Multitude, p.27
Multitude, page 27
part #2 of Dimension Space Series
Another impact followed by several additional ones knocked the vessel from side to side.
Angela’s head snapped to front. She gasped at the site of dozens of the no-neck robots bouncing off the nose of the quadcopter.
Beside her, Vaughn struggled to rein in the violently bucking aircraft. A moment later, he managed to coax it higher. They began to gain altitude, but not before plowing through three more robots.
As the copter raced upward, Angela gave Vaughn a sidelong glance and raised an eyebrow. “They know now!”
Vaughn scoffed. “Screw ‘em. That felt good.”
Angela guffawed. “Yeah, it did!”
She leaned forward and looked up through the top of the windscreen. The aircraft was rocketing straight up, but the buildings around it stretched high overhead. Angela couldn’t even see their tops. “What now?”
Beside her, Vaughn craned his neck as well. “I was planning to land in the street and see if we could sneak into one of these buildings. Figured we could work our way down into whatever passes for this city’s underground.” He shook his head. “Not sure what to do now, but we need to find cover quick, fast and in a goddamned hurry!”
As the quad continued to rocket into the sky, the upper extremity of a relatively shorter building slid into view at the top of the windshield. Then Angela saw its broad, flat roof and pointed. “Land there!”
Vaughn looked and then shook his head. “On that roof? Where would we go after that? How in the hell will we get down?”
“One bridge at a time. Let’s just land and find cover before a Tater shows up. This quad is pretty fast, but we'll never outrun one of those things.”
He turned a wary eye toward the sky and then nodded. “I guess so. I just hope we can find a hatch.”
Vaughn began to maneuver the craft for landing.
Angela’s heart raced. She had already been more frightened than at any other point in their travels, but now her adrenaline level ratcheted up another notch at the mere prospect of landing the craft in this city. She felt her hand tightening on the already broken armrest. Through force of will, she loosened her grip as she watched Vaughn guide the vessel toward the rooftop.
As they drew closer, she scanned its smooth, metallic surface, desperately seeking any sign of a door or a hatch.
Vaughn shook his head. “I don’t see a way in.”
“Just land it. There must be something.” She searched the surrounding sky, looking for one of the potato-shaped craft. The things were fast, significantly more so than this quad. “If a Tater shows up before we can get in, we'll be sent back to Hell.” She shook her head. “I don't think we'll survive another trip, Vaughn. It's now or never.”
“Dammit, Angela, I know that! But if there's no way in from up here, we'll just be sitting d—!”
“Right there!” Angela pointed excitedly. “I think that's a hatch.”
Vaughn followed her gesture and then, with his lips pressed into a thin line, gave a curt nod. Adjusting the trajectory, he guided the vessel to a soft landing on the roof. A moment later, the scene quietened as the quad shut down and retracted its rotors.
Now standing breathlessly inside the vehicle, they exchanged nervous glances.
Angela half-expected a cannon to pop up from a hidden port and hammer bullets into them.
Several tense seconds later and still bullet-free, they stepped out onto the roof. It felt solid underfoot.
Angela shied away from the edge. No handrail or cornice adorned the precipice. At its periphery, the reflective metal simply curved away and dropped toward the city below.
Looking up at the surrounding structures, Angela felt utterly exposed. On three sides, the taller buildings towered above them. The metallic canyon cut by the road that they'd flown down provided the only gap.
Tearing her eyes from the scene, she scanned the deck and then spotted the rectangular outline of the hatch.
Vaughn had exited the far side of the aircraft.
Looking at him, Angela waved and pointed. “Over here!”
Suddenly, a mechanical, high-pitched whirring noise emitted from in front of her. She turned and stared as the three-foot-wide panel suddenly dropped down a couple of inches. Then the sound changed, and the door slid sideways, disappearing under the roof.
Vaughn ran past her. As he approached the opening, he looked back and held up a hand for her to hold fast.
