Fast

by Shane M Brown

  They’ll be free in seconds.

  At first Bora spotted no sign of the two men, but then he noticed more movement in the twisted metal matrix. Gunman or Marine, he couldn’t tell.

  He mentally shrugged and scanned what little of his dashboard remained.

  When he had first climbed into the A-frame, Bora had spotted a handy feature. A small glass panel recessed into the dash near the steering column. He backhanded his fist into the glass, smashing the protective glass plate with his knuckles. Behind the glass waited a red mushroom button.

  When he thumped the button, there came an explosive hiss of releasing hydraulics.

  Bora smiled.

  Under the button were three words.

  EMERGENCY PLATFORM RELEASE.

  Chapter 11

  The roar of screeching metal rammed into Coleman’s ears.

  The sound was absolutely unforgiving. Half the overhead framework instantly sheared away. When the incredible noise stopped, Coleman lay pinned under the twisted wreckage.

  The section of frame that wasn’t ripped away, the section Coleman dove under for cover, bent down over the platform like water-reeds in a flooding stream.

  The protection had been slim, but lifesaving. As it was, only Coleman’s left leg was pinned. Twisting among the wreckage, he felt his leg almost pull free from the bent frame. He wedged the pinch bar between the frame and pushed. The frame parted enough to withdraw his leg.

  Flexing his calf, he tested the leg. Only moderately painful. The muscle felt badly pinched, but no bone damage. It would recover in a few minutes.

  Very lucky. Now, where are the creatures?

  He scanned the twisted steel. Both creatures were trapped, but still alive. Their tentacles searched through the gaps in the compacted frame.

  Coleman pulled himself from the mess. The A-frame was accelerating. Bora was already halfway through another lap of the habitation level. The vehicle had accelerated the entire time Coleman was pinned. The floor flew past. Bora was travelling far too fast to maintain any type of control over the giant A-frame. Especially with the rear cab ripped off and dragging behind the truck.

  How will he maneuver at this speed?

  Suddenly Coleman heard an abrupt hissing sound.

  It came from the forward cab. The entire front cab section of the A-frame truck pulled away from the platform.

  Bora had unhitched the truck, abandoning the fast-moving platform.

  Without the steering cab, the platform raced out-of-control towards the north wall.

  Coleman realized the platform would probably never reach the wall. The mangled rear steering cab dragged like a ship’s rudder, pulling on one side and pivoting the entire platform to the right. At this speed, with this much momentum, the platform could only rotate so far before the wheels locked sideways.

  This thing’s going to flip any second!

  He searched for a way off the platform. There was nothing. He started scrambling over the steel, moving dangerously close to the creatures’ searching tentacles, racing for the side of the platform that any second would become the back of the moving death-trap.

  He had about ten seconds to find a miracle.

  #

  Cairns raced the quad bike straight through the debris field.

  He leant forwards over the bike, crouching in the seat, instinctively using his body weight to maneuver the vehicle at speed.

  In the last few seconds, the entire landscape of the habitation floor had changed again. He spotted an opportunity through the chaos. The last rotation of the wrecking ball had swept aside many obstacles, and now, thirty meters away, Cairns saw a mostly clear run at the giant scorpion.

  Mostly, but not perfectly clear. The bike bucked and lurched as he powered over minor obstacles. Cairns kept his knees bent and half-tensed, absorbing the jerking motions. He swerved twice more, avoiding a chair and an overturned quad bike, and then found his clear path to the scorpion truck.

  Twenty-five meters to go.

  The scorpion truck banked in a tight circle right across his path. The truck’s path was predictable. It clearly struggled to maintain control over the wrecking ball.

  At twenty meters, Cairns jumped up off the foot pegs. His boots landed side-by-side on the quad bike’s seat.

  Now he was crouched on the seat, leaning forwards and holding the accelerator full throttle.

  Fifteen meters…ten meters….

  He tweaked the steering slightly, mentally projecting the motion of the truck and countering the quad bike to make an intercept angle.

