Earthbound (34 page)

“Too late for that.”

So Pace started firing at the Bions,
attracting their attention to our location. I crawled a few yards
to my left until I was pretty sure I was out of the Bion’s
peripheral vision. Unless they had metallic eyes in the backs of
their heads. I had a plan of course. I had a brick of C4 in my coat
pocket, with a fuse inserted and ready to go. I thought I might
need it to crack open that cargo bay, but maybe I’d crack open
those Bions instead. I lit that fuse fast.

Then I ran, I ran hard at one of the Bions,
right in the middle of the pack. Not sure that creature knew I was
coming. I reached around and slammed that brick of C4 into its
metal chest. The C4 was like clay so it sorta mushed in between the
ridges of its exoskeleton. And then I just got the hell outta there
as quick as I could. Not quite fast enough – the explosion knocked
me on my ass. But when it was done, I spun around quick to see what
damage I’d done. The Bion I’d attacked was still standing tall, but
its metal exoskeleton was a smoking mess. I’d blown a hole in its
shell. I’d also done collateral damage to the others. Good to know
that with enough force, that metal could be broken.

“Light ‘em up!” I yelled. But Pace didn’t
need to wait on me. He’d already started blasting away at the
Bions. Three fell in short order, metallic goo spurting everywhere.
I took out another with a close shot to the chest, then I leapt
onto the back of the one I’d blasted with the C-4. It hadn’t budged
since the explosion. I’d hurt him badly. A quick shot to the face
through a hole in his exoskeleton hurt him even more.

Much as it might’ve been nice to celebrate,
we immediately looked over to see how the others were faring.
Somehow they’d gotten to their horses. Boze and Becca were riding
off to the north. I was glad to see Boze off to get Becca out of
there, as planned. The Bions weren’t as fast as the horses –
certainly not forty miles per hour fast. No way they’d catch them.
Not with those heavy clanking metal legs.

Caught a quick glimpse of Becca’s hair
flowing behind her. Now I know that was the last time I’d ever seen
her. I hoped Boze would be good to her, and she’d live a long
life.

I needed to get my head back in the game. I
looked around for Lister. Didn’t see him anywhere. Maybe he ran
off. If he did, I couldn’t decide whether he was a coward or the
smart one. Tempting. That left Birkin and Priestly, bravely staying
behind, riding their horses in circles around the Bions and taking
shots at them while trying to avoid the Bions’ laser fire.

Birkin’s horse took a shot and collapsed to
its side. Birkin went flying and rolled in the weeds. The five
remaining Bions ran toward him – they’d swarm him in moments. We
had to save him. Even though it was Birkin.

Pace and I ran toward Birkin and took shots
at the Bions. Wished I had another brick of C4. We did catch their
attention though, and four of ‘em turned to return fire on us. Only
one was still headed for Birkin.

Priestly rode in close – a little too close,
and gave one of the Bions a shotgun blast directly on the top of
its head. The Bion just collapsed. Best kill shot I’d seen all day.
But another Bion whipped its arm around faster than any of us
thought it could and grabbed hold of Priestly’s leg. Priestly hit
the ground hard as his horse kept running off. Then the Bion picked
Priestly up by the neck and held him over his head. I heard bones
shattering. Priestly was too close to the Bion for a clean shot but
I took a few anyway. The first one nicked away at the Bion’s shell
around its head. The second shot broke a hole through that
exoskeleton. And the third shot connected with its brain. It
collapsed almost straight down. But so did Priestly. I wasn’t
hopeful what would be left of him.

But there wasn’t time to think about that
yet. There were still two Bions firing at us with another almost at
Birkin.

“Can you handle these two?” I asked Pace.

“Oh yeah,” he replied with sarcasm. “No
problem!”

I reached over to one of the dead Bions and
ripped its weapon out of its dead hands and tossed it to Pace.

“How ‘bout now?”

Pace had a big ‘ol smile on his face.

