“Where are we now?” One of the mercenaries asked.
“Towers section, we’ll have to go through the middle and circle around to City Center.” Tommy said, “Too many buildings and ruins in the way if we try to hug the wall. Two team of contestants in the area, closest is the Russian, Dozer, and his partner Taka.”
“What are the additional threats in this part of the arena?” Layla’s second-in-command, Ridley, asked.
“According to this, mutated animals left from the war.” Tommy said.
“Dogs? Cats?” Ridley said.
“Think bigger, big cats.” Tommy said.
“I think we can handle that, ey mate?” Digger patted Homer on the shoulder, “What you reckon?”
Homer looked up at him happily. Digger kept grinning but the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. What the medic had told him about the injectors Homer was carrying ran about in his mind.
xXx
After their truce, Kali and Tanai had split off in the opposite direction from Digger Dundee and Homer. They wanted to make sure they didn’t get caught by the poison gas again so they headed for Freeway Interchange, in spite of their maps warning them about mechs. The tunnel Digger and Homer had used was open.
“Keep your eyes open, okay?” Kali said, “There’s only one other team in here but they’re dangerous, Macbeth Madaki and the mercenary, Junior Du Preez. If we get to one of the high places above the freeway exits we could see them coming.”
The Yakuza was silent. Even in desert sunlight his neon tattoos were glowing intensely under his skin. Power from the tattoos leaked into his veins and small sparks flitted from the ends of his fingertips. The two of them moved through rusted ranks of traffic where Digger and Homer had faced Bitters and O’Shae for the first time. Kali’s multiple arms extended from her body, holding her weapons. The two small mechanical limbs jutted from her chest while the larger ones were slung against her sides.
Tanai brought up his free hand and jerked it back and forth urgently. Although Kali couldn’t understand him he whispered a few words in Japanese and pointed. From down the road was a clunking and thudding like heavy footsteps. The two of them had been just about to pass into the large and open area where the abandoned factory was, where Digger and Homer had been earlier. Hearing the noise, the two of them ran and hid behind a large van.
“The map said the unique threat in this area is mechs, that’s got to be one of them.” Kali said.
Enormous, three-toed feet pounding the dirt, the mech patrolled down the side of the freeway. Its design was the same basic design as the mechs Digger and Homer had seen earlier, a bulbous body the size of a large sedan supported by two birdlike legs with a couple of small arms tucked underneath. Painted dark green, this one somehow appeared bigger. The mech was perhaps the final, and ultimate, one left in the Freeway Interchange section. Unlike the others which had clearly had most of their weapons stripped to leave them with only one primary gun or set of missile pods, the green mech was fully armed and loaded. Not one but two miniguns jutted from its back, one slung to either side. Situated behind the miniguns were twin missile launcher pods, and stubby winglike attachments on either side of the mech were also covered in small but powerful missiles. Like a unicorn horn, a cutting laser jutted over the mech’s primary camera lenses and sensors.
“We don’t have anything that could make a dent in that thing!” Kali said.
The mech stopped, swivelling its bulky body. Weighed down with all that extra weaponry, its movements looked considerably heavier than the others. It scanned the vehicles surrounding the two contestants, including the van they had hidden behind. Cursing, Kali and Tani looked up and realised their camera drones were hovering above the traffic and had alerted the mech.
The green mech opened up, both miniguns erupting in storms of bullets. Rounds shredded through the van where Kali and Tanai were hidden. Breaking glass and bits of metal showered the pair as they hugged the ground. Twin rows of bullet holes appeared through the van where their heads had been seconds ago, moving in different directions as the two miniguns swivelled independent of one another.
Tanai gripped his staff, channeling his tattoos’ electricity into the weapon and causing it to crackle with energy. It was ridiculous to think that his ability could have any kind of impact on something as big and heavily armoured as the mech though. Kali grabbed him by the shoulder with one of her metal hands, shaking him, and then pointed.
“Go! You run for it and I’ll distract the thing!” Kali said, “I can move faster than you!”
