Torchworld: Outsiders Collection (2 page)

Sitting on the rocky shard of a cliff, I could see the walls encircling Opalesk city in a cold embrace of security. These arms were cold and hard. Not like a mother, like a jailer.

The nature of all things is living true to function, and everything does have a purpose. From worms to men, from the smallest pebble to the mighty old pine trees. All contributed something to the scheme of things. I leaned back to rest my head on a thatch of fallen leaves. Damp and cool, a nice contrast to the blast furnace of the sun’s heat today. A somewhat annoying problem with living outside the walls was the lack of environmental controls. How did people live Pre-Collapse with this unpredictability? Sometimes I missed the perfectly climate controlled bubble, but it was a cheap price to pay for freedom. I’m not a law zone peon, and I was capable of far more than building drones.

Gathering myself up off the ground, I brushed grass and leaves from my worn body armour. The techskin was peeling off my leg, someone should take a look at that. Back at camp tomorrow morning. No time or inclination to run back for something so minor right now.

Ok, maybe I missed shopping and clean laundered clothing too. But one day, we’d have our own city. Freedom and a say in things. Equal rights, us and the other outsiders. There were more of us. Hundreds, actually. Before Markin, we were spread across the lands around the Twelve. Scavenging off the land like a pack of starving lean dogs.

This was the daily patrol, of sorts. Take turns with the others, making rounds through the buffer zone. Keeping an eye out for possible recruits. Escapees from the cities. Most of them were young, rebellious and restless. Very rarely, we got an older one. So far, I hadn’t seen any. That wasn’t unusual though. People waited until nightfall to make their way to a blind spot in the wall and find a way through. Markin had the idea of info drops over the walls, to our contacts inside. They’d distribute them through the zones with a clue – a series of graphics you could scan with our modules, giving you coordinates of the next blind spot.

The walls weren’t solid material. It was a giant projected dome screen. Looked like an trimmed garden hedge. If you could see over it, you’d only see a barren wasteland and sky, just like the talking news heads told you. The world outside was a dangerous, inhospitable place. If you tried to touch it, you’d get knocked flat on your ass. People didn’t remember a thing from it, and the neuro chip in your head would tell you that you’d blacked out or something. Sneaky.

Every day, we figured out where the weakest spots were in the wall’s power wave and overloaded the damn thing. This would open up patches where you could get through and survive. Often they were crawled through. Some people were unlucky enough to be thrown through. Unfortunately, we couldn’t always keep it open long enough because of the natural instability of what we were doing, and it’d spit you out like a bad tasting fruit.  Bad fruit, what a funny way to put it. I did feel rather spit out, sometimes.

The sky burned a deep orange as the sun set, so I started to pick my way down the cliff side to a spot underneath a rocky outcropping, in the shadows. Still a good view of today’s open patch if anything came out. Or flew out, loved it when they flew out. The noises people made were hilarious. Markin told me not to laugh at people’s pain, but I couldn’t help it. Watching a screeching human come flying out with their limbs flailing, sometimes aflame and smoldering like a burnt out firecracker. What wasn’t hilarious about that?

The mental image of it set me to fits of giggles. I tried not to make too much noise as I descended, the cliffs echoed sound through the valley clear as a bell.  Creeping closer to the patch, I found a nice spot in the tall brush grass and settled down on my belly. The cliff loomed overhead, giving me a great deal of shade cover. Even without it, the sky was darkening quickly. I hadn’t realized how long it took to get back down the rocks, but no matter. I pulled out my scanner, the screen showed me where a patch of the wall was slowly weakening, a stone’s throw away from where I lay in the grass.

“I feel like a giant snake,” I said into my communicator button. A high pitched giggle answered me on the other end of the line.

I hissed into the button, and the giggling grew louder. I chuckled. “Shush. The walls have ears.”

Some snorting and suppressed giggling, interrupted by the line going silent a few times.

“Sorry Psycho. The image of you as a snake is just hilarious. I was thinkin’ of this giant purple snake with-”

“Don’t call me that,” I said, cutting her off. “Just wait for my signal, ok? And shut up you fuckin’ candlestick!”

