by JA Huss
It learned its lesson from last time and doesn't even pivot, just switches sensors and fires at me again, but I'm a flipping expert. Literally. I can flip all fucking day long. Once again I end up swinging from a light fixture.
"Stand down!" Dale says again, this time with much less enthusiasm.
"Don't do me any favors, you creepy piece of shit!" I snarl as I drop in front of him and kick him as he tries to get back up.
"Don't push your luck, little girl."
I've known this man my whole life but today he is a stranger. I'm about to remove his teeth with my boot when Tier takes my arm and pulls me back.
"We came for a reason, Dale – hand over the cubes. Now!" He doesn't scream the word so much as growl it, but I step back a few paces. For the first time since I met him I get the feeling that I have no idea what an angry Tier actually looks like. Like I've only seen the sugar-coated version and nothing more.
Dale pulls himself together as he stands, straightens his glasses, and passes a hand over his messed-up gray hair, trying in vain to make it lie flat against his skull. He spits blood out onto the tiles at his feet, and then looks at me, ignoring Tier's demand altogether.
I know right then, he's a fucking dead man.
"You're just another clone, Junco. Nothing more and nothing less. You have no claim to that body, that brain, those skills, or anything else that's part of you. We created you and you're not even" – he looks up at Tier – "a legal citizen of this planet. What you did last week was–"
Tier backhands him so hard he falls to the floor again. The sentry's sensors blink like crazy as it tries to discern if it should disobey orders, but holds steady.
Tier grabs him by the shirt collar, pulls him to his feet and walks him back towards the lab bench filled with computers running model simulations, pipettes, and various sizes and shapes of glassware. "The cubes. Now. Or I'll cut yer stomach open and make ya knit a sweater with yer own intestines."
"You don't want her, Tier. She's not–"
Tier backhands him again and Dale shuts up.
I walk away, leaving Tier to get what he needs in whatever way he feels necessary. I am drawn back to the vats of clones and look at each one as I pass by them. I stop at a little girl. Me at age five or so. Her hair sways in the goo, back and forth across her face. I don't even look back when I hear Tier hissing at Dale about whatever. It's his business, I can only deal with one thing at a time right now. My carbon copies.
I move on to the next one, and the next, and the next. Watching the girls grow older before my eyes. As I come around to complete the circle I see an exact replica of me today and I want to smash her face in.
Who am I? Am I real? Am I just another copy? Did I crawl out of these vats? When did I crawl out? A few weeks ago? The day I ran away? Are there girls just like me lurking somewhere? Here?
I glance around the room with trepidation as some glassware behind me goes crashing to the ground. I hear muffled groans from Dale, but I don't even turn to see what Tier's doing.
There are lots of doors, lots of hidden crannies, come to think of it. And where the hell did Moju go? I take a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm my thumping heart, then turn back to Tier.
I can't tell if he's actually making progress, but the place is a mess. Papers are still in mid-air, falling in a floaty back-and-forth motion to the ground. Glass shards are all over the tiles and the previously tidy bench is now a catastrophe.
I walk up next to Tier and Dale turns his hatred towards me, then spits blood on my boots. "As you can see, Junco, you're entirely replaceable. The next girl was already dispatched."
I shrink back, a microscopic amount, but Dale catches it and laughs.
"Don't listen to him, Junco. Do ya see an empty vat over there?"
"No, they're all full."
"Case closed. We're gonna kill them all on the way out. Yer the original." He has a knife in his hand and it's pushed up to the sensitive skin just below Dale's left ear. I watch him stick it further into the skin so that a trickle of blood escapes and runs down his neck and into his shirt. Then Tier looks at me. "Yer the original and that's how it's gonna stay."
Dale laughs. "Don't be stupid, Junco, he's only here to save his own ass. That's why he wants the evidence."
Tier lets him speak his mind this time, but I put a hand up. "Save it Dale. I could give a shit why he's here, what he's done, or who he's done it for." Then I look up at Tier. "I'm ready to go."
