Dynamis | Chapter 7 - Detached (Patreon)

Karl’s head was pounding when he at last came to. He wasn’t sure where he was, only that he was hovering several feet off the ground. The world was blurry, but detailed enough that he could see grass below him. He drew breath and the urge to vomit took hold. Shutting his eyes to fight back the nausea, he steadied his breath, then gradually re-opened his eyes. His vision righted, and he felt around his shoulders for the belts, grateful that he’d fastened them so tightly.

Sean slumped in his chair to Karl’s left. “S-Sean. Sean! Wake up!” Karl said.

Sean groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, batting his eyes open. “W-What…?” His breath hitched. “Carly!” He undid his belts and threw them off, rolling to his side out of the chair and onto the ground with a thud. He staggered to his feet then promptly fell to his knees. “Carly!”

“Sean, be careful!” Karl said. “We don’t know how long we’ve—”

Sean lurched, then spilled the contents of his stomach into the grass. Spots of red colored his vomit, and Karl grimaced. Not good. Karl undid the buckle of his belt, landing on the balls of his feet, only to lose his balance and pitch to the side. His legs were numb and his groin felt like it was straining just to move. It felt like he was learning to walk for the first time all over again. He crawled on his hands and knees over to Sean, then grabbed him by the arm and rose slowly as he guided him to standing.

“Sean? Sean, are you all right?” Karl asked as he leaned to his side to get a better view of Sean’s face. He was pale, riddled with sweat, and deep bags hung under his eyes. Karl put a hand on Sean’s shoulder when he was sure he could stand on his own, and Sean quickly batted it away.

“She’s out there,” Sean breathed. “I gotta find her.”

“Hold on,” Karl said, “we don’t know how many more Fiends are still out there.”

“That’s exactly why I’ve got to find her!” Sean turned to look at Karl. His face contorted with fury, and Karl worried that one wrong word would set him off. “If the Fiends want to contend with me, then let them try.” He undid the clip around the holster on his thigh and retrieved the gun within. He turned the gun on its side and flicked the safety off. The weapon hummed to life, and a thin line of blue lit up the sides, indicating its energy level. “One shot, one kill.” He held the gun’s barrel to the sky and shook it for effect. “They won’t get within ten feet of me.”

That assumes you hit the damn thing.

Sean started into the forest, and Karl followed, looking at their crashed DF on the way. An expanse of trees had been leveled where the unit’s arms and legs lay. The entire back section that they fell out of had been severed, and a gentle breeze carried a faint hint of sulfur. As Karl rounded the DF, he noted how clean the cut was.

I don’t understand. How could the DF’s defenses be cut through so easily?

He barely had time to dwell on the thought. Sean had already gained considerable distance and was disappearing into the woods. Karl opened his mouth to call out to him, then reconsidered. With no way of knowing how long they’d been unconscious, it’d only be too easy to alert the Fiends to their location, assuming the beasts weren’t aware of their presence already.

At the very least, he could send out a distress signal. To avoid being overrun by Fiends, he’d need to ensure that it was a wide-gap variant. Fiends were attracted to the transmissions of certain electromagnetic waves, most notably microwaves and radio waves. Prime the distress signal improperly, and they’d have a much bigger issue on their hands. Countless people had lost their lives because their distress signal had given them away. Using a wide-gap variant wouldn’t promise the absence of Fiends, but the risk was reduced significantly.

Karl climbed up a portion of the DF where it’d been severed and tried the main power switch. He pushed it forward and nothing happened. He clicked it back, waiting the recommended three seconds while leaning to the side to make sure Sean hadn’t disappeared, then pushed it forward once more. Nothing. Sending a distress signal wouldn’t be possible if they couldn’t get the power running. He cursed under his breath and jumped down, rounding the DF to see Sean disappearing into the thicket somewhere to his left.

Damn it, Sean, slow down! Foliage crunched and settled with Karl’s footsteps as he jogged to catch up. He crested the hill ahead to find Sean snaking between a pair of trees. Karl quickly weaved through the pines and fell into a rhythm behind Sean, carefully watching between the trees for any Fiends that could be hiding. He veered slightly to Sean’s right so that he could see his face. Sean furrowed his brow and gazed straight ahead. The man was on a mission. Karl glanced at the gun in his hand, fearing that impeding him could put him in the crosshairs.

