The Year's Best SF 08 # 1990

by Gardner Dozois (ed)

  The Junk fell over on his side and now blood was flowing out of his throat in spurts so I knew she had struck paydirt. But just for a moment his eyes seemed to clear a little and he raised his head with a big strain and said “that hurt. You are bigger than I suggested. Knelt—knelt her front legs into the pocket of my clothes.”

  Then “the truck is the key. Hold my tail up out of conveniencing my wife and putting it in. If machines make the wall only machines can onetwothreeone. Against the will of Del so wet.”

  His voice became weaker and he whispered “keep going even if you are finished, then we will, die. At first, even I could, at first, both our hearts, need meat. Even I, the rules must roll, even I, could hear my life, with me, pounding after.”

  “Cats” he croaked “are made just outside the bowl. But the truck is the key, you must understand. I smell onions.”

  Then all at once he pulled himself up as if he had not even been mauled, he looked at us and shrugged and explained “anyone we caught we could eat once.” Then he settled back with a sigh and moved no more, for he was gone.

  Chapter fifteen where Democrazy gets it in the end

  We watched him for a long time to make sure he would not pop back up again and say something or maybe bite someone else but he was permanently dead. We moved on without spirit.

  We found a den-hole among the dead autobiles that was empty after we chased out a scrawny Cat. Nik Nok made a halfheart grab and missed but we did not miss it, none of us was hungry anyway. I was still full from the night before, and the way Disha looked I did not even ask her if she wanted the Cat so he got lucky that night. After we settled in I shrunked farther back in the pile so Disha and her love could be alone together.

  She was quiet as though submitting but the way she held her head seemed more like quiet domination. She knew she was horribly dead because the Junkyard Dog draw blood.

  “Nik Nok” she said “you know we have only a little time left together now. Let us not waste it.”

  Skunks have very good eyes.

  They violented Democrazy again in the day-heat, but this time it was gentle and slow like the black river instead of laughing and plunging like a waterfoul. She licked his belly very lightly and he breathed into her ear and stroked the underside of her tail and when he went inside her she coughed in surprise that it was so smooth and easy. Once he forgot and grabbed her wounded and stiffening leg to pull himself in deeper and she jerked away, but she never made a sound except right at the very end when she moaned just a little. This time she finished before he did but she was true to her word and kept on until he was done.

  Afterward they lay together and talked without words while Nik Nok picked fleas out of her fur. They slept face to face even though she being a Dog was not exactly built for it.

  Now that I knew what Nik Nok would soon lose I found I no longer cared about Custom and let Democrazy be hanged. Love is Progrets. Strange creatures fluttered in my stomach.

  As the sun set we rose. When the air became stullen, and we resumed our journey I began to wish Nik Nok had nabbed the cat afterall. The stullen air was even browner than yestereve and blood red with the setting sun so it would be hard to main train a course for the other mountains across the city of angels. Disha said we would be there by the dawn’s oily light, and could the underbuild be far away then?

  Chapter sixteen we explore Disha’s tunnel of love

  Well we were not at the mountains by sun-up but we kept at our quest even through the daylight for we were tired, and wanted it all over. We saw no more Junkyard Dogs but my funny-watchy feeling continued, and I felt like everyone we saw was Junk in some way or another.

  Finally through the cracked and fallen builds, Disha spied the arch with the folded arms that reprehented an underbuild. “We shall enter sex the line here” said she “and follow it along towards the sea that swallows the sun. Soon we shall find the fallen underbuild and thence the hidden den.”

  So down we went and into the stingy in blackness.

  It swallowed us both and three but I felt no comfort, for this was not a den nor a hidey-hole but a build—a build of men and it reeked of them and their Undemocrazy. In some places I found a cold metal road and ran along it for a way, but the ticking of my claws against the hardmetal sent shivers through us all and Disha asked me to walk on the grabble to the side. I was happy to oblige for to tell the truth, I did not like the sound either and even Nik Nok cast his eyes down and grew silent at the echoes. We walked for a passing in silence but I cannot say how long for there are no momes in the dark.

  Chapter seventeen we find the hidden den at last!

  The journey through the wendless tunnel passed an easily, for even the Santa’s Anus and the Winds of Law could not brush us down there. At last we began to see cracks of light in the overhead, and then whole pocks of hardground and finally we discovered the Great Buildfall that the Coon had reminated. We climbored out of the underbuild into bright and treacherous sunlight, and saw stretched down below us the last defense against Democrazy.

  It was a build squat like a stone spider and it was all gleaming, while the other builds around it were broken and dulled. There were men in strange clothing outside: they wore thick brown clothes that covered them completely and round hats that surrounded their heads and they looked out of glass windrows in their hats. I did not need for Disha to tell me that the clothes were meant to keep out Progrets but she did anyway. When I objected she said that she had only been telling Nik Nok.

  We watched them for a long time. When they went inside two big doors opened for them, but they opened into a little room that did not seem worth the efforts.

  “So how do we get Progrets beyond those doors” Disha asked.

  “Maybe we can knock a hole through them” asked Nik Nok, but Disha injected. “We might be able to dig our way through one door if we were quick enough, but long before we got through the other door those men would do us. But maybe there is only one wall, perhaps we should consecrate on that.”