Tanai hesitated and then straightened, ready to run. Holding her two remaining pistols, Kali stood and moved around their shot-apart van. Miniguns smoking, the barrels whined as they slowed down and cooled. The mech’s sensors turned and scanned the multi-armed woman. Kali opened up with both pistols, her mechanical hands steady and unerring. Bullets sparked off the front of the mech and a couple of its camera lens eyes burst to the mech’s apparent irritation.
The missile pods on the mech’s back thundered. A couple of small rockets hanging off the winglike protrusions on the mech’s sides loosened and sprouted tails of flame, flinging them forward. Kali turned and ran. Although her prosthetics were heavy they helped her leap and bound over the stalled traffic like a parkour runner. Moving instinctively, her two longer, chimplike prosthetics grabbed the roof of a truck and yanked Kali up, sending her hurdling over it.
Missiles and artillery ripped through the van and surrounding vehicles. Several cars were blown inside out or torn to pieces by impacts, steering wheels and doors, tyres and bits of metal hurled in all directions. Balls of flame filled the six lanes of clogged freeway and the shockwaves flipped several vehicles off to the sides of the road. The small truck Kali had just vaulted over tipped up into the air, its front end demolished, before it came crashing back down on rotted tyres.
Kali landed on her feet, long mechanical arms catching her fall. Bouncing between cars like a pinball she sprinted and vaulted through the traffic until she saw Tanai. The mech opened up with its twin miniguns, sweeping them from side to side. Cars and trucks erupted again with impacts of bullets, bits of glass and metal spraying.
“Keep going! We can’t fight it, our only choice is to try and outrun it!” Kali said.
The dark green mech marched up the side of the road behind them, destroying everything in its path. Kali and Tanai fled deeper into the Freeway Interchange section, mindless of any other threats.
Chapter Nineteen
“MEAT™ SPHERE!”
“New Turducken taste spectacular!”
“MEAT™ SPHERE! MEAT™ SPHERE!”
“Peel back the layers! Reveal the flavours!”
“MEAT™ SPHERE! MEAT™ SPHERE! MEAT™ SPHERE!”
“Eat and swallow! Makes noises!”
“MEAT™ SPHERE!”
Digger, Homer and the group of mercenaries headed for the centre of the Towers section. The main avenue cut between rows of battered office buildings. Mercs fanned out with their guns. They were surrounded by hiding places and spider holes where unfriendly contestants could be lurking.
“A sniper was operating in here earlier.” Tommy said, “We were meant to keep receiving updates from our people watching the live feeds outside but the game makers are interfering with our connection, keeping it a closed circle.”
“Big cats and snipers, as well as the usual traps and probably some more clone troopers, anything else to worry about?” Digger said.
Most of the mercenaries in their face-concealing helmets were probably safe from being sniped. Even Tommy and Layla Jackson had their flat-topped helmets, and Homer had the U.N. helmet Digger had given him. Digger and the other contestants, however, all had their heads exposed.
Echo Three had started to distance herself from her partner, Dr Klou. At first she had stayed close to him, as if fearing the situation with the mercenaries was a trick and she would be linked back up with Klou and forced to fight her way out again. Now, having starte
d to accept it, Echo began physically straying from the doctor. Before the mercenaries arrived, Digger would have killed her to get to Klou without a second thought but now he took a moment to look her up and down. Tall and lean, she didn’t look much older than Homer, in her early twenties at most. Her face had a hardness to it. Echo’s most distinct feature were the half a dozen metal holes, like oversized headphone jacks, imbedded in the left side of her skull. Her dark blonde hair was shaved down the left side to fully expose them, longer hair falling loose across the right side of her head.
“Oi, hey, so what’s your deal again?” Digger said, “What are you in for?”
Echo gestured to herself, still carrying her fixe axe from the beginning of the game. She was wearing studded jeans and an unusual kind of body armour over her chest, made of black leather and covered in straps and clasps. It looked like part of a straitjacket.
“Nothing, sold to them.” Echo Three said, “They made up the murdering body modder story. Does he really have psychic powers?”
“My little mate Homer here? You bet, you don’t remember him using them?” Digger said.
“When we were controlled? No, everything is hazy.” Echo said, “Was part of an experiment trying to give people powers too. Was the experiment. One of the subjects. Made it out alive but most didn’t.”
