Machine God: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (10 page)

Since my extensive training back at the Bulwark facility, using my grapple gun felt as natural as sprinting through the city canyons. It felt almost like Basic again, aside from the tension that impregnated the dusty air. The worst that could happen in the training facility was a permission punishment, but here, in the so-called Lost Lands, danger seemed to loom around every corner. Even though the enemy type was still unclear, at least to me.

We arrived at the midpoint on our route. In order to reach the mall, we had to traverse a major road, which meant we faced potential sniper fire from the adjacent buildings. Hecto grumbled.

“We’re all going to cross the street at the same time. But I want you to keep distance by at least three meters. And run in zigzag lines. The more unpredictable your movement, the fewer the chances of getting shot. Clear?”

“Clear,” the team said. 

The adrenaline entered my veins and sharpened my senses. 

I shot out the shadows and dashed over the sandy four-lane street. Ran like a drunken idiot and leaped from one point to another, making sure no sharpshooter could figure out my movements. Heck, even I couldn’t.

One by one, we reached the other side safely and inhaled the air in the shadows of the torn-open shop.

So far, so good.

My hand wiped the sand from my eyes. Man, it looked like I jackknifed through a sand tsunami. 

“Don’t stop, we’ve got to keep on moving,” Hecto said.

We climbed over the rubble, entered the nearby houses and snuck along the inner walls. Hecto peeked around the corner and whistled. Ceedee stood next to him and swung her SR. 

“What is it?”

“I think we just found our mall.”

He added,

“And what a mall it is.”

29

He let me have a look around the corner. Hecto’s whistle of awe was justified. The huge parking space in front of the mall ruin was protected with make-shift barricades and watch towers. Whoever lived inside the mall had a strict border protection policy.

“That looks more like a fortress than a mall.”

Ceedee was right.

“But look,” she pointed toward a line next to the east tower. 

“There are holes in the defense. Looks like someone tried to invade the mall before.”

“I don’t like it,” Hecto said.

He wasn’t the only one.

On top of the suspicious setting, no one manned the watch towers. They stood around like idle monuments. Glitch's voice shivered.

“Maybe it’s a trap. Maybe we should report to HQ and call it a day.”

“No way. We’re on a mission and we’ll master it,” Ceedee said.

“So, what’s the plan, Hecto?”

He grumbled.

“I don’t like the open space. Ceedee, I want you to man the house over there and provide overwatch, just in case. Don’t hurt yourself on the way up.”

“Roger that.” 

She vanished through the hole in the wall and targeted the house, avoiding the open parking space of the mall. With a well-placed shot of her grapple gun, she pulled herself up and climbed over the roof's ledge. Ceedee disappeared from my vision. Hecto’s eyes followed ours.

“Here’s the plan. We stay down and zigzag from one cover spot to another. You follow my lead and shut up. Whatever happens, you don’t stop unless you're near a barricade, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” Glitch and Darwin said.

I simply nodded and inspected the perimeter. No movement showed up on my commchuff, but as Hecto had said earlier, enemy snipers could lurk everywhere. Passing a wide open field was always riddled with danger.

It was terrifying.

And exciting. 

We snuck across the parking space and ducked in the shadows of the few car wreckages that still lay around. I snooped around the shredded trunk and observed the watch towers. No single human being was around. 

“How’s the view up there?” Hecto said via the intercom.

Ceedee answered.

“No target in sight. Motion scanners show zero activity.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way. Look out for roof campers."

We left the shadows and sprinted over the parking space. Craters littered the grounds.

“Are these from shell impacts?”

“No, they look like IED craters,” Hecto said and pointed toward the skeleton bodies.

“Looked like someone tested the waters for us.”

Unlucky bastards.

Half the bones had been shredded apart. Among the victims lay pieces of mechanized rubble I remembered from the ruin where I woke up. I couldn’t pinpoint their origin—they were too big for weapon pieces, but didn’t look like vehicle parts either. 

Weird. 

I tossed the sight away and focused on the path before me. Me, Hecto, Glitch and Darwin crawled through the holes in the barricades and reached the east side of the mall. Hecto stopped us for a status update.

