Chương 120: Chapter 119 – Hodges-Bridger

No joy on the aerial recon, Airborne. Whatever it was took out the bird before we could get a good look at it. What I wouldn't give for a Predator instead of these lawn darts."

"Understand all. Thanks for the update, Major. Not sure we'll be able to bounce a signal off Tern Tower again, but we'll try." Cole unplugged the handset cable and wound it up as Alexa reconfigured Archie back into the clockwork guard dog. With the sun already below the horizon, illumination dropped fast. Roxy busied herself setting up Therza's NODs, though for Cole it felt like the sun hadn't even set yet. He approached them.

"How's it look?" he asked.

"It's amazing!" said Therza. She swung her head around, mouth open.

"I can see everything! Distance is weird, though." She held her hand out in front of the goggles, moving her palm back and forth.

"You'll get used to it," said Cole, putting her hand down.

"Don't smudge the lenses, it's a bad time." The city was incredibly quiet, after dark. The wind died at sunset, and the only remaining noise was the lapping of waves below and the idling engine of the utility truck. The rest of the squad prepared to move out, performing last minute checks and securing their gear.

"Therza, all you," said Cole. Therza checked that her hammer was clear and her sidearm was loaded. It had the same grey panel texture as Nona's new PDW, so Cole assumed it to be a drop from an automaton.

"We need to get back onto the main highway for a bit, push as far north on it as we can."

"Won't we be exposed up there?" asked Roxy.

"The automatons don't have good night sensors," said Therza. She tapped the side of her goggles.

"Certainly nothing like this. They know we're out there, but they won't shoot at us unless we're within spitting distance. It's better to be up high after dark. Trust me." Cole took point, moving back across the same makeshift foot bridge they'd used to take shelter in the building until dark. The twilight shadows of the buildings seemed to loom just a little bit higher, and he was keen for any sign of movement in the ruins. The utility truck was still stopped where they'd left it.

Therza moved up and twisted the ignition off, silencing the motor and leaving only the sound of their boots crunching across cracked asphalt.

"Besson, Howie, Nona, take the right side," said Cole. Besson headed away, vaulting over the concrete divider splitting the two sides of the highway. Howie jogged behind him while Nutmeg ranged out ahead. Cole took point on the side of the highway that they were on, with Therza just behind him. Roxy and Alexa were further back. They pushed up to the shredded bus where Howie had smoked several of the automatons. Nothing remained of them now, save for some loose wiring and metal panels, and the loot they had dropped.

Cole moved up ahead and covered the front while Roxy and Alexa siphoned up residue and sifted through the remains for anything of value." Movement in the building on our right, second floor from the top," Nona whispered into her radio. Cole crouched down behind the engine block of a car and sighted with his rifle. He caught the shift of a dark-on-dark silhouette of a humanoid form moving through the wreckage." Are you going to take it out?" she asked Cole." Negative," he whispered back.

The figure stopped, looking out over the city for a few moments, before withdrawing back into the ruined office building. Cole relaxed." I don't think it sees us. Keep moving." Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Therza came up on his side. Cole glanced over at her. She startled a little, probably at his eyes, but covered it.

"They shouldn't see us as long as we don't move too quick or start shooting. We can take this road to cut through about a third of Dark City. After that, it's impassible and we have to drop down." They continued on for another hour, weaving through alien cars and occasionally passing through a collapsed structure or across an improvised bridge. They spotted two more marksmen—one by Cole, and another by Nona using her optic. Each time they held position until the automatons patrolled away from view.

"I'll be honest, Therza. I'm not exactly feeling great up here. Blind or not, it's pretty exposed." Therza motioned Cole over to the edge of the highway and pointed down. Cole leaned over enough to peek beyond the highway. Dark shapes moved through the water, leaving ripples in their wake. Up ahead, something dark, shelled, and with slender, diaphanous wings slid off a vehicle into the water.

"We don't go down until it's dry," she said.

"They're more active in Dark City at night." Cole huffed, pulling back and continuing on.

"Monsters in the city, huh? Why do you call it that, anyway? Power is out almost everywhere in this city." Therza chuckled.

"Tam Bolton is supposed to be the one teaching province history. But if you really want to know, it was Dark City before the floods and before the automatons. It was a poor area. Lots of low-income and gov-assist housing. Drugs, violence. An alley or a service tunnel or a condemned hab went a little too long without someone's eyes and the Hodges-Bridger layer pushed through a massive manifestation. Thousands of monsters.

It was that disaster that gave the pro-Hextant council members the leverage they needed to activate the system early."

"Is that how it works?" Asked Roxy.

"Take your eyes off a place and monsters can pop out?"

"Well, it's a bit more complex than that. It has to do with the Hodges inter-soul weaves within the layer creating areas of positive and negative ethereal… wait, why do you not know this already?" She looked between the squad.

"You mentioned that your layer was weak, but…"

"Not weak. Nonexistent," said Cole "We met a scientist who told us they've only been able to generate an artificial one for the last ten years. Back before that, well, no one really knew about Lewis—er, the Hodger-Layer. Or other worlds." Therza looked at him with her mouth slightly ajar, not even bothering to correct the local name for the Lewis Field that he was absolutely certain he'd gotten wrong.

"You're joking," she said.

"You're generating your own layer? How would that even…" she put her hand to her temple.

"No. The science teacher is coming out."

"How much do you know about the science?" The Hexighast native shrugged.

"Understanding is always shifting based on new information—at least it was when scientific research was going on. I'm no scientist myself, but people have spent entire careers, lives, even, deciphering the Layer. Hodges and Bridger who made the earliest discoveries died almost fifty years ago."" Cole," whispered Alexa on the radio. She was pulling up the rear, but her separation kept her within earshot." This changes things. We need to talk."

"Excuse me, Ms. Therza, but I need to range back, make sure we're not being followed. Roxy, take point for now."

"Sure," said Therza. She smiled.

"Guess I got to teach that science class tonight after all." She leaned in and winked, " I'd offer to check the rear with you, but I think your girlfriend might bite my head off," Cole glanced up at Roxy, who was very conspicuously not looking back at Therza. He grinned back at the school teacher." Think it'd be my head in danger, ma'am." Therza held a finger to her lips and moved up adjacent to Roxy, leaning in and whispering something that made Roxy glance at Cole and whisper back. Lord help him.

Cole drifted to the rear, passing Alexa and then further still into the gloom. He keyed his mic.

"Alright, Alexa, what's up."" What Therza was just saying. The knowledge here, the people, everything. Could be a goldmine. Bricker needs to know what kind of info they're sitting on. He might offer extractions to scientists, support for survivors in exchange for research… This place is bigger than one kid. Hell we could be looking at Curahee 2. 0." Howie's voice chimed in." That would be huge."

"I'm not abandoning that kid, no matter what orders come down," hissed Roxy." Bigger than one kid or not, Elliot Werner is still our OPORD," said Cole.

"Alexa, Besson, I want you to get Archie up high and try to get a signal back. Let Bricker know that we're sitting on a treasure trove with an expiration date. But unless we get a FRAGO, we're pushing ahead." He looked to the west, past the ruined buildings and rising waters to a glow that was beginning to creep along the horizon. Something big out there was still coming for them.