Chapter 10
Shipwreck
1
I remember back when this vessel was still floating in the sky. At first I was awed by its scale, and then… and then it started dropping metal shells filled with death. And when they hit the ground these giant clouds of ash grew up and out of them in the shapes of mushrooms. So many were dropped that even the heavens couldn't filter out the smoke, and ever since then the sky is in a constant state of overcast. This ship gave the world a slow death by pure obliteration. It didn't stop until the rebels brought it down with their own missiles, but even then… I don't think the ground ever truly settled after that. Sometimes I still feel the sickness under my heels. Can you feel it too?
She'd lowered down until her legs formed inverted V's, and rested her palms on the ground. There had been a few hippies back in the Bunker claiming they 'feel for the land', or 'sensed its sickness'. Maddox thought it was all just shit brought on by one too many hash brownies, but not now. It was the way Amaya delicately navigated her broad girth around with precise, even elegant movements he found to an extent, endearing. It was how she projected her metaphysical emotions into coherent thoughts his brain could interpret. She'd walked through evil itself, and although she'd come away alive, the scars were there to be seen by both the eye, and not. She'd formed a connection, however dark, to this place, and it was something that went further beyond his or any other humans' perception.
He felt bad for her, simply put. Despite being what she was, she projected this aura of innocence he hadn't seen in anyone else for a long, long time. Even his more corrupt self couldn't look at her like he had when he was younger, despite all his efforts to hold back the pettiness. This being next to him was responsible for all this destruction. His home, the normalcy of life prior to the apocalypse, and to an extent his childhood.
He was ashamed to find he blamed her. Perhaps when they found a quiet place, perhaps this Hive of hers he would say something, but until then, he would try to acclimate to her presence once again. Seven long years with nothing but alcohol and a frenemy named Jake to accompany him? It would take some getting used to.
"No," he said. "not really. I think I feel it more in my lungs, and in my ears, and… inside, I guess. It's like I'm… I'm exhausted all the time, even if I'm just sitting down. And I can't even keep my eyes open because of all the glare." He wiped a hand over his sweaty brow. "How did you survive up here all this time?"
In a way, I don't think I did. She rubbed her hands across her elbows, as if she were cold. When this ship – what did you call it? The Cyclops? - when it came down, cloaked in fire, I was stood at the time not so far away from where it landed. I felt the flames wash over me, and when I came out, and I saw the result? A part of me just died. I used to ask myself, how can they do this to us? But after the crash it changed to, how can I make them suffer like I have? Anyone affiliated with Weyland we could find after then, I made their deaths slow, and very painful. We could never match such a scale as them, but it brought me a sick sense of payback. I would not undo what I did to them, Maddox. Far worse has happened to far better people, and for that they had to suffer.
"I get that. But that just seems like you're acting as bad as them," he said. Amaya got to her feet, knees popping, and they resumed towards the wreck.
How could you compare me to Weyland? They destroyed a world; I slaughtered their soldiers. How does that make me 'as bad as them'?
"I could have worded that better, but… I don't know, it's just… You know one of the first things I thought about when I finally saw Solaris with my own eyes? It was the waste. You might or might not understand – I'm guessing you do – but this colony was built to get away from all the corporate and inner planet shit. And it was working, as far as I could tell. And all that effort just-" He snapped his fingers. "-gone. And it was all a waste because people were cruel. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that we don't need to add to that."
But how else can you show someone how much pain they've caused? The last thing they should know before the end is how cruel they've been, and what that suffering feels like.
"Once they're dead, that's it. Too late for learning by that point. I'm not saying you were wrong to kill them, I would have done the same if I were you, but drawing the end out, just like the whole world is right now? It's…"
… Unnecessary? she finished for him. I… I think I understand. I would be no better than the ones who started all this. She clicked her tongue in thought. Your words would have changed much if we heard them all those years ago.
"We? What do you mean?"
Me and my Hive. I birthed one not long after you and I... went our own ways. My daughters gave everything for me. And they paid for it with their lives, because I couldn't bear the burden of this world's curse. And you know the worst thing? I stopped caring. Stopped caring each time I felt them die.
This horrible, gut wrenching sob escaped her lips.
I am… I am glad you did not see me in my most shameful time, Maddox. I would have attacked you, I'm sure of it. I wouldn't have known who you were, and you wouldn't have known me, either.
"But..." And you thought you had it bad, he told himself. In moments like this a memory would slip from her mind to his, and he'd see the Fall from her point of view, of her Hive members being slain. It was horrible, and a part of him, a part that he was ashamed to admit was disgusted of Amaya's lack of care for these deaths, pinged as a result. The next thing he said ended up sounding like criticism. "Couldn't you have tried harder?"
I did try! Amaya's larger right arm jerked a little. He'd find out later it was involuntary, a scar left behind by those horrible days. I tried everything I could do, but I… But I just couldn't handle it. It was easier to just… just forget.
"But we're talking about your own family, Amaya!"
I know that! she yelled. I know what I did! I've had to live with knowing for years! Wandering in this world all on my own, without them, without you! Each word she'd sent she'd approached him, looming her big body over with her snout jammed into his face, her breaths fogging up his visor in puffs. For a few moments all that could be heard was the distant crashing of waves, and the licks of sparks snapping off the nearby piles of wire and scrap.
She seemed to realise the proximity, sagged her shoulders and let the rage bleed away. I forgot myself, forgot everything because I couldn't bear it, because it was easier, I know. But now? Now, I've been given another chance. I've been given you! A chance to make up for my mistakes, and I'll die before I go back to what I was before. I swore before my predecessors that I would.
"I…" Maddox trailed away, noticing that he'd been moments from screaming right back. He wanted to understand her, really he did, she intrigued him so many different ways he wasn't sure even Amaya could understand. But all he'd done so far was raise his voice at her. "… Okay," he said softly. "Okay. I shouldn't have said anything. Sorry."
… No, don't be. I needed to say that out loud, to someone living in this world. She tilted her head up into the dying sun. The sky had dipped into an orangey colour that, had she the concept of colour, would have reminded her of atomic bomb flashes. And there couldn't be a better choice.
"Yeah?" He hopped up onto the crates he'd used before to scale up into the battleship. He squinted into the ship's insides, more weary this time around. "Why's that?"
Well, just who else would be good company for me, Maddox? She stepped up beside him.
"Good point." With a grunt he climbed up into one of the many passageways making up the interior of the ship. When he was back on his feet he held a hand out for her. "How's the tank, Amaya?" He tapped his belly. "Need a snack?"
No thank you. She pulled herself up with three hands, the fourth closing over his. The little silver brooch around her neck clinked against her clavicle What about you? You haven't eaten anything since we've met.
"Maybe later. I think I'm about to lose my appetite." Inside the darkness of the ship, metal groaned out and occasionally rose in volume from some unseen disturbance, like the crew was still inside and going about their duties.
Amaya tilted her head at him. Why?
"There were people in here earlier." He drew his machete in one hand and pistol in the other, creeping forward slowly. Amaya almost seemed to teleport in front of him. Snarling into the darkness, arms splayed out in a threatening pose.
Where? I swear I'll tear them apart if they laid one-
"They're dead, Amaya, don't worry about it." He stepped around her, his blade raised defensively. Amaya's tail flicked across the side of his vision, its shield-like length acting exactly like that, a shield.