“Any sign on the rooftop?”

“Nope. No one’s catching fresh air on the mall tonight. As far as I can tell, you’re good to go.”

“Clear. We’re going to enter the east entrance.”

We sprinted through the make-shift doors and cleared the first corridor. Sand, glass shreds and store pieces littered the marble ground. Not my idea of a shopping paradise. 

We hunkered down, moved along the left store fronts and held our guns ready.

The silence in the mall was disturbing.

Picture a three story complex the size of five football fields, trashed with rubble, but devoid of life. Every other second, my glance focused on the motion scanner on my commcuff. Their effective range was up to one hundred meters, so if the survivors really lived here, they had to show up soon.

“I’m picking something up,” Glitch said.

Maybe he had a superior sensor.

Our fireteam froze. 

“I got movement at 9 o'clock.”

Our eyes dashed to the left side, where a former sportswear shop was harbored. Couldn’t detect anything, but the perimeter was stuffed with puppets and filled aisles that obstructed our sight. Hecto updated his commands.

“Move out but do not engage. These could be the survivors we’re looking for.”

“Roger,” we all said.

We entered the storefront and took cover position.

With my body pressed against the rear of an aisle, I watched the movement pointers on my scanner. They dropped in and out of existence. Apparently, the target moved almost 12 o’clock to my position. Hecto hunkered down on the opposite side and hushed me from afar. Darwin looked over the counter and dove back.

Silence.

Sweat. 

And a spiderweb brushing my left face, together with a torn-apart sign, saying, ‘New airshock sneakers, perfect for hoverboards. 33% off.”

I carefully wiped the sign away from my sight and peeked over the aisle’s corner. Twenty meters up ahead, a coat jiggled as if the wind stroked its side, which was impossible in this calm area.

“Contact at 3 o’clock,” I whispered to my commcuff, when a shot tore through the jacket and hit the counter where Darwin’s head peaked like a mountain top. Pieces of wood splintered. Darwin went into armordillo lockdown to maximize his protection.

Shit.

The single shot was quickly followed by a volley. The attacker probably used some kind of machine gun. Darwin hid behind the counter, Hecto’s finger hovered over his AK-BL8.

“Do not engage,” he said.

“Tell that to the shooter,” Darwin’s muffled voice said from below the shop counter. 

The incoming fire switched from single-burst to auto-fire. Hecto armordillo'd.

“Damn, I’m pinned down.”

But I wasn’t.

“Give me the flashbang.”

“What?”

“Just do as I say.”

Hecto disliked my tone, but this wasn’t the time for courtesy. The enemy hadn’t detected my position which meant the surprise was still on my side. Hecto rolled the cylinder-shaped device over to my position while keeping his armored back pressed against the cover spot. In the right corner of my eye, I saw Glitch ducking behind a blown-apart aisle. The poor guy was freaking out as the loud fire tore through the jackets and sales counter. He crawled out, aimed his modular UMP and unleashed rounds into the basic direction of the enemy’s location.

“Damn it, hold your fire,” Hecto said from his cover. 

This was the moment for me to engage. I crawled past my aisle, maneuvered 'round the stands with the dusty clothes. With eyes on the motion sensor, I located the shooter. He was in the jacket section, shooting through a hole in the shelf. I snuck into the aisle, flanked the guy from the left and rolled in the flashbang. A white boom filled the air, blinded the attacker and rendered him useless. In the far distance of the store, I heard Hecto shout “advance".

I shot from my cover and ran toward the attacker behind the make-shift shooting spot. He whined and wiped his eyes when I kicked him away from this stationary rifle. It didn’t take much force. One ram and the guy crashed into the aisle, rolled to the ground, shielded his eyes.

“Please, don’t kill me.”

I readied my 15mm in case the guy pulled a trick on me.

Approached him with steady steps and kept my voice low-key to deescalate the situation.

“Put up your hands where I can see them.”

“Can’t. My eyes burn. So much.”

