MBryO: The Escape (12 page)

“Elias will be coming back for us. In case I fall behind, I want you to promise me you will get to the rendezvous point as fast as you can. Avoid contact with any humanoids. Find a place to hide and wait for help.”

Puzzled at the urgency in his silent message, Melara searched his face.

She was a battle seasoned veteran of the Terran Guard and native to the planet. She could survive here a lot better than Pax could. But, she was also a female. And, she couldn’t help but be pleased at his concern for her safety.

Nodding, she grasped the jet pack’s trigger and rose into the air, a stream of exhaust trailing behind her. Pax wasted no time following her ascent, shaking his head to ward off the darkness that threatened to overtake him.

On the way up, he glanced back at the ground in time to see a shadowy wolf-like creature lunge into the air behind them, spreading its feathery wings to catch the wind.

“Pax,” Melara queried at his side.

She sensed that something was off kilter, but she didn’t know what. Caught up in the miasma of sensory overload, he couldn’t find the words to explain the creeping fog that was threatening to overtake him. Her beautiful face faded in and out for the last time as his psy-talet crashed inward upon him. His hands went slack upon the handles of the jet pack, causing it to stall mid-air.

Alarmed, Melara realized that Pax had lost consciousness. Reacting quickly, Melara dove toward him as he started to free fall through the air. Grabbing him by the shirt collar, she maneuvered her own bulky jet pack around behind him. Wrapping her arms around him, she placed her own handlebars beneath his arms for support. Grasping the trigger on her handlebars, she began to push them both through the night sky. They had to get to the next rendezvous point as soon as possible.

Off in the distance the lights of Los Angelos twinkled invitingly. The city skyline at night was breathtaking. But she didn’t have time to appreciate it right now. By now, every Terran Guardsman in the city would be on the lookout for them.

Elias wouldn’t be able to return for them for several days. Anything could happen in that time. Melara knew she was going to have to find them a safe place to hide and wait it out.

Melara avoided the city skyline, preferring to look for sanctuary in the rocky desert that lay just outside of town. A line of rolling hills beckoned to the east, the sky a kaleidoscope of color as sunrise threatened to expose them. Holding Pax’s unconscious form in front of her, she considered her options. Then she angled the handlebars in the direction of the hillside.

As she neared the foothills, Melara’s jet-pack began to spit and splutter, gradually running out of fuel. Her eyes frantically scanned the ground below for a place to set down.

She chose a spot mid-way up a boulder strewn peak and lowered Pax’s weight as close to the rocky surface as she could. When she let go of his jet pack, he tumbled to the ground in a heap.

Once on the ground herself, she slid out of the jet pack and scurried over to kneel beside Pax’s crumpled body. Her fingers fumbled with the clasps around his chest and waist, releasing him from the cumbersome jet pack.

A quick examination of his lithe form assured her he hadn’t been shot or injured during the firefight on the rooftop back at MBryO. She could only assume he was unconscious, in a coma of some kind.

She probed his skull, in case he had somehow hit his head, finding herself enjoying the feel of his thick black mane of hair trickling through her fingers. But there were no lumps or abrasions on his scalp.

She sighed in frustration, realizing she had no idea why Pax was out like a light.

The sun would be up soon.

She had to find cover before the Terran Guard or DOD tracked them down. There was a huge boulder a few yards away. Worn by time and erosion, it extended several feet above her head, reminding her of the notoriously immovable Terran Guard stationed outside the gates to the Barriosi. Many people had attempted to coax a guardsman into abandoning his post, or even cracking a small smile, but all of those attempts had been fruitless. The Guard prided themselves on their dedication to duty.

The boulder blocked the entrance to a path which skirted upwards to the cliff tops above. Her eyes caught sight of a ledge jutting out below one of the cliffs about half-way up the rocky outcropping.

She wanted to get a closer look at that ledge, but she couldn’t just leave Pax lying out in the open this way. MBryO drone ships were, no doubt, scouring the area for any sign of them.

She crouched down at the top of his head, lifting him so that his silky black hair, loosened during their flight, spread across her chest. Grabbing him under his shoulders, she tugged him across the ground and behind the boulder.

Flying through the air behind him, propelled by the jet pack, she had not realized how heavy and compact his body was. She was breathless by the time she had moved him and both jet packs into the shade of the big rock.

A dead tree branch was lying a few feet away. As a precaution against prying eyes, she dragged it as close to the rock as she could. Walking a few yards away she looked back the scene. Unless you knew he was there, Pax was virtually invisible to the naked eye.

