He bit his lip. “Faster.”
Before long the air cleared, showing long patches of sapphire. As the hours passed, they talked about weather, and he taught her more about flying. The sun beat down through the windows, heating up the cabin. The ground was brown in every direction. In some places, the ancient paths of rivers, now long dried up, were still visible. She saw charred patches and strange spires dotting the landscape.
“What are those?”
Gordon looked down. “Trees. Old ones. Burned a long time ago. Whole forests of them. Now they just stand there, blackened sentinels of a bygone age.”
This was what Raven had been talking about. The scorched forests.
They flew over a dense patch of dead trees, then rolling hills, brown in most places, and black from grass fires in others. Soon a giant column of ash and smoke appeared on the horizon. It billowed upward, filling the distant sky.
“Fire,” Gordon said.
“Natural or humans?”
“Don’t know. Could be natural, all this lightning we’ve been having. But it could also be the Death Riders. They burn the camps of other Badlanders. I’ve even heard that when they’re running low on food they . . .”
She looked over at him, but he didn’t finish.
“We’ll have to land soon. The fuel stop’s just on the other side of that fire.”
They flew on, veering to the right of the smoke column. She watched it tower upward as they passed. The air in the plane grew acrid and unbreathable, so she pulled out her scarf and covered her mouth.
Gordon started coughing uncontrollably.
Soon they were past the fire, and he pointed out a small runway in the distance. “Let’s just hope we can land.” He started the descent. H124 searched the ground for any sign of the Death Riders. She didn’t see any vehicles moving, nor any encampments spread out below them. Just the old runway.
Gordon steered the plane down. It jittered and shimmied, and she watched his brow wrinkle. “It’s the heat. The air is so light it makes it hard to land.” Heat waves shimmered off the broken runway, distorting the air in front of the plane. “Don’t worry. I deal with this all the time.”
She gripped the door handle as the wheels touched down with a screech. They jostled and bumped down the runway as a huge crack in the pavement loomed before them.
“What about that?” she asked, pointing forward.
“Brace yourself.”
She clutched the handle harder, and they hopped over the crack, going airborne for a moment. Then the wheels screeched home again, and the plane started to slow, rumbling down the decrepit landing field.
Gordon grinned. “Smooth as ice.”
Her knuckles had turned white on the door handle. “Real smooth.”
He taxied down the broken runway to a set of methane tanks at the end. They passed old hangars, most of them collapsed, but a few remained upright. Their walls yawned with huge, rusted holes. Each time they passed one of the erect buildings, Gordon glimpsed nervously into their darkened openings.
“What is it?”
“Just that . . .” He peered into another building, then stopped the plane in front of the methane tanks. His eyes narrowed. “I don’t see anyone.”
She gave a second look too. “Me either.”
“Let’s go.” He climbed out of the plane and hurried to the tanks. She got out as well, helping him with the bulky refueling hose. As he fitted the connector into the plane’s tank, she turned on the pump. It coughed and thrummed, then started up.
“Color me amazed!” he shouted.
“What?”
“They actually left some fuel in here for a change. Usually I have to access the underground backup tanks at this airfield.”
As they refueled, they scanned the area nervously. Then H124 realized why there was still methane in the tanks. The sudden roar of dozens of engines fired up from the top of the hill above them. Vehicles streamed down, throwing up clouds of dirt behind them. It was a trap.
“Death Riders!” Gordon cursed. “How much we got to go?”
H124 looked at the gauge. “We’re about a third full!”
“Keep going! Just get ready to run back to the plane as soon as you shut off the pump!”
She nodded, as a chilling war cry rang from the Death Riders and their vehicles.
“They’ll leave us for dead and take the plane!” Gordon shouted above the din. “How full are we?”
She looked at the gauge. “Almost half!”
“Just a little more, and we’re good!”
The vehicles roared onto the airfield, maneuvering between the old hangars. She could see spikes mounted on the backs of their cars, bolstering a series of strange spheres. The Death Riders screamed out as they stood up in massive trucks.
She looked at the gauge. A little more than half full.
The Death Riders thundered closer, now just a few hundred meters away. She could see the mounted spheres better now. Some were red and glistening, others brown-and-black. Some had slick flowing streamers attached. Then she realized that they weren’t spheres.
They were human heads.
Chapter 26
H124 watched in horror as the Death Riders drew closer, the mounted skulls on their cars dripping with gore and decay. Some heads had been skinned, revealing gleaming muscle and the white flash of bone.
“Where we at?” Gordon yelled.
“About three-fourths full!”
“Good enough! Kill the pump!”
She shut it off and made for the plane while he dumped the hose and ran to the pilot door, wrenching it open.
She buckled in as he started up the propeller, and they taxied down the runway. “Damn it!” he grumbled.
“What is it?”
“We don’t have enough room. We’re going to have to spin around.”
As he slowed the plane and pivoted it, H124 stared down the runway at the wall of approaching cars. The Death Riders howled and cheered, guns and spears thrust into the air. One of the cars was mounted with a huge gun like she’d seen in Black Canyon Camp. “Will they fire at us?”
“Probably not. They wouldn’t want to damage the plane.” He leaned forward, building up speed. But they weren’t moving fast enough. “Holy hell,” Gordon breathed. “We’ll have to hop them.”
“Hop them?” Her
