The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone (6 page)

Tassin
stumbled over the baking sand to the shimmering boulder and
collapsed beside it. Sabre stood over her to shade her, which
helped a little. She was relieved when the green and brown flashes
came, and clambered onto the rock beside Sabre and Purr as
Flux-reality Changed. To her delight, another pleasant woodland
appeared, with tall, silver-barked trees bearing yellow and orange
leaves. Humus, verdant moss and orchid-like flowers carpeted the
ground. A cool breeze drained the heat from her wet skin in a
blissful tide.

Tassin jumped
off the boulder and smiled up at Sabre, who studied the terrain.
Purr reverted to his fluffy form with a gentle sneeze, wiping his
whiskers. Sabre stepped down, apparently satisfied, and they set
off again. Soon they came across a path and followed it, since it
was going in the right direction. When the path joined a well-used
wagon track, Sabre stopped.

"This world is
inhabited by people."

"Some of them
are," Purr agreed.

Sabre walked
on. "I hope they're friendly."

The wagon
track made the going easy, and they traversed it at a brisk pace,
Purr lengthening his legs to keep up.

After two
hours, Sabre spotted smoke rising above the trees ahead.

"Looks like
there's a village ahead. I guess it would be better to skirt
it?"

Purr nodded.
"Their food would do you no good."

"But we could
rest, sleep in a soft bed!" Tassin protested.

"It's not
worth the risk. Anyway, they probably wouldn't understand a word
you said, and misunderstandings can be fatal. Death in Flux-reality
is just as real as it is in Real-reality."

Tassin glared
at the mosscat, and Sabre cocked his head, listening. Faint screams
came from the direction of the smoke, carried on the breeze. Purr's
ears expanded as he too picked up the distant sounds. Sabre
quickened his pace, and Tassin had to trot to keep up. Several
hundred metres further on, the forest ended, and the wagon track
continued into a grassy vale where a village nestled.

A monster
ravaged one of the thatched stone houses, ripping away its roof to
attack the people who fled from it. Dull brown scales partially
armoured the creature, and curved yellow claws tipped its toes. A
forked tongue flickered from its snake-like head, which topped a
long spiked neck. A ridge of spines protruded from its back, and it
dragged a club-like spiked tail. A swathe of flattened buildings
and wrecked barns marked its progress through the collection of
humble dwellings that surrounded a well-worn dirt square.

Sabre stopped
and frowned at the scene. Tassin halted beside him with a gasp of
horror. Great gouges were torn in the cultivated land around the
village, and women and children fled the carnage along paths that
radiated from it into the woods and to a river that ran beside it.
Farmers harassed the monster with hoes and hay forks, beating it
ineffectually with clubs and staves. It ignored their futile
efforts and attacked the houses, slaughtering their fleeing
occupants. Sabre cursed.

"A
Real-reality monster?"

Purr nodded.
"It will go down in their legends as a great dragon."

"If any live
to tell the tale." Sabre shucked the pack and pulled out the sword.
"I'm going to help." He strode away.

Tassin ran
after him. "I'm coming with you!"

He stopped and
swung around, frowning. "No you're not. You wait here with
Purr."

"I can help! I
have a dagger and I can fight!"

"Don't be
bloody ridiculous! You'll just get in the way. Stay here with
Purr."

She drew
herself up. "You cannot order me around! I shall do as I please. I
am a queen."

"So help me,
Tassin, I'll tie you to a tree if I must. You're not coming with
me, and that's final!" He loomed over her, his eyes glinting.
"You're a damned annoying little girl, now do as you're told."

"Fine! Go and
get killed! I hope you do!" She turned and flounced back to the
trees. He shot her an exasperated look, then headed for the
village.

Tassin leant
against a tree and scowled at his retreating back, folding her
arms. Purr became engrossed in grooming his fat belly. When she
could keep silent no longer, she burst out, "He is an insufferable,
arrogant, overbearing pig!"

The mosscat
looked up. "Actually, he's a considerate, gentle, courageous man.
You're lucky to have him, and even luckier that he feels so
protective about you. He's a great warrior, and I think he'd lay
down his life for you. But in this instance he's right, and he's
only trying to keep you out of danger."

