Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (19 page)

Mike looked out the window, and saw the team.  There were shattered robots laying around, destroyed by the hand grenade that Everett had dropped.

Everett yelled at him, “Come on, Mike! Get out of there.”

Mike smiled at him, and winked.  He pulled his head back into the room.  He turned around to look at the robot.  It lifted its head so that it could use the sensors that hadn’t been shot off by Tom.  It held the next punch for a moment as it looked at Mike, then its fist slammed into the floor Mike was standing on, sending him reeling, making him lurch sideways.  He staggered, trying to get his footing back.  When he was steady on his feet again, Mike pulled the two grenades out of his pockets.  The grenades had, ‘TH-INCENDIARY,’ stenciled on the side.

The robot started hammering the side of the building again.  Mike had to wait until he knew the robot’s punch was committed, then he ran forward and jumped onto its shoulders.  His boots hit and he started sliding.  He grabbed the cowl around the neck, and managed to keep from sliding off.  He levered himself up, and jammed the grenades down into the junction between the head and the cowl.  He pulled the pin on one, and then the other grenade, watching the spoons of the grenades pop off, pinging against the body of the robot as they fell to the ground.  The robot tried to shift its head to look at him, but the grenades pinned the head in place.

Mike watched the grenades spark.  A giant hand moved toward Mike.  Mike didn’t like the look of that, so he slid down the back and landed on the ground.  He ran away from the robot as it turned to find him.  Smoke was beginning to rise from the cowl behind the head.  Mike ran down the street, away from the building, trying to get away from the gigantic robot behind him.

Mike’s heart dropped as he saw six of the smaller robots on the street in front of him.  He reached for his rifle, and realized that his situation had suddenly gotten a lot worse.  He’d left his rifle on the floor when he grabbed his backpack.

Mike was a dead man, the giant robot behind him, and the six smaller ones in front of him.

“Well, I’m not going alone, bitches!” he yelled at the robots. 

He pulled his pistol, and his vision narrowed to the targets in front of him.  The world seemed to slow down.  He took a good stance.  The robots started sprinting towards him.  He could feel the footsteps of the giant behind him.  He couldn’t stop the giant, so he concentrated on the ones in front of him.  He shot three times, one went down.  He shifted his aim, another one went down, and then two more went down. 

He hit the magazine release and the magazine slid out, and he replaced it, hitting the slide release.  The slide slammed forward, and he shot another.  The last one leaped and he put two bullets into it as he dodged to the side and rolled across the paving stones.  The robot slammed into the ground sliding to the feet of the giant.

Mike looked at the giant.  It wasn’t walking anymore.  The head was wreathed in flames.  Smoke was billowing out of every joint. Thermite burned at 5000 degrees centigrade.  The thermite had burned down the back of cowl into the robot and down into the torso.  Anything inside of the giant was a puddle of molten liquid.  The knees gave out, and the robot tilted to the side.

Mike ran out of its shadow, praying he could get out of the way in time.  The robot toppled, slamming into a wall.  It rebounded and slammed into the ground.  The ground shook, making Mike stumble.  He came to a stop, shock and adrenaline hitting him hard as he tried to get a breath.  He leaned over, putting his hands on his knees.  He panted for a few moments, then stood up straight.  He started breathing in, deeper and slower.  His pulse rate started slowing down.  He wiped away the sweat on the side of his face.

The wind shifted, and the smoke billowed towards him.  He moved back to get away from the fire and the smoke.  It was strangely quiet, the crackling of the flames devouring the giant robot the only sound he heard.

Mike tilted his head back and yelled, “Fuck You, Murphy!”

That calmed him down.  He smiled.

“Jesus, Mike, what the hell were you thinking?”

Mike turned and saw the team walking towards him.  Everett kept yelling as he walked to Mike, “What the hell was that, you dumb ass.  You think you’re James Bond or something?”

Mike’s smile died on his lips, “Dude, I saw how to kill it.  I didn’t want you guys to get hurt.”

