Virtual Immortality

by Matthew S. Cox

  While Kenny fired, Masaru took a step towards Joey and swiped his Nano katana across the creature’s back, just as it raised its claws at Joey’s neck. The mutant howled as sparks flew from severed wiring and lit small patches of fur on fire. It dragged itself to the side, useless legs revealing Masaru had severed its spine. Turning, it heaved itself toward Masaru with a growl, sending chunks of dirt into the air as it clawed at the ground.

  Eldon fired at any heat blob moving with an abnormal gait. Glare from the muzzle flash lit the area, bathing the facing sides of nearby trees in blue light from burst after burst. The whizzing of bullets glancing off trees was interspersed with wet splats, canine yelps, and the occasional metallic ping from a chance hit on cyberware. A shower of sparks and flame followed each clank as the primitive augmentations failed in severe ways.

  Masaru took a step back as the wounded Canid came at him; he split its head with a quick upswing. The weapon made little sound as it passed through the creature’s skull. Another leapt from behind and raked its claws across Masaru’s back with the grating screech of metal on armor. The impact drove him chest first into a tree three meters away. His feet slid outward, widening his stance, but he retained both balance and blade. The steel claws could not breach his armor, but the abnormal strength of the hit disoriented him. Masaru berated himself for not feeling its approach; his sealed helmet interfered with his senses more than he liked.

  Joey rolled onto his side and fired at the one that hit Masaru, almost blowing out its knees. Howling, it fell to the ground and turned on him. Angering it more than crippling it, the wound did little to stop the creature from pouncing and sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Joey’s armor took the brunt of the hit.

  The mutant pulled with its jaws as it pushed him away with its arms, snarling and trying to bite deeper. Five muffled gunshots later, the strength left it in an explosion of gore that flew out of its back. Joey had pumped round after round into its side at point blank range. The stench of burned hair and charred meat filled the air as he shoved the dead creature to the side and looked at his bloody coat. Its teeth had found a spot where the underlying vest did not cover, leaving a painful but superficial puncture wound.

  Another blurred out of the woods at Masaru as he staggered back from the tree. A single gunshot echoed out of the night, ending with a dull splat from the side of its head. Katya’s face appeared for an instant, lit in the dark from the flash of her pistol. The sprint became a stumbling walk; the Canid shook its head as if the bullet that just trenched through its skull was only a nuisance, staring at Masaru as if it had forgotten what it wanted to do. A dull fleshy thump came as Katya shot it again. It looked down at its chest in confusion just as the katana pierced it. Masaru turned away and swiped the blade out with a flourish before taking a ready stance and looking for the next threat.

  Kenny fired from alternating pistols at one in a frantic sprint at Eldon. His shots crippled it into a drunken forward lope, buying Eldon enough time to finish it off with a well-placed double tap that knocked it dead to the ground. The rifle slugs tore the left side of the creature’s head open and sent what looked like a metal brain case into the trees with a ringing echo.

  A scream drew everyone’s attention to Katya as a Canid seized her from behind, turning as if to run off with its newfound meal. The light composite armor Masaru bought her spared her ribs the touch of Canid claws. In a flurry of motion, she pummeled it in the face, but it ignored her.

  Joey rolled onto his stomach and held his pistol with both hands. In a second that felt like five, he sent a careful shot through the mutant’s right shin, shattering the bone. It fell forward, landing on top of Katya and howling.

  Eldon ran over and grabbed it in an attempt to drag the four hundred pound thing off her, but it swatted him aside with one arm. The force lifted him off his feet and sent him sailing. He spun over and landed on his chest a short distance away, sliding two feet in the mulch. The mutant slashed down at Katya’s face, roaring with both pain and anger.

  Masaru got his katana in the path of the claws. Steel slid along the back edge of the synthetic diamond blade with an ear-piercing squeal before thumping into the moist dirt an inch away from her eye. He spun the sword in his grip and swiped it up and through the claws, severing them. The Canid glanced at its arm with enough reason to understand what Masaru had done. It growled deep in its throat, having lost interest in Katya.

