Meet Abby Banks VOLUMES: 1-3

by J. A. Cipriano

  “That doesn’t make it not nuts. For one, that’s a prison. They’re designed to keep people inside,” I replied, pointing at the gate ahead. It was a massive steel structure and was topped with razor wire.

  “So it will be easy to get inside,” Flash said, patting the small black satchel sitting on the seat between us. I wasn’t quite sure what was inside, but this wasn’t the first time she’d shown it to me as a way of comforting me.

  “Assuming we get inside at all. How am I going to get out? Furthermore, how do we even know the director is inside there?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her even though she wasn’t looking at me.

  Her hands tightened on the steering wheel and her lips compressed into a thin line. “Information is good. Director is there. Plan is sound. Stop whining.”

  “I’m not even quite sure I understand the plan,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest and harrumphing as I stared out the passenger window and into the endless desert. If we got killed out here, there’d be no one to find our bodies. It’d be easy to bury us in an unmarked grave. The thought gave me the chills.

  “I make big distraction. You go inside. Kill everyone. Find Director. Bring him out. We escape.” She laughed, and it was a weird jovial sound. “Is good plan. Is simple. How you no understand?”

  “Okay I get that, but what about, I don’t know, schematics? Like where inside is the director? You know, important critical stuff like that?” I asked, not even bothering to look at her. “Your plan is too simple.”

  “You think too much. Go inside. Punch someone until he talks. Simple.” She was shaking her head as I glanced at her.

  “Easy for you to say. You’ll be out here, not in there.” I pointed at the prison I was supposed to break into and then back out of.

  “I am the Flash. You are the Bang. I make distraction. You break things.” She shrugged. “We all have our roles.”

  I let out a sigh that didn’t properly contain all my annoyance with her. Evidently, Bang was the one who did most of the actual heavy lifting while Flash was more the brains of the operation. Since I’d rendered Bang inoperable by smashing his knee, I was taking his place. It sounded good in theory, but well, I wasn’t theoretically breaking into a well-guarded military prison. I was going to have to actually do it.

  “Get ready,” Flash said, interrupting my thoughts as she slammed on the gas pedal, sending the hummer flying toward the gate as a guard in front attempted to wave her down.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and readied my pistols. This part wasn’t going to be fun. Just as our vehicle passed the spot where we were supposed to stop, I leapt from the side. I crashed to the ground as Flash zoomed off, twisting the Hummer into a tight turn that had its wheels leaving the pavement in a squeal of rubber. It slammed sideways into the gate as an alarm erupted from within the prison.

  Before the gunfire started, an explosion ripped the hummer apart with so much force it took my breath away. Heat washed over me. I counted to ten like she told me to, somewhat surprised no one had noticed me, but then again, how often does someone drive an exploding hummer into a prison?

  Shouting filled the night as I sprinted toward the smaller man door a few meters from the gate. It opened with a click as the magnetic lock disengaged. The guard didn’t even know what hit him as I slammed my palm into the side of his head as he stepped out, weapon drawn. He fell sideways onto the cement walkway running from here to the main gate, his weapon clattering away.

  A gunshot ripped through the space, nowhere near me because I was pretty sure the man behind him was firing blindly into the night. I bit my lip, immediately sorry for what I was about to do as I tossed a grenade through the man door and pulled the door itself toward me to block the ensuing blast.

  It was loud even over the din of sirens and explosions. Still, when I looked inside the prison yard I saw little more than a black smudge on the other side. Knowing I had only seconds before more guards swarmed the explosion, I let myself inside, post haste.

  One quick look around the yard revealed an assortment of nothing. It was just a swath of asphalt with yellow and white lines painted over it. I wasn’t quite sure what they were for, nor did I care very much. I sprinted toward what looked like the main building as explosions echoed outside the gates directly beneath the closest two guard towers. They teetered on their steel legs before toppling inward toward the wall like cut bean stocks with giants on top.

