A New Night

Escape from the City

Instead of returning to the hospital room or the Sky City, I willed the entirety of my essence into my metallic body. As I dragged the bits of my consciousness in, I activated the release mechanisms for all the calming programs in the room, like flipping a light switch on my way out. My robot form felt more wrong than before. I longed to feel my hair falling softly over my warm skin, my gently curved body, my inflating lungs, and my racing heartbeat. But they were all gone. I now knew what I should have been … and that I would likely never have a chance to be that person again.

A near-silent fan powered up, and electricity reserves began to flow from a core close to my spine. The straps holding me and my companions began to unfasten for the second time. I again saw the sterile white room, the medical equipment, and the computers. It was as chilly as ever, and I was ready to leave that room once and for all.

Krebba and Dro were the first to become alert. Immediately they bared both their fangs at one another. The rest awakened not long after. Nobody moved; I could feel the near-violent tension in the room.

So I tried to break it, saying, “Alright … now that we are all awake and on the same side, we need a plan for getting out of here.”

“Same side?” Romalla said, looking ready to take flight and start clawing at any second. “Oh no … this is another fruit bat thing, isn’t it?”

The Queen’s Hunters studied her, no doubt picking up mental pictures of the fruit bat. Sure enough, one started snickering. Then they all started looking at me with obnoxiously amused expressions.

My cheeks immediately burned bright pink.

Romalla looked at me, seemingly unaware of the entertainment she was providing them. “I get helping the fruit bat … and the Hunter servants you mended. However, the Queen is not a helpless and stupid animal like they are.”

This shut the Hunters up. Their amusement was replaced with dangerous looks aimed in Romalla’s direction.

Krebba, however, studied Romalla for a moment and just blinked slowly. “And I finally see that you are the only … slightly formidable one left in your little tribe. Keep your underlings managed. If you do, I suppose we can manage this. Especially as my guard will not step out of line.” She looked in particular at the Hunter with the maimed eye.

In response, the other Hunters immediately bowed their heads and looked at the floor.

Scraa did the same … and I wanted to hug him as he did. Now that my memories of Dimitry’s life had returned, I intimately understood his fear and shame in the face of a clearly abusive parent. I wanted to hug him but knew he wasn’t ready for that yet.

I then looked at Dro; Krebba’s words had seemed mostly meant to insult him. However, Dro didn’t seem to notice. He looked exhausted, even more so than the last time he had left the calming program. I suspected that he hadn’t even heard what she had said.

“Well then, savior of the fruit bats,” Krebba said to me dryly. “How will we best escape the real Alpha Predators?”

Again, my own cheeks flushed. After a moment, I replied, “Well … the Alpha Predators were frightened by what happened. So maybe we could use that, but very subtly. When I was one of them, I remember that we were scared of smaller, shadowy streets. If you made them just a bit scarier, I think everyone would avoid them.”

Krebba smiled. “Our kind is influencing you more than I had thought. Very well, I will make every corner and shadow into a place where monsters and darkness are waiting to consume them.”

“Good … but we can’t make a scene this time,” I said, trying to emphasize how important this was with my tone. I pulled out my ring gun, eliciting a few winces from those Hunters I’d shot. That wasn’t my intention, and I felt bad about it. But the Hunters had to know what they would be dealing with. “Last time, you caught them by surprise and took hostages before they could react. They’re not going to let something like that escalate again. They’re going to shoot you with stuff like this—from far, far, far away.”

The Queen scowled, seeming to take offense at this. “Regardless of what Dro may have told you, we are still capable of stalking in the shadows and acting with intelligence.”

I lifted my hands defensively, “Fair. Apart from that, we’ll just need to make it up as we go along. So … let’s get to it.” I stood and walked toward the door.

“Oh! I need a moment,” Scraa said, speaking up quite unexpectedly. He moved to the corner of the room, where there was a metal locker. He fumbled with the handle for a moment before he managed to get it open. He reached inside and pulled out Dro’s staff, along with two colorful backpacks. It looked like the backpacks were filled with heavy, rectangular objects. Were those books? Had they robbed a school?

Part of me worried about how the Triumvirate would feel about the Hunters stealing this information. But … I had to admit that an increasingly onery side of me found the theft kind of funny.

Then Scraa picked up the old blade that had been wielded by Krebba. He stared at it for a moment, then approached her. He handed the weapon to her with both hands.

Krebba studied him and then the rest of us. It seemed like she expected one of us to stop him. When none of us did, however, she hesitantly took the weapon offered to her. “Giving an advantage to your enemies, Scraa?”

