Blood Runners: Box Set

by George S. Mahaffey Jr.

  The man pointed to two things: an elevator; and a door with a turn-wheel on the side of the tunnel.

  “The elevator is the fastest way up,” the man said.

  “But I’ll bet it’s guarded.”

  “Sometimes,” the man said.

  Terry pointed to the turn-wheel.

  “How ‘bout that?”

  “Ain’t no guards for that.”

  Jessup motioned to the turn-wheel with his gun.

  “You first,” said Jessup.

  The man grabbed the turn-wheel, wrenched it open and pulled an entrance into the tunnel. He ducked inside and Jessup and Terry followed him. The light strengthened a few feet down and they could see a metal ladder and a metal chute that presumably led to the surface.

  The man grabbed one of the ladder’s rungs and began pulling himself up as Jessup and Terry followed.

  At the top of the chute, Jessup watched the man crawl out of sight. Jessup nosed out of the chute just in time to see the man running away down a slope that led to a remote section, behind the wall.

  Terry took aim at the man, but Jessup shoved his barrel down.

  “He’s gonna tell them!” Terry said.

  “What’s he’s gonna say? That he let a couple of spies get behind the wall?”

  Terry took this in, nodding, grabbing his gear as he and Jessup struck out from the chute, sliding down a decline, taking cover near a natural blind at the edge of a gravel road. They’d gone five steps when they heard it. The sound of gunfire, lots of gunfire and a few explosions, in the distance.

  “Christ,” Terry said to Jessup. “Sounds like someone beat us to the punch.”

  They stepped from the blind and there were two figures in front of them.

  Jessup couldn’t believe his eyes.

  It was Moses and a black kid.

  “You!” Jessup shouted, almost too shocked to raise his gun. Slowly, the gun came up in his trembling hands. “You sonofabitch!” Jessup screamed.

  Moses stepped in front of the kid and held up his hands.

  “Don’t!” Moses screamed. “Please … this is my boy,” Moses said, pointing at the young kid behind him. “I only did what I did because he was gonna kill him. Longman was going to kill my son unless I brought him the girl and that box.”

  “I wasn’t planning on killing your son,” Jessup said, drawing a bead on Moses’s forehead. “You’ll do just fine.”

  Moses looked from Jessup to Terry. He realized he only had one card to play.

  “If you kill me you’ll never find the way,” Moses said.

  “Way to what?”

  “The girl … I can show you where they took the girl,” said Moses.

  125

  Elias’s arms windmilled as he dropped through a gap in the tunnel, falling feet-first into a vast moat of blackened water.

  He plunged down, feet eventually hitting something solid as he pushed his way back up. His head collided with something in the water and he shoved it aside, seeing to his horror that the water was littered with obscured objects that were barely visible.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when none of the things moved as he paddled up and broke the surface, gasping as he upchucked a mouthful of putrid water.

  His attention was arrested by shouts above as he peered up to see Bennie looking down. Elias had fallen ten or fifteen feet into a runoff reservoir that was as large as half of an Olympic pool. There were a few spikes bolted onto the sides of the reservoir, a possible way to climb up.

  Bennie began shouting at Elias, but Elias couldn’t hear him. He swam for the edge of the reservoir and Bennie screamed again.

  It sounded like he was saying “Look down!”

  Elias did and wished he hadn’t.

  There was something directly under him.

  Some oversized form rising up from the depths of the pool.

  Elias felt a tremor in the water

  His eyes pinched to focus.

  Water bubbled up.

  He grabbed one of the metal spikes.

  “Hurry!” Bennie was shouting.

  More bubbles.

  Then a head breached the surface of the water.

  The massive dome of an albino Thresher. The thing’s face appeared out of the water, sewage and bile sliding off its shiny flesh.

  The creature sniffed the air sensing where Elias was. Elias grabbed the spike with both hands, as the Thresher plowed through the water towards him.

  Gunshots rang out.

  Bennie firing down.