Did they hurt you?
"I said don't worry about it." He made sure to keep the memory of the shiv at his throat suppressed. If he didn't, she'd probably just do that gagging thing with the jelly, and not only was that whole process disturbing, he felt uneasy inside the ship. Who knew how many people, or things, were lurking in the dark?
It was jarring how quickly the outside light faded the moment he stepped deeper into the ship's guts. "Man, can't see shit in here."
Might be able to help you. One of her clawed hands tapped against his bicep, the big nails pressing lightly into his shirt. He felt a poke in the back of his mind and stopped. Let me in, Maddox. Like old times.
Old times, when the world was alive, when he was still innocent, and had hope things would turn out okay. Then all that shit had happened with Weyland, and the time after his and Amaya's separation had permanently impacted him in a way he might not ever recover from.
"I… can't remember how." It wasn't really a lie, but he was hoping the time apart was a good enough cover against the ugly truth.
Just try, she said, and he did, he really did. He closed his eyes and tried to picture a door, one with a familiar, five-letter namewritten on it. His phantom-self reached out and grabbed the brass nob. For a moment it didn't give, just jiggled against a lock his own mind was keeping shut. But then it did, the door moved forward a hint, and he saw a tall, skeletal shape peeking through the gap on the other side.
When he opened his eyes, the darkness had given just a little, like the door. He could even see all the way to the far end where the corridor forked. His next word came out as a stutter. "H-How did you do that?"
I've developed a few of my abilities since we last met. And I've always wanted to tweak a human body against its will just to see what happens.
Maddox blinked up at her with an apprehensive look.
… I was joking. The levers and switches in your head just needed a few adjustments. You should be able to see better indefinitely now.
"Well shit, you're pretty awesome, Amaya."
She grinned this innocent little grin that reminded him of all those years ago, just them in their own private world. He wondered how exactly she knew what levers to pull and which to not. Maybe she didn't explain because he wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't, understand. Either way he was thankful.
He retraced his steps back to the ship canteen. He hoped the Synthesizer was still working, not that it would matter much if it wasn't. The sticks he printed already should last them a while, but it was better to have an excess than a shortage.
"Should be just on the left here," he said, and his voice bounced and echoed down the dark walkways around them.
"Here… ere… ere…"
Even with Amaya beside him the necks on his hair still stood on end hearing his voice die away like that. It hadn't been that quiet before, had it? Then again, he had taken two lives just in the next room over.
They moved into the canteen, Amaya leading, and Maddox sweeping the area with his pistol by her flank. Nothing much had changed since last time, save for the addition of the bodies which, in these confined spaces, was assaulting on the senses.
Maddox moved over to the Synthesizer, while Amaya examined the corpses nearby. She gave one of them a little kick, rolling it onto its back. Pink matter was spilling out of a messy gut wound, life-juice oozing though and conjoining with a big puddle of water, turning half the floor into a glossy sheet of blood.
You did this? She looked over her shoulder at him. Maddox mumbled under his breath and hit the machine.
"Thing's run out of battery. Oh well." Boots squelching in the red water, he returned to her side. "Sorry, did you say something?"
I asked if you killed these two. She gestured at the bodies.
"I did," he said with a shrug. She waited for him to continue. "… What? Them or me, right? Learned that pretty quickly once I got topside."
They attacked you? Out of the blue?
"Pretty much, yeah. Jumped me while I was working on that thing over there."
Amaya directed a wordless question at him. He shrugged again and walked past her. There was an exit at the far end of the room, but before he got there his companion brushed his shoulder with a sensuous touch.
Are you alright, Maddox?
He looked her body over with a tired eye. Try and conceal himself as he could, any facade he could pull against her she would see right through. He knew she was just trying to help, but he'd spent years hold up in prisons where he dealt with his issues alone. That habit had roots, and those roots went deep.
"Yeah," he said, and the work came out more as a snap than anything. As they left the canteen for good, Maddox clenched his hands tightly over his weapons. Reunited with his dearest friend and still he was a miserable bastard. He knew better than to keep acting like that, so what was holding him back?
But he knew what. Amaya didn't, even with all her telepathic powers, and somehow that made it all worse.
The next couple hallways were strewn with debris. Wires hung from the ceiling, and sections of wall had toppled over like something had exploded from the other side. At one point there was even a giant pit right in the middle of an intersection. Maddox had tossed a scrap bit of metal down it, and had not heard it hit the bottom. Amaya helped him over the pit with one of her arms acting as an anchor, though he could have sworn he heard something growling down there in the dark.
They reached a blast door that didn't give way when Maddox punched the release button. "Maybe there's no power getting through," Maddox guessed. "You see a switch box or anything?"
We passed one just then. Over there. She pointed back down the hall.
"Good eye." Maddox kneeled down and started working, occasionally dipping into his satchel for a different tool. Amaya sat down nearby, tail spooling over her legs. She'd had to walk with her back bent the whole time just to fit through, and sighed with relief at the short break. She'd grown into a big girl since those old times, still retaining that slim, feminine figure he remembered ogling over when he thought she wasn't looking. The reminiscing reminded him of how innocent they used to be.
Used to be? he thought.
Who was saying things couldn't change? It wasn't like anyone else was around to contradict him, so all that really stood in his way was his own stupid doubts. Doubts that had been seeded into him by Weyland, and it was up to him to dig them up. Him, nobody else.
What is it, Maddox? Amaya asked. He'd been giving her this creepy blank look the entire time. He shook himself back into the present.
"Those people back there, I think they were slaves," he said. "They were just looking for food, and after they jumped me I… I killed them. You asked if they attacked me out of the blue. The answer is no, I don't think they did. I didn't even think about it when I killed, it was like I was on autopilot. It was sick. I was sick."
Hold onto that feeling, Maddox. That's what will keep you sane in the waking world, knowing that what you have to do in the now, will one day be all behind you.
"That how you dealt with killing?"
No. I dealt with it by forgetting, like I did with everything. I've seen many humans slaughter each other, and some acted as you are now, with that feeling of sickness. They turned out to be the most humane, the good people.
"But that didn't help them much, did it? Bombs and nukes don't care if you're good or not."
That sounds like something that woman would say.
"What woman?"
The one who stole you from me on that day. She had green nails. Her men called her General.
"Oh her. Yeah I remember. Weyland Woman."
She would wipe out hundreds of people if they stood in her way. She took you, a child, because you protected me. Her and hundreds like her are the reasons this world is gone. I watched it all come down around me, and I know seeing this world like it is now is already starting to affect you, because I went down that long path and it is a cold and dark one with nothing at its end. You are my only friend, Maddox, but if you start talking like that green-nailed bitch I will not back down. I need you to keep your head, for both our sakes.
Maddox let his eyes drop. "I-I didn't mean it like that! It's… shit." He'd never much had more than a few exchanged sentences with another human being in years. And he'd given up more and more of himself in that time, giving in to the slowly encroaching despair that nothing would ever change. But then it did change, and now he needed to change with it. "There I was talking to you about cruelty earlier and now look at me." He sighed. "I just didn't think I'd have to get used to killing…. But I'll deal with it, okay? I'll try."
