Weapons of War (24 page)

Ehri thought it was a great idea, and had immediately gone to the rear of the vehicle to begin working with the zero point engine that powered it while he returned to Murphy to inform him of his plan. Within an hour, Ehri had come running to show him that she had gotten the transport jury-rigged to the point that the engine was running, and power had been diverted to the plates on the bottom of the craft. He and Murphy had watched as she got it floating nearly a foot off the ground. Then they had watched as it tumbled back to earth a few seconds later, victim of a secondary security system that prevented it from changing coordinates without a pilot at the helm.
 

Donovan had been discouraged and ready to give up. Murphy hadn't. He quickly organized the scavengers to find an alternative means of enacting a similar plan. It had taken nearly a full day to get all of the pieces in place, but by the end they had managed to slip the frame of an old semi-trailer beneath the transport, letting it bear the weight of the ship and giving it a line of wheels to roll on. They had also somehow located a huge farming machine an hour outside of the city, a behemoth of rolling alloy that was almost wider than the transport itself. It had been lost for years beneath the crops it had been built to collect, a buried treasure that the scavengers had been lucky to come across. It had taken a little engineering know-how to get the long-dead battery feeding from the transport's generator, but Ehri and Rosa, a seventy-eight-year-old survivor of the Dread invasion, had managed to get it done.

They had been making good time since then, covering more ground in the hours that followed than any of them could have managed in a week on foot. The travel had been easy once they reached the wider road, with the tractor able to roll down the center of the highway, pushing most of the remaining derelict cars out of its path with ease and trailing the transport behind it.
 

Then they had come across deep scars in the road left by the Dread attack decades earlier. The tractor had gone over them without a problem. The transport hadn't been as fortunate, the rearmost axle getting hung up on a thick pile of rubble. The obstruction hadn't immediately overloaded the cab, but they all knew it would thicken and multiply if they continued to push it until it both bogged down their makeshift wagon and left it impossible to dig out.

"What do you want to do?" Murphy asked. "We came down through Monterrey. I remember that rest stop. It's a good two hundred kilometers to decent protection from here."

"We can cover that ground easily in the Monster," Soon said, using the nickname for the machine they had created. "Once we get it unstuck."

"It will take five hours to reach Monterrey," Ehri said. "We have less than three to get it loose."

"Can you levitate the transport again?" Donovan asked.

"No, Major. As soon as we moved it away from its landing position, the security systems shut down access to the anti-gravity functions."

Donovan considered the situation. Their agreement would expire soon, and he was sure the Dread wouldn't waste any time sending a force to deal with them. The goal was to be out of sight when that happened, preferably somewhere underground with the transport safely hidden away. They were hopeful the Dread would sweep the area, find nothing, and then decide to pass them over. That would give them an opportunity to bring the Monster back out and make a run for the border, crossing over into what had once been the United States of America and making a beeline for Austin before they were discovered.
 

It wasn't a great plan, but it was the only thing they had. Except now a simple error in judgment had left them stuck, and he had to make a decision: Try to get the Monster moving again or abandon it and take their chances on foot.

It wasn't much of a decision. He didn't like their chances on foot, which was why they had gone through so much trouble to create the Monster in the first place. He knew there were jackals out there, and while they had recovered more of the alien rifles it wouldn't help them if they were ambushed or attacked by a human force with greater numbers. It gnawed at him that they even had to worry about it. Didn't humankind have enough to deal with? He hated that some people would rather sew chaos than save one another from it.

"You said you passed that building before," he said. "Did you go inside?"

"No, sir. We went past it in the middle of the night, as quick and quiet as we could. For all we know, that place is already occupied."

"Jackals?"

"Maybe. Or anyone else who might shoot first and ask questions later. We were trying not to lose anyone. The Dread didn't let that happen."

"We need to make an attempt to excavate the transport. Our only choice is to see if there's anything we can salvage inside that building that might help us dig out the wheels."

"Understood. I don't have a problem with that, Major. Not when I know Linda and Shea and the others can stay safe inside the Monster while we explore."

"We'll leave the Dread weapons with them. If there's any trouble, it won't help to give up the means to get to the others."

"Agreed," Murphy said.

Donovan turned to Ehri and Soon. "We'll exchange our rifles for traditional guns, and then go search that old building over there. We have one hour, and then we have to consider abandoning the Monster and going ahead on foot."

"Yes, sir," both Soon and Ehri said.
 

"What if we find other people in there?" Soon asked a moment later.

Donovan glanced at Murphy, who shrugged. It seemed like his group went through a lot of trouble to intentionally not find other people. He couldn't question the practice when they had managed to survive.

"If they're friendly, we give them a chance to join us. If they're hostile, we take them out."

Soon's face blanched at the idea, but he nodded. "I hope it doesn't come to that."

Donovan looked over at the building. It certainly appeared abandoned. "Me, too, Captain. Me, too."

They approached the building cautiously, staying low in the surrounding brush for as long as they could before breaking the cover and running full-speed to the smooth metal wall closest to the entrance.
 

Donovan smiled when Soon reached the wall first, barely a step ahead of Ehri. A chance to rest in the Monster for a day had helped the pilot regain most of his former health, and he was showing himself to be a capable soldier.

Murphy reached the wall after Donovan, pausing against it and breathing hard. The leader of the scavengers had proven that he and his people were incredibly resourceful, but also not accustomed to fighting. They had always preferred to run and hide than to take a stand, though Donovan's growing reputation seemed to have emboldened them. He had insisted on coming along, certain that he could help them find something they could use to get the transport unstuck. Even so, his nerves were obviously frayed, his eyes wide and body shaking.

