City of the Cyborgs (4 page)

“Yes, he does, and I’ll bet she loves him, too.”

“It must have been awful for her to be sent off like that. And then for something bad to happen to her …”

“I’m sure it was, but we’ll find her, and they’ll live happily ever after.” Sarah’s eyes laughed at Abbey. “That’s what you like, isn’t it, Abbey? Love stories that end with ‘They lived happily ever after.’”

“Well, what would it be like if one of them ended ‘They got married and lived miserably ever after’?”

A shadow fell across the two girls, and they looked up. Reb was standing over them. He was grinning at them. He always found their romantic ideas amusing.

“You just get away from me, Reb Jackson!” Abbey cried. “You don’t have a romantic bone in your body.”

“Look over there,” Rainor said at midafternoon. “I see what looks like a village.”

“Can’t be too soon to suit me,” Josh said. He held up a foot and saw that the sole of his shoe was flapping. “We need a little bit of everything.”

“It’s a good thing you have gold. I don’t think
they’d give away things to needy strangers around here,” Rainor said. “Let’s go into the town and see what we can find.”

The travelers attracted much attention as they walked into the small village. The place consisted of only thirty or so houses, no more. There was, however, a store, and they made for it at once.

The storekeeper was a fat man with shifty black eyes. His head was as bald as an egg, and he was intensely curious.

“Don’t get many strangers around here,” he said. “I didn’t catch your names.”

“We didn’t give them,” Rainor said. “We came in to buy some supplies.”

“Have you got money?”

Josh pulled the moneybag out from under his shirt and jangled it. The coins made a pleasant sound, and he saw the crafty eyes of the storekeeper grow bright with greed.

“Well, now,” the man said, “be glad to serve you. What do you need?”

It took considerable time for the purchases to be made. The Sleepers had to start from the ground up. They had to select clothes, boots, weapons, and food supplies, and this took a while.

Abbey, of course, complained that nothing really suited her, but Jake grinned. “You’d better take what you find, Abbey. I doubt if there are any fancy department stores up ahead.”

“That’s right,” the storekeeper said. He had told them that his name was Clug. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t keep on in the direction you’re going.”

“But that’s the way we want to go,” Rainor said,
his gaze on Clug’s face. “What can you tell us of the City of the Cyborgs?”

Instantly Josh saw something change in the man’s expression. His eyelids lowered, and his mouth grew tight. “Don’t know nothing about that place.”

“He knows more than he’s saying,” Reb whispered to Josh. “We may have to wring it out of him.”

Rainor apparently had seen the same thing in Clug’s expression. He took a step forward, saying, “I guess I’ll have to insist.” There was something dangerous in his face, and Clug held up a hand quickly. “Wait a minute, now!” he said nervously. “It’s just that I don’t like to talk about folks.”

“Just tell us what you know. Nobody will ever find out, and nobody will ever bother you.”

“Well,” Clug said nervously, “all I know is that people go in that place and they never come out.”

“They never come out …” Rainor repeated in a puzzled tone. “Why not? What do you mean?”

“I mean just what I said. They go in, and they never come out. Strangers, that is. Our folks just never go that way anymore.”

“Have you ever been?”

“What! Me?
No sir!
I wouldn’t go near to that place for anything. As a matter of fact, some of our villagers went hunting over that way, once, and they just—disappeared.”

“Didn’t you go after them?”

Clug shook his head. “None of my business if folks want to go over there. They should have known better.”

For some time Rainor tried to get more information out of the fat storekeeper. Finally he said, “Sir, I’m not asking you to go with us. Just tell us how to get there.”

Clug managed to get out a few sentences concerning directions to the City of the Cyborgs. “But you young’uns better just stay away from there, if you want my advice.”

Josh took Rainor to one side and said, “I don’t know what we’ll find over there, but I expect we’d better buy as many weapons as we can.”

“No doubt about that,” Rainor said. He chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. “It doesn’t sound too good, Josh.”

“We’ll be all right,” Josh said, more cheerfully than he felt. “Now help us pick over what this fellow’s got in the way of weapons.”

It took some time, but they managed to collect a supply of swords—some of which were rusty but could be cleaned up—and a knife for each member of the party.

