CHAPTER TEN—ECHOES AND FILTH

The red hot burn on her arm felt like acid was eating at her skin, but Mairu didn’t stop moving. She had lunged out of the way of the laser just in time to save herself.

And still she had been hit.

She sprinted forward down the dark corridor as fast as she could, weaponless and unable to defend herself against the cops chasing her down, taking shots at her whenever they saw her.

They didn’t call her to surrender or to put up her hands, they simply tried to kill her—to execute her down here so they could carry her corpse topside and put her in a bag.

Mairu’s heart was slamming against her chest and her breaths came in out hurriedly—fast enough to make her feel dizzy, but at the same time her energy levels were so high she thought she could run like this forever as she glanced left and right, her eyes twitching for places to run or hide.

The corridor broke left and she jumped over the river of sewage with a loud grunt that echoed off the walls, then she landed in a heap and a sprawl of limbs on cement, scrabbled to her hands and knees.

The bright bar of a flashlight swung about wildly behind her before the coron lit her up. Lasers screamed from behind, flashing as they exploded on the wall beside her. She cried out and lifted the crook of her arm over her eyes and bearly feel into the sewage on her right.

Darting into the corridor, she escaped death yet again and ran, wheezing with free an anxiety with every breath as she kicked her feet and swung her arms.

The thing was, Little Bullet was pretty heavy, and Mairu had been forced to ditch her sniper. That she was used to lugging that heavy thing around made running without it very easy for her.

She was fast.

Really fast.

And still, evading these police seemed like a futile gesture, pathetic, but still she ran. She couldn’t die down here.

How would Kawa feel about that?

I have to get away—even just for her.

I hope Nova and Koto got out with the medicine!

The corridor turned off again to the right and she wasted no time going that way. If she continued down the long straight corridor she would be shot in the back in short order.

Behind her boot falls echoed down the corridors in pursuit of her, the sounds of multiple men after her with their high beam flashlights and laser guns.

She gritted her teeth, wishing she had side arm.

Then tunnel was long and she ran as fast as she could. There was an intersection ahead and she wondered if she should try to climb up out of the sewers and back out onto the streets.

The danger of doing that was that if she got out in the cordoned off area, which by now was probably quite large, they would catch her for sure!

The lights from their flashlights swung over the walls as the thunder of echoing boots came from all directions, the sounds flowing from behind, passing her and coming back in these cement tubes the houses rivers of filth.

The intersection was close.

But Mairu didn’t think she was going to make it.

Their bright lights lit her tunnel and her black shadow, long and eerie stretched before her. She thought that shadow looked like a desperate skinny girl about to be murdered.

The fast and explosive whine of laser discharges sounded and they scored the cement next to her, cracking into it as the lasers that missed sizzled the air near her ears. Her spine crawled as Mairu was sure she would be hit in the back before she could turn the corner.

There it was!

Screamed, pushing for speed. When she reached the end she turned her hips and pulled her right leg in while stretching her left out, sliding across the polished cement surface.

Her heart lurched when she looked up into a sudden bright beam of light from the corridor to her right, the man so close he reached out and grabbed her.

She shrieked as he yanked her toward him.

“No!” she screamed kicking.

But the man didn’t grab her again, instead he leaned out and started shooting, his gun flashing the area they were in and she caught sight of the short brown hair and square jaw of Jon in his leather jacket.

She breathed with relief as she got up and breathed.

“Back away,” he said, and fired two more bullets.

“You came back!”

He put his back to the wall as a barrage of lasers passed by and crackled through the air.

“Yeah,” he said. “I had some trouble. Listen! I don’t have much ammo left. We gotta go.”

“All right!” she said. “Follow me. I see another tunnel.”

“All right, let’s go.”

Then he leaned out and fired two more shots at the cops.

They fired back, but their pursuit seemed to have been stopped. They didn’t want to get shot chasing people around in these dark sewers.

“Lead the way,” he hissed quietly.

Mairu nodded.

*

Breathing heavily and raggedly from their constant running, first outside and within the hospital, then to the sewers, they hadn’t had a break yet and Nova’s throat was burning and her stomach was cramping.

Koto’s footfalls were close behind and after his initial surprise when Nova took off running, said no more as they ran toward the shooting.

She slowed somewhat and removed her pistol from its holder at her side, and remembering that she was empty, she let the clip fall to the floor where it clattered over the cement loudly. Nova slammed a new one into place and the slide of her pistol racked back, ready to fire.

They came to a cross section and seeing no police, continued left in the direction from where those shots had sounded from.

“Nova,” Koto whispered from behind.

