“Shit! Keep moving!” Layla said.
Layla tossed the empty M32 to the ground and retrieved her P90 personal defence weapon. Kohler raised both arms in front of him and opened up. Powerful jets of flame roared across the walls, ceiling and shelving, and in seconds the whole store was being consumed. Kohler stalked through the middle of the inferno.
Thao and Layla raced toward the rear of the building with walls of fire licking at their backs, making them flush with the heat, and slammed their way through a set of doors into a lightless storage room. The doors melted behind them as the blaze ate its way across the back of the store. Thao’s flashlight painted stacks of empty and toppled shelving. The room was damp and filthy, filled with rot left behind from the time of the quake.
“You ever feel like the deck has been stacked against you?” Layla said, “Over there!”
Moving with purpose through the small warehouse space, Layla headed for the rear of the store. She slammed another door off its hinges and the two of them stumbled into a loading dock at the end of a wide alleyway. Thick fissures ran through the alley and the surrounding buildings. Knowing Kohler was stalking after them, Layla scanned the rooftops for his partner. She was rewarded with a hail of gunfire that came screaming out of nowhere. Jackrabbit Slim sprung from one building to the next. Layla tried to follow him with her weapon but the other ex-soldier was too fast.
Meanwhile, in the control room at the heart of the arena, the firefight occupied the main screen. One of the camera drones captured Layla and Jackrabbit Slim exchanging gunfire from above. Jackrabbit circled one of the rooftops, ejecting a spent magazine and jamming in a fresh one from his vest. Roland Smith, the head producer, watched with a broad slash of a grin across his face. The smaller screens surrounding the main one displayed other feeds, such as Kohler in his hulking, dark suit still stomping through the burning ruins of the grocery store after Thao and Layla, and images of the other remaining teams.
“Now this is what I call quality television!” Roland said, “But these two still know too much, time to shut them down.”
“Yes, sir, we have to make it subtle but the audience will never know what hit Jackson and Seong.” The host said.
The blonde woman was already holding a small, grey remote control. Waiting for the right moment as she fixated on Layla, the Slayerz host waited and then, arm extended, hit a button on the remote.
Suddenly, back in the arena, Layla’s left arm seemed to go limp with a whine as it powered down. Layla was thrown off by the sudden weight that was no longer supporting itself and staggered sideways. The prosthetic was useless and dangling off her scarred shoulder like an anchor, causing her to drop her P90. Layla’s eyes widened in fear.
“What the-, fuck?” Layla said.
Jackrabbit vaulted to the balcony of an overlooking building’s fire escape. While Layla was still distracted, he turned and fired with both guns. The SMG raked the air over Thao and Layla’s heads. The Desert Eagle in his right hand thundered as he aimed more carefully, and a heavy slug pounded into the chest plate on Layla’s body armour. Her prosthetic arm, it seemed, couldn’t have chosen a worse moment to die as Layla was caught right in Jackrabbit’s firing line. Jackrabbit squeezed the trigger again and a second bullet chewed through the armour covering Layla’s right shoulder. Blood sprayed from the injury and Layla went down on one knee. Just as suddenly as it had shut down, Layla’s arm came back online and she managed to use it to prop herself up rather than fall all the way to the ground. To the audience, it would have looked if she’d gotten distracted, stumbled and gotten shot for her negligence.
“No, Layla!” Thao said.
Thao didn’t even think of the metal sleeve on his forearm linking the two of them together. He raised the Heckler & Koch MP5 and opened it up on full auto in Jackrabbit’s general direction. The kick wasn’t as bad as he’d expected and bullets pecked at the walls around the tall and crippled ex-soldier’s position. Jackrabbit returned fire with a couple more rounds from the booming Desert Eagle and then sprung upward. His bladed prostheses skittered on the lip of the building and he disappeared.
Thao’s gun ran empty and he didn’t have anything to reload it with. Looking it over for a couple of moments, he tossed it into the alley and ran toward Layla. Now, Layla’s right arm was limp and useless at her side, blood running down the bicep to her forearm from under the armour. She scooped up her dropped P90 with her left hand.
“Motherfucker!” Layla said, “Nice work with the suppressing fire, showing some backbone, huh?”
“You’re bleeding!” Thao said.
“I know, my damn shoulder-, I can’t move it.” Layla said.
