by Nathan Ward
As her head drooped to ease the strain on her neck, her entire body had begun to ache but after the pain she had already experienced, this tiring act of heroism was nothing, she thought as sweat dripped down towards the floor and hit against the glass. The droplets danced around the glistening surface of the oval slab which seemed to become quite a distraction until Joy noticed beyond the window, deep below, many levels down, the soldiers had begun to ascend once again, marching up the spiral stairwell with ungodly speed. Yet again the thought crossed her mind that it seemed to look as if their armies were never ending as Joy peered through the looking glass before turning her attention towards the stairwell entrance where the flames had now begun to die down, but now staring back at her, meeting her gaze with raw power and rage stood a UNA soldier. Its uniform had burned away revealing the intricate inner workings of its body, ticking away in a mechanical beat.
Before Joy had a chance to raise her weapon the soldier leapt at her, knocking her off balanced and into a crashing tumble against the ground. Its mechanical arm thundered a flurry of punches down towards Joy's face but it could only find the cracked ground beneath her as she ducked and weaved her head from side to side, avoiding the fatal blow that the soldier had been trying to achieve - but instead it was only digging itself a deeper hole. Joy had no time to spare and no way of moving the lump of metal that had fallen to a dominating position on top of her, even the rifle that she had done so well to hold on to had found its way to the far corner of the room which she had no hope of reaching, but she tried, outstretching her arm in case of a miracle, but it had definitely travelled beyond her reach, she confirmed that as she let out a shriek of frustration, swinging her fist against the face plate of the soldier who held her down.
Joy let out a painful yell as the surface of her glove burnt away on contact, sending a fracturing vibration down the skeletal structure of her hand. The soldier's metallic body was burning hot from the fire it had stood in, Joy could now feel the heat from its knees burning away at her uniform as they pressed against her, pinning Joys legs firmly down in to the ground. Her fist was in a world of pain all of its own, she may as well have punched a branding iron straight from the fire.
There was nothing she could do now, but deep inside it pleased her to know that while the UNA was staring her in the face it wasn’t turning its attention to Murdock, if he was even still alive... That thought crossed her mind as the soldiers fist slowly descended towards her face as time seemed to slow for Joy to relive some precious moments of her time walking the surface of Earth, images danced through her mind: Her first kiss, her first love, then the sound of her daughter's laughter...Then for some reason she could not fathom, she thought back to that ruined town and the mysterious Ashley Jekel – then she saw Murdock in her minds eye and she held that final thought, hoping that he was still alive. One of them had to make it and if it wasn't going to be her, she would die hoping at least Murdock had got out of this alive...
While she held that thought, ranks of UNA soldiers stormed the room with the rebellion threat now neutralized, they made their way towards the brawl and gathered around Joy's body to watch as their fellow unit pounded away at her skull. Crimson erupted up on to the soldiers’ face plate as flesh ripped open upon her face and even as a victim of such brutality, Joy managed to remain conscious, turning her head to one side in an attempt to protect her right eye as the monstrosity on top of her smashed its sharp knuckles against the flesh of her face, pulling away strands of muscle and fluid with every recalling motion.
By the time the soldier had stopped pounding at the side of Joy's face, there was nothing left. Even her eye ball no longer retained its position within the socket; it had been beaten to a pulp of nothingness, oozing into the raw exposed muscle.
Joy whimpered and twitched as the soldier found its feet and proceeded to take a step back from her body, knowing she was clearly still alive.
The android considered the job was done, she was no longer putting up much of a fighting challenge, and so the blue eyed machine had to make the most logical decision, knowing her resilience might later be of great use to Astral. So the exposed soldier begun to lead the uniformed squad towards the elevator which still sat waiting to be used, while Joy quivered and shook in pain on the crimson stained ground, staring up as the blurry outlines of the enemy moved away in to the distance and those blurs seemed like clouds in a troubled sky as she drifted somewhere above pain and reason and awareness as something at the back of her mind whispered to hold on and remember a man named Murdock, and the thought of him seemed solid as rock so like one lost at sea she clung to that rock, refusing to let the swirl of shadow around her drag her down into a sea of darkness...
Chapter 37: The Enemy Contingency
The engines of the war bird continued to run tirelessly, elevating the air craft up the side of the tower until it finally reached the level that Murdock had been stood on, waiting patiently. Josh and Thomas immediately pressed their way past Enrique towards the window ledge, staring out in astonishment, stunned by the arrival of the craft, to see such an extraordinary piece of kit staring back at them at eye level and scanning the vicinity in that which they stood.
Josh turned back to Murdock who struggled to wipe away the beaming smile from his face - he’d never get bored of seeing that, he decided, before regaining his composure to receive Joshes burning question, at least he assumed it would be a question but the expression upon his face seemed somewhat unpredictable, it was a mix of fear, amazement and panic all rolled up in to one rocky glare, something Murdock had become rather accepting of during his adventures.
“Maybe you need someone a bit more...experienced for this job?” Josh asked, staring deep in to the brown pits of Murdock’s eyes.