“That’s about all I’ve got,” Clug said. “You’ve cleaned me out, but you’ll need it all when you get to the City of the Cyborgs. Now I’ll take that gold.”

After some haggling, Josh paid the man, and Clug counted the coins greedily. He eyed Josh’s moneybag and said, “You might ought to leave that here for safekeeping.”

Josh knew exactly what was in the storekeeper’s mind. “So if we disappear, you’d have a nice bit of cash for yourself, right?”

“Why, I never had nothing like that in my mind. No, not at all.”

Josh smiled, shook his head, and dropped the bag back under his shirt. “I believe I’ll just hang onto it.”

“It’s too late to go anywhere tonight. We’ll have to wait until morning,” Rainor said. Then he turned to Clug. “Is there an inn or any other place around here
where we could get a good night’s sleep and something to eat?”

It turned out that there was no such thing as an inn in the village, but there were villagers willing to share their homes. The group had to split up, and Wash and Reb found themselves staying with a very elderly couple. The old woman was a good cook, however, and they ate heartily.

“They don’t know how to do chicken around here, but this is pretty good,” Reb said.

“What do you mean they don’t know how to do chicken?” Wash asked him, puzzled.

“Why, you know. The only place they could really fix chicken was in Texas.”

“Nope, I didn’t know that,” Wash said. He struggled to keep a straight face. He knew how proud Reb was of his Southern background.

“Oh yeah, the farther you get away from the South, the worse the fried chicken is.”

“Is that so now, Reb?” Wash said.

He glanced up at the elderly lady who just then brought them another bowl of her delicious stewed chicken. Wash helped himself. “I guess I’d better have some more of this. It’s real good. Do you have any dessert, ma’am?”

He had trouble making the woman understand what dessert was, but when she did, she brought them some stewed fruit that served very well.

The boys made their beds in the attic, but after the nights they had slept in the desert, the floor was actually comfortable.

“No telling what we’re gonna run into in that Cyborgs place,” Reb said just before they went to sleep.

“Nope. Those cyborgs—what do you suppose they look like? And what
are
they?”

“Can’t guess,” Reb said sleepily. “But I managed to get me a rope in case I need it.”

Wash knew Reb was an expert at lassoing things. He had learned the trade on a ranch, and several times he had saved the Sleepers by his use of the lariat.

“Well, time enough tomorrow to find out about the cyborgs.” Wash patted his full stomach. “Good night, Reb.”

“Good night, Wash.”

The Sleepers and Rainor left at dawn, carrying packs loaded with food and supplies.

“I wish we had some horses,” Josh said, “but I guess that’s out of the question.”

“Yep, I’d give anything for a good bronc,” Reb said longingly. “Maybe we’ll see some along the way.”

They seemed to be leaving the desert country. Trees began to appear, first singly and then in groves. They traveled hard the first day and camped that night beside a running stream. They were carrying plenty of food, so there was no need to hunt.

Around the campfire, the Sleepers talked a great deal of past adventures, as Rainor listened closely and enviously. “I’ve never really done much of anything,” he said. “Remember, I’m just a workingman. You Sleepers have been everywhere.”

“Some of the places we were, I wish we hadn’t been,” Josh said.

Rainor was surprised. “Why would you say that?”

“Well, we nearly got killed in some of them. Goél seems to send us into nothing but hot spots. But don’t
misunderstand. He always knows what he’s doing. And he always takes care of us in the middle of things.”

“He must think a lot of you,” Rainor remarked enviously. He took a sip of the coffee Sarah had brewed. “I’ve never met Goél, but I would like to.”

“Sometime I think you will,” Sarah said. “Maybe before this adventure is over.”

“We may need Goél more than we realize on this venture,” Josh added. “We don’t know what we’re headed into. But whatever it is, Goél will bring us through. He hasn’t disappointed us yet.”

The next morning they started off again. The trees grew thicker, and soon a forest closed around them. The land began to rise, too, until late in the afternoon they came to what looked to be the last ridge.

“If what Clug said was right,” Rainor said, “the City of the Cyborgs ought to be just on the other side of that ridge.”