Layla winced as she tried to raise her right arm. Behind them, a forgotten smoke alarm in the abandoned store was ringing as the warehouse section went up in flames. They could only imagine Donny Kohler still stalking through the inferno, unharmed in his massive suit, after them.
“Come on, we need to keep moving.” Layla said, “And keep your eyes open for that asshole on the rooftops.”
“We need to get you to one of the medical drops!” Thao said.
“Alright, so lead the way.” Layla said.
Thao checked the map on his forearm. It showed a red cross on the map a few blocks away. Layla limped as her wounded shoulder seemed to drag the whole right side of her body down. Blood patterned off her fingers and dripped on the concrete. Smoke billowed out of the building behind them as Thao and Layla hurried out of the alleyway.
There was another massive wall ahead of them about a block away, the boundary wall of the arena itself. The two of them moved away from it down the empty street. In spite of Layla’s injury, Jackrabbit didn’t come after them again. It seemed he’d doubled back to make sure Kohler was alright. The two of them, sociopathic killers or not, were linked to one another.
“What happened to your arm before? The other one.” Thao said.
Thao walked close to Layla to help support her if she fell in spite of the difference in their sizes. Layla eyed her left arm suspiciously.
“I don’t know, it’s never happened before.” Layla said, “It’s like it-, just shut off on me, like when I had the bracelet around it from prison. And the timing threw me-, I don’t know what happened.”
xXx
“We had some ups and downs with Yoyo but I’m afraid she and Rizzio have reached the end of their string thanks to the triple trouble of the Tanners!” One of the commentators said as the contestants’ map updated along with a highlight reel of the latest battles, “But the first sibling trio on Slayerz didn’t make it too far in the competition either, Fred! A girl and her mech, just too much for Luke and Lonny.”
“That’s right, Rick, you know what they say, two’s company but three’s a target rich environment.” The second man said, “As for Crusher and Mauler, so much for girl power! Our former champion Church Harper showed them how the game is played, but I just don’t know about this team-up he’s trying with New New Zealander Titama and her partner, Anaconda. Hopefully, this victory might mean he can get his head in the game.”
“That’s right, Fred, only one team can be victorious.” The first commentator said, “Our final ringer team doing a lot better but unable to finish the job with Southpaw Jackson and Thao Seong. Still, Kohler is really heating things up while Jackrabbit Slim is keeping the pair hopping, exciting stuff!”
Baxter Webley / Reaper
Billy Blight / Wing Chun
Church Harper / Jeannie St Sunshine
Donna Pardee / Raptor Rawlins
Drago Vorobyov / Wolf Hutchins
Drake Mooney / Billy-Bob Boomer
Francois Connard / Neena Twist
Jacob Schmidt / Pedro de la Mar
Layla Jackson / Thao Seong
Q. Chrissie / Maurice Lester
Santa Muerte / Priest
T-Bone West / Runner
Titama / Anaconda
Ursula Paxton / Dogboy
Yoyo Yokatomi /
Mark Rizzio
RINGERS
Cassidy Crusher / Maryanne Mauler
Donny Kohler / Jackrabbit Slim
Luke Tanner / Lonny Tanner / Lorelai Tanner
Rubble stirred near the site of Layla and Thao’s last fight with Drago and Wolf Hutchins. Clawing his way to the surface, Baxter Webley pulled himself out of the wreckage. The wall had come down on top of Baxter after Drago tried to blow him up but he had survived the blast, the rubble collapsing into a chamber around him. Given enough room to manoeuvre, Baxter cut himself out bit by bit with the bloodstained vibroblade that was humming in his left fist. His suit was ragged and dirty again. His face was covered in scratches and bruises. Even though his right arm was only a civilian-level cyborg prosthesis it had been helpful in heaving some of the rocks out of the way.
The holographic display flashed on the inside of his prosthetic arm’s slightly scratched casing. It showed him Layla and Thao’s fight with the ringers, Kohler and Jackrabbit Slim. Climbing to his feet, Baxter could see the billowing pillar of smoke from the supermarket fire in the distance. Layla and Thao, he had saved them and they had left him for dead, practically forgotten. Baxter flexed his mechanical arm. The humming sword was rigid down his left side.
“Can’t-, can’t ignore me! Don’t you know who I am?” Baxter said, “I’m the angel of death, I’m the alpha and the omega, bitch.”
