Shade's Children (14 page)

“Sleep dust!” shouted Gold-Eye, pointing up at the slowly falling cloud above them. At the same time, his panicked brain reviewed the options and chose the one he was most familiar with—flight. He turned to run, run back toward what he now realized was the air lock.

But he got only twenty feet before he was running through blue-dusted air, and the corridor seemed to narrow and go dark, spiraling up into a small bright circle that suddenly closed, causing total darkness. He fell to the floor, unconscious.

Ninde’s first reaction was to look at Ella for instructions—but Ella had taken one swift look and now her head was bent down, beads of sweat oozing from every pore of her face, coating it with a glistening sheen. She had also deliberately pulled the battery wire out of her Deceptor.

Ninde looked at that, then back up at the slow fall of the dust, and screamed—a scream suddenly cut off as Ella grabbed her chin, thrust it into a gas mask, and tightened the mask onto her head in one swift motion. Ninde panicked at the tight, constricting rubbery thing on her face, thinking she couldn’t breathe, but Ella held her hands and kept her from clawing at the straps.

Ella had already put on her own newly conjured mask. Chin in first, in the approved manner, even though she’d never worn one or even touched one before. Like the grenade, the two masks had been conjured…or created…solely from the photos and instructions in one of the many military manuals she had collected and studied over the years.

“I hope this blue stuff doesn’t work through skin,” said Ella as Ninde quieted. She let the younger girl go and quickly reconnected her Deceptor.

“We’re…we’re still conscious,” said Ninde hopefully, her voice sounding strange in the mask.

“Yeah,” replied Ella, looking at the blue dust that had collected on her shoulders and in the folds of her coveralls. “Must have to breathe it in then.”

She started to brush off the residue from herself and Ninde, noting that the dust that fell on the shelves or the floor was somehow—and not by a vacuum or any force she could feel—sucked into small drain holes. In five minutes no more dust was falling, and there was none on the floor or the shelves.

“Can I take this off now?” asked Ninde, tapping one goggle-eyed lens of the black rubber mask. “It’s hot.”

“Leave it on,” ordered Ella, her sharp tone evident even through the mask. She felt very tired, drained by the effort of bringing the two gas masks into being. With Gold-Eye unconscious as well as Drum, she couldn’t afford to have Ninde drop too. And she couldn’t afford to lie down herself and sleep…even for ten minutes…not even for a moment…and Ninde was saying something….

“What?”

“I said what do we do now?” repeated Ninde.

“Uh…check Gold-Eye’s Deceptor—make sure it’s still okay,” said Ella. “I guess…we’d better put him on the trolley and get out of here. Just in case something picked us up while my Deceptor was off….”

“Shouldn’t you get Gold-Eye a mask too?” asked Ninde, as she checked his battery wire and Deceptor crown.

“Too tired,” muttered Ella, bending down to pick up Gold-Eye’s legs while Ninde lifted him under the armpits. “Don’t want to disconnect again, anyway.”

She slumped against the trolley as they lowered Gold-Eye onto it, then levered herself up again and started pushing—but her arms and legs seemed to have no strength at all. She could barely move the trolley.

“Are you all right?” asked Ninde, with more curiosity than concern. She’d never seen Ella so obviously worn out, even when the older girl had used her Change Talent before.

“Help me push,” gasped Ella, leaning over the trolley. “We have to get away from here….”

Ninde moved quickly, taking over to hurry the trolley down the aisle of sleeping bodies. Ella just managed to keep up, hanging on to both Ninde and the trolley.

Around the next corner and down a few aisles, Ninde steered the trolley to a stop against an empty shelf. Ella, exhausted, slid down next to it, her hands clutching at it in a vain effort to stay upright.

“Have to rest,” she said almost inaudibly, through the mask. “I’ll be okay in ten minutes. Keep guard.”

“Sure,” said Ninde, looking up and down the corridor. Her vision, severely restricted by the mask, was made even worse by the fogging her exertion caused.