Donovan pushed back the thought of Diaz. She loved these kinds of missions and had always been at home exploring potentially dangerous areas. He wished they didn't have to do it without her.

"Ehri," he whispered, pointing to the wall on the other side of the entry.

It had been a pair of sliding glass doors once. Those doors were long shattered, replaced by piles of debris that siphoned anyone who wanted through to a tight spot in the center. There was no question someone had lived there at one time. The question was whether or not anyone was still inside.

She darted across the open space, coming to rest against the wall once more. The activity didn't draw any attention from inside.
 

"Cover me," Donovan said, slipping away from the wall and approaching the bottleneck. Dirty food containers rested on the floor at the base of the entrance, abandoned months, if not years, earlier.
 

He led with the antique handgun Murphy had provided him. It was sleek in appearance and fairly heavy, with a fourteen round magazine loaded and ready and two more in his pockets. It was the kind of weapon a Dread would laugh at. It could still kill a human without much effort.

He hoped it didn't come to that. He had killed Dread clones that were essentially human, but he had never hurt another free human being, and he had no desire to start.

He was halfway across the barrier when a noise to his left caused him to pause, dropping to a knee and aiming the weapon. Ehri appeared behind him a moment later, keeping him covered. A cat appeared in the darkness, hissing and running from them, out into the brush.

"Damn cat," Donovan said. "Scared the crap out of me."

"My apologies, Major, I should have warned you. I saw it from back there."

Donovan glanced back at Ehri. Her enhanced capabilities continued to surprise him. "Anything else up there I should know about?"

She smiled. "No, Major."

Donovan waved Murphy and Soon forward, and they finished passing through the barrier and into the building. It had originally been designed as a place for travelers to pause and eat, use the restroom, and maybe buy something. As a result, it was organized into corridors with storefronts lining them, selling everything from hats to t-shirts to medicine.
 

Moving through the space, they quickly discovered that most of it had already been picked clean by earlier passers-by. Even the cleaning robots had been disassembled, their interior parts salvaged for use in more valuable tools.

"I was hopeful," Donovan said as they walked along the final line of stores. "But this place is too close to the road to have stayed pristine."

"It was worth a shot," Murphy said. "We've only lost twenty minutes, and now we know for sure our ride is done. We'll have to go on foot from here on out."

"We'll never make it to Monterrey on foot before the treaty ends," Soon said. "We have eight hours."

"We'll think of something," Donovan said. If he had learned anything, it was never to give up. He looked at Ehri. "How far can the tractor take us once we disconnect the generator?"

"With everyone weighing it down? Twenty kilometers at most."

"That's twenty more than we'll cover otherwise. I hate to lose the security the transport offers, but we knew we might not be able to hold onto it forever."

"We're lucky we made it as far as we have," Murphy said. "It took us weeks to get down to San Luis, and we made it back here in one tenth of the time. Then again, I know for a fact there's a gang of jackals in Monterrey. We managed to slip past, but all the signs were there. It would have been nice to have some protection."

"If that's true, the Dread have probably attacked them by now," Donovan said. "They may be helping us by clearing the cities before we get to them."

"Wouldn't that be something?" Murphy said.
 

"In any case, standing here isn't going to get anything done," Donovan said. "Let's head back to the others. We need to get them ready to move on foot again. Can Jane walk?"
 

"Thanks to Doctor Iwu she can," Murphy said.
 

"Good." Donovan took two steps before pausing. "Where's Soon?"

Ehri and Murphy looked at one another, and then scanned the corridor.
 

"There," Ehri said a moment later. Soon had gone into one of the stores and was standing motionless in front of something.

"What's he doing?" Murphy asked.

Donovan couldn't tell. He headed over to the pilot, finding him flipping through a line of clothes sized for an infant.

"Captain?" Donovan said.

"What do you think of this, Major?" Soon asked, lifting one of the tiny outfits from the rack. It was green and black, with a small patch across the chest that said "Federacion Mexicana De Futbol Asoc., A.C."

"I don't think it will fit you," Donovan replied.

Soon smiled. "Sorry for wandering away, Major. It's just that my wife Daphne and I really want to have a baby. It's a little more complicated than that up there because we only have resources to support a limited population. We have to wait our turn. Down here? There's enough for everybody. I can't even tell you how much I'd love to have Daphne here with me, and to dress the future Soon Junior in this thing."

Donovan put his hand on Soon's shoulder. "Then we need to do everything in our power to make it happen."

"Do you think we can, Major? The Monster was genius, but our luck seems to be out. We're stranded, and our position is way too open. I came in here, and now I'm hoping Daphne knows how much I miss her, and how much I want to give this outfit to her, even if I have no idea what it says on it. Even if the odds of that happening are getting lower by the minute."
 

Donovan dug his fingers into Soon's arm, turning the pilot toward him. A wave of anger bubbled up, pouring from the wounds he had buried.
 

"We aren't going to die here, Captain. You hear me? Not you. Not me. Not anyone else. We got you away from the Dread; we escaped Mexico City and San Luis, and we made it all the way here. Nobody said it would be easy, but we're going to survive this thing. We're going to topple the Dread, and we're going to bring your wife home. Do you get that, Captain? She's going to come home to you, right here on Earth."