  She raked at the ground, trying to pull herself out from under the thing, but its weight held her in place. Her mental state passed from panic through futility and into the realization that she was not going anywhere. Twisting to look at the beast, she straightened the fingers of her right hand.

  Thin blades popped out, one from each fingertip. The flexible segments locked together, forming a series of graceful curves about six inches long. The plastisteel talons could not cut through the same things as a Nano weapon, but on flesh, they worked just fine. She slashed at the creature’s neck and pulled. Hot blood flooded over her hand and fell on her face. Cringing, she closed her eyes and kept tearing. Killing was not her way, but she would not let herself die to avoid guilt. Moreover, this was more of a something than a someone.

  Its deep warbling cry of primal agony echoed into the trees.

  In a desperate panic, the Canid grabbed her by the waist with one hand and flung her away to the side, tearing her claws through its own neck. She went head over feet in a horizontal spin twice before her body wrapped around a tree. Her momentum pinned her to the trunk for a second before she fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

  Spurting arterial gushes shot from the mutant’s wound. Growling faded into a dying gasp as it collapsed. She stared at the mass of fur until breathing ceased, delighting in the irony of its end. Eldon’s rifle chattered as two more Canids yelped and died in the distance, too far away for anyone to see without thermal.

  A snapping twig made Masaru spin, blade held at face level, edge up. He looked over the transparent katana at one more Canid staring at him from about twenty feet away. A metal box on its forearm opened to reveal three tiny missiles about the size of cigars. He smirked with disdain and went for his S-19.

  Faint light flickered around the barrel as he fired a pulsing barrage. Fist sized pockets swelled out of the creature’s skin, bloody steam spewing from tiny laser holes. Its entire torso ignited into a fireball, and a dozen candle flames clung to the trees behind it where the laser had pierced. The ball of fur and flame spun in a circle with a baleful howl that echoed into the sky. Its micro-rockets went skyward with a flash of orange as it collapsed into a heap of burning biological matter.

  “Think you got it?” Joey stared at the bonfire as he got up.

  “Hmph.” Masaru looked around.

  Somewhere in the distance, three small explosions rumbled.

  Kenny laughed. “Hah. Better keep an eye on that one in case it tries something.”

  Katya curled into a ball; a thin trickle of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. She used her canteen to spray the gore off her talons before retracting them. A drop of blood formed at each fingertip until nanobots mended the skin. Joey’s shoulder burned like someone had stabbed him a dozen times with an ice pick. He hit himself in the collarbone with a stimpak, falling into a dumb smile as the pain faded.

  “You’ll need to get checked out when we get back to the City; don’t want to catch anything from that bite.” Kenny patted Joey on his unhurt shoulder.

  “Fuck.” Joey sighed. “If I start howling at the moon I’m gonna be pissed.”

  Laughing, Kenny helped him up. “They’re not werewolves, just genetic experiments. It’s not contagious.”

  Katya sat up and dosed a stimpak as well. An audible pop came from her chest as her broken rib slid back into place and knit. Still in pain, she used a second and tossed the empty into the distance. Masaru stared at Kenny with an accusatory look as Eldon kept watch.

  “Good news and bad news.” Eldon spoke through his h
elmet’s speaker in an even tone. “I don’t see any more of those things moving around.”

  “But?” Joey glanced at him.

  “That big ass turret is pointing at us now. It just has no shot through the wall.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful.” Joey sighed.

  Katya spoke in breathless rasps. “Someone’s gotta say it. What the fuck were those?”

  “I already told you, Canid mutants, quite common in this area.” Kenny moved to the center of the group.

  “How are they still alive?” Masaru offered a distrustful squint. “By the way, thanks for the warning about them being in this area.”

  “He’s got a habit of that.” Eldon grinned.

