Stranger Tides

by Jack Castle

  Stepping up beside him, Maddie asked, with a smirk, almost as if judging him, “What’s the matter, kid, you’ve never seen a dead body before?”

  Henry had seen dead bodies before. He wanted to tell her he had seen lots of them. After all, body disposal had been his job, and he was darn good at it. But, he had never seen a corpse like this. In The Factory nothing was ever wasted. Bodies were stripped down of all belongings, and even their flesh was used as fuel for the furnace. This body had been dead for a long time and barely resembled a human being.

  He felt a comforting hand squeeze his shoulder. “You gonna be okay, buddy?” The hand belonged to Traxx. “You kinda look like you’re gonna puke.”

  Henry shook his head. “No. I’m fine. I’ve seen dead bodies before. Just not like this.” With his next breath, the smell hit him. Henry felt himself shudder involuntarily, and may have thrown up in his mouth a little. He quickly swallowed the bile back down so Maddie wouldn’t see.

  As they moved farther away from the rollup door, and daylight, Henry felt the air growing colder and could now see his own breath. He grabbed his shoulders and rubbed them for warmth. To no one in particular he muttered, “Whew, it’s a bit cold in here.”

  Hearing this, Maddie turned back toward him. He hadn’t meant it as a complaint. After all, in The Factory he had been cold many times before. He fully expected her to fire off some insult regarding his masculinity, but she surprised him.

  Instead, she handed her flare to Traxx for safekeeping, and then grabbed him by his wrist. She examined the gauge sewn onto the outside of his forearm and said, “No wonder you’re cold. Your thermostat’s turned off.” She brushed off some of the light crystallized air that had gathered there and thumbed a button. “There, I set it to 69 degrees Fahrenheit. You should be feeling better shortly.”

  She gave him a reassuring nod, reclaimed her flare from Traxx, and led them out of the receiving area through swinging doors.

  The outer rooms were void of anything useful, so they moved deeper into the mall. The walls were thicker now and the outside storm became muffled. As the light grew dimmer, Maddie and Traxx had to click on their flashlights. Using their gun barrels to clear away the cobwebs, they managed to navigate another abandoned and ransacked department store unscathed.

  Exiting the store into the main mall, they stepped into a wide-open area. Daylight was streaming in through broken skylights overhead. Henry, thankful for the additional light, joined Maddie and Traxx who were standing at the railing and overlooking two sub floors. Maddie discarded her dying flare and took in their surroundings.

  They were standing in a main causeway with numerous stores and shops lining both sides of the main thoroughfare. Dust, dirt and debris had settled over everything, along with the ripe stench of decay. If you removed all the dilapidation, the mall was similar to the ones Henry remembered from his youth.

  Wait, since when were you in a mall? he wondered. An image of holding someone’s hand, much taller than himself, flashed across his memory. Parents perhaps?

  Glass crunched beneath Maddie’s boot as she abandoned the railing and headed for a nearby escalator. As they descended the broken stairs, Henry became very aware of the ripe odor of dead animals, rotting wood and disuse. He purposely chose not to guess the origin of the yellow and brown stains smeared on the walls between storefronts.

  Maddie was first to reach the floor below ground. As she moved deeper into the mall, Henry sidled up next to Traxx and asked in a harsh whisper, “How much deeper into the mall does she plan on taking us?”

  Traxx studied Henry’s face for a moment. It was as though the younger boy had forgotten he was with them. He checked in with the data pad he wore on his thigh. “We’re nearly at the turnaround point now. If we don’t find something in the next ten minutes or so, we’ll start heading back.”

  Traxx didn’t sound very convincing, not even to himself.

  As they moved deeper within, Henry felt a growing sense of unease, mostly because they were moving farther and farther away from the Hopper, and the delivery entrance. Periodically, Traxx would pause, open his computer strapped to his thigh, enter coordinates into it, and move onward again. The only reassuring thing Henry could cling to was the way Maddie and Traxx moved with relaxed precision, seldom checking with one another and speaking only when necessary. They had obviously done this sort of thing before.

