Psion Alpha (55 page)

Sammy nodded and handed
out the rest of the guns. Nikotai had two, Jeffie had two, Sammy had one. All
were semi-automatic handguns. Once he was sure everyone was ready, Sammy led
them to the door, trying not to worry about how tired his legs felt and how
unsteady Nikotai looked. The door to the outside of the facility was down the
hall to the left, around the corner, and halfway down the next hall—only a
quarter of the way around the building. Sammy tried to think positive thoughts
as he rested his fingers on the door handle.

Please, God, help us
get out of here without problems. Maybe things can go smoothly just this once?

He cracked open the
door and peeked out. The hallway was empty and quiet.
The Thirteens will be
awake by now.
That was what Trapper had said.
If that’s true, why can’t
I hear them?
He gradually widened the space so he could stick his head out
and peer in the opposite direction. Empty. Using one hand on the wall to steady
himself, he crept out the door and into the corridor.

Nikotai and Jeffie
followed. Jeffie stayed in the rear to shield from behind should it be needed.
The door they had just come through clicked closed. Jeffie hissed at the sound,
and Sammy mentally slapped himself for not closing the door more quietly. They
stole along the hallway until they came to the first open bedroom on their
right. Sammy halted his team against the wall and signaled to them that he
would check it. With a gun in his right hand, and his left ready to perform a
blast shield, he counted down silently, then turned.

He faced an empty
bedroom, lights on. He did not pause to reflect on the rancid smell coming from
inside, but moved to the next open door and repeated the process. The second
room was also empty. Sammy breathed a little easier and led his team onward.
The next two doors were closed, then came the turn of the hall. Before they
reached the bend, a door opened behind them. All three turned to see. A
Thirteen emerged from his bedroom, his head covered in a towel and his body
half undressed. Scars adorned his arms and chest. Each shaped like primitive
smiley faces.

“Go, go, go!” Sammy
whispered to his team.

They scurried around
the corner, but it was too late. Animal-like shrieks followed them as the
Thirteen gave chase. Sammy cursed loudly as the hallways erupted with more
shrieks and more doors opening in front of them, behind them, everywhere at
once. Thirteens emerged from the rooms in various states of dress, ranging from
full blast suits in the classic red-melting-to-black pattern to stark naked.

“Shield the rear,
Jeffie!” he shouted as he followed his own order, shielding their front. “Shoot
them, Nikotai!”

Nikotai worked his
magic on the guns, but it wasn’t like shooting animals, even fast ones. The
Thirteens moved with incredible speed. Nikotai missed more often than not.
Sammy saw why. The Ultra seemed on the verge of dropping to his knees. His arms
moved sluggishly as he aimed.
Hold on, Nikotai.
Even when Nikotai did
hit them, they didn’t always slow down.

The Thirteens organized
themselves using their bizarre language patterns. It reminded Sammy all too
much of being trapped down in the bowels of the Rio factory with the Thirteens
pressing in from both sides. Those that had weapons were closest, jumping off
walls and getting low to shoot around Sammy and Jeffie’s blast shields. Only
with great effort was Sammy able to move fast enough to block everything. He
prayed Jeffie was doing better.

“Push them back!” he
told Jeffie. “We need to move your way. There’s too many in front of me.”

Indeed, Sammy saw three
Thirteens coming forward with hand cannons. The shrapnel from those would
likely ricochet off the metal walls and be very difficult to block. Two of the
Thirteens closest to him dove to the ground and shot at the feet of Sammy’s
team. Sammy aimed one hand low, the other high, exposing a portion of his
middle.

“Look out!” he told
Nikotai, who shot at both diving Thirteens, hitting one in the arm while the
other rolled and dodged in the nick of time.

“I need to reload,”
Nikotai said. “Cover me.”

Sammy did everything he
could, but fatigue was ever-present. His arms felt twice as heavy as normal. He
blasted two Thirteens back hard, knocking them into two more, but was
immediately forced to shield as three more Thirteens fired round after round at
him. Sammy continued to defend, adjusting his angles of defense to wherever his
blasts were needed most, alternating powerful attacking blasts with wider
shields to deflect bullets. Finally Jeffie pushed the Thirteens on her side
back enough that Sammy and Nikotai could move a meter in her direction. Sammy
stumbled closing in on the small space.

