by K. F. Breene
“I don’t know, Mommy,” Marie’s little voice said. “The program is fine, I think. I don’t know why it’s not working.”
“You focus on that, Millie.” Ryker flashed his hand signs. Why he couldn’t just speak so they were all on the same page, she did not know. Dagger transferred Marie to a smaller guy, who then drifted into the middle of the new configuration of battle-hardened men. Millicent was handed the Deadener and then nudged into the middle with Marie. “That thing might make the difference between completing this mission and running like hell. There are too many.”
“Too stupid to do it on their own, so send a bunch,” Millicent mumbled, looking down at her device. Small lines of corrosion already marred the sleek metal. A sort of grunge coated one of the sensors.
“That’s why they’ve covered the CPU with a harder material,” Millicent said to herself. “The other metal corrodes too quickly.”
A hand plucked at her sleeve. Everyone started running as a blast sounded ahead of her. Ryker had used the EMP gun again. Another blast in another direction. At this rate, he would drain the weapon faster than they could get out of there.
The men around her surged and retreated, taking out anything the gun missed. But no matter how many they took out, more robots still emerged from the flickering light.
Millicent scrubbed the rest of the sensors on the Deadener and cleaned off the surface. “Earth is nothing like Paradise, and it’s showing in the durability of the tech.” She scraped goo out of a crack with her fingernail. Like a shock wave, robots paused and shook around them. “It’s working.”
“That’s my girl. Now let’s get this done before it borks out again.” Ryker motioned her forward and they all ran, staying to the middle of the debris to keep it easy, firing at stalled robots along the way.
Somewhere in the distance, a strange thrushing sound permeated the whine of robots.
“Anyone got a visual?” Ryker called as they rounded a corner.
A sea of flickering screens showed a semicircle of robots, the light glittering on their metal bodies.
“I got nothing,” someone called from the back.
“Nothing here, sir,” from the right.
“Just spiders,” Dagger said from the left.
Straight ahead, a table was on its side, wedged into the doorway of an office. Standing behind it, a long pole in hand and a cloud of hair frizzed around her head, was the woman who had caused so much annoyance in Millicent’s old life. Her blood. Her sister.
She was besieged by robots, and only her feeble attempts with that pole were keeping them from pushing that table aside and forcing their way in. Judging by the focused surge forward, the battle wouldn’t last much longer. Thank Holy that Millicent and crew had arrived in time.
The robots around them spasmed. And then climbed to their feet.
“Shit!” Millicent swore, looking down at the orb. “It cut out again.”
“Prepare to be swarmed,” Ryker yelled.
Chapter 8
Fear choking her, Danissa blinked away the sweat dripping into her eyes and tightened her grip on her pole. A spider bumped the table, knocking it toward her. She swatted down with all her might, thwapping it in the back. The bulbous body dented a tiny bit. The critter jerked, as if it felt the impact.
Danissa hit it again, grunting with the effort. This time a large section caved in. The robot spasmed and curled up, continuing to shake. Two more scurried up to take its place.
Breathing heavily, she looked around wildly for something that might help her. But nothing in the office could be pulled away to fortify the table. She sagged, nearly out of energy. The pole was too light and the robots too many.
Two huge men with thick arms materialized out of the darkness. Behind them, other large men fanned out, their movements lithe and graceful. They looked to be higher-level security, much like the ones who had fought and died for her to get at the hard ports.
A gap opened in the middle of their group. Danissa saw a man with two little arms wrapped around his neck. To his side ran a woman, currently looking down at something in her hands and not paying attention to the fighting going on around her.
“Oh thank Holy,” Danissa said, tears coming to her eyes. “They’re here, Puda. They’ve come.”
Trying not to focus on that silence behind her, she smacked her pole down on one of the new spiders even as the other bumped up against the table. She staggered back at exactly the wrong moment. It bumped again and the table fell toward her.
