THE BUG EATERS

They took down the truck’s canvas tarp before driving it into Lamplight. Airam needed people to see him as they entered the town so that there wouldn’t be mass panic when they saw the mech trailing behind. Rayli was also careful to keep its movements slow and predictable. Still, many people disappeared into their homes or down dark alleyways. Mechs were typically only associated with violence, destruction, and the enemy.

“This is our debut,” said Airam. “There’s no going back for me or for this town now. Everything is going to change.”

“How do you feel about it?” asked Faina.

“Good. Nervous. I think everything will turn out okay, but it’s a lot of pressure just thinking about it. The next step is to start turning in all of the favors I’ve been saving up. I’m going to need the help of a lot of people to make all of this work out just like I want it to.”

Faina jumped off the truck as it ground to a halt. The gravel-littered road crunched beneath her boots as she steadied herself. She adjusted her clothes and rolled up her sleeves to cover some of the bloodstains.

“I’ve got to take care of a few things,” she said, “then I’ll meet up with you again, okay?”

“Alright, we’ll be at The Cockroach,” Airam replied.

The Cockroach was a plain little bar frequented primarily by long-time Lamplight residents. It wasn’t the best place to find work or hire help, it didn’t have the best drinks or the best food, and it wasn’t the best place to spend a lot of cash and have a good time, but it did have loyal regulars who appreciated its relative quiet. She could assume that it would be full of people Airam grew up alongside.

Faina felt slightly jealous. Her own hometown had been destroyed when she was still a child. What was left of her family had then been bounced around various cities and towns without ever really giving her the chance to feel like she was truly from anywhere. No matter how long Airam left Lamplight for, many of the same people from his childhood would always be waiting for him when he came back. This was alien to her.

She took a swig from her canteen and gave herself a moment to appreciate her surroundings. A breeze hit her face and she felt her spirits rising. Despite everything, she was alive and in good health. She might even be okay, although she never forgot how transient that state could be. There was more unpleasantness to come yet.

Faina took it upon herself to hunt down people who knew Jazael and inform them of what had happened. Some of them responded only with sad looks and curt nods, while others wanted to talk about what had happened and check if she was okay. Despite their good intentions, each conversation was painful. The wound of grief was reopened again and again.

She couldn’t find everyone she had hoped to, maybe some of them were out of town, but the word would spread. Enough of Jazael’s friends liked to gossip and share news that it would not take long for everyone to hear he was gone. All in all, it took a few hours of her time and the sun was setting as she politely excused herself from a final round of reminiscing with an elderly man who was vastly exaggerating a game of billiards that he and Jazael had once played.

After that, she stopped by Crumb’s Dealership, which thankfully stayed open until very late most evenings. Faina entered the building to a familiar bell ring and cluttered interior. Crumb was behind the counter, again listening to the rock music of a long lost era. He looked over right away and put down his magazine before she was finished closing the door behind her.

“Ah, it’s you, I was hoping you’d show up,” Crumb rasped, smiling sympathetically as Faina approached.

“Hey, I take it you heard from Tulio already then?”

“Yeah, he told me about Jazael. It’s sad, unfortunate stuff. The desert is an unforgiving place,” he muttered.

“I miss him a lot already,” Faina said, sorrow staining her words.

“I’m going to miss him too. This dealership grew alongside him. He was always there for me, not just as a business partner, but as someone I got along with. I also can’t help but blame myself a little for what happened, seeing as I was the one who tipped you off about the wreckage. Tulio was furious with me for overselling it.”

“Don’t put all the blame on yourself. We made a poor decision while we were in the field. It was our fault that there was ever a firefight.”

“He was worried about you, you know, Tulio. He told me to tell you, if I saw you, that all the profit from today is on the shared wallet chip even though he had to haul everything in all by his lonesome. It’s in your locker at Lazyday.”

“Is Tulio there too? I hope he’s getting some rest.”

“No, I don’t think so, he seemed like he was getting ready to go out again. He bought some field supplies and refilled his canteens.”

“He’s out there all by himself?” Faina asked, and even the thought of it was giving her a headache.

“Yeah, all by himself as far as I know. He was acting calm, as he does, no tears or anything, but I can’t imagine even he would be okay deep down after losing a friend. He probably needed some alone time that this town can’t offer him,” Crumb explained.

“I think he throws himself into whatever he’s doing as a coping mechanism. He tries too hard. He’ll put himself in danger.”

“I told him to take it easy.”

“How firmly, if he still went out anyway?” Faina questioned.

“Well, I mean, not very. You can’t blame me, can you? If he makes money then I make money. It’s business.”

“Damn it,” Faina murmured. “Well, I hope he didn’t go too far at least.”

Crumb’s eyes darted to the energy knife attached to Faina’s belt, but he chose not to say anything about it. He looked back at her and appeared to be studying her for a second.

“Stay safe, Faina.”

She left the shop and walked down Copper Street to the quieter, more run-down part of town. Finding and talking to everyone had taken longer than she had expected it to, so she was slightly worried that Airam and the others would have moved on from The Cockroach. Still, they had brought a mech into town, so there was no way they would be hard to find. Every voice on the street was still talking about it.

