“I don’t like this place very much,” Chloe said into the silence, and all I could do was laugh.
“No shit,” Andi agreed, rising to kick at the spider’s nearest leg. She turned to me with a half-smile, stepping down on the spider’s claw hard enough to shatter it like glass. “It may surprise you to know these things weren’t here when I went in the tube.”
“I’d never sleep again if these were anywhere near the Oasis,” Silk remarked, curling her full lips in distaste. After a long look at the remains, she added, “I still might not, and it’s dead.”
“Anyone bitten?” I asked. In the fury of fighting, anything was possible. The last few minutes has passed in a blur, and even I wasn’t sure I hadn’t been scored by the murderous fangs.
“We’re good,” Mira said.
“I think we can assume that the entire area is in balance due to multiple predators. That conduit leading outside was made for something like a spider. No wonder it found this place,” Andi said, pushing through the web trash with the toe of her boot. “Seems the spider had a taste for rats, too.” She held up a rat jawbone, then dropped it with obvious distaste.
I flicked my blades to clean them of ichor, peering up into the swinging webs. “Any chance there’s something useful in the web? Might have grabbed humans through the years, not telling what they left behind. The poor bastards.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to look. We need the web down so I can see what additions were made to the power grid after I went under. Something doesn’t add up,” Andi said with some disgust.
“Start by searching this room. Andi, you tell me what you see, and then we get to CC. We need eyes on Rowan, and I’m getting tired of the endless parade of horror film monsters. I want us to have a timeline for battle in less than an hour. That way we can rest and get in position for whatever comes next,” I said.
“Sounds good,” Andi agreed. She began examining the panels and stations in a clockwise motion, murmuring quietly to Chloe and Silk, who watched and listened as she explained possible uses for the additional networking.
I reached up to the nearest web, filled with trash and hanging low. It was thick but not entirely opaque, the material somewhere between a worn bedsheet and clear plastic, shot through with thicker strands that looked like twine. When I pushed the mass away from me, something twinkled, like metal, and it was heavy.
“Hello,” I said, pulling a blade to cut along the bottom of the pouch. The mass smelled of decay, but there was something inside that had circuitry. It was worth a look, even if it made me feel like a scavenging pirate. “Avast ye, scurvy dogs,” I muttered, earning a quizzical look from Andi, who was only a few feet away with Silk and Chloe.
“You’re a pirate now?” Andi asked.
“A scavenger, but sure. I feel like a regular brigand searching this trash for treasure,” I told her, laughing as I slashed at the web. The contents of the mass spilled out on the floor, an array of bones, rotted hide, and a broken tablet computer, the screen smashed into a refractive mess. “Well, fuck it all. I thought this was a hidden—”
The spider that fell on me was four times the size of its mate, her fangs extended nearly a foot and dripping venom as she slammed me to the floor, wrapping her front legs around me in a crushing embrace. I fended off the first bite, my ‘bots screaming as her hooks sank into my leg, arm, and side, bristly hair clogging my nose and mouth while we began to roll in a desperate tumble. I saw nothing except the black arc of her fangs, their tips wicked in the flickering light as we spun about in a fury of blows. My swords were gone, my gun behind me and crushed to the floor by the weight of her attack, but every muscle in my body sang with effort as I hammered at her side and head while holding the fangs away from my face with my right forearm.
I struck again and again, impossibly hard blows that stove in the creature’s side, finally splitting the bristly skin with my fifth punch as my hand sank into warm fluid up to the elbow. The spider began to spasm and withdraw, but I locked my left hand around the base of a front leg and pulled until my eyes were streaming tears and my muscles shrieked in protest. With a wet tear, the leg came away in a spatter of warm liquid as I threw it to the side and reached for another.
I found the next leg and began to pull, howling in rage while Chloe and Mira struck down with blades. Andi had my legs, trying to pull me free, and the entire scene dissolved into chaos as I felt my hand lock onto the next spider leg, crushing the joint like a vise as the beast tried in vain to shake prey that was now predator. I wouldn’t let go, and in a series of savage tugs, the second and then third legs came off as I rolled the creature over me, my eyes now blinded by spider guts and sweat.
