Cultwick: The Sweeper Bot Plague (24 page)

When he had ascertained that he was alone, Vincent walked into the adjoining room and snuck behind the guard. Just before he could grab the guard
, however, Lucy pointed past the guard to him.

“Look out!” she screamed.

The guard turned to see Vincent about to attack him. He tried to pull his pistol, but Vincent punched the man in the face. The corpsman’s pistol slid away, as the two men continued to brawl. Lucy, meanwhile, picked up the gun, slid it between her hip and her belt, and watched the fight unfold.

The two exchanged blows, and Vincent eventually gained the upper hand. The bounty hunter knocked the corpsman to the ground and climbed on top of him.
In a blind rage, he proceeded to pummel his opponent, until his fists were covered in both his blood and the guard’s. He didn’t stop until after Pearl came up behind him and pulled Vincent off the unconscious man. Afterward, he realized his temper would have allowed him to kill the man if not for the intervention.

“What
the hell was that about?” he yelled at Lucy.

“I wanted to see if you still had some fucking fight left in ya,” she explained
with a sneer. “Guess there’s at least a little.”

She walked casually into Erynn’s room, playfully dragging a finger along his shoulder, as she passed him. Scowling, Vincent dragged the corpsman inside the room and
Pearl joined them, shutting the door behind him. They began packing up Erynn’s things, including the remaining pieces of Tern, the creations she had made for the train job, and whatever else she left behind.

“Get everything ready,” he said. “We’ve got to make it to the train before it departs with
out us.”

Chapter 25. Rowland the Hero

The sun had fallen several hours prior, as they made the journey from Pendulum Falls to the nearby farm run by Cultwick authorities. Germ, Hirim and his rebels, Samuel, and several other men that worked for the engineer joined Rowland in this expedition.

Chief among Samuel’s workers
were Robinson Smearl, whose wife and three daughters had all been taken, and Seymour Rice, one of the men who they had made an example of when the empire had taken families. Seymour had publicly spoken out against helping rebuild the Cultwick-based skyship, so the corpsmen murdered his wife in front of the whole factory.

It was unclear to the professor how many
people had been taken already, but what was made certain was where they were holding them. The farm produced soybeans that were broken down and used as biofuel for many of the empire’s machines.

The scouts had ascertained that the Cultwick Corps had put the families to work on the farm during the day. At night
, they were kept in a series of barns on the property. Their goal for the evening was to find and free all the family members.

There had also been several disappearances of the factory workers themselves, but the corps had not claimed responsibility for that. Either there was more going on than the empire holding hostage the families or they truly
weren’t responsible. Rowland was unsure which it was, but he was eager to learn more about the situation.

Corpsmen roamed the property at all hours of the day, so the night would only bring them so much aid. There were at least thirty guards on the property, though the expectation was that many would be asleep at this late hour, so they may have a certain element of surprise. Their scout had reported that the barns kept roughly fifteen individuals each, and that there were
five barns total.

“Rowland,” Hirim whispered as they approached the rows of plants. “You take Germ, Robinson, and Seymour with you to that barn.” He pointed to the leftmost barn, visible beyond the growth. “
Samuel, take a group to the far right barn. I’ll take the rest to deal with the patrols. We’ll all meet up in the center barn.”

The professor nodded to the rebel leader and took the others with him toward the barn. They ducked through the rows of soybeans, trying to give themselves some cover from the short plants.

Outside the barn walked a pair of corpsman, patrolling the perimeter. In addition, one guard was posted at a large, closed door leading into the barn. Rowland toggled the settings on his spectacles, zooming in through a window at the side of the structure. Inside he could see the outlines of what looked like makeshift beds lining the sides of the room.

“Seymour, Robinson,” the professor began. “You two handle the pair roaming. I’ll deal with the individual at the entryway.”