“No!” she yelled, slamming her body against the hard surface. The robot bumped back, but its leg had already made it through, aimed at her hip. She’d survived until the rescue only to miss the mark by ten seconds.
“Gotcha!”
A loud thunk and the spider went sailing away. One of the large men kicked another spider, sending it flying. He glanced at her, winked, of all things, and then turned his back on her. “Feisty fuckers, eh? I got you, lady. Just hang tight. The best of the best are here to save the day.”
“You’re an even bigger showboat than Ryker.” The woman who’d been in the middle of the group stopped beside him, working at a small metal orb in her hands.
“Hat trick,” the large man said before kicking another robot.
“What?” The woman glanced up from the orb in irritation.
“Here, take the child in there with you.” The man handed the little girl over the barrier, and suddenly Danissa found herself holding a fearful-looking child as two people bickered in front of the office, all while they were swarmed with spider robots.
“Have I died and this is my punishment for not picking a deity to praise?” Danissa asked in confusion.
The woman with the orb looked into the office, straight at her face. “I’m Millicent Foster. That’s my daughter. You harm her, and I’ll kill you. You got that?”
Danissa blinked. This woman, whom she’d competed against for years before Millicent escaped off-planet, and whom she’d never met face-to-face, was much harder than Danissa had ever been. No wonder she’d made it from Earth with her child.
“You got that?” Millicent pushed.
“She’s in shock,” the man said. “She’ll be fine. I’m watching her. Get that thing working.”
“She’ll be okay.” Danissa licked her dry lips. Her arms constricted without thinking. She loosened her grip in case it hurt the child. “I’ve got her.”
Only then did the woman look back down at her hands.
A blast sounded to their left. A group of robots stilled and curled up. On the right, men were kicking, shooting, and hacking their way through the horde.
“Really need that sphere operational, Ms. Foster,” the man said.
“Nagging won’t help my productivity, Mr. Dagger,” she retorted.
Another blast, followed by a second section of robots curling up.
“What is that?” Danissa asked.
“Just one of the things you’re going to help me perfect,” Millicent said without looking up.
“I’m out, princess,” a deep voice bellowed from somewhere outside the office. “Cluster together. Fall back.”
“This should work.” Millicent ran forward. In a circular area around her, the robots ceased activity. Men drew near to her.
“Dagger, take my daughter from the stranger and have her fall in,” a deep voice said. Danissa couldn’t see the speaker, but his voice was hard and commanding. He’d led men before. Thank Holy. “We’re getting out of here as fast as possible.”
“Wait!” Danissa yelled earnestly as the man next to her reached for the child. “Puda. There is a downed man in here. I need to take him out.”
The man next to her—Dagger—hesitated. A man with jet-black hair in a loose bun on his head stalked into view, all muscle and brawn. Without a word, he reached for the child. For Puda’s sake, Danissa wanted to hold on to her. They would be forced to help him if she held the child hostage. But that hard, flat stare, burning with intelligence an
d violence, had her handing over the little girl before she knew what she was doing.
“Dagger, get the fallen. We need to move.” The large man turned away with the child clutching his shoulders in an extremely familiar way.
“Is that . . . Gunner?” Danissa said in disbelief. He’d been a legend when he’d worked for Moxidone, the best they had and the most lethal.
“Who else did you think would be traveling with Ms. and baby Foster?” Dagger asked with a grin. “Now let’s go. We need to get out of here while Ms. Foster’s device still works.”
Hand to her head, Danissa backed away from the table to let Dagger knock it down and enter the office, which was suddenly a lot smaller. “This is surreal.”
“You got that right, pretty lady. This the guy?” Dagger bent to Puda. He placed two thumbs on Puda’s neck before bracing his hands on his knees. “Is giving him a proper send-off worth risking all our lives?”
“No, he’s okay. He’s unconscious, but he’s alive.” She took a ragged breath. “He is. I checked before the robots started to advance. He’ll be okay. I gave him more Cure-all.”
