Prophet's Journey, page 38
part #1 of Prophet of the Badlands Series
A sudden strong feeling of alarm struck Althea.
“Stop!” she shouted. “Paama! Everyone. Stop!”
The scuffing of boots in the tunnel ceased… mostly.
“Why are you shouting?” asked Kye.
“Because there’s—”
Bang!
Althea screamed in alarm and ran forward. She jumped off the platform and darted into the tunnel toward agonized wailing. Paama stood in the middle of the tracks amid a haze of smoke. She appeared to be one of the kids who heard her shout ‘stop’ and listened. A boy twenty feet farther up ahead lay on the floor screaming next to a girl who wasn’t moving.
She started to run to them, but froze at the sight of small metal discs all over the floor. One lay mere inches in front of Paama’s boot.
“Everyone stand still. Don’t walk.”
Paama faced toward her. “I can see your eyes.”
“There are bad things on the floor.” She turned back toward the platform. “Teal! Help! And watch the floor.”
Althea whirled back and hurried over to the screaming scout, careful not to step on—or near—any of the round things. The girl appeared to be alive, peppered with many tiny bleeding hurts, though in shock, too stunned to scream. The boy’s left leg no longer existed below the knee. Althea crouched by him, grabbed his leg above the shredded skin, and shut off his ability to feel pain. He ceased screaming and switched to sobbing.
Teal hurried into the tunnel. “Oh, shit. Mines. Okay, kids. I’m gonna move you all out of here. Everyone just stand still until I get to you.”
A few worried voices replied with agreement.
Althea closed her eyes and concentrated on funneling her power into the boy, coaxing new flesh and bone to grow. A handful of small metal spheres had punctured his other leg, hip, chest, and right arm. The injured girl lay on her side nearby, breathing in weird, rapid gulps of air. That worried Althea enough to make the boy wait for the small hurts. As soon as he had a new foot, she pivoted and grasped the girl’s arm.
More than twenty little metal spheres had pierced her, one dangerously close to the heart shape, three in her air-bags. Two had lodged in the big shape in the belly below the stomach, the one that always bled a bunch if broken. Raiders who drank a lot of ethanol often caused big hurts to that shape. She knew it was vital, and any hurt there could kill. Despite the relative smallness of the individual injuries, the girl’s life felt as though it wanted to slip away.
Althea growled at herself, starting to feel guilty and personally responsible for this girl’s hurts… but she considered that much worse would happen—eventually—if the robots found that village. Her eyes flared bright in response to a surge of power. She dove into the link with the girl’s life essence. One by one, healing flesh forced the pellets to exude from their wound tracks and fall to the ground. By the time she looked up from having fully restored all the life shapes, Teal hovered over her, arms folded.
“She is okay now.” Althea turned back to the boy to finish getting pellets out of him. “Why are bad things here?”
“They don’t look old enough to be from the war. My guess is the CRP threw them around like party favors.”
Althea looked up with furrowed brows.
“Not an actual party. It’s just a phrase.” Teal picked up the fourteen-ish girl and carried her out.
The boy sat up and grabbed her, shaking, muttering thank you over and over.
She dampened his fear and wiped the tears off his face. Raiders, and even some Scrag tribes would be mean to a boy his age caught crying… unless a parent or sibling had died. “It is okay. Wait here.”
Teal returned to carry the boy out.
Althea followed on her own since she could see in the dark to avoid stepping on the bad discs.
“What is the delay?” asked Kye in a concerned voice.
“That tunnel is littered with antipersonnel mines. Your scouts have no way to see in the dark. Give me a few minutes to check the tunnel. If it’s not too deep a minefield, I’ll clear it. Otherwise, we’ll need to go a different route.”
Kye nodded.
Teal jogged into the tunnel. The boy who’d had his foot blown off received a replacement boot from the litter carrying their non-food supplies. His mother got into an argument with Bill, refusing to let him run off into that tunnel again. Ell-Gee swooped in to explain what mines were and that he had not been punished by the gods. Avie dangled from his left arm, squirming in a futile attempt to get loose. Apparently, he didn’t want her trying to disassemble one of the mines.
