by Gini Koch
“What about shields?” One of the things Abigail and Naomi had been able to do was to create a protective shield around people and things. But the Gower Girls had burned themselves out protecting people and landmarks during Operation Destruction, and it was in the regaining of her powers that we’d lost Naomi. However, after our trip to Beta Eight, Abigail could create shields herself now, with some creativity, too.
“Per Tito and Chuck, I need to reserve power until it’s necessary.” She’d used a lot of power during our time on the Murder Train, more than she’d had on her own before. But that was a reason we were all still around to talk about it.
The A-C Kendrick knocked me down. “Kind of feels necessary!” Managed to shout this as I rolled into a somersault, but decided not looking at my clothes would be a wise choice.
“Not if you were really fighting,” White called. “Missus Martini, this is one of your areas of expertise.”
“I am fighting.” This said as I landed an upward elbow on the A-C Kendrick that staggered him back, just in time for the Army Kendrick to get back into my action.
“Not like you could be,” White said.
“Everyone’s a critic!”
“Remember that they want to do terrible things to your children,” Abigail called. “If we don’t stop them, who will protect Jamie and Charlie?”
Thought about how every bad guy wanted to take my little girl and do horrible things to her. Some of them had. And who knew what plans they had for my infant son? Thought about what had been done to Chuckie. About all the terrible things done to Jeff. What had been done to Serene. About all the people we’d loved who we’d lost because of these murderous lunatics. Sure, these androids hadn’t done any of that. But they’d been created by people who had.
The music changed to Fall Out Boy’s “The Kids Aren’t Alright.” Which wasn’t on this playlist. Meaning I was again on the Algar channel. And he was telling me my children were in danger, and I was here, fighting androids, not there, protecting them.
The rage hit.
Grabbed the Army Kendrick, ripped one of his arms off, and started beating him with it. That, combined with all the bullets in him, finally did the trick. He stopped moving, and I was pretty sure he was offline or whatever we called a dead android.
Spun and grabbed the Marine Kendrick’s arm as he was swinging at Abigail. Flung him face-down onto the ground and jumped onto his back. Wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled. Hard. With all the anger I had.
Managed to wrench his head off. He didn’t explode and, happily, there wasn’t much blood. Lots of circuits and such, but not a lot of blood, bone, or sinew. Enough blood or whatever liquid was inside these things to wreck my clothes, naturally, but that was par for my particular course and I figured the ruined outfit was worth it.
While I’d been thusly engaged, Lizzie and White had finished off the Preppy Kendrick, and Mahin had stopped her dust devil because the two androids she’d had trapped were also down. Couldn’t tell if they were dead or deactivated or just so filled with grit that they couldn’t move, but they weren’t attacking.
“Go team!”
“Yeah, Kitty,” Abigail said. “About that . . .” She nodded her head toward the front entrance.
Took a look and realized there were just two problems now. The first was that this particular song wasn’t nearly as loud or screamy as the prior songs had been, meaning that the remaining six androids weren’t being affected nearly as much.
The second problem was that the Kendroid hadn’t run away so much as he’d run to get reinforcements. Lots of them.
CHAPTER 53
THE NEW ARRIVALS were more copies of Kendrick. Since they’d all come in through the front door, our exit to the car was blocked.
There were a good twenty of them, but they clearly weren’t done. I could tell because they were all naked. And while they should have been ashamed, they clearly weren’t.
“It’s like we’re in a Matrix movie only Agent Smith is really and truly a Ken Doll.” There were no reproductive organs on the Kendrick Ken Dolls. “Clearly Stephanie had a serious Barbie issue that has never been resolved.”
“Gross.” Lizzie looked as repulsed as she sounded. “Parts or no parts.”
“This is reminiscent of when we were in the hidden lab many years ago,” White said. “Only there’s nothing for you to ‘check out,’ Missus Martini. I’m sure your disappointment knows no bounds.”
“I’m with Lizzie on this one.” But at least these weren’t made up of A-C body parts. At least, I sincerely hoped not. Didn’t voice that just in case I’d be proven wrong.
Our group of five clutched together. The remaining six androids that we’d been fighting looked pretty fresh, since all but the A-C Kendrick had hung back for whatever reason. Possibly because Stephanie hadn’t programmed them to be smart. However I wanted to spin it, though, we basically had close to thirty enemies facing us now.
“Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That we should turn down the volume?” Abigail shouted.
“That we’re all dead?” Mahin asked.
“That we should run?” Lizzie suggested.
“That these models aren’t as far along as the ones we’ve already met, and that our driver is the most complete of all of them?” White asked.
“Maybe to Abby, not yet to Mahin, yes to Lizzie and Mister White.” The new additions started for us. The music chose this moment to switch to “Nine Lives” courtesy of my Bad Boys from Boston.
Screamin’ Steven Tyler really was a lifesaver. The Kendroid turned and ran again. The six clothed androids started to do the herky-jerk thing. The third Casual Kendrick slammed himself into a nearby wall repeatedly until he stopped moving. The other five were doing better but not great. So yay on that front.
