Second Life of Mr. Hunt: Book 3: Failover

by Gerrit Overeem

  

  Saasha followed Splicer down the right tunnel, which turned into a gradual curve downward to the receiving bay. They slowed their movement and squatted once they reached the entranceway.

  The process of converting the townspeople into Nilorians was much louder than they had thought. It was like being in the clouds during a thunderstorm. A laser dissolved a townsperson, formed a Nilorian, dumped the body, and the table turned over again to reveal another poor soul.

  From their vantage point, they observed a Nilorian in rags moving about with a datapad monitoring the transformation process, and in another row, a Woland guard slowly paced. Once both of their enemies turned away from their position, they swiftly moved into the bay and kept low. It was a good thing the tables were five feet off the floor. All they had to do was duck to stay in cover and quickly turn into the tunnel that led to the power relay.

  The women slowed when they neared the entrance to a room. The light emanating from the walls glowed brighter, and a low repetitive hum reverberated in their bodies as they inched closer. Splicer stuck her arm out in front of Saasha and pushed her back from entering the room.

  Saasha took the hint and moved to the wall behind Splicer.

  “What do you see?” Saasha whispered into Splicer’s ear.

  “Something moved. Wait here.”

  Splicer peeked inside the room and then moved to the opposite wall. Once on the other side, she peered into the room and glimpsed something moving on the left side. It was a tall gray humanoid, like the ones they watched being reformed earlier. The humanoid was dressed in clothing way too small for its long frame. It appeared to be monitoring a virtual screen situated next to one of the three elephant-sized, diamond-shaped pulsating crystals that slowly spun hovering in place.

  Splicer held up one finger and pointed. Saasha nodded in reply and slowly moved her head to peer into the room to locate the enemy.

  Saasha drew her knife and looked over to Splicer, who gave a slow nod and brought her pistol to the ready. Saasha mouthed one…two…three, and both women turned into the room. Saasha ran up behind the Nilorian, jumped on its back, and drove her knife down into its neck and chest area. The attack knocked them both over, but Saasha held onto the knife as they hit the ground. The Nilorian grabbed at the knife with one hand as it tried to claw at Saasha. With a fire in her eyes, she twisted the blade until the Nilorian stopped moving.

  

  Splicer entered and watched Saasha engage the Nilorian, but was unable to get a clear shot at it. A sound to her right made her swing around to see a gray form bolt out of the room through a side opening. She ran over, but it was moving too fast for her to catch up and get a shot off. The loud gasp and gurgle of blood informed her that Saasha had finished off the creature.

  “Was there another?” asked Saasha.

  “Yeah, I messed up and didn’t sweep the room. Damn thing was moving too fast for me to get a shot.”

  “Then we need to work fast.”

  Splicer moved toward the hovering crystals, handed Saasha her pistol, and then fell to a knee, grabbing at the missing part of her skull that was now oozing blood. Saasha bent down and put an arm around Splicer to make sure she didn’t fall over.

  “We can do this,” said Saasha.

  Splicer could see blood dripping into a pool on the floor behind Saasha. “Yes, we can. Now help me up to the middle spinning crystal.” Her hands were shaking. “You keep anything from ge-ge-getting to me, and I will get the explosives set before we—”

  “I have faith you will. Now let us do this, and then we can rest.”

  Splicer nodded and began slowly taking the demolition charges and igniter out of her bag.

  Assuming any threat would come from the door the Nilorian ran out of, Saasha moved to the doorway. She peered down the short hallway that ended at a t-intersection, said a small prayer, and waited.

  Chapter 25

  Let’s get out of here

  Ryan and Gunny hurried down the winding tunnel and finally to the bay entrance. The power dimmed again, and the sound was deafening as the machines kicked on. Ryan peered around the corner and waved for Gunny to follow him. The green beams blasted down and disintegrated the bodies on the tables they were using for cover.