Chapter Eighteen.
“Is this you?”
In black and white, a woman sits on the toilet while hunched over her phone. Suddenly and dramatically, she fumbles and the phone falls between her legs into the toilet bowl. A large, red X appears across her face.
A portly, middle-aged man, also sitting on the toilet, holds a fistful of toilet paper in each hand. Twisting back and forth for a few moments as if unable to reach, he throws his hands up in the air with frustration. A red X appears over him.
Clutching his stomach, another man races into a public bathroom. Before he can reach a stall, the man slips and goes sprawling. With wildly flailing arms, he slams through the door of the stall and is flung face-first into the tank of the toilet. He crumples to the ground. Blood pours out of a gash on his scalp and forms a pool on the tiles as he lies there. A red X is stamped across his unconscious face.
“There must be a better way!”
“Genetically engineered super gut bacteria can flush your need for regular trips to the porcelain prison by processing everything you eat with almost one hundred percent efficiency! After one short FMT bacteriotherapy procedure, you’ll only have to expel waste once a month or so!”
“Want not, waste not! Genetically engineered super gut bacteria is a hit, no shit!”
See your doctor if you experience persistent symptoms of: mild stomach discomfort, excess sweating, cramps, irritable bowel syndrome, extremely irritable bowel syndrome, oily discharge, burning discharge, discharge that is neither oily or burning, malabsorption syndrome, hearing voices claiming to be microbial creatures that are attempting to bargain or exert control over your body, multiple organ failure, rectal prolapse or excessive flatulence.
Layla was losing blood fast as they stumbled through the streets, her right arm limp at her side. She stumbled and Thao was worried she was about to pass out. He ran to support her but there was no way he could prop up her muscled and cybernetically enhanced bulk if she did lose consciousness. Thao grabbed her right arm and Layla winced as she felt bone grinding on flesh in her open wound. Their maps updated but the medical checkpoint was still nearby.
“It’s okay, we’re almost there.” Thao said.
The medical drop was in an old walk-in clinic near the boundary wall. The wall carved through buildings and cut across streets, looming over the ruins. Thao noticed the strange spines that studded the top of the wall again, like force field generators of some kind.
Thao and Layla moved inside the building, looking around for traps. Both of them jumped as a dark shape shifted in the back of the clinic. Everything was bathed in shadow but all of a sudden some of the overhead lights popped on revealing the front room of the clinic was ransacked and strewn with garbage. A multi-armed medical droid, suspended on some sort of mechanical appendage, purred into the room.
“Hello, do you require assistance?” The droid said.
“My-, my partner, she needs help!” Thao said.
Thao couldn’t tell if the droid was part of the medical drop, a threat, or just some malfunctioning and leftover piece of equipment. Like the library bots and security droid at the police station the medical droid was spiderlike in design. Multiple skinny arms dangled off its bulbous body, attached to the mechanical arm that extended from a track on the ceiling. All of the arms ended in different attachments, bristling with medical and surgical tools. It lifted one arm and ran a holographic scanner over Layla.
“No problem, we can get that fixed up in a jiffy!” The droid said, “Right this way.”
“What should we do?” Thao said.
“I guess we go with it, I mean-, as long as we can trust all this to be a real medical drop.” Layla said.
The droid retreated back down the hallway. Thao and Layla followed it along its track to a small medical theatre at the back of the clinic. The tools on the droid’s spidery limbs spun in anticipation. It presented an injector full of painkillers. Layla settled heavily onto the side of the table in the centre of the room, resting her P90 beside her.
“You are perfectly safe, we have your blood type on file but you may feel a slight pinch.” The droid said.
“No shot, just stitch me up, I can’t get knocked out.” Layla said.
“All is well, now watch the birdie!” The droid said.
The droid’s multiple arms flared. With the deftness of a street magician, it distracted Layla with several of its whirring tools and punched the injector into her right arm. She was slow from blood loss, and only seemed to realise what had happened once the drugs were already flooding her system. Her eyelids started to flutter.
“What are you doing to her?” Thao said.
“Stand on point, watch out for those two psychos.” Layla said, “If I’m out, it’s up to you to protect us both.”
