The Caverns of Mare Cetus (17 page)

   Richelle was standing a short distance away, seemingly frozen with fear, her hands at her sides, the Machine Cutter setting on the ground beside her. Devon had crouched beside Edison and was trying to help him get up as her eyes continually darted toward the robotic, keeping track of its movements. Arielle had pulled Ramon close to a passage wall. Between anxious glances at the robotic, she was shouting at Ramon and splashing water on his face from a canteen, trying to revive him.

   At once Hunter got the solid hit with the hammer he had wanted. His arm coming down with tremendous force, he drove the pick through the seam with a cracking sound, opening it enough to see some of the glowing circuitry inside of it. Inspired by his success, he pulled his arm back for the final blow.

   At once the robotic started rocking and spinning in short, hard bursts, first in one direction, then immediately in the opposite. Caught off guard, Hunter dropped the hammer and threw himself on top of the guidance module, wrapping his arms around it to counter the robotic's movements. His knees pressed against the robotic's frame, his torso plastered against the guidance module, Hunter would have thought he was riding a bronco, but despite the Kalo's gyrations, his hold remained firm.

   Suddenly the robotic stopped rocking, and as its frame began to shrink toward its original size, the robotic spun to the right with an enormous burst of speed. As Hunter began clawing at the frame to keep from flying off, the machine stopped spinning and punched forward, accelerating rapidly. Then just as quickly it stopped with a hard jerk, throwing him forward. Then it kicked into an accelerating reverse. Its movements too much for Hunter, he flew off the robotic like he had been shot from a cannon. He sailed past Renata's outstretched body and landed on the ground on his right shoulder, an intense pain slicing through him.

   The Kalo slowly backed away from Hunter, putting tremendous pressure on Renata's limbs, causing her to groan appallingly. As Hunter heard Richelle shouting above Renata's cries, he raised his head to see her standing in front of him, pointing the Machine Cutter at the Kalo.

   "Let's see how tough you are!" she cried. "Come on, you mutant bug! Come and get me."

   As Renata turned her head toward Richelle, two antennae-like sensors extended out from the front of the unit, one of them sliding over Renata's neck, the other between her legs. "No," she sobbed. "You can't use that now. You'll fry my brains."

   Devon abruptly stepped in front of Richelle.

   "Get out of the way!" shouted Richelle.

   Devon glanced back at Richelle, then held her right hand out toward the Kalo like she was an officer stopping traffic. She took a step forward, then another.

   Richelle held her aim on the robotic as Devon continued to take a step forward, stop, then take another step. Richelle motioned with her hand and watched as Arielle moved behind the Kalo with an electra.

   More sensors emerged from the Kalo as Devon slowly closed in on it. After a moment, she had reached Renata. She placed a hand on Renata's face, then Devon lowered her head and began speaking to her.

   Hunter watched in amazement as the robotic continued to send out sensors and pull others back, seeming completely unable to react to Devon's approach.

   Then at once Devon stood up straight, her hands falling to her sides. "Bitch!" she cried. She stepped back from the Kalo. "You goddamn female!"

   A mobility appendage snapped up toward Devon, catching her in the jaw with an explosion of blood; she flew to the ground, landing face down.

   At that second, Edison and Ramon began running full-stride toward the Kalo, an unwieldy limestone block held between them. They slammed it into the robotic like a battering ram, driving the block's jagged tip into the Kalo's forward starboard panel, which the machine had never closed. The robotic was jarred violently, a torrent of hot white sparks shooting out of its panel like a transformer hit by lightning.

   "Push!" bellowed Edison as sparks continued to douse them. As they yelled and cursed, they heaved the block and used their weight to lift the Kalo's starboard tread off the ground. "Again!" cried Edison.

   They pushed.

   The Kalo reacted.

   A mobility appendage shot toward Ramon's right leg with a loud
pop
, tearing through his pants and embedding in his calf. As he let out with a blood-curdling howl, two appendages caught Edison squarely in the chest with a resounding blow. Ramon and Edison lost their hold on the block, Edison staggering back as if he had been shot in the chest. The Kalo dropped to the ground as the block crashed to the floor and landed on the appendage that was stuck in Ramon's leg, causing him to cry out again. He jerked his leg back, freeing himself from the appendage just as the Kalo snapped off the appendage, freeing itself from the block. The robotic swung to the right, colliding with the block, then backed up, its clawed arms extending. As it began swinging Renata back and forth, trying to hit Ramon with her body, he limped away, blood spreading through his pant leg.

