Program Erin

by Alex Fall

  * * *

  "Captain!"

  My crew members' genuine concern was, in a word, adorable. But the smoldering remains of the roof access room and the sudden lack of activity from the antagonists allayed that concern. The burn that ripped my shirt partially open finished its initial wave of pain, and now my fury was boiling. My kill mode was psyching itself up and drowning HIM out.

  I glanced back at everyone else that bothered to take cover, almost as if to say "This is why I am superior."

  "Oh my god! Dude, we don't even know what they're here to do, and you just...just..." Wyatt sputtered while holding his head.

  Nicolette stood up in full agreement. "Exactly. Move aside and listen for once."

  "Excuse you, I just solved the issue," I clarified.

  "The issue wasn't a full out attack until you came along! It was a shut down, not a massacre. Besides, you look like barf now."

  My mind stopped and backtracked. Not a full out attack? Is it by her orders or orders of her father? Either way, I'm not playing games with this girl. The easiest way to shut down the Benevolents is to take them out.

  I shook my head to dismiss Fake Arty's voice from pleading with me. The way I'm acting, it goes contrary to his instruction. That's why I'm doing it. I don't care if it makes me a program.

  Nicolette's crew shoved aside the wreckage I left from burning the room. Wyatt and Vick were highly uncomfortable with the situation.

  "Look, I didn't join your crew to...kill people," Wyatt stood and stated. "Clearly you have no problem with it, but this is not what I do."

  I turned around and stood in his face. Interestingly he didn't back down, though I could tell he was cringing on the inside.

  "I'm sorry Captain...but I agree with Gar," Vick chimed. I shifted my gaze to him.

  "Explain," I commanded. They better make this quick. Nicolette is getting ahead of me.

  "When I joined this crew, I was under the assumption that it would somehow be for the betterment of mankind," Vick explained. "I understand that you have a troubled past-"

  "Don't talk about something you don't understand," I growled, feeling my irritation begin to turn on my crew.

  He held his hands up to show no signs of aggression. "I understand that...but I don't have the motivation or reason to do what you do. And in all honesty, I thought you had let go of those things a while back."

  Wyatt continued, emboldened by Vick's statements. "And how can you just hurt yourself like that?!"

  Nicolette's crew was out of sight now, but I stayed behind to sort things out with my crew. "Lori fought these people. Reggie did too. Are you saying-"

  "They didn't kill anyone!" Wyatt burst out. The nerve...he just interrupted me.

  "So you don't want to help me?" I asked after a moment.

  Vick discerned my underlying aggression. "That's not what we're saying. But if it means taking lives...no, I won't."

  I glared at him hard. The distant sounds of Nicolette's crew in combat called to me. The sounds were missing one thing, and that thing was me. It wouldn't be complete without me, and I couldn't vent without it. Some part of me craved the fight, and craved shaming Nicolette. Yet, a thought shined through my clouded, dark disposition.

  I'm addicted to violence.

  The thought sounded like HIS reasoning, but it was my mind that said it. I bit my tongue to distract myself. How dare he rub off on me. Get out of my head!

  "Fine. Wyatt, you're tech ops. Apparently we need this building shut down. Make it happen. Vick, find a way to get that skiff inside this structure. I want an escape route should unwanted people show up."

  "I can do that," Wyatt said.

  "Yes, captain," Vick added.

  Inside the building was, not a slave labor of Dwellers, but rather an automated assembly line of ammunition. Again, my mind swirled. This whole time, I thought the Dwellers were underlings, but there's not even any here. Were the stories I was told exaggerations? And why would such a small group of people need so much ammunition?

  "Blue eyes!" Nicolette shouted as I entered the scene, clutching the burn on my side. She shot an autogun in my direction, having me reflexively drop down. Behind me, a Greater stumbled back and growled in pain. With a flick of her wrist, crystalline ice structures grew from the ground and blocked the Greater from view and drowned out any noise he made.

  "What is your problem?" She demanded.

