| |
“THE WHO?” DUN SAID.
“Bumpkins,” Tam said.
“Is that what you call us?”
“Yeah? What do you call you?”
“Bridge-folk.”
“Less politics,” Bel yelled, “more sports! Jump!”
Bel had found a ledge just below the causeway. The alarm/siren was getting louder.
“Stop where you are and surrender to the authorities!”
“My hairy ass, will I,” Bel said and then hissed, “Pass the girl down here, quick.”
Dun and Tam struggled with Mazzy’s limp form but managed to post her down to Bel. Then they heard loud crack-whoof noises, followed by odd splatty impacts on the causeway behind them.
“Stun rounds,” Tam said. “Time to leave.”
They pushed off from the edge of the causeway and fell the short drop to the ledge. Dun’s world spun as the mass of open air pressed against his air-sense. This place was massive and the causeway was in midair. Bel elbowed Dun in the ribs, unshouldering some kind of weapon.
“Scuse me,” Bel said. “Cover the causeway, Tam. There’s a love.”
Tam pulled some kind of weapon from a pocket and returned fire over the edge of the causeway. Bel had cocked whatever her weapon was. There was a sharp twang and the whirring of a reel unwinding. Then a distant clunk.
“Bingo! Damn, I’m good,” Bel said. “Buy me a few clicks to get a decent spar to clamp this to, Tam.”
“Aye!” Tam said.
Then after a short grunt from Tam, something flew toward the sirens whistling, and then made a crump noise. The sirens stopped.
“Good shot,” Bel said.
“Thanks.”
“Okay, all clipped on here. Time to go. I’ll go first and check the line. You follow on and show the Bumpkin what he’s doing. Shame to get him killed now we’ve found him.”
Bel had erected some kind of a wire just at head height that headed out over the drop. She clicked something metallic sounding onto it, jumped over the edge, and whizzed down the line into the distance.
“Right,” Tam said. “You put your hands in here. Hold on tight. Make sure everything you don’t want to lose is strapped on.”
Dun heard the same metallic click and whatever his hands were strapped in went taught.
“Hold tight!” Tam said again and pushed.
Dun realized he’d forgotten to ask what in the hells was going to stop him once he reached the other end, but then he built up speed and forgot everything as the wind rushed past him and his air-sense was a blur. Traveling forward as fast as he’d ever gone while having nothing beneath his feet was terrifying and exhilarating. Dun would have whooped if he’d had the air to do it with. Then his air-sense started picking something up, something large, level and looming up at an alarming rate. Another causeway? And he could hear a voice over the rush of the wind.
“Feet up!” Bel shouted.
He had just enough about him to do that as he whirred into the bottom of the line, colliding first with something that slowed him and threw his feet in the air, and then colliding with Bel as she caught him.
“I gotcha, fella. Pretty good for a first-timer.”
Dun was going to say thanks, but he felt like he’d left his breath behind on the previous causeway. He heard the wire burr and twang as Tam descended, with the most weight of all carrying Mazzy, however, he was managing that.
“Grab a hold of that wire you’re stood on, Bumpkin; that’s our brake line. We’ll both need to pull on it to slow them down with all that weight on. Come on; pull. The extra weight was your idea.”
Dun pulled but said, “The extra weight’s called Mazzy.”
“You can introduce me if she survives.”
The whirring on the wire grew higher-pitched and louder and then took on an odd resonance.
“Okay, incoming. Stay sharp, Bumpkin!”
“Quiiiiiiiiiick!” Tam yelled as he came in.
The wire whipped as they landed. Dun was yanked in the shoulder, but he and Bel took the weight. Tam fell to his knees. The wire was still buzzing.
“Quick! Get me loose. Cops.”
“Cops?” Bel said.
“On the wire!” Tam said.
“Gotcha,” Bel said and Dun heard the familiar sound of a knife being drawn, except the metal of this one seemed to sing.
Then, he yelled, “Duck!”
A quick swish slashed through the air, an almighty metal twang and the distant sound of screaming.
“Good,” Bel said. “Shall we go? On the bike, everyone; we should all fit.”
Tam poked him forward. His knees bumped something metal.
“Swing your leg over.” Tam tapped him on the appropriate leg and helped him on.
He was sat precariously astride whatever a “bike” was.
“Now hold on around my waist!” Bel shouted.
Dun did as he was told. Tam struggled Mazzy on behind them and grabbed the back himself. Then without warning, there was a squee noise, a slight smell of something chemical, burning, and they shot off. Dun leaving his guts behind for the second time in a cycle. At least this time there was ground beneath his feet. Sort of. The bike sped on. Dun could feel the shapes of other causeways with his air-sense, twined and intertwined all in midair. Maybe with more bikes on them. Then he felt a huge wall ahead of them, rushing up to meet them, very, very fast. Just as Dun thought the adrenaline pounding was going to make his heart leap out of his chest, his air-sense squashed in on him: a tunnel. The noise of the bike dinging loud off the walls. Mechanical, motor whirring and rip of wheels on a concrete surface. Then out into the open again, briefly, and back into another tunnel.
“Now for the clever bit!” Bel yelled over the noise.
She tweaked some control in front of her. Dun could feel her shift slightly in her seat. The bike let out two loud peeps in succession.
“Hang tight! Lean right!” Bel yelled.
And the bike swung around to another screech and rubbery smell. Dun clung on to some part of Bel’s jacket as he got whipped around. Then the bike whooshed off again, this time down a very narrow tunnel indeed. Dun’s air-sense told him not to lean at this point or he might rip something off. Then the bike came out into a large metal room. They sped across this too, to the far side. Where a room just big enough to hold the bike opened toward them. Bel slowed the contraption, shifting again and came to rest just inside the smaller room.
“Close the gate, Tam.”
A metallic squeaking, then a clang. “Done!”
“Ta! Down we go.”
She made the bike peep twice again and after a loud clunk and a lurch, the floor started very slowly to fall. Third time in a cycle. Dun was amazed he hadn’t lost his lunch, especially considering what his lunch had been. They fell, exceedingly slow for about a thousand clicks, or rather the floor they were stood on did. Then they landed with a firm bump.
“Gate please, Tam.”
More rattling. The bike moved backward out of the tiny room.
“Okay, not far now,” Bel said.
They screeched around a final bend; the bike peeped again and Dun felt a door lifting up with his air-sense. The bike drove in. There was a click of a weapon cocking, then a harsh voice.
“Password!”
“Hi, honeys! We’re home!” Bel said.
––––––––
“They often sing together, these ‘Folk’. But sometimes, there is a strange song, sung by one male on his own. A strange keening, mournful. Everyone else stays stock still and listens. It’s crazy but it feels like a hymn to the past, something left behind.”
Excerpts from <Distress Beacon SN-1853001>. Found by E.S.V. Vixen Terradate: 26102225.
