Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition)

by Matthew J. Barbeler

  “Hang on, I’ll come to you. Keep talking.”

  “All right... This is a lovely mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. A ship the size of a city, infested with some kind of life form that wants to kill us, and the fucking lights go out. What are the fucking odds of-?”

  Suddenly a heavy weight crushed down on her from above.

  “You’re standing on it!” she yelled breathlessly.

  “Oh shit, sorry!” Vynce said as he stepped off.

  The relief was immediate. Ava could breathe again.

  “That’s better. First thing you do after coming to rescue me is to remove my ability to breathe. Well done.”

  “Don’t get too excited just yet,” Vynce said. “My smartsuit’s out of commission. I don’t know if I have the strength to move it without my augments. We may have to wait until our suits come back online.”

  “I can’t wait that long. You pull the fucking thing, and I’ll push. I’ve got one arm and two legs left.”

  Jaxon’s voice joined them. “I’m here too. Vynce, with you and I working together we should be able to move this. Ava, you push from beneath and you tell us if you’re hurting, all right?”

  “All right,” she said.

  Ava braced herself with her good arm and her legs and began to push upwards. Vynce and Jaxon pulled on the chunk of debris, and it slowly began to lift.

  “Yeah, it’s going,” Ava said. “I might be able to crawl out if you lift it just a little further.”

  “You just tell us when to hold it,” Vynce said.

  “A little more,” she said. “Just a little more. Okay! I can crawl out!”

  “Hurry!” Vynce said.

  Ava used her good arm to crawl along the bottom of the MagLev carriage. She crawled out from under the debris. Moving the heavy smartsuit took it out of her. It was a pain in the ass to move without power. Suddenly Ava found it easier to move than before. The heads-up display inside her suit flickered back to life. She engaged her low-light vision and turned back to see Vynce and Jaxon.

  “I can see you boys. My smartsuit’s back online. How about you both?”

  “Yeah, mine’s coming back now,” Vynce said.

  “Mine runs off my own bio-rhythmic energy. Mine will only ever stop working if I die,” Jaxon said.

  “Well that’s fucking grim. Just promise me you’ll keep functioning until you save the girl, all right?” Ava said.

  “Well I -”

  “Yeah yeah, you can’t tell the future. Blah blah blah.”

  “No, it’s not that. I was just about to say that for one I can promise something. You will be saved, but your arm won’t be.”

  A cold lance of fear stabbed Ava’s chest. She had known as much since she lost feeling in her arm. It was reinforced when the fucking thing started moving around on its own. Then, when the itching and burning had started, she was tempted to cut the whole thing off herself.

  The infection was inside her, growing between her bones, taking over her own muscles, just like those flesh cockroaches she’d seen back in the engine bar.

  Even though she knew it had to be done, she was still afraid.

  “Yeah, I thought as much,” she said trying to hide her fear.

  “We need to make it to the Residential medstation as soon as possible. It runs on its own power supply with built in EMP dampeners, so it should either be back online or in the process of rebooting by the time we get there.”

  Vynce saw movement outside the MagLev carriage. The artificial sunlight had been keeping the creatures on the ship at bay, but now that it had been extinguished, they had started to emerge from their hiding places.

  “Guys, we have to go. Now,” Vynce said as he loaded a magazine of flesh-shredding rounds into his assault rifle.

  Draco’s suit began to reactivate. He homed in on the sound of Pim crying and rushed towards it. The hunter’s footsteps pounded through the darkness too, but Draco had to get there first. His suit’s heads-up display came back online, and Draco activated his low-light vision.

  He activated it just in time to see the hunter get to Pim at the same time as Raze. Raze launched himself at the boy, arms outstretched, but the hunter reached Pim first. It grabbed the boy with both hands. Pim’s cries turned into screams of terror that were tragically cut short as the creature pulled the boy in two.

  “No!” Draco yelled. He pulled his pistol from its holster and started firing at the hunter.