  Before I could answer, a bolt of electricity struck a metallic point on Nicolette's gun. Her weapon must have been insulated, because she didn't suffer any shock, but the weapon still flew out of her hands. Before she could grab it, a couple of shots were made and the team leader jumped and tackled me to the ground. Now we were both behind cover. Some rebellious side of me celebrated a mini victory with itself because despite being tackled, I still ended up on top of my opponent, but Nicolette shook it off as if she didn't even notice.

  She produced another pistol and peeked around the corner of whatever machinery our cover was. "Lots of Tanks, a few bolts, and one of mine reported a possible Slick," she related. Then she looked to me. "Why are you in the way again? You don't even have a weapon!"

  "I AM a weapon," I pointedly replied. "That's the whole point of them creating me!"

  Nicolette raised an eyebrow but said nothing in reply. A higher pitched motorized noise started up nearby, but it was masked with the sounds of people hustling, occasional weapon discharges and odd and end sounds of Greaters' powers. Nicolette didn't notice it, but after a second of that noise, my mind registered what it was.

  "Oh Botches, they have mini guns!" I half shouted as I scrambled up to make my getaway. Nicolette peeked out again, then turned and grabbed my pant leg, effectively tripping me. Bullets roared and ripped through our cover, and now that I was on the ground, all I could do was cover my head and wait. Stupid woman! Why did she grab me? And why doesn't she freeze the way between us and him? Is she out of juice?

  The bullets seemed to stray from our position towards the entrance I came in. I glanced up to see Wyatt running our way. If he continued on his current path, he would get shot to death in 1.6 seconds. Unless...

  As the the thought crossed my mind, I saw a couple of white lights brighten on his arms as he dashed past us. The bullets were still firing, but they were now stopping just one meter in front of the gun they originated from on a force field.

  "Go!" I yelled to Nicolette and Wyatt.

  Nicolette was bleeding here and there. Either she got shot, grazed, or hit with stray shrapnel during that mini gun siege, but she still managed to get her feet under her and dash away. I picked myself up and clamored up onto a metal shipping container, avoiding the guy with the heavy weapon. By the sounds my ears picked up, Nicolette was about to deal with him anyway. Considering how quickly things were escalating, I needed to find something to arm myself with, fast. Come on! How can it be so hard to locate a weapon in a weapons depot?

  I crouched to take the leap to a nearby platform when the container I was standing on became electrified. My body locked and I crashed into a pile of metal barstock. While I was tumbling off the pile of metal, I had enough control to roll under some sort of short assembly line, but my body had little movement ability remaining now. Plus, the pain caught up. I saw two pairs of feet run up to my approximate location. The reason they didn't hear my pained breathing is probably because nearly right above me was some kind of machine press going off at intervals. It was somewhat loud.

  "Please tell me that wasn't Sapphire Eyes," I heard the nearest one whisper to himself.

  "Comms are down. Whoever's here is jamming signal," the other voice stated.

  "I don't see her!" The first voice said. I detected panic in his voice.

  "Her? What do you mean, her?"

  "Sapphire Eyes!"

  "Don't joke like that man. We gotta get out of here."

  "I'm not joking, I thought I saw her fall off that shipping crate when Lance shocked it."

  "Quit playing dude!"
r />   "I'm not!"

  Just a little bit longer. Soon I'll be able to move again.

  "If it was her, then we don't want to be here."

  One of them grabbed the other. "Not that way! Someone is set up along that second catwalk."

  My shoulders released enough to push up and get my legs ready.

  "Where are we supposed to go? We don't even know how many of us are left! We're stuck!"

  "Ils sont avancent vers les contrôles," a voice echoed in the background.

  My would-be followers remained silent for a moment, then turned to leave. I took the opportunity to roll out from under the line and stand. They didn't notice me, so I approached the nearest man, a pale man carrying a pistol, grabbed his shirt and spun him around.

  One, two, three hits later, and he was stretched out over the assembly mechanism, and I was holding his gun. His friend, the white guy wielding a rifle, turned around and flinched. I put a bullet in his leg then aimed at his head. The pain didn't hold him back so much, but based on how much he was bleeding, he definitely wasn't a tank. Before I pulled the trigger again, he held his hands up in a panic.

