Metal and Ash (Apex Trilogy) (60 page)

***

“Daddy!” Immy shouted. “Where is he?” She emptied her guns and then turned with the rest of the riders as they searched for a way around the deaders and to Dog, but the mass just kept coming and they were surrounded in seconds. “Daddy!”

“I hear you, child,” the Mayor replied over the com. “I can’t see-. Wait, there he is!” The Mayor laughed hard. “Well, take a look at this!”

Every rider had the vid feed of Dog superimposed on the insides of their visors. Everyone’s jaws dropped as they watched Dog break skulls, snap spines, rip off limbs, and toss deaders about like rag dolls.

“Ms. Bretton?” the Mayor asked. “Did you happen to design the suits for chemical enhancement?”

“Yeah,” Melissa responded. “They have anesthetics and synthetic adrenaline built in. Makes it easier to get yourself out of tight spots.”

The Mayor sent the vid wide and all eyes were glued to the spectacle that was Dog.

“Anyone against taking this fight hand to hand?” the Mayor said.

“Fuck no!” Immy smiled as she raced her cyce right into a thick pack of deaders. She let the machine shoot off ahead of her as she leapt off the back. There were so many deaders grabbing at her that she never hit the ground. “This is gonna be fun!”

***

“Crazy fuckers!” Jay said as he kicked about fifteen deaders off his right foot, sending them flying towards the right ridge that boxed in the approach to the Stronghold. “They’ll get crushed!”

“Maybe,” Capreze said. “But they’ll take as many deaders down as possible.” He watched as the riders went to battle with their fists and legs. They showed no fear, no hesitation. In fact, to his eyes it seemed they were enjoying themselves with reckless abandon. “Let’s really get in this fight, Jay.”

“Ah, man,” Jay complained as he watched Capreze run right into the center of it all. “I knew you were gong to do that.”

“Come on, old man,” Rachel barked as she followed her father. “The time for caution is all gone!”

“Fucking Caprezes,” Jay said as he went running after them both.

***

“Empty!” Railers called out as they fired the last of their missiles and emptied the heavy caliber gun turrets.

“Fuck,” Marin said, watching the swarm of deaders encroach on the train. “Then set charges and fucking run!”

She had known that the party wouldn’t last for them and had made sure every train car was set with enough explosives to turn it into dust.

“MOVE, PEOPLE!” she yelled as she leapt from her train car and tried to put as much distance between herself and the explosion that was just seconds from happening.

She made it eight feet before being taken down by deaders that had crawled out from under the train cars. She tried to get her sidearm out, but her arm was ripped from its socket. The suit she had on kept the limb from being completely torn off, but inside the suit her shoulder was nothing but shredded muscle and tendons.

She tried to fight them off, but the numbers were too many. Screams bubbled to her lips, ready to fly into the night air, but Marin kept them inside. Even as she felt ribs shatter and internal organs rupture, she didn’t scream. She turned her head and watched Railers try to fight hand to hand with the deaders, the light of the fires throwing wicked shadows across all of them.

But Railers weren’t ground fighters and they didn’t last very long.

She got one last look at her train before her skull was crushed and the life left her eyes.

***

“NO!” Jay roared as he watched the Railer train get taken. “MOTHER FUCKERS!”

Any hesitation he had had before about getting into the thick of the fight was wiped from his mind. Without even considering any plan or next moves, Jay began to eradicate anything that walked, ran, or shambled by his mech. He let all control leave his mind. He didn’t care what he killed as long as it stayed dead.

Capreze and Rachel had to put as much distance as possible between their mechs and Jay’s in order to keep from catching any collateral damage. Deader bodies flew everywhere as Jay kicked out. He bent down, grabbed up handfuls and slammed them together, crushing them between his fingers.

Deaders swarmed his mech. They climbed his exoskeleton, their senses telling them that there was flesh inside somewhere. Jay diverted power to his frame and electrified anything unlucky enough to be on his mech at that time. Dead flesh smoked and cooked, adding to the ever present smell of burnt deader that covered the battlefield.

Minutes went by and the deaders didn’t stop coming and Jay didn’t let his blind rage slip away. If he even came close to tiring he just pictured Marin’s death. A friend he’d known longer than anyone else in the hell of the wasteland.