The rage
drained out of her. "He hardly knows I am alive. He only pays
attention to me when I'm being a nuisance or causing a
problem."

"He cares
about you a great deal; he just tries not to show it."

"Why?"

Purr shrugged.
"I don't know; I'm not a human. But I can see the look in his
eyes."

"Then why
can't I?"

The mosscat
chuckled. "Because it's never there when you look at him."

"So he does
not want me to know? But why?"

"Perhaps he
considers you to be too young."

"He's only ten
years older than me."

Purr shook his
head. "He must have his reasons. But he does care about you."

"Perhaps he's
afraid I will reject him. After all, I am a queen." She gazed at
Sabre's dwindling form, filled with dread that he would not come
back, and regretting her outburst. "I'm going to help him."

"I wouldn't do
that. He'll be angry."

"If he cares
about me as you say, he will not," she called over her shoulder as
she trotted away.

Purr snorted.
"The more he cares, the angrier he'll be."

Sabre glanced
around at the carnage as he neared the village. Dead men, women,
children and farm animals lay in the ploughed fields, many with
their heads crushed, some pounded into the mud or torn apart. A
swathe of trampled crops and corpses led to the village, where the
men had come out to try to chase the beast away. Terrified women
hid amongst the trees at the edge of the forest, some clutching
babies or belongings, soothing wailing toddlers. He broke into a
lope, and the women stared at him as he passed.

Rounding a
house, he entered the main square, where the men fought a losing
battle with the creature. They waved blazing brands and leapt in to
land blows with clubs and pitchforks. A man was caught by a
scything foreleg and swept screaming into a wall with a sickening
crunch. The monster hissed, spraying saliva as it weaved its head
about, its large, metallic-green eyes searching for prey. He raised
the sword and approached the creature's flank, where thick scales
grated against each other as it moved. The beast stood three metres
tall at the shoulder, and its head rose seven metres high when it
lifted it. Some of the men shouted at him, but he could not
understand their language.

Reaching the
creature's side, he thrust the sword in to the hilt between two
scales just behind its foreleg. The monster hissed and whipped
around with remarkable speed, forcing him to dive aside. He rolled
to his feet and slashed at a raking forefoot as he dodged it,
drawing blood again. The beast lunged at him, its black tongue
flicking and jaws agape to reveal rows of shark-like teeth. He
sidestepped and slashed, inflicting another wound on the creature's
head, but his next swing hit armour and bounced off with a clang.
Diving aside to avoid the fast-moving animal again, he rolled and
ran, keeping just out of reach of its claws.

The farmers
redoubled their efforts and attacked it with their puny weapons,
making it turn and hiss. Sabre moved closer with light, dancing
steps and stabbed it in the neck. It whipped back towards him,
spraying saliva in a stinging rain that burnt his skin. He dived
aside and rolled to his feet with the elastic, apparently
effortless grace of an acrobat, years of intense combat training
making his moves instinctive. The beast snapped and lunged at him,
and Sabre inflicted more wounds, which, although not fatal, cost
the monster a lot of blood and caused it a great deal of pain. As
he leapt away after a successful foray, he glimpsed a running
figure in a faded pink dress.

"Tassin!" His
gut froze with horror as the girl ran to the monster's flank, her
dagger raised to strike. "No!"

The beast
turned as her blade sank in, locking the dagger between two scales.
She tried to yank it out, but it was jammed, and the animal's head
swung towards her. As it focussed on its new, and, in Sabre's
opinion, incredibly stupid target, he knew that he had to do that
which his training forbade. To engage such a large and powerful
alien creature in full contact combat was inadvisable at best and
potential damaging at worst, even for a cyber. It took away the
advantage of his speed and agility and pitted his strength, which,
although massive when compared to a normal man's, was puny compared
to this vast animal's, against its many tonnes of brawn.

Sabre ran to
its side, grabbed a spine and pulled himself onto its sinuous neck,
causing it to dip. His action distracted it, and Tassin released
the dagger and ran. The beast, unable to reach him, went after her
with a burst of speed that closed the gap in an alarming rush.
Sabre almost dropped the sword in his haste as he hauled himself up
the four-metre neck in a desperate bid to reach the monster's head
in time. Hampered by the weapon, he paused, hanging on with one
hand, and tucked the sword into his belt to free the other.

