AZU-1: Lifehack

by Joseph Picard

  Al shook his head no.

  “You’re.... ew, that’s messed up.”

  Reggie nodded.

  “Well... um... I’m Erika. Um.. nice to meet you?” She motioned to shake hands out of habit, then changed her mind.

  Alisia took Al back to the wall, and wrote more. “WHERE HOSTAGES?”

  “Oh! Oh, yeah, I can help! Follow me!” Erika said, a little excited. Al nodded, and Erika started a brisk walk down the sidewalk. After a bit, she looked back to see the two zombies trying desperately to keep up. “Wow, you guys got cruddy ones, huh?”

  Reggie stopped walking for a moment to nod, (doing both at once would almost certainly result in falling down,) while Al maintained its pace.

  “This is tiring!” Alisia called out aboard the airlimb. Convincing the dead flesh to move required a lot of strain against the restraints.

  “Yeah. Hey leesh, this Erika... a brunette running around in a city of zombies... remind you of anyone?” Regan said. Reggie caught up to Al, and grabbed Al’s butt.

  Erika stared. “Um.. gay zombies, huh?”

  Regan nodded while Alisia tried to figure out what Erika was talking about. She turned Al around, and slapped away Reggie’s hand. “Uh... supposed to be working here, Regan.” Alisia said.

  “Aw, come on, leesh, when do I get the chance?”

  “Like you haven’t before!”

  “Yeah... well... this time, I can’t feel it when you slap me.”

  Alisia reached her hand to the side straining against the strap, and poked Regan’s hand with her nail.

  “Ow!”

  “Can we get going now?”

  The three of them walked along for some time, eventually nearing the gymnasium and its VTag.

  As Al passed some wreckage, Alisia made him pick up a pair of utility goggles, a lot like the kind Regan had once used like security cameras in Autar. It wasn’t on, but it was operational. Being in a ‘borrowed’ body, Alisia didn’t have the option of bringing her usual equipment, so she took it along and familiarized herself with the settings and buttons as they continued on.

  Erika opened the door of the gym to show Al and Reggie the crowd of people inside. It looked similar to a scene you might expect after a natural disaster like flooding, when evacuated people can’t stay in their homes. Well, except for the patrolling zombies wandering around. The people looked at Erika, Reggie and Al.

  “They must think we’re zombies that found Erika wandering around.” Regan said.

  “Fine,” Alisia said, putting on the goggles. “Kris, walk me through this. Let’s see if I can find any nanite servers here. It we find one, maybe we can disable all the zombies in this area, and get these...”

  As she put the goggles on Al’s face, they were in infra red mode. “Oh shit.”

  “What, what now?” Regan asked.

  Alisia made Al look around the room with the goggles. The people, Erika, and of course the zombie guards, and themselves. “Regan... no one here’s giving off any heat.”

  “What?!”

  “They’re all dead.”

  Although this conversation was unheard in the gym, Erika turned around to see Al with goggles up to his face.

  “Aw darn.” Erika said. At that moment, her eyes grew lifeless, and every body in the room started walking towards Al and Reggie. Erika, the guards and the ‘hostages’. All dead, and approaching for attack.

  Regan turned her head away from the Reggie monitor, and looked to Brock. “Hey Doc, the jig is up, may as well un-strap us.”

  As Brock walked over, Regan looked back into the monitor and over at Al. Alisia had chosen to fight. Al’s arms flailed wildly at the crowd. Alisia yelled out, forgetting that her voice wasn’t coming out Al’s mouth. “I came to save you, you bastards!” Tears erupted from Alisia. Regan looked back into her monitor to see that Reggie had already been ripped to shreds by the mob.

  Al was doing a bit better until the crowd got a hold of one of the wild swings and ripped Al’s arm off. Alisia saw it come loose and screamed. “My arm!!”

  Regan was half freed from the table, and snapped at Brock. “Go shut this thing off! Now! Alisia! Forget it! Ignore it!” Brock ran to power down the terminal, and Regan strained over to loosen a couple of Alisia’s straps. As soon as she could, Alisia grabbed onto Regan and trembled. “There’s no one left to save in there. Everyone in Meston, all dead.”