Sadly, the new arrivals didn’t appear to have any issues with the music.
“They’re not as advanced for sure,” Abigail said, voice tense. “I can’t feel anything from them at all.”
“Meaning they aren’t affected by the music?” Lizzie asked.
“Meaning they may not be affected by much of anything other than complete destruction,” White replied as the Naked Smith Army—which would be a cool name for a rock band—started for us. Slowly, but then, they once again had us surrounded, so could take their time and savor the moment.
“Time to use the shield?” I asked hopefully.
“When do you want me to burn out?” Abigail countered. “Seriously, I’m still kind of depleted from everything we just went through. I have enough, but not enough to last if this goes long.”
“I’d counsel waiting,” White said.
“I want to live to at least be old enough to drive,” Lizzie shared.
“Whine to Abby and Mister White, then, ’cause I’ve been overruled.”
“What does that mean for us?” Mahin asked.
“That we need to get out of here!” Ran for my Glock at hyperspeed while the others linked hands. Got my gun and got back in time to grab Abigail’s hand as White took off.
Hyperspeed allowed us to get past most of them, but there were a lot of them and they were fast. They were blocking and pinning our group in no time. “Scatter!” I shouted.
We dropped hands and all took off in different directions. Dawned on me that Lizzie couldn’t scatter like the rest of us and Mahin probably couldn’t either. Turned my music off and ran back. Mahin wasn’t in sight but Lizzie was there, running and dodging. But there were six of them around her. Body-slammed two of them to clear my way to her, grabbed her hand, slammed through two more, and we took off again, down a nearby corridor.
“I thought you sent the animals after TK,” she said as we stopped and I listened for pursuit. Took the earplugs out and dropped them into my purse. She did the same.
“I did. Doesn’t mean t
hat they were able to do anything.” Hoped that I hadn’t, once again, sent my pets into a trap.
“Totes hope they didn’t get trapped.”
“The mind reading classes can officially stop now. I’m terrible with mazes. How are you at them?”
“I’m okay. Why?”
“We’re in a maze and I have no clear idea where in that maze we actually are.”
Lizzie stared at me for a moment. “Oh. I guess a place like this is a maze, isn’t it? Okay, I’ll pay attention from now on.”
Managed not to ask her why she hadn’t paid attention so far, but she was the kid and I was the adult and supposedly trained professional.
Decided that as the trained professional, I was going to do what always worked for me. Got out my phone and headphones, clipped my phone to my waist while wishing I was in jeans and Converse. There was no way I wanted to run around here barefoot.
“Hey, you could call someone,” Lizzie said.
“Wow, and duh, you’re right.” Looked at the phone. “Only I have no bars. We may be at a creepy deserted hospital but it’s not that far from civilization.”
“Maybe the ghosts are blocking the signal.”
“There are no ghosts.”
“In a place like this? Bet me.”
“Later. We have enough problems with those living you mentioned earlier. Or at least sort of living. Though there’s always a good shot that this place has some kind of shielding or scrambling or whatever going on.”
Went back to what I’d been planning originally—playing music. Kept the volume low so I could still hear things around me well and hit play. Flo Rida’s “Run” came on my personal airwaves just as I heard someone coming. I was not going to complain about being on the Algar Channel.
Grabbed Lizzie and headed off again. Heard shouts. She looked behind us. “We have three of them after us!” We came to stairs before we came to an exit and I didn’t hesitate, I ran upstairs.
The stairs weren’t in as bad of a shape as I’d figured they’d be, but they weren’t in great shape, either. We didn’t fall through or get stuck mostly because of hyperspeed and the fact that I was a hurdler and so able to leap the holes effectively.
Reached the landing on the second floor. “Think this place has more than one staircase?”
“Probably, yeah.”
Decided the androids were too close and headed us up the next two flights of stairs, which were just as bad as the first set. However, it did put us farther ahead.
“I heard what sounded like some of them falling through,” Lizzie said quietly as we reached the fourth floor and moved toward what I hoped was the other staircase.
It was far worse up here—rooms and offices filled with both the mundane and the horrific, all abandoned, all decaying. And shoes. There were shoes of all kinds, including skates and the like, left all over the place. Took the time to reload my Glock and handed Lizzie some clips. “Since I have no pockets, you’re going to be holding these for faster access.”
“Sure, I totes did that with my dad and the uncles.” Her face fell. “I miss them.”
Gave her a quick hug. “I do, too. So, let’s try to think like them, stay safe, get rid of our enemies, protect our friends, and rescue our missing people.”
“You really think they’re here?”
Looked out a window that had bars on it. We were on the back side of the building. There were a lot of dilapidated buildings scattered about, some bigger, some smaller. There was also even more trash and debris in the back than in front, though inside was still winning the Hoarder’s Horror Challenge.
But there was an area, a big area, that didn’t have any buildings on it. And all the scrub that I could see from here looked very flat. “Oh yeah. I think they’re really here.” Pointed toward where I was looking. “What do you see?”
