The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone (7 page)

"Oh that's
right, have a good howl! Tears don't work on me, Your Majesty. I'm
immune to female wiles, didn't you know that? As for being afraid
for me, that's ridiculous! Fighting is what I was bred for! No, not
bred... designed, created, manufactured, trained. All of the above.
Haven't you figured it out yet? Wasn't I described as a weapon when
or before I arrived in my natty case? That's what I am; a weapon,
understand? That means I don't need anyone to rescue me, least of
all a flea-brained little girl who thinks she's a god dammed
warrior queen!"

Tassin covered
her face and burst into tears. Sabre swore and released her, turned
away and ran a hand over his hair. She howled louder, and he swung
back, looking harassed.

"Stop it!" He
made a helpless gesture. "Bugger it!"

Tassin drew a
shuddering breath and wailed some more, her hands clamped over her
face. He cursed again and swung away, striding towards the wood.
Tassin lowered her hands and stared after him, confused and angry.
If Sabre noticed that the howls stopped abruptly, he did not turn
to see why, and she swore under her breath. She had played her
trump card, and he had walked away. No one had ever done that
before, not even her father. His imperviousness intrigued and
annoyed her, and she wondered why she was attracted to such a
heartless man.

Sniffing and
wiping her eyes, she followed, and found him sitting on a log with
Purr. The mosscat's eyes gleamed as Tassin approached, and she
suspected that he had witnessed the whole scene, the nosey little
snoop. Sabre looked haggard, his eyes shadowed. He kept rubbing his
forehead, and she deduced that he had a splitting headache from his
fall. He started to hand her the dagger, then noticed that it was
bent and straightened it.

When she
enquired about his head, he glared at her, and she realised that
she was deep in his bad books. The mosscat looked smug, and she
pulled a face at him. They rested until Sabre's headache had
abated, then he led them around the village and into the woods on
the far side, marching along with a stony countenance and allowing
Tassin to dawdle in the rear.

Late in the
afternoon, they encountered a Real-reality stream and camped on its
bank, dining on fish again. Sabre remained aloof, ignoring Tassin's
overtures, to her intense chagrin. He bathed the welts from the
monster's spit in the stream, but they stayed red.

Gearn hunched
over the fire and stared into the pot he stirred. The sun sank in a
pale, cloudless sky, and Murdor snored a couple of metres away. The
spell was not going well. For a day and a half, he had struggled to
make the correct potion, but all he had succeeded in doing was
creating several bangs and clouds of noxious smoke. The Death Zone
barrier shimmered, mocking him. The landscape had suffered from his
efforts, which had drained any energy from it, turning the coarse
sand to black powder. He had shielded his companions from the
effects of his spell-casting, but it had depleted his strength and
made him nauseous.

The pot
bubbled, and he lifted it from the fire, studying its seething
surface. Sighing, he stood and walked around the camp, sprinkling
the potion, then set down the empty pot and began a complicated
chant. The translocation spell was a difficult one, but he was sure
he would succeed this time.

His chant
ended, and he made the odd gestures that invoked the spell. The
sand around the camp glowed eerie green, and a surge of triumph ran
through him. A thunderclap shattered the stillness, accompanied by
a flash of sickly light, and a cloud of green smoke billowed up.
The horse shied, and Murdor leapt to his feet with a curse. The
wolf raised his head and looked around in alarm. Gearn swore,
ignoring Murdor's string of curses. He glared at the Death Zone
barrier, admitting defeat for now, and settled down for the night.
Murdor muttered some derogatory comments under his breath as he lay
down again. Gearn snorted. Tomorrow he would get it right.

Chapter Five

After several
more hours of walking through the park-like wood, the flickers of
brown and green streaked through the land, warning the trio of the
coming Change. They dashed for the nearest Real-reality looking
boulder, which turned out to be Flux-reality. The world warped and
Changed to a barren landscape of smooth grey rocks interspersed
with stony areas and an occasional patch of sand. The icy wind that
blew across it tugged at Tassin's skirts and sent chills through
her. Leaden clouds scudded overhead, blocking out the weak
sunlight.