The creature
tried to shake him off as Tassin darted behind a house. He clung to
a spine, pain shooting up his arms from his abused joints. The
monster flattened the house with the ease of a bulldozer, and
Tassin reappeared ahead of it, sprinting for the forest. Sabre
shinnied up the last stretch of slippery neck and arrived behind
its head. The creature smashed through two more houses and a shed,
gaining speed as it closed in on its chosen prey. Sabre cursed the
idiotic girl afresh. If she swerved, the animal would be forced to
slow in order to turn its massive bulk, and its momentum would
hamper it, but she kept going straight. The village men chased it,
waving their implements, but it ignored them.

Sabre yanked
the sword from his belt, almost slicing his ribs in his haste.
Raising the weapon, he plunged it into the soft area where the
creature's neck joined its skull, directly into the monster's
brain. It gave a whistling shriek and flung back its head with the
violence of a whiplash. Sabre's hands were ripped from the sword
hilt, and he flew through the air. He tried to get his feet under
him, but there was not enough time, and he forced himself to go
limp as he had been trained to do. The earth rose to strike him a
hammer blow, and everything went black.

The monster's
shriek made Tassin glance back as it tossed its head, sending Sabre
sailing through the air, as limp as a rag doll. He hit the ground
with a sickening thud, raising a small cloud of dust. The beast
staggered forward for a few more strides and collapsed, ploughing
into the ground. It flopped onto its side, its legs flailing.
Filled with dread, she ran to Sabre, who lay on his back, the cyber
band flashing erratically. She fell to her knees beside him and
leant over to grip his shoulders.

"Sabre!" She
shook him, making his head loll. "Sabre, wake up!"

Tears stung
her eyes as she stared down at him, not knowing what to do. Red
welts marred his skin, but he seemed otherwise uninjured. The
surviving villagers gathered around, chattering in a strange
tongue. A man in a blue shirt, who carried a brown bag, pushed
through the crowd and knelt beside the prone warrior. He checked
the pulse in Sabre's neck, exclaiming in apparent surprise when he
found one, and a murmur went through the crowd. The man took a vial
from his bag and waved it under Sabre's nose, which wrinkled, then
the cyber convulsed in a massive sneeze and opened his eyes.

Tassin cried,
"You're all right!"

He looked
dazed, then frowned. "You!" He sat up with a grimace. "You
pea-brained bloody idiot! I told you to stay with the damned
mosscat! You could have been bloody well killed!"

Tassin gasped
at his ingratitude, her brows knotting. Sabre became aware of their
audience as the men cheered, and he forced a tight smile, raising a
hand in acknowledgement of their unintelligible accolade. He
fingered the back of his head, then shook it a few times and
climbed to his feet, evoking more amazed mutters from the crowd.
Someone handed him his sword and the rather bent dagger, and he
gripped her wrist. Men clapped him on the back, to congratulate
him, she assumed, and he smiled as he walked away, dragging Tassin.
She tried to free her wrist, but he tightened his grip until she
yelped. Sabre towed her back towards the wood, leaving the
villagers waving and smiling, but clearly puzzled by his sudden
exit.

Sabre
addressed his captive as he forced her to trot beside him. "Just
exactly which one of us were you trying to get killed?"

"I was trying
to help!"

"Help?" He
stopped and glared at her. "How can you be so stupid? What do you
think you are?" He strode on, ignoring her squeaks at his vice-like
hold on her wrist. "I have never met anyone so moronic, stubborn
and downright contrary in all my life!"

"At least I
tried!"

"All you did
was almost get me injured, since I had to stop the bloody thing
from killing you!" He stopped again, leaning down to glare into her
eyes. "Didn't I tell you to stay with Purr? Did you not understand
the order? Should I have spelt it out? Do you need it written down
in triplicate?"

Tears burnt
her eyes at his harsh words. "I am not stupid! I was afraid for
you! I wanted to help you!"