Earthbound (30 page)

Pace had that stronger looking teller help
him load up shoulder bags. Then when they were full, I’d take ‘em
and put ‘em on a desk on the way to the back door. Unlike the other
vaults, where the money was kinda loosely arranged, this gold was
neatly wrapped in sturdy paper stacks so we could load it up much
quicker. When they’d emptied out every penny, Pace pulled out his
revolver to keep an eye on things so the stronger looking teller
and I could load up the horses. Not that Pace couldn’t have handed
that but I could do it quicker. Then when we were loaded up, Pace
led the stronger looking teller back inside. “Sorry, I have to tie
you up now.” As that guy got tied up, my job was to drag their
chairs as far away from the safe as possible. I pulled them across
the room to the front door, and then flipped over a desk and put it
in front of them as cover. Didn’t want anything flying off hitting
them in the face.

“W-what are you gonna do?” the fourth teller
asked, concerned about getting killed no matter which way events
unfolded. I pulled a brick of C4 out of my pocket, one of the ones
I found in that old warehouse, and slammed it against the locking
mechanism on the vault. That was our contingency plan if we
couldn’t get the combination for some reason, but we always had a
preferred use in mind for the C4. Pace put in the fuse, and it was
a very very long fuse. He unrolled it all the way to the front
door. That made the fourth teller seem even more nervous. “W-what’s
that for?”

“Just keeping my word,” Pace said with a
reassuring smile. “You wouldn’t tell me the combination, right? So
we had to blow the safe right open. Fortunately this fuse is so
long we’ll be halfway out of town before it blows.”

“You sure it’s not enough to kill us all?”
the third teller wondered. It was a fair question. Hadn’t really
used C4 before.

“You think I used too much?” I whispered to
Pace.

“We’re about to find out,” he said.

The tellers all seemed kinda grateful. Then
Pace went ahead and stuffed stacks of gold coins in each of their
coat pockets. Then they seemed even more grateful. Wasn’t their
fault they were being robbed. They’d earned it.

Then Pace lit that fuse, so we high-tailed it
out to our horses. Becca was there by then. She’d bought a sturdy
brown mare, maybe five years old or so, with good strong legs.
Seemed like a runner. That’d come in handy. Becca was trying to
figure out why the saddlebags were so full all of a sudden. I felt
bad but we quickly shoved what she bought wherever we could in her
new horse’s saddlebags, and we tossed the rest.

“Wait!” Becca complained. “What are you
doing?”

“Sorry Rebecca,” Pace explained. “But we’ve
got to go. Right now.”

Becca looked at both of us. And in that
moment, she understood.

“You effers!”

“Language, Rebecca,” Pace scolded. Then he
hoisted her up on her horse and leapt himself up on Flashbound.
“It’ll be a great story to tell our grandchildren someday.”

“Grandchildren,” Becca moaned. “Not
likely.”

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, “before
something we did attracts a lot of attention.” I was talking about
the C4 of course.

But as we started to ride off, something
ahead of us was blocking our path. It was a man. No, it wasn’t
human. It was metallic. Well, kinda both. Metallic but shaped
nearly like a human.

“What the eff is that?” Pace said.

“It’s not a Mankin.” I knew that much. “Too
tall. Too… lifelike.”

Whatever that thing was, at the end of its
arm was a metal hand holding a weapon the likes of which I’d never
seen. Polished steel and rounded, looking kinda like a handheld
turbine engine – I’d seen a few of those turbines on those old jets
back on the air force base. Whatever that weapon was, it looked
powerful.

A metal leg took a step forward and that
thing was now close enough that we could see it. It had a face. A
human face. Scratch that – a near human face. It looked like it had
human flesh, more pale than usual, but there was a steel
exoskeleton surrounding it – maybe to protect it. What I remember
most was the eyes. The glinting silver eyes.

We stopped our horses and stared. I admit,
all three of us kinda froze. Never seen anything like that in our
lives.

Then that weapon, whatever it was, started to
whir. The cylinder on that turbine engine was spinning, getting
ready to fire. Wasn’t sure what kinda bullets would come out of
that thing but we were right in the line of fire. There was no
place we could go. We were dead.

Almost. That thing got distracted. We all
did. By a large, um, explosion. In the bank. Turns out I used just
a little too much C4. That building just kinda erupted. And the
force of the blast blew those four tied up bankers through the
front windows, landing on their backs, with the table landing in
front of them, shielding them from much of the showering glass and
wood splinters. I was relieved they’d be fine, at least for the
moment. There was still that new robot to deal with.

Turns out the robot was distracted too. As it
lowered its weapon and eyed the explosion, all three of us took it
upon ourselves to ride out of the way. Pace and Becca to the right
of the thing, me to the left.

Then that thing whatever it was just started
shooting at us.

It wasn’t bullets coming at us – it was laser
fire, but the blasts were bigger and more combustible than the ones
that came from Mankins. The ground seemed to open up a gaping hole
on impact. And those blasts were getting too close to those
bankers. I didn’t kill them and I didn’t want this robot to kill
them either.

“Get Becca outta here!” I shouted. “Take
Charon too!” I leaped off of Charon and sent him in Pace’s
direction. It was gonna be too hard to maneuver those blasts while
I was riding. And if anything happened to Charon, well, I’d never
forgive myself. If I was still alive to even do that. I took cover
on the side of a building, hoping it would be enough.

Becca screamed my name. But I couldn’t pay no
mind, I could only see to it that Pace was making sure her horse
was riding her off to safety.

Meantime, the three gunmen emerged from the
saloon with their shotguns to see what all the commotion was about.
Bad move.

