Everyone can be a traitor if they’re pushed too hard. This was the first lesson that Angie was ever taught. She remembered the knife like it was yesterday, slowly sliding through her ribs. It wasn’t the first time she’d been stabbed, and she known even then that it wouldn’t’ be the last. But it was the first time someone she’d trusted had done it. Rough lesson for an eight-year-old, but in what’s left of the world, that lesson is all the more necessary.
Since that betrayal, she’d earned many more scars, but they didn’t mean near as much to her as that one. Surveying the remnants of the city below her, stretching out across the sea, buildings bursting out from beneath, she took a deep breath. She unconsciously winced. Even still, she could feel the spot where the blade had hit, whenever the salty air entered her lungs. Bending down, Angie turned on her small radio set. “Dipstick, this is Bigbird, do you copy? Over.”
There was a brief moment of near silence. She listened as the waves crashed against the building below her. Then, after only a few seconds, the radio burst back to life. “Bigturd, my handle is Divekit. How is that hard to remember? Over.”
Angie chuckled. She’d been working with Luis for a few months now on these dives and found the joy in the little things. “Whatever you say, Deeplick. You found the rig yet? Over.”
“Nope, Buggered,” he replied over the radio, “I’m at the intersection, but things have shifted some over the years. You got any helpful advice? Over.”
Angie thought a moment. “Don’t drown? I don’t know. You’re supposed to deal with the underwater parts. I don’t do swimming. Over.”
“You really should learn, someday. I got time?” Luis asked over the radio, “Over.”
Angie was about to answer him when she noticed a flash across the ruined city. Some lights. Quickly flipping out her binoculars, she gazed over at the spot. A patrol boat. Green lights flashing irregularly. They were signalling someone. Or something. She quickly pressed down the button. “You’ve got a few, not as much as we’d hope. Greenies are moving in. Over.”
“Crap,” was the only response she heard for what felt like an eternity. Fifteen seconds later, Luis finished. “Hold them off as long as you can. I’ll signal for Testrun to meet up with us. Over.”
Angie chuckled. Right, she thought, hold up a Greenie patrol. Fortunately, this job in particular was paying enough for dealing with one patrol boat. Just enough for one, though. She opened up her bag and pulled out the briefcase within. Opening that as well, the quickly assembled a makeshift grenade launcher. The radio came alive once again. “Bigbird, Divekit, this is Testrun. Coming in low and hot. Tee minus fifteen. Over.”
“Low and hot?” Luis replied, “That’s just like you like it, right Beefherd? Over.”
“You better be joking around because you already found the rig, Ducklit, else I’ll let the Greenies kill you, then die myself just so I can kill you again. Over,” Angie shot back. She kneeled down, propping the gun up against the wall and taking careful aim.
“Going dark. Over,” Luis replied. He knew the situation, and he knew that Angie would be busy for the next fifteen minutes.
Angie took a deep breath in and checked the air. She needed to make sure everything was right, or else this wouldn’t do a damned thing. Then, she breathed out, the all of the air once inside her leaving. Holding that out, she readjusted the aim of the grenade launcher, and fired. Kerchunk. The sound of the grenade leaving the launcher was barely noticeable, even to her. Launched by highly compressed air, it was designed to be mostly silent, so the firer wouldn’t’ have to change position with each shot. Then she waited. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. A building near the greenies’ current position went alight. The firecracker grenade that had entered it’s tenth story window went alight, looking like a hail of machinegun fire coming from within. She let a grin creep onto her face, then quickly shut it back down.
Switching back to her binoculars, she checked the boat. They were stopping to check out the gunfire. Good. She didn’t have the equipment to take on a greenie patrol. Not here, not now. And if the Greenies came I in force down on them, she wasn’t sure any settlement had the equipment. Except maybe the Triangle. What she could do, though, was keep them distracted. The building she’d fired at had seven floors above sea level, fourteen floors in all. They’d have to check all of those floors before proceeding, just in case. That was their operations manual. Knowing Greenie operations and Goar standard procedures was her basic job. That, and stopping any other scavs from taking their jobs. Anyone with a gun could do that, though. Most dive crews fail when they run into Greenies or Goars, depending on where they’re diving. That’s why the best divers hire people like her, people who know things. Taking a deep breath and feeling that pang in her side, Angie returned the launcher to her Go-Bag, and pulled out her normal semi-automatic rifle. Just because she wasn’t dumb enough to try killing a Greenie patrol didn’t mean that guns weren’t useful for other reasons. She pressed down the button. “This is Bigbird. Patrol out of play for approximately eleven minutes. Heading down to await pickup. Good luck and see you in a few. Over and out.”
Taking up the radio equipment under one arm, the rifle in the other, and slinging the back over her shoulder, Angie began to descend the nearly ruined stairs back to sea level, the platform where Diane had dropped them off. Captains willing to ferry divers to and from hotzones were a dime a dozen, but from what she’d heard, Diane was fairly dependable. More importantly to them for this job, she was one of the few who didn’t charge on scale. She asked the same amount, upfront, solely dependant upon the riskiness of where she was taking ‘her baby’. And given how much they were getting from this job, Luis had figured it would be better to pay a bit more than they normally would in advance than split the haul with another person. Angie wanted nothing more than to get out of Horizon City, so she was glad that there was more money on the table for her.
