by A. G. Taylor
Come on! Race you to the bad guys!
40
They say their thanks to the family and leave quietly by the back door to the house on the outskirts of the village. It’s early, but already the main street is coming to life with men and women in work overalls going about their daily business. Suddenly Sarah feels conspicuous in the black uniform. Both she and Daniel look like fighters amidst the farmers. Out of place…
“Over there,” Daniel says, nodding towards an open-top jeep standing at the other end of the street. They move towards the vehicle as quickly as possible. Sarah notices that no one in the village meets their eyes.
They’re afraid of us, she realizes. We’re not like them. We’re fighters.
Without warning, a woman only a few years older than herself steps around one of the buildings directly into Sarah’s path. Taken aback, Sarah looks into the eyes of the woman – and sees only blankness there. The woman stares back at her with no comprehension, but equally does not move.
“Come on,” Daniel says, taking Sarah’s arm and leading her away.
“Who was that?” Sarah asks, looking back at the woman, who hasn’t moved. She feels a strange fascination towards her.
“She was another visitor here,” he says quietly as they reach the jeep. “Like you.”
“What do you mean, like me?” Sarah asks. Daniel starts the jeep and they pull away from the village onto a bumpy dirt track leading down to the sea.
“She came of her own free will so she could fight the Entity on its own turf,” Daniel explains.
“So what happened to her? She’s like the walking dead.”
They reach the end of the track and pull onto the sand. “Like you, she had the power to take on the Entity at its own game – a being with the psychic strength to actually defeat it. But she was not successful.”
They have entered a bay surrounded on all sides by hills, providing some seclusion from the ocean beyond. The water of the bay is brilliant blue. The jeep heads towards an inflatable boat pulled up on the sand.
“What do you mean?” Sarah presses. “Not successful?”
“She fought the Entity. She lost.”
“And so now she’s stuck here for ever?”
“Or until someone shuts down the construct.”
“Someone like me.”
“That’s right.”
The jeep stops by the boat, an inflatable with two powerful outboard motors attached to the back. Sarah helps Daniel push it into the sea and they jump aboard. He angles the outboard on their boat down into the water and rips the starter cord. The engine roars into life and the boat powers across the bay. In less than a minute they pass a narrow inlet and are suddenly in the open sea.
“Where did you get all this stuff from?” Sarah asks her father. Sitting at the back of the boat, he looks like some guy out of an action movie.
“Friends,” he says. “There’s a large resistance movement. They’ve been training me ever since they found out I was your father. You’re quite a celebrity, you know.”
“Among the aliens?”
“Once in a while someone comes along with the ability to challenge the Entity. That’s you. They sensed it after the Entity’s meeting with you under the ice in Russia. The cost of bonding with so many beings – the Entity can’t keep many secrets.”
Sarah frowns, thinking it over. “So you’ve been living off my fame then?”
Daniel grins. “Free meals. All the military equipment and training I could use. It has been kinda cool.”
“You’re a big kid!”
Sarah grips the side of the inflatable boat as it bounces over the water. Daniel sends it on a course around the headland. As they round a jutting outcrop of rock, he points ahead.
“Look,” he shouts over the engine and Sarah sees what he’s pointing to…
Three giant structures rise from the sea just a few kilometres from the land. They look like oil rigs – made up of platforms sitting atop iron legs rising a hundred metres from the water. These platforms, however, are a maze of walkways, observation decks and buildings. Here and there it is possible to make out mounted machine guns… satellite communication arrays…landing pads… But there is also an odd mix of Japanese-style wooden structures, twisted trees and vines hanging down from the structures… Massive, black birds circle both above and below the rigs…
“What are they?” Sarah asks.
“Unknown,” Daniel replies. “They appeared in the construct the day you arrived, which makes me think we’ll find the Entity in one of those things. Which one?”
Sarah gives him a confused look. “How should I know?” Then she remembers his earlier words: If you seek it out, it will be there. “The middle one.”
