Surviving The Theseus (25 page)

"Go fuck yourselves," Regina said.

"I'll take that as a no," Strange Man said.
He snapped his fingers. Remote Man clicked the remote and the power
to the tripod and gun flicked off, the gun slumping back down.

One of the cronies, not one of the four hawk
watching bastards with rifles pointed at Regina, walked over to the
crowd and pulled out a young girl who couldn't have been more than
twenty. She resisted, pulling and twisting as a large man with
long, black curly hair, a plethora of facial hair, and arms and
legs like a gorilla, pulled her by the right arm. She screamed.

Strange Man snapped his fingers again.

Gorilla Man pulled out a large caliber
handgun and shot the girl in the head at close range. Blood and
brain matter sprayed the crowd behind. Two people, a man and a
woman, threw up.

The group backed up again, squishing those
behind, pushing tables and chairs against the wall, chipping and
gouging it.

The young girl's corpse thudded to the
ground. Gorilla Man grabbed another female, to the right of what
must have been the dead girl's friend or sister, because she
screamed, falling to her knees, staring at the corpse.

"Shut up!" Strange Man yelled. She didn't.
Gorilla Man let go of the thirty-something brunette woman he was
yanking toward Strange Man, pulled out his gun, and shot the friend
of the corpse in the head; more brain matter and goo flew into the
crowd. People screamed and then everybody promptly shut up as
Strange Man glared at them.

Regina didn't watch the horrifying murders,
other than what she caught in her periphery. She concentrated on
only those pointing guns at her. Two were distracted by the
killings and couldn't help themselves, watching the two girls die.
The other two wavered, but not enough for Regina to make her
move.

Gorilla Man grabbed the brunette woman again,
as she stood quivering uncontrollably, her eyes darting everywhere,
her head not moving. He pulled her toward Strange Man, and she did
not resist.

Once in front of Strange Man, the gorilla let
her go. "Sorry you had to see that, Sweetie," Strange Man said,
"but I'm afraid it was necessary."

"W-what are ya-you going t-to do to me?" the
brunette said.

"Nothing, Honey Doll, that our friend,
Regina, couldn't put a stop to right now. How about it,
Regina?"

Regina felt the stares on her, the scathing
looks of hatred. She had no doubt some of the people blamed her,
feeling they would take their own lives to save the lives of
others. Maybe one or two of them would, but it would be in vain,
and would stop nothing. "You have my answer already," Regina
said.

"That I do, my SOAD friend. That I do. I
thought you might change it though, but I guess you're more
heartless than I thought. You don't care about anybody but
yourself, I see now."

It didn't faze her. Nothing he could say
would faze her in the least. He was nothing to her. His opinions
and comments had no more meaning than if they had come from a
talking piece of shit, which is exactly what he was to her.

Strange Man paused, probably for effect,
letting it sink into the crowd. "Well, Regina, you'll understand if
I go through the motions anyway." He gently grabbed the brunette
woman around the shoulders, turning her to face the gun. "That's
good, Sweetness. Now, stay there." He backed away. "Oh, and please
raise your arms for me, spreading your fingers out."

She raised her arms halfway. Her whole body
shook.

"Oh, now, come on Baby Cakes, you can do
better than that. Reach up. Come on."

She closed her eyes; tears poured down her
face.

Regina didn't watch. The hawk watchers got
all her attention.

"You can do it," Strange Man said.

The brunette woman kept her eyes closed,
slowly reaching up.

One of the hawk men looked at the
brunette.

Strange Man clapped his hands.

A gunshot rang out from outside. Regina
prayed it was not Michael.

None of the pussy pack paid any attention to
it.

The brunette stopped moving.

"A little more, Muffin," Strange Man said,
still clapping his hands.

Another hawk man's eyes turned to the
brunette. Only two men were left, still watching Regina
attentively.

The brunette raised her arms as high as they
would go, spread her fingers, and opened her eyes. "Please," she
begged, her body still shaking, tears still cascading down her face
and dripping onto the floor.

