The hauler slid out of the bay as the sun began to drop towards nightfall and gained altitude steadily over the light-raked valley. At the front was a small, boxy, yellow cab that powered the hundreds of house-sized containers as their thrusters lit up.
“Hey, you’re pretty good at this, you could make it as a trucker!” said Karla as she stared out the windshield.
Freddie shrugged. “It’s all autopilot really. I learned how to operate one and brought a load south, then abandoned it for the Canyons.”
“Regret it?”
“Not at all. The Corporation would have killed me, slowly. They weren’t happy about my method of leaving… and others were also looking for me elsewhere. I thought maybe staying in the Canyons would be a good way to avoid my untimely end and continue my research in peace.”
She laughed. “Not so peaceful, huh?” She leaned her head against the window. Below, the thousands of interconnected ridges formed a complex series of canyons. Selena’s canyon was tiny and insignificant from up here, she couldn’t even tell which one they had flown up from by now. “All of that fighting and drama over a single valley.”
“That’s life down here for you. Hectic, brutal, and with little gain for your effort.” Freddie shook his head. “I’ll be happy to be back north. I’ll finally be able get back to my work.”
“Not much work as a technician down here, huh?”
“Yeah…” Freddie thought it over for a minute. “What will you be doing? You’re a bodyguard for somebody?”
“No… kinda? I’m not sure what I am to those people, but they took me in when others wanted to kill me. I feel like I owe them.”
The Canyons passed underneath as the evening sun began to drop, casting a complex array of shadows over the valleys below. In the dark shadows, the glow of forges could be seen, each and every stone cliff was studded with openings for heat and steam. The jumbled ridges soon grew taller, steeper, till great mountains stood shoulder to shoulder in tight formations.
She had seen some other haulers and air traffic during the day, but as night set, and signal lights on airborne vehicles lit up, the sky ignited with the dancing lights of thousands of craft. “So many!”
Freddie laughed. “You’ve really been sheltered, huh? Yeah. Lifeblood of the world is in the haulers. You can’t build trains, whether underground or on top of it. Things burrow and dig down into the earth, they tear up anything heavy that puts out vibrations like a train would. That’s also why the large habs are so high above ground.”
“Underground? What things underground? Like monsters?”
He nodded. “Plenty of monsters, sure. I once saw a mole rat the size of my old shop dig out of the dirt to attack some of those loud bikes Selena’s gang like to use. The bigger problem is the creatures from the other side. There was a big mother fucker that fell on the city seventy or eighty years ago. Released a bunch of ugly babies when it died. Most were killed, but there were hundreds of thousands of those fuckers. Many are still burrowed into the soil and hibernating. Every once in a while, when there’s enough vibration from vehicles or construction, they come out and wreck some havoc.”
“If they’re just babies, are they really that dangerous?”
“Nah. I mean, for me or any normal human they’re deadly, but for supers or the military with proper hunter-harnesses, not at all. Once the babies grow up on the other hand, I mean… you might be able to see some of their heavier pieces those military guys use as we pass by in the military sector. Actually, we’re about to cross over into the military installation. Climb into the back of the cab, will you? I placed shielding over the sleeper cab, they shouldn’t see you as long as you stay back there.”
The wall ahead of them was impressive. Massive, constructed of some kind of white material with ridges along its base for strength. It rose halfway up the nearby mountains, then emitted a tall, pale-blue shield of light that reached far into the sky. She would have thought it was a wondrous feat of engineering if she hadn’t seen the habs and their nonsensical size already. Other air traffic slotted smoothly in between one another into several single-file lines.
“What would happen if you flew through the gate? Just ignored them if they asked you to stop?” she asked.
“You’d get blown to pieces without a second to explain yourself. Go. Now, before we get scanned,” said Freddie as he waved her away.
Karla dipped back into the sleeper area of the hauler cab. A small bed, a smaller table, and a bookshelf. It looked lived in, with various trinkets placed on the walls. There were small cards and photos from other cities around North America, as well as on other continents. One token marked the previous owner’s visa into the warring states, into what was once Vietnam, judging by the image indicating their point of entry. Another was from Europe, their entry into the European Union a golden disk, stamped with ominous words.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Freedom Through Suffering. Liberation Through Faith” Karla stared at it for a moment. The old countries of the European continent were all there, from Portugal out out to part of what was once Russia. The words seemed not in line with what she remembered. Not that she had traveled much as a kid, most of her knowledge of Europe was as comically stereotypical as it was out of date by now.
She laid back. Even this city was so strange after two hundred years. She wasn’t sure where to go from here. She could finish up her business with Olivia and Delta, maybe get slightly better gear? Then what? She drummed on her chest as she waited. She had no family, and no purpose to speak of. She felt the small box on her back and chuckled. One purpose, she corrected herself. She looked at the small trinkets from all over the world. Awe-inspiring sights were plastered over each image, and every small token for entry looked weird and different. She thought of Freddie and his entire life in a single hab. The small valleys they were passing over minutes ago were were also filled with people like Selena who’d never leave their little part of the world, never see anything beyond their little valleys. Everyone was just so hemmed in. Not allowed to leave, not allowed to exist on their own.
