Human Superior

by C. S. Won

  “Clay!” Andrea spun around. “Are you good to go?” She noticed Clay was staring at the monitors on the wall. “Clay? What’s wrong?” She looked at the monitors. Most of them were broken from the attack, screens shattered and a number of them coughing out smoke, but a few were still working, displaying crisp surveillance footage, and in all of them she saw several guards running around, armed to the teeth like they were going to war. Her eyes drifted over to a screen marked E. L2, and there were at least fifteen guards standing outside two elevator doors—the elevator doors the led to the prison underground, she realized.

  Andrea ran over to Clay, grabbed his hand, and pulled him as she ran out of the security room.

  “Where are we going?” Clay asked.

  “Hurry and go invisible!” Andrea said.

  “Where are we going?” Clay repeated, doing as he was told.

  “The elevators. Reinforcements are about to flood the facility below, and we have to stop them before they do.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Do you see them?” Jae asked. He moved a fourth steel cabinet next to the door, fortifying the entrance. The siren wailed unceasingly around him. He did his best to ignore it.

  Tobin made his way closer to the monitors on the other side of the wall, stepping over the unconscious bodies scattered on the floor. He looked at each screen, but he could only shake his head.

  Jae went over next to Tobin. There were at least four dozen monitors mounted on the wall. He was certain Han or Marlowe had to be in one of them, but each monitor only seemed to show a corridor, or an office room, or guards running around. There was no surveillance of prisoners, or even prison cells for that matter. “Can you switch any of these screens?”

  Tobin ran over to a computer console and tapped a few keys, but nothing happened. “There doesn’t seem to be an option.” He gestured at the monitors. “This is it.”

  “Why wouldn’t they have their prison area under surveillance?”

  “Perhaps they felt that there was no need to. If a prisoner managed to escape their cell, where would they go? They’re underground. They can’t dig out.”

  “What about a database, then? Maybe something that can tell us where they’re holding Han and Marlowe?”

  “Hold on.” Tobin tapped a few more keys on the computer. “I see their names listed, but it doesn’t specify what cell number they’re in, or if they’re even here.”

  Jae made his way over to Tobin. “Does that mean they already left?”

  “There’s no itinerary or timetable listed, so maybe not. There are other names listed here too—Terry, Jack, Chen, Kirsten, Ahmed—but they also lack any sort of supplemental information.”

  “No cameras, no cell numbers, not even general information. Only names. How exactly do they keep track of each prisoner if there’s no record keeping?”

  “It might be information only a select few have access to. There are a number of things in here that I don’t have clearance for.”

  “We’ll have to search for them by foot, then.” Jae pressed in his earpiece. “Andrea, did you ever find a way to shut the alarm off?”

  “There’s a maintenance room on the other side of the building that contain a number of generators. Disabling those should kill the power to the entire building, which in turn should kill the alarm. But there’s an even bigger issue at hand,” Andrea said.

  “What is it?”

  “There’s an army of guards waiting outside the elevators to go underground, with more on the way. I’m going to stop them.”

  “Stop them how?”

  “I’m going to see if I can fry the elevators. Failing that, I’m going to stay up here and do what I can to bottleneck them.”

  Jae’s eyes widened. “You’re going to fight?”

  “If I have to, yes.”

  “No, I won’t allow it, it’s too risky. Just stay where you are. I’m going to have Tobin come get you and Clay, just like we planned.”

  “I can’t have you go toe-to-toe with a compound full of trained, professional killers. Even with your powers, that’s too much for you.”

  “But it’s okay for you to do it? Andrea—”

  “We have no other choice. If I don’t do this, then the prison is going to be flooded with guards, and you won’t have any room to operate, even if we’re around to help. But if I stay up here and do what I can to prevent them from going underground, then I can give you some breathing room.”

  “But—”

  “She’s right,” Tobin said. “We can’t have more guards down here. We already have enough to contend with as it is. If she doesn’t stem the flow of guards from going underground, then this whole operation is in jeopardy.”

  “But we took care of this room just fine. They couldn’t do anything,” Jae said.