  “No problem.” Kenny smiled. “They aren’t supposed to be this far south according to the charts… but those charts are only a guideline cobbled together from a dozen guys like me that roam around out here. It’s not like there’s a Badlands census.” He laughed. “These are not the original mutants from the war. Rumor has it that there is a facility still out here somewhere, running on autopilot. The computerized assembly line is still producing them to the original specs and setting them loose.” Kenny held his hands up at Katya’s expression of terror. “This ain’t it. There’d be way more than that small pack, and I’d bet the ones guarding their den would be larger and meaner.”

  “That’s comforting and frightening at the same time.” Katya got up, ignoring Joey’s offered hand.

  Masaru flipped his katana over and slid it back into its scabbard. “We should continue before more of them come.”

  “Agreed.” Eldon jogged towards the wall, careful to move in a way that kept solid material between him and the turret.

  Their single file line slid along the wall, skirting it until they arrived at the edge of a breach big enough to drive Kenny’s truck through. Mangled rebar jutted like snapped bones from the concrete interior. The four-foot thick wall had a half inch of plastisteel plating on both sides.

  Eldon whistled at the crater in the gap. “Some heavy hardware hit this place. Military probably found it and decided to shut it down.”

  “Why didn’t they take out that damn turret?” Katya shivered each time the heavy servos moved it.

  Masaru thought for a moment. “The military doesn’t come out here. This had to be internal, the company decided to cut its losses.”

  “Joey.” Eldon waved him up. “I think I see our way in.”

  oey crept up to the gap. “What?”

  Eldon pointed. “There’s a pile of cargo containers inside the wall blockin’ off the angle of that gun. We’re close enough to where I don’t think it can get a shot on us. We’re inside the minimum downward angle.”

  “What am I gonna do with cargo containers?” Joey smirked.

  Above Eldon’s forearm, a holographic display panel appeared. It shared what Eldon could see from his helmet camera. A space between the container pile and the wall, about ten meters in, glowed in the light from an operational terminal.

  “Can you get in and shut that thing down?”

  “Depends on if they’re on the same network, but I won’t know that till I connect.” Joey took a few deep breaths and sprinted around the wall.

  “Crazy mother fucker…” Eldon yelled.

  Eldon started to follow, but dove for cover as a bright orange blast trenched a six-foot long valley of glass through the soil in the breach.

  “Okay, so I miscalculated the angle…” Eldon panted, staring at the glowing scar on the ground as it faded.

  A hollow clank from the other side echoed as Joey dove into the gap between the containers and the wall.

  “I’m in!” Joey yelled. “Uhh… need some backup.”

  The shiny metal surface of a small security bot drifted in and out of view at the end of the narrow channel in which he hung suspended. The whir of electric motors paused with a click each time it reversed and spun, trying to move to where it could aim at him with its onboard weapon. After calculating the task impossible, it swiveled to the right, accelerating with a high-pitched whine, around the containers to approach from the rear.

  The wall seemed to absorb Eldon as the surface of his recon armor shimmered into a perfect replica of the white plastisteel behind him. He edged around the gap, rifle aimed, without attracting the attention of the turret. As soon as the tracked sentry rolled past the edge of the container stack, he shot it. The slugs knocked it backwards, spinning in a torrent of sparks and fragments. It swiveled and trained its tiny rotary cannon on Eldon; however, he fired before it could. The back end deflagrated in a brilliant blue flash as its ammunition store went off. A great spattering of smoke puffs appeared in the ground behind it as errant projectiles went everywhere. Hundreds of rounds of caseless ammo reduced to a weak fragmentation device.

  “I fucking hate those things.” Joey grumbled.

  Eldon slid in along the wall, slow enough to maintain invisibility. “Where the hell would you have seen one of those before?”

  Joey chuckled as he fished for the interface jack on the terminal. His fingers struggled to find another inch of reach.

  “Local connections are much faster than wireless, or even going through GlobeNet interlinks. One of those fuckers kept me cornered in an air vent for a day and a half back on Mars.”

