Raiders (16 page)

Which he did. They could see through their scopes that the Raider horde threw themselves into a frenzied chaos. They Raiders fanned out and scrambled into the blindscrubs on either side to gain cover. They were easy to spot behind the leafbare foliage.

Kama shot off two more rounds,
ka-thwaaaa ka-thwaaaa..
A Raider was thrown back, his shrilled scream resonated back to Kama and Ryan. . Ryan targeted another Raider who crouched off the darkened road's left shoulder.. He could see the Raider’s green outline behind the blindscrub's stumpy growth.
Kow-blam. H
e dispatched another round down the road. He saw the Raider flinch in response but remained crouched as a faint tuft of dirt poofed up. Ryan raised his reticle so the crosshairs were over the Raider’s shadow altogether.
Kow-blam-kow-blam, Ryan shot
twice more, this time his twitched his sights offset to the left and right of the hidden Raider. He guessed that he must have shot too low before.

Ryan's quick decision worked for his shots bracketed the Raider.. He could see the Raider fall backward in dusk-fallen mirk.. The injured Raider tried to wrangle himself into a stand but faltered back and did not move a muscle after that.

Kama scanned across the road with her Coilgun. She could see no movement or sign of any living thing. Ryan could see nothing as well. Together they swept their scopes left to right in an attempt to capture a glimpse or motion or even a diminished outline, anything.
They’ll never get up the road at this rate, Ryan confidently thought..
“Think they’ll give up and turn back?” He asked in a whisper.

“No,” Kama responded.

Ryan looked over to Kama. “They got night vision?”

Kama wiggled her Coilgun and then looked at Ryan eyes half rolled. “Um, hello! What do you think?”

“Oh yeah, right.” Ryan resumed his watch as he peered down his scope’s glass. “Nothin. They haven’t even shot at us.”

“I don't know.. They won’t shoot unless they are sure.” Kama looked into her Coilgun. “Just wait.”

The Raiders presently were only a few hundred meters from the armorcar. Ryan rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Kama repeated, “Wait.” She looked down the road. “Don’t shoot.”

What Ryan saw next sent him into a silent panic. He saw three Raiders outlined against the shadow night. Then six. Ten? More? His mind could not process the impossible spectre.
There must be twenty, maybe more of them
, he thought. “Kama you seein’ this?”

Kama did not respond but instead vaulted into a crouch and then said, “Come on.”

“What? Why?” Ryan asked.

“Just come on.
Now!
” Kama slithered through clenched teeth. She tugged on his arm. Ryan sprang up and then followed her deeper into the forest wild. They scurried into the scrubs and quickly bellied down to prone about a hundred meters from where they were before. Kama pushed him further down, as a veteran survivalist would perhaps do to an uninitiated apprentice.

Ryan looked toward their previous position's direction which was close to the roadside. Through his scope he could see two Raiders as they shuffled and kicked their makeshift camouflage made only minutes before. The Raiders talked in Mandarin. Kama said with a whisp, “They don’t know where we are.”

Ryan started to stand up but Kama pushed him back down. “If we fight them now and we die.” Ryan ducked low as a Raider quickly spun around to look. “Too many,” Kama said. a She let her Coilgun go with a resigned relaxation. A Raider blindly shot a single round into the darkened forest beyond out of sheer frustration.
Ka-bloooth.
The bullet sheened over their tiny nest. The Raiders’ passive night vision equipment was as worthless as a blindfold this far in. 

Kama and Ryan could see the armorcar’s front and left side while the lay on the forest floor. The Raiders lit up four solar torches. They were large grey sticks covered in cells of black with an illuminated orange-blue top. The torches appeared overtly bright since their eyes had grown accustomed to the ever-present darkness. The Raiders emerged from shadow and slowly gathered around the powerless armorcar until it disappeared from Kama and Ryan's view altogether. They heard diffused and muddied conversations while one Raider patted a small clay block onto the armorcar’s driver side door handle. The Raider pushed something into the clay but it was impossible to make out from the distance.

Someone shouted and then the Raiders backstepped away from the car. A loud
BLA-FOOOM!
blasted across the night and the car was soon enveloped in smoke. When the newly borne cloud casually rolled itself away another Raider smacked at the armorcar door with his rifle stock. The door creaked open and the Raider poured inside.

