The radio was running a special broadcast from the BBC World Service. It was the first time we’d had contact with the world outside our little city in nearly three days, and I had expected it to be bad, but- it was so much worse. Nuclear exchanges in Korea, Pakistan, Israel. Or at least, mass die-offs that are being blamed on nukes. We have a few clues that they may not all be related. Great Britain was apparently overrun by a- a zombie plague, so either someone had tapped into 28 Days Later or we had confirmation that an infomorph memetic virus was infectious to people. Large portions of the world were complete write-offs. Many governments had collapsed. Something had happened in Washington, nobody had got in or out, and the US federal government was effectively gone. State level governments did not seem to be functioning either, though the guy on the radio was keeping it too high-level to be really certain. Basically it’s fucked. Like I said- not surprising, but- there wasn’t any cavalry coming.
Delmutt laid a small, lacey wing over one of my shoulders in a gesture of solidarity. “I’m sorry, for your world. I’m sure ours has endured similar. What will your people do?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Starve, die off in great numbers, I imagine. First world economies are built on near-immediate transport of goods. We don’t make our fuel here, or our food. It all comes from other places. If this were one part of the world, we’d see a flood of refugees, and a great period of civil unrest as populations responded to the destabilization. But there’s nowhere to go now. Everywhere on Earth just became Yemen, or Syria. War zones. The people who seize the supplies are going to dictate terms in the first few months. Haley gives us some options there- she can probably create basic necessities, soon enough, maybe even in great enough numbers to make a difference. But she can’t be everywhere.”
We stopped at a gun store first. Thank god for ubiquitous American firearms. Locked and gated of course, and without Haley that was substantially more of a problem, but we had crowbars, manpower, and time. Within half an hour we were in. The sheer arsenal in there was… ludicrous. The long rifles didn’t quite fit the joints and hands of our insectoid friends (none but Delmutt had the English language module, and I’d taken to calling them Yakko, Wacko, and Dot in my head). The pistols didn’t quite fit Delmutt’s scout body. But with Sherriff’s help, we managed to improvise. They even had a 50 caliber anti-materiel rifle, which I took on impulse. I hope this isn’t a literal Chekhov’s gun. It blew me away that all this stuff was legal- well, legal before we stole it, I supposed. I picked out a pair of revolvers that were more to Sherriff’s liking and set them up in holsters on my belt. We piled ammunition and spare rifles next to the door as we “Shopped.” Next stop- food, and then home.
“Your people are very violent,” said Delmutt, repeating something one of the other three had said. She indicated the weapons scattered about. “We had weapons, but- I cannot imagine I would find this outside of a barracks. You could arm a whole town with this.” I could only agree.
“You came here in a cultural moment of great cultural upheaval. Technology uprooted these people, made them scared and uncertain. They responded with weapons and increased ostracization of perceived enemies. In another fifty years, this might all be different. Now, though…” I shook my head. Now it’s going to make any conflict a lot worse.
Case in point: when I exited the store I discovered that we were not alone. I should have figured- with all the looting we’d been doing, it was only a matter of time before somebody took offense. It just had to be the gun store. A humvee was parked up next to our truck, and two men were staring at the door of the shop down the barrels of extremely-shooty looking assault weapons. One was older, fat and balding but muscled, wearing body armor and one of those quasi-militia caps. The other was a bit younger, looked a bit scared, had a leather jacket and- is that a fucking machine gun? I really wished I had a better understanding of guns, but just looking at the size of the barrel on that thing, I kind of felt like the walls of the store were not going to be much protection if he began shooting. I waved frantically behind me and the four infomorphs all backed up and got down low. Let’s not turn this robbery into a murder, gang.
Fat body-armor guy called out. “Alright, we’re all gonna be calm here. We both know the cops ain’t gonna come today, so you and me, we’re gonna make a deal.” Well alright, that actually sounds really reasonable.
I nodded slowly and kept my hands up. “Okay. No offense intended- if you want money, you can have it, though I don’t know if it’s going to do you much good anymore. We’re just looking for self defense here.” At the word we, they got a little more alert.
“How about you all come out where we can see you, and then we’ll talk?” Said body-armor. Well, shit, didn’t think this through. If they object to infomorphs I’m going to have to try to shoot them. Sherriff, how quick is your draw?
