Michael Siemsen - Exigency

Once the killing had stopped and feeding begun, Minnie switched on an emergency alert to recapture their attention.

Wow, Minnie mused, I could do this for another few hours and thin the population down to one.

At 30K from the village, Minnie waited for the tiring stragglers to catch up. Knowing these guys could run faster than a thoroughbred—up to 80 km/h across flat, unobstructed ground—she’d brought them far enough to give her ten minutes to fly back, and at least ten more to fetch Ish’s fone. She may have even exhausted them so much that they’d be gone for hours. That didn’t mean the village would be empty. She fully expected to run into some wily stay-behinds. If they were anywhere near that shrine, though, they’d find a couple multirounds in their chests. Minnie didn’t have time for a stealthier approach.

Ten minutes later, she flew in low with high-sensitivity thermag activated on her fone. She counted roughly thirty Hynka still wandering the village, but most were spread out well beyond the bone shrine. They wouldn’t see or hear her.

On Ish’s side of the rock, three Hynka had indeed lingered. On the ground, two could be seen restoring the vandalized bone shrine. The third lounged on its side up at the rock wall’s third tier. Its position was disturbingly human, one arm bent up, and cheek resting on hand—like a child lying on a carpeted floor watching a show or reading a book. This one was the first to spot her.

Minnie quickly programmed a final approach and landing, gripped her MW, and verified it was set to lethal. The skimmer took over and Minnie set sights on her first target, the larger of the two Hynka at the shrine. Descending and curving in, she aimed at a shoulder until the chest came into view. A bark from the lounger, two bwops from her MW, a stunned, faltering Hynka scratching at its new holes. 6m from the ground, spinning right, barrel pointed at the second target, Minnie hesitated a beat. The skimmers touched down. In the corner of her eye she could see the dark shape of her first victim collapse. The one now standing before her held out its big hands, as if to block the next shot, or to say “Don’t shoot!” But she sensed the third, up on the ledge to her right, on the move.

Bwop-bwop!

The second cried out, began spluttering deducible words. Minnie spun toward the rock face. The last had stood and turned its back and now climbed toward the fourth tier as it called out.

“Ahsa-craht-ye! Ahsa-craht-ye!”

Minnie twirled for a full scan. If this guy was calling for help, there wasn’t anyone close enough to hear. It made it to the fourth tier and reached up to the hanging body, two thick fingers wrapping all the way around Ish’s bundled legs. Minnie watched, unsure how to proceed, as the Hynka yanked at Ish’s body, warping the circle into a stretched oval until one of the ties snapped free. A sudden gag seized in Minnie’s throat. Ish was like fresh bread dough, her bound limbs and torso bending and squishing in impossible, appalling ways, head bobbing as if mounted on a flimsy spring.

Steeling her mind and body, Minnie trained her MW on the center of the Hynka’s back. Another yank and jerk. Minnie was afraid that Ish’s legs would give before the bundled cables. A loud snap from over the top of the rock. A thick branch shot out, cable streaming behind it, and both flew all the way down to the edge of the bone shrine, a few meters from Minnie’s feet.

What was this Hynka’s goal? Was it trying to take the sacred Ish away so Minnie couldn’t have her?

With the breaking of the third cable, Minnie’s question was answered. The Hynka turned around with Ish dangling from two hands.

It extended its arms out. “Ahsa-craht-ye. Craht-ye-ngoh.”

Minnie took a few steps backward and gestured to the ground before her. “Okay, sure… send her on down, buddy.”

But instead of gently handing her off to gravity, the Hynka folded Ish into a single shaft, raised her over its head with both arms, and hurled her downward with all its might. Minnie dove to the side. The body careened off the formerly organized bones and clipped one of her boots. Minnie landed ungracefully in a medley of Hynka parts, flipping herself right over to monitor the sneaky bastard, and watched as it jumped from the fourth level down to the second. It squatted for a flying leap at Minnie, and, stunned again by such speed and dexterity from the hulking creatures, she impulsively shut her eyes and popped off a flurry of shots. 10? 15? She had no idea—still expected a crushing impact, claws and teeth, and the unremitting grip of a two-fingered demolition machine.

Bones rattled. Gurgling coughs. Minnie opened her eyes to see the Hynka much farther than she’d expected. It lay to her left, flat on its chest with a leg kicking out behind it, shunting away the bones forming the shrine’s outer circle. It hadn’t leapt toward her, but to the path that led away from the shrine. Ish had been a last-ditch distraction before a planned flee attempt. It had expected Minnie to kill it even after she got Ish. A revealing outlook. It meant there wasn’t any negotiating with Hynka.

Minnie stood and scrutinized the immobilized Hynka, ensuring no one was about to spring up and grab her horror-film style. Satisfied by their dead or dyingness, she strode to Ish’s body where it’d come to rest at the edge of the clearing.

Oh, perfect.

The head had come to rest facing down. No quick pluck and run for Minnie.

She knelt down, breathed through only her mouth, and focused on the mechanics of lifting, turning, and setting the head down. That face… the expression…

She had to keep going, get it done, unclip multitool, flip open scoop tool, finger the eyelids open, ignore vile peeling of flesh bonded by dried fluids, insert tool at outside corner—no looking at face, stop looking at face—pry fone from housing.

The ball dropped from her fingers into an empty cargo pocket. Pocket sealed.

Minnie ran back to the skimmers, hopped up, and stopped her hands before they touched anything. Her gloves had been tainted in the worst possible way. She thought she could feel both germs and creeps burrowing through the fabric, dead-set on reaching her skin.

She tore out the release lines and yanked the gloves off, flinging them behind her.

The skimmer pressed up at her feet, the paired units launching as a single unit, straight up in the air. First to the west, instead of directly back north. Hynka would definitely see her leave, and she didn’t want to guide them back toward the mountain cave.

The controls had a nice, grippy rubber texture she realized she’d never touched with bare skin. It was dumb to have left her gloves. Purely an emotional decision. They could’ve been cleaned of any dangerous or disturbing matter. Now she had an unsealable suit. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Should she turn back? Was there still time? Perhaps, but she didn’t alter her course for 15K, at which point she veered north toward “home.”

Agitated sand and dust shifted outside the cave, but without the usual accompaniment of a hollow wind tone. John pulled in the corner of his survival bag to have a peek just in time to see the white edge of a skimmer touchdown outside. Minerva was back. She’d made it, of course. The endless string of speculation that tormented his mind had all been silly.

“Sorry I took so long,” Minerva’s voice echoed through the cavern. “How we doing? Where’s your pain at?” She crouched down beside him, set a hand on his shoulder.

The question struck John funny. He chuckled a little, felt a dull pressure in his right ribcage that would’ve normally been pain. “I don’t know… two?”