Machine God: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (13 page)

No way.

The plates melted apart and vomited sparks. The heat increased. So I rolled sideways, opened blind fire into the corridor and reloaded the Viper with a new set of bolts. 

One more mag to go.

Just like with the robot floater, the shots bounced off the hostile's armor. Either the Technoid soldiers stood outside the Viper's effective range, or the bolts were plain useless.

The incoming fire battered my cover. 

In the split-second of a blink, I shot up, gauged the enemy position and unleashed burst-fire bolts at the left Technoid's head. The projectiles pierced his insectoid face shield and blew it apart. The hostile staggered before he collapsed with a shiver.

The second Technoid seemed to call for backup and lay down a volley of fire. During the reloading phase, I ran from my cover and bolted shots that missed the target's head by an inch. So much for my trust-worthy ammo.

I barely avoided his next round of energetic javelins.

But with Technoid's current position, an idea sprang to mind. I discharged the dart of my grapple gun into the rifle arm of the hostile and pulled the sucker toward me. Aided by the power of my armordillo suit, the heavy-armored soldier flew toward my direction and received a right uppercut as a welcome.

My gloved hand grabbed the soldier, rammed him into the nearby wall till pieces flew. The Technoid spoke with a high-octave, digital voice.

"You can't kill me. My legacy's uploaded to the machine god.”

I twisted the soldier's helmet 180 degrees and sent him into eternal slumber instead.

“Three down, not sure how many more to go.”

“You’re a beast,” Ceedee said over the com.

“Wait till you see me in bed.”

Yikes. I wished I could rewind the moment and slash out the sentence, but with my body high on adrenaline, the brain took a step back and let the primal power shine through. I ran up the stairs and entered the eighth floor where the majority of the shooting originated from. Found one Technoid body on the ground, probably taken down by Ceedee and her high caliber sniper rifle. 

My senses stayed sharp.

Eyes locked on the motion sensor.

“I think we killed them all,” I said over the com.

“Suppressive fire has stopped as well,” Darwin said. 

“Stay vigilant,” Hecto said, “Technoids are tricky bastards.”

Unfortunately, he was right.

Again.

The air around me heated up. I detected an anomaly which sizzled my surface.

What the—

A strange noise emanated from the nearby room.

No.

I jumped sideways and avoided the beam blasting through the wall. The glowing particle ray melted the hull with a boulder-sized hole.

Energy weapons sucked.

These Technoids owned a technology I had never seen before, but this wasn’t the moment to stand back in awe. I took cover and slipped from spot to spot, looking for the shooter.

Where art thou?

My motion sensor picked up movement five rooms across the floor.

I stumbled over the rubble on the ground and felt the new ray strafing my ribcage. The shot felt like a scorching blade slicing my rear. I screamed and covered my wound, but tried to fight the urge to cringe. This was a death moment, and I didn’t want to go down without taking the enemy with me. I ground my teeth, sprinted through the opened wall and spotted the shooter three wall holes down the floor. He carried a heavy armor that wrapped his body like the shell of an insect. Inside his carapace arms throned the energy weapon—it looked like an elongated sniper rifle with a squared barrel. 

The shooter took a pause every time he unleashed a shot, which meant the energy weapon succumbed to some kind of reloading time. When I barely evaded the next beam, I primed the only EMP grenade Hector had given me. I jumped through the next wall hole, rolled on the ground and threw the grenade. The cylinder-shaped device flew through the wall holes in a ballistic curve and detonated in the shooter’s room. He leaped aside when the electro-blast sparkled the air and devoured him with a thunder hug. Sparks flew from the chinks in his armor, causing him to shake uncontrollably. I had no idea whether the EMP would stun or kill him. Ignoring the biting pain, I staggered forward to his position with the grapple gun raised. 

When I reached his room, the Technoid fell to his knees and hit the dank concrete with his face shield first. I stepped closer to him but kept a meter distance. He rolled around in slow-mo and turned his face shield at my direction. I saw my reflection in his dark visor, pointing the gun at him. I should have paid more attention to his left hand with the primed disc device.