Echo gestured vaguely at the holes riveted down the side of her skull. Digger had no idea how they were meant to create psychic powers but he could imagine. Easy access to different parts of the brain, to stimulate it in different places.
“How’d you get signed up for something like that?” Digger asked.
“Don’t know. Took my memories from time before the lab.” Echo said, “Don’t know how I ended up there, who my family was. Even my real name.”
“Good talk.” Digger said, “Cheery.”
There was a flash of golden fur and red webbing that looked like scar tissue. Paws skittered on the concrete down one alleyway. Digger swivelled, the big Australian raising his H&K UMP with his finger hovering above the trigger. The tip of a ragged tail whipped past the alley corner and disappeared. Even Homer looked wary, the boy glancing about in all directions as if sensing something.
“We’ve got movement!” Ridley said.
Mutant lions came padding around one of the nearest buildings. The lioness that Digger had glimpsed circled back with her fangs bared in a crooked doubled-sided mouth. The lioness’ face was deformed and looked like a Siamese twin, three eyes and a twisted, extra-wide mouth with two lolling tongues and snarled teeth, riddled with red rash. Digger was struck by the creature’s mutations and disease, the result of residue from nukes and bioweapons in the shattered region. Other female lions moved in as well, low to the ground with their muscles tensed. The male of the pack circled the outside, growling, stringy bits of red in his matted mane.
“We don’t have time for this.” Layla said.
Layla lifted her P90 and fired a short burst over the heads of the lion pack. The animals snarled and ducked but they were viciously hungry. The male lion roared, a deep rumble that started in his chest and came bellowing out of his mouth. Mercenaries took aim to cut the the lions down before they could lunge. Digger was about to put a burst through the closest lioness’ face when suddenly she backed away. The lioness turned and ran, and the others did the same, backing up and disappearing behind the ruined building as if Layla’s warning shots had just had a delayed effect.
“That’s weird.” Tommy said.
A whining noise cut through the air like a dentist's drill, growing in pitch. The mercenaries had been distracted by the mutant lions and the sound was coming from behind them. Carrying the whining weapon, a hulking figure emerged from the shadows of another office tower. Dozer, the Russian supersoldier, had ambushed the mercs along with the unintended help of the lion pack.
“Bloody hell!” Digger said.
After the encounter with the minigame room, Dozer looked like he should have been ten kinds of dead but the supersoldier was somehow on his feet. His black body armour was covered in bullet holes and bloodstains. Clots had formed around his injuries but pieces of subcutaneous mesh were glittering in the deeper bullet wounds on Dozer’s hands and face, and behind the gaps in his shredded clothing. His compact minigun was fully loaded though. Belts of ammunition from the drums in the minigame room wrapped around his shoulders and crossed his massive chest. More ammo than a normal man could have stood up under while holding, let alone carried while walking around and using a weapon. The minigun whirred in warning but Dozer hadn’t fully depressed the trigger yet.
“Wait a minute! We’re not here to hurt you!” Layla said, “We’re here to free you from the game, give us a minute and we’ll take away their power over you!”
Dozer only stared at Layla uncomprehendingly. The mercenaries covered Dozer with their guns even though Layla was holding up her mechanical hand in a gesture of peace.
“He only talks Russian!” Digger said.
“Right, Strugatsky!” Layla said.
One of the mercenaries, ‘STRUGATSKY’ printed on his breastplate, stepped forward while the others covered him. Retracting the faceplace into his helmet, Strugatsky rattled off a short burst in his native language. Minigun whirring, Dozer’s pocked and bloody face kept watching. The Russian had superhuman stamina and strength as well as his implanted armoured mesh. His eardrums were ruptured, however, and his ears clogged with blood after being stuck in the small room right next to the thundering miniguns. As Strugatsky tried to reason with Dozer in Russian, all Dozer could hear was a long, sustained ring in his damaged ears. He could see the other contestants being escorted. As far as Dozer knew, the white-armoured men and women were part of the arena, security for the show. He supposed that meant he shouldn’t shoot them, but Dozer hadn’t paid much attention to rules so far.