This world is cruel, you're right. And it will not hold back when it comes for you. Believe me when I say that. But you're one of the lucky ones, Maddox. I didn't have a friend to help me off that path when the Fall came, but you do. You're not alone. Don't ever forget that.
"I won't," he said, snapping one last wire into place and flicking a switch. On the far side of the hall there was a sharp sliding of metal. Amaya's head snapped that way, already rising to her feet.
"That'd be the door." He put his things away and clipped the button on his satchel "We can get going."
With Amaya's assistance he could navigate the darkness of the ships stomach well enough, but down every corridor and hall a murky fog clouded anything beyond fifteen meters. Half an hour went by, the two of them alternating by who led and who followed. They kept at a roughly northward angle, which dipped in altitude a little bit at a time.
Talks were kept short and quiet, but Maddox was glad he wasn't going through this hellhole alone. He had a feeling Amaya was thinking the same.
At one point in their navigation through the ship, they heard something that sounded like a wet slap from back the way they'd come. Visions of those monsters Amaya talked about lurking in the Capitol couldn't quite leave Maddox's thoughts after that, even when Amaya assured him she sensed no life nearby.
Just keep your weapons ready, she told him, bringing up the rear. … Where did you find them anyway?
"These?" He held up the pistol and machete, as if she would be talking about anything else. "I, er, killed a guy for the sword. He was hanging people on top of these street posts. He was just about to string someone else up when I stepped in. That's how I earned that hole in my wrist you fixed."
Oh Maddox, I'm so sorry.
"For what? You weren't there."
No, but now that I am, maybe I can do something to help. Your fighting skills are quite sloppy.
He stepped over a mangled pile of scrap. "It's not like I've had time to practice or anything."
Plus your form lacks grace, and by the way you flung that thing around on the beach it's a wonder you managed to keep a hold on it that entire time.
"Okay what is this, roast Maddox hour?"
You, my friend, could use a teacher.
"I'm guessing this is your way of offering, huh?"
Oh, good idea Maddox! I'll gladly accept. We should find a more open space for a session.
"Think the bridge will be big enough, and it shouldn't be too far ahead now… ah." Another sign directed them to the reactor one way, and the bridge the other. They moved up a deck and had to bypass two more blast doors. One just needed power, but the other wouldn't budge, and that extended their travel by another half hour.
Maddox could feel his heart rate climbing as the darkness seemed to shrink in on them. He didn't notice until he tried prying apart a half-open set of doors, that he was exhaling more than he was inhaling. The irradiated air and clouded light outside were poor substitutes for what he'd grown up with, but it was better than the copper and metal darkness of the shipwreck. He thought it might have been the small beginnings of an approaching panic attack, and when another loud sound from behind them bounced across the walls, and Amaya said she hadn't heard anything, it became more than just a possibility.
Then, a touch of warmth at the back of his mind, and his breathing slowed. It's just your head playing tricks, Amaya said, moving him away from the next set of doors with a gentle nudge. She took up position, and with a hiss, shoved each door outward enough to make room for him.
He ducked under her lower set of arms. Those hands were more delicate than the primary pair, and a tad smaller than his own. Hell, even the nails looked like they'd just been manicured. He gave one of them a squeeze as he passed. "Thank you," he breathed, and wondered if he would have suffocated by now if she weren't here.
The doors snapped shut behind her as she followed him into the next hall. I can see light up ahead. We're almost there.
He couldn't see anything, but he trusted her instincts, and another thirty minutes later, he felt a little gush of wind against his chest. Ten minutes, and the sliver of moonlight lit up a portion of his visor. Another ten minutes and they reached a reinforced hallway, with the word Bridge printed on one of the arches above.
The final door was crumpled up like a piece of paper, but still somehow hinged to the bulkhead. The thing must have weighed a ton, but Amaya picked it up like it was nothing, held it over her head, and chucked it onto a pair of nearby generators. The resulting sound was reminiscent of a car being flattened.
"Subtle," Maddox said.
Amaya ignored him and stepped into the bridge. Command stations ringed the sides of the wide chamber, one in every three terminals displaying various error messages. Steps on the east and west sides of the room led down into the lower portion of the bridge, where a great chunk of the hull was missing from some explosion or other, letting the occasional rush of air sough through the room.
A stream of moonlight cast down onto the central podium, where the Captain once stood proudly at his station as he bombed the planet to kingdom come. Now he was a skeleton slumped in his officer's chair, still clad in fatigues, bony hands splayed on the armrests. There were cobwebs in his eye sockets. After a minute's examination Maddox noted he was the only skeleton in the room.
"Captain went down with his ship…" At least he'd had some dignity if that were the case. Still didn't make up for wiping out a planet just to get a chance at taking out Amaya, of course.
What was that, Maddox?
"Nothing." He moved over to the missing chunk of the bridge, took a knee by its edge. Hundreds of meters below, the ground sloped up in a gentle curved shape of a trench, stretching on forever into the night. From this angle he could see the far end of the ship digging into the other side of the trench, but between here and there he spotted some thin red and black shapes connecting the belly of the ship all the way down to the ground, like scaffolding.
What can you see? Amaya hunkered by his side, settling in place like a four-armed housecat. Maddox raised an arm.
"You see those shapes over there, halfway along the belly? Those are ladders, but I think… I think they're made of scrap."
So?
"It's like they've been mashed together. This is a Weyland ship, and Weyland had to have access to proper equipment in case of a crash. Military-grade stuff. Those ladders look like they've been just tossed together by any old thing. And look." Halfway down the ladders there was a suspended shack made out of metal sheets, where another rickety ladder poked out of its bottom, and stretched all the way to the ground. Clustered around the base of the ladder were little cube shapes. Amaya had to use both their eyesight's to see what they were.
Are those… huts? Metal huts?
"Yeah. Whoever made those ladders wasn't Weyland. So who else could it be?"
Then he remembered what one of those people in the canteen had said, what one of them had thought he was. A canny, short for cannibal, probably. But that would mean there would have to be a whole bunch of them to build scaffolding like that. Tens of them. A group.
Maybe the original builders are gone, and people still maintain it so they can use it as a path up to the ship. Not everything gets destroyed in this world, so long as it's useful. Once I ran across a fortress built in the middle of a stadium. It must have changed hands at least half a dozen times ever since the Fall.
"You mean the one on the westside? Pinnacle Stadium?"
That's the one. My point is these post-Fall creations switch owners all the time. The group that made those ladders is long gone by now, but people still maintain it so they can come pick up all the pieces Weyland left behind. She clicked her tongue. We'll have to use those ladders if we want to get down sooner.
"Not looking forward to that." Even from here the scaffolding wobbled in the wind, leaning this way and that, violently snapping directions on a precarious axis. Even just the thought of ladders right now made his hands sweaty.
Me neither. Her tail swept about behind her. But we can worry about that later. Want to start practicing now? Or after some rest?
"We can do it now." They moved a bit away from the missing chunk, to a wide space between what was once the front screen and the captain's podium. Maddox set down his pistol and satchel on a table. "So, how'd you want to do this?"
Just something simple to start with. Try and hit me with that little stick of yours. I won't even fight back.
"Hey I'm not that bad." He gave an experimental flourish, just to show off a bit. The machete dipped out of his hand and clanged to the ground. He was pretty sure by the way Amaya's head jerked, she was trying not to snort.
