The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone (2 page)

He frowned,
lowering his gaze to her wary, amazed eyes. "Spooky."

"Magic." Her
expression was that of a condemned woman standing on the
gallows.

Sabre walked
on, the grass cushioning his footfalls, and the silent jungle
ignored them. He pushed past some bushes and gave a glad cry,
striding forward. A deep, inviting pool nestled amongst lush
tropical plants bearing bright crimson and yellow flowers. Falling
to his knees, he scooped up the cool liquid and raised it to his
parched lips. Tassin did the same, splashing it over her face with
gay abandon and gulping it from her hands. The water was wrong
somehow, though, for it did not quench his thirst, it seemed to
only dampen it. He scooped up another handful with the same effect.
Tassin splashed in the water, sucking up handfuls without any
apparent relief.

Sabre sat back
and gripped her arm, pulling her away. "Wait, there's something
wrong here, leave it."

She stared at
him with desolate eyes, her face set in lines of misery. "It is
magic, not water at all, just an illusion to torture us. What could
be worse than dying of thirst surrounded by water you cannot
drink?"

He nodded.
"This is a weird place."

Sabre's head
jerked around at a purring chuckle close by. A strange creature sat
atop a moss-covered rock less than a metre away. Tassin grabbed the
hilt of her dagger, and Sabre looked inwards at the scanners. There
was nothing on them. He double-checked, surprised. The jungle
teemed with life, so why were the scanners not picking it up? He
studied the creature, whose bright yellow eyes watched him from a
black mask on a furry grey face. Pointed ears swivelled on top of
its head, and a plump, fluffy grey body hunched forward, supported
by monkey-like hands. The size of a cat, it bore a strong
resemblance to a racoon.

"That water
won't do you any good," it stated, its soft voice emanating from it
without the aid of its mouth, which remained closed. It was not
telepathy, for Sabre distinctly heard it speak aloud, but it seemed
to throw its voice like a ventriloquist. He relaxed, perceiving no
threat from such a small creature.

"What are
you?"

The
racoon-like animal sat up, clasping its hands. "I'm a mosscat. I
live here."

"What's wrong
with the water?"

The mosscat's
ears flicked. "It's Flux-reality, and you're too close to the
fringe for Flux-reality to be solid."

Sabre's
parched throat burnt, overriding his curiosity. "Is there any real
water around?"

"Sure." The
mosscat's ears pricked.

"Will you take
us there?"

"I guess so."
It sprang down from the rock, glancing over its shoulder. "Follow
me."

Sabre strode
after it, his thirst driving all thoughts of danger from his mind,
and Tassin was close behind him. The mosscat skirted the pool and
dived into the undergrowth with Sabre crashing in pursuit. Soon it
stopped by another, smaller pool that looked out of place in the
scenery. It did not seem to belong, located, as it was, in the
middle of a patch of moss-grass with no water weeds or rocks around
it. Sabre scooped up the tepid liquid, which this time was truly
wet, and slid down his throat like nectar. Tassin gulped it down as
if afraid it would vanish before she had slaked her thirst, and
Sabre pulled her away.

"Not too much,
or you'll be sick."

"But I am
thirsty!"

"Wait a little
while, then have some more." He turned to the mosscat to distract
himself from his thirst. "Why is this water real, when that other
pool wasn't?"

"This is
Real-reality; the other was Flux-reality."

Sabre sat back
on his haunches and regarded the creature. "Can you explain that
more clearly?"

"You're
outsiders, aren't you?" Its lips drew back in a smile, revealing
small, pointed white teeth.

"Yes. So
what?"

The mosscat
shrugged. "No matter." It settled more comfortably in the moss and
scratched its chest. "Here in the Flux, things change all the time,
you may have noticed." It waved a chubby hand. "This that you see
is Flux-reality, and it will change again. Real-reality is hidden
beneath it for the most part, but things like rocks and pools are
often visible, if a little out of place, like that."

It pointed at
a tree that appeared to have a grey rock growing out of its trunk.
"The rock is Real-reality, the tree is Flux, you see. Now, we're on
the fringe of Flux, so Flux-reality is a bit unreal here. You can
see and feel it, but it's not entirely there. In the middle of the
Flux, Flux-reality is as real as Real-reality."