  Five meters….

  This is how it’s done.

  At full speed, he jumped straight up off the quad bike. The bike’s suspension boosted his jump.

  He sailed through the space towards the truck, rotating his arms to keep his body vertical as he flew.

  Whack!

  He smacked down squarely on the scorpion truck’s hood.

  The two Marines in the truck jumped in their seats as the momentum of his landing sent Cairns sliding up the windshield. The quad bike smashed into the truck’s side, wedging between two support struts.

  Cairns stopped sliding with two hands on the windshield, kneeling on the truck’s hood, staring into the cab through the windshield at the men.

  He smiled at the two stunned faces, one black, one white.

  That’s right. Play time is over.

  #

  Forest did a double-take as he recognized the face through the windshield.

  Cameron Cairns. Cameron Cairns is on our windshield!

  Cairns stared through the windshield at them. His expression looked unwaveringly confident. Very unlike a man riding on the wrong side of the windshield.

  This was too good an opportunity to waste.

  Forest jerked up his CMAR-17 and fired. Starting on one side, he hosed a line of horizontal gunfire straight across the windshield. He cut the windshield entirely in two.

  King turned his face as the windshield disintegrated outwards.

  When they looked again, there was no corpse sliding off the hood. No bullet-riddled body bounced under their tires.

  ‘Where’d he go?’ King demanded incredulously.

  ‘Here I am,’ answered Cairns, looming at King’s window, right at King’s eye level.

  ‘Holy Crap!’ King spun his head, eyes wide like a ghost had whispered in his ear.

  Cairns reached through the window and yanked the steering wheel.

  King’s careful control of the truck was completely thrown off as Cairns oversteered the vehicle into an even tighter circle. Cairns dropped away from the side and hit the ground rolling.

  It was too much for the support struts.

  All at once, the scorpion truck lurched up onto two wheels. With the truck just degrees from rolling, the crane tore right off the back.

  Forest felt the truck lurch forward as the crane tore loose. The truck stayed up on two wheels.

  King yanked the steering wheel back the other way, trying to counter the tilt and drop the truck back down to four wheels.

  The maneuver might have worked, except for at that moment, Bora rammed full-speed into the undercarriage of the tilting scorpion truck.

  #

  The creature hauled its body up the tray-back’s hood.

  Vanessa was now trapped between a pick-wielding terrorist coming through the roof and a creature coming up her windshield.

  Four tentacles snaked around the cab. Vanessa heard the thorns tearing at the edge of her windows and doors.

  It’s going to rip the doors right off!

  Her forward view was blocked by the monstrous body. She couldn’t see a thing. Both rear view mirrors were suddenly wrenched off the doors as the creature began pulling.

  Here it comes.

  She tensed, waiting for both doors to fly off as the creature applied the full force of its devastating hydraulic strength.

  The passenger side window caved inwards. Both window frames twisted and buckled, warpin
g out of shape. Strips of metal peeled off the driver side door like an apple skin.

  But the doors didn’t come off. Vanessa was puzzled. She knew the creature could easily get through the doors.

  It’s not after me yet. Of course! The vibrations. It’s after the engine. It’s trying to get through the hood.

  Hope motivated her to act.

  Time to leave.

  She grabbed the templates and wrenched on the door handle. She’d jump and roll like in the movies. The door didn’t budge.

  Damn! The tentacles are pinning the door shut. There must be some other way.

  A tentacle came right through the passenger window and tore the CB radio off the dashboard.

  At the same time, she felt the templates wrench in her grasp. The terrorist had lunged his arm through the roof and grabbed the templates.

  Vanessa pulled back in an awkward tug of war with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the templates. The creature’s tentacle started banging around wildly inside the cab. Any moment it would find her.

  Just do it.

  She let go of the steering wheel and grabbed the templates with both hands.

  Nearly, nearly, now!

  She shoved the terrorist’s arm into the creature’s tentacle.

