And Then There Were Three
TMWWD S01E03 – Flash Fiction [#16]
The cabin door stood wide open. Snow had drifted in, a muted blanket covered the wooden floor and furniture in a thick layer of white. A peaceful sight, were it not for the crimson stain next to the fireplace, a dark hole, moaning as the wind carried dancing snowflakes from a frozen hand up through the blackened chimney into the starlit sky.
“The signal,” a woman in a grey Exosuit kneeled next to the body, wiped the snow from the dead man’s face, his eyes wide in a milky gaze. She removed a small, square chip stuck into the bloodless forehead and examined it. “He was here. He cut out his transponder.” From her gloved hand, a hairline tentacle extruded and pierced the eye, extracting a tissue sample. “No more than two days ago.”
“He can’t have gotten far. Not in this weather.” A muscular man wearing the same combat suit scanned the room as he spoke. “Who’s the stiff?”
“Analysing.”
“Poor bastard. Looks like he invited him in. No signs of a struggle.” The man continued his scan, moving towards the back. “Ladder here. Going up.”
“Don’t waste your time.” The woman stood up, her eyes flickering screens of data, processing the sample from the corpse.
“Might as well have a look around while we’re here.”
“He was a nobody, a grunt, worked for Project M. Marked MIA. Wife dead. Hang on… says here, he has a child.”
The man squatted and smiled into the dark corner, where mattresses and beddings were piled up in a makeshift tent. Through the slit, a shivering girl was watching him, face dirty, red uncombed hair, clutching something close to her chest.
“Hello there, young lady. It’s alright. We’re not going to hurt you. What’s your name?” The man held out his hands.
The girl tensed and moved to the back of the tent.
“Her name’s Annabel. Leave her. Come on, Zed. We have to move.”
“We can’t just leave her. She’ll die.” Zed turned back to the child. “Annabel. It’s OK. The bad man is gone. You can come out now.”
Annabel shook her head, her knuckles white, cowering in the corner.
“It’s alright. You can trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“She’ll only slow us down.” The woman stood behind Zed, looking into the tent with void eyes.
“She’s coming with us.” Zed gently advanced into the tent on all fours, pointing at the doll Annabel held tight, a deformed, dirty sock, a simple, smiling face stitched in colourful threads. “Who’s your friend? I bet she wants to go on an adventure.”
“She will get us killed. Better to end it here.”
“Don’t listen to her, Annabel. Vee is scared, scared she might like you. I know she’ll like you. I’m sure she’ll be crazy about you by morning!”
Zed grabbed the child and lifted her like a paper straw, kicking and screaming, little fists hammering on his back. The doll fell, landing before Vee’s feet.
“I’m sorry, Annabel. You can’t stay here. We have to leave. Shhh. It’s OK, I won’t hurt you.” Zed pointed at the doll.
Vee shook her head, picked it up and handed it to the child.
“Here, kid. Stop your yammering, or you’ll take a long nap.”
Annabel looked into Vee’s eyes, her reflection in the onyx implants staring back at her. She fell silent and took the doll.
“See. That’s better.” Zed was down the ladder and out of the cabin, but Annabel saw. The hand, the face, her father, gone, she knew.
Without a signal, the hunt was hard. After the cabin, they hoped they’d catch their target within days, but the harsh weather foiled their efforts, and as time passed, their hope dwindled until all that was left was making it through the day alive, finding shelter, food, and struggling to survive.
Months passed, and Zed taught Annabel how to read tracks, tie knots, build traps, make fire, shoot bow and arrow, all things to survive in the wild. She had exceptional eyesight and hearing and could spot prey from miles away. With time, she would grow to trust him, and he would call her Bee.
Months turned into years as their hunt took them over mountains into valleys, across rivers and seas, always following the signs of the Maker, fighting his Servants and following the trail of corpses in his wake.
All this time, Annabel never uttered a single word. Zed taught her sign language. She learned, she fought, she survived. She remembered her father, but Annabel was gone. She was only Bee now. The hunt was all she knew.
One day, they found another hunter like them at the edge of a forest, badly wounded, his belly cut open, attacked by the Maker or one of his creatures. In his fatal fever, he kept repeating the same numbers over and over until his last breath: 60-23-44.
“Where do you think he came from?”
“Maybe another hunter base. Maybe he stole the suit. Help me take it off,” Vee said.
The next day, they were about to head north to the ice plains when Bee kneeled, lowered her hands and head, ear to the ground, listening.
“What is it, Bee?” Zed asked.
Vee came out of the tent, carrying the modified Exosuit from the dead hunter.
Bee got up and frowned, her hands signalled in hectic succession, and all Zed got was Danger, Trap, Maker.
“Slow down, slow down. How many? Hundreds? Coming this way? It does sound like a trap, and we’re smack in the middle of it.” Zed threw his arms in the air. “Who’s the hunted now?”
“Let them come,” Vee handed her the suit.
Bee looked at her, then hugged her.
“OK. Okay. That’s—OK, kid. You’ve earned it. You’re one of us now.”
Bee slipped into the Exosuit, the nanofabric fitting itself to her body, covering her in dark crimson, shimmering in the pale morning light.
Vee nodded. “Time to end the Maker.”
Author’s Note
This is a continuation of The Man Who Wouldn’t Die.
Initially, I had this idea for a longer story set in the far future, a story of survival during the next ice age. All I had was one sentence based on a conversation overheard during lunch at the cantina. For years, it collected dust in my Scrivener Ideas folder, and here we are, 3000 words written.
What do you think about episode three? Should there be a fourth? Let me know in the comments below.
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Yes, more please Alexander. This was excellent, lots of atmosphere and great characters. Do all the hunters have names of the alphabet? Or just coincidence?
As Nadia noted, I also got Aliens here, similarities of Newt hiding in the ducts.
Am I misremembering, or was there some potential link to Carter's universe? Maybe that was a different flash fiction. What was the significance of the code numbers spoken out loud? I need to go check back on the other parts.
More! Definitely more, please. Well defined characters. I fell for them immediately.