  “That’s because we took them by surprise, but that surprise is now gone. Our advantage is no more. They know we’re here now, and they’re going to be ready for us the moment we step out that door.”

  Shit. Jae had hoped to get everyone back together once the security rooms were disabled, but that plan was obviously up in smoke now. Staying separated only increased the chances that someone was going to get hurt again—or worse.

  A loud thumping rattled from the door. Jae looked at the entrance, and heard a muffled voice yelling from the other side. It was only a matter of time before someone broke through.

  “Mr. Yeon,” Tobin urged.

  “Damn it. Andrea, if you feel like you’re getting overwhelmed—run. Just run. Don’t try to be the hero. Get the hell out of there and don’t look back.”

  “I’m not going to go into this recklessly. I know how much danger we’re in.”

  “Tobin can always bail you out at any time. Just let us know.”

  “Just hurry, Jae.”

  “Give me your hand. I’ll take us to the iron gate,” Tobin said. Jae reached over, and Tobin took his hand. The security room flickered away, washed away by the world of darkness. When he took his next breath in, Jae found the circular, steel entrance to the prison suddenly perched in front of him. Without missing a beat, he looked for a way in. Over to the left, was a keypad, a card swipe, and what appeared to be a retina scanner. Obviously, they had no code, card, or the correct set of eyes, so Jae opted for the next best thing. Taking a deep breath in, he reared his leg back, tightened his muscles, then swung it forward as hard as he could. It collided with the gate with a loud rattle and left a notable dent. Jae kicked it again, and again, and again, each attempt accompanied by a tightening of his teeth and a clenching of his fists, until finally the gate gave in and tore away from its hinges, falling away from them and crashing onto the ground into a jangling dustup of iron and concrete.

  In the opening before them, a dimly lit pathway revealed itself. When Jae stepped through, the first thing he noticed was how noticeably warmer the air was here, with a distinct, earthy odor. The décor paled in comparison to the shell upstairs, sleek tile floors and other contemporary trappings shunned in favor of something more austere and bare, which made sense since this compound was supposed to be more prison then corporate office.

  Jae motioned Tobin forward, and as he took another step, he saw two sentries posted to his left and right, flanking their entrance. Tobin was right; they were ready. The one on the left brought his rifle up. “Engage them!”

  Jae lunged forward and buried a fist into the left guard’s stomach, the force of it nearly driving him into the ceiling. The guard doubled over and crumpled to the floor, opening and closing his mouth like a fish gasping for air. His partner, who had his gun settled on Tobin, now had it aiming at Jae, but Tobin blinked in front of the man and grabbed his wrist, wrenching it in an odd direction until the bone snapped. The guard shrieked out in a high-pitched yelp but was cut short when Tobin kneed him in the stomach. The man went face-first onto the floor, choking for breath, and struggling to let words out. Tobin punted him in the skull, not hard enough to break his neck, but hard enough to bl
ack him out.

  Tobin unsheathed a baton, knife, and a gun from the hip of one of the unconscious guards, taking them for himself. “The other one should have them too, if you want it.”

  “I don’t need it. Let’s just hurry,” Jae said.

  They made their way down the pathway. The siren, for whatever reason, rang louder down here than it did in the security room, and it was joined by the whine of another distinct sound: the idle, soft humming of machinery. It was faint but ubiquitous, and Jae had a hard time placing where it was coming from, or what it even was. Somewhere in the distance, the clomping of footsteps echoed off the walls, everywhere and nowhere all at once, and even further, the random but bone-jarring scream of a man in pain, faint but still unmistakably clear. He wondered if these screams belonged to his brother or Marlowe, subjected to unimaginable pain intended to break mind, body, and spirit. The thought of it made Jae’s heart race, every instance of noise causing him to flinch. He had to tell himself that that they were too important to cut and bruise, that the screams belonged to someone else, as selfish as that was. Morgan wouldn’t dare hurt them after all the time and money he spent taking them back.

  The pathway turned right, and they stopped at the corner of it. Jae looked around, and saw nothing impeding their path, inviting them to advance.