  The hunter threw the two pieces of Pim to the ground. The boy’s right leg twitched, and across the road, the young boy gasped for breath through collapsed lungs. After a moment, he was still.

  Raze launched himself at the hunter. He climbed up the thing’s arm and pulled a small tool from his belt. When he lit the sunstorm welder up, Draco’s low-light vision immediately overloaded. Raze pushed the superheated welder into the creature’s face. The creature’s eyes popped from the intense heat. It bellowed in agony and clutched its face.

  All around them, Draco could see movement as more creatures began to emerge from the darkness. Small ones crawled from the drains and manholes. Bigger ones came out of the houses and the spaces in between. They came in all shapes and sizes, but one thing was common between all of them. They had all been made from human beings. Most of them had lumpy growths on their bodies, as though there were unseen tumors beneath the skin. They all looked towards the sounds of agony coming from the hunter with slack-jawed deadness.

  Raze put his pistol to the side of the hunter’s head and fired. At point blank range, the creature’s head exploded in a shower of bone and brain matter. Raze jumped off the creature. Its left side slumped as the brain was destroyed. The right half of the creature tried to stay upright but couldn’t.

  It toppled over.

  It desperately tried to get back to its feet but Raze put a bullet in its right brain too. The hunter stopped moving.

  The other fleshlings did not. They shuffled, scuttled and hobbled towards Draco and Raze. Raze pulled his rifle from his back sling and opened fire at the closest creatures. A single volley of bullets tore through their bodies, stopping them in their tracks.

  Draco took aim at the creatures closest to him, putting a single bullet into each of their heads as they approached.

  “They seem to go down pretty easy,” Raze said.

  “These smaller ones do, yeah. Not the big ones though,” Draco said.

  “Can you see Al?”

  “Not yet. But we’ve got to find him.”

  Draco activated a vision filter based on heat. Aloysius’s fusion core would still be burning hot even if his systems had been knocked out.

  The heat vision showed Draco just how much trouble they were in. Creatures surrounded them on all sides. Just human sized ones for now. No more hunters, luckily. But it would only be a matter of time until bigger ones started showing up once they found out that someone had turned off the lights.

  Down the road a little further Draco saw a stationary point of heat. The creatures around them were moving erratically, but this point of heat was completely stationary. It had to be Aloysius. Draco marked the target on his heads-up display and switched back to low-light vision.

  Draco ran towards Al. He dispatched three creatures on the way to his fallen crew member. When he reached Aloysius, there was no sign of movement or function.

  On board the Icarus, Veck Simms held Reban by the hair as Nook and Rhken looked on in terror. The normal bridge lights had slowly started to come back on, which meant that the engines would soon be back online too.

  “Let my daughter go Veck,” Nook said.

  Veck laughed. “You seem to misunderstand the situation. I have absolutely nothing left to lose. Nothing. Whatever happens, your Captain is going to deliver me to the Alliance military and they’re going to kill me. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

  “No, you’re not wrong.”

  “So what incentive is there for me to not cause as much damage as I can before that happens, hmm?”

&nb
sp; “For once in your damned life, you could try being a good person.”

  “A good person? I am the only person in this galaxy who truly cares about our species. I am the only person in the galaxy who is prepared to do what it takes to make sure we survive and take our rightful place!”

  “And what place is that? Top of the food chain? Galactic totalitarianism? Supreme overlord of the universe?”

  “Nothing so grandiose. I don’t want to rule the galaxy. That sounds like far too much work. I am just a freedom fighter, fighting for our species to choose how we live our own lives.”

  It was Nook’s time to laugh.

  “You’re a fool. An absolute fool. No matter what you do or where you go, you will always be a part of the Galactic community. You can’t escape that. It’s just the way it is. Humanity is still in its infancy compared to other species. You don’t know better than them. The Artori have seen the rise and fall of entire civilizations and have written the galactic laws around the protection of all species in the galaxy. No one’s interests are put before anyone else’s. Surely you can see that.”

