[Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Webnovel] Machined Hearts: Lost Empire Chapter 3: Reinforcements
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Captain Jace
Less than two hours to sunset
Outer perimeter ice paths
Jace raised his carbine, locking his chin against the buttstock as he approached the metal double doors bobbing in the wind at the end of the ice tunnel. Tracing the outline of the doorframe with the muzzle, he slowed his pace. Drones can come at you from any direction and they do so in the most awkward angles imaginable. Sunset was near, and a mayday call so close to going dark was the last thing they needed, especially with both shelter commanders, Knight and Jace, out in the field. But there was no way someone else was going out to find Knight.
“Pierre, come in.” Jace said into the mic attached to the handheld radio strapped to his shoulder.
He took a knee and cast his gaze over his back, keeping his rifle at high ready. He got lucky. Two Shepherds responded to the call for help as well. Both were part of a group that ran the wastes looking for survivors. Stuff like this should be nothing new to them. Well, all of what he heard about the group was hearsay. This was the first time he’d ever seen one up close.
Former 37th Mountain Rangers, it was rare to see them so close to New Canterbury. Jace thought they had it bad back in the bunker, but both of his companions looked nightmarish. The worst he got were some holes in clothing, or cracks in the soles of shoes. He never thought he’d see a trash bag plate carrier. At a distance, they looked like they needed help. A squelch from his handheld snapped Jace’s attention forward. He called out to Pierre again.
“Here.” A weak voice echoed from within the lobby.
Leaping up, Jace rushed through the doors with his rifle aimed, sprinting to the middle of the room with his companions in tow, the plastic bags wrapped around their feet swished against the tattered carpet. The smell didn’t hit Jace until he took a knee next to Pierre. The scent of overcooked ham left out for over a week jetted up his nostrils. And Pierre didn’t look much better, he sank into the carpet like a pancake drifting into quicksand. The skin between him and the ground separating from his body. He was more a gelatinous mass than a man. Jace looked him up and down, shaking his head. “What happened?” Jace reached to prod the three gashes on Pierre’s forearm folding over what was left of his chest.
“No!” Pierre sputtered, sending ripples up and down his body. He took a moment to catch his breath. “Don’t touch.” Just moving his eyes around winded Pierre.
Jace shifted his weight to his back foot and moved a half-step backwards, casting a momentary gaze toward The Shepherds. They whispered to each other. He couldn’t see their lips moving through the wild underbrush of their beards, but with arms crossed, the two nodded between each other as the one closest to him casting a side-eye to Jace. The captain turned back to Pierre. “Where’s Knight?”
“She’s…” Pierre coughed and took a moment to draw breath. “North stair.” The color in his eyes started to fade as he inched his head to look toward to the double doors over his head.
“We have to get you up.” Jace said as he slung his rifle over his shoulder.
“No.” Pierre’s head started to list to the side.
“Leave him.” The first Shepherd said.
“His fate is sealed; we must get moving.” The second followed up.
Pierre’s head softened and spread out, creeping across the carpet. His eyes darted side to side and small ripples emitted from his neck down his body. Jace pursed his lips with a furrowed brow as he pulled his rifle back to a low ready. He stood up and nodded to the Shepherds and stepped around Pierre towards the double doors deeper into the office building.
“Don’t… let them get you…” Pierre called out as Jace crossed the threshold, his voice trailing off.
Jace stopped for a moment, looking back. The lobby fell silent. The pool that was once Pierre coagulated and the spread accelerated, seeping into the other dead bodies beside him. The first Shepherd gave Jace a shove. “We move, there is no time.”
Jace sized up the man, brushing up against the Shepherd’s tattered yellow raincoat. Jace lost a lot of weight, but beneath the Shepherd’s clothing there was not much of a man to speak of. The Shepherd’s thigh was about the same diameter as Jace’s forearm. How was this man even alive? Never mind walking the wastes with a full set of equipment and rescuing stranded survivors. Jace looked back to find but a stain where Pierre once lay.
“Roger that, let’s go.” Jace threw his rifle to his other hand, pinning it under his arm and spun around, gritting his teeth. It felt wrong to just leave Pierre behind like that, even if there wasn’t much left of the old miner.
The commander shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, taking a deep breath as he brought his rifle back to a low ready. They jogged at a brisk pace down the hall, with each cleared intersection Jace couldn’t help but to pass a glance at the two. Despite their narrow frames, they stood at arm’s length from each other, the center of the hallway between them. Their rifles weren’t even off their shoulders, they just kept pace, staring forward. They were right, there was no time. He had to find Knight, what was left of her team, and get the fuck out.