  The shots smacked into the water as Elias pulled himself up and slipped!

  He fell down again, hands slapping against the sides of the reservoir, tasting the acrid water. He pushed himself up again and grabbed the spikes and this time managed to haul himself up.

  The Thresher was upon him, grabbing for his foot. He kicked the beast in the mouth and it fell back.

  “PULL, ELIAS, PULL!” Bennie cried.

  Elias gripped the spike and pulled himself up and then planted his foot. The Thresher swiped a talon at him, savaging the flesh near his calf. Elias cried out, but didn’t lose his grip. He kicked at the monster as it grabbed his ankle, readying to take a bite out of it when—

  BLAM!

  A single shot rang out and a bullet blasted the crown of the Thresher’s head, blowing out the back of its skull.

  The creature vanished into the water as Elias grabbed the spikes and climbed up. Bennie grabbed the scruff of his neck and pulled him back into the tunnel where Elias rolled over and vomited out the putrid water from the reservoir.

  Elias peered up at Bennie who forced a smile.

  “Next time you wanna go for a swim, how ‘bout you ask, huh?” said Bennie.

  Elias mustered a faint smile in return as Bennie pulled him to his feet. The two turned, and then they saw it. Saw the tunnel packed with an innumerable number of Thresher. Maybe sixty-feet away. Drawn by the gunshots. Staring in their direction.

  “We’re dead,” Elias said under his breath.

  Bennie never took his eyes off the Thresher.

  “You ever heard of a singer named Marvin Gaye, kid?”

  “No.”

  “Had a line in a song I always liked that basically went ‘as long as you stay in the game, long as your keep groovin’, there’s always a chance’.”

  “What does that even mean?” Elias asked.

  “Do exactly as I do, keep grooving, and we will find a way out of this.”

  Bennie looked back and saw that that the opening into the reservoir stretched maybe six feet. If they got a running start, they could probably jump across.

  Suddenly, Bennie ran toward the Thresher and Elias followed until they were within twenty-feet of the demons. Then the two spun back around and set off on a dead run.

  They vaulted over the reservoir and landed on the other side as the Thresher chased after them. Dozens of the Thresher fell into the reservoir, quickly filing it up. The others used their comrades as a kind of bridge to the other side of the tunnel as Elias and Bennie swiveled and ran.

  Neck and neck, Bennie and Elias blitzed through the tunnel, barely able to see ten feet in front of their faces. They hurtled over sections of trash and small colonies of rats, swatting their way through spider webs and clusters of bugs that buzzed and nipped at them.

  In moments the light began to build in the tunnel. There was something up ahead, both of them could see it.

  It was the chute that Jessup and Terry had crawled up only moments before.

  “There!” Bennie shouted. “We go up there!”

  They flung themselves at the rungs inside the chute and crawled up as the Thresher followed. Exiting the chute, Bennie and Elias saw that they’d indeed made it under the wall. They were on a spit of land that dropped to a gravel road.

  Elias scrambled back and looked down the chute and saw the Thresher lurching about below. Then one of the things caught his scent and began climbing up, with the others soon following.

  Elias
and Bennie struck out on down the gravel road, Elias’s lungs burning as he sprinted ahead of Bennie. They could hear the sound of combat in the distance, screams, gunfire, the thump of explosions.

  They veered around a bend in the gravel road and spotted a number of figures up ahead.

  Their weapons out, they didn’t slow, dashing ahead, guns out. The figures up ahead turned Elias skidded to a stop and fell to his knees. He couldn’t believe that Jessup and Terry had made it and somehow linked up with Moses.

  Bennie helped Elias to his feet and moved forward, hugging Jessup and Terry who were stunned that he was still alive.

  Elias shared a long look with Moses. Moses seemed like he wanted to say something but Elias silenced him with a look.

  “You don’t have to say anything,” Elias said.

  “Only thing there is to say is ‘I’m sorry,’ and that sounds awful cheap, but I mean it,” Moses replied.

