Battle on the Yuba

The Battle on the Yuba
by mbots

Cassie stumbled to her feet hacking. She could hear the coughing of her companions but couldn’t see them through the swirling dust and debris. Her gun was still hot, likely overheated from the rapid fire.

“Jax!” Cassie called, “you there?”

The shifting of rubble to her left caught Cassie’s eye. Jax was laid out on his stomach covered in a layer of dust.

“Christ,” Jax coughed. He slowly got to his hands and knees. Cassie reached for Jax’s elbow and with a heave helped him stand. His face and front were a smeared mess of dirt and gore. Coughing Jax sputtered, “everyone accounted for?”

“Not sure”, Cassie was looking around her doing a quick body count. Three, six….nine. Yes there were nine others and by looks of it they were all moving. “Nine counted, not sure of wounds though.”

Jax and Cassie moved toward the nine that were slowly rising out of of the dust and rubble of the now partially caved in tunnel. They were silent except for coughing. None gave any hint of being injured or in pain. They wouldn’t have, the nine could not feel pain. At least not like Jax and Cassie could feel pain. The nine would experience pain as just a change in physical state but not as discomfort. But that didn’t mean and injury couldn’t debilitate or even kill one of the nine. As Cassie moved among the nine she counted a handful of abrasions and cuts but nothing serious. The long, lanky bodies of the nine seemed to move fluidly and without any breaks. Jax helped one of the nine to steady on their feet. He noticed this one of the nine was perhaps injured an arm. But as the nine did not feel or show pain it was hard to tell.

Jax looked into the face of this nine, trying to read if their was a problem. But their face was placid and calm as always. They made eye contact and as with any of the nine the gaze stuck. Jax felt examined, held in place by the nine’s eyes. Jax realized it was searching him for wounds. Trying to understand if Jax was hurt. He tried to convey through his eyes that he was fine. It must have worked or the nine was able to determine he was alright in some other way be cause they broke eye contact. A nine will always be the one to break eye contact first.  

The nine slowly moved around each other making eye contact one by one. “They’re checking on each other,” Jax thought. They nine move slowly most of the time but Jax knew that when need be a nine could move faster than any human. A nine had arms longer than a human’s and hands as large as small boulders. When needed a nine could use their large fists and long arms as a second set of legs to run. Gallop actually, at great speeds. Since they entered the tunnels this group of nine had been walking on fours because the ceiling was so low they would have to stoop the whole time. A nine usually were about eight feet tall when standing upright. The tunnels cave in had dusted their long white hair robes. Jax watched the nine gently brush off the dirt from each others clothes with the backs of their large hands.

“Everyone seems ok,” Cassie had moved to Jax’s side.

“That nine, its forearm seems injured.” Jax gestured with a nod to the nine he had made eye contact with.” The other nine had begun to cluster around the nine with the hurt arm, swaying their heads and humming as they nuzzled the wounded nine.

Jax wondered at how such powerful and mysterious beings could also be so simple. The nine were everything to the resistance. When Jax as 20 he enlisted in the rebellion forces. Before that he had worked in a factory assembling supplies for the front. When a bomb destroyed most of the factory he and the other residents of the settlement moved farther into the mountains settling a ridge. They managed to cultivate some crops for sustenance but the it was merely an existence of survival. A year in a company of resistance fighters came along the ridge escorting a group of nine. It was the first time Jax had seen a group of nine. He thought then that they looked something like a human but with exaggerated features. They were tall and their arms nearly touched the ground with large hands easily twice the size of a human head. They all had long white hair and kind, gentle faces. Jax’s sister had a stuffed bear she hauled all over creation. He remembered thinking that in some ways the nine faces looked like that bears face. A little flat nose, big close set eyes and a wide mouth set just below the nose and no real chin and really big ears. That group of nine had been high in the mountains when the attack forces of the invaders had tried to take them. The rebel company had only just barely made it out, losing a lot of fighters. That night as the settlement hosted a meal for the nine Jax had listened to the fighters and wondered at all they had seen and done. His own life felt very small compared. By daybreak he had spoken to the company leader and enlisted. For many, including Jax’s parents the only existence had been the war of resistance to the invaders. They knew no other life. So when Jax told them he was leaving to join the armed fighters it was accepted as if it were something they always knew would come. Eight others from the settlement also joined and the next afternoon they set out toward the nearest rebel base one valley over from the ridge.

