The Black Pod (3 page)

His hand came to rest on the
Glock.

“
Tony…”
Box
turned her head toward him and the breeze blew the hair from
her face.

“
Yes, Box.”

“
I am so very sorry for
your… loss.” Her voice cracked.

When Tony looked
up,
she had her hand
over
her mouth like she was trying not
to cry. His reaction was
explosive
.

He threw the Glock at her, screaming,
“Don’t you do that! Don’t you dare.” He was on his feet storming up
to her even before the gun had stopped clattering on the floor,
“YOU were supposed to keep them SAFE! It was your primary function
and you FAILED!”

He stopped in front of
her. Her face was in her hands as her shoulders shook. His rant
continued, “I know we are in Survival Mode. I
understand
the
protocols in Hostile Environments. Do not try to manipulate me. I
feel their deaths, I have to bear them! Don’t mock me, or disgrace
them!”

His face was red as he screamed, “You
have only one job left. Don’t muck it up.”

Slowly Box raised her
head. She whispered, “You think this is pretending? An attempt to
manipulate you? I wish. You think I don’t know that I was
programmed
to have empathy? You think I don’t know that I
was made to feel this? Because I do. Forced to feel the horror of
it by brilliant men and women who thought that if I loved every
man, woman and child on the
Ventura,
I would do anything to
protect them.”
Box
was standing straight now, defiant.
“Damn them for making me feel this, and survive… None of them
thought of what it would be like when this happened. After it
happened.”

Box
turned away then, drying her eyes
on a sleeve as she walked ninety degrees around the
dome.

Tony watched her go as his anger
dissipated. He had just glanced down at the Glock when Box called
to him.

“
Tony, they’re back!”
There was hope in her voice now. She was looking at him but
pointing to the north. Wynn was there, jogging along at
a comfortable
pace with Lane beside her. He could see the cloud
of her breath vividly in the sunlight, on the
cold
autumn
morning.

She wore fresh clothes and a cloak,
and she was smiling.

Adams turned from the tiny figures in
the distance as he walked up to the image of Box and looked into
her virtual eyes.

“
I’m sorry, Box. I am.
Truly. We need to do something. Not just sit here. The weight of it
is… Let’s find out what happened. Let’s secure the pod. Because… if
we have a long haul ahead…”

“
Thank you, Chief.”
Box
whispered
.

“
For what?” Adams
asked.

“
For not dismissing me as
just a machine.” Box averted her eyes then. She looked at Wynn in
the distance.

There was a long pause.

“
Box, I want you to care
for me that much, and now her.” He gestured with his chin
towards
Wynn
.

Adams turned and was down
the ladder with practiced ease. The hatch was already open and
the
ramp
descending. He waited for them in the middle of
the ramp. He could see her smile from a hundred meters
away.

She surprised him.

Wynn ran up the ramp and
threw her arms around his neck in a ferocious hug. Thrown
back
on his
heels,
he almost didn’t
catch
her.
She was so
light and so small, his moment’s surprised delay didn’t
matter.

“
Keeper Adams. Come,” Wynn
said as she released him. Their noses were inches apart. She wanted
to know if he understood.

Box spoke in his
mind,
Tony, look at her clothes. She has
been somewhere we should investigate.

“
Yes.” Was all Adams said,
drawing an instant whoop from the girl as she wriggled out of
his
grasp.
She began to pull him down the ramp by the
hand.

Lane watched all this with curious,
intelligent eyes.

“
Wait. Let me get my
things.” He was pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. She
stopped tugging, understanding his meaning. She hesitated for only
a moment, then ran ahead of him into the pod.

She whistled and Lane
trotted right in. Adams saw them both disappear into the
bathroom,
but only Wynn came right out. She started to put protein bars
from the kitchen in a small brown satchel she had with her now,
under her cloak.

Adams walked in to get his
gear and walked
past
the bathroom
to see Lane drinking
thirstily from the toilet.

Shaking his head, he got
his tactical vest and pack from a locker and put them on, then
retrieved his suppressed AR. Absently he checked his holster for
his Glock. It was there and secured. He didn’t remember
recovering
it.

Two minutes later they were down the
ramp and away.

He had missed her voice, even if he
could not understand her words. It reminded him of
birdsong.

***

Adams realized two hours later, as
they crossed an area that was still green, that they were on an
actual path, moving north. Not quite a road, though Wynn could
follow it, even in the most heavily burned areas.

His gear included a Fly, a small
surveillance drone that was integrated with his Heads Up Display.
It patrolled around them and could function as a secure comm relay
to the pod and Box. The Fly revealed on an elevated survey that the
strip of land they were on was about a kilometer across with lakes
on each side.

It was burned
almost
entirely
flat.

After the third
hour,
they had been climbing up toward a ridge, elevation
increasing. It was very steep and Adams looked up at it with the
expression of someone that doesn’t like to climb.

Lane ran ahead.

Everything here was burned to cinders.
Winds from behind them would have blown the fire up the hills all
the faster. The rain had since washed the ash away, and the path
was passable and easy to see.

