Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) (14 page)

“All I ever did was mine Chimerium in
the Red Districts. I can dig, oh and I can fit into small places, but that’s about it, sorry guys.”

“That’s ok
ay, the main thing is that the more of us there are the safer we’ll be.” Miles paused for a moment, a perplexed expression forming on his face, “you mined Chimerium in the Red Districts? But mining and using Chimerium has been illegal since the end of The War of Unification, you must be mistaken.”

Maxen laughed out loud
, “Shit, you Green Districters sure have your heads up your asses. What do you think powers that beautiful city of yours? What, they tell you it’s all renewable energy? Solar power, wind and water? Maybe in the beginning but for the last thirty years at least they been mining that radioactive shit up from underground, hell man I told you I worked loading it onto the transport trains headed for the power generators in the Green Districts.”

“I know but I thought you were just crazy. Maxen I worked in
The Energy Department for five years, you can’t tell me that those plants were running on Chimerium!”

“It’s true,” said Landi
, “the Red Districts were created thirty seven years ago as a way to mine the huge deposits of Chimerium that sit below Elissa. The unskilled workers were sent to work in the mines, we don’t get much fresh food or water, and the constant exposure to the mineral causes us to…well, you know,” he trailed off, pointing to his disfigured face.

“But wait a second, the whole pretext for
The War of Unification was to stop the exploitation of Chimerium because of its effects on the planet. God damn it the reason Gyaros was colonized was because Carthage was becoming uninhabitable due to the effects of Chimerium! You can’t seriously expect me to believe that the Areopagus would allow it to be mined and used again, can you?!” Miles asked unable to believe what he was hearing. Every child raised in the Green Districts is taught about The War of Unification in which Carthage Corporation defeated Talos Corporation to unify the entire planet Medea under a single government, and abolished the extraction and use of pollutants including Chimerium.

“
Hannibal II and Hannibal III might have believed in preserving the environment but Hannibal IV sure as shit don’t. He’s the one that gave the order to open the Red Districts as a mining operation.”

“I don’t believe this, ever since I was a kid I
’ve looked up to Hannibal IV, we all do. I just, I can’t believe what you two are telling me. It can’t be possible!”

“Look Miles,” said Maxen
, “I really don’t care what you believe but the history and geo-politics of Carthage is not our main concern at this very minute. We need to get our shit together or we gonna die in this desert.”

“You’re right,” Miles shook his head vigorously in order to refocus on the situation at hand
, “We need water, and food, and we need to find a way to The Dustbowl.” He stood up and walked to one of the large windows belonging to the Talos building, the glass long since smashed and eroded away. He scanned the horizon for any clues. Dust blew violently across the flat surface forming mini tornadoes, and then he saw it. It was faint, barely visible, but it looked like a track. It was slightly lighter in colour than the rest of the barren ground and looked as though it was created by the movement of many feet over many years.

“There, look, it’s a track, a path!”

Maxen and Landi rose to their feet and walked over to join Miles.

“Yeah, looks like a track to me,” said Maxen
, “but we’d better circle the building and make sure it’s the only track, don’t wanna go walking off into the desert.” The others agreed and they split off to quickly make sure that was the only track.

After a couple of minutes they all met back up in front of the Talos shuttle bay to report their findings.

“I couldn’t find anything,” said Miles.

“Me neither,” added Maxen.

“Nor me,” Landi finished.

“Ok
ay then, we follow the track, we stick together and keep an eye out for trouble. Let’s all make it to The Dustbowl in one piece,” said Miles seriously.

The three men shook hands again and began walking along the single, faded path.
Not long into their journey tall rocky formations rose up on either side of the track, the dirt road winding now in between the two tall natural structures. This meant that the trio could see no more than fifty metres in front of them at any given time as the path would bend between the high rock walls. The track between the walls was only ten or so meters across, but on the plus side the tall walls created a large shadow that shaded them from the burning sunlight. They had walked about thirty minutes when Miles began to speak.

“How long do you think it will take to get there? I haven’t eaten or drank anything in over twelve hours, in this heat I don’t know how long I can last without water at least
.”

“It can’t be too far, don’t give up on me now Greeny,” said Maxen.

“G-guys, slow down. My little legs can’t keep up,” Landi panted, completely exhausted.

“Here buddy, climb aboard,” Maxen lowered his robotic arm and Landi held on tight. Maxen lifted the little man up onto his muscular shoulders where he made himself comfortable, placing his hands around Maxen’s powerful neck.