Layla slumped sideways. The droid caught the big woman with its thin but apparently strong arms. Lowering her onto the table, it scanned Layla’s shoulder and facial injuries, and plugged a tube of Layla’s blood type into her forearm.
“The procedure will take approximately twenty-three minutes.” The droid said.
“Oh, Jesus.” Thao said.
The map update would have given Kohler and Jackrabbit, and all the remaining teams, their latest position. It would be easy to trace Thao and Layla to the walk-in clinic. Thao picked up his partner’s personal defence weapon P90, the bullpup assault weapon-style firearm stocky and solid. Aside from the unfamiliar gun, Thao only had his pistol and his electric baton. His hands shook as he backed away to the door of the medical theatre while the droid ignored him, hovering over Layla. He was sure the droid had been programmed to knock Layla out so they would be sitting ducks. Thao couldn’t take out the other team on his own. Moving back down the hallway, he wasn’t able to find any cameras but knew they would be watching anyway.
“This isn’t fair!” Thao said, “I’m not supposed to be here! And-, you’re cheating!”
A distant whoosh that sounded like Kohler’s jetpack silenced Thao. He returned to the waiting room to watch and saw a shadow pass in front of the foggy glass of the doors. It looked tall and sinewy, like Jackrabbit Slim. The room was empty of furniture that Thao could use for cover except for a curving reception desk in the corner. Thao passed Layla’s gun to his shoulder the way he’d seen Layla do and fumbled with the safety. Jackrabbit moved on with the grey sunlight getting darker all the time, making it harder to distinguish what was what.
Thao’s heart was pounding in his chest. He couldn’t hope to keep the two psychopaths outside for another twenty minutes. There was still so much he didn’t know since
his memory hadn’t returned. He had a name, a little bit of personal history, but he didn’t really know who he was or why exactly he was there. He didn’t know for sure that the woman in the picture he’d recognised was the same one listed as his spouse, back in the police station, Stephanie Tillman. Thao didn’t want to die without remembering her properly.
Something shifted, the shadows mottling, and Thao jerked back on the trigger for the P90. The glass doors erupted as Thao raked them with bullets. He yelled as the high-pitched howl of the weapon and sound of breaking glass filled the clinic, shards raining out onto the sidewalk. Thao paused for a moment with the P90 smoking. His eyes darted back down the hallway, unsure if there might be other entrances Kohler and Jackrabbit could use to get around him to the totally unprotected Layla. Jackrabbit’s bladed feet skittered on the pavement outside. Before Thao could react, Jackrabbit filled the room with an opposing hail of gunfire, bullets riddling the walls. Thao dived to his knees and tried to bring Layla’s P90 to bear but he was too slow. Jackrabbit’s Desert Eagle thundered and a hole was ripped into the wall above Thao’s head. The shock dazed Thao for a moment.
MP5K submachine gun chattering, Jackrabbit dashed inside the clinic. He towered over Thao, long-limbed and slender but powerful, and the weird satellite ears on top of his mask almost scraped the ceiling. Prosthetic legs squealing, Jackrabbit moved in a blur and kicked out at Thao. One of his blades slashed through Thao’s left arm and Thao fumbled with Layla’s P90 then dropped it. Jackrabbit toyed with the P90 and kicked it across the waiting area. His other prosthetic foot swung into Thao’s chest. It bent up like a spring and threw Thao backward like a shotgun blast, sending him sailing into the edge of the doorway that led into the corridor. Thao gasped for breath.
“L-leave us alone, it’s not right!” Thao said.
Jackrabbit holstered his compact SMG at his left hip, still holding the Desert Eagle in his right hand. Thao had his pistol and the folded stun baton. He reached for the gun but Jackrabbit grabbed Thao’s wrist with his free hand. Hauling Thao to his feet, Jackrabbit twisted Thao’s arm backward and shoved the heavy barrel of his Desert Eagle pistol into Thao’s face. The muzzle was hot and stunk of burnt powder. Instead of shooting him, Jackrabbit slammed one knee into Thao’s stomach, powered by his springy prosthesis. As Thao collapsed to the ground again one of Jackrabbit’s bladed feet slashed through his coat. Jackrabbit reached down and pulled Thao’s handgun out of its holster then tossed it across the room as well. Jackrabbit was toying with Thao like a cat toying with a mouse before going in for the kill, knocking him around just because he could.
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