“What the eff!” the gunman we were talking to
yelled. The other two gunmen had the good sense to flee. But not
this one. He was just standing there, petrified. Pissed his pants
no doubt.

“Get out of the way!” I shouted. But he
couldn’t process anything, let alone what I was saying. I just saw
that metal arm raising up to aim at his forehead. “Oh man!” I
moaned to myself. I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t help
myself. I dove toward the gunman and knocked him to the ground,
just before a laser blast woulda cut him in two. We rolled to the
side, and then I slapped him hard and good across the face. “Get
with it! You’re not gonna survive this if you don’t get your wits
about you!”

I took a split-second – too long, really – to
make sure the gunman heard me. He nodded and tried to get a grasp
on his shotgun.

“W-what is that thing-” the gunman
stammered.

“Just keep down!” I shouted.

Then my eyes were back on that metal thing.
He really wasn’t a robot. I can’t call him a robot. There was
something definitely human in there. It was in the shape of a
regular six foot tall man. Except the arms and legs were solid
metal, and the torso was wrapped in the same kind of exoskeleton
that covered the face. And the movement. No robot could replicate
that. It was too fluid. It was too fast. And it was firing right at
us. But the gunman wasn’t getting it. I knocked the gunman out of
the way yet again.

Fortunately Pace didn’t leave me hanging. He
had dismounted as well and sent Becca and both horses on a course
out of town. He pulled out his pistols and ran at this creature,
blasting him with everything he had. The creature took the shots
calmly as the bullets just sorta bounced off his tough metal flesh.
Not even a dent. It just kinda stared back at everyone.

And when Pace was out of ammo, that thing
raised up its arms. The chamber of its weapons, whatever those
were, opened up automatically and some thin steel rods came up out
of its metallic forearms holding shiny cartridges. Smoking spent
cartridges popped out of the weapons and fell to the ground while
the steel rods replaced them with the new cartridges. I heard them
snap into place. So then I knew how they reloaded. What good that
would do me.

I took that moment to pull out my Bowie knife
and cut the ropes binding the bankers. Everyone ran for cover as
that thing started firing. I couldn’t tell cause I couldn’t afford
to observe that closely, but I could swear that thing’s aim was far
more precise than the Mankins. That thing had a sharpshooter’s
aim.

“What’s the plan, Pace?” I shouted. I wasn’t
really looking for guidance. I really just wanted to make sure he
was still alive.

“No clue,” he replied. Fine. At least he was
still breathing.

Finally the blasting stopped so that thing
could reload. Those thin steel rods came up out of its metallic
forearms once again with those shiny cartridges. We had a few
seconds to counterattack. But a few seconds to do what,
exactly?

Next thing I knew, the gunman was up on his
feet.

“Hey,” I yelled, “hit the ground!”

But the gunman wasn’t listening. Instead he
was talking.

“I ain’t dying today.”

Then he pointed his rifle directly at the
creature and opened fire. He had ten rounds in his cartridge and he
blasted away using up all of ‘em, one after the other, each time
stepping closer and closer to the thing. All shots hit its target.
But not once did that thing wince. Well, once. One bullet seemed to
bounce on the inside of the exoskeleton around its chest and nicked
where the ribcage would usually be. The creature recoiled a little,
and some kind of silver liquid seeped out of the wound.

So it could bleed. Good to know.

I raised my revolver to give the gunman some
cover fire, but he was in my line of sight. I didn’t want to shoot
him to save him. “Get out of there!” I shouted. Instead the gunman
just stood there and reloaded. He seemed pretty calm actually.
Brave guy after he got his wits about him. He raised his rifle to
shoot again but the creature quickly reached out – its weapons
almost instantly holstering somehow inside its hips – and grabbed
the nose of the rifle and crushed it in its fingers. The gunman had
really hurt it. Good for him!

“Ribcage!” I shouted as I ran from cover and
headed straight at the creature, blasting away at its exoskeleton.
Pace followed my lead and we were firing away. We didn’t give the
creature enough time to react I guess, or its wound was slowing him
down, cause it just kinda took our punishment. Several shots
must’ve connected underneath that shell it had. Silver gunk was
just spewing out all over its chest.

I tossed the gunman my spare pistol so he
could join in the fun. And he did.

That creature took a good tumble backward.
Seemed like we’d disabled it. It wasn’t pulling out any weapons out
of its ass or wherever. It was just kinda shaking.

Feeling confident we’d felled it, we lowered
our weapons and stared at the thing.

“That’s not one of those Mankins,” Pace
said.

“A lot tougher than a Mankin,” I said.

I pounced on top of the creature and stared
it in its steel eyes.

“What are you?” It wasn’t a question. More of
a demand.

The thing started to sputter and finally its
lips curled to create a word.

“Bion.”

Then its body shuttered, and lights out.

I got up and we all kinda looked at each
other. We’d taken out our first Bion. Didn’t bother me much in that
moment. I thought it was just a different kinda robot. Hell, I
could kill a dozen of ‘em if I had to.

“Guess this Shādo Shay means business,” the
gunman commented. He was right. The Great Plains Holding Company
was definitely stepping it up. The gunman kicked the Bion body for
good measure to make sure it was really out of commission. “I
reckon there’s a reason why this thing was after you,” he
stated.

“I reckon so,” I replied.

The gunman still had my spare pistol.
Couldn’t tell if he was pointing it at us. Couldn’t tell if we were
gonna have a problem or not.

Finally the gunman nodded. And then he turned
the pistol around and handed it to me, handle first.

“You saved my life,” he explained. “For that
you get a head start.”

Didn’t need to tell us twice.

We ran for a while until we caught up with
Becca and the horses, waiting for us a safe distance from the
settlement.

“Is that thing dead?” she asked.