Since then Jax had fought in 12 companies. He had only known fighting. The relentless nature of the invaders meant the resistance was always on the offensive. Given the way he had come to the resistance, Jax had always seemed to become part of companies tasked with keeping safe groups of nine. This often meant extraction of groups of nine from hostile zones and defense of outposts where they met. Over the 11 years he had fought in the resistance Jax had never stayed in one place more than a few nights. It was a life of constant movement and little rest.

This group of nine had been captured briefly by invaders. A front line company of resistance soldiers from the north had freed them. In the escape all but one had died. That was Cassie. Jax’s company had assigned him to go with Cassie to take the nine to a base deep in a river valley in the mountains while they continued on to flush out the remaining invaders.

Jax felt Cassie moving next to him, bringing him back to the present. He was so tired. Jesus he was tired. Jax turned to Casie, “the roofs caved in.”

“It won’t stop them for long. We should move.” Cassie said looking at looking behind her to the tunnel ahead.

“Jesus, you look terrible,” snorted Jax.

Cassie looked back from the tunnel and smirked, “You must be looking in a mirror asshole”.

They both laughed a little. Killing invaders was tough. It took more than bullets. It took super heated, concentrated rays of energy. Their physiology was such that the only way to kill them was to heat ‘em up and let ‘em pop. This meant splatter. In these old tunnels that splatter had nowhere to go but all over Cassie and Jax where it mixed with the dirt and rubble of the cave in, as well as their general grime of living on the road.

“Come on, let’s move. I’ll take the rear.” Cassie moved toward the cave in, gesturing to the nine to move forward. Jax hoisted his gun and adjusted the straps of his pack before moving on. He glanced back briefly to check on the nine with the hurt arm. With no expression of discomfort or pain the nine was moving forward, but on three limbs instead of four. Jax thought for a moment that it seemed like the other nine were clustered more closely to this nine.

“That’s not how they work,” he thought. “They are a whole of nine not nine individuals.” But it still seemed to him as if they were showing concern for this wounded nine.

A group of nine shares the experiences of inputs and the expression of outputs as one being. A group of nine was one consciousness. Never individuated. In fact a nine on its own would only know a piece of a thought. It took the whole to see any one thing or to understand any one idea or think thoughts. When they spoke, which was rarely, they spoke in unision.

Jax moved forward into the darkness of the tunnel ahead. The light on the sight of his gun casting only a few steps ahead.

In the rear, Cassie walked sideways, not wanting to have her back to the cave in. The invaders they had just killed had somehow snuck up on them, surprising them as they ate. She still wasn’t sure how they hadn’t heard them coming. These old mining tunnels carried the sound of even the faintest shuffle. It was unnerving how silently and quickly the invaders could move. As they walked she focused, counting each of the distinctive shuffles of the nine, the steps of Jax and her own steps. Breathing heavily she counted under her breath, “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, Jax, you”. She did this over and over as they walked.

The tunnels, old mining tunnels she thought, were hot. Sweat beaded on her brow and sometimes would trickle into her eye. If she wiped at it though it would only spread dust and gore over her skin and into her eye. So she just let it drip. Being uncomfortable and dirty was this life, how it always was. The marching, hiking, endless fighting was exhausting but sometimes Cassie thought that the constant dirtiness and feeling of discomfort were more exhausting. She had had to replace the straps on her pack with scavenged webbing. It wasn’t wide enough to make a proper strap so it always dug into her shoulders. Her right boot was bigger than her left, which meant her foot slid around more and gave her blisters. The buckle on her helmet strap had losts its cover so it was constantly getting loose. Her helmet would slide in front of her eyes if she moved too fast. These were uncomfortable annoyances that she had incorporated into her daily existence. These and being perpetually dirty, smelly and tired.