Between the twelfth and eleventh floors, she barely caught herself before tumbling down the vast emptiness before her. The stone stairs that had been there when she was going up were present no longer. Looking down, she could see the crumbled stone below, having crashed through the next flight and smashed across the one below that. She leaned back against the wall and couldn’t help but laugh. What an odd turn of events it would have been, to have survived that long, survived everything she’d been through, only to die of falling down some stairs. Even laughing surrounded by this ocean air caused a stinging in her wound. With a sigh, she straightened herself back up and looked around. She’d could probably survive the fall if she was ready for it, she surmised, but best not to tempt fate. Gripping the railing that was nailed to the wall beside her, Angie let her body hang out over the edge of the stairs, and slowly her hands slid along the rail. Right, then left, working their way across the gap. She focused her eyes on the stones in front of them, not daring to look down. She knew what awaited her below, she didn’t need to actually see it. Finally, as her arms were beginning to burn slightly at holding up her body, her side hit cool stone. She smiled and clambered up onto the stairs once again, taking another refreshing but stinging breath. After walking to the next gap in the stairs, she measured it in her mind. The gap down here was smaller than above. More manageable. This time Angie simply took a small leap across, landing on the other side, one foot at eth first step, the other two down, and a hand on the railing between the two. Stretching her neck, she finished her trip down the stairs.
On the eighth floor, at the small balcony she’d used as a makeshift dock when they were dropped off, Angie sat down and set back up the radio equipment, turning back on the handheld generator. Taking a breath and feeling it in her lungs, she pressed the call button. “Divekit, Testrun, this is Bigbird. I’m out of the nest and ready for fishing. What’s our ETA? Over.”
The radio crackled to life as she finished speaking. “Bigbird, this is Testrun. If you’ll look behind you, you can spot me speeding at the dock. Over.”
Turning her head, she saw the small speedboat with the far-too-big engine hurtling towards her. She smirked at where she knew the wheel was and gave Diane a nod. Then, turning back to the radio, she asked, “What about you, Debtkiss? Over.”
There was half of a minute of silence. The engine’s roar began growing louder. Then, through the radio, Angie heard, “Beachlard, please shut up. This damnedable rig is heavy. Over.” Angie chuckled as Diane pulled up beside her.
Diane looked up at the chuckling woman. “Get in,” she said, her face completely serious.
Angie hopped down the half story into the boat. “Good to see you, Diane,” she said, seating herself in the back, so that when Luis surfaced, she could help him drag the rig onto the boat.
“We’re on a job, Bigbird. Refer to me as Testrun, please.” Diane’s voice wasn’t unhappy, but it was still harsh.
Diane, like Angie, knew about the pains and problems of this world. Angie saw that in the captain’s eyes when they first met. Instead of deflecting that knowledge with humor like Luis or embracing that pain like Angie, Diane blocked everything that might cause it from her mind. Angie didn’t agree with that, but she accepted it. Everyone deals with life in their own ways, she supposed. She turned out into the water.
Mere moments after she turned, out in the open water, near the center of what used to be an eight-lane highway, Luis’s head bobbed up over the surface. They could hear the Greenie boat’s engine roar back to life just miles away. Using only the small, underwater motors, Diane maneuverer the boat out to meet the man. Diane went over to the right side of the boat and held out a hand for Luis. Luis took that hand and lifted himself into the boat, a rope stringing from his diving harness down into the water. Angie and Luis both grabbed the rope and pulled. The rig began to move up out of the water. As he was pulling, Luis turned and smirked at Angie. “Cutting it a little close, aren’t we?” he joked.
Angie groaned, partially at Luis’s terrible attempt at humor, and partially because it felt like they were trying to lift a car. “It’s. Not. My. Fault. There. Wasn’t. A. Taller. Building. Near. The. Patrol.” Each word was preceded and followed by a heaving of the rig up. As she finished the sentence, the last heave brought the large box up onto the speedboat. Turning to Diane, she said, “Alright, let’s get out of here.”
Diane used the underwater motors to turn the boat in the direction of Horizon. The light from the approaching Greenie patrol flashed through the nearby buildings. They were less then a block away. Luis whispered half-heartedly, “Sorry.” As Angie turned to looked confused at the man, he shoved her out into the water.
She began flailing, trying to keep afloat. Her bag was weighing her down too much, but she didn’t want to lose that. Luis shook his head at her. “I need a distraction, and you’re more useful flailing and dying in the water than drawing the Greenies to Horizon.” Then, with a shrug and a smirk, he added, “And now I get to keep all the cash from the job. Told you you should’ve learned how to swim.”
The speedboat’s engine roared to life. Fury at the betrayal filled her every pore. She breathed in the sea air, letting the pain tear into her. She saw the Greenie patrol boat break into her part of this sealogged ruined city. She gave in, letting the bag pull her under the waves. Holding her breath, she began to swim for the ten-story building one block over. She’d seen it on the way in. Mostly metal, so it would serve her fine as a jumping off point. Her breaststroke was flawless as she pushed herself over to a sixth story window and pulled herself inside. Her head broke water as she entered the stairs up, and she took another deep breath. Climbing onto the metal landing of the building, she laid out her equipment, to clean it and check for damages. In the back of her mind, she halfway hoped that Luis would escape that Greenie patrol. That would make it much more satisfying when she found him and put a bullet in his head.