4. Scavengers
"Aww Christ."
Dice slowly raised his hands above his head and closed his eyes in anticipation of a slug in the brain. After three long seconds of waiting for death to come knocking, he opened one eye cautiously, then slowly turned his head.
"Now whatchya got dere, Billy?" spoke a woman's voice from farther away.
Dice, arms still above his head, turned to face the gun-holder.
He was a young, tall, lanky fellow with plenty of stubble on his cheeks, sunken eyes, and a tightly drawn face. He wore a worn cowboy hat and tattered old clothes that might have once been a leather jacket and jeans.
Behind him in a doorway that led deeper into the base stood a pregnant blond girl with a face covered in zits and stretchy jeans holding back eight months worth of baby.
"Don't rightly know, Sweetie," Billy drawled in a shaky, high pitched voice that might have been funny had he been a character on the Beverly Hillbillies.
A fat, greasy guy with mechanics coveralls walked in behind 'Sweetie.' He held a shot gun in one hand and carried a piece of electronic equipment—yanked from some console in the place—under the other.
"Oo, Billy, I think he came here to steal stuff off 'dem Second-Earthers."
Billy's eyes grew sharp and he shoved the gun more forcefully in Dice's direction.
"Is that it? You here to rob dis place? That's a crime, fella. They shoot you for that."
Dice, still with his hands aloft, cocked his head and dared, "Um, kinda looks to me like you guys are here ripping stuff off."
That took Billy by surprise. His eyes widened and he appeared offended, until he realized Dice's words to be true.
Dice qualified, "Hey, but that's none of my business, right? Hehe. Yeah, that's my motto, stay out of other people's business."
He cracked a smile. Billy did not smile. Sweetie did, though.
"Hey Billy," she said as she strolled forward. "It looks like this guy went and killed some of Vladimir's boys. I think that's that Daven jerk out there, ain't it?"
The greasy guy rushed forward and peered out the window. Billy stood a little higher on tiptoes and gazed past Dice.
"Whoo! Yep, it sure is. Ha," the greasy guy sounded ecstatic. "That guy was a little turd. Yes he was."
Dice mumbled, "You can say that again."
Billy grew serious, "Hold it there, mister. We don't need to be goin' and repeatin' ourselves."
"Um, well, see, that's sort of a figure of speech, I, uh—"
"Hey…hey wait a second," Sweetie leered at Dice. "They brought you here to git somethin' didn't they."
"Uhhhh"
"Yeah. Hey Billy, Vlad-I-mere's mechs were all outa power cells. I bet they sent this fella here to grab some from here."
Billy received, analyzed, and understood Sweetie's suggestion.
He squinted menacingly, "Say, mister, you workin' for Vladimir?"
"Um…I…"
"You'd better come with us. Pa can figure out what to do with 'ya."
Sweetie strolled to Dice, ran a hand over his chest, smiled and told him, "I can think of lots of things to do with this one."
"Now you stop that right now, you hear me?"
She pouted and walked off.
Billy leaned forward.
"Don't you get no fancy ideas, mister. She's just doin' that to make me jealous. You hear me? Keep your hands offa my girl."
Dice smiled, "Oh, hey, yeah, I can see, you two make, like, the perfect couple. Yessir."
As they moved Dice form the security control room into the motor pool he realized that his plan had gone awry. Killing Daven had been fun, but he had not forgotten about Elena. As he had watched Daven and the other thug die, Dice had thought of the idea to take one of the shrikes from the base and head on back to Vladimir's. He figured he only really needed one shrike to blast past the misfit guards, grab Elena, find a gas station, and get the hell on the road.
But no, it did not look as if things were going to work out that way.
A few minutes later, after the greasy guy turned off the automatons again, Dice found himself in the grip of an Armored Shrike. Literally.
Dice had not expected Billy to have the brainpower to operate the mechanical beast, but he had been proven wrong. The young man took command of one of the modified Grapple units, slipped into the cockpit, and grabbed Dice in the giant metal hand. Any false moves and Dice knew he'd end up a stain.