Whatever you say, my friend. She spread her legs and raised her arms like she was getting ready to start boxing. Her tail whipped away like a happy dog's would.
He went to ask her if she was sure, that he might hurt her, then stopped himself. Look who he was talking to! A midnight blue bioweapon Queen who'd walked through a nuclear war, and ended up wiser for it. What would a machete do to her?
He tried to impersonate a dueler's stance, went still for a moment, then came forward and slashed, aiming for her hip. He must have blinked or something, because the slash was ended abruptly by a wall of black chitin. Somehow she'd brought her tail all the way round and shielded herself. His weapon smacked uselessly off its armoured surface, and the jerk back was hard enough to stagger him.
Don't wind up so much, she told him, heading peeking over her organic shield. And bring your legs in more, you look like you're trying to defecate or something.
"Yeah yeah." He readjusted himself, feeling his pride being literally abused. He breathed in deep, exhaled, and charged again. Amaya's shield got in the way before he could land a hit.
You have to be quicker than that. Amaya reset her stance, shoulders down, claws out, tail curled over her flank.
"Says the girl with a shield growing out of her ass. How am I supposed to get past that when- woah!"
The tail coming out of her ass had come lashing out from his left, and he'd jumped back just in time. The wind from its passing ruffled a few locks of his hair. He looked up at her with a dumb expression.
Use your strengths. You're nimbler than I, Maddox. Try that.
Maddox said something under his breath, readjusting his grip on his machete. He began the process of circling, going west, while Amaya paced east. He watched her past the tipped blade of his weapon, looking for an opening.
Don't always watch my weapon, either. She suspended her tail out in front, its length giving her ample cover, but not complete immunity. Keep your focus on me.
"Well," He winked. "that shouldn't be hard to do."
W-What's that supposed to mean?
She'd lowered her blocking tail just enough to give him a chance, and he took it, launching for her vulnerable side and bringing the blade down. Steel met air as she jumped away at the last second, but he kept up with the momentum and twisted his arm to follow through. He bent the sharp side of the blade away, and there was a little clp-!- and Amaya's leg buckled.
She smacked him away with the flat of her tail, knocking the wind out of him, sending him onto his back. Amaya looked like she'd just been electrocuted as she realised what she'd done. She raised a palm to her mouth and cursed.
Ohmyshit, Maddox! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?
The human's chest was bopping up and down. She took a step forward, then realised that he was laughing.
What? What's so funny? Are you hurt?
"I'm fine," he chuckled. "I got you, girl. And I even made you stutter. I didn't think that was possible!"
I… She looked at the spot he'd hit her. Not so much hit as tapped, but… That doesn't count! You distracted me!
"You said to use my strengths!"
Get up. We're going again.
"I think I'm quitting while I'm-" His eyes bulged as she hurtled at him like a missile. "-Ohgod."
He rolled out of the way just as the space he was laying on bent upon her heavy landing. He swung his blade against her flank, but she blocked it with one of her many arms. She locked her wrist across the steel and yanked it from his grip. The machete went tumbling across the deck.
Now we're on even terms! She grabbed his shoulders with her lower arms, but he knocked them away before she could grapple him. No weapons. I won't even use my tail.
"We have to fight on your terms just because you blushed?" He snickered despite her predatory stance.
I did not!
She hooked her arms and lurched forward, primary hands aiming to lock around his thin backside. Maddox ducked and rammed into her hips, spear-tackling her. Her crest kissed the ground and her vision went fuzzy. It had been a while since she'd been overpowered so suddenly, and a primal part of her was getting excited.
Maddox pinned her lower arms under his knees, putting as much weight on her chest as he straddled her. He linked her upper wrists together over her head, face hovering a hands-width above her own. "Looks like the mortal overpowered the Queen." He smirked. "You're a pretty good teacher. Or I'm a pretty fast learner."
Or you're just a slimy little cheat.
"I thought I was nimble."
She tried to lift her head to meet him eye-to-eye (so to say), but with her upper arms pinned by one of his, he used his free hand to push her back down by a thorn on her crest. She hissed out loud, but there was something off about it. The sound was a little flintier, and Maddox thought it was more like a… moan?
Man, she was getting into this.
Maddox went to speak, but his words caught in his throat when Amaya's face slinked away, and the front of her crest slipped over her forehead, then her lips. The move reminded him of a turtle shrinking under its shell.
"What are you doing? If you're trying to hide those flushed cheeks it's not going to-"
The smirk was wiped off his face as Amaya simply rolled to the right, yanking her upper arms free and grabbing onto his shoulders. She had the positions reversed in no more than a heartbeat. She coiled her long legs over his and locked her thighs. She splayed his arms out and kept them there, his entire world now a sea of blue, translucent exoskeleton.
You were saying something, Maddox? She poked her head out of her armoured crest, and for a moment he was struck with a very vivid memory. One of a strange dark alien peeking its snout out of a wall of leaves on a street far from here, near a forest that was now probably a battlefield of burnt bark.
He tried fighting but it was no good. He'd been suspicious she was holding back the reserves in those toned arms of hers. His struggles ceased when her lips came close enough that her breaths fogged up his visor. For a moment they stared at each other, their link revived with mixed emotions.
Then, something amazing happened. It was like hearing rocks grate together, an incredibly sick being forcing out sounds even though it killed the throat to do so. He went to say something… then he blinked up at her.
Amaya's lips… They were moving.
"I… I-I… www…. w-w…"
"w…..w-wwiiiinnnnnnn!"
"…"
"… Holy shit, you can TALK?!"
There he was, being straddled by a bioweapon, completely at her mercy, and rather than begging for his life or quaking in fear, he was instead ogling at her with a comical expression of disgusted wonder.
Amaya thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.
Her laughs went from breathy hisses to full-on chuckles. She had one of those contagious laughs that made one start to join in the hysterics even if you didn't understand the joke. Maddox forgot all about being pinned in such a position, threw his head back and cackled like an idiot. Everything, all the worries behind and in front of them, seemed to take a step back for the moment.
He didn't know how long it was before they settled, but it wasn't for long enough, no amount of time would be. Amaya sent him a positive emotion and bumped her forehead to his visor. Yes, if hearing those croaks was talking, then yes, I can.
"But you've never…! Wh-Wh-When did this happen? How? … What?"
For some years now, and I don't know, I just try and flex my tongue while I breathe, just like you humans do. She opened her chops, and he saw that little secondary mouth of hers wiggle up and down. "Liiiiike… thii… thiisssss." She switched back to telepathy. Still can use some work, obviously.
"You're not that bad for someone who speaks with their head all the time."
Perhaps… She brought up her smaller set of arms and doted on his chest. Perhaps you could help me refine it?
"Why do you sound like I'll say no? Sure I will, Maya. Should have told me you could speak a long time ago."
She grinned down at him in an almost drunken sort of way. One of her fingers tapped him on the glass visor. You'll have to get rid of that first. So I can see your face.
"Oh, right. That. That, er, that could be a little complicated."
Why? She slowly released him when he started pushing himself up, although she was very adamant about it. Rolling off him until she was sitting beside him, she gave his leg a cheeky tug of her tail. From what I recall you weren't that ugly.
