Revolution

by Shawn Davis

  “Those robots are still coming,” one of them said, pointing across the hall at the mob of approaching skeletons.

  “I can see that,” Jane said. “Give me a lift, will ya?” she asked, gesturing to the doorway.

  Two soldiers gave her a lift up and she climbed into the doorway. She reached down and helped the others up. They pulled the wounded soldier to freedom as skeleton hands reached for his legs.

  “I don’t suppose you guys have any more grenades?” Campion asked, looking down at the horde of robots clawing to get a purchase on the edge of the doorway.

  “No, we’re all out.”

  “Terrific,” Jane said, aiming down into the horde and opening fire with her last remaining magazine.

  ********

  Rayne emerged into the spacious pillared hall, firing. He aimed low, shooting into the rear of the mob of robots moving down the center aisle of the hall. He watched a few of them drop, but it didn’t seem to make much difference because of their numbers. He heard the distant thundering of gunfire reverberating from the far end of the hall. He reloaded his rifle as Brennon emerged from the tunnel, firing. She emptied her magazine and reloaded on the run.

  “Let’s get up close and personal!” Brennon shouted as she sprinted forward.

  Peter backed her up. They approached the crowd of robots from the rear and began taking them out by blasting their legs. The surviving robots at the rear turned toward them with outstretched claws. More rebel soldiers joined them and helped to take the robots down.

  Rayne looked over the heads of the robot mob and saw Campion and another soldier firing down on the skeletons from a doorway on the second level. He continued to sweep his rifle across the legs of the mob, dropping them. He threw his rifle aside when he ran out of magazines. He pulled his pistol from his belt and resumed firing. Brennon did the same.

  ********

  Campion aimed down into the leering skull-faces, blasting them to pieces. Unfortunately, most of them stayed on their feet, reaching up at her with bony hands as sparks shot out of their blasted heads. It was difficult to hit their legs from this angle.

  Jane turned around suddenly as she heard a loud blast. She looked down the dark tunnel and saw the far end lighting up with flames. A moment later, a huge, scaly, green head, which reminded her of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, appeared from around the corner – shooting flames from its gigantic jaws.

  “We have a new problem,” Campion observed as the saurian dragon head darted down the hall on an elongated neck – firing flames at them.

  They opened fire on the dragon’s monstrous head with little effect. They watched as its huge body turned the corner, smashing the walls to rubble as it moved. It launched another stream of flames at them, licking at their toes.

  “We don’t have any choice. We have to pick the lesser of two evils,” Jane said, turning and running for the doorway.

  She lunged through the opening into the upraised arms of the skeleton mob. She felt bony hands close on her arms and legs. Another soldier followed her example and dove into the crowd headfirst as flames shot out from the doorway. The other soldiers in the hallway were instantly incinerated.

  Campion felt the robot skeletons’ claws digging into any exposed skin on her body. She thrashed in their bony grasps and reached down for their leering skull faces, punching them. She earned herself a sore hand in the process, but it had no effect on her attackers.

  She could hear Rayne and his people firing into the back of the crowd. She continued flailing in the grip of the robots as they clawed her armor, trying to penetrate it. She tried to keep her uncovered head out of their reach.

  Then, the moment came she had been dreading. The dragon’s head appeared in the doorway. It looked down on the swarm of robots. Jane felt herself falling to the floor as the dragon shot a stream of fire at the skeleton army. She hit the floor and rolled out of the path of the flames. Her rear armor was blackened as it was struck by fire. As she rolled, she swatted at her burning hair with armored gloves. She put out the fire in her hair, got to her feet, and looked back at the scene of carnage.

  The doorway crumbled apart as the dragon’s huge body emerged. It stopped shooting flames from its mouth, as if it needed a moment to catch its breath. However, it proceeded to swat the closest skeleton like a fly with its giant clawed hand. The dragon smashed through the doorway and crashed onto a pile of robot carcasses, ripping them apart with its claws and teeth. The dragon’s monstrous tail swung into several skeletons that remained standing, knocking them over like ten pins.