   As the Kalo pulled Renata close to its frame, she began twisting and turning, trying to relieve her agony. From where the claws were gouging her wrists, blood now fell to the ground like rain. As Hunter watched the essence of Renata splattering into the lifeless rock beneath her, a rush of adrenaline flooded his senses, taking away his pain. The Kalo was ruthlessly trying to kill her—he wasn't going to let that happen!

   He pulled his electra out of his pocket, lumbered to his feet, and charged the Kalo. His gait unsteady because of his dizziness, he ran into Richelle's back with his shoulder and sent her tumbling headfirst toward the wall, the Machine Cutter flying out of her hands. The Kalo dropped Renata to the ground and punched into reverse, dragging her along the hard limestone floor. Hunter started forward again, his steps turning into a bolt. It was running! At once he felt like he had been slammed in the head with a brick. His eyes rolled, his knees buckled. As cries from the others echoed around him, he collapsed to the ground, his body tormented with radiating pain.

   Despite the pain coursing through his body, Hunter struggled to his feet and clambered forward, the mechanical monster continuing to back away from him, bouncing Renata along the ground like a piece of baggage.

   Then Hunter saw Arielle. She was kneeling on the ground behind the machine, her head lowered, her arms holding her stomach as if she was in pain. But as the robotic maneuvered to go around her, she sprang to life. She crammed her electra into the damaged open panel on its starboard side—a brilliant blue flash enveloping her, the Kalo, and Renata.

   The flash caught Hunter in the eyes, forcing him to the ground. He landed on his shoulder and rolled to a stop on his back with a heavy groan, a flood of static electricity covering him like a swarm of mosquitoes.

   Though nearly blinded by white blotches that danced across his vision, he struggled to his knees and crawled steadily forward, following the crackling of flames that rippled through the dense, cool air. Unexpectedly he latched onto a leg, his other hand touching cold metal.

   His vision beginning to clear, he looked at Renata's face, a terrible anguish showing through the grungy gray dirt that coated it. She opened her eyes briefly, then closed them. He set down his electra and put his hands on the claw that held her left arm, feeling the blood streaming out of her wrist. He pulled on the claw and yanked it apart with a
clack
. Much to his relief, within a moment he had released her from the Kalo's hold. As he hurriedly pulled her away from the robotic, he heard Edison behind him, cursing like a madman.

   When he got her a short distance away from the robotic, he laid her on the ground and pulled out a cloth from his pocket. He hastily tore it in two and wrapped it tightly around her bleeding wrists. "Someone help us!" he shouted. "Over here!"

   "I'm trying!" answered Edison. "I'll be there just as soon as I can see again!"

   "I have to get to Arielle," said Hunter softly. He kissed Renata on the forehead, then scurried toward the Kalo, thick black smoke now spewing out of the panel where Arielle had shot into it.

   When he reached Arielle, he found her lying on her stomach. He rolled her on her back and quickly examined her, noting a round black burn on her right forearm where the discharge from the electra had entered her body and another larger mark on the knee of her right pant leg where it had exited. Then he realized—her face was blue. He checked her pulse; it seemed erratic. He checked her breath.
Nothing!
He pulled open her jacket and listened for a heartbeat.
It was
fluttering!

   "Shit!" he exclaimed. "V-Fib."

   "Arielle! Hunter!" echoed Ramon's voice from off in the distance. "I can't see anything! What happened?"

   Arielle's electra was laying beside her. Hunter picked it up and opened the operation's panel on its stock. He briefly studied the three oval chips inside the stock, knowing their positions meant the difference between life and death for Arielle. Arrange them correctly—he would drop the voltage to the precise level necessary to get her heart going again. ELDeFIB—it was one of the emergency medical functions of the electra for battlefield situations.

   Hunter moved the yellow chip to the white chip's spot. Then the red to the yellow's. He began silently praying as he stuck the white chip in the remaining slot. He looked at the configuration for a second, then switched the white chip with the red.

   "Witchy," he mumbled as he closed the panel. "White and Yellow Switch. Red holds." He could only hope now. He had only seen ELDeFIB demonstrated once before. If he had it wrong, he'd kill Arielle—turn her into a pile of ashes, maybe himself too. But she was dead anyway.