“Got her,” I grunted, pulling back as I slid my foot out to push against a power panel. I needed separation if I was going to finish her off, and I couldn’t do it with the fangs inches from my face. With a massive heave, I flipped the spider up, my legs working like pistons against the metal casing. As she began to fall away, I pulled my forearm from under her fangs to reach for a nearby sword, the handle close enough to grab.
Then the panel case folded in, and I slipped in the gore underneath me as the spider bore down to punch both her fangs into my chest. The points slipped in me with a kind of violation I never knew possible, pumping venom and shredding the muscles of my chest as her dying spasms wracked the fat body I’d ruined with my blows.
“Silk,” I tried to call, but my voice was a distant echo, weak and breathy. The fangs retracted, and the spider sagged off me, dead.
Above me, I saw Chloe and Silk and Mira, their faces white ovals of worry as the room began to grow dark. Inside me, the war began, ‘bots versus venom, and the first horrific bolt of pain struck home. I screamed, then clamped my jaws shut while hands lifted me as the women—my team, my people—began to speak in low voices.
The second wave of agony crashed home, and my muscles went rigid, twitching in a dance of the purest pain as every nerve in my body lit up from within. Panting, streaming sweat, and close to darkness, I heard whispers in the bedlam of my torture, and then I heard nothing at all.
15
“Jack, I’m not gonna lie to you. This is going to hurt like a bitch,” I heard, though it could have been anyone speaking. The voice seemed to come from underwater, or maybe I was underwater, drowning in a sea of my own pain.
I took stock of what I knew, and the news was far from good.
I was dying, or something close to it, I had wracking pains through every nerve in my body, my teeth were clenched so tightly all I could taste was blood, and I was pretty sure I’d pissed my pants. All in all, a banner day made worse by the fact that I was under lights that seemed to sear my skin.
“Jack?” The voice repeated itself, and I thought it was Andi. Or Mira. No, it was Andi, I decided after a moment of contemplation between seizing pains.
“Yeah,” I mumbled, or tried to. When the face above me nodded, I knew I’d spoken out loud.
“Good. It’s Andi, and Chloe, Silk, and Mira are all here. You’re down the hall in medical, and for the moment, you’re safe. Do you remember what happened?” she asked me.
“Fucking spider,” was all I could manage.
Andi smiled, and I heard nervous laughter. “Exactly. Big fucking spider. The female was up in the ceiling, guarding eggs. Don’t worry, they’re all dead—Mira really has a thing for popping eggs as it turns out, but you’ve got a hard hour ahead of you. I told you before that we would tank you up. Do you remember?”
“Mmm-hmm,” I answered, because that was all I could do with my head swimming in chaos.
“This isn’t any medical ward. This is a ‘bot station, and I don’t have the time to loop you through a renal hookup. The ‘bots have to go in the hard way, and it’s not going to be pleasant. These are several generations beyond what’s in you now, and they won’t play nice with your blood while they establish chemical and mechanical dominance over your systems. Eventually, you’ll pass out, but I can’t dope you up
because I need you to talk to me in order to gauge the dose. With me so far?”
“Fuuuuuck,” I hissed.
“Exactly. Fuck,” Andi said. I felt Silk’s hand on mine. It was soft and warm. I could sense her worry despite my condition. “S’okay,” I said to her and the room.
“It will be,” Andi agreed. She vanished from above me for a moment, returning with a hanging bag and a needle that looked big enough to kill a horse. “The first dose goes in your arm, but the second has to go in your spine. We need these ‘bots in you yesterday or the venom is going to kill you. You understand?” Andi said, swabbing my arm with something cold while she talked.
“Okay,” I said. I was a master of the understatement while fighting off giant spider venom.
