“What
the hell?
She steadied herself, hands resting
on the top of the door now.
“Get in, now.”
“Huh,” Nyx asked.
She turned and followed Bronson’s line of sight.
Dine was running back towards them at full speed. Nyx ran back to the rear of
the vehicle and jumped in. She reached up to pull down the hatch but was thrown
back as Bronson accelerated forward getting closer to Dine.
“Oof!”
Dine jumped in as the SUV rolled by, holding onto
the door. “Let’s go, around to the left. Floor it!”
Nyx tried to reach up again, grabbing at the handle
to pull the hatch down but the car hit another bump. At the speed Bronson had
shot up to she had to grab the side not to be thrown out.
“Shit,” she cried out. “What are we running from?”
“She asks a good question,” Bronson agreed.
The SUV kicked up dirt as Bronson spun them to the
left and steadied back on the path. The road was rough and broken up in spots
that Bronson had to swerve around. Dead trees and broken telephone poles were
scattered across and more houses were destroyed and stripped off to the sides.
Dine was slow to respond as usual, not feeling he
had to.
“See that,” he said tapping the passenger side
window with his knuckle. “That’s a problem.”
To their right, between several suburban homes was a
mound that stood almost two houses tall. It was a monolith sized pile of car
parts and scraps that were looming over the rooftops.
“What is that,” Nyx asked as she clung to the back
of the middle seat.
“Scraps,” Dine said flatly. “Leftovers.”
“Care to explain,” Bronson said letting up off the
gas slightly as they came around the second turn.
“Don’t,” Dine warned. “Gun it until we get out of
here. If they smell the metal on this vehicle we’ll be added to that pile.”
Bronson pressed the pedal down further and the car
swerved again, avoiding debris in the road.
“What’s going on,” Pierce asked finally sitting up.
Nyx pulled herself over the middle seat sliding in
next to Pierce. She didn’t want to risk getting thown out again.
“What did you mean by ‘they’ exactly,” she asked,
adjusting in her new seat.
“Nanites.”
“What,” Pierce asked.
“What-ites?”
“Are you shitting me,” Bronson cursed. “I thought
that was a rumor.”
“No, the plan was just activated after the exodus.”
Dine was talking to them as he still kept an eye out the window, looking for
something.
“So a bunch of small—almost invisible—robots are
running around stripping metal from things? For what purpose exactly,” Bronson
asked, almost sarcastically.
“You don’t see any ghouls around do you?”
“Seriously,” Nyx asked. Pierce was going to say
something as well but she had about summed it up.
“I know what they were intended to do, Dine. I
thought they weren’t used because no one could find a way to control them? It
was billed as a huge failure.”
“It was,” Dine agreed. “They became hugely
territorial and the automatic shut off switches designed into them were too
rudimentary. The Nanites found a way to overwrite those codes, seeing them as a
potential threat.”
“This is almost laughable,” Bronson muttered under
his breath just before having to make a wide turn. Dine didn’t respond to that,
he didn’t feel that he needed to.
“Well, I think we can outrun a bunch of little
robots in our car here,” Pierce said.
Nyx nodded, “Yeah, right?”
The ground shook underneath them again, it was more
violent this time. They all felt it.
“What was that?” Pierce asked but no one responded.
The ground shook again—a touch more violence this
time. There was a rumble that followed from behind as if something was moving.
“You need to speed up,” Dine
insisted as he placed his hands on the dashboard, preparing.
Bronson’s boot was already pressed
down on the pedal, but now he was trying to push it further. He was trying to
be careful at their current speeds. A bad bump could cause a huge problem for
them. Bronson wasn’t even sure they were running from though. If half of what
he knew about Nanites were true, it could be anything.
Nyx was looking behind them out the
still open hatch door as the wheels of the SUV kicked up dust and bits of trash
from the desolated roads of the small town. Pierce was looking out to the side,
still trying to figure out what was going on in his own mumbling way. She heard
him mention that they were down two heavy guns and how this might be a problem
which caused her to realize that her own MP5 was now hanging out the back being
carried by the wind. The gun’s strap was the only thing keeping it from being
lost in the wasteland behind them.
“Shit!”
Nyx dove back over the seat into the
vehicle.
