by Phoenix Ward
Tera dropped down from Gauge’s shoulders as everyone around them ducked. The bullets whizzed around them; a few rounds ricocheted off the concrete highway ramp. So much noise flooded into Tera’s auditory receivers that she feared they’d be overloaded.
The massacre only lasted a few seconds before the mob rushed forward. A few bodies lay on the ramp — some writhing while others lay perfectly still — as the crowd closed the gap between them and the troops. Before long, the soldiers didn’t even have room to swing their guns around. The mob was upon them, slashing, bashing, and tearing at the bodyshells. Even those without weapons worked together to grapple the cops while the others broke them down to debris.
All of a sudden, it was like the dam broke. The amorphous form of the mob stretched forward as the Council’s line was shattered. Tera and Gauge followed the countless rioters as they pushed their way off the ramp and into the Pavilion.
The sounds of battle didn’t fade away as they left the ruined police line behind, however. A large explosion shook the ground and for a moment, the mob halted. The whine of gunship engines grew louder over their heads as they saw a Union aircraft bombarding the Council troops down below.
Ethan couldn’t stop himself from whispering thanks to whatever deity was watching over him as he climbed into the maintenance hatch. He knew it wasn’t divine intervention or random luck, but the map of the Pavilion Gauge gave him. Even after everything he’d seen and experienced, he was amazed at how much data the People’s Union had gathered on the enemy. Years of underground espionage built to this moment — and it seemed to be paying off.
The commotion from the battle was still ear-shattering, even from within the subterranean duct. Every now and then an explosion would rattle the tunnel and Ethan had to catch himself before he fell. The gunshots came as constant as the whispers of wind and Ethan was already starting to tune them out.
Just keep moving, he reminded himself. I just have to keep moving.
According to Gauge’s map, there was a hatch to the surface in just a half-mile. He just had to keep looking up in the pitch dark tunnel to make sure he didn’t overshoot his mark. From there, it would only be a short sprint to the storage facility. He wished the data they already had was enough to bombard the structure, but Gauge was clear: if they didn’t want to risk wasting all of their ordinance, the beacon had to be placed. Otherwise, they could lose their whole payload on a vacant plot of the Pavilion and the attack would be for nothing.
Ethan had no idea how much time passed as he crawled through the maintenance duct. He felt like his mind was on autopilot, like he was back in the simulation, but had no control over his actions. When he saw the glow from the hatch above, however, he returned to reality and made his way to the surface.
The battle’s volume doubled when he was out of the tunnel, though it came from behind rather than around him. For the most part, the area he emerged in was devoid of life. He ducked low when he saw a few white bodyshells rushing to the frontlines, but they were so occupied with their mission that they didn’t notice him. Staying low, he turned to the north and saw the squat little building Gauge had described to him.
There it is, he thought. I’m almost there.
It was only a hundred meters or so away, but it felt like a mile. At any point during his approach, a Council soldier could spot him and put an end to his mission. Everything depended on him. The pressure was almost enough to make his head explode.
The sound of metallic footsteps reached his ears and he darted behind a short wall on the side of the street. With a peek, he watched a small group of Council soldiers rush past him. One glance to the right and they would see him, but chance was in Ethan’s favor. They ran south, away from the wall he ducked behind. Once they were out of sight, he continued his painful approach toward the storage facility.
He sprinted the last ten feet or so, unstrapping the radio beacon from his chest. He pulled the wax sheet off the back of the device, exposing the adhesive that coated it. Crouching low, Ethan searched for a place to stick it.
He remembered what Gauge told him: put it somewhere too obvious, and they’ll find it and destroy it before the signal can be sent. He needed to put it someplace it could go unnoticed for at least ten minutes.
Ethan followed the outer wall of the storage facility until he came to a doorway. He lingered at the side of it, his heart pounding. In his head, he kept picturing a Council soldier emerging from the facility just as he stood there. He pictured a gun going off and falling to the metal floor with a hole in his chest. He pushed the thoughts away as he stuck the beacon onto the slight lip that surrounded the opening. It was like putting a bucket of water above a doorway, designed to be unseen by anyone passing through it.
He couldn’t help but sigh a heavy breathe of relief once he was free of the beacon. Now all he had to do was make his escape. With a grin, he turned from the facility and started to make his way back to the maintenance tunnel.
Before he was even a stone’s throw from the beacon, the ground around him started to shake. He froze; his heart grew cold in his chest. This wasn’t an explosion, he realized, but the footfalls of some enormous creature. He turned around just in time to see the grotesque monster emerge from the building on its eight robotic legs.
Ethan’s eyes grew wide as the horrible hulk uttered an animal-like roar. Reverend Nidus appeared from behind the creature.
The human tried to duck out of sight once he could motivate his muscles to respond, but it was too late. The monster’s dead eyes locked onto Ethan before he could hide. A terrible smile stretched across the behemoth’s face as it started to sprint after him.
Blood pounded to the rhythm of the hulk’s footsteps as Ethan ran as fast as he could. He could see the hatch to the maintenance tunnel, still open wide and waiting for him. He was only a short dash from salvation. All he had to do was outrun the monster.