Angela nodded.
Stepping cautiously, Vaughn eased up to the opening.
Then a robot rose through it.
“Vaughn!” Angela screamed, but it was too late.
Each of the machine’s four hands reached out, snatching Vaughn and pulling him from his feet.
For an eternal second, Angela stood frozen in place. Then she found the alien gun in her hand. She couldn’t recall pulling it from her pack and wasn’t sure why she had bothered. When they tried to fire the damned thing in Hell, it had only whistled and whined.
Out of options, Angela pointed the device at the robot and squeezed the trigger. As with the previous attempts, the gun only emitted a pop followed by a high-pitched whine and then fell silent.
She was about to throw the useless piece of crap at the robot, but then she stopped.
The machine had seized.
The robot no longer moved.
Angela blinked and then turned the gun sideways, looking at it with open-mouthed amazement. Then she saw Vaughn struggling to get out of the now inanimate Neck’s hands.
Sliding the gun under her belt, she sprinted across the roof and then skidded to a stop next to the opening.
Vaughn freed himself, falling hard onto the roof deck.
Angela dropped to a knee next to him. “Are you okay?”
He waved her off and quickly scrambled to his hands and knees. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He looked down through the opening and then nodded.
Vaughn began struggling to pull the robot out of the way. “Help me move this jackass before the rest of his buddies show up.”
Angela nodded and then grabbed hold of one of the dead Neck’s arms. The thing felt as if it weighed a ton. Peering through the opening, she saw that one of its clawed feet still rested on the top rung of a ladder that disappeared into the depths below. Complicating the situation, its backward bending knee was hanging up on the inside of the opening.
She pulled the machine toward her, trying to free up its lower leg.
The robot lunged.
It pushed Angela across the roof and then pinned her to the deck.
She screamed and kicked at the Neck’s white torso, but the worn soles of her old hiking boots found no purchase.
Vaughn shouted something at her, but Angela screamed over him. “Get it off me!”
“Angela! It’s okay!” Vaughn’s urgent words finally penetrated her panic. “It’s still dead.”
She stopped struggling. Breathing heavily, she looked at Vaughn.
He nodded and started tugging on the machine. “It just fell on you. Help me move it!”
Finally reining in her panic, Angela gave a short nod and then pushed against the robot with hands spread wide, gripping it as if she were bench-pressing a heavy Olympic bar.
The thing barely budged.
Gnashing her teeth, Angela kicked at it again. “It weighs a ton!”
She saw veins popping out on Vaughn’s starvation-withered and now shaking arms.
Angela took a deep breath and held it. Then she pushed with all the strength she could muster.
Finally, the machine drifted a few inches upward. Together, they guided it sideways. As the white and silver monstrosity passed off to the side, Angela gave it a final push, allowing the movement to roll her in the opposite direction, out from under the machine.
Just as she tried to roll onto her left shoulder, she felt the metallic surface of the roof curve away from her.
“Watch out!” Vaughn yelled.
Angela had landed closer to the edge than she’d realized.
Too close!
Her momentum started to carry her over the side of the building.
“Oh shit!” She swung her arms, batting at the surface ineffectually as she continued to slide. “No, no, no!”
Vaughn’s hands latched onto her lower legs.
The rolling motion had carried Angela onto her stomach. Her hands clawed at the curved precipice, desperately seeking purchase.
“I got you,” Vaughn said, his voice straining under the effort. “Now, please, stop struggling so I can pull you back.”
Angela swallowed hard and then forced herself to stop flailing.
Vaughn grunted with the effort as he slowly pulled her back from the ledge an inch at a time.
Safely back on the roof, Angela rolled onto her back, her head tilting as it rested on the edge’s sloping transition.
A new sound rose above her raspy breaths.
“Where's that noise coming from?”
Vaughn plopped down next to her, panting heavily and staring at the sky. “It’s your toy gun. That’s the same noise it made after we test-fired it back in Hell.”
