Chapter 444 (2/2)
The radio hissed, the auto-tune scanning through empty channels and empty bands, but Dambree didn't mind. She only had it on in case she got close enough to hear anything.
The nav-comp beeped quietly and Dambree glanced at it. Dambree let off the gas, lightly pressing the brake, as she looked at the nav-comp.
CIVIL DEFENSE UPDATE appeared.
”Why did we stop?” Elu asked quietly from where he was huddled up in two quilts taken from the beds of dead people.
”Nav update,” Dambree said.
The map cleared and flashed, shifting, and Dambree swore, biting off the harsh Terran syllables.
”Chordo gamousa kumambichi,” she snarled out, remembering a line from a movie.
”What?” Elu asked softly.
”Civil Defense is warning that a BOLO is on the move. We're going to have to cut north-east,” Dambree said.
”Don't get close to it,” Elu said.
”I know,” Dambree said. She drained the fizzybrew, lowered the window, and threw the bottle into the bushes. She reached down and grabbed another one, cracking it open, and putting it between her legs after opening it.
The breeze smelled of growing things and was cool. For a moment Dambree closed her eyes and let the breeze fill her.
Off in the distance the faint tearing sound of gunfire reached her sensitive ears.
The moment broken, she raised the window.
She put the car in gear and started driving, keeping an eye on the nav-comp. It had taken her months to put together the ripperchip, mostly with stuff she'd downloaded off of SolNet and Gal-Net, it was the getting it to work together than had been tough.
Her teacher had thought it was cute that she was trying to 'reinvent the navcomp' as he pointed out where her problems were and where she could find resources.
Of course, he didn't know about the carjacking software she'd downloaded from a ”Keep Your Ears Up Survival Site” she'd found in the darker parts of SolNet.
For a moment Dambree wondered what happened to the teacher when the sirens had gone off this time, but pushed it out of her mind.
She turned onto another dirt road that her nav-comp told her would allow her to skirt the BOLO's area, passing between two small agricorp towns. According to her nav-comp there was a charging station and a pumping station about ten kilometerss down the road.
The night moved by quietly as Dambree kept the vehicle cruising forward at nearly thirty kpm. The charge was down to 70%, after only a few hours, but Dambree had learned to keep the car topped off anytime she could.
How am I going to keep them alive? Dambree thought to herself, taking another swig of fizzybrew. I barely kept Tru, Elu, Nee, and Mister Mewmew alive last time. How am I going to keep them alive?
She glanced at her sleeping aunt, who was curled up on the floorboards with Nee and Baby.
How can I keep you alive when you're so stupid? she wondered.
She sighed, slowing down to go through the S-curve.
She saw the pumps and the charging station up ahead and slowed down, turning off the headlights. She crept the car forward, looking around. She could hear the big robot combines growling off in the distance, hear a battle off in the distance to the east where flashes were lighting up the horizon.
The pumps were silent when she stopped.
”Are we stopping, Bree?” Elu asked quietly.
”Yes,” Dambree said, looking around. She rolled down the window and sniffed.
Just the smell of wufflegrain.
”Have to pee,” Elu said.
”Wait till I signal,” Dambree said, connecting her datalink to the ripperchip. The car's status appeared in her vision and she blinked through the menu. It was a copy (for educational use only) of remote owner usage for vehicles, and most of it worked on the car.
Elu didn't answer. Dambree counted to ten and got out slowly, closing the door behind her. She prowled around the water pumps and the two battered old charging stations. After a minute she dug in her pocket and pulled out her widget. She pressed it against the old electronic lock and after a minute it beeped and disengaged.
She pulled the cable out and connected it to the car, then looked around again, counting to thirty.
Elu peeked up and she flicker her left ear twice like it was a nervous habit.
Elu opened the door quietly. Ullie and Ellie followed, both of the younger boys looking around nervously.
”I have to pee,” Ellie said.
”Stand behind the car and pee in the dirt,” Elu said as Dambree moved over to the charging station.
