Chapter Forty-Nine (1/2)
The streets were full of smoke, random debris that swirled in the wind, corpses torn apart and left scattered, destroyed Precursor drones, and rubble that had spilled from where buildings had collapsed. The entire city was full of the sounds explosions, the high pitched thrumming and screaming of energy weapons, the roar of rockets and missiles, and the wailing of the frightened, trapped in buildings or huddling in the rubble, that had grown so loud that it even could be heard over the combat between the Terran military and the Precursor machines.
The little Telkan ran on short little legs, her fur filthy and matted, her huge eyes wide and watering with tears, her tunic torn and filthy, a ragged tattered doll held tight to her body even though it was missing an arm. She was crying as she ran, terror pushing her exhausted body further down the street, her broodmother's words echoing through her mind.
Run, podling, don't look back! the warm, soft, good smelling, and loving broodmother had yelled to the little Telkan as the machines that bit and stung crashed through the window and into the little store they had been hiding inside.
So she ran. Past the bodies, her little brain editing them out, running past the fires burning in the street, past the holes in the ground, climbing over the rubble and sobbing as she did as she'd been told.
run!
She wanted her mother, her father, the broodmothers, the other podlings, but all she had was Mister Kikik, her stuffy, and the broodmother had told her, screaming it as the pinchy machines...
Run!
Her soft feet were bleeding from cuts where rubble has sliced into her delicate walking pads, but still, she kept going, crying, scrambling, holding tight to Mister Kikik as she ran. She scraped her knee and got up, running. She cut her hand scrambling up rubble and kept running. Fire burst up from a hole in the ground, scorching her fur, but she didn't stop.
RUN!
She came to a stop, screaming, when a huge metal snake, as wide as the street, crashed through the building, little pieces of rubble bouncing around her as she ducked and covered her head with one arm, screaming. The snake was twisting in the street and she saw it had hundreds, thousands of legs. It held something in its mouth, in the big pinchers, something that was struggling. She screamed, knowing it was going to hurt it, knowing the many legged snake was bad. She turned to run and saw them.
Pinchies.
She looked around wildly, looking for a way out. There was only walls on either side, pinchies running at her on their spider legs, and the huge snake thrashing around.
”KILL YOU! SKIN YOU! EAT YOU!” a voice roared through the translator necklace she wore.
She screamed, crouching down, holding Mister Kikik tight, covering her head with one arm. She was sure it was the pinchies yelling it.
The snake crashed down behind her and she screamed again, staring at the pinchy's running at her.
”YOU! AREN'T! NOTHING” she heard roar out from behind her, her necklace translating it. ”EAT THIS!” There was an explosion behind her.
The pinchies were halfway at her and she turned to look behind her.
A big metal man was standing up, breaking the pinchers holding onto him. Bigger than daddy, but with two arms and two legs and a head with two eyes just like her and daddy. No trendrils or weird faces, just a flat face. He didn't have soft fur, not like mommy or broodmommy, or daddy, he was made of black metal and his eyes were bright glowy green.
”CHRIST, KID, LOOK OUT!” the metal man yelled, raising an arm.
She screamed, turned around, and ducked, covering her head, curling over Mister Kikik, holding him tight with her sore arm.
There was a thrumming noise, a loud noise, like when the food heaty (that she wasn't allowed to play with) was on, and she felt heat on her head that made her fur crinkle and made her get all wet and gross with sweat.
She saw the pinchies get touched by blue flickering light with a white core, the flickering light making them pop with bright flashes. She heard thudding footsteps and the big metal man moved in front of her, his hand cocked back strangely and the blue light coming from a tube sticking out of his palm.
She wondered if it hurt his handpad. She looked away, the light hurting her sensitive eyes.
The light stopped and she opened her eyes and looked up.
The big metal man was looking down at her and she saw that the metal man had tears in his metal skin like she had in her tunic. Silver fluid, like the red blood that filled her scrapes and ran into the fur on her arms and legs, filled up the tears in his metal skin. A big knife was sticking out of his arm and as she watched it slid back inside with a snap.
”You OK, kid?” The big metal man asked.
She nodded, her eyes wide as she stared at him.
”Where's your parents?” The metal man asked.
”The pinchies got my broodmommy,” the little girl said, starting to sniffle again. ”She yelled for me to run so I ran as far and as fast as I could,” she sobbed. ”The pinchies chased me.”
”You're OK, kid. Let's find somewhere safe for you,” the metal man said. He looked up. ”This is Char-3381, does anyone read me? This is Char-3381, does anyone read me?”
”Who are you talking to?” she asked. ”Is Char your name? Or is the numbers? That's a funny name.”
