Requiem (64 page)

'I'm not
picking up anything on the scanners,' said Belameir. 'I don't think
anyone's here.'

They passed
over the local shipping dock. Bodies were strewn over the landing
pads, contorted and broken, left where they fell from the closing
doors of evacuating ships.

'Most of them
would've tried to leave after the news came through,' said
Belameir. 'They would've been scrambling to get to the available
ships. They would've fought.'

'There must be
some still down there,' said Seline. She looked over the thermal
images on the display.

'There's
nothing,' said Belameir. 'If they didn't leave on a ship then they
died trying to get to one.'

They passed
over the city without stopping. They followed the maglev track that
led out from the city walls. The sand was already encroaching upon
the outer wall. Building itself up, grain by grain until it could
launch its final assault upon the city itself.

They followed
the maglev track until the broken silhouette of Vale appeared in
the distance. Further down the track itself was the platform where
Seline had first met Sear. Flames danced upon its corpse. They
moved closer. The platform had fallen into the track. Beneath the
flames was the wreckage of a maglev train, crumpled in upon
itself.

They passed
over the abandoned Vale and headed over the desert lands, straight
for Sinn.

When they
arrived Belameir suggested they park the ship on the outskirts of
the city to keep from inciting the Downfall Warlord's followers.
Seline agreed. They had no way of knowing if the Warlord had made
it back to Earth but his followers would no doubt still be active,
would still be carrying out their duty.

The ship
touched down on the edge of the city. Seline pulled the harnesses
from her chest and waist and walked to the exit ramp.

'Hold it,
Sel.'

She kept
walking.

'Seline. Wait!'
yelled Belameir. 'You can't just go out there. You need a better
plan than that.'

Seline stopped.
She opened the weapons locker by the loading ramp and took out a
handgun. She strapped the holster around her waist. She found her
bag and threw the strap over her shoulder.

'They're
killing each other out there, Seline,' said Belameir. 'It's a
bloody war zone. You can't just expect them drop what they're doing
to listen-'

'Do you have a
better plan?'

'We need to
stick together. It's too dangerous out there by yourself. We're
here to try to save people and we can't save people if we get
ourselves killed.'

'We don't have
time to fuck around either,' said Seline.

The ramp
opened. She stepped out. Her foot sunk into the sand. Above her, a
pale blue emptiness blanketed the sky.

Belameir found
a gun and jumped out after her. He locked the ship and started
walking a few metres behind her.

Bones jutted
from the ground. Dried and cracked. Seline couldn't tell who or
what they belonged to. Wisps of black dust were lifted from their
remains and swept away in the wind. She was already starting to
sweat. The Yurrick gravity suit didn't help the situation. She
unzipped the front of it down to her waist and slid her arms out of
the sleeves and tied them around her waist. She adjusted the straps
of her singlet so that they wouldn't rub uncomfortably. Belameir
had almost caught up but still remained behind her. He could see
the scars that marked her back and her shoulders. Each scar was a
memory that could rise to choke and suffocate without warning.

They passed
through the first line of buildings at the edge of the rising
dunes. They emerged from the alley into an open, flattened court.
Belameir hung back just beyond the exit from the alley with his
hand to his gun as Seline strode towards two men who were sitting
on the pavement of an old basketball court bickering with one
another.

'But I went
last time!' said the black one.

'Yeah and I
went the two times before that,' said the white.

'That's not
fair! You said I wouldn't have to pay you back for that.'

'I said you
would
have to pay me back for that. Why the hell else would
I do it?'

'Look. How
about we compare blisters? Who ever has the biggest blister on
their foot doesn't have to walk.'

'You can't
solve every argument by comparing scabs!'

Seline stood at
the edge of the court and watched them.

The two men
held their feet up to one another. 'That's not on your foot,' said
the white one. 'That's on your ankle. You can't even follow your
own rules!'

'The ankle is
part of the foot. You can't have a foot without an ankle!'