Couldn’t tell whether he was telling the truth or putting up a shtick. I carefully neared his left side and rolled him over. He was not what I expected.

30

Curly hair. 

Freckled face.

Big Bambi eyes.

This guy was a kid.

Crying with a big mouth wide open.

The rest of the team joined my side and looked down at the juvenile shooter.

Darwin looked the most offended.

“We got ambushed by a little kid? Pathetic.”

I knelt next to the boy and patted his shoulder. 

“Why did you shoot at us?”

“I thought you were one of them.”

“Who? Scavengers?”

“No, the other ones. With the freaky armor and the energy weapons.”

Hecto pushed himself into the conversation.

“Are you alone? Where are the others?”

The boy hesitated.

No surprise there—opening up to heavily-armored strangers who just fired at him didn’t foster strong trust. Still, Hecto’s deep and warm voice, followed by his soothing word choice, not to mention the bottle of water, swayed the boy. The big guy could be soft when he needed to be.

The boy answered,

“A bunch of us are hiding nearby. We tried to stay away from the outside as much as possible.”

Hecto gave him an approving nod.

“It’s a nasty world out there. You did right by taking shelter inside. But now it’s time to leave this place and get somewhere safe.”

The boy looked at him with big eyes that must have seen unspeakable terror.

“Are you going hurt them?”

“No, in fact, we’re here to help you guys out. One of our scout teams located your hiding spot. We’re here to rescue you and your people. All is going to be good soon.”

Heck, with that voice and attitude, Hecto would have swayed me, if I hadn’t known better.

The boy sucked at the water bottle and cleared half of its content.

He wiped the drops from his lips, breathed in and stood up. His fear resided.

“Come. I lead you to them.”

31

“Are you guys okay inside there?”

Ceedee’s voice echoed through the intercom. I wanted to drop out of the current mission and listen to her on endless loop. Hecto replied first.

“Everything’s in the green. We had a bit of a misunderstanding with a local.”

“Do all your misunderstandings end in gunfire?”

“You know me.”

The usual banter between the two.

The boy ushered us into the back of the former sportswear store. 

“We’re hiding in the storage hall. The walls swallow our sounds in case enemies walk through the mall’s corridors.”

“Good hiding spot,” Hecto said. 

He winked at Glitch and Darwin, who hovered their fingers around the trigger of their UMP and scattergun.

“Don’t worry about them. They’re comrades...friends.”

The boy knocked on the door in a specific pattern. Three short knocks, two long, and another four in rapid succession. We heard the opening on the other side.

“I’ve brought help,” the boy said to the disgruntled old man. 

Our team stepped inside and scanned the perimeter. The storage hall looked like a refugee camp. Beds made out of ripped clothes and boxes littered the ground, as well as shelves full of custom tools and cans. Hecto told us to lower our guns.

We abided. 

The boy introduced us to a group of middle-aged men who regarded us with dismissive glances.

I listened to Hecto and planned to intervene in case his appeasement failed. My eyes analyzed the people of the makeshift shelter. No one looked or acted like a soldier. Everyone was scared, hunkered down and hid behind their DIY beds.

Threat assessment: low.

It increased our chances of leaving this place unscarred. 

Good.

“We’re really here to help you,” Hecto said.

The middle-aged man with the shotgun grimaced.

“That’s what they said, before they slaughtered half of our people.”

“Who’s they?”

“The other armored soldiers with their strange guns. They found our main hiding spot on the west wing of the mall and paid us a visit. We paid the price."

He swallowed his spit to make room for the next words.

“And then they took some of our people and killed the rest. We were the only ones that survived and relocated here.”

“Whoever they were, they didn’t come from our cluster. Our kind doesn’t kill the innocent.”

Unless they rebelled against the rules, I added in my mind. 

Hecto possessed the uncanny ability of making the Bulwark sound like the promised land. If I hadn’t known better, I would have fallen for his words.

Maybe.

A little girl walked me up. She wore a mix of dirty clothes, hastily sewn together.

“Are you gonna help us free our friends?”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I offered her a neutral ‘we’ll see’. She looked as if she had survived two wars in a row.