Chrono Inquisitor (Gods Be Damned)

by Rien Reigns

  Was he playing a psychological game with me? One minute he was a dick, the next, he acted like we’re friends and he’s sympathizing with me?

  “Sorry about your head,” he finished.

  “Thanks. I guess.” Before I could stop myself, I added, “I’ve actually always had an issue though. It’s not related to baptisms.”

  “I know. Thanks for being honest.”

  So it was a game.

  I was about to ask him why he was messing with me when I noticed that the floor indicator stated that we had reached the second level basement.

  “Did you push the wrong button?” I asked.

  He turned to see what I was talking about.

  A second later he said, “No, I pushed for the lobby. Otherwise my memory was altered, or my CerA is lying.”

  The door opened and we peered out into what looked like a dark warehouse. The only lights were those embedded in the floor to indicate the pathways. In the darkness I could see an outline of a large sum of humanoid figures standing still. That’s when I remembered what Charles had told me about the service robots.

  He pushed the button for the lobby, but it didn’t light up or give any sign of acknowledgement that it had been pressed. He then pushed the ‘close door’ button, but it had the same lack of effect. Making another attempt he pushed the ‘emergency call’ button. Nothing.

  “Taking the stairs doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now, does it?” I said.

  He shot a glare at me.

  Of course the friendliness wouldn’t last.

  “We’ll try another elevator,” he said, and then walked out of our nonfunctioning one.

  I followed.

  We went to the adjacent one, pushed the call button, and waited for the location light to change, indicating that it was on its way to pick us up. Currently it was on the fifth floor.

  It moved to the sixth. Then the seventh, where it paused. He pushed the button again.

  The elevator moved back down to the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, and then stopped.

  When it began moving again the elevator car ascended.

  “I guess we try another one, or we could always take the stairs” I said hopefully.

  “Stairs it is,” he said without hesitation. “Question is, where are they?”

  Since I’d already used the stairs, and every floor of the hotel was designed around the layout of the elevators and stairs, I led the way.

  We walked down a lighted path which would take us to the main staircase. When we got close enough to be able to see the neon sign which said ‘stairs’, we saw the doorway was blocked by standing robots.

  “They must have ran out of room and stuck them there thinking no one ever uses the stairs,” I said.

  “Well it’s a safety hazard and I’m going to fine the hotel for it once we get to the lobby,” he said.

  “We should be able to move them out of the way, or even power them on and have them move.”

  When we got to the robots, we tried to move them manually, but found it difficult. They didn’t weigh much, but it was like they were attached to the floor. They simply wouldn’t budge.

  “Looks like we power them on then,”he said.

  “Now the question is, where’s the power button?”

  We each inspected the machine closest to us.

  After a few seconds, the one he was looking at made a slight humming sound and the lights in its eyes came on.

  “Where is it?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t find one.”

  Then without me doing anything, the one I’d been messing with did the same.

  “Maybe they’re designed to power on themselves when they’re needed.” I said, looking into the robot’s eyes.

  The remaining eight robots blocking our way powered on. The humming sound coming from them sounded like a bees nest.

  “Could you please move out of the way so we can use the stairs,” I said to the robot nearest me.

  The machine turned its head and looked at me, and then without warning, it’s arms shot out and pushed me backwards with a force that lifted me off my feet and sent me sailing a couple of meters until I slammed into a shipping crate.

  I watched Ranger-son reach for his gun on instinct, but before his hand could make contact with his weapon, the robot nearest him grabbed his wrist and broke it like it was a popsicle stick. He yelled in agony as the robot then shoved him, sending him tumbling back down the lit pathway.

  I scrambled to my feet. Three robots were moving towards me. I went to reach into compartments 14 and 24 to extract my four shock collars, but in the moment I realized I wasn’t wearing my vault.

  The robots were approaching and all I had on me was the FireAnt wand. It was better than nothing, but not by much. It probably had enough juice to take down two bots. They didn’t look to be military or industrial grade, so they should be susceptible to the voltage of the wand. Assuming of course that I could get close enough to use it without them killing me in the process.

  I shot a glance at Ranger-son. He was still on the ground. It looked like he was trying to unholster his gun while cradling his broken wrist. I wished I had one.

  “Do you have any Tazer restraints?” I yelled.

  “What?”

  “Shock collars!”

  He’d managed to get his gun out. I realized then why he’d been having an issue. They’d broken his weapon hand.

  “I can’t get to them,” he shouted. Then he fired.

  The reverb of the gunshot and ricochet of the bullet hitting the robot was somewhat musical in the warehouse. Sort of a boom-ping-ting-boom.

  He kept firing, continuing the music. The closest two robots to him fell.

  Something grabbed my shirt and started to lift me. My own attackers had closed the gap. I raised the wand and pressed the tip to the robots forehead. It instantly let go of me. It’s eyes went dark and it collapsed to the floor.

  The next robot in line reached for me. I parried and stuck the wand to the side of its cranium. It went down. There was still juice in the wand, but Kali informed me it wouldn’t be enough to stop the next robot, which was almost on top of me.

