Revolution

by Shawn Davis

  She covered her eyes and awaited the familiar flash of light. When she saw red around the edges of her hand, she took it away and looked ahead. She couldn’t see anything through the smoke. She gestured for the squad to advance. They stepped over the metal carcasses of the blasted skeletons, being careful not to touch any exposed, sparking wires protruding from the mangled parts.

  Campion’s eyes squinted as she entered the smoke cloud. They stepped over more robot carcasses and continued advancing. Jane almost lost her balance when her next step encountered only empty air. Beth grabbed her before she could fall on her face.

  “The crater,” Connor said, pointing downward.

  “Thanks,” Campion said, rolling her eyes.

  They dropped down together into the five-foot deep crater and advanced.

  “Commander, there’s another room over there,” Connor said, pointing to the blown-out wall to the right.

  Campion looked to where she was pointing and saw the crater extended ten feet beyond the blasted wall into a large, dimly-lit chamber. Looking across the chamber, she realized the wavering light originated from torches set in the back wall. Campion gave Connor the ten-fingers lift onto floor-level. Connor then helped her up.

  “Jane, look!” Connor shouted, pointing to the far side of the crater.

  Glancing right, Jane saw a swarm of glowing red lights moving toward them through the crater. She jumped back down, dodged past the line of soldiers, and opened fire, aiming low.

  “Get everybody up there with you!” Campion shouted to Connor, her voice competing with the roar of her assault rifle.

  Connor reached down and helped the next soldier up. They, in turn, helped other soldiers.

  “Hurry up!” Jane shouted when she realized she had expended her last rifle magazine.

  She switched grips on her rifle so she was holding the barrel with both hands like a baseball bat. She aimed at the first set of glowing red eyes she saw coming at her from the darkness and swung.

  Jayne heard a loud metallic clang and the robot stopped its advance. It hesitated for a moment as if it was contemplating the blow and then tottered forward, reaching out with bony hands. Campion threw her rifle at its skull-face and pulled out her automatic pistol. She fired at the thing’s legs and pushed it back over a fallen robot carcass.

  Campion turned to see if her squad was making any progress. She watched as the line of soldiers advanced steadily and were pulled up into the room above them.

  Satisfied, she turned, aimed low, and emptied her magazine into the darkness. She watched as a pair of glowing red eyes wavered and dropped. She dropped out her spent magazine and pressed in a new one. Checking her belt, she saw she had five remaining pistol magazines after this one.

  Jane emptied another magazine into the oncoming horde and still saw no end to the pairs of red eyes moving toward her from the darkness. Turning around, she saw innumerable pairs of glowing red lights approaching her from the opposite side of the crater.

  Retreating toward the blown-out wall, she saw the last of her squad being helped into the room above. She ran over to the edge of the crater and reached out her hand. Two unfamiliar soldiers pulled her up. She breathed a sigh of relief as she stood at normal floor level, looking down at the skeletons advancing through the crater.

  “Let’s just hope they can’t climb,” she said.

  As if in response to her statement, the robot horde slowly turned toward her like a single entity and reached out their bony hands. She backed away from the crater’s edge, pointing her pistol down at the swarm of leering red eyes. The closest robots tried to get a grip on the edge of the crater, but their metal fingers kept sliding off.

  “We’d better get out of here before they figure out a way to climb up,” Jane said.

  Campion turned left and saw her squad moving across the chamber. The torches set in the back wall dimly illuminated a spacious medieval chamber, which appeared to be a nobleman’s feasting hall with a long wooden table at its center covered with medieval delicacies. Jane grimaced at the sight of a roasted wild boar impaled on a spit at the center of the table. Intricate shields and weapons decorated the high stone walls. The squad moved toward an arched doorway on the far side of the room.

  Jane realized, with dismay, that she was now stuck at the end of the line of soldiers. She didn’t know where the tech, Connor, was.

  Probably leading the squad.