But now things were worse. Cassie’s entire company had been slaughtered. If Jax’s company hadn’t come through she would have died also. Twelve years in the fight and Cassie was starting to fray. When she had signed up at the age of 19 she was solidly committed and ready to go into battle. She had grown up in a small town that had grown up around the main base of the resistance. Her whole life she had been exposed to the strongest and most constant propaganda of the resistance. But the fighters she saw daily were never filthy and exhausted and covered in invader guts. At first, going into battle Cassie got a thrill with each kill and a jolt of energy from a win that would carry her for a couple of weeks. But not anymore. Victories weren’t victories they were just surviving. That’s all any of them were doing, surviving.

When Cassie’s company ambushed the invaders who had captured this group of nine she had jumped into battle blindly. They all had. When was the last time they had fought with strategy or even a plan? Now they were all dead. It had been Cassie’s fifth company. God, she didn’t even mourn them.

The sweat stung her eyes and her mouth was dry with dust. She just kept walking, counting, looking out. Then, bump. Cassie started. She had bumped into the nine who had stopped. Spinning Cassie raised her gun and pointed the light forward. Her breathing was fast, “what is it, what’s ahead? Why have we stopped?”

“An opening,” Jax was crouching, his guns’ light off. Cassie took one last look behind them and then moved to crouch next to Jax. The nine were in a huddle just behind them, also peering out a small opening, partially covered with rock fall and bushes.

“Twilight,” Jax said peering through the opening. The sky they could see was a gray blue. No clouds. “Alright, I’m going to go first, see how exposed we are on the outside. Give me a sixty count. I’ll report.” Jax moved toward the opening. It was wide, but short. He had nearly bend double to get through. Cassie watched him go, knowing that if anything were to attack she would not be able to save him. She just leaned back against the rock, clutching her gun and began counting to sixty.

At a count of 48 Jax popped his head back in. “Clear. Not as in a its a clearing. It’s a well hidden spot. Large boulders on all sides and dense brush. But it’s clear of enemy eyes far as I can tell.”

Cassie groaned. She hadn’t known Jax long but she had figured out fast that the guy used a lot of words to say very little. “Ok, I’m going to send the nine out now. I’ll cover from the rear.”

Cassie moved back to the group of nine and gestured for them to go out the opening. One by one the lanky creatures worked their way out of the tunnel. Last to go was the one using only three limbs. Cassie noted this and how the others waited close to the opening to assist this nine. It struck her as odd. Like they were singling this nine out. But the nine were never singular.

Cassie moved out of the tunnel and was awash with fresh mountain air. It was cool. It was crisp. It was delicious. Quickly she took in their surroundings. Steep hillside, lots of closely growing trees, large boulders, a river.

Cassie let out a long groan of relief. “Sweet wonder, a river!” She cracked what was likely her first real smile in days, maybe weeks. She looked at Jax and the nine, “a river. A river!” she was using both arms to make an emphatic gesture at the narrow water way.  “We’ll be able to get this invader goo off of us!” Cassie felt almost jolly at the idea.

Jax appreciated Cassie’s excitement, he had no desire to stay caked in dirt and guts any longer than need be. But he also felt nervous about the river. It was exposed and in this narrow canyon sound would carry far and quickly. Looking at the hillside though he only felt more anxious. It was too steep to traverse. They would need to be nearer the river in order to keep moving but that cost them cover.

At the heart of it Jax didn’t want to die. He had come to this realization a few months back while defending a resistance outpost. It was a brutal assault and the nearest Jax had ever come to outright losing a fight. In the most desperate moments, when all strategy and command were lost and it was just everyone all out Jax had seen his own truth. He didn’t want to die in battle. He had a suspicion that Cassie felt otherwise. Maybe she didn’t outright want to die in battle, but she sure expected to. He had seen how the rest of her company had fought. From the outset of the fight they had fought like his company had when they thought all hope was lost. That seemed to Jax to be a dangerous go-to style.