'It doesn't
matter anyway. Look, this one by my toes is waaay bigger.'

'That doesn't
count.'

'Why the hell
not?'

'Look at that
skinny part right
there
.'

'Stop poking
it!'

'That's not
one
blister, that's
two
and you just ripped that bit
of skin to make it look like one big one!'

'You're always
doing this, Jerry!'

The voices
sailed away with the change in direction of the wind. Seline passed
the abandoned corpses of several office buildings. She saw two
elderly woman seated on a low concrete wall. The left most woman
lifted her arms in some bizarre, animated gesture like some
stringless marionette. The dirtied sheets of cloth hung loose from
her arms like an ineffectual scarecrow. Seline approached them.
'Have you heard the news?' she asked.

They continued
to talk to one another. 'He says he found it on the roadside but I
don't believe a word of it,' said the stringless marionette.

'I know exactly
what you mean,' said the other.

Seline coughed.
'Excuse me,' she said.

They both
looked at her, squinting from the light of the sun. The woman on
the right looked as if she was scowling but it was hard to tell
from beneath the grey fleece of her eyebrows.

'Have you
heard-'

'We're not
interested in your Jesus stories, lady,' said the marionette.

Seline
hesitated. 'This isn't about Jesus.'

They continued
their discussion. 'But do you know what he said to me after I-'

'Do you know
what's going to happen?' asked Seline. 'There is a machine on its
way to Earth and it's going to-'

'Jesus this,
Jesus that. Lady, we don't care what you're preaching. Now if you
don't leave I'm likely to call Jerry over here to make you.'

Seline stood as
if waiting for something. The right words to find her perhaps. Then
a shadow rose behind her. It was flat and stunted from the angle of
the sun. Jerry, Seline realised. She looked at the two women. They
stared back through dull eyes. Seline cast her gaze, she wanted to
say something more but the shadow behind her was far too close. She
strode off towards a cluster of tents and shanty dwellings.

'Keep your
thoughts to yourself, lady,' Jerry yelled behind her. 'We don't
want none o' your crazy to rub off on us, ya hear?'

She was
shuffling through the dirt, ignoring the calls behind her and
hoping he wouldn't follow her. She slowed when she noticed there
were more people milling around the tents and shacks that she was
approaching. She hesitated and stopped. Started again towards them.
Stopped again. Looked back from the direction she'd come. The three
figures were still watching her.

As she
approached the encampment she slowed down and looked around
cautiously.

'Excuse me,'
she said.

All but one of
the older men looked up at her. He had a knife in his hand. He was
slowly turning it with the tip of the blade stabbed into a wooden
crate. Seline realised that the knife was plastic. She relaxed a
little. He looked up at her, one eye closed, the other squinting
beneath folds of skin. He said nothing to Seline.

'Have you heard
the news?' she asked.

'Wha? Speak up,
missy,' he said.

'Have you heard
the news?' she said.

''bout the
bonfire tonight?'

'No. Abo-'

'The news about
what then, eh?'

'About... about
the big machine.'

He stared at
her, curious, slightly amused. More wrinkles appeared across his
brow. 'Ya mean the bonfire?'

'I mean the
machine from space. The one that destroys planets and stars.'

He stared
blankly through his one squinting eye.

'Icarus?' she
asked.

At the mention
of the name his closed eye opened slightly. Pus trickled from a
dark, dissolved hollow beneath the folds of skin. 'Don't get too
close to the bonfire tonight,' he said, 'or you'll get burned,
missy. That's what happened to Jacklin only two months ago.' He
gently nodded in the direction of a small girl a few metres away
inside one of the smaller tents. She was pushing a small, three
wheeled truck in the dirt. Her arm was scarred and red, slightly
reflective as if the skin were made of plastic.

Seline looked
at the ground then turned back to the man. 'Do you know what Icarus
is? Do you know that it's coming to destroy Earth? That it will be
here in only a few days?'