Daniel nods approvingly and steers towards the central rig.
A whistling sound fills the air…
An explosion of water rises above the sea, just a few metres to the right of the boat. She looks towards the rigs again as they speed past. There is a flash from one of the mounted guns. A second explosion rocks the ocean, dead ahead this time, but Daniel expertly sends their boat around it.
More shells hit the ocean, creating a wall of flying water ahead of them.
“What do we do?” Sarah cries as the boat is almost capsized.
“Swim!” Daniel yells.
He pushes her off the side of the boat. Hitting the water is like falling against concrete, then Sarah is sinking as the boat is destroyed with the whumpf of another shell. She gasps for breath. Daniel grabs her arm and pulls her towards the surface where they gulp air into their lungs for a few seconds, before he pushes them down again, away from the explosions hitting the surface all around.
Diving, he produces a silver tube that he places in her hand. Sarah watches as he takes another and puts it in his mouth – a mini breathing tank. Copying him, she sucks air from the mouthpiece and breathes out through the side of her mouth. Daniel looks at her and she gives the thumbs up to show it’s okay.
Her hand in his, Sarah swims towards the rig…
Hack and the others ran across London, jumping from one rooftop to another, powered by the hydraulic strength of the battlesuits. They made it into a race to see who would make it back to the enemy base – mainly to distract themselves from the thousands of slave humans lining the streets, looking up as they leaped across the gutters.
“I SEE YOU!” was the cry that greeted them wherever they ran, along with the strangely inhuman humming of the masses – the signal that seemed to link them together under the control of the Entity. At the edge of a building on Clapham Road, Alex paused as the others leaped on, crashing across the tiled roofs of the shops opposite. He cast his gaze over the motionless crowd below – a throng of people looking up at him with one vision – their only purpose to relay information back to the Entity. This is what we’re fighting against, he thought to himself. This is what it would turn us into…
Keep up, Alex! Louise called as the crowd began to throw missiles up at him. He jumped on.
A few minutes later Alex caught up with the others as they ran along the railway track towards the gasworks opposite the power station. Leaping onto the side, he used the hooked metal of the suit’s feet and hands to claw his way up to the top of the highest structure. Here he stood, alongside the others, on the circular frame and looked out over the site of the power station.
The place was eerily still. No mercs moved around outside. The crowds of slave people had moved away from this area as well.
Hack opened the helmet of his battlesuit and took a breath of fresh air, as did the others. “It’s quiet down there,” he said. “Do you think they know we’re—”
He stopped dead at a terrifying sight from the river beyond the power station. The five spider swarms were crossing the Thames, churning the water as they converged on the base.
“Yes, I think it’s safe to assume they know we’re here,” Alex said as the swarms breached the side of the Thames. On dry land each swarm see
med to shrink suddenly, as if the millions of spiders were folding in on themselves. “What’s happening?”
“I’ve seen this before,” Hack said, remembering back on the island when the swarm had formed into a single spider. “The Entity is reconfiguring the spiders to protect the base.”
Within seconds they had reformed into five gigantic spiders, each towering several storeys tall. Three of these spiders climbed the side of the power station, taking up positions around the open roof, while the other two scuttled round to the open ground at the front of the base.
Wei said what everyone was thinking: “Suddenly these battlesuits don’t look so big.”
41
By the time they reach the underside of the rig, Sarah’s arms and legs are burning with fatigue, but she knows they cannot stop. The explosions have long since ceased on the surface of the water above. Either the gunners from the rig believe they have been killed or have realized their weapons are ineffective against an enemy approaching underwater.
Breaking the surface, Sarah and Daniel swim towards a platform at water level and clamber up the metal steps on the side. They crouch and Sarah looks up. The underside of the main rig platform is at least fifty metres above – accessible by ladders stretching up along the side of the four support legs.
Daniel removes the breather from his mouth and says, “Come on, we have to keep moving.”