"… Wow, okay! You're comparing me to all the other human guys you know, right?" he said, chuckling. "… But seriously; there's shit in the air my lungs just can't handle. I'm already taking a big risk with all this radiation hanging around. I'll be lucky if I don't get cancer or something if we get out of all this."
What is ray-dee-aye-shon?
"Oh it's, er… it's this stuff in the air that's not really dangerous, unless there's a whole lot of it around. And when those nukes dropped a whole metric shit ton of the stuff came spewing out. Think of it like a sickness you can't see, that gets more and more worse the longer you're around it."
But I've been walking the waking world for years, sometimes very close to the spots those 'nukes' fell, and I feel… She was going to say fine, or maybe and I am not sick, but neither of those were entirely correct, were they?
Fortunately Maddox knew what she meant. "I'm betting it affects you differently than me, Amaya. For all I know you might be immune to it or something. We are aliens to each other, right?"
Yes… For some reason he couldn't help but feel she sounded wistful. But I've seen some humans walk around without protection and they're… well, not fine, or… or sane, but they're still alive!
"Yeah… but I'd rather not risk it. Besides, it's what else is in the air that I'm more worried about. Lead from all the bullets, the ash, smoke, dust and God knows what else. The mask keeps all that out. Hopefully, anyway."
She leaned a little closer to him and breathed in his scent. She could not sense or taste any sort of sickness on him, so at least his protection was working so far. But she dreaded what would happen when the world's curse fully crept into his body, just as it had done to her all those years ago.
Focus, she told herself. Focus on the now, not the when.
Does it bother you? she asked him. She pulled away a little, gazing out into the night.
"Yeah it bothers me. I need my lungs! I can't go filling them up with all this crap."
Not that, she said. The other thing. How we are aliens to each other. Does that bother you?
"What?" He laughed. "No! Why would it? You know I always was into the extra-terrestrials, especially those of the royal variety."
He noted the little flush of colour on her snout. She probably wasn't even aware of it, and that just emphasised how contrasted this predatory creature was to her more curious, innocent side. "Why do you ask?"
I saw how much people can hate that which is different to them during the Fall. She brought her knees up and tugged them to her chest. I was scared you might think of me differently after all that's happened.
"… Good for us I'm not like most people, huh?" But he wasn't looking directly at her when he'd said that. If he had… she might have seen his eyes flick a little. The tell of a liar. "But, er, what about you? Does having a dangerously good-looking human as a companion bother you?"
Not one bit. She nudged him with her elbow. As for good looking? I'll need to see under that getup to confirm it.
"If we find someplace clean, sure."
Promise?
"… Promise."
For a while they sat in companionable silence, the shadowy presence of the moon slowly arching across the sky. He yawned and told her he would be turning in for the night. But as he laid down and shut his eyes, something orange started flicking across his closed eyelids, like a wavering light source. So far, the surface world was bathed in utter darkness, so naturally it made his heart race, and he sat up in alarm.
What's wrong? Amaya had just been sweeping the bridge for any potential entry points for unwelcome guests. She was instantly behind him the moment his heart started speeding up.
"Nothing I… Oh sh… A-Amaya, look!"
What? She curled herself around her friend, then placed her tail-shield on her weak side – the right. Nothing on the bridge moved, she sensed nothing.
Then she felt Maddox prod her mind, drawing her focus to his gaze. She slipped herself partly through the door Maddox had conjured up, and she found herself seeing through his eyes. Not using them, just her presence beside his own. He was looking into the trench far below them. There were tiny dark shapes spread all across its curved base, and scattered about it were orbs of orange light. Some were close together, others far apart, leaving great oceans of black between them. They were dotted all the way up the trench to the edge of Maddox's vision. At first she was reminded of city lights, but the glare wasn't strong enough, and some were bright while others were dim. Then it hit her. Those weren't lights. They were campfires.
Dozens of campfires.
"There has to be hundreds of people down there." He gently pushed her away and shuffled to the edge of the deck. Amaya kept a bit of her tail coiled over his leg. "Those people back in the canteen looked like slaves to me. I guess now we know who they were running from."
I've never seen so many in one place. Not after the Fall. Who could rally so many together?
Just as she said that, one of the campfires snuffed out. She might have been mistaken, but she heard something reminiscent of steel against steel, and was that a motor as well?
"Maybe they aren't together, not all of them." She retreated from his mind once she'd seen enough, her muscles relaxing now that her full consciousness had returned to her body. "And we've got to go through there. Maybe they're friendly?"
I hope you're joking, my friend.
"Wish I wasn't. Don't know how we're going to get past all that, man."
There link was alive with his doubts and worries. She put a tentative hand on his side to soothe him. Let's sleep on it, Maddox. We'll have a clear head then.
He considered the distant lights for a few seconds. "You're right," he said. He noted how she said 'a' clear head – singular. Hive-slang, he'd call it one day. Of course people detested aliens because of their vast differences, but not him, he just found it all so interesting.
Got Dr. Woodland to thank for that.
Amaya watched him lay on his side, put an arm under his head. She stopped a respectful distance away and sat down.
Good night, Maddox.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. "See you tomorrow, girl." Then he was laying down again.
She stayed up a little later until the bridge was filled with her friends rather cute, albeit loud, snores. When she was satisfied nothing was around waiting for their guard to be let down, she fell into a ball and tucked into a fetal position. She hugged her tail to her breast and sighed.
She snuggled deeper into her own limbs, thought of a world of woods and grass and forests as far as she could imagine, and slept.
But this time, she realised, her dreaming world was no longer plagued by nightmares.
2
His eyes were crusty with sleep when he woke up the next morning, if you could call this dreary apocalyptic haze morning, that is. Maddox's whole left side complained up a storm after a night on the metal deck, but as he went to stretch it out he found his arms being pushed back against him.
For a horrible moment he thought he'd been tied up in his sleep, that whoever was down in those campsites had come up here, murdered his partner and was preparing to sacrifice him in some ritual. Then he looked down and saw a stretch of blue skeleton wrapped over his arms and chest. One of Amaya's legs was draped over his own. She was spooning the hell out of him from behind.
Just like old times, he thought, and tried to settle down again for another hour of rest. But despite the comforting weight of his long-lost friend, reminiscing just made him sad. The world was gone and this was what was left. His mind was racing too much for spooning time, no matter how much his body craved the company. They needed to get moving, he needed to replace the canister, they needed to get off this hunk of metal that could come crashing down any minute.
Amaya, perhaps sensing his thoughts rushing across the room, shook her head a little and yawned, exposing the full sheen of those fangs of hers. Her little second mouth nipped at the air a few times, before she gave him a dreamy smile. Morning Maddox.
"Look like you slept well."
It seemed like she noticed she was cuddling him for the first time. And as if he were a thousand degrees hot, she snapped away from him. Oh! Sorry, you're just… You're the only warm thing in this world and I must have… well...
He didn't mind, and let her know this through the link. He was rusty at doing that, but Amaya beamed at him when he tried, so he couldn't have completely botched it. "You always did hate the cold."
Her tail swished happily behind her as she watched him stand and stretch. The campfires down in the trench were gone, but far to the west a thick cloud of fog was slowly spreading across the ruined landscape, partly spilling into the trench and submerging it in a cloak of obscurity. The sun was weak and low, and the atomic overcast was thick in the air. "Terrible day," he said.
They usually are when the storms arrive.