  I’d never fought robots before. So far, so good, but now I was weaponless. I knew I couldn’t fight a robot hand to hand. They were all metal casing and had no weak spots. As for me, I was all flesh with way too many weaknesses.

  So I did what any sane person would do. I ran.

  I didn’t know how fast they could move. I was sure they could run faster than me, but the way I figured it, if I could reach Ranger-son before they could catch me, I might stand a chance. I needed to get those shock collars.

  Ranger-son had exhausted his clip and was attempting to switch it out. He’d taken out half of the robots attacking him, just as I had. Four had come after me, six after him. I guess he was considered the bigger threat because he had the gun. That still left five.

  I was almost to him when a robot grabbed his feet. I decided to do a running jump kick at the robot. Not wanting to break my foot, I made sure I sprung off it when I connected. I backflipped and landed on my hands and feet in a crouched position to the side of Ranger-son.

  It’d worked. The robot had let go of him.

  “Those restraints?” I said.

  They were in a pouch attached to his belt. I retrieved them while he reloaded his gun.

  Just as I got all four restraints in my hand I was lifted into the air. The two robots had caught up to me. It had me by the back of my shirt and a leg. Before I could do anything it threw me. Good thing I had gymnastics, parkour, and martial arts training. I twisted so I landed on my feet facing them.

  I put two restraints in my pocket and palmed the remaining two in each hand. I charged the two robots as they came for me.

  When I was close enough I dived towards the two. I slid into their legs and managed to put a collar around each of their ankles before rolling away.

  Unfortunately, I’d rolled right into the path o
f another robot who reached down and picked me up like I was a little child.

  Luckily, it had grabbed me by the front, so I was facing it. “If you wanted to dance, you should’ve just asked.” I retrieved the two remaining restraints from my pocket. I placed one on the wrist of the robot.

  “Anytime you want to give these guys a shock, go for it,” I said.

  Ranger-son had exhausted the clip. This time he’d only managed to take out one robot. They’d adjusted their plan and were being more defensive. They’d also decided I was an easier target. They didn’t seem to be going for a killing blow. It’s like we were mice and they were kittens playing with their food.

  The robot tossed me to the side. Before I could reposition myself my back struck something. I fell to the ground in pain.

  On the plus side, the three robots I’d managed to get restraints on fell to the ground as well.

  One robot remained. Instead of going for one of us, it headed for the door. I was fine with that.

  Ignoring the pain in my back and with some effort, I got to my feet. I’d dropped the last collar so I picked it up and went to Ranger-son. He got to his feet as well. He was loading his last clip.

  “Got any other weapons?” I asked.

  “Right ankle,” he said.

  I bent down, lifted his pant leg, and unstrapped the gun. It was a .22. Not very powerful, but better than nothing. Besides, we only had one more robot to dispose of.

  Speaking of which, the damn thing had reached the door. Instead of fleeing though it was welding the door to the frame with a blowtorch embedded in its finger. The bastard. Why the hell did it have a blowtorch for a finger? How would that come in handy for hotel guests?

  I aimed and fired. And kept firing as I approached it. It took all the bullets I had plus a couple of Ranger-son’s before the damn thing fell.

  “This is exactly why robots were outlawed,” he said through clenched teeth.

  While he inspected the door, I turned and looked back on our robot attackers. Two of them were twitching. He gave me his other gun and I put an end to that.

  Somewhere in the dark a humming started and quickly grew in intensity.

  “I knew it was too good to be true that they were the only ones to go homicidal,” he said.

  “My thoughts exactly.” The robot who’d been welding the door hadn’t gotten very far in its efforts, but it was enough that we couldn’t open the door. I picked the damn thing up and used it as a battering ram.

  The weld finally broke and we got the door open.

  I turned and looked back into the darkness, as stupid people often do rather than just moving forward. I could see dozens of little red dots coming towards us.

  “Go!” I yelled.

  He went first. We entered the stairwell and started to run up the stairs.

  Then I heard the sound of footfalls coming down. Someone, or something, was coming our way from above.

  I stopped Ranger-son. We hadn’t even made it halfway up the first flight. I still had his main gun. I wasn’t sure how many bullets were left. If there was even one.

  I looked back at the door where the robots would be coming through any minute. Nothing yet.

  I looked up the center of the stairs trying to see what was coming to cut us off. I caught a flash of red hair.

  “Ranger Alvarez, is that you?” Ranger-son yelled. I guessed he’d seen the same.

  “Stevenson?” she shouted back.

  I wasn’t sure if I should be happy of her arrival, or if I should turn around and risk that the robots would do me less damage.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” he said.

  “Security is down again. Elevators as well,” she said as she came around the corner where we could all see each other clearly. “What happened?”

  He was cradling his wrist. It looked bad. It was already beginning to swell and discolor. His pinky and ring fingers were sticking out in a not normal fashion.

  “Robots,” he said, and began to climb the stairs again. I followed.

  “What?” she said.

  “We don’t have time. There’s more coming.”

