Dead Man's Fury (Dead Man's War Book 3)

by Dan Decker

  My blood rushed through my veins as I considered my options, thinking that the time was short before it had cut a hole big enough to shoot at me.

  Going back to the consul screen, I tried to flip through it, hoping to find manual controls but could only bring up the radar screen. I tried Roth’s monitor but to the same effect. I regretted my belligerence. I could easily have slipped into the suit and hopped out of the transport by now.

  I checked on the slit.

  It was now a foot long. At some point, it would cut another slit, but it was still working on the primary one.

  I wasn’t ready to follow Jeffords into the afterlife, not yet.

  Not by a longshot.

  There has to be a way out of this.

  I returned to my seat and strapped in, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. As I did, thoughts of the alleyway where I died flooded through my mind. I had thought that day I had the situation well in hand, but reality had slapped me upside the head and told me I hadn’t.

  This will not be like that. Not today.

  Things were supposed to be easier once I no longer had somebody gunning for my death.

  Lurker, Jeffords, or Sam, it’s all the same. Too many people want me dead, and I’m determined not to go.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, remembering the first time I had witnessed Roth activate one of the suits. The numbers I didn’t know seemed to be right on the tip of my tongue, but then they disappeared. I took another deep breath and tried to mentally return to that moment in time.

  I had just found the suits.

  Roth had walked in after finishing her call.

  It was there, but out of reach, I shook my head.

  I sat down in front of the suit, closed my eyes, and took another deep breath, trying to ignore the sparks that were raining down several feet away. There was a brief lull, but I did not look up.

  A moment later, the rest of the numbers came to me.

  I spat them out after touching my watch to the neck. “Activate suit.”

  The suit opened up. I looked on and was glad that nobody was around to see my dumbfounded face.

  I was surprised it had worked.

  When I stood, I noticed the lurker was now working on another slit. The saw had completely disappeared, but I could still hear it as it cut down into the ship. Every now and again, a spark would make it through the already formed slit and hit the floor.

  It had taken a couple minutes for the lurker to breach the hold, so I figured that I had at least a couple more before it would cut through in a new place.

  I hoped to hop off, just as I had seen Roth do.

  “Authorization code?”

  I said the same code I had used before and held my breath.

  “Who requests access?”

  A flood of relief flowed through me, but it was short-lived because I realized that Roth had used her name to gain access to the suit, I thought about just giving the suit her name but figured it was voice-activated.

  “Earl Anders.”

  My name is Earl Anderson.

  The suit did not respond right away.

  Just as I was about to try putting my watch up to the base of its neck, it spoke.

  “Authorization granted.”

  Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the suit, feeling the straps behind my head slither out like snakes and fasten in.

  “Close the suit.”

  The suit didn’t move. I frantically searched my memory for the exact words Roth had said.

  “Shut the suit.”

  Nothing happened.

  I had not come this far to fail now.

  It took me a moment to remember, during which I checked on the lurker’s progress. The saw was already through.

  Wrap up.

  “Wrap up!”

  The suit closed around me, and the display sprang to life in my mind. I cautiously loosened one hand from the pole and then the other, afraid that the ship might lurch and cause me to lose my balance.

  Just like before, moving was as easy as walking in my own body. I experienced a slight sense of disorientation because it felt like I had grown and become a metallic beast.

  I also felt better about being inside the suit while standing in the hold, waiting for the lurker to cut in.

  The lurker had almost completed the second slit, it had not taken nearly as long as I had anticipated.

  I carefully took a step forward, remembering how Roth had caused the ship to sway when she moved. I didn’t know how much the lurkers knew about our suits, but I didn’t want the lurker suspecting that I had suited up.

  I took another step and felt the ship lurch, whether it was because of me or something the lurker had done, I could not tell. Carefully, I shuffled to the back of the ship, making sure to skirt the slits, so the lurker did not know that the game had changed. The saw was just about to connect with the first slit when I got to the door. I looked at the button Roth had used to open it, took a deep breath, and then pressed it.

  28

  The door opened and the wind rushed all around me, but I did not fear that I was about to be sucked out as I had before because it felt like my feet were glued to the floor. Surprised, I took a moment to get my bearing. The desert sped by, but it looked just as flat as it had been for most of the way. There was a large hill off to the right, but it was easily avoidable. I waited for several seconds, figuring that the lurker would recognize what I had done and come to investigate.

  If it did, I expected the ship would resume its evasive maneuvers, and I could close the door. I would escape without having to jump out.

  The lurker made no move to release the ship, even though I was confident the drag had changed.

  It would soon realize something was up.

  It removed its saw from the second slit. I turned my attention to the door, expecting at any moment to see the lurker. I prepared to hit the button to shut it.

  The lurker started cutting a third slit.

  I snorted. The door is open, you no longer need to cut your way in.

