Dead Mech (19 page)

“A little help!” Legit screamed.

Jay hesitated briefly, but quickly opened
fire, making a path for Legit to get to the bar.

“Clear! Move your ass!” Jay called out,
slapping the fresh magazine home Masters handed him.

***

“FUCK OFF!” the Rookie screamed, kicking the
Kilroy zombie squarely in the face. The reanimated brawler stumbled
back and roared.

The Rookie reached up and grabbed the top of
the cage, swinging himself to the other side, careful to keep his
legs out of Kilroy’s grasp.

Kilroy leapt several times, its one arm
reaching and swinging for the Rookie, becoming more and more
enraged with each miss.

The Rookie knew he couldn’t hang from the
cage indefinitely and couldn’t expect assistance anytime soon. He
swore he’d never die in the fight cage and he planned on keeping it
that way.

***

“We may need to burn this place!” Masters
yelled as Legit joined him and Jay behind the bar. “Is there a back
exit?”

“No!” Legit answered.

“WHAT?!?” Jay yelled dropping nine more
zombies, but dozens remained. “How the fuck’d you expect to get out
if you were raided?”

“I don’t get raided!” Legit answered.

“Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?”

“Doesn’t matter!” Masters hollered. “Keep
firing!”

Legit pulled down a minigun and ammo. He
clicked on the motor drive and began strafing the zombies with over
a thousand rounds per minute. Those stupid enough to stay standing
were vaporized. “How’s that?!?”

***

The Rookie dropped with his back against the
cage wall. Kilroy charged. At the very last second, the Rookie
dodged, rolled then leapt, kicking Kilroy’s head into the steel
bars of the cage, wedging it tightly. The zombie roared and clawed
at its neck, trying to free itself.

Not losing a moment, the Rookie leapt again,
using the cage wall to launch himself back to the top. He took two
swings then dropped his entire weight onto Kilroy’s shoulders. The
zombie’s wedged head ripped from its body and stayed stuck between
the bars. The body twitched, fell and was still.

***

The minigun jammed and Legit tossed it to
the ground, replacing it with a dual-mag sub-machine gun. Masters
and Jay continued to fire, desperately trying to whittle down the
undead’s numbers.

“Hey! Over here you deader fucks!” the
Rookie yelled, rattling the fight cage, trying to divert the
zombies away from Masters and Jay. Legit could fuck off and die as
far as he was concerned.

About 150 zombie patrons were left and more
than half turned towards the cage. “Yeah! That’s right! Meat in a
box! Come and get it!”

The zombies swarmed and the cage began to
groan.

***

Legit ducked underneath the arsenal and
pulled open a concealed drawer. He pulled out five small, flat
boxes and set them upright on the bar.

“You are gonna want to get down Razor!”
Legit yelled. Masters and Jay glanced at Legit, puzzled. “These go
boom and shred. You’ll want to get down too.” Neither needed to be
told twice and they ducked behind the bar.

Legit tapped five times on a small touch he
grabbed with the boxes then winked at Jay and Masters.

“3…2…1!”

The Rookie flattened himself on the mat as
the room exploded in fire.

***

“Holy fucking shit! I’ve wanted to shoot
those fuckers off since I got them!” Legit whooped.

“Glad we could share the experience,” Jay
said sarcastically. “How about we skip the encore and get the fuck
out of here?”

Masters peered over the bar. “Clear.”

The three stood and surveyed the scene.
Shredded, smoldering bodies were everywhere. Some still moved, but
none seemed capable of any attack.

“I’ve got the stragglers,” Masters said as
he vaulted the bar and immediately set to work putting down the
zombies that hadn’t been destroyed by the blast.

“OPEN THE FUCKING CAGE!” the Rookie
bellowed.

***

The cage door clicked open and the Rookie
shoved against it, exited and immediately stepped up to Legit,
grabbed him by the back of the head and brought Legit’s face to his
rising knee, shattering his nose.

Legit stumbled back, tripped over the zombie
corpses and fell hard. “What the FUCK?!?”

“You call me Razor again and I’ll feed you
your balls,” the Rookie growled, walking to the only door in or
out. “What’s the fucking code?”

Before Legit could answer, a loud pounding
from the other side of the door echoed through the room.

“UDC Security! Open up immediately!”

***

“That sounds like your friend Rodriguez,”
Legit said, winking at Masters.

“Stop winking at me asshole,” Masters
replied, moving to the other side of the room as he loaded shells
into a pump-action shotgun. The Rookie and Jay armed themselves
also and joined Masters, putting distance between themselves and
the door.

“Y’all need to relax,” Legit laughed and
keyed in the code. The door clicked open. “Rodriguez, my man, glad
to-!” was all Legit was able to say before the back of his head
exploded and Rodriguez kicked the door all the way open, his matte
black 9mm still smoking.

***

Six more UDC security officers, weapons
drawn, followed Rodriguez into the room and surveyed the scene. The
pilots didn’t move a muscle, their own weapons raised.

One of the security officers caught sight of
the three and his head cocked to an unnatural angle. “Masters,
Mitchell, Mech Pilot. Rind, Jay, Chief Mechanic. Both listed for
termination. Third human does not exist. Termination order
authorized.” The seven officers raised their weapons in unison.

“What the fuck…?” Masters muttered.

The Rookie didn’t wait to find out and
started firing first, racing to the cover of the bar. Masters and
Jay followed suit.

“How are they doing?” Capreze asked
Themopolous while she checked monitor readings from the UDC
troops.

“We have maybe an hour, possibly two before
they are conscious,” Themopolous answered. “What are you going to
do when they do wake up?”

“Reason with them, or specifically the
Sergeant Major,” Capreze answered, brow furrowed.

“Will he listen?”

“No, but I have to try.”

“Commander?” Jethro called over the com.

“Go ahead, Jethro.”

“We just had a spike in the communication
system. Something is trying to crack my jamming and get through.
I’m fighting it, but it’s fighting back.”

“I’ll be right there.”

***

Well, this just sucks
, Mathew thought
as he dealt with the isolation of being cut off from base
communications.

He also grew frustrated with the slow
progress he was making, having to stay close to the mesas and hills
in order to keep a low profile.

Not that a 50-ton war machine could ever
keep a low profile, but at least he wasn’t an open target.

An open target for
what
also bothered
him. Just a few days ago life, while not safe and secure, was at
least routine.

Patrol time, base time, Rachel time. It all
ran like clockwork.

***

June wanted to die.

The Boss had appetites, beyond just
cannibalism, and June’s body had paid the price.

The pain was so bad that she truly believed
her soul was bleeding.

When he came back and undid the straps and
restraints, June stayed very still, waiting for the down side.

“Go clean up,” he muttered, sounding drunk.
“You stink.”

She heard him shuffle away, but didn’t hear
the door close. June attempted to push her self up, but the pain
was too much and she cried out.

“Let me help,” the Boss’s mother said as she
hobbled through the door.

***

“What you got for me, Jethro?” Capreze
asked, entering the control room.

“I honestly don’t know. I’ve never seen
anything like this before,” Jethro responded, tapping away at three
separate tablets while monitoring two vid screens. “This is not
normal UDC programming, nor is it modified. This is brand new
shit.”

“What’s it trying to do?”

“If I’m reading this right, and I may not
be, it’s trying to get a command through our jam.”

“What kind of command?”

“Not a clue, but considering how malicious
this program is, I don’t think we want to know.”

“Well, keep at it.”

***

“There’re only six of them. We can take
‘em!” Masters cried. Bottles exploded above his, Jay’s and the
Rookie’s head as they used the bar for cover.

“Not with that combat armor they have!” Jay
yelled back.

“Screw this!” the Rookie said, seeing a box
of grenades amongst Legit’s other armaments. The Rookie grabbed
three grenades and handed one each to Masters and Jay. They each
pulled the pin and hurled them over the bar into the fight
room.

Within five seconds all three detonated and
bits of debris, zombie parts and UDC security personnel uniforms,
showered down on them.

***

June, with help, stepped into the night air.
“Thank you.”

“Of course, dear,” the old woman said.

“I’m Ju- Um, Rachel.”

“I’m Olivia.”

The two stayed silent as they walked over to
a water trough. June shivered as she removed the blanket Olivia had
wrapped about her. Olivia pulled a stool close to the trough and
motioned for June to do the same.

“It’s hard for me to stand for long,” Olivia
said, pulling up her long, dingy skirt to show June the prosthetic
feet attached to her lower legs. “They get me around, but aren’t
exactly built for comfort.”

***

“This is not good, this is not good, this is
not good,” Jethro muttered while frantically trying to defend
against the jamming breach. “Shit shit shit shit SHIT!”

Jethro typed so hard on the three tablets
before him that blisters began to form on his fingertips. He stared
at the two vid screens, watching line upon line of foreign code
stream by. With every programming defense he put in place, the
intruding software created a counter offense.

“No! You will not fucking-!” The last words
were choked from him as searing pain engulfed the back of his
head.

Jethro collapsed.

***

Harlow stared in horror as each UDC trooper,
Steve and Dr. Themopolous began to convulse.

“Doctor!” Harlow yelled, running to
Themopolous’ side.

“My… head! Reaper…chip…” Themopolous
croaked, trying to fight the agony. “Cut it out!”

Harlow lifted Themopolous onto a bed and
flipped her onto her stomach. Grabbing a pair of scissors she cut
Themopolous’ clothes down the back and tore them away, exposing the
doctor’s neck and back.

Harlow splashed antiseptic across the base
of Themopolous’ skull, grabbed a scalpel and probed for the right
spot with her fingers.

Finding it, she said a silent prayer and
cut.

***

Masters wiped gore from his uniform,
flicking bits of flesh off his hands while the Rookie and Jay
surveyed the room.

A UDC officer twitched, tried sitting up,
but was hindered by the lack of a lower half. Viscera spilled onto
the floor from its ripped open torso. The officer bared its bloody
teeth as the Rookie approached, pistol trained on the thing’s
head.

“Masters! Looks like your buddy is still
kicking,” the Rookie called out, staring down at the ravaged form
of Rodriguez. “He’s full on deader.”

“Put him down,” Masters called back.

The Rookie took aim and fired.

***

June winced as Olivia carefully wiped at her
skin with a wet cloth.

“Sorry. I’ll try to be little more gentle,”
Olivia apologized.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been through
worse,” June responded.

Olivia eyed June carefully, taking in her
battered face and throat; the lacerations and cuts across her
breasts and stomach; the bruising on her exposed pelvis and thighs.
“Really, dear?”

June fought back the tears, her breath
catching in her chest. “No,” she whispered.

Olivia kept wiping, dipping and wringing out
the rag after it became too soiled. “I wish I could say it won’t
get worse.”

***

Jethro fought through the debilitating pain,
reached up from the floor and slammed his hand down on his console.
Instantly the torture stopped and Jethro collapsed back to the
floor, his chest heaving and blood trickling from his ears and
nose.

He could hear foot falls outside the control
room, but didn’t have the strength to focus.

“Jethro! Jeezus fuck!” Rachel yelled,
kneeling next to the stricken mechanic. “Doc! Jethro has collapsed
and is bleeding badly! I need assistance immediately!” Rachel’s com
crackled with static, but there was no response. “Doc!”

“Don’t bother,” Jethro whispered. “I shut it
all down.”

***

Only a few feet from where June and Olivia
sat stood the pen the deformed children were kept in. June tried to
ignore the sleeping forms, but her eyes were drawn back again and
again. Olivia followed June’s gaze as she applied some potent and
pungent salve to the worst of June’s wounds.

“You don’t want to know,” Olivia sighed.
“But, if the Boss doesn’t kill you, I guess you’ll find out
anyway.”

June waited for Olivia to continue, but
spoke up when she didn’t. “Find out what?”

“What’s in the stew,” Olivia whispered.

June’s eyes went wide with shock.

***

Themopolous went still just as Harlow pulled
the Reaper chip from the back of her skull. Blood poured from the
wound, soaking the table and Harlow quickly packed the wound with
gauze and antiseptic.

“Doc? Doc, can you hear me?” Harlow asked,
tossing the Reaper chip onto a nearby tray.

Themopolous groaned slightly and Harlow took
that as a good sign. She patted the doctor on the back. “I have to
check the others. Just stay still.” Themopolous groaned again.