The Arno River wasn't water. It was liquid smoke.
The sky above was orange, choked by the firestorm consuming Florence. Ash fell like black snow, hissing as it hit the river.
Marcus sat on a raft made of four luxury train doors lashed together with copper wire.
"Paddle!" he yelled, digging a piece of plastic debris into the water. "Keep the bow straight!"
Behind him, the refugees paddled with anything they could find—seat cushions, hubcaps, their bare hands.
"Current is picking up," Marcia shouted from the next raft. She was soaked, her Board officer's coat heavy with water.
"Good," Marcus said. "Faster current means faster exit."
He looked back.
The firestorm was a wall of heat. It roared like a jet engine. The trees on the riverbank were exploding from the thermal shock. Pop. Pop. Pop.
"Narcissus!" Marcus yelled. "Center your weight!"
The giant cyborg was floating on a massive barge of foam insulation and steel plating. He sat cross-legged in the middle, perfectly still.
"I am... trying," Narcissus rumbled. "I am heavy."
His raft groaned. Water lapped over the edges. If he shifted an inch, he would capsize. And in this river, sinking meant death.
"Look out!" Decimus screamed from the lead raft. "Debris!"
Ahead, the river narrowed.
A stone bridge had collapsed, likely from an earlier bombing run. The rubble had created a dam.
Logs, cars, and pieces of burning buildings were piled up against the stone arches.
The water churned around the blockage.
"We can't go through!" Decimus yelled. "It's solid!"
"We can't stop!" Marcus shouted back. "The current is too strong!"
They were drifting toward the jagged mess at ten miles an hour.
"Blow it!" Marcus ordered.
"With what?" Marcia asked. "We used the last of the C4 on the tunnel!"
"Grenades!" Marcus pulled a fragmentation grenade from his belt. "We jump! Plant them! Jump back!"
"That's suicide," Marcia said, already standing up.
"It's Tuesday," Marcus grinned.
As their raft neared the logjam, they leaped.
Marcus landed on a floating tree trunk. It rolled under his boots. He scrambled for balance, his nanites firing to stabilize his muscles.
Marcia landed on the roof of a half-submerged Fiat.
"Plant them deep!" Marcus yelled.
He pulled the pin on his grenade. He jammed it into a crevice between two massive logs.
Marcia did the same on the car.
"Three seconds!" Marcus screamed.
The rafts were fifty feet away. Closing fast.
"Jump!"
Marcus leaped back toward the water.
He hit the surface just as the grenades detonated.
BOOM.
Water and wood exploded into the air.
The shockwave hit him underwater. It felt like a punch to the gut.
He surfaced, gasping.
"Marcia?"
"Here!" She was clinging to a piece of driftwood ten feet away.
The explosion had done its job. The center of the dam collapsed. The logs washed away.
A gap opened up.
"Steer for the hole!" Decimus roared to the refugees.
The rafts shot through the gap. Wood scraped against metal. People screamed as the white water tossed them like toys.
Narcissus's barge hit a submerged rock. It tilted dangerously.
The giant didn't move. He simply leaned the opposite way, using his massive weight as a counter-balance.
The barge leveled out.
They cleared the rapids. The river widened again.
"Everyone count off!" Marcus yelled, climbing back onto his raft.
"All present!" Decimus reported. "Wet, but here!"
"Keep moving," Marcus said. "The fire is catching up."
He looked at the bank. The heat was intense. His skin felt tight.
Then, a sound.
Not the roar of the fire.
Music.
Violin music.
It was coming from the sky.
"Do you hear that?" Marcia asked, wringing out her hair.
"Nero," Marcus growled.
A drone descended from the smoke clouds. It was painted red and gold. A speaker was mounted on its belly.
"Row, row, row your boat..." Nero's voice sang over the screech of strings. "Gently down the stream..."
"Shoot it!" Marcus ordered.
Marcia raised her shotgun.
"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily..."
The drone dropped something.
A small black sphere. It hit the water with a splash.