  "Oh god, please! Please, don't!" He shouted. My finger rested on the trigger as I glared into his fearful eyes. He swallowed and quickly tossed his gun away.

  "There, I'm not armed! Please!"

  I felt the man whose shirt I was holding begin to squirm. I turned and put the gun to him.

  "You. Is there a Slick here?"

  He too was panicked at the sight of me. "Yes, there is."

  "Where?"

  "I don't know."

  I used the handle of the gun to knock him back onto the assembly line, this time holding his head in the way of the machine press as it lifted up.

  "Oh God, I'm going to die!"

  "Where?!" I shouted.

  "I don't know! She ran as soon as everything started happening!" The man talked so fast, I barely made out his words. At the sound of movement, I aimed the firearm behind me at the guy on the ground, but glared into this guy’s face. The machine press let out a noise, just like it always does right before it slams down. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips in preparation. Likely he was seeing his life flash before his eyes. I forced my willpower to keep him held down. Normally, I wouldn't have to do that, but HIS voice kept pleading, begging me not to do this. Things were simpler before HE messed with my mind.

  Yet, the machine press didn't come down. Instead, the power shut down for the entire building, and a loose emergency light here and there turned on. Confused whispers tickled at my ears all around me. Wyatt finished his objective it seems.

  My victim let out a major breath of relief. I leaned in and uttered, "Flashlight. Now."

  A light rolled across the ground and bumped against my foot. I looked down and then over at the man bleeding from his leg. He held his hands up to show submission. Giving me a flashlight doesn't excuse them. But it does lighten my kill mode slightly.

  "Leave now. Next time I see you, you likely won't live through it." I released my victim and grabbed the light, advancing towards the most concentrated pocket of voices. As I stumbled through the complex, another man froze and fled at the sight of me. I managed to sneak up and beat down another before locating one of Nicolette's crew.

  "Wait, sapphire eyes? What are you still doing here?" He said. If he hadn't said anything, I probably would have shot him out of reflex.

  I began to formulate a sarcastic response, but an odd sound caught my ears. Something quick and repetitive, and growing louder. It was the sound of running.

  "Slick!" I said and pointed. Using a metal rod, Nicolette's man backed up and shocked the ground immediately around where he was standing but a figure rushed past and plucked the gun from his arms. How did they not get electrocuted? Did that slick just leap through the air? I ducked behind a wall into a sort of makeshift hallway, out of sight. I heard a couple more shots and a loud thud. Suddenly, that crewman hit the wall, with a large dent in his armor and swollen bump on his head. He's very unconscious, maybe worse. A brunette woman in strange clothing and her hair tightly tied back, holding the metal rod that Nicolette's man was just wielding, slid to a stop next to him as he slumped on the ground. She looked up just in time to see me.

  "Blue eyes? Hey, you're that burn, right?" She chimed. The level of amusement she took in finally getting to meet me was annoying.

  I replied by chucking a ball of flame down the hall at her. The burn left behind on my arm felt like my arm just got shredded. To my horror and further irritation, the girl zipped out of the way and was now leaning on the rod.

  "Woops! Too slow!"

  I raised my other arm to make an attack that would fill the hallway, but that metal rod smacked my hand with lightning speed, before beating me in the gut, back, then swiping out my legs. The girl was again leaning on the rod on the other side of the hall, as if bored, while I pulled myself together and tried to deal with the pain. I'm pretty sure she just broke something in my hand. The pain...

  The slick held up my gun with one of her fingers. "Aw, Mon Chéri, what's the matter? I hope you didn't need this?"

  I growled while leaning against some metal barrels and stood again to make a move. If I can superheat like the last Slick I fought, then I would be able to-

  That rod connected several more times across my body. Before I could catch myself, my shin took a heavy blow and I crashed face first into the metal wall. I felt blood flow from my nose and I struggled to catch the wind that got knocked out of me. Think quickly, or I die. Think faster than a Slick can move.

  I cracked my eyes open as I braced against the wall. The girl was holding the rod on one end, tapping the other on the top of her shoulder, with a large grin on her face. "Why is everyone afraid of you? Are they just too slow?" She chuckled. I could hear other Greaters converging on this point.