  The bottom floor appeared as though it had been picked over for the last two hundred years and little remained. Staring at all the dereliction, Henry tried to suppress all the new questions he had. In as calm a voice as he could muster, he asked Traxx, whom was walking only slightly ahead of him, “Where is everyone? What happened to all the people?”

  Traxx kept his voice low when he answered. “Depends on who you ask. The Leftenant says war wiped everyone out. But, Maddie’s dad was beginning to believe it was something else.”

  “Like what?”

  Before Traxx could answer, Maddie stopped suddenly and held up her fist indicating for them to stop. Without saying a word, Traxx immediately stopped in front of him. The younger boy had stopped so abruptly, Henry nearly crashed right into him.

  Maddie’s fist changed into a forefinger gesturing that something lay ahead. Henry leaned over to peer around Traxx and saw another wide open area lit by candles. As they moved closer, Maddie and Traxx kept scanning the upper floor and their immediate surroundings. If they had seen anything hiding in the shadows or behind the piles-and-piles of debris to either side of them, they didn’t say it.

  I hate this place… I really-really hate it… Henry thought.

  “Look there, up ahead,” Maddie said, training her light down the causeway. He and Traxx hurried up next to her and added the illumination from their own flashlights.

  Henry watched them forge ahead without him. Refusing to take another step, he stared past them at what appeared to be a modest encampment made up of crates and supplies, all neatly arranged in a nice semi-circle. Seeing that he wasn’t following, Maddie called back over her shoulder to him, “C’mon Henry, hurry up,” and immediately began rifling through the open crates. “Looks like we hit the jackpot boys.”

  Henry moved closer. She was right, they had indeed hit the jackpot: A dozen or so First Aid kits, hundreds of canned foods, and tons of miscellaneous tools, weapon parts and mechanical devices.

  “We can’t take this stuff,” Henry said aloud. “It doesn’t belong to us.”

  Maddie flashed him a look of incredulousness, as if he had just spewed-up something completely insane. “Do you see anybody else here? Cuz I sure don’t.”

  Traxx must’ve been okay with the stealing too, because he was also searching the ragtag grouping of supplies.

  Henry stared at the candles burning down. “Somebody must’ve been here because somebody must’ve lit those candles.”

  Hearing this, Traxx explained, “Henry, those candles are holograms.” Dropping his found treasures back into the crate, he walked over to the nearest one and said, “Here, watch.” Henry watched as the younger boy passed his hand through the candle as though it were a ghost. “See?” Traxx said. “Don’t worry, Henry. You’ll get the hang of spotting what’s real and what’s an illusion before you know it.”

  Henry doubted he ever would.

  Maddie Harrumphed. “Yeah, especially after you hang around The Leftenant long enough.” She grabbed a duffel bag from one of the crates and began loading supplies into it.

  That was when Henry first saw it… the giant, not-so-white rabbit.

  Chapter 18

  Pack of Mechanized Misfits

  “Uh, guys…”

  There were a lot of things that Henry noticed about the giant not-so-white rabbit, the moment it had emerged from the shadows, madly chittering away only a scant few yards from where they stood.

  The rabbit wasn’t a giant per say. Standing on his hind legs like a man, he was only about five feet tall. Also, he wasn’t exactly white. Maybe he once was,
but now his fur was filthy and caked with dirt and mud. Still further, Henry could see mechanical gears protruding grotesquely out of various places of the creature’s molted skin.

  As the not-so-white rabbit took him in, and then Maddie and then Traxx, its head moved with jerking movements, accompanied by distinctive clicking sounds (like gears grinding against one another). The broken rabbit’s head click-click-clicked back in his direction and now Henry could see a tiny, pink tongue lick its blood-stained mouth in eager anticipation.

  Despite knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that thing was some sort of mechanized monstrosity, Henry couldn’t shake the feeling that the rabbit was alive. Staring at him, its features contorted, as if dealing with an extreme amount of inner torment.

  Henry shuddered involuntarily.

  “Oh look,” Maddie cooed, “Henry made a friend.”