“What are you doing,” Pierce called
out which caused Dine to turn and look and Bronson to briefly check the mirror.
“Hold onto her legs,” Dine ordered
Pierce, who was slow to react but obeyed.
Nyx was stretched out across the
back of the bouncing SUV bed. She felt Pierce grab hold of her legs, keeping
her in position. She wasn’t tall enough though. Nyx had to fight his hold on
her a little, yelling back at him. She didn’t want to risk losing their last
automatic weapon.
“Sharp left!”
She heard Bronson’s warning but
there wasn’t much she could do. Now or never, that strap could come lose on
this turn. She clawed and stretched out one last time, pushing herself up to
the strap that was around the small plastic piece on the back of the car.
Pierce was barely able to keep a hold of her feet now as Bronson took to the
hard turn and it bounced against the rough spot in the road. Nyx’ body bounced
up as did the strap, set free into the air. Her hand was quick and hooked into
the brown leather strap in one quick motion before she fell back down flat.
“Got it!”
It was in her celebration, momentary
as it was that an explosion of dust and rock shot up from underneath the back
of the SUV. A veritable geyser of earth shook the car as it erupted, lifting
the automobile off of its hind wheels. Pierce pulled frantically on Nyx’
clothes, trying to pull her back to the middle seat but she couldn’t get a hold
to help him push. She would yank the weapon in and get up to her elbows, then
get to safety. That was the plan.
It was happening so fast, but she
knew she had to move fast. The dust had begun to clear in that second though,
she saw something. A cloud? No; many little things. She was still holding onto
the strap. Yanking it with all of her strength, she tried to pull it in.
Something was on it though now, small silver things with red and orange lights,
covering her MP5 quickly.
“What the hell,” She exclaimed.
“What’s going on back there,” Dine
asked, more as an order.
Nyx was horrified. She grabbed the
butt of the gun and beat the barrel against the back of the SUV.
“There’s something on my gun!”
Bronson’s eyes widened, “toss it
out, now!”
She was about to argue. That was,
until she saw what the tiny little silver bits with the flashing red and orange
specs of light were doing. They were eating her gun, breaking it down piece by
infinitesimally small piece at an alarmingly quick rate. She raised her hand to
knock them off of it before the gun was completely useless. Her physical
reaction was out of instinct though, what could these things do to flesh? She
decided not to argue with Bronson and let go of the butt of the weapon and the
strap. Their speed carried it out on the wind as it hit the ground and bounced;
the gun already half broken down.
“This is not cool!”
“Come on,” Pierce grunted as he
pulled on her. “Get up here!”
“Just drive,” Dine ordered. “We
should beat out their range soon.”
Bronson was about to point out
exactly how hard it was becoming to drive as the ground began to shake even
more. A shrill noise stopped him though, a notification on Dine’s computer. The
Captain’s eyes narrowed as he flipped up the computer screen on his arm. The
black and green screen had a new color, a line of blue text that Bronson
couldn’t read as he was trying to drive: ‘Urgent Message – Change of Order
#3348’.
While Bronson struggled to stay on
the road other small geysers shot up around him, dust obfuscating the road in
front of him from his view. There was a build up in the air. More static
electricity charged around them causing their small hairs to stand up on end
and a high pitched squeal in the back of each of their ears. It was there just
enough to be constant and annoying.
Nyx
was still looking out the back. The cloud had fallen back behind them. She felt
her heart thumping rapidly and it took her a moment to realize that Pierce
still had a hold on her hand. He let go when she realized. She didn’t have time
to let it process though, her eyes catching a tiny glimpse of small flecks of
orange light across the back bumper of the SUV.
“Oh shit,” she muttered. “Guys, we
have a problem.”
Dine had read the message twice to
make sure. He closed the computer and looked over his shoulder. “What is it?”
“Some of them got in!”
Pierce looked back and had to squint
slight. Three, no, now five or was that seven small orange and red tiny lights
in the back? They were growing in number, spreading out around the back.
“They can’t hurt living tissue,”
Dine told them. “Just metal and dead flesh, get rid of them!”
Pierce was the first one to jump
back in the back this time. “I’m on it.”
