The Bloodless (23 page)

              “Probably behind these shelves, yeah,” Saturn said walking up to the shelves.

              “Only one way to find out,” Burns said. He grabbed ahold of a section of the shelves and pulled back. The shelf section hit the floor with a deafening clang and reverberated around the bunker causing other shelves to vibrate. Sure enough there was a set of double doors behind the shelves, which was half uncovered now.

              “I got this one,” Saturn said stepping up to the section that was still covering the doors. She gave it a tug but it didn’t budge. “Or not,” she said wincing as she grabbed her shoulder.

              “It’s solid iron,” Burns explained pulling it down to another resounding crash.

              “You made it look so easy,” Saturn said. She walked up to the door and gave one of the handles a jiggle. “Of course it’s fucking locked.” She gave the door an annoyed kick then started hopping up and down clutching her toes, “Goddammit,” she shouted.

              “Easy there babe, let me get this,” said Burns as he approached the door. He gave these doors the same style kick he gave the entrance but this time the doors flew open, one fell half off its hinges. “Now that’s more like it,” he said excitedly.

              Unfortunately there wasn’t much in this room either but that wasn’t because it too had been raided, the emptiness seemed deliberate. It wasn’t supposed to be filled. Instead there were two large stainless steel crates that were on the floor against the back wall of the room. These obviously drew Burns’ and Saturn’s eyes immediately and they made their way towards them. Burns tried to lift one of the crates. He got it off the ground a few inches before dropping it back down.

              “Shit,” he said, “that’s heavy.”

              “What’s in ‘em?” asked Saturn as she ran a hand over another crate.

              “Only way to find out is to look,” said Burns. “They don’t seem to be locked.” He was right, the crates weren’t locked at all. Burns and Saturn crouched down in front of their respective crates and opened them simultaneously.

              “Holy shit,” exclaimed Burns.

              “No fucking way,” yelled Saturn just as surprised.

Chapter 11: Amendment B - Pillar & Crowder             

              “Fuck,” Pillar screamed as bullets tore through the air and the roar of a machine gun filled their ears. “This isn’t going at all the way I hoped it would!”

              “What did you expect?” asked Crowder.

              The bullets ceased and a ringing silence ensued. “I expected this to be an in and out kind of job,” Pillar explained. She and Crowder were in the middle of a field, the machine gun at Pillar’s side, smoke exhaling from the barrel. It would appear as if they were having some target practice, which is true, but the real purpose of the exercise was for Pillar to get a good gauge on her Gatling gun. This type of gun needed constant maintenance and Pillar was always testing it and making sure it fired properly.

              “Why would you expect that?”

              “I don’t know,” said Pillar as she checked over her gun. “It didn’t seem like it was that bad I guess.”

              “Are you not from around here?”

              “I’m from Wellingtown.”

              “Did you lose your family?”

              “If I had family to lose I’m sure I would have.”

              “Why are you here then?” Crowder asked perplexed.

              “I know why I’m here, why the fuck are you here,” Pillar snarled.

              “Avenge my family. They were killed by the Bloodless,” said Crowder.

              “That’s a real tragedy kid, but you can’t be serious. Are you serious?” Pillar asked rudely.

              “Why would I joke about that?”

              “Because you sound like Captain-God-Damn-America, that’s why,” she responded. “’I’m gonna avenge my family, look at me! I’m a hero,’” Pillar said mockingly.

              “What’s your problem?” asked Crowder. “Why are you always such an asshole?”

              Pillar looked slightly affronted at this question. She glared at Crowder then lowered her voice, “Who are you calling an asshole, kid?”

              “That’s another thing,” said Crowder annoyed. “Stop calling me kid. We’re the same age!”

              “Maybe superficially but I’ve been through some shit. A lot more shit than you could ever imagine,” Pillar retorted.

              “Whatever,” Crowder was over it at this point and didn’t really feel like dragging out an unnecessary argument. “Is your gun working fine? Can we keep moving?”

              Pillar seemed to agree as she returned to her normal tone of voice, “Yeah it’s working fine for now, but we’ll have to test it again soon.” They set off at a brisk pace in the general direction of their first objective. Pillar locked down her Big Guy and threw it behind her back. It was attached to a special hydraulic harness that did all the lifting of the gun for her so it felt practically weightless to her. It allowed her to have quick and easy access to it whenever the time arose. She could draw it out faster than cowboys of the Old Wild West could draw out their six shooters, relatively speaking of course.