  Veck had become visibly agitated as Nook spoke. His teeth ground in his mouth, and his lips were pulled back in an animalistic snarl.

  “I can’t imagine what it must feel like being trapped inside such a feeble mind. You’re a slave, and you don’t even know it.”

  “I’m not a slave. I just care about other people. Human and non-human alike. I don’t put my wants or needs above the wants and needs of any other sentient life form in the galaxy.”

  “Right now, I really want to pound your pretty daughter’s face in with this axe.”

  “And I don’t want you to do that. I love my daughter. She’s never done any harm to anyone, yet you’d take her life as though you were swatting a fly. You’re a madman. A psychopath.”

  Veck didn’t answer. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth became a thin grim line.

  Nook spoke again before Veck could. “If you’re intent on shedding more blood before we deliver you to the military, then kill me. Not my girls.”

  “No!” Reban shouted.

  “You can’t!” Rhken yelled.

  “That is a mighty fine offer, but I’m going to have to decline,” Veck said and began to swing the axe backwards.

  Nook rushed forward. He ran towards Veck and simultaneously drew his pistol from his holster. Nook needed to get close to Veck if he was going to use it. The psychopath would use his daughter as a bullet shield without a second thought. Nook tried to get close enough to grab Veck and wrestle him away from Reban.

  Veck pulled back on Reban’s hair, and she let out a yelp of pain. Veck dropped the axe he was swinging, and his empty hand split in half. A long razor-sharp blade telescoped out from the underside of Veck’s forearm. Nook tried to back away, but he was far too close.

  Veck slashed upwards in an arc that sprayed blood across the roof of the bridge as he cleaved Nook in two from stomach to shoulder.

  “Huh. I guess he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Veck said as he let go of Reban’s hair. She fell to the ground and screamed. Rhken crawled over to her and held her tight as her father fell in two pieces around her.

  Rhken held Reban tight. She couldn’t cry. She couldn’t let herself. She held her Reban as she watched the life fade from her father’s eyes.

  Vynce peppered the approaching creatures with flesh-tearing ammo. Each bullet turned whatever extremity it hit into a red pulpy mess. The creatures came out of the houses around them. The road was full of debris from the MagLev carriage crash, and up ahead it was blocked by the fallen skyscraper.

  “Can you walk?” Jaxon asked Ava as he helped her to her feet.

  “I think so,” she said.

  “Can you run?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’m going to pick you up, and we’re going to run. I need you to hold on tight to me, okay?”

  “I’ll try,” Ava said.

  Jaxon picked Ava up. She held tightly around his neck with her left hand and cradled her right arm across her chest. She tried to will it to stay motionless, but it wouldn’t. The fingers kept twitching and moving of their own accord. The itching and burning was getting worse. It was moved further up her arm, towards her shoulder.

  Jaxon broke into a sprint. Vynce followed closely behind him.

  “I know where we are,” Jaxon said. “You follow me and shoot any of these things that get in the way.”

  “You got it,” Vynce replied.

  Vynce could only shoot from the hip while running at speed, but all he needed was for one or two bullets to hit their target to stop one of these creatures in its tracks.

  A fleshling lurched out from behind an overturned car. It had a giant hump on its back that was growing an extra arm. Each finger ended in knife-like claws. Vynce put one bullet in its head and one in its chest. Its head snapped back, gurgling wetly as it fell to the pavement.

  Jaxon took a right at the next intersection and ran down the road. They had arrived in the Metropolitan District. The rows of houses in the Residential District gave way to apartment buildings and retail stores.

  In the distance there was a building that still had power. There was light coming out of its windows.

  “See that building up ahead? It’s running off the medstation’s power grid. We’re almost there, Ava. Hang on.”

  She held tight. Vynce continued firing. There were so many of these creatures crawling out of the darkness, and Vynce put each of them down with expert aim.

  When they reached the building with power, Jaxon turned left. Metro Tower’s top floors had become illuminated again. It shone like a beacon floating in the darkness.