"That sounds ominous." He moved his eyes west and saw that the distant fog was spreading out from the outskirts of the Capitol, and thought of the nightmarish creatures Amaya had seen in that place. "How bad do they get?"
It's like the Fall starts all over again. Last time it happened was… two years ago? Shards of ice as long as my arm started raining down once the clouds stopped broiling. The ice-rain can penetrate most of this world's structures. I learned that the hard way.
She pointed at the side of her crest. At first, he saw nothing wrong, then on closer inspection spied a deformity, like a piece had been ripped off and hadn't grown back properly. A shard came right through the roof of the house I was hiding in. Just a graze, but you wouldn't believe how hard this thing on my head bleeds.
But the shards are just the first part, what comes next is worse. The wrath of the sky is so terrible, columns of light ripping apart an already dead world. You see that skyscraper over there, the one cracked in half? The last monsoon snapped it in two, just with a single strike. Eventually I took shelter in a cellar, and waited it out in there. The thunder rolled over the world for weeks, and all I could think about in that darkness was the Fall; the bombs were the thunder, the lightning the flashes seconds after nuclear detonation. And all that time my crown just wouldn't stop bleeding. I thought I was going to die.
Thunder rolled in the resulting pause. Closer than yesterday, but not visible from here. He came over and held her shoulder, which bobbed under her panting breath. Now it was his turn to comfort her. They didn't need to say anything. Amaya slowly brought him closer and held him in a loose hug. Maddox broke the silence when her mind settled.
"Two years, you said?" Maddox asked. "I… think I remember that. The whole Bunker started shaking about that time. Some people said it was an earthquake at first until we heard explosions. I was thinking the same thing as you, Amaya, that some ship had come back to end the world all over again." He huffed. "Maybe we were sharing thoughts then, huh?"
He'd said it as a joke, but as he thought about it, it didn't seem that impossible. He remembered this kid from school who had a twin brother. One of them broke his arm during football practice, and at the same time all the way on the other side of the school, his brother twisted his ankle. They both took the exact same amount of time to recover. And this one other time, one brother had saved the other by calling the police to his house, where his sibling was staying home alone. Low and behold, the place was getting robbed while his brother hid under the bed upstairs. "I just knew something weren't right," the brother had said when Maddox asked him about it.
Maybe those two had something similar to this link he had with Amaya. Not a twin connection, obviously – she was a Xenomorph, and he hadn't even heard of that name until he'd stumbled across her – but it could be close. Very close. He wished he could have been topside when that monsoon hit, with her in that cellar, telling her she didn't have to be afraid. Just picturing her cowering in the corner while stupid old nature ripped everything apart him angry.
"How long do you think until this one hits?" he asked. They parted the hug, mutually, although they both looked like they could have stayed that way forever.
She tapped a finger to her chin. I know it can't be long. Within the week, maybe less. We need to cross the trench before it hits. It will flood quickly, and the creatures of the Fall will be much more active when the storm comes. They don't usually move away from the Capitol, but sometimes they get curious.
"Then we better get moving, huh?"
He grabbed up his satchel and machete, swinging the scabbard onto his back. Just as he was pocketing his handgun, Amaya came up to him and said: That is a ranged weapon, yes?
"This?" He held the handgun up, turned it over. "Uh yeah. Why?"
You carried it around on the beach, but you didn't fire a single shot. Do you not have ammo?
"No no I do." He snapped the slide back, revealing the loaded round. "Just the one though."
There were many times shooting would have saved your life against those beasts. Why didn't you?
"It's… complicated." He paused, playing the words in his head a few times before speaking. "The bullet, it was… it wasn't meant for saving my life. It's so I can… if it came down to the wire, and I wanted the easy way out."
You mean…? You mean to shoot yourself? Oh, Maddox…
She'd sounded disappointed, and his temper suddenly panged. "Don't 'oh' me, Amaya. You think I wanted to be eaten alive by those dogs? That I wanted my life to end seeing my own limbs ripped off of me? It was just… It was just if I wanted a way out."
There are no easy ways out, she said, a not-so-distant memory coming to mind. How long have you had the bullet?
"A few days."
How many times could you have used it on something other than yourself, but didn't?
Maddox went to say something, but that tumbled into nonsense. Even if he was blocking the link, willingly or not, she'd figured that out so quickly. "Look, I… Shit, I'm not going to do it, okay? I considered it, I won't deny that. Let's just…. Let's just move on."
We can't move on, she said. You're obsessed with that piece of brass.
"No I'm…" His eyes flicked again. "No I'm not."
So get rid of it.
"But… But I can still find another use for it. Another Gooret, or… or another human. Can't just waste something that works..."
God, Maddox thought. she's right. 'This one is for you,' that's what Blankley said when he gave me the bullet. This one's for me and even though I got my friend back a part of me still wants to go through with it. Maybe that's what our good Mayor wanted all along. Keep his hands clean while mine get dirty.
Amaya reached out a hand. Give it to me.
Only by sheer willpower did he stop himself from putting his body between her and the gun. Her fingers curled in the classic let's go gesture, a gesture a mother would make at a disobedient child, and his annoyance flared. Then that annoyance turned to shame, and the fight left him in a long exhale. He placed the gun in her palm.
She lifted it up to her snout, studied it for a moment, then brought her other arms up. She clasped the grip with a smaller hand, then pulled back the receiver with the other. She reached in with a thumb and flicked out the round, catching it in mid-air with her third hand.
Then she turned around, and chucked the bullet through the breach.
It pinged off a component jutting off the ship's hull, then shrunk to a pinprick of gold as it spun away to the ground.
There, Amaya said. The gun clanged to the floor. Complication resolved. Let's get going. She moved to the back of the bridge, leaving a shocked Maddox in her wake.
He looked out to where the bullet had gone, replaying the last ten seconds over and over. His head went back and forth a few times between the breach and his friend, like he was watching a tennis match. Then a new feeling replaced the old obsession. Relief. Just like that. Was it all really that simple in the end?
He blinked at the ground far below, bent, picked up the pistol. It felt lighter. He felt lighter. He stuck the empty weapon in his waistband. Sighed again. "What the hell was I thinking?" he asked aloud.
Are you coming, Maddox?
"Yeah!" he said, jogging after her. One could tell he even moved faster now that a burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
They left the bridge, and never spoke of the bullet ever again.
3
She didn't think much could awe her at this point, not after watching the world burn in fire and war, but this did. This section of the ship Maddox called the 'Operations Centre'.
"Battleships have a lot of sensor data. This is where it all comes together. Pretty important room to keep a ship going."
Is that why half of it is missing?
The colossal room spanned the entire width of the ship, and took up at least two hundred meters of its length. What looked like vertical walkways connected the top of the vaulted chamber to the bottom. There had to be dozens of giant columns running the entire rooms length, divided into three sets, each column spaced equidistantly from one another.
Some of the columns were either gone or swaying uneasily in the wind, because pretty much the entire floor was gone, leaving behind only thin metal rebars that had once served as criss-crossing support for the ship's hull armour. Craning her head up, she noted a similar, gigantic breach on the upper left portion of the ship, weak sunlight streaming inside in the shape of a beam, illuminating a place once filled with wondrous technological capability.