So Pace took on two Bions while I ran to stop
that third Bion from getting to Birkin. I saw that Bion raising its
arm to aim at Birkin, who was lying still in a pile on the ground.
I opened fire but I was out of shells. Didn’t have any ammo to
reload. So I tossed the rifle and pulled out my ten-shooters, but I
needed to be at closer range to have a chance. I opened fire and
didn’t even get its attention. By now it was standing directly over
Birkin. It could shoot and kill him in a split second. But it
didn’t. It was hesitating. Why the eff was it hesitating? I didn’t
know, but it gave me a split second to do something. Anything. So I
did the only thing I could think of. I ran right at it and jumped
on its back. Now I got its effing attention. It shook wildly trying
to shake me off while its arms craned backward to shoot at me. But
I managed to be quicker somehow. I got the nose of my revolver
tucked underneath its metallic ribcage and took a shot. It
staggered, so I shot again. Its arms lowered. I tugged my weight so
the Bion would fall on its back and I hopped off to my feet as it
landed. I shoved my revolver underneath the exoskeleton around its
face and was ready for the kill shot.

And then the thing kinda looked at me.

Its metal eyes, it was hard to explain, but
in that moment they really seemed human. They seemed like they were
showing regret.

Its lips curled up to speak. I really wanted
to hear what it had to say so I let it.

“K-kill me…”

I was stunned. And then its silver eyes
widened at me, almost pleading.

“P-please…”

I nodded. I think I understood. And I opened
fire.

As I stood up I realized something. I’d done
a lot of killing over the years. Cattle, wolf, whatever. Animals.
Mankins don’t count – they’re just robots. But these Bions. They’re
not just robots. There’s a human in there. And I’d just killed one.
Several. I felt like I was one stop closer to being exactly like my
father. And I liked it. And I knew my life would never be the
same.

I looked up in time to see Pace killing the
last of the Bions with their own weapon, easily cutting through its
exoskeleton. I wanted to yell out – no, don’t shoot ‘em! There’s a
man in there! But of course I didn’t. Mine wanted to die. Maybe
they all did. Maybe we were helping them out. Putting them out of
their misery. Maybe their inner hesitation was the only reason why
we weren’t all dead.

I wondered how the hell anyone could be
turned into a Bion. And what kind of man exactly Shādo Shay
was.

“You okay?” Pace shouted. That kinda brought
me out of it. I nodded and turned toward Birkin. He was alive,
breathing well, just knocked out cold. Pace hovered over Priestly.
Then I saw Pace lean down and check Priestly’s pulse. Then Pace
removed his white hat and held it over his heart.

I didn’t care much for Priestly, that’s for
sure. But he fought for his friends when it mattered. He was worthy
of being a Disrupter after all.

I lowered my hat and walked over to the body.
We all stared at the carnage for a second. What’s that expression –
it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt? Well, yeah. We knew
the risks of bank robbing. But this – it never seemed possible.

My ears were ringing from all the shotgun
blasts, but I could still hear in my head the sound of Priestly’s
neck breaking. Wouldn’t forget it anytime soon. I’d heard that
sound when I’d been butchering. But it wasn’t some cattle this
time.

After a time, Lister showed up. Turned out he
had run away. Lister couldn’t even look at Priestly. Guilt is a
funny thing.

“This the way you handle adversity?” Pace
asked.

“It was good strategy,” was all Lister could
reply.

Pace persisted. “Good strategy to let one of
your friends die while you run away?”

“It wasn’t like that. I got a bad
concussion.”

Pace got in close to Lister. He pulled down
his kerchief so he could see his face. “Priestly might not be like
this if you hadn’t run off. Think about that.”

The wrong one got killed. No question about
that. But I pulled Pace back off of Lister anyway. Pace was right
but no point in pressing a finger in the wound.

Soon Birkin came to, and I gave him some
water from my canteen. He held his aching head, happy for a second
just to be alive. But then he looked at all of us and did some
counting. He was good at math. Birkin’s horse was dead too. Poor
animal deserved better. Birkin started to gag so we turned his head
so he wouldn’t choke on his own vomit.

By this point, I was half expecting the
Nuggets to turn against us. One of theirs was dead. No gold. No
honor among thieves. And I was right.

“This was your fault anyway,” Lister sobbed.
“You set us up. You knew there was no gold in there!”

“We didn’t set you up,” I replied. “Shādo
Shay set us up.”

Lister drew his pistol and pointed it at my
head. “I don’t know who Shādo Shay is and I don’t care.”

