Dead Mech (11 page)

The Rookie followed, his stomach
nauseous.

***

“That’s it. Dismissed,” Capreze said. The
pilots quickly got up and left the briefing, glad to get on with
the day. Rachel paused by the door.

“Not now, baby girl,” Capreze said, looking
down at his tablet. “Go get the kitchen running and I’ll be in the
mess later.” He looked up and held Rachel’s gaze. “We’ll talk
then.”

Rachel smiled weakly. “Yes, sir.”

Capreze watched her leave and soon followed,
heading back to his office. He looked over the Doctor’s supply
requisition, knowing she was hiding something. Six Flags was closer
and had better medical facilities for trading with.

***

When Capreze entered his office, Jay and the
Rookie were already waiting for him.

“Good, glad to see you took this meeting
seriously,” Capreze said, locking eyes with the Rookie.

“Sir, I just want to say…”

“Save it.” Capreze sat down. “I sent you a
med req. You two are going to Foggy Bottom. Masters is escort.”

“Foggy Bottom? Six Flags is way closer and
they…”

“I know,” Capreze interrupted. “Rookie? Go
get your gear ready. It’s a five day assignment. Meet Mechanic Rind
in the hangar. Dismissed.”

“Yes, sir,” the Rookie said, leaving the
office as quickly as possible.

***

Masters leaned in and kissed Harlow softly.
She stirred slightly, but didn’t wake. He grabbed his pack and
headed out of the barracks, nearly colliding with the Rookie.

“Whoa, slow down,” Masters said.

“Sorry, sorry…I need to get packed and get
to the hangar,” the Rookie said, the words tumbling out of his
mouth. Masters dropped his pack and grabbed the Rookie by the
shoulders.

“Calm down, kid. It’s only a supply run. You
listen closely to me and Jay and you’ll be just fine.”

The Rookie took a couple of deep breaths.
Masters smiled.

“Better?”

The Rookie nodded.

***

Capreze focused on Jay. “Is he worth
it?”

Jay took a seat without asking or waiting
for leave. “Gut reaction? Yes. Head reaction? He needs a lot of
work. But there’s something to this kid. I don’t know what, but he
has something to prove.”

“Don’t they all?” Capreze quipped.

“No, this one’s different. I can’t put my
finger on it…”

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time on the
supply run.”

“About that, why Foggy Bottom?”

“Doc’s request.”

Jay raised an eyebrow. “Since when does that
matter?”

“Since I’ve started suspecting she’s up to
something.”

“Really?”

“Pay attention.”

“Will Do.”

***

Jethro grabbed the Rookie’s pack and tossed
it into the salvage mech’s storage compartment.

“I figured we’d be taking the transport,”
the Rookie said, looking up at the modified battle mech. “I didn’t
know we’d be traveling by mech.”

“Salvage mech,” Jethro informed. “We take
this out on all supply runs. It’s outfitted for storage and
retrieval. We’ll probably come across some graveyards out there and
we can use the parts.”

“Graveyards?”

“Mechs,” Bisby answered, entering the
hangar. “Ours and theirs.”

“Parts don’t grow on trees,” Jethro
added.

Bisby climbed into his mech. “Good luck,
Rookie. Try not to die.”

***

“Shit!” Rachel cried, pulling her hand from
the hot pan.

“Problems already?” Capreze smirked,
entering the kitchen.

“I’m no good at this, you know that!” she
yelled at her father. Capreze just watched her. “Sorry,” she
apologized.

Capreze sighed. “Do I need to say it?”

“No, I fucked up. I know.”

“I’m talking about you and Mathew.”

Surprise overtook Rachel’s features.
“Mathew? I thought this was about the Rookie.”

“The Rookie is with Jay and Masters. He’s
taken care of for now. I just need to know that your relationship
with Mathew isn’t getting in the way.”

“It’s not.”

“Good.”

***

The four mechs left the hangar.

Bisby’s headed East, Mathew’s West, Masters’
and the salvage mech due South.

“Good luck everyone,” Mathew said over the
com.

“You too,” Masters answered. Bisby just
grunted.

“Don’t play the hero, Jespers,” Jay warned.
“You get into any shit, you call for help.”

