Fallen Star

I knew the walk back would be painful. Carrying the heavy backpacks to Ferroviaire took its toll. The bruises became a sort of distraction from that original pain. Somehow my mind was trying to convince myself that I should try to find the positive side of the situation. It wasn’t very effective.

Over the following days my face regained its regular shape. Not the most handsome but still better than the misshapen mess from the beating. The bruises were painting a peculiar pattern of vivid colours. Estelle even laughed at it after she stopped feeling sorry for me. In spite of the apparent levity, there was a certain amount of tension in the air. Not finding anything at our destination might turn out to be the best case scenario.

“We could consider becoming bodyguards,” Estelle said. We had been talking about all possible alternatives for making profit. “I think we could pull that off without becoming part of a gang.”

“Perhaps. We can look into it when we get back. I don’t think it will be viable though. To make anybody consider us the rates would have to be exceptionally low and at that point only unsuccessful people might consider us anyway.”

“How about starting our own gang?”

“Ooh, how devious,” I said. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Come on, try to take it seriously,” Estelle said.

“Look, I suppose you could actually charm a bunch of people to join and work together. The problem is that we can’t trust any of them. We don’t know them and as you could see, when they have a chance to screw you over for the least bit of profit, they will take the opportunity every single time. Even with being bodyguards I have the same problem. We can’t rely on them. We have to stay on our own.”

“I get that. You dislike people and with good reason, however we aren’t doing well on our own. If a bunch of guys had our backs, we wouldn’t be ambushed so easily by Ruben.”

“Maybe, but it could just as easily turn into bigger disputes and even shoot-outs. The gangs all won their territories. They weren’t just given.” We walked in silence for a while. “Hey, maybe we can also start robbing solitary people.”

Estelle’s expression showed utter shock. “What?” The question was an exasperated whisper.

“Oh come on. That was obviously a joke.” I’m fairly certain that it is anyway. Estelle frowned at me and I just gave her a wink. We wouldn’t steal, though it might well become necessary to fight just to keep others from stealing from us. I needed to make sure we wouldn’t get ambushed again. An evil thought sprang to my mind. What would it take for her to consider doing something like that? Another failure or betrayal? It was a wicked thought and it made me feel sick. I prayed I’d never have to find out. I’d do all it takes to make it so.

A flash of light came from the clouds. I braced myself for the sound of thunder but instead of it a dull thump sounded followed a moment later by an explosion.

“Look,” Estelle pointed and gasped. A fireball was falling from the sky. “Is it the alien again?”

“I don’t know. It could be a supply drop that caught fire somehow.” The object disappeared behind the trees and nothing else came from the clouds. No lightning or hint of a coming storm. There was some sort of remnant there. A thin unmoving scar was visible between the clouds as it stayed completely still. In a moment it began fading and disappeared completely. “Quickly, let’s go. It’s close enough. If we run we should reach it before anyone else comes.” We both broke into a run without another word.

The impact left behind a scar on the ground and scorch marks were visible along the path. A small fire still burned at the object. It was obvious that it wasn’t a supply drop from Ferroviaire. I threw some dirt on the fire to put it out. The G-M counter didn’t complain too much, so neither did I and I got closer to it.

“Power armour,” Estelle said. “I’ve never seen any used in the Zone before. Except perhaps back at the train. They should have some on hand even if they don’t use them. Do you think it’s one of them Tan? Maybe something happened in Ferroviaire.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “This one looks fairly new to me. Once I saw them transporting one of the suits and it looked a lot different. Older and smaller.” I got to arm’s length of the suit. It gave a little twitch that made me jump but didn’t move any more than that. “Maybe the pilot is still alive. The suit seems broken though. Stay back a little just in case.”

“Be careful,” Estelle said.

I tapped the chest of the suit. “I’m getting you out of there. Don’t move.” I spoke loudly even though I had no idea how well someone inside would hear. The parts of armour were linked together, so I couldn’t just remove them. I dragged away one heavy arm and found a small hatch at the side of the suit. I pried it open with my knife and uncovered the emergency release latch. I looked back at Estelle and signalled to her to prepare her gun. She got ready. I pulled the hatch and a hiss of the pneumatic system. The helmet and chest plate slowly clicked open. I pulled back a little and Estelle repositioned herself to have a clear line of fire. A pained groan escaped the helmet followed by incoherent mumbles. I came closer again and opened the shell of the suit. A young man was lying inside.

“Hey, are you hurt?” I asked in a slow and clear voice. The man mumbled. It seemed that he wasn’t completely lucid. He was moving his head around, so at least it seemed that his neck wasn’t broken. I opened more of the suit and then started to drag him out of the suit.

“Wait, we have to do it carefully,” Estelle said and joined me.

“No keep watch,” I said.

“You could hurt him.”

“I’m willing to take that chance.”

“I’m not, now move to the side,” Estelle said. I frowned and saw that she was determined to get her way.

I understood it was in principle a good thing to help others, but it became very clear to me how easily people would take advantage of you and repay kindness with treachery and deceit. At best it ended with you taking a financial loss and at worst you ended up dead. Maybe making sure this person was hurt a little could prove to be an advantage to us. Not that Estelle would approve of that. Even saying that in jest might be enough to make her hate me a little.

We pulled out the man slowly and he slipped out of consciousness. After he was most of the way out it became obvious why pulling him out had been so difficult. He was wearing another mechanical suit under the power armour. The new one was more of an exoskeleton than armour though. It only came up to the waist.