  "Because they know not to *cuss* me off," I growled in a voice that revealed just how wrathful I really was.

  She lightheartedly let out a single laugh. As she began to wind up and make her move, I flicked on the flashlight and blinded her. I promise, a slick is not faster than the speed of light. Rather than charge me at full speed, she slowed down and raised a hand to block the light. I grabbed the small lid to a nearby case of chemicals and swung it into her jawline. It knocked the cocky girl to the ground, and I heard one of her teeth skid away. Next, I embraced her feet and heated up. A short searing noise filled the hall, quickly overridden by her scream of pain and my growling. Again, the metal rod connected with me and was thrown off of her.

  My ribs! That pain! I've felt that pain before!

  I looked up and saw at least three more Greaters joining the scene. Must escape, but where? No windows, no doors, no time! I clumsily lept towards the outer wall and melted a hole through it, rolling my burnt body onto the concrete outside. They're still coming for me. I need a distraction, or the ability to win the fight. I have around six seconds before they follow out of the hole I just made, unless that slick can still move, then it's less than one second.

  A bullet pierced the wall and struck the ground a meter away from me. This level of aggression sets me back about two seconds. I need to get away! I need a distraction! What's out here? There is no cover until I cross the street. What's inside? People, walls, lid, electrical boxes, but wait...there were barrels on the other side of the hall. What were they full of? I never saw, but I'm willing to bet I know at least one quality of them.

  I shot a quick stream of fire through the walls as I picked myself up and began to run across the street. The fire melted through both walls and struck the barrels, and nearly instantly, a huge portion of the building violently exploded. The eruption was grand. The sound deafened me, the light nearly blinded me, and the force shoved me across the remainder of the street, through the window of the next building, and along with the force came debris. Something hard struck my head after I broke through the glass, and consciousness was no more.

  Part 20

>   Pain.

  Anger.

  Tears.

  Cold.

  I cried to myself, leaning against a vent for a meager amount of heat. I felt so pathetic. This is demeaning. The only clothing I had besides my underwear was a dirty hoodie that I stole from someone else. My burns hurt badly, as I was unfamiliar with the pain after not using my power for quite a period of time. I was alone. No one knew where I was. I was becoming re-addicted to pain medication. Furthermore, I think I may have just killed someone again. The nightmares are coming back. They always do. Is this new city the place of my eventual death? Are THEY somehow here in this city as well? These people have abilities similar to me. It made me...angry. I tucked my head further down for warmth. The subsequent pain woke me up.

  The same feelings greeted me, but the pain was exponentially greater. My ribs were in bad shape, and my breathing was labored. My head ached terribly. I know I had a bad concussion. My hand throbbed, begging not to be used. My shins didn't want to be used either. My burns screeched on my sides, arms, and legs. Massive bruises across my body hurt like hematoma was forming. Blood oozed from my damaged face and cuts all along me from crashing through the glass. I was uncomfortably lying on my stomach in a pile of broken wooden planks, perhaps the remains of an old desk or table. I couldn't tell if I broke them when I was thrown in here, or they were already broken. Long story short, I was in an abundance of pain. All I could do upon opening my eyes was let out a very miserable groan.

  How long have I been unconscious? It's so dark in this room, even to me. The windows were now covered in dust and debris. I didn't hear any people outside, and I didn't hear any fire. It was unusually silent. Where am I? Where is my crew?

  I shifted to sit up but did little more than tighten my arms and pull myself a centimeter or two along the ground before pain paralyzed me. Bits of glass between my body and the ground bit into me and a piece of wood shifted to an even more uncomfortable position. I let out a breath that I was unaware I had been holding, which came out in the form of a desperate whining. My left arm is burnt. My right hand is broken. My ribs won't let me catch my breath. My head is pounding and if I move it, my vision flickers. My legs weren't responding well, and I became aware of something pinning my legs to the ground. I didn't even have the strength to sit up and see what it was. My body stiffened at the thought of trying to move. I'm so exhausted...and hungry. And thirsty. I need sleep meds. Sleep medication sounds so good right now.