RECAP: Iver and Yarlo are on the run from the District Authority Militia (dammers) through the dilapidated squats and hovels of Teris District. Maks, the Sixth Column insurgent who was holding them hostage, is cut down by a squad of dammers. Iver whispers to Yarlo to close his eyes as the militia members surround them…
The blast of light from Iver’s m-drone burned away the darkness inside the cloister like a fire across desiccated kindling.
Iver opened her eyes to see the four dammers blinded, staggering, barking in pain and shock. She shoved Yarlo toward the receptacle. “Get behind it,” she whispered to him. “Stay down.”
Yarlo hobbled toward cover, throwing himself between the rusty bin and the concrete wall.
Iver charged Amber Goggles. She leapt, wrapping her legs around his neck, using her body weight and momentum to throw him off his feet. She twisted as he fell, smashing his head against the concrete. He grunted as his goggles shattered, shards cutting into his eyes and cheeks.
A dammer sporting a thick beard swung his UXP submachine gun toward the noise, firing blindly. Bullets slammed into the surrounding walls. A window shattered. Yarlo yipped as bullets clanged against the side of the receptacle.
“Cut it,” yelled a dammer with scaly lesions covering his cheeks and neck. “You’ll scrag us!”
Iver lunged toward Thick Beard on all fours, staying low. She kicked out, sweeping his legs out from under him. He fired another burst into the night sky as his back hit the pavement.
“What happened?” Lesion waved his submachine gun back and forth.
Iver snatched Thick Beard’s UXP from his grasp as he struggled to get to his feet. “She’s got my –!”
She slammed the grip against his mouth, splitting his lips and snapping his teeth. He hacked on blood and shards as he fell back onto the pavement. Iver wound up and hit him in the head again, knocking him unconscious.
“Heg?” Lesion took a few tentative steps forward, pointing his UXP directly at Iver. From the way he was blinking she could tell he was still blinded, relying on sound. She stifled a cough; her lungs felt like they were filled with gravel.
She aimed Thick Beard’s submachine gun at Lesion before realizing she had never worked a firearm before. She flung it toward the remaining tall, slim, dammer propping himself against a wall three meters away. It hit him in the knee, causing him to grunt and buckle forward.
Lesion swung his UXP toward the noise and fired. Slim was thrown off his feet as bullets pounded his shabby tactical vest and pierced his neck and shoulders. Slim crashed to the ground, submachine gun clattering, blood flowing from his wounds.
“Shit. Kid? Kid? Heg?” Lesion took halting steps toward Slim’s body, blinking, trying to get his eyes to work again.
Iver charged. She caught Lesion’s chin with a roundhouse kick, then slammed her boot square into his face as he was falling backwards.
She grabbed his UXP and ran back to Yarlo, still huddled behind the receptacle.
“You dropped them? All? You’re legend! Prime legend,” said Yarlo.
“We’ve got to keep –” Iver was seized by a coughing fit. Remembering that she had retrieved her gearpac, she pulled out the inhalator and puffed.
Somehow she recalled that Maks had her tacbelt. She ran to his lifeless body, stifling a gag as she flipped him over. Iver searched the inner pockets of his coat, retrieving her gear along with the mag drive. Next she pulled a set of keys attached to a small loop. To her relief the key to unlock her manacles was the first she tried.
Her relief was cut short as she heard the rumble of an engine and men’s voices from down the south alley leading into the cloister.
“That’s the thing about dammers,” whispered Yarlo. “They don’t quit.”
Iver gripped the UXP. “Do you know how to shoot?”
Yarlo nodded. “But I’m trussed with a snapped wrist –”
“Can you show me?”
Iver held up the submachine gun for him to see. “Safety’s off,” he nodded, squinting. “Uh… use the sight on the top to aim –”
The thumping of heavy boots echoed from the narrow alley, growing louder.
“What else?”
“Point! Shoot!”
Iver sprang from behind the receptacle and fired. She was unprepared for the violent jolt when she pulled the trigger and fought to keep the gun steady. A burst of bullets sprayed the entrance to the alley, pounding the walls and flinging debris.
She could hear shouts and scuffling from the darkness of the alley as dammers scrambled to avoid the barrage. Iver motioned for Yarlo to follow as she fired another burst into the alleyway. They rushed across the cloister and down the adjoining alley.
“Where are we going?” asked Yarlo.
“I don’t know.” Iver’s mind raced. She doubted they could outrun the dammers. Her m-drone needed more time to recharge before she could use another light pulse. She realized she couldn’t even remember how many times it could be used before burning out; Phaen must have told her and she was most likely thinking about other things.
She saw a small stand wedged against the far corner of the alley with a dim light inside. She dragged Yarlo toward it. She peered into the small, spotty window but was unable to make out anything inside. She quietly thumped on the front door until a wrinkled, weathered face appeared behind the patchy glass.
“Please, can we come inside?” Iver whispered. “We need help.”
The woman in the window scowled before slamming a squeaky metal security gate down on the inside of the window.