  While Brock undid their ankles, Regan held Alisia and tried to comfort her. “You’re alright, leesha. Just a video game.” Regan was a bit rattled too, but she was becoming increasingly glad that she had the opportunity to be a support to Alisia for a change, instead of the other way around.

  “Erika...” Alisia mumbled. “It was Erebus. The hostages never survived the initial attack. They were just kept better preserved... they’re decoys. The zombies weren’t meant to be an attacking force this time. They’re just by-products. Like fallout.”

  “Then... there’s nothing protecting him. Let’s go see about getting him nuked.”

  ~~~~~

  Chapter 57: Got Wood?

  ~~~~~

  Aside from Parker, who kept watch on Meston through his scope, everyone on board met in the ops room. The General was on the screen.

  “Well that does make things simple then. I’ve already recommended a slow-burn carpet bombing. The planes are on the runway now.”

  “Sir?” Alisia said, “How do we know there aren’t other living hostages in Meston?”

  “There’s been no attempts at communications, and no sign of resistance since the initial invasion. We didn’t know why till now. We just assumed that the zombies were just that effective at occupying the city. Still, it explains a lot. If he still had live hostages, he’d be parading them to us right now. Do you see any real possibility of there being anyone alive there?”

  Alisia paused. There was doubt in her mind, but the slim chance that there was a living human left in Meston seemed so small, especially next to the threat of Erebus expanding to other places. “No, Sir. The slow burn is the best solution.”

  “Come on home people, it’s over.”

  Regan and Alisia wandered out while Kris and Brock compared some notes.

  “Leesha..? What’s a slow burn?” Regan asked timidly.

  “It means.. the bombs will leave behind napalm. It’ll probably burn for days. The same thing was used at Autar. It makes sure no nanites will survive.”

  “And if there is a human?” Regan regretted asking it as soon as she finished. Alisia stopped, and looked at her feet. “The initial explosion would easily kill a normal human instantly. They wouldn’t suffer. Not any more than they already have.”

  Regan stared at Alisia for a few moments. “You’re still blaming yourself for Meston’s fall, aren’t you?” Regan leaned in for a soft hug, and to kiss Alisia on the cheek. Alisia just sort of stood there, eyes a little glazed, staring forward. Regan let go, and pointed a finger at Alisia. “Stop it. You know you did all you could.”

  Alisia slid back a bit out of her trance and forced a little smile for Regan. “Alright.”

  The comm sparked to life. “Folks?” It was Parker. “Meston’s aiming something at us. It’s uh... it’s a big log.”

  “What the hell?” Kris matched her view to the location Parker had just marked with a VTag. “It’s a big log!”

  “That’s what I said. A big log! In one of those rail cannon things!” Parker sounded almost bemused with disbelief.

  “That’s stupid, a log can’t be fired with magnetics!”

  At that moment, the log shot forward towards the airlimb.

  “Ohhhhhkay, I’ll just stop talking now.” Kris said. “How about I move us out of its way?”

  “Sounds good.” Parker said. The airlimb did indeed move out of the way of the log’s trajectory in plenty of time. It was moving a lot slower than the iron girders Erebus had been launching before. But it was arching. An arched trajectory is nothing new for improving range, but Erebus had not us
ed it before, instead relying on sheer velocity to attain the range he had been getting. It occurred to Kris that this was a tactic to lure targets in closer until he found a target he really wanted to hit. But a log?!

  As the log began to come down near them, the front end of it exploded. It was a log with a warhead. The wood splintered out in almost every direction, and six beams of metal were revealed as the log unraveled. The beams spread out a bit like a shotgun blast, and all were relieved to see that they had not spread wide enough to hit the airlimb.

  The wood on the other hand, spread much wider. The airlimb resounded with a pangs and bangs as a few chunks of wood and a hail of splinters struck the hull, and bounced around inside where the open bay door allowed them in.

  “Ow damn.” Parker pulled an inch long piece of wood out of his shoulder, it being one of the few parts of him exposed from behind his gun and scope.

  “You okay Parker?” Kris said.