The greasy guy also drove a shrike—a heavy-duty model—while Sweetie got behind the driver's seat of a Jeep. The back of that Jeep was filled with power cells--all the power cells from the base--as well as other stolen equipment.
Dice realized that since his plan of using force had failed, he would need those cells to save Elena. That is, of course, if these backwater scavengers didn't kill him and roast him over a fire for dinner.
The convoy traveled for several miles until coming to plateau in a mountain range. The isolated enclave was surrounded by wasteland, but yet Dice saw fields of harvested corn all around the perimeter of a small village.
Quaid had lived for many years alone in the wastelands. He had never seen anyone manage to grow corn out there.
That village was a strange sight, an eclectic collection of thatch homes and tents alongside Armor Shrikes and Jeeps as well as few pack mules. Equipment ranging from modern BBQ grills to spits over fires to radios to old wooden buckets lay scattered about. The people—twenty or so—included a few young kids, some elderly, and everything in between.
All wore a ragtag collection of clothes from army tunics to faded formal wear.
Dice realized that these people had survived by scavenging anything and everything they could find. They had probably avoided being detected by the Blue by living in such an isolated place, a place so devoid of life that even the Blue would not think to live there.
The convoy stopped at the center of town, a center that included a massive water tank.
Billy lowered the arm holding Dice then jumped from the Shrike, his pistol still aimed in his prisoner's direction.
A crowd gathered around the convoy. Sweetie began distributing goodies to reaching hands. Monitors and wrenches, baskets of bullets and strands of rope. It did not appear that Billy's raiding party had been looking for anything in particular, they had just been looking for anything.
An older man emerged from the crowd and approached Dice. The fellow walked hunched over, maybe from osteoporosis, maybe from an injury, Dice did not know. He chewed on something, Dice hoped it was tobacco but thought it might just be cud. His gray hair was unkempt and his hands were adorned in a mass of red age spots.
"Well, whatchya got here, Billy?"
Dice decided to take the initiative.
"Hey, hello there. The name's Dice Quaid, and I'm just passing through."
He smiled big and broad.
"Huh? What did he say?"
Billy spoke in a much louder tone.
"We found him at the second earther place. Pa, I think he was there to steal stuff."
"Steal stuff?" Pa sounded shocked. "Why don't this fella know that if it's 'round these parts it belongs to us? Now mister, why would you go and steal stuff from us?"
Try as he might, Dice could not find the logic in the man's words but he did realized that it might not be best to point out that the 'stuff' at that base did not belong to Pa's group, either.
"No, no, that's not it at all."
Sweetie spoke up.
"He was with some of Vladimir's men."
All of a sudden the crowd that had been hurriedly snatching away items from the back of the Jeep stopped. Pa's eyes grew wide for a second, then narrowed on Dice.
"Vladimir? Did she say you work for Vladimir?"
"Well, that's not exactly—"
Pa pulled a very old .357 magnum from a holster on his back. He leveled the massive barrel at Dice's nose.
Dice spoke fast. And loud.
"Hey, no, that's not it. Those guys bushwhacked me and forced me to go to that place to grab power cells."
"I knew it," Sweetie smiled. "I knew he was after them power cells for Vlad."
Pa growled, "We don't like Vladimir around these parts."
The old man cocked the hammer on the mammoth pistol. Dice was not sure the museum piece would actually fire, but he took no chances.
"Wait! Wait! No, see, you got it all wrong. Hey, ask them, I turned on the attackers to get rid of Vladimir's men. No, he forced me to go there, see?"
Sweetie's face lit up. Dice found it hard to believe that she had forgotten that one little detail but, considering the company she kept, it was quite possible that she was that dumb.
"Hey, yeah, you know he's right. He did smoke two of Vlad's guys. One of them was Daven."
Pa glinted at Dice as if unsure of the truth.
"Say, did you kill Daven?"