Sabre glanced
back at her, then walked away across the new terrain. She stumbled
after him on numb legs and throbbing feet, longing to stop and
rest, but Sabre set a gruelling pace. The rocks twisted her ankles
and barked her shins as she tried to keep up, and she muttered
curses. The mosscat adapted to the new world with a soft sneeze,
his legs lengthening and his paws sprouting stubby claws. For a
while Tassin followed, then she decided that she had had enough and
sat down on a boulder. She watched Sabre march away, wondering how
long it would take before he noticed that she was no longer
following.

Sighing, she
rubbed her aching legs, pulling up her skirt to massage her calves.
Something stirred amongst the rocks, so well camouflaged that only
its cautious movement betrayed it. Alarmed, she stood up as a
slender head shot out of a cranny, and pain lanced up her leg. She
leapt away with a yell, but the creature had already vanished back
into the stones. Sabre ran back to her as she tottered towards him,
desperate to reach the security of his presence. Agony shot up her
leg, then her back arched in a spasm and she gave a choked cry. The
grey world spun around her, and she fell into darkness.

Sabre reached
Tassin as she collapsed and swept her up. Her head flopped back,
and he sat on a boulder and cradled her with one arm while he
patted her cheek to try to rouse her.

"Tassin! Come
on, wake up!"

Purr appeared
nearby, sniffing the air. "Something nasty here, come away."

Sabre rose and
moved to another rock. "Something nasty? Like what?"

"Venomous."

"Why didn't
you warn us when we passed this way?"

Purr huffed.
"We didn't. She was far behind, and you were doing your best to
ignore her."

Sabre glared
at him. "She's been bitten?"

"Probably."

"How bad is
it?"

"How should I
know? All these worlds are new to me. I've never seen the same one
twice."

Sabre found a
black swelling on Tassin's ankle, and red streaks already spread
from it. Cold dread squeezed his heart as he laid a hand on her
brow, finding her skin cold and clammy.

"She's gone
into shock."

Purr glanced
around. "We must make camp and await the next Change. She'll have
to fight the poison until then."

Sabre carried
Tassin to a sandy area, which Purr declared was safe after he
sniffed around it. Sitting on a rock, the cyber wrapped her in the
bedding, alarmed to find her hot and flushed, yet she shivered.

He looked at
the mosscat. "What can I do?"

"Hope for
Change."

"What if it's
hours away? She could die."

Purr shook his
head. "There's nothing we can do."

Sabre stared
down at the Tassin, whose blackened eyes and swollen nose were mute
testimony to the hardships she had endured in the Death Zone. Yet
she hardly complained anymore, and kept up even though her strength
was so much less than his. Why had he let her lag behind? He had
been angry with her for coming after him at the village, then
ending his tirade with the ultimate female weapon. That had struck
a raw nerve, for he had wanted to comfort her when he should have
felt nothing, and the feelings were alien and unwelcome.

Sabre was not
even certain how to comfort a weeping girl, since he had never
encountered such a situation in his vaguely perceived former life.
All his reactions were based on that second-hand impression of the
world, and his limited repertoire of social interactions lacked a
great deal. Not knowing how to do something did not prevent him
from wanting to do it, however, and he found it confusing, which
made him inclined to withdraw from the situation rather than try to
figure out what to do and possibly make a mistake.

There was no
place in his life for a girl, and he had thought that his heart, so
long deadened by the cyber, was immune. Tassin was a real person,
even if she was impulsive, impetuous and strong-willed, or perhaps
because of it. What was he? Just a damaged cyborg. A freak. A
broken killing machine. He had failed her. His job was to protect
her, not to leave her stumbling in his wake, vulnerable to attack.
The cyber would not have done that. It would have done a better
job, unburdened by human emotions, and he cursed himself.

Tassin
shivered and moaned. Sweat sheened her flushed skin, and she pushed
away the bedding with trembling hands. Sabre held the blankets in
place, foiling her efforts to be free of them. He stroked her cheek
as she relaxed. Her strength drained away with alarming speed, and
he willed her to live until the next Change. He would do better, he
vowed. He would keep her safe, if only she would survive. The cyber
drew his attention inwards to a scrolling display of Tassin's vital
signs, which showed her heart rate to be elevated and her blood
pressure dropping while her temperature soared. It could not detect
the reason for her sickness, however. Everything in and from the
Death Zone seemed to be invisible to the scanners.