              It was up to them to place several of Fox’s Quantum Matter Phazers in predetermined locations that would seemingly allow Fox to disable the next substation’s automated defenses easier. On the surface it seemed like an easy job and that’s one of the reasons Pillar grudgingly agreed to take part in it. Crowder was more than happy to undertake the mission as he was always ready and willing to prove his worth and value to the group. However, anyone besides Burns attempting to coexist with Pillar for an extended period of time was in for a strenuous experience, to put it lightly.

              Pillar wasn’t the easiest person to work with, she had never been that way. Since the first days of the group as a whole she always put up a sturdy barrier of bitchiness coupled with a cold indifference towards people in general. Crowder was getting a crash course in her winning personality but he was definitely not equipped to deal with her. He would try his best however as Crowder always tried to find the best in people.

              Pillar brought up her map and examined it briefly. A little compass popped up and pointed them in a southeastern direction. “The layout of these substations don’t make any sense, man,” she said as they walked along the road. “It just seems so random.”

              “Daniel said it’s a very precise layout,” Crowder responded. “It had to be done that way so the power was evenly distributed throughout the compound.”

              Pillar grunted back but didn’t say anything, she continued to stare at her map and a little blinking dot that was indicating where the first drop would be. They walked in silence for most of the way. It was an awkward silence too, as these were two people who didn’t stand a chance of getting along on a personal level. If they wanted to survive, however, they would have to find a way to coexist.

              The first place was on the crest of a hill that over-looked the third substation. This station appeared to have the same square footage as the first one but the layout seemed quite different. This building was compartmentalized, several outer buildings surrounded a main building all attached by long corridors. Those corridors were then connected to each other by another corridor that circled the inner perimeter of the substation.

              “Good lord,” Pillar said as the station came into view. “I’m glad it’s not me going into that.”

              “That’s because you’re content to sit on the sidelines while everyone else risks their lives,” Crowder said as he came up next to Pillar.

              “Damn straight kid,” she responded. “Don’t forget it. I’m not giving my life for this inane cause.”

              Crowder didn’t respond. During the trek to their current location he made his mind up about arguing with Pillar. He decided he’s not going to do it anymore. He’ll make his comments still but as far as reacting to what Pillar says, it became clear to him that it just isn’t worth it. There is no getting through to the woman and everything will go a lot smoother if he just lets her talk. “So it goes right here then?” he asked.

              “Yeah. So do we just set it down here and walk away or do we have to set it up anyway?” Pillar asked. “I find it hard to believe that these things won’t need any setting up.”

              “That’s what Fox said about them. We are just to place the Phazers in the general vicinity of where he marked on our maps and he’ll take care of the rest.” Crowder crouched down and placed his backpack on the ground, unzipped it and removed one of the Phazers from it. He placed it on the ground in front of him and lined it up so it was facing the substation. “I think that’s about all we can do.” He stood up and looked at the Phazer, then at Pillar, then at the station.

              Pillar nodded in agreement, “Yeah, looks like it. If Fox says that’s what we do, then there’s really no arguing with it. What?” she asked in response to Crowder’s bemused gaze, “Fox seems to be the only person among us that has his shit together. He knows what he’s doing, so I respect him. It’s another reason I agreed to this, it’s to help Fox out.”

              “Whatever you say.” Crowder looked around at their surroundings, “On to the next spot then?”

              “How many do we have to do?”

              “Not counting that one,” he indicated the one he just placed on the ground, “it looks like we have about four more to place.” Crowder zipped up his bag and hitched it over his back.

              “Oh shit,” Pillar cried, “get down!”

              Crowder looked around and saw a small object in the sky flying in their direction. He followed Pillar and ducked behind a large boulder that was conveniently located right next to where they just deployed the Phazer. The object flew in very near to them and hovered for a couple moments. It scanned the immediate area then took off at top speed. Crowder and Pillar emerged from behind the boulder and looked in the direction of the object’s path.

              “What the hell was that?” Pillar asked.

              “Must’ve been one of those perimeter drones Fox mentions all the time,” answered Crowder.

              “Did it see us you think?”