They were no longer running, but moving hurriedly as quietly as they could, their sneakers doing well to keep their sounds to a minimum when they weren’t beating their feet against the cement.

“Mm?”

“I heard shooting.”

“What?” she asked incredulously.

“No, I mean, I heard another shooter—bullets, not lasers.”

She glanced back at him. “So?”

“And Mairu doesn’t have a pistol, much less one that shoots bullets.”

“Oh,” she said, seeming to take stock of that. “What do you suppose is going on?”

“I have no idea.”

“Listen, “ she said. “It could be one of the cops.”

“What? No way.”

“Why not? A cop can’t have a ballistic sidearm?”

He shrugged. “It’s not typical.”

They both glanced up when the sounds of radio chirps echoed back to them. Nova glanced to Koto, then led them both toward those sounds, her pistol held tightly in her hand,

She swallowed, nearing a turn in the corridor.

Those radio chirps sounded again followed by the raspy grumble of radio voices coming through the device. Nova couldn’t understand what was being said, but she heard the cop say something back.

“Roger that.” Then to someone else he said, “Backup’s on the way.”

“Damn,” Koto breathed.

“This place is a fucking maze,” one of the cops said.

“We should head back.”

“No, we hold this intersection until backup arrives.”

“I saw the girl run that way before the other shooter arrived.”

Koto inched up close to Nova, his electrified sword held aloft out out of her way. Behind him the echo of dripping water filled the corridor along with the hissing voices of the two cops.

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Suddenly his sword started crackling loudly.

He and Nova turned around together and when Koto glanced down at his blade, the electrified tendrils of energy spasmed as water vapor rose from his blade.

“What’s that?”

“Check it out!”

“There!”

Blinding flashes hit them both and Nova cried out, backing into Koto. “Dammit!” she shouted as lasers burned past them and hit the wall.

“Run!” Koto hissed and he backed away as Nova ran past him, then turned and pursued her back the way they had come.

Then the cops turned the corner with their bright flashlights, Nova lifted her pistol and squeezed off a couple of shots just in time to make the cops shrink back and miss their shots which landed right next to them and exploded into plumes of light and shattering sparks.

“You really need to start wearing a gun, Koto!”

“I know!”

They ran down the corridor back the way they had come, but then suddenly Nova stopped and gasped, and Koto saw why. There were flashlight beams—dozens of them, all over the walls ahead.

“This way!” he said, pointing.

Koto jumped over the flowing sewage with a grunt and landed on the other side of the walkway where the corridor broke off. “We need to go this way to get out.”

“But what about”—she jumped, landed and glanced back at those flashlight beams that were nearly on them.

Koto grabbed Nova and pulled her back around the corner as the bright coronas landed in their direction and swiped about in search of targets.

The men moved, their boots and BDUs making distinct sounds as they moved. Koto’s ears were pounding and a cold sweat had formed on the back of his neck.

As silently as he could, clenching the muscles in his jaw but without gritting his teeth, he pulled Nova back as quietly as he could. She turned and he lifted a finger to his lips.

Her eyes were wide but she nodded. He took her by the hand and led her down the corridor as if he were walking on thin ice.

A shiver ran down Nova’s back.

She felt like they might get shot from behind at any moment, filled with holes as sizzling lasers moved through their bodies.

Koto dragged her to the left again, and this was the direction they needed to go to get out of here and head home the way they had come.

Nova stopped, pulled her hand away from Koto, and he whirled on her with an indignant question on his face.

“Mairu,” she whispered.

“Listen,” he said, gesturing with his hands. “Those bullets were fired from that direction, and those cops were facing north. They went around, and they’re heading back to the exit right now.”

“How do you know?”

“Just trust me, okay?”

“And who are ‘they’?”

He shrugged. “We know Mairu is down here. It has to be Jon, right?”

“I don’t know who else it could be.”

“Exactly,” said Koto. “He’s not a cop.”

And just as the word cop left his mouth the echoes of boots met at the T juncture behind them. They scrunched closer to the wall behind the turn. The cops were in communication, their indistinct chatter bouncing down toward them.

Then the lights fell on the tunnel and a storm of echoes came forward.

“The exit,” Koto said. “It’s around that bend. We gotta go!”

Nova nodded. He was right. It wasn’t like they could do battle with twenty cops down here. This was crazy. “Okay.”

He moved first, his sneakers echoing lightly on the cement as he pulled Nova along. She kept slowing, and he pulled her forward. “Keep up!” he hissed.

“Koto!” she stressed.

Suddenly she started shooting, and he whirled.

The cops were there at the corner.