Sarah nods, although all she really wants to do is sit down and rest – preferably for a week. Instead, she runs to the nearest ladder and starts climbing, closely followed by Daniel.
“When we reach the top, let me take care of the guards,” Daniel says behind her. “Your job is to find the Entity. It’s somewhere up there.”
They are halfway up the ladder when a shot rings out. A bullet ricochets off the metal rungs. A uniformed guard has appeared at the top of one of the ladders and is taking aim with a rifle again…
Daniel removes one of the shuriken and throws it with a single, swift motion. The star-shaped blade blurs through the air, hitting the guard dead in the chest. Sarah watches, wide-eyed, as the man falls all the way to the lower platform and bounces off into the sea.
“Keep moving!” Daniel hisses.
Sarah doubles her pace, her earlier fatigue forgotten, as more gunfire erupts from above. Daniel responds with volleys of throwing knives and stars, fired off with deadly accuracy. More guards fall. Reaching the top, Sarah finds herself on an empty level with stairs leading up at one end – obviously to the upper areas of the rig. She instinctively knows that’s where she has to head…
The Entity is waiting.
Movement to one side alerts her to the presence of a guard. She rolls, removing one of the throwing knives as she does so. The metal floor where she was just crouching lights up as bullets glance off. The guard aims again… She throws the knife, but it whistles past his head…
The guard’s eyes bulge from the sockets as the end of a sword blade bursts from his chest, straight through his heart. The sword withdraws smoothly and the guard falls, revealing Daniel standing behind him, a full-length samurai sword in his hands.
“Sarah,” he says urgently, going to her side as an alarm starts to howl. “Just go for the Entity. I’ve got your back.”
With a nod, she runs for the stairs leading up, even as the guards come running from all directions…
Up close, the newly formed spiders were massive. As Alex and the others ran across the hundred metres of open ground in front of the base, the two sentries on the ground raced towards them – their black front legs raised in the air as the others worked furiously, propelling them forward.
I don’t know if this is a good time to say this, Wei said, but I’m afraid of spiders.
We all are, Louise replied. Now.
Alex was up front, so he reached their attackers first. One of the spiders swiped its leg at him, knocking his suit to the floor. Pinning him, it raised another leg high, clearly aiming to drive the ultra-sharp point right through the body of the battlesuit.
No! Louise leaped onto the spider’s back and, wrapping the thick arms of the battlesuit around its thorax, yanked its head back. The spider howled with rage, red eyes blazing. Wei ran in and grabbed another leg, yanking it away as Alex rolled to safety. The spider hit the ground as its partner circled menacingly to one side. Wei drew back one giant foot of the battlesuit and brought it down on the head of the spider he and Louise had trapped. The blow didn’t even make a dent.
It’s going to take more than this to defeat them, Alex said. Our suits are made out of iron. They’re made out of alien metal, remember?
The Chinese kid nodded his helmet and turned back to the spider Louise had pinned. Its eight legs flailed wildly, but she held firm.
Get out of the way when I say, Wei instructed, putting his hands together. Now!
Louise’s battlesuit jumped back, releasing the spider as a beam of fire with the intensity of a laser burst from Wei’s hands. The beam hit the spider in the head and burned through the incredibly hard matter. The machine thrashed on the ground, trembled mightily and then to everyone’s surprise split into two, right down the middle. Louise and the others backed away as the two separate halves of the spider sprouted extra legs and scuttled back to regroup with the other sentry.
Great, Louise said. How do we fight them?
Everyone looked at Hack, who shook his head. I don’t know if we can.
Over the side of the power station the other three spiders appeared and began to crawl down towards ground level. They moved slowly, deliberately – taking their time, as if knowing their prey wasn’t going anywhere.
Wait, Alex said, remembering the clonebot. Hack, do you think you could deliver a virus to these things?
Sure, he replied. If I had one.
Alex continued, Dr. Fincher said he was getting close to perfecting something that would shut down the nanites in these machines.