They made it to the northern lobby. Jace forbade any expeditions past this point. Too much risk, not enough cover and too much activity would draw drones into the tunnels. Not that the restriction helped any. The plains expanded as far as the eye could see straight out the exit. In the distance, Jace spotted an OX-117 standing upright, motionless. He paused for a moment to look at the Shepherds before looking back at the machine. He jutted his jaw forward. He wondered if there was anything else that could make his nut hairs tingle any harder.
Squaring off with the door labeled “North Stairwell A” he raised his boot to handle-level and drove his leg forward. The latch gave and the door slammed into concrete, sending a resounding crash reverberating throughout the lobby and ground floor hallways. Jace continued to lean into it, hoping whatever on the other side would give way. The metal groaned. He dropped his leg, and threw his shoulder into it, and it still didn’t budge. Looking through the small slit, it became quite apparent that the entire east side of the building collapsed. There was no way of getting this door open.
Jace looked back at the two Shepherds, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, staring at him, then turned to gaze outside. The sun was halfway down the mountains in the distance. He squared off with the south-leading hallway and brought his rifle into a high ready position. “Hurry up, let’s go.” Jace said as he burst into a sprint.
The slamming of metal on concrete, like a car falling several stories from a parking garage, sent Jace digging his heels into the carpet, discovering a layer of black ice covering the hall to its full length. Gears whirred and the sound of stone chips smacking the walls rang out. He lost his grip and fell backwards, trying to dig his hip and shoulder into the ground, still pointing his gun toward the end of the hall. Sliding to a halt about a quarter of the way down, the Shepherds kept pace with him and each grabbed him by the arm. As they pulled him to his feet, A searchlight shined down the hall. The two whisked everyone into a small alcove closer toward the interior of the building.
The first Shepherd shook his head at his companion and both locked their arms together, pinning themselves and Jace hard against the wall, holding his shoulders tight. He writhed from the pain of pressure the two exerted on him, intense enough that he couldn’t shiver from the sudden blast of air that came from the hole in the wall straight ahead of them.
The drone drove the rollers on the end of its feet into the concrete, sending a blast of debris across them. The Shepherds rested their heads against the wall, motionless, as the three were jolted around with each slamming step and peppered with concrete flakes. Squaring off with the space in the alcove, the drone’s head pivoted, and it inserted a probe on the end of its oval dome into a small crevasse in the far wall. The metal straw danced around the gap and the sound gears spinning free filled the hall. A clutch slowed the scream into a huff and the mech lurched again into a steady march.
As the machine entered the north lobby, the twins shoved Jace from the alcove. He took a long, slow breaths, returning from the verge of suffocation. Bent over and holding himself horizontal with his knees, Jace looked at the machine as it turned the corner. Was that graffiti on its legs and torso?
Another shove sent him stumbling upright. Yeah, yeah, we’re moving you half-baked lawn gnomes. Jace gave a gentle tug on the charging handle of his rifle as he looked at the second Shepherd. He was certain he was bleeding from it being pinned against his chest, and didn’t want the bolt to lock in place. A misplaced step sent Jace’s foot sliding down the divot from one of the bot’s footprints. He tumbled, falling over a stray table in the middle of the floor. Metal dropping flat on concrete reverberated in the close quarters. Distant gears spun high. In the distance, a spotlight shined across the far end of the hall.
Jace put his forehead against the concrete and clenched his teeth. Sometimes laying still was enough to stop them from identifying you. The sound of half-revved gears remained constant. Risking a glance, he inhaled with care and turned his head to look over his shoulder when a red glint caught his eye. Through the knee-high, ground-level vent within arm’s reach, two pairs of eyes behind a stubby, cat-like snout stared back, the nose pulsing steadily. His heart raced. It took him a moment to process what he was even observing. In the distance the whir died down into a dull hum, the floor began to vibrate at a steady pace once again.
Feeling the floor shift, Jace looked behind him. The north lobby was still illuminated, the mech’s silhouette grew larger. The thuds, louder. Jace searched for the Shepherds. Gone. He lifted his arm and peeked under, seeking the other stairway entrance. It was nothing but rubble.
The steady march that dug into the floor rattled his bones. The creature in the vent gave careful retreat, disappearing into the void. Jace didn’t know what was worse, being torn to shreds by a 25mm auto cannon, or being cut apart by a giant five-eyed murder kitten, but something deep within his gut urged him to go after the creature. It was the least bad choice. The other end of the hall was too far to sprint. Going towards the mech was suicide. It was still searching for the source of the noise, scanning the lobby and getting closer to the hall.
He made a break for it, hugging his carbine and rolling himself. He’d lost plenty of weight these past few months. The question wasn’t if he was going to fit, but if this was a one-way trip. As the beam from the light at the end of the hall slid closer to the vent, Jace tucked his feet and low-crawled into the ductwork with no sign of the creature ahead of him.
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Art by Shenpei Wu