  If the lurker didn’t soon realize what I had done, I had no other choice but to bailout. That was not a bad option, especially if I escaped without the lurker noticing until it was too late.

  We were still fifty feet above the ground, zooming along past all sorts of obstacles. Another hill went by underneath, and I was glad I had not chosen that moment to jump out because I would have smashed into it.

  It had come within several feet of the ship.

  The top of the hill looked like it had been cut by something. Was that the work of the ship’s shield? I glanced back through the front of the windshield and could just make out that we were heading towards another mountain range.

  It’s now or never.

  I took a deep breath and jumped while pressing the anti-grav buttons on my suit. I fell, but only for a moment before the anti-gravs kicked in and had me hovering in the air. Pushing slightly down with my toes, thinking it more than doing it, I stabilized my position and turned to see that the ship was already several hundred feet away.

  I thought I had escaped until the lurker detached and flew my way.

  I stifled a curse. “Roth, are you there?”

  There was no response.

  I spread my toes apart and sped backward on instinct more than a conscious choice because the lurker was coming fast. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the way was immediately clear behind me, but I would soon get to a small range of cliffs that I would have to navigate.

  I might have been fast, but the lurker was faster. While I was tempted to spread my toes further apart to increase my speed, I decided to make a course correction so that I faced forward. If the lurker caught up to me before I was done, so be it. Roth had said I could fight in hand-to-hand combat with the lurkers, but I did not want to do that if I could avoid it.

  I wished that Roth had taught me how to use the propulsion system, instead of just showing me how it worked and saying that it was time t
o go.

  “Suit, what are your commands?”

  There was no response.

  Of course.

  I pushed my toes down and shot up into the sky, not stopping until I gained an altitude of about a thousand feet. I could see what Roth had meant by saying that in the heat of battle, the sharp responsiveness of the suit was desirable. The lurker was far enough back that it looked like an insect, but it had already adjusted its course to intercept me.

  “Roth, what is going on? Are you still alive?”

  There was still no response.

  While I was trying to decide what to do next, I noticed the ship had engaged its evasive maneuvers once again, even though I was no longer inside.

  I let out a mirthless chuckle as I studied the lurker. It was no use wishing that Roth had taught me how to use the weapons.

  “Suit, activate weapons.”

  There was no response.

  “Activate weapons.”

  Again nothing.

  “Fire a laser at that lurker over there.”

  Nothing.

  I tried the buttons in front of my hands, pushing them at random, but nothing happened.

  Figures, they have probably been deactivated.

  I had to find Roth, it was the only way.

  I turned and sped off in the direction I had last seen Roth going when she had disappeared off the radar.

  The lurker was close on my heels.

  29

  I spread my heels apart as much as I dared, figuring that I had probably reached the suit’s top speed. It might have seemed fast in training, but I wished for more speed now that I was sure the lurker was almost to me.

  A lot more speed.

  The propulsion system would come in real handy right about now.

  I tried to turn my head to look behind and found that it automatically adjusted my feet and sent me into a long arc, taking me off the straight course I had planned but also giving me a look behind.

  The lurker was several hundred feet back and closing fast, especially now that I had veered off course. I readjusted, opening my heels up as far as I could.

  I wasn’t going fast enough.

  I had only seconds, if that.

  I pushed my toes down and shot up in the air. The speed had seemed impossibly fast during my instruction with Roth, but all I could think now was that I was going too slow.

  I waited for the count of twenty to give the lurker time to readjust to my move and then spread my feet apart, sinking like a meteor.

  I counted to sixty and repeated the process, glad the lurker had not yet caught up to me.

  The next time I went up, I spread my toes apart and flew backward, passing the lurker who adroitly flipped in the air to adjust to my maneuver.

  It’s like death on wings.

  Cursing at how skillfully it moved, I pressed my toes down and shot up into the air again, putting my toes together and spreading my heels apart to fly forward.

  The maneuver had cost me. The lurker was now that much closer.

  I spread my feet apart and sunk down again, expecting that at any moment I was going to feel the lurker reaching out to grab me.

  I went so far down that I was mere feet above the ground, zigzagging to the left and then the right to avoid a rock, and then something that looked like a dead tree.

  After several moments, I slammed my toes down and fired up.

  I continued to do my crazy evasive maneuvers, but the motion was jarring. I could only hope that if the lurker was getting close to me again, I was making it harder for it to catch me.

  Unlikely, not for something that’s been flying since birth.

  “Roth, come in.”

  There was no response.

  I had just come down from a long drop when I saw another lurker on the ground. I assumed at first that this was one she had killed and was just adjusting my course to go around anyway when it jumped into the air and came to meet me. There was a long black mark down its back as if it had been hit by Roth.

  I’m getting close.

  Where is she?

  I turned and went a direction that was perpendicular to the one I had been going before, heading away from where I expected to find Roth but avoiding the creature.

  Blasts of light shot past me on either side.

