“I’ll carry it the rest of the way,” said Kirwyn “You get your gun ready.”
Alana agreed. She swung the rifle around from her back and looked down the scope, she removed the scope and pocketed it. It would be useless to her in these claustrophobic conditions. Kirwyn hoisted the machine part onto one shoulder and jogged, grunting behind Alana. The music started to fade.
Alana rounded a corner and saw a figure in black, standing motionless in the middle of the street. Alana stopped, raised her weapon, and saw that it was Loma, staring at her disk. Alana dropped her gun to her waist and walked to her leader. Kirwyn came puffing round the corner, settling into a brisk walk.
“What is it?” said Loma
“We heard the music” said Alana. She paused – realised that it had stopped.
“When was this?”
“It’s been following us for the last 5 minutes. It stopped just now.”
Loma looked around her, paused for a moment. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here,” she said. “Let me help you with that.”
She offered a hand to Kirwyn who gratefully accepted. They both held the machine and ran back to their bikes, Alana leading the way. They jogged to the cusp of the fountain.
Saburo was gone.
One of the bikes was gone. The one with the generator strapped to it.
The remaining bike had been sabotaged. Its tires ripped to shreds.
Saburo’s disk lay on the ground.
Alana’s heart dropped. She jumped down into the fountain, exploring. Loma and Kirwyn placed the machine part on the plaza floor. Loma paced around the plaza, searching. Kirwyn crouched down with his arms folded. They were all speechless.
Beneath Loma’s black helmet, tears of frustration formed. A growing sense of doom enveloped them all.
“He ditched us,” said Alana.
“No…” said Loma wearily. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he?”
“Take the goods and run. Wreck the bike so we can’t catch him.”
“But – the part is only useful to me. There isn’t another aircraft like mine in a thousand mile radius.”
“Maybe they found someone who had – Maybe they found your plane.”
Loma considered this, growing increasingly distressed.
“What are we going to do? We need to get out of here,” said Kirwyn, quietly panicking.
“We can find spare tyres,” said Alana “Your helmet can find them right?”
“It only works at short distances. And it’s only programmed to find ship parts,” said Loma, still preoccupied with the notion of Saburo’s betrayal. “Tyres like that aren’t in the database.”
“But you’ve got that map, you could find an old mechanics, or bike shop or something.”
“I could. But all the obvious places have probably been looted. I imagine bike tyres are a lot more sought after than obscure ship parts”
“We’ll find somewhere obscure.”
An arrow sprung through the air and clattered to the ground by Loma’s feet. All three travellers stopped and looked at it, then looked around for its owner.
Another arrow whizzed past, narrowly avoiding Alana’s shoulder blade. They all leapt into the fountain. A flurry of arrows followed them, one hit Kirwyn in the back. He screamed. He was on his knees, trying in vain to reach it. Alana pulled it out and threw the bloody stick to the floor. The arrowhead was made out of chipped glass, the fletching was made out of pigeon feathers.
Loma peeked over the edge of the fountain. She saw half-naked archers running out of buildings, 20 or so of them. They arced themselves upwards and fired.
“RUN!” she screamed. The three rolled out of the fountain and sprinted. Arrows fell into the fountain, hitting the seat of the bike, ricocheting off stone. Alana turned, stopped and fired a beam of light into the crowd, it singed bricks then landed on one of the archers, who burst into flame, then disintegrated. The archers howled at the blasphemy, were sent scattered back into the buildings. Loma turned back around and sprinted out of the plaza, catching up to Alana and Kirwyn. They left the generator behind.
They ran up a narrow street, they had no plan or route. Arrows whizzed past them, clattering off walls and embedding in petrified trees. Loma stopped and fired another beam, but the archer she targeted hid behind a rusted wreck of a car. The beam heated the wreck, but did no more. She turned and ran.
Alana stopped, fired a shot from her hip. It missed. An arrow whipped past her cheek. She took another shot and hit the thigh of an archer, he collapsed – another took his place. Alana ran again.
Kirwyn was now well ahead of the girls, he reached a T-section in the road. He waited for his companions and wondered which direction to take. He saw men emerge from one road, just a few at first, but then a whole horde. They roared in unison, carrying metal spikes and ply-wood shields. Alana caught up to him and immediately took a shot that went through the shield of one of them, sending him cascading down, he was trampled by the army. Loma caught up, and they all ran down the last remaining road, arrows falling where they had stood. Loma fired a beam at the shielded army, running backwards. A soldier exploded into dust and the one behind him was singed badly. This sent the army dispersing. Some continued advancing, some retreated – the majority entered the open houses.
The three ran forward, and saw that this road too was filled with warriors rushing to meet them. Loma fired in an arc as she ran, singing the front line, sending the whole group howling into the houses and alleys. Her rifle had overheated and steam trailed from it as she moved.
The three ran, the whole world shaking as they kicked into it. They looked back and saw the first two armies of infantry and archers combining. Alana looked up at the houses and saw men running on the rooftops. She shot at one of them but missed. The roof runners threw bricks and spears, but most of them fell short. One brick flew uncommonly fast and hard, it hit the back of Loma’s head, causing her to fall badly, smashing her face into the ground. Kirwyn and Alana heard her fall and looked back, they both ran to her and helped her to her feet. Her visor was deeply cracked.
“I’m fine,” she said, her helmet’s voice distorted.
Two bricks fell on them from the rooftops, but Kirwyn batted them away like tennis balls with his scabbard. Alana took a shot, sending the roof dwellers scurrying. The three ran again. Loma lagged behind, so Kirwyn and Alana ducked under her armpits and ran with her, carrying her.
They came to a wide open oblong space, surrounded by tall stone buildings. There was a subway entrance nearby. Wordlessly they ran for it. Loma – barely contributing to the 6 legged collective.
Kirwyn looked back -he saw the army round the corner, they spread out, forming a human crescent. Interspersed were archers who, seeing them, took aim and fired high into the air. He twisted and jogged backwards.
Most of the arrows fell short, but one sailed close to their heads – Kirwyn batted it aside like a mosquito.
He pushed the girls forward and jogged backwards with them. Arrows fell all about them, he brushed a couple away. He looked back at the tribesmen, then tripped backwards on some rubble. He picked himself up and ran for the subway.
He saw Alana and Loma make it to the subway entrance. Another volley of arrows flew. Three headed for him, he twisted back – the first arrow he blocked, but the second and third were too close, one hit him in the shoulder, the final he flicked away with his scabbard. He turned and ran, pulling out the shaft and snapping it. He left a trickling trail of blood into the pitch black subway.