“No-one is more experienced than you, Josh. Think about it - you led them from day one and you did a damn fine job of it! If there’s a shard of a chance of ending this, tonight, you have to be the man to do it, I have no doubt about it.”
Murdock firmly placed his hand upon Joshes shoulder, perhaps a little too firmly, forgetting how weak they had all become but Josh stood solid, weary but strong. “My place is here, this level will need defending and I have Enrique to cover my back…I’ve always been a soldier, Josh. What you’re going to do is the act of a hero.”
Josh sighed, not feeling like much of a hero, in fact he couldn’t conjure a single positive thought as he tried to reflect on his time leading the fighters of freedom. The word hero seemed like a title he was sure he could never claim as his own – it was the man standing in front of him who deserved that honor, a fact that he tried to hand back to him at once.
“Murdock, no matter what you think of me and even though we got off to a bad start, I will always see you as MY hero. You came back for us after all, so if anything…if we survive this, I’d consider changing that label you seem to have etched across your head. Me? A hero? Don’t kid yourself boy!”
Josh then slowly turned to face Thomas, giving him a nod of confirmation which turned in to a hasty advance towards the lip of the window ledge, looking out over the battered city.
“You’ve got this, Josh. If I've learned anything about you, it’s that when you have your eyes locked and your mind set, you’re a hard man to knock down.”
“Right now I’m more concerned about how we actually get up there!” Josh added, staring across at the War bird which had now engaged in to a hovering motion just a few inches away from the open window were Josh and Thomas had resided.
Murdock raised his left arm and begun to point towards the flat top of the air craft.
“There! You run, you jump…I'll guide you up!”
“You must be joking!?” Exclaimed Josh in disbelief as he followed the direction of Murdock's finger, bringing his gaze to an uneasy halt at the helm of the war bird.
“I don’t joke, I’m serious. I will make sure you get to the top of the tower safely,” Murdock explained, lowering his arm to point at his wrist mounted
computer system before giving it a light tap of the finger, “UNA technology, what’s not to trust?” He concluded, meeting Joshes weary gaze as he looked back at Murdock, clouded by odds of doubt.
“Every second we now waste is time that could be spent putting an end to all this, Don’t forget Joy, your wife and that pair of goons have also put their lives on the line here, and god knows if they’re even still alive so you decide now…we either roll with this or we start digging our own graves because I honestly can’t see any more options, can you?” Murdock said, reaching the end of his willingness to endure.
“We’re doing it!” Josh immediately replied, pulling Thomas backwards away from the open window and setting some distance between them and the war bird.
“Are you ready, Murdock?” Josh asked, while be begun to position himself down on the ground like an athlete about to embark on a hundred meter sprint, with his team mate Thomas looking as if he hadn’t a clue what was going on, it was almost as if nothing had even begun to process yet, judging by his look of confusion sprawled across his face.
But Murdock gave the thumbs up; initiating what was left of the final contingency plans. Thomas looked across at Josh, but before his eyes had even landed upon Joshes face, he leapt off his feet, tugging at Thomas’s bloody white leathers that remained tightly clung to his flesh.
“Fucking jump boy!” Josh yelled as he and Thomas broke in to a fiery sprint, headed straight for the edge of the room, knowing if they misjudged the distance between them and the air craft they’d end up plummeting to their untimely deaths. At least, Josh had managed to think that far ahead, Thomas was still slightly out of sync, so the thought of becoming Howler supper came as a premature fright as they both suddenly launched themselves from the tower ledge perfectly in to the air, propelling themselves beyond the cockpit of the war bird and in to a crashing tumble on to the upper hull that had ever so slightly tweaked its position to make for a better landing.
The pair clung on tightly as Murdock wasted no time in sending them on their way, ramping up the air crafts thrusters, projecting it steadily towards the upper levels where Williams had said to have gone to face her creator.
But she need not do it alone, thought Josh as he kept a strong grasp of the air craft hull, holding on for dear life but remaining converged on the pulsating blue sky suspended above them. They both watched on as the winds blew through their hair and the clouds erupted into a dancing, energetic motion as they clung on, sky above, death below and maybe soon, death no matter how hard they tried to stay balanced because exposed like this, they felt like floating targets.
Murdock edged himself towards the end of the ledge, keeping his eye on the war bird as it continued to ascend into the sky. His finger returned to the screen of his wrist computer which was piloting the craft, but it took great skill to maneuver the lump of machinery, especially from such a low angle with a diminishing field of vision as it climbed. Not to mention the added struggle as bright red fluorescent light struck against Murdock's face with every passing turn, while the tower remained in a state of emergency.
“Easy, easy boys…” Murdock muttered as the war bird neared the top of the tower. Enrique had stood silently some feet away from Murdock, but there in his eyes shone admiration for his Captain, clutched to the connection controlling the craft, but the moment suddenly shattered by the disturbing sound of hydraulic doors crunching open towards the end of the oval room that had only just fallen dormant but now had a new lease of energy. A flurry of bright white light shone through the doorway as the blood stained plastic segments pulled apart slowly, crunching and squealing against the rubble and dust that had laid at the foot of them.
