Hurley's Heroes Collection 2015-2020, page 49
“We’re coming over!” Mahir called.
Nyx got to her feet and stepped from the path of deacti- vated mines to the clear stone floor in front of the door. Her arms ached, and she was still sweating heavily, even though the room was cool. The spider, her new nemesis, slid down a thread of silk and bounced to a halt just in front of her. It opened its jaws.
Nyx pulled out her scattergun and shot it.
The spider burst, and bits of it splattered in all directions.
A big hunk of it landed somewhere to her left. An explosion rocked the room, throwing rocks and dirt across the room. Nyx’s ears rang.
“Goddammit!” Mahir said, and her voice was muted. She took Nyx by the shoulder and yelled something at her. Mahir was shorter, and Nyx just stared down at her and nodded at whatever she was saying. “No shooting!” Mahir said. “You want those bugs to careen around and set off more of those things?”
Ada stepped up beside them, wiping bug guts from her pleasant face. Nyx shrugged. Ada shook her head, expres- sion disapproving, like a much-put-upon mother of a batch of twelve. She knelt in front of the door and pulled a few more jars from hidden sleeves in her burnous. Various bugs emerged, including a buzzing cloud of hornets. Ada spoke a few soft words and directed the swarms at the bugs on the door.
This took another big chunk of time, enough time that Nyx’s ears stopped ringing and she could hear some banging upstairs, the zealots above them, but Ada finally grinned triumphantly, and the whole wall of bugs around the door dropped off, dead.
Mahir rushed to the door and pushed it open. Nyx waited behind, not particularly interested in what all the fuss was about at this point. She was hungry and tired and her head fucking hurt. Eli waited outside with her while Ada and Kasib went in.
“Got any sen?” Nyx asked Eli. Eli palmed over some.
Nyx thumbed a square of it into her mouth between her teeth and her cheek, and felt slightly better. “What kind of a smash and grab is it?” Nyx said.
Eli shrugged. They had their hands on the shotgun still. “Same as it always is,” they said. “Grab something somebody will pay for. Might as well go in. Only way out is through here.”
Nyx grinned. “Ah,” she said. “You were waiting for me.” Eli nodded. “Sorry,” they said. “Orders to keep you moving.” “I bet,” Nyx said.
She stepped through the door onto a spongy floor. The light here was much better, nearly bright as day. At the center of the room a young man sat at a desk. He stared at Mahir, open mouthed, as Mahir brought up a machete. He couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen, not quite old enough for the draft. All around the room were paintings and pic- tures; Nyx didn’t know much about art, but she could tell what they all were, mostly landscapes. Very green. Purple skies. Bugs. The whole place smelled of lilac and saffron, which put her in mind of the bursts at the front, and for a minute she reeled at the memory of it.
Mahir drove her machete directly into the boy’s chest. He grabbed at the blade as he went over and made a little mewling sound.
“The fuck?” Nyx said. She made her way over just as Mahir was gutting open the still gasping boy.
Mahir was up to her elbows in blood, digging around in the hot, wet torso while the boy kicked his legs. His eyes rolled, and his mouth made little gaping motions, like a gasping fish, then stopped. Mahir yanked something from his body. It took a moment for Nyx to realize it was his heart, because there was something wrapped around it.
“Got it!” Mahir said. “Out, now. Out the back.”
Nyx got a look at the thing as Mahir ripped away the muscle of the heart it surrounded. It was something shiny and metal, dotted with tiny blue and red nodes. It almost looked like an expensive piece of jewelry, only it glowed faintly. But before she could see any more, Mahir stuffed it into a pouch and into her breast binding, and ran after Kasib.
Kasib took out her gun and blew a hole in the back wall. Eli and Ada helped her tear away a large chunk of the spongy covering, revealing another door, this one unguarded. Nyx wondered who had helped them plan this heist, because the knowledge it would have taken to get in and out of here sure as fuck wasn’t anything this band of misfits could have fig- ured out on their own.
Nyx followed after them, glancing back just once into the boy’s cell where his body lay cooling on the floor.
Fuck of a night.
