Machine God: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (12 page)

“Sounds cozy.”

“Let’s talk again when they impale you before they eat you alive.”

“They do that?”

Hecto participated in the conversation.

“Who knows. There’s not a single Bulwark citizen who’s lived to tell the story. You either get killed or kidnapped to their cluster as a slave. And god knows what they do there.”

Our eyes focused back to the skewed structure of a derelict skyscraper with the bloody wall writings. I counted at least twenty floors with mostly blown-out windows and steel bars protruding from the concrete. Hecto pointed to a nearby house.

“Ceedee, I want you to deliver overwatch from there. Find a good spot where you can supervise the entire plaza and provide cover fire. Just in case."

“I’d love to.”

She shot up before he could finish his command.

He held her hand and looked worried.

“And be careful. Scavengers are one thing, Technoids are another.”

“Should I remind you of the person who saved your ass from Technoid fire many months ago?”

A faint smile etched into Hecto’s thick lips.

“I remember all too well.”

I was expecting them to make out and seal their goodbye with the wettest of all kisses, but they parted like comrades instead. Ceedee crawled through the hole and climbed the ruined building Hecto had picked.

We hunkered down and waited for her positioning up high. I don’t know how she did it, but only ten minutes later or so, Ceedee’s voice crackled over the intercom. 

“I’m in position.”

“Roger. Do you see anything?”

“Nope. All floors look clear. No activity on the plaza either.”

“Maybe they really did leave,” Darwin said. 

“I don’t like it.”

“Maybe I should sneak into the building and check for a presence.”

Another comment I made without knowing why. For some reason, some part of me wanted to play hero tonight. And instead of stopping my stupid mouth, the words kept crumbling out.

“You two stay guard here, Ceedee’s providing overwatch, and I make it through the other side undetected.”

Darwin and Hecto exchanged glances of utter confusion. They must have thought I lost my mind thanks to the sun cooking our heads.

Nothing was further from the truth.

I was just dead curious and wanted to know if the Technoids still lurked around.

Truth was, I wanted to see them.

Wanted to know why everyone was so scared of a bunch of renegade cultists.

Hecto didn’t look convinced, so I added more ammo.

“Let me check out the building from within. If its infested with a Technoid presence, let's say in the worst case scenario, I'd be the only casualty. The rest of you could retreat to the mall. But if its abandoned, well, then we head back anyways. All of us. It’s win-win.”

Darwin joined the leader’s suspicion.

“Why are you so willing to take that risk?”

“I want to make myself useful.”

It wasn't even a lie. Staying in the shadows strangled my nerves. I needed interaction. Emphasis on -action.

Hecto finally saw the logic in my plan.

“Fine. But stay in contact. I want you to update me as soon as you have intel on the enemy.”

“Sure thing.”

He snatched an EMP grenade from his belt and gave it to me.

“You know how to use it?”

“Yes, I watched it in the Basic tutorials.”

I attached the grenade to my ammo belt and saluted.

“Later, comrades.”

I targeted the house fronts near the skyscraper ruin with the smeared writings. With the 15mm Dust Viper in my hand, and the two extra mags with each 10 rounds, I snuck from cover spot to cover spot and eyed the motion sensor on my commcuff's HUD. Not a single movement showed up, but as Hecto had said earlier, the scanner couldn’t depict targets in camping position. My eyes looked over a broken window ledge and inspected the tall structure in which Ceedee took position. I scanned every floor and couldn’t see her—which meant she did a great job of blending into her environment. The target building was now only fifty meters away, but I didn’t want to cross the plaza and run into the open. That’s why I dashed across the adjacent back alley and pushed myself against the wall. Held my breath and listened to the wind brushing the sands through the streets. A creepy moment, if it hadn’t been for the scorching sunshine that bleached the ruins and ground alike. A bright yellow that hurt my eyes.

I moved on when a faint fizzz sound caught my attention. I assumed it was another wind effect, but this one carried a mechanical rang. 

The heartbeat increased.

My breath became shallow.