The two men nodded and waited for an opportunity to present itself in which they could approach the corpsmen from behind. When they made their move, so too would Rowland. Germ waited in the crops for them to clear a path to the barn.

Robinson had a shotgun pointed toward the back of the guards, while Samuel was wielding a revolver. The professor carefully
crept toward the barn door, as he watched their progress. They fired their blasts at the guards when the pair turned a corner, and Rowland fired an invisible, concussive blast of wind that knocked his guard into and through the barn door.

The man landed inside the structure and rolled backwards before stopping motionlessly in the middle of the room. No other guards appeared to be posted inside the barn, so Rowland gestured for Germ to join him. Outside
, the gun blasts had alerted the other corps guards, and a bleating siren was permeating the farm.

Hanging from the guard’s belt was a key ring that the professor grabbed.
Rowland and Germ went from bed to bed, unlocking restraints and getting people up and moving them toward the exit. Germ led the families back through the farm away from the barns and the other corpsmen guards.

From there Rowland moved on to the next barn, accompanied by Seymour and Robinson. Outside of the structure were five corpsmen huddled closely together.

“Ooh!” the professor exclaimed. “Want to see something fun?”

Seymour and Robinson exchanged
nonplussed glances and shrugged their shoulders. Rowland rolled his fingers back and forth in his gauntlet hand, as electricity bounced back and forth from his fingertips. The sudden light, caused the corpsmen to spot the trio, and they prepared to fire.

Rowland, however, pointed his hand at the group of soldiers, as a bolt of electricity erupted from his palm and hit the first guard. The beam then bounced from him to the other four corpsmen. Smoke billowed up from the guards, standing motionlessly in front of the barn. After a few moments, each of the guards fell limply to the ground.

“You’re a pretty scary guy, doc,” Seymour commented, as they approached the barn.

Robinson knelt down to pick up the keys from one of the guards, but he recoiled at the touch of metal.

“Be careful,” Rowland said. “Those are probably hot.”

“Thanks for the warning,” the rebel replied.

“Think nothing of it,” the professor said, appearing to have missed the sarcasm.

The three men released the next batch of imprisoned families, as Germ returned to them. The rat also led this next group away from the farm and toward Pendulum Falls.

Rowland, Seymour, and Robinson meanwhile targeted the middle barn. They approached the door, not seeing Samuel or anyone from his group yet. Robinson opened the door, and he was immediately knocked backward by a shotgun blast. Rowland and Seymour both ducked to either side of the door to escape the ongoing fire.

Seymour yelled out to Rowland when the gunfire stopped, “That was Burrows, the bastard in charge of all this.”

Rowland looked down at the ground to see Robinson’s body still twitching despite the deadness in his eyes. He found it difficult to look away, as the blood gushed from the man’s wounds, spilling out to the dirt and grass below.

Seymour pe
eked his head around the corner, but quickly pulled it back as another cacophony of gunfire was released. “He’s got Eva,” he explained. “And there’s three other guards in there with him.”

Rowland continued to stare at the body, his mind displaced from his current situation.

“You still with me, doc?” Seymour asked.

“Hmm?” he responded looking across the doorway to the rebel. “Apologies.
I was just thinking of a kind of rock candy I ate when I was a boy. Where are Hirim and Samuel?”

Seymour leaned around the other side of the structure slowly to see a couple of rebels leading off the group of families from the right barn. Heading toward him were Hirim and Samuel. Both men looked to Robinson’s body lying misshapen on the ground.

“What happened to Robinson?” Samuel asked.

“It was Ian. And he’s got Eva inside, Sam,” Seymour said, as they approached.

Samuel switched places with Seymour to get a look for himself. Another barrage of bullets came, and he ducked back to the safety of the wall.

After the firing had ended, Ian yelled, “Stilts! You’ve made a grave mistake in coming here tonight. This won’t end well!”

“You touch one hair on her head, and I will make you wish you were never born!” Samuel threatened.

“What’s the play, Sam?” asked Hirim.