Taka hung back in the doorway in Dozer’s shadow. He hadn’t been able to follow what was going on in English or Russian. The young man stalked forward suddenly, raising his AKM.
“Fuck all you!” Taka said.
Taka fired and bullets raked across Strugatsky’s armour, sending him staggering back while shielding his face. The reaction from the other mercenaries was instantaneous. Careful to shield Strugatsky, they started moving backward and opened fire with overlapping bursts, filling the street with the noise of gunfire. Taka disappeared behind the immovable Dozer for cover. Rounds tore across the front of the building and across Dozer’s chest. After his earlier encounter with the miniguns, it registered as little more than gentle rain to the hulking supersoldier.
“Get back!” Layla yelled.
Trigger depressed, Dozer’s minigun started to scream. Barrels exploded as he hosed it slowly across the street, weapon gobbling through the ammunition he had stolen. Casings and links sprayed out of the compact minigun, and bullets cut from one side of the street to the other creating rows upon rows of holes in concrete sidewalks and surrounding buildings.
Rounds jackhammered into Strugatsky while the man was off balance. The first few slugs were caught by Strugatsky’s armour but there was such an extraordinary rate of fire pouring out of the gun that they drilled into him again and again. Pieces of white armour broke away and blood sprayed out of the gaps. Face uncovered, Strugatsky collapsed and vomited blood.
“Move it!” Layla said.
Most of the mercenaries headed into a courtyard off the street. Abandoned restaurants and other small businesses surrounded the courtyard. In the centre was a towering steel statue, a stylised Zulu warrior. Bullets screamed off the courtyard pavers and off of the dusty statue, causing windows and entryways around the courtyard to implode.
A couple of mercs and the contestants were caught on the street. They took cover behind some forgotten vehicles, Digger and Homer leaping behind a low sedan. Dozer’s minigun raked into the car and carved through it, the metal and glass offering almost no protection. Digger grabbed Homer and dragged him to the front of the car so they had the e
ngine block between them and Dozer. Bits exploded off the vehicle, gaping holes drilled through the place where Homer had just been kneeling.
“Bloody hell, might be time to use that last bit of magic juice, mate!” Digger said.
One of the mercenaries who’d been split from the main group took cover behind a concrete bench nearby. ‘CAMERON’ was stencilled across the man’s chest. The merc was carrying an assault rifle with an underslung grenade launcher. The concrete bench worked well as a barricade, stone chips flying in all directions as a barrage from Dozer hammered it. Dozer moved on, spraying the courtyard where the other mercenaries had disappeared again like a firefighter playing a hose across the base of a fire. Cameron popped up with his weapon and fired, bullets pecking at Dozer’s body armour. Raising his aim slightly, Cameron then hit the weapon’s underbarrel grenade launcher. Dozer moved slowly back toward the merc. The grenade launcher thundered and sent a fat explosive slug sailing across the street. The blast when the 35mm grenade hit Dozer enveloped the Russian and the entryway behind him. His partner, Taka, leapt clear as shrapnel scattered in a lethal hail.
Smoke billowed across the street in a thick, oily cloud. Shrapnel rained in all directions as the others took cover. Dozer’s minigun was silenced by the rolling boom. For a few moments there was a pregnant pause as the mercenaries stopped firing as well.
Dozer’s whining minigun arced up again and suddenly orange tracer bullets were cutting through the smoke. Rounds slammed into Cameron. They drilled the man from toes to head, carving through his armour and chewing him up as he staggered backward. Dozer emerged through the swirling cloud, minigun slung by his hip, and kept firing. His badly damaged body armour was a little more tattered, and his face a little more bloodied, but for the most part the grenade had almost no effect. One of his belts of ammunition was vacuumed into the compact, black weapon. Bullets exploded along the length of the street.
“EMP! Someone toss an EMP!” Layla yelled.
Layla and Tommy took cover at one end of the courtyard. Dozer wasn’t a robot, much as he might seem like one, but even though he was immune to regular grenades and bullets Layla was willing to bet the man’s subcutaneous armour wouldn’t be enough to stop an EMP burst from turning his brain to mush.
Kill Switch: Final Season Page 23