  “Yeah, it’s nothing. Gonna need a bandaid though.”

  Another explosive noise struck at that moment.

  “What the?”

  In the confusion of dodging flying logs, they’d momentarily forgotten about the incoming airstrike. The sound was that of the bombing planes streaking by above the speed of sound.

  The bombers were already gone before anyone realized they were there. The sonic boom hit at the same time a flourish of genius-missiles appeared over the city. They idled for a split second, then locked onto their assigned co-ordinates and began descent.

  They watched, breathlessly anticipating the same display of destruction they saw at Autar, when something odd happened. All the missiles died at once in the sky over Meston. Most fell, landing in the outskirts without exploding. A few detonated in the air.

  “What the hell?” At the same time, the lights on the airlimb flickered, and Kris nearly had a mild heart attack. The airlimb’s computers recovered from a hiccup. “Geezusfuck! That was an EMP!”

  Alisia looked around the Meston cityscape through the smoke and trails of napalm burning away in the sky harmlessly. “An EMP? Like from a nuke? Call me nuts, but I don’t see any nukes going off.”

  Brock attempted to offer an explanation “There has been talk of projects which can create a pulse without-“

  “Whatever!” Kris interrupted, “All I know is that we’re lucky to still be in the sky after that. Much closer, and I don’t think we would be. I’m taking this brick back to base before we drop.”

  Alisia grunted in the affirmative.

  Brock sighed, deep in thought. He blinked, and focused on the present for a moment. “I’m going to go see about Sergeant Parker’s wound. Kris, if you can, try to gather all the relevant information for me.”

  ~~~~~

  Chapter 58: Closer to Home

  ~~~~~

  After dumping a pile of readings into a database that Brock could wade through, Kris wandered back to check on Parker. He’d left his station, so she went to his room and wandered in without knocking. Brock was on the floor, bleeding and unconscious. Parker was there, about to lean down over Brock. Parker saw Kris and stopped, putting his finger to his smiling lips. “Shhhh.”

  It was obvious to Kris, about the little wound Parker had gotten. She backed up and yelled into her comm. “Parker is Ereb—“

  Regan and Alisia started running. Alisia ran to check Parker’s Zipper gun, and Regan ran towards his quarters. Alisia found no one at his gun, and soon heard what she feared over the comm.

  “Leesha! Found him!” Regan sounded like she was in the middle of a fight. “Got no gun! I’ve fought zombies hand to hand before, but not one with Erebus’ speed! Hurry! Guns! Kris is KO, Brock might be dead!”

  By the time Regan finished, Alisia was already almost there with her P90 and the Bad Mojo. She rounded the corner and threw her P90 over Parker/Erebus’ head to Regan. Regan didn’t fire right away. Partially because it was Parker, and partially because Alisia would be in the way of any bullets that missed. This was all the time Erebus needed to use Parker’s hand to knock the P90 out of Regan’s grip.

  Erebus had to make a quick decision. Kill Regan now or turn around to deal with Alisia, who probably had another gun aimed at him at that very moment. Deciding an unarmed Regan was of little threat, he turned to Alisia.

  Regan ducked around the corner, so as not to be in ‘kill zone’ when Alisia used the Bad Mojo.

  Alisia looked at the familiar looking face approaching her, being worn by Erebus. She remembered the carnage she’d seen the Bad Mojo wreak against fresh zombies. And she remembered watching her own puppet zombie being ripped apart. She imagined what it would feel like. She had almost convinced herself to squeeze the trigger when Erebus struck, trying to knock the weapon out of her hand. She held on tight.

  Instead of being knocked loose, the Bad Mojo was smashed against the wall, Alisia still holding the handle. The top third of the weapon shattered off along the ‘barrel’. The electromagnetic accelerator rails were bare to the air, and the large, fragmenting shell fell loose from the chamber, onto the floor.

  Poor Parker’s arm didn’t do so well either. His forearm was bloody and raw. Erebus raised his other arm to smash Alisia’s skull. Not even seeing this, Alisia reached forward and mashed her opened weapon against the bloody arm, and pulled the trigger.

