Gods of Rust and Ruin

by Azalea Ellis

  The malleable plastic was slippery with blood, but the surface was intact, and the fluid inside undisturbed. Thank goodness. Though I’d have known if something went wrong with the tiny package, at about the same time my organs started to dissolve.

  Thinking back on it, hiding a hyper-concentrated acid under my skin before getting into a fight might not have been the best idea. But Blaine had designed the pouch to be sturdy, and if Kilburn had ruptured the pouch with his power, I would have been dead anyway, from being turned into human hamburger. And Gregor and I, along with Jacky and Zed, had all agreed that hiding an undetectable secret weapon under my skin was a really cool idea. Just like a spy film. Which, I also realize, may not have been the best indicator of the soundness of the idea.

  But it was going to save my ass, now. It didn’t show up on scans as anything other than a fat deposit at the base of my waist.

  I very carefully brought the cap of the small pouch to my mouth, and twisted the lid off. I kept the cap in my mouth, in case I finished with leftover acid and needed to reseal the pouch.

  I palmed the bloody pouch gently, and slid my hand under the flap. My hand hit against the rotating metal barrier, and I carefully squeezed out a thin line of liquid across the base of it. In a few seconds, the acid had eaten through, and the blocking flap toppled backward. I slid my hand farther through, being careful not to brush my arm against the acid eating a useless hole through the bottom of the small metal tunnel.

  My arm started to shake, and I breathed deep, focusing on keeping it steady and strong. I only had one chance, and not a lot of time.

  When I came to the first bend in the tunnel, I squeezed a line of acid out along the edge, using my awareness to guide me. I almost despaired at my own weakness. Just using my claws and the Wraith Skill at the same time was a struggle.

  It took me almost an hour to turn the ninety-degree angle leading out into the hallway into a gentle slope, but the acid ate through the metal and stone of the wall valiantly. My good arm had gone past the point of burning pain into numbness at being forced to stay steady in the awkward position. Finally, I drew another thin line of acid along the metal of the outside flap opening from the hallway. It ate away the metal, but I didn’t touch the flap, and it stayed precariously in place. Hopefully the dissolved line wasn’t noticeable from the outside.

  Then, I waited.

  Chapter 12

  They are all gone into the world of light, and I alone sit lingering here.

  — Henry Vaughan

  They sprayed the aerosol sedative without warning, white mist shooting from the holes in the wall around the ceiling.

  No doubt, they expected me to have completely passed out by the time they arrived, my struggle to reach out of the small vent futile. If I had not had the acid, they would have been right. I was much too weak to utilize Chaos, and they probably knew it.

  I pressed my face to the vent and used careful application of my claws to slightly displace the covering on the outside wall. This was dangerous, and I could only hope they didn’t notice from the outside and thus ruin my whole plan.

  I held my breath for a while as the sedative shot down, and then slumped bonelessly against the wall, my face pressed against the opening of the vent, resting on my arm. I breathed slowly, sucking in the fresh air from outside the room. I was sure I’d still get a bit of the aerosol sedative in my system, since I didn’t have an airtight seal to make sure I only took in air from the vent, but hopefully it wouldn’t be much.

  After a few minutes, during which I pretended to be knocked out, I heard footsteps coming down the hall toward me. Four people. They stopped outside my door and talked among themselves for a few moments while two of them entered in a code to the keypad and let it scan their eyeballs to confirm their identity.

  The door slid open, and I withdrew my arm from the tunnel and flung myself at them, the claws on my good hand out and ready. Two of them carried stun batons. I knocked one of them out with a kick to the face, and flung away the baton of the other before she could turn it on.

  Three enemies left. But I was already tiring, dizzy from the sudden movement. “Freeze!” I snarled. Stupid, I know, but I hoped they’d be shocked and unsettled enough to listen to the authority in my voice without thinking about it.

  They froze, and I used the opportunity to its fullest. I stood straight and tried to look imposing, despite my bedraggled state and mutilated arm. “You can’t outrun me,” I said calmly. “Your bodies are not fast or strong enough. Back up against the wall and raise your hands. If you run, I will kill you, immediately.” I flexed my clawed hand for emphasis. “But I can be reasonable.”