  We crept forward and studied the build some more.

  “Nik Nok” said Disha “if these humans have never been fected by Progrets, that means these walls have stood for many seasons. They must be very strong walls indeed for there have been earthshakes and many storms.”

  I tried watching the men (or were they women? I could not tell inside their clothing). I began to have a glimmering in my mind like moonlight on the water.

  Something the Junkyard Dog said kept buzzing to be reminated, but I could not pull it out and look at it.

  The den was in a deep canyon from our vintage point with a long path of mostly straight unbroken hardground leading down towards it. It was to this path that my eyes looked. It had something to do with the important thing the Junkyard Dog said that I could not reminate. Oh how I wished I were a Dog or a Man, that could reminate everything!

  “Let us explore the path” I asked “and see if we can find anything.” Since neither Disha nor Nik Nok had a better suggestion we turned about and began walking back along the hardground away from the hidden den.

  I looked at everything we passed trying to reminate what I knew was in my mind. I reminated, that the Junkyard Dog in between all his gibbers had said something that would help us now.

  Chapter eighteen we discover the key to the mysteries

  I looked at an arco and a hydrant and a lot of square builds and a store but none of them joggled my memory.

  And then I saw the autobile truck and at once the thought leapt back into my mind.

  “I reminate!” I cried “the truck is the key said the Junkyard Dog!”

  Disha looked at the truck and then at me, saying “that is what I am now, a Junkyard Dog.” At once I regretted my hasty words but “you are right, I reminate him saying that too” she added.

  “But what could he know about today” I asked “for you killed him yesterday.”

  “To the junk” she said “there is no yesterday or tomorrow, it sees backward and
forward in days the way we see left and right along venture path. But what does that mean, the truck is the key?”

  It was the biggest autobile truck I had ever seen. Even Nik Nok could not reach its top and it had more wheels than there are numbers in the city of angels. It was stopped along the edge of the hardground and was covered with foul-smelling rust.

  For a long time we all three stared at the truck trying to figure out how it was the key. Then Nik Nok whispered “if machines make the wall then maybe machines can…”

  “Can what” I asked.

  “That was something else he said” said the Boy. “Only machines can what, break the wall?”

  “If we could get the truck rolling down the hardground” Disha said think loud “maybe it would roll fast enough that it could smash through the wall and into the Den.”

  Nik Nok looked at the autobile for a long time.

  “It is a very big truck” he said at last.

  “But how do we get it rolling” I asked.

  “And more important” asked Nik Nok “once we do how do we make sure it stays on the hardground and does not hit a tree and stop?”

  “That wheel in front of the chair makes it go left and right” answered Disha like a know-all “for I have spoken with Hanaka Tag the eldest and she told me of these autobiles.”

  “Well I think these men make the machine come alive” retorted Nik Nok “do you know how to bring it to life also?”

  “We do not need to” said Disha though she did not sound too sure and I could tell she was only guessing “for if we can get it rolling then the hill will make it go fast enough.”

  I kept my mouth shut during this axe change, for I am only a Skunk. I listened well though for we Skunks have very good ears.

  Nik Nok fumbled with the latch until he could get the metal open and we looked inside.

  “What we must do” said Disha “is get it rolling and then one of us stays inside to turn the hoop-wheel and make the truck go left and right to stay on the hardground.”

  “But then what” asked Nik Nok, full of frights and astonishments “what will happen when it hits the Den? Will I be killed?”

  Disha smiled. “Whichever one of us it is in the truck must jump clear before the crash my love.” She touched his side gently with her greying muzzle, for she was not as young as she had been the season before.

  The truck was not rolling so we decided something was blocking it. After we ran around for a few momes looking Disha saw some pieces of wood under the wheels. We tried to pull them out, but even Nik Nok could not so he knocked them out finally with a rock. The truck ground and groaned but still did not roll. We climbored up to look, and there were lots of metal pulls.

  “One of these must be what makes the truck stop and go” announced Disha, but I think she put on more show of know-all than she really had. Nik Nok began pulling and pushing on the pulls, and Disha was vindulated because when he pulled a partically hard one the truck screamed and began to roll slowly. It rolled down the hill warbling like a broken thunderbum.

  Nik Nok was afraid even when it went so slow. Then it picked up speed and we all shivered.

  I was so frightened I could not move and I feared I would not be able to jump out, when the time came being so frightened.

  Disha had Nik Nok turn the hoop-wheel, for she did not have the strength in her jaws and it was almost too hard for him!

  “Reminate my love” she cautioned “keep the door from latching for we must be ready to fly out at the very last mome.”

  Nik Nok touched her paw and looked into her eyes, “oh I love you so much” he said with a tear in his eye. I could not figure out why his eyes were wet. Was there dust in them?

  The autobile truck got faster and faster and soon Nik Nok was barely able to keep it on the hardground and away from trees and builds. I began to be afraid and sick as if I had eaten wormroot when I looked to the side and saw the world whizzing past me faster than a sparrow flies, and almost would have jumped out right then except that I knew Disha would not let us be killed, especially not Nik Nok. She rested her muzzle against his ear, and I could barely hear her snuffle “You are precious to me too. Life is precious.”

