Raiders (20 page)

The Raiders followed the freshly cut trail and were only two hundred meters distant. “Guys!” Kama yelled over her shoulder. She could see them in her scope. They looked to be about thirty in number. Inside Kama's Coilgun scope a tiny number counted down as the Raiders charged in. One ninety-seven, one ninety, one eighty one meters and closing. She ran to her bike, threw her visor down and said, “There's thirty of 'em! Let’s go!” The stall-snagged team would be overrun soon.

Revon’s face presently covered over with panic. He abstractly clenched his hands for a few seconds in exasperated loss. He reached into his bike’s storage and pulled out a blanket and a rope which he rapidly folded into a makeshift pillow of sorts and then placed it onto Julian’s bike just ahead of the seat.

Revon pushed Julian onto the blanket and lashed the rope round twice over to firmly lash him to the Solarbike. Julian yelped in pain. Revon said, “Sorry buddy but its either this or we die here. Just hang on best you can.” Revon ran back to his Solarbike and Kama hopped onto hers.

A bullet smacked Aurelia against her back but it was shot from such distance that the round carried barely enough momentum to cause any real harm. Aurelia reacted to the sting with a jolt. “Shit I’m hit!” She screamed out.

As she said this Revon engaged the tractor mode. The familiar string of green lights illuminated his visor. Without saying a word he twisted the accelerator fully down, the active camouflage washed over them and once again they were off. The Raiders yelled and shot at them from behind but their efforts were lost to vanity.

The four disappeared as the the forest swallowed them into a spirit state once more, the Solarbikes whined out with a hightone
whheeeaaaiii
. Excepting the downlashed Julian the other three helped the rebel machines assist with their escape.

They quickly rode through the forest for another ten kilometers to fully escape the Raider threat. The pines and maples and bottlebrush trees whistled past them. Aurelia could do nothing more than passively observe her Julian while his barely visible outline jangled up and down against the thick forest terrain a few meters in front of her. After the first half kilometer at maximum speed Julian appeared to go from bear hugging his Solarbike to a lax and passive posture

Revon led them out of danger with surgical discretion and precision only found in the highly trained. His Solarbike’s five red beams worked hard to feel out the terrain beyond. The beams stretched far ahead and to either side, the only truly visible sign that they were presently in transit. When the soil softened under the cycles’ oversized wheels reduced to an excruciating crawl of only eleven or twelve kilometers an hour. Revon tried to override the abrupt and unwelcome decelerant but the onboard intelligence forced them to sustain the reduced speed. The Raiders’ attack was an untimely one since it happened so early in the day. Their batteries were nearly depleted and had no time to charge under the yellow orange morning-time Sun.

After a short stop Revon was able to get Julian more or less patched up with a universal quick-gel binder. He suspected that Julian had fractured a rib based on the portable medi scanner reading but it’s semi automatic diagnostic ability was limited and small. The device detected a small blood pocket about two centimeters under Julian’s fifth intercostal space although its volume remained constant. The small internal hemorrhage had stopped, a good sign. If the rib was broken,the fracture was too fine to resolve on the medi scanner. Revon guessed that it was probably just a hairline break, if it was anything at all.

The group got underway once more. “The road!” Kama exclaimed into her bone conducting communicator.

“Where? I don’t see anything,” Aurelia responded.

Revon said, “She’s right. It’s right up here, just ahead.” The path they followed changed from a moderately overgrown and barely identifiable hardpack trail into an agreeably cleared if abandoned ancient highway. “hard to believe this used to be paved with asphalt,” Revon said as they turned Southeast onto the new. “Shouldn’t be too bad from now on.”

“What the hell were we riding on all this way? I thought we were just going through the woods,” Aurelia said.

“No,” Revon replied. “We were on an old railroad bed.”

“THAT was a railroad bed?” Julian said into his comm. “Didn’t those used to have metal rails? And wooden planks?”

“Yeah but they’ve long since rotted away. Only dust now.” Revon threw a switch on his Solarbike’s handlebars. “Goin’ to tractor mode guys.”

“You spoil us so, Revon,” Kama said. “This trip could’ve been a lot worse.”

Revon smiled inside his battle helmet even though nobody could see. He looked into his rearview. “It’s what we do. Just hang tight guys. I'll getcha there soon enough.”

