by Ryk Brown
Jessica moved purposefully toward Synda, maintaining a casual pace so as not to draw attention. Her eyes darted about. Left and right, up and down, through the windows, and along the tops of buildings. There was movement in one of the shop windows, and for a moment, she could swear she saw the silhouette of a soldier.
Jessica finally got to Synda’s side. “Something’s up,” she said under her breath. “We need to go.”
“But I just found…”
“Now,” Jessica snapped, grabbing Synda’s arm and pulling her toward the side street.
An explosion went off directly behind them, knocking them both to the ground. Jessica felt a sharp pain in her right knee as she hit the road. Debris showered her and Synda as her ears rang. She could hear muffled screams of pain and panic in the distance. Her head was pounding, and for a split second, she wasn’t sure where she was or what had happened.
But only for a second.
Jessica rolled over onto her back, sitting slightly upright as her head cleared and her senses returned to perfect clarity. There was smoke everywhere. Through the smoke, she could see bodies lying in the street, bleeding. Some were intact. Others were merely the shredded remains of what had once been human beings. People were running in every direction, screaming and shouting in panic as they fled the danger.
Jessica looked to her side and found Synda moaning but moving and very much alive. She reached out for her. “Synda!” She grabbed the young woman’s shoulder and gave her a firm shake. “Are you all right?”
“What?”
Jessica could tell that Synda’s senses had not yet recovered from the blast. Gunshots rang out from several directions. They were immediately met by the metallic zing of the Jung energy weapons. Jessica scrambled to her feet, grabbing Synda by the upper arm and dragging her reluctantly to her feet as well. She pulled her along, practically throwing her against the wall before joining her there herself.
Jessica grabbed Synda’s face with one hand. “Snap out of it!” she ordered, shaking her head slightly.
Synda pushed Jessica’s hand away. “What the hell?”
“They’re attacking again!”
“What?” Synda looked around, the sound of the battle bringing her back to reality. “What’s going on? A shoot-out?”
“Did they have firefights before?” Jessica asked as she pushed Synda toward a recessed doorway a few meters farther down the street.
“Firefights?”
“Shoot-outs!” Jessica said. “Did they have shoot-outs with the Jung before?”
“No, never. They just set off bombs and shot up some Jung soldiers before they could return fire. They were usually gone in less than a minute.”
“I fucking knew it!” Jessica swore. “The moment I saw them climbing off that bus!”
“What are you talking about? What bus?”
“This is an ambush!” Jessica told her as the firefight continued. “The Jung knew they were going to hit today.”
“How would they know?” Synda said. “Do you think someone told them?”
“Probably not.” A blast from a Jung energy weapon struck the building just past their doorway, causing Jessica and Synda to duck back against the door. It had come from the opposite end of the street from where the bomb had gone off. More energy weapon blasts immediately followed. Gunshots rang out from the opposite direction as the resistance returned fire from the new threat. Jessica could hear more Jung energy weapons fire coming from two more directions. They were more subdued, and it sounded like they were coming from opposite ends of the main streets.
“They’ve got them boxed in!” Jessica said. Several Jung troops clad in body armor charged past the doorway as they continued to fire. More gunshots rang out. One Jung soldier fell to the ground directly in front of them, a gunshot wound to his neck gushing forth blood. Several more soldiers charged forward, jumping over their fallen comrade, their energy rifles answering the gunshots in rapid fire succession. The last Jung soldier in the charge stopped momentarily at the side of the fallen soldier, checking to see if he was alive. Gunshots suddenly struck the pavement near the last Jung soldier, causing him to stumble backwards and nearly fall to his left. He charged toward Jessica and Synda in the doorway.
Jessica turned and faced Synda, shielding her with her body as she screamed out. “Please don’t hurt us!” she begged.
The Jung soldier nearly fell against them as he scrambled to the safety of the doorway. He looked Jessica in the eyes. “Stay on this place, and no harm on you will come.” Jessica enthusiastically nodded her agreement. The Jung soldier peered back around as several more of his comrades charged past him.
As the Jung soldier was about to leave the safety of their doorway and join the attack, Jessica reached down and pulled the soldier’s sidearm from his holster and shot him in the back.
“Sorry. Changed my mind,” she announced as she took aim and shot him in the head. She reached down and peered out around the edge of the door. Seeing that the other troops were still down at the far end of the street and engaged with the resistance, she stepped out with the stolen energy pistol aimed at the rest of the soldiers down the street and quickly picked up the dead soldier’s energy rifle. “Here,” Jessica said, tossing the pistol to Synda. “Take this.”
Synda caught the pistol with both hands. “I thought you said it wasn’t safe to have one of these!”
“The situation just changed,” she said, giving the energy rifle a quick once-over. “Stay on my ass, and feel free to shoot any Jung that try to come up behind us.”
“What? Where are we going?”
“To make contact with the people I came looking for,” Jessica informed her as she raised her rifle and opened fire.