The giggling stopped. “Um, sorry. The others called you that, I thought it was ok and-”

“I’s not ok. And stop listening to gossip if you want to survive around here.”

“Yes Psyc- ma’am Sorry ma’am.”

The line went silent once more. Just as well, my scanner showed a nice big hot patch on the wall. An lo and behold, a human heat signature lurking about. We watched him pace back and forth, scanning the wall with one of the modules we designed. They would destruct upon passing through. No evidence, only dust. Just lasted long enough to find an open door.

I heard the crackling before I smelled it. Acrid, bitter smoke. Burning techskin. Someone got a scorched ass on the way through. Fair enough, it wasn’t uncommon. Luckily enough, I timed my jump perfectly. I only burned my boot heels. Better than a toasty butt.

Crack! The final burst of energy flashed like sheet lightning, and a large smouldering man, and I mean actually smoking, staggered away from the wall. He promptly stopped in his tracks, and keeled over like a felled tree. Thump!  I belly-crawled over to him through the grass. He seemed conscious and not particularly happy about it. Jabbing him in the arm with the butt of my knife made him jerk upward.

“You ok buddy?”

He lifted his head from the ground, stubble caked in dirt and pebbles. “Bit warm.”

I smirked. “It burns like a bitch, I know. But you’re out so we can get you cleaned up soon.”

“It feels like someone set my arse on fire,” he said with a grunt. I looked him over, and saw a bare buttock peeking out from the roasted techskin pants.

“The wall set your glorious ass on fire, yes. It’s not happy with our methods. But we gotta move before the drones come investigate.”

We could already hear the low rumble of them in the distance, being dispatched from a central tower in the city.

With a yank on the arm I pulled him upright. “We got about 30 seconds before they’re in sight range. On your feet soldier!”

Tapping my comm button I called in the signal. “Red Rock One, come in. I’ve got him, meet us at the usual spot. ETA 2 minutes.”

“Received. We’re already in place.”

Startled by the voice that replied, I paused. It wasn’t ‘Candlestick’ Rachel, but Markin. Didn’t know he was coming along, but as long as they were in the spot, no big deal.

I pointed to a large group of rocks, shaped like daggers. The others would be behind guarding the tunnels.

“The sharp rocks, they’re the Blades. Go there. Run as fast as you can. Follow me.”   Taking off in a full sprint toward them, I heard him grunt and pull himself up after me, feet pounding the ground. Crashing through the dry bracken I ignored the branches threatening to tear my skin.

“Aaaah shite!”he growled behind me. The air smelled of blood, metal and smoke.

“Come on! You can’t slow down!” I replied as I hastened my pace more. The drones were closer now, I could hear the deep rumble of their engines. We were nearly in sight range. We crashed through the vegetation, slashing through the branches with my knife.

“Fuck!”

I turned around just in time to see my new friend go flying over a low hanging branch I’d jumped over. Thud! He landed face first, hands outstretched but too late in breaking his fall.

“Hey man, get up!”Grabbing his torn short, I yanked him up again. Aiming for standing but I only got him to a half crouching slump. Eyes were unfocused and dazed. A thousand yard stare of creeping shock.

My armoured glove left a thin trail of blood across his face as I backhanded him. Still, he stared at the air. Time for more desperate measures. Slap! Slap! Slap! I had to get him going even if he was running to kill me. Either way, those drones would do it first unless we frickin’ moved!

We were in a dense forest. The drones couldn’t see us but they knew we were here, I could see the spotlights filtering through. The buzzing, roaring noise, I hated it. That low thrum like an ancient predator salivating as they hovered over the tree tops, stalking us. They could most definitely sense life in here. Armour cancelled out most of my body heat, but my friend here, he was a great big hotspot to them.  I grabbed the front of his shirt and gave him a good shake.

“Snap out of it sweetie, I would prefer not being drone jam!” I sighed with relief as he lifted his head to look me in the eye.