  Then we roared around the last turn with Nik Nok straining to make the hoop-wheel turn so that the autobile truck would stay where it was supposed. We were heading right for the Den.

  Some of the Men saw us coming and ran out waiving their hands and then tried to ride their own autobile into our path. They must have known what we were doing and were ready to give their lives to thwart the will of Democrazy, such was their fear of Progrets. But their autobile could not run fast enough and it only hit the back of the truck and did not even turn us. Just before we hit Disha snuffled “junk bonds, but love is stronger.” Then “NOW!” she barked “JUMP NOW!”

  Nik Nok pushed open the door and just before he jumped he grabbed me by the scruff and saved my life!

  We were lucky we were on grass and not on hardground for we hit and hit hard. I rolled over and over the Boy and ended up on my back watching the truck plow into the Den.

  I do not know if Disha ever had a chance. Just before the crash I saw her still in the truck, gripping the hoop with her mouth and keeping the truck aimed true.

  Then I heard a thunderbum like I had never imagined and the whole wall of the Last Old Den caved in like a buildfall in an earthshake. We had opened the last remnant of yesterday to the clouds of Progrets and the plague.

  Chapter nineteen

  But Disha was dead.

  Chapter twenty triumph of Democrazy

  I was still shaking from the fall I thought. I looked about unable to move, but I could not see Nik Nok and I was alone.

  I saw the truck went much deeper into the Den than I imagined, it went right through three rooms.

  Dust and smoke puffed on the Winds of Law around inside and in and out of the hole we had made and I knew that the bugs of Democrazy were drifting in too and would bear fruit.

  Now all of us would be truly equal and the fourlegs would be liberated.

  Then I saw Disha.

  She had been thrown from the truck. She lay on the ground covered in blood.

  Nik Nok held her broken lifeless body in his arms and tried to kiss her back to life, and the tears were streaming down his cheeks.

  “What is this? What is this” he asked touching the salty water.

  “I think that means you are a Man again” I said “for Democrazy has triumphed. Our brethren and sistern are free and equal now.”

  But a junk voice in my head, maybe Disha’s ghost whispered “you cannot be both.”

  Disha pulled me into the Hidden Den, deeper and deeper than we had been even in the underbuild for it was a darkness of the heart not of the air and her ghost glowed like the moon.

  I saw a Rat shivering and shaking and looking at me with wide eyes. “We have come to liberate you” I said to resure him, but he only made a scrittering sound and ran away.

  I stopped in panic. What was that sound? What did he say?

  Then a Dog came out and I called to him, for he was a brother of Disha and I wanted to tell him of her sacrifice and how he was free now.

  “You are free Mr. Dog” I said, and “the free live free, you must go out into the City of Angels now and learn the Will of Democrazy.”

  At first he snarled, but I knew he was only reacting to a strange Skunk. But when he heard my words he settled down and began to moan in pleasure at his newfound equality.

  But then the moans turned into a whimper and he crawled on his belly to me. I backed up in consarnation for what was he, to wit a Dog doing playing subservant to a mere Skunk? Where was his equality before the Winds of Law?

  Then I smelled his fear.

  It ran unchecked down his leg and I could hear his heart racing like the truck that brought him Democrazy in the first place. He was terrified and did not understand.

  “You would do well to buck up and be a Dog” I chastised “for th
is is Progrets and the Will of Democrazy!” I boldly approached to lead him out into the real world, but instead he barked … and it was not words he barked. It was a cough, a grunt and held no more meaning than fear and confusion.

  He may have been a Dog, but he was still only an animal. He was no brother of Disha.

  We turned and ran at the same time in opposite directions. Terror gripped me too, for I suddenly realized that I was in another land.

  There was no Democrazy here today, no matter what the bugs may say tomorrow and I was more afraid than I had been of the Junkyard Dog.

  A Man stood in my path. “Do not stop me” I announced “for I am Progrets!”

  He screamed and staggered back against the wall of the Den covering his face. Another man heard me and tried to bean me with a stick crying “another one, kill him! Break his throat like the other!” and I did not need to ask to know that they meant the Coon. Now I knew how he had come to rupture his larinks. I ran like a Commonest.

  At once the whole Den came alive against me, Men and Fourlegs and it was I who was fleeing for my very life. I found the hole, I do not know how. And then I was through. I did not stop running until I found the fallen underbuild again, and there was Nik Nok. But Disha’s body was not with him and he would not tell me where it was.

  Chapter twenty-one to the winners go the spoiled

  I will not tell you of the journey back across the waste, to the venture path with Nik Nok carrying me under one arm. All I reminate is that the Dogs snarled fiercely and the builds rumbled and shook, but none of them could touch us for Disha trotted right beside us still, and her laugh echoed around us as we slept the day away.

  By the night we returned the color finally crept back into Nik Nok’s face, and he could smile though he vanished the next day and I never saw him again.

  When I knew he had gone Overizon I felt a tear in my eye. I, the last of our extra diction, learned to cry.

  Chapter twenty-two Mr. Skunk lowers his tale