by Nolan Oreno
Autumn was enjoying her moment's rest when her ears attuned to distant voices. She rolled her body to the sounds, remaining prone to the plateau. A few hundred meters away from her current position to the side of the ash-blackened glass dome, Autumn could make out three figures alongside two Crawlers paying no attention to her. She had to find a way to hijack one of the vehicles, and if time allowed, a way to disable the other. Autumn had to be quick, knowing they might leave any moment or enter to garden to find her missing. She stayed low to the ground, using small dunes as cover, and moved towards the vehicles. A dozen meter sprint, leap to a prone position, recover, and again. She made her way close enough so that she could hear the words being exchanged.
“They’re dead. That much carbon dioxide would toxify their lungs to a point of no return," said Saul.
“But what about the exosuit they have with them?" returned a nervous Maven.
“What of it? There’s only one way out, and it’s right here in front of us. You two will remain here until I return, making sure no one comes through this door, got it?"
“Where will you go?" The third voice asked, it being Franco.
“Back to the Hub. I’ll sound an emergency alert, telling the others there's been an explosion at the garden, and I’ll bring in the first responders. With all the mad-scientist shit Hollis has been doing in here I’m certain nobody will be surprised that he managed to kill himself by mixing unmixable chemicals."
“And Autumn? The baby?" Franco pushed.
A pause. “A consequence of her betrayal to the colony. She was the one who ran to him, they all saw that. She didn’t want to come with us, and there was no convincing her," Saul said coldly.
“But what if she’s alive? She might have the exosuit," Maven added.
“Then we’ll trap her in there until she’s run out of air. Either way I won’t send anyone in until I can be assured they’re dead by natural causes."
“But Saul, you never said anything about killing her. You said we’d get her back, no matter what it took," Franco said.
“Yeah, we can’t kill the baby, it goes against everything we’ve fought for," Maven agreed.
“You heard me before, there was no convincing her. We already lost the baby before I came, but don’t worry, there will be more. So both of you will do exactly as I say. You will not let anyone through that door, got it?"
Autumn had heard enough long ago. She had crawled the remainder of the way to the backside of her Crawler, unseen by the Saul, Maven, and Franco. There was no time to electronically sabotage the other Crawler, but she had another plan, one much less delicate.
The Crawler jumped to life, shocking the three spacemen nearly out of their suits. The engine revved and shot forward, forcing the men to leap out of the way. The vehicle kicked up sand into their faces, throwing them backward as if they were in a sandstorm, and it continued to fly full force toward the second Crawler. A direct hit. The second Crawler fishtailed and flipped over onto its back side, and the first lost no speed as it endured the impact. It advanced away from the remnants of the garden, the three angry men, and the broken Crawler, and sped across the desert to the towers that illuminated high above the wasteland.
The passing of the next hour was uneventful for Autumn. Never once did she take her eyes off the distant city ahead. She saved her oxygen the best she could, breathing as much of the vehicles reserves as possible. Just before her arrival to the city, she was forced to reconnect to her own suits O2 tank, discovering there to be only five hours of oxygen remaining. Could she make it?
The Crawler rolled into the dark city streets. Few lights lit Autumn's path and made it difficult to navigate around debris. Most of the towers were unpowered and void of oxygen, but Autumn recalled Tower One should have already begun the oxygenation process. That meant Tower One must be nearly fully habitable, and at the very least, parts of its vast network of rooms might be safe. Autumn carved the Crawler around the ruins of Tower Twelve and continued into the grid of sandy streets towards Tower One. She past dozens of rows of hibernating builder drones as they recharged their solar cells for the work to be done at Saul’s command. Autumn craved to get as much rest as the sleeping robots.
“Tower One, please have what I need," Autumn whispered as she approached its entrance.
Just the same as the others, the tower looked dead from the outside, but she hoped she had made the right choice. She drew the Crawler around the side of a nearby tower, hiding it amongst construction wreckage in hopes to throw her pursuers off, then unlatched herself from the cockpit.
“Less than four hours," She panted looking at her O2 gauge as she hopped onto the desert basin. She bounded towards the entrance, sidestepping even more sleeping Builders, and at last made it inside. There was no atmospheric seal to decompress. The gate was halfway open already, letting plumes of sand comb their way into the apartment lobby, and Autumn resisted the urge to rip off her humid helmet for just a little while longer. She traversed into the half-built entrance, studying the electrical cords coating the ceiling. If she followed them, they would lead her to the circuit board in the power distribution center of the tower. There, she could use her basic knowledge to divert power throughout the complex, including oxygen and temperature controllers.
She did just that. After a minute of following the wiring down into the sub-basement of the building, Autumn inspected the oversized circuit panel. She was forced to tinker for a bit, but luckily she was knowledgeable enough from her basic training and additional lessons from Saul. She harnessed power from three unused solar generators and sent it to the top four floors of the tower.
Power system restored.