She drew the weapon out from under her and held it up in front of the two of them.
The thing looked like a ray gun out of a science fiction movie. She had pulled the trigger more out of desperation than a belief that it would work. “Guess it’s not a toy after all.”
Beside her, Vaughn shook his head. “Nope.”
The high-pitched squeal continued ramping up. She knew that soon it would fall silent as it had before. The thing’s matching vibrations made her fingers tingle.
Angela wrinkled her nose. “Do you smell that?”
“Yeah. Smells like ozone.” He pointed at the dead robot. “It’s coming from that. I think your gun fried its electronics.”
Angela nodded. She opened her mouth to respond, but then a new, all too familiar noise rose from behind them.
“Oh shit!” they both shouted as they rolled over.
Peering down over the edge of the building, they saw a white craft rising toward them. It was a goddamned Tater!
Angela extended her arms over the precipice and aimed the gun down, pointing it at the rapidly rising machine.
Not wanting to pull the trigger until assured of hitting her target, she waited excruciatingly long moments while the egg-shaped craft drew closer—not that Angela had an inkling of the weapon’s range. Even now, she could hear and feel the gun’s rising whine.
Finally, the Tater filled the weapon’s small sights.
Angela squeezed the trigger.
Click.
No snap or crackle, no squeal.
Eyes widening, she glanced at the uncooperative gun and then beyond it at the onrushing Tater.
Angela squeezed the trigger again and again with no effect.
“Shit!”
Suddenly, Vaughn was yanking on Angela’s backpack and dragging her away from the edge.
“Come on! The gun hasn’t finished charging. We gotta go!”
She nodded and scrambled to her feet.
Vaughn had released her and was already halfway to the still open roof hatch. Reaching the opening, he dropped through the hole and fell out of sight.
Angela slid to a stop beside the open hatch. Just then, the Tater climbed above the lip of the roof and started moving toward her. As it did, it rose overhead, positioning itself to banish them to Hell.
Still staring at the white craft, Angela shouted down into the hole. “Vaughn?!”
His voice rose from it. “Jump! Hurry!”
Having raced up the side of the building, the craft now approached with menacingly slow speed.
Angela tore her eyes away from it and looked down into the hole.
Vaughn stood on a deck about ten feet below her, his arms outstretched. “Jump!”
Needing no further motivation, Angela dropped through the opening and into Vaughn’s arms. The two of them collapsed into a heap on the metal floor.
Untangling from each other, they scrambled back to their feet just as the machine moved to hover above the still open hatchway.
Angela saw the probe mounted to its belly start glowing. “No, no, no!”
Vaughn grabbed her arm and pulled. “Run!”
Illuminated by glowing overhead panels, the checkerboard pattern of the wide corridor’s floor blurred as the two of them ran down it.
Angela glanced back over her shoulder just as a sphere of white light blossomed through the opening and started to chase them down the hallway.
She pushed on Vaughn’s back, urging him forward. “Hurry! The light’s coming!”
They had made it so far! She couldn’t let the bastards knock them back now.
It occurred to Angela that, considering she and Vaughn had killed one of the Necks, the light might do worse than banish them this time.
With this new thought in mind, Angela looked back with widening eyes.
The rapidly growing sphere had swallowed the entire hallway. Like a miniature version of the curtain of energy that had swept life from Earth, the light now formed a white wall that looked bent on enveloping them.
It was moving too fast.
They couldn’t outrun it.
The gap narrowed.
The wave nipped at their heels.
Angela lunged forward, bowling Vaughn over as she did.
They crashed to the floor.
Scrambling backward, they watched as the light chewed up the gained footage.
“Dammit!” Vaughn growled.
The gun still clutched in Angela’s hand suddenly stopped vibrating.
She glanced at it and then raised the weapon.
Pointing through the wall of light, Angela aimed at the unseen Tater.
