Chapter 93 – Boundaries (7)

Despite taking out three of the police robots, they had lost one of their companions, plus two jeeps and five motorbikes. Apparently, the police robots had found their vehicles and burned their batteries and engines, not giving them a chance to escape the dead zone.

"It's impossible to get across the border before dark." Todd asserted after examining the damaged vehicles, "We have three motorbikes left to use, three men can go ahead as scouts, the rest will move on foot."

All long-range signals were difficult to transmit here because of the radiation interference, so they didn't have to worry about the robot police transmitting their images to Eden, but with their protective suits on they weren't as mobile as they normally would be and if they encountered more robot police, it was unlikely that they wouldn't sustain more damage.

Zhang Xun looked around uneasily. The setting sun was hanging in the sky, turning the otherwise dull clouds a scarlet colour of blood, "Is it safe to travel at night?"

"We're only a few kilometres from the centre of the super bomb explosion site, the radiation levels haven't dropped for two hundred years, it's too risky to stay here for long. The sooner we leave, the better." With that, Todd selected three men and told them to get on their bikes and patrol the area, making sure no new robot police or anything else came near them.

Zhang Xun walked over to James and asked in a low voice, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Don't worry." James' face behind the transparent mask smiled brightly at him.

Zhang Xun nodded and glanced over at Enoch, who was still a little dazed, standing not far away with too much luggage on his back.

Why hadn't Enoch taken the initiative at that moment of danger? He remembered that when he had been hiding in the van and encountered the mob, Enoch had acted to protect them and fought back.

Although such passive aggression wasn't common in ordinary service robots, since Lucille had mentioned that he had asked it to "protect" the three of them, Zhang Xun thought that it might be a robot with a certain security system that had been modified on the black market, but why hadn't the defence mechanism been triggered in such a critical situation just now?

It seemed that when they arrived at Feathered Serpent City, he would have to check Enoch's core programming carefully.

After the sun went down, the moonlight was blocked by the clouds making the whole wilderness pitch black. The bumpy road wasn't easy to walk on and the bulkiness of their protective suits made movement even more difficult.

The good news was that they weren't far from the border and it would only take about four or five more hours of walking to enter Mexico. After that they could meet up with Anya's informant and take a flight in the direction of Feathered Serpent City.

After about three hours of walking, the group was a little exhausted. Even though it was close to the border, Todd decided they would take a fifteen minute break before continuing on their way. He walked over to James, who was silently sorting through the guns in his backpack and sat down, saying carelessly, "You know you have to throw all this stuff away when you get out of the radiation zone, right?"

Anything that had been contaminated with radiation had to be left in the radiation zone, even all the clothes they had on would have to be destroyed in one place.

James glanced at him, "I know, it's just a habit of mine that helps me relax."

"So, did you used to be that reckless in Lost Paradise too?" Todd frowned at him, "How did you survive until now?"

"Sometimes you have to be reckless just to get back alive." James shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care and looked back at Todd with amusement, "You're in no position to talk when you're an outlaw."

"We have no choice."

"No choice?" James asked after a pause, "Your sister seems like she would be able to live well in the ordinary world."

"If it wasn't for me dragging her down." Todd tugged at the corner of his mouth, "But alas, her luck is no good."

Todd paused and continued, "My mother was a police officer in charge of guarding a 'sanatorium' in Texas and my father was a 'patient' in it. Unfortunately she and my dad fell in love. You can guess how heterosexuality is viewed in police circles, they maintained their secret affair for five years, but then my mother became pregnant. She wanted to abort my sister, but in the end she didn't and just transferred her to an in vitro petri dish to be raised by a private clinic that specialised in this secret embryo culture business, until my sister was able to survive in vitro before she was secretly brought into the family.

