Eventually, Blake stood up. “We’re not going to solve anything by fighting,” he said, looking at Lord August and then at JC. “It’s going to get dark soon. We have to stick together and defend each other.” The crowd murmured in agreement. JC’s brow furrowed as he fixed Blake with a hard stare. Blake didn’t flinch.
“Zara to Revenant. Come in,” she said into the small radio.
“How are you, honey?” Kato’s voice said after a few seconds of static.
“Not great. Listen Dad, we’re outside Lyon now. It’s completely lawless. It’s every man for himself. There’s no food.”
“Oh no…”
“Can you come and get us?”
“Yes, of course. Just you guys and Kassie?”
“Well, we have a few friends too.”
“How many?”
“Two hundred and ninety-five, I think.”
“What?”
“Yeah, Kassie was living in some sort of underground commune. They took us in, and now we’ve all left the city.”
“Oh…”
“Come on Dad, moving people and things is what you do for a living.”
“No, don’t hear me wrong, Zara. It’s no lack of desire to come and get you, it’s finding enough shuttles. Plus, are you near an air and space port?”
“Lyon’s one is probably still locked down by the rebel forces. That’s why we had to crash-land the ship on a road. That could have all changed now. The army might have all died when the… thing was used. Don’t know who’s in charge there now.”
Kato sighed. “Okay. Well, we do have some VTOL shuttles, which don’t need a runway of course.”
“I wish I’d have one of those on the way down here!”
“Yes. Well, anyway, we don’t have very many. Plus, I think they might be at the ETI, which means I’ll have to pry them loose from service in the Mars evacuation. But, I’ll come and get you, don’t worry.”
Zara was quiet for a second. “But…”
“Your friends?” Kato said in an inquiring tone.
“Yes.”
“There’ll be room for them too.”
“Yes! Thanks, Dad. Be as quick as you can. Things aren’t good here.”
“I will. And keep your radio on, so we can locate you.”
“The sky is just the same, Dad,” Kassandra said. The cloudy day had given way to a night of crystal clear stars. Kassandra lay on her left side, in the field where the travelers had stopped, looking up.
“What do you mean?” Akio said, as his eyes scanned the heavens. Zara was asleep behind him.
“It looks just the same as it did before all of this hateful stuff happened. All of us humans, with our ugly, awful ways. It’s like the stars just look down on us, never changing. There might have been times when they looked down proudly, but now they’re just mocking us.” Akio looked over. Kassandra’s pretty face was in profile from where he lay, illuminated by star and moon light. Her large eyes were like telescopes, scanning the heavens and taking in information.
“Were you always this deep?” Akio said.
“Yes. But, I never had anyone I could really talk to about anything that mattered. I was just seen as this rich party girl. So, I went along with it.” Kassandra shrugged. “Some people thought I was dumb and spoiled. So, I just let them keep on thinking it.” Little wisps of breath condensed near Kassandra’s mouth when she spoke.
All was silent for half a minute. Most of the others in their party were asleep. “Were you—are you—okay?” Akio asked. “You seemed happy growing up.”
“Well, I was okay. I observed and thought about things a lot. I just didn’t talk much. That’s how I dealt with all the fakers that just wanted to be around me because of my money. I let them think they mattered, and that this was the type of life I wanted to lead. But, I knew there was more to me.”
“You said you were okay. As in past tense.”
Kassandra sighed. She looked at Akio. “I hate the stars. I may have grown up among them, but that’s where it, that awful asshole, came from. The death and destruction and inhumanity I’ve seen in the last six weeks…”
“Seung Yi?”
“Yes. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to dissociate all of the suffering, the piles of bodies right around us for Christ’s sake, from the sky.”
“I can understand why you’d think that way. But, it’s still beautiful,” Akio said. “Don’t let him rob you of enjoying it. Choose to associate it with something else instead. Think about your grandpa heading out there hundreds of years ago, and your mom saving him.” Kassandra snorted. Akio continued, “If all that hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t be here. Fate, whatever you want to call it, used its mighty hand to move your mom from the 21st century to the 25th. That couldn’t have happened had she not been in space for most of that time, up there in the heavens.”