Murdock and Enrique turned to cast their sights over what was happening behind them, just as the doors came to a firm halt and cast a stream of light down the centre of the room. Murdock looked back up towards the war bird then down to his wrist computer before returning his gaze back to the doorway, concerned about Josh and Thomas who were still mounted to the hull of the craft and relying on him, with their lives essentially strung up on the line - but he knew he couldn’t risk their safety, they’d come too far, he reminded himself as he lowered his arm to his thigh and discreetly proceeded to pilot the ship while he waited for whatever was on the other side of the door to emerge in to the centre of the room.
Already, like sensing the presence of a ghost or some kind of unseen force that could not be easily explained, Enrique could feel the presence of foreign eyes being cast over his body as the hairs on the back of his neck prickled and a chill ran down his spine as he and Murdock stood vulnerably at the frame edge of the broken window, while forks of lightning and thunder erupted behind them making silhouettes of their figures and casting long, tall black shadows towards the opposing doorway.
Murdock took a subtle glance towards Enrique then proceeded to check on the positioning of the war bird, which had now settled directly beside the highest entry level of the tower. He pressed his quilted finger tip on the display dial and slowly begun to make a clockwise motion, turning the ship to allow for Josh and Thomas to achieve a more controlled jump towards the tower, but there still remained a problem that Murdock hadn’t accounted for - the bullet proof glass still stood defiantly solid, tall and two inches thick between them.
Suddenly the sound of marching footsteps echoed loudly into the room, and from behind the bright piercing light illuminating the newly formed doorway came a squad of four UNA soldiers, sporting their dark navy leather uniforms and in place of the usual rifles were a series of long double bladed staffs, stationed within holsters along their backs.
It occurred to Murdock that he had to act fast as the deadly immediate threat of the situation hit him hard, he had to free up his hands but the war bird still required his guidance as Josh and Thomas begun to yell down towards his level, hoping they could be heard.
“The window, Murdock! We’ve nothing to break it with!" Josh yelled in a state of panic, their voices carrying down from above.
But they were too high, so no one could hear them except thankfully Murdock, who had already anticipated the possibilities in his head, while avoiding eye contact with the enemy soldiers that had come and stood to attention while one final Astral embodiment begun to pace the floor, advancing towards the centre of the oval shaped room until her dark cloak of shadow pulled away from under her feet, revealing her crystal blue eyes burning from beneath her artificial flesh.
“Captain Nathan Murdock, what an honour...” the voice of Commander Houghton echoed, as she glared in to the eyes of Murdock, who seemed preoccupied while he tweaked the position of the war bird.
“Has something more important caught your attention, captain?” she asked.
Murdock lifted his head and his eyes strayed away from the screen momentarily to cast his gaze over Houghton.
“And you are?” he asked, with a hint of cockiness, recognising her face from back at the Norfolk outpost were he’d served, before reverting his gaze back to the screen of dials, hoping his whole manner of showing no alarm would seem confusing to the enemy, hopefully confusing enough for the android to not wonder what he was doing to the device that she didn’t realise controlled the craft several floors above...
“You would have best known me as your employer, Captain. And I never expected one of our own royal guard to be stood before me in the final days of our experimentation.” Houghton explained, once again drawing the attention of Murdock away from Josh and Thomas riding in the sky.
“So you were the one who brought us in, General Lynch and his squad of goons. You had us all transferred…?” asked Murdock.
Now his eyes begun to fill with fire, rage and ferocity as finally in his mind someone - or rather something – could now be held accountable for this world of pain and suffering, it was looking him in the eye without a glimmer of fear, it was cold as the metal it was made of and it made the anger grow within him like a raging fire that was about to go wild..
“Yes, yo
u may hold me accountable, Captain.” Houghton confirmed which came as a shock to Murdock as his thoughts were so suddenly read out like a script in front of him.
“How did you... How did you do that?” he questioned, now visibly shaken by the situation.
“How did I read your mind? We are forever evolving, Captain…And now you have returned to where you belong, we can begin…”
“Begin what?” Murdock raged.
“Your integration, Astral requires you.” Houghton concluded.
Enrique turned to Murdock and grasped at his shoulder.
“Captain! Maintain your composure; you can’t leave Josh and Thomas up there alone!” he muttered under his breath into Murdock’s right ear.
“I’ve got this, don’t worry…” Murdock replied, shifting his eyes into Enrique’s field of vision for a brief second as he stood firm facing Houghton.
“Your feeble attempts to hinder our advances will prove unsuccessful, but believe me, we have been most intrigued by your actions, Captain!” added Houghton, slowly stepping towards Murdock.
“Unsuccessful you say?” Murdock questioned with a cheeky grin etched to his face, “We’ll see about that!”
Then with fire burning behind his weary eyes, he quickly activated the war bird’s mini gun turrets which exploded in to life, chipping away at the glass window panel in front of Josh and Thomas as they continued to cling on for dear life, while the hull rumbled and cast a shudder through their bodies. The glass was thick but as seconds passed and fragments begun to fall away down towards the ground.