“Okay, I’m going to strap you down. It’s going to hurt, but I need you to remain still while I put the needle in. Then, I need you to stay with us,” Andi said.
“Mmm-hmm,” I said, leaning my head back to relive some of the pain in my neck. A fire was rising in my spine, like lava in a tube. Whatever was happening inside me, my ‘bots were losing.
“Dosing once, now.” Andi pushed the needle in and began massaging the bag hard, squeezing it to empty into my vein as fast as possible.
If there was fire in my spine, then there was lightning in my arm. “Fuck me,” I hissed. The pain was so intense, I saw floating fractals of red and black, flashing white across my retinas as the new generation of ‘bots began to colonize my body.
“Your impressive libido aside, they’re going in fine. No rejection at site. Yet,” Andi added with an ominous hint.
“I can’t—holy shit—” I started, losing my way halfway through the complaint. My body broke into full fledged war at the cellular level, as ‘bots clashed with older versions of themselves while activating against the hostility of venom. My wounds tingled, then went white-hot, then an erratic series of shocks ran through them, sparks of pain made worse by the open edges of my wounds. Warm fluid began to run across my chest where the fangs had been, but I couldn’t bend my neck enough to see even if I wanted to.
“It’s okay. Almost done,” Andi said. Silk put her hand on my forehead, now burning hot with a fever that was born of two threats, manmade and natural. “Unstrap and turn him. The next part is harder.”
I nearly screamed as they turned me on my side, new and horrible pains shooting through my body in places I never knew existed. Then, in the midst of it all, fear came to call, and it had nothing to do with my possible death.
It was a question of time.
“How long were we—was I?” I asked the wall. All the women were behind me, levering me into a balanced position on what felt like a surgical table.
“It took us a few minutes to get you here. Time is no worry, Jack. If this works, you’ll be up in an hour, if it doesn’t, we’re fucked anyway,” Andi said from behind me.
“Umm, give it to him now?” I heard Mira say.
“Go ahead,” came Andi’s response, and her tone was like a priest giving last rites.
When Mira leaned close, I could feel her breath on my ear, full of apology and fear. “Bite down on this,” she said. With two fingers, she slipped a length of cable between my teeth, the insulation tasting of rubber and oil against my tongue. I gagged, tried to spit the bit, and then resigned myself to the cable’s presence. I clamped down with aching jaws, saliva flowing around the cable in a spooling line that puddled on the table beneath my head.
“I’m sorry,” Andi said, and she really was. I felt the needle slip from my arm, now leaden with heat and cold in alternating waves of confused hurt, and then she pulled my pants down to expose the base of my spine. “So sorry, Jack.” Her fingers were busy swabbing at a point where bone met skin, and I knew whatever I’d experienced was going to fade away compared to what was coming.
“Hold him,” Andi said, iron in her voice.
Six hands gripped me as I felt pressure on my back, then the needle punched through as my jaws locked on the cable like a pitbull on a rival.
I fought the urge to beg, tears streaming from my eyes as Andi’s face came into view, broken into jeweled panes. She spoke, and I had to focus on her lips to understand what she wanted. It took her three tries to get the question across, the last attempt slow and deliberate.
“Do you feel anything in your neck?” Andi asked.
I tried to think, but the world was on fire and I surrounded the blaze with my body, eating the pain of each licking flame with my flesh. When I had taken a breath and could consider speaking, I uttered one word, and only one, because anything else would have put me over the edge into death itself.
“Yes,” I groaned.
Andi reached behind me and withdrew the needle, her eyes dark with worry as I tried to clear my vision, but just then the new ‘bots hit my brain with the fury of an oncoming storm. For the second time in as many hours, blackness reached for me, and I had no way to fight back.
16
It didn’t take me an hour to recover, as Andi suspected. It took two.
In that nightmare of dreams and sweat and pain, my body became a battleground for three armies—venom, ‘bots, and the newer nanotech that meant to sweep them all aside in the name of making me better than ever.