“Kharl,” he said, spitting a glob of blood on the dirt. “Call me Kharl. Not sweetie.” He stood up properly. “Over there?” he said, pointing at the Blades. I nodded.

“Thanks, um…what’s yer name hon?” he said. He swept his eyes up and down my body, looking for clues.

I pointed to the side of my helmet, turning my head to show him the painted title.

“Psycho? Ah, very er, ladylike.”

Kharl peered up through the trees, suddenly realizing the gravity of the situation.

“Those things armed?”

I laughed. “Oh yes, like a hovering tank. Now come on, break time’s over. I’m not stopping again.”

Kharl dusted himself off and peered at his bloodied leg. “Alright. Right behind ya.”

We set off sprinting through the trees again. I could hear the roar of the drones above us, they were following close. Nothing I could do about that, shooting them would just give them a target to back trace. It was pitch dark in here, the only light we had shone from my helmet’s visor light. Enough to barely see my dirty boots in front of me, but not enough to show on a heat sensor. They were getting close enough to start calling our neurochips. Mine was deactivated and a non-issue, Kharl’s would be damaged from the wall jump but I didn’t know if it worked still, or to what extent.

“Argh. Get out of my fucking head!”

I looked back to see him still behind me, whipping his head about like a dog shaking off water. His chip still blasted him with internal audio, but the callback code didn’t work. It couldn’t force him to run back like a lemming, lucky for us. Still wasn’t an enjoyable experience for anyone.

Spying the Blades on my visor map only 45m away, I increased the pace. The most dangerous part was approaching, because between the rocks and the forest was a clearing we had to sprint through, no cover. Picked up my pace and hoped Kharl kept up.

The noise from the drones was now a thunderous roar, and threaded with a high pitched whining. My least favourite sound in the world. That meant the weapons were powering up.

“We have to get across here as quick as possible! Stopping means you’re dead! Dead! I will not come back for you if you fall!”

His eyes widened and he nodded. “I don’t expect you would get killed for the sake of me girl!”

“I prefer my body in the current configuration, rather than splattered across the Blades! Now run!”

We had reached the tree line. The drones had spotted us and emitted a piercing siren. My comms were going crazy. Markin’s voice yelling at me through the comms. “Run. Run! We’ve got you covered, just frickin run like a dog!”

A blinding blue spotlight seared my eyes. Took a deep breath and ran the fastest I have ever moved in my short life. My shadow loomed large in front of me as the drone spotlight chased at my back. Lungs burning from the forest sprint, now they felt ready to burst. Breathe, remember to breathe. Don’t hold your breath. Don’t stop, can’t stop, you’ll die! One foot after the other, that’s it. I could see Markin peeking out from around a large boulder, his lazen gun flush against his shoulder. Looking me right in the eye, he turned back to fire a glancing shot at the drone behind me. It caused the bot to swerve and miss me by a good few metres. I’d breathe a sigh of relief if it didn’t feel like swallowing razors. Kharl grunted as another shot barely missed him, despite his injuries he was dodging quite well.

Within reach of the mountain now, the path was clear. I took a running leap over a boulder, crashing into Markin and knocking him flat on his back. I’d ended up sitting on his chest. I had no time to remedy this awkward issue before the next one arrived.

“Comin’ through!”

Kharl jumped right over the boulder, head butting me in the back. Great, now we were a damn human sandwich. Markin groaned at the extra weight. Kharl was not a dainty man. Markin flailed his arms and Kharl stumbled to his feel next to the overhanging cliff. I stood up and Markin followed, pointing down the tunnel between the rocks. He turned to Kharl, extending a hand.

“My name is Markin. I keep things somewhat organized around here. What’s your name mate?”

Kharl grabbed his hand with a meaty paw. “Kharl. Good shootin’ back there.”

Markin inclined his head, bowing. He then turned on his heel and marched silently down the tunnel. Kharl turned to me with a smirk.

“Not a talker, eh? Bit weird.”

I laughed. “You have no idea man. No idea.”