Even so, with
modern equipment, he could have made a serum for her in less than
an hour. All he would have to do was find another creature like the
one that had bitten her and be bitten himself, then transfuse some
of his blood into her. His ability to manufacture a serum for just
about any kind of venom twice as fast as a normal man would ensure
that he could provide anti-venom before she died. He would also
become ill, though not as badly, and not for long. Without the
necessary equipment, however, he could not help her.

By the time
the Change came, her breathing was laboured and he was sure he
would soon be holding a corpse. At Purr's warning he stood, and the
world Changed. Sabre glanced around at a rolling meadowland dotted
with spreading trees. Tassin shuddered and gasped, then breathed
normally again.

Purr looked up
at him. "She'll be all right now. The Flux-poison has been left
behind in the stone world."

"I've got to
get her out of this place. Come on."

The mosscat
bounded ahead, and Sabre strode after him. The rolling fields
remained for many hours, and he made swift progress. The Changes
came a lot slower now, and the sound of birdsong was faint. He did
not stop to eat or rest, driven by a powerful urge to get out of
the Death Zone before it killed Tassin. They had come too far to
fail now, and the sooner he could get back to reality, the better.
Tassin remained in a deep sleep or coma, he was not sure which, but
at least she breathed easily and her colour was good. The cyber
told him that her vital signs were almost normal, but her energy
level was low.

Fatigue forced
him to stop and sleep while Purr stood watch, and he woke to find
that the mosscat had dug up some shrivelled tubers, which he
claimed were Real-reality. Purr grumbled about the lack of food and
water on this side of the Death Zone. He had been unable to find
any pools to hunt in, and the water skins were almost empty.

When Sabre had
consumed the sparse fare, he walked on with his burden, and the
mosscat ranged ahead in search of food and water. The scenery
Changed to another rocky world, this time brown stone swept by
endless winds, which had carved the rock into weird shapes.
Towering pillars were capped with oddly balanced boulders that
seemed ready to fall at any moment. Sabre threaded his way through
them, alert for danger, but apart from a wandering Real-reality
monster in the distance, the world was lifeless. The incessant wind
moaned through the worn landscape in a miserable dirge that matched
his mood and chilled his skin with its icy touch. He set a fast
pace, no longer slowed by the Queen, and his long strides ate up
the ground. Purr panted as he trotted ahead, casting astonished
glances back at Sabre.

They
encountered a Real-reality pool at last, and Sabre filled the water
skins. The pool was devoid of fish, to Purr's disgust. The
Flux-reality sounds became fainter, and the scenery grew more
tenuous as Sabre walked. The moaning wind became a ghostly whisper
and its touch a zephyr's caress. Flux-reality Changed to a world of
rust, filled with crumbling, blood-red iron ruins through which
oily rivers ran. Nothing lived in this world either, and Sabre
wondered if it was a planet that mankind had ruined. The seeping
corruption and acid smog seemed likely to have been caused by
rampant pollution. Too little remained of the rusting artefacts to
identify them as the leavings of humanity's senseless plunder,
however.

The scenery
had Changed to a barren scrubland by the time Tassin woke. She
glanced around with a frown, then looked up at Sabre. "Something
bit me."

He stopped and
put her down. "I know, but the poison's gone now. You're okay."

She examined
the scenery again, clearly struck by the silence. "Where are
we?"

"We're nearly
out of it. No sound or smell."

"Thank
goodness."

Sabre tried to
persuade her to eat some of the shrivelled tubers, but she shook
her head and asked for water. The mosscat vanished and returned
with a fish, which they had to eat raw, since the Flux-reality wood
was too unreal to burn now. Tassin left most of her share and went
back to sleep, which worried Sabre. Although raw fish was not
terribly appetising, she also seemed listless and dazed. He rested
until Flux-reality Changed to a tropical landscape of sand covered
with fleshy creepers and tall palms that waved in a spectral
wind.