  The tentacle encircled the man’s wrist, sinking backwards-facing thorns straight through the muscular forearm.

  The terrorist screamed and dropped the templates. The creature yanked harder. The arm came further through the hole in the roof. Vanessa heard the terrorist’s chest thump down onto the cab. The creature tugged and tugged. The man’s entire upper body kept thumping into the cab’s roof. The creature tried to haul in its victim, but the terrorist’s upper body couldn’t pass through the hole made by the pick. Vanessa could just see a shoulder and half a face wedged through the hole. The face hadn’t stopped screaming, and now the pitch increased as the frustrated creature really got to business.

  The arm tore right off in the cab.

  Oh, that’s disgusting….

  She recoiled from the bloody stump waving through the roof.

  But the screaming face didn’t pull back. Somehow, he remained pinned to the cab. The jagged edges of the hole framed the terrorist’s face. The man screamed straight down into the cab. Vanessa realized the creature was trying to pull the man over the cab roof.

  She heard the terrorist’s knee thumping into the back of the cab. Next came the sound of heavy stones shifting in the tray.

  His legs must be trapped in the stones. That’s why he was cutting through the roof.

  Above her head, the screaming face disappeared from the hole. It reappeared at the top of the windshield. The man had lost the tug of war. The creature hauled him over the roof. The man’s cheek slid down the windshield. The frantically struggling terrorist slid into the creature’s embrace. Two more tentacles released the cab and gathered in the man’s twisting torso.

  The creature reared back, spreading open its massive mouth.

  Vanessa saw her chance and hit the brakes.

  Focused on its prey, the creature was less secure on the tray-back. It went flying off the hood. It still had the gunman wrapped up tightly. The tangled pair rolled along the floor in front of the vehicle. Vanessa saw with horror that the creature was still feeding. Even while rolling, it consumed the man. It seemed completely unaffected by being thrown from the tray-back. Once it had its prey, it cared about nothing else.

  She hit the accelerator and swerved around the rolling tangle of limbs.

  Able to look out her windshield again, she took a moment to rationalize the view. The A-frame platform was racing along the floor by itself. The platform had been released at speed to collide into the north wall. There were only two possible endings to this scenario.

  It’s going to flip or ram into the wall. Or both.

  Then she saw Alex clambering over the platform’s flattened steel.

  He’s on the platform!

  Vanessa dropped the truck back a gear and planted the accelerator, veering the tray-back towards the back of the platform. She was going to pick up Alex or die trying.

  #

  Coleman dove from the back of the platform.

  He saw Vanessa coming, but couldn’t wait a second longer.

  As he spring boarded off a length of bent steel, the platform began to flip. An instant later, he was airborne, flying higher and faster than he expected. The flipping platform had given him an extra push, and he was sailing right over his target.

  The tray-back was passing underneath him.

  He scrabbled his hands over the tray-back roof. His fingers found a hole in the cab. It was enough to catch his momentum. He twisted midair and smacked down hard onto the orange webbing.

  Over the tray edge he saw the platform flip and roll lengthways along the floor. It made two full rotations before smashing into the north wall with enough force to wake up China.

  Vanessa’s high-speed pickup was Coleman’s miracle.

  She suddenly hit the brakes as the mini-crane from the scorpion truck slid across their path. Coleman was thrown forward. Squealing tires smoked up the floor. As the tray-back jerked to stop, the crane tumbled past just meters from the hood.

  Coleman took his chance to leap off the tray. The vehicle looked in a bad state. Every panel on the front end appeared dented and twisted out of shape. The driver side door wouldn’t open, so he grabbed the top of the warped window-frame and jumped legs-first into the cab. Vanessa slid across the seat, making room at the steering wheel.

  The inside of the cab looked even worse than the outside. A chunk of cement sat lodged in the windshield. Soil and leaves covered the seat and dashboard. The dashboard itself had been shredded. There was a jagged hole in roof and blood all over the seat.