  I smacked one of the keycards Flash assured me would work at the scanner beside the door, pretty sure it wasn’t going to work because the place seemed built to withstand an army, let alone me and a Russian mercenary. Surely, they had some kind of lockdown procedure that’d render the card reader useless.

  I was wrong. The door opened with a clang as the electronic lock disengaged. I pushed it open, careful to keep myself out of sight. Guards were sprinting toward me, angry looking assault rifles at their sides. They stopped and took aim at the open door, but I was pretty sure they hadn’t seen me because no one was firing.

  The lead one called something in a language I didn’t understand, which was still kind of irksome every time I thought about it. I mean, I’d had all these skills downloaded into my head and no one had thought to include Rosetta Stone among the software? Seriously?

  I flung another grenade into the hallway. There was a scream inside followed by a blast that shook the building. I flung myself through the entrance, firing my pistols at anything that moved as I stepped through the smoke and debris. I wasn’t sure how many men I killed in that ten second walk through the hallway, but way more than enough to know I was a horrible person who would probably be spending my afterlife somewhere dark and fiery.

  A door opened to my right, and without thinking, I leapt toward it, tackling a young blonde woman to the floor. Her head smacked against the cheap tile floor with a wet thwack that made me think concussion. Even still, I jammed one gun up under her chin and glanced around the room. No one else was there, which made sense because it looked like some sort of staff cafeteria. Off to the left, I saw a still steaming mug with a pastry sitting next to it. Had she been getting a snack when the alarms went off?

  On her left breast was a blue tag with words in a language I didn’t understand followed by a name. Dr. Debbie Hassad. Awesome. I’d just beat up a doctor. So going to hell.

  Instead of begging for forgiveness, I grabbed her by the hair and forced her dazed eyes to look up at me. When she finally focused on me, fear filled her baby blues, and my gut twisted in horror at myself. Who was I now? Was I really this? Really?

  “I am looking for a particular prisoner. We call him the director. Do you know who I am talking about?” I asked and she shook her head. Then she got this dizzy look on her face.

  I moved just in time for her to throw up all over herself. It was disgusting. I let out a slow breath through my teeth and was about to ask her one more time when the door across from us burst open and two soldiers with machine guns filled the space.

  They yelled in that same language I didn’t understand, but before the words had even totally left their mouths, I shot them. They slumped backward into the doorway in a spray of crimson as I wondered for the first time if the doctor could even understand the words coming out of my mouth.

  I was about to turn and ask her when gunfire erupted from the doorway. Most of the bullets missed me and the ones that didn’t pinged harmlessly off my suit. I hadn’t been counting, but I was pretty sure I’d have been dead fifty times over if it wasn’t for this thing. I wasn’t sure what it liked, but I was definitely going to treat it to a nice night on the town when this was all over.

  My guns barked as I fired back, filling the doorway with lead as I flung myself behind a steel table and pulled it onto its side for cover although I wasn’t sure why. My suit had more than adequately stopped most fire, but then again, it’d only take one lucky shot to put me down forever. It made sense to avoid gunfire if I could help it.

  I was debating whether or not to
go for a grenade when more bullets pinged off the table and ricocheted through the air, cracking the tile all around the doctor who lay slumped in a pile of her own puke.

  I chastised myself even as I got to my feet and sprinted toward her. I scooped her up as I passed by, my fingers gripping on the squishy material of her lab coat as I used my body to shield her from the fire until we were hidden behind an alcove.

  Bullets tore through the wall, ripping apart the drywall and pinging off the cement beneath as I glanced down at the doctor who didn’t seem to be bleeding. Good, she hadn’t been shot.

  “Are you awake?” I asked even though I could barely hear myself over the gunfire. When she didn’t immediately respond, I glanced back toward the door and emptied one of my magazines. Silence filled the room as I snapped a new one into place and shook the doctor.