The new ‘bots won out, but it felt like a close thing at times, with shapes and images streaking through my mind’s eye in patterns never meant for humanity. When my eyes fluttered open, they did so slowly, as if the light above could scorch them into ash.
“Hey,” Silk said, first to see me wake. It was a nice sight, thought there were lines of worry on her forehead, and she looked tired in her soul, not just body.
“Hey. How—” I began, but she put her hand on my chest, shushing me gently.
“Not long. A couple hours, but no more.” When Andi came into view, they shared a knowing look, then Silk spoke to me again, this time with a sense of wonder. “Long enough to discuss more about your time and the ‘bot technology, and what it might mean for us.”
“Where’s Chloe and Mira?” I asked, my throat dry with disuse.
“Next door, sleeping. It’s a secure room and there’s a bunk. We didn’t know how long it would take, so we slept in rotations to stay alert. How do you feel?” Andi asked.
I took stock of myself yet again, realizing the act was getting old. I had to fight smarter if I was going to survive in a world where giant spiders were real. “Okay. Sore. Legs are gassed, but it feels like after a hard run with no recovery.”
“That’ll pass,” Andi said, adjusting an intravenous bag I hadn’t noticed. “You’re dried out from the changeover, need certain things that the ‘bots have been using. Your diet will have to change from now on, or you won’t recover as quickly. When we make it out of this, you’ll have to eat some exotics.”
“Exotics? Like what?” I asked, not sitting up but definitely interested.
“Mostly pig assholes, and they’ll have to be raw. I recommend eating them fresh,” Andi said, then her lips twitched in betrayal as Silk doubled over in laughter.
“I’ll just die, if that’s okay with you,” I said, but I took her hand, thankful for the joke.
Andi moved closer, peering into my eyes. “Pig ass aside, you’re going to need a lot of water and electrolytes to recover from this. Medical has powder for it, but we’re going to need a source down the road.” She cut her eyes at Silk, who gave a small nod. “There are enough ‘bots here—and in other sites—to dose a lot of people. Since the new generation of nanotech is self-replicating, we could begin improving the people of the Oasis, and it would last a lifetime, as long as they didn’t have catastrophic blood loss.”
I considered that, then struggled to my elbows, letting the room stabilize around me. “Are you asking me for permission? Because all I care about is bringing back the good parts of the world. I’m not an emperor. I’m the—” I thought about it for a minute, because even though Rowan was coming, we needed to have something like a plan for what h
appened after. If I didn’t plan for success now, then we would have chaos later when individual jealousies and grievances came out to play, and they always did.
“You’re the what?” Silk asked, then took a long look at her body, smirking. “Other than one lucky bastard?”
“I’m the leader for as long as you’ll have me. If I’m not doing what I think is my very best, then I don’t want anyone following me,” I said.
“Then you’ve got my vote,” Silk said, squeezing my hand.
“Mine too, unless you try to bring back lawyers. Then I’ll shoot you myself,” Andi said. Judging by her expression, she was only half joking.
“Fair enough. With giant spiders and rats, I think the world has enough villains,” I agreed. “Help me off this slab, will you?”
A moment of grunting and hissed complaints later, I was standing, if wobbly.
“At some point, the new colony of ‘bots will begin muscular work. It doesn’t hurt like the first gen, but it will cause irregular movement, if only for an instant. You’ve got to be ready for that,” Andi said.
“How long will it take?” I asked.
“A day, tops. You’re a combat spec, so I’m not entirely sure,” Andi answered.
“There are different kinds?” Silk asked.
“Sure. The ‘bots are self-adjusting to a point. If—sorry, when we dose you, they’ll probably work most on your cognition and speed, rather than muscle mass. The ‘bots detect your strengths and play to them, rather than try to build something up that’s too much of a long shot for enhanced survival,” Andi said.
“What are the top effects? For combat, I mean?” I hoped for more of everything but would take what I could get.
Future Rebuilt: A Post-Apocalyptic Harem (Future Reborn Book 2) Page 15