“Don’t run off,” Karl chanced saying, “we need to stick together if we want to get out of this.”

“Then don’t fall behind,” Sean said, the grip around his gun so tight that the material of his suit squeaked. “I’m the senior here, so you do as I tell you, you understand?” Karl grunted a reply. “As soon as we find Carly, we’re out of here.”

Karl replayed the scene of the explosion in his head. The naive part of him wanted to believe that Carly was still alive. That somehow she’d managed to eject herself from the cockpit or activate some sort of last-minute shield before the explosion went off. But whatever had hit them had severed the DF’s volatile energies at their source. Surviving an explosion like that was not only unlikely; it was improbable.

“The wreckage can’t be far from here,” Sean said without ever looking back, gun held level with his face, his skin pale as death, beads of sweat collecting on the side of his head.

“Yeah.” It was all Karl could think of to say. He’d never been stranded, let alone with someone he felt might be psychologically unstable. His lips were dry and his heart wouldn’t stop hammering against his chest. It took everything he had just to keep his voice from shaking.

Their walk went on silently for a time. The awkward air, the smell of sulfur, the truth that lingered between them but couldn’t be spoken aloud; Karl thought that maybe counting the seconds might keep his mind busy but all it did was exasperate his anxiety. Rather than fight against the reality of their situation, he instead tried to think of ways to console Sean when they stumbled upon the inevitable.

That time came sooner than expected. The other half of the DF came into view shortly after they passed through a pair of browning bushes.

“Carly!” Sean cried. 

The bottom portion of the DF lay in a clearing, the upper portion resting upon the trees it had leveled during its descent. Karl gaped and waited at the top of a hill while Sean hurried to the DF’s remains. It was black and charred beyond recognition, pocked with holes of varying sizes and shapes, with half-melted chunks of metal strewn around it.

Even at this distance, Karl could see the truth clearly. He drew a deep breath through his nose and started down the hill while Sean frantically searched for any sign of his lover. Sean continued crying out her name while he pushed aside pieces of the wreckage. Karl maintained a watchful eye over his senior while twigs and debris crunched under his footfalls.

As he reached the bottom of the hill, something larger crunched under his sole. He lifted his foot, gasping when he saw a severed finger in the grass. A black, glossy fabric frayed down the middle up to the nail. It was covered in spatters of blood and streaks of black, and the bone poked partway through the skin. Karl clapped a hand to his mouth and quickly kicked the appendage into a nearby bush.

Something had to be done about Sean, and Karl used that fact to drive away the terrible images his imagination concocted of Carly being burned up and blown to pieces on her descent. Sean cried Carly’s name over and over again. 

Worrying that Sean may do something dangerous or call the Fiends to them, Karl jogged up to him in hopes of silencing him.

“Sean, you have got to stop yelling,” Karl hissed, hands balled into fists. “Please. One gun can’t fend off all those Fiends. You know that.”

Sean sniffed and brushed away his tears with the back of his hand. “We have to find her! Do you not understand that?” His voice shook. “She’s got to be around here somewhere.”

Karl saw the finger in his mind’s eye. She’s around, but not in the way you remember her. He glanced at the seat that hung from the few bolts that still supported it. The electronics had been fried to a crisp, and the smell of burned copper permeated the air. He didn’t want Sean’s last memory of his lover to be so macabre. 

Karl swallowed hard, his stare darting between the wreckage and the gun in Sean’s hand. “Sean, please. I don’t want to say this any more than you do, but—”

“Then don’t,” Sean snarled.

Karl balled his hands, pressed them against his thighs. His gaze shot to the ground, back up at Sean. Then, as he shut his eyes, he said, “We’re not going to find her, Sean.” A brief moment of silence passed and he added, “You did everything you could. There’s no way anyone could’ve seen that coming. It wasn’t your fault.”

I’ve been there, Karl thought as memories of his mother and older brother came back as fresh as the day he lost them. He’d been inconsolable on the day of their deaths, and their memory had initially been all that kept him going. For a long time, his ambition to see the Fiend threat annihilated was all that drove him. If it hadn’t been for Jark and his friends, he’d be a very different person.