  Two of them exchanged glances, perhaps of disbelief. The alarms began to sound, alerting the compound to my actions. I hoped my team realized what it meant, since a quick attempt to send a Window proved I still couldn’t contact them. I had less than two minutes before the guards converged and forced me back into my cell.

  “I need an escort,” I said. “And the key to the alien’s door.”

  The surgeon choked, took a step back and shook his head. “We will never give you access to the threat against Earth.”

  “Yeah, I was expecting that,” I said. “I guess you’ll have to help against your will.” I crouched down toward one I’d knocked out and stepped on his hand, pressing his palm flat against the ground. Then I used the last of the acid to remove his hand from his arm.

  He jerked and screamed, waking from the pain.

  I continued resolutely, watching as the liquid ate away at his wrist joint and corroded through the tendons. Blood pooled on the ground, but I soon had his hand detached from his body. Then I turned to him. “Okay, that’s the fingerprints. Now for the eyes.”

  He tried to scramble away from me, cradling his mangled stump against his chest, sobbing incoherently.

  “Stop, please.” One of the surgeon’s other assistants whimpered, looking as if she wanted to step forward from the wall and stop me.

  “I don’t like doing this either.” I sighed. “It’s pretty disgusting. But I need a way to get through the doors down here, and you guys refused to help me.” I knew I didn’t have much time left before the deployed guards reached me. I wished I was strong enough to just force a couple of my captives to help, but I wasn’t.

  When I began to dig into the man’s eye socket, I guess his screams got to the rest of them.

  “That won’t work!” the surgeon screamed. “You need our eyes intact, so that the pupils dilate when the scanning light shines in them. You can’t just kill us.”

  Oh. Well, crap. I looked down at the severed hand and eyeball in my hand and let them fall to the floor. The poor medic beneath me was quivering incoherently, and the stench of his piss burned in my nostrils. I sighed. Time to bluff some more.

  I stood up and grabbed the surgeon, yanking him away from the wall. “Thanks for the info. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to use my Skills to keep your head alive for a few minutes, with or without your body,” I lied. I pressed my claws into the skin under his ears, hoping that panic would be enough to make him forgo his common sense.

  It was. “We’ll take you! I’ll open the door!” He gasped, eyes squeezed closed.

  “Let’s go, then.” I waved at the other two, who were still cowering against the wall. “Now!”

  That snapped them out of it, and they ran ahead of me, moving faster at my urging.

  I could hear the footsteps of guards behind us. Thank goodness the medics had snapped in time. No doubt NIX had given them training about what to do in the event of a break out, attack, or other emergency situation. But when a situation changes from a hypothetical to the immediacy of seeing your coworker de-eyeballed while he screams . . . priorities change. People do things they never thought they would, given the right motivation. I should know.

  Guards turned the corner in front of my little group, guns at the ready. The medics screamed and skidded to a halt, which gave me enough of a shield and dist
raction to get close to the guards before they attacked.

  I raked my claws across one’s eyes, and then grabbed his forearm with that same hand and turned. A bone in his forearm snapped and punctured through both his skin and the fabric of his uniform, but his hand stayed wrapped around the trigger, and the gun was facing his fellow guards. I used the familiar trick, squeezing my finger around his own and spraying them down with tranquilizer darts.

  They dropped like puppets with their strings cut. Well, at least I knew they were aiming to sedate, not kill me. So far.

  I released the gun, and punched the screaming owner of the gun in the back of the neck. I wasn’t good enough to use Jacky’s signature neck chop, but he stopped screaming and joined his unconscious friends. Hopefully I hadn’t killed him. I turned back to the medics and waved impatiently at them. “Don’t just stand there! We’ve got places to be.”

  One of them let out a gasping sob, but they continued running, leading the way to Torliam as I directed them.

  We arrived at his section of sub-level seventeen, and they used their verification to get us through the security block.

  The sound of the alarm changed them, becoming more screechingly urgent. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my current location, or because my team was implementing their part of the escape plan up above.