I hunkered down and crept back into the hole of the wall. Closed my eyes and concentrated on the noise.

Fizzz.

Faint, but ever so clear.

Breathe heavily and you would have missed it. 

But with the adrenaline rushing through my veins, my ears could pick up the slightest anomaly in the environment. I craned my neck, crawled on the rugged ground and reached the opposite wall in the forsaken lobby. My distance to the target building increased by seventy-five meters, but I had to solve this mystery first. Or was it my imagination?

“What’s the status?” Hecto said over the intercom. 

I hushed him and hovered my finger over the 15mm trigger.

Show yourself, I said.

Heard the noise increasing in volume.

Getting louder with every breath I took.

I rushed back through the hole in the wall and reached the alley. The golden light from the street glowed. Nevertheless, I walked toward it and stopped right before the corner. Glanced into windows that were still left on the opposite storefront and saw a reflection of myself with the bulky armordillo on.

My first thought was, damn, I’m looking good in this suit.

The second thought was—what’s that hovering thing ten meters above my head?

35

It wasn’t a bird, that was for sure.

Although the object came with an organic design, it seemed to be of mechanical nature. The thing blended into the environment and only became discernible when it moved. 

Like right now, pointing its feelers at me. 

Beautiful, and scary.

What was that thing?

I had to report it.

“Hecto, I found something.”

“Clarify.”

“It looks mechanical. Makes strange sounds and flies ten meters above my head.” 

The fizz sound increased, something in its form changed. Two barrel-shaped objects extracted.

Oh no.

The shots impacted the ground before me. My instincts made me roll away.

I stormed back into the forsaken lobby and sprinted across the dusted marble ground.

“I’m under fire.”

I hid around the corner, knelt and readied my 15mm. The object flew through the box-sized hole and floated sideways. Zigzagged through the lobby air and located me like a predator. 

The greeting? 

Auto-fire at my direction.

Sham.

Bam.

Triple-damn.

The energetic javelins pounded the wall space half an arm next to me and shredded the concrete. Pieces blew apart with white dust. The particles battered my face and made me cough. I scrambled for cover and took position near the closest pillar when another volley of shots blasted at my direction. They penetrated the other side of the block where I leaned against. It splintered apart.

Deafening sounds hammered my ears.

What was that thing?

Ceedee chimed in.

“Hecto, I think we’ve been spotted. I’m detecting movement in the target building, floors 5-10.”

“Shit.”

He mumbled some order over the intercom but I tuned out. The incoming fire demanded all of my attention.

I scooped around and saw the object flying at my direction. With the finger on my trigger, I took aim and unleashed three bullets. The first missed the flying robot by a finger length, the other two bounced off the armor like rubber pellets causing minimal, or no damage.

So much for the Bulwark’s little pride.

Armor-piercing up my ass.

And now Hecto shouted into the intercom.

“Rookie, where the hell are you?”

“I’m kind of busy here.”

“We’re under heavy attack. Looks like you triggered the metal freaks."

Blame it on the rookie. Thank tech Ceedee shared her progress.

“Shot delivered. Target on the fourth floor down.”

At least one of us was successful. With my pillar cover shredding to pieces, I pulled the run ’n’ gun maneuver and targeted the steel stairs to the next floor. The fizzz followed me like a shadow. The thing must have fallen in love with me.

It hovered around the corner, I hunkered down, aimed at the stairs below me and unleashed another shot. The bullet hit the thing’s center and reflected.

So useless.

My battle mode reacted and made me roll sideways. The energy shots battered the corner next to me, blasted off the pieces. One hit my cheek and brought me down. 

Crap. 

A numb pain spread through my face and demanded my attention. My head felt as if two steel pillars sandwiched it. Now on the second floor, I darted toward the nearest cover spot when the ground gave way. The rusty steel ground broke apart. I fell into the marble floor of the lobby below. Midway through the flight, I swung out my grapple gun and shot the cabled dart into the steel bars of the floor I just fell through. 

The shot connected and pulled me up.