"That's it. You've got it." He gave her a few
more big claps and then braced his hands together as if in prayer.
"Now, you are going to have to stop shaking, Honey, because if you
don't that gun is going to rip you to shreds. I'll give you three
seconds, and then it's coming on and I highly, highly recommend you
do not move."

The brunette took an audible deep breath.

"One," Strange Man said.

Another gunshot from outside. Nobody moved or
looked towards the sound, not that Regina could see.

"Two."

A third hawk man looked at the brunette
woman, the other two continuing their front row viewing of the main
event. One more to go.

"You might want to hold your breath,
Honey."

The brunette took another audible deep breath
and did not exhale.

"Three."

The young man with the remote pressed a
button, and then another. Both guns came to life.

The brunette, somehow, must not have been
shaking, because no gunfire erupted. Regina watched the hawk men.
Still one more to go, his finger on the trigger of the rifle he
pointed at Regina, his eyes locked on her. The others also pointed
their guns at Regina, but their eyes continued to gaze at the
brunette.

The brunette woman let out a puff of air, not
able to hold her breath for more than a few seconds, her nerves too
far gone. The gun went off.

The fourth hawk man looked over at the
brunette. That was it.

In the span of time it took Regina to slam
her right hand onto the front of her belt and her left hand onto
the back of her belt, the brunette woman was ripped to shreds by
the facing sentry gun.

Regina kept her eyes on the hawk men, one of
them noticing her movement, but it didn't matter. She accomplished
her first goal. Her belt was an inch thick and wider than any she
had worn before, a little gift from TRAST to keep her quiet.

From the front and back of her belt, two
separate oval discs popped out, the size of Regina's hands. And
then two more, and so on, until there were forty on each side,
eighty total. Before the hawk men had the chance to depress their
triggers, the discs were out and moved at the slightest motion from
anything around Regina, a multi-plated motion sensitive shield with
each plate hovering two inches from her body.

Regina ran towards Strange Man. Bullets flew
at her. The sentry gun arced from the dancing, bullet riddled woman
over to Regina's motion. It moved fast, the bullets firing so
quickly and powerfully, a line gouged through the wall as it made
its way to Regina. The hawk men followed suit, each of them holding
their triggers down, beading on Regina.

The discs whipped around Regina, anywhere
movement was detected around her, protecting her whole body, moving
faster than a speeding bullet. Any bullet came at her, or near her,
and a disc moved to intercept it, taking the impact. The bullets
from the sentry gun pushed the discs in further than the hawk men's
bullets, but none got any further. The discs moved furiously around
Regina, around and around, in and out like shock absorbers.
Impacted and shattered bullets dropped all around her as she
ran.

Strange Man stared, mouth gaping.
"Everybody," he yelled, "fire on her. Now! Now! Now!" He didn't
have a weapon, so he turned and grabbed the guns he had given to
one of the other men, Regina's guns.

All the others, but the two guarding the
door, fired at Regina.

As she ran toward Strange Man, the sentry gun
arced back and forth from Regina and then to the shredded corpse of
the brunette falling to the ground. Back and forth.

The discs crisscrossed one another
frantically, guarding her right side, back, and front, a fury of
silvery movement.

Regina knew the belt had limited power. How
much time? It had to be enough. Had to, or it would be over
fast.

The din was enormous, her ears rang, drowning
some of the noise, the side effect disorienting. She veered to the
right; bullets pelted the dancing discs and the wall behind
her.

From the time she started running to the
moment she got to Strange Man, who uselessly pulled on the triggers
of her guns, took five seconds.

Regina dropped to the ground, the discs
dancing out of the way of the floor's impact while still guarding
her from the barrage of bullets. She kicked her foot out to trip
Strange Man.

He dropped like a stone, putting his elbows
out to break the fall, landing hard on his ass, the guns popping
out of both hands. Regina grabbed both her guns and then rolled to
the left, to the table with her jacket. Dropping the guns beside
her, she pulled the jacket off the table, reached into an inside
pocket, and pressed a button on a remote.

