Dead Mech (56 page)

***

Mathew lowered Doctor Themopolous to the
ground behind the Railer train.

“Get inside now! This is going to be rough!”
Mathew shouted.

“Be careful!” Themopolous yelled.

Mathew laughed as he and Shiner clomped
away. “I think we’re well beyond careful, Doc!”

“Doc!” Bisby yelled from the train car. “Get
your ass in here! Jethro’s gone bug fuck nuts!”

“What do you mean?” Themopolous cried.

“Get in here and see! He wants us to move
him inside the stronghold!” Bisby answered. “He wants to be taken
to the mainframe!”

Themoplous grabbed the hand bar and pulled
herself into the train car.

***

“Back to back or solo?” Rachel called over
the com.

Capreze watched the Railers’ bullets stream
by, the many tracers lighting up the battlefield. “Split up! Try to
draw groups of them together, so the Railers can concentrate their
fire!”

Shiner/Mathew ran past Capreze and Rachel’s
mechs heading straight into the oncoming dead mechs. “I’m on
it!”

Rachel watched in awe as Shiner/Mathew
ducked two swipes of a dead mech’s arm, fired a plasma blast point
blank into the deader’s mid-section then spun about, clothes lining
a second deader as it lunged for him. “Holy shit my man’s got
skills!”

***

“Come on!” the Rookie shouted at Stomper.
“Let me up there so we can take these deaders out!”

“No, I cannot,” Stomper replied stubbornly.
“Masters would not like it.”

“Fuck Masters!” the Rookie screamed. “We’re
all going to be dead if we don’t stop these fucking dead
mechs!”

“The stronghold’s self destruct has been
set. We will die anyway,” Stomper responded. “I must wait for
Masters.”

“AAAARGH!” the Rookie cried, fists clenched
in frustration. “Don’t make me come up there!”

“You are funny,” Stomper said. “Masters
likes you.”

The Rookie stood stunned. “Oh, my god!
You’re like a fucking kid!”

***

“Jethro can you hear me?!?” Themopolous
said, rushing to the mechanic’s side in the train compartment.
Jethro sat straight up in his cot, sweat pouring down his face, the
veins of his neck bulging.

“FRAME LIKE A HOUSE, FRAME LIKE A HOUSE,
TINY LITTLE BODY, SMALL AS A MOUSE!” he bellowed.

Themopolous grabbed Jethro by the shoulders
and shook him slightly. “Jethro! Can you hear me?” She whipped her
head towards Bisby, eyes filled with alarm. “How long has he been
like this?”

“Just a couple minutes, Doc,” Bisby
answered. “He told me he needed to get to the mainframe.”

***

“Jay? It’s Themopolous,” the Doctor called
over the com.

“Little busy right now, Doc,” Jay responded.
“Kinda fighting deaders and all that.”

“Bisby said Jethro was lucid for a moment.
That he wanted us to get him to the mainframe. What does that mean
to you?”

Jay sidestepped a charging dead mech,
planting his elbow in the monsters back as it passed, slamming it
to the ground. “Not a clue! You’re the Doctor, I’m just a…
Mainframe? Fuck, why didn’t I think of that? Oh, yeah, because I
was occupied by civilization’s impending doom. Meet me at the
stronghold entrance!”

***

“By the entrance? How the hell are we going
to get him to the entrance?” Themopolous yelled.

“Leave it to me!” Bisby dashed from the
compartment and out of the train. Slumped low as the battle waged
about him, he scanned the area for the Special Ops team. Putting
his fingers to his mouth he blew an ear splitting whistle.

Specialist Sol whipped about as Bisby waved
at him, trying to get his attention. Sol, auto-carbine to his
shoulder, firing short bursts, side stepped his way to Bisby.

“What?” Sol shouted.

“We need your team! We need to get
inside!”

***

“Sol! Where the fuck are you going?”
Lieutenant Murphy yelled into her com.

“Wounded mech pilot needs us to move their
brain fried mechanic into the stronghold! I’m going to check it out
and convo with their doctor!” the Specialist shouted back. “I’ll
assess the situation and report in five!”

“Make that three! We need every gun we have
out here!”

“Roger that, sir! I’ll be out quicker than
Kafar cums!”

“Hey! What the fuck did I do?” Specialist
Kafar protested.

“Nothing except be born!” Sol joked.

“Less smart ass and more kick ass!” Murphy
yelled.

“Roger!” the Specialists responded.

