Complex Three (The Savage Horde Series Book 3)
Page 22
Frederick paused for a moment to eye them up, no doubt curious about who his creations had teamed up with. He offered a quick nod, and gestured to the door. As the clones filed out, he put a firm hand on Joe’s shoulder. “Thank you for helping.”
“Yeah,” Joe mumbled, still too surprised—and nervous—too offer more of a reply.
They sprang through the doorway, making a hard left to head back to the entry to the lab. Curiosity gripped Joe as they went by the other rooms. He wanted to know what kind of advanced cloning secrets were behind those closed doors, but knew they couldn’t spare the time.
He turned back to check on Leisa to find that Frederick had stopped at the last room before the lobby.
“One more thing,” he said, and raised a badge to a card reader by the door. An unfriendly buzz replied. “Dang it. We’re locked down.”
“We have to go, sir!” Odysseus shouted. “There is a response team on the way.”
“Not without Best.”
Joe stopped in his tracks. As much as he’d wanted to shove the inventor toward the exit, he realized Jade’s sister was still inside the facility. He might not have been able to save her brother, but he resolved to do what he could to bring back her sister.
He sat down the ridiculously heavy box of parts, and unslung the coilgun from his shoulder.
“Look out.” He banged the weapon against the glass. It rebounded without breaking, a shooting pain echoing to his shoulder and back to his hands.
“I’ll get it, rookie,” Connie said, but Joe wasn’t having any of that.
He’d already flipped the weapon around and fired a burst toward the ceiling. Glass came crashing down like a waterfall.
“That’s better,” he said, and used the barrel of the gun to clear more glass.
“Thanks,” Frederick pushed his way through the curtain, shouting, “Bessie!”
“You came for me,” a distinctly female voice replied. “I was beginning to wonder.”
“Of course. C’mon.”
Frederick held back the curtain. A brunette of average height stepped into Joe’s field of view. Her warm hazel eyes locked onto Joe.
“I don’t know this one,” she remarked, and took hold of Frederick’s arm to step through the window frame.
“Me either, Bessie,” the inventor replied. “We’ll figure that out later.”
Joe stepped forward to take her other hand and help her through. Her cool hand slipped into his without pause.
“I’m Joe,” he said. “You’re Jade’s sister?”
“Surprised?” she asked, but didn’t wait for an answer.
Joe would have said not at all. Though looking nothing like Jade, she appeared to be absolutely lifelike—and just as pretty, though in more of a refined, dainty way.
“Hurry up,” Leisa said, tugging on Joe’s arm. “They’re-”
A boom cut short her words, shaking the room like an earthquake.
“They’re here,” she repeated once the echo subsided.
“We’re fighting our way out,” Connie said, pulling his head back from the doorway to the main hall. “I’ll cover you.”
“Let my guys,” Odysseus answered, having come to stand over Connie’s back.
The logic instantly struck Joe. They’re expendable.
He didn’t have time to debate the merits. Connie had already sent a full magazine of coilgun bolts down the hallway. Someone returned fire, the projectiles ricocheting off the ceramic floor. One pinged off the metal doorframe as Connie ducked back inside and let the door close.
He dropped the magazine from his weapon to the floor with a clatter and rammed another home.
“Hurry up!”
A cyborg slid in next to Connie. Another took his place as Connie stood and pulled the door all the way open. He held it for the others.
Joe picked up his box and looked at Frederick. The inventor understood the question before it was asked.
“Yes, those are critical to our cause.”
“Fine,” Joe said, and got in line behind Leisa.
“Run on my count,” Connie said. He tapped the lead clone on the shoulder. “Give ‘em everything you have.”
Seeing how they had no extra magazines for the weapons they’d retrieved from the guards, it wasn’t going to be much. Connie pulled two more out of his pants pocket and handed them to the cyborgs.
“Good luck. Cover us.”
The bug-eyes narrowed for a second before the creature slid to the floor next to another clone. With one sitting almost on the back of the other one, the lower cyborg snuck a quick peek out the door. Projectiles whined and pinged again.
“Gonna be fun.”
“Yeah, right,” Joe muttered.
The cyborgs scooted out barely into the hallway and opened fire. The third one was behind them ready to fire when they ran out of ammunition.
“Let’s do this!” Connie shouted, stepping over the cyborgs and into the hallway.
CHAPTER 30
Connie sprinted down the hall. Joe motioned for Leisa to follow right behind him. By the time he made it out of the workshop, his sergeant was already rounding the first corner.
Joe was sure a bolt would cut him down any second. He would have given anything to have had some of the Regulators’ liquid armor like he’d worn on the frontlines, but speed was his only option. Unfortunately for him, the box of spare parts didn’t allow for that.
Leisa pulled ahead, carrying her coilgun and his backpack. He lumbered, the metal parts jostling.
Behind him, over the whine of coilgun bolts smacking off the floor, footsteps pounded. Joe checked long enough to verify it was Frederick and Best, and then the other clones.
Joe heard the smack of a body flopping to the floor. He couldn’t look back. It was a stampede. One false step might leave him crushed under the feet of the clones covering their exit like a cyborg shield.