Felt like a certain superhero who spat webs to stick to the ceiling. The flying robot floated through the hole and scanned the area. It turned its back toward me and gave me a chance of surprise. With my free hand, I pulled up a steel bar from the ceiling I clang to. When the robot hovered closer and discovered me, I attacked.

Shooting thingy, meet steel bar.

Steel bar, meet shooting thingy. 

The armodillo amplified my swing.

The hit pushed the robot thing back and caused it to readjust its aim. I wasn't going to wait. I jump-attacked the sucker with another bat and brought it down to my level. 

Hit it again.

And again.

Pieces of the robot armor burst apart, which showed me the object was vulnerable. It adjusted its cannons one more time but I raged. Shouted my lungs out and struck the object against the nearby wall with all my might. It bounced off, wobbled ‘round the ground and slipped through another hole. Its thruster must had been broken, because instead of air-breaking the fall, it plunged into the lower floor like a cranky motorbike. The robot collided with the marble ground in the lobby and splintered into pieces, breaking half of its armor plates. I looked down at the mess and smiled.

That’s what you get when you mess with the rookie.

My arms brushed the dusty sweat from my forehead, but I had no time to relax yet. My comrades were in deep trouble.

36

I stormed down the stairs, rushed over the lobby floor and returned to the plaza. Heavy gun fire exchanged between the target building and my fireteam.

“Another one down,” Ceedee said from her heightened position. 

This time, I saw it.

An armored humanoid fell from the tenth floor of the skyscraper ruin and smashed onto the plaza ground. 

Good riddance.

But more opened fire from the various floors. The energy shots rained down on the cover position of Hecto and Darwin. The blue-ish stacks penetrated the walls and blew them apart. I had to admit—it was sick technology. So much better than our bullet-based ammo.

“Ceedee, we need cover.”

“Doing my best here, Hecto, but I’m severely outgunned.”

Darwin coughed through the intercom.

“Pinned down.”

It looked bad. The Technoids unleashed volley after volley from their barricaded floors in the target building. 

They hadn’t yet detected my position, which granted me the surprise element. I flanked the building and entered one of the side exits. Watched my motion sensor which didn’t pick up movement, so I kicked open the steel door and stormed inside. 

Time for Technoid blasting.

“I’m inside the building,” I said over the connection.

Hecto shouted. 

“Goddamn it, are you planning to take them out single-handedly?”

“Do you have a better suggestion?”

The silence that followed confirmed me. A bad plan was better than no plan, and with Ceedee being the only one providing cover fire, I had to infiltrate the target building and distract the shooters, so Hecto and Darwin could come to my assistance. I rushed up the stairs with my Dust Viper ready. An armored soldier awaited me in the staircase on the third floor. He ran down from the fourth floor and had his back to my direction. When I entered his field of vision, I grabbed his rifle-holding arm, wanted to snap it off but realized he wasn’t actually holding the firearm.

It was his arm.

What?

The fully-armored Technoid used my nano-second of confusion to ram his other gloved fist into my abdomen. His hit unleashed an electric charge and brought me down. I almost rolled down the stairs but caught the railing in mid-fall.

“Silent, heretic,” he said through his helmet. The face shield looked like the grimace of a spider, or some other insect. But his scary appearance didn’t lower my battle readiness. I tried to push myself up from the ground. He followed up with a kick of his metallic boot which I caught with my arms. I twisted it around and brought the armored sucker to fall. My left fist cracked his face shield, followed up with a right jab.

And then another one.

Brute force at its best.

Punch after punch, the helmet cracked and spat shreds. The Technoid tried one last move with his rifle-arm, but I grabbed it midway and pulled it like a berserk. 

With all my strength, I yanked the armored underarm from his torso and ripped the attached rifle apart. Disgusting, but this was a life or death situation. And I wasn’t taking any chances now. 

My comrades down in the ruins were on the receiving end. I needed to distract more of these metal freaks.

My silent prayers were answered.

Two stormed 'round the corner and opened fire. With the back at the corner, I used the shield of my armodillo, but the concentrated stacks of energy ate through my armor.