Birkin put his hand on Lister and pulled him
away from me. Then Birkin looked at me. “I’d be dead if not for
you,” Birkin said. “So for today we part company. But if I see you
again, I’ll murder you where you stand.”

He’d never get that chance. Others would beat
him to it. Ha.

“You’ll take Priestly’s body and give him a
proper burial?” I asked.

Birkin nodded.

And with that, the Disrupters disbanded.
Almost before we ever banded together in the first place.

Pace and I were alone. For good.

“The Disrupters are over,” I said.

“Nope. So long as you and me are together,
the Disrupters are still going strong.”

And that suited me fine.

Before we left the battlefield, Pace and I
hastily picked up what we could. Ammunition, weapons. We took as
many of the Bion guns as we could carry, which was two apiece. We
would’ve taken the transport but since I’d scared off those horses,
we had no way of moving it. Even that part of our plan failed.

I noticed there was writing on the side of
the Bion weapons. I had Pace read it for me. It said PERSUADER. "So
they're called Persuaders. Very persuasive."

So we each had two Persuaders apiece. I
figured out they had a safety to keep the weapon from firing
accidentally. I pried off the safeties. Never did much like
safeties.

“What now?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem smart
to keep toying with Shādo Shay.” Pace agreed. One thing was clear.
We were out of options. It was time to leave the Great Plains once
and for all. “We should listen to Becca and just leave,” I said.
“Take what we have right now and go.” Then I hesitated for a
moment. “Course we can’t do that.”

“No, you’re right,” Pace replied.

And then we spoke over each other.

“We have to go after the gold,” Pace
said.

“We have to go after Becca,” I said.

We laughed a little. We were both right, and
we were both wrong.

“We have to get our gold,” Pace pleaded. “As
much as we can carry. That’s the only thing that will buy our
freedom.”

I didn’t want to agree with Pace, but he was
right. I reluctantly agreed.

We reached the edge of the Old City. Wasn’t
gonna take much time to get to our hideout. By now, Charon and
Flashbound knew their way past those crumbling skyscrapers. We
dismounted right outside our hideout. Looked like everything was
where we’d left it.

“Need anything from here?” Pace asked.
“Because we’re not coming back. Sorry Ash, this was a great
hideout.”

I nodded with appreciation.

We tossed some food into the saddlebags,
leaving plenty of room for gold. Tossed in whatever blankets and
clothes we could find too. Weapons as well, whatever we had. But we
holstered those Persuaders and pocketed the charges. Every other
weapon was really second best.

We were ready to get our gold.

We left our horses in the makeshift stable to
give them a rest – they’d be strained enough carrying all that gold
on them. We walked in the direction of our stash. I noticed it was
a fairly warm day, and what little sun we got shining in between
the skyscrapers was pretty bright. I prefer the cold I suppose. I
took a sip of water from my pouch. Noticed I wasn’t carrying much,
but there was more in the saddlebags.

“Our best bet is Billings,” Pace said. “I
hear their bank is pretty big. Maybe we can find another transport
there. Move on from there.”

“Suits me fine,” I replied. It didn’t really.
This was what Becca was pleading us to do. We were doing it, only
without her. Didn’t seem right.

We walked another block when I noticed
something wasn’t right. I could swear I heard something.

“Could be Boze and his Nuggets,” Pace
suggested quietly. “Maybe they forced Rebecca to tell them where we
are.”

“Nope. What I’m hearing is… definitely
robot.”

That got Pace’s attention. We stopped for a
second and then walked a few steps. Definite faint sound of metal
wheels spinning. We stopped again, and the wheels stopped again.
Pace and I exchanged a glance.

Pace was pissed, I could tell. “Mankins.
Damned things followed us didn’t they? All the way from the
transport! That was Shādo Shay’s plan all along, wasn’t it? If we
escaped we’d lead him straight to the gold.”

That sounded about right. I was frustrated we
hadn’t thought our plan through. But so much for that. Mankins were
nearby. Couldn’t ignore them just cause I was annoyed. “If we can
get to a higher elevation maybe we can see how many Mankins we’re
dealing with. We’ve got the Persuaders. Maybe we’ve got the
advantage.”