Scraa looked down, ashamed. He paused for a moment, and I nearly said something in his defense. However, his eyes lit up. “I … don’t think—uhm—that our tribe is like yours. We mend fruit bats with bone-fixing skills, even if they might bite us. Because … we’re not scared of being bit.”

I smiled—and I knew I would have been tearing up if I’d had my human eyes back.

Scraa reached in and pulled out one last item—the machete blade that Krebba had broken off me.

“It’s alright, just leave it,” I said, not seeing much of a point in keeping the thing. I still had a functional one left, and I certainly did not intend to learn how to weld it back on.

Scraa nodded and dropped it.

A few of the Hunters looked at it … but I don’t think even they fancied the idea of carrying around a sharp and broken bit of metal.

I moved toward the door. Without hesitation, Scraa filed in behind me, followed by the three wounded warriors, Gar, the Queen, and Dro last. Romalla flew briefly to perch on Scraa’s backpack.

The door automatically opened.

I crouched low. My toes, knees, and ankles automatically bent and absorbed my weight as I walked. The Hunters all followed suit, slinking even in the nonexistent shadows. Just like before, we followed the ‘exit’ signs. With the Hunters’ keen senses, we were able to dart into hospital rooms and closets in plenty of time to avoid hospital staff—mostly droids pushing various carted items. These back hallways that we kept to seemed to be for transporting medical supplies.

Eventually, we were forced to use a more public hallway. I peeked in and spotted a camera. I looked at the others, unsure how I planned to deal with it. Romalla took advantage of our break to spread her wings with a big stretch (which was as adorable as it sounds). But the motion reminded me of the Wall … and how she had helped me climb down from it.

“Romalla … would you be able to use your wings to block that eye up there?” I said, feeling a bit proud of myself for how quickly I’d interpreted the technology of a camera in just one sentence.

Romalla flapped up to my shoulder to get a better look. She studied the camera for a moment and then flew through the door. Within a couple seconds, her wing was covering the camera.

The lot of us quickly dashed through. A few empty hallways later, we found ourselves in a patient room with balcony access. Stepping out, I saw that we were just over the street behind the hospital. It was only then, with a beam of light warming my metal arm, that I even realized that it was daylight. There were a few people below—workers, it looked like.

Without words, I looked inside the room and mentally signaled the Hunters. Gar and the Queen’s Hunters took my place and peered over the edge. Their tails slinked like water snakes beyond the railing. They then began to dart their tails this way and that—always within the peripheral vision of their targets and never directly in sight. After a minute, the people began to walk quickly back inside and to the more occupied streets.

I followed the Hunters down the series of balconies between us and the ground. That is to say … they weightlessly jumped from one perch to the next, quickly landing like gymnasts on cobblestone below. I had to slowly reach my shaky limbs from one balcony to the next—bumbling with all the grace of a blackbear. When I reached the bottom, I realized that everyone had been staring at me as if watching a movie.

“See, I told you,” Romalla said to them with a small, fanged smile. “She only looks clumsy and uncoordinated but never ends up actually falling. I have found that her fake incompetency becomes endearing somewhere along the span of it so frequently persisting.”

I tried to make a disgruntled face … but I suppose I found her backhanded insults to be kind of endearing as well.

Retaking the lead, I ran toward the beach—keeping close to the buildings. I did have to stop every so often for the Hunters to clear the way, but we quickly reached the end of the street. A road was all between us and the sand. A few emergency drones patrolled the way, and the beach seemed sparsely populated even compared to when we had arrived in the middle of the night. I wondered if this was because they now felt afraid.

I turned back to face the others and pointed wordlessly at the closest drone. It was now headed toward us, and we needed to hide.

Krebba, however, lifted her hands authoritatively at us and then stepped to the front. She stared at the approaching emergency drone, darted her tail in rapid motions, and twitched her eyes almost imperceptibly.

Still, the drone grew closer.

I panicked, pulled out my gun, and took aim.

Dro quickly stepped to my side, put a claw on my forearm, and gently pushed it down.

The drone passed directly over us and did nothing.

“Don’t get too scared, Alpha Predator,” said one of the two Hunters with a line across their faces. He gave an amused look that his companion mimicked.

I ignored him and stepped beside Krebba. It seemed we had two choices. We could take the bridge that Scraa and Dro had—though I saw dozens more security drones between us and it. Or … we acted now and made our way more covertly in one of the many recreational water vehicles. The problem with both ideas was that neither gave us cover in case the drones spotted and bombarded us with electricity and sleeper darts. I shook my head, unsure.