She pulled the trigger just as the surface of ethereal light enveloped their feet.
Then the wave faltered, slowing to a crawl halfway up their legs.
Angela tried to scamper away from the energetic curtain, but suddenly her legs felt as if they were anchored in concrete.
Vaughn’s arms flailed, and his upper body heaved as he too tried to pull himself free of the light’s iron grip.
Suddenly, the wave shattered, dissolving into a million shimmering pieces.
Angela felt a sideways wrenching sensation in her gut as the twinkling fragments flew apart and vanished.
Chapter 31
Blinking furiously, Vaughn tried to clear the light’s afterimage from his vision. He and Angela exchanged confused glances in the sudden silence.
She held up the gun. “I think it worked.”
Vaughn nodded hesitantly. Still blinking, he stood and then reached down, helping Angela to her feet.
As the spots faded from his vision, he looked around and then tilted his head. “What the …?”
Turning, Angela slowly shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
They had been in a hallway, a long, skinny one, about the size of what you’d see in a typical office building, but now they were in a large, open room. The floor had a similar pattern to the one they’d run across in the corridor. However, the walls of this chamber were a good twenty or thirty feet away, and the ceiling stood significantly higher than had the hall’s.
Vaughn saw something else new and pointed at it. “Angela, look.”
An open door sat at the far side of the cavernous room.
He started walking toward it. Speaking softly, he waved for her to follow. “Let’s check it out.”
As they neared the door, Vaughn heard a distant rumble coming through the opening. With each step, the sound ramped up another notch. Soon it had risen to a dull roar. He could feel the metal floor vibrating in time with the din.
Angela caught up with him and placed a hand on his arm. “What’s making that noise?”
Before Vaughn could respond, a new sound joined the cacophony.
Rhythmic metallic pinging stabbed the air, and the gut-shaking rattle of massive machinery shook his bones.
Vaughn reached the opening. He took up a position along the wall to the right of the doorway and motioned for Angela to get behind him. She raised an eyebrow in protest but finally pressed herself to the wall next to him.
After a moment, he peered outside and then flinched, quickly pulling back out of sight.
Standing with his back to the wall, breathing heavily, Vaughn tried to comprehend the scene that he had glimpsed.
Angela gave him a questioning look.
Not wanting to shout above the din coming through the opening, he pointed two fingers at his eyes and then gestured for her to look outside. He stepped aside, letting her move to the door.
Angela gazed through it and then looked back at Vaughn.
He saw his confusion reflected on her face.
The scene outside made no sense.
They had entered the building through a panel in the roof, and the structure had been in the center of a sprawling alien metropolis. Now they were on the ground floor and had somehow moved to the edge of the city.
When Vaughn had peeked through the door, he’d expected to see a sky choked with building tops.
Instead, he’d seen the ground and an open swath of cloud-covered sky. The bases of the tall, stainless-steel structures flanked the left and right sides of their building, but nothing but construction materials and broken concrete lined the ground opposite the open door.
Well, there was one other thing. The source of the tremendous noise that even now threatened to dislodge Vaughn’s teeth.
The near side of a massive, automated, all-in-one city constructor sat only a few hundred feet away, blotting out the lower portion of the leaden sky. Black smoke billowed frantically above its stadium-sized cauldron of molten metal.
Vaughn looked over Angela’s head and peered through the opening again.
He stared awestruck at the roiling black cloud that billowed above the vat. Then a dark structure appeared through a gap in the smoke.
Vaughn’s breath hitched.
He shook his head.
It couldn’t be …
Could it?
Forgetting their exposed position, he stepped from cover and stood in the center of the door. Vaughn stared at the vertically oriented supertanker. Half of its bow was already immersed in the cauldron.
Suddenly, Angela was at his side, tugging at his arm, trying to drag him back into the building. She was screaming something, probably for him to get back in, but it was impossible to hear her over the storm of sound emanating from the city builder and its burning cache.