Roughly forty minutes later, Teal returned. “Okay. All clear. I suggest you let me go first instead of your scouts, at least while we’re underground. The kids know how to move around the robots topside, but down here, they’re blind.”
“I concur,” said Noema.
Bill pointed a finger gun at Teal, smiling. Althea thought he looked strange without the glass in his hand.
“Do it.” Kye nodded.
Teal went into the tunnel again, the rest of the caravan picking up and following. Althea found Paama walking on the right side near the middle, and spent a while comforting her from the shock of nearly being killed by a mine. Althea did not tell her she’d been so close to stepping on one. Eventually, Paama calmed down and her emotions returned to normal. When the urge to be near Teal grew strong, Althea hurried around the other villagers to the front.
They soon reached an area littered with skeletons. Bones crunched under the boots of villagers who couldn’t see them. Althea cringed, whispered, “Sorry” to the dead, and kept her gaze on the ground to avoid stepping on bones, sharp things, or anything that might explode.
“Who are they?” asked Althea.
“People who died a really long time ago. Those uniforms look like private military… I think that logo belonged to an old tech company. The bodies in camo fought for the old government.”
Ell-Gee turned on a portable electric light. His little daughter Avie switched hers on as well, holding it for him as he examined a few of the ancient rifles. Judging by the grunts and noises he made, none of them remained useful. The girl ignored weaponry, grabbing random old electronic devices which she held to her ear, shook hard, and sometimes tasted.
With Teal leading the way, they navigated the subway, following track tubes, crossing two stations, and trudging down a long, straight tunnel for several hours before they reached the end. It expanded into a platform far smaller than the Transit village. The track shaft continued past the station only a short distance before a solid wall blocked it entirely, covered in red and white diagonal stripes.
“End of the line, last stop,” said Teal in an odd voice. “This is where we get off. We’re close to the southwest corner of the old New Detroit Metro District.”
“Isn’t it called Det-ro-it?” called someone in the crowd.
“Sure, knock yourself out,” said Teal. “Wait, no. Don’t. Just a figure of speech.” She lowered her voice and muttered, “Can’t tell anymore who’s gonna take shit literally.”
Althea giggled. “Why would anyone take mierda? It stinks.”
Teal gazed at the ceiling.
They climbed out of the track tunnel to the platform, a process that took a few minutes due to the tedious task of maneuvering the long litters of supplies around tight corners. Spear-bearers went first across the station, leading the caravan up a shorter, steeper flight of stairs to a blockage of debris and at least one old car. Kye handed her spear to Noema, then jogged up to help Teal. Between a synthetic with superhuman strength and Kye’s psionic ability to make herself stronger, they pushed the blockage clear enough to climb outside, then started on the arduous task of dragging junk away from the opening. A few other adults squeezed out and helped the clearing process. Once the passage had been fully opened, the villagers filed up the stairwell.
Althea hovered at the base of the stairs, occasionally patting an elder on the arm and giving them a surge of energy. She made sure to check on the old ones frequently, though the village only had five people she could truly think of as ‘old.’ Sad to think, but it made sense. Living so close to the CRP did not contribute to a long lifespan, and Mariko, via no real fault of her own, didn’t do much good treating their hurt and sick.
The woman used a combination of begging their gods for help and old folkloric remedies to deal with injuries along with a small assortment of herbs she believed medicinal—probably why so many people in the Transit tribe died from silly things like cutting themselves. Even without Althea, Querq had Dr. Ruiz. The man possessed no psionic abilities, but he still made the hurts and sicks go away, though it took quite a bit longer for him.