Then another. And another.
Dozens of them.
"Life is but a dream," Nero whispered.
The spheres bobbed in the water. They drifted toward the rafts.
[THREAT DETECTED: INCENDIARY BUOY.]
[TRIGGER: CONTACT.]
"Mines!" Marcus yelled. "Paddle away! Don't touch them!"
The river became a minefield.
The refugees panicked. They paddled frantically, oars clashing.
One buoy drifted toward Truck Raft 3—the one carrying the wounded.
"Left! Go left!" Decimus screamed.
They couldn't turn in time.
Marcus stood up.
"Shields!"
He activated his energy barrier. A purple wall of light extended from his arm.
He leaned off the side of his raft.
The buoy hit his shield.
BOOM.
It exploded.
Not shrapnel. Napalm.
Liquid fire sprayed over the shield. The heat was blinding.
Marcus was thrown back onto the deck. His raft rocked violently.
"Marcus!" Marcia crawled to him.
"I'm fine!" Marcus coughed. "Just singed!"
His shield generator was smoking. Battery drained to 40%.
"There's too many!" Marcia pointed. The river was choked with black spheres.
"We need a plow," Marcus said.
He looked at Narcissus.
"Big guy! Front and center!"
"I am... drifting," Narcissus called back.
"Get in front!" Marcus ordered. "Use your barge as a ram!"
"It is foam!" Narcissus argued. "It will melt!"
"Better the foam than the people! Move!"
Narcissus sighed—a sound like a venting steam pipe.
He grabbed a makeshift paddle (a rusted street sign). He dug it into the water.
With massive, powerful strokes, he propelled his heavy barge to the front of the flotilla.
He hit the first mine.
BOOM.
Fire splashed over the metal plating of his raft.
He hit another.
BOOM.
He was clearing a path. The fire washed over him, blackening his chassis, but he kept paddling.
"Follow the giant!" Marcus yelled. "Stay in his wake!"
The refugees cheered.
But not everyone was cheering.
On Raft 4, a man stood up. He was screaming.
"We're going to burn!" the man yelled. "Look at him! He's on fire!"
"Sit down!" Decimus ordered.
"I'm getting off!" The man looked at the riverbank. It was on fire, trees burning like torches. "I'd rather die on land!"
He tried to jump.
The raft tipped.
Two other refugees slid toward the water.
"No!" Marcia yelled.
Narcissus turned.
He was twenty feet away.
He didn't paddle. He reached out with his left arm.
His arm extended. Hydraulics whined.
He grabbed the panic-stricken man by the scruff of his tunic. He lifted him into the air, dangling him over the black water.
The man kicked and screamed.
"Put me down!"
"The land is death," Narcissus rumbled. His voice was deep, calm, terrifying.
He pointed to the burning trees with his other hand.
"The water is life."
He dropped the man back onto the raft. Hard.
"Sit down," the giant ordered.
The man sat. He curled into a ball and wept.
The panic broke. The refugees stopped screaming and started paddling again.
"He has a way with words," Marcus muttered.
"He has a grip like a vice," Marcia corrected.
They cleared the minefield. The buoys drifted behind them, exploding harmlessly against the rocks.
The river widened. The current slowed.
"We're through," Decimus called out.
"Not yet," Marcus said.
He pointed ahead.
The city of Pisa loomed in the distance. The famous Leaning Tower was silhouetted against the firelight.
But on the water, lights were moving.
Fast lights.
Jet skis.
"Blockade," Marcus said, drawing his sword. "Nero's welcoming committee."
He stood up on the wobbling raft.
"Lock shields!" Marcus roared. "Tie the rafts together! We fight as an island!"
The refugees scrambled to lash the rafts.
"Here comes the cavalry," Marcia said, racking her shotgun.
The sound of engines grew louder. A swarm of angry hornets buzzing on the water.
"Let them come," Marcus whispered.
He looked at the firestorm raging behind them.
"We've been through hell," he said. "A little water won't kill us."