Okay, got to rely on man’s charity to not-man then. “Okay again. Going to warn you though, my friends are… infomorphs. Bug aliens. They’re friendly. Promise not to shoot on sight, and we’ll trust you.”
They conferred at this, young-nervous turning to fat body-armor, who never took his eyes off me. Eventually they reached some kind of agreement. “Alright. Everyone out of there, hands up.” Things got awfully tense as I shuffled forward and to one side, along the store front, and then Delmutt and the trio slowly walked out and into their view. God I hope I’m not going to get them executed at our first stop.
I tried to keep the momentum of the conversation. “You said we could make a deal. We’ve got quite a lot of merchandise here. What do you want for it?”
The man nodded. “You broke my security, too, so I’m gonna have to guard what’s left 24/7. You’re right, I don’t think money’s gonna be worth much for a while, and I already got a survival bunker set up,” imagine my surprise, a prepper who owns a gun store in Missouri, “So you’re gonna have to get pretty generous. Why don’t we start with- how are you controlling them bugs?”
I made a slight hand motion to Delmutt, currently sitting on the ground. “Tell them, Miss D.”
She lifted her forelegs and waved. “He just speaks to us. We’re friends, not servants.”
They were both pretty alarmed when she spoke. “Holy shit, those things can talk?!?” Young one’s machine gun adjusted slightly, now covering my insectoid friends. I don’t know why them being intelligent would make you more nervous.
But I needed to keep this going. “They can. They’re just people. Lost, scared like the rest of us. Look if you don’t need food or shelter I don’t have much I can give you right now. But these weapons aren’t doing you any good. In a week or two, we’re going to be in a much better position to give you more or less anything you might want. Let us walk now, we’ll owe you.” This is a weak hand. And he knows it.
Body-armor considered. “IOU’s ain’t worth a damn right now, I’ll tell you that much. Tell you what. You tell two of your bugs to come with me, do what I tell them, and then in a couple weeks you come collect em and pay that debt. You don’t come, well- at least I’ll have something out of it.”
Well that’s a non-starter. I wasn’t about to trade two of the first recruits to some shithead like they were disposable, even if they spoke English. I considered the situation. Something was bothering me, I realized. These two, getting the drop on us- why weren’t they in the store? What makes me so sure they own any of this? I decided to put it to the test. “Hey, question. Inside, I saw a whole rack of compound bows with explosive tips. Is that shit really legal, here?”
Young-nervous glanced at the older one, kept moving that barrel between targets. Body-armor chuckled. “You’d be amazed what you can sell with the right licenses. We got all kinds of shit in there.” Yeah but they don’t have any bows, I checked. You’re lying. You were coming to loot this place, asshole.
“I would be. But you don’t own this place.” They got really tense at that. “But that’s okay. It just means there’s no harm, no foul. We’ll take our stuff, and be on the way.”
Body-armor shook his head. “No-can-do. You’re sending two over to us, now. You’ll get them back if you come to the bunker in two weeks. Just down Bishop street.” He gave me an address, I assumed for a country back lot. Can’t let it get that far.
All I needed was two seconds and I could end this. I spoke to Delmutt, low and inaudible to the men behind the truck, with my hands still up, still making eye contact with body-armor. “Tell Yakko and Wacko to put down their guns and walk over there. The second they get to the front of that truck, tell them to drop to the ground and roll under it.” She bobbed acknowledgement and spoke to them in the machine-like language.
We all watched nervously as they set down their guns and started watching. I was watching the two armed men. They weren’t professional soldiers. Try as they might, their eyes wandered to the novel sight of the two ant-like vessels walking towards them. When their attention was truly off me, I began lowering my hands to my sides. Easy now. Hands on grips. Thumb off the clasps.
The two got to the front. Body-armor was just about to issue some kind of instruction when it happened. Both the informorphs dropped, rolled, and were out of his line of sight. Well executed, boys. Young-nervous guy yelped and tightened his grip on that boxy machine gun, still pointed our way. You’re off the leash, Sherriff.