  Her head wobbled like she was one of those bobble-head dolls, and I instantly felt bad. Still, her eyes opened and she stared at me.

  “You saved me,” she said, glancing at the spot where she had been before. It was riddled with bullets. “Why?”

  “I reserve the right to revisit my earlier decision. Now about my question earlier, Doc. Where’s the director?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. But our most valuable prisoners are on the third floor down. He’s probably there if someone like you came to get him. There’s an elevator just beyond the door.” She looked like she was about to say more, but didn’t.

  “Thanks,” I said, trying my best to be polite even though I’d given her a concussion and made her throw up on herself. Then I whirled back out and ran toward the door she’d indicated, my guns shattering the silence as I pulled the triggers as much to distract people as to stop them from shooting at me.

  19

  I stood in front of the elevator and tried to ignore the bodies littering the hallway behind me. They had been people a second ago, but there was no use dwelling on that right now because if I did, I was going to lose it. Instead, I shut my eyes, took a deep breath, and jammed my thumb into the elevator down button over and over again.

  After what felt like forever but was probably only a couple seconds, there was a ding, and the doors opened to reveal a stainless steel vault of hospital-like cleanliness. I stepped inside, hoping I wasn’t entering a giant metal tomb and glanced at the console as the doors stood open, revealing the room full of bullet-riddled corpses. Blood oozed out around them, coating the white floor in sticky crimson fluid.

  I turned my gaze away and pressed the button for the third floor, hoping the lady doctor hadn’t lied to me. There wasn’t much I could do about it if she had. I mean, I was probably going to come back through here, but even if she had lied and had led me into a death trap, was I really going to shoot her over it, assuming she was still there? I didn’t think so, but then again, I wasn’t quite sure what type of person I was fast becoming. Not a good one, that was for sure.

  The doors slid shut on that grisly thought, and I found myself staring at my reflection in them. The girl who looked back didn’t look at all like me. For one, her eyes were too sunken into her face, too haunted looking. Her hot pink hair was streaked with spattered blood, and even though she was dressed in an all-black body suit, red goo seemed to pulsate on her clothing, drawing my eyes to each individual splotch.

  Unable to keep looking at her, I looked away and watched the numbers above the doors slowly drift downward. As the negative two turned into a negative three, I turned back toward the doors and pointed my gun at the reflection.

  “Boo,” I muttered as the doors swung open, but there was no one to scare. At least no one I could see because it was pitch black beyond the doors. Some light spilled out of the elevator, but not enough to make the darkness feel less oppressive. I tapped my temple with one hand, and the scenery popped into view, rendered into a sort of partial green visibility.

  Cells filled the walls ahead of me. They were about six cells high, stacked on top of each other like rabbit cages at a pet store. The stacks continued so far down either wall, I had trouble estimating how far down they went. Either way, it would take a long time to go through them, and even though I’d killed more people than I cared to admit so far, I was reasonably sure more would be coming soon.

  “Are you looking for the director?” a man in a cell immediately to my right asked.

  My head swiveled toward him. Six or so feet tall, scruffy brown hair, unshaven, pale. Looked like he’d missed a few meals due to his scrawniness, but something told me he’d been well-muscled prior to his imprisonment.

  “Yes,” I said because what was the point of lying?

  The man snorted. “He said people would come for him. Said everyone would die and that was only if one of his agents came. What a laugh. One person couldn’t take on this entire base.”

  “Two of us came,” I replied, and the guy laughed like he thought I was joking around as I walked toward him. “So where is he?”

  “Don’t know exactly. They moved him when the alarm went off. Took him off down that way,” the man said, pointing off into the distance.

  “What if I don’t believe you?” I asked, arching my eyebrow into the air even though I was relatively sure he couldn’t see me very well. It was that dark. Then again, he had pointed. Maybe he could see me?

  “Like you have a choice, lady,” he replied. “Now let me out of here?”