Cassie came toward Jax, “I know what you’re thinking. We lose cover nearer the river. But I think you know that trying to traverse this steep of a hillside will slow us down and possibly make us more noticeable.” Cassie kicked some dirt and pebbles. “We’ll dislodge enough debris that anyone with a sight will know we’re here. At least down by the water we can move from rock to rock and use the shadows to our advantage.” She looked up toward the sky, “the moon will be big, not full but nearly. It will give us light so we don’t need our scopes but also give us shadow.” Cassie looked at Jax, as if asking for confirmation.

Jax stammered, “ya. Ya, I was thinking the same.” He wasn’t, he was thinking more dire things and about his own mortality. Cassie’s assessment had surprised him. She was a competent soldier, not just a proficient fighter.

Their little group moved toward the river, being careful to step on the largest rocks so as to not dislodge to many smaller pebbles and stones. The nine, with their four long limbs and large hands and feet were better at this than Jax and Cassie, who had to do a lot more scrambling.The river was rocky, huge boulder lay surrounded by smaller fellows. This created pools connected but narrow swift moving channels.

At the water’s edge Cassie waded in without hesitation. Holding her gun aloft over her head she went in right up to her chin. The nine on the shore shuffled, dipping only their shoeless feet into the water only briefly. Jax, looked at Cassie and then the nine and then back at Cassie.

“Ah hell,” putting his gun across his shoulders Jax waded in after Cassie. It felt great. The crips water washed over his body cooling his core. He saw swirls of dirt and dried blood float away from him as he moved. He took a deep breath and holding his gun high above him dunked his head. Underwater Jax opened his eyes. Through the light green water lit by the rising moon he saw a small school of fish dart away, Cassie’s legs treading water as she moved to rinse away dirt and blood and the little swirls of sediment that this motion kicked up. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears. Jax held his breath just until his chest hurt and then kicked up, breaking the surface. Gasping and sputtering Jax let the full weight of his fatigue was over him. He wanted to be a fish, to be able to dart away to the safety of  the underside of a rock and to just exist in the cool, calm quiet of the pool. He let out a breath letting himself sink below the surface. But just as his nose went below Cassie gave him a big shove.

“What?,” he sputtered. Cassie pointed with her body toward the shore. The nine were standing close together, shoulder to shoulder staring at them. Jax blinked the water from his eyes, “Do you think they are worried about us? Does this make them nervous?”

“I have no idea,” said Cassie starting to move back toward shore. “But we should get moving all the same”.

Jax moved toward the shore just after Cassie. He had an immense curiosity about the nine. He had spent so many years protecting them and yet knew so little about…about what? The nine were so odd, so mysterious and strange. All there was to do was wonder about them. On shore the nine stayed huddled as Jax and Cassie patted themselves dry with small towels drawn from their packs. Cassie felt refreshed but also now realized that they would be scrambling up river for quite a distance. In a wet uniform she was just going to get caked in dirt all over again. “It was worth it,” she told herself. “Invader guts are worse”.

The scrambling was rugged. Balancing pack and gun while hopping from rock to rock required patience and persistence. With each hope Cassie would have to stop and adjust. This and her one size to large right boot was even a bigger issue on the boulders. Every time she would land at an angle her foot would slide in her wet boot. It didn’t take long for her skin to feel raw and sore. She was right about being wet and hiking too. It was gross. The more they moved the more she heated up. She felt soggy, sweaty and warm and her feet hurt. About two hours into their scramble along the river Cassie jumped a short distance from one rock to another. She landed on the sloping side and had to throw herself forward to keep from falling backward.

“Arrrrrrgh!” Cassie yelled, not caring who or what heard her. Ungracefully and in a huff she rolled over and scrambled to the top of the rock. There she sat, threw offer pack, tossed down her gun and began to unlace her boots.

“I can’t” she grunted as she pulled at the laces. “Wear these…” the laces had were being stubborn having not been united in so long…”stupid, useless pieces of garbage…” Cassie pulled at her right boot almost falling backwards…”anymore!” with a heave she got the second boot off. “Ugh!” she huffed and chucked the boots into the shrubs at the edge of the river.

“Fuck, I’m tired” Cassie lay back on the rock, putting her forearm over her eyes.

Jax, who had been standing on a lower boulder, eyes wide as he watched Cassie’s fit, followed her boots as they flew threw the air. Quickly he jumped the few stones to shore, retrieving the discarded boots.