One of them stuck out his gun and blind fired a fusillade of lasers at them that seemed to erupt from all around. Koto cringed as Nova screamed and shot back.

“Run!” He stamped to the edge and jumped across. “Move!”

But Nova was too slow!

She was going to get shot in the back as the cops peaked out of cover from the corner and tossed something forward.

Koto covered his eyes at the last second, but the blinding explosion made his ears spasm and his eyes flicker as he fell back.

Nova screamed, landing near him.

“Nova!” he yelled. “I can’t see!”

Lasers exploded all around them and Nova shot back, but then her gun clicked and the slide fell back, leaving them defenseless.

Koto saw Nova on her hip at his feet.

They looked at each other.

Just then footfalls echoed out of the corner passage teen feet ahead of them. They glanced up and Koto’s heart lurched in his mouth as yet another blinding light went straight into his eyes.

“Come one!” Jon screamed, and he emptied his clip in eight rounds, dropped it, where it clattered to the cement. “Move!”

“Come one!” Nova called, and grabbed Koto by the hem of his shirt and yanked him forward.

He turned his hips and scrabbled after her as she ducked under Jon’s bullets.

“Move it, kids!”

A laser exploded right next to him on the wall and he grunted, cringing in on himself before he fired back, emptying his clip again.

Like nova, the slide racked back and he followed them.

Koto got to his feet and chased Nova to the ladder. Without turning to address Jon he said, “Where’ Mairu and where the hells have you been, Jon?!”

“She’s fineshe’sfine! Just go!”

Nova practically flew up the ladder.

“Come on!”

Mairu called from above the manhole. Nova slowed as she took the other girl’s hand and was helped up, her heart soaring as a smile lit her face. She was in an utter state of frayed nerves, but she couldn’t be happier to see the other girl.

Koto came up next, but the front of the back caught on the hole. Nova grabbed him by both hands and pulled, grunting.

“Move it!” Jon snarled. “Hurry up!”

Koto screamed, pushing on the ladder rung with his feet, when suddenly the bag gave way and he fell up through the hole onto his stomach. He then scrabbled the rest of the way out as Jon came up after him.

“Shit!” he said. “I just lost my gun.”

“I’m out of bullets,” Nova said, glancing for the manhole cover.

Mairu was already sliding it back into place.

“There!” Koto shouted, and he pointed to the dumpster on the wall. He moved to it, grabbed it and wheeled it over.

“That’s no good!” Jon said. “We have to flip it so they can’t lift the manhole cover.”

He bent down and lifted, his muscles going taut as he grunted with the effort of pulling his side up so that the wheels on the underside would roll. The dumpster tilted, then slammed down over the manhole cover while the kids jumped back.

“Not bad,” Jon breathed, catching his breath.

“Come on,” Koto said. “We’re not out of this yet.

“Maple brought her buggy,” Jon said. “She’s waiting at the fence.

They scurried out of the alley and through the fields, back under the bridge and the water causeway.

Jon was the last one to duck under the fence as police sky vehicles roared over the city outskirts searching.

“Come on!” Maple said, calling them as she waved them over. She was just a silhouette in the dark with a blue backdrop of the early morning on mountainous horizon.

They all surrounded the buggy.

“You’re okay!” Mairu screamed, and she jumped at Nova and embraced her.

“Whose idea was it to bring the buggy?” Koto asked.

“Mine of course,” said Maple. “But I wouldn’t have come if Jon hadn’t shown up.”

“What happened?” Nova asked as she hugged the other girl with one arm. Then to Mairu she said, “Are you all right?”

“Just a scratch,” she said lifting her arm where the red mark on her elbow was revealed. “I fell on the cement.”

Nova smiled at her.

“It’s a really long story,” Jon said. “Let’s just say that when I went to pick up the explosives my lying rat of a partner showed up and things got really dicey for a bit.”

Maple started the buggy and the engine growled to life. They all got in. It was a rough vehicle that consisted of mostly rusted metal parts forming the chassis and roll cage with old bucket seats in the front and a backbench of leather behind where Koto, Mairu and Nova sat with the duffle on their legs.

“Did you get the meds?” Jon asked, and he glanced back curiously at Koto’s bag.

“All here,” he said.

“Good.”

Maple backed out in a U-turn and then sped for the hills, cutting through the dirt and the sand and kicking up a lot of dust and sand as the back tired spun.

“Step on it!” Jon said.

Maple laughed and glanced at him, her curved red oni horns barely missing the roll cage above. “I’m flooring it, man!”

*

By the time they got to the Dregs the sun had just begin to peak over the horizon, casting the desert in warm rays of gold and orange, the chill night air of the desert already beginning to recede.