Dice could not be sure he knew what answer would displease Pa. He was having trouble keeping pace with these people. Or, at least, figuring them out.
"Um…yes."
Pa glared for another long moment…then smiled, uncocked the hammer, slipped the gun into his waistband, and said, "Good for the little turd. You know he snuck into our camp way back when and pretended he was one of us, then got us in a heap of trouble with Vladimir. Sold us right the hell out, didn't he?"
"That's right, Pa. He sold us right the hell out," Billy echoed.
"What was you doin' runnin' with Daven in the first place?"
Dice looked about then slowly lowered his raised hands.
"Well, you see, it's kinda funny. Life is like that, right? Any-who, this Vladimir guy went and snatched this girl named Elena. He says he's going to kill her—can you believe that?—if I don't go and get some power cells for his Shrikes. Isn't that just the darndest thing?"
"And what was you doin' over at Vlad's in the first place?"
Dice chuckled, "It's a long story, but the short way around is to tell you I ran out of gas. You don't happen to have any gas, do you?"
Pa and the others ignored Dice's request for fuel.
"So, you sayin' you need our power cells to get this girl outta there?"
Dice did not bother pointing out that the cells, in fact, were not actually the property of Pa and his clan of scavengers. Yet again, he thought it best not to dwell on certain details.
"Um. Yes."
"So you thinkin' we should just hand em' over to you? You think Vladimir will still make the trade, seein' that you killed his boys?"
Dice answered, "Hehe, yeah, well I don't think Vladimir cares too much about Daven. He was a turd, right?"
Pa paused for a long second, then burst into a big laugh.
"Whoot! Why you're just funnier than…than…why you're a funny guy there, Dennis."
"Dice."
"What kinda name is Dice?"
"Ummmm…"
"Forgit it for know. Listen," Pa threw an arm around Dice and started walking him away from the center of the community. Dice had to hunch over to match the old man's poor posture.
"Them power cells, there a big deal for my folk. But, I've been thinkin' this over and I figure maybe I could sees my way to partin' with them because, well, my family here is in a heap of trouble."
"No, you don't' say? Why that's just a shame."
"Yep. Look out there, Dennis. What do you see?"
The old man pointed to a field at the base of a steep mountain. That field had been used to plant, grow and harvest food, apparently corn. It had not been used in some time.
"Well, I think I see a corn field."
"Naw. You see a field, Dennis. No corn. Have you ever seen corn grow way out here? C'mon now, be honest with me."
Dice shook his head 'no.'
"That's right. But we got corn to grow way out here, you know how?"
Dice shook his head 'no' again.
"We got ourselves real special type of corn seed, yes sir. Can grow in anything."
"No? Really? That's just…that's just great."
"Not so great."
"Oh."
"See, the woman we got this corn seed from, she makes it all special so it can grow out here in a place like this. I mean, if ain't for the Blue we'd be livin' somewhere with big ole' green fields and growin' corn all days long, right?"
"Right."
"The Blue have this nasty old habit of munchin' on humans like me and yous. So that just ain't in the cards for now, right?"
"Right."
"So anyway," Pa stopped walking and stood next to Dice. "This woman runs a big old lab-or-a-tory. Yep. She has a sci-en-tist who made this special corn seed. Some kind of…some kind of…"
"Oh, hey, enhanced corn."
"…what? What's that? No, she made this special corn for us that's better and stronger than usual corn seed. Only, see, she only gave us some of it. She didn't give us enough and we needin' more or me and my family and all my kids, well, Dennis we're going to starve out here."
"She won't give you any more. Why not?"
Pa grew sharp, "Hey, that's my business. Stop pokin' your nose around."
Dice raised his hands in a 'no offense' gesture.
Pa finished his story, "She's a sweet old lady. Names Agatha Dwiddle…"
The old man had a photo of Agatha. He handed it to Dice.
The elderly woman had nearly blue hair tied in a bun, a sweet grandmother smile, and—in the picture—held a pan of brownies being gobbled by a horde of little kids.