  Elias’s eyes drifted to Malik and he slowly put two and two together.

  “This is my boy, Elias,” Moses said. “This is Malik.”

  Elias nodded and so did Malik.

  “I hate to break up the reunion,” Bennie said. “But we brought some party-crashers with us.”

  Bennie pointed back down the gravel road. Jessup looked past Elias and saw the first one. A female Thesher scenting the air, shrieking. Then the thing dropped on all fours to reveal more Thresher than Jessup had ever seen together in one place, swarming over the road like ants. Hundreds of them.

  “My God,” Jessup whispered, and then: “Run. RUN!”

  They did and the Thresher ran after them.

  126

  At that moment, the battle for the Codex Building was in full swing as Farrow led Marisol and Liza back down and through the lobby.

  They quickly exited the Codex Building and were greeted by other partisans and several dozen members of other Guilds who’d seen the attack and decided to throw in with Farrow and the rebels. All the other citizens of New Chicago, all the other people that served Longman or who were too terrified to rise up, watched from the safety of the surrounding buildings. They couldn’t be counted on and Farrow didn’t give a damn whether they lived or died.

  A bullet pinged off a nearby car and Farrow, Marisol, and the others crouched and glanced back. Snipers were firing down from the Codex Building as everyone crept behind a collection of junked cars. From this vantage point, Marisol could see the wounded and the dying. Farrow watched in horror as Liza moved to the wounded and began tending to them.

  “She knows what she’s doing, Farrow,” Marisol said. “She was a nurse and saved my life after I was shot.”

  “Shot?”

  “A gift from Longman’s boys,” Marisol replied with a nod, gesturing to the area where she’d been wounded.

  Marisol looked down at Farrow’s fingers which were still bloody from where they’d been savaged by Longman’s men.

  “Looks like he gave you a gift too,” she said.

  Farrow nodded. “How would you like to repay Longman, Marisol?”

  “Just give me the chance,” she replied.

  Farrow scanned the other fighters around him. They were down to perhaps thirty or forty men and women and ammunition was running seriously low. It certainly looked as if they’d struck a serious blow against Longman, but how long they’d be able to hold out was anyone’s guess.

  Marisol heard shouts and watched another suicide bomber, this time an older man, run with surprising speed and agility toward the Codex Building.

  He was almost instantly shot through the shoulder and fell but then stumbled back to his feet. Another bullet hit the man in the leg and he was thrown off balance. Mortally wounded, he picked himself up a final time and gimp-ran around the side of the Codex Building and detonated his vest near the great wall, blowing a hole through it.

  Realizing the fight was nearing a critical point, Farrow turned back to Longman’s lair. The air was suddenly ripped by a high-pitched whine and Farrow flinched as a series of explosions gouged the front of the structure, followed by a wall of fire.

  Debris rained down, followed by several of the snipers who were still on fire. Others fell to their deaths as the façade peeled away.

  Farrow looked in the direction of the whine and saw a man holding a smoking grenade launcher. He pulled up one of his machine-pistols and aimed, not knowing if the man was friend or foe. Then he saw someone else. Elias!

  God in heaven, the kid was still alive, Farrow thought! He was alive and standing next to Moses and several other, heavily-armed people that he didn’t recognize.

  Marisol’s stomach seized up at the sight of Elias and the others. They’d come back! Her hand reached out and pushed the barrel of Farrow’s weapon down and then she found herself running forward.

  Elias did the same and they met halfway between the others. Marisol was running so briskly she nearly tackled Elias who threw his arms around her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, on the verge of sobbing. “I’m sorry about what happened and running away because I was scared,” he cried, his face pressed to hers.

  He looked up, looked into her eyes.

  “I was scared when they took you, Marisol. I’ve been scared my whole life.”

  “But you came back,” she said, wiping a strand of hair away from his forehead.

  “I had to.”

  She smiled. “I had to come back to find you.”

  She looked up at him, his head in her hands. They kissed and she whispered: “The time for running is over.”