  “No can do,” I said, walking past his cage, leaving him and everyone else behind.

  “But I helped you,” he called.

  “If I wind up finding the director, I’ll think about freeing you. Okay?” I asked, not bothering to look back as my footsteps echoed across the concrete floor. It wasn’t that I was a bad person, but I was at least semi-inclined to believe the people down here were pretty bad. It was a prison after all, and it wasn’t like the director himself was a bundle of kittens. He probably had more blood on his hands than my biological mother… and she’d nuked two cities.

  “I’m holding you to that,” he called back, and it was then I realized it was eerily quiet inside this place. Maybe it was because most of the cages were empty and the ones that weren’t contained only unconscious prisoners. Not the ‘oh I went to sleep’ kind either. These were more like the ‘I got gassed and passed out’ kind. So why was that one guy awake? What made him so special?

  I spun just as an axe came at me. The haft bounced off my upraised arm, stopping the blade inches from my skull and the force of it vibrated through my whole body. The guy from the first cage stood there, a wicked gleam in his eye.

  “Smart, you are,” he said and kicked me in the stomach. It hurt even through my armor. My feet left the ground, and I flew backward. “Don’t get a lot of smart ones here.”

  I hit the ground and lay there stunned. He’d been fast and strong. Was he some kind of super soldier like Chuck? God, I hoped not. Chuck was nearly unstoppable. I didn’t have time to deal with an unstoppable warrior with an axe.

  He sauntered toward me, dragging his axe along the cement floor, eliciting a scratch, scratch that made me shudder involuntarily. I got to my hands and knees as he squatted in front of me, evidently in no hurry to take advantage. Well, I’d make him pay for that.

  “So you’re the Abby Banks, eh?” he asked, free hand snaking out and smacking me across the face. I flopped over onto my back as little tweety birds fluttered around my head. “You don’t seem that tough.”

  He stood and nudged me with one toe, his axe leaning against his shoulder. “Then again, most people like us don’t. That’s like the whole thing.” He brought the axe down at my neck. I moved out of the way, but barely.

  The head of the axe sank into the concrete a good two inches, spraying me with rock and debris. I reached out, grabbing the metal handle of the weapon near the head, and tried to jerk it out of his hands. All I got was a kick to the face for my efforts. I slid across the floor for a few feet before coming to a stop against a cage. My vision was all kinds of hazy as I tried to get to my feet. I m
ostly succeeded.

  “Usually one or two hits from me is enough to take someone out.” The guy shrugged and smiled at me, revealing a smile that was missing a few key teeth. “You can take a licking, kid. That’s for sure.”

  “Thanks,” I replied and shot him in the chest, emptying my pistols into his center mass as quickly as I could. He staggered backward as the bullets smashed into him, but did little more than smile at me when it was over. That was when I realized he wasn’t bleeding. Had I shot into some kind of bullet proof vest? Duh, I should have put the rounds into his head. I’d thought about it, but he was so fast I was worried I’d miss. Yeah, that’s right, even with all my superspy skills. So sue me.

  “Ow,” he said and spat a mouthful of blood onto the cement next to him. Then he ran at me, crossing the distance between us in an instant. I dodged his axe swing, but his other hand caught me around the throat. His fingers clenched down hard on my windpipe, cutting my air off even through my superspy armor. Red lights started flashing in my HUD as he lifted me from the ground with ease.

  I brought my knees up, driving them into his stomach and staggering him enough to make him release me. My knife slid into my hand as I swiped at him, but he blocked with his axe before leaping back almost three meters.

  “What, never seen someone do that before?” he asked with the world’s biggest grin on his face. Then he licked his lips. “I’m going to enjoy eating your heart and drinking your blood when this is over Ms. Banks.”

  “What are you? Some kind of vampire?” I asked with a laugh. It was either that or cry, and I was pretty sure crying wouldn’t do any good. Laughing might at least scare him.