by Collin Earl
*****
The sounds of gunfire bellowed like a million angry bulls. Bodies, one after another, dropped where they stood, the students no more important than clay targets. Ms. Green discharged her weapon again, this time firing at the ceiling. A chunk of ceiling melted away, the ooze again splashing down on unsuspecting students. Ms. Green's flashy display, coupled with the additional use of stun batons after the first wave of students was cut down, enabled MESA to regain order. Beaten down, many of the students were sobbing uncontrollably, Sam included. The tears ran down in an irrepressible river.
The scene was horrific. Bodies strewn everywhere, the echoing wails of lamentation, and the harsh bark of heartless ordering. Sam was at loss as to how things had gone so quickly downhill. Why were so many of her schoolmates lying dead on the ground? Why would MESA do such a thing? How could they think they would get away with it?
Maybe they plan on killing all of us, Sam thought. That would be the easiest way to cover up something like this. Simple.
Sam felt a renewed round of tears well up. She needed to keep it together. She needed to think and try to figure a way out of this.
Sam glanced at Richard, her go-to reaction when something didn't make sense or she had a problem in need of answering. Richard didn't seem to be fairing any better than her. His head was bowed, cradled in his arms. He was muttering senselessly to himself, and she could only hear bits of words like 'lethal' and 'target'.
Sam put her arms around him, touching his skin on his neck. It felt clammy. Richard was not doing well.
"You don't have to worry, Rich. I'm here. They aren't after you, remember? They're after the girls. I'll protect you."
Richard looked up and their eyes met. His expression was strange. It was familiar, but somehow not. It was an expression that Sam had seen before, but not on his face. Richard forced a smile, picked up his tablet, moved to the back wall, leaning heavily against it and started tapping away. She took this as a sign that he wasn't going to give up, so she knew that she couldn't either. She grabbed her bag.
Sam made her decision as her mind went right back to the silver box. MESA was looking for something here and she didn't know what. But there was something different, something special about this box. She didn't know what that damn thing had to do with this, but she was certain it was somehow connected. This might get her killed if she was wrong, which she probably was, but she was going to Ms. Green, was going to give the accursed silver box to her, and hope that the action would stem something.
Inadvertently, or maybe not so inadvertently, she found Adam in the crowd. She wanted to see his face, wanted to look at him before she moved towards her goal. Their eyes connected. One, single, crystallizing moment. She knew what he was thinking. He wanted her, but she didn't know what that meant. He started to run, tearing up the ground in front of him as he dashed towards her. He was coming to her, to save her. Sam's heart leapt.
More explosions, this time one right after another, rippled all around them as hot steam shot out from the walls and surged into the assembly hall. Chaos resumed with the steam's arrival, accompanied by the clangor of machinery. Barely seen through the swell of vapor, the room's floor started to move. Sam didn't know what to make of it.
An incredibly strong hand grabbed onto her bag. With one sharp heave of an arm she was thrown onto a shoulder. She couldn't fight back. She couldn't move and she didn't know why. Her rescuer navigated effortlessly through the maze of steam, students, and lab techs. Before she knew what was going on, Sam and her savior were at the locked door. They went right through it with no problem. The clouds of steam billowed out with them, but after a few steps it no longer impeded her vision. Sam looked down at the sprinting legs that were carrying her. She reeled with shock.
Doughboy
Time: Current day, mid-afternoon
Scene: Hallway in Academy City 676
Sam gawked at her savior in complete and utter disbelief as he moved effortlessly down the hall with her in tow.
It was Richard. He was holding her with such incredible strength that she couldn't move. No. That wasn't right. It wasn't strength; it was something different than just strength. It felt as though he was restricting her joints, somehow holding her in a way that locked up every major joint in her body. Was that even possible?
Richard didn't say anything as he navigated the halls. Sam tried to speak to him but found that her words disintegrated against the precipitous change in circumstances. With his weakened heart, Richard shouldn't have the strength to carry her for more than a few feet, let alone down hallway after hallway. Yet right before her very eyes he was doing just that. Not only that, but his whole demeanor had changed, the way he carried not just her, but himself as well. She couldn't articulate what she felt coming from him, but it was different. Maybe it was fear. The adrenaline could explain his strength. She knew that people did strange things when they were afraid. Sam herself had just tried to do something out of the ordinary. That Green woman had opened fire on an assembly hall full of students and Sam had been ready to confront her! What was she thinking?
The sound of rapid gunfire echoed off the walls, creating in Sam's mind the momentary image of a trench-dug, enemy-infested battleground. She could hear the gunfire and the lingering screams from the assembly hall but couldn't see anything. Richard continued to move with Sam on his shoulder until they were a good distance away from the assembly's main door. He put Sam down and she found she was able to move again.
"What the hell, Richard?!" Sam bellowed. "You don't just go picking people up and throwing them over your shoulder--"
Richard shuffled to Sam's side and placed his hand over her mouth.
"If I'd thought you were going to start screaming like a wounded hippo, I wouldn't have given you this."
Richard showed her the most miniature of accelerator pins. Sam's stared at it wide-eyed. What was Richard doing with an accelerator pin? They were old military equipment, very old in fact. They were used during the Third Great War to counter bio and chemical weapons, but nobody used that stuff anymore. It was easily counteracted. Why did Richard have old military-grade weaponry?
"I bought this on EarthBay. You'd be amazed at what you can get on the interweb. Anyway, I gave you a dose of a rapid paralyzing agent while I was carrying you. I had to get us out of there before we got caught in the crossfire. This is the antidote. I assume from your outburst it worked."
Sam was angry now. Richard had just scooped her up without asking, drugged her twice, and was now trying to convince her to run.