“You’re going to want these at some point,” Jax approached the still prone Cassie holding the boots out. Cassie let out a long, labored sigh and sat up, reaching for the boots. Jax bent over picked up her pack and gun and laid them beside her. “Here, tie your bots to the pack”. Cassie glumly did as suggested.

At that Jax shrugged off his pack too and laid down his gun. “We should eat something and take a rest.” From his pack he pulled out two green foil ration packs. Weighing them in his hands with a mock serious face he said “Uh, no label. Could be mac n’ cheese, could be pudding.” Cassie was looking down at him, expressionless. “Err, here,” he tossed her a pack deciding she wasn’t in the mood for lightness. Jax mushed up his pack where two boulders met to make a cushion and lay back, stretching out his legs.  

“Don’t they eat?” Cassie gestured toward the nine. They were huddled on collecting of large flat boulders looking toward Jax and Cassie.

“Eat?” Jax looked from Cassie to the nine and back again. “The nine don’t eat. Or at least they don’t eat what we eat.” He was puzzled, thinking that everyone must know that.

Cassie had ripped open her ration pack and was sniffing it cautiously. She made a gagging sound and stuck out her tongue. “Fucking tuna casserole” she held the pack away from her nose as she added a bit of water from a canteen.

“Mine is taco salad,” Jax said with a pleased smile. He was shaking this pack up having put in the necessary water to hydrate the ingredients.

For a time they ate in silence. Each taking the moment to simply be. Jax looking around, liking to take in his surroundings. Cassie staring at her food and feet wanting to think about being somewhere else. After a while Jax spoke, “you should put your feet in the water. It will help with the pain and soreness.”

Cassie knew he was right. Crumpling the empty ration foil and shoving it a side pocket of her pack she crouched on her feet, scooting down the rock to where Jax was sitting. There was a small boulder where she could sit and soak her feet. The moon was high in the sky, large and silvery. It was a cloudless starry sky.

Cassie’s mind was blank with fatigue. The cool water did make her feet feel better, but everything else still hurt. She felt Jax shuffle up beside her, “Brownie bite?” He was holding out a small ration foil full of little brown nuggets. “thought we could splurge a little,” he sat beside her legs crossed looking up at the hillside and sky. She took a handful of brownie bites, knowing that while sweet and a little tasty they were nothing like a real, baked brownie. Why did she do that? Why did she always think of the better thing? She ate the bites one at a time thinking about how she had to stop comparing things to their better versions. It just made everything disappointing.

“I have some dry socks. Dirty, but dry,” Jax was looking at her. “You could wear them. It might help with the boots.”

“Ya, thanks.” She ate her last brownie bite and stood up. “We should get moving anyway.”

Standing, she looked to the shore, to the group of nine. They stood, unconcernedly in the same place as when Cassie had first stopped to pull off her boots. “What do they eat?”

“Huh? Oh, I don’t know I guess. I just know they don’t eat our stuff” Jax was getting the socks out of his pack, handing them to Cassie.

“Do you ever think,” she said pulling the socks on “that if the nine never came then the invaders would have never come?”

Jax could tell it was a rhetorical question. Of course he had thought that, everyone had thought that at some point. But it was hateful and selfish thought.

“The wisdom of the nine saved us. Without the nine we would have killed ourselves long before the invaders,” Jax said it, almost to himself. Cassie heard, but made no reply. She knew what the nine were and what they had done. But faith is hard to maintain in the face of seeming unending struggle. She finished lacing up her boots.

Jax jumped a few rocks to the where the nine stood, huddled. “We’re going to keep going now unless the nine need more rest”. The nine with the injured forearm stood in the middle of the huddle. The other nine looked at this one with what Jax thought for certain was concern. But again that felt so unlikely. The nine did not individualize.

Then to the right was the sound of falling stone and rustling bushes. One of the nine began to wave its large head back and forth humming an agitated hum. The others soon followed.

