A distraction. Looking from the activity outside the building to the heavy transport vehicle that had just come up on the big square elevator, I formed a plan.
I noticed that one of the clones I’d knocked down the hole was splayed out on the cargo bed. I ran to the vehicle and examined the control stem. It was just a skinny piece of plasteel extending up from the bed with two directional buttons on it. I pushed the one that pointed toward the door. The vehicle rolled forward a little. There must have been some kind of silent electric motor on the undercarriage of the thing.
I took my hand off the button; the vehicle stopped. I needed some way to keep the button pressed. It took me a minute, but I got the knocked out clone maneuvered over to the stem. I lifted one of its hands; it reached just fine. I tore a strip of cloth off my shirt and tied the clone’s hand onto the control stem without tightening it yet. I checked outside. Still a bunch of clones walking around and six Ranjers guarding the building thirty meters down the road.
Thumbing my keeper to life, I selected grenades and sighted down the road, figuring out where I should shoot. Then I ran to the cargo vehicle and tightened the clone’s limp hand against the control stem. The vehicle smoothly rolled forward, toward the wide doors.
I outpaced it and stopped just inside the doors, out of sight from the people outside. The cargo vehicle picked up speed and by the time it slipped out of the doors, it was going about as fast as I could run. It bumped into a clone, knocking it over. Other clones stopped and stared blankly at the flat vehicle rapidly crossing the road on a collision course with the building across the street.
Angling my keeper upward, I launched a grenade over the nearby buildings and watched the Ranjers. Two of them had already started running toward the flat cargo vehicle, their keepers at the ready. One turned toward me. I ducked. Then my grenade exploded.
The Ranjers whipped around. One of them was trying to stop the cargo vehicle, which was going even faster now, but he was having trouble grabbing the stem. The four Ranjers guarding the door were still there, but two of them peeled off, running toward the explosion.
I watched as the second set of Ranjers disappeared behind a building and the first set jumped away from the heavy cargo transport. It smashed into the building. They got back up and ran toward me. I let them come.
The Ranjers darkened the bright doorway for a moment, then split up. They must be communicating under their helmets, because I couldn’t hear them. I stayed low and waited for one to pass by me; the others had gone the opposite direction. They must not have had their thermal sensors going, because the Ranjer walked right past me.
I let him get a few meters away, then ran for the doorway.
“Intruder!” The other Ranjer had seen me.
I dropped. Bullets exploded past me, smashing the already beat up building across the street. I had to blink to get my eyes accustomed to the bright sunlight outside. I scrambled away from the building. More bullets and shouts followed me.
The Ranjers started running my way, leaving the building unguarded. I felt sure that was where my parents were.
I rolled onto my back and fired my keeper into the building I’d just left. My heart stopped. I’d meant to fill the enclosed space with bullets, but a single grenade thumped out of my keeper. It arced through the wide doors.
Rolling again, I got my feet under me just in time to hear the huge explosion of the grenade. I dove toward a nearby structure, trying to get its corner between me and the two oncoming Ranjers.
The building behind me exploded again. There must have been fuel cells or something in the building that my grenade had hit. The shockwave slammed me forward, throwing me against the house. My face scraped against the rough stone, but the nano gel cushioned the blow. A jagged, stabbing pain flared in one of my legs and a shoulder. I fought the sudden desperation to push a hand against the pain to try to squeeze it away. My ears were ringing and my vision was blurred. I tasted blood; I must have bit my lip or tongue. The building hadn’t really exploded, but the wall nearest to me had ruptured outward, so there must have been something very flammable in that spot. Maybe the grenade had been better than bullets. Water sprayed from somewhere in the ceiling of the blasted building, shooting out through the jagged new hole and soaking the ground where I was.
More bullets splattered and shattered against the destroyed building, the dirt, and the stone corner I hid behind. Strangely, I couldn’t hear them over the ringing in my ears. I scrambled farther behind my cover. The throbbing in my back shoulder and leg dug straight into my bones.
I stole a glance around the corner.