“Hey!” Freddie called from the front. “You can come out now!”
Karla climbed into the cab. “No problems?”
He shook his head. “None at all. I shielded the sleeper compartment, all it saw was an empty space.”
“Oh. Good job. Very good boy.”
“Fuck off.” He grinned. The hauler lifted up from the gate, gaining altitude over the coast as it began to pass by more and more hab units further inland. “We’re in the military sector. It’s all grunts and commandos here. Monster hunters, mostly.”
Karla looked over the lights in the distance, it looked like they were coming up upon a city. Closer to the coast, large warehouse-looking structures sat with many large doors that faced the ocean. Most were closed, with little indication anything to what was held here, but ahead, she saw one open, with crews maneuvering a vehicle the size of a skyscraper lying on its side.
Thick, bulbous arms moved with a heavy slowness that gave a clue to its actual size. The minute figures riding on top gave her a better estimation. It looked like a massive deep-sea submarine, with numerous arms on its sides crawled back into its pen. Only its prow was rounded and streamlined as submarines should be. Bladed shapes erupted from its shoulders, and large guns tucked in around its waist. It was bristling with weaponry, sensors, and limbs.
“I thought that was a submarine at first… Is that a submarine? Why does it have legs?”
“How else will it get the hell out of the waters? Nobody wants to stay in the ocean longer than they have to, not to mention some kaiju can pull an entire ocean away, leaving a sub crumpled on the seabed. We learned our lesson long ago from those fuckers.” Freddie shook his head.
The hangars passed away, numerous large buildings and several habs slipping underneath. Karla stared back at the retreating submarine. Kaiju. She heard the term used for some of the large beasties that had popped out of the ocean when the first Upheaval shook the world, but they were still creatures from Earth, changed and enlarged. Killer whales that tore apart tanker ships, sharks the size of houses, Octupi that spanned a city block. Now the term Kaiju was used for larger creatures from the Other Side. She almost wanted to see one of these creatures. Mostly she was happy to stay far away.
She shook her head and focused on the view out over the military base that continued along the coast. Hundreds of individual squares, thousands of buildings, and many rows of heavy tanks and smaller, sleeker vehicles sat in lots. Not one seemed to have tracks or wheels, and every one that moved did so by hovering steadily over the ground.
“All of this to fight monsters?”
Freddie cracked open a soda and took a sip. “The creatures from the other side aren’t normal. They can spit flames, move things with their minds, disappear into smoke only to reappear right on top of you.”
“You’re familiar with fighting monster?”
“I had originally wanted to become a soldier, but I wasn’t cut out for it.”
“What stopped you?”
“Nerves. I don’t handle combat too well, I get overwhelmed. I never wanted to admit it when I was younger, but when they took us out into the deserts, I found out real quick that I wasn’t cut out to hold a weapon and have orders shouted at me while death rolled my way.”
The two sat in silence for some time, watching the numerous buildings and installations slide by. The craft began to lower. “Oh, we’re already at the next checkpoint. Military Sector is smallest, but we’re making good time. You’ll be on your way before you know it. Head on back, I’ll call you when it’s safe.”
Karla nodded mutely as she slipped into the back. The hauler lowered and entered into the gate, the sound of voices and scanning equipment could be heard. This scan seemed to take longer, and Karla picked up her sword and held it over her lap as she waited for something to happen.
A small ding sounded from the cab, and the craft lifted, flying back into the sky without trouble.
“That scared me! Was that longer than normal?” she called out from the back.
“Yeah…” He checked over his instruments. “That was strange.”
The hauler lifted up, the autopilot taking a wide arc to the next checkpoint. Freddie modified the route to be more direct, but it was instead rerouted out into a large arc that went over the sea over and over.
“Shit, something’s up. I’ll get the hauler to go in a straight line towards the gate, but it wants to lead me away from the city,” said Freddie as he modified the path.
“Are we going to see some danger?”
“Maybe? Stay in the back where it’s shielded.”
Karla pulled on her vest and ammo-filled belt. She grabbed her sword again and waited. The first forty minutes were empty, nothing out of the ordinary and smooth flying towards the next gate.
“Freddie, maybe it’s some kind of bug?” said Karla as she poked her head out of the back.
“Shush!” Freddie waved her back. “There’s a group of shuttles coming, the seem to be moving to intercept us…”
There was a sudden alarming noise emitting from the dash.
“Ennnnn! En-Ennnnn!” It wailed. The hauler jolted as it dove towards the ground.
“Freddie?” There was no answer as the alarm continued. A sudden jolt rippled through the vehicle, then a pull of acceleration pushed her back into the back wall. “Freddie!” she shouted. Gunfire erupted outside, and the cab shook from the impacts.