  They stopped at a table parallel to the door and spun in horror. One of the reformed bodies screamed from multiple mouths that formed on the face and body. Ryan made eye contact with the flailing head on the elongated neck as it screamed again. He quickly turned away as another beam disintegrated the inhuman creature.

  Taking a second to regain their composure, they rechecked the area to make sure it was clear and ran to the storage room doorway across from them. From their new vantage point, they watched hoverboards with the bodies float by and, unlike the last time, the system started up again without delay.

  Ryan peered into the room and quickly pulled his head back. He turned to face Gunny, held up one finger, and mouthed, “Woland.”

  Gunny surveyed the area and gritted his teeth when the tables spun to place new bodies into position. He leaned into Ryan’s ear, “You have anything useful in that bag of yours?”

  “Food, medical stuff, rope, and the rope slam anchor.”

  “Get me the slam anchor, son.”

  Ryan quickly took off the pack, retrieved the slam anchor, and handed it to Gunny.

  “I’ll be right back,” said Gunny, holstering his pistol and holding the slam anchor up like a knife.

  Ryan looked at him, puzzled.

  Gunny peered around the corner and counted down from three with the fingers on his other hand. Once he got to one, Gunny swiftly entered the room, and all Ryan heard was a sound like compressed air going off, followed by a thud.

  Gunny stuck his head out of the room and whispered, “All’s clear.”

  Ryan stood up and turned the corner into the room as the machines in the bay kicked in again. He paused upon entering. Gunny was searching the body of a Woland lying in a pool of blood with a rope anchor stuck in the back of its head. There were townspeople behind a security shield, and Kat was bound to a table trying to see what was going on.

  “Kat,” whispered Ryan, running over to her.

  Kat’s head flopped back to the table, and she closed her eyes. “I knew you would come.”

  “I would never leave you.”

  “You’re still an ass.”

  “You can yell at me later,” said Ryan. “How do I get you out of this thing?”

  “Most likely a button or switch under the table somewhere.”

  Ryan peered under the table. His hand rooted around the underside until he found a switch he could flip. The restraints on the table retracted from around Kat’s arms and legs. She immediately jumped off the table, slapped Ryan in the face, and then kissed him. Ryan’s eyes bugged out, and he kissed her back.

  Gunny snickered. “Son, you have a wild one there. That lass is going to be hard to tame.”

  Ryan smiled. “I would never want to tame her. I like her the way she is.”

  Gunny stood and placed a Woland high-velocity needle rifle on the table, a belt of spare magazines for it, and a few old cylinder frag grenades.

  “You’re bleeding. Let me take a look,” said Kat, moving toward Gunny.

  Gunny held up a hand. “I thank you for your concern, young lady, but not necessary.”

  “Kat, do you remember the trauma pods in town?” asked Ryan.

  She looked at him, confused, then stared at Gunny. “You opened them. I told you not—”

  “Ma’am, it’s OK. Mr. Hunt did us a favor. Now let’s get these people out of here.”

  The systems outside kicked on again and the lights dimmed. Kat ran over to some wiring spliced into an opening in the crystal wall. She reached in and yanked it out. The shielding imprisoning the townspeople flickered and th
en vanished.

  Ryan put his hands up to stop people from running off and put a finger to his lips to quiet them. “Everyone, listen up,” he said in a hushed voice. “We are all going to move out of here in an orderly fashion. You’re going to follow Dr. Kat out of here. I will cover the rear. Help anyone who cannot move on their own.”

  The townspeople started grouping together and lifting the sick and injured, leaving any of the dead where they lay.

  Ryan moved over to Kat. “You need to get them out of here as fast as you can. In another ten minutes, this place is coming down. Turn right out of here and go straight for the tunnel ahead. Follow that up to the next floor, make your first right and then the next right. That will take you to a major tunnel. Take the ramp down and keep going straight, and you will get topside. Lars should be there to meet you. I’ll make sure no one follows.”

  “Got it,” said Kat.

  “Ma’am, I have the Woland rifle. Take my pistol,” said Gunny, putting the pistol on the table.