Everett punched him in the arm,
hard,
making Mike wince, “And what am I going to tell Jen if you don’t come back.”

“Why the hell does everybody hit me?”
Mike thought.  Mike didn’t have anything to say.  He started stammering.

“Yeah, exactly.  That’s exactly what I’d be able to tell her if you died doing some dumb ass shit like that.”  He pointed his finger at Mike’s face, “So don’t do dumb ass shit like that anymore.”

Mike held up his hands, palms towards Everett, “Whoa, Ev, I’m sorry.”

Everett stepped back, and calmed down.  He looked over at the smoking ruins of the giant robot.  A grin replaced the frown on his face.  He looked back at Mike, “Still, that was some bad ass, James Bond shit you did.  How the hell did you do it?”

Mike grinned, sheepishly, “Thermite.”

“How did you get it into the robot?”

“I rammed it into the collar around the robot’s neck.  I figured gravity would take over from there.”

Tom kicked one of the small robots, “And you took out six of these little bastards with your pistol?”

Mike nodded.

There was admiration on every face as they studied Mike.  Then Everett noticed that something was missing.

Everett studied Mike, “Where’s your rifle, soldier.”

The sheepish look came back, “I left it on the floor back in the building.”

Tom’s slow drawl punctuated what everybody was thinking, “You know your drill sergeant is rolling over in his grave right now.”

Everett slapped Mike on the back, “Okay, superman, let’s go get your rifle.”

Matki walked over, gripped Mike’s arm, the concern on his face evident.  He handed Mike his backpack and smiled, “Carry your own shit.”

Mike’s laugh echoed through the street.  He grabbed the backpack and put it on, “Okay, seriously guys, you’ve got to stop teaching Matki how to curse.”

“Wasn’t us, Mike.  He was listening to you when you came running up the stairs,” Tom drawled.

“I was cursing when I was running up the stairs?”

Tom nodded, “Not just you.  Everybody was cursing on the way up.”

The fire in the giant robot was dying down.  The torso was a melted, twisted, amorphous mass.  They gave it wide berth as they walked around it.

“Damn, that smells horrible,” Rob said.

“Yeah, let’s get the hell away from this thing,” Everett said.

They walked to the ruined building and stopped outside.  Mike dropped his backpack on the ground and clambered over the rubble to get to the stairs in the back.  He grabbed his rifle, and made his way back to the team.  He picked up his backpack and put it on, “Alright, I think we can finally get out of this hell hole.”

He turned to Rob, “Okay, you’re up.”

“Which way?” Rob asked.

Mike pointed down the street they were going to use three days ago, “Well, that one’s the quickest way out of the town.  I think we should go ahead and use it.”

Rob started walking.  The team fell in behind him.  The sun was shining, and the breeze blew into their faces, driving the smoke away from them.  Now that they didn’t have to worry about killer robots, it was turning out to be a very pleasant day.  Tom started whistling.

Everett started talking, “I wonder where the hell those things came from.”

Mike thought about it, “I would think they’d have to be somewhere close by.”

“They’d need techs, right?  I mean, to fix anything that’s broken,” Mickey speculated.

Everett laughed, “Their techs are going to be pretty damn busy today.”

“What about that one that was left in the city.  Nobody fixed it.” Rob pointed out

Mike’s curiosity was piqued, and he said so, “Those are good questions.  I wonder where the hell they did come from.”

Everett continued that thought, “Shouldn’t be too hard to find them.  That big one should leave a big trail.”

Mike looked over at Everett, “What do you think, want to check it out?”

Everett thought about it, then nodded, “I get uncomfortable thinking there might be enemies on my back trail.”

That made sense to Mike.  He yelled out, “So, anybody up for some payback?”

A chorus of, “Hell yeah,” rang out.

Mike looked back over his shoulder, “Hey Everett, I’m thinking we need to find the jackass that sent these things to kill us.”

“You’re damn straight.”