He smiles. "Just waiting on Moju."
Dale's posture straightens at Moju's name, but Tier answers his unasked question before he can get a word out. "That's right, asshole. The two of ya just can't seem to get enough of each other, can ya?"
The power goes out and Tier laughs. "Goodbye, Junco's clones." The giant central artificial life system that powers the vats goes dark and whines as it drains the last few electrons through the circuits. The hum of living turns to the silence of death and we stand there in the dark.
Dale's rage bubbles over. "I will kill you for this, Tier. You'll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life, you miserable fucking piece of shit."
Moju appears and throws down a lightstick for my benefit. He's still breathing heavy from running and being loaded down with the plasma rifles. He throws a rifle to Tier and one to me. We both catch them in mid-air, a fraction of a second apart, as Dale wiggles free. Moju shoots a pulse in his back and he falls forward, smacking his face on the stone-cold tile.
The sentry wakes up and a siren blares into my ears, followed by a blinking red strobe light. It wails, drowning out the heavy moans coming out of Dale.
Tier blasts the sentry on full pulse for several seconds, long enough to make it stop and think up an alternate plan.
Moju looks at me, then Tier. "Take her out. I'm right behind you."
Tier and I both run towards the door and I don't stop when I hear the grotesque slash of razors on flesh, or even the thunk of what I know is Dale's head as it splats against something hard.
We pass through the open door and into the hallway, backtracking to the exit. I hear Moju's bare feet slap the ground behind us and then the massive explosion throws us forward and we slam into the floor, then slide into the wall and stay still.
Moju recovers first, grabs me at the same time that Tier makes it to his feet, and we haul ass down the corridor, towards all the sleeping sentries waiting for us to try and get past them.
Chapter Eighteen
The heat from the explosion beats against my back as Moju drags me down the hallway. I slip and fall, but his hands are there and we're running again before I can even register my misstep. Tier stops at the first corner and we almost collide with him. He is still and quiet, but there is nothing to hint at what awaits us if we turn into the next hallway and the wailing alarms block out any hope of hearing movement. He makes a signal to Moju, and then flattens his head against the wall before peeking around.
Lasers swipe past his face and I can see several strands of hair catch fire just from the proximity. He pulls back and swats the fire out while giving Moju another signal. Moju pushes me behind him and they both move forward firing.
The exchange is quick and then Moju has my hand again and we are running towards the first door. Tier presses his palm against the biometrics panel, but the door is dead.
"Blast the bolt on three," Tier yells.
Moju nods and in three seconds they fire. The bolt melts with the intense heat and I move back to avoid getting a proximity burn. Laser fire comes from behind me and I turn and squeeze the trigger at my attacker. There are several smaller bots scurrying down the hallway and I pick them off one at a time, leaving the hallway a blazing mess. Then Moju grabs my hand and we squeeze through the blasted door and run again.
This time the sentry isn't waiting around by the door, it's hauling ass to meet us. The laser pulses flash past me and I hear Moju holler out as one grazes his shoulder. Tier blasts the sentry with continuous fire while I pu
lse at its top sensors, essentially blinding it. It explodes and we duck behind a corner to avoid the full effects of the blast.
I grab Moju's hand and pull him along. I look back and see his shoulder is still smoldering and he winces in pain as we pass the blazing mess of what's left of the second sentry. Tier tries the biometrics again, but it's the same as the last one, which is all bad luck for us.
Tier and I fire straight at the bot, while Moju picks off the stray bots that are now clattering up behind us in force. I look back and see there are dozens of them now. I watch as Moju fires and makes them explode, but then I see what happens to their remains. They self-reassemble into more bots. Some are larger, some are smaller, but it doesn't matter. They cannot be totally eliminated. I turn my attention back to the sentry door which has a large hole through the middle.
Tier grabs me and pushes me forward. "Go through firing, Junco – I'll get Moju!"