   He pulled open her white blouse and placed the tip of the gun against her skin, close to her breastbone. "God help me now," he muttered as he closed his eyes. Then he pulled the trigger.
Thud!
rattled the gun as her torso responded from the shock. He put his ear to her chest.

   
Thump! Thump! Thump!
it rang, loud and strong. He started giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and after several breaths, she gasped, then began breathing on her own.

   Hunter laid her head on the ground. He placed a hand beneath her nose and felt her breath again. He pulled her away from the Kalo, then collapsed to the ground, every remaining ounce of strength leaving him. After a few minutes, he heard the footsteps of someone staggering toward him.

   "Renata!" exclaimed Edison. "Goddamn Kalo! When I'm through you're gonna' pay." He walked up to Hunter, Renata in his arms. He set her down beside him, laying her head on Hunter's shoulder. "How's Arielle?"

"Alive," said Hunter. He briefly explained what he had done.

   "That's why you're the commander." Edison removed the bloody cloths from Renata's wrists and replaced them with pressure bandages from his pack.

   Hunter ran his fingers along strands of Renata's muddied hair. "The others?"

   "So, so," said Edison, shaking his head. "Ramon's vision is still crapped up, and his leg's been gouged pretty bad. He must have been looking directly at Arielle when she shot it. Richelle and Devon— they're both out cold. I think Richelle was just hit with the shock, but Devon's another story. Here, hold these."

   Hunter opened his hand and Edison dropped two bloodied teeth into it, roots and all. Hunter cringed. They looked like a canine and bicuspid.

   "I think she's gonna' want these back. Found them both right next to her hand, which is amazing in itself. I just hope her jaw's not broken." Edison closed Arielle's blouse and jacket. He checked her pulse and the burn marks on her arm and leg. Then he pulled a blanket out of his pack and placed it over her.

   Renata let out with a groan, causing Hunter to take notice. He searched her face. She was bloody, scratched, bruised. Dark, ugly circles encased her eyes, wrinkles had appeared in places he had never before noticed; she seemed to have aged years, many years.

   She opened her eyes.

   "We did it," he whispered as he gazed into her eyes. "Took the damn thing out."

   She took his hand and squeezed, weakly.

   "If you've got everything under control, Commander," said Edison, "I'll have to ask you to excuse me for a minute. I need to put that poor girl's teeth back in. Then I have a promise to keep, and I never break a promise."

   Renata closed her eyes, and Hunter began caressing her face.

   Within a moment, Edison brought Devon's limp body back and set her on the ground, putting his jacket behind her head. The left side of her face was splattered with blood. Edison pulled out a small kit from his backpack that contained an assortment of dental tools and tubes of materials.

   "A dental kit?" asked Hunter, not really believing it could be true.

   "I never miss a thing," replied Edison. He clamped Devon's mouth open and cleaned out the blood. Then he took the teeth from Hunter and began to work like a master dentist, despite his huge hands, as Hunter watched in awe. When he had her teeth in place, Edison sat back and wiped his brow. "Boy, her teeth are beautiful. Not a single ding or spot. No one's teeth are this good. I'm not kidding."

   "Maybe they're not real," said Hunter.

   "Oh, they're real all right. I know. Before the exploration bug caught me, I spent a couple years in dentistry school. I've never seen teeth like hers, though."

   "That makes sense," said Hunter, sighing. "Dentistry school."

   "And now I'm glad I did it. Finally put it to use." Edison put a hand on Devon's cheek. "Rest now, honey. And by the way, it appears your jaw is fine." He stood up and rubbed his palms together. "I've done my good deed, now I'm gonna' do my bad."

   He walked away and after a moment came back, lugging an enormous gray limestone block in his arms. His muscles flexed, he grunted as he raised the block over his head. He slammed it down on the Kalo's frame. He picked up the block and continued to beat the lifeless robotic, sending pounding echoes throughout the passage. With each blow, a deluge of sparks would spit out of the machine, lighting up the cavern for a few brief seconds. When he had completed his carnage, mainly breaking off or mangling its appendages and crushing its guidance module, he dropped the block on top of the Kalo, the boulder cracking into three pieces and tumbling to the ground.