After he dove he began trying to
smash the little bugs with his hands. They were extremely fast though and
seemingly resilient. Nyx was trying to find a good spot to leap back there as
well and help him when she looked behind them. In the distance, back through
the open hatch, a much larger dust cloud had been formed. She had to blink and
take a second look. Sure now, she tapped Pierce on the shoulder, motioning him
to look up at it. The cloud was following them.
“What the-“
What came next could best be
described as a roar. A battle cry bellowed into the sky by a raging beast.
Something huge came from the cloud as it leapt forward, covered in dust,
debris, metal, and millions of those small little flecks of light. It leapt
high into the air off of its belly, springing forward like an oversized worm,
screaming to the heavens.
When it landed the crash it made
sent it directly back into the earth. The shockwave that followed shook the
black dust covered SUV violently as Nyx screamed and the others grunted, trying
to hold on.
There was a string of cursing and
everyone began to yell. Dine was saying to go left, Pierce vouched for the
right. The road was splitting and both sides looked dangerous as they
approached the bridges. It was hard to hear. There was so much noise and a
piercing sound from all of the static build up.
Just as Bronson yanked the wheel to
the left the rumbling reached a fever pitch. The behemoth launched up in a sputter
of rock and asphalt, exploding out of the ground underneath their front right
tire. The worm-like creature looked more like a thick slug with it’s
intertwining mounds of dead flesh and rotten spews that it left behind mixed
with the multitudes of different metals and flashing lights that composed the
living destruction that was hunting them for food.
As the vehicle flipped backwards
high up in the air there was a moment where the piercing whine of the static
electricity was all that could be heard, but later they would discuss the
grinding sound like thousands of gears and servos that the beast made as what
stood out in this moment. It was the sound of the machine’s hunger. In a nearly
majestic pose the Nanite-slug had launched into the sky upright, stopping its
prey dead in their tracks and leaving them vulnerable. It arched it’s back in
nearly perfect form, spinning around to face the awaiting ground that it sank
back into, falling much quicker than it’s meal.
A momentary feeling of motion almost
like freefall hit as they made their final rotation. That was when Nyx
screamed. She saw Pierce slung out from the vehicle with nothing to hold onto
when they had been launched into the air. She reached for him in a fruitless
attempt, his body already too far away, by the killer known as gravity.
Seconds felt longer as the car spun.
Glass shattered in Bronson’s and Dine’s face. Both brought up their hands to
shield their eyes, not seeing when the metal deathtrap they were in now nose
diving for the ground. Gravity pulled Nyx down to the back of the front two
seats. She wouldn’t remember the rest of this. The trauma of watching Pierce
being thrown out was a frozen imagine in time. Her mind would not allow her to
remember the rest though as things went black.
Dine felt his blood pumping. His
heart raged as his strength kicked in, hoping his durability was up to the
test. The airbags were delayed, popping just before impact, accompanied by
protective foam from the dashboard that had never been tested in a crash quite
like this. Metal crumpled. There was a scraping sound as the last bits of
momentum carried the vehicle in a skid forward before it flopped
unceremoniously over onto its back. Dust settled in a brief moment of quiet.
Dine kicked the door. It flew from
the vehicle as the force of his attack ripped it from the rest of the SUV.
“We need to move,” he said in a
hoarse voice in between coughs. “Everyone up,” he ordered. “Sound off.”
Opening the back passenger door,
Dine popped his neck and wiped blood from his forehead onto his glove. Was it
his? Bronson was still hunched into the air bag but Nyx was sliding out into a
shaky stumble as she tried to regain her bearings. The tires were still
spinning on the overturned SUV when Dine looked in and realized that Pierce
wasn’t there.
“Where is he?”
“He,” Nyx tried to say but realized
she was almost at the point of vomiting. “He got thrown out when we were up in
the air. I don’t…I don’t know if he made it.”
The driver’s side door was pushed
open and Bronson coughed loudly. Nyx wasn’t sure but it sounded like he was
hacking up blood. Dine was looking around for Pierce though. He spotted the
cloud. Thousands of the little pesky things with their tiny finely pointed
legs, making their way towards them. The sun was much lower in the sky now and
it had almost blocked hidden their tiny flashing lights from him. The
silver-gray cloud was moving quickly over the rocks, stopping only a moment to
consume the door that Dine had kicked away.