***

“Rookie! Get your ass up here and take over
my mech!” Jay shouted over his loudspeaker.

The Rookie turned from Stomper as Jay walked
his mech up to the stronghold entrance. “What? You want me to pilot
your mech? What the fuck are you going to do?”

Jay lowered his hand and the Rookie stepped
on. “Something’s going on with Jethro and I have a feeling he’s
gonna need my mechanic’s hands!”

The cockpit flipped open and Jay un-strapped
as the Rookie scrambled inside.

Jay stuck his finger in the Rookie’s face.
“Break my mech and I’ll fucking kill you!”

***

Rachel took a blow from a deader and then
another, spinning her mech about. She steadied herself, blocked a
jab from one mech, blocked a kick from another and brought up her
50mm. Nothing.

“Fuck! I’m out of ammo!” she yelled over the
com.

“Just keep fighting!” Capreze shouted,
shoving his 50mm into a deader’s cockpit, obliterating the zombie
pilot instantly. The dead mech fell and Capreze kicked the lifeless
battle machine towards two onrushing deaders, tripping them both
up. “Use what you got Baby Girl!”

Rachel took a brutal kick to the leg, but
stayed upright. “Okay Papa Bear!”

***

“Coming at the engine!” A Railer spotter
shouted. Immediately three gun turrets turned and opened fire on
the dead mech. The monstrous machine shuddered under the onslaught,
its knee joints giving out as hot lead shredded the hydraulics and
struts.

Once down, the guns focused on the cockpit,
tearing the zombie pilot apart.

“Outstanding! Oh, shit!” Timson hollered,
whipping his turret about and focusing his fire on two deaders
rushing Rachel as she struggled to fend off three others at once.
His shots went wide and he lost the window of opportunity as the
deaders got too close to Rachel.

***

“Rachel is struggling,” Shiner said as the
mech ripped the arms off a dead mech and shoved one of the limbs
into the cockpit, crushing the zombie pilot. “Shall we assist?”

“You fucking bet we shall!” Mathew
yelled.

Shiner/Mathew spun past an oncoming deader,
jumped another as its legs were taken out by Railer fire and full
on tackled a third as it stepped into Shiner/Mathew’s path. The
mech pinned the deader’s arms down with its knees and put three
plasma blasts squarely into the cockpit.

Mathew gasped as he lost sight of Rachel’s
mech under an onslaught of deaders.

***

“You the Doc?” Specialist Sol asked,
slinging his carbine as he entered the train compartment.

“Yeah. He’s had major brain trauma and I
need to get him inside the stronghold. Our Chief Mechanic is
waiting for us there. Can your team help?”

Sol eyed Jethro as the mechanic chanted his
mantra over and over. “Your mechanic is waiting? But aren’t you the
Doctor? Am I missing something here?”

“He came around and said he needed to get to
the mainframe,” Bisby responded. “Somewhere in that mush brain of
his is a plan. Our chief mechanic can get to that plan.”

***

“Hey Lieutenant?” Sol called over the
com.

Murphy hit the deck as a stray plasma bolt
shot past her. “Whatcha got for me Specialist?”

“The doctor and the mech pilot think this
wounded mechanic of theirs can help us shut down the mainframe and
the self-destruct if we get him in the stronghold, sir.”

“What do you think?” the Lieutenant asked,
her hands moving quickly as she directed her team. “It’s a long way
from the train to the stronghold entrance with all these fucking
mechs slamming about!”

“I think it’s worth a fucking shot!
Otherwise we’re all crispy critters!”

***

Shiner/Mathew unloaded their 50mms on
anything that moved as the mech sprinted towards Rachel. “Rachel!
Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, my ears are fine, I’m just trapped
here!” she responded over the com.

“Good, stay that way! Do not fucking
move!”

“What? Don’t move?!? I’m about to be ripped
apart here!”

Shiner/Mathew dove at the deaders piled onto
Rachel’s mech, shouldered two off while grabbing a third and using
its momentum to flip about and toss the deader out into the
battlefield.

Instantly the other dead mechs shifted their
focus onto Shiner/Mathew.

“Bring it on you dead fucks!” Mathew
roared.

***

Jay stepped into the stronghold, his side
arm drawn. The entry way was a massive staging area, making the
mech base’s hangar look like a guest room.

“Holy shit. I could build a fucking planet
in here,” he whispered, still unsure who or what occupied the UDC
base. He scanned the walls until he found what he was looking for.
Holstering his pistol, Jay ran to the control panel and began to
hack the security system.

