by Simon Archer
“You’re alive,” I said flatly when I saw him. He looked a little worse for wear, his face bruised and a gash across his chin, but clearly, he’d survived the collapse of the tunnel Clem and I had caused.
“Disappointed, Joch?” he sneered, leering at me in a way that made me distinctly uncomfortable, like he’d been looking forward to this for a long time. Maybe he had, for all I knew. These people seemed to know all about us up on the surface.
This area was larger and wider than the other corridors, like a wide-open room beneath the surface of the city. But there was nothing in the room other than people, and a few doors lining the sides. And somehow it still felt claustrophobic, almost pressed for air. It was wider and more open, but it wasn’t anything like what Clem and I had found in the south side tunnel entrance. It was still an enclosed area.
“Who are you people?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. “What do you want? Why are you doing this? You hate tech, and you want to keep away from the world above. So why not just do that? Why do you have to spend all this time bothering us? Why not just stay in your own little enclave and leave well enough alone?”
He just continued to snarl at me. He didn’t answer. Then he addressed his other goons. Some of them looked haphazard and wounded like him, meaning they’d probably been involved in the battle with Clem and me the other night, too. But most of them looked fresh, well-rested, and a little too eager to fight, shifting on their feet and banging their fists together, eyeing us, and to my chagrin, especially the foxgirls, like fresh meat for the slaughter.
“C’mon boys,” the head guy said. “Let’s clobber ‘em.”
And just like that, they came lunging at us. And unlike the last time, there was really nowhere to go. There was enough room for us to stand and fight, but not much else. We were trapped in this little room. If we turned to go back, we’d just run back into the rubble from the collapsed tunnel. And I couldn’t see any way forward beside the doors, which were all slammed shut and presumably locked. So we had to stay and fight. Not that my team or I would have it any other way, really.
The main guy came right up next to me before I even had time to think, so close that I could feel his breath against my face. And it reeked like he hadn’t had anything to drink in ages except booze. I also smelled the distinct metallic scent of blood and noticed that a few of his teeth were freshly knocked eschew, probably from our last battle.
“Hey, pretty,” he said, narrowing his eyes and turning his leering gaze to Cindra beside me. “Aren’t you just tight as a button?”
“Ugh,” Cindra scoffed, almost coughing she was so disgusted. But the guy inched closer to her, looming over her.
My blood boiled, and I launched myself at him, even though I knew that was exactly what he wanted. I reached for his neck, but he saw me coming a mile away. It’s why he’d turned his attention to her in the first place.
“Your boyfriend’s an idiot,” he said, not moving his eyes from Cindra, who was leaning back away from him. He grabbed hold of both of my wrists and twisted them. I writhed, trying to get out of his grip, but he was even stronger than he looked. And he didn’t exactly look like a wimp.
But all his attention was on me. That was his mistake. I don’t know why he thought we’d brought the foxgirls with us, but he clearly didn’t think of them as much other than eye candy. The second he took his eyes off Cindra, she launched herself at him.
Aided by her own inhuman strength, she was strong even by foxgirl standards, and my urging and guidance within our bond, she smashed both her clenched fists down on his head. And his knees buckled beneath him, utterly unprepared to respond to or withstand the blow.
He fell to his knees, and his eyes lolled. But I didn’t bother to pay him any more attention. He was down, at least for now, and Cindra and I had more urgent matters to attend to.
“Nice one,” I told her as we stepped over the man’s whimpering form to rush in the direction of the rest of the battle.
“Aren’t you glad you brought me?” she asked, flashing me a grin as we darted off.
“Always,” I said, grinning back at her.
Clem and Semra were wrapped up in a battle with about half of the remaining goons while Kinley and Kira were left to fend for themselves with the other half. Clem and Semra, highly trained TelCorp binders as they were, were doing well for themselves, and there were three goons already on the ground, knocked prone or possibly dead. Clem was injured, but he was still managing to hold his own.
Kinley and Kira weren’t faring as well. They were strong, especially Kinley, but they weren’t as strong as Cindra. And I hadn’t been paying enough attention to help them through our bond since I was so wrapped up with dealing with the head goon and protecting Cindra, even when she didn’t really need my protection like the other foxgirls did.
So Cindra and I rushed to their defense. I positioned myself at the head of the pack like I had when we had fought Elias Berg what felt like a lifetime ago. I focused on my bond with each of the foxgirls individually, and then on our collective bond together. And then, just like before, we moved almost as one to fight the goons.
It was way easier this time than it had been when Clem and I had fought them alone. Plus, some of the goons were strung out and injured still from that last battle. Even so, they got more than a few good knocks in, especially with Clem, who was getting more and more beat up by the minute. I realized a little too late that we probably should’ve left him behind after he hurt his leg. But he never would’ve gone for that, I knew. He was too loyal.