“No clean shot,” he explained. “And there’s four of ‘em total in there. Too many that they could use as hostages.”

“Any ideas?” Hirim asked.

“Just the one,” Rowland said.

“Which one?” Hirim asked.

“The one I just explained of course,” the professor answered.

“You didn’t explain anything
, doc,” Hirim said.

“Did
I not?” Rowland responded. “Hmm, that must have been in my head. I was thinking I would just mind control them all.”

“You can do that?” Samuel asked, surprised.

“We are about to find out,” Rowland remarked.

The professor flipped open a hidden compartment in his gauntlet and pulled out a slender vial of purplish goop.
As he poured the contents into a syringe, Rowland noted the liquid had the distinct aroma of freshly cut grass. He injected the concoction directly into his arm, just above his gauntlet.

Ro
wland then pointed the device around the corner of the doorway into the barn. A blast of energy poured into the structure, and everyone inside was rendered immobile. They all stopped what they were doing, staring blankly into the distance.

Aloud
Rowland issued an order, “Drop your weapons.”

E
veryone holding a weapon inside the barn dropped it to the hay-covered floor. Even those who didn’t have weapons mimed the same action.

Samuel peeked around the corner again to see what the professor was doing. Upon seeing the corpsmen disarm themselves, he began to enter the barn.

“Oh, no,” Rowland said. “I would not do that. You will be caught in my brilliant mind control wave too.” The professor moved out from behind the barn wall and issued another command, “Walk toward me.”

The mob of people, corpsmen and hostages alike, shuffled forward. Rowland walked backward toward the crops and signaled for Samuel and the others to do the same.

Once the crowd was outside and in the open, Rowland stopped and said in surprise, “On no!”

“What is it?” Samuel asked.

“I think I just stepped in a wild animal’s defecation,” he explained.

The other rebels looked from one another but decided to ignore the comment.
Rowland meanwhile rubbed his heel on the dew-covered grass.

After he cleaned his shoe, he
said, “You will have to stay out of the path of my gauntlet, but you should be able to safely eliminate the guards now.”

“I’ll handle it,” Samuel said.

Carefully, he aimed his rifle at each of the corpsmen, shooting them one at a time. Instead of killing Ian outright, Samuel shot the man in the stomach. The wounded man didn’t even flinch when shot due to the effects of Rowland’s mind control.

“Let ‘em go now, doc,” Samuel said.

The professor clamped his fist shut and everyone under his control was released. The bewildered group of people fell to the ground, and some even vomited from the experience.

Samuel limped over to the body of Ian to find him writhing in agony on the ground.
He held his hands at his stomach, trying to cover the blood flow from his gunshot wound, when he looked up to see Samuel.

“This is what you get, Burrows,” Samuel said. “This is what Cultwick breeds.”

Samuel aimed his gun at Ian’s head and unloaded the rest of the ammunition in his pistol. He looked around to find his wife, Eva staring up at him. He slowly walked over to her and embraced his wife, as she released a stream of tears.

“I knew you’d come,” she said.

“Almost didn’t,” he explained. “Wouldn’t have had the capability without the Chromework Confederacy.”

The professor smiled at her and said
, “My name is Professor Rowland. Do you by any chance have any rock candy? I am having a craving.”

Eva star
ed at him with a confused expression, but Samuel interrupted the silence saying, “He just saved all your lives.”

“
Oh. Thank you,” she finally said. “And you have the thanks of our whole city. It seems you’re a regular hero.”

“So no rock candy?” the professor asked.

During the commotion, Seymour was forced to tell Robinson’s wife and son what had happened to him. The other factory workers found their loved ones and affectionately reconnected.

After their brief
rendezvous, the group made the journey back to Pendulum Falls. Rowland met with Germ and the rest of the families at the factory.

With his arm wrapped around his wife, Samuel said to Hirim, “Now, about this skyship...”