  Glancing to the right, Campion saw another arched doorway in the stone wall of the feasting hall.

  Why not go through that one? Jane thought.

  Then, she realized that Connor must be following the trail of carbon signals on her scanner.

  Campion followed the rearmost soldiers across the torch-lit chamber until they reached the arched doorway. The doorway revealed an apparently endless, damp, narrow rock corridor – lit by flickering torches set in holders in the walls. Jane followed the other soldiers into the passage, glancing behind her to make sure they weren’t being followed. She could still hear the clattering sounds of the robots’ bony hands sliding on the edge of the crater.

  Let’s hope they don’t figure out a way to get out.

  Jane glanced behind her to make sure there were no red eyes following. The feasting hall was empty and silent. She followed the squad into the long, dark, narrow corridor, which only allowed for single-file formation. She felt her boots sloshing through puddles of water.

  Jane shivered as she felt cold-water droplets falling on her head from cracks in the ceiling above. They passed by a wooden door on the left that no one bothered to open. Campion figured if there were any people behind the door, Connor’s scanner would have picked them up.

  Who knows what kind of robots might be lurking behind that door?

  They passed by another identical wooden door. Jane began to feel claustrophobic in the confines of the damp, tight corridor.

  Right now I wish that I was anywhere but here.

  An occasional torch set in the wall provided sparse illumination after long intervals of total darkness. Campion halted and raised her pistol as she heard the familiar sound of metallic thunder blasting in the corridor ahead.

  Something is wrong. There isn’t enough room to fire safely in this corridor.

  Campion’s sixth sense told her to retreat.

  “Fall back!” she shouted to the soldiers in front of her.

  The thundering of automatic gunfire grew deafening in the confines of the damp, narrow hallway. Jane saw bright flashes of light overpowering the dim torchlight ahead.

  Turning, she sprinted back the way they had come. Looking over her shoulder, she saw other soldiers following her. She lunged through the doorway into the nobleman’s feasting chamber and ducked behind the wall. Six more soldiers sprinted into the room behind her. Campion gestured for them to assemble against the walls next to the doorway.

  The gunfire in the corridor continued unabated. Another soldier suddenly plunged through the door and fell hard onto the floor. Campion ran over to him and dragged his body to cover. The young soldier had multiple cracks in his body armor leaking blood. His breathing was spasmodic as his body trembled.

  “You’re going to be all right,” Jane said to him.

  “We were – we were-”

  “Don’t try to talk.”

  The soldier’s eyes rolled up in his head so only the whites were showing. His body stopped trembling.

  Jane stood up.

  The robots herded us this way into an ambush! Our opponents must have access to the Dark World control rooms. It’s an in-genius move.

  Campion gritted her teeth with frustration.

  We’ll just have to set up an ambush of our own.

  “You two!” Jane shouted at a pair of soldiers. “Move to that doorway!” She pointed at the doorway they had entered before. “Take up sniper positions and get ready for attackers entering the room from there,” Campion pointed to the doorway to the narrow ambush-corridor. “The rest of you, come with me,” she
said, sprinting past the feasting table.

  Campion led them to another doorway on the opposite wall. They entered a spacious armory filled with medieval weapons.

  How fitting.

  Jane smiled grimly as she observed the gleaming silver armor, battle-axes, and swords lining the walls.

  Now might be a good time to call for reinforcements.

  Jane switched on her headset.

  “Alpha Squad to Bravo Squad. Come in, Rayne,” she said.

  “This is Rayne. Go ahead, Campion,” Peter replied.

  “We’ve sustained heavy losses. We need reinforcements. Where are you?” Jane asked.

  “We’re in the Body Bank.”

  “Thanks for telling me about that place, Rayne.” Campion said.

  “You only wanted to know about-”

  “Shut up and listen to me,” Jane interrupted. “We’re on floor L1 of the Darkworld attraction. You’ve been here before, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Use a scanner to converge on our signals,” Jane said.