Sean half-laughed as the tears flowed free. “Getting comforted by my junior. Well, isn’t that something?” He stepped away from the wreckage, brushing his face with his forearm. He didn’t say anything for a while. Tears continued to fall from the corners of his eyes, and he was quick to wipe them away. Karl was sure at least a few minutes passed by the time he spoke again.

“We should figure out how to get out of here,” Sean said at last, the corners of his eyes pink. He turned toward Karl, then looked up, frowning and pointing to the sky with his gun. “Shit. Is that another one?”

Karl looked over his shoulder, wide-eyed, as a DF with a missing arm scorched across the sky toward them. He and Sean dropped to their stomachs and threw their arms in front of their faces. The ground shook with the DF’s crash, throwing clouds of black smoke and flame into the air. A wave of dirt and rock pelted them as it passed, and Karl kept his mouth and eyes closed as tight as he could. The force was nearly enough to lift him off the ground.

When the tremors came to an end, Karl slowly lifted his face from his arms, then rose to his feet along with Sean.

“That thing’s going to get us killed if we don’t shut it down!” Sean said as he started for the DF.

Karl ran to keep up. “We should prime a distress signal for wide-gap transmission while we’re at it.”

“And attract every Fiend in a ten mile radius?” He shook his head. “Uh-uh. No way. That thing’s probably already bright enough as is.”

Karl opened his mouth to snap at Sean, but caught himself in time. “Do you have a better idea?”

“No, but let’s not assume anything until we’ve at least verified if the conductors are alive.”

I hope Lilibelle is holding up. He wanted to believe that she was safe, and that their job was proceeding as normal. Whatever had destroyed the Silver Tongue was something he hadn’t seen in any record thus far. A shred of him was hoping it was the only one of its kind.

“Quiet,” Sean said as he came to a sudden stop. “Do you hear that?”

Karl cupped his ear and turned his head slightly. Sean gestured with his hand, and he and Karl lowered to one knee. The bushes rustled, and a series of clicks and crunches followed. The curious side of Karl wanted to look over the bush, but his reason wouldn’t allow it.

“A Fiend,” Sean whispered. “Don’t move. I have a clear shot.” He carefully raised his arms so that the gun craned over the bush, then pulled the trigger. A high-pitched whine bellowed out of the gun, a flash of blue painting Karl’s vision. Sean exhaled and retracted the gun so that it was pointing up. He rose to his feet, then glanced at Karl. “It’s dead. Come on.”

Karl nodded and nearly lost his footing trying to stand. Sean parted a pair of bushes, gesturing with a few flicks of his gun for him to follow. Karl grazed a tree beside him with his hand for balance, then passed through the same pair of bushes behind Sean. Sean came to a stop in front of the Fiend, and at last they were able to get a better look at what they were dealing with.

Lying on its side was a creature of pink and red. Its body was broken up into segments, the top half separated by ridges that overlapped one another like plates. The middle portion jutted up more than the rest of its body, the underbelly soft and squishy. Its legs were thin, with several joints more than a human’s. Half of its face had been blown to pieces, and the blood that pooled out was red with streaks of pink, bearing the consistency of jam. One of its mandibles was still clicking, one of its legs still flinching.

As far as Karl could tell, this thing had no eyes.

“These aren’t the Fiends from before,” Karl said, keeping a few feet of distance between him and the Fiend. “Looks like a Lurker?”

“I think so,” Sean agreed. This was Karl’s first time seeing one. The images in the classroom did not do it justice. It was nearly as large as Sean, each of its mandibles the size of his forearm. He hated to think what may have happened if Sean wasn’t carrying his weapon. Sean cricked his neck to one side and pointed his gun further into the forest. “We should keep moving.”

“All right.” Karl followed Sean, pausing momentarily to look back at the Lurker. Having never seen one up close, he couldn’t help but stare for a time. The leg was still twitching, causing his skin to crawl. There had been a time—a very short time—where he wondered if cohabitation could be possible. Now, however, looking upon the demon himself, he knew where he stood.

Sean stopped for a moment and waved him over. “Come on,” he said.

“Be right there.”

Sean led the way while Karl kept a close watch on their back. Wind rustled the leaves while he scanned over every bush, log, and rock out of concern that any one of these trees could be hiding another Fiend. After their encounter with the Lurker, he couldn’t afford to assume anything.