“Matki, Tom, think you’ll have a problem back tracking the robots?”

Tom looked back at Mike, “There’s a first time for everything.  Tracking a robot, not it being a problem.  Should be pretty easy.”

“Good.  Find them, then we’ll see if we can’t ruin their day.”  Mike thought for a moment, “Ev, you aren’t going to tell Jen about the giant robot are you?”

----------------------------------------------------

Tom was right.  There wasn’t any problem backtracking the robot.  Giant divots of dirt pointed the way down the valley.  An hour later, they were standing at a fissure that led back into the mountain side.  This fissure was the same color as the cliff faces around it, dark black with red bands throughout the walls.  It seemed to glitter in the morning sun.  Scree littered the floor of the fissure.

Tom looked back at Mike, “Mike, I’m not sure I like this.”

Mike looked into the opening of the fissure.  He agreed with Tom.  It went forward for at least a hundred feet before it turned to the right.  It was a funnel of death.  If there was a claymore or a machinegun back there, they wouldn’t walk out.  Mike wasn’t willing to send anybody down there in less than full mech.

Mickey walked up to the debris at the foot of the wall, and picked up a sample, “Hey, fool’s gold.”

He brought back the stone, and handed it around.  Mike looked at it.  Mickey was right, the stone was pyrite, shining a brassy gold in the light

Mike shook his head, “I don’t think I want to go down there, and I’m not willing to send anybody else.  It’s too dangerous.  It would be like walking down a shotgun barrel, with a finger on the trigger.”

“Mike, I’m not sure we have a choice.  If we don’t find out what’s down there, it may spit out more of those things,” Everett pointed out.  “I don’t want more of them on my trail.  Especial in the open.”

“I agree with Everett.  I don’t think we can leave this alone,” Rob added.

Mike turned to Mickey and Tom.  They nodded their agreement.  He looked at Matki.  Matki shrugged, advanced combat techniques not being his forte.

Mike paused, then he spoke, “Well, we might find something that indicates where the hell these things came from.” Mike shrugged off his backpack, “Okay, but I’m going down there to check it out.”

Rob hit the quick release on his backpack, and it hit the ground.  He stepped off and headed towards the fissure.  He looked back over his shoulder and winked at Mike, “The quick and the dead, Mike, the quick and the dead.”

Mike continued dropping the ruck to the ground.  He shook his head in consternation as Rob entered the fissure.

Mickey looked at him and smiled, “What, you think you get to have all the fun?  It’s not like there are more giant robots for us to kill.”  Mickey waved towards the field behind them, indicating the absence of large killer robots.

Mike knew that Mickey was BSing him.  It wasn’t that they liked to tempt fate and cheat death.  They weren’t going to let Mike take all the chances.  That didn’t keep Mike from feeling guilty as Rob stopped and looked around the bend in the fissure.  Rob wasn’t a dummy.  He wasn’t going to take unnecessary risks.  Rob did a quick peak, then moved around the curve, and the team couldn’t see him anymore.  Now, Mike’s guilt turned to trepidation as they waited for Rob to come back.

It didn’t take long.  Rob was gone about ten minutes, then he reappeared.  He walked out to where the team was standing.

“What’s back there?” Tom asked.

Mike watched as Rob walked up to the team and stopped, “Big metal door.  Not much else, though.  The fissure heads back about another hundred feet past the bend, then it stops.  That’s where the door is.  It’s set into a metal frame.”

He paused and took a drink from his Camelbak, “I walked up to the door and touched it.  I don’t see any way to get inside.  The metal felt cool to the touch.”

Mike thought about it, “Well, I definitely want to take a look at it.  I don’t think we should all go down there, though.”

Everett nodded, “Yeah, I agree.  How about we do groups of two.  That way, if something does happen, it won’t happen to all of us.”

Mike agreed, “Fair enough.”

He pointed at Matki, “Hey, Matki, how about you and me . . . “

Everett shook his head, “Oh no, James Bond.  How about you wait until the rest of us go.”