Chapter 21: Crowd

Chapter 21:
Crowd

 

The Akashima stood in wait, unsure of how to deal with the black life-forms coming over the hill. Their movement was unnatural. Most were quadrupeds, but they had none of the stability associated with animals. They all seemed as if they might trip under the tidal wave of their own mass.

“IFF active scan complete,” Endo said. “It’s positive!”

“What?!”

Identification tags of the United Nations emergency forces from the operation at Novaya Zemlya were mixed in with the beasts that approached them.

Are they being run down by these animals?

“Arm Mode: Rescue! Trace their dog tags and pick them up!”

The A.I. picked a small creature out of the pack and set it on top of the giant arm.

“Error with rescue protocol! That thing’s not human! Again!” Endo commanded. But the animal on top of Akashima’s palm crumbled into white powder before the A.I. had a chance to pick up another one. Among the remains were torn bits of camo fabric that scattered in the wind.

A chill ran through the four operators of the Akashima when they recognized what their display was showing.

No!

Incessant banging on their armor brought them back to their senses.

“Maintain forward position and retreat!”

“We’re going back to the valley with the third flag! Accelerate thrusters and don’t let those things come near us!”

“But they—” the pilot hesitated, biting back the words “might have been human once.” The thought of harming or killing such creatures…

“It’s too late now!”

The animals couldn’t hit the Akashima hard enough to get through its layers of armor, of course.

But they could hear it.

They could hear the desperate sound of hundreds of feet crawling up the mech. They wanted something, but they shattered into white sand before they could make their desires known.

The chromatograph showed that the white palm prints were made of pure sodium.