“For the machine god.”

Damn.

The grenade in his hand exploded. I barely reached the floor when the sonic shockwave blew me over the ground. With no wall-sized windows to stop my fall, I jerked through the air of the eighth floor and plunged into the abyss. In mid-flight, my left hand took out the grapple gun and aimed it at the protruding steel pillar from the facade. The dart attached to the surface, wound up the cable connected to my grapple gun and pulled me up. With one swing, I landed on top of the steel pillar and tried not to look down the seven floors below, where the vast plaza lingered, and the few Technoid corpses that Ceedee had sniped. 

“What the hell are you doing up there?”

Good old Hecto.

Shouting at me while he enjoyed his safety on the ground floor of the opposite building.

“Doing pushups on a steel bar.” 

“Shove your jokes and tell me the status.”

Voices echoed from the eighth floor, but these didn’t sound like Technoid war screams.

“Hold on, Hecto.”

I took a deep breath, climbed over the steel bar and swayed back inside the floor hall. Touched ground with my boots and released a sigh of satisfaction.

More action than the doctor recommended. 

The adrenaline in my body kept me anxious.

When I cleared the area, I updated my status.

“I took down five Technoids. One of them carried superior armor and some kind of energy-beam rifle that penetrated four walls in a row.”

“What about the prisoners?”

Ah, yeah. Forgot about them. Tended to happen when mechanized freaks and flying robots wanted to fry my body around every corner.

“I can’t find them, yet. Let me check.”

“Roger. We’re joining your position.”

Now, when it was sound and safe. 

Thanks to me.

A high-pitch sound reverberated through the floor.

I jumped to the nearest cover spot and rotated around. A young man with dirty clothes stared at my direction. He looked afraid and curious at the same time.

“Are they gone?”

The smile returned to my face.

“Hecto.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve found the survivors.”

37

All of them.

Huddled in a nearby room, a makeshift prison with rods rammed into the ground. 

The survivors were treated like stray animals, pushed into the corners, resting on their knees.

Begging to be freed.

By me.

I counted twelve in total, mostly young adults in decent shape. With my last strength, I pulled the bars out and liberated the folks. Retreated the grapple gun back into the side holster of my torn-apart armodillo and raised my hands, palms pointed at the survivors.

“Don’t worry, I come in peace.”

“What about the Technoids?,” a brunette woman said from the back of the room. She wore glasses, a pony-tail and some kind of vest. Very geeky. 

“I…we killed them all.”

A wave of satisfaction washed over everyone’s faces. As if someone vacuumed the tension. 

“What ever these bastards did to you, you’re safe now.”

The brunette with the curly hair spoke again. Fierceness oozed with her every word.

“Who are you?”

“I’m a soldier from the Bulwark Cluster.”

She narrowed her eyes which showed me she had heard of it. My senses caught the slightest micro-gestures.

“Are you going to enslave us?”

For some reason, I expected such a reaction. 

“Actually, we’re here because your friends and family in the abandoned mall sent us. We promised them to bring you back.”

The brunette finally disarmed her voice.

“How are they? How’s Nathan?”

“They’re fine. Madly worried about you, but alive. One of our guys is with them.”

“Rookie?”

Hecto’s deep voice roared along the floor. The people in the room flinched. If I hadn’t known better, I would have cringed as well. That voice could shake grounds.

“Don’t worry. They’re from my team.”

The big man and Darwin entered the room with their firearms ready. Quite an entrance. And no sign of Ceedee yet.

“Are these all of the survivors?” Hecto said, his sight set on me.

“Yes, I think so.”

The big guy’s voice pressed on.

“We have to hurry. It looks like this was just a Technoid recon squad. With the communication dead, they’re soon going to send back-up, and then we’re facing an all-assault urban war.”

“How do you know?”

“We’ve dealt with Technoids before.”

Now Darwin added his wisdom.

“They send small dispatches to comb the abandoned cities, looking for survivors. When they find them, they set up a protected space within a guarded building and wait for the backup.”

More than I needed to know for now. Every single wasted minute in this skyscraper ruin would mean more enemy contact soon.