The mosscat
regarded them with large yellow eyes, awaiting a response, while
Sabre tried to make sense of it.

"So... there
are two types of reality here, one that's real, and another that's
not so real?"

The mosscat
nodded. "Correct."

"Which do you
belong to?"

It gave a
purring chuckle. "I'm real. If I was Flux, I would hardly be able
to see you. You'd be like ghosts here, and you wouldn't be able to
hear me."

Sabre glanced
around at the silent jungle. No wonder the scanners did not detect
the life forms, but then, why were they unable to detect the
mosscat either? He scooped up another handful of water and drank
it, glancing at Tassin. She had dampened her skirt, and wiped the
grime from her face, her eyes resting doubtfully on the
mosscat.

He turned back
to it. "Is it dangerous here? Outside, they call this the Death
Zone."

"Life here is
always dangerous, especially further in. Things change with little
warning, and there are odd beasts too. I choose to live here on the
fringe, where Flux-reality is not a threat, but still there are
Real-reality creatures that are almost as bad, though not as
common."

Sabre pondered
this. "We have to cross over to the other side."

The mosscat's
eyes narrowed in its black bandit's mask. "You'll have to cross
real Flux-reality, and that's really dangerous."

"Will you help
us?"

"Well now,
that's a big favour." Its ears twitched back, and it sat pondering
this for several minutes. "I'll go with you for a while, and if you
prove capable of dealing with the dangers I might continue with
you, otherwise I'll leave. Of course, if you can't deal with the
dangers you'll be dead anyway." It smirked.

Tassin scowled
and yanked the dagger from her belt. "It is evil, I say kill
it!"

Sabre turned
to her in surprise, and the mosscat stepped back. She had been
silent for so long that he had almost forgotten her views on the
Death Zone.

He shook his
head. "We need its help to get through the Zone; it knows the
way."

"It will lead
us into a trap!"

The mosscat
made a spitting sound, like a miniature sneeze. "That's a hell of a
conclusion to jump to, lady."

Sabre turned
back to it and received a shock. It had changed; its nose seemed
longer and its fangs more prominent, its chubby hands were more
slender and now sported claws. A foxy aspect replaced its air of
podgy amiability, and its yellow eyes glowered in its black
mask.

He studied it.
"She's just scared, mosscat. No need to get angry."

The mosscat
looked mollified and relaxed, becoming chubby again. "She should
be, in the Flux. But I won't lead you into any traps. And I'm not
an it, I'm a he, and mosscat isn't my name, it's -" He made a
purring sound.

Sabre tried to
pronounce it, but the nearest he could get to it was 'Purr'. The
mosscat looked disgusted, but shrugged philosophically. He was
quite able to pronounce their names. Sabre turned to find Tassin
glowering at him.

"I am not
scared. I do not trust it," she said.

"Him."

"Whatever."

Flickers of
green and brown shot through the landscape, and Sabre looked
around. Purr stiffened, becoming alert. "Be ready for Change," he
announced.

With a ripple,
the terrain warped and transformed. A peculiar half-light replaced
the jungle. Moist black earth now surrounded them, and bloated
white fungi probed through it, raising ragged, rotten looking
parasols of soft flesh to the dingy light. Tassin made a sound of
disgust and moved away from a dirty grey mushroom that had appeared
beside her, and Sabre stood up to study the new landscape. The pool
was still at his feet, and the rock in the tree trunk that Purr had
pointed out as Real-reality now sprouted from the side of a
grotesque orange growth with frilly gill-like protrusions all over
it. Sabre looked down at Purr as he gave a wistful sigh.

"I preferred
the last one," the mosscat mourned.

Sabre scanned
the terrain. A huge, armour-plated worm moved ponderously through
the fungal growths in the distance, too far away and slow to be a
threat. He hunkered down again to fill the water skins from the
pool. There was no sound, as before, and no smell, for which he was
grateful; the fungi looked distinctly rank.

"Is there
somewhere we could rest, Purr?" he asked as he plugged the last
water skin.

The mosscat
nodded. "Sure." He turned and headed away, wending his way between
the huge growths.