One Ranjer was ducking around the far side of the house I was using as cover. The other Ranjer was five meters away, running directly at me. Surprised, I fell back and pulled the trigger of my keeper. Another grenade arced out. Pain in my shoulder and leg stabbed deeper. My heels scrabbled against the dirt as I tried to put distance between me and the Ranjer. The Ranjer batted the grenade off to the side and fired.
I was already rolling away. Bullets scored across my back, but didn’t make it through the body armor shirt. Scrambling backward again, I came up at the same time the grenade exploded. Bright light and another shockwave hit me. I stumbled backward and fell. This saved my life, because bullets shredded the air where my head had just been. That other Ranjer was going to show up behind me any second.
Thumbing the ammunition drum desperately, I yanked on the trigger as hard and fast as I could. The keeper beeped at me, not shooting. It wouldn’t fire if it was between ammunition selections.
The Ranjer rolled around the corner, firing. He slipped a little in the mud the water spray had made. Bullets slammed me backwards. My chest was smashed; I couldn’t breathe. My entire front would have been destroyed if not for the body armor.
I released the ammunition selector, waited a beat, and fired. Sizzling electrodes shot out, sticking on the Ranjer’s legs. He jerked a few times and went still, his keeper falling from his paralyzed hands.
Staring, I pushed myself to my feet. I’d never seen electrodes work so well. Was it the water?
I hobbled back toward the corner of the house. I had to get out of sight before the other Ranjer showed up. Bullets pounded into my back and shoulder, throwing me to the ground. They felt like I was being punched by incredibly strong, rock-hard fists. I crawled around the corner and thumbed my ammunition to ‘net.’ I shoved the keeper around the corner and fired.
More bullets pounded the dirt and shattered chunks out of the stone wall. Through the red haze of pain, one thought blared at me: hurry up. Those other Ranjers that ran after my first grenade were going to be back. I had to finish this.
I selected ‘grenade’ again. I had two more. The bullets had stopped. I stole a quick glance. The Ranjer was approaching low and fast. We fired at the same time. A couple of his bullets pounded my upper arm and one sliced across my neck. My grenade hit the dirt right in front of him. I jerked back, gasping in pain, or at least trying to. My chest still felt like a pod had landed on it.
The explosion threw dirt everywhere. I forced myself to look. The Ranjer had been thrown backward, but he was still coming. I fired another grenade. He slapped at it and deflected it over his head. He was so fast! He fired back, but his aim was too high.
I unloaded on him. He tripped, his feet caught in my net. My onslaught drove him backward, then down. Bullets weren’t going to win; if they were, I’d be dead already. Wheezing and falling to a knee, I grabbed the downed Ranjer’s keeper. I selected ‘grenade’ and pumped two back into the destroyed building’s walls.
I flung myself around the house corner, rolling with my hands over my head. Twin explosions lit up my eyelids, shaking the ground. Rock and other debris fragmented across my back. I lay like that for a second, wishing I could just crawl into the house and hide.
Nope. Not until Holland’s stopped. My chest throbbed. Sharp pain dug into my leg and shoulder. The rest of me ached. I crawled on all fours and peeked a
round the corner. The building the cargo vehicle had been in was completely destroyed. The only remaining side had collapsed into the space between it and the house, burying the Ranjer.
I needed to find an easier way to stop Ranjers. Picking up my keeper and the one I’d taken from the Ranjer, I tried to run to the building the prisoners were in, but it was more of a stumble. I spat dirt with every step. I fell onto the door, the twinging agony in my leg and shoulder making me light-headed. The keeper knocked against the door. I looked around, no clones were in sight. The Ranjers that had run off were going to be back any second.
“Hey! Anyone in there?”
I waited one heartbeat, then another. If I’d been wearing my Papa, I would have been knocked out long ago. Leaning on the wall, fighting to stay standing, I slammed the keeper against the heavy, metal door again.
“Anyone?”
A man’s voice came back. “Nik? Is that you?”