A quick spray of the end of the street took out all four Jung soldiers that were supposedly firing at resistance members near where the bomb had detonated. Jessica looked down at the weapon, surprised that it had offered no kick at all, unlike the Corinari firearms that kicked nearly as much as their own projectile weapons.
“Let’s move!” she ordered as she charged across to the doorway on the opposite side of the street. Synda followed her, falling into her when they reached the far side of the street.
“What the hell?” Synda asked. “Why didn’t we just run that way?” she asked, pointing down the street in the direction the Jung had come from.
“Bad idea,” Jessica said. “That’s where they came from. What if there are more coming?”
“Well, why did we even move? I mean, here, there, it’s all the…”
“They can probably track their own weapons,” Jessica said as three more Jung came back around the corner from the main street. They immediately opened fire on the doorway on the opposite of the street, where Jessica and Synda had been standing a moment ago. Jessica waited a few seconds for them to come farther down the street, then swung her weapon out and opened up on them, cutting them down in short order.
“How did you know that?” Synda said.
“Why do you think the resistance isn’t using Jung weapons?”
“Because they didn’t have any?”
“You had one.”
She looked at the weapon she was holding. “Should I even be carrying this?”
“I’m pretty sure they can only track them when they’re fired,” Jessica told her. “Otherwise, they would have shot at where I was instead of the last place I fired from.” Jessica looked out from the doorway, checking both ends of the street. “Come on,” she said as she stepped out of the doorway and headed down the street in the direction the soldiers had originally come from.
“I thought you said more might come from that way,” Synda said, sounding confused.
“Those three left the fight to come back and find us,” Jessica explained. “That means there are no
more coming from this direction, otherwise they would’ve come for us.”
“Who are you?” Synda asked as they reached the corner.
Jessica peered around the building, looking in both directions and finding no Jung soldiers. “Little girl, you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” Jessica turned around and headed toward the main street where the bomb had been detonated and the sound of the battle.
Synda watched her run back the way they had come, even more confused than before. “Try me!” she begged, running after her.
Jessica charged back up the street, coming to a stop against the wall on the left a few meters short of the corner. She inched forward just enough to see that the street was clear of Jung forces to her right. She then moved to the corner and peered around to the left, spotting eight more Jung soldiers tucked into doorways on either side of the street. They were firing on six members of the resistance trapped at the end of the street. The resistance was trying to return fire from four directions at once, and they were doing a poor job of it as two more of their group fell to Jung energy weapons fire.
Jessica raised her energy rifle and swung it around the corner. Her first shot took out the Jung soldier in the doorway nearest her on the opposite side of the street. Her next shots killed two more in the next doorway. By the time she moved her aim to the third doorway on the opposite side of the street from her, its occupant was already turning toward her to open fire. Before he could do so, several bursts from one of the resistance member’s automatic weapon struck the soldier’s side, knocking him off balance. Jessica fired again, leaving him a smoldering pile of body armor and limbs.
Several blasts from Jung weapons streaked past her as Jessica ducked back. The soldiers on her side of the street knew that someone was attacking them from behind with one of their own weapons. While their body armor appeared to be effective against projectile weapons, it did little to protect them against their own energy weapons.
She heard two more zings as blasts of energy struck the building just above Jessica’s head from behind. “Fuck!”
Synda leaned out from the doorway where she had been hiding and fired at the two unsuspecting Jung soldiers that had fired on Jessica from behind, killing them both. “Holy shit!”
“I told you to watch our backs!” Jessica yelled as she turned around and sat on the ground, her back to the main street. She quickly flipped her rifle around, changing hands so her left hand was now on the trigger and her right was on the barrel stock. She scooted backward a tiny bit, then quickly laid on the ground as she turned both her head and the rifle to her right.
Three Jung soldiers were charging right at her from barely four meters away. Through the first soldier’s face shield, Jessica could see the look of surprise on the young man’s face as she put the first blast directly into his chest. The soldier’s legs collapsed under him, and his momentum carried him forward as he fell, exposing the soldier behind him to her next shot. It, too, found its mark, causing the wounded Jung to fall forward and land on top of the first. The third one was already trying to come to a stop as he brought up his weapon, but he was too late. Jessica’s next shot hit the soldier in the upper, right shoulder, causing him to rotate to his right as he stumbled forward, tripping over the bodies of his two fallen brothers. The soldier’s weapon discharged as he spun, the blast taking a chunk out of the corner of the wall and spraying chunks of brick and plenty of dust and debris into Jessica’s face as she continued to fire.
Her next two shots struck the last Jung soldier as he toppled over the first two, one shot landing in his neck and the other in the side of his head. His weapon flew through the air, landing well past Jessica. The third Jung soldier struck the ground, lying face to face with Jessica less than half a meter away. Jessica looked at the dead soldier’s face, twisted with horror and pain. His eyes were fixed open as the side of his helmet continued to smolder.