  Coleman scanned Vanessa for injuries. She bled from a shallow cut above her ear. Not enough blood to account for the messy state of the cab.

  Then he noticed a severed arm lying on the floor near his feet.

  All this, and she still managed to save me with a high-speed pickup.

  There was absolutely nothing in the world to say that did the situation credit. ‘I’m glad you’re OK,’ said Coleman. ‘You’re bloody incredible, do you know that? Absolutely incredible.’

  Vanessa made to answer, then suddenly pointed ahead through the windshield.

  Coleman remembered the mini-crane. It hadn’t been attached to the scorpion truck. He searched the pedestrian loop and spotted King and Forest in trouble.

  The scorpion truck was up on one side. Bora had rammed it with the disconnected A-frame. The A-frame was pushing the overturned scorpion truck lengthwise along the floor, straight towards the north wall.

  Coleman noticed this at the very last moment.

  With another floor-shaking impact, Bora slammed the scorpion truck into the wall. His truck pulled free from the wreckage. The scorpion truck’s undercarriage looked completely caved in. He had crippled the scorpion with one big hit.

  Coleman scanned the wreckage. With relief he saw the reinforced cab had withstood the collision. The danger to Forest and King would have come from the crumpling cab, but with the cab intact, there stood a very good chance both men were just shaken.

  But they wouldn’t stay that way for long. Two gunmen ran towards the wreckage, weapons up and ready to fire. With the threat of the scorpion truck neutralized, the terrorists were organizing themselves. Coleman saw Cairns rise to his feet in the middle of the pedestrian loop.

  Sitting at the wheel of the tray-back, Coleman faced a difficult choice. He needed to get a message out, but Forest and King needed urgent assistance. An idea crystallized in his mind.

  Cairns locked his eyes on the tray-back. He gestured his men towards Coleman’s position.

  Coleman’s first impulse was to try to run Cairns down, but he focused beyond Cairns towards the facility recessed into the eastern wall.

  He spoke to Vanessa but kept his eyes locked forwards on Cairns. ‘B
ack in the rec reserve we talked about shutting down the power, remember? So the Evacuation Center could get their message out?’

  ‘Sure,’ she answered anxiously. ‘I remember.’

  ‘So where’s the transformer that serves the habitation level?’

  She orientated herself quickly and then pointed through the windshield to the wall beyond Cairns. ‘Right there. You saw it before. The power runs through a riser in the east wall and serves those switchboards.’

  ‘Behind where those two terrorists are standing?’

  ‘Yeah - it’s right there.’

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ said Coleman. ‘Cairns has had those two guarding the switchboard this entire time. They haven’t moved once. If we can take out that switchboard, will that interrupt the jamming assets?’

  Vanessa’s eyes unfocused for a second while she thought. ‘Absolutely. But not for long. Battery power will divert to the C-Guards in just over point four of a second.’

  ‘That’s enough for Harrison’s data packet to escape. How will we know if it worked?’

  Vanessa shrugged. ‘The lights over the pedestrian loop are on the same switchboard. All the lights will go down for about five seconds if it works.’

  Coleman gunned the truck.

  Pressed back in her seat, Vanessa asked urgently, ‘But how are you planning to…no, wait! You can’t just ram into the substation! We’ll be crushed and then electrocuted.’

  ‘We need to get that message out. Just sit tight and hold on.’ Coleman snatched up the CB radio. ‘King. Forest. Get ready to move. Lights out in five seconds.’

  Vanessa pointed at the radio. ‘It’s not working. Look, the creature trashed it!’

  Coleman accelerated across the level. He rocketed past the wrecked fountain and straight towards the substation. Twenty-five meters from the substation, he jerked on the handbrake.

  As soon as the truck started skidding, he spun the steering wheel hard left.

  With tires wet from driving through the fountain wreckage, the tray-back jack-knifed around itself, making a sliding 180 degree turn in less than ten meters. Coleman spun the wheel back, catching the momentum of the truck.