  His features hardened, his jaw set. “We have to end this now.”

  She nodded and looked to the others, including Jessup who was frantically pointing in the direction that they’d just run from.

  “The ‘Serks are on our ass,” Jessup said.

  “How many?” asked Farrow.

  “As many as they had,” said Terry. “We’ve got maybe ten, fifteen minutes before they’re all over this place.”

  Farrow nodded, looked over to Lennox and some of the other Mudders.

  “Get the word out! Tell anyone who wants to live to get moving through there!” Farrow shouted, pointing at the hole that the suicide bomber blew in the wall.

  Lennox nodded and sent runners out to round up whatever good people still remained in New Chicago. They’d have to run the gauntlet and survive the sniper’s bullets, but there was no other choice. Either way, New Chicago was going to fall.

  Jessup watched this, holding Liza’s hand, never wanting her to leave his sight ever again. He had so many questions to ask, but now was not the time. The only thing that mattered was that she was alive and they still had a chance.

  “Jesus, I thought I’d lost you forever,” Jessup said, eyes welling with tears.

  Liza hugged him and whispered, “I have something you might want to see.”

  Liza handed Jessup the schematics she’d grabbed earlier. He smiled and kissed Liza on the forehead and handed her a pistol. Then he motioned to Terry and Malik. Jessup knew that he had to find a way to get Liza out of the city.

  “Get them the hell out of here,” Jessup said, pointing to Liza and Malik.

  Malik stood his ground.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Malik said.

  “Why the hell not?” said Jessup.

  “Because I’m the only one who knows where he keeps it,” said Malik.

  All eyes turned to Malik.

  “They used to let us play down under the building when we smaller. I saw it once. I saw the place where Longman keeps his warhead.”

  Moses shook his head, looking to the others for support. Inside his belly were the stirrings of nausea. He knew that what was happening was wrong, dead wrong. The time for fighting was over. There was a hole in the wall and a chance to run while the Thresher kept Longman and his men at bay.

  “We should get the hell out of here!” Moses shouted, signaling toward the wall. “We should run!”

  “How far would we get?” Jessup aske
d.

  “Not far enough,” said Terry. “If what everyone says is true and Longman has himself a nuke, odds are if it’s detonated anywhere near the surface it’s unlikely we can outrun the blast-wave.”

  “Then there’s only one thing to do,” said Elias, Marisol at his side. “We find Longman and we take him down before he can pull the trigger.”

  127

  Over the protests of Moses and a few others, the decision was made that Terry and Liza would accompany a team of armed Mudders and dozens of other inhabitants of New Chicago through the hole in the wall as the Scrappers formed a firing line, a bulwark against the snipers and the fast-approaching Thresher horde.

  In so doing, the Mudders hoped to buy precious minutes for Marisol, Elias, Bennie, Jessup, Farrow, Moses and Malik (along with a dozen Mudders) who were to infiltrate the underbelly of the Codex Building and hunt down and kill Longman before he could detonate his warhead.

  The groups separated, with Terry, Liza, and dozens of other city residents streaming out of New Chicago while a group of the partisans gave them cover fire. Elias, Marisol, and the rest huddled for a few moments, going over the details of what they hoped to accomplish during their attack. The bottom line was, they had to find a way to stop and kill Longman.

  Jessup and Farrow had planned to lead the way, but they were too slow and so as they set out, Marisol and Elias overtook them, running with Malik who they were pleasantly surprised to see was equally fleet of foot.

  The Mudders gave them covering fire, buying them time as the group navigated between the bullets shot by Longman’s snipers.

  Marisol, Elias, and Malik sprinted forward and into the foyer of the Codex, glass and debris crunching underfoot. The battle here appeared over, dozens of bodies lying in all attitudes of death.

  “This way!” Malik shouted, motioning for everyone to follow as Moses ran after him, terrified that his son was leading the mission.

  Down a stairwell the procession went, Marisol still clutching her sword while Elias had his pistol out, ready for anything.