Kama wondered but didn’t inquire further and left the thought alone.

At once a wolf scrambled from the blindscrubs and snapped into Kama’s left calf. “Ha!” She yelled. The wolf gained quick purchase with his incisors but then quickly halted when they met her boot at the vamp. She shook the wild mange from her foot. The anmial rolled down and away and immediately gave up chase. “Hate those things,” she said.

“You okay?” Revon said as they traveled on.

“Yeah,” Kama replied. She looked down at her foot and it appeared intact and injury free. “First time, they never attacked when I was on foot.”

“You were in a group, right?” Revon asked. “With the other Raiders I mean.”

“Of course. Always,” Kama said.

“That’s why. On these bikes we trigger their predator instinct,” Revon observed.

“Makes sense,” Kama said.

“Don’t worry, it’s rare, probably won’t happen again,” Revon offered.

“If you say so, heh,” Julian weighed in with a hesitant laugh.

Aurelia shook her head. “Play music, genre vapor rock,” she said to her Personal Assistant band. “I’m gonna tune out for a bit,” she said.

Revon nodded from the front of the pack.

They traveled down the long abandoned highway which was not much more than a hardened path about eight meters wide and impossibly free of detritus. “Been here once or twice,” Kama said. “Feels different riding on it though.”

The remainder of their journey to the forbidden Raider city of Reso went smoothly. At last they arrived at the outskirts. They stopped at the Western edge of a derelict bridge that crossed a wide, smooth river. “We call this the River Of Islands,” Kama said.

Revon projected a holomap from his Personal Assistant band on his arm which showed the waterway labeled the
Mille Isles,
a forgotten name long lost to time’s flow. “We can cross it but we have to go slowly. This bridge isn’t safe,” he said.

Revon squinted across the span. “There’s a Raider over on the far side! What do you think Kama?”

She considered options. “I think we should see how they react. It's strange that there's someone here though,” Kama explained.

“Alright,” Revon responded. The four slowly advanced across the weather-beaten bridge as they maneuvered their Solarbikes around holes large and small. The maws ominously revealed the river far below. “Careful now.”

The single Raider resolved from a darkened, distant speck into a man who appeared to be pushing a cart in front of him. When they drew to within two hundred meters of the man he ceased his push and froze straight away in his tracks. They calmly and cautiously rolled up to him and then stopped. Kama went ahead of R and lowered her battlesuit collar a little in order to make her esoteric tattoos more viewable.

The Raider removed his hands from his cart and fell to his knees. He said something to them in Mandarin. He appeared to be fearful and in the presence of greatness. The Raider's leathered and grey-rough clothes waved against the afternoon air while he slowly bowed up and down before her.

Kama said in Mandarin, “Get up,” and he did. He attempted to stifle his excitement and his sheer awe at this rare and strange apparition. It was unthinkable, one of the Chosen, consort to the great Elders, right here on his very bridge. He had perhaps crossed his bridge hundreds and thousands of times over the many years to scavenge and pick at the Outer Ring but had only seen three other human beings, two fellow Raiders and a stray in all that time. Nobody ever came out this far except for the Elder’s Armymen and certainly never across his old forgotten bridge. But there she was. It was like meeting a wickedly advanced alien being, or maybe even a god of some form. An improbable encounter, to be sure.

“My Chosen, my Chosen,” he nervously said to Kama, “You are most worshipful and of light but,” he paused and looked at the other three behind her. “Who are these people? I only ask so humbly, please spare this old bridgeman, my Chosen!”

“New captures, my dear song. I caught them myself,” Kama sternly said to the bridegman in Mandarin. “I will present them to convert to our Jia Ting!” Her Mandarin slipped slightly. Getting used to English did that to her. “They were lost out in Wastes but I take them to serve us! The Elders are always in need of fresh servants you know,” Kama said and then winked at the soil infused bridgeman.

“But my Chosen,” he whispered to Kama as he looked up to her and squinted against the latter afternoon Sun, “You, you, they are not bound! You travel on these, carts?” He pressured down his voice even further. “Are
you
really the bound one, my Chosen?” the old man nervously breathed and smashed his eyes.