They crawled up through a slimy, ill-used corridor and up again via a creaky ladder dripping with mucus. Eli slipped and twisted their wrist, but it wasn’t bad enough to slow them down. Together, they sloshed through what must have been an old sewer system from back when there was a real city here, no doubt all buried under sand now, and came up at least half a kilometer from the back end of the Parrot Temple. Nyx was exhausted and covered in filth, and the others didn’t look much better. She had seen enough not to be surprised when Kasib and Mahir pulled a sheet covered in sand from over the top of a bakkie that had been stowed here for them, camouflaged by the dune. Had they done it, or had their contact, the one who really planned this whole shit?
Nyx piled into the back with Eli and Ada. Mahir rode shotgun, and Kasib drove. Kasib hit the juice, but didn’t turn on the lights. It wasn’t until they bumped out of sand and onto the road that Mahir started to laugh.
“Holy fuck!” Mahir said. She reached back and slapped Nyx’s knee. “Did you see that shit? Did you see what we just did?”
Nyx didn’t say anything.
Mahir laughed some more and turned back around. “Baths all around! Booze! And fuck, yeah, food, I’m fucking starving! You hungry, Nyx? I never could eat on a job.”
“I could eat,” Nyx said. “Fantastic,” Mahir said.
They hit a tavern an hour later, some busted-out halfway house that had likely survived by having no qualms about going dry and serving Chenjans their gravy-soaked yams whenever they took over the area. Nyx heard the call to mid- night prayer as they piled out of the bakkie, and couldn’t believe it had only been five hours since they descended into the goddamn temple.
“Sure you don’t want to keep going?” Nyx said. “Put some distance between—”
“This is where we meet our contact,” Mahir said. “At dawn. Hey, your shit is done! Debt paid. But stay for a drink on me, all right?”
Nyx knew she sure as hell wasn’t going to get a ride out of this place before their dawn meet-up with their contact, so grudgingly agreed to stay. It was better than trying to hitch back.
Ada grinned as Nyx came in after her. “Wasn’t so bad, was it?” Ada said. “We’re all going to be rich!”
“Good for you,” Nyx said.
“I have sisters,” Ada said. “Eli’s got debts. Kasib—” she low- ered her voice—“Kasib’s got some shit to take care of with magicians. We got no problems now, though, hey?”
“You’ll spend your money like every team,” Nyx said. “You’ll be back doing this shit in a few months, half a year at best.”
“Awwww, sad sack!” Ada said, playfully poking at her. Nyx grabbed her hand.
Ada cocked her head and grinned. “I don’t mind it rough.” Nyx released her. For fuck’s sake, these people.
Ada flounced into the tavern, and Nyx followed her, looking for food and a bath, in that order. Mahir put down some notes on the bar—far more notes than Nyx would have advised anyone to carry—and bought a round for them and the six or seven local patrons.
Nyx rubbed her head. Mahir was going to get them killed, celebrating this close to the temple. Nyx walked over and pulled her aside as the bartender handed Mahir a drink.
“Hey, you understand low key?” Nyx asked. “Those women are going to look for you.”
“Not tonight,” Mahir said. “Not ever.” “The fuck you talking about?”
Mahir handed Nyx the drink, and thumped her hand on her shoulder, pulled her close. “They won’t bother us. It’s taken care of.”
“By who, Mahir? You are fucking with some powerful people.”
“Not fucking them,” Mahir said, “working for them. And it’s great. You saw how slick that was? We ain’t never pulled off a job that slick.”
“And you never will again,” Nyx said.
“Get that bug out of your ass,” Mahir said. She pressed her- self closer. “I remember when you were fun.”
Nyx snorted. She pulled away and went in search of a hot meal. The bartender said it would be a while; most people didn’t order food this late outside the holy month. Nyx opted for a bath while she waited, and went in the back to find a tepid pan of water and a wash cloth. She was clearly still in the desert. Nyx wiped herself down and beat the dust out of her clothes, then got dressed again. When she came back into the common room, the food was ready, and she sat down with the crew to eat.