  Falling rocks were first heard, then seen tumbling down into a huge pile of debris closest to Maddie. Lifting their eyes to the rockslide’s source, Henry saw a medieval Knight standing atop the mountain of garbage. The knight had only one arm, but the heavily-worn mace he wielded with it, still seemed dangerous enough.

  Almost simultaneously, a metal grating at Traxx’s feet suddenly lifted up on its own accord, scraping the pavement as it slid off to one side. To Henry’s horror, reptilian claws slowly began pulling a slimy inhuman monster out of the sewer’s murky depths.

  Traxx unslung his rifle as he backed away from the scaly monstrosity and was soon standing even with Henry. Without taking his eyes off the subterranean monster he said, “Don’t worry, Henry, these are only first gens.”

  “First gens?”

  “Yeah, think of them as extras in a movie.”

  Hearing this, Maddie said in a harsh whisper, “I don’t think Henry has ever seen a movie.”

  Henry picked his head up at this. Despite the worrisome circumstances, he managed, “Yes I have.” But, at the moment, he couldn’t exactly recall a specific one. At least I think I have, he thought inwardly.

  Traxx must’ve seen how scared he was because he offered, “Seriously, you’ve got nothing to worry about. They probably just wandered off from their respective lands, found their way here, and formed a pack. They almost never attack.”

  His words sank in slowly, “Almost… never attack?”

  Calmly, Maddie also began to retreat from the one-armed knight. “Alright boys, nice and slow, let’s make our way back to the Hopper. Smooth and easy, no sudden movements.”

  As though hearing this, the one-armed knight shouted down to her, “You there, knave. Prepare to be bested!” He raised his mace high above his head and charged down the hill of garbage toward Maddie with a loud battle cry.

  At the same time, the lagoon monster lunged for Traxx’s feet.

  By all sense of logic, the one-armed knight or the lagoon monster should have scared Henry the most. However; for some reason, that honor belonged to the Not-So-White Rabbit creeping toward him. The moment the rabbit got about halfway to him, everything erupted in total chaos. Maddie was shouting at the knight, “Stay back, I don’t want to have to shoot you!” and the knight was yelling back, “Have at me knave! Have at me!”

  Maddie did have at him.

  “Boring.” In a move far beyond her age, she calmly drew her pistol and shot him in the head.

  The knight’s helmet (presumably with his head still in it) went bouncing past Traxx, whom was already taking aim at the subterranean creature.

  Maddie then shouted at him, “Henry, the rabbit, watch out!”

  Henry was horrified to learn that the Not-So-White Rabbit was no longer where he had last seen him. It had vanished. An eerie shadow rose up on the stack of crates in front of him. The shadow behind his had tall rabbit ears. Henry spun all the way around just in time. He jerked his face backward as the rabbit’s yellow-stained teeth CHOMPED down on the air space his nose had occupied only a few seconds before.

  CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP!

  The chittering rabbit continued to snap its jaws with each step closer to him. Henry backpedaled. Seeing this, the gnarly creature hunkered down, leapt into the air and dove on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

  Henry gripped the motley rabbit by its disgusting narrow shoulders with both hands, while barely managing to keep its chomping teeth out of his face. In one last bite, the rabbit’s eyeball fell out of its socket and dangled by a silvery cord over Henry’s face.

  As the rabbit’s remaining good eye examined him, Henry shouted aloud, “Maddie, help!”

  Henry risked a glance to the side, but Maddie was busy thundering off shots at more attackers prowling in the darkness beyond the candle’s light. If he was going to survive, Henry realized he was going to have to save himself.

  He dodged his head to the left and right to keep his face from getting chewed off. Still on his back, and pinned by the rabbit, he drew up his knees and planted his feet squarely on the rabbit’s abdomen. He then shoved with every last ounce of muscle he had earned in The Factory. The rabbit flew off and landed on its back.

  Fearful the rabid bunny would pin him again, Henry scrambled quickly to his feet. He could see the rabbit violently kicking its legs in an attempt to turn over, all the while screaming a sound that was a cross between metal grinding and an animal shrieking in rage. Henry knew it wouldn’t be long before it got back up again.