”What if someone sees me?” Ullie asked.
”Then we're in trouble,” Elu said.
Dambree pressed the widget against the charging station. It flashed the wifi icon several times, then beeped and reset. The car's power level appeared and charging began to flash.
The boys laughed and Dambree glanced over, seeing that they were standing by the ditch, facing the back of the car, and peeing lines in the dirt lit up by the taillights of the car.
Dambree felt bad. She'd gotten the programs off of a SolNet site that talking about phreaking, hacking, slicing, and ripping. She was still startled how easy they were to use, like the entire system was unencrypted and unsecured by the standards of Terran software.
”Momma, I can see the boys things!” Meglee called out.
”Shh,” Aunt Fenn said.
The boys laughed, ignoring Meglee.
Dambree's ears went up. She could hear a vehicle approaching. Not the whirring clattering of a combine or harvester. Something different. Not like the clacking stuttering of the Slorpies or the roar of the Terrans.
A car. Maybe a truck.
Elu grabbed his cousins, pulling them toward the car, not bothering to button or pull up his pants. His cousins squawked, stumbling, but followed. Elu paused long enough to pull the charging cable out and slap the panel shut before following his cousins inside.
”Get down,” Tru ordered.
The car went silent as it shut off.
Dambree unhooked the pistol from the side of the belt and reached behind her, putting it at the small of her back.
”Unlock,” she said softly.
She felt the pistol buzz slightly in her hand. She activated the vehicle remote HUD and blinked through the menu to turn on the headlights and put right left hand headlight on highbeam. The radio was still moving through the channel, silently scanning for anything that wasn't static or jamming.
The truck came around the corner and Dambree tensed.
The front fenders were damaged, the bumper was crumpled, one headlight was out.
She knew what she was seeing.
She reached in her pocket, lifting up what was inside and holding it behind her back. It took her a second to find what she needed and get her finger right.
The truck stopped. A Hesstlan male was on each side, a female with red streaks painted on her ears and cheeks was between them. Two males standing up in the back, looking over the hood, with a female between them, again, she had her ears painted in stripes.
The driver reached out, grabbing the spotlight, as the truck came to a full stop.
Dambree pulled.
”Well, hi there, little missy,” the driver said.
”Hi,” Dambree said.
”Looks like you're all alone,” the female in the back called out. She gave a weird cackling high pitched laugh.
The passenger door opened and the male got out. The two males jumped out on either side.
The driver kept the spotlight on Dambree.
”'Fraid your going to have to give us what's in the car,” the driver said.
”We might even let you live,” the female that had slid out of the cab laughed.
Dambree jerked upright as it appeared in her vision at the same time as the truck and the car's radio started blaring a siren. The babies started shrieking, Aunt Fenn cried out in fear, as the atonal warbling siren kicked in.
Dambree saw it in her datalink vizlink.
ATOMIC ATOMIC ATOMIC
Mister Mewmew gave a yowling warning from his kittykitty crate.
”What's...” one said.
”Who's...” another started.
Dambree stepped forward, pulling her finger sharply away, ignoring the pain. The heavy round metal ball in her hand bounced as she swung her hand low, down by her knee, and released what she was holding. one She turned and jumped, landing near the charger.
”STARE AT THE GROUND!” Dambree screamed. two
The ball bounced across the ground.
The female who had jumped out of the back of the truck watched it, frowning, as it bounced between her feet and under the truck.
ATOMIC ATOMIC ATOMIC flashed in Dambree's vision. three
Dambree laced her fingers together, folded her ears back over the back of her head, and put her hands over the back of her head.
The world lit up, bright white. The shadows vanished. The tractors clattered and went silent. four
The other screamed, the passenger and both women turning and looking at where the flash had come from, where a red bloody light was brightening as a hellhammer mushroom cloud clawed into the sky.
five Dambree thought.
The M67A3 64mm AM fragmentation grenade, one each, went off with a crack and a white flash.