Two years later they had me. It turned out that my existence was revealed to the authorities when her trusted best friend learned of it and my sister was then discovered. After my mother was dismissed from the police force my dad was moved to the 'high risk ward area' for 'seductive behaviour'. Hardly any man survives more than two years in a place like that and my mother defied all odds to get him out, only to find that he had been tortured to the point where he didn't even know who she was. My mother took our family and tried to escape to Mexico, but on the way she was discovered by the Edenites. The Edenites consider all women who voluntarily unite with men to be sinners and offspring like us to be even more filthy. She only had time to slip my sister and I to a few wandering bandits before she was stabbed to death by the lunatics who caught up with her."

James was silent for a long time before he spoke, "How old were you then?"

"I was still in the incubator." Todd said easily, but his eyes were frozen with a hint of sadness, "But I've seen her picture. I think my sister and I inherited our hair from her."

"Why didn't she go to a refugee country? Since you were already so close to Feathered Serpent City."

"Women aren't welcome in the refugee countries. Unless you have a special status, like being a senior engineer who has been in contact with Eden......"

These people, who were stuck in the middle of the two camps, could only wander in groups in the wilderness of the harshest and most barren environment.

"What about you? Were you born in Lost Paradise?" Todd asked.

James shook his head, "I was left outside the gates of Lost Paradise and a band of hunters found me."

"So you never had a family?"

"I've never met my real parents, but Commander Zhang, Zhang Xun and I are pretty much family."

At that moment, a faint scream came from the distance.

Todd immediately stood up and tried to call the three men who were scouting ahead of them, but they were too far away and no one answered.

The group became nervous and Zhang Xun walked over to James and Todd and said, "Enoch is faster on his feet, should we have him go and take a look?"

Todd glanced at the robot, which was standing still and hadn't moved or even unloaded its luggage and nodded hesitantly. Zhang Xun then immediately gave Enoch the order to unload the luggage and go to the source of the sound to check the situation.

Enoch, who normally moved at human speed only to match the humans, was given the command and his legs and feet subtly transformed. The toes elongated and the heels lifted, becoming somewhat like digitigrade animals, making the whole leg longer and more suitable for running. He lowered his body and then leapt up, shooting into the sky like an arrow, forming a long parabola and landing further ahead. In the space of a few rises and falls, his figure had faded into the night.

Many people looked enviously in the direction the robot disappeared and Zhang Xun heard someone say, "If only my legs could transform like that......"

It didn't take long for Enoch's leaping figure to reappear in view, while a voice came out of everyone's headsets, "I suggest everyone take cover immediately and watch out for the sky!"

As the group looked up they saw several overcast clouds rising from the sky around them, rapidly approaching in their direction. As James lifted his rifle and turned on the night vision sight to get a closer look, he suddenly let out a cry of alarm, "Holy shit!

The cloud came so quickly that everyone hurriedly obeyed the order to get down on the ground. Zhang Xun also slumped to the ground in disarray, a cold feeling penetrating his blood from the ground. He heard the sound of the wind and the beating of some kind of wings, countless wings flapping together, as thick as a rainstorm. A putrid smell followed, so foul that one could barely breathe.

The limited vision of his protective suit blocked his sight and he had no idea what was happening in the sky or what was passing over their heads. All he could hear was the whistling wind and the invisible pressure of the darkness.

Then someone was screaming and someone was shooting. He heard the wet sound of something being torn, of flesh being ripped away. He heard Todd's roar and the sound of lasers searing flesh.

A figure blocked him and he looked up, only to see the robot blocking him with its own body. Behind it, some...... birds, the size of falcons were whistling wildly past.

With a thud, a "bird" fell in front of him. Zhang Xun felt a cry of fear catch in his throat.

It wasn't a bird. Its head was twisted and swollen, with a ring of needle-like fangs and its nostrils were just two holes that seemed to have been poked into rotten flesh at random, but it had no eyes at all. Its body was about half a metre long, covered in uncomfortable folds and fleshy tufts, yet hairless. Its wings were spread out, a set of fleshy wings that were badly damaged.

"What is this thing!" Zhang Xun exclaimed.

"They're bats that survived several generations of mutation and reproduction after being exposed to radiation. They are very aggressive and are more sensitive to sound, smell and heat." Enoch's voice was lowered, "I suggest you keep your mouth shut. I'm cooler and can mask your scent and body heat."