“Well, maybe…” Kassandra trailed off. She lifted her head up and scanned horizontally around them. The lights of the D489 highway marched off into the distance. They could make out pedestrians and vehicles heading out of Lyon. “You know something Dad?”
“What?”
“Part of me enjoyed killing those people.”
“Really?”
“Wait, that came out wrong. I didn’t mean for the sake of killing them. I haven’t turned into Seung Yi. I mean, fighting for The Excluded. Starting with Taygete. And then the battle. Fighting was an almighty rush, Dad. I think I was meant to be a warrior.” Kassandra looked up at the sky again.
“Hmm. From the sound of things, I’d probably have to agree with you,” Akio said. “You come from good stock. Your mom hijacked Seung Yi’s ship, of course. And way back in the mists of time, your great grandma on your dad’s side saved a Chinese guy near Mars. She traveled thousands of kilometers from the mother ship, alone, and very nearly died in the attempt.”
Kassandra smiled. “Yeah, I remember Mom telling me that story over and over again when I was little. It means more to me now, having put myself on the line a few times. If I ever have a girl, I’ll name her Kinuko, after Grandma.”
----
Zara shivered, as everyone else. The dawn light was touching the flatlands to the west. The sunrise itself was blocked by the massive vertical bulk of Lyon. Dewdrops had gathered on people’s clothes and the withered corn stalks.
“Wake up, members of The Excluded!” Lord August called, as he stood up in the middle of the group. “We march on.”
“We’re so hungry!” a voice said.
“And thirsty!” another said.
“Then anyone who has water is to share with those who don’t,” Lord August said. “As The Excluded, we support one another, even at cost to ourselves.”
David turned to Vivianne. “Nobody’s getting this.” He patted his jacket. His chest bulged slightly on the left side. Inside, a small flask of water was concealed. “Look at her lips.” He nodded at Etienne. Her teeth were chattering from the cold and her lips were chapped from thirst. She had slept on David’s sweatshirt to insulate her from the ground, with another covering her. “She comes first,” David said. Vivianne nodded.
“She can have some of mine too,” Annabelle half-whispered.
“Thanks,” Vivianne said. She turned to Etienne. “Sit up baby. Time for breakfast.” The red-cheeked child obeyed. Her blonde hair was tangled and dirty. Vivianne handed her a small red plastic cup of water, and David passed her three crackers from the supply in his pocket. Etienne wolfed them down. Vivianne took one of her hold hands in both of her own, and rubbed them together to create heat. “Thank you so much for being good through all this, honey. It means so much to Mommy and Daddy.”
“Is it still our holiday?”
“Yes, that’s what it is. We’re still on holiday.” People around them slowly began to sit up, stretching stiff arms and legs. Their breath condensed into small clouds of vapor. There was general grumbling as cases, bags, and carts were repacked.
David pulled out his display unit and opened a
map. “Not sure what route we’re taking. If it’s west, we’ll hit Feurs today. I wonder what things are like in the rest of the country.” He turned to Vivianne. “If we survive this, I want to get back to England. I doubt Mum and Dad are still alive.” Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Oh Dave.” Vivianne threw her arms around him. “I wish I could make it better. If I could take my life force and give it to bring them back, I would.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” They kissed. The other around them busied themselves, pretending not to see their private moment. Etienne hugged both of their legs. Vivianne scooped her up with one arm, so she was face to face with them. Etienne put her arms around their shoulders. “I love you, mon bébé,” Vivianne said.
“Are you sad, Daddy?”
“Yes I am, baby.”
“Should we sing him the song, Mommy?” Vivianne nodded. Etienne continued, to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:
I have feelings, so do you,
Let’s all sing about a few,
We get happy, we get sad,
We get scared, we get mad,
I am proud of being me,
That’s a feeling, too, you see.
Both parents burst into full-on tears for half a minute. “You’re a lifesaver, my little love,” David said, eventually.
“Move on out! Let’s go!” JC’s voice cut the moment in two.
“Let’s walk again,” Vivianne said.
“I’ll carry her for now,” David said. He let go of Vivianne and hoisted Etienne onto his shoulders. Annabelle brushed away a tear, having seen Etienne’s comforting David.