If the others did come to find her, it would give her enough time to escape while they searched all the floors. Autumn double checked the oxygen readout, indicating the successful sealing of all fifty-eight apartments on the four floors as well as their full oxygenation, and then she locked back up the control panel.
The climb to the top was the toughest part. Autumn passed six floors before taking a break, checking to the rapid beat of her second heart, and she moved again when she felt it slow. Another two floors, break, and then she was in the powered top section of the tower. She made it to the second to top floor, floor eleven, before deciding upon a room. The room was barely built, showing exposed insulation and broken flooring, and it featured no other furniture or amenities aside from a dusty mattress, but the oxygen compression and decompression operated perfectly, and that was all that mattered. Once locked safe inside, Autumn tore off her helmet and breathed hungrily. Whether it was the effect of over-breathing to the brain, the traumatic events of the past few hours, or the sheer relief of finding a temporary safe haven, she fell instantly into a deep and uninterrupted sleep.
Autumn could not comprehend her dream, only that it unnerved her greatly. Something was in the dark, with her, nearby and growing nearer. There was also a low vibration accompanying the pursuer, but nowhere for her to run. What was that vibration, that sound? Growling? It overtook her body. She awoke, but to her dismay the vibration was still there, swelling into the room.
“What now!" she screamed in exhaustion. “What fucking now!"
The vibration quickened and rattled everything around her. The overhead lighting sparked and flashed until all went dark in the complex. Autumn turned herself to a crouched position and took hold of the wall. A loud hum overtook all other sounds and suddenly all the bulbs burst like a firework. Then, the vibration halted and a soft hissing followed.
Power system decoupled. Reverse-oxygenation in progress. Alert. Power system decoupled. Please put on your exosuits. This is an emergency alert.
“No, no, no," Autumn ranted. “Just give me more time! I need more time!"
The low hissing continued to gather strength, and Autumn could feel her lungs tighten. She threw herself to her exosuit, reluctantly drawing herself back inside. From there she secured her helmet and read the oxygen readout.
“Ju
st under two hours," she sighed, and she pushed herself from the room and into the dark hallway. Red lights flared on the apartment floor and illuminated pathways directed her to the emergency stairwell. It was a descent she did not look forward to making again. It seemed that one of the tower’s generators was failing, an issue she could resolve back at the circuit board downstairs in the basement. Now that she had more energy from her sleep (How long was she out? Minutes? Hours?) she might also try to start searching for extra O2 canisters left behind by the engineers. There might be a way for her to make it til morning in her exosuit if she finds the canisters, but it would be an extra precaution to stabilize the buildings power first. At this point in its construction, the tower’s O2 system was highly underdeveloped, and she must take heed to this for now on. She cannot assume she is out of the woods just yet.
Autumn turned the hallway’s corner and jumped, finding a hulking figure standing there, motionless beneath the black and red lights. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus on who was there beneath the exosuit, but as hard as she looked, she could make out no distinguishing features from within the darkened helmet.
“Who are you?" Autumn let out in a panicked voice.
The suited figure took some steps towards her. Autumn backed off, growing warier of the mysterious presence. She gave it another handful of seconds for a response or any sign of goodwill, and then she decided to run. She spun around, and to her shock, a hovering Builder blocked her path of escape. Its metallic shell nearly took up the entirety of the narrow corridor and let out a series of digital chimes as it looked upon her as if it had found its prey. Autumn’s moment of hesitation was enough for the mysterious suited figure to sneak closer to her. She turned her head just in time to see the figure grab at her from behind. She let out a terrified yell and threw herself backward, knocking the figure down the open hall. The suited attacker fell onto their back, and in a quick coordinated effort, Autumn managed to maintain her stance by pushing through their falling torso. A moment after impacting the ground, the attacker reached for her ankle as she began her second escape, but it was too late to gain any real grasp.
Autumn bounded down the flickering hallway, and she rounded into the stairwell just in time to hear the bloodcurdling yell of a man thirsting for a kill.
“Autumn!" Saul screamed from the floor. “I’ll fucking rip your baby right out of you, you fucking whore! I’ll murder you both!"
Autumn could pay no heed to his words. She focused on her steps as she retreated down the abyss of a stairwell that curled before her. Down and down she went, panting through her O2 reserves and throwing her shoulders into the walls to slow herself when rounding a bend. She could hear the voices of Maven and Franco echoing from the lobby far below and slowed her pace. They had the building surrounded. She should not have fallen asleep. There was no escape. She would not get lucky twice.
When Autumn was about four floors down she rested on the platform and could hear the beeping of the pursuing Builder drone as it entered the stairwell from above. It was hunting her, another slave on Saul’s leash. It descended the shaft much quicker than she could, bypassing the platforms by shooting down the open middle. What it would do once it caught her, Autumn did not know, but she was certain it would be the same as if the two downstairs had encountered her. So she quickly exited the stairwell and entered another floor of the complex, floor seven. She remained a moment just outside the doorframe and listened as the machine roared past her, continuing down the stairwell after her ghost, soon to meet with Maven and Franco at its bottom.