              “Hard to say, but it didn’t sound any alarms, which could be a good sign.”

              “Shit,” said Pillar. She looked around, making sure the drone wasn’t coming back. “You think it’s safe to move?”

              “I think we’d better move fast and get these Phazers placed before it or another one comes back this way.”

              The layout of the Phazers ended up being very similar to the layout of the substation they were walking around. Unbeknownst to Crowder and Pillar, Fox designed it to be a star formation, the only formation that would allow the Phazers to utilize every line of sight possible for such an unconventional building setup. The rest of the mission took them the majority of the day and it was well past dusk by the time they finished placing the last device. There were only a couple more close calls with the perimeter drones but each time they were able to hide from view.

              “Ok that’s the last one,” said Crowder after he placed the final Phazer. “Now let’s get the heck outta here before our luck runs out.” He and Pillar took off in the polar opposite direction of the substation, moving at high speed and they didn’t stop until almost an entire five kilometers separated them from the station. “I think that’ll do,” yelled Crowder.

              “What the hell were all those drones about?” asked Pillar angrily. “Do you think they saw us?”

              “I don’t think so, otherwise we’d have a hoard of Bloodless all over us by now,” answered Crowder.

              “Then why did they keep flyin’ in the exact area we were, as if they knew we were there?”

              “That much I don’t know, we’ll have to let Daniel and Fox know about it when we get back to the base,” said Crowder. “You ready to head back?”

              “You bet your ass I’m ready.” The sun was just about absent from the sky and the air around them was becoming cold and dark. Not exactly a place anyone wants to be, inside patrol perimeters after dark. They quickly realized their situation and headed back in the direction of Abiyah. The path was much harder to traverse when it was dark, as they quickly found out. Buildings popped up out of nowhere blocking their path and every little sound forced them to stop and listen for extended periods of time. It was like walking through a horror movie during the quiet part right before the big jump scare. Tensions were high.

              After walking for a couple more hours the night had become pitch black, not a single light was on in the area due to all the power having already been cut off when the power plant that fed the area was demolished in an attempt to cripple GoD Lab’s defense systems. Even though the substation was still operational, its sole purpose was to deliver electricity straight into the main compound. They basically acted like oversized generators.

              Eventually Crowder and Pillar came across what appeared to be an old, very large, abandoned warehouse. The windows were intact, however, which was strange because when a warehouse is abandoned it’s customary to throw rocks at the windows, but this wasn’t the case. No broken windows. In fact, the windows looked like they were new as they were exceptionally clean for the situation.

              “Now that’s odd,” said Crowder, causing Pillar to jump.

              “Dude,” she said annoyed, “don’t do that shit. What are you talking about?”

              “Over there,” Crowder pointed towards the warehouse, “that building seems a bit out of place.”

              Pillar squinted at the building for a moment. “Yeah,” she said, her eyes still squinted, “it does actually, now that you mention it. So what? Let’s keep going.” Pillar kept walking but Crowder came to a stop. Pillar was several paces away from Crowder before she noticed that he had stopped. “What are you doing?” When Crowder didn’t respond right away Pillar started to yell, “Hey!” but only go out the H sound before Crowder quickly motioned for her to not yell.

              Pillar gripped her side arm and ran over to Crowder as quietly as she could. “I thought I saw movement in there,” Crowder whispered as he inclined his head towards the warehouse. They both stared at the building and at first there was nothing to see, but sure enough a silhouette passed by a first floor window. Then they saw another, and another, and then a few more after that.

              “Do you think it’s multiple guys?” asked Pillar.

              “As opposed to what?” Crowder asked turning to look at Pillar.

              “I don’t know, one guy walking back and forth a buncha times?”

              “So you’re suggesting that there’s one guy in there just walking back and forth in front of that one window over and over again?”

              “Yeah, like he’s really crazy lonely and he’s trying to catch someone’s attention.”

              “Okay, kinda like an S.O.S. type signal. Like, ‘Hey, someone come keep me company!’ Some sort of loneliness distress signal.”

              “You think?”

              “No.” Crowder turned back towards the warehouse and gave Pillar a quick sideways glance before bringing a pair of binoculars up to his eyes. Inside the building he could see multiple bodies moving around but he wasn’t able to properly identify them. “It’s too dark,” he said lowering the binoculars.