Tesla: A Teen Steampunk/Cyberpunk Adventure (Tesla Evolution Book 1) (29 page)

Nikola jumped up and unleashed an unrelenting barrage of deadly attacks, driving the beast back, but it did not let Isabelle go. Then a mighty hand came around, catching Nikola by surprise, knocking him clean across the street. He crashed into the wall on the other side, smashing his head. He fell to the ground and lay still.

The huge creature turned and slowly walked away with Sebastian’s mother in its claws, dragging her helpless body behind it.

“No!” Sebastian screamed.
 

He felt intensity inside his head build. His body felt like it was about to explode. He held his hands in front of him and released the tension forward. He saw the wave roll down the street after the creature. He dropped to his knees.
 

The creature stopped, looked back over its shoulder directly at Sebastian, shook its head and continued dragging the unconscious Isabelle behind its large, grotesque body.
 

For Sebastian, the world went sideways. He collapsed to the floor and darkness took him.

*

He woke with a start and called out for his mother.
 

Melanie stroked his head. She had a wet cloth in her hand. She looked very tired. “You need to rest,” she croaked.

He pushed against her and tried to stand up. He took a pace and collapsed to the ground.
 

“Lie down. You have severe concussion. You’re lucky to be alive. Think of Isaac for one minute.”

“Is he dead?”

“No … but his owl will never be the same.”

“I don’t have time for this.” He pushed her aside and charged off.

She lunged after him, but her exhausted body couldn’t move fast enough. She called out for him to stop, but it was futile.

He ran to the place he knew he could find Nikola. Up the stairs he staggered and into the library. Nikola was heavily bandaged. Blood was weeping from the strapping around his head and arm.

“They have her,” Sebastian cried.

“Don’t you think I know that? I want her back just as much as you, but we don’t have anything to fight with. We have nothing left.”

“So you won’t do anything?”

“We
can’t
do anything.”

“There must be something.”

“We have no weapons. We have no soldiers. We have no plan. If we march on them in numbers they’ll kill every single one of us. I wish, for all the stars in the sky, that there was another way.”

“But it’s my
mother
,” he cried.
 

He turned and flew out of the library. He ran out into the street, tears running down his face. He felt dizzy, the street swirled around him and he collapsed, unconscious, on the ground.

36

THE CITY HAD gone into lockdown. People were either hiding in the makeshift defense quarters in the city hall, or were on patrol around the gates. Everything was shut or broken to an extent that no one could get in. It would be days before reinforcements turned up and there had been constant sightings of cyborg patrols. The occasional shot had been taken at them, but they always managed to stay out of range.
 

Melanie and Sebastian watched the sun set from their usual position on the roof. Sebastian threw stones into the street below. Melanie idly kicked her heels.

“It’s not fair,” Sebastian said. “I only had her back for such a short time. Now she’s gone again and they won’t go and get her.”

“Before I say something good, I’m going to say something bad. They’re right. The city
is
weak. It has no power, no might. Attacking the enemy for one person is crazy and would only end up with the senseless slaughter of everyone.”

“So what’s the good part?”

“That
was
the good part. Just kidding. Sometimes, on special missions, a smaller force is better than a larger one.” She smiled and gave him a wink.

“Are you saying we should go?” he said.

“Do you want to stay? Seems to me the longer we stay here the more likely it is the cyborgs will attack.”

“They really seemed determined about something. It was almost like they were fighting for survival.”

“They really don’t like your family. It would be good to find out why. Something’s been bugging me. Out of all the places in this big wide country, how did the cyborgs find you in your town? How did they know you’d come here? It’s almost like someone’s been watching you and telling the cyborgs where you are. I think there’s been a rat in your nest.”

“I’ll bet it was my aunt Ratty.”

“That would be a coincidence,” Melanie said. “Imagine if your aunt called Ratty was one. Maybe it’s something you should think about.”

“I miss my old home.”

“Really? You don’t like running and fighting for your life? Wondering if today’s the last day you’ll be alive?”

