New Phoenix - Shorts (2) Page 3

  “Sure I can,” she said, popping a fresh magazine into her rifle.

  “Q-jumping without a stabilizer would be like free-falling through time. You could end up anywhere. It’s suicide.”

  “Q-jump now, Specialist. We need to warn command about what’s happened here. Guess you were right about me. Don’t have what it takes. I’m no Gregory.”

  I ground my teeth. “I’m not leaving without you.” Gun raised, I crossed the yard to where the headless corpse of Chris lay in a pool of red. The proximity sensor was beeping again. I’d mistakenly assumed the movement had been coming from inside the hangar, but now I knew better. I trained my gun on the evening sky.

  I could see a dozen, maybe two dozen figures flying overhead in front of a dark cloud. The damn things had wings. What the hell were they? Some sort of droid?

  Then I looked again. “Q-suit, activate infrared.”

  The cloud lit up red, appearing like static on a video screen. Tens of thousands, maybe millions of those things. If it took that much firepower to drop one of them . . . we had to get inside.

  “Tombs! Tombs! High Lords wept, Tombs. Q-jump already.”

  I needed to get the stabilizer off Chris, but the damn thing was fixed into his arm. Involuntarily my eyes locked onto what was left of his neck and the obscene amount of blood spewing forth.

  I grabbed Chris’s leg and dragged the corpse easily behind me toward the hangar.

  “What are you doing?” Rainey demanded.

  “He doesn’t need it anymore. You do.”

  The boss-lady provided covering fire while I double-timed it toward the hangar. The creatures started dropping, making large cracks throughout the concrete and smashing into buildings like wrecking balls. Then they stood and advanced toward us.

  They were everywhere. We weren’t going to make it. Swearing, I raised my arm and made a tight fist. A long blade snapped out of the gauntlet around my wrist. A quick slash downward and the edge carved through flesh and Q-suit alike. Chris’s left forearm separated from his body. I grabbed the severed arm and retracted the bloody blade. Wasting no time, I picked up my rifle and, holding it one-handed, closed the distance between Rainey and me, firing shots into the air.

  One of the things was coming in hot, straight at me, its wings spread wide. I dropped to one knee and fired into the air, but my aim was off. There was a rattle behind me, and the creature fell backward after Rainey hit it in the head several times. It veered off course and plummeted into a nearby building.

  “Thanks,” I said breathlessly, quickly loading a new magazine into my rifle.

  “Q-jump now, Specialist. I don’t matter. Only the mission.”

  How could I? The damn things were swarming above her.

  More swooped toward us. Having seen how heavily armored these things were around the chest, she released a continuous stream of fire for two or three seconds at the next monster’s head, pivoted, found a new target and then repeated the attack, taking out the leg of another creature behind it. With her magazine empty, Rainey went down on one knee and fired the Q-suit’s shoulder laser through a third, splitting it in two before it even hit the ground.

  Three of the ragged-cloaked bastards were on her six. I unleashed a short death cloud of my own at the leader’s head, and its legs carried it forward several feet before it face-planted behind her. The second was hit with a similar shot, but it didn’t go down. Instead, it spun and, in a long, loping stride, leaped at me. I fired again as the creature closed in. At this distance, it was nearly impossible to miss, but each mini-flash hit its heavily armored torso.

  Robotic fingers wrapped themselves around my neck. But I wasn’t going to go down like Chris. I pushed the rifle’s barrel straight into the thing’s face and emptied the magazine. It staggered, and an explosion of metal and a red mist sprayed out the back of its hood. Red mist? Blood. By the High Lords, these things were alive.

  I kicked it away and turned to see the sarge beating one of the creatures with the butt of her rifle, her strength augmented by the Q-suit. It staggered back a few steps. Seizing the opportunity, Rainey spun the gun and opened fire on the creature, finishing it off. I dropped another and then took position behind Rainey to guard her ass.

  “You still here?” she muttered.

  “Got you something.” I passed her Chris’s arm and then reloaded and opened fire on another hooded creature.

  “Damn you,” she said, but there was a faint hint of gratitude and relief behind her words. “This place is too hot. We need breathing room so you can switch stabilizers.”

  “Breathing room, you say?” Rainey pointed her rifle at two dozen figures crossing the compound toward us. Too many to count were headed in our direction from the right, and more were landing as we spoke.

  “Never said it would be easy. We need to—”

  Mechanical three-fingered hands stabbed through the back of my Q-suit into my shoulder blades. The world lost all meaning as pain, the likes of which I’d never known, consumed me. I surfaced from it moments before the creature threw me at the ground. Maybe I blacked out for a second, but the next thing I knew it was holding me above its head. It threw me into the concrete again. Once more I lost myself in the pain.

  My visor was cracked, and just about every alarm in the suit was blaring at me. I blinked and tried getting up.

  Rainey was screaming at me, yelling a single word over and over, but I couldn’t make sense of it. “Jump!”

  Jump? Something just sliced through my shoulder blade. I could barely get to my feet.

  “Tombs, jump!”

  No, wait, she meant the other kind of jump. With weak, feeble movements, I pulled myself up into a kneeling position. I reached for the vector control that would launch me back home. But my arm wouldn’t move, and even this simple action left me hacking up blood. By the High Lords, it hurt so much.

  Fight through the pain. You’ve been trained for this. The vector is already set for home.

  I just needed to activate it. My visor, filled with warning flashes and a spiderweb of cracks, obscured my vision to the point that I could see only the faintest of shapes. I had to do this by touch.

  “JUMP!”

  A shadow loomed over me. It struck the armor, and I fell onto my back. Something heavy pressed down on my wrist. Metal bit through the Q-suit, cutting into flesh. I cried out. It smashed my visor, and glass bit into my cheeks. The monstrosities leaned closer. Round goggles stared at me, each glowing a hellish orange. The thing stank of oil and rotting meat. It grabbed my left arm and yanked hard. I screamed as bones snapped, flesh ripped, and blood splattered across the ground. Once again my understanding of pain was redefined. Darkness pressed all around me. Then I became aware that the creature was carrying me.

  “Jump . . .” Rainey was weeping. I understood what she was saying now, but it didn’t matter anymore. The vector was still attached to my arm, which lay on the ground a few feet away.

  I watched in helpless agony as the creatures, howling and screaming with animalistic savagery, fell on top of Rainey.

  “No,” I tried to say, but blood bubbled out of my mouth, and I couldn’t be sure I’d gotten the word out. The creatures raised their metal limbs over and over and beat down on the suited figure beneath them.

  I wept.

  One of them was gripping her helmet. She’d lost the rifle but was still holding the severed limb. Her hand was on her wrist.

  “No,” I moaned.

  There was a puff and implosion of air and suddenly Rainey and one of the monsters that had been on top of her vanished. “Nooo!”

  She was gone. She’d jumped without a stabilizer, which meant she could quite literally be anywhere. Rainey was as good as dead.

  The thing that held me shook my body back and forth and hooted a victory cry. Its companions raised their metal limbs and echoed the call with hoots of their own. I was some sort of trophy to them. It didn’t matter anymore. I was dying. I was surprised I wasn’t already dead.
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br />   Then the creature that had me bent its long, robotic legs, and its giant wings extended and snapped into place. Attached to the center of each was a small rotor, which started spinning. It leaped up into the air and drifted up toward the swarm overhead.

  Coming Soon...

  Watch out for the next short story, Adrift, featuring Isa Rainey. Adrift will be delivered to your inbox in seven days.