Dead Mech (57 page)

***

Capreze watched the Hill Stomper progress
through the middle of the fray.

“Pilot Masters! Do you read me?” Capreze
called. “You need to get into your cockpit and engage the hostiles
immediately! That is a direct order!”

Capreze waited but was answered by only
silence.

“Pilot, do you read me?”

Still silence.

“Goddammit Mitch! What is your fucking
malfunction?!?”

“Leave me alone Commander. It’s all lost
anyway. If you were smart you’d cut your losses and go,” Masters
answered finally.

“That is not an option, Pilot! Get in your
fucking mech and do your fucking job!”

Masters refused to respond.

***

“Rachel! Oh, Jeezus Christ! Rachel!” Mathew
screamed, blasting the last mech off of her. “Shiner! Is she
alive?”

“Sensors show her vital signs are weak,
Mathew. I am sorry, but I do not know if she will live much
longer,” Shiner answered somberly.

“Fuck! No!”

The ground shook and Shiner/Mathew turned,
ready to continue fighting, but stopped short at the sight of
Stomper rumbling past. “Mitch! Thank God! Help, I need to get
Rachel out of her mech and into the stronghold!”

“Pilot Masters is not in his mech, he is
walking below,” Shiner observed.

“Masters! Where are you going?”

***

“Where the fuck is he going?!?” the Rookie
shouted, grabbing a dead mech’s arm, twisting it and slamming the
monster to the ground as it reached for the Special Ops team.

“I don’t know,” Themopolous answered over
the com. “Masters? Masters, can you read me?”

“He’s snapped, Doc,” Bisby said, his eyes
focused on the retreating pilot and the mech towering above him.
“He’s giving up.”

“What? Can he do that? Isn’t there some type
of honor code or something about leaving your fellow pilots to
die?”

“Yeah, there is, but I don’t think he gives
a shit,” Bisby answered.

***

The world exploded about Masters, but he
didn’t flinch. The cacophony of the Railers’ large caliber guns
didn’t faze him. The roars of the dead mechs, those with working
loudspeakers, echoed through the air, but Masters thought nothing
of them.

In fact, thinking nothing was his only goal.
Mitch Masters didn’t want to think or feel or remember or even be.
He wanted to die, but no longer had the willpower to pull the
trigger. To take his own life would be too much effort, would
require he bring his awareness back to the pain, back to what he
lost.

***

“The fucking Hill Stomper is blocking my
shots!” one of the Railer gunners yelled. “I can’t see shit around
that thing!”

“Just keep shooting! If you hit the fucking
giant then you hit it! Don’t let a crazy mech and its nut job pilot
keep you from doing your fucking job!” Timson shouted back. “Just
keep fucking shooting!”

Another train car exploded and the
concussion nearly knocked Timson from his seat. The world flashed
and spun, his ears ringing, the once deafening battle now reduced
to muffled sounds like his ears were filled with foam.

“Status report!” he cried shakily.

***

Jay forced himself to his feet and stumbled
to the Special Ops team as they entered the stronghold.

“Jay!” Themopolous cried, rushing from
Jethro’s side to the chief mechanic’s. “Jeezus, you’re pouring
blood! What happened?”

“Fucking Masters cold-cocked me! That’s what
fucking happened!” Jay growled. “I’m gonna kick his fucking ass the
next time I see him!”

“Good luck,” Bisby snorted. “The crazy
asshole is walking up the middle of Hell right now. You’ll be lucky
if he has an ass left to kick.”

Jay turned his attention to Jethro. “Let’s
get him to the mainframe.”

“Follow me,” Murphy said.

***

“Capreze! We can’t take much more of this!”
Timson yelled as he fired point blank into a dead mech’s cockpit as
the thing hungrily reached for him. The machine stopped, lurched
and fell, its outstretched arm missing Timson by feet, but crushing
part of the train car he was positioned on. “My people and my train
are getting cut apart! We can’t last much longer!”

Capreze swept the legs of an attacking dead
mech then leapt, bringing the full weight of his mech down on the
deader’s cockpit, crushing the zombie inside. “We have no choice!
I’m losing people too!’

***

“We’ve got to get her out of here!” Mathew
cried, grabbing onto Rachel’s mech’s legs, trying to pull the
machine out of the middle of the fray.