“Hurry, Bessie,” Frederick called from behind him, letting Joe know they were still unharmed. Perhaps not for long.
Lungs burning, Joe turned the corner. The heavy box pulled him out wide into the big hallway, and he crashed into the far wall.
He looked up into a mass of savages. At least six.
They ran the opposite direction toward Frederick, completely ignoring him.
“It’s the others,” Leisa said as he stood there. “They’re finally here.”
“About time.”
Joe took a second to check up the long hallway toward the middle of the complex. There was no bead of light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, a darkness swayed, rushing toward him.
“Crap!” he uttered, realizing an undefined threat, and shoved off the wall.
He moved barely in time. Cinders exploded in front of his face when a bolt ricocheted off the wall.
Rubbing his cheek on his shirtsleeve to try to loosen the grit, he raced down the corridor. The remaining savage clones and new arrivals both poured around the corner behind him. They moved in an odd clump, which caused Joe to slow to watch them.
After rounding the corner, one fell. Sparks flew from its oversized cranium. The rest of the creations closed up into a tighter circle and kept fast walking. It took a moment for Joe to realize they were definitely acting as a shield for Frederick and Best.
Joe had none, and he was falling farther behind. Newly energized, he ran for the exit, leaving the protective circle behind.
From inside that circle, Joe heard Frederick saying, “Better hurry. I can’t control them.”
Joe knew the situation was perilous, but there was a bright spot. Unlike the shadows up the long hall, the path to the outer door remained clear. Heart racing, back aching, fingers numb from the strain, he ran.
At the doorway, Connie went straight outside. Joe was momentarily relieved, but still had a ways to go to catch up.
Leisa slowed, possibly waiting for him. He yelled, “Keep going!”
She squinted as if to disagree, but turned back around to hurry down the hall.
A light fixture shattered above Joe’s head, sending shards of glass across the floor. He bent to adjust his handhold on the box. A bullet raced past his ear, smacking into the far door.
Forcing air into his lungs, he staggered the last several paces. Leisa held the door open for him, her eyes pleading for him to hurry.
He practically dove outside. She let the door close.
“We made it!” Leisa rejoiced.
“Not yet.”
Joe dropped the box. The handles had cut deep grooves into his palms. Looking across the yard to the gates, he was amazed to be able to see them. The fog had dissipated somewhat, though the sunlight wasn’t enough to completely burn it off.
He turned back to grab the door handle. Several cyborgs, Frederick, and Best had closed the gap.
The small glass window in the exit door shattered right in front of Joe. He backed off as the door shoved open. Frederick stumbled outside followed by Best. Then Odysseus, his skin tattered but not bleeding.
A boom followed, shaking the whole building.
With a burst of heat, a fireball rushed outside. It was like a flamethrower through the open door. Joe was lucky to have been shielded from the blast.
He rolled over to find Leisa down on the other side of the doorway.
“Leis!” He slipped trying to scramble to her, tripping on a charred savage. Several others, all blackened, stumbled outside.
Joe swallowed down the bile in the back of his throat and pushed his way to Leisa.
The protective circle had broken apart. The surviving cyborgs milled about aimlessly, leaving Frederick and Best exposed. Frederick was cursing under his breath. His long fingers ran through his curly hair.
Connie had come back to check on them. Joe finally slipped past the crispy cyborgs to get to Leisa. Eyes closed, she’d curled into the fetal position on the hard ground.
“Wake up!” he tried to shout, his sore throat suddenly aching again from the heat. His lungs felt singed. Still he pleaded with her. “Leis! Get up!”
There was no reply. He shook her. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as a fried cyborg collapsed. Then another.
“I can’t lose you,” he spluttered, devastated at her lifeless form. “We were so close. C’mon. Wake up.”
“Joe,” came the muffled reply. “I’m trying.”
He rolled her over and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. She felt no heavier than the box of spare parts, though that still constituted a giant load in his weakened state.
Throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, he found Connie next to Frederick and Best. They both appeared fine other than a coughing fit that wracked the scientist.
A single cyborg remained at the closed door, shooting down the hallway through the broken window with a coilgun. It was Odysseus; Joe could only tell by the style of his uniform.
Several other savages’ bodies were scattered around the yard close to the door, all blackened from the heat like charred aliens. None moved.
Connie went to grab Joe’s box of parts. It was the only one left, the clones having lost the others in the hallway.
Joe remembered Frederick had stowed some devices in his jacket pocket. Whatever they were, he hoped they would be alright. The scientist’s jacket had turned as gray as Leisa’s tired, dirt-camouflaged face.
Connie looked up to see Joe, and said, “I got it! Head out!”
“Yes, sir.” Joe took off for the gates, meeting the glares of the tied up guards as he went sideways to get Leisa through the opening.
Joe simply smirked at them and carried on, rushing through the double line of fence. He went across the hazy flat land, pushing his way through the smoke like a crippled old ship in a fog.
Another boom ripped from the facility. The door flew open, flames shooting out into the yard.
Fog vaporized in the blast, giving Joe a clearer look back at the complex. Odysseus had been blown onto his back, limbs bent at odd angles like a broken toy. Smoke rose from the roof, not far from behind the closed door.