Eli was telling a joke about their family, something involving fishing, and Kasib laughed uproariously while patting her belly with her slick green hand. Ada got herself a seat right by Nyx, and Nyx found she couldn’t help glancing at Ada’s roundly pleasant face throughout the meal. Mahir sat across from Nyx, urging her to try the red wine.
“It’s made with grapes,” Mahir said, “from Heidia. It’s good. They can put some iced bugs in it.”
“Makes me shit regular,” Kasib said, and guffawed.
The tavern keeper kept the food coming: twisted rye bread, rice and hunks of fried dog, salted grasshoppers, sweet mealworms, and other stuff that Nyx didn’t recognize. Ada pressed her leg against Nyx’s, and Nyx let it sit there. Nyx saw danger here because she didn’t have all the cards. Clearly Mahir did, and she was carefree as a fucking bird.
When Nyx stumbled upstairs, Mahir followed her up to her room. Nyx opened her mouth to protest, but Mahir kicked the door closed and pushed her onto the bed; she was tough for a little fuck. Mahir put her mouth on Nyx’s, and it was just like the old days. Mahir tasted of wine. Nyx pushed off Mahir’s burnous, and for a moment they tangled with it until they were both laughing in a heap on the floor.
While they untangled themselves, Ada came in. She made no pretense, just started shedding her clothes. Nyx wasn’t going to complain. She pulled Ada down with them, and they spent an awful long time fucking on the floor until the tavern keeper came in and told them to quiet the fuck down.
Ada snickered at that, and the three of them moved to the bed. It was a cool night, but they were covered in sweat and breathless in the end. Nyx hung off the edge of the bed, suddenly bone tired. Mahir laid her head between Nyx’s shoulder blades. Ada was out almost immediately; she snored softly at the other end of the bed.
“You should join the gang, Nissa,” Mahir said, running her fingers along her arm. “We could spend every day like this, you know?”
Nyx stared across the room. Ada had opened a window at some point to let in cool air. The stars peppered the sky like the flinty eyes of the dead.
“Can’t have every day the same,” Nyx said.
“This is a good crew,” Mahir said. “We get along, don’t we?” “I don’t know who you’re working for,” Nyx said. “That shit bothers me.”
“It’s just a job,” Mahir said. “We weren’t all bel dames. You have to start where you start.”
“Somebody got you into that place. Got you a map. Had a way out all set up. That’s not your planning, Mahir. You plan worse than I do.”
“So what? You never get help?”
Nyx thought about her team back at the keg: sulky Rhys and drug-addled Anneke and morose Khos and needy little Taite. It all felt exhausting. Truth was, some days she didn’t feel like they helped her as much as she took care of them, like they were some big family of kids still shitting their pants and yelling at each other. Maybe she was, too.
“I could use a change,” Nyx said.
“See?” Mahir said. “It’ll be fun.” She kissed the back of Nyx’s neck, the way she had done in prison, and Nyx’s skin prickled.
“You could have gotten another sapper,” Nyx said. “I wanted you,” Mahir said.
Something moved in the window. Nyx lifted her head and peered at it. It was a parrot.
Nyx got up.
“What is it?” Mahir said.
“Get dressed,” Nyx said. She went to the window. The parrot stood on the sill, head cocked. “Out,” Nyx said. “I have pistols, you little shit.”
The parrot cawed. An answering caw came from outside. Nyx peered out and saw a massive black shape moving across the freckled stars.
“Fuuuuuuck,” Nyx said. She slammed the window closed. “Up!” she said. “Ada! Get dressed! Move, move!”
Mahir scrambled for her clothes.
Nyx shook Ada awake. “We’ve got a swarm of those fucking parrots,” Nyx said. “We need to get to . . . fuck . . . somewhere. They’ll come through. These windows aren’t filtered.”
Ada muttered something and rolled over, then: “Wait, what?” and then she was up and moving. Nyx had to give them all points on taking direction.
Nyx dressed quickly and then checked to make sure she had all of her weapons. She was an old hand at fast changes, but the flock was faster. Parrots thumped against the windows.
“We can’t go outside!” Ada said. She was mostly dressed. Mahir opened the door. “Can we make the bakkie?”