Whatever we do, we’d better make it fast, Louise said, looking around as the two smaller spiders circled to the back, cutting off their retreat. I think they’re gearing up for the kill.
Alex nodded. Hack, contact the HIDRA base and get a copy of the clonebot. The rest of you hold off the spiders for as long as possible. He put his battlesuit down on one knee and placed the splayed fingers of both hands on the ground, like a runner preparing for a sprint start.
What are you going to do? Hack asked.
I’m going after Sarah, Alex replied as he powered forward, running directly at the spider blocking their path to the entrance of the power station. The spider rose up as he approached, but Wei blasted it back. Running past, Alex made the ramp of the station and carried on through the doors…
…into a volley of bullets fired from the platforms surrounding the interior of the base. Rolling to one side, he took cover behind a post as a rocket flew from a launcher in the hands of one of the mercs. The shell exploded against the wall. Alex looked round as the battlesuit HUD picked out seven remaining mercs taking cover at strategic locations inside the base. Major Bright crouched at the far end of the building, a weapon in his hands. And in the very centre of the base, next to the glowing hypersphere, stood Sarah.
Momentarily taken aback by the sight of Sarah standing out in the open, undefended, Alex emerged from his cover and looked at her. The mercs stopped firing as she raised her hand and walked towards him. He approached also, until they were standing just a couple of metres apart. In the suit, he towered over her.
Sarah, he said. Are you all right?
She looked up at him and nodded, expression impossible to read. Then she reached out and placed a hand on the arm of the battlesuit.
Sarah, we have to—
In a show of supernatural strength, she dug her fingers into the metal of the battlesuit and yanked the machine round. Alex gave a cry of shock as his suit was thrown across the floor of the base and came to a rest on its side before the hypersphere, which was now shining brilliant silver. Placing one hand against
the ground, Alex pushed his battlesuit into a kneeling position and looked back at Sarah. She raised a hand and pointed directly at him. All around, the mercs took aim on his exposed position.
Alex shook his head at her. “Sarah, no.”
“Kill him!” she yelled.
42
The upper levels of the rig are made up of one chamber after another. They’re like the rooms of a museum, crowded with glass display cases containing all manner of strange and wonderful sights: stuffed animals, some familiar, some completely alien; elaborate suits of armour, some designed for human body shapes, others sporting multiple arms, legs, or even heads; weaponry ranging from simple swords to guns to cruelly-shaped implements that look like a cross between the two.
The cases explode as Sarah runs through another chamber. On the balconies above, guards are firing automatic weapons – strafing the room below indiscriminately. She dives for cover as another pane of glass shatters, showering her with shards. Inside the broken case a suit of samurai armour disintegrates as it is flayed with bullets. Behind her, Daniel dispatches another pair of guards with his sword, then starts fighting the enemy on ground level.
“Keep moving!” he yells, pointing to the far wall as he rips the sword through another guard’s stomach. Sarah looks where he is indicating and sees a set of silver doors set into the wall. A lift.
Having seen it’s an effective weapon, she grabs one of the samurai swords from the shattered case and runs for the lift at the other end of the floor. A few metres away, the doors begin to close, but she puts her head down and leaps through as they slide shut. Breathing heavily, she leans against the mirrored wall of the lift car as it begins to rise, shocked by her own reflection: drenched with sweat, hair matted from the sea, wild eyes, the sword clutched in both hands as if she would use it at a moment’s notice. She hardly recognizes herself.
Who am I? she wonders. To win this battle, what have I become?
The lift slows…
…and the doors slide open…
…onto a blandly pristine hospital corridor. Stepping out of the lift, Sarah blinks at the surprising surroundings. The acrid smell of bleach in the air reminds her of other such places she’s been in the past. The ICU where her mother died of cancer. Robert’s sickbed at the HIDRA base. Even the white rows of caskets housing her father and the other sleepers.