“Cassie,” Jax hissed. Noiselessly he gestured toward the sound. Cassie had heard it too and moved quickly toward the nine. Taking up defensive positions on either side of the nine Jax and Cassie flipped the power switches on their guns. The nine had stopped humming. They were all listening, intently for more sound. It was silent, silent for so long Jax had begun to think the sound had just been a small animal.

Then a crash and rush of grey and brown came out of the brush. Invader scouts, seven of them rushing at the Cassie, Jax and the nine.

“Ahhhhh!” Cassie bellowed and began firing, taking down two invaders within seconds.

Jax was slower to begin pulling his trigger but his aim was good and he took out two more before then had fully emerged from the bushes. The other three were barreling toward Cassie and Jax. Cassie was still yelling, a steady scream of rage as she blasted away blowing up rocks, bushes and dirt. It was infectious and soon Jax was also yelling. Why hadn’t he yelled like this before in a fight? It felt good to scream recklessly while aiming to kill.

The three remaining invaders lept the last bit of ground between them and Cassie took one out while it was still in the air, showering them with invader guts.

“I want you all to die!” Cassie was shouting as one of the last two invaders landed, crashing into her. Its long, claw like fingers pulled at her gun while its powerful legs kicked. They rolled and tumbled on the rocks. The nine scuttled back out of the fight. Cassie was gripping her gun with both hands, ramming it up and down into the invaders face. “Not today you piece of shit!” she yelled. Cassie managed to roll the invader off to one side giving an opening to fire her gun. She pulled the trigger at near point blank range right at the invaders stomach. It swelled red and burst.

Meanwhile opposite Jax was wrestling with the last invader. He was on the ground, invader on top of him. They were wildly kicking and punching each other. In the collision the invader had managed to kick Jax’s gun from his hands. One arm stretched to reach his just out of reach gun while the other arm punched at the invader.

“Help me!” Jax shouted, grunting as the invader got a stiff belly punch in.  

“Blast it!” Cassie was yelling and as she did she slipped in the guts and fell hard on her back. She hadn’t seen that Jax was gunless.

“You blast it!” Jax screamed just as he managed to land a disorienting blow to side of the invaders head. They were rolling now, kicking and scraping across the boulders. Once Jax wound up on top he tried to grip the invaders skull and smash it into the rock. But a wild kick by the invader sent them rolling again. “Shoot this thing! Get it off of me!”

Cassie had gotten to her feet again and was pulling her gun free of the pile of melted invader. “I’m coming!” she yelled, slipping again, landing on her ass.

Scrambling to all fours Cassie pulled her gun free and frantically wiped it down. “Work, work. Please work,” she was muttering to the gun.There was slime covering the power switch. Cassie rubbed at it frantically while looking at Jax and the invader wrestling. Flick, the power switch moved, finally. Cassie heard the hum of the guns charger. Bracing herself she fired.

Jax was unprepared for the splatter. His mouth and eyes were open and took a full hit of the exploding invader. “Fuck! Shit!” He screamed. Laying on his back Jax wiped his eyes and mouth, spitting and sputtering. “Oh man. I don’t want to do this anymore.” He got to all fours and made to stand. “Did you see that? It almost killed me!” He stood, breathless, slimy, chest heaving. “This is nuts.”

Cassie was still kneeling, gun in hand, panting. With a heave she stood and let out a puff of air to clear loose hair from her eyes. It didn’t work. The hair was too heavy with melted invader. Cassie took in the scene, checking that the nine were safe. They were huddled backs to a large boulder. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine..” All nine accounted for. And Jax, he was there too.

Cassie started to shuffle toward the jax. “I know. I can’t…” she trailed off looking again at the nine. They seemed fine, unphased almost. “At least we had the humming to tip us off that were invaders.” Cassie said it but a bitter unsaid thought is what she really meant. “Ridiculous… Useless…for all this trouble why can’t the nine actually play a part in their own survival?” She shook the thought from her mind quickly. It was an unhelpful and spiteful thought.

Cassie went to her pack, picking it up she said, “we should keep moving. Those scouts were sent from somewhere and when they don’t report back we’ll have a bigger invader problem on our hands.”

Jax heaved a sigh and bent down for his own pack. “Ya, let’s get going.”