“There is no where to go,” Shiner responded.
“The stronghold has T minus eleven minutes until detonation. We can
attempt to run, but not while burdened with the weight of another
mech.”

“Rachel is not a fucking burden!” Mathew
screamed. “We have to do something!”

Shiner took control, sending four plasma
blasts towards an oncoming dead mech, knocking the thing to the
ground. “All we can do is fight. Fight until we die.”

***

“What the fuck are these wall paintings?”
Bisby asked as the Special Ops team made its way down the long
concrete tunnel towards the mainframe control room.

Murphy chuckled lightly then seeing Bisby’s
scowl stopped. “Sorry. I forget that only UDC descendents, Special
Ops and Intelligence personnel are allowed in the stronghold.”

“UDC descendents? What the hell are you
talking about?” Jay asked.

“Who do you think maintained this facility
during all the years the wasteland was completely uninhabitable?”
Specialist Sol said. “People have lived here, families have lived
here for hundreds of years.”

“Or they did,” Murphy said solemnly.

***

The Rookie stood at the entrance to the
stronghold trying to figure out his next move.

“T MINUS TEN MINUTES UNTIL NUCLEAR
DETONATION” the voice boomed behind him.

“Get your fucking ass in gear Rookie!”
Capreze’s voice boomed equally as loud over the com. “Jay didn’t
give you that mech so you can stand around with your dick in your
hand! Someone told me you know how to kick ass! Now fucking do it,
pilot!”

The Rookie smiled at the word ‘pilot’. “Yes,
sir!”

He cracked his neck, flexed his mech’s fists
then charged headlong into the middle of Hell.

***

Timson watched in horror as three dead mechs
attacked his train at once, ripping one of the cars, screaming
gunner and all, right off the tracks, sending a shudder through the
entire train.

“Goddammit! Somebody shoot those mother
fucking things!” Timson yelled whipping his turret about. A massive
mech hand reached out and grabbed his gun barrels, instantly
twisting the metal. “Oh, Shit!” Timson dove from his seat, rolling
off the top of the train car and landing hard on the ground feet
below.

“Jenny! Immediate evac now!” he grunted.

“Where to?” Jenny shouted back.

“I don’t know, just run!”

***

The mainframe control room door slid open
and the Special Ops team hurried inside, setting Jethro carefully
down on the floor.

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

“Does he ever fucking shut up?” Kafar
complained. Jay and Bisby each moved towards the Specialist, but
Themopolous held up her hand. “Cool it boys! We need to figure out
what he wants.”

Themopolous leaned close to Jethro. “Jethro,
honey? Can you hear me? We’re in the mainframe room. Now what?”

Jethro’s eyes fixed on hers. “Jack me
up.”

***

“Jack him up?” Bisby asked. “What the fuck
does that mean? And can someone shut these fucking emergency lights
off?!? They’re giving me a goddamn headache!”

“I got the lights,” Specialist Grendetti
said, moving to a control panel on the wall.

Jay stood before Johnson’s emaciated corpse,
reclined in the cerebral integration chair. Themopolous came up
behind him and grimaced. “He must have been in that chair for quite
awhile after those feeding tubes ran dry.” She stepped past Jay and
inspected the equipment. “We can keep Jethro’s body alive
indefinitely with this set up. But, what about his mind?”

***

“What do you know about the mainframe’s AI?”
Jay asked Murphy.

The Lieutenant furrowed her brow. “I don’t
know what you mean.”

“Did it interact with base personnel? Did it
have a personality of its own? Have there ever been any major
issues you know about it? Shit like that.”

“No, issues and it never interacted,”
Lieutenant Murphy answered.

“Good, that means the AI is passive and
won’t resist when I plug Jethro in,” Jay said.

“Actually, there is one thing,” Sol
cautioned. “It’s a permanent job. Once you are hooked up, you can’t
unhook, hence the life support set-up.”

***

Jay looked at his protégé and friend. “I
don’t think Jethro has much choice. And neither do we.”

Themopolus unhooked the tubes and lines from
Johnson’s corpse and grabbed her bag, yanking out gauze and
antiseptic. “You aren’t hooking him into shit until I get these
cleaned off.”

“T MINUS FIVE MINUTES UNTIL NUCLEAR
DETONATION.”