As I thought about it, a city-wide alarm made me jump. All the people on the beach began evacuating to the nearby buildings. Between the alarms and the growing number of drones making their way in our direction, I became dizzy with fear.

But then … I noticed more recreational vehicles arrive on shore. Those piloting them docked haphazardly along the beach and at various piers. The people then rushed to the buildings along with everyone else. The fastest of the vehicles seemed to be the hovering recreational devices that had a vague similarity to jet skis. It wasn’t perfect … but maybe they would be fast enough to avoid being hit.

I nearly proposed my idea when something unexpected rose from the water—a bulbous blue craft. Several people in wetsuits and diving gear exited from a hatch at the top of it with a line of rope and then tied the vessel to a hook on the shore. I looked at my allies excitedly and pointed at it.

Everyone gave me very unsure reactions as they realized what I wanted to do.

“We don’t breathe underwater,” Gar said, his stature somewhat diminished by what seemed like a bit of fear.

“You don’t have to,” I replied. “If we can get inside, the top should seal. So we’ll have air trapped inside. Then, if we’re under the water, they won’t be able to see us.”

The Queen’s Hunters all looked at me doubtfully for another moment.

Dro, however, simply shrugged and stepped in front of us. “Are we ready to go?”

Krebba sighed irritably before following in and saying, “Given the daylight and the distance, just know that we will be spotted immediately.”

They were going to spot us … that was not good. I bent my knees awkwardly, feeling physically positioned as if I were planning on announcing that I would race them there. Before I could tell them anything, all the Hunters moved as one as quickly as they could toward the water. I took off behind them, not nearly as fast.

We could have only been outside of cover for about five seconds before we had the attention of drones. Dro and the Queen faced them with tails ready. The ones directly above us dropped immediately from the air, landing along the road and the beach. Gar pounced the ones nearby and beat them ferociously with his elbows—leaving them in shattered pieces within seconds.

The remaining yellow drones rose into the sky—far out of reach. They had learned!

We were halfway across the beach before one of the Queen’s Hunters dropped. When he did, we saw a dart sticking out of his back.

“Weave, fools,” Krebba roared, veering left and right as she moved toward the submarine.

I stopped, picked up the downed Hunter, threw him over my shoulder, and continued to run. Darts and white blurs of electricity rained down upon us—the latter kicking sand into the air upon impact. Once we reached the water, the shots caused large splashes all around.

By some miracle, we reached the vehicle … only for me to experience an uncomfortable, embarrassing, and disastrous moment of clarity. I did not know how to drive a submarine. Come to think of it, I wasn’t even sure that I could all fit inside! But then … I didn’t need air, did I?

While the others climbed from the water to inside the vehicle, I shouted Gar’s name and released the machete on my right arm.

Gar, climbing behind the others, looked at me as I handed him the unconscious Hunter. Gar grumbled something as he carried his companion into the submarine.

With my hands now free, I cut the rope that anchored the submarine to the shore and then took it in my hand.

“Hurry, Bassella,” Romalla shouted. I looked and saw her standing atop the submarine alongside Gar.

“Close the top!” I shouted as I ran and dove below the water, rope still in hand. My body adjusted itself with a series of clicks and subtle sliding motions. Then the propellers in my body began to move like they had before. I propelled myself down toward the bottom of the submarine.

The bottom of the craft was made almost entirely out of a transparent material, so I could see all my allies staring with open jaws … well, except for the unconscious one. Because of the cramped space, they were all uncomfortably close together. However, they had successfully sealed the top.

I passed the craft and began to very slowly drag the boat through the water. Energy blasts hit the water’s surface harmlessly, and darts bounced off me as I slowly propelled us all forward, carrying the spherical submarine. This went on for several minutes … and I found myself relaxing for just an instance.

This indulgence was rewarded with an oddly ominous sight. Several objects were cutting through the water toward me—red drones shaped like squids. These water drones approached me using water propulsion systems that moved far faster than I could, even unburdened by a submarine. Moreover, these drones were equipped with crab-like claws along with what looked like oxygen masks.

I wasn’t ready when one grasped me and then moved toward the surface. In a panic, I grabbed fearfully at the red drone. One of my hands must have managed to take hold of an oxygen tank a little too tightly because, suddenly, there was an explosion of bubbles. I was jettisoned along with the drone for a few feet; then it sank helplessly to the sand bar below.

Another drone quickly moved in to try to do the same, but I knew what to do now. I pulled at the oxygen masks to get close and then slashed at their tanks with my machete. Afterward, the rest gave up and simply watched from a distance.

I felt momentarily victorious until I was again punished for counting my chickens. I had almost reached the edge wall … but now what?