The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone (5 page)

"But surely as
soon as there's a Change it will vanish?"

"Yes,
nutritionally they're useless, but they taste nice and it will help
to pass the time. I couldn't find any Real-reality food, so this
will have to do for now."

Tassin munched
the sweet, tart fruit Sabre gave her, which left her mouth fresh
and clean. After they had eaten, Purr curled up in a hollow and
Sabre relaxed against the rock behind him, closing his eyes. The
late afternoon sun warmed them, and the world seemed tranquil and
balmy. A breeze stirred the air, and only an occasional, distant
croak broke the hush.

The sun had
almost reached the horizon when Tassin sensed someone watching her
and raised her head to look at Sabre. He was already alert, as was
Purr, who prowled about, peering into the trees. The watchers
emerged and approached with hesitant steps. Sabre tensed, but the
creatures that advanced on them appeared to be singularly
innocuous.

They looked
like chubby toddlers with plump bandy legs, enormous brown eyes,
button noses and rosebud mouths set in alabaster skin. They were
naked and apparently sexless, and wore angelic expressions of
smiling friendliness. They chittered amongst themselves, and gave
Purr a wide berth, but converged on Tassin and Sabre. Tassin
wondered if they were in fact children, and whether adults would
follow. Purr watched them with narrowed eyes.

About a dozen
of them came within touching distance of Tassin, while more stood
back and watched. Small, hot hands brushed her ankle, examining her
contact with the tree. They chittered excitedly as they clustered
around Sabre, reaching out to touch him with a remarkable lack of
fear. The cyber scowled at them, but Tassin smiled, which caused
them to draw back, twittering. Then she yelled as pain shot from
her ankle, and turned to find that a toddler had sunk sharp fangs
into her leg.

Sabre snatched
up the little monster and pulled it free, hurling it into the trees
as he dumped her onto the ground and jumped up. Purr sneezed
explosively and sprouted fangs and claws, with which he attacked
the nearest vampire children. They swarmed over Tassin, biting her,
and she slashed at them with her dagger, sickened when it sank into
soft flesh. Sabre laid about him with his fists and knife, striving
to protect her and beat off the creatures that clung to his legs,
biting ferociously. A mob of the things engulfed Purr, and blood
sprayed as he fought them in a seething melee from which a vampire
toddler was tossed every now and then, broken and bloody. Sabre
stood over Tassin and smashed the monsters away as more and more of
them poured out of the forest.

Brown and
green shot through the ground, and the world Changed. Sabre scooped
Tassin up as an eerie world of ruins replaced the trees and vampire
children, striding through the Change. The mosscat sneezed and
leapt onto a crumbling wall, looking bedraggled and cross. A ruined
city surrounded them. Smashed marble tiles, mortar and fallen
columns were mixed with the piles of rubble. Pot shards, broken
china and rusted implements lay strewn on cracked paving
stones.

Sabre placed
her on a wall and gazed around, taking stock of the new world.
Several painful bites throbbed on her legs, bottom and arms, and
blood trickled from numerous puncture wounds in Sabre's legs and
torso. Purr seemed unscathed, apart from his ruffled fur.

Sabre turned
to her. "Are you okay?"

"My face
hurts, and I have lots of bites, but otherwise I'm well
enough."

He nodded,
scanning the surroundings again. "We were lucky it Changed. I think
those little fiends would have done a lot of damage if it
hadn't."

Purr said,
"Beasts. They were dangerous. Many foes, no matter how weak, are
always more dangerous than one."

"At least this
place looks uninhabited, and we can travel easily enough."

After tending
to their wounds with Sabre's ointment, they set off across the
ruined world, picking their way through the debris. Tassin hobbled,
her buttocks smarting from the bites, and her stomach rumbled. The
fruit she had eaten in the previous Flux-reality had remained in
that realm. The new world appeared to be devoid of life; not even a
blade of grass struggled amongst the ruins.

"If we see any
creatures here, they must be Real-reality," Purr commented. "I
don't think anything lives in this world."

Tassin limped
beside Sabre for hours, finding no end to the ruins as they
followed broad roads that ran in the direction in which they wished
to travel. When they stopped to rest, Tassin fingered her throbbing
nose, and Sabre smiled.