She could imagine the hundreds of workstations making all sorts of blips and boops, a whole mesh of signals intersecting in this room and filing into orders and tasks. The coordination needed from the crew would have to be astounding to sort through all the data. Almost like an artificial Hive, aided by tech and sensor arrays and who-knows-what else the human mind was capable of creating.
Then she imagined the giant surface-to-air missiles crashing through hull and armour, killing the hundreds of engineers and technicians who'd kept this death machine afloat. But those hundreds would be the lucky ones. They wouldn't get to see the horrors rising up from the world's ashes. Ashes they themselves created.
Not that the monsters who operated this machine deserved a quick death. But they were all gone now, she and Maddox were alone in the belly of a-
Something caused her head to twitch. She looked back over her shoulder, curious. She couldn't sense anything, nor detect any noise in that far darkness. As quick as it came, the feeling had left her. How odd…
"Looks like the way off this thing is right over there." Maddox pointed. Another sealed blast door winked at them over the expanse of wrecked, almost completely missing floor. They'd decided they would take the makeshift ladders down. Exploring all the way to the far end of the ship for a safer way down would take too long.
Last one there's a sore loser! Although all that remained of the floor was nothing but crisscrossing metal beams thinner than her heals, Amya just started sauntering across the nearest one like she was off to fetch the morning paper.
She stopped ten meters out and spun around. Maddox took one look down the void she was walking across so care-free, and gulped. "I think I'll take the scenic route."
Your call, loser.
"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but so will a hundred-meter drop. I'm done with heights for one post-apocalyptic life." There was a thicker section of more intact floor all the way on the right. He made his way toward it. Amaya made a show of leaping from one beam to another even though she could have just walked to each one.
By the time she was almost halfway across, Maddox had only just got to the start of his much more 'safer' route, and even with all that buffer room keeping him from the empty pit, he still kept the going slow.
Maybe you could ride on my back again! she called, slipping from one rebar to another with feline grace. This wouldn't take so long, then.
"I'm coming, I'm coming…" The clocking of his boots echoed across the chamber as he tested the weight of the ground before proceeding. He chanced a look up and saw at the heart of the rebar beams, Amaya beginning to place herself into a handstand. "Oh now you're just showing off!"
She sent him her warm feelings of happiness, unable to stop smiling at him from across the way, unable to stop feeling so good. A beautiful night's rest in ancestors-knows how long, and a morning where she didn't have to force herself to get up for another day alone in this world? Could he blame her?
Not my fault you're taking so long, she said. Get those knees up! You're dragging your feet like a caveman!
"How do you even know what a…? Man, you like bossing people around, don't you?" he called out. "First the brawl now this!"
Don't mistake helping for bossing around. You'll ever learn otherwise! Now stop keeping your Queen waiting!
"'Your Queen'," he scoffed, but there was a little smile dancing on his lips.
When he was finally parallel to her, she fell back to all fours and continued on. Even beside the lack of nightmares last night, having someone around to converse the mornings away was nothing short of fantastic. And there was also the added bonus of his concealed staring of her body. She could feel his eyes on her with each roll of her hips. All that darkness earlier? It was all worth this sliver of light pouring all these forgotten feelings back into her.
"Come on, slow down!"
But why slow down? She felt like running. The giant death-drop below her didn't scare her, she bounded across it like a dancing gazelle, feeling the adrenaline pumping through her veins, flexing the muscles, relishing in the wind whipping off her crest. All that running and walking she'd done on her quest to find Maddox had kept her body in its prime, but she hadn't actually felt her strength in any of that time.
"Amaya!"
But now she did. She could feel herself sprinting all the way back to her Hive, she could see it just at the other end of the trench, right there! There she would tell him everything, and he would be ecstatic and he would embrace her and they would pick up where they had left off all those years ago and-
"Amaya, help!"
She planted her heels and palms into the beam and skidded to a halt. At the last second her left foot had slid loose from the rebar, and she would have tumbled to her death right then if her tail hadn't wound itself in place to anchor her. Sometimes it really did have a mind of its own, acting independently from her actions when she wasn't aware of it. Probably why she hugged the damn thing all the time.
Maddox? She turned around, all joy from her thoughts being replaced by a primal need to act. She thought he might have slipped, but the reality was far worse. He had his back to her, and was facing down one, no, two humans creeping towards him from where they'd first entered the chamber.
They wore nothing but slim black pants, all other clothing substituted for tattoos the colour of blood. One was holding a club, the other a staff covered in what she prayed wasn't a collection of human bones strapped together by wire and rope. Club-man threw himself at Maddox, and the knocking of wood on flesh was very loud even with the distance.
Maddox! I'm coming! She made to double back, when the blast door they'd been aiming for mouthed open. Again she stopped, spun to look.
Another man clad in pants and matted in tattoos. There were even drawings of eyes on his eyelids, so each time he blinked it was like he never stopped looking at her. Compared to the other two, this one was twice as big, larger than any man she'd ever seen. An army helmet threatened to fall off his head, the straps dangling against his cheeks with each rugged movement. Clutched in both his callused hands was a long, angular, metal assortment of tubes and pipes.
He stopped in the frame of the blast door, swung the collective tubes around until the muzzle was pointing at her. There was just enough time for a voice that sounded exactly like Maddox's to say machine-gun, before she launched off her feet.
Dat-dat-dat-! -the canon opened up on her, licks of flame spewing out of the front barrel with each thunderous report. The air around her vibrated as rounds punched through the spaces she'd barely managed to vacate. She flung her arms out to the next beam, used it like a set of monkey-bars and swung to the next rebar, aiming for the left side of the room.
The man trained the oversized gun on her the entire way as she threw herself to the next beam, slipping over it like greased lightning and winding in random directions to throw off his aim. Claw-sized rounds punched through the hull of the ship, leaving massive holes. Unscathed she made it to the nearest support column, the man firing from the hip as the thing was just too cumbersome to use otherwise.
She climbed up the metal to put some height between her and the man, taking a moment to hug herself to the column and catch her breath, but then the metal around her started chipping away under the suppression of the massive weapon. She'd never seen such firepower before! How could he have got his hands on it? But then of course this was a warship, and all that weaponry was just lying around this place waiting for people to-
A spray of shrapnel across her face and a loud ricochet pulled her back into the present. She looked round until her gaze settled on the wall to her north, at an assortment of verandas and workstations going up and down the wall in a honeycomb-like pattern.
She started scurrying further up the column. She had an idea.
Sixty meters back and below, Maddox felt hot pain across his side as the one with the staff sliced him across the bicep with its sharpened end. Club-guy hollered out a cry somehow louder than the machine-gun barrage, and swung his club in an uppercut motion.
Maddox felt his hair swish back as he stumbled away from the club's deadly arch. The man's arm twisted awkwardly, and the club landed with a loud thud behind his right leg. "CLEAN!" the man barked. "Clean you REAL good!"
Is everyone fucking insane up here? he thought, stabbing out at club-guy's exposed ribs. But then of course their minds had rotted, and hadn't Amaya barely managed to come back from the same state? I wonder how long until I'm the one who's crazy?
Club-guy yowled as Maddox put several slashes into his torso, blood dribbling out and pooling in his navel, covering up some of the surrounding tattoos that reminded him of tribal runes. It wouldn't have surprised him to know the ink they'd used to paint those runes was partly blood, too.