Satisfied, she turned to climb the path up to the ledge she had spotted. Pre-dawn had given way to a vivid sunrise, highlighting the rocky outcropping in bright reds, oranges and golds.

She scaled the path easily, arriving at the ledge in no time. It wound back underneath the cliff overhang about fifteen feet, creating a natural hollow. With a little work and some ingenuity, Melara thought she could engineer a snug little cave using some of the brown twigs and branches strewn across the rocks,

It took about an hour of scouting the rocks before she had enough of the heavy branches. Then she laid them just so across the entrance of the ledge, to create the best shelter from the blistering sunlight and the dry hot wind blowing across the desert to their west. Eventually she was satisfied that they had a secure place to hide until Elias returned for them.

Now, for the hard part!

Turning she descended the path to the place where she had left Pax. Nervously, she scanned the horizon, looking for signs of Terran drones. Without benefit of the night lights, she could barely discern the city skyline to the north. Between them and the city was a suburb of houses, looking like an afterthought and built helter-skelter across the desert. The village was completely surrounded by a high metal fence.

Long ago the area had been the Latino section of old Los Angelos known as the barrio. Now it was known as the ‘Barriosi’.

Deep in thought, she looked down at the unconscious man half-hidden in the rocks and branches. Not for the first time she compared his swarthy complexion, dark eyes and black hair to the exiled race of people behind that government protected fence.

The Barriosi had allied themselves with the Xenaclons during the war. Some of the Xenaclons and Barriosi had even married, creating a hybrid race of people. Could Pax’s ancestors have been part of that hybrid race of people? Was that why he possessed such a strong psy-talent?

Pushing her thoughts aside, she hastily removed the branches off him. The jet-packs were cumbersome and useless unless she could scavenge some fuel. So she left them where they were for now, once more grabbing Pax under the arms and dragging him up the path. The temperature rose with the sun, and drops of perspiration were trickling down her brow and the middle of her back by the time she deposited him inside the overhang.

The makeshift screen of branches and twigs covering the opening shut out the sun at least, and provided some protection from the heat. Laying her head on his chest she listened to the beat of his heart. It was strong and steady. As was his pulse. She lifted an eyelid and checked the dilation of his pupils. Everything seemed normal as far as she could tell.

Whatever strange malaise had overtaken him, didn’t appear to be life threatening. It had to be some sort of sensory overload, as far as she could tell. All she could do was sit back and wait for him to wake up.

Inhaling deeply, she rose to her feet and made one more trip down the path to the boulder. She rifled through the useless jet-packs, taking anything from the saddlebags that she thought might be of use. She walked back uphill with two canteens of water, a handful of foil wrapped Mre’s, which were the military’s version of ready-to-eat meals, a heat reflective blanket, a couple of flares, a metal box of old-fashioned sulfur sticks and, of course, their blasters.

Once more under the ledge, she placed her precious cache in the corner of the shallow cave. Then turning she pulled more branches across the opening, giving them some protection from the elements. Weak sunlight filtered through the criss-crossed limbs and twigs, dancing on the rocky floor of the ledge.

Unscrewing the top off one of the canteens she swallowed a couple of sips of the tepid fluid. While it wasn’t exactly refreshing, it served its purpose. If she rationed the water they might be able to last until Elias returned for them.

Kneeling down beside Pax she ripped off a piece of his shirt. She dipped the cloth in the mouth of the canteen and dampened his lips with it. Unconscious and in this intense heat, it would be very easy for Pax to become dehydrated. She repeated the process over and over, until his lips opened slightly, just enough to allow the water to drizzle past his tongue, causing him to swallow reflexively.

She smiled in relief.

She took another sip of the brackish water herself, and then put the lid back on the canteen. Completely worn out from the events of the past twenty-four hours, she lay down beside Pax on the stone floor. Her body curled naturally into his side. She listened to the even tempo of his breathing.

It sounded normal.

Relieved, Melara closed her eyes and within seconds, she slipped into a deep sleep.

From his spot on the ledge above, a wolf-like creature with the glinting black wings of a dark angel lifted his sensitive nose to the dry air. He sensed nothing unusual in the dry, warm air. There appeared to be no threat to him or the humans taking shelter down below. Sighing in pleasure, he settled down to bask in the welcome warmth of the strong sunshine.