“Get Bronson, we need to move now.”
Nyx didn’t hesitate. She saw Dine
pulling his pistol from his side as she swung around the wrecked vehicle.
Bronson was standing, rifle in hand. He wasn’t going to let them have his baby.
His head had been cut open though and Nyx felt a small pang when she saw the
many small pieces of windshield now sticking out of his arm.
“Let’s go,” Bronson encouraged her,
having to push himself to move as well.
Dine fired two shots, one right
after the other at the cloud as they got closer. He thought he was far enough
back until he saw them buzzing around in front of him. The same small Nanites
but these models came with wings. They looked like small jet fighters with
pointy limbs that grabbed onto Dine’s handgun and began to devour it. He shook his
arm violently trying to shake them off, but there were too many. They were
beginning to swarm his hand. He dropped the gun, realizing the computer on his
arm would be an even more tempting target; one he couldn’t let them have.
He turned and ran towards the other
two, who were already in their own brisk stride. They were all running away
from the fallen chariot that had taken them this far, their ticket to being
done on time. When they had put a bit of distance between them and it Dine and
Bronson turned back.
The small cloud was buzzing around
the old black SUV, taking in the sweet aroma, first tastes. The ground erupted
underneath it and enveloped the swarm in dust as the oversized whale-like
Nanite-slug shot up. It was hard to tell if it opened a form of mouth to
swallow it or if there were just so many nanites that it was able to absorb it.
The collective around the dead flesh was composed of several different sizes of
nanites and different modeled ones as well. This close, the group got a better view
of it.
“Oh my god,” Nyx said with her mouth
slightly gaped open.
The beast roared again, enjoying its
meal. It was more of a grind or a turbine powering up. Whatever it was, it
sounded like a roaring animal that had just established its dominance. The
multitude of lights across the long plump slug turned from their ornery orange
and angry reds to purples and silvers, sated. It fell back into the earth, sand
falling with small rocks to fill the hole of its escape. The swarm followed it,
vanishing; left in the midst, a shell of fiberglass, plastic, and bits of
rubber from the tires.
The trio was quiet for a moment.
There was still a scent of the predator in the air that had them all staring in
reverence. Dine turned away to check his computer.
“No- God-ARGHH!”
Nyx turned, realizing the screen was
cracked. There were several other dents small breaks on the tiny keyboard. The
small blue and green light that showed that it was still getting power could
not be seen.
“Damn, it must have happened during
the crash,” she commented.
Dine was angry. He stared at the
broken computer for a long moment.
“At least you weren’t hurt, could
have been your whole arm.” Nyx comment was meant to be helpful, she knew it
wasn’t though.
Dine kicked at the dirt hard, furious
at himself really. “I don’t think you understand how important that computer
was to our operation. It’s going to be a lot harder to secure the Vita Nova and
contact Tower for the LZ now.” He stared off back from where they had come
from, not wanting to look at her.
“Can we still finish the mission
without it,” Bronson asked in a low tone. Nyx and Dine both turned to look at
him. He had sat down on a medium sized rock, leaning against his riftle that
was standing next to him. His hand held to it tightly. Bronson had many small
cuts and scrapes from the crash and his forehead had been bleeding. Not a good
sign. His arm had bits of glass in it and his left side was bloodied. His hair
had fallen mostly out of his ponytail, strands of black covering his scratched
up face.
“Bron,” Nyx said involuntarily.
“Hold on.”
She turned and looked back at the
husk of the wrecked car. Pausing, she looked around and listened. She pulled
her machete and pistol from off of her belt and left them next to her two partners.
Nyx ran back towards the wreckage, or at least what was left. She looked inside
the twisted pieces and as she had expected there were still two of their packs
that had been thrown around, but not lost. There wasn’t much left in them, the
important thing though was the emergency medical kit and the few drops of water
left in the bottle. She didn’t press her luck, grabbing what she could and
hurrying back.
As she was crossing back to them she
saw that Dine and Bronson were talking. She was trying to hear what was being
said as she approached but something else stole her attention; a cry, a whine—something
shrill and in the distance.
“DINE, over here!”
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