  “All right, Campion. No prob-”

  “Thanks, Rayne,” Campion said, signing off.

  She made a quick survey of the feasting hall and saw a large fireplace built into the wall next to the banquet table. It jutted out a few feet.

  “I’m taking up a position by that fireplace,” Jane told the other soldiers. “You stay here and train your weapons on that door. And while you’re at it, give me a couple grenades.”

  Campion clipped two grenades to her belt, crouched down, and ran over to the edge of the fireplace. She put her back against the narrow protrusion for cover, and waited.

  “Wait for me to fire!” she shouted to the others.

  “Okay!” one of the soldiers in the armory shouted back.

  Campion stood tensely by the edge of the fireplace, glancing around it once in a while to check the ambush-corridor door. She heard loud footsteps echoing from the corridor.

  Peering around the corner, she waited until an entire squad of blue-armored Troopers entered the feasting hall with their weapons drawn. Then, she turned the corner and fired.

  The two foremost Troopers went down. She heard her soldiers open fire a split second after her, gunning down the rest of the squad in a vicious massacre. The Troopers didn’t get a chance to fire a single shot. The rebels kept their weapons trained on the door in case other Troopers were foolish enough to try their luck. They weren’t.

  “Cover me!” Campion shouted, leaving her place of cover and approaching the bloody massacre.

  Jane counted fourteen armored bodies lying in spreading pools of blood. She stepped over them, being careful not to slip in the blood pools. Cautiously, she approached the doorway to the ambush-corridor and looked around the corner. Straining her ears, she thought she heard distant footfalls.

  The survivors are most likely running away.

  “You two – stay there and cover this door,” Campion instructed the soldiers in the closest sniper positions. “You guys!” she shouted to the soldiers in the armory. “I need you to cover me while I go down this hallway!”

  The soldiers left the armory and approached Campion’s position by the doorway. They took up positions on either side of the door, focusing their rifles down the narrow tunnel.

  Campion decided she was going to do it the right way this time. Reloading her pistol, she held it in front of her and darted, crouching, into the dark tunnel. Pulling a laser grenade from her belt, she wound up and hurled it as far as she could down the hall.

  She followed the grenade throw by sprinting ahead, covering her eyes with her hands. She took another grenade from her belt, wound up, and threw it on the run. She covered her eyes briefly before opening fire.

  Jane leaped down into the first crater she came to and sprinted across the uneven surface until she reached the other side. She pulled herself up, ran across several feet of normal level flooring, and jumped down into another crater. Halfway across the crater, she reached a blown-out wall opening to a spacious hall lined with pillars.

  Jane reached the normal floor level and scanned the chamber with her pistol. Grimacing, she saw a severed human hand clutching an automatic pistol lying at the edge of the crater.

  Well, at least I got one of them.

  Looking across the chamber, Campion saw the gleaming blue backs of a group of Troopers running toward a raised throne at the end of the long hall.

  You gotta love those laser grenades. Not just the destruction, but the psychological warfare component.

  Campion opened fire, cutting down the Troopers at the rear. The survivors ran up the stairs to the gold throne at the top and disappeared behind the regal chair. She saw a glint of blue armor behind the throne and opened fire. She ducked into the crater as Troopers fired back. Keeping her head low, she returned to the blasted hallway.

  “It’s all clear!” she shouted down the hall. She returned to the edge of the crater and resumed shooting at the Troopers behind the gold throne.

  I wish I had another grenade. That would end this real quick.

  The other soldiers joined her and informed her they only had two grenades left. Campion figured they might need them later, so she ordered them to target the throne with their automatic rifles. They opened fire, blasting it to pieces in an explosive bullet storm. There was no sign of the Troopers.

  “Let’s move out,” Jane said. “Those were some of the president’s bodyguards. They had the president’s official seal, the gold dollar sign, engraved on their armor. He must be close by.”

  She turned to look behind her when she heard metallic clanking sounds coming from the blasted corridor. Her eyes widened when she saw a mob of skeleton robots moving across the crater toward them. She opened fire.