"…I'm thinkin' maybe a smooth-talker like you could stop on by over at her place and find out if maybe she can't see her way to slippin' us a little more."
Dice returned the picture, nodded his head and bit his lip. He knew where this was going.
He scratched his head and spoke, "And if I can get you some more of this corn seed, you'll give me some of the power cells that I can give to Vladimir to get Elena out."
Pa slapped Dice on the back, "Oh, man, Dennis, you sure are one sharp fella. What do you say? Think you can do this for us?"
Pa tapped the handle of the .357 wedged in his waistband as he spoke. The message came across loud and clear.
---
Dice stayed the night with the scavengers, sleeping in a warm tent and vaguely aware of 'Sweetie' hovering around outside that tent at all different hours of the night.
Oh please do NOT let her come in here.
Pa and his family were more than happy to share some water and a few ears of what remained of their corn, all to help Dice to be ready for his mission. They even gave him a well-fed mule for the journey, although the well-fed mule looked so old and worn that his last meal might actually have been his very last meal.
Dice spent the first part of the morning riding to the east, first descending the mountains then crossing open plains. Along the way he past a mass of burned, broke, and otherwise destroyed tanks all with Russian flags as well as hundreds of skeletal blue carcasses. No doubt this had been one of the many battlegrounds in the war that had seen the Blue case mankind from the surface of the planet so long ago.
He gave the graveyard a wide berth.
At that point it grew too hot to travel, so he found shelter in a dead village. Most of the buildings were as old if not older than the graveyard of tanks, but at least a few still had roofs. He shared some shade with a man's bones for a couple of hours, wishing desperately for some smokes.
After the hottest hours of the afternoon had past, Dice made his way by mule further to the east, jogging to the north slightly when he spotted the remains of a Blue nest that served as a navigation point in his journey. According to Pa, it had been one of the first large-scale nests in all the world, but located in the middle of nowhere.
Not long after seeing the nest, the mule died. Just like that. Dice felt it wobble under his legs so he quickly dismounted. The animal snorted once and fell over.
The demise of the pack animal did not take Dice by surprise; the creature had been breathing in a labored fashion for several hours.
Dice continued on foot.
The day had grown long by the time he crested a soft sloping mountain on the southern outskirts of Agatha Dwiddle's homestead.
Pa had suggested that Dice could sweet-talk Agatha into helping them. Dice did not take that suggestion seriously. He knew darned well that Pa wanted action and results, not negotiation.
Still, that lady in the picture looked like such a kindly old—
BAM!
Dice dropped to his belly and crawled to the summit of the short hill. Below him stretched Agatha's place.
No…a compound.
The main 'home' sat surrounded by six-foot walls. The inner buildings included a large square and several smaller ones and a big garage. Satellite dishes and antenna sat on top of the buildings and while they showed their age, they looked in perfect working order.
It wasn't a massive area, but it surpassed any notion of being a 'home'. More interestingly, on the northern side of the facility, just beyond the north walls, sat a landing strip, fueling pumps, and a take off ramp, all designed to accommodate space shuttles.
Dicey-boy, what have you gotten yourself into?
Unfortunately, Quaid did not have time to fully take in the sights. The loud noise had been the sound of cannon fire.
However, the cannon fire was not Dice's immediate concern. No, he was more worried about the swarming, fluttering noise. The noise being made by the mass of flying, Man-Eater Blue descending upon the compound.
The attackers approached from the west in a formation of six. They swooped in toward the compound.
Dice did not see what he expected to see. He thought he would spy armed automaton attackers rush to meet the invaders. He did not.
The base did have, however, defenses.
One tall platform stretched high above everything else directly overhead the main building. It looked something like a big crow's nest from a sailing ship of centuries gone by, but much large. Plus, it held a big, heavy cannon.
That's what made the BLAM sound, over and over again.
At one end of the cannon there was a seat for the gun's operator.