“There it is,” Sean said after they’d walked for a few more minutes. He took cover behind a tree and Karl stopped beside another a few yards away. He glanced around and hummed. “I don’t see—”

The familiar sound of a laser pistol whirred to life behind Karl, and something hard pressed up against the back of his head. Shit.

“Hey! Get away from him!” Sean cried, his gun pointed at Karl’s unknown attacker.

“Don’t move.” A woman’s voice. Smooth and monotone. “I will shoot you if I have to.”

“I’m not going to do anything,” Karl said, his voice trembling. He moved to raise his hands, and the woman punched him in the shoulder. “Ow! Shit!”

“I said don’t move. Arms at your sides. Who are you two?”

Karl raised his brow, locking eyes with Sean briefly, then lowered his arms.

“Sean,” Sean said.

“And you?” The woman dug, what he assumed was, the barrel of her gun into his skin.

“K-Karl,” Karl said.

The woman hummed. “Turn around. Back to your partner.” Karl did as she asked. The woman stood a head shorter than him, and wore a bodysuit similar to his and Sean’s. She took two steps back. “What are you doing here?”

“We crash-landed,” Karl said slowly. “We were attacked by a large Fiend that emerged from the ocean. We were forced to make an emergency landing.”

“Interesting.” There wasn’t a hint of inflection—positive or negative—in her voice. Her gaze swept over him from head to toe rapidly, and as she did, Karl noted she had eyes of two different colors. One blue, the other green. More interesting of note, however, was that the green one—her left—was a mechanical implant, and occasionally moved independently. “Which mercenary group do you belong to?”

“You’re making assumptions,” Sean said. “No one said we’re mercenaries.”

“Your bodysuits are specifically designed to merge with the DF interface. Few individuals could ever hope to get their hands on such expensive equipment. There are also two of you, both male. Do not insult my intelligence. Which mercenary group do you belong to?”

“Deadeye,” Karl answered.

“Karl!” Sean chided. “Come on, man.”

The woman grunted and nodded. “Good boy. I will give you a reward now. My name is Kalki. I’m with the Stinger group.”

Karl frowned. “Stinger? What are they doing here?”

“Probably trying to take credit for our work,” Sean spat, “like they always do.”

“Fool,” Kalki said, leaning to one side to address Sean. Karl could practically feel Sean’s seething hatred. Then Kalki righted her posture and directed her attention back to Karl as she fingered a strand of her long grey hair over one ear. “He must be popular,” she said, lowering her voice. “I wager he believes everything they tell him.”

“I don’t see how I’ve been much better,” Karl said.

The slightest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of one mouth. “Humble. Good. Tell him to holster his weapon, and I will do the same.”

“What are you talking about over there?” Sean said.

“Put away your weapon, Sean,” Karl said. “She means us no harm.”

“Oh yeah, that sounds great. Give her the edge so she can gun us down simultaneously? No, I don’t think I will.”

“She had her opportunity to do that, and she didn’t.” If Karl had been in her shoes, he would’ve killed Sean first, then finished himself off. The opportunity was there, and yet she hadn’t taken it. For that reason alone, Karl’s fears were alleviating. “She won’t harm us.”

“I hope for your sake you’re right.” Sean sighed. “See it here? I’m putting it away.” An audible click followed moments later. Kalki grunted, then holstered her weapon.

“Good boy,” Kalki said. She leaned forward and patted Karl on the head. “Very good.”

Heat rose to Karl’s cheeks, and he took a step back, gently brushing aside Kalki’s hand. “Please don’t do that.” He shook his head. “You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here.”

“Classified.”

Karl looked over his shoulder at the DF. “Did you shut the DF down?”

“Of course.”

The leaves rustled with Sean’s approach, and as he came to a stop on Karl’s left, he crossed his arms. “Where’s your partner?”

“Dead.” The nonchalant way in which she said that sent a chill down Karl’s spine. “So, I have activated the distress signal. Stinger forces should be here within the hour.”

Fear reignited in Karl’s chest. “Please tell me you increased the intervals.” Kalki nodded, and Karl breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. We just need to survive until then.”

“Yes. Unless one of you”—she pointed at Karl, then at Sean—“stays behind. My DF is still operational. If I were to link with one of you, we could seek help, sending assistance to whoever remains.”