“Not to worry. Same thing for you. We know
how you can be when in the city/states.”

The Rookie looked over at Jay. “What does
that mean?” Jay ignored him.

“Pretty sure my credit is cut off
everywhere. Not much trouble I
can
get into.”

Mathews, Masters and Bisby all snorted.

***

In the distance, but well within the base’s
sensors, a dead mech watched the mechs spilt up and head their
separate ways. None of them noticed the observer. It waited until
the live mechs were off its scanners before moving in closer to the
base.

The deader desperately wanted to do a full
scan of the base and all its systems, but knew they would detect
him then. The dead mech stopped, realization opening up new data
streams in its AI. It had referred to itself as a
him
. He
had given
himself
identity other than an
it
.

He
watched.

Alarms sounded in the salvage mech’s
cockpit. Jay tapped his com. “Masters?”

“Yeah, got it. Something’s on the other side
of that second ridge due east.”

Jay glanced at the Rookie and smiled. “Wanna
take a scouting break?”

The Rookie looked around. “Out here?”

“Gotta learn sometime, Rookie,” Jay
said.

“Um, sure.”

“Great!” Masters laughed. “This’ll be
fun.”

“Park over by the first ridge. Shouldn’t
take long to hike up and get a good view,” Masters said.

“Hike?” the Rookie asked.

“Yes, hike. What? Did you think we were just
going to drive over and say ‘Hi’?” Masters laughed again.

***

The heat was unbearable.

The climate processors must have finally
gone
, June thought.
I ain’t gonna last long out in this
shit.

She flicked the thermo sensors on, scanning
her surroundings. There, ten clicks out, was a cool patch. She
zoomed the scanners in and saw the mouth of what she hoped was a
deep ravine.

I can hold up in there until night; wait for
things to cool down.

She knew the dangers of traveling at night
with limited capabilities. It would be very difficult to pick out
the swarms of zombies against the rapidly cooling rocks and
earth.

***

Masters hopped from his mech’s ladder and
strode towards Jay and the Rookie.

Jay handed the Rookie a small backpack.
“Strap that on. Anything happens and that pack will keep you alive
for at least a couple of days.”

The Rookie started to open the pack.

“Leave it be, Rookie. It takes forever to
get it all back in there,” Masters said, taking a second pack from
Jay.

“What’s in it?”

“Life, kid. Your tablet has a full
inventory. Shall we?” Jay said, motioning to the ridge they needed
to crest. “We only have a few more hours of daylight.”

***

June glanced back and forth from her control
panel to the ravine, watching as her mech’s systems started to shut
down, and hoped it would hold together long enough to get her to
cover. She didn’t want to end up exposed out in the waste, not that
holed up in a ravine was any more secure.

Buzzers sounded and a loud clanging,
clanging, crunch signaled the end of the ride.

Her mech ground to a halt about two hundred
yards from the ravine.

“Shit,” June muttered. She shut down power,
grabbed her gear and unlatched the cockpit.

The sun blazed.

***

“I know you can fight and all, but I have to
question why Capreze sent you with us,” Masters said, handing the
Rookie an auto-carbine and two magazines. “I don’t even know if
you’re trained to use one of these.”

The Rookie pocketed the extra mags, popped
the one out of the carbine, cleared the chamber and slammed the
magazine back in. “Not an issue.”

The Rookie slung his carbine, following Jay
and Masters up the ridge.

“We really are a slapdash bunch of yahoos,”
Jay laughed. “Good thing we’re all crazy as fuck, otherwise we’d be
dead by now.”

***

Sweat pouring off of her, June collapsed
into the shade of the overhang that was the mouth of the ravine.
She risked a shallow drink from her canteen, hoping the ravine
still held the water that had cut it out of the rock.

She brought her knees to her chest and
rested her forehead against them, trying to fight the sobs. Despite
her military training, years of mech experience in the waste and
the untold thousands of undead she had obliterated, she could never
control the tears.

She gave up and rolled onto her side,
letting the emotions take over.

***

“So why are we watching a deader instead of
killing it?” the Rookie asked.

“Pay attention,” Masters replied.