  His body hung sideways with his back to the wall, chest against the unyielding surface of a cargo box. Breathing was a challenge; if he exhaled too hard, he would slip an inch towards the ground. Joey eased his deck forward and connected it to the terminal in pass-through mode.

  “Cover me in case any more of those things come out.”

  “Hurry up.” Eldon kept his rifle aimed at the edge of the containers.

  The M3 wire snapped in with a click that sent his consciousness spiraling into blackness. Blind, deaf, and numb, he tried to scream but nothing happened. A sense like he’d been sat on by an elephant came over him as minutes passed in stillness. A point of light appeared in the distance, data bits shimmered in the periphery of his vision. The spot of white grew and came sailing at him. He crossed his arms over his face, bracing for impact, but found himself standing in a plain hallway with a steel grating floor. A sourceless white light radiated from the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were torn and ripped up, bundles of frayed wiring and pipes dangled from the ceiling, and sparks burst in sprays from random points.

  The network had to be in bad shape. The destruction here was just a representation of network instability. A cave in of debris blocked passage to the right; a physical connection to another part of the network was down. He tried to take a step, but his foot sank into the steel as if it were syrup. He flailed in an attempt to keep balance, but continued sinking.

  “What the hell?” Genuine alarm traced through his voice.

  He had never seen this effect before. He sent a mental command to the deck to open a diagnostic panel but nothing happened. Joey tried to lift his leg out of the goop, grunting from the exertion. Strands of gooey metal snapped away from the underside of his boot and morphed back into hard solid steel. The dark cowboy looked nowhere near as frightened as Joey felt; and roared with anger at the audacity of the network to interfere with him. The gunslinger’s voice came out deep and altered, an audio track played at one-quarter speed.

  After almost thirty seconds of warring with the soupy grating, a shimmering blue line stretched out in two directions from a glowing point. He stared at it, wondering what in the hell it was until he realized the diagnostic display panel opened with such excruciating slowness he could perceive every pixel form. It dawned on him at that moment he wallowed in latency more severe than anything he had ever witnessed. He stopped struggling to move and waited for the hovering display to finish drawing itself in.

  Outside in the real world, the turret fired a blast into the stack of crates as if testing its ability to hit Eldon.

  “Aww fuck, I’m made.” Eldon ducked, letting his armor return to its usual green to save power. “Joey, whatever
you’re doing, do it faster.”

  Five minutes passed in cyberspace, about twenty seconds in real time. The diagnostic panel at last finished rendering itself. The deck’s processor and memory transfer bus both indicated full utilization. This surpassed simple lag, something in the network attacked him with some kind of data slam. Joey pounded his deck with mental orders to reset the I/O channel, but nothing changed. With increasing desperation, his brain wrestled with the deck as his legs battled the sticky floor.

  After another several minutes, his body stretched out in the direction he had been trying to walk, distorting into a man-shaped noodle twenty yards long. The end that remained where he had first appeared snapped out of the ground like a tent spike failing under load. The disorientation of seeing himself from both ends paralyzed him as half his perception stood there watching the other half careening in.

  The moving end slammed into the stationary end, throwing him with a metallic clank into the wall. His real body outside convulsed from the impact.

  “Joey? What the fuck is going on in there man? This thing is trying to melt its way through the crates.” The sound of Eldon’s rifle chattering away played accompaniment to his voice.

  Eldon appeared in midair. The dark cowboy lay on his back, staring up at the sourceless light; unable to contain laughter as the floating head squeaked, sped up to the point of being unintelligible.

  Joey held his arms out as the old one levitated back to his feet.

  “…are you doing?” Eldon’s last three words slowed to normal.

  “I got stuck in some crazy lag… I have no idea what the fuck just happened in here.” He tapped his toe into the metal floor to make sure it would act like steel and not swamp.

  “Get on it, whatever you’re doing, this turret wants my ass.” Eldon continued to fire at small security bots as he yelled into the comm.