“Jesus,” Ryan muttered as he looked at the breached car. The side door slid open. Calliope and Dusty jumped out, their hands nervously raised. Calliope bawled and shook as she exited while Dusty quietly stepped away with his hands held half-way. They hauled Mirabella from the armorcar.She remained unconscious. They tossed her up and then slumped her enervated body over a larger Raider's battlesuit’s shoulder pad with a dull
smack
.

They talked in Mandarin while they bound Calliope’s and Dusty’s hands with small ropes. Several Raiders entered the derelict car and removed anything valuable. They extracted the guns in storage, all the ammunition, three containers of iodized water, two food storage bins, a flashlight, the armorcar’s only portable field trauma medkit, a box of thirty-six ponchos, a collapsible spade and three pairs of leather utility gloves.

Kama whispered, “Thirty-five. It's hopeless, I'm sorry,” and then sighed. Ryan continued to assess the Raiders. He observed Mirabella draped over the Raider as their forms flickered against the solar torches’ bluish-orange luminance. He wanted to charge at them and pull Mirabella somewhere far away from this mob of leatherbound travelers from some barbaric and unknowable world. But there was nothing that he could do, nothing at all but watch them from the safety that the darkness and the distance and the wildgrown thickets provided. If it were three hours later then they would have been spotted and killed in the early morning light. For now however the moon tucked herself quietly away as if to somehow help them hold onto their obscure and unseen place.

The Raider leaderman spoke to the group and then pointed to the soldiers who held the solar torches. Three Raiders, two men and a woman extinguished them in response. And with a final command from the leader the Raiders marched down the road. Kama and Ryan heard Calliope as she helplessly cried and shuffled herself in tears while a Raider coaxed her with his rifle stock. And the last Raider who trailed the scouting group turned round, squinted into the darkness and toward the direction where Kama and Ryan hid out. He pivoted on his left foot, marched forward to catch up with the others, and was gone.

Colonel Eiger sat and darted his eyes between the two, his face pulseborne red and eyebrows knitted down. Kama and Ryan sat silently across him. The Colonel shook his head and then pushed out a breath. He held up his hands and said, “Do you.” He paused and held his gaze right into Kama. “Do you have any idea how stupid that was? Taking them out
there?
” Kama's face expressed uttermost sorrow. She tried to say something but only moved her mouth in abbreviated silence. “You took not one, not two but FOUR civilians out past the Control Zone unescorted in a basic gunless armorcar. Now three of them are captured! By
your people no less
!” The Colonel shook his head. “This is insane!” He stood up and paced around the room as he waved his right hand at Kama. “You know they wanted to leave you in your cell, throw you away and let you live out your days but what did I do? I gave you a second chance, that’s what! And now here we are.”

Kama said, “Colonel, I am so sorry! I never thought there would be so many of them!” She patted her chest and then said, “Remember I used to be one of them. But they are not
my people
anymore. They never sent us out more than ten at a time! Mostly a team of four or five!”

The Colonel waved his hands into the air, “Well we certainly can’t say that anymore now can we?” His voiced crashed over them. “Kama, you are never leaving your cell again! I am done, I’m just done!”

Kama started to cry, “You have to let me go to get them! Let me at least do that!”

Colonel Eiger shot back, “I don’t have to do ANYTHING that you say! Those poor kids out there are probably dead by now thanks to you! Christ, they probably skinned them alive for all we know.”

Kama pleaded, “But I know where they are taking them! I know exactly where they are going. Please Colonel Eiger! Let me fix this!”

The Colonel tapped his forehead and said, “ No, I’m not changing my mind. You’re going back to your cell. You’ve cost the lives of three Polar City citizens you are lucky we don’t put you to death for that.”

Ryan spoke up. “Sir, we talked her into it. It was our fault!”

Colonel Eiger looked at Ryan and said, “You are one lucky kid to be alive right now. Do you realize that? Kama came pretty damn close to getting you killed.” He pointed to Kama.

Ryan did not know what to say.

The Colonel tapped his armband and said, “I need an escort from Meeting Room Five to Cell Holding for Lieutenant Kama. Make it two. No rush.” His armband beeped twice. He turned to Kama and said, “This is the last time that we will ever speak again. Do you have anything more to say to me?”

