Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [56]
“The trail’s getting more fresh.” Hella pointed at the parallel tracks cut through the soft loam. They were close enough that the exposed earth hadn’t had time to dry out. When she put her finger into the earth, black and red granules stuck to her skin. “We’re gaining.”
Stampede glanced around. “Because we’re faster than they are? Or because we’re getting close to where these things are currently calling home?”
Due to their nomadic nature, the ’Chine didn’t stay in any one area long, but they haunted the trade routes to seize goods and machines. Thankfully their numbers were limited by the fact that everyone—traders as well as brigands—hunted them to extinction along the trade roads when they could. The ’Chine were dangerous.
Riley gazed down at the damp earth on Hella’s finger. He didn’t look happy. “We should wait.”
“If we wait for the expedition to catch up, we’re letting the ’Chine get ahead again.” Stampede sipped water from his canteen and replaced the cap. He gazed around at the sky. “It’ll be getting dark in another couple hours. If we don’t catch them before then, they’ll get away.”
“Why? Won’t they be stopping too?”
“Maybe. They don’t have to. ’Chine can walk for days. It’s what makes them so hard to kill. With their eyesight, it doesn’t matter if it’s night or day. And if you follow them too far into the wilderness, use up too much of your ammunition and reserves, they’ll dog you all the way back to safety. If you don’t have enough to make it back, or if they have time, they’ll kill you and pick your bones clean.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“Let the caravan keep rolling for now while we forge on ahead. That way when we make camp, we’ll know if the ’Chine are around.”
“All right.”
While Riley radioed back to his people, Hella took the lead again.
Almost two hours later, when the sun was sinking into the west and had already gone into hiding behind the thick forest, the ground gave way under Hella’s foot and she knew she’d stepped into a trap. She morphed her hands into weapons as she yanked her foot back. “Spider-hole!”
Before she’d had time to complete the warning, the ground erupted all around them and the ’Chine burst out of the hiding places. The half human–half cybernetic creatures attacked without a word. They kept in constant communication by their ApZeroes, and they functioned like a hive mind during joint operations. There was some speculation that the ApZero near-AI had hit an event horizon and become a functioning entity, but none of the ’Chine questioned had ever verified that.
Hella threw her hands out in front of her and fired at the ’Chine clawing out of the hole at her side. The thing had once been a man. Or at least, it had been most of a man. Both flesh and blood legs had either been too deformed to remain or they’d never been there at all. The ’Chine sat on a flat surface with three metal legs with knees that articulated a full three hundred sixty degrees. A prosthesis ending in a flamethrower took the place of its right arm. Its right eye was a targeting sensor that glowed red in the fading light.
Living in caves and a steady diet of human flesh had turned the ’Chine’s skin color yellow. There was little muscle tone because the external servos that instantly reminded Hella of Pardot did most of the work. The cruel mouth, cupped by a metal brace under the jaw that tied into the one encircling its head, grinned. Saliva dripped down the malformed chin.
A line of fire jetted from the flamethrower straight at Hella.
CHAPTER 15
Hella dodged to one side while furnace heat blasted into her and left her feeling as though she’d been parboiled. Her burst of .50-caliber bullets smashed into the ’Chine’s face, turning it into an instant ruin of blood, flesh, and cybernetic garbage. Incredibly the mechanical humanoid swayed unsteadily then balanced on its legs. The meat body above it was dead, though. Hella had