That drove him on.

Sixty-Three

“Styles!” Melissa called. “Get your ass over here and pick me up!”

“On our way, pretty lady,” the Styleses all said.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Melissa growled. “Just one of you!”

“That would be my privilege,” Styles 1 said. “Heading your way now.”

The BTT shot back towards the Stronghold and was hovering over Melissa in just two seconds.

Melissa grabbed Charlie by the arm. “Come on!” she shouted as she glanced towards the deaders that didn’t care about the fiery mounds anymore and were busy climbing over and coming straight for them as they were the two tastiest things in sight.

“What are you thinking?” Charlie asked as the cargo bay shut and Melissa knelt down, placing her hands to the floor of the BTT.

“I’m thinking we need to put these things to real use,” Melissa answered. “The missiles are creating as much havoc for us as they are for the deaders.”

“What ya doing down there?” Styles 1 asked. “I’m getting structural warnings left and right.”

“I’m giving you some new toys,” Melissa said. “Let me know if the changes affect your flying.”

“They already are, but I am more than enough pilot to handle them,” Styles 1 replied. “And holy crap! Are you sharpening the wings?”

“I am,” Melissa answered as she grinned up at Charlie. “Don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.”

“Just be careful,” Styles warned. “Too thin and this baby won’t be able to stay stable. We’ll flip right over into the mess down there.”

“Don’t worry,” Melissa said. “I have it under control.”

***

Leaping from one BTT to the next, Melissa made as many alterations as she could as fast as she could. She hoped that she had all of the dimensions and calculations right in her head. Styles 1 had been right, if she was off by a little then the BTTs would not fare so well.

Styles 1 brought his BTT over the last BTT Melissa had altered. Charlie, hooked to the inside of the cargo bay, extended his hand and helped pull her up inside.

“You’re good to go,” Melissa said. “Clean sweeps and you can wipe these fuckers out!”

“That’ll buy some time until Capreze can get the hangar back open,” Charlie said. “If he can get it open.”

***

The Great Maker tried to keep his form insubstantial, to meld with the ones and the zeroes. But Beth was having none of that shit.

“Come here, motherfucker!” she shouted as she manifested a barren plain that held nothing but the two of them. “You aren’t running anymore, bitch!”

“Such foul language and a foul attitude from a such a young lady,” the Great Maker tsked. “Not very becoming.”

Beth rushed the cyborg and her fist slammed against his steel reinforced jaw. His head snapped back and Beth smiled at the sound of vertebrae cracking.

“Power,” the Great Maker said as he straightened his neck, setting the vertebrae back in place. “But not experience.”

Beth blinked and he was gone. She spun around and caught his foot across her cheek. She tumbled to the ground then tried to push herself back up, but the Great Maker was on her. He grabbed her by the hair and jerked her head back. His other hand clutched her about the throat and began to press into her soft flesh. The tips of his fingers stretched and sharpened, drawing blood instantly.

“I have been in the digital world for most of my life,” the Great Maker laughed. “I used to play in this mainframe like it was my own special oasis. You think a young bitch like you can defeat me here? Ha! This is MY domain! This is where I learned about the purity of the machine and the blasphemy of the flesh!”

The Great Maker tore Beth’s throat open and blood sprayed across the digital landscape. She clutched at her throat, her eyes wide with fear, and turned to look at the Great Maker. He just smiled down at her, his red eyes incapable of pity.

***

LaFrance watched the flashing images on the vid screens and cringed as he saw Beth’s body slump to the ground, her life draining through her fingers.

“Lesh!” LaFrance ordered. “Kill!”

The dog understood that. She leapt at the Great Maker’s body and landed on his chest. The eyes popped open just as a bolt of electricity shot down and sent the dog flying across the room. She skidded across the floor, landing hard against Stan.

The boy stirred and pushed himself to his feet. He looked about, saw June against the wall, Lesh singed and barely breathing at his feet, and LaFrance stuck in his wheelchair.

“Care to hand me that?” LaFrance asked, pointing at June’s sidearm. “I have a job to do.”