"You'll look
like Purr soon."

"What do you
mean?"

"You're going
to have two lovely black eyes."

She glanced at
the mosscat, who chuckled. Shrugging, she sipped some water.
"Honourable war wounds."

The ruined
world remained until its sun sank over the horizon, and they
experienced night in Flux-reality for the first time. Tassin
assumed that this could only occur when Flux-reality and
Real-reality shared a night, then neither sun shone.

Finding a
semi-intact building, they settled down to sleep, unable to locate
any Real-reality. Purr took first watch, and sat in the doorway
while Tassin and Sabre stretched out on the bedding. Sabre placed
his bedroll well away from the Queen's, and she eyed him, wishing
it was cold.

Ever since he
had woken in the cave, and even before that, she had experienced an
undeniable attraction to him, something that had annoyed and
embarrassed her. At first, she had dismissed it as a passing fancy,
especially since he clearly did not share her interest. It had
continued to burgeon, however, and now was too strong to be denied
or ignored. Their enforced intimacy during the snowstorm had
reinforced it, and she longed to be close to him again. The fact
that he kept rescuing and taking care of her made it worse,
too.

Never had she
been so attracted to a man, nor had a man ever been so impervious
to her charms, and she wondered at the reason for his aloofness. It
made her somewhat resentful, and she resolved to make him notice
her.

A gentle
shaking roused her, and she opened her eyes. Sabre leant over her,
the brow band flashing in the darkness.

"Get up," he
whispered. "Something's outside."

Purr crouched
in the doorway, and from without came the faint rustling that had
alarmed them. Tassin crept to the door with Sabre and peered out,
her heart hammering. Two orange moons glared down like baleful
eyes, bathing the ruins in dull light. They waited as the rustling
grew louder, accompanied by scraping sounds, and all three craned
to peer around the wall as a greenish glow appeared at the end of
the street. A worm the size of four heavy trade wagons stacked two
deep rounded the corner, moving with the humping gait of a
caterpillar. Its armour-plated head was armed with scissor jaws of
pale chitin, and dozens of stumpy legs dragged its bulk along.

"Flux-reality
or Real-reality?" Sabre asked.

Purr shrugged.
"Makes no difference anymore."

"It looks like
the same one I saw in the mushroom world."

"Could be. Not
many Real-reality monsters venture this deep into Flux-reality.
It's dangerous for them too, especially something as big as
that."

"That thing
doesn't look like it's over-burdened with brains."

The monster
drew nearer, its blind head seeking amongst the ruins, bumping into
walls as it quested for a path. It moved past their hiding place,
taking its green glow, and a terrible smell, with it. As they
relaxed, the green and brown flashes shot through the floor, bright
in the gloom. Tassin tensed, and the world warped.

Broad daylight
made her squint, and a wave of noise washed over her. She stood on
a crumbling bank, and stepped back from a muddy pool filled with
sludge, reeds, small amphibians and floating green scum. A swamp
surrounded them, thick with marsh weeds, tall reeds and
bulrush-like plants, and inhabited by a plethora of croaking,
squeaking, grunting creatures.

A splashing
drew their attention to the green worm, which struggled as it sank
into the morass, its clawed feet seeking purchase in the
treacherous ground. Reeds protruded from its flanks, torn from
their roots by the monster's struggles, and Tassin wondered how
many small creatures were embedded in its flesh. The thought gave
her goose bumps, and she inspected herself, but found no plants or
animals in her legs, to her relief.

Sabre glanced
at Purr. "So it's Real-reality."

"A foolish
beast. It won't last long."

They picked
their way through the swamp, searching out firm ground on which to
walk.

"Surely we
should be moving out of real Flux-reality soon?" Tassin asked the
mosscat.

"Soon," he
agreed, hopping over a murky pool.

They spent the
next few hours slogging through the unsavoury swamp, swatting
biting insects and wading scummy pools. They stumbled upon some
Real-reality in the form of a sparkling clear lake, and Purr gave a
cry of delight. He plunged in and emerged with a silver fish
clamped in his jaws, looking like an otter. Sabre collected dead
reeds and built a fire to cook it, and they relaxed for a while,
watching bright birds and pretty insects make their living in the
swamp. The climate was pleasant, and only the biting insects spoilt
the idyll.