The metal man looked down. ”You can hear that?”
”Yes,” The little girl said, hugging Mister Kikik close.
The metal man turned around and knelt down. ”Can you see the back of my head?”
The little girl stood on her tiptoes. ”Yes. You have a pinchy stuck in it.”
The big metal man tried to reach back to his head but wasn't quite able to reach it. He gave a sigh.
”Honey, I need you to climb up on my back, OK?” he said. He sat down.
”OK,” the little girl said. Her sniffles were stopping. She climbed up, standing on his legs, then pulling herself up. She whined a little when her arm hurt. ”Now what?”
”Can you pull the piece of metal out of my head?” he asked.
She wrapped her paw around it, tried to squeeze and stopped. ”It's sharp. You're really hot, do metal men get sickies?”
”No, we don't. All right,” he sighed. He looked around. ”I'm not even sure where I am. My GPS is out.”
”Oh,” she said. She climbed down and sat on a big rock in the street. ”I'm lost too.”
”Lost my rifle too. Autocannon's empty. Out of mass, overheating and slushed out. Battle-screen's down,” the big metal man stood up. ”And half my onboards are out.”
He turned around and looked down at her. ”Why aren't you in a shelter?”
She shrugged. ”Momma tried, the people at the shelter told us that we belonged in the street and called my momma a bad name,” she started sobbing. ”We walked a ways and were in the crowd, hoping to get into a different one and there were really loud bangs from trucks with the people mommy always said to do what they say. People started screaming. Broodmommy grabbed me and we ran.”
She held tight to Mister Kikik. ”There was a loud noise and everyone, even mommy and daddy and the other broodmommies and the other podlings, all popped like balloons when the light touched them. There was light coming from some big trucks.”
”Digital H. Christ, kid,” The big metal man said. ”I'm sorry.”
The little girl sobbed and hugged Mister Kikik harder. ”Broodmommy hid us in a store, even though she did a bad thing and broke a window with a rock. We've been in there during all the noise. Even when the big light came.”
The big metal man knelt down. ”You've been in that shop for five days? Have you even eaten?”
The little girl nodded. ”Broodmommy fed me. She ran out of milk yesterday though. I'm hungry and thirsty.”
The little girl looked up, tears coming from her large expressive eyes. ”I want my broodmommy.”
”It's OK, kid,” the big metal man said. ”I've got you. What's your name?”
”Podling,” She said. ”We don't have names yet.”
”Can you eat regular food or only broodmommy milk?” The big metal man asked, standing up and looking around.
”I can eat big people food. I'm almost old enough to have a name,” The little podling said, looking up.
”There, we can get you something to eat there,” The big metal man said, pointing at a shop.
The little girl looked at the front of the shop and shook her head. ”There's no podling sign. That's for the Masters.”
”Not today, kid, you're with me,” The big metal man said. He took a couple steps and stopped. ”Oops, that's not good.”
”What?” The little girl looked around.
The metal man moved over to a big car, the important kind that mommy said to always look out for, grabbed a door, and ripped it open with a scream of metal.
”Get in, kid, and hurry,” The metal man said. ”Sit in the back and in the middle of the seat. Don't look.”
The podling nodded, hurrying up. She sat on the seat and buckled the seat harness.
”Don't look. Look down. Don't look, sweetie,” The big metal man said, then closed the door.
She could hear the wailing coming. The wailers screamed, and ran down the street, some breaking windows, some hitting people, others throwing rocks. She didn't know why they wailed, they just did. She saw them ripping each others clothing sometimes, still wailing. Even masters were part of the wailers. They were all blackened, with owies all over, their hair falling out and icky sores on their faces.
The wailing got louder and she covered her ears, bending over and squeezing her eyes shut.
”Get off me! Don't touch me! Get your slimy hands off me!” The metal man roared.
Glass broke, making her open her eyes, and some landed at her feet. She closed her eyes, squeezing them shut. She heard metal crunch, heard screaming, and terrible noises. The wailing got so loud it hurt her ears, and still the metal man yelled at them to stop touching him, get off of him, keep their hands to themselves. There was banging on the metal, more glass broke, and it felt like someone was jumping on the car.
Then the wailing slowly faded away.
It was quiet for a second and the door opened. She squeezed her eyes shut.
”Don't look, honey. I'll have to pull the roof off a little bit, but don't look, okay?” the metal man said.
”I won't. Promise,” she said.
”OK. Be good,” he said. She heard metal scream and could smell the air.
It smelled like blood.
She felt the harness unclick and the metal man lifted her up. His hands and arm were really hot.