  I could feel Torliam’s presence through the wall, a kind of thrumming energy that pushed against my skin like phantom waves. I almost itched with urgency, as I thrust one of the surgeon’s assistances toward the security pad. “I know the code just as well as you do,” I growled. “If you use the fake one . . .” I let her imagination fill in the rest. “And don’t think I’m not aware that different keys have to be pushed with different fingers.”

  Her knees were shaking, but she gave a stiff nod and entered her code, then let the pad scan her eyeball under my intense scrutiny. The surgeon went next, and though he was more hesitant to open the door, my clawed hand resting gently on the back of his neck was all the encouragement he needed.

  The huge, incredibly reinforced slab of a door slid open, revealing the back of Torliam’s restraints.

  The medics probably knew about the cameras that watched Torliam’s room, connected to monitors far away from NIX’s main base. That fail-safe may have been the only reason they agreed to open the door, even despite my threats. The fail-safes assumed that NIX’s security system had been compromised, and negated the ability of those within NIX to affect the compound through any electronic method. In other words, when the second set of people watching through the cameras saw where I was and what I was doing, and how NIX had failed to stop me, they took over.

  I’d barely gotten Torliam’s door open when they shut down the main generator, cutting off the power source to the whole compound. The lights, sirens, and ventilation cut off, and in the sudden, absolute silence, I could hear faint yells and screams from other prisoners.

  I held my breath and counted to ten. A deep, rumbling explosion sounded off below, the vibration traveling through the floor and walls around me, from deep beneath my feet. I almost lost my balance and a couple of my captives let out ear-splitting shrieks, but I ignored them, letting out a breathless, loud laugh.

  I stopped laughing when I realized that I sounded a bit like an evil villain. “I’m going to have to give you a raise, Adam,” I murmured aloud.

  Sabotaging the backup generator had been Adam’s assignment the night before when I’d been captured, but I hadn’t been sure if he’d managed to complete it or not.

  “Do not enter the room,” Torliam said. “I do not know what you have done, but it has protections of its own. It is not de-fanged.” Despite the warning, his tone was tight with suppressed excitement.

  “Just sit tight and wait. I’ll have you out soon.” I instructed my VR chip to send a Window to the team, and this time there was no backlash.

  —Status report, team. —

  -Eve-

  It only took a few seconds for the replies to bombard me.

  —Kicking ass over here. Hurry up and join us! —

  -Jacky-

  —Are you okay? We couldn’t contact you earlier. We’re in the lab defending the ship. —

  -Zed-

  —Currently holding the lab, defending from attack. The plan is in place. Should be able to hold position for the next ten mins. Where are you? —

  -Adam-

  —Are you okay?—

  -Sam-

  —Powering up the ship with a backup generator. We’ll be ready. The kiddos are already inside, safe.—

  -Blaine-

  —I’m okay. Down here with our friend from outer space.—

  -Eve-

  I thought for a quick moment, then sent a message to Zed.

  —Come down and pass me the breakout supplies. Be quick, be safe.—

  -Eve-

  Zed would be least useful to the team in defending the lab from the rest of NIX, and in helping with any last-minute escape preparation, but he was more than competent enough to help me at the moment.

  A few minutes later, Zed broke the relatively weak grate in the ceiling, making sure it didn’t fall to the floor, and pushed the supplies through. They floated toward me, balancing gently on what Jacky had dubbed the “hoverboard” without touching any of the equipment, or the pressure-sensitive floor. “What’s that stuff all over your face?” Zed asked, bringing out a flashlight.

  “What?” I grabbed the board and stepped back into the hall, then dug into the supply pack for the numbing spray. We’d thought Torliam might need it, along with a few other medical supplies. I shook the can and applied it liberally, coating my entire left arm. It helped a bit. I popped a stimulant tablet into my mouth for good measure. I could crash after we were gone. Then I straddled the hoverboard around the middle with the supply pack held in front of me, and floated into the room. “Don’t shine that right at me. You’ll kill my night vision.”

  “It looks kinda like . . . dried blood.” His voice trailed off.