Gearn stared
at the shimmering barrier, aware of Murdor at his side, eyeing him
with raised brows. The wolf sat closer to the mist, tongue lolling.
Gearn had not bargained on their quarry reaching the Death Zone,
never mind entering it. He had expected the tracks to veer off as
the fugitives tried to go around the Zone, but the trail went
straight into it.

Murdor
rumbled, "I ain't goin' in there, wizard. Our bargain said nothin'
of goin' into the Death Zone."

"No, no, of
course not." Gearn dismounted, pondering the problem. He was just
as unwilling to enter the Zone as Murdor. Unstrapping his bag, he
laid out the collection of pots and bottles in the sand. With a few
gestures, he conjured a pile of wood and built a fire. Murdor
watched him, scratching an armpit.

"What are you
goin' to do?"

Gearn glanced
up with a frown. "I shall cast a spell to take us past the Zone.
It's complex and lengthy, so leave me alone. If they make it
through, we will pick up their trail on the other side. If not, we
return empty-handed, for even the King cannot blame me if she
perishes in the Death Zone."

Murdor hawked
and spat, then ambled off to sit in the sand while the wolf settled
in the horse's shade, panting.

Chapter Four

Many hours of
trudging through the sucking swamp left Tassin tired, dirty and
insect-bitten. Her hair hung in damp strings and her legs ached in
unison with her throbbing buttocks and face. Sabre called a halt
beside a cleaner pool, and they washed, clothes and all. Her skirt
chafed her legs after that, drying slowly in the humid air. When
they came across a dull grey boulder next to a dead tree, Purr
decided to wait on this bit of Real-reality for the next
Change.

His timing was
good. Within half an hour, the brown and green flickers came, and
the world Changed. A wave of heat swept over them, as if they had
stepped into a blast furnace, and Tassin groaned. A desert
stretched away in an endless tract of flat, wind-rippled sand. An
occasional odd rock or dead tree broke the sand's monotony, and
these, she assumed, were Real-reality. Sabre sighed and shielded
his eyes from the white sand's glare as he scanned the horizon.
Purr hopped off the rock and ambled away, looking unconcerned, but
Tassin was sick of deserts.

"This is as
bad as the reality outside."

Sabre turned
to look at her with narrowed eyes.

Purr gave his
purring chuckle. "This one's easy. No obstacles, monsters visible
from afar and as many Real-reality pools as before. A little hot,
that's all."

Tassin's damp
dress soon dried as she followed Sabre and Purr. The mosscat was
almost naked, his body leaner and his eyes shielded by a dark
membrane that dulled their yellow to brown. Bat-like ears shed
heat, and sweat soon beaded his skin. To Tassin, it seemed far
hotter than the desert outside, and she glanced up at the two suns
that blazed in the pale sky, white-hot and virulent. Sweat trickled
down her, and she gulped from a water skin. Sabre dropped back to
walk beside her after a while, and handed her a petticoat from the
pack, which she draped over her burning head, receiving some relief
from the heat in its shade.

The suns beat
down mercilessly, and as Tassin grew hotter her head swam and her
legs dragged as if they were made of lead. She poured water over
her head, soaking the petticoat and her dress, but it made little
difference. Sweat ran down Sabre's flanks, and she wondered how he
could stand it. When she stumbled, and he put out a hand to steady
her, she found his skin cool. The cyber regulated his temperature
somehow, she remembered, and his skin did seem flushed. Hers was on
fire. Her eyes ached and her face throbbed. She sank down in the
sand, unable to take another step.

Sabre squatted
beside her. "Are you tired?"

She shook her
head. "I'm hot. I am cooking. I cannot take this heat."

"Rest a while.
It is very hot, and you don't want to get heatstroke. We'll wait
for a Change. Perhaps the next one will be better."

"We are always
waiting for a Change, and it's never better, just different."

He glanced
around. "Do you think you can make it to that rock? It's
Real-reality. We don't want you stuck in a tree again."