An hour passed without anyone uttering a single word, their mouths were as dry as the desert and when they swallowed it felt like their throats were lined with sand paper. The dusty air sucked all the moisture from their eyes, their nose, their mouth and their skin as they stumbled along the path, not knowing how close or far they were to their destination. Then Miles stopped.

“Shhh,” he ordered the others and
they too stopped.

“What is it?” a
sked Maxen quietly.

“Over there, that hole,”
whispered Miles pointing to what looked like the opening of a small cave a few meters wide, something was moving down there.

“What is that?”
asked Landi, “it looks like a tail,” he whispered and began to climb down off Maxen’s shoulders.

“Ok
ay you boys stay behind me, whatever it is I doubt it’s friendly.” Miles and Landi took up position behind Maxen who began to walk slowly toward the cave, his arm transforming into its weaponized state once again. As they got closer the monstrous animal began to take shape, from behind it looked like a cross between a giant rat and a wolf, its long tail whipping back and forth as it engorged itself on the carcass of some poor dead creature. It had slick black hair like a rodent, but with the strong hind and fore legs of a wolf. It was clearly a product of the heavy Chimerium usage on Gyaros. The timid trio attempted to make their way past the animal without attracting its attention, taking small deliberate steps and holding their breath for fear of making a sound. But then, distracted by the sight of the grotesque, mutated animal Miles tripped on a rock and stumbled, causing the animal to turn and investigate the noise. ‘Oh shit!’ The three men stopped dead, Maxen charging his cannon as the beast turned to face them. Miles grimaced as the bloodied face of the giant rodent-like animal bared its razor sharp teeth and squealed intimidatingly at them. Its whiskers twitched and its beady red eyes glared as it began to slowly walk toward the ragged travellers.

“Holy shit,”
said Miles, “it’s the guy from the shuttle!” And sure enough there he was, half eaten, his neck slit wide open from the screen that killed him. The creature must have found the body and dragged it here from the crash site to eat, perhaps through some underground network of tunnels. The animal began to circle the men, hissing and growling menacingly as they turned to face it, Miles and Landi staying safe behind the impressive frame of Maxen.

“C’mon you ugly piece of shit, come and get me,” said Maxen taunting the vicious beast. There were five lights on the side of Maxen’s arm, three of which were lit bright red. After another moment the fourth lit up, once all five were lit the beam weapon would be ready to fire. The animal then stopped and crouched, ready to pounce.

“That’s it, come to daddy you stinking rat faced fuck!” The rodent then let out an ear piercing squeal and propelled itself toward Maxen, flying through the air, its knife like claws outstretched. Maxen took aim and upon hearing the sound of the final light turning red he fired the weapon and watched as it’s white beam hit the creature directly in the face and ripped it’s body in two, only inches from making contact with Maxen. The two halves of the giant beast twitched and squirmed for a moment on the ground as Miles and Landi looked on in horrified shock. Maxen then turned and laughed.

“We eat tonight!”

Over the next hour
Miles and Landi removed the body of the dead man from the cave entrance and covered it with sand and rocks as Maxen started a fire using some dried grass and tumbleweed that had blown into the cave, a blow torch being yet another handy function of his transforming arm. The men sat around the fire in the surprisingly cool cave and cooked up some of the giant rat meat, Maxen’s fire proof hand this time acting as a makeshift grill. They ate heartily and enjoyed the respite, though they knew that without water they would surely die. The cave was not as complex as they first thought, after fifteen or so meters it was a dead end.

“Is there anything your arm can’t do?”
asked Miles between bites of rat meat.

“Ha! Well you know, I worked at the loading bay, there was a lot of heavy lifting, some welding, some cutting
. When I lost my arm it was The Department that paid for the new one, and they kitted it out for a loading bay worker. A’course all the work on the loading bay these days is automated, damn bots took my job. I guess when they were attaching my arm they thought ‘hey, why the hell do we need the human part at all?!’”

Then Landi spoke
, “we need water, we can’t stay here.”

“Landi’s right,” said Miles
, “After we eat we need to get a move on. Get whatever moisture you can out of the meat and we’ll continue on to The Dustbowl.”

And so the three men ate all they could
of the stringy flesh and got ready to set off again. Using the blade feature of his arm Maxen cut off the tail of the giant rat, curled it up and swung it over his shoulder saying, “it’s rope ain’t it? You don’t say no to rope.” They stepped out again into the hot sun, finding shade whenever they could as they snaked their way along the path, still flanked on both sides by the vertical rock formations.