“A little further,” he quietly
told Nikotai, “then take cover in that kitchen. Tell Jeffie.”

Two hand cannons went
off in front of Sammy. He tried to shield all of it, but couldn’t. He had to
alternate shields with stronger attacking blasts to drive back the shooters.
Several pieces of shrapnel got through; one grazed his forearm, searing him
like a nasty rope burn. He gritted his teeth and fought harder as a growing
pile of shrapnel and bullets accumulated in front of him. The Thirteens sensed
the desperation of Sammy’s team, and it drove them into a frenzy. The Thirteen
with the smiley face scars urged his brothers and sisters on, screeched at
them, and even hit his fellow Thirteens. Sammy wanted to shoot them, but needed
both hands to ward off the onslaught. Nikotai turned and shot at several of the
enemies facing Sammy, but Sammy shook his head.

“Help Jeffie, not me!”

As soon as Nikotai
turned back, the two Thirteens on Sammy’s side who wore blast suits charged.
The other Thirteens made room as they ran past. Sammy whipped out his gun and
shot four bullets into the first, a man with tattoos covering his face to look
like a fanged mouth. He leapt forward at Sammy, bleeding from his stomach and
chest, while the other one, who remained unharmed, slid into Sammy’s legs,
sending him crashing to his knees.

With the wounded
Thirteen’s blast suit damaged, Sammy used his hands to blast the Thirteen’s
body back at the other enemies, while the one beneath him wrapped his arms
around Sammy’s neck in attempt to strangle him or snap his neck. Sammy’s energy
was sapped, particularly in his arms. He struggled to breathe as he continued
to shield for his team from his knees. Without enough air to call for help, his
only hope was to buy Jeffie and Nikotai enough time to get to safety in the
kitchen. Something stabbed into Sammy’s shoulder, and he realized the Thirteen had
bit him.

“Get your filthy teeth
off me!” he tried to yell, but it came out as something softer than a hiss.
Nothing he did could shake the Thirteen. Everything around him became dim and
fuzzy. His mouth opened and closed as he gulped for air, but his lungs wouldn’t
fill. It took all his strength to keep his arms up and maintain the shield
around the man hanging on him.

A gunshot near his head
startled him and the Thirteen beneath him. Something wet splashed onto the side
of Sammy’s face as the Thirteen jerked and relaxed his grip. Still shielding,
Sammy took a deep breath and shrugged off the body.

“Get up, Sammy,”
Nikotai said. “We can reach the kitchen.”

“Go!” Sammy answered.
“I’ll cover and follow.”

As soon as Jeffie and
Nikotai dove inside, Sammy used foot blasts to flip himself up into the air, and
shield blasts on both sides of his body to protect himself. Then he jumped up
and blasted off the wall, aiming his body through the doorway of the kitchen.
The moment he flew inside, Nikotai and Jeffie slammed the door shut and locked
it. Sammy performed a series of smaller blasts to prevent himself from crashing
into the cabinets. He landed on the floor, and for several seconds he lay
still, only breathing.

The Thirteens banged,
shoved, and assaulted the metal door, but it held strong. Shrieks, curses, and
other animal-like sounds came from the sides and bottom of the door.

“We need to contact the
rest of the team,” Sammy told Nikotai. “See what you can do.”

“How long before they
blow down the door?” Jeffie asked, her voice shaky and thick.

“They won’t,” Sammy
explained. He put his hand over his chest to calculate his heartbeat and didn’t
like what he found. His forehead was cool, much cooler than it should have been
after so much fighting.
Too fast, too much blood gone
. “Any flames of
that size will activate the ventilation system and suck out all the oxygen from
the building to suppress the flames. Plus, they won’t risk causing structural
damage to the building. The data and equipment on the upper levels is too
valuable.”

“Still no answer on the
radio,” Nikotai said.