The floor she had leaped into was vastly unfinished compared to those on the higher sections of the building. The majority of the walls were no more than rows of steel support beams, leaving few places to hide behind them, and some of the outer walling was simply a sheet of plastic to do no more than prevent dust from entering the building from the outside. It was clear to Autumn that this was not the place to find her much needed oxygen, let alone her escape, but this was not a time she could be picky.
Autumn quickly made due with what she had and pushed herself into the construction site, stepping aside crates and under plastic overhangs. A weapon. She needed a weapon. She flipped over tool containers and rummaged through piles of rusty and blunt objects. Just as she found her weapon of choice, she heard heavy footfalls enter the unbuilt floor.
“I know you’re here!" Saul screamed into the maze of bent steel. His balled fists shook at his sides, and he moved into the shadows.
“You won’t make it out of here," he said, moving between the beams after her. “Not you or your bastard of a child, unless you do exactly as I say."
The wind from the outside howled through the cracks in the structure.
“Do you think you can do that for once?" he screamed.
A sound. Saul jerked his head towards it just in time to see plastic sheeting flapping from a passerby. He began to stride in that direction.
“You think I’m a bad man for what I did, and you hate me, but you loved me once. You trusted me once."
Saul pushed aside boxes. “You trusted my plan.”
He ducked under the frame of a would-be doorway.
“Trust me now," he said, moving onwards, between a collage of tool crates.
“If you come out of hiding, I’ll let your baby live."
A stirring came around another corner, a few steps away. Saul moved to it, like a rat in a maze searching for his prize.
“That’s something I’m willing to give you. I’ll let your baby live, it that’s what it takes."
He found nothing there but a torn plastic window screen. The wind flapped through it, and beyond its blurry film, he could see the silhouette of his great city rising from the desert.
“Don’t let an innocent suffer from your crimes," he spoke out the trembling window. “Give yourself to me, and you have my word, your baby will live."
“No!" a voice shouted from behind him. “My baby won’t live without a mother."
Saul turned just in time to see a massive hammer tear across his glass visor, breaking into the side of his face. Glass shards daggered their way into his eye and cheek, and the toxic air of the outside was sucked into the now broken seal in his suit. He screamed, but still stood tall, refusing to give up the fight.
“You’re dead!" he screamed and charged at her, but Autumn also refused to give up so easily. She struck him with the hammer again, breaking even more glass into his blood-red face, and he faltered back, holding at his engorged and leaking eyes. She used his split-second of weakness to use all the force she had within her and threw herself at him, forcing him back even more, until he stumbled to the edge of the plastic window.
“Stop hurting us!" Autumn cried over and over again as she beat even more into his crumbling face with the hammer.
Again and again, the hammer hooked into his face and tore up more bone and muscle into the air. His face became less recognizable by the second and became nothing more than a red canvas of destruction. Eventually, Autumn stopped the beating, and Saul wavered in his standing, blood rolling from his concave face. He tried to say something, but only a gurgling noise came forth. Autumn attempted to comprehend his last sentence, and to her ears, all she heard was: let it fall. He then leaned backward, tumbling through the tear in the plastic screen and over the side of the tower. Gravity took Saul Lind the rest of the way, down seven stories to the sand and knotted steel below, breaking his back, neck, and body the moment he remet the earth.
Autumn stared down at the disfigured body at the buildings basin in an emotionless daze, and she watched, stunned, as two other distant figures ran towards it. She fell to her knees, letting the blood-soaked hammer fall from her hand, and for the first time in a long time, tears poured from her eyes. She mourned not for Saul’s death, Hollis’ death, or even for her survival throughout it all, but for something else entirely. She mourned because her water had broken during the struggle, and she began to feel a rising tension coming from deep w
ithin her stomach.
She was in labor.
Fearfully, she looked at her O2 readout: 89 minutes remaining. The air thickened and became hard to inhale, and she curled her body in a fetal position to slow her breath. What now? What could possibly save her now? There was no going back to the Hub, not after what she just did, and Maven and Franco would be waiting for her at the towers bottom. Beyond that, her oxygen was nearly empty, and even more of a problem, her exosuit could not allow her to give birth if she kept it on. She was stuck, even more so than before, and with nowhere left to go. Maybe this was the most humane way to die, with her child and by her own choice, even if it was the only choice she had. At least she had ridden the world of one less evil man before she went.
Her two hearts slowed their beating as she closed her eyes. The wind rattled through the exposed side of the tower and encircled her in a soft blanket. Everything slowed down, and in the quiet, Autumn found herself doing something she never had before. She tried speaking to something, anything that would care to listen. She prayed for her child's survival, her species survival. She begged for just one single act of concern for anything that happened to the life that lived in the universe.
And to her surprise, something spoke back.
Because the rain is warm.
Her eyes shot open, and at that moment, something tapped on her visors surface. A tiny, almost insignificant, bead of water was rolling down the outside of its glass, leaving a trail of its past placement as it scurried along. It rolled to the bottom of her visor then disappeared as it slid off the crest.