  “What are you going to do?” asked Ryan.

  “Son, I’m going to make sure everyone focuses on me. It was a pleasure working with you, Mr. Hunt.”

  Ryan nodded at him. There were no words that could express his thanks.

  “Give me five minutes to get into position and then move like your pants are on fire,” said Gunny, grabbing the rifle, peering out of the doorway, and then sprinting out.

  “OK, people. Just as Mr. Hunt stated, I’m going to lead you out. Should anything go wrong, look for this.” Kat raised her left arm and a ball of red energy hovered above her hand. It was the first time she had ever shown her grafted Gravel arm and ability to any stranger.

  A murmur went over the crowd. Kat ended the demonstration and put her finger to her lips to silence everyone.

  Ryan looked at the ragtag bunch. “Let’s get out of here.”

  

  Ryan and Kat moved into the service bay and knelt outside the door. They could barely make out the head of someone moving in the opposite direction. The slamming of a body to a hoverboard and the rotation of the machine to reveal another townsperson brought their attention back.

  Ryan knew Kat’s looks, and the current one was of helplessness and horror.

  “I wish we could save them all, but this is a horror I’m going to dread explaining to you later,” he said. “What sucks is Commander Tucket’s brother is out there somewhere.”

  Kat shook her head. “He’s dead. I saw them carry off his body.”

  Ryan put his head down. The thought of having to tell Tucket that his brother was dead made him sick.

  “Kat—”

  The whizzing sound of Woland high-velocity needles and the scream of someone injured interrupted Ryan’s thoughts. Gunny had started unleashing hell.

  Ryan stood up, stuck his head in the room, and yelled at the townspeople, “Let’s go!”

  

  Saasha looked back to check on Splicer, and she was struggling. Splicer’s head wound was bleeding more profusely, and her body was shaking. She debated going back to help her when a sound from the hallway focused her attention back to guarding the door.

  The sound of a boot step grew louder, and a Woland guard turned the corner. Without hesitation, Saasha fired the pistol, and the explosive round tore the head off the Woland.

  “Splicer, time check?”

  “Al—almost done.”

  Splicer, hands shaking, armed the last of the ignition devices. She forced herself to stand up and hobbled over to Saasha, who grabbed her under the arm and led them down the hall and to the right side of the t-intersection.

  Saasha slowly laid Splicer down and went back to the ready as two Woland turned the corner.

  “Do it,” yelled Saasha, firing off rounds at the Woland.

  Splicer looked at the detonator, smiled, and activated it.

  

  Kat walked backward, waving everyone on, as the stream of townspeople exited the storage room. Ryan waved them forward and urged them to move faster to catch up to Kat, who was now moving quickly toward the tunnel entrance. Every-

  thing was going to plan until a massive explosion rocked the entire complex.

  Shards of crystals rained down on them, and a chunk of the wall shattered on the ground. Everyone dropped and covered themselves from the sharp crystal pieces. Additional explosions occurred as some of the lasers over the tables moved out of alignment and blasted table sections.

  Ryan waved dust from in front of his face, stood up, and looked around. The system transferring the bodies had stopped, sparks flew from cracked sections in the crystal walls, and the place was darker.

  Kat ignited a glowing ball of red energy on her hand and held it up.

  “Ryan, you OK back there?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine. The other team set off the explosives too soon. We need to move before they finish the jo—”

  A sound caught Ryan’s attention. It sounded like a low menacing hiss. He slowly looked up and met sets of multiple glowing yellow eyes methodically moving down from the shadows.

  “Kat, Shadow creatures!”

  Creatures bounded from the ceiling into the crowd of townspeople and tore into them.

  Ryan threw screaming people past him to get them out of danger. A young girl, no older than sixteen, looked at him. He grabbed her hand to pull her forward, but two of the creatures ripped her from his grasp. The spray of blood covered him, and he froze. Everything was moving in slow motion. The carnage befalling the innocent people around him was a horror he had never seen. His mind raced with a thousand actions to take, but fear, sadness, and hopelessness made him hesitant.