“Come on, then,” Reb said eagerly. “Let’s see what these here cyborgs are like.”

They quickened their pace then and before long had reached the top of the mountain.

“Why, it’s a valley!” Abbey said. “And see—that must be their city.”

Rainor agreed that the valley was beautiful. It was surrounded by low mountains, and on the valley floor were green grass and trees and streams.

“Well, the countryside looks good, but that sure is one sorry looking city,” Reb commented.

The City of the Cyborgs appeared exactly as Reb had described it. Most cities or towns had some sort of beauty, but there was nothing beautiful about this one. The whole city consisted of low, flat, ugly buildings—
with one exception. On one side a tower reared itself above the other structures.

“That is one depressing place,” Sarah said. “No trees or flowers. Just nothing green at all.”

“They could have chopped down all the trees for building or for firewood. But why wouldn’t they at least have flowers or grass? It looks like they cemented the whole thing,” Josh said.

“However, we’re here. I don’t care what that city looks like,” Rainor said grimly. “Mayfair’s in there somewhere, and we’re going to get her out.”

They began the climb down the mountain. It was steep and dangerous on this side of the ridge, and they had to move slowly and carefully. It took several hours before they reached the foot. From there on, the going was easier as they made their way toward the city.

Something was troubling Rainor. At one point he said, “It seems strange to me that we haven’t
seen
anybody out here. You would expect there to be people—and farms—somewhere.”

“Well, there are some fields,” Reb observed. “Somebody is growing vegetables, but I don’t see any houses. It’s real strange.”

“Be ready for anything,” Rainor said, and he drew his sword. His eyes searched the horizon ahead as they advanced.

The Sleepers were drawing near the outskirts of the City of the Cyborgs when suddenly Rainor held up a hand. “Hold it, everybody!”

“What is it?” Jake asked. “People?”

“Not people. Those posts. What are those things for?”

Jake looked as the others gathered round. Crossing
in front of them was a row of narrow metal objects that were set like fence posts.

“That’s funny,” he said. “It looks like somebody decided to build a fence and put up the posts, but then they forgot to put up the barbed wire.”

Rainor rubbed his chin. “I don’t like the looks of this somehow.”

Josh said, “I don’t either, but we can’t be worried about that. You wait here. I’ll go on a little farther and sort of check things out.”

Jake wasn’t surprised at that decision. The Sleepers were used to Josh’s taking the lead. They waited, and Rainor waited.

Jake watched as Josh, gripping his sword, reached the line of posts and passed through it. There was a clicking sound.

“What was that?” Sarah called.

Josh looked back at them. “I don’t know. Seems like that post was clicking.” He waited, but nothing else happened. “Everything seems to be OK,” he said. “Come ahead. We’ve got to find cover.”

The others hurried through the row of posts, and each time one of them passed, Jake noticed the same strange clicking noise. But nothing more than that happened, and they kept going. Now they were all well past the posts, and still nothing had happened. They stood in a group, looking at each other. What was going on?

Then abruptly a metallic sounding voice rang out.
“Eight insane units have entered the hive! Annihilators will at once apprehend them.”

“We’ve set off some kind of alarm!” Josh cried. He started running back toward the fence posts. “Let’s get out of here fast and back to the hills!”

Now they were all running.

“I don’t like the sound of that word
annihilators, ”
Dave said.

“What does it mean?” Wash asked.

“It means
killers!”
Jake told him.

Josh reached the line of posts first. But as soon as he started to cross it, he was knocked violently backwards. He fell to the ground, his sword clattering as he dropped it.

“Josh, what’s the matter?” Sarah cried.

Jake shouted, “Don’t anybody try to cross that line of posts!”

Sarah was kneeling by Josh, who seemed to be unconscious.

“Is he all right?” Abbey said anxiously.

“I don’t know. He’s been knocked out.”

Jake quickly explained what had happened. “There’s some kind of electrical force set up between those posts. You can come into the city limits, but you can’t go out.”

Without a word, Rainor gathered up Josh and slung him across his strong shoulders. “Let’s find a hiding place,” he said. “Whatever those annihilators are, I don’t want to find out. We’ve got to hide.”