The sentry gun stopped firing, the din dying
down slightly. The others continued shooting, reloading, firing,
endless noise and destruction.

Regina flipped the table on its side, using
it as cover for when her shield’s power ran out.

Strange Man got up and jumped over the table
to get to her before she could grab her guns up.

The others stopped firing.

The discs moved towards the motion of the
Strange Man as he reached out to strangle her, blocking the
movement, once, twice, and then they stopped and retracted back
into the belt. No more power.

Strange Man shook his hands, which must have
hurt from the impact, and then came in for the third time.

Regina had both her weapons up when he did,
pointing at his face. She pulled both triggers as she whipped her
head away from the blast, closing her eyes. She felt the spray from
his exploding head wet her hair and the side of her face.

She dropped the gun in her right hand, and
pressed another button on the same remote that she placed beside
her after she pressed the first button.

"Why isn't the gun working?" said a voice
from one of the pussy pack.

And he got his answer. The distinct tat! tat!
tat! of the sentry guns told Regina what she wanted to hear. Both
guns were firing, and the screams of the pussy pack brought a smile
to her face.

Regina glimpsed around the edge of the table,
just in time to see the two men guarding the door open it and dash
out.

She stood up, the sentry guns continuing
their attack on the men with the fucked up sense of justice. None
of them were standing, most of them she assumed were dead, and some
were moaning and groaning.

Had Regina not grabbed the sensor from Roy's
calf on Pyramid, she would likely be dead; either the sentry guns
or the men would have taken her out. But, with some help from
TRAST, they were able to lock in on the frequencies of the sensor
and set up a remote that could not only disable the guns, but set
them on the very people that were supposedly protected from them.
Guns had no sensibility, no reason, no morality, and neither did
this crew, not to Regina.

The guns stopped. She could still hear a
couple of them moaning in pain. The crowd of lounge patrons stayed
as they were, watching intently but not going anywhere, probably
nervous that the guns would still kill them, even though Regina
knew that the only thing the guns would fire upon would be any of
the people with a surgically implanted sensor capsule in their
calf. None of these people, only men as far as Regina knew, had
ever been caught before Roy, so their little protective capsule was
genius until now.

There was no time. The men who ran out the
front door would go get help, and Regina guessed that instead of
running into a deadly situation, they would likely torch the
building and kill everyone inside while blockading any way out. She
had to move on them before they could coordinate any sort of
retaliation, and she couldn't afford to have one of them escape. If
there were any of them left elsewhere, any survivors would let them
know that the capsule was no longer a viable protective solution,
they would come up with something else, and the killing would go on
and on.

Regina stepped through sticky, bloody pools,
and, unless any of the men were missing their heads, regardless of
whether or not she thought they were dead, she shot each of them
once in the head. The goo and then the pin immediately after. She
didn't hesitate, didn't watch, but just did what needed to be done.
Any groaners left were soon silenced, regardless of a couple futile
pleas to let them live, their words bubbling out of their mouths.
In a matter of seconds, there was silence in the lounge, other than
some weeping noises from the patrons.

The look of some of the patrons was not
unfamiliar to Regina. The open mouths, scrunched eyebrows, that
look of disgust at what she had just done. Not all of them had this
look, but many. She needed their help and there was no time to play
the console-their-feelings game. She hoped some of them realized
that if she didn't do what she did, they would have all died.
Surely they had all heard about the carnage the dead men had
released upon so many innocent lives.

"I need three volunteers to move one of these
guns over to the doorway," Regina said, gesturing at the sentry
guns. Nobody moved. "Look, people, two men ran out of here who are
right at this moment getting help, and I'll tell you right now that
none of them have any intention of letting any one of you live.
They will likely burn this place down to the ground. If you want to
live, please help me. All I'm asking is that three people move a
sentry gun, which are now set to only fire upon them, to the door
and then please go back to where you are now. The rest of you need
to stay there."