He looked sideways at her. “I often think about the people I’ve lost along the way and wonder what’s happened to them. I wonder if Dr. Filbert is okay, and how Merv and Sheila are doing, and what Bindi’s up to.”

“She was that girl you liked, wasn’t she?”

“I didn’t like her. She was, well …” He smiled. “She seemed pretty excitable.”

She gave him a nudge. “Yeah, course she was. Wonder why.”

Time clicked by. They watched the guards wander by down in the streets below.

“I’m sure I know the answer to this,” she said, “but when did you want to go?”

“Now.” He stood up.

She stood up with him. “I thought so. I’ve already packed food and stuff. Let’s meet in the school ruins in twenty minutes. Cheer up, kiddo, we’re going to save your mom.”

*

“What’s he doing here?” Sebastian said, pointing at Gavin. He looked unimpressed.
 

They had gathered in the charred remains of the tesla school. Parts of it had remained intact, but most of it had been demolished and it was now unsafe, making it the perfect location for a secret clubhouse.
 

Sebastian and Melanie sat opposite each other on the remnants of several beds.

“Ah, well, I … Gavin’s good at planning,” Melanie said. “And we need a plan. We can’t just run screaming at the cyborgs and hope they don’t notice. We need a plan.”

Sebastian gave her a long stare. “This is very suspicious.”

Gavin spoke up. “I was caught by them for a short while. I learned some things, valuable information we could use in times of duress.”

“Like what?”

“They have a problem with water.”

“I knew that,” Sebastian said. “What else?”

“I don’t want to talk about it yet. My head still hurts when I think about it.”

Sebastian sighed and shook his head. He looked at Melanie. “All right, I know why you and I are here, and I can sort of understand why you want Gavin, but explain to me why we need Isaac.”

“He looked at me with those eyes and I couldn’t say no,” she said. “And we might need someone expendable if we get stuck.”

“Hey!” Isaac shouted. He was several beds away from the group, searching through the abandoned effects to see if there was anything worth taking on the expedition and stuffing things into a pack.

“Just kidding,” she told him. “No, I’m not,” she whispered behind her hand to Sebastian.

“I heard that, too.”

She shrugged. “Isaac’s good at taking instructions. He’s packed everyone’s travel packs without complaining.”

“You only want to boss him around.”

“I don’t think we should get caught up in who does what,” she said. “It’s a dangerous journey and we should all be working together.”

“And his owl?”

She let out a long sigh. “You got me on that one. But if it keeps him happy, then what does it matter. Remember, he’s the expendable one.”

“Hey!”

*

They peered down the dark alleyway to the western gate. They had found a deep alcove next to a derelict shop. It was late, way past everyone’s bedtime. Most of the lanterns had been extinguished, and a serene tranquility had settled over the city.

“I think we could’ve timed our departure a bit better,” Sebastian said.

“How were we to know it would rain?” said Isaac.

“How about if someone had looked out the window? It shouldn’t have been hard to tell. Great big broiling clouds so dark they blacked out the night sky. The sound of thunder. Lightning.”
 

“You were the ones on the roof, looking in that direction,” Isaac replied.

“I want it recorded that Isaac’s the only person with a raincoat. He managed to pack one for himself but no one else,” Melanie said.

“I’m still injured and you didn’t exactly give me much time. Or a list.”

Sebastian shushed them. “We’ve got huge challenges ahead and arguing won’t help,” he hissed.

“We now have the added challenge of not slipping on the wet cobblestones,” Melanie said.

They watched the gate. The fat sergeant was sitting behind the desk. He was surrounded by various weapons and was staring intently at the far door.

Sebastian concentrated, and the weapon nearest the door toppled over. The guard let out a long string of expletives, but stayed resolutely behind his desk.
 

Sebastian nudged Melanie. “He sounds like you,” he whispered.

“I do not swear like that.”

“Yes, you do,” the three boys replied.

“I had a reason. I was sick.”

“And fat,” said Isaac.

“I was not fat. I merely carried some slight padding from my illness.”