Walking now among large
broken
boulders,
he became wary. This was the
perfect place for a trap. The rocks were all taller than his head,
cutting off his line of sight.

Box whispered in his
mind.
Tony, something isn’t right. Lane
has disappeared. It has gotten too quiet. Even the birds have
hushed here.

Adams ordered the Fly to
be returned and follow them from above. A small window opened in
his HUD, showing the Fly’s point of view. It was rapidly descending
and coming
up
on
them from the rear.

It was almost too late.

Were it not for the Fly, Adams would
have mistaken the new Telis Raptor for Wynn’s pet, Lane. But Lane
could be identified from above, on the path ahead, facing off with
a larger Telis. Lane was easy to identify from the asymmetrical
scorching of his mane.

Adams activated automated
targeting and red flagged eight of the beasts crouched in the
boulders around them. He manually changed Wynn and then Lane to the
designation ‘
Friendly’
just as the first Telis attacked.

With the ease of
practice,
he brought his rifle to bear. He fired and was on to the next
target before the first beast’s dead body had even crashed to
the
ground
mid-
lunge.

“
Run!” he called to Wynn.
She didn’t question or hesitate. She ran. It only took a few
moments before they were standing behind Lane. Tony’s rifle barked
and cycled. The huge Telis facing Lane fell with a bullet through
the eye into
its
brain.

On his
HUD,
he could
see them coming from behind like the flood from a broken dam. He
turned and his gun began dropping them as he slowly walked
backward
. The beasts kept on coming, right over the bodies of their
pack mates. Eleven of them lay dead, nearly choking the path
between the rocks.

Then he was hit.

There had been an overhang
in the rocks that concealed a Telis directly to his left. As he was
backing up the
path,
the beast had struck him hard on
his left forearm with
its
cruel tail spike, so hard that
he
was knocked
to the right and almost dropped the rifle.
His
arm was laid open to the bone in a deep gash from wrist to
elbow.

Before Tony could draw his
Glock or the Telis could strike again, Lane crashed into it,
clamping his jaws
around
its
neck. Lane’s tail
hit
the other Telis in the
ribs over and over, stabbing deep each time until
it
no longer moved.

Tony pressed his right
hand as best he could to close the wound. He didn’t feel it
yet,
but knowing what arterial spray was, he knew it was bad. He
had med supplies in his pack, but they would do him no good if more
of those things came.

“
Box, I need a secure spot
to fix this,” Adams said as he examined the gash. It was a
mistake.

Wynn was suddenly pulling
him up the trail to a shelf that backed against the sheer face of
the wall above. She pushed him to
sit
. Without a
word,
she forced him down as she untied her simple cord belt. She
wrapped it around his upper arm and using a green branch she had
quickly cut
to
length,
she cruelly tightened the
makeshift tourniquet around his upper arm.

Quickly and quietly she cut strips
from the hem of her cloak to tightly bandage his arm and fashion
him a sling. Lane stood guard just below them.

When she
was done
, there was no hesitation. She had Tony back on his feet and
moving quickly through a great fissure in the cliff face. Lane
brought up the rear as they moved.

The gap in the cliff they
traveled, showed tiny strip of sky above was getting closer as
they
walked
. Tony kept the Glock in his
right hand as he watched ahead. Lane was out of sight behind them
when they emerged from the crevasse into another world.

The bluff behind them had
stopped the fire. It was lush and green here. In the
distance,
he could see a
vine-covered
stone tower. A small inlet
from the lake helped create part of the moat around a keep wall
that surrounded the tower. All was overgrown.

It was less than a kilometer away. He
knew then that he could make it.

***

They crossed the mossy
bridge as his vision was beginning to tunnel. There was a small
door to the right of
a
massive double door
in the Keep’s wall.
The hinges didn’t even squeak as they entered and closed the door
behind them.

The cobblestone courtyard
had a running fountain in the center. It was simple but artsy in
its own way, with a sphere in the center of the pool covered in
glyphs. The water flowed out of a hole in the top center.
A broad
sill went all the way around it, suitable for
sitting
. Adams took off his sling and gear and placed it all on the
sill before he sat.

He opened the side of the pack and
withdrew the trauma kit. He pressed the injector to his thigh and
it filled his veins with ice. It was as if a cold breeze had blown
away the fog that caused the tunnel vision.

Wynn was
talking constantly
now
,
apparently
trying to dissuade
him from unwrapping the arm. She helped him in the end. The trauma
kit was designed to be used
one-handed
. He allowed the
wound to fall open, then sprayed it full of medicinal nanites. Wynn
helped him seal the wound with medical adhesive and clean the arm
with
individual
towelettes that sizzled to the touch and seemed
to eat the blood and dirt. He finally sealed it up with a clear
med-bandage that he painted on the full length of the
wound.

Tony took meds that would quickly
stimulate blood production. He was already thirsty. He emptied his
canteen and refilled it from the fountain as Wynn
watched.

With is left arm throbbing and his
fever already climbing, he opened a ration bar and offered it to
Wynn. She shook her head at him as she lowered a wooden bucket into
the water. Lane walked up as if he knew the drill, and she poured
the bucket over him, again and again.