“Dang!” he muttered, and concentrated on his running.
“I can walk,” Leisa said softly. He ignored her.
Within seconds, his back ached to the point he thought it might seize up and never let him straighten again.
He groaned and carried on, as Leisa continued to ask him to let her try to walk. But they were too close.
Another blast from the building, this one farther inside, convinced him of that.
At least the heat and smoke hadn’t harmed him any. In a strange way, it helped reassure him that the others were close behind. Without turning around, he could hear Frederick coughing. It sounded so loud that Joe wondered if Connie wouldn’t need to carry the scientist instead of the box.
Needing a rest, Joe stopped.
“I’m fine,” Leisa protested. “Let me walk.”
Her ashen face said otherwise. Joe thought she might pass out any second. But his body agreed with her. He had to let her try for herself.
He lowered her to the ground. She wobbled on her feet, but only for a second. Grabbing his wrist, she hobbled with him for the tree line.
Joe took several steps before skidding to a halt. A glance over his shoulder froze him in place.
Out of the side door, dozens of creatures poured into the yard. They had skinny appendages, but nothing else in common with savages. Their much thicker torsos and necks extended unnaturally long to an equally lengthy, sloped face—and an extra set of arms holding coilguns.
The sound of chomping teeth carried all the way to Joe, though he was at least a hundred yards beyond the gate.
Once clear of the crowd around the doorway, many of the creatures tipped over onto four legs, looking like centaurs with horse-shaped bodies leading to gun-wielding human torsos topped with thick necks and long faces.
Joe gaped, still resisting Leisa’s pull on his arm. “Unholy-”
And then one burst.
Brilliant white light ripped from the center of a centaur clone, slicing outwardly in rays of red and orange, turning to a fireball. A shockwave shoved against Joe. His ears instantly rang.
Momentarily blinded, Joe staggered. He scrubbed at his eyes, blinking at two bright white dots that refused to go away.
“What on Earth?” The pressure in Joe’s ears made it sound like he was talking underwater.
“They’re very unstable,” Frederick said once he made it alongside Leisa and Joe. “Battery issues.”
Joe’s eyes finally let him get a look back at the area outside the complex. A giant black circle had cleared the grass away from the ash-covered building all the way to the chainlink. The fences had blown over.
Not a single creature was left standing in the blast radius.
Joe was concerned more of the centaurs could come streaming out of the building. Frederick stood by so calmly Joe thought he might be crazy.
“I begged them not to use them, but they insisted on running at peak production. On a prototype.” Frederick shook his head. “The Odysseus-style fighter was ready. These are clearly not.”
“Clearly,” Joe deadpanned. “We need to go.”
He nodded to Leisa, and they took off up a gentle slope toward the forest, leaving Frederick to stare back toward the complex. They hadn’t gone twenty yards before an even larger blast shook the hillside.
Joe turned to see the entire side of the complex had collapsed. Below them, Frederick stood rooted to the same spot, still shaking his head.
CHAPTER 31
“We’re home free now,” Connie told Joe and Leisa as they regrouped back in the forest fringe. “Good riddance to those freaks.”
Joe cringed at the wording. Connie seemed to notice Frederick off to the side frowning, as well as Leisa shaking her head in disapproval. Quickly, he added, “I’m just sayin’, that was bizarre.”
&
nbsp; “He’s lost all his creations,” Leisa noted, looking at the despondent inventor.
“Not all,” Joe corrected. “Just the newest ones. The ones made for war.” He shrugged. “Maybe that’s not a bad thing.”
“Unless we lose the war,” Leisa said, though it seemed noncommittal.
Joe wasn’t sure what it meant either. While he didn’t want the mindless savages overrunning his homeland, it wasn’t much of a home with the Republic in charge.
With a heavy sigh, Joe turned to look to the west. He couldn’t spot any sign of the oncoming savage horde. That was mostly thanks to the daylight, he assumed, knowing they had to be out there somewhere close. They’d basically pursued him from the northern hills all the way across the country, and nothing appeared to stop them.
Maybe self-destructing centaurs would do the trick, he wondered. If they didn’t destroy themselves first.
He smirked, drawing a curious look from Leisa. He shrugged again and pointed back to where they’d left Jade and the others.
“Better keep moving.”
“I would recommend that,” Frederick said. “There are several more, uhm…instabilities that may put us in danger.”
“Great,” Connie said. “More exploding critters. They’re like walking IED’s.”
“That was not the idea…but no one cared to listen, much less worry about the problems with the batteries. If only…”
Joe walked away from the scientist. He could understand how the man was devastated by the loss of his creations, especially if they were as humanlike as Jade and many of the others waiting for him. But Joe couldn’t understand why the scientist would work for the government. His other creations had been convinced he would not help, but he’d apparently come up with several new models. And they were quite capable of killing Joe and his companions.
Another blast rumbled in the distance, reminding him of the danger.
Definitely from the complex, Joe thought.
Hustling deeper into the woods, he watched as the morning sunlight streamed through the slender gaps in the tree canopy. The soft light was welcome, especially seeing how it meant the savage horde would stop their attacks.