the next. I’m sure we’re nearly there,” Saradi said.
“I’m starving,” Peng said. “I want roasted spring rolls with crispy soy duck.”
“I want a cold beer and a hefty soy-meat pie,” Buckingarra said.
“Miso with cold soba,” Yoriko said.
“A roti-canai with a red hot Thai curry,” Saradi said.
Saradi needed to stand but it felt so nice to sit there. Maybe they could rest for a little while. For once, Instructor Ali wasn’t hounding them. Surely they could just take a few minutes?
“Can we rest for a while?” Peng said. “I’m beginning to see things. I actually thought I saw things from yesterday.” He held up his hand in front of him. “I can’t even see this.”
“Just leave me here,” said Peng. “I’ll be good.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Buckingarra said, stretching his thick legs.
Saradi thought something was wrong about that statement but she didn’t know what. An oxygen counter beeped at her on her visor but it didn’t mean a lot to her.
“I think we should go now,” Saradi said, standing slowly by grabbing onto the rocks by the sides and hauling herself up. “It’s getting very hot.” She sweated inside her visor and decided to take it off. Her helmet clanged to the ground.
The rest of the squad also took off their helmets. It was Peng who noticed it. “It’s hard to breathe in here,” he said.
Saradi creased her forehead and picked up her helmet. She put it back on and stared at the oxygen counter.
“Oh no …”
Yoriko said, “We should keep going, Sara. I think this place has decreased oxygen levels.”
“Christos!” Buckingarra shouted and slammed his head against the wall. It thudded with a bang and Saradi had to reach out for him and grab him away. He turned on her with an angry expression and she flinched.
“Hey, we’re nearly there,” Saradi said, standing. “Nearly there.” The world tilted and she grated her gauntleted palms against the rock.
The oxygen levels are artificially deteriorating, a voice in Saradi’s head said. If we don’t make it through the cave in less than an hour we’ll all pass out.
Saradi found another route and kept on going, continually turning back and shouting encouragement at the rest to follow her.
They reached what appeared to be the middle of the cave and here a small ancient map nailed itself against the wall. It was difficult to read, but Saradi thought if they went up the narrow hole they would get out of here. Already she found her breathing labored. She didn’t want to be trapped in the depths of the cave.
A narrow round hole meant they had to get on their hands and knees and elbow-crawl upward. Saradi shined her light down the end. It kept going.
“Status check,” Saradi called out.
“Here,” said Peng.
“Here,” said Yoriko.
Saradi looked around. Where was Buckingarra? A groaning sound followed and Buckingarra stumbled out from the passageway, and fell to his knees on the floor.
“Sara, I can’t do this. I want to go back out,” he said, as he saw where her finger pointed.
“You can do this, Bucki. It’s simple.” Saradi said, “You come after me, Yoriko and Peng will be behind you.”
Saradi went first, crawling up, and if she hadn’t developed the muscles in her arms, she would’ve failed. There was a thin chain she could reach and clasp and grab to haul her body up. There was no room to turn. It felt like she was a crab scuttling through a narrow underground den.
“Bucki, move,” Yoriko’s voice drifted up to her.
“Get back, I need to go back down. I’m stuck.” His voice dripped with fear. Saradi thought it strange that he could charge the enemy, guns blazing, but stuck in these small holes his claustrophobia made his fear ooze out thick and strong.
“Bucki, here, hold my hand,” Saradi said, stretching down and anchoring her ankles against the top.
Buckingarra wouldn’t listen he scrambled backwards and Yoriko shouted in pain as his feet hit her unshielded face.
“GunTech! Attention,” Saradi screamed.
For a moment Buckingarra stopped, his eyes twisting sideways. Saradi clicked her fingers at him. She pushed her way down and seized his wrists. “Bucki, grab on.” She shouted for Yoriko to push from behind.
Saradi strained. “You need to help,” she told Buckingarra. His claustrophobia seized him completely and his body was rigid like ice. It took all of Saradi’s remaining strength to pull him up and by the time he got to the small opening, Saradi trembled with exhaustion.
Chapter 31 – Drowning
168 Hours In
The cave eventually spewed them out on a small island. The island was dank, dirty, and strewn with all sorts of detritus from mechs, robots, and used weapons. Bravo Two Zero stalked through the island with their guns up, their adrenaline ebbing and spiking. Coughs went throughout their column. Saradi was sick. Yoriko was too. Buckingarra looked spent. Peng just stared like he was a zombie. Even the engineer-bot appeared dimmed, as if her batteries were depleted.