I do. My plasma charge is already a quarter empty but I blast that shit on continuous stream as I squeeze through the burned-out door, sharp edges catching my shirt, making it smolder as I pass.
The sentry is directing all of its primary lasers at me, which is bad enough, but then the top of its head pops up and a rocket launcher emerges. "Tier, get in here quick." There's no answer and I steal a look behind me to see Moju struggling to get through the door without setting himself on fire. They are both a lot bigger than me. Tier pulls him back out, but Moju rolls several canisters towards me as he disappears from my view.
Grenades.
I pick one up, pull the pin, then lob it down the hallway just as the sentry sends a rocket flaming past me and through the door.
I duck as the double explosions rock the tunnel, and part of the ceiling comes crashing down, hitting me on the back.
My ears are ringing as I try to stand. The dust has obscured everything from view and my heart thumps with adrenaline as I frantically search the massive hole that was the second door just a few seconds ago.
"Tier!" I scream, but I can barely hear my voice over the ringing.
I run to what's left of the door and pick my way past the debris, swatting away the dust and coughing as the minute particles stream down my throat to clog my lungs.
I see Tier getting to his feet and I pick my way through the rubble until I'm a few paces past the door. Moju is underneath, protected from much of the blast. Tier has burns all over his body but he still pulls Moju to his feet and yells something in his face. To my injured ears it sounds like "Move yer fucking feet, warrior!"
Moju stand there, bent over and coughing for a minute, then to my surprise, he straightens up and salutes.
They both turn and start running towards me and we pass through the hole together. I look back apprehensively to see if there are more bots reassembling behind us, but the cloud of dust is too thick to see through.
We run towards the final security door that will lead us back out into the ruined passageway, then finally back to the main highway. We reach the door and Moju hands Tier a grenade and he pulls the pin and throws it, yanking me back behind a corner. The blast heat almost knocks me over, even though most of it shoots right past us. I can feel my body reaching its limit and for the first time I wonder if I will live through this.
We wait a few seconds, then Tier grabs my hand, I grab Moju's, and we drag each other down the hallway and through the blast hole. We stumble, slower now, down the remaining hallway and stop when we reach the door that leads to the outer tunnel highway.
I can hear the scratching on the other side, even with the residual ringing in my ears. My stomach clenches as I think about the creatures that are now waiting for us. I hold it down for as long as I can, but I turn and start to heave. I don't even remember the last time I ate, so there's nothing, and I mean nothing, left in my stomach.
"Now what?" I ask, wiping my hand across my face.
Tier throws down his rifle, takes a deep breath and looks at Moju. "My charge is out, give me all the grenades."
Moju leans heavily against the wall, fishes around in his pockets, and pulls out three canisters and hands them over to Tier.
And that's when I hear the clicking from the hallway behind us. "Shit! They're back!"
From the hazy cloud of thick dust a massive amalgamation of bot parts appears. I scream and both Moju and I train our rifles on the thing that comes towards us. We blast it back a few paces and it's forced to reassemble. I steal a look at Tier and he's already pulling the pin on the first grenade and running back towards me yelling, "Fire in the hole!"
Moju dives for the corner as Tier grabs me and yanks me to the floor. The blast renews the ringing in my ears and I'm disoriented as I struggle to my feet. Tier pulls me up and then we are running again.
Moju is bringing up the rear and firing hard at the reassembled thing behind us. But it's made a weapon and it fires, causing a projectile to skim past Moju's thigh. He falls and I break free of Tier to go back and get him. I fire a continuous stream of plasma at the amalgabot for several seconds, then grab Moju and yank him up and pull him back towards Tier. Moju aims his rifle at the creatures that are now filing through the hole as Tier pulls the pin on the second grenade and tosses it out on to the highway.
We hit the deck again, just as the explosion blasts body parts in all directions and now I know my hearing is fucked forever.