My hands moved like lightning. The pistol in my right hand kicked, and the young man jerked back, sprouting blood from his left shoulder. My left hand kicked, and body-armor jerked back from the impact to his chest. I doubt that penetrated but he felt it. Both dropped their guns on the hood as they fell back behind the truck but I didn’t trust that they wouldn’t have sidearms. “Delmutt! Go high!” She was already up and moving when a third shot rang out- and it wasn’t one of ours.
The brick work of the building exploded from behind me and I felt a line of fire across my right arm. The debris scratched at me. They had a third person, we never even thought to look. I saw them now- laying behind a bush on the other side of the street. It was a graze, but it hurt. Dot dropped to the ground, snapping shots in that general direction, but I needed to get to the other side of that truck, before they recovered or shot at the two underneath it. I sprinted, ignoring the sharp crack of another near miss, and came around the corner of the hood.
Young-nervous was well and truly down, right hand up to the hole in his left shoulder, yelling as he tried to staunch the flow of blood. Body-armor wasn’t. He did have a sidearm and he apparently knew right where I was going to be. Time slowed down as I stared down the barrel. This is it. I’m sorry, everyone.
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I heard the shot. It took a second to register it hadn’t been him. He fell back, a neat hole in his forehead, blood already beginning to fountain out of his nose. Delmutt. She’d killed him, just like that. I- no, trauma later. I ran to the bleeding young man, pulled him up between me and the rifleman across the street, put a gun to his head. Tried to ignore his screams. “Drop it! Get out here or lose a second buddy!”
There were no further shots but the man across the street didn’t move immediately. Indecisive? I kept weaving a bit, moving further away to avoid letting him draw a bead on me, dragging the young guy with me. “Nobody else needs to die here!” Delmutt was buzzing in the air, getting distance on me, getting another angle on that guy. Yacko and Wacko were out from under the truck, scurrying back to their rifles. Come on, you bastard, come on…
He still hadn’t moved. Is he...? I peered closer. I think Dot hit him. Delmutt buzzed over to him, and made a gesture that I assumed indicated dead before alighting on him and taking his weapon. “Alright,” I said to the young guy, still shouting. “Shut up, stand up, and start walking. Walk that direction for ten minutes, then you can come back. Then you need to get to a hospital. All we want is to get out of here. I’m… sorry about your friends.”
He didn’t speak, but he did as I’d instructed, a bit unsteadily. All five of us watched him, until he was much too far away for any accurate shots. As he walked, time seemed to de-compress and I felt the strength leaving my muscles. Then Delmutt spoke to the other three and they scurried to start filling our truck with the pieces we had picked out. I kept on overwatch. Everything that’s happened so far, and that was the first man I’ve seen die. It was a morbid thought, if only because I knew it wasn’t going to be the last. I’d seen bodies, after Cecilia, in the tunnel and outside it. But I hadn’t witnessed any deaths. Hadn’t been directly involved with any either. “Delmutt.”
She flew down to me. The little pistol she had between her forelimbs had a new weight to it, in my mind. She looked a little unhappy about it too. I tried to smile for her, but I’m sure even she knew it was forced, body language barrier and all. “You saved my life. Thank you. I’m- this was my mistake. I should have had… lookouts, or something-”
She cut me off. “It was all of us. We’ve been talking and acting like all this is an exercise. A make-believe. We have to be serious now. If we’d been serious here, been the stronger group, maybe nobody would have died. You are hurt, by the way. You need attention.” I nodded. She was right. I’d gotten caught out, forced into an unwinnable situation because I hadn’t been paying attention, and had to kill my way out. I’m not the hero here. My mistakes aren’t always resolvable without bloodshed. This must never happen again. I resolved then and there.
We loaded up, and moved on down the road.
---
My newfound caution came in handy almost immediately. On the highway to our chosen grocery store, we were forced to pull over when we spotted a convoy headed our way. I had Delmutt and the others get as low in the cab as they could while I pulled the truck off to the side. Dozens of armored trucks, humvees, and some kind of armored personnel carrier rumbled past us, traveling in the direction we had come from. Several dozen soldiers hanging on the sides casually clocked us as they went by. I muttered to Delmutt, “Looks like the cavalry’s here after all. Guess someone in government got it together.”
She squinted up at me from her hiding place with Yakko down in the footrest area of the cab. “You think they will be a positive thing?”