Over th
e next hour silence once again fell over the troupe, talking required energy and that was something that was in very short supply. Miles thought of Hellen and of Chet, of Tyler and Clarke, of Candice. All the familiar faces of the life that seemed like a distant memory; that felt like an eternity ago, like a different lifetime altogether, a different incarnation. And it might as well have been, as much as Miles clung to the idea that there was a way back, deep down he knew how absurd the very concept was. And now, walking through a red desert 550,000 kilometres from home with a belly full of mutated rat, he felt entirely disorientated, like in a dream, a daze. A combination of dehydration and his incredible circumstances. They trudged on, their legs burning with fatigue as lactic acid built up in their thighs and calves. They were completely parched, their lips cracking and their heads pounding from sun stroke. Miles wondered how long he could keep this up; one hour, two? What he wouldn’t do for a glass of sparkling cool fresh water, he swallowed dryly and licked his flaking lips at the thought.

Then as if the universe had read his mind he saw it. A sign had just appeared around the bend, and next to it another cave.
‘Fresh Water,’ read the metal sign, the words hand painted with red paint. Without saying a word the three men began to sprint wearily to the cave’s entrance and sure enough, when they entered the cave they were greeted by the sound of running water. They made their way down the narrow tunnel lit by torches, following the sound of the water which grew louder with every step.

“Stop!” shouted Maxen who was leading the group as he
came to a sudden and abrupt halt, the other two bumping into him.

“Here it is, there’s a hole, I can see the pool down there.” Miles and Landi
made their way around Maxen and looked down the hole. There it was, fresh sparkling water illuminated by tiny holes in the caves ceiling. A small waterfall flowed into the large basin and the overflow of the basin created a stream that moved further down, deeper into the cave system. Floating in the basin was a wooden bucket attached to a short length of rope, the other half of which was tied to the top of the hole from where the men were looking down.

“The rope’s broken,” said Miles dejectedly
, “how are we going to get the water, the hole is tiny and we don’t have a bucket...”

“I’ll go,” said Landi, cutting Miles off mid-sentence
, “I can fit through the hole, you can tie that rat’s tail around my waist and lower me down, I can grab that bucket.”

“Are you sure? What if something goes wrong? What if we drop the tail?” Miles asked.

“It doesn’t matter, if we don’t drink we die, it’s as simple as that!”

“Landi’s right,” said Maxen
, “we’re screwed if we don’t drink soon, I don’t see any other way.”

And with that the three men set about putting
Landi’s plan into action. Maxen tied the thinner end of the rat’s tail tightly under Landi’s arms, but loose enough so that he could breath. Miles pulled and tugged, testing the integrity of the knots and the strength of the tail.

Then Maxen spoke
, “Okay Landi I’m gonna lower you down now, you grab that bucket, fill it with water and Miles and I will pull you back up, you got it?”

“Got it,” said Landi nodding confidently.

“Okay here we go,” said Maxen as he positioned his feet against the cave wall and wrapped the tail around his arm for security. Miles held onto the excess tail just to be safe and fed it to Maxen as he needed it. Landi squeezed through the tight hole and began his descent into the cave. The basin looked much larger from inside the cavern, and deep too, the water was a very dark shade of blue at the centre. Landi looked around in awe - as he was slowly lowered down - at the array of beautiful sparkling crystals, stalagmites and stalactites. The limited light bounced off and through them creating a spectacular light show on the ceiling of the cave.

“Ok
ay you can stop, I can reach the bucket now!” Landi shouted up, his high pitched voice echoing through the vast underground chambers. He reached down and grabbed the bucket, filling it full of water with a smooth scooping motion.

“Pull me up, I’ve got the water.” As Landi began his slow ascent he looked down at the water below and for a moment
he thought that he saw something move under the surface, something big. He shook his head, blinked his eyes and looked again, this time seeing nothing. He concluded that it must have merely been an illusion, a symptom of his dehydration. Miles and Maxen lifted Landi through the hole and immediately took turns gulping down large mouthfuls of the delicious fresh water. The bucket was passed back and forth between the three of them with such vigour that most of the water was spilled, but they didn’t care, they were now in a cool, safe cave with an infinite water source and enough food still in their bellies to keep them going for quite a few hours. They laughed and joked, guzzling the last of the water.