“Damn!” Jessica swore. She rolled away from the dead soldier, scrambling back to her feet as she switched the gun back around so her right hand was her trigger hand once again. It took only two more well-placed shots to deal with the remaining Jung soldiers between her and the last four surviving resistance members. “COME IN!” she hollered at them, gesturing for them to come toward her as she stepped out in the open to better cover their retreat. “MOVE YOUR ASS!”
The last four members of the resistance glanced at Jessica, surprise and bewilderment on their faces. One of them did not hesitate to do as she demanded and immediately charged toward her. A moment later, another followed, then finally the last two.
The first resistance fighter came charging around the corner and headed straight for the doorway where Synda had been hiding. The second resistance fighter was right behind him, hollering, “Get it open! Get it open!”
The first resistance fighter pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, swinging it open. “I got it!” he announced. The second resistance fighter ducked through the doorway, and another one followed him.
The third resistance fighter came charging down the street and headed for the open door.
Synda’s mouth dropped open. “Tony?” she mumbled.
The third resistance fighter glanced at Synda as he passed, a confused look on his face.
As the last man came charging down the street, more Jung soldiers rounded the corner after him. Jessica opened up, cutting the first few down as the last resistance fighter went past her. She backpedaled to the corner, firing repeatedly as she went and sending their pursuers diving for the cover of the doorways on either side of the street that was littered with the bodies of dead and maimed civilians as well as those of their own troops.
The last resistance fighter fell as he turned the corner, rolling over several times in the street.
“Move it!” Jessica called out.
“Come on, Jessica!” Synda yelled, pointing at the doorway. “This way!”
Jessica fired around the corner again, keeping the Jung soldiers pinned down in their doorways. She reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the Jung credit chips. She pinched it between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, bending it just enough to jam it into the trigger housing of the energy rifle. With the trigger stuck in the depressed firing position, the weapon continued in rapid fire mode. Jessica swung it back and forth several times, then laid it down on the ground. It was still pointed down the street toward the cowering Jung soldiers as it continued to fire.
Jessica charged back down the side street, following Synda and the fourth man through the doorway. The fourth man pulled the door closed behind him and locked it, then charged down the stairs to the right of them with Jessica and Synda hot on his tail.
They ran as fast as they could down three flights of cement stairs, nearly stumbling along the way more than once. When they reached the bottom, they followed the fourth man through the fire door into the building’s underground parking garage.
Jessica came flying through the door no more than two steps behind the fourth man, Synda another step behind her. She stopped dead in her tracks as she was met on the other side of the door by the fourth man’s weapon pointed directly at her face.
“Whoa!” she yelped, holding her weapon up and aiming it right back at him.
“Drop it, bitch!” the fourth man ordered.
“Fuck you,” Jessica said. “You drop yours.”
“I’ll pull the trigger, bitch! I swear I will!”
“So will I,” Jessica promised, “and I’ll bet mine hurts more,” she added with a maniacal grin.
“Hey, we’re on your side, remember?” Synda said.
“No, I don’t remember,” the fourth man said angrily, his blood still surging with adrenaline. “At least, I don’t remember inviting either of you to the party.” He took aim at Synda as well, causing her to drop her energy pistol out of instinct
.
“We don’t really have time for this, fella,” Jessica said.
“Who the fuck are you?” the fourth man asked.
“Come on, Mack!” Tony called out from deeper in the parking garage. “We’ve gotta get out of here!”
“Tony! It’s me!” Synda cried out.
“Shut the fuck up!” the fourth man ordered.
“We just saved your asses,” Jessica reminded him. “You might want to show a little respect.”
“What?” He furrowed his brow.
“Tony,” Synda pleaded.
“How the fuck does she know you?” Mack wondered, suspicion creeping into his voice.
“I have no fucking idea,” Tony insisted. “I’ve never seen this guy before!”
“Guy?” Synda said, surprised.
“Hey, the least you could do is let us go with you,” Jessica insisted, “at least until we all get away.”
“Not while you’re carrying Jung burners,” Mack insisted.
“Then give us one of your guns,” Jessica suggested, seeing one stuffed into Mack’s belt.
“You have two choices,” Mack said, “you drop your weapon and come with us, or we all go down right here.”
“Now that doesn’t sound like much fun,” Jessica said calmly.
“I don’t believe this!” Tony declared.
“Ain’t no way I’m letting you see our escape route and live,” Mack said, “not unless I can keep my eye on you afterward.”
Jessica sighed, lowering her weapon. “Fair enough,” she said, handing it to him butt first.
Mack took the weapon and tossed it to Tony, who quickly removed the energy pack, dropped it on the ground, and smashed it with the butt of the now-useless rifle. He then swept the pieces under the nearest car and tossed the rifle under there as well.
Mack picked up Synda’s dropped energy pistol and disposed of it in similar fashion. He then turned to Jessica. “Now it’s your turn to move your ass,” he said, smiling.