  Campion retreated behind the closest pillar and watched the destruction. She glanced to her right and saw Rayne’s group advancing from pillar to pillar, mopping up the remaining robots by blasting out their legs. She spotted Peter at a pillar on the other side of the hall, firing into a cluster of skeletons. Rayne’s group was still dealing with the skeletons, so they hadn’t had a chance to turn their attention to the new threat. This was a mistake.

  The dragon lunged down the center of the hall between the two gigantic rows of pillars. Jane winced as she watched it land on top of a rebel soldier, crushing him like a squashed beetle in his armor. She saw its tail swat two more soldiers as they opened fire on it. Jane stayed behind her place of cover. She didn’t see any point using up her last magazine on the giant robot. She figured she would have to wait and hope someone had a laser grenade.

  Peter looked up at the monstrous saurian face of his old nemesis. He darted around one of the large pillars as a stream of flames shot from the dragon’s massive, fanged jaws. He could feel the heat through the thickness of his body armor. His armored shoulders were heating up like hotplates. He breathed a sigh of relief as the dragon turned its flames away from his pillar, aiming for a group of soldiers firing at it with automatic weapons. The soldiers screamed as they were engulfed in a firestorm.

  Karyn ducked behind a pillar as the robot incinerated two rebel soldiers in a single blast. She felt intense heat through her body armor. She heard the dragon stomp past her position and continue down the center aisle, shooting flames at whoever was foolish enough to shoot at it. Bullets exploded on almost every exposed inch of the dragon-robot, bouncing off in showers of sparks without doing any damage.

  Brennon glanced around the pillar at the charred bodies of the fallen rebel soldiers. She saw the gleam of a laser grenade on one of their belts. She dove for the body. The dragon was systematically incinerating a line of soldiers as she grabbed a hold of the grenade and removed it from the soldier’s belt. She activated it and tossed it underhanded so it slid under the dragon’s gigantic belly. She sprinted away.

  A bright flash followed and the flames ceased. She turned and saw the dragon’s head crash to the floor on its severed neck. The end-pieces of its giant wings dropped through the air like metal butterflies. A piece of its tail thrashed about on the floor like a dying snake, shooting out sparks from its severed end. Brennon breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against a pillar. Campion and Rayne caught up with her a moment later.

  “Good work, soldier,” Jane said. “Let’s see to the wounded.”

  The surviving rebel soldiers rallied around Campion to seek out and find all the wounded. They found many who were severely burned, but still alive. They treated the wounds with injections from their med-kits. When all the survivors had been accounted for, Campion met with Rayne and Brennon. Brennon was carrying a scanner she salvaged; she pointed it at the ceiling.

  “I have a group of thirty-six signals directly above us,” she said.

  “They must be hiding out in the control rooms,” Peter said.

  “How do we take them out without getting ambushed?” Jane asked.

  “Leave that to me,” Peter said.

  He led them to a nearby air duct suspended in the wall above them. He smashed the cover off with his rifle butt and asked for a hand up. Campion and Brennon lifted him into the opening.

  “These ducts go directly to the control rooms,” Rayne said, his
voice echoing in the confines of the duct. “I’m going to surprise them.”

  “I’m going with you,” Campion said, walking along the wall to search for more ducts.

  She found another one and asked her compatriots to give her a lift. Rayne and Campion climbed the upwardly slanting ducts until they saw lights at the end of the steel tunnels.

  Rayne was the first to reach the metal grate at the far end. He peered through the grill – at floor level – and saw a group of Shock Troopers aiming their weapons toward an elevator door on the far side of the control room. He checked to make sure he had a full magazine.

  He smashed out the duct and took aim at the Trooper’s legs. He swept his pistol across the floor, blasting out the Trooper’s legs from under them. They fell, screaming, into puddles of blood. He emptied his entire magazine into the fallen bodies.

