Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
6

When Arthur woke up Kay was already preparing breakfast. Furthermore he had driven one harvester out of the row and parked it near the gate. Arthur looked skeptically at the clumsy machine – it had a drum tiller in front of it, four huge wheels and an automatic packer behind. There was no hull as such; all the parts were clearly visible. The cabin that protruded on its thin supports looked like anything but reliable.
“I wouldn’t call this a good idea” noted Arthur while taking his ration.
“There wasn’t anything better…” Kay looked critically at the wheels. “Speed is up to forty five kilometers per hour and this is in the harvesting mode. Its charge is nearly full. How was your sleep?”
“Like at home.”
“And I got cold. There must have been something wrong with the climate controller.”
They finished their breakfast and threw the bag with the remaining cans into the cabin. Kay handed the laser rifle to Arthur, a nickel plated device with a cumbersome side magazine, and ordered:
“Get in the cabin.”
From the glass bubble Arthur watched as Kay opened the gates. He stood for a while and said in a loud voice:
“Would you look at this beauty? The rain is over and the dew has fallen… The arrish will muck up I’m afraid, sonny!”
“Kay, I asked you not to call me ‘sonny’!”
“All right, sonnie.” Kay said while climbing into the cabin. “It’s time for some thrashing, right? Move over.”
His eyes glistened with excitement. Arthur got out from the seat in perplexity and sat on the cabin floor. Kay put his hands on the levers.
“Watch and learn. There’s no such thing as useless skill.”
The harvester roared and rolled out of the hangar splashing the dirt around. Kay laughed. The thorny cereals were stretching up to the horizon.
“The/That bread has been standing for too long, wouldn’t you say?”
“This is not wheat, Kay.”
“I know, Arthur,” Kay’s face had lost its foolish expression for a moment. “Fever, euphoria… then there will be hallucinations. It’s the doom-virus/doom virus. Let’s go!”
The tiller made a howling sound as it lowered to the ground. The harvester drove through the fence and rolled across the field. The packer started champing as it was throwing out the plastic packs with pressed grass behind them.
“How much time do you have?” asked Arthur quietly.
“About three hours. Then there will be a period of unmotivated aggression and then the heart stops. I will try to make it, kid.”
They were going in silence for almost an hour. Arthur was looking through the window holding the rifle on his knees. Kay was singing frivolous songs. After a while Kay asked:
“What did they want?”
“Who?”
“Those people… riding horses… wearing hats with blue stars on them…”
“I didn’t see anyone…” answered Arthur averting his eyes.
“Ah… If I call you Leshka then shoot. Okay?”
“I promise I will.”
Sometimes Arthur saw pillars of smoke in the distance… Sometimes Kay steered around something or in pursuit of something invisible. Arthur didn’t say anything.
Then there was an attempt to stop them. A small bunch of armed men, probably the same that they had encountered near the exit, opened fire at the harvester.
“A hailstorm.” noted Kay dryly. Arthur never understood whether he was joking or he didn’t perceive reality already. The harvester veered and headed into the crowd. Arthur half opened the door and began shooting the rifle – it had a remarkable rate of fire and a sizable magazine.
“No foul weather will stop me from harvesting my last crops.” declared Kay when bullets started tapping against the cabin. The glass pretended to be bulletproof – it got covered with cracks but didn’t yield. Kay had finished his harvest to the end and then returned to his former course. The plastic bags were all used up and some monstrous cannibal stuffing of flesh mixed with grass was pouring out from behind the harvester.
“It is very indicative that you don’t even get sick.” noted Kay while casting quick glances at Arthur. “Your daddy deserves killing but it’s impossible unfortunately.”
Arthur didn’t understand.
They scudded along the suburbs of Kitezh past a wooden church that was in flames, past houses that were ruined by artillery fire and past monuments that were carefully covered with protective casings. The monuments were numerous.
“A nation that doesn’t remember its past is doomed.” Kay commented this fact. “Thus our nation is immortal.”
When towers of the spaceport appeared ahead Kay asked in a dull voice:
“Shall we fly over the river, what do you think?”
“Let’s go.” agreed Arthur looking at the approaching highway. They crossed the highway and drove towards an iridescent force field barrier. A couple of combat vehicles of the imperial infantry idly rolled out of the gates and turned their turrets in their direction/toward the harvester.
“We’ll die together Leshka” said Kay squinting “things could turn/could have turned out better, right?”
Arthur took his stunner and carefully fired at Kay’s temple. Then he dragged the numb body from the seat and stopped the harvester. It was more difficult to find the controls for the tiller. The soldiers didn’t approach until Arthur had stopped it.
Curtis junior jumped from the harvester and ran towards the guards. He was only twelve so they didn’t shoot.
“Help my dad!” shouted Arthur. “Help, he has the doom-fever/doom fever, I had to stun him! Help, we’ll pay! We are from Endoria, the home planet of the Emperor! Help!”
He cried too naturally and the lieutenant of the Imperial military had children too. The lieutenant nodded to his soldiers and two of them having lowered their visors headed towards the dented up with bullets and blood stained harvester.