Kama froze, unsure what he was going to do next. “No, no! You see, they know that if they run away from me then I will kill them right off with my Coilgun. Trust me and my words my dear song, for I’m a Chosen!”

“I, I don’t believe you my great! Your beauty and strength will I save, NOW!” The bridgeman sprang up and produced a junk rifle that was heretofore nestled within his wraps. On reflex Kama shot him in the forehead before he could gain balance on stand. The bridgeman's bloodveined head jolted back and he collapsed as a string-bare marionette onto the ground with a pillowdusted
thwummmp.

“Too fast for me! Shit,” Revon said to Kama as he walked up to her. “I barely had time to flinch! I'm impressed. Shame you had to do that though,” he said.

“No choice. He would have tried to kill the three of you if he could. On pure instinct,” Kama said.

Revon responded, “Hah, really. That old man?” He pointed his rifle at the bridgeman's body. “And why is that?”

“Because,” Kama said. She turned from Revon and looked down at the dead bridgeman as she rested her Coilgun against her shoulder. “Because.”

The bridge seemed out of place for there were no signs of overt civilization or metropolis anywhere excepting subtle melted hints of artificiality. There was a concrete wall here or a rounded off square mound there but for the most part only the relatively open path that was once the Trans Canadian Highway stretched before them. On either side were fields and some oddly shaped mounds that could have been anything four hundred years before. A building, an aircraft or a car or a bus perhaps, but who knew? Trees grew large as they happily overarched the trail forward on. The River Of Islands provided them with plenty of nourishment juxtaposed to the rains that passed over Reso once or twice a month but never more often than that.

They rode toward the underground City for another two kilometers. Kama said, “We need to stop now, we’re too close as it is.”

Everyone followed Revon’s lead as they hid their Solarbikes behind a twelve meter mound. “Sun’s goin’ down in two hours. We should get movin',” Julian said.

“Need help setting the cannon?” Aurelia asked him.

“No, thanks baby,” Julian responded. After they rested for a few minutes he set up the auto-cannon only this time he deployed it in silent mode. The cannon would not send out any audible alerts and would use an invisible infrared laser to scan around them. After he assembled the cannon’s base Julian firmly smacked the head assembly down. “Alright, she’s tied in,” he said and then pointed his wrench to Revon and Aurelia. “Anything comes within two hundred meters you’ll get a vibe,” he said. “You will feel one per enemy engaged so pay attention to how many times it goes off.”

“Got it, thanks,” Revon said. He broke his rifle open to inspect.

Kama said, “We have to make you look like you’re my prisoner. You look too clean.” She walked up to Julian with a small tactical folding knife.

Aurelia scrambled in between them and yanked the knife from Kama’s hand. “Yeah let me do that,” she hurriedly said.

Kama raised her hands up and said, “Fine.”

An hour later Kama and Julian were ready. “Showtime.” After a long hug and kiss from Aurelia, Julian tramped closer to the Northwest entrance of the great City below, his hands lashed behind him with rope. Kama followed behind with her Coilgun charged to fire and aimed directly at his back. Julian considered that Aurelia had perhaps tied him a little too snug but then again it had to a be convincing lash.

“Another two kilometers,” Kama said. She didn’t turn around to look but supposed that Aurelia stared holes into her back as they marched away. “You okay?” she asked Julian.

“Yeah she just tied it really tight,” Julian said.

“You’ll be fine. Once we find them I’ll cut ‘em off and you’ll be back to normal,” Kama responded.

“So this is passable huh? Damn she really scraped up my armor pretty good,” Julian asked.

“Sure. Aurelia did a great job beating you up,” Kama said. “Must be love, I guess.”

Julian turned his head to the side as they trudged ahead. “Must be.” They walked for another forty minutes until they could see a small number of Raiders in the distance. “I can see them now,” he announced.

“Don’t be shocked by what you see. Just keep walking, I’ll tell you where to turn,” Kama said.

“Right. Okay.” The Raiders drew closer as they marched along the road. Even from seven hundred meters away Julian could tell the Raiders were idle and calm. “These are the Outer Ring Raiders?”

Kama adjusted her Coilgun to make it appear more attentive to her false capture. “Yeah. They have no laws or anything out here so like I said don’t be shocked by what you see.”