Sabre glanced
at Tassin, who glared at the mosscat. "Come on." He beckoned to
her, and she approached, holding her ragged skirts out of the
slime.

"This place is
disgusting," she muttered.

"Be glad
that's all it is."

Shooting him a
dark look, she preceded him after the mosscat, who waited ahead.
Her stumbling steps revealed her fatigue; only pride and
stubbornness fuelled her now.

The mosscat
led them to a large, flat-topped grey rock, which he assured them
was Real-reality. Sabre kicked it to test this, and found it solid.
The fungi, by contrast, yielded to his finger when he poked them,
allowing it to sink in as if into soft clay. When he pulled it out,
his finger was clean and the fungi undamaged. Tassin wrinkled her
nose at his experimentation and climbed onto the rock. Sabre
unpacked the bedrolls and spread them out to soften the hard
surface, and Purr groomed his grey fur with pudgy hands.

Tassin eyed
him. "You changed back there, I saw you. What else can you change
into?"

Purr sneezed,
and his fangs grew longer. He glared at the Queen. "I don't change,
I adapt. It depends on my mood, but I have various aspects, none of
them monstrous, I assure you. I can't become bigger or sprout wings
and fly. I merely shift to suit my mood, or the climate."

"So if you get
angry you sprout teeth and claws?"

"Something
like that."

"I do not
trust you."

Purr sneezed
again, becoming chubby, and gave a purring chuckle. "Fine, I'll
leave, and you can manage alone."

"No!" Sabre
glared at Tassin. "Leave him alone, he's agreed to help us."

"I do not need
his help!"

"Do you think
you can find your way through the Death Zone alone? Half the time
you can't see the sun." He gestured at the mist above them. "And
even when you can, you don't know whether it's the Real-reality
sun, or Flux-reality."

Purr nodded.
"That's true."

Tassin turned
to him. "So how will you find your way?"

He shrugged.
"I just know which way is which. I was born here."

Tassin
scowled, bit her lip and shot Sabre a hard glance. Purr settled
down, snuggling into his bushy, black and white-banded tail. She
turned her back on him and lay down, clutching the hilt of her
dagger. Sabre sighed and stretched out between them, exhausted.
With the discovery of water and the possible danger of their new
surroundings, the cyber had raised his metabolic rate back up to
normal, which drained him. He closed his eyes and drifted off to
sleep, secure in the knowledge that the cyber would alert him to
any danger.

Chapter Two

A soft
scraping woke Sabre, and his eyes flicked open as he gripped his
knife. He sat up and looked around. Tassin still slept, curled up
like a baby, and Purr was flattened at the edge of the rock,
watching something. Sabre crawled up behind him and lay down on his
belly next to the mosscat. Purr started violently at his silent
arrival, lifting several inches into the air as if yanked up by
invisible strings. The hair along his spine stood up in stiff
spikes, and his legs looked a lot longer than Sabre remembered
them. Sabre smiled at Purr's comical reaction to his stealthy
approach and peered over the edge of the rock. Below, a strange
creature crawled past, its claws rasping on a nearby boulder. A
shiny black carapace clad an almost spherical body, which crept
along on six long, spiny legs. A ring of jet eyes circled the body,
and a pair of slender, serrated pincers was tucked under its
forepart.

"Real-reality
monster," Purr whispered.

Sabre nodded,
studying the beast as it crawled away, its spiny legs digging into
the soft dark soil. It barged between two fungi, pushing through
the Flux-reality. Purr relaxed as it disappeared amongst the fungi
and returned to his roly-poly aspect with a soft sneeze. Sabre
looked over at the sleeping Queen, glad she had not woken to see
the horror. As he gazed at her, flashes of green and brown
flickered through the rock.

"Change," Purr
muttered.

The landscape
warped, smearing like water colours running in the rain, and
transformed into scintillating pillars of gemstone and crystal
sprouting from a sheet of what looked like alabaster. Bright
sunlight sparkled on facetted diamonds and coloured crystals, and
emerald sand drifted against ruby rocks.

A
blood-curdling scream jerked Sabre's attention from the priceless
scenery. It came from the direction in which the Real-reality
monster had vanished, and he looked at Purr, who resembled a fluff
ball. He smoothed his fur self-consciously and groomed his
tummy.