I shook my head, watching them fade into the distance. “I don’t know. Probably not for us- they aren’t going to look kindly on armed looters. On the other hand, they’re here early enough, maybe they can maintain order.”
A final humvee went by. It all looked like military surplus, from the forever-wars overseas that we’d been waging for half my lifetime. I spared a thought for the poor kids tapped to play soldier, stranded on the other side of the world amidst this chaos. “On the other other hand, they haven’t been too great at long-term order anywhere they’ve been tried. And now we’ve got wizards and shit in the mix.”
While we were parked, I tore a strip of cloth and used it to tie the wound on my arm. It wasn’t deep but it was bloody. We pulled back onto the road and drove on. But when we reached the exit for the Wal-Mart we had picked, an unfortunate sight greeted me from the highway. A national guard truck was posted up by the front doors and I could see soldiers. I stopped once again. “Delmutt, have the boys get out here. Wait with them. I don’t want these guys getting a look at armed infomorphs right now.” She bobbed in acknowledgement and the four shuffled out. I started up once again and rolled down the ramp, and into the lot.
As I pulled to the front doors a soldier came out in my path, one hand at a pistol on his hip and the other up to stop me. I took the signal, and got out. He didn’t look hostile, but he didn’t look like he was having a great day, either. His eyes were drawn to the wound on my arm- bandaged now but still bloody. “You coming here for food?”
I smiled easily. Lying to people in authority had never come hard, for me. Call it a tiny streak of rebellion. “That’s right. You all taking control of distribution, then? I was just going to stock up on cans, wait this out at home.”
He nodded and waved me over to a pair of men with the most dangerous weapons of all- a clipboard and checklist. “Can you state your name, and number of dependents? We’ll give you supplies for a week, up to 4 people. More than that, we’ll need to see i.d.’s or proof.” Well, this is damned inconvenient. Lucky our friends mostly don’t need to eat. I took the 4-pack and they handed over a couple of boxes and two cases of bottled water. Meager, but not terrible. And it’ll keep people from hoarding in the short term. I loaded the boxes up in the truck bed, careful not to expose the pile of guns to any of the soldiers.
I did have some questions, as long as they were here. “So, what’s the game plan with you guys? Everything’s kind of gone to shit, you here to fix it?”
Clipboard guy grimaced. “Like they tell us anything? All we know is, rule one- try and keep order, treat it like a disaster situation. Rule two- you see any bugs, they go in the truck back to the FOB, shoot them if they run or fight. Rule three- when in doubt, refer to rules one and two.” The others all nodded a bit glumly. Be glad you’ve at least got some orders, I thought. The rest of us just have to make it up as we go.
Leaving the infomorphs behind had been the right call, then. We were going to need to speak to someone higher up, and soon, before the military started committing genocide. But how to get in touch without exposing them? One idea presented itself- “Hey, look, are you guys organizing volunteers? There’s a lot of us who’d help out, you know, with recovery or whatever. Could we go somewhere, talk to someone?”
The guy with the pistol looked thoughtful. “We only just got here a couple hours ago, but I know the Colonel’s probably headed all the way downtown at top speed. He was moving like someone had lit a fire under him, earlier. You go talk to people at the checkpoints they’re going to set up, I’m sure they could organize you.” I thanked him, and got back in the truck.
Alright, so once we reconvene with Haley, two new objectives. One: don’t go anywhere near downtown with magic or infomorphs apparent. Get a message to them and offer to translate. Two: set up our new refuge away from downtown, preferably far enough away to avoid any and all checkpoints. I wasn’t sure that they knew what their objectives were. And until they had a handle on the… reality of our new situation, I didn’t want a lot of young guys with guns looking over our shoulder. Maybe I should have signed on with those bunker survivalists.
I grabbed Delmutt and we moved on down the road. Final stop for the day- my house.
---
Well, the place was still standing. Can’t say the same for all of the neighborhood. Two in the suburb had burned, that I could see. Lots of boarded windows and doors, in the two days since we’d left. And… bodies. All down the streets, they’d dragged infomorph bodies to the curbs. Just piled in heaps where we used to put out the trash. Flies weren’t accumulating- the biologies were too different- but it was a nauseating sight. They didn’t leave a single one alive, did they. Suddenly I was feeling a lot better about Haley and Amy’s midnight ride. Delmutt felt it, too. She was staring out the windows as we rode on. “If you hadn’t warned me… I would be dead in the street now. Is this what your people do? Is this why you are so worried?”