They went out toward the edge of the island and there they spotted four other squad members, Bravo Two Six. They lay on the ground catching their breaths as if they had just been running. The waves crashed beyond them.
Instructor Ali stood at their head, in hologram, and walked to and forth. She stopped when she spied Bravo Two Zero walking out of the steel jungle towards them.
“Your final task is to swim ten kloms north toward the boat pier. You’re in the Gladys Elphick Raintree. It’s the tropical forest battlefield area of Fort Windradyne. I’ll meet you there.” Her hologram disappeared.
“Final task?!” Saradi said. “Final task.”
“Ten kloms?” Peng said. His eyes watered and he collapsed on the soft beach.
“I thought you guys were taking a snooze in the cave,” Chengmedu said, walking to Bravo Two Zero. “Sara you’re one tough bitch.” He held out his hand and Saradi clasped it. He slapped her on the shoulder. “Nearly there. Just this little swim left.”
Saradi almost felt like crying. She hadn’t counted a single day or hour. She’d just focused on the task in front of her exactly as General Topeora advised. Even now she dared not let herself believe this was the last task.
There was a time she’d thought the last person to encourage her would be Chengmedu. This man who she had tried to beat from the very first moment he shoved her on the travolator all those weeks ago. Seemed like another life now.
“Let’s do this as one,” Saradi said. Isn’t that what they’ve been trying to teach us? Teamwork?
“Floats first and then we’ll rope everyone together,” said Chengmedu. “You a good swimmer?”
Saradi shrugged. “I’m okay. I’m glad we’re not carrying an aero-sled, or steel poles, or heavy packs, or trudging through snow. Water seems … seems like the best thing right now.”
Chengmedu nodded. “Let’s do this.” He shook his head. “Cave almost got us. Claustrophobia, oxygen depression. Almost thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
The armor they wore would automatically seal and the long leg fins would protrude upon entering the water. Saradi remembered something. They had three stinjections left. She reached behind her back and took hers and slammed it into the thigh socket.
“Both of you,” she told Buckingarra and Yoriko. They didn’t need encouragement and were already slamming their stinjections in their thigh sockets.
“You actually had some left?” Chengmedu asked incredulously.
“Yes, of course. I mean I didn’t know when we would need it,” she said.
“You’re tougher than you l
ook, Sara. We used ours up ages ago,” Chengmedu said.
“Peng used his, so now we need to keep a watch. I think he’s crashing.” She shouted. “Nobody left behind! We can do this.” Her voice was hoarse and it cracked. For some reason she felt tears starting at the edges of her eyes. “Oorah!” she shouted staring at her squad members.
“Oorah!” both of the remaining squads roared back.
“If we make it across, I’m going to hug you,” she told Chengmedu.
“I think I deserve a kiss,” he replied.
The swim was treacherous. The water was calm as they entered but as they swam out it became more turbulent. The four strongest swimmers, including Chengmedu and Saradi, were put near the weak ones.
Saradi couldn’t even freestyle once she hit five kloms. She went to frog stroke. Peng kept dipping his face into the water besides her and she had to haul his head up. Peng’s auto-float was shredded and didn’t function fully.
The water felt like it would never end. Chengmedu started a chant half way through and Saradi ensured they kept it up.
“Backstroke, sidestroke, breaststroke, don’t choke.
Dog paddle, icky waddle, you got handle,
Fin swimming, we’re winning, come on be kicking.”
Whoever made out the chant had to be the biggest idiot, Saradi thought. It didn’t go well with a one-two breathe or a one-two-three during freestyle and she wondered if they were meant to sing while their faces submerged under water.
Water shoved its way down Saradi’s throat choking her. Her left hand held around Peng, but he couldn’t float anymore. Surprised at how calm she felt even when he began to drown, she turned and called out.
“Hey, Chengmedu, I need another,” she said. As strong as she could be, she was dead tired and she’d dragged Peng for close to ten kloms already. Dehydration was setting in.
Chengmedu’s huge form appeared like a seaweed-infested log as he swam to her. He put his other hand around Peng and they both held him so that his face stayed above water. “Look,” he said, “nearly there.”