He thought of himself as ‘He Who is Nameless’. He was extremely cunning and sentient, sensing not only the emotions of others, but able to read their thoughts with his psy-talent.

‘Nameless’ was just a laboratory experiment gone wrong. One of many, he thought sadly! From the beginning he had known that he was a failure in his father’s eyes; unworthy of love or affection, unworthy of even his own name.

To his father’s disgust, Nameless walked on four legs, instead of two.

In the beginning, his father’s objective had been to create a hybrid being, part humanoid, and part animal. The creature would possess the mental capacity to reason and the bone structure to walk upright. Those were the genetic strands Maxim had focused on when he began to manipulate the strands of Nameless’ DNA.

Unfortunately, Maxim had made a mistake and Nameless’ genetic mutation resulted in the powerful feathered wings that sprang from his sinewy shoulder bones, instead.

He had often wondered why his father did not destroy him at birth, since he detested him so. But MBryO was a victim of his own vanity, unable to admit, even to himself that he had failed.

Disappointed in his winged wolf-like creation, Maxim had yanked him from his incubator and threw the newborn against the laboratory wall in disgust.

A laboratory assistant had picked the mewling up, toweled the liquid green gel from his silky fur and carried him to the room where Maxim’s other rejects were kept.

As he grew, his father had locked him inside one metal cage or another, each one graduating in size, until he had reached adulthood. The succeeding three years had been intensely lonely, since he was kept separate from the others who were psy-talented like him, but who walked on two legs instead of four.

But no longer! There was no cage to keep him in submission, no electric prod to keep his seething temper in check. For the first time in his life, he was free!

And he intended to do everything in his power to remain that way.

His thoughts turned briefly to the psy-talented man-child with the pale hair and blue eyes who had released him from the pen he hated so violently. They had connected on some elemental level, communicating briefly, before the boy had jumped inside the metal bird and flew away.

He sensed a similar connection with the other male, sleeping so deeply, in the shelter down below. The psy-talent of the man was inherently different, yet more naturally developed, than that of the man-child.

Nameless sensed the man’s ability could be limitless, if he chose to exert it. The strange night vision, with the red shadows, for instance.

He still remembered the exhilaration that had filled his spirit when he jumped off the rooftop to the freedom beyond. For the first time since his creation, he was able to use his wings to soar across the sky. From tip to tip, the feathery black wings were as wide as a man was tall.

He had spiraled gently to the ground, drifting downward on the whisper of wind currents. He had savored the feel of the grass beneath paws and between toes that were accustomed to only metal and concrete.

Once in the darkness of the woods, he had prowled through the dense underbrush. His mind alert, cunningly looking for an escape route through the foliage, seeking the freedom he had craved so desperately all his life. Never again, he vowed would he allow his father to put him in a cage!

And then, as he crawled through the bushes and the brambles, his psy-talent had encountered the other one. He, too, was carefully making his way through the darkness of the woods, leading the female behind him.

Rolling to his back, Nameless licked his front paws, cleaning the dust from between his toes, wallowing in the dirt that clung to the rocky overhang. Rumbling softly, he shifted back to his belly and stretched out, feeling the wind on his nose and the sun warming his fur.

He did not understand why the man felt the need to help the female. She was all but useless to him, being non-sentient and without psy-talent of any kind.

Still the man had been a lifeline during the trek through the forest. Eerily, their psy-talents had merged.

Latching onto the infra-red psy-feelers rising from the human, Nameless had been able to see the dark forest through the other one’s eyes. He had been able to anticipate the man’s every move. Together they had destroyed the enemy waiting to capture them at the pavilion.

The metal flying contraptions they had strapped into were amusing. They reminded him of his cage back in MBryO. But the metal wings had been useful and the humans had gotten safely away from MBryO with them.

Once clear of the forest, he could have made his way across the horizon on his own. But the link between him and the man had been so vital, so alive! He had been alone, lonely, for all his life. He was reluctant to break that connection with another sentient being right away.

He decided to follow the two humans for a bit, just in case they could be useful in escaping the minion’s his father was sure to send for them.

Nameless had been aware the instant the human had lost consciousness. He had even considered abandoning the duo. Weakness in any form meant failure and ultimately death. Survival would fall upon the strong.

Nameless had been willing to follow the other one as long as the man would increase his chances of staying out of Maxim’s clutches. Deciding to cut his losses and set out on his own, Nameless had angled his wings to turn aside when the female came to the aid of the other one.