The Rookie focused his binocs on the dead
mech in the valley below. The thing was scorched and scarred,
lumbering from wreckage pile to wreckage pile, kicking at the
debris. A mass of zombies followed.

“I don’t-” the Rookie stopped, noticing the
dead mech’s legs. “Is that paint?”

“Nope.”

One of the zombies came too close, enraging
the machine. It stomped on the creature then turned on the others,
quickly pulverizing them under its massive feet.

“That’s Red Legs. He hates everything.”

***

Bisby checked his sensors and fumed.
Nothing. Not a goddamn thing anywhere.

“Jethro?”

“Yeah Biz?” Jethro answered over the com.
“Whatcha got?”

“Jack shit. You?”

Jethro checked mini-mechs Two and Four’s vid
screens. All were void of any movement or sign of dead mech
activity. “Nope.”

“I should be out with Mathew looking for
June, not on some wild deader chase!”

“I don’t disagree, Biz, but the Doc thinks,
and Capreze agrees, that we need to know what’s up with the deaders
more than we need to find an AWOL mech pilot that’s lost her
shit.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know…”

***

“You have names for them?” the Rookie asked
in disbelief. “But, don’t we kill them when we see them? Why bother
with names?”

Masters gave Jay and the Rookie a look of
angry sorrow.

“That’s the plan kid, but it doesn’t always
work out that way. Sometimes they kill us and all we have is vid
clips of the battle. That’s how most of these have been named,”
Masters answered bitterly.

“Most of them?” asked the Rookie, catching
the disclaimer.

Jay cleared his throat. “There are a couple
we’ve met, battled and…”

“And…?”

“And we were lucky to get away.”

***

The dead mech, (Shiner, he named himself
Shiner, he didn’t know why, but it was his name. Shiner.), sat in
the shadow of the mesa, tucked between rock outcroppings and
finished tinkering with One.

He set the mini-mech down and powered it up.
Nothing.

If the dead mech could have frowned, it
would have. He lifted the mini-mech up and turned it over in his
hands, puzzled. He tinkered some more.

Setting One down, Shiner tried again. Still
nothing. Rage started to build and Shiner had to use all of his
self-control not to smash the mini-mech to tiny bits.

***

Mathew had tried to follow the massive
footprints left by June’s mech, but the wasteland was already
reclaiming them, the wind whipping about and the sand flowing back
to its original unmarred state.

“Dammit.” He pushed his sensors to full
power and scanned the horizon, but as he expected, nothing showed
up. She had too much of a lead and had been zig-zagging so much,
deliberately making it hard to follow her, that Mathew couldn’t
even guess which direction she may have gone.

He sighed and pushed on, planning on
covering as much ground as possible before returning by
sundown.

***

Shiner wasn’t sure how to process
‘frustration’ and the raging hunger from the zombie pilot strapped
into his cockpit wasn’t helping.

Shiner fired a plasma blast into the side of
the mesa, showering the area with rock and debris. The act of
violence focused him and his frustration and anger subsided. It
also made him acutely aware he could have just alerted any mech in
the area, living or dead, to his presence.

He set all sensors to full and scanned the
area. At the far edge of his readings a mech stomped through the
wasteland. Curious, he continued scanning.

***

“So what’s the plan?” the Rookie asked as
the three descended from the ridge.

“The plan?” Jay asked.

“To go after the deader. After Red
Legs.”

Masters laughed. “Kid, our only plan is to
get to Foggy Bottom and
avoid
deaders at all costs.”

Jay stopped and turned on the Rookie. “We
have a whole base relying on us coming back supplied. Combat can
wait.”

“I just thought-”

“How long do you think we can last in the
waste without med supplies?”

“It can be done,” the Rookie grumbled,
pushing on.

Jay and Masters shared a puzzled look and
followed.

***

Shiner noted the heading of the mech as it
moved out of range of his sensors.

With renewed determination he lifted One
again and went back over his modifications. Nothing seemed out of
order and he couldn’t figure out why the mini-mech wouldn’t
activate.

Frustration returning, Shiner lashed out
smacking One brutally and sending the mini-mech skidding across the
dirt. Instantly One buzzed to life, righted itself and approached
Shiner, waiting for its commands.