She looked again a second later, sure something was creeping up on her from a blind spot—but there was nothing there. Just the empty corridor, the rows of shelves, the unconscious bodies…

If only she could use her Change Talent, then she would know if they were safe here for ten minutes—or ten hours. If she turned the Deceptor off for just ten seconds, that would be enough…

“No!” said Ella, seeing Ninde’s hand stray to the battery on her belt. “I’m resting—not asleep—and I’m watching you, Ninde.”

“So what?” replied Ninde, a little belligerently. “You can’t stop me now.”

Ella paused, her black-snouted head bobbing forward as if in momentary despair. Then she looked up, and Ninde saw her eyes were half closed, staring up at her, outlined by the plastic eyepieces.

“Please, Ninde. Don’t. It’s too risky when we can’t run. Think of what happened outside, at the parking lot.”

Ninde looked down on her, fingers closed around the battery wire. One quick tug and she could hear everything in the creatures’ minds…

“Besides,” Ella continued weakly, “you can’t chew your knuckle with a mask on.”

“I could take it off,” replied Ninde, but the belligerence was gone—and she took her hand off the wire. But before she looked away, a little red light started to flash on the battery, almost as if it had been waiting for her to look.

“Half charge,” said Ella, looking feebly at her watch. “Mine went five minutes ago. Two hours and twelve minutes in.”

“We’d better hurry up and find Drum then,” said Ninde, looking down at the hypnotic blinking light. “Shall I go and look while you rest?”

“No, Ninde,” replied Ella, holding up one hand and taking Ninde’s. “Just stay here for a little while. Then we’ll look together.”

It was more than a little while. It took a good half hour before Ella felt strong enough to walk and they could start wheeling Gold-Eye around and search for Drum. What would have happened, Ella wondered, if she’d tried to get three gas masks at the same time? Would her heart have just stopped from overexertion?

They kept the masks on as they searched, at Ella’s insistence. She had no idea how often the blue dust fell. Maybe it was once a day, or once a week—or maybe it came every two hours. Better to be safe, she thought.

Taking the time to rest also meant that there were more Drones about, bringing in fresh bodies from the Dorms. Twice Ella and Ninde were forced to retreat down an aisle, not wanting to try and pass a Drone in case the trolleys crashed together or a Deceptor failed.

Ella checked Gold-Eye every now and then; like the stored children, he seemed hardly alive. He did have a pulse, but it showed that his heart was beating only four times a minute—which as far as Ella knew was about one tenth of the minimum necessary to sustain life.

“Will he be okay?” asked Ninde, after double-checking Ella’s count of Gold-Eye’s pulse. “That’s awfully…I mean…it’s too slow….”

“He’ll be fine,” replied Ella, but her voice lacked certainty. After all, no one had ever come out of the Meat Factory alive…at least not alive and still human. Gold-Eye’s and Drum’s brains might already be partially destroyed by the blue dust. But then Brat seemed to know who he was once Shade took that metal ball out of his skull….

Ella was thinking about that when the trolley suddenly stopped. Ninde had jerked it to a halt. Now she was pointing up to a shelf.

“Drum!”

Ella looked up and saw the familiar bulky shape, still clad in the black wet suit. His equipment, weapons, and Deceptor were gone, but she banished all thought that the blue dust might have killed the Drum she knew.

“Thanks, Ninde,” she said. “Now—how do we get him down? And what do we do with Gold-Eye?”

Ella had just touched the switch to bring Drum’s shelf down when she felt the floor shiver with some not-too-distant explosion and heard its dull thump. For a brief second she thought it was related to the switch, but that just moved the shelves up, down, and sideways, like a puzzle in which you moved different squares, trying to get them all in the right place.

“What was that?” asked Ninde.