He remained
staring at the girl and spoke to Seline no more. He held the
plastic knife limply in his hand. She tried to rouse him with
warnings and threats but he gave no response. She approached him,
placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him. He continued to watch
the child, both of them oblivious to Seline's presence.

The eyes of the
rest of the camp were on her but their stares were vacant. She was
a ghost or maybe they were. She looked over them. The same distance
in all their eyes.

'Don't you want
to be saved?!' she screamed.

Everyone looked
away at once, back to whatever jobs they were busying themselves
with before she arrived.

Seline turned
to where the girl was but she was gone. She looked around for her
but there was no trace. She lingered in the encampment for a moment
longer, wondering what to do, then reluctantly left and started
towards the city centre. Belameir followed.

'Oh that? Yeah
we know all about that!' said the short, stout woman, standing at
her front door. Sand was piled up against either side of the
entrance.

'Then what are
you doing here?' asked Seline. 'Why aren't you trying to get away?
Off Earth?'

'Hah! What do
you think we're stupid?'

'Wha-'

'We know that's
just more stories from those NeoCorp execs. We heard what they did
in Vale. Smashed it to the ground they did and now they're trying
to get us to up and leave from Sinn so they can rip it up too. That
monster is just a story. A pretty girl like you should know
better.'

'What are you
talking about?' squealed an older, red headed woman who had stuck
her head out from the second story of the neighbouring house.
'NeoCorp aren't doing nothing of the sort.'

Seline looked
at the woman.
Finally, someone who knows.

'It's all to do
with the Yurrick,' said the red headed woman. 'They just trying to
get us off of Earth so they can move in and take it for themselves
and I bet they wanna give us all a ride to their home so they can
charge us for it and then charge us again for all that touristy
crap they got goin' on. It's a trap alright but it ain't nothin' to
do with NeoCorp. At least that's what Marcus Stilco told me.'

Seline's heart
had sunk with every word. It was crawling on the ocean floor.

'Marcus
Stilco?!' said the woman in the doorway. 'What the fuck does that
guppy know? Why, I saw him eating handfuls of dirt out the back of
the old casino yesterday as well as the day before that.'

'Don't you lie
to me, little lady! He ain't no dirt eater... well... not as often
as you claim anyway! And what were you doing out by the casino
anyway?'

'That's none of
your goddamn business.'

'Oh, don't tell
me what is and isn't my business you sand crawler!'

Seline tried to
interrupt the stream of banter but the women only spoke louder.
Their argument raged on despite her efforts to calm them. More
names were called. Rocks were thrown. Slowly, Seline walked away
down the street.

'No. I don't
wanna go. I'm just gonna wait here.'

'But, I can
help you... I can get you out of here. Why won't you believe me?'
said Seline.

'Because. This
is just a test. You can't fool me, lady. You're good at pretending
but not good enough to beat me.'

'I'm not
pretending. This isn't a trick.'

'Oh yeah? Then
where's this ship you're supposed to be rescuing people with?'

'It's on the
outskirts of the city. I can show you.'

'You can show
me the business end of a knife, that's what you can do and I ain't
falling for it.'

'Why would I
try to trick you?'

'Because you're
obviously working with those downfall guys.'

Seline could
see the man was eyeing the scars over her arm and chest. She held
her arm awkwardly behind her back. 'You're working for the
Warlord,' continued the man, 'and anyone who believes the rumours
about this space monster thing is gonna get himself killed. I've
seen it with my own eyes.'

'If you
jus-'

'Look here,
lady. Just leave me alone. I don't want any trouble.'

'I'm n-'

'Leave me
alone!'

He turned and
began limping away before breaking into a crippled sort of run
towards an old housing complex.

'I can help
you!' Seline yelled. She stood, waiting, looking up into the
building for some kind of response. She heard a click from the
doorway in front of her. A man stood there with a rifle trained on
her. It was an ancient looking gun. She wondered if it even worked
but not before she began to back away.