Chapter 45
I had to blast the door open, unloading almost half a drum of bullets at it. Then it jerked open and my father emerged, his eyes wide.
“Nik!” He reeled back. “You’re not N—
I put my hands up. “No, it’s me. Dad, it’s me.”
“Stay back,” my dad said, gesturing toward the inside of the building. “What is this?”
“Dad, listen. It’s my voice.” I should have thought of this. “I used something called nano gel to look like Holland.”
He looked me up and down. “Nik?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“What did you—How did—” He wrapped me in a hug. I hissed in pain and pulled back.
“What?” He spun me around. A beat of silence, then, “Nik, you have a piece of metal sticking out of your shoulder.”
I felt disconnected, like I was watching and listening from far away.
“Leg too?” I asked. My mother and Karl Stevens appeared from the darkness of the building, along with others. “It’s me, Nik, I promise.”
“There’s a big piece in your leg,” my dad yelled. “What happened?”
“No time,” I said. I made sure everyone could hear me. “You have to get out of here. Ranjers are coming.” I handed Karl the second keeper I’d picked up.
Pressure and twisting pain erupted in the back of my shoulder. My dad held up a ten-centimeter-long piece of jagged metal. It had my blood on it.
“This was stuck in you.”
My mom put her hands on my shoulder and looked me over. “Bruse, of course it’s Nik.” She gave me a hug. “You’re taller.” Tears flowed freely down her face. “I knew you would find us.”
“Mom,” I said, “you have to go. There’s a tunnel.”
The same awful pain twisted in my leg as my dad pulled out the other piece of shrapnel.
“Were you rolling on a bed of metal shards?”
“No, I blew up a building,” I said.
“Of course you did.”
“Down!” Karl Stevens shouted. He pushed one of the other prisoners back into the house and fired the keeper up the street.
I twisted and dove inside for cover. The first Ranjers who had run off appeared from between two houses. Karl’s shots went wide and high. The Ranjers immediately started shooting and running directly at us. Bits of rock and dirt flew everywhere.
“Bullets aren’t going to work!” I called, firing them anyway and not bothering to seek cover. I was out of grenades. “Grenades or nets or something.” I hit one of the Ranjers, but he barely slowed.
Everyone had made it back into the building, the door was still open wide. My mom and dad crouched behind me. Karl hugged the wall on the other side of the doorway from me. There were five others I didn’t know, but I recognized their faces.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Grazed my leg,” my dad said. “Got any more keepers?”
“Nope.” I glanced out the door. The Ranjers were maybe fifteen meters away, one on each side of the street. “We have to get out of this building.”
“They’ll just overpower us,” my dad said. “We’ll be back to where we started.”
“We have to do something they won’t expect,” I said. “Any ideas?”
My mom looked back out the door. “They’re coming!”
Karl Stevens shouted and ran out of the door, shooting to his right away from the Ranjers and screaming. It took me a beat, but I dove at the door and shot toward the left.
The explosion of continuous keeper fire filled the street and air all around us. The Ranjer on the left ducked right after I started shooting. Then he fell, tangled in Karl’s net. Surprised, I looked for Karl. He was ducking behind a house, blood streaming from his back and a leg. The Ranjer on the right shot at him nonstop.
Karl had done the unexpected, and now we only had one Ranjer to deal with. I shot my last grenade—and nothing happened. I’d forgotten I was out. I switched to bullets and charged the Ranjer, screaming at the top of my lungs.
The Ranjer rolled backward as bullets tore into the brick wall where his head had been. I thumbed the keeper to net and fired. The webbed mass exploded outward and got him on the side, wrapping up an arm. His keeper arm was still free. I shot again and dove at him. Behind me I heard a huge explosion—another grenade. I flinched and slammed into the Ranjer. With both of his hands tied up—one in the net and the other holding his keeper—I thought I might have a chance.
He jackknifed his body and suddenly I was flying over his head. How was he so strong? I hit the house behind him with my injured shoulder, throbbing pain flashing out from the impact.
