Intended Extinction (32 page)

“We can do it without her, come on,” said Vexin, telling me to equip my suppressor. I nodded and grabbed the four-inch, embossed cylinder from my lumbar pouch and screwed it to the tip of my pistol. Once we had secured our weapons, Vexin opened the door to the testing grounds.

The room before us was larger than I had imagined. Our feet stood upon a metal, grated catwalk at least thirty feet above the ground level. There were two sections to the facility, divided equally by two adjacent half-partitions. We took cover behind the south partition, having a grand view of the left section below. The catwalk system wrapped around the entire perimeter and from what I could tell, we were the only ones on top.

Crouching, we peered through the railing and found a mess of machinery and scientists. In the middle of the left section was a giant mechanized box. It stood about ten feet high and had a bunch of wires and tubes sprouting out of it, connecting to smaller boxes and attachments. Men and women in GenoTec drab, as well as those same spandex-like jumpsuits, milled about the floor, conversing, observing the machine, and jotting down copious notes. The only thing I could hear was an extremely loud buzzing noise that permeated the room.

“Do you see anything?” Vexin asked.

I broke my gaze from the scientists and started to observe the rest of the section. Beside the multitude of personnel, there just wasn’t any way to tell.

“Do you think Vane would waste his time in this room to get the door code?” he asked again.

“No,” I said frankly.

“If I were Vane,” he said, “I’d try and grab a patrol, closer to the upper level. But we need to be sure.”

Without speaking, he started to creep forward, going to get a glimpse of the other section, past the small outcrop of wall. As he rounded the corner, he motioned for me to come get a look. I followed him, not really worrying about the sound of our steps, considering the amount of commotion coming from below. We could’ve shouted if we wanted to.

“What is it?” I asked, rounding the corner, practically leaning on his shoulder. But then I saw it. Something that shot fear into my veins.

The identical section didn’t have a box-shaped machine undergoing scrutiny. Instead, surrounded by multiple scientists, stood a middle-aged man. He was naked except for a pair of black tights. His arms were outstretched, held by taut wires. He had see-through bracers that sprouted a bunch of translucent tubes. The tubes draped the floor and ran to a sophisticated mainframe. A similar see-through mantle surrounded his neck and expelled more tubes toward the computer system. Every few seconds, the tubes would shoot a red light back to the server.

“What the hell?” I said.

“Mark . . . isn’t that . . .”

“Isn’t that what?”

“That huge computer. I’ve seen it before.”

“What?”

“I can’t . . . remember where. But I’ve seen that before.”

“We’ve gotta move. I just don’t think they’d risk coming here.” Vexin’s comment bothered me to an extent. What did he mean?

We took one last glimpse at the experiment and turned to go back. The door slid upwards, but this time, someone was there to greet us. The man could barely get his confused thoughts together before Vexin pumped his torso with a few rounds of lead. The silencer made no kind of sound amidst the rattling hum. With blood staining his yellow work uniform, the Volunteer fell to the floor. Vexin dragged the body to where we were crouched and hoped that everyone would be staying on the lower floor for now.

“Celia went dark, can you guys still hear us?” asked Vexin, looking up the long shaft of stairs.

“Yeah, we’re here,” said Bollis from the other end of my ear. “We can’t reach her either. We don’t hear any alarms, so I’m guessing it’s just a bad signal. Where are you?”

“B2. No luck yet. How’s it going on your end?”

Dodge piped in. “Just dandy—we’ve almost been caught three times. But it looks like personnel is thinning out the more we climb.”

“Wait!” I exclaimed. Something was scratching in my earpiece. It sounded familiar. Someone was calling out to me. It was scrambled, but it was someone nonetheless.

“Ple—elp us!” shouted the voice.

“It sounds like—”

“Hello?!” shouted a distinguished, raspy voice. “Dodge, Bollis, Vexin? Can anyone hear me?”

“
Vane?
” I asked, flabbergasted.

“What?!” growled Vexin as the others started talking wildly. Times like these made our awkward communication link obstructive and downright annoying.

“Everyone shut up for a second!” I said, “Vane, are you there?”

“Mark, listen closely,” he said, sounding like he had just run a marathon. “I don’t have time to explain. You need to hurry.”

“Well where are you? We’re here!”

“It’s about damn time you got here!”

“Are you guys okay? Justin’s with you, right?”

“We’re fine,” he said. The audio slipped in and out of clarity.

“You still there?” I asked, my nerves splitting.

“Is everyone alive?” he asked.

“We’re all here,” I said, sighing. “Celia went dark just before you contacted us, though.”

“We’ll deal with it. Listen, Justin and I escaped and are in a small communications room on Level 5. We can’t hold this position for much longer.”

“Copy,” I said, making it so everyone heard me shoot directions.

“And Mark,” said Vane before letting us go, “Repik’s not fooling around. You might have more resistance than we anticipated.”

“We’ll handle it,” I answered, nodding to Vexin. “Can you keep this line open?”

“I’m not sure. Just
get here
.”

The stairs blurred into a shimmering mirage. Vexin and I reached the secret door in moments, punching in the code Celia had given us and sprinting through the Level 1 foyer. As Vexin led us through the stairwell door, I recalled Vane’s last caution. What was Repik thinking? If he risked being discovered, we had a whole different problem on our shoulders.

“So what did he say exactly? Are you
sure
it was him?” asked Vexin, trailing behind me as we climbed.

“You can ask him when we get there,” I responded heavily.

We kept rising, watching the numbered floors fly past us. Our bodies were machines, crafted exquisitely. My suit wicked away my sweat and automatically cooled my body. With every step, the strength in my muscles grew. I couldn’t help but feel prevailing; I could destroy GenoTec with my bare hands.