“Let me think,” Nyx said. “We need a filter. Parrots can’t get through most filters that are tailored to keep out bugs. City filters, like Mushtallah.”
“We won’t make it halfway across the country,” Mahir said. “I said something like it,” Nyx said, “doesn’t have to be . . .” and then she remembered the settlement they had seen on the way to the Parrot Temple, the farmstead with the patch of green and the grubby kids and that lonely, winking contagion center.
“I know where to go,” Nyx said.
They pounded down the stairs and through the common room, startling the last of the patrons and making the tavern keeper yell. “You should all be in bed anyway!” Nyx yelled at them, and wondered where the fuck that came from. In bed or not here, for sure. This was a shitty place to be.
Nyx went out with her scattergun first, firing before she even saw anything. Preventative measures tended to be useful in these types of situations. The bakkie wasn’t far—the lights from the tavern shone on the front end—and the parrots hadn’t circled around the front yet.
“Go, go!” Nyx said to the others.
Kasib tried to get in the driver’s seat, but Nyx pushed her out of the way. “I drive,” Nyx said. “You shoot.”
Nyx slammed the door, and put her scattergun on the seat next to her. The flock of parrots reeled around; there must have been thousands of them. Nyx said, “Everybody in?” but didn’t check to see that they were before she hit the juice and blasted out of there.
The parrots flocked the bakkie, obscuring her view. Nyx snapped on the lights and turned on the wipers. Kasib hung out the passenger side, firing. Eli and Mahir lolled out the back two windows with their own guns blazing. A swarm of hornets swept across the hood of the bakkie, which meant Ada was in play now, too. At least Nyx didn’t have to give them directions once the shit hit.
Nyx drove until she hit the crossroads with the main southern artery they had come up on, and just kept feeding juice to the bugs for all the fucking bakkie was worth. It wasn’t her bakkie. If the bug cistern overpopulated and burst, that wasn’t her problem until a lot later, if she lived to see later at all. What she needed now was speed.
She could make out the road if she concentrated on the thin stretches of it she could see through over the flapping wings and soaring bodies of the parrots. Then one of the parrots started morphing right there on the hood, throwing off streamers of mucus as its wings elongated and its beak shortened and it began to take on its human form. The thing grabbed at the edge of the window with its wing-fingers. Kasib shot it in its half-shifted face, and the thing rolled off the hood and onto the road.
Nyx yelled at them to keep an eye out for a farm compound, but they all seemed too busy to pay much mind to anything but the shooting. She peered out both sides as best she could as half-shifted parrots kept peeling away from the bakkie. The ride up in the cat-pulled cart had taken a lot longer, and she knew she was making good time in the bakkie. They would be on it any—
The green eye of the top of the contagion sensor careened past.
Nyx jammed on the brakes, taking the bakkie into a full spin. Eli screeched and nearly fell out of the bakkie. Ada grabbed their burnous and pulled them back in.
Nyx blasted forward again, turning sharply left off the paved road and onto the sandy drive of the homestead. The happy, twinkling lights of the farm grew closer. If she squinted, Nyx could just make out the sheen of the filter around the place, protecting the grounds from all the toxic shit that came in from the front.
“Hold on,” Nyx said.
“Fuck!” Mahir yelled. “How do you know it’s not tailored for people? It could fucking kill us!”
“You got a better option, Mahir?” Nyx said. They hit the filter.
The bakkie shot through and ground to a halt. The hood reared up, and the cistern blew bug juice and the heated, popping carcasses of dead red beetles across the lawn.
Nyx grabbed her scattergun and pushed open the door. Bug juice bled across the ground; the red beetles protected by the cistern hadn’t been completely fried to ash, but they were sure as fuck dead, and they floated down the rivers of bug juice like sad little soldiers.
Nyx raised her scattergun, pointing behind her at the filter. A heap of colorful feathers lay on the other side of it. A few partially burned parrots limped around on the other side, missing a wing, a beak, a foot. There were more parrots in the swarm, but they had circled off and regrouped. Nyx saw them resting at the top of a nearby sand dune.
She lowered her gun. Behind her, Mahir was talking to Ada, asking her to send a message.