“Somebody help her clean that shit!” Murphy
ordered. Sol, Grendetti and Kafar each took a hose and cleaned
furiously.

“Can he cancel the self-destruct?” Murphy
asked Jay.

“Yes, I know he can,” Jay answered. “What I
don’t know is how long the integration process takes.

***

The Rookie stood encircled by dead mechs.
Six of the monstrosities surrounded him and the Rookie waited for
the first to move.

When it finally did, an ancient battle mech,
probably first generation, the Rookie was ready. In a flash he had
studied each dead mech down to the tiniest detail. Just as he did
back in the fight cage, he knew his opponent’s weaknesses and he
meant to exploit them.

The dead mech rushed him and he knelt his
mech down, striking a blow directly on the oncoming mech’s left
knee, shattering the structure and crippling the deader
instantly.

***

Dead mech after dead mech after dead mech
tried to get at the meat walking between Stomper’s legs and dead
mech after dead mech after dead mech was crushed, ground into the
dirt like a tin can.

Masters barely noticed, in fact he was
disappointed that he had such an effective bodyguard. He would have
welcomed death at any point, knowing he was too much of a coward to
take his own life. His lip curled in a sneer as thoughts of
self-loathing over took him.

He walked from the battlefield, his giant in
tow, and never glanced back once.

***

“We are out of ammunition,” Shiner stated,
the plasma cannon refusing to discharge. “We are left to fend off
the dead ones with our bare hands.”

Mathew looked down at Rachel’s mech and the
woman he loved lying unconscious inside the cockpit. “I’m prepared
for that.”

A deader roared behind them and
Shiner/Mathew whirled about, landing a kick to the dead mech’s
chest, denting the cockpit structure. The deader stumbled back, but
recovered quickly, diving at Shiner/Mathew’s legs. Shiner/Mathew
brought its right fist down, timing the blow perfectly, smashing
the deader deep into the dirt. Shiner/Mathew struck again and
again.

***

Timson stared in horror as he watched his
people snatched up by the ravenous dead mechs, most of the
mechanical beasts not even pausing to open their cockpit hatches,
just stuffing the screaming victims through broken windshields and
bent supports and into the waiting, starving jaws of the zombie
pilots within.

“What have I done? I shouldn’t have brought
them here,” he whispered, falling to his knees.

“Dad! What are you doing?” Jenny cried,
running to Timson’s side.

“It’s all my fault,” Timson said weakly.

Marin came up beside Jenny. “What the fuck?”
Marin slapped Timson hard across the face.

***

The Rookie drove his right leg out like a
piston, crushing the knee joints of the three closest deaders. He
felt his mech shudder as a dead mech grabbed him from behind. He
reached up over his shoulders, snagging the deader by its back
support struts, and yanked hard, tossing the dead mech over him and
into the others.

He reached out, ripping a deader’s arm out
of its coupling and stood, brandishing the massive metal limb like
a club.

“You may not have faces, but when I kill you
all, I’m wearing something of yours!” the Rookie grinned
viciously.

***

“Are you sure this isn’t going to just kill
him?” Bisby asked as Themopolous attached the last of the life
support hoses to Jethro’s body.

“No, Biz, I’m not sure,” Themopolous barked.
“Look around you! Does anyone look fucking sure of anything?”

“Damn, I’m just concerned for Jethro. I
mean…”

“You think I’m not concerned?!?” Themopolous
shouted. “Why don’t you go sit your one-armed ass over there and
get the fuck out of my way?”

Bisby scowled, but didn’t protest.

“Ready, Jay?” Themopolous shouted.

Jay tried to hide his amusement at Bisby’s
dressing down. “Yep.”

“Then push the fucking button!”

***

Jethro’s body shuddered and convulsed as the
cerebral integration systems activated. The vid screens flashed
hundreds of images a second, making most of the Special Ops team
turn their eyes away.

“Fuck! That’s worse than the emergency
lights,” Bisby complained.

Jethro’s eyes bulged and rolled back up into
his head.

“Jethro!” Theopolous cried. “What’s wrong?
He’s not connecting, is he?”

Jay closed his eyes. “Fuck, I didn’t think
of this.” Jay opened his eyes and looked at everyone. “He doesn’t
have a Reaper chip anymore.” The Chief mechanic glanced at
Johnson’s corpse. “But, I know where he can get one.”