Another dull explosion came from behind me. I rolled, feeling like my head was being compressed. Shouts sounded all around me as I pushed myself around, trying to get my bearings.
My mom, dad, and everyone else were attacking the Ranjer I’d shot with my net. One of them had gotten the keeper, while a few of them had pulled his earth-toned helmet off. The adult with the keeper smacked the Ranjer in the head and the man went limp.
Across the street, part of a house had been blown apart and rubble and dirt coated the Ranjer Karl had netted. Karl was kneeling against the house he’d ducked behind, his keeper lowered into the street. I put it together. Karl had shot one of his grenades, finishing off the Ranjer under the rubble while I went after the Ranjer who had been shooting at him.
“Karl!” I called out. He looked over at me, his face strangely blank. “That was totally—”
Karl toppled into the dirt.
Chapter 46
“You have to go,” I said, turning the tourniquet around Karl’s thigh tighter.
“You can’t do this alone,” Mom said. She tied a bandage made from the cleanest part of someone’s shirt around Karl’s chest. Karl groaned and twisted.
My dad and one of the women were watching the street, armed with the two new keepers.
“That’s the only way I can do it.” I gestured at my face. “I need to take advantage of this as long as it lasts.”
“You’re pretending to be one of the clones?” Dad asked.
“I wasn’t, but that’s a good idea,” I said. I tied off the tourniquet. Karl’s eyelids were fluttering. He’d lost a lot of blood. “Get the cargo vehicle up the street and into the collapsed building.” I stood, brushing myself off. “There’s an elevator in the floor. Take it down. There’s a tunnel.” I described where I was going to meet Melisa and the others. “Get there. Take a pod, do whatever you need to do.”
“You need help here,” my mom said. “Tell him Bruse.”
“She’s right. You’ve been lucky,” Dad said.
“I know, but this is the plan. They don’t expect any of this. They probably think a big army is attacking them.” I lifted the keeper Karl had used. Three grenades left and half of its bullets. “They have no way of knowing I look like Holland.” And if I don’t stop Holland, he’ll just keep sending Ranjers. Or worse.
“But you can’t do it alone,” Dad said. Mom and three others lifted Karl.
&nb
sp; “You’re a big group and Karl slows you down. You need both of those keepers,” I said. “What good would you be without a keeper?” I forced myself to take a deep breath. “Look, Holland’s got the Ranjers chasing the rest of the Pushers and going after Melisa and the others. I look like a clone so I can get close.” They had to understand. “Mom, Dad, he’s killed so many. He killed Bren.” I swallowed. “I can do this. I have to.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other, their eyes tight with worry.
“Kayt,” Dad said. “He’s right.”
“I know that!” Mom said. “But he’s still our son.”
“Exactly,” Dad said. “We can’t leave you.”
I thought fast. This was taking too long. “But Karl needs you. And you can distract them when you get down there, shoot some rockets or something. Get a pod and fly around blowing things up. Keep the Ranjers and Holland’s attention away from me.” I put one hand on Dad’s shoulder and one on Mom’s. “I made it this far. I’ll be okay.”
“I just yanked two pieces of metal out of you,” Dad said. “That doesn’t seem okay.”
“The body armor protected me,” I said. “It doesn’t change colors, but at least it stops bullets.” Mostly. It still hurt to breathe. I pulled them into a hug.
“Nik,” Mom said, squeezing me with one arm. Dad pulled me close. They were the best. My mom’s voice was ragged. “No way. You’re not—”
I tore myself free. “Go. Find the tunnel.” I took off running. “Distract them!” I put my head down and ran as fast as I could.
“Nik!” Dad called out. I kept running, ducking behind a house. Please don’t follow me.
I wove between buildings, wondering where the Holland clones had gone. The door of a nearby building was slightly open. I burst through, ready to shoot the place to pieces. It was empty, except for shelves full of medical supplies. I shut the door behind me and looked out a window to see if anyone had followed me. I understood why Mom and Dad didn’t want me to go alone, but this was how it had to be.
Push (Beat series Book 2) Page 27