Across the way, I could see the transport trucks and the drones moving on their own as they approached the warehouse from the west, like they’d taken the wide way around, skirting the top part of Sombrero hill, which contained the smoldering mayor’s residence.
“Come on,” I said, pointing toward the hill. “We’ll…we’ll come back and get everyone buried when this is all done. We can’t stay here.”
Rosita held her palm out, and her camera drone alighted on it. She reattached it to the top of her bracelet with a click. We all stood, and we continued on our way.
—
“Where’s the first transport?” Samasked as we moved to the large, empty warehouse. The enormous building hadn’t been touched by the fighting, though the air was thick with smoke.
The barn door opened as Lulu and Rosita tugged on it, and the five remaining transport trucks rumbled backward into the warehouse, all moving in a single line before spreading out side by side. There were channels here in the floor where normally the grain was dumped after the trucks were weighed. The grain would then be rerouted downward and into the train beds before it started its long journey.
Trixie 2 trotted by. She spoke with Roger’s voice:
“The first transport and the truck were both sacrificed to kill the enemy mech. We cannot afford to lose any more transports. Oliver, Oliver friends number three, twelve, and thirteen, I am standing near a hatch in the floor. Help me open it.”
Without a word, we moved to a set of four metal rings on the floor. I’d been in this building dozens of times over the years, and I’dnever noticed this. We all grabbed and pulled on the heavy metallic rings. Rosita’s camera drone flitted by our heads. After a moment of struggle, a panel groaned. We yanked, pulling it upward and over. The door itself was a square about three meters by three meters. We pulled the door up to its apex and scattered out of the way as gravity took over, crashing the door heavily to the ground, causing a flurry of dried grain and dust to swirl.
It revealed a square hole leading down into darkness.
For a moment, nothing happened as we all just dumbly stared at the hole in the floor. Then, from below, something mechanical awakened and started clanking. I saw movement in the shadows. The floor was coming up toward us. It was an industrial lift. The flatbed elevator was only about five meters down, and the gears screeched in protest as the elevator slowly approached. More dust eddied as buzzing yellow lights flickered on in the hole. The stench of old must and hot air blasted up.
The moment the lights turned on, we could see it. Standing in the center of the lift was a type of honeybee I’d never seen before. It was like a regular drone but more than three times as big. The regular drones were about the size of a large dog. This thing was the size of a gray bear.
It also had a large menacing gun mounted on its back.
“Oh, shit,” Sam said as we all scrambled back.
The platform rose all the way into the room and stopped with a screech. The robot jumped back and forth, moving in a quick, nimble manner, its movements reminiscent of those of the smaller scouts. Despite its larger size, it had only four legs, also like the scouts. It continued to hop in a circle, training its gun on us, one after another, as if it wasn’t sure where to aim.
Next to me, Sam held up his hands in an I-surrender pose. Soon, we all had our hands up.
This was a pack bot, also called a rhino. I’d heard my grandfather talk about them, but I’d never seen one in real life. It was similar tothe drones but designed mostly to help move materials from one place to another. While rhinos could be affixed with grasping claws for dexterous tasks, these things were mostly used for heavy lifting, transporting materials over rough ground, and even as mounts. The four legs could be swapped for six smaller ones or treads in some cases. These things were supposed to be enormously strong.
The large robot was painted completely black with a matte finish, whereas all the ones on our farm were silver, though a few of ours still had specks of orange, yellow, and black on their underbellies where their original high-vis paint jobs remained.
I stared at the long, sleek gun. The bot continued to hop in a circle, pointing the weapon at each of us. Each time it landed, it made a metallic thud on the platform. The quick, smooth, mechanical movements reminded me of our own honeybees, and it was terrifying to see in something so large.Clang. Clang. Clang.
The weapon was some sort of heavy-duty pulse rifle. I’d never seen one of these in real life, but I’d seen hundreds of similar weapons in movies and vids, and I’d played dozens of games with these things. The telltale blue glow was missing from the weapon, though I didn’t know if that blue glow was just something added in movies.
Trixie 2 buzzed up into the air and landed awkwardly atop the robot, in a fashion similar to what Roger would do to the scouts and drones. I’d never seen a scout do this before. The rhino immediately stopped hopping. The two bots remained frozen for about five seconds before the rhino made a familiar beep and then settled down, like a cow going to sleep. Trixie 2 buzzed up and landed on the ground, settling in front of me.
“I have taken control of the facilities,” Roger said, speaking through Trixie 2. “The recharge mechanism for the Conquistador-class pulse rifles is inaccessible, but it appears we can free it easily. I believe we now have all the supplies required to repair them if their last diagnostics are accurate. And if not, I may be able to cannibalize some of their parts. It appears most of the facilities are otherwiseintact, despite some water damage. We will now proceed to load the transports. I will have the drones unpack the UAVs, and we will utilize their capabilities for our egress.”
“What’s a UAV?” Sam asked as several of my honeybee drones stood on the elevator next to the rhino and were lowered into the facility below us. Several of the drones were missing, and I suspected the units were parked somewhere outside, keeping an eye on the four enemy mechs, since Trixie 2 was here with us.
“I think they’re like Rosita’s camera, but with a lot more range,” I said.
The drones disappeared below, and soon the elevator moved back up. Roger beckoned for us to get on the platform. We all climbed aboard, and soon we disappeared into the dusty chamber below.
Chapter 11
The civil defense bunker was a lot bigger than I had anticipated. It was a wide warehouse, almost as big as the space above it, which surprised me because a portion of the warehouse dangled over a cliff. The room was punctuated with load-bearing walls and the chutes for transporting grain to the trains, which would pull up to get filled underneath where we were standing.
“I never realized this was here,” I said.
“Me, either,” Sam said. “When you’re looking up here from the train tracks, the warehouse doesn’t look so thick. I wonder if it’s built deeper into the Sombrero?” He looked around some more. “Man, if we cleared all this stuff out, this would be a great concert venue. Imagine that? The Rhythm Mafia live from the Sombrero Bunker.”
I grunted. This hill was named the Sombrero because it looked exactly like one of the large traditional Mexican hats when you approached it from north of town. The mayor’s residence stood upon the very top of the hat, and the circular-brim part of the hill held this warehouse and a few of the factories. The northern edge of the brim was engineered into a sheer cliff so the trains could roll right underthe warehouse and get filled from above. My grandfather had been particularly proud of the design.