Stan looked at the pistol and then picked it up. But instead of handing it to LaFrance he walked over to the Great Maker and pressed the barrel against the cyborg’s head. Electricity shot down again, but Stan took the bolt and didn’t budge.

“You’re different, eh?” the Great Maker said.

Stan didn’t answer with words. He let the gunshot do his talking. Brain and metal exploded from the side of the Great Maker’s head. His last breath left him and his body went slack. Stan nodded then walked over and handed the pistol to LaFrance.

“Uh, thanks, kid,” La France said.

Stan nodded and went and sat down next to June, wrapping her arms about him. She stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up. Stan closed his eyes and rested his head against her chest.

“What the fuck?” LaFrance said.

***

“My body,” the Great Maker said as he looked down at his digital form. “My body is gone. Now I am truly free.”

“You’d think that, wouldn’t ya?” Jethro said from behind him. “But it’s a funny thing about this mainframe. It gets kinda crowded quick.”

Jethro ripped the Great Maker’s head off of the cyborg’s neck and tossed it back over his shoulder. The Great Maker’s corpse flicked, flicked, then flashed into nothing.

Jethro walked over to Beth and extended his hand. “Need some help?”

Beth was too busy choking on her own blood to answer.

“Not real,” Jethro said as he tapped his head. “Only this is real. Stop bleeding and get up. We have work to do.”

Beth pulled her hand away and was surprised to see not a drop of blood on it. She took Jethro’s hand and he helped her to her feet.

“You know, we’re just making all this shit up,” Jethro said. “I’m not really holding your hand. We aren’t really seeing each other. It’s just a figment-.”

His words were stopped as Beth grabbed him and kissed him hard.

“That real enough for you?” Beth asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Jethro said. “That kiss kinda brings up other possibilities.”

“Keep it in your digital pants,” Beth said. “We have work to do, remember?”

“You know, technically we control the time flow in here,” Jethro grinned. “We could spend what feels like a year here and it wouldn’t even be a nanosecond out there in flesh and bone land.”

“Maybe later,” Beth said as she gave him one quick peck. “After we save some lives.”

***

The BTTs cut swaths through the deaders, their sharpened, lengthened wings acting as massive scythes. Thousands died with each sweep, but it still wasn’t enough. There were still so many that Capreze ordered everyone to the Stronghold to make a last stand.

“Riders!” Capreze shouted. “Get back here!”

But they were too busy.

All of the living riders of Eden had formed a tight group and slowly rotated out, fighting and killing every deader that came at them. They kept the group flowing, constantly changing, so that one rider couldn’t get bogged down. It was an ingenious display of hand to hand combat against overwhelming odds.

“Sorry, Commander,” Dog said as he tore out the spine of a deader and shoved it through the skull of another one. “We got our hands full at the moment.”

“You’ll be safer back here,” Capreze stated. “We’ll protect you with the mechs.”

“No offense,” the Mayor said over the com. “But your mechs aren’t doing as well as the riders. Well, except for your Chief Mechanic.”

That was surely true.

Jay hadn’t slowed down at all. His mech stomped and ground deaders into the dirt, melding their rotten flesh with the bits of gravel and sand that made up the wasteland. But even with his never ending rage, Jay was making only the slightest difference in the numbers.

“Fuck,” Capreze muttered as he saw the futility of it all. There were just too many.

“Hey, boss man,” Jethro said. “Bet you’d like to come in and put your feet up for a bit, eh?”

“Son of a bitch!” Capreze yelled. “Where the hell have you been? What have you been doing in there?”

“Oh, just taking a nap,” Jethro replied. “Why? Did I miss something?”

“Open the fucking hangar door, Jethro,” Capreze ordered.

Jethro complied and Capreze took up a defensive position with Rachel, their mechs blocking as much of the door as they could.

“Inside now!” Capreze ordered. “That’s an order!”

“I’ll get them,” Styles 1 said.

The BTTs stopped their zombie mowing and flew to the riders. They dropped down, smashing deaders under their BC and opened ramps.

“All aboard Styles Airlines!” Styles 1 laughed. “We will be departing right the fuck now!”

Dog, Immy and the others didn’t argue. They all sprinted to the closest BTT and climbed inside. The BTTs took off, strafing the ground with gunfire as they headed to the hangar.