“You and me, kid,” Diego said with a grin. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s go find some big, metal toy soldiers.” He tugged on his helmet, cranked his bike.
“Turn on your headsets!” Luke hollered, and they all took off.
Other than comfort, the problem with this mode of transportation was the distinctive, loud noise it made. Anyone could hear them coming from kilometers away—especially high-tech machine warriors, Lark presumed. Even the jeep was quieter. There was no point trying to engage in conversation with Diego over the buzz-saw whine of the motors.
They traveled along at a more relaxed pace, taking turns using the road and a parallel path through the forest. Sometimes Lark couldn’t see Diego through the trees, and she’d call to him over the headset. He was always still there.
They’d covered ground for about an hour when the forest spoke to Lark. A flock of birds took off in a rolling flush from a ridge in the distance. A doe crashed through the trees and bolted straight across the road, blowing hard, white tail flared. A few seconds behind her dashed more deer in a coordinatedretreat. Wild turkeys burst from the brush, sprinting across the broken concrete, following the same path as the deer.
Lark pulled up. “Diego,” she called. “Stop. Turn off your engine.”
“Roger.” His dirt bike’s buzz sputtered off. Silence.
Ahead, the highway curved in the direction from which the wildlife fled. Now she could hear it—feel it. Micro-vibrations rippled through the earth beneath her. Loose gravel cascaded downhill. A low pulse throbbed in her ears. The air tasted faintly bitter.
“They’re coming,” she said into the headset. “Close, probably around the bend ahead of us. Hide your bike and meet me up on that outcropping.” She pointed to a high, rocky bluff fifty meters to her right, behind a curtain of trees. From there, they wouldn’t be trampled and would have a bird’s-eye view.
“Have you got something?” Luke’s voice sounded in her ear.
“I think so. No visual yet,” Lark replied as she raced for the crest.
“Let me know the minute you do,” ordered Luke.
Lark scrambled up the rocks, glad for an abundance of hand and foot holds. If she were right, she needed to reach cover at the top before the tin army rounded the bend into sight.Can they see?she wondered.They must have eyes or sensors or something, or they’d just run into stuff, walk off a cliff.
She stood atop the escarpment, scanning the road below. A stand of thick pines and firs partially blocked her view, but now she heard the stomp of many feet. Across the road, a tree swayed when those around it didn’t. She yanked her binoculars to her eyes. A bear cub climbing the tree.
Diego pulled himself over the top. “You sure know how to pick a spot,” he grumbled. “But I think you’re right. Something unnatural is out there.”
“We need to get a good look without being detected. Wes, are you on this thing?” she called into her headset.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he said. “Heading your way, but we’re about an hour out. Going to have to cut through terrain.”
“What do you know about robots?” Lark asked as nerves pricked her gut.
“Not much.”
“Lark, Diego, stay under cover,” Skye said. “We’re coming.”
“Me too,” said Luke. “It’ll take us longer, though.”
“Roger that,” Diego called into his headset. “Do you want us to follow them?”
“Have you seen them yet?” Luke asked, strain tightening his voice.
“Just coming into view,” Lark said. A rank ten abreast marched down the broken highway in perfect synchronicity. They gleamed white and silver in the sun, each a clone of the other.
“Mother of Ruin!” Diego’s response rang in Lark’s natural ear and through the headset.
“Shh! Get down.” Crouching low on her lookout rock, Lark lifted the binoculars to her eyes. In a whisper, she uttered, “They don’t have faces.”
“That doesn’t mean they can’t see,” Wes replied. “They’ll have cameras or sensors or both. What do their weapons look like?”
“Some weird kind of futuristic gun,” Diego replied, having regained his composure. “Nothing I’ve ever seen. And I think they’re equipped with solar panels.”
“Explains how they’re powered,” Wes said.
“How many?” Luke asked.