Althea smiled up at an elder man while giving him a boost of energy. He still looked much younger than the people who spent all day at Tumbleweed’s bar, but this tribe considered him old. The grin he flashed back at her caused a warm sense of satisfaction to well up deep inside. Convincing these people to abandon their dangerous underground home for Querq would spare them from more threats than just the CRP.
The last villager went past her up the stairs. Althea started to follow, but stopped at a soft clicking behind her. She twisted to peer back and gawked at little Avie attacking an old machine with a hand tool. Frozen speech at the top of the large boxy device read ‘Tickets.’ The six-year-old appeared to be trying to disassemble the display screen and keypad.
“Avie!” shouted Althea.
The girl looked at her.
“Don’t run off alone! Stay with the group. Come over here.”
She returned to her effort to disassemble the machine.
“Avie!” yelled Althea.
The girl twisted to look at her again.
“Come here,” said Althea, the glow in her eyes flickering.
Hitting a small child with Suggestion probably equated to using a big truck to step on a bug… but she didn’t want to waste time arguing with a child in such a dangerous situation. If that girl wandered off and got lost, she’d probably end up dead.
Avie blinked once, then came running toward her.
Althea took her by the hand and hurried up the stairs.
The villagers having gathered outside the old transit station, Shara sent the young scouts to take the lead, fanning out roughly a hundred feet ahead of the main group. Althea hurried over to Ell-Gee, explaining that Avie had wandered off. He picked the girl up and decided to carry her.
Althea smiled at him then ran off, weaving among the procession until she found Teal.
“There you are.”
“Yeah.” Althea smiled up at her. “Checking on old people.”
“Only two of them are really old,” said Teal in a near-whisper. “Living in this place, I guess making it to fifty is a serious achievement.”
“Are you going to get old?” asked Althea.
“Not the same way. I thought I was human when I was a kid, but I suppose every synthetic is eventually going to figure it out. Looking twenty-seven for sixty years would kinda be a clue that something’s different. Living past a hundred, more so.”
“Yeah.” Althea nodded. “That’s nice. I’m glad you will live for a long time.”
“Heh. Me too, kid. Me, too.”
Several hours later, as darkness approached, Shana leaned close and whispered something to Kye, who then directed everyone to take shelter in the ground floor of a crumbling five-story building. Shana emanated a strong sense of respect. It seemed she liked that the inexperienced young queen trusted her wisdom. The Transit tribe headed across the intersection into the large structure.
According to Teal, it had been a hotel. This, of course, caused Althea to ask what a hotel was. A small group of curious scouts sensed imminent story time and clustered around them, listening while they all had a meal of cold bread and rat meat jerky.
Shara, apparently in charge of the tribe’s warriors, organized a watch schedule among the adult spear-bearers. Though the tween-aged scouts had an arguably dangerous job exploring the ruins, hunting rats for food, and dodging CRP robots, no one asked or expected them to do any fighting.
After the meal, Althea got up and walked around to ask everyone if they had any hurts or sicks. The only complaint came from a man Father’s age who had a mild sick that plugged up the hollow parts of his head with snot. She expelled it and told the man to burn the glop of slime before it made anyone else sick.
Her rounds done, Althea curled up next to Teal. Paama and Ooru bedded down with their parents nearby.
Althea reached out, using her clairvoy ants for a painfully brief talk with Father and Karina. They told her the Zero police had become quite upset that someone had stolen her. Though it seemed a slight fib, she simply said ‘mercenaries’ when asked who did it.
She would tell Father the truth about Teal when he asked, but she wanted to be there in person to keep him from growing too angry with her new friend.
But she still had fourteen days—at least—to wait.
41
The Cost of Change
Numerous men and women screaming and shouting jolted Althea awake.
She sat up to a scene of chaos. People ran in all directions around the old hotel lobby. Green plasma globs flew in the front door and windows. Someone let out an agonized wail. A blurry figure running by scooped Althea up, carrying her deeper into the building.