“We need more, ready for another trip Landi?”
asked Miles. Landi smiled and nodded licking water from his lips, and quickly positioning himself in the hole, ready to head down again. Miles and Maxen resumed their positions and slowly lowered Landi and the bucket back down to the fresh water basin. Landi peered into the deep blue, straining his eyes to see any signs of what he had witnessed before. There it was again! Landi’s heart began to race as he wondered what kind of creature could create such a large shadowy figure.

“Uh guys,” said Landi nervously
, “I think there’s something down here”.

“Just get the water and we’ll get you outta there,” replied Maxen, shouting down the hole
, “just be careful, we won’t waste any this time and you won’t need to make any more trips.”

“Okay…”
he whispered to himself, his voice trembling as he neared the surface of the water. His shaking hands lowered the bucket into the water and slowly he began to scoop up another bucket full. He stared anxiously into the almost black water when suddenly a gigantic black eye appeared from the depths of the basin and stared back at Landi as it moved underneath the water. The eye, which was the size of Landi’s entire head, was followed by a massive set of gills, a large fin and, after what seemed like forever, a gigantic grey tail. The monstrous fish then delved back down into the murky depths of the basin as Landi’s heart pounded like a drum.

“Guys,” he squeaked, speaking as quietly
as he could, “could you please bring me up now?” Miles and Maxen began to pull Landi up as he continued to look down at the water below, all the while clutching the precious bucket of water. But then the water in the basin changed, it began to froth and bubble, and waves splashed over the sides of the basin. Something was coming, something big.

“Hurry up guys!” Landi screamed now half way between the hole and the basin. The water below continued to splash wildly until
suddenly the figure of the gargantuan shark leapt through the air, its jaws wide open. Landi screamed and watched as the shark’s blood red mouth, and its razor sharp teeth, accelerated toward him. Miles and Maxen frantically attempted to pull the poor man to safety but the massive fish, whose body spanned the entire length between the hole and the basin reached Landi first. The powerful jaws came crashing down like the world’s largest bear trap severing the rat’s tail and swallowing Landi whole, bucket and all. The shark then fell back toward the water with an enormous splash and disappeared below the surface, as the waves and froth slowly subsided.

Miles and Maxen simply sat there
shaking, mouths agape, neither of them could utter a single word as they attempted to come to terms with what had just occurred. Even Maxen, usually so cool and collected, was visibly disturbed. They had just lost a full third of their group and a new friend and, as well as that, they just saw a shark many times larger than anything that existed on Carthage, and they lost their water bucket. Every one of those elements individually would have been terrifying enough, but all three all at once, it was devastating. The two men sat down against the cavern wall.

“What now?”
asked Miles in a low voice once he had regained his composure somewhat.

“I just watched a giant shark eat a tiny man hanging from a twenty foot l
ong rat’s tail and you ask me ‘what now?’ How the fuck am I supposed to know? Shit for all we know this whole tunnel could be some big animal’s asshole!” Maxen snapped at Miles, still shaken by what he’d just witnessed.

“Look Maxen we’re out of water, we
’re not going to last forever on that rat meat and it’s getting dark. I’ve had more than enough of the hot sun, but I really don’t want to find out what comes out at night in this place. We need to move, we need to get to The Dustbowl before we end up like Landi.”

“Yeah you’re right, poor little guy,” Maxen looked sorrowfully at the ground, apparently he’d grown fond of Landi over
the events of the past day.

“He
risked his life so that we could drink, and now he’s gone. Let’s not waste what he did for us, we’ve got to get going.” Miles stood up to leave and Maxen followed, looking back toward the hole and taking a moment to say a silent goodbye little Landi.

Back outside the sun was setting in the sky, which itself was turning a deep red to match the ground. Maxen and Miles started to walk again keeping to the shade and enjoying the much lower angle of the sun. The temperature had dropped several degrees since they first entered the water cave which made the trek significantly easier, that and the fact that they’d managed to gulp down a good amount of water before Landi and the bucket were swallowed. Every muscle in Miles’ body ached but he went on. He thought of Chet’s confused face as he watched his father savagely beaten by Enforcers before his eyes and taken away forever. ‘That cannot be the last thing he sees of me. I will not let that happen’. He trudged on determined to make things right with his family, to make it to The Dustbowl, to make it to New Fortune and to make it home to Elissa.

“Hey Miles, something’s up
,” said Maxen. Miles stopped and noticed that everything was beginning to go dark, a large dust cloud was covering the sun and appeared to be heading toward the two men from behind.