Moju pulls me up and we half limp, half run towards Tier who waves us through the smoking hole and out in to the main tunnel. Before I even know what's happening Moju is in the air and his talons have me by the waist. The razors puncture into my flesh as he grabs me with his hands, but I can't even feel it. Then Tier is out in the hallway and the remaining creatures are all over him. Moju swings around and I fire my rifle at the creatures, hoping to God that the stream doesn't hit Tier.
Tier breaks the grip of one that has him by the shirt and takes flight.
I am just about to breathe a sigh of relief when the MR tanks roll through the cloud of dust clogging the far end of the highway and suddenly there are hundreds of soldiers piling out of vehicles.
Tier yells something as he points down the tunnel and Moju and I take off, flying back towards the hole we came down. I hear a final explosion and then Tier is below me and Moju screams, "Ride with Tier, I can't carry you, Junco!"
And then I am falling through the air.
I land on Tier's back and his hands rise up to steady me. The soldiers, wounded but not down, are still firing at us as we make our escape. I flip over and frantically fire the stream of plasma particles back towards the advancing army until my rifle is out and I hurl it into the air.
The army disappears in the distance and by the time we get to the lightstick that marks the off-ramp we came in by, there is nothing but the clattering of small bots scuttling over the greasy water below us.
I watch as Moju dives down to pick up the sticks and throw them far down the dark highway. We fly slower now and I can hear both Tier and Moju breathing heavy with effort. We get to the last lightstick that marks the exit and I watch Moju pick it up, then toss it to me. "Stick it in your pocket, Junco."
I do, and then Tier flies me up to the hole that leads outside. "Start climbing, and no matter what – don't fucking stop."
I grab the rung and pull myself up into the tunnel.
They don't follow me and I want to turn and ask what's going on, but then I think about the three hundred-plus rungs that I must climb before I can make it out and I do what I'm told.
I climb and I don't fucking stop.
I'm on rung one hundred and thirty-three when I hear the plasma crack below and I almost panic and lose my grip. Then Tier is behind me, urging me to go faster, but my legs are shaking and I'm all out of breath.
"I can't, Tier, I can't climb anymore." I whimper.
He comes right up on me and grabs the rung above my head. "Let me in front, Junco, then wrap yourself around me and I'll take us both up."
The fire from below is getting closer, but
I do as I'm told and then I am on his back and his hands are pulling us up the hole faster and faster. It seems like an eternity, but we break free and are out in the open air. I cry with relief and look back for Moju, but he's not there.
And then I scream in anguish as Tier flies us though the tallgrass, away from whatever is left of my brother below ground.
Chapter Nineteen
We fly for a long time, and we fly fast. Most of it I have my face buried in his back, but then I look up to see where we are. He lands us in a field of tallgrass on the edge of the pine trees and I drop to my knees in exhaustion when my feet hit the ground, then fall over and lie on my back. He drops with me and we stay quiet for several minutes.
"He's not dead, Junco."
"How do you know?" I scream.
He leans over and cups his hand over my mouth. "Shut up! Ya want to get us caught after all that?"
I turn over and refuse to cry.
"It was part of the plan. His plan."
"Well," I say evenly, "no one asked me what I thought of the fucking plan."
He leans over and pulls me around so that I'm looking at him. "I know, I'm sorry. But it was his decision. So I could get ya out of there alive."
"How do you know he's not dead?"
He laughs at this and I'm instantly pissed. "Junco, he works for them. They're not gonna kill him. He's the only thing they have that's worth a shit."
I can't say I'm surprised. I already knew this, really. But hearing it out loud right now makes it difficult for some reason.
Tier watches my face and then continues, "He does shit like this all the time. They let him out and he takes off and creates chaos. The MR had to know what was down there, Junco. Moju found his lab a few months ago and did the same thing to his doubles, so how convenient is that? They let him hear shit so he'll go do their dirty work for them. They wanted Dale's lab destroyed because they already have what they need in their own labs. They're only collaborating with the RR because they didn't have the skills to go it alone, but do not assume they are on the same side."