"Richard, we can't just run away. Our friends are in there; Cammie, Coda and --"
She stopped herself. Adam. Oh, to all the gods, real or make-believe, she hoped he was all right.
"You're wondering if Adam is ok."
Sam didn't answer.
Someone began yelling from just ahead of them, effectively ending the conversation. Richard grabbed her wrist and ran. The previous strength wasn't there, and neither was Richard's apparent change in demeanor. He was back to how she remembered him, back to the Richard she knew. She was beginning to think that the drug, whatever it was, must have done a real number on her, making her see and feel things she knew had to be incorrect. She tried not to think about it. Richard was Richard, and if she knew him at all, he had a plan to help everyone survive this. That is, if they could stay alive in the process.
Richard was scanning their surroundings. Sam could hear the voices getting closer. They ducked into one of the secondary connection hallways that the administrators used in case of an emergency. They sprinted down it and were just about to round a corner when chaos reared its ugly head.
A four-way fight had laid waste to the western main hall. Two of the groups Sam recognized – MESA's men and the school's security forces were readily identifiable. But who the other two were Sam had absolutely no idea. The first group was wearing the most peculiar collection of equipment, like they had found their tools
of destruction in a junkyard. The second was just as unrecognizable but dressed much more like a military unit. Their weaponry was slick, like nothing she had ever seen in the Vii-R shows or games. Each of these men where wrapped in a strange blue hue, like they were being protected by an invisible field that wasn't quite invisible. The one weapon that Sam did recognize was the unmistakable glare of Light Shivs. The sight made Sam's throat go completely dry. An image of Rob, the human trafficker, popped into her head, making her recoil slightly. Who were these men?
Scraggly Unit, that's what Sam decided to call them, was boxed in between MESA and the Fancy Uniform Unit. With seven or so men, Scraggly Unit fought off thirty plus soldiers from the combined force of the Fancy Uniform Unit, MESA, and the school's security force. Sam and Richard remained hidden in the secondary hall, undetected.
"Should we go back?" Sam was relieved to find that her voice was quite stable. "We can't just walk out there; we'll both end up dead."
The word came out of Sam's mouth. Dead. They would both end up dead. Actually, compared to the way she was feeling now, the prospect of being dead wasn't as scary. At least she wouldn't have to worry about being sold to a plantation owner in the Plains.
But Sam rebelled against the thought. She had people that cared about her and that she cared about. She couldn't give up now. Did she really want to end up like the Principal or one of her classmates?
Another mental image wormed its way into her mind, this one seeming to move at the speed of snail. She watched as her classmates, friends, and teachers were mowed down like cattle. She could see Ms. Green's face through all of it. That evil woman would pay.
Richard's voice brought Sam back. "No. This is the quickest route to the mainframe room, and that's were we need to go."
"Why do we need to get to the --?"
"Not now Samantha, I'm thinking."
Sam's jaw dropped in surprise. Did Richard just hush her?
Richard was back on his tablet and muttering under his breath. "Oh, this would be so much easier if I could work unfettered. Why isn't he answering?"
Richard shut his mouth as he rolled his neck. Sam heard the muffled crack of bone and joints pop. Another one of those unfamiliar expressions crept onto Richard's face. Sam really had trouble placing this one. Stress, from what it looked like. Richard paused as he studied some sort of gauge on his tablet. He spoke but more to himself than to Sam.
"We've got to get out of here. These fools are going to kill each other. It looks like we've got just enough power to get there."
Sam was about to ask what he was talking about, but before she could Richard touched the upper left hand corner of the tablet and then took a step back.
The sounds of battle were overpowering, but still not enough to cover the sudden onslaught of clacking that accompanied the pitch and grind of shifting gears. One compulsive step later, Sam retreated back and was now standing next to Richard. She watched as the floor in front of her started to shift.
The moving floor startled every soldier in the western hall. The walls started to retract, rotate, and move while the floor folded over itself. Carbonized steel lowered from the upper reaches of the ceiling, covering the windows. Sheets of the same steel stretched out in front of the combatants, blocking their line of sight and boxing in groups of soldiers. Richard touched two more buttons on his tablet and then touched the wall to their left.
"Get ready to run," he said simply.
"Why do we have to--?"
Steam burst through one of the few walls that was not covered in the carbonized steel. Richard caught Sam's hand and stepped into the gushing vapor. They navigated almost completely blind, Richard guiding Sam, stepping lightly and shifting through the soldiers, security officers, and MESA paramilitary. Sam closed her eyes as they went. The steam was hot and stung her. Even worse was the fear she couldn't shake, the fear that the warring factions within their school would just start randomly shooting, taking her and Richard with them.
Stepping out of the steam was like stepping out of a sauna microwave. Relief rushed over her. They were past the soldiers and moving into another hallway. They were going to make it. They were going to get through this. She and Richard rounded another corner.
"Duck!" Richard pounced on Sam, driving her hard to the ground. A conglomerated ball of super-heated plasma passed less than a half-meter above them. Back draft and a concussive wave came next, followed by the rush of rapidly retreating air. Screams of terror pierced her eardrums. Sam and Richard, still on the ground, were pushed back by a backlash of wind. She didn't know what was going on.
A few more seconds ticked by then additional plasma balls sped down the hallway, aimed straight for them. The balls missed their mark and instead hit the walls to either side. Panicked, Sam tried to scurry away from the burning walls. She was unsuccessful. A pinch of charred material landed on her arm.
Pain erupted across her skin, and without realizing it she started screaming. She couldn't see. She couldn't think. She felt someone tug on her person, but it was disembodied, not real, a dream in which she was merely a spectator. She felt her consciousness slip farther and farther down a hole filled with nothingness. She didn't know if she would return from it...at least the pain was going away slowly... slowly... Slow--