“What’s going on?” Gunner called in.
Dagger’s handsome face tilted upward. His dark eyes met hers, as if he were reading her. Judging.
“He’ll be okay.” Had that sob come from her? She couldn’t tell. All she could feel was pain. Horrible, body-consuming agony at the gravity in this man’s gaze. At the truth he was too kind to speak out loud.
“Okay.” He hauled up her best friend and longtime lover and threw Puda over his wide shoulder. Without another word, he turned and started jogging toward the group.
“I don’t know how much longer this thing is going to last,” Millicent said in clipped words. “The EMP gun is out of charge. We need to do this at high speed.”
“I’m your mayfly.” Dagger glanced back as he fell in with the others. He nodded in approval when Danissa jogged up and stopped beside him. “Stay close and you’ll be okay, you hear? I’ll get you outta here.”
“You’ve got that quote wrong,” Gunner said, handing his daughter off to the smallest of the staffers. His hands and fingers danced, and then everyone except the two women started jogging. At Millicent’s scoff, Danissa figured she didn’t understand the silent security communication, either. “I saw the original vid,” Gunner added. “The remake changed that line.”
“You didn’t see the original,” Millicent said. “You saw a remake of the original. Which was probably a remake. No one can think up new ideas anymore. Save your ammo, everyone. If this thing goes out,” she said, hefting the little globe, “you’re going to need it.”
“The point is, I saw a way older one than he did,” Gunner said.
“What’s the line, then?” Dagger asked. He kicked a robot. It did a huge arc through the air and landed fifteen feet away.
“I’m your huckle-homie.” Gunner kicked a robot. It went a little farther. He grinned at Dagger.
“What the hell is a huckle-homie?”
“Like a friend, I think. Homie. Old-school slang.”
“But huckle?”
“I don’t know, bro-yo. It’s an old vid.”
“We’re down!” Millicent shouted. She bent to the orb in her hand.
“Peel off. Stick the others in the alcove while we give Millie more time,” Gunner barked. “Please tell me I am correct in assuming that thing is fixable, cupcake.”
“Don’t know,” she said. “Give me a moment.”
“That’s all you might have.”
The smallest man turned toward the alcove with the girl. He climbed over a pile of debris.
Cold dripped down Danissa’s middle. “No!” she cried, shoving Dagger out of the way and grabbing at the man. “Bombs. There could be—”
Snap.
Danissa clutched at him in panic. He looked down at his foot in confusion, not moving.
Something heavy hit her, knocking her to the side. Her feet flew up and her back slapped the ground. Before she could roll away, a solid object landed on her, stealing her breath. A loud explosion blasted heat, scalding her arm and washing across the soles of her boots. Wall spat out, rolling toward her face. She tried to turn away, but her head was wedged between a man’s muscular chest—the thing that had landed on her—and the floor. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for cement and plaster to strike her.
But the blow she expected never came. The man on top of her shifted. He grunted, probably because the debris he was shielding her from was raining down on top of him.
Silence filled the room except for a light ringing in her ears.
“You okay, pretty lady?” came a deep and scratchy voice.
She had no idea.
“Danissa?” he asked again, shifting, probably to look at her face.
She peeled her eyes open as he moved away the large piece of wall. He’d stopped it right before it hit her nose. That was nice of him.
“The little girl,” she said, dazed. Unable to breathe.
“She’s okay. Gunner got her. What about you?” He peeled off her. She felt gentle prods and squeezes to her extremities. “Anything hurt?”
“No.” She allowed him to pull her up. The ringing persisted no matter how many times she shook her head.
He ran a single finger down the side of her arm. Shivers erupted. “That hurt?” he asked.
“Feels . . . cold,” she said, confused. “Wait.” She looked down at her blackened suit, scorched from the blast. “No, I’m fine. Sorry. I had weird shivers just then. But I’m okay. Puda?”