As they neared Jon narrowed his eyes, noting the thick black smoke rising into the air. He pointed with a finger. “Is that normal?” he asked over the sound of the engine.

“No!” Nova said from the back seat.

Jon checked his pistol, but realized he had no more bullets. That was when Maple reached into her own holster and handed him her gun. He pulled the slide back to check the chamber. It was loaded.

Nova looked at Koto and her hear stomach began to roil. She feared the worse, but maybe they were just being jumpy because of their run in with the cops. They had almost died after all.

“This isn’t good,” Mairu said, her tone almost whiny. “This isn’t good.”

Nova reached around her shoulders and pulled her close while Koto grabbed the roll cage and stood up to get a better view, but still he couldn’t see anything over the hills.

The buggy bumped and shook when Maple steered them off the road and over the sandy and rocky terrain. They went through the pass in the hills and up toward the troglodyte.

“Stop here,” Jon called.

Maple let her foot off the gas and the buggy rolled a few dozen feet more but then came to a natural stop, then she yanked up the emergency break and shut off the engine.

No one moved for a second.

Jon got out. “If you don’t have a weapon, stay here,” he said. Nova and Koto got out and followed him as he stalked up the the hill.

The smoke was thick and greasy and smelled of burnt rubber and synthetic materials. When Jon crested the hill, the first thing he saw were the bodies, and the blood.

His heart lurched inside his chest and his eyes widened. Instinctually he lowered himself and glanced back at Koto and Nova. He raised a hand. “You don’t want to see this.”

Nova’s eyes widened and she ran to the edge as Koto tried to grab her by the hand, but missed. “Nova.”

She came up short and covered her mouth with her hand, her huge pistol hanging low at her side. Her eyes filled and hot tears streaked down her cheeks.

Oh gods!

“Koto—they’re all—they’re—“

He pulled her into a tight embrace as she wailed.

Maple and Mairu got out of the buggy.

“Stay there!” Jon called, then he went down the stairs carved into the rocks. He glanced about, seeing that the black smoke had been caused by the tired the Dregs has used as planters to great effect.

The rocks were blacked and burnt.

A fire certainly began in here, but there was no sign of accelerant. Someone started the fire from the pit, as the rocks and the charcoals were spread everywhere, and half of the structures on one side were completely burnt out.

Bodies, some of them burnt, were torn to pieces.

“What the hell…”

Koto could barely swallow. “Maple,” he said. “Maple—take her.”

She nodded, and pulled Nova to her. She obviously saw the interior of the put, because she turned and told Mairu not to approach any closer, but the girl was already crying silently.

How could this have happened?

She pulled Nova away as Koto took her pistol and went to join Jon down in the pit. He moved fast, almost slipping on the steps. He glanced about, feeling numb and disbelieving, as if this was only an evil dream.

But it was real.

Far too real.

His throat.

Gods, his stomach. He leaned over and fell onto all fours where he emptied the contents of his stomach.

Jon glanced back where Koto was retching. Then he turned to the bodies and bent down.

The bodies…

They were not shot, either by lasers or ballistics.

And they were certainly not cut up with swords of other sharp instruments.

It was as if…

Koto scratched over the rocky surface of the floor as he came up beside Jon. “It’s as if… as if…”

Jon sighed heavily. “As if they were torn apart.”

“What the hell!” Koto snapped. “How could this happen? Who did this?!”

Jon stood up, his knees cracking as he did. He shook his head, his face heating with anger as he stalked over to Kawa and Karu’s hut. Kawa was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Karu, but the metal plating used to form the walls of the hut were torn—more like shredded.

Poisoning is the least of your troubles now.

Those were some of the last words Ushiara Kenn had said to Jon. At the time he thought she meant those words because she was about to kill him—but now he knew why she really said them.

Poisoning is the least of your troubles now.

He glanced about, and under his breath muttered, “Fuck.”

Koto was checking some of the bodies, but Jon knew what dead bodies looked like—and everyone here, Dregs, and adults included, who were only a few, were certainly dead.

He saw some sneaker prints in the dirt leading to the steps to his right. He twisted his lips thoughtfully, and shook his head as he bent down and touched them with his hand.

Jon followed them with his eyes until he was looking up at the crest of the troglodyte pit. He didn’t want to follow these footprints, but he decided to anyway. He went up the steps and when he got to the top he saw the sneaker prints leading off between the rocks and down the hill.

Close by another set of tracks were there, but they looked like nothing Jon had ever seen. They had scratched the ground, but also looked like they had been dragging some kind of mass. Perhaps a body?

“What the hells?”