  In the mess of his thoughts, a whispered voice said, “Never give up. Protect the innocent and push back the shadows.”

  Raising his pistol to fire, the veins in his arm bulged and began to glow blue. The blue glow flowed to his hand, which ignited into a fire of blue flame. The etched lines in the pistol that Saasha had given him lit up like a river of blue light, and he fired.

  A blue projectile left his gun and exploded on impact when it hit one of the Xeno-Shadows. Normally it would shrug off a shot to the chest, but its body was engulfed in blue fire. The creature howled before it was disintegrated in a spark of blue.

  Ryan rapidly fired the pistol. Blue glowing projectiles hit the creatures, causing them to burn to death in blue flame, but it still was not enough. Xeno-Shadows rushed him from all sides. He turned to face another onslaught from his right, but recoiled from the heat of a red energy ball that flew past him to engulf and destroy the incoming creatures.

  Another Xeno-Shadow clawed at him as he regained his footing. Ryan brought his left arm up to block the creature’s attack while he slammed the front of his pistol into the creature’s stomach and fired. It was blasted away in seconds by the blue flame.

  Before he could react, Ryan was hit from behind and slammed into the ground. He quickly rolled over in time to put his arms out to protect himself from a Xeno-Shadow pouncing on him. The creature’s hands ignited in blue fire when it touched Ryan, causing it to howl and retreat into the shadows.

  Ryan got to his knee and spun around to check all sides. The Xeno-Shadows were slowly backing off. He stood up to get the townspeople moving again when a menacing voice from behind him yelled, “Hold!”

  The sounds of gunfire ceased, and there were no more red energy blasts shooting by Ryan. He turned around, looking for the voice, and saw the gray-robed person from earlier, hovering to the middle of the facility on a sphere of energy with two small objects circling him like tiny satellites.

  Ryan figured the spheres made up an energy shield since a projectile evaporated when it got near the circling objects. He smiled. At least Gunny was still alive out there.

  Moving forward to get a better view of the floating figure, Ryan met up with Kat,
so they were both parallel to the hovering individual.

  Ryan gave Kat a shrug and addressed the robed person. “You know, the last time someone yelled hold, it was 1996, I was at a LARP, which stands for Live Action Role Play for everyone present, and that was the word we would yell to stop all game action if someone had gotten injured, but I don’t think it applies to this situation.”

  Uphir looked down at Ryan. “My dear fellow, I have not a clue what you are talking about. But let us parlay.”

  

  Saasha moved crystal debris off her and Splicer. Pieces of crystal were scattered everywhere, and it was hard to see in the dust clouds.

  “Something went wrong,” said Saasha. “This place should be in ruin.”

  “Some of the igniters must have failed,” said Splicer. “I need to get back there and wire them directly into the wall’s power relays. Some of them should be accessible from the initial damage.”

  Saasha helped Splicer up and carried her down to the opening. The sounds of something coming echoed in the distance.

  “You need to hold them off,” said Splicer. “I will get this done.”

  Saasha nodded and took off back down the hallway to meet the oncoming foes.

  Splicer slowly stood up and fell against a wall. She gritted her teeth and continued forward over and under debris.

  One of the turning power crystals was shattered to pieces, while the others showed damage but were still functional. She smiled when she spotted the nerve ending-like fibers emanating from the walls behind the giant spinning crystals. She grabbed one of the charges and got to work.

  

  Saasha found a position behind pieces of the fallen crystal ceiling. She could feel the blood flowing faster down her back and knew there was not much time left for her. The sounds of something grunting in the debris echoed from down the long tunnel. The light in this section was dim, and it was becoming difficult to see anything. Luckily for her, a large piece of the wall had caved in, leaving a large crystal blocking the path about twenty feet ahead. The sound of banging on the crystal reverberated in the walls, and she could barely make out voices on the other side. She could tell it was Woland, but the whispering made it hard to translate.