  Finally, he crawled out of the duct and surveyed the carnage. On the far side of the control room, he spotted a group of suited men sitting at the control panels. He pointed his weapon at them and they raised their arms in surrender.

  Campion reached the grill at the end of her air duct. She peered through and saw another group of soldiers aiming their weapons at a different elevator door.

  Campion had heard the muffled thundering of automatic weapons as Rayne did his deadly work. Like Rayne, she checked to make sure she had a full magazine and then smashed out the grate.

  She swept the room with her pistol, taking out the Troopers one-by-one. When she reached the end of the line, one of them fired back at her. She grunted with pain as a bullet seared into her armored shoulder. She used the last remnants of energy to target the remaining Trooper and bring him down. Then, she passed out from pain and blood loss.

  Rayne disarmed the prisoners and forced them to lie on the floor. One of them reached for a spare gun in an ankle holster. Rayne spotted him and shot him in the head. He was high on adrenaline and wired to kill. He took several deep breaths and switched on his headset.

  “Come in, Brennon,” he said.

  “Go ahead,” Brennon answered.

  “Level 2 is clear. You can come up on the elevators.”

  “Received.”

  Peter checked all the bodies wearing suits. He recognized a few famous faces, but none of them were the president. He looked up at the ceiling of the control room, imagining the expression on President Frump’s sweating face in the master control room above.

  Brennon and the other survivors met him on L2. The scanner still picked up eight carbon signals in the upper master control room. She switched on her headset and spoke into the receiver.

  “Bravo Squad to Charlie Squad. Do you read me?” she asked.

  “Loud and clear, Bravo Squad,” a female voice answered her from her right earpiece.

  “We need reinforcements. Send squads into the Powerdrome. Use scanners to converge on our signals.”

  “No problem, Bravo Squad. Charlie Squad is en route.”

  “Thank you,” Karyn said, switching off her headset. She turned to Peter and smiled, tiredly, at him. “They’re not going anywhere,” she said. “Let’s wait for back-up and take them out at our leisure.”

  “I like the way you think,” Peter said, grinning back at her.

  It didn’t take long for backup to arrive. Lt. Benson and Charlie squad met them in the devastated great hall. They brought unusual weapons with them.

  ”What are these?” Brennon asked.

  “Powerdrome nerve gel rifles,” Benson said. “They will incapacitate a target without killing it.”

  “That will be ideal for capturing the president alive,” Rayne said, reaching out and taking one from a soldier.

  “According to the blueprints I found, there’s an emergency exit stairwell hidden behind a secret door in the corner of this chamber,” Benson said. “It should be over there,” he added, pointing to a corner behind a massive pillar.

  “Take two soldiers to L2 to check on Campion,” Rayne said to Benson. “The rest of you come with me.”

  They found the door camouflaged to blend into the wall. Rayne and Brennon led several soldiers from Charlie squad into the stairwell. They ascended two flights of narrow metal steps until they reached a landing at the top with an emergency exit.

  Rayne kicked open the door and led the soldiers into the upper control room. Eight suited men were sitting at panels staring at view-screens. They looked up as the rebels entered.

  “Stand up and put your hands in the air,” Rayne commanded.

  Observing the rifle barrels pointed at them, the suited men complied.

  “The middle one is the president,” Rayne said, focusing his gun on him.

  “How do you know?” Brennon asked.

  “I’ve met him before,” Peter said.

  “Are you serious?” Karyn asked, raising an eybrow.

  “I know you,” Frump said to Rayne before he could reply to Brennon.

  Frump’s expensive black suit was disheveled and torn at the elbow, but otherwise he looked like he did when Peter met him in the conference room in the presidential tower. Rayne also noticed a light sweat beading on his tan forehead.

  “You should,” Peter said. “I just met with you a few days ago in the presidential tower.”