  There was a loud explosion as Traxx began shooting at the creature climbing out of the sewer. Maddie was also busy fending off even more assailants. Henry thought he glimpsed one dressed like a spaceman, another like a zombie, and still another like an oversized lawn gnome.

  The rabbit regained its feet; twitched its one good eye at him and crouched down like it did before. Any second now, it would dive on top of him again, only this time, Henry knew it was unlikely he’d escape.

  If only I had a weapon. The only thing that was even close to being a weapon was the metal disc he carried on his back that could shave off the back of his skull.

  The rabbit leapt.

  Henry dropped to all fours, remembered to tilt his head slightly forward, and slammed the palm of his hand on the button on his chest.

  WHOOSH!

  Henry felt the air on the back of his neck and head as the disc shot out of his harness and whisked past him. He didn’t see the not-so-white rabbit catapult backwards into the darkness. When Henry finally did lift his head, he saw the remainder of mechanized Misfits (the ones that hadn’t been cut down by Traxx and Maddie) were scampering away as best as they were able.

  Certain they were gone, Maddie holstered her pistol. Her astonished eyes did little to reassure him. “Henry, are you alright?”

  His ears still ringing from the gunshots, Henry could only stand there in dumbfounded shock.

  Maddie, raising her voice, asked again, “Henry, I asked you if you are alright. Did he bite you? Are you hurt?”

  Now that the ringing was beginning to die down in his ears, he could hear the concern in her voice. He shook his head, surprised he was in fact unharmed. He saw the medieval knight’s helmet now lying at his feet. He didn’t dare look inside it. “You killed them.” He hadn’t meant to sound so accusatory, it had just sort of come out that way.

  Maddie made a derogatory sound akin to a deflating balloon. Henry noticed she liked to do that a lot.

  “Please,” she said. “These guys are barely first gens.” Picking up the helmet, she tossed it to him so he could peer inside it. When he finally managed to, he could see that there was nothing inside. She explained, “These guys aren’t people, they’re merely background scenery that wandered off from their lands.”

  Henry, not knowing what to do with the empty helmet, solemnly placed it on a nearby pile of cinder blocks. A second later, it tumbled off. He went to pick it up, but ended up kicking it away with his foot by accident.

  “Just leave it,” Maddie said.

  Dusting his palms off on his jumpsuit, Henry asked, “So they’re not…people?”

>   “No,” Maddie shot back. Clearly, she didn’t appreciate being called a murderer.

  Traxx intoned, “Sides, if they were, they would’ve killed us and torn apart our Hopper.” He slung his rifle, and both he and Maddie immediately began loading up supplies into absconded duffel bags, only this time with much more fervor.

  Without slowing down, Maddie called back to them. “Let’s grab what we can before they come back with reinforcements.”

  Chapter 19

  This is not my house

  A severed robot head.

  This was the first thing George Stapleton saw when he awoke. It was propped up on a chair across the room and was just staring at him.

  As his vision began to clear, he realized the severed robot head wasn’t a robot head after all; in fact it was one of those old diving helmets.

  Why does that seem familiar?

  The room wasn’t like any he’d woken up in before. It wasn’t an underground hospital room, or a commercial airliner surrounded by giant sunflowers with human faces, nor was it a Russian Cold War submarine. No. This room was nothing like any of those rooms. It was totally normal. That in itself made it entirely abnormal.

  A set of clothes were neatly folded on a nearby dresser.

  Lying on top of the covers, he realized he was wearing old boxers and a white t-shirt that reminded him of the G.I.’s in the 50’s. Not that he was old enough to remember them, but he had seen the undergarments in the movies. To add to the illusion, his dog tags jangled about his neck when he moved. Examining them, he saw that they were in fact his dog tags and not part of some historical costume.

  He groaned as he threw his stiff leg over the side of the bed. Tentatively, he put some weight on it. Testing it, he found it was painful, but manageable.