Dice peered across the wide open distance. It took several moments for his eyes to adjust. During those moments the cannon fired again and again, knocking one then two blue from the sky. The oversized insects swirled about, trying to approach, but fearing the deadly fire of the weapon.
In that seat sat a big man. Dice knew himself to be a big man. This guy was bigger.
At first, Dice felt certain the man wore some kind of white turban but, the more he watched, Dice became sure that it was not a turban but a head wrapped in bandages like a mummy's head.
The four remaining Blue dived toward the gun platform.
BAM! BAM!
Two blue fell from the sky, landing with hard thuds inside the compound walls. Dice heard the rat-tat-tat of a heavy machine gun from behind those walls, no doubt someone making sure the monsters were dead.
The last two Blue dove again. The gun fired, missing twice then hitting one of the attackers at nearly point blank range. The beast smashed into the gun, dead, but hitting with tremendous impact. Dice could see pieces of debris fall from the weapon and a hiss of steam pour forth. Obviously the cannon had suffered critical damage.
Worse for the big man with the bandages, the last remaining Blue landed its armor-plated self on the rim of the gun platform.
Poor bastard. He put up such a good fight, too.
The man with the bandages jumped out of the seat of the gun. Dice expected to see him scream and make a run for it. But no, the fellow marched toward the Blue that hovered larger than even the considerably-large man.
Dice noticed something else. The big man with the bandages wore a long holster of some kind. Dice couldn't tell exactly what it was but what happened next happened so fast that Dice lost track of all his thoughts.
The Blue leaned over and in toward the approaching man. The creature's armored lips opened and a sick, pulsing red and white mouth stretched forward in the way Dice had seen a hundred times; stretching forward to bite the head off the man.
The big man with the bandages punched the creature directly in its extending mouth.
Dice knew that mankind had fought a thousand, maybe ten thousand, battles against the Blue. Millions upon millions of the monsters—probably hundreds of millions at one time—against four billion human beings on Earth.
Quaid felt fairly confident in thinking that this was the first time that any Blue had actually been punched by a human being.
Anyway, the punch obviously hurt but even such a big man could not knock a Blue over with a good right cross. The armor-plated monster staggered in surprise, then refocused on killing the big-but-still-puny man.
The extra split second the punch had bought gave the big guy a chance to pull his weapon from the strange holster. In fact, Dice quickly realized that it was not a holster on the man's waist but a scabbard. He pulled not a gun, but a shapely sword that made Dice think of pirate movies or maybe Sinbad.
That sword did not move fast, but it moved with great power. The man hacked off the Blue's extending mouth with a right to left swipe, then raised the blade above his head with two hands and brought it down with force into the core of the creature.
The Blue hovered on the platform, shocked that a man had actually beaten it in hand-to-maw combat. More importantly, its core had been breached; the Blue was already dead, it just took a second for the impulse to die to reach its tiny brain.
It fell. Dice saw a cloud of dust and heard a big thump as it hit somewhere behind the main building.
The man with the bandages around his head glanced down from the platform, glanced around for more attackers (there were none), then descended a latter from the tall platform into the compound.
Dice smiled.
I have got to shake that fella's hand.
His mood perked. Anyplace with a guy that gutsy was a place Dice would like.
He jogged down the far side of the slope with the intention of walking straight up the front gate. He paused, still a fair distance from that gate, when another noise grabbed his attention. Not a 'blam' but a 'boom'.
Dice looked skyward. Nothing but a sea of blue and some puffy white--
Wait a sec…Dice noticed a speck up there, in the western quadrant of the sky. That speck grew in size and took shape. He saw two wings and a fuselage on a white ship.
Dice realized the boom he had heard had been a sonic boom made by a spacecraft entering Earth's atmosphere.
He realized something else, too, based on the markings on the plane's belly and wings: it was a Second Earth shuttle.
The craft floated to Earth. Its landing gear extended. It bounced first the rear two sets of wheels then the front set on the tarmac of Agatha Dwiddle's runway.
Dice took cover. Walking in the front door was no longer an option.