  “You’re Malcom Getty,” Frump stated with a trace of awe in his voice as recognition flooded his heavily tanned face. “What are you doing slumming it with these riffraff?”

  “Actually, my name is Peter Rayne. I infiltrated your organization as Malcom Getty and sabotaged the Underworld computer system, so my friends would have easy access to this nice island of yours,” Rayne said, grinning.

  “That was you!” Frump exclaimed, eyes widening.

  “That was me,” Peter said, raising his eyebrows.

  Frump’s handsome face contorted into an expression of fierce hatred as he lunged for Rayne’s rifle. Rayne was ready. He smashed the rifle stock into the president’s face, dropping him. Frump hit the floor, groaning. Rayne looked down at him and pointed his rifle at his bloody forehead.

  “Mr. President,” Rayne said. “I’m placing you under arrest.”

  Chapter 42

  Resolution

  May 7, 2068, an excerpt from the diary of Peter Rayne –

  Today is a national holiday. It’s been ten years – to the day – after the start of the Second American Revolution. A lot has changed since then. I’m certainly in a better position than I was before. Ten years ago, I worked as a forklift operator in a warehouse. Now, I’m the Secretary of State for the greatest country in the world. I have no problem saying that since the Justice Reforms of 2059 were put into effect.

  Campion had planned for the eventual demise of the old government and the start of a new one. She had numerous experts from every field on her staff; they were ready to take over when the time was right.

  In 2059, the time was right. Elections were held and a new President was voted into office. Campion ran for President, but lost. The winner of the election was a famous civil rights activist. She was the daughter of one of the greatest civil rights activists of the twenty-first century, Martin Prince. Alicia Prince took office on November 4, 2059. She broke through the only boundary left as the first female President.

  In November, 2059, the country went in a new direction. Alicia Prince was a strong President and introduced a number of political, economic, and sociological reforms. The newly elected House of Representatives and Senate voted the reforms into reality. For the first time in history, the House and the Senate were no longer partisan; they were united. A new era of cooperation had begun.

  Campion didn’t lose out completely. The new President appointed her as the nation’s Secretary of Defense.

  By that time, Campion had recovered from her injuries. Explosive bullets had blown off her right arm in the Powerdrome Battle. During the eighteen months of her military dictatorship, she served as commander-in-chief without a right arm.

  In October, 2059, she had a cybernetic limb in
stalled. Her new arm was actually stronger than her previous one. Campion’s scientists had learned to harness the robotic technology in the Powerdrome for medical applications.

  Jane is retired now, after serving as Secretary of Defense for eight years under President Prince. Now, she’s a writer. Her memoirs are on all the best-seller lists. She does talk shows and lecture circuits. She’s quite a character. But, of course, she always was.

  It wasn’t easy during that first year: 2058. We had our share of problems. We had to quell a number of insurgencies by members of the old regime: former governors, legislators, business leaders, and military commanders who backed President Frump. We were engaged in some bloody battles. After slightly more than a year of fighting, we were victorious. Major hostilities were declared over on August 6th, 2059, three months before the first democratic elections.

  Campion and I saw our share of the action. She’s written extensively about some of the most pivotal battles in her memoirs, The Second American Revolution.

  It wasn’t easy building a new government and subduing the rebellious remnants of the old one. As I mentioned, Campion acted as a military dictator for the first eighteen months of the transition government. It was a difficult time and we often thought we were going to fail.

  It helped that we had backing from the international community. The re-opening of diplomatic relations with the major countries of the world was pivotal in securing peace. After eighteen months of uncertainty, elections were finally held in November, 2059, and Campion was able to step down from her position as supreme military dictator. It was a great day and helped solidify our new position in the world community.

  Campion said she never enjoyed the absolute power she held for eighteen months, but I know her better than that. What person wouldn’t want to be Caesar for a year and a half? Especially, an egomaniac like her.