Zhang Xun kept his mouth tightly shut and looked up to see how the others were doing but all he could see was chaos.

The mutant bats were extremely aggressive and kept pounding into the crowd. After the protective suits of two townspeople had been torn, swarms of bats swooped in thick and fast, covering the two poor men. All that could be heard was the sound of flesh being devoured and their horrific screams.

Todd raised his rifle and shot at the whirring creatures and others who didn't want to become bat food tried to fight back, but they were too fast and there were too many of them and soon another man was wrapped up in the swarm of bats. Todd yelled and kept firing, causing the bats to fall down from the air like rain. A giant bat, much larger than any of the others, swooped down behind him and was about to impale the back of his head when James violently pushed him away. The bat grabbed James' arm and forehead and tried to bite him, but James raised his gun and blew the ugly head off, spraying the bat's brains all over the hunter's transparent mask.

They didn't know if the bat with the big head was the king of the flock, but after it died all the other bats suddenly flew up in surprise, circled above them and suddenly flew away in the direction they had come from.

All that was left on the ground were three bloody corpses.

The group was in shock and scrambled to check their protective suits for tears. Todd looked at the mangled remains of his three men and hammered the ground hard.

James squeezed his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"Fucking mutant bats!" Todd cursed under his breath.

It was his fault, he should have known that rushing through the night could be risky, but fearing the possibility of their protective suits being infiltrated if they stayed in the radiation zone too long, he made the wrong decision and got three of his men killed.

He also feared that it might be more than three, maybe the other three men who had gone to scout the road ahead were the first to be encountered. He turned his head and saw a woman half lying down not far away, blood dripping from her leg. She was one of those who had gone exploring ahead and Enoch had brought her back earlier.

But one look at the huge rips in her protective suit told him that the chances of this person surviving were slim.

Todd crouched down in front of her, watching his familiar comrade gasping sharply but still trying to remain calm.

"Thank that robot for me. I was nearly turned into bat shit."

Todd tried hard to pull the corners of his mouth up, but it was an unsightly smile. He rummaged through his duffel bag for the hemostatic spray and the sealing tape used to seal the suits, "Save your breath Cindy, there's still an hour to go."

"I'm not going with you guys." The female warrior known as Cindy said, "You guys go ahead."

"Don't talk shit!"

"Even if I get out here I'll be dead in a few months or a year or two." Cindy grinned, "Leave me some food, booze and a gun."

Todd felt a tightening grip on his heart. He knew Cindy was right. This was a high radiation danger zone, just a few kilometres from the area that had been the centre of the original super-nuke explosion. With such a large fissure, coupled with the exposed wound, it must have suffered from severe radiation contamination.

Zhang Xun walked over to Todd at this point and saw the strong desire to live still deep in Cindy's eyes and whispered to Todd, "Maybe there is a way to heal her radiation...... we can have Enoch take her away first to reduce the amount of time she is exposed to the radiation."

Todd nodded his agreement. He quickly sealed the gap in her suit, then watched as Enoch, who had obeyed Zhang Xun's orders, bent down to pick her up and quickly leapt into the distance.

To speed things up, Enoch didn't have any luggage with him, which left a lot of heavy bags to carry. Zhang Xun himself chose the most important package to carry on his back, intending to leave the rest behind. The others also lightened their luggage, intending to cross the border quickly and then leave the radiation zone before dawn.

Before hitting the road, James was packing his bags, but suddenly noticed a small, very inconspicuous tear in his protective suit on the inside of his arm. He frowned, unsure if the cut had been made earlier in the fight against the robot soldiers, or if it had been made just now. If it was just now, it shouldn't be a problem in this short time, right?

He glanced at Zhang Xun, Todd and Diego with slight unease.

The men were all busy.

James hesitated for a moment but decided not to add to the confusion. He found a roll of sealing tape from his own travel bag, taped the breach shut and then put his backpack on, following the group on their trek towards the horizon.

Note- fuck please don't die. Stupid.