Bouncing in the man’s arms, Althea, still foggy from her sudden jolt to consciousness, noticed Teal standing with her back to the wall by the entrance, waiting as a silver-plated CRP walker tromped into the room. The instant it went past her, she pounced on it, grabbing its rifle arm and shoving it upward to keep it from killing anyone.
Kye shouted a war cry and jumped off the reception desk at the walker Teal grappled with, rounding her all-metal spear over her head in a cleave that mostly severed the robot’s head. Right as the man carrying Althea dragged her into a doorway, Teal picked up the plasma rifle.
“No! I need to help!” shouted Althea.
The man squeezed her tight, holding her firm while sprinting along a hallway that passed in a blur. He rushed down a flight of stairs, handed Althea to a woman by a door at the bottom, and raced back up. The woman gently shoved her into a room full of children and elders. Paama and Ooru ran over and clung to her, shaking. The two spear-bearers guarding the door didn’t appear likely to let her out, Prophet or no, not unless she forced them to. Then again, CRP robots terrified her. Being treated like a helpless child at that particular moment didn’t bother her since, all things considered, she essentially was a defenseless child.
She clung to her friends, shivering at the whine of plasma bolts, buzz of rotary cannons, and shouts of people.
The upstairs fell quiet after only a few minutes.
No one in the basement spoke or made an attempt to move.
Footsteps echoed in the stairwell. Someone banged on the door. The spear-bearer on the left opened it.
Teal poked her head in. “It’s over. Althea, you’re needed.”
She jumped up without hesitation and ran after Teal up the stairs, down the hall, and back to the lobby. Fires burned here and there. The stink of molten plastic and scorched flesh made her scrunch up her nose. Four spear-bearers had died instantly, one with an incinerated head, the other three had charred tunnels through their torsos as big around as Althea’s thigh.
Eleven other spear-bearers suffered non-fatal injuries, many losing half an arm or large hunks of leg. Many other tribespeople, including non-warriors, lay moaning with bullet wounds from wheelbot guns. Three unhurt spear-bearers stood guard holding silver plasma rifles. Teal and Kye also carried the CRP weapons. Five walkers and two wheelbots had crumpled to smoldering ruins among the injured. Such a number of people had been hurt, many grievously, she couldn’t fix everyone before more died.
Overcome by sorrow, grief, and anger at all the pain in front of her, Althea screamed. Desperate to stop anyone else from dying, she leapt into the air, her wings bursting forth in an eruption of brilliant light. Arms held high to either side, she reached out and connected to the life essences of everyone around her all at once. The next few minutes blurred into a haze of blinding blue-white light, shifting reddish brown blobs, and moans of relief. The injured people drained her; she felt like a mother cat with an army of greedy starving kittens suckling at her energy. She opened herself to them, allowing the people to take as much of her energy as they needed no matter how much it hurt.
“By the gods,” whispered Kye.
When the hungry life-shapes ceased pulling at her power, she drew inward, her healing trance ebbing. She sank down, vaguely aware of her toes touching the dusty floor before the brilliant radiance from her wings faded, and she collapsed unconscious into Teal’s arms.
42
The Goddess Awakens
Hunger dragged Althea from the void.
She opened her eyes to a night sky speckled with stars and a gentle, cool breeze across her face. Teal’s blanket covered her to the neck. A constant tickle brushed at her arms and legs. She lay on cool ground at the base of a tree. With a grunt, she sat up, grabbing her angry, growling stomach and looking around at healthy grass and trees. She’d been sleeping at a spot near the middle of an encampment the villagers had set up in the midst of a forest. A tall fire burned not far away. Clusters of villagers sat in circles reminiscent of how they used to gather around the cook stations in their old home.
“Althea’s awake!” yelled a small boy.
All conversation stopped. Everyone looked at her for a few seconds, then erupted in cheers.
Teal jogged out of the trees, zipping up her jumpsuit as if she’d been off making water. She ran over and crouched beside her, brushing a hand over her head. “Holy shit, kid. Are you okay? You’ve been out for two days.”