You’re going to make it, he chanted to himself. You’re almost there!
He coiled up to leap into the opening when the hulk closed in on him. He was no match for the creature’s mechanical legs, even if there weren’t eight of them. Just before he jumped, Ethan saw the monster swing its huge sword-arm at him. He turned to the tunnel, locking onto it like a torpedo.
The wind was snatched from his lungs. He was swatted down as if he were a fly. There was a hot pinch that rushed through his left arm as he fell to the ground. Instinctively, he raised the appendage and clutched onto it, only to notice a bloody stump where his hand had been. It wasn’t a perfect cut; his hand hung by a thin strip of flesh as blood squirted from his open veins.
Ethan tried to scream, but his throat was incapable of sound. He just lay on the metal floor clutching onto his mutilated arm as blood poured all over him. He felt the monster move away from him, roaring as it rushed to join the rest of the battle. He looked around himself helplessly as his body grew numb, hoping to see anyone he might know. His mind was filled with a sudden desire to be back in the simulation, safe and sound with his digital friends.
He saw Shedder cultists running past him, pouring out from the facility he just marked. They ignored him as they followed the hulk into the fight. He looked down at his feet and saw the distant form of Reverend Nidus standing by the storage bunker. Then everything went dark.
Tides
Tera stopped fighting for a moment and frowned as she gazed to the north. Through the thick line of white bodyshells and the rebel soldiers who clashed with them, the I.I. woman could see the familiar form of the Shedder hulk scuttling towards the battle. With it, a dense line of cultists followed.
Her heart sunk for a moment. Was Ethan successful? she found herself wondering. Is he even still alive?
Her confusion only managed to increase when she saw the cultists stop just on the northern side of the battle. They didn’t seem frightened or perturbed, but the Shedders all halted just outside the fight and watched. If any of the rebels pushed too far north, they would cut them down with precisi
on and haste, but they made no effort to join the melee. To Tera, they looked like police officers observing a riot. It was too messy to jump into the fray, but they had to be there to contain the violence. Any attempt to move closer to the storage facility was met with swift and terrible force.
She only managed to watch the Shedders for a moment before she had to duck under another barrage of blaster fire. The beams of light zipped over her mechanical head, crashing into some of the Pavilion buildings behind her.
The holographic projection of Councilman Harring watched the battle with a sour look on his digital face. Reverend Nidus stood just beside him, watching the combat with unblinking eyes.
“What are you doing, Nidus?” Harring asked. His tone was indignant. “Why aren’t your people joining the fight?”
“Because we need to hold the storage facility,” Nidus replied. “That is our top priority.”
“Then get out there and kill those sons-of-bitches!” Harring barked. If he were real, a bit of phlegm might have flown from his frantic lips. “You could help us crush them in a moment.”
“That makes us vulnerable, councilman,” the cult leader replied.
“I don’t care, dammit!” the hologram shouted. “Attack! Now!”
“No.”
Councilman Harring was taken aback. “No?” he echoed. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”
“I mean exactly what I say,” Nidus said. “Now shut up, will you?”
Even though he was a digital projection, Harring’s face grew red with anger. If he could free himself from the building’s premises, he would fly over the Shedders and demand they push into the fight. He realized, however, that they’d never obey him. They were Nidus’s people, not his.
All he could do was close his mouth and watch the battle, hoping that Nidus was right.
Ethan felt movement. He couldn’t quite make out the shapes or any of the voices around him, but he felt himself being lifted up. The pressure in his mutilated arm was mounting to the point where he thought he was going to burst. He tried to open his eyes, but the darkness still filled them. Then he saw it.
The bodyshell reached down and pulled something from its bag. When it turned its robotic head towards Ethan, he could see it was Gauge. For a moment, he thought he was dead and his friend was simply a hallucination. He tried to reach up and touch Gauge’s chassis, but he didn’t have the strength.
“Hey, you’re gonna be alright, buddy,” Gauge said. His words ebbed in and out of understanding. “You did good, kid. Now lemme help you.”
There was a sudden clamping sensation on Ethan’s left arm, right where the hand had been cut free. The pain sent a jolt of energy through Ethan’s veins and forced him to sit up and scream. Gauge tried shushing him, but quickly realized the only way to make Ethan silent was to physically cover his mouth. The human’s cries were muffled under his metallic hand.
“Shh, you gotta be quiet, Ethan,” Gauge said. He tinkered with the emergency tourniquet device he had slapped onto Ethan’s wound and the rising pressure made the teenager writhe. “It’s gonna be okay, man. You did awesome. Let’s get you out of here.”
Ethan felt himself being heaved up and over the bodyshell’s shoulder as if he were a sack of potatoes. He didn’t have the strength to adjust himself, let alone break free if he wanted to. He simply leaned back and listened to the sounds of gunfire and explosions as consciousness slipped away from him once more.
“We have to push forward!” Tera could hear one of the soldiers near her yell. “We need to take the storage facility now!”