I turned back to the survivors and focused on the brunette with the glasses. She seemed to carry the most gravitas.

“Please, grab your belongings and come with us. We bring you back to your folks in the mall.”

The brunette nodded and motioned everyone to follow her. Me, Hecto, Darwin and all the survivors lined up and ran down the stairs. Hecto led the pack, Darwin protected our rear, in case another Technoid lurked in the area, which was unlikely. My motion sensors remained still.

When we reached the ground floor, my curiosity burned. I tapped Hecto’s shoulder and asked,

“What about Ceedee?”

38

“It’s looking bad,” Hecto said.

Ceedee cringed in a hidden spot in the opposite building, next to a wall. When she saw me, Ceedee offered her warmest smile while covering the top of her left arm.

“The Technoid with the pulsar rifle got me.”

A flesh wound with the diameter of a can pierced her shoulder. Burned right through the armordillo and the flesh, but hopefully not through the bones.

What a terrible weapon.

What powerful impact.

My mouth formed, but I couldn’t find the right words. Ceedee’s eyes became teary, I could only guess the pain she was going through. 

“I’ll manage, but I’m not gonna lie, it hurts like hell.”

“Looks like it. Let me carry you.”

“No,” Hecto said.

“You’re wounded as well. I’ll carry her, you’ll guard the group’s rear, Darwin takes charge.”

He was right, I totally forgot about my wound. The testosterone and adrenaline in my body had lowered the ache.

“Okay.”

We followed Hecto's orders and jetted all the way back to the hideout in the mall. The survivors rejoined and drowned the air with laughter and tears. The brunette hugged white-bearded Nathan and shed tears. She was his daughter after all. Glitch stood up from his seat and looked at us with an O-shaped mouth.

“What the hex happened to you guys?”

“Technoids,” I said.

He needed no further explanation. Hecto carried our wounded Ceedee and sank his glance.

“I should stayed with the team. You needed an extra marksman.”

“It’s too late for that,” Hecto said, “let’s get rolling. We’ll return to the APC and head back to the cluster before the Technoid’s backup arrives. I already called HQ and ordered a new transporter for the survivors. In less than an hour, we’ll have left this dust hole.”

The survivors chatted each other up and enjoyed being united again. It was a heartwarming moment that made me teary. Even in the Lost Lands, the longing for a better world existed. 

“Have they decided to join the Bulwark?”

“Nathan promised it us.”

“You promise a lot when your daughter’s life is on the line. Let me talk to them. You worry about Ceedee and let me handle it.”

Hecto grumbled. His favorite expression when around me.

“You keep forgetting that I’m the captain. I was appointed by the Bulwark.”

“I get it, but I think I know how to talk to these people. They seem to trust me, I feel it with every fiber of my body.”

“You seem to make a lot of decisions based on feelings.”

“So far, they turned out to be right.”

Hecto didn’t want me to take charge of this conversation, but with Ceedee moaning from her wounds, his priorities shifted as he provided first-aid with his medpack.

“Just this once.”

“Right.”

I thanked him in silence, wiped my hands and faced the survivors that stood around like statues waiting to get picked up. Each one looked at me with eyes that wanted answers. 

“I know you are suspicious of us, and you have every right to be. But you have also witnessed how horrible these Technoids are. They’ve taken your loved ones and slaughtered those they didn’t need.”

Nothing new on that front. The brunette stepped up.

“And what makes you different from them? Aren’t soldiers from the Bulwark Cluster browsing through the abandoned cities for survivors as well?”

Relevant question. The survivors around here perked their ears and waited for my justification. I tried my best. 

“Listen. Bulwark is far from perfect. It’s a rigid society with many rules, stiff authority and an architecture that makes ruins look like sommersville. But they provide shelter, food and safety—if you contribute to the community.”

I could hear Darwin and Glitch coughing behind my back. Surely I was going against protocol here, but the Bulwark’s propaganda wasn’t going to sway anyone in this room. My eyes connected with Nathan and his daughter who seemed to enjoy the most trust in the group.