  “Oh, yeah. I overused my Skill a bit. It’s got a bit of backlash if I don’t control it properly. Some of the small blood vessels in my face probably broke. It’s no big deal, kinda like a dry air nosebleed. Doesn’t even hurt,” I lied.

  “Oh.” He didn’t sound satisfied, but thankfully didn’t pursue that line of conversation. “Who are those crying people?” Zed asked, shining a flashlight on the forms huddled outside the door.

  I glanced over my shoulder. “They’re the people who were going to do some surgery on me for NIX.” The two assistants were crouched by the wall next to the door, but the surgeon was pressed against the door separating Torliam’s section from the rest of the level. He was banging futilely on it, calling for help. “Do you think I should kill them? I’m not sure they’re really a threat to us anymore.”

  Zed’s eyes widened, but he hesitated, and then shook his head. “Not if we don’t have to.” He laughed. “My life is so surreal. Here I am, breaking my sister and an alien giant-person out of a top secret base cut into a mountain. And I’m wondering whether we should kill the hostages or not.”

  The hoverboard brought me around to the side of Torliam’s restraining slab. I maneuvered around the tubes and wires coming out from him and met his eyes. “You’ll get used to it,” I said absently, my concentration shot by the look on the giant creature’s face.

  Torliam’s eyes were wide and feverishly bright, and his muscles tense as if he wanted to thrash against his bonds but was holding himself rigid instead. “You . . . are here. This is beyond my expectations,” he said.

  I grinned, trying to relieve some of the tension caused by the sheer force of his presence. “Don’t tell me you’re impressed already. I’m just getting started. Sing my praises when we get to Estreyer.” I gripped the hoverboard tighter with my thighs, and then dug in the supply pack.

  His eyes tracked my every move, unblinking.

  “Shine the light over here, will you?” I waved to the side of
the slab. “I’ve got to disable this first.”

  Zed swung the light, but stopped on me instead where I’d pointed.

  I frowned up at him. “Don’t shine the light in my eyes. Over there!” I pointed again.

  Zed ignored me. “Eve, what’s wrong with your arm?”

  I glanced down at the appendage that hung uselessly off my shoulder. The pain flared, just thinking about it, especially when I breathed in that raw meat smell again in full force. I squeezed the hoverboard tighter and warded off a wave of dizziness. “Oh, yeah. I got a bit hurt while fighting Kilburn. He was reactivating the Shortcut.”

  “A bit hurt?” Zed’s voice rang out, and Torliam turned to scrutinize him instead. “I . . .” Zed fell silent for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice was quieter, calmer. A bit of the ice I imbued my own tone with when I was angry sounded in his words. “You should have called Sam, instead of me. You are severely injured. This could endanger our escape.”

  I smiled up at him, squinting against the beam of light. “Logic. I like it. It’s good to see you’re adapting your arguments against me.”

  “I’m not joking, Eve! You’re hurt bad.” His voice rose.

  “I can make it. We don’t have time to heal me right now, and Sam’s undoubtedly got plenty to deal with up there with the rest of them. We’ll have time for healing once we’re away. Otherwise we’re all as good as dead anyway. Now hurry up and shine the light where I need it. We’re wasting time.”

  Zed complied. “Well, then you better hurry up so we can get out of here and Sam can do his job,” he said through clenched teeth.

  Torliam watched as I pulled a pouch of acid out of the pack. “How will you bypass the safeguards of this cell?”

  I spoke as I took the cap off the pouch of acid, partially to ease the tension, and partially to distract myself from the pain and weakness sabotaging me. “I know the security measures in here aren’t dependent on the rest of the base. They’ve got it rigged to kill, under pretty much any circumstances. Guess they thought it’d be better to eliminate you than chance your escape. But I’ve got a team of really smart people, too. This room may have its own backup generator for security, but in the case of forced takeover, the base loses direct control and access to the main generator. Almost the entire rest of the base is dependent on the backup generator that just exploded below us. Which means that the doors are all stuck closed. If the guards want to get to us, they’re going to have to blow their way through every single checkpoint, or find a way to get control returned to this base. That gives us the time we need to get you out.”