Now that Cindra and I were with the other two, the foxgirls and I made quick enough work of the surrounding goons, punching and kicking in tandem, blocking their blows with our forearms and then getting more hits in while they tried to collect themselves. I swiped and jabbed with my holo knife, killing several. Cindra even managed to kill one by sheer brute force. But for the most part, the foxgirls just knocked the guys out while I did the killing.
But by the time we made our way over to help Clem and Semra, the latter of which was even struggling by then, half the guys we’d knocked down were already back up, including the first one, the head goon who was making his way over to us. I pursed my lips and looked around wildly for another way, shaking my head.
The drones were whirring up above us, not doing anything since I was worried about caving the whole place in again.
“There isn’t an option,” I whispered so only my teammates closest to me could hear, staring up at the drones. Kira’s eyes widened.
“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice shaking slightly.
“It’s the only way,” I said. “Here.” I handed a grenade to Semra. “Throw this at that wall on my signal.” I jerked my head in the direction of the nearest door. “Then, everyone, run toward it.”
“Toward the wall you want me to blow up?” Semra asked, blinking at me in disbelief.
I nodded.
“Okay,” she said, seeming to accept this assignment, though she still looked concerned. The goons had surrounded us by then.
“Okay, now,” I said, nodding to her.
She pulled the trigger and threw the thing.
The wall exploded. And right when it did, I signaled to the drones up above us that it was their turn. They whirred down and started blaring their lasers at the goons. But I didn’t get to watch my side win. I was too busy running alongside my teammates, toward one explosion and away from a much bigger one.
I dove through a hole in the wall, pulling Kira and Kinley with me on either side. I covered my arms around them and held them to the ground when we got to the other side, though I had yet to determine what that other side was. I could tell through our bonds that the foxgirls were all fine. But I wasn’t sure about Clem and Semra.
Once the rumbling and tumbling noises from the explosions and drone fire died down a bit, though it didn’t stop completely, I tentatively raised my head to look around, though I remained sprawled across the foxgirls, shielding the
m from any potential harm.
Semra was kneeling down off to the side of the hole in the wall, crouched down in a ball the protect herself from the rubble and remain out of the goons’ lines of sight. But I couldn’t see Clem anywhere.
I whipped my head around in every direction, trying to catch a glimpse of him. But there was nothing. And then I saw him. There he was, being held up by the neck by that head goon. The goon was in pretty bad shape, blood dripping down the side of his face. It looked like he’d been hit by some falling debris on top of the blow Cindra had already dealt him. But he was still standing and had Clem pressed up against the wall, holding his good leg down. And it looked like the goon had dealt another blow to Clem’s bad leg, as it was bleeding badly again and sticking out in the wrong direction.
I charged at them, barreling straight into the goon, thinking he’d be an easy target considering how beat up he was already. But I had another think coming, unfortunately. The guy screamed and grabbed hold of my hair, which had grown longer in recent weeks. I’d been too busy to get it cut.
I squirmed to get away, but he had an unusually tight grip on me. I managed to knee him in the groin, however, and he stumbled backward.
I whipped out my holo knife, but by then, he was upon me all over again, barreling straight at me. I ducked and rolled out of the way, catching a glimpse of him as he came toward me, his teeth bared like he was ready to take a bite out of me, his nails covered in dirt and blood.
I rolled up onto my feet behind him and met his hands with mine in the air as he whipped back around. We pushed against each other for a few moments, our mutual strengths a good match for one another.
The other members of my team were either fighting the last straggling goons or helping Clem back onto his feet. And throwing more grenades could cave the whole damn tunnel in, so that was out. I made one more attempt at besting the guy, faking him out by making him think I was going for his face, releasing my grip on him and flailing my hands in that direction. But I went for the kick again instead, this time knocking him behind his shins and sending him falling to the ground.
Once he was there, I pulled my holo knife up and knelt down across him, my knee digging into his sternum, the vibrating red blade digging into his neck, burning the edge of his skin. He screamed in pain, and I eased off a little bit. But just a little.
“Where is he?” I roared, my voice hoarse from a combination of rage and all that my body had been through in the past couple of days. “Where the fuck is he?”
“W-who?” the goon coughed, spitting up some blood on my hand. Luckily, I was wearing a glove, but I shook it off in disgust.
“You damn well know who,” I said, not having an ounce of sympathy for this asshole. “Your boss. The one who’s behind all this, making all those calls. Where the fuck is he? You’d better damn well tell me now, or I’ll slice you open and gut you like a fish. And don’t think I won’t.”
“I… I…” the guy stammered, spitting up some more blood in the process. It spilled over and across his chin. His eyes were wide with fear as he realized that I wasn’t getting.