Staff-man twirled around and made to thrust. Maddox raised his machete to block, but missed the feint, and he felt blood on his tongue as the blunt-end of the staff struck his lip. The one with the club began to circle around him, forcing Maddox to put his back to the long drop.
A sudden gush of wind put all three of them off balance. Staff-guy came at him again, doing some crazy whirlwind-move, and Maddox went against all his instincts, and stepped out onto one of the suspended rebars. For one horrible moment his balance tipped left, and he threw his arms up hard to the right to counteract. But it was no good. His back foot was slipping. He was going to fall.
Then some foreign force snapped his leg back into place, and his center of balance stabilised. A little presence in the far depths of his mind let him know who was guarding him as best she could. A level of control returned to his flustered face.
Club-guy didn't seem to care if he fell off the beam with his next attack. He shouted something about feeding him to 'The Cleaner', pushed past his friend and sprinted onto the rebar, weapon raised above his head, screaming out a war-cry.
Maddox waited until the man was right on him, trusting that Amaya would help keep his legs planted for what he was about to do. Instead of lashing out with his blade, Maddox ducked, and wrapped his arms over the man's blood-splattered torso, twisted his hips, and threw club-guy behind him. The man's weapon went sailing into down into freefall, and he would have joined its descent had club-guy barely managed to snatch onto the beam with a hand.
One quick stomp on Maddox's part changed that. Fingers cracked beneath his boots, and the man screamed like a girl and shrunk to the size of dot. Blood splattered outward from the muffled, distant impact as skin met hard dirt.
On the far side of the chamber, Amaya was ducking and weaving her way down the wall, using the platforms and other bits of metal jutting from the surface as cover from the machine-gun's fury. A couple of rounds did find their mark on her, but other than sending painful vibrations down her body, the bullets bounced harmlessly off her crest, which she'd slipped over her vulnerable face. She zipped and ducked and alternated between running on two legs or all fours (minus her two smaller arms, of course), closer and closer to the man and his heavy weapon.
When she was close enough to pounce, she let loose a feral, ear-splitting shriek, and lunged, leading with her claws as she became literal death from above. The heavy gunman didn't so much as flinch, and though it shouldn't have surprised her, it did. The insane were in some ways braver then the sane – their concept of danger erased from their deformed minds.
Amaya reached out to grab the man's head and rip it open, but he sidestepped out of the way as she thundered to the ground, and he knocked his oversized weapon into her flank. The impact pushed the wind out of her, but it wasn't enough to stop her seething battle rage. Before he could realign his weapon, she punched him through the chest so hard her hand came out the other side, intestines and life-juice flowing between her claws. He folded over her arm, his giant weapon hitting the floor, all the inner parts clicking together as she kicked it away.
She retracted the impaling hand back, then threw him away like he was a toy that no longer amused her. He landed with a sickening crunch, his legs dangling over the lip of the missing section of the floor.
Staff-guy was much more competent than club-guy. It felt like Maddox was sweating blood with the number of cuts he was getting. He couldn't get much advantage over the other man. Even with Amaya's mental assistance, his mind still believed he should be falling at any second now. He was losing focus, and staff-guy could see it clear as day.
"Food! Clean food! Cleaner will feast!" There was foam gathering in his dirty lips. He came at Maddox in a mad flurry, pushing him further out onto the beam. His mind was ejecting Amaya's presence, the illusion of balance fading.
Pain flared up his dominant wrist as he defended himself poorly. His grip on the machete weakening as he fended off strike after strike. His legs began to wobble. He tried swiping out staff-guy's legs, but he just stepped out of the way, more balanced than Maddox was giving him credit for.
Maddox made the mistake of looking down, and he could practically feel his back foot sliding away as the wind suddenly picked up in strength. This time nothing would save him. This time he'd fall. He watched the other man bring the staff slowly up, ready to impale him on this metal beam.
The man's face was wide with glee, but then when a black tail-shield sliced him across the waist, the expression twisted into anger and pain. His arms slowly relaxed to his sides, and he looked down to see the top half of his body slide away from the lower. He was in two pieces when he fell away. Not even so much as a scream the entire trip down.
Amaya stood on the beginning of the rebar, sending out her bloodied tail like it were a lifeline. He clung to it, gasping for air as she pulled him off the wobbling beam. The last echoes of the fight bled away into silence, and the only sound to fill the vaulted chamber for a few minutes was Amaya and Maddox's combined breathing.
"A-Amaya you…" Maddox swallowed. "You ran! Wh-Why?"
Oh, Maddox. A clunk of flesh on flesh as she connected her forehead to his naked cranium, put her hands on his. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't… I don't…
Maddox replayed what he just said in his mind. Man, he was being such an asshole, now of all times! The link was a mess of swimming thoughts and images, and Amaya was quaking against him. "Hey, hey come on, it's over." He squeezed her long, deadly fingers. "It's alright. We didn't know we were being followed."
But I did! I sensed something before but I was too distracted and I almost got you killed and… And I…
She trailed off, and Maddox didn't break the silence. He just stood there and let her have her moment, while he had his. He could gleam some explanation for her running off from the link, but it didn't matter now. What did matter, was that they were still breathing, and he let her know this without a need for words.
Using her natural way of communication did slow her breathing down. And eventually she broke away from him, a bit of warmth flowing from her mind to his. He looked at the place where her eyes would have been if she had them. "You okay now, girl?" he asked after a pause.
I… Yes. I am. She flicked her tail to rid it of the blood. Are you wounded?
"Just a few scratches but- No-! No, no need for jelly, okay? I'll be fine."
Oh. She'd just started retching again. She swallowed down a lump. Alright then.
They moved – together this time – towards the door where the man with the heavy weapon had come in from. Amaya kept herself by his side the entire way, all senses honed for any other signs of life. They cleaned themselves of gore and blood as best they could, but blood caked quickly, and stuck into the grooves of their hides in crispy black pockets.
"Woah, check out this thing." Maddox stopped before the heavy machine-gun. He bent down, grabbed it by both ends, and heaved. His knees buckled but the thing barely moved off the floor. He let it go and it banged down loudly. "That guy must have ripped this thing right off one of the ships cannons." He raised a brow at her. "Think you can carry it? Could come in handy."
I think my claws are too big to actually use it. She lifted the big gun up with one arm and flipped away the top slide. There was a sling with hundreds of little rings on it, feeding into the main chamber, each the same radius as high-caliber bullets. And this ammo belt thing is empty.
Maddox clicked his tongue. "Damn. Never mind then." He stared at the lifeless body of its former carrier for a moment, watched the blood pool underneath the body and drip off the edge. "You think this is the guy those slaves in the canteen were running from?"
It seems so. She lifted her head up and inhaled. I smell blood on them. Not just their own, but others. Blood and… meat? Yes, meat and It's… burnt?
"Burnt?" he echoed.
Cooked. Cooked flesh. Oh, no. How could they? That's… That's horrible.
There was no pity in either of their gazes as they watched the cannibal leader's blood dry up against the metal. Amaya's head tilted out into the trench below. She was thinking about those campfires last night, how some were snuffed out, how some had burned long into the morning. But worst of all – how many others like these men were down there? Hundreds? More? And how many of them were carrying heavy weapons?
She wrapped her tail around her friend, as much a gesture to comfort him, as well as herself.