  Chapter 41

  Back in Black

  Rayne and his team followed Campion’s course through the Body Bank until they reached the elevators leading up to the Powerdrome. Their scanner technician confirmed fifty-two signals on the Dark World level and thirty-eight signals in the upper control rooms. Rayne felt as if they were flying blind because the scanner couldn’t differentiate between Campion’s soldiers and the enemy.

  Brennon winked at him as they rode the elevator up to the Dark World level. They entered a short corridor, opened a submarine-type hatch at the end, and entered a dark stone corridor that looked all too familiar to Rayne.

  They converged on the signals, retracing the steps of Campion’s squad. They found evidence of a massive firefight. Shattered, smoking robot skeletons lay spread across the floor of the main hallway. They had to step over and around them to get by.

  Eventually, they found the chamber beyond the grenade crater and climbed up. They cut across it, following a short corridor to the medieval feasting hall. They heard the sound of gunfire echoing from the doorway on the far side of the hall.

  Brennon took the lead. She ran to the doorway and peered into the darkness. Flashes of light could be seen in the distance. Rayne peered in with her.

  “I think it’s time to call your friend again,” Karyn said.

  “My friend?” Peter asked.

  “Call Campion. Find out what’s going on.”

  “Okay,” Rayne said, switching his headset to channel one.

  The muffled sound of metallic thunder filled his earpiece.

  “Campion, you there?” Peter spoke into the receiver.

  “I’m here,” Jane said between blasts of automatic gunfire. “We’re retreating into the large room beyond the hallway. There’s no crossfire, so you guys are clear to come in.”

  “We’re on our way,” Rayne said, signing off.

  He turned to Brennon.

  “Let’s go,” he said, advancing down the damp, narrow, stone hallway.

  Brennon gestured for the rest of the squad to follow them down the tunnel. They were halfway down when they spotted shadowy forms moving in the darkness ahead. Brennon shined her flashlight ahead. The beam illuminated the broad, black-arm
ored backs of a line of skeletons. The closest robot turned toward them as the light beam struck its head.

  “I’ve dealt with these guys before,” Rayne said, opening fire.

  Sparks shot from the thing’s chest-plate, but no damage was done. He aimed for the robot’s head and blew it off. It kept coming.

  “Allow me,” Brennon said, stepping forward. She aimed her rifle low and fired.

  Peter quickly realized her strategy when he saw sparks exploding from the robot’s kneecaps. The robot crumpled to the floor. The rebels advanced, firing low as they went. They reached the edge of a large crater and jumped down. The shadowy backs of more robots were moving across. They opened fire.

  ********

  Campion and her soldiers retreated through the pillared hall as the robot horde advanced on them. They had little trouble blasting out their legs, but the sheer number of attackers was wearing them down. Jane was almost out of ammunition.

  She turned when she heard metallic thundering behind her. The soldier on her right was hit in the back with an explosive round and fell onto his face. Jane fired toward the blue metallic gleams she saw glinting from a secret doorway behind the raised throne.

  She ran over to a nearby pillar and used it as cover, firing from behind it. The other soldiers followed her lead, taking cover behind the pillars. One of them had his legs shot out from under him before he reached one of the pillars. He fell to the floor, screaming.

  “If any of you have a grenade, now’s the time to use it!” Campion shouted at the other soldiers.

  In response to her request, two soldiers wound up and let fly. Jane ducked behind the pillar as a red flash blasted out from the strike zone. She turned to face the throne area, and saw it was gone. The regal chair and its descending steps had been flattened into a pile of black ash. Nothing remained.

  Campion advanced, moving from pillar to pillar. She reached the flattened area and picked her way across the rubble. Looking up, she saw a doorway in the wall above the rubble pile. However, because the staircase and platform had been blown away, there was no way to get to it. Her other soldiers caught up with her. Two of them carried the wounded soldier.