  At the next intersection they turned right, and Ava saw a shining white light with a red heart in the middle. The medstation! Relief and fear washed over her all at once. Her right hand twitched uncontrollably.

  When they reached the medstation, an armed civilian stood behind the glass doors. He wore riot gear and a gas mask. The man hit a switch to open the front doors and aimed his rifle squarely at Jaxon and Ava. Vynce joined them and raised his weapon at the civilian.

  “Lower your weapon!” the man yelled.

  “Not until you lower yours!” Vynce yelled back.

  Neither man moved until Jaxon stepped forward. When he spoke, he sounded different. “One of our crewmates is sick. She needs aid immediately.”

  The man in riot gear trained his rifle on Ava. His eyes widened when he saw her twitching right hand.

  “She’s infected, isn’t she? She’s not coming in. You two can come in, but you need to leave her outside.”

  “I’m not leaving her outside. I’d sooner kill you and force my way in than leave her out here to die,” Jaxon said.

  “Ditto,” Vynce added.

  “She’s infected. I can’t risk exposing my people to her,” the man answered.

  “Talk to Jaxon. He’s expecting us,” Jaxon said. “Tell him Reinhardt is here.”

  Ava looked at Jaxon in confusion. He nodded at her. He had everything under control.

  The man shouted over his shoulder. “Jaxon! These folks said that you’re expecting some guy called Reinhardt! Mind explaining yourself?”

  Jaxon’s younger self came out from the main medical station doors.

  Old Jaxon was mildly surprised that the fabric of the universe didn’t tear itself asunder, even though he’d already lived through these events once before. He remembered the conversation with the person who called himself Reinhardt, and even remembered letting them into the medstation.

  “Quickly, let them through!” Young Jaxon said.

  Old Jaxon nodded. The man in riot gear stood aside, lowered his weapon, and allowed them into the medical station. Jaxon carried Ava across the threshold, and Vynce followed. The man in riot gear closed the thick glass door behind them and resumed his post.

  “Don’t worry about Ronnie. He’s just a prick,” Young Jaxon said.

  “Can you
take us to an operating theatre? We need to get started as soon as possible. Could you please call Doctor Katelyn Harris? We’ll need her,” Old Jaxon said.

  “Whoa, how did you know she was still alive?” Young Jaxon asked.

  “Just get her for me, please.”

  “Okay! Hey, I’m glad to see someone else alive. Glad you made it through, Reinhardt.”

  “With haste, please,” Old Jaxon said.

  “Okay. Got it. I’ll go get Doctor Harris now!” Young Jaxon said and went off into the neighboring emergency room.

  People were crowded around the medstation like sardines in a can. They all looked like they had been through the end of the world. Jaxon knew that this was the only bastion of living humans left aboard the Metropolis Seven, because he had been here when all the communications had been lost with the other medstations. There was no one else left.

  Doctor Harris came out of the emergency room. Her hair had been tied back into a bun, but she had been run of her feet for so long that strands of it had come loose and stuck out to the sides.

  “What’s the emergency?” Doctor Harris asked.

  Her eyes went wide when she saw Ava’s twitching, gibbering and swollen arm.

  “What’s going on here? Who let this infected woman through quarantine?” Doctor Harris recoiled.

  Young Jaxon stepped forward and said, “I did. You can help her like you helped everyone else.”

  “You let them in here against quarantine protocols! You’ve risked all our lives!”

  “If I didn’t then all three of them would be dead, and that would be our fault. I’m done with death,” Young Jaxon challenged. “We can save her!”

  “And what about everyone here inside the medstation? What happens if she infects the rest of us?”

  “We can do it just like we did for Mark, remember?”

  Doctor Harris sighed. “Fine. Bring them through to the operating theatre.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Aloysius’s non-functioning body lay motionless next to a trash can. Draco fired his pistol at the approaching horde of fleshlings crawling from the houses, drains and the darkness all around them. He wanted to believe that Aloysius would come back by himself, but as the seconds passed his belief waned.