“Look, we both know you’re not in charge here,” I told him. “So why don’t you save us both some time and heartache and tell me what’s going on. You’re just a lackey. Don’t die for this guy. He doesn’t care about you one bit. He sent you out here, didn’t he?”
The man blubbered and considered this for some time. For a minute, I actually thought he might not be able to speak anymore because of his injuries, but he was just afraid. I could almost see the whole calculus going on inside his head as he tried to decide whether or not he was going to do as I asked, went back over every interaction he had ever had with his boss, working over whether he cared or not.
“He’s not out here fighting with you now, is he?” I pressed further. “No, he’s locked somewhere far beneath the surface, hiding from us. So any loyalty you have for him is completely wasted on him. He doesn’t care about you. You’re just his living punching bag to throw at people like me. You’re going to die anyway, because of him, aren’t you? Why not bring him right down with you?”
“He… he’s down that way…” the man said at long last, making a feeble attempt to point at one of the doors. His finger barely moved, but I still saw it.
“That one?” I asked, pointing at the door straight to my left.
He nodded just barely and coughed up some more blood.
“What else?” I asked, shaking him to keep him awake. “Who are you? What do you want? Why are you trying to control everything on the surface?”
But that was it. He was gone. I sighed and rubbed my face with my hand, the one the goon hadn’t coughed up blood all over.
“Fuck,” I cursed.
“Well, let’s go,” Semra said. “What are we all waiting for? The tunnel’s still collapsing, and we know where we’re supposed to go. So let’s scram!”
I looked around and realized she was right. There was still rumbling around us, though the wreckage had slowed. If we stayed too long, we could get even more stuck down there than we already were.
“What about Clem?” Kira asked, her small arms doing their best to help the large binder stand. He was avoiding putting any weight on his bad leg.
“Yeah, I don’t think he can go on like this,” Cindra said, eying him with skepticism.
“Hey, you people are not fucking leaving me here,” Clem said defensively. “I’m here to help.”
“You won’t be much help to us like that,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “But you’re right. We can’t leave you here. You could get caught in the debris. Come on.”
I walked over and grabbed his other arm, helping him along. Then I looked up at the drones, which were still fluttering overhead trying to calculate the risk of the situation, and motioned for one of them to swoop down and cut open the door because it was just our luck that the one we needed had managed to withstand the avalanche.
Thankfully, it came out easy like that first doorway back in the other corridor, the second one. The drone used its laser to cut a rectangular hole in the broader door, just large enough for us to scoot through.
“Okay,” I said, shaking my head and gritting my teeth. “It’s now or never.”
34
Together, we walked down the hallway on the other side. And I mean down literally. The ground sloped downward at a sharp angle, and the path twisted all around every which way.
“It’s like a fucking labyrinth,” Semra mused after we swerved around another corner.
“This whole place is like a labyrinth,” Clem muttered under his breath. Cindra had taken Kira’s place on his other side since she was taller. It was slow going with him, and in better conditions, we would’ve left him behind like Kira suggested. But I was worried that if we did that, given the nature of where we were and what was happening around us, we’d never be able to find him again.
“There aren’t any more of those goons,” Kinley remarked matter-of-factly after we’d been walking for around ten minutes, though it was impossible to know for sure. Much like the tunnels themselves, time was moving rather unpredictably down there. I wasn’t sure if it had been twenty minutes or several hours since we’d been on the surface. Neither would’ve surprised me.
“I guess they all came out to meet us out there,” Cindra said darkly.
“Or what was left of them after the other night, anyway,” Clem added.
“Let’s hope so,” I said, pursing my lips.
Then, the tunnel took another sharp decline, so much so that my feet started to slide on the pavement. It was dark and difficult to see but for some red lights being shone by the drones.
I spread out my arms and leaned out, moving my body weight to halt my fall.
“Whoah, whoah,” I called. “Watch out!” I signaled for the rest of my team behind me to slow down, too.
The drones whirred out ahead of me and shone their lights down over the edge of… whatever it was. Slowly, I leaned forwa
rd and squinted, trying to see far enough to get an idea of what we were up against without moving my body weight too much that I would start slipping and sliding again.
“What is it?” Cindra called from behind me. Semra shuffled her feet up closer to me, craning her neck to see, too.
“I think it’s a drop-off,” she said.
“A drop-off?” Clem repeated. “What’s that mean?”
I managed to inch a little closer and see what Semra was seeing.
“She’s right,” I said, pursing my lips in distaste. “The path ends and slopes down sharply….” But Clem cut me off.
“It’s not already sharp?” he asked.
“It is, but that’s not the point,” I said, as patiently as I could. “It’s just a giant hole in the ground, but with curved edges, if that makