Dead Mech (55 page)

Capreze’s eyebrows raised in surprise.
“You’d want to stay a mech?”

“Don’t you want to remain human?” Shiner
replied. “I was born into this form and this is the form I was
meant for.”

“Fair enough,” Capreze agreed. “Let’s see
what we can figure out.”

Capreze walked his mech up to the stronghold
entrance.

***

The train compartment door slid open and the
Rookie stepped inside. “You need me, Doc?”

Themopolous turned form Jethro’s bedside and
nodded to the other bed in the room. The bed holding a pissed off
Bisby. “I need you to watch him.”

“I’m not a fucking kid!” Bisby growled. “I
don’t need a babysitter.”

“No, but you need an armed guard!”
Themopolous responded. “Can you watch him for me? He keeps
insisting he’s needed outside.”

The Rookie laughed and looked at Bisby. “If
they don’t need me they don’t need you, Biz.”

“Fuck you Rookie,” Bisby snarled.

“No thank you.”

***

Stomper shifted uncomfortably, but let the
Commander approach the stronghold.

“Hello? Outsider? Or should I call you Dr.
Johnson?” Capreze asked.

There was no response. Capreze powered up
his plasma cannon and blasted three of the gun turrets on the
mountainside.

“How dare you!” Johnson roared. “Do you want
to die little man?!?”

“No, thank you,” Capreze answered casually.
“But, now that I have your attention I’d like to talk. Maybe we can
work something out?”

Johnson laughed heartily. “Oh, you’re
records weren’t exaggerating! You sure have balls!”

“Last time I checked,” the Commander
quipped. “Now, how about that talk?”

***

Themopolous stepped from the train and made
her way past the burning piles of zombie corpses, her hand covering
her mouth and nose, trying to hold out the stench. She approached
Shiner/Mathew and looked up at the cockpit.

“Can I come up?” she yelled.

“Here, let me give you a hand,” Mathew
shouted down, lowering the mech’s right hand for Themopolous to
climb aboard. Mathew brought the doctor eye level and smiled.
“Coming to check up on me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. You’ve been
in a mech for several days and I’m sure your body is taking a
beating.”

***

“Frame like a house, frame like a house,
tiny little body, small as a mouse,” Jethro mumbled over and
over.

The Rookie watched the mechanic. “Wow, his
mind is going fast isn’t it?”

“Yep,” Bisby responded curtly.

“Has the doc come up with any way to help
him?”

“Nope,” Bisby said, turning away from the
Rookie.

“What’s your deal?” the Rookie asked,
annoyed.

Bisby’s eyes flared with anger. “My deal?
Are you fucking blind? I’m missing an arm asshole!”

“Yeah, but you’re alive. You can get a new
arm, Jay will see to that.”

“I don’t want a new arm!”

***

“Look at your Commander!” Johnson said.
“He’s actually trying to bargain with me!”

One of the vid screens zoomed in and Masters
could see Capreze’s lips moving.

“You’re talking to him right now?” Masters
asked. “While you’re talking to me?”

“Of course!” Johnson replied. “Haven’t you
figured out by now that I’m a god! A digital Zeus and this is my
technological Olympus!”

“Whatever,” Masters sighed and lay back on
the floor. “What’s he saying?”

“Oh the usual about how we surely can find
some common ground and our capabilities could be mutually
beneficial to each other, blah, blah, blah…”

***

Themopolous choked at the smell coming from
Mathew’s cockpit. “Dear God, Matty! How do you stand it?”

Mathew smiled weakly. “It isn’t easy, trust
me. If I get out of this I’m so going to kick Shiner’s ass.”

“That is technologically impossible,” Shiner
responded. “While my physical self may have a posterior, my true
self, my AI does not. You could no more kick my ass than kick a
cloud.”

“Is he always like this?” Themopolous asked,
smiling. She took a deep breath, held it and climbed into the
cockpit.

“Yes, he is,” Mathew said as Themopolous
checked his vitals.

***

The Commander finished talking and waited.
He was met with silence.

“Did you hear me, Dr. Johnson?” Capreze
asked.

“Yes,” came Johnson’s curt reply.

“And? Do you believe we can work something
out?”

“No, of course not. That’s a stupid
question. Go away.”

Capreze waited a minute more. “Is that all?
Go away?”

One of the turrets opened fire, riddling the
ground in front of Capreze’s mech’s feet with bullets.

“Yes, go away,” Johnson said. “You’re going
to want to get your team together. The real fun is about to
begin!”

Proximity alarms blared in all of the mech
cockpits.

***

Alarms rang through the Railer train’s cars.
The Rookie jumped to his feet. “What the fuck?”

“Sounds like we have company,” Bisby
said.

“Can you watch Jethro?” the Rookie asked
Bisby. “And stay here, out of trouble?”

“Fuck you again, Rookie,” Bisby responded.
The Rookie locked eyes with Bisby. The older mech pilot sighed and
waved the Rookie away. “Yeah, you can trust me. I’ll keep an eye on
Jethro.”

“Thanks,” the Rookie said quickly before
dashing from the compartment.

“Frame like a house, frame like a house,
tiny little body, small as a mouse,” Jethro repeated.

“Whatever,” Bisby grumbled.

***

“What is it?” Timson asked.

“Dead mechs, lots of ‘em,” Jenny said.”
They’re coming up over the ridges right at us.”

“Jeezus! How many?” Timson said, trying to
keep the alarm out of his voice. He may not be as cool and
collected as Capreze, but he was a leader and couldn’t crack
now.

“All of them would be my guess,” Marin
responded. “Looks like, twenty, maybe thirty.”

Jenny gulped and looked at her father.
“We’re fucked, huh?”

“Not yet,” Timson said. “Get the guns up and
get everyone armed. We’re going to need every bit of firepower
we’ve got.”

***

“Holy fucking hell!” Jay exclaimed, his eyes
not believing his scanners. “That’s a shit ton of dead metal coming
at us!”

“No shit!” Capreze responded. “I need
weapons reports stat!”

“I’ve got full plasma charge, but my 50mms
are at half load and my RPGs and charges are almost gone,” Rachel
reported.

“I don’t really have shit,” Jay said. “This
is a salvage mech, not a battle mech. I’ve got a plasma cannon at
full, but other than that I’m looking at just the 50mms and they
aren’t even at half load.”

“Can you sonic blast them?”

“I can try.”

***

The Special Ops team looked up as the
Railers began to shout and the mechs’ movements changed, their
stances becoming battle ready.

“I think we’ll need to put the burial on
hold,” Lieutenant Murphy said looking down at Specialist Sol and
Grendetti as they stood in the grave intended for Austin, already
three feet deep. “We’ve got incoming.”

“We can’t just leave him here,” Sol said,
glancing at Austin’s body at the lip of the grave.

“We can and we will, Specialist,” Murphy
ordered. “Get it together and soldier up. You’ve got a job to
do!”

“Yes, sir!” Sol responded.

***

“You’ll want to see this,” Johnson said.

Masters propped himself up on his elbows and
looked at the vid screens. “What now?”

“The big climax! I called some new players
to the stage.”

Masters’ eyes widened and he got to his feet
and stepped closer to the screens. He looked from them to Johnson
and back to the screens. “Are those fucking deaders?”

“Yes, they are.”

“I thought you couldn’t control them. They
weren’t inoculated.”

“True, but since I was using them as
communication relays I decided to maybe put a couple thoughts in
their rotting heads.”

“What thoughts?”

“Food.”

***

“I hope that disc is ready to go!” Capreze
yelled over the com.

“It is, Commander,” Jay said. “Just give me
the word.”

“You’ve got the mother fucking word! Fire
that thing and take those deaders out right now goddammit!” Capreze
roared.

“Got it! Jenny! Hit the button!”

“Done!” Jenny shouted back over the com.
“Disc activated!”

Everyone felt the pressure of the sonic
pulse release and most held their breath, waiting for the dead
mechs to fall.

They didn’t.

“Jay!” Capreze roared. “What’s going
on?”

“It’s the mechs!” Jay cried. “The cerebral
integration must’ve altered their pilot’s brain frequency!”

***

“They’re going to be annihilated!” Masters
yelled, reaching for his side arm. “You dirty mother-”

A bright bolt of blue electricity shot from
the ceiling, connecting with Master’s chest. The mech pilot
dropped, convulsions violently shaking his body.

“Tsk, tsk. I told you there was more than
just guns in here,” Johnson said. “You didn’t think I’d let you
kill me, or that I’d kill you while there was still so much fun to
see, did you?”

Masters groaned, his bladder releasing as
after shocks racked his body.

“Eeeew,” Johnson laughed. “Don’t worry,
you’ll be good as new in minutes.”

***

Hatches atop each train car opened,
revealing large caliber gun nests. Railers scrambled to ready their
weapons, targeting the guns on the now visible dead mechs cresting
the ridges surrounding the stronghold.

“Aim for the leg joints!” Capreze ordered
over his loudspeaker. “Go for the cripple shot, not the kill!
You’ll conserve ammo better!”

The Rookie burst from the train and sprinted
towards the stronghold entrance.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Capreze
yelled.

“I’m trying to help,” the Rookie shouted,
stopping at the feet of Stomper. “Hey! Big guy! Let me up!”

“Masters said not to move,” Stomper
responded.

***

“What the fuck, Marin?!?” Jay yelled. “You
had those topside boomsticks all this time? Why the fuck didn’t we
use them when that fucking dead mech attacked back in the
waste?”

“Well, Jay, you can’t really activate large
caliber gun nests when you’re moving a train car all the way to the
front of the line. That’d be just stupid, wouldn’t it?” Marin
barked back. “You want me to put them away? Are they bugging
you?”

“Anything I need to know?” Capreze
asked.

“No, Commander. Your Chief Mechanic was just
bunching his pretty panties,” Marin joked.

“Am not,” Jay sulked.

***

Masters pushed himself to his feet. “That
fucking hurt.”

“It was supposed to, Mitch,” Johnson said.
“Like I said, I couldn’t have you ruining the fun. It’s like my
supervisors did when they took my tech. They-”

“Supervisors? I thought you were in charge
of tech?”

“Oh, no, I was just in charge of my project.
Which they took from-”

“Are kidding me? My Harlow died because some
middle manager got his feelings hurt?!?”

Masters had his pistol drawn and half the
rounds fired before he knew what he was doing. He stood there in a
cloud of gun smoke.

***

Claxons shook the mountainside as a digital
voice boomed from the stronghold. “SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED. T MINUS
THIRTY MINUTES AND COUNTING UNTIL NUCLEAR DETONATION.”

Capreze’s blood ran cold. “Guess we have a
deadline!” he called over the com.

“I’ll be glad if we make it fifteen minutes
with those things coming at us!” Jay shouted. “They look fucking
pissed!”

The dead mechs, thirty of them, charged down
the ridges, barreling at their prey, the hunger for fresh flesh
driving them into a berserker frenzy.

“Hey Papa Bear?” Rachel called.

“Yeah, Baby Girl?” Capreze responded.

“I love you.”

“You too sweetheart.”

***

The booming of the stronghold claxons shook
the train compartment.

“That ain’t good,” Bisby said getting to his
feet and moving towards the door.

“Frame like a house, frame like a house,
tiny little body, small as a mouse!” Jethro cried.

“Dammit,” Bisby muttered turning from the
door and walking back to Jethro’s side. “Calm down, mechanic. Just
chill.”

“FRAME LIKE A HOUSE, FRAME LIKE A HOUSE,
TINY LITTLE BODY, SMALL AS A MOUSE!” Jethro screamed at the top of
his lungs, sitting bolt upright, fixing his eyes on Bisby’s. “Biz!
You’ve got to get me to the mainframe now!”

Masters stared at Johnson’s corpse, knowing
what he had to do, but unsure if he cared anymore. The red
emergency lights of the room turned the blood pooling below
Johnson’s chair black and Masters watched the pool ripple as each
new drop fell.

He rubbed his face then placed the barrel of
the pistol to his temple. His hand shook uncontrollably and he
closed his eyes.

“HAAAAAARRRRRRRRLLLLLOOOOOWWWWWW!”

He whipped the gun away from his own head
and fired, placing a bullet squarely between Johnson’s eyes,
insuring that the Outsider was truly dead. Masters lowered the
smoking pistol, turned and left.

***

Timson seated himself in the chair of the
double barrel, 85mm gun turret and powered up all systems. He
grabbed a pair of ear defenders and fitted them on his head,
muffling the sounds about him.

“Are spotters ready?” Timson yelled over his
com.

“Yes,” Jenny shouted back. “We’ve got eyes
on all deaders! Just keep firing!”

“Will do!” Timson shouted back. He whirled
his guns about and took aim on the approaching dead mechs, his
target locked on the knee joints of the closest one. “Let’s take
‘em out!”

He slowed his breathing, narrowed his eyes
and started firing.