Kama said nothing whatsoever as her lips slightly fluttered against the moment. The door opened and two Military Centre guards entered the room. Kama stood up and slowly shuffled toward them. She turned back to the Colonel who stood motionless and resolute. “I am the only one who can get them back and you know this is true in your heart.” She turned once more to face the door and then with her back to him said, “At least think about that, Colonel. I’m sorry.”

The door closed. Colonel Eiger turned back to Ryan and said, “Ryan if you need anything at all don’t hesitate to call me. I forwarded my personal contact link to your Assistant if you need me day or night. Got it?”

“Thank you.” Ryan paused for a moment and stared at the door almost as if he expected Kama to come back into the room. He remained fixated on the closed door’s brushed blue texture and asked, “Will you try to get my girlfriend back? Mirabella?”

Colonel Eiger smiled and said, “You better believe it son. Absolutely.”

The Colonel stood up. “Listen I have to get back to the situation room. We’ll talk later. You need anything else?”

Ryan shook his head. “No, I guess not sir.”

Colonel Eiger said as he exited the room. “We’ll talk later. My assistant will show you back out to the main entrance.”

Four days passed. Kama lay on her cell’s couch with a starefaced inertia as she yielded down to the weight of her stolid heart. If anything remained of her spirit or pulse the Military Centre’s guards did not observe it. She did not eat or drink anything. She did not read nor speak aloud much less act out against the terminal nature the situation presented to her. They brought in her food trays and took them away an hour later unstirred, every utensil, dish and cup counted and logged on egress. By the fifth day several guards wondered and discussed the prospect that she may try and hurt herself in some way or maybe even do more than that.

A guard entered the cell as the automatic lights dimmed themselves a little and then subtly changed her cell’s luminance into a warmer variant of buttermilk white with yellowish-red undertones as Dusk fell across the skies outside the City. “You have to eat something,” Corporal Syd said as he nudged the metal lined lunch tray. “There’s no point in starving you know. Eat something, you’ll feel better.” He lifted the bamboo cover and peered into the oval shaped dish which was made from handmade, tightly woven bamboo strips. “Fried rice and sesame shrimp? You got a better lunch here than I do.”

Kama did not move nor attempt to even glance at the Corporal but continued to stare at the far wall as if were as transparent as carbon fiber polarglass. “No point. Just leave me alone.” She considered the metallic ring wrapped along the food tray’s outermost edge. Could she pry it off and use it somehow?
Not as effective as a diamondwire
she thought. But still.

Her observation did not go unnoticed by Syd the guard who swooped her tray away and walked toward the cellroom door. “Clear,” he announced. The door unlocked then quietly pushed itself right hand away with a shush.

“Syd..” Kama sighed and then plopped her head back down on the couch cushion as the door slowly slid back to close. She lay there for forty minutes then finally arose from the couch, She opened the water bottle with a slothen fragility. It was the first time she drank in three days. The water tasted metallic and laced with saline even though it was osmotically pure. She could feel every cell in her body rejoice and resound at the prospect of fresh cool fluid coming in. Microscopic celebrants aside, Kama limply flopped herself back onto the couch with water in hand.

At once a subdued and low pitched
crr-thrrrommmm
coated the cell inside. Kama bounced off her little couch in a rush and reflexively looked to the observation window above. She saw not a soul beyond the glass. Another crackled
crr-thrrrommmmm
resonated within only this time it felt stronger than the first. And then a third. The vibrations were enough to upset the lampshade’s leveled balance to an optically disturbing three degrees off it's horizontal serene. A painting fell from it’s wirehook and onto the floor below with a
buh-boomp
, then the other. Two more low pitched booms reported in, one straight away followed by another.

And as quickly as the loud booms reported in, silence. “Hey!” Kama shouted up to the inanimate glass window. “Hey! What the hell is going on up there!” Not a sound returned. She heard no voices, no footsteps or the din of activity outside her door.

“Stand clear of the door,” a female synthesized voice announced into her cell. A barrier slid across the door, apparently in observance of some kind of shutdown. A ribbed barrier composed of steel and carbon fiber slammed down and obstructed the observation window. The lights ominously flickered twice and failed into nothingness. The Neverfail lights snapped themselves to life from beneath the couch, bed and tabletop. They cast a stark blue-white light as the room diffused into a harsh and dim luminance that poured across the cellroom floor.