“T MINUS TWENTY MINUTES UNTIL NUCLEAR
DETONATION!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Jay muttered,
struggling against the stronghold’s code. “No need to fucking shout
it.”

***

Bisby stood outside the door as Specialists
Kafar and Sol, using a blanket as a stretcher, carried the raving
Jethro out of the small train compartment.

“This is going to fucking kill my back,”
Kafar complained.

“Grendetti is setting up a real stretcher
outside, we just have to get him off this train,” Sol replied. “So
stop being such a fucking whiner.”

“You need to get off my ass,” Kafar said.
“You’ve been riding it all day!”

“You need to show some fucking respect,
Specialist,” Sol barked. “Everything may have gone to shit, but I’m
still 2
^nd
in command here.”

***

The RPG sped towards the Railer car giving
the occupants no time to evacuate.

Timson shielded his eyes from the blast and
was instantly on the com with Jenny. “Fuck! Some of the deaders
still have armaments. Scan the fuckers so we know which ones to
target! And get that fire out before it spreads to the other
cars!”

“We’re on it!” Jenny responded. “Fire
suppression team is already deployed! Scanning deaders now!”

“Give me a fucking target!” Timson
yelled.

“Keep your goddamn britches on!” Marin
shouted back. “It’s hard to get a lock, they’re all moving around
so much!”

***

“Son of a bitch!” Jay yelled, slamming his
fist against the stronghold control panel, frustrated as he was yet
again shut out of the mainframe. “Maybe I can at least get some
light in here.”

The chief mechanic easily bypassed two
sub-systems and the halogens in the ceiling of the stronghold
staging area began to glow. “Now we’re talking… Oh my God…”

Jay turned about, his eyes fixed on the huge
walls. “What the fuck?”

All about him the concrete walls were
painted with murals, sketches, portraits, some as high as the
staging area’s ceiling itself. Jay could only stare.

***

Masters stepped into the staging area, his
head down, eyes on the floor.

“Masters!” Jay cried. “You’re alive! Holy
shit, can you believe this place?”

Masters didn’t answer, he just pushed past
as the mechanic ran to greet him.

“Mitch? Man, come on, you okay?” Jay said,
blocking the pilot’s path.

“Move Jay,” Masters said quietly. “Don’t
make me hurt you.”

Jay looked at the pistol in Masters’ hand
and frowned. “Seriously? What the fuck? You wouldn’t…”

Jay crumpled immediately as the butt of the
pistol connected with his forehead.

“Sorry about that, but I warned you,”
Masters said weakly.

***

Shiner/Mathew kicked out, blocking the
deader’s attack. The mech lowered its right shoulder, coming in
with a powerful uppercut, shearing the front of the dead mech’s
cockpit right off. Shiner/Mathew moved in for the killing blow, but
was tackled about the waste by another deader and slammed hard into
the earth, creating a twenty yard divot as the two machines
slid.

Shiner/Mathew hooked its left elbow up under
the dead mech’s mid-section for leverage and shoved, dislodging the
abomination enough to give its right arm, and plasma cannon, a
clear shot.

“Bye bye you fucking waste of metal!” Mathew
screamed.

***

“Fuck! Incoming!” Specialist Grendetti
yelled as he fired ineffectual shot after ineffectual shot at the
charging dead mech, trying to buy the Special Ops team some time as
they struggled to get Jethro’s prone form to the stronghold.

“Hold it off!” Murphy shouted, her attention
diverted by another encroaching deader that had seen the easy meals
making their way across the battlefield.

“I’m trying, but the thing won’t stop!”
Grendetti shouted back. “It’s gonna be right on us!”

The ground shook as a broken, smoking deader
husk slammed into the attacker. “I gotcha covered!” the Rookie
called from Jay’s mech.

***

Masters stepped from the stronghold’s
entrance, his eyes never looking up at the battle that raged before
him.

“Come on,” Masters said to Stomper. “We’re
leaving.”

“Shall we not help the others?” Stomper
asked.

“No,” Masters answered flatly.

“Should I lift you to the cockpit?”

“No, I’m walking,” Masters responded, his
gait never slowing.

Stomper processed a moment. “Is this because
of the Harlow’s death? Do you want to die also?”

“I want to leave.”

Stomper took a giant step and another,
keeping Masters positioned securely between his colossal feet,
shielding the pilot from the shrapnel and ordinance flying
about.