  “Freeze!”

  Jae turned and saw two men standing behind them several yards away, guns raised. One of the guards repeated the command, raising his voice and jabbing his gun for emphasis. The other guard took his radio out, clicking it on. “We found the intruders. They’re—”

  Tobin appeared behind them, clubbing their skulls in with his newly acquired nightstick. The radio clattered to the floor as one of the guards fell forward, his eyes rolling up to his brain, and the back of his head red and wet with blood, but the second guard had somehow survived the blow, staggering to a knee but going no further. Jae couldn’t imagine how he managed to remain conscious after that. Maybe it was due to an odd angle or Tobin holding back, but whatever the reason the man was already in the midst of a counterattack, twisting around and lunging forward with a knife that had suddenly appeared in his hand. But the knife stabbed at empty air, his target nowhere to be seen, and his own momentum propelled him forward, the guard swinging his arms to catch his balance. Tobin reappeared behind the guard, and with teeth clenched his stick became a blur, meeting the man’s skull a second time around, harder and with a louder crack. The man went slack and collapsed into a motionless heap, the back of his skull and Tobin’s nightstick painted crimson red. There was no doubt to this one.

  Tobin staggered forward, reaching the wall, and resting against it, his breath coming and going in rapid, pained gasps. He had his hand on his abdomen, just below the safety of his bulletproof vest, blood leaking through his fingers.

  No.

  Jae ran up to Tobin. “What happened? Move your hand. Let me see.”

  Tobin shook his head. “It was my fault. I should have been more careful. I—” He gritted his teeth, hissing in his pain.

  “I said move your hand,” Jae said.

  Tobin exhaled. “Nicked me before I was able to react.” He looked at the man he just felled. “He was good.”

  Instead of asking him to move his hand again, Jae took Tobin’s hand and removed it for him. A small, thin line, glowing red with blood, stared back at Jae. He looked at it from different angles, careful not to touch it. “It’s not deep.” Jae tore the sleeve off of one of the downed guards.

  “It’s just as I said. Nothing serious.”

  “You’d have a knife buried in your belly if you didn’t phase out when you did.”

  Tobin said nothing, only wincing. Jae wrapped the sleeve around the wound and tied it tight. Immediately it adopted a redder tint. “This should hold for now, but we’ll need to get through this quickly. Are you okay to move?” Jae asked. He thought about calling the whole thing off, but Tobin was their only means of leaving, and Jae knew he wouldn’t relent, not yet at least.

  “I’ll just teleport if I start lagging behind. I won’t have to move my legs for that.”

  “I’ll carry you if I have to.”

  “I’m not that useless yet.”

  Jae was struck with the realization of how absurd this whole thing was. They had no business being here. They were a ragtag group comprised of a firefighter, a maniac’s sister, a small-time reporter, and a mercenary turned enemy of the state. Only Tobin had the chops to be here, and he was hindered by a gut wound. A small collection of freaks with big dreams they were, and they should have been arrested or taken down the moment they set foot inside the building. Yet here they were, deep in the belly of the wolf’s den. How did it even get to this point? They should have been at home, leading average lives and doing average things, not infiltrating a black site for a prison break. How had this group come together and stumbled upon such an unexpected turn of events?

  Jae looked around the corner again and saw nothing. He motioned forward and made the turn. The sirens followed after them, like a shadow taped to their heels. Beating footsteps and shouting voices echoed all around them. The path swerved right, and as Jae made the turn, three uniformed men stepped into view and nearly bumped into them, guns steady at their hips and pointed to the floor. One gasped in surprise, staring wide-eyed at the two. Jae swung his arm in a wide arc, pivoting his body, and clotheslined all three against the wall at the same time. They fell to the ground together in an unconscious, silent heap, falling on top each other.