Sure enough, she saw the mech as soon as she turned the corner leading to the bar. It was an intimidating sight. The mech stood directly outside The Cockroach’s unassuming façade, looming over the building like a threat. Rayli was still in the cockpit and was using the mech’s speakers to communicate with a group of women who were ogling at its machinery. They seemed to be incredibly excited about it, even the parts that were clearly very damaged, to the point where Faina was able to peg them very quickly as being either mechanics or engineers.

Their conversation seemed too technical for her, so she just waved at the mech and hoped Rayli would notice her. She did, and she used one of the machine’s mangled gun arms to wave back. Some of the women turned their heads as she passed.

Faina entered the bar part-way through a conversation between Airam and a man she didn’t know. They were sitting at a table with half a dozen others, including Kravitz, with another dozen crowding around to listen to their conversation. They were gracious enough to make some space for her in the circle as she approached.

“I mean, Eastern Sun ain’t so bad. Their goals align with a lotta what you’re sayin’, actually. They wanna help people,” the man was saying.

“They’re a world away. They’re on the other side of the radlands and are utterly besieged on multiple fronts. It makes them a bit of a non-factor right now. They’re too focused on staying alive as a faction and defending what they’ve got. It’s even creating a kind of siege mentality, from what I hear,” Airam explained.

“If you say so. I juss think if you’re plannin’ on actually carvin’ out territory in Daybreak, it’ll be a lot easier if ya have allies. They’re the only ones who’re likely to give you the time o’ day. They always say they believe in self-rule and all that.”

“Maybe in the future we’ll have something to talk about. Right now, we just don’t have anything to offer each other. Besides, the way they’re organized, I have no idea who I’d be supposed to contact.”

“Fair enough,” said the man, relaxing into his seat.

“What about the PLM? The People’s Liberation, urm, Militia? Movement? You know the one I mean, right?” asked someone from the standing crowd.

“Fuck the PLM!” another person replied, vitriol in his voice like they’d done him some personal wrong.

“Good cars though,” said Kravitz, “I’d love to get my hands on the wheel of a Kestrel. It’s high-performance but with a beautiful vintage design. You don’t see that often! ES on the other hand are all about buses or some shit.”

“Only the top party officials ever get issued Kestrels,” said Airam. “Also, it only takes twenty minutes to walk from one side of town to the other, so what would you need a civilian car for? That’s really not important.”

“Cars are always important! Hey, maybe we’ll expand now that we have your big fancy mech. We could build a ring road,” he smirked.

“Come on, let’s take this a little more seriously,” Airam said, noticing Faina standing in the crowd and gesturing towards her. “Someone grab a chair for my friend, Faina, she’s a hero! She helped us take down the mech!”

At this, people gasped, cheered, and patted her on the shoulder. She enjoyed a barrage of compliments that came too fast for her to discern who was saying what. Someone squeezed a seventh chair by the table and she was practically pushed into it.

As they talked, Airam workshopped some of his plans for the future. The mech would need repairs, first of all, but he had a lot more savings than most scavengers. By focusing on long excursions that took him further away from town, often into irradiated areas that others would never dare to approach, he had all but guaranteed valuable hauls. Then, thanks to being born in Lamplight, he had plenty of reliable contacts who always gave him their very best prices. He seemed confident that he would be able to get the mech’s weapons and hatch replaced while still having money to burn.

After that, he wanted to establish a kind of rapid response system. He envisioned checkpoints in a radius around Lamplight that would watch out for faction-aligned convoys and mechs. If they entered the radius, word would be communicated back to town and he or Rayli would go out to meet the threat. Using the mech and Phantom Soul together, although he held back all the specific details of his superweapon, would make them formidable in combat. Weapons and equipment from the convoys would then be used to supply a ‘Lamplight Defence Front’, and eventually the larger factions would begin to steer clear of the area as it became too inconvenient.

Airam was optimistic, but seemed open to listening to the crowd. Criticism never dampened his spirits. He would either suggest a slight change to his plan or admit that he was merely hoping for the best. He still had a recklessness about him, but Faina felt like community and compassion would keep it tempered. As he talked, his excitement increasing, Faina found herself lost in his words.

“Faina!” a new voice yelled out from behind her.

She turned her head to see Tulio staring at her with his hawk eyes, a glimmer of concern on his face.

“Tulio, are you okay?” she said.

“Forget about me, what the hell happened? You wandered off into the desert! I should have followed you, I’m sorry, I know I really should have. I wasn’t thinking straight and I regretted letting you go like that. I was worried. And now I hear you were involved in taking down a mech? How did that happen?” his voice remained calm as he spoke but his words betrayed his agitation.

“You aren't even going to believe what I’ve been up to. Pull up a seat and we’ll talk,” Faina replied.

She recounted her story to him and the eager crowd around them, starting with Jazael’s burial. The crowd consoled her about her loss and then cheered as she described their victory over the mech. An impressed punter even paid for them to drink to their heart’s content. When the story was done, talk returned to the future. People chimed in with all kinds of ideas. Some were more useful than others, but all were provided with smiles and good spirits.

Faina drank more than she had planned to, and somewhere in the noise and the warmth she stopped counting the dead and just let herself be alive and amongst the living.