“Sounded like a grenade,” replied Ella, checking her pouch to make sure she still had the one conjured at Gold-Eye’s request. “I suppose they could have brought in someone who had one, and accidentally set it off…. I hope it doesn’t attract too much…”

She stopped speaking as an inhuman screech cut through her voice, buzzing inside her head. A Screamer—also not very far away—alerting all creatures that something was wrong. An Overlord would probably come to investigate too, Ella thought—and there was no way of knowing if the Deceptors would work on one of them.

The scream continued, rising to a wail that would strip the skin from the inside of human ears if it was close enough—then dwindled away to nothing.

Ella shook her head, the slight ringing in her ears adding to the discomfort of the sweaty, enclosing mask and the Deceptor crown, now held too tightly on her head by the gas-mask straps.

“Help me put Gold-Eye on the ground,” she said hurriedly, not even looking at Ninde.

“We’re not leaving him!” exclaimed Ninde, suddenly struck with the notion that Ella intended to abandon Gold-Eye in favor of Drum. The screaming made her feel angry again too, and ready to argue.

“What?” replied Ella, stopping to look at the younger girl. “Don’t be silly. Look—we put Gold-Eye on the ground, drag Drum off the shelf onto the trolley, then put Gold-Eye on top of Drum. We could do it the other way round, but I don’t think Gold-Eye would appreciate it. Okay?”

Ninde answered by heaving Gold-Eye up vigorously and then lowering him gently to the floor before Ella could help. Then she turned to Drum and started to drag him from the waist-high shelf onto the trolley.

Belatedly, Ella started to help, conscious that her reactions were still too slow and her body weak. She looked at Ninde struggling with one of Drum’s huge arms, and realized that Ninde was stronger than she’d thought—and perhaps smarter, too, ready to drop her strange notions and foolhardiness when things really got tough.

Once Drum was laid out on the trolley, it was relatively easy to drape Gold-Eye across his middle. Like a body draped over a horse in a Western, Ninde thought. But Drum didn’t make a very good saddle and they couldn’t tie Gold-Eye on, so Ella had to walk at the side, and push or pull him as he started to slide.

This time, in their hurry to get away from the Meat Factory before an Overlord came to investigate the explosion, they didn’t try to avoid the Drones.

It wasn’t until two were approaching that Ella suddenly remembered that she hadn’t put the spare Deceptor on Drum. It was still in her belt pouch, folded up with the extra batteries. Drum might be unconscious, but the Drones would be able to see him.

Clearly they could, but couldn’t comprehend what one of the bodies was doing on a trolley all by itself in the corridor—or else the three Deceptors that were working made even the trolley’s existence doubtful for them.

One Drone started toward them, then stopped and looked to each side as if it had forgotten what it was doing. As its noseless, flat face turned toward Drum again, it started forward—and stopped again, letting out a wheezing, frustrated-sounding gasp. Then it began to shudder, arms and legs shivering, eyes rolling back—and it turned to the nearest shelf and smacked its head into it with a sickening crash, crumpling to the floor an instant later with blue ichor running from eyes, nose hole, and ears.

The other Drone seemed less affected by the sensory confusion. It backed away and began to raise a mind-call medallion to its forehead. Ella started forward, drawing her sword…but Ninde was already there, sword prepared to thrust. She hesitated for a split second, but as the medallion touched skin, she pushed the blade home through the Drone’s neck.

The Drone stayed upright for a second, even bringing up its other hand to try and hold the medallion in place—but its strength failed, and it fell writhing to the floor.

Ninde pushed it aside with her foot to clear the aisle and raced back to the trolley. Ella had sheathed her sword and was getting out the spare Deceptor crown and battery, ready to fit them to Drum.

She barely had the crown on Drum’s head when Ninde started pushing the trolley, grunting with the effort as she steered it between the Drone carcasses on the floor.

“Slow down!” said Ella as she fumbled the battery connection for the second time, because she was also trying to keep Gold-Eye steady.

Ninde slowed down enough to allow Ella to get the battery turned on. Only then did Ella realize how upset Ninde was: The lenses of her mask were fogged with tears.