  “Up ahead!” Tobin said, pointing forward. The hallway stretched open into a wider space, and towards the far end was another iron gate, this one seemingly operated by a guard inside a caged barricade. The man, lazy in his demeanor and looking unbothered by the wailing sirens, looked over and saw their approach. The realization didn’t hit him at first, as he stared at the two without a change in his expression, but as they came closer his eyes grew. He mouthed an “oh my god,” as if he didn’t expect the intruders to get this far, and in his haste picked up a red phone, juggling it in his hands before he managed a firm grip. Jae was about to call for Tobin to stop him, but saw he had already teleported behind the guard, locking an arm around his throat, and brandishing a knife mere inches away from his chin.

  “Open this gate!” Jae heard Tobin say. Jae reached the gate, waiting for it to open. Tobin placed the tip of the knife against the guard’s chin, prompting a stream of pathetic whimpers. The man was frozen in fear, his bulging eyes looking every which way, his breath loud and shallow, hands gripped tight against his captor’s arm. Tobin poked the knife at the man’s chin, drilling it hard enough to draw a bead of blood, a thin crimson line trailing down his neck. The action compelled the man to reach forward with shaking fingers and press a series of buttons on the control panel in front of him. When he was finished, he pulled back, again gripping Tobin’s arm.

  A grinding of gears, iron against iron, and the gate began to open, loosening itself from the ground and moving upwards, laying bare the path ahead. Jae looked over and saw Tobin clubbing the guard with the handle of the knife, knocking him unconscious to the ground. Tobin appeared next to Jae, and without a word they continued ahead.

  The path was straightforward, and already in the distance they could see another metal gate awaiting them. But standing guard before it, lined up in two rows, were ten men, half of them kneeling, the other half standing, all armed with rifles and taking aim at the intruder’s approach. Over in the corner was another caged barricade with an operator inside. They were already prepared to make sure no one passed their group, as evident by the rhythmic clacking of their guns.

  “Teleport me above the group!” Jae said.

  “Above them?” Tobin asked.

  “Yes, above!”

  Tobin reached over and grabbed Jae’s hand, and Jae found himself encased in black, empty space, floating in the void, and just as before he could not see Tobin next to him, nor feel his hand against his. Jae had little sense of h
imself, drifting in nothing, like a wayward ghost. But the sensation was short-lived as the world came back to him in a deafening roar, a sudden flourish of colors and sounds washing away the black. He blinked, his wits slow to catch up, still adjusting, then he saw them, the guards who were ready to kill, lined up just below him, unsuspecting of the man floating right over their heads.

  Jae clenched his hands together in a double fist and raised it above his head and screamed as loud as he could. The guards looked up at him, and Jae could see the shock on their faces. The ground rushed up to meet him, and he swung his fists to greet it.

  The impact, and the resultant shockwave, sent all the guards flying in several different directions, as if a grenade had been chucked in the middle of their group. Several of the guards landed hard against the walls, cries of anguish vocalizing their pain, before they slipped into unconsciousness. Others landed just as hard against the floor and rolled for several yards before finally stopping, unmoving except for the slow heaving of their backs. The facility shook and groaned, dust long engrained in the ceiling loosening and spilling to the floor.

  “Good work,” Tobin said.

  Jae looked at the barricade, but the gate operator was already gone, sensibly fleeing from his post. “We need to get this—”

  Tobin had already teleported inside the barricade, fiddling with the controls. Jae went up to the glass partition protecting the barricade.

  “They’re on complete lockdown now. Overrides won’t even work,” Tobin said.

  “What can we do, then?” Jae asked.

  “Hold on, let me figure something out.”

  “How much longer?”

  Tobin shook his head. “Maybe a few minutes. I don’t know.”

  They didn’t have a few minutes, not when they were this deep in enemy territory, not when the siren beckoned reinforcements. He looked at the gate, a design identical as the last one, reinforced with an unknown thickness of iron, and one that opened and closed vertically. He placed a hand on the gate, cold to the touch. Could I? He knelt, and placed his fingers just underneath a groove that allowed just the tips of his nails to squeeze through. Taking in a deep breath, he tightened his arms and tried to lift the gate from its place. The muscles in his body squirmed, and his teeth were clenched hard enough to nearly shatter, but the gate proved to be a formidable foe, refusing to budge against his strength. Jae pulled away, exhaling, his fingers swelling red with exertion.