  The Bad Mojo’s stored electrical charge meant for launching projectiles, instead ran through Parker’s arm and body, frying the nanites that had taken him. Parker fell to the ground.

  Silence.

  Alisia bent down cautiously while Regan’s head peeked out, worried she’d see Alisia dead. “You’re Ok? And no bloody walls either?”

  “He’s breathing, he’s alive.” Alisia said, “We have to get to base decontamination. There might still be more nanties running around.”

  ~~~~~

  Chapter 59: If it had been

  ~~~~~

  “What in blazes was that?” General Westmore asked the moment Brock came into his office.

  “The- the log?” Brock stammered, gripping a file folder.

  “Not the log, I already know about the damned log! What caused that EMP blast? There sure as heck was no nuke going off!”

  “Oh! Ah, of course.” Brock picked a couple printouts from his folder, and rested them on the General’s big oak desk. “It’s something that’s been under development by a sister company of AutarLabs in Meston. It actually uses many similar principles of the mana drive.”

  “Not another one of those…!”

  “No, no. This device, the ‘tightpulse EMP’ has a much more controlled effect than the hypothetical overload of Autar’s Mana drive. The tightpulse affects only the electrical reactions of inorganic systems. Just like the EMP from a nuke. Unlike a nuke, it’s over a second after it’s triggered. No residual.”

  The General sighed. “Meaning what, tactically?”

  “Our people are safe from it, as long as they’re not relying on any electronics to keep them in one piece, and communications will only be affected for a second at a time.”

  “Does that help us?”

  “Yessir.”

  ~~~

  A few splinters of wood were found on and around the airlimb containing active nanites, but all the people were clean, even Parker. However, he and Brock were rushed to the nearest hospital, Yute Base only having a minor aid station.

  Brock was already conscious and working hard before they even got back to base. Parker, however, was still knocked out. He was now slated for a battery of tests to see if his mind would recover from the short term nanite infection, and the electrocution.

  Kris was released around the same time Alisia finished her preliminary report. Soon Kris, Alisia and Regan were now waiting for Brock’s plan, and all loitered around the area of Parker’s hospital room.

  Alisia quit pacing, and sat next to Regan on the bench across the hall. She watched as Kris laid her head down at Parker’s side. Kris had no serious injuries, and practically got into a fi
ght with a nurse to come see Parker.

  The music drifting in over the hospital speakers changed to a new song. It was a gentle song Alisia knew well, and although it was almost too quiet to hear, it seemed to drown out everything else. She stared blankly forward at Kris, who held Parker’s hand and wished she’d appreciated him more earlier.

  The music soaked into the weary Alisia. Without realizing it, she began to silently mouth the words, singing quietly in her mind.

  Regan curled up to Alisia, holding her arm and watching her lips move to the music. The verse ended, and Regan squeezed Alisia’s arm a little.

  Almost in a trance, Alisia turned her head and looked into Regan’s eyes, and swallowed hard. Alisia looked tired, but an undercurrent of thought was almost visible on her face.

  “Kris always pushed him away, kinda.” Alisia said. “Now look at her.” Regan looked back over to Kris. She was still holding Parker’s hand and resting her head on the edge of the bed.

  Alisia swallowed again, and slowly stood, reclaiming her arm gently from Regan. She walked over to Parker and Kris. She put her hand on Kris’s shoulder and softly spoke. “I’ll be back in a sec. Gonna get some air.” Kris nodded.

  Alisia looked at Regan as she turned the corner with a strange, steely expression. “If.... if it had been you...” She glanced back at Parker, turned away, then disappeared down the hall. Regan decided to follow.

  Outside the emergency doors, an ambulance pulled away into the night. Military people were scattered about. Regan didn’t see at first where Alisia went, but soon found her around the corner in a little out of the way alcove only a few paces away. Alisia had her back to the brick wall, and her head was bowed slightly down, staring at the ground.

  “Alisia?” Regan asked, stepping forward cautiously. Alisia looked up a bit, strands of her hair grazing across her face. Her eyes were welled up a little, and she stared right through Regan into nothingness.

  “What... what’s wrong, leesha?”