That’s why she didn’t kill us. She wants to hold onto us just in case the distress signal doesn’t work out. To date, no DF had been successfully flown without the presence of both a male and female pilot—conductor and conductress respectively. As far as he understood it, the chemical and physiological differences between the sexes played a significant role in how the systems worked. Take either one of them away and the DF would become inoperable. Without us, she has no way out. Cooperation is within her best interests.

Karl wanted to contest her idea, but he found he was unable to. Common sense said that leaving the site would give them the best chance of survival. In the worst of scenarios, at least two of them would survive. He glanced at Sean, who seemed to be mulling over the suggestion in much the same way.

“Not a chance,” Sean said after some time. “We both go, or neither of us do.”

Kalki hummed. “Very well.” She put a hand on her hip and leaned her weight to one side. Now that she didn’t have a gun on him, it landed on Karl just how short Kalki was. Karl was of average height for a man, but Kalki was well below the average for a woman. On the surface, he wouldn’t dare pit someone so small against a man. But the fact that she so effortlessly threatened two men considerably larger than herself spoke volumes about her character. “Then we wait until someone comes to rescue us.”

“I guess so,” Karl said, turning sideways to look at the DF. Despite Kalki’s assurances, he couldn’t fight back the need to check the systems himself. “Do you mind if I look at your DF?”

“Feel free. Noose isn’t shy. Just reserved.”

“Noose?”

Kalki nodded enthusiastically, grunting with each bob of her head. “Yes.”

Bit of a macabre name for a DF.

“I’ll come with you,” Sean said.

“No. I will go with him,” Kalki said, raising her hand. “You remain on lookout.”

Sean huffed, then removed the gun from his holster. “Fine, but I’m keeping my eye on you.” He made a gesture with two of fingers to drive home the point. “Any funny business and I’ll blow a hole through your skull. You got it?”

“Mhm.” She strode past them and gestured to Karl, adding, “Come along, good boy.”

Karl exchanged a frown with Sean. What the hell is with that nickname? He was quickly regretting his request to see her DF. Everything about this woman felt… wrong, off somehow. At least she kept her gun holstered as she took the lead, so he’d be given a window to disarm her if she had any second guesses.

“Over here.” Kalki pointed past a pair of trees—one of which still bore embers on a few of its leaves—and stepped over an overgrown root. “Careful.”

Karl stepped over the root and followed, his attention firmly attached to Kalki. The suit she wore wasn’t much different from the ones he and Sean had. The material had a glossy finish, patterned in green roads and octagons and fitting snugly over her toned body. Some minor adjustments had been made—presumably by Stinger—such as where the nodes for the plugs were. They were marked by rings of dark green and silver. Interestingly enough, there was another ring on her back, between the shoulder blades. Karl couldn’t guess what that was for.

I hope that doesn’t become a problem if one of us needs to link with the DF.

The trees plowed over by the DF gave way to a clearing that served as a bed. The Frame had fallen on its side, where the arm was missing. Its good arm was draped over the central unit, and the scent of iron filled the air. Karl’s breath caught when he saw a streak of crimson leading out of the Frame’s chest cavity. The corpse of her presumed co-conductor was still in its seat.

“Help me move the body,” Kalki said as she approached the DF.

Karl froze, balling his hands. “He’s still in there?”

“Yes. Ensuring my survival took priority.”

Karl furrowed his brow. “What were you doing out here?”

“Classified. Now, help me move the body.”

Karl clenched his teeth, then followed Kalki to the DF. Kalki climbed the structure without so much as a word or grunt or sound of remorse. She put one foot on the ledge of the chest cavity, waiting for Karl to catch up. Karl gagged and pressed the back of his hand against his mouth.

The seat of her co-conductor had its back turned to them. The body lay slumped to its side, with streaks of blood alongside the victim’s face and arm. Holes pocked the skull and arm. Scattered across the floor and controls were pieces of bone and brain matter. With every inch he drew closer, the scent of iron grew stronger. Karl’s stomach tightened into knots, and he nearly vomited.

“Now, let us take care of this.” Kalki was completely unaffected. Karl half-wondered if he was speaking to a machine, and not a human being. The methodical approach she took to navigating the DF’s cockpit littered his skin in goosebumps. If that had been his co-conductor, he would be beside himself. To see Kalki approach the body of her partner like another part to be replaced sickened him. “What are you still doing over there? Come along.”

“Right. I’m coming.”