“From too much food, you mean,” muttered Isaac. He gave Melanie a bleak look when she punched his shoulder.
 

She lowered her fist. “You remind me of why I’m glad my sister’s a thousand miles away.”

“Shh!” Sebastian hissed again. “We need to get closer.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated. The weapon right next to the guard fell off the desk and clattered to the floor. The guard shrieked but failed to move.

“This is stupid,” said Melanie. “He’s not moving for anything.” She stood up and stormed into the gatehouse. She stood there with her arms on her hips, glaring at him.

“What are you doing here, young lady?” He stood up, shaking his finger at her. The button from his trousers flew off, his belt buckle snapped open, and his trousers fell down around his ankles. He shrieked again and ran for the storeroom.

Everyone dashed into the gatehouse.

“We need a key,” hissed Melanie.
 

“No, we don’t,” Sebastian replied. He concentrated. He could feel the weight of the cogs in the lock. He clarified their alignment, and they clicked into place. The gate unlocked and they stumbled into the outside world.

Sebastian closed the door and ran to catch up with the others as they made their way over to the hill, with the sand quickly turning to mud under their feet. They took refuge against the hill. Sebastian could sense the beast beneath.
 

“I’ll be back,” he whispered.

I’ll be back,
came the echo.

He was simultaneously worried and cheered, and he didn’t know why.

37

THE RAIN DROVE down from the heavens. The sky was pitch black. Visibility could only be measured in yards. The night had crawled by marginally slower than the scenery. Time lost its relevance as the weather drove against them.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this wet. Even when I’ve been swimming,” Melanie said.

Gavin had offered her his jacket, but it was so wet it was as effective as a sieve. The desert plains had turned to mud, and their progress had slowed to a crawl.

“In the planning of this great mission, did anyone check where we were heading?” Gavin said.

“I know roughly where we’re going,” replied Sebastian.

“Good. Nothing like being certain.”

“I can feel the direction.”

“This isn’t some special kind of Sebastian’s intuition, is it?”

“I could send up my owl,” Isaac interjected.

“You do know your owl isn’t real, don’t you?” Melanie asked him.

“It’s a perfect replica. I got it off Albert.”

“If it was real, it could scout out a direction or some shelter for us,” she said.

“It can fly.”

There was silence for several minutes as the troop marched on through the eternal mud.

Eventually Sebastian spoke. “Isaac, is your owl an automaton?”

“What’s that?”

“A self-operating machine. You can set it to do a particular task like fly. Does your owl do something like that? Does it search?”

“Maybe,” he replied cautiously. “But it hasn’t been the same since the tesla tower fell on it.”

“We’ve been going for hours,” Sebastian said. “We should try to find somewhere dry where we can get some rest and dry out a bit. What kind of things can your owl search for, Isaac?”

Isaac held it up and read from the words on the back. “Mice, keys, home, and the glint of a solitary beacon of hope in the pit of the night.”

“Really?” Gavin asked.

“Actually, it says ‘light,’ but I’d thought I’d spice it up a bit.”

“Do the light setting. It’s a million-to-one chance out here, but you never know,” Sebastian said.

Isaac took out a large key and inserted it into the bottom of the owl. He twisted for several minutes. He changed hands and continued to turn the key. After several more minutes he swapped hands again and continued. He had his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth and a fixed expression of concentration. He paused and shook his hand, then continued to wind.

“Oh, this is stupid, give it to me. We’ll be here all night.” Melanie snatched it out of his hands. After several minutes she swapped her hands.

Isaac looked smug. “See, it’s not as easy as you think.”

Finally the mechanism tightened and slowed, until at long last it clicked as far as it would go. Melanie handed it back with a look of triumph on her face, secretly wringing her hands behind her back.

Isaac double-checked the setting on the back, flicked a small lever on the underside of the owl’s feet, and threw it into the air. The wings flapped with a chaotic urgency as it fought for height. It flapped in larger and higher circles until it shot off in a northerly direction.

“Did you see that?” Isaac said proudly.

“It’s headed over there,” Melanie said. She pointed off to the north.