Her gaze fell on him then, lying on the ground in a heap. Dagger had dropped him to grab her. He’d gotten blasted by the fire, too. Part of his face was scorched, though his suit had held up. His eyebrows were burned away, and some of his hair. He lay perfectly still. His chest didn’t rise and fall.
Barely able to breathe, Danissa turned her face away and squeezed her eyes shut, the truth hot and sharp in her gut. She wanted to give in to the blackness that threatened to consume her. The guilt, the sorrow. But he wouldn’t want her to die here, with him. He’d want her to live.
A hand covered her shoulder. “You okay?” Dagger asked softly.
A sob wracked her. She dug her nails into her palms and clamped down, fighting against the rising tide. The pain wobbled, threatening to take over, but she held firm. This wasn’t the time to let go. Not here, where death always lay around the next corner.
“Yes,” she whispered, forcing her eyes open. She took in the rest of the scene, desperate to get her logical mind firing to drown out the sea of emotion.
The alcove had been blown to hell. With it, the man who hadn’t moved in time. His reactions hadn’t been as fast as Dagger’s or Gunner’s. Gunner was off to the side, his back a mess of burned suit and blackened and bloody skin. Another man was already sticking him with Cure-all or some other medical necessity. The little girl was sobbing in Millicent’s arms, being clutched like she was a priceless bottle of water.
Two other men were getting treatment, though their burns weren’t as bad.
“How did he survive that?” Danissa asked, staring in shock at Gunner’s back. “How did he even get there in time?”
“He’s bred for it.” Dagger lifted an elbow so he could look at his side. “He trained for it. And he heals fast. I got lucky—I got the same healing gene. Still hurts like a hornet’s tit, though.”
“Don’t it ever,” Gunner said.
Robots were scattered about them, their legs curled under. They hadn’t been touched by the blast itself, but they’d somehow been affected all the same.
A lightbulb came on. “That’s why Moxidone hid all those bombs inside the buildings,” Danissa said. “Something about them takes out the robots.”
“They could’ve gone about it a million different ways.” Millicent’s every word was laced with anger. “A million different ways. All without harming humans. What fucking useless—” She ground her teeth.
“You
didn’t design that?” Gunner asked Millicent.
“A device with that long of a delay between detonation and blast? No. What’s the point? You either want to blow someone up, or you don’t.”
“They probably set it with a delay to give any humans the chance to get outta Hollywood,” Dagger said.
“Got that saying wrong, too.” Gunner shook his head. “It’s get outta Rango.”
“Where’s Rango?” Dagger asked.
“Somewhere in the prehistoric Earth desert, I think.”
“If they did set it up that way, then some Curve hugger programmed it.” Millicent scowled. “It’s not a long enough delay for most people to get cover, and I doubt robots can set them off, so why have them up there?” She shook her head. “None of that makes sense. I think Moxidone had an ulterior motive.”
“Or they’re just lost without you.” Gunner grinned with tight eyes. Danissa had the distinct impression he was trying to cover up his pain. Or maybe ignore it. It didn’t appear to be working very well.
“They were definitely lost without you,” Danissa said in a wispy voice.
“C’mon,” Millicent said. “My device, which won’t kill people, is probably working. We need to go.”
“Probably?” someone asked.
“Can I get a shot of Fire-soothe for the road? My shi—stuff hurts,” Dagger said, turning toward the others.
Danissa sucked a breath. Red and blistered skin shone through his seared suit. Blood oozed in places. With his lightning-fast reaction time, he could’ve easily gotten clear and saved himself a world of hurt. Her assigned security would’ve hesitated. Instead, he had knowingly dived into the fire to pull out a perfect stranger.
“Who are you people?” she asked slowly.
“Best of the best, at your service,” Gunner said, taking something out of his utility belt.
“Blowhards, mostly.” Millicent hugged her daughter tightly as Gunner stuck Dagger with the Fire-soothe. “But fast healers, thank the Divine.”
“All right. Let’s get moving.” Gunner stepped away from Dagger.