I kept looking ahead as I drove. “Humans… we’re animals, in the end. We’ve got all this civilization, but you take us out of our comfort zone and the scripts and routines of daily life, and most of us are just apes. They’ve got to recognize you as people before socialization kicks in, stays their hands.”
She nodded. “We would have tried to talk. Few would have fought, or offered any threat. All these bodies- these were just people, scared and lost. Anyone could have seen it. It did not seem so bad on the first night, even during the panic. I think that most of this happened after.”
Sherriff spoke in the back of my head. “
I worried that he might be right. We pulled up to the house. Robin’s egg blue, windows and doors still unbroken. The cat was hanging out on the front porch- he ran to me when we pulled up, being unusually friendly. “Guess you don’t like going two days without central air and a food bowl, huh?” I let him in, then turned to the driveway where Amy was hurrying up. “Hey! Good to see you. You doing okay here?”
“No I am not doing okay” she hissed. “We need to get off the street right now.” She gestured at the four infomorphs, and I took her meaning. We all filed inside, and got comfortable in the living room. I had Delmutt take a position by the front windows with instructions to call for us if anyone drove by. We were at the end of a cul-de-sac so traffic should have been light, but I was paranoid now. Amy was a bit surprised when I re-introduced her to Miss D. “Weren’t you a mantis two days ago?”
Delmutt wagged her wings ambivalently, not breaking line of sight to the street. “Only my vessel. I traded. What has happened here?”
Amy sighed and passed a hand through her hair. “It’s a nightmare. After all of you left, I thought we were done. The flyers were helping, people were settling down. Not everyone, but… enough. We were coping. It lasted a day. Then the army showed up, at dawn.” She made a dismissive hand motion, a gesture of contempt. “They wanted all of the infomorphs in trucks. Wanted to take them somewhere. They- they shot a few, who didn’t understand what was happening. Who tried to run. Everyone on the street saw it.” I could see tears forming in her eyes. “I thought we would hide the rest, keep them indoors, but- they started going house to house. Just shoving in, shooting or grabbing the informorphs, leaving.” She sat down. “Then. I saw doors open up along the street. People started… pushing them out. Just like that.”
I could see it in my mind. Alongside the fresh image of a man bleeding out through his nose. Sherriff, how do you do it? “Behold the extent of human mercy, I guess.” We sat in silence for awhile. Delmutt translated for the other three, and I could see tension running through them. Don’t blame you, guys. “I’m sorry Amy. A lot of them did make it out though. They’re at the stadium. It wasn’t all for nothing, and there are humans there, helping.”
She sniffled. “Thanks. It’s good that we helped. I just… I thought we were better than this. They didn’t do anything to us. I’d… I’d go with you, if I could. If my daughter-” she looked at me desperately, pleading for some kind of absolution I couldn’t give.
I gave her the world’s most awkward hug-and-pat. “I know you would. You just keep your family safe. Take anything in this house, if you need it. We won’t be coming back, maybe ever.”
We scooped up phones and laptops and chargers, I changed my bandages, and I picked up the knitting that Haley had been working on. Maybe she’d find time again, some day. And the cat, of course. He was reluctant to be parted from his food dish so soon. “Come on, you little dead weight. Coyotes will have to wait another day.” Last but not least, I scooped all of my Pathfinder books from the floor of the living room into a bag. Now these should come in handy. As we left for the truck, Amy stopped me.
“They know. Some people gave them copies of the flyers. They know about the stadium, and that you can speak to them.”
The convoy.
That group that passed us hadn’t been going to the city center. Or at least, not there first. One right turn, they’ll be at the stadium. It wasn’t big enough to haul away that many infomorphs, but it was big enough to start shooting them, if things went south. But they do speak English now. Enough of them do. And they didn’t want our help. Can we interfere? Even when she promised not to?
Sherriff was emphatic, in my head.
He was right. We had to get back.