“Motherfuck.”
The alley opened onto a narrow, winding road sloping downward. Between the single-floor squats lining the road, Iver could see the glow of searchlights sweeping across nearby streets. The militia were seemingly everywhere.
“Stop!” A dammer charged down the dark alley toward them.
Before Iver could react, Yarlo butted her with his shoulder, toppling her into an alcove. He lurched down the road in the opposite direction, yipping loudly.
The dammer started shooting. Yarlo stumbled, skipped and hopped as he ran while bullets struck the pavement and the walls near him. Iver pulled herself up to see more dammers charging out of the alleyway, chasing after Yarlo. She realized he was trying to sacrifice himself, to give her a chance to escape.
Iver activated her quantum suit’s cloak.
She stepped onto the road as dammers stampeded past. There were at least twelve. An overwhelming number. She raised the UXP but hesitated; she’d never intentionally killed before. Never imagined that she’d be in this position, fighting residents of the outer districts – the vulnerable people she’d spent years trying to protect inside Avalon. She remembered Abbis’ taunting words: We ain’t migrators out here…
Iver pulled the trigger. The UXP roared. Two, then three, then four dammers fell as bullets slammed into them. Then the gun went silent. Empty. Time froze as she stared at the four bodies on the ground, four lives extinguished by her hand.
She quickly tossed the UXP aside and sprinted away from the alcove as bullets from return fire struck nearby. The dammers stopped shooting. Three ran back for the alcove to search for the unseen sniper while the others continued to pursue Yarlo.
Iver ducked into a crumbling archway as the three dammers scoured the area near the alcove. One picked up the discarded UXP from the ground.
“The fuck?”
“Where’d they go?”
They hadn’t noticed her cloaked form standing motionless a few meters away.
Iver sprinted down the road after the squad pursuing Yarlo. She stumbled as a wave of distress overtook her and her body suddenly seized. She pulled down the bottom half of her mask and puked onto the pavement.
The noise attracted the attention of the dammers, who froze in confusion at the sight of a disembodied vomiting mouth.
Iver pulled up her mask and ran. The dammers opened fire at the ghostly figure moving down the road that seemed to merge with the shadows and shapes. Iver cried out as a bullet tore through her left bicep. Her cloak began to glitch as the network of lenticular lenses in the fabric of her quantum suit failed.
She ran beside a decaying dividing wall and leapt, grabbing the top with her right hand and using her momentum to swing on top of it. The street on the far side of the wall took a tight curve, sloping downward. From her perch on the wall, Iver glimpsed Yarlo hobbling down a set of narrow stairs onto the lower road. She gripped her bleeding arm as she ran along the jagged wall cap.
Bullets pounded the concrete under her feet and ripped the air near her head. She jumped off the edge of the wall, arcing gracefully before crashing onto the pavement in front of Yarlo.
“Yaaaah!” Yarlo had to skid to a stop to avoid tripping over her.
Iver rolled to her feet and shoved Yalro into an uncovered gutter behind the steps. There was barely enough space for the two of them to crouch out of sight. She pinged her m-drone, only to find it was still not charged enough for another pulse.
Dammers charged down the steps, boots thumping against the concrete. Iver cringed, her arm throbbing. She could feel the blood flowing, warming the fingers clamped around her wound. The dammers ran past them, moving quickly down the winding street.
“Come on,” she whispered as she climbed out of the gutter.
Yarlo followed, hands still shackled behind his back. “Shit,” he said. “You been tagged.”
“I’m fine,” she lied. She knew she’d be in trouble if she couldn’t find a way to staunch the bleeding soon.
They started up the road in the opposite direction of their pursuers. Iver had no idea where it would lead, but it was a start. She scanned the hovels and squats, the jumble of rusted metal, decaying wood and chipped concrete structures, searching for an answer, an escape…
“I’ve got them!”
A lone dammer stood on the steps, his shoulder sporting a bloody gunshot wound. Most likely a survivor of the men Iver mowed down. She could hear boots approaching from the lower end of the road, and the sound of a hauler rumbling toward them from up the road. They were surrounded.
The dammer staggered down the steps, UXP aimed at them, shouting again. “They’re over h –”
Blood and skull fragments splattered as the dammer’s head burst apart and his lifeless body tumbled down the remaining stairs.
Iver and Yarlo stood motionless as a tall figure stepped into view at the top of the steps. He wore a dark gray tactical suit with a helmet that covered his face. No emblems were visible. The Magnus XFR handcannon he held was still smoking.
Iver moved between the mystery man and Yarlo, slowly backing them away. She pinged her m-drone, readied it for another pulse.
The figure silently descended the steps, pointing toward the scorched chassis of a scrapper that looked like it had been firebombed years ago. “Take cover,” he ordered.
Check out this map to find locations referenced in the story.
If you want to read another story in the From Our Ashes series, The Lancer is available on Amazon for less than a buck.
Jesus, give Iver a minute to breath. Also, dammers should really invest in UXP gun straps.