“What’s that sound?” said Vexin, stopping his ascent.

Then I heard it too: the piercing pitch of an alarm. It was turning into a wail. We doubled our pace.

“You two better hurry!” yelled an otherworldly Bollis.

The alarm reached its maximum level. An automated female voice played over and over, detailing a security breach. GenoTec must have found some fallen comrades. I wondered how much destruction the other group had done. Nevertheless, it was time to start the war. Something I was both looking forward to—sadly—and despising all at the same time. Tara might have been right; I was starting to enjoy the rush of battle.

Just as we reached the 44
th
landing, a distortion of metal boots and muffled voices came from the floor above. We watched as a group of metal-heads trampled down the stairs, still unaware of our presence. It gave us the perfect opportunity to be the first to strike.

Between Vexin’s shotgun and my confiscated rifle, we dropped four bodies before any backlash came our way. We fled down the stairs as more bullets showered our location.

Mini firefights broke out in the negative space between railings. My MLM-GR was clunky and hard to get used to again. Its rate of fire was slower than my CT-46, but packed a bigger punch. After firing blindly, I ran back to the 44
th
landing and waited until one of them broke cover. Sure enough, an armored soldier cautiously stepped onto the sub-level ledge in front of me. Two seconds later, he was meat against the wall.

As I started to advance, something clanked in front of me, sending a freezing bolt of ice through my chest.

Grenade!

“Watch out!” Vexin screamed.

I lunged down the small flight only to be whipped into the wall and pelted with millions of concrete bits. I tumbled down to Vexin’s location and he helped me to my feet. As rubble sprinkled off of my suit, rage pounded within me like a Vegas nightclub.

Vexin knelt on one knee and aimed his shotgun through the dead space. He fired a few rounds, escaping the return. They had us pinned down. If we tried moving upstairs, they would have another grenade ready, or be waiting on the ledge to pick us off. Any attempt I made to advance was shut down by a furious shrapnel scorch.

Below us, the 43
rd
floor door opened and unleashed more metal-heads. Vexin and I nailed our backs to the corner and hunkered down. The other half of our squad wouldn’t be much help two Levels ahead, most likely reunited with Justin and Vane already.

“How many grenades do you have?” asked Vexin.

“None,” I panted.

“Well, we might—”

The ledge above us shook with incredible force. Large pieces of synthetic surface material fell through the space between stairs. A cloud of smoke poured into our position.

“You didn’t think we’d leave you, did you?” a familiar voice echoed from above and within our ears.

“It’s about time!” Vexin shouted, and we rushed to meet our saviors.

“Hurry up! That was just the welcoming committee!” Bollis yelled.

We escaped a deadly reaping from the other group of soldiers, passed the charred 45
th
landing, and pursued our friends. Perched on the next ledge, Dodge discarded the husk of his RPG-88 and punched the air at our arrival.

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw Tara. However, she looked worse than I imagined. Her suit carried heavy dents and scratches, and her visor displayed a top-to-bottom crack.

“Vane better be paying us double for this,” Dodge joked, throwing his last grenade down the chute. It exploded in free-fall and plastered the walls with GenoTec Volunteers.

We climbed the next two floors without any resistance, charging in full sprint. The siren still burned our surroundings, informing the entire building of our terrorism.

Tara led our pack to the 49
th
floor just as the door in front of her whooshed open.

“Tara!” Bollis exclaimed.

She unleashed her own barrage before lunging out of the way. The rest of us doubled back.

I fired at the door keypad and damaged the module. Sparks flew and the door closed, sealed with a red light.

“Move!” I shouted.

We only reached the next sub-landing before the sealed door exploded. Tara and Dodge didn’t hesitate to continue upward, but Vexin, Bollis, and I held our ground.

“Mark!” called Bollis, “you know how to use it?” He passed me the Boomsocket from within his large pack.

Finally. The voluminous, black barrel was like the superhero action figure I had always asked Santa to bring.

“I got it!” I shouted back, gripping the Boomsocket into position. I only had seconds to aim. I could see more metal-heads than I wanted to believe, forming into the antechamber before the threshold.

“Hurry, Mark!”

I nervously pulled the trigger.

The destruction was phenomenal. The canister passed through the threshold of the 49
th
floor and decimated the antechamber, turning it into a blackened, dripping cauldron. A hole-in-one. The bloodlust inside of me grinned maliciously and I fired again, watching flames and carnage escape the mouth of the 49
th
floor. Surfaces were starting to catch fire, and Vexin scolded me back into reality. With a gorilla-like gait, I lumbered up the final steps and joined the crew, more than ready to relinquish the Boomsocket.

“Inside!” cried Bollis, ushering us into the 50
th
floor. He wasn’t particularly happy to have the heavy weapon back, either.

The room before us spanned the entire building with a ceiling as high as twenty feet. The floor consisted of a network of individual rooms, covered in foggy glass windows. A narrow corridor continued forward for another ten feet, and then split into a four-way intersection.

“Vane,” I asked, “we’ve made it. What room are you in?”

A long, unnerving pause followed.

“Maybe something happened to them,” said Vexin, ready to move forward.

I tried to answer Vexin, but was interrupted by a sneering voice coming from the ceiling. It definitely wasn’t Vane.

“Intruders. You’re making a very bad mistake. You are surrounded. You are hopeless. Your goals are fruitless. Too many good people have died at your hands today. You add to the blood that Edge has already spilt. Shame on you. I will give you one last chance to turn yourselves in. In ten minutes, I will send in another five squads. If you haven’t surrendered on the north side of the building, throwing down your weapons, I will have no other option than to take you by force. The choice is yours.”