Just as the words left his lips, a huge barrage of shells whistled through the air and collided right into the bunker Ethan had marked with the radio beacon. Dust was kicked up from the concrete and metal structure and Tera felt her heart lift up a little.
Did it work? she wondered. Did they bust the facility open?
Once the cloud of debris blew away from the impact, she could see only dark smudges where the shells had fallen.
Reinforced, she realized, her hopes crushed beneath the realization. It’s going to take more than that if we want to win.
The Council soldiers were starting to fall back. One of the gunships lay in a crumpled pile on the Pavilion floor, smoke rising from the flames that licked the aircraft’s fallen form. The rebel troops continued pushing forward until they met the line of Shedders, who acted as a sort of fence around the battle. The hulking monster slashed and bashed anyone who came within arm’s reach, roaring at the rebels as they approached it.
“The other cities know!” she heard the soldier in charge shout again. “We have to take the facility now before they send reinforcements!”
Tera’s expression became dismal as she watched the fight continue in the north. They pushed the Council troops back, but the Shedders held their line. They couldn’t purchase any distance, no matter how hard they fought. The cultists fought to make sure no one got one step closer to the storage bunker like their lives depended on it.
She looked behind her, toward the part of the city wall where King Hum and the others were stationed. She wished with all her heart that they could just dump all the ordinance they had onto the Pavilion.
Time is running out, she thought.
Before another whistling set of shells could make flight for the battle, a deafening tone rang out over the Pavilion. It was so loud that everyone, Council soldier and rebel alike, covered their ears in pain. The battle stopped for a split second as everyone looked around themselves, trying to understand where the tone had come from. A thousand confused expressions darted around the scene, the commotion dying to a near silence.
Tera’s eyes opened wide as she watched the firm line of cultists burst into action. Before anyone knew what was happening, the Shedders cut down almost half of the Council soldiers that remained. None of the troops knew what to do as their allies started turning on them — as they started slaughtering them. The rebels stood in stunned bewilderment as they watched the Shedders destroy the Council bodyshells with extreme precision. They danced around the rebels, ignoring them for the most part as white bodyshell after white bodyshell dropped. The soldiers couldn’t react before their numbers shrunk down to a mere handful.
“What the fuck are you doing, Nidus?” Councilman Harring asked. He was practically foaming at the mouth. “Why are they killing my men?”
“Because the final phase of my plan has begun, councilman,” the cult leader replied. He didn’t meet the furious hologram’s eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
“My plan, Harring,” Nidus replied, “to destroy the Council. Once and for all.”
Harring’s face fell. His mouth contorted with confused horror as he tried to find the words.
“I don’t understand,” the councilman said, stammering.
“That’s fine,” Nidus replied. With a swift motion, he pulled a remote control-like device from his robes. He glanced at the councilman’s hologram for a moment before pressing a button.
“What have you done?” Harring asked. His voice started to break apart as he spoke, the words popping like static on a television screen. Before he could say anything else, the hologram flickered and disappeared.
Tera’s jaw dropped as she watched the remaining Council soldiers fall to the ground, lifeless. It was like someone flicked a big power switch off, deactivating all Council life on the Pavilion. In the matter of a few seconds, the rebels and the Shedders stood alone, ceasing the battle to watch Nidus’s plan in action.
Before Tera could even cry out, the Council was defeated. Nidus had won.
Deleted
Reverend Nidus strode down from his position by the storage facility and up to the huge crowd of confused combatants. A few of the rebels raised their weapons to take aim at the cult leader, but the Shedders around them disarmed them without much struggle. No one else could fire a shot.
Tera pushed her way through the rebels, moving to the northern line so she could see better. Sh
e saw Gauge in the corner of her vision, who looked just as confused as she did. When she was within earshot of the cult leader, she stopped.
Nidus waved at his hulk monster, which hoisted him up onto its shoulders. Even the people in the back of the mob could see the I.I. cult leader.
“You must be confused,” he said, his voice booming out over the masses. “I can see it in your faces. If you understand one thing, let it be this: I am not your enemy.”
There was a round of murmuring as the crowd reacted to the comment. Nidus lifted a hand to gesture for silence. Once they obliged, he continued.
“It was always my intention to bring down the tyrannical Council, but my methods differed greatly from your own,” he said. “You see, your assault was doomed to fail before it even began. Once you destroyed the storage facility, what then? You would have erased the Council from Shell City, but there would have been backups. Each member of the Council exists wherever they have power, in all the cities across the wastes. All they would need to do is recuperate before they’d march here and destroy each and every one of us. No, if you were to succeed, you would have killed your own resistance. This battle was fought with men and women, but the next one would just be a dusting of nuclear bombs. You’d never see the retaliation coming before you were reduced to ash. If the Council is to be stopped, it had to be done all at once. Recuperation cannot be possible.”
“I don’t understand,” Tera shouted, pushing her way to the front of the crowd. “What did you do to them?”
“Ah, Ms. Alvarez,” Nidus said in almost a hiss. His face lit up when he saw her. “I’m glad to see you’re still with us.”