“You mean other than all the crapola and junk and stuff? I see . . . oh, wow. It’s sitting there, isn’t it? That’s a smooshed tree for sure.”
“Yep.”
She grinned at me. “Quick Girl’s ready to take on the bad guys, Megalomaniac Girl.”
I grinned right back. “Stick with me, Grasshopper, and I will show you the Way.”
CHAPTER 54
OF COURSE, there were a lot of buildings, and there was no way for us to determine where all the people we were looking for might be. But the Kendrick Android Army had arrived from somewhere, and it wasn’t in this main building.
However, standing around admiring a sad and ugly view wasn’t really in our best interests. We took off again, this time at human normal. Figured saving my hyperspeed strength might be wise, especially after all the conservation lectures from Abigail.
We passed several rooms with the remains of hospital beds. All of them had straps. Suppressed a shudder every time. In the fifth room like this the bed was broken apart. Stopped running and took a closer look.
“Why are we stopping here?” Lizzie asked, sounding nervous for the first time.
“Because I think we can use stuff from in here. Do you hear something?”
She shook her head and pointed. Looked where she’d indicated, just as “Creeper Kamikaze” by The Exies came on. Couldn’t swear to it, but it looked like someone had just walked outside by the small window. Only we were on the fourth floor.
“It’s a reflection of a tree or something,” I said as firmly as possible. Even if Algar was telling me this place was haunted, so what? We still had to survive the androids.
“I think this place is totes haunted.”
Really wanted to ask that the mind reading stuff cease and desist but I controlled myself. “Probably is. And so what? You said they couldn’t hurt us. However, we have androids after us who definitely can. We have to deal with the immediate threat first. So, grab one of these metal bars, pointy ones for preference.”
Dropped my Glock into my purse and ripped the pieces that would work best apart. Wasn’t hard, since the bed was pretty much already destroyed.
Lizzie took the bar I handed her. “We going to try to skewer them with these?”
“Indeed we are. I have no idea if it’ll work, but be sure it’s an android.”
“That’ll be easy.” She made a gagging face. “This Stephanie chick is weird.”
“Truer words and all that. Now, let’s get going. We need to ensure that we get all of these androids offline and find the others and make sure they’re okay.”
We turned around to find that one of the Naked Army had found us. We were both startled and we both jumped. Almost lost my hold on my metal rod, but held on. Based on where we were in the room, I was closer to the doorway, meaning I was going to be leading our attack.
My track coaches in high school and college both had probably been the most sadistic and dedicated in the entire country. Not only did they make sprinters run distance and make distance runners do stair charges with the sprinters, but they’d made us all learn how to do every, single event, in case anyone on the team was out due to illness or injury. This meant that I was decent with the javelin, a skill that had come in very handy since meeting the Gang from Alpha Four.
The android was just far enough away that I could throw the bar into him, which I did. He tried to block it, but I was revved up again, not necessarily on rage, which didn’t seem to be sticking around long right now, but on nerves and adrenaline. The bar went through the stomach.
In an organic creature this would be a really bad hit. In an android, not so much. The bar went through, but he didn’t stop. Well, he did stop, looked down, then kept coming. So much for my brilliant idea.
On the other hand, while he was thusly distracted, I’d gotten my Glock again and, because he was a very close and convenient target, I was able to get five headshots off in rapid fire.
Once I stopped shooting, Lizzie started slamming her bar against his head. He
went down and wasn’t moving, though because of the bar he was down like he was part of the creepiest lean-to ever built.
Flipped him onto his side and he remained immobile. Put my foot on his chest and pulled the bar out. “I think he’s dead, or at least immobilized.”
“Are we going to have to do this for every one?” Lizzie asked.
“No idea, but probably.”
“This was totes easy ’cause he was just standing there, but I don’t think the rest will be.”
“I’m with you on both thoughts.” Got ready to run again when my music switched to “Change Your Mind” by The All-American Rejects. Pondered this then had a thought and dragged the body to the far end of the room. “So, let’s turn the tables and stop being the game and instead become the hunters.”
Lizzie cocked her head at me. “You want us to, what, stay here?” She looked around. “We have plenty of bars, I guess, if we need them. But why? If they catch us, we don’t have anywhere to go.”
“Right, but running around just means we’re attacked or caught in a place that isn’t loaded with additional ammunition.” Ripped the rest of the bed apart and put the rods into a pile that was easier for the two of us to grab from. There was a sturdy footboard and an even bigger headboard that I put in their own pile. Pulled out my iPod and speakers again and hit pause on my phone’s music. “Get ready, we’re going to lure them to us.”
Put my purse on the floor and hit play. The sounds of “How You Like Me Now” by The Heavy came on. This was a good song to fight to, and I put it on repeat. It wasn’t loud and screaming like the others had been, but the music hadn’t affected the Naked Army anyway—with my volume all the way up it would draw them to us, and it was more important that I was in the groove than anything else.
We didn’t have long to wait. Another of the Naked Army arrived. This time Lizzie happened to be closer so she slammed her bar at an upward angle so that it entered the stomach but went up and out through the top of the back.