Antonio remained dour-faced. Then, he spoke to Annabelle. “I never appreciated what I had before. But I do now!”
Annabelle danced a little jig. “Finally!”
Antonio put his finger up to his lips. “Shhhh!” Annabelle grinned.
Kassandra touched her toes to stretch, and put her ski mask in her pocket. She instinctively patted her belt, which held her concealed weapons. Slowly, the 300 people rallied and began to move back towards the road.
Annabelle pointed up. “Look! A plane! First one I’ve seen since we landed here.” A barely-visible dot moved east at a high altitude. It left no contrail.
“There’s life in other places then,” Kassandra said.
“Yeah.”
###
Six hours of slow walking brought The Excluded to the town of Feurs. There was a small lake to the left of the highway. Many of the group rushed down to its swampy, reed-covered banks to scoop the cold water into their mouths. After a pause, during which bottles and flasks were refilled, they continued their march. Muddy footprints were left in their wake. Fellow refugees trudged along the road with them. “Damn, I’m hungry,” Kassandra said. Soon, they reached the outskirts of the town. They joined the edge of a large crowd, which filled the road and spilled off either side onto the grassland. They jostled and shouted angrily.
JC stepped to the edge of the crowd, standing on tiptoes to see over the mass of heads. “What’s happening?” he asked a tousle-headed man in front of him.
“There’s a blockade. They’re not letting anyone into Feurs.”
JC frowned. “Who’s ‘they’?”
“I don’t know.”
“Alright. Who’s the tallest person we’ve got?” He turned around and spotted Antonio towards the rear of their group. “Oi! Come here!” JC yelled. He couldn’t hear over the shouting. “Go and get him for Chrissakes,” he said to Blake. A minute later, Blake returned with a frightened looking Antonio. “Get up on my shoulders, big guy,” JC said. “Tell me what’s going on.” Once up high, Antonio stared hard at the chaos.
“Lots of people with machine guns,” he yelled, to be heard over the commotion. “Two trucks blocking the road.”
JC set Antonio down. “Crap. They’ve got the town sealed off.” JC turned around, to face the rest of The Excluded. “Back up! That way!” He pointed back they way they had come, with the forefingers of both hands. Once people had slowly turned and started shuffling back along the road, JC turned to Lord August and said: “We’ll take the bypass road and then go south to the town of Montrond-les-Bains.”
“How far is it?”
“Fifteen kilometers, give or take.”
“We won’t make it! Everybody’s exhausted and starving!”
“Tell me what choice we have!”
August sighed. “Probably not much.”
“It’ll be nearly dark by the time we get there,” JC said. “Then, we’ll let the Raiders do what they do best.”
“Where do you suppose they all went?” David said. The D1082 highway, along which they were now heading south away from Feurs, was as straight as an arrow. Small lakes dotted the flat landscape.
“Where who went?” Vivianne said.
“All the people from Lyon. There had to have been millions. But this road’s almost empty compared to the last one.”
“Maybe there weren’t as many as we thought…” Vivianne trailed off. She had bags under her eyes, and her eyelids drooped from sheer exhaustion. Etienne had fallen asleep, slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The others around them didn’t talk at all, but looked grimly ahead. Complaining about either hunger or thirst was implicitly forbidden as it would sap what little spirit and energy they had left. They heard a little scream somewhere ahead. Walkers in front of them stopped, so Kassandra, David, Vivianne and everybody else had to stop. A crowd gathered. They leaned in to try and see what was going on. An old lady had dropped to the ground. A stocky fifty-something man picked her up, without a word, and carried her in his arms.
“Oh, that’s Seth!” Antonio said excitedly. “I worked with him a lot.”
The daylight was already half-gone. The lights of Montrond-les-Bains could be seen ahead. “Not too long now,” Kassandra said to Annabelle, who was walking to her left. “We’re gonna go raid for food.”
“You already told me,” Annabelle grunted.
Kassandra looked hurt. “I know, but I’m excited about it.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Kassandra patted down her weapons for the tenth time since they had left Feurs. All was silent again. Kassandra looked ahead. Then, she frowned slightly. “Did you see that?”
“What?” Annabelle said.
“Something coming down the road towards us at high speed.”