  As if on cue, the first robot entered the stairwell.

  I stopped on the mid-floor landing.

  “Go get help,” I said, looking at Ranger-son. “Alvarez and I will delay them.”

  “There’s too many,” he said.

  “I think we can bottleneck them at the door and shoot them from here. We can’t let them get upstairs to the guests. We’ll do what we can until we run out of bullets, or you get back with reinforcements.”

  “I’ve got men stationed at the entrance to the hotel,” Alvarez said. “It should only take you a minute to get them and get back down here.”

  “Then what am I waiting for?” he said and started running up the stairs.

  “You got an extra gun I can use?” I asked.

  I expected her to make some sort of comment about not being able to trust me, considering what happened the first time we’d met. I would have. But she didn’t. She simply handed me one of her guns and three clips without hesitation.

  “Sorry about earlier,” I started to say, but she cut me off.

  “We’ll talk about it later. Focus on the task at hand.”

  She crouched down and with deadly accuracy put a bullet between the optical sensors of the first robot. She did the same for the next. And the next.

  I just stood there feeling useless.

  As soon as another robot came through the doorway, she shot it down. One bot. One bullet.

  In no time at all the doorway was littered with mechanical carcasses. They were beginning to pile up, forming a wall that slowed them down.

  Then one of them got smarter. It picked up one of its fallen comrades and used it as a shield. Then others started doing the same. That’s when I stopped standing there dumbstruck and started shooting as well.

  A minute doesn’t sound like a whole lot of time, until you start counting every second.

  I really wished I had my maelstrom. I wished I had my vault.

  A few seconds shy of a minute since Ranger-son had left for help, both Alvarez and I were already down to our last clips, and the bots weren’t letting up. They’d reached the bottom of the stairs and were beginning their ascent.

  “We should start retreating,” I said.

  “Agreed.”

  We started to climb the stairs backwards, going slowly so we didn’t trip. We moved at almost the same pace as the bots. Almost. They were moving slightly faster, and more of them had made it through the doorway.

  When we reached the first level basement, Alvarez and I were out of bullets.

  “Time to run,” she said.

  She grabbed something from her belt.

  A grenade.

  “Why the hell do you have a fucking grenade?” I said.

  “It’s EMP.”

  “Oh.” It still didn’t explain why she had it.

  She pulled the pin and threw it down amongst them. There wasn’t an explosion. No boom. It was more of a tick. And then all the bots in the stairwell dropped.

  It was impressive.

  Luckily they weren’t military grade, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked.

  Unluckily, it had a short range. A second later more came through the door. At least they’d be slowed down having to step over the dozens of non-operational bots.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  We started up the stairs and heard thundering footsteps coming from the floor above.

  Please let that be the cavalry, I thought.

  The sight of who was coming wasn’t what I was expecting.

  It was better.

  The four Horsemen had arrived like the angels their namesake were supposed to be.

  Each had been a soldier during the robot wars instigated by Kremalakin, and they’d each lost various body parts in the process. On the verge of death, rather than opting to be dispatched to a possible afterlife, or released from their call of duty, the
y had opted to keep on fighting, and they wanted to do it on the robots level. They’d allowed themselves to be cybernetically enhanced in order to compete with the superior strength of the bots. They were as much machinery as they were men, and they hated it.

  They’d earned their moniker due to their appearance and the savagery in which they’d fought. Originally there had been more than four, thirty-one to be precise, but by the end of the war only six had survived. Over time ChronoGen hired them on as their own Internal Affairs investigation unit. The Horsemen were the Inquisitors of Inquisitors. They were the things reapers feared. Unless of course they were coming to your rescue and you happened to be fighting bots, which the Horsemen had an insane blood lust for, or in their case, grease lust.

  Without even a concern, the four of them charged into the oncoming wave of bots. They didn’t even bother pulling weapons, preferring to rip the robots mechanical limb from mechanical limb, barehanded.

  I stopped and stared in utter amazement at the ferocity of our saviors. I was so enthralled by them that I’d failed to notice Ranger-son had returned along with the Horsemen, and had come to stand beside me.

  The three of us; Ranger-son, Alvarez, and I, stood there, caught up in the carnage before us. I had the thought that people would probably pay exorbitant fees to see such a spectacle, and we were witnessing it for free.

  In no more than ten seconds, the Horsemen had ripped apart all the machines that had made their way through the breach. They then tore their way into the warehouse to continue their robot killing spree.

  “There goes several billion dollars down the drain,” Alvarez said. I turned and looked at her. She looked genuinely disheartened about it.

  “Mr. Cook has fled,” He said.

  “Huh?” I said, realizing he was there. “Why would,” I started to ask and then stopped realizing the implication.

  It didn’t make sense though.

  “The hotel had another breach in the security system,” he said. “It’s why the elevators malfunctioned. He managed to escape while we were having issues with the elevators and our friends there.” He pointed to the hunks of metal, plastic, rubber, and various fluids littering the staircase.

  “Still think he’s innocent?” he asked.