“I didn’t mean to kill it,” she sobbed. “It was only a Drone. It looked at me, Ella, just before I…just when I…and I think…I think it was a girl once….”

“It had a mind-call—” Ella started to say, but she stopped; Ninde wasn’t really listening. Ella realized that this was probably the first time Ninde had actually killed a creature—the first time that Drum or Ella hadn’t been there to take care of it, or Ninde hadn’t been able to use her Change Talent to avoid the problem.

Ella had killed her first creature—a Tracker—so long ago, she couldn’t even remember how she had felt about it afterward. She had killed far too many since then. Thinking that they had been children once, or looking in their eyes, only made it harder to do what was necessary.

They were almost at the air lock before Ninde recovered. Ella let her take off her mask for the thirty seconds needed to wipe the lenses clear from the inside, and for Ninde to wipe her eyes on a fairly grubby sleeve. Her face was blotchy red in parts, and stark white where the mask gripped chin and cheekbones, but she seemed to have control again. Ella felt better too. The adrenaline from the encounter with the Drones had burned away some of her exhaustion.

“What do we do now?” asked Ninde quietly.

“Just wheel the trolley out in the parking lot and hide till dusk,” replied Ella. She laughed—a laugh that seemed to mock herself—and added, “Then we leave through the gate with the Ferrets at dusk.”

“With this?” asked Ninde, rattling the trolley. “Across those fields?”

“If we have to,” said Ella. “We certainly can’t carry Drum. But they might come to before then.”

“What if…what if they don’t?” asked Ninde, looking down at them. Drum so big and strong, yet so helpless. And Gold-Eye, perpetually nervous and moving, now so still. “What if they never…”

“Ninde! Just concentrate on what we have to do…. You’ve done really well so far. Don’t start thinking about what could happen…please.”

“Okay,” said Ninde obediently. “Do we go now?”

“Yes,” replied Ella. She surreptitiously checked the grenade in her belt pouch, careful to make sure Ninde couldn’t see, then moved to the front of the trolley as they started toward the door. “Let’s hope we have some good luck.”

As before, the door slid open in front of the trolley, revealing the small chamber. They moved in and it slid shut behind them. Ninde pushed the trolley a little forward and Ella drew her sword, the grip feeling oily under her hand, the blade heavy….

Then the outer door slid up, sunlight from the open hangar doors beyond streaming in, lighting up a strange scene only ten yards away from Ella and Ninde.

Three Myrmidon Masters, all wearing different blazons and armor, were clustered around a blackened patch of the concrete floor, using their spears or swords to separate some tangled pieces of wreckage. Their three maniples of Myrmidons were in a multi-colored line, sweeping their way from one end of the landing area to the other. Each Myrmidon was separated only by an arm’s length from its neighbor. They were picking up pieces of debris too, and putting them in small, shiny, metallic-looking bags.

They’d obviously started at the far end of the area, and had worked their way along till they were about forty yards from the entrance—which put them between Ella and Ninde and escape.

Ella looked at the line, gauging whether they could steer the trolley between two Myrmidons. Then she looked at her watch, to try to estimate the life left in her Deceptor battery. It should have at least an hour….

Finally she looked carefully at the Myrmidon Masters and the burned bits and pieces they were handing around. Bits of metal and something that looked all too similar to melted pieces of the artificial fiber Shade used for his rat robot’s fur.

As she watched, all three Myrmidon Masters raised their mind-call medallions to their foreheads. There was no doubt as to whom they were calling, and Ella knew that in a very short time there would be at least three Overlords looking into strange occurrences at the Meat Factory.

Overlords who might be able to see them even with the Deceptors.

She looked at the line of slowly moving Myrmidons again. The gaps were largest where Myrmidons from different Overlords’ retinues met—and the one between the Emerald Crown maniple and Silver Sun’s looked just wide enough for a well-steered trolley.

She pointed at the gap and began to push toward it.