“No.” Annabelle squinted into the distance. “Wait… it eclipsed the town lights for a second there. There’s a bunch of them! One… two… three… four… five… six… seven…”
“I don’t like this,” Kassandra said. As she pulled on her ski mask, flashes went off in the midst of the crowd, with crackles of lightning. Screaming and pandemonium broke out, as walkers fell to the ground. “E-bombs!” Kassandra yelled.
“Attack!” JC yelled, as he pulled on his own hood. People from the group began running in all directions. Kassandra spun around. “Taygete! Asterope! Where are you?”
“Here!” came two voices from roughly ten meters ahead. They were with their unit. Kassandra pressed the button built into her pants, and went into ghost mode. She ran over to the other girls, who were doing the same. “Who the hell’s attacking us?”
“There!” Asterope pointed along the road, in the direction from which they had come. Riders on sleek, silent gray motorcycles had already passed them. They were behind the group, making U-turns, ready to attack again. They also had on active camouflage, making them very difficult to see in the half light.
“Bastards!” Kassandra yelled. She dipped her hand into her belt and pulled out a clutch of e-bombs. She then threw a handful in the direction of the riders. All missed. They were now charging back at the hapless travelers. More clusters of e-bombs came flying, discharging all over The Excluded. More shrieks, more people hitting the pavement like bowling pins. Vivianne was stunned. Etienne fell to the ground. With her last ounce of strength, Vivianne had made sure she land
ed the right way up and the little girl didn’t smash her head on the pavement. Etienne sat amid the yelling and flashes, and began to cry. David dove next to her and curled himself protectively around her tiny frame.
Kassandra crouched. Some of the riders would pass by the right side of the group. This would bring them within a few meters of her, Taygete, and Asterope. She tensed herself to spring, like a cat about to pounce. Three riders accelerated down the right side of the road. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as the half-invisible machines sped in single file back past The Excluded. Kassandra dove straight into the path of the first rider as though she were the goalkeeper in a soccer match. She was at chest height when it hit her. Kassandra wrapped her arms around the rider’s upper body. They spun through the air. The motorcycle kept going. A few seconds later, Kassandra and the attacker landed on the dirt at the side of the road. Kassandra’s back hit the ground. She cushioned him from the worst of the impact. They skidded along, still intertwined. The back of Kassandra’s uniform was shredded by the gravel and pebbles on the rough surface. Both combatants were winded from the impact. Kassandra tried to get at her right inner pocket, even as they were still sliding, to withdraw a knife. She couldn’t. Eventually they came to a halt. “Screw you!” came a French voice from behind the attacker’s ski mask. He rolled off her, sat up, drew a fist back, and rammed it into the right side of Kassandra’s face. She shrieked in pain. He then pulled out a stun baton and prodded her with it. Electricity arced across her body and she didn’t move anymore.
Taygete had managed to shoot out the front tire of the bike behind the one that Kassandra intercepted. It wobbled out of control, and its rider hit the ground. But, she and Asterope had forgotten one basic part of their training: not standing too close together. One well-placed e-bomb from the third motorcycle them both down at once. More bikers poured up the road towards them from the south. The Defenders fought with everything they had. Blake hit one attacker in the face with an e-bomb. He then whipped out his gun and was crouching in the firing position facing the oncoming stream of riders. He narrowed his eyes as he took aim. With both hands on the pistol, he pulled the trigger again and again. The bullets hit home, but bounced off their attackers’ body armor. Blake kept firing. JC was doing the same. The tires of three bikes were shot out, sending them flying into the edge of the group of The Excluded. One shot hit the side of a bike that was still fifty meters distant. Its power plant exploded, throwing its rider into the air and knocking over the speeding machine next to it. Still, the marauders kept coming. For every one that had been killed or disabled, three replaced them. Soon, machine guns were being pointed at The Excluded from all directions. People hacked and convulsed from the after effects of e-bomb detonations. The Defenders had no choice but to surrender. Zara and Akio lay clutching each other on the ground. Neither had been hit, but they played dead. Then Zara lifted her head up and looked around. “Kassie! Where is she? I can’t see her!” An attacker stood a few meters away, with a machine gun pointed at the group.
The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series Page 23