“It doesn’t matter!”
Sammy exclaimed. “It’s going to take Li’s team too long to get up the lake. By
then the Thirteens will have found a way to get to us.”

Jeffie covered her
ghostly white face with a trembling hand. Her chest heaved as she tried to calm
herself.

“There’s nothing wrong
with being scared,” Sammy told her.

“There is!” She brushed
tears from her eyes, but a brave, determined expression hung precariously on
her countenance. “Look at you. How can you fight? We have no help coming!”

“I’m doing fine,
Jeffie,” Nikotai said, grinning. “Aren’t you, Sammy?”

“Never better.”

Jeffie couldn’t help
but laugh at them.

“And you,” Nikotai
continued as he tried to radio Li’s team again, “you fight incredibly well,
Jeffie. I can tell you don’t want to die. Neither do I. Especially after
trekking through the jungle, fighting off monsters and fish from Satan’s
personal shark tank.… ” He opened his eyes and looked at Sammy. An understanding
passed between them in which Sammy knew exactly what Nikotai was thinking.

Without back up from Li
and the others, I don’t know if we can make it, either, brother
.

Sammy held out his
hand. It wobbled under the strain of its own weight and nearly fell back to the
floor. He stroked Jeffie’s hair, wondering if this would be the last time his
fingers would run through her blonde locks. Without another thought, he leaned
in and kissed her cheek and lips.

She smiled at him. It was
both fearful and hopeful. “Thanks, Sammy.”

“You ready to kill some
more Thirteens?”

Her smile withered as
her expression filled with aggression. It reminded him of the Jeffie he met at
orientation with Commander Byron, Kawai, Natalia, and Brickert. The one who
seemed eager to fight and put it all on the line.

“I used to think I was a
warrior back at headquarters. All the rankings, all the wins in the sims and
the Arena. None of it prepared me. Nothing in my instructions ever said that
when a horde of Thirteens surrounds you, you’ll want to crawl into a hole and
cry for your mom.”

“It did prepare you.
That’s why you’re alive. It’s going to be okay.”

Jeffie sat up and
pointed to the door. “How can you say that? It’s the three of us against all of
them.”

“It’s all I have in
these moments. A year ago, I did exactly what you’re doing, and it got me
nowhere. Kobe calmed me down. Somehow he and I survived. So now I believe that
somehow we’ll survive again.”

Jeffie was about to
speak when a loud
THUNK!
came from the door. All six eyes turned toward
it. A second noise came, then a third, each one the sharp sound of metal on
metal.

“It’s an axe,” Sammy
told them.

“Come on … ” Nikotai
moaned. “Answer the radio. Answer the—hello? Hello, do you copy?” He wiped his
lips and nodded at Sammy. “Of course it’s us. Where have you been?” He rolled
his eyes. “Wait, where are you? Oh, thank heavens. I’ll make this quick. We’re
holed up in here. Thirteens literally knocking on the door. I’ll leave the com
on. Radio me as soon as you enter.” He took a deep breath. Sammy could see that
even speaking sapped his friend’s strength. “Okay. Okay … got it.” He looked at
Sammy, grinning goofily. “The radio was giving them problems, but the reception
is fine now. They’re almost here.”

“What?” Sammy sat up.
“How did they get here so fast?”

“Tupi. Tupi and his
people are canoeing them up the lake. Li said they paddle like professionals.
They need about ten more minutes to get here. Do we have that much time?”

THUNK!

Sammy shrugged.
“Depends on that axe. We need to buy us some time, get them away from the door.
Jeffie, look through those cabinets and find stuff that will burn.”

The kitchen was as
filthy as everywhere else on the ground level, though it was larger than the
other rooms he’d seen. Two large vents hung overhead, one above the stove, the
other on the opposite side. Jeffie went from cabinet to cabinet opening and
shutting them. She grabbed whatever she could find and left it at his feet. The
axes continued to crash into the metal plated door. Dents and small cracks soon
appeared in its surface.

“Not even married,” she
joked weakly, “and you’ve already got me working in the kitchen while you lay
around.”