  I pushed my toes down and sprung up into the sky in a wide arc, I then spread my feet apart and fell. A moment later, I brought them together and put my toes down and went up like a rocket.

  During all the maneuvers, the blue blasts followed me but had gone wildly past. I figured my temporary evasive maneuvers were working, but there was a limit to how long I could go on like this. Roth had said something about the anti-gravs working as long as there was juice in the suit, but I didn’t know how much I was using, or how long it would last. I needed a better plan than running.

  How long will it be before one hits me with a lucky shot?

  I have to fight.

  Or wait until one caught me and ripped me to shreds.

  I thought again about fighting hand-to-hand in the suit against the lurkers.

  Another last resort, one I was loath to try.

  I spread my heels apart while swinging one leg out, so I zoomed around in a half-circle like a figure skater on ice until I faced the lurkers. Then, I pushed my toes down and shot up into the air while also spreading my heels, flying upward at a sharp angle.

  The lurkers responded just as nimbly as ever. The only advantage was that I appeared to be faster in the moment. I could turn on a dime and propel myself like a rocket, whereas they took a few moments to get back up to speed.

  The lurkers were still coming for me when I saw a mountain range in the distance.

  I spread my heels and headed towards it.

  30

  It was only by some miracle that I managed to get to the mountain range without being caught. I continued my evasive maneuvers throughout the trip, expecting that they would either hit me or catch me, forcing a confrontation. I didn’t know what would happen when I punched them with my suited hand, but I was prepared to find out when it came to that. I zoomed into the mountains at full speed, trusting that my ability to turn and zip away would be the only thing that would allow me an advantage on the lurkers.

  I was not naïve enough to think that I could switch direction at the last moment and send the lurkers careening to their death, but I was going to try. At the very least, I hoped to escape or lose them somehow.

  A narrow ravine opened up in front of me just as I came down from a jump of a thousand feet. It felt like the lurkers were breathing on me—I was sure it was just my imagination, but I wasn’t going to find out—so I dropped down into it, hoping that it wouldn’t get any narrower. It was seven feet wide, if that. My suit was just shy of five with my arms tucked in, so I was taking a risk.

  It’s this, or have them get me from behind.

  The ravine veered to the left. I followed for another hundred feet before it came to a sudden end. That’s when I sprung into the air and nearly crashed into a rock ledge I had not seen, only narrowly avoiding it at the last moment by throwing one leg out and shooting off in the other direction. This was something I did on instinct, but I made a mental note as it would be a useful thing to have in my tool chest.

  I glanced back, the lurkers had followed without a problem.

  They had not fit into the ravine, so they had stayed just above, monitoring what I was doing.

  Cursing, I stabilized and veered around a cliff that had come out of nowhere, thinking that my great idea to come here had not been so good after all when I saw them navigate it so easily. It had been one thing to go through the mountains at the speed the transport could move, but it was quite another to do this with only the suit for protection while the lurkers breathed down my neck. Another narrow ravine opened up in the middle of a mountain, so I headed straight for it. This was even smaller than the last, but I hurtled in at full speed, my eyes closing for just a second as I feared I was about t
o run into a cliff wall. I made it in just fine but kept thinking that my suit was about to clip one side of the wall or the other and send me careening out of control. At the last moment, right before it narrowed to an impossible size, I shot straight up, going headfirst into one of the lurkers. I caught it off guard as much as it surprised me. I was tempted to just push down my toes and get out of there, but I reached out instead and grabbed one of its wings and yanked, trying to tear it off. It felt like it was made from metal.

  Still holding onto the wing, I pummeled it with my other hand, but it was like attacking a rock. The suit kept me from feeling any pain, so I kept at it while the lurker tried to bring its small arms around to fire its weapons at me. All the shots went wild.

  An idea occurred to me. I acted on it without a second thought. Still keeping hold of the wing, I launched myself up and landed on top of the lurker like I was riding a horse. Then I grabbed the other wing and held on for dear life.

  “Turnabout is fair play, you monster,” I said, thinking of how one of these lurkers had taken hold of my ship. I just rode for a moment and took advantage of my new position, checking behind on the status of the other lurker. It was about fifty feet back and inching its way closer. The barrage of fire died down, but only for a moment. The lurker resumed shooting at me, heedless of the one underneath. When I faced forward, I tightened my hold as it veered away to avoid running into a cliff, even pushing my foot out to help send us out of its way. As I did, it occurred to me that I could use the anti-gravs to mess up the lurker’s flight.

  When I spread my feet apart, we lurched downward. The lurker made a sound that I could only describe as a roar in response.

  A smile crept across my face.

  31

  The lurker had not been bothered by me before, but it now tried to buck me off like a high-speed bucking bronco with wings, weapons, and all the terror of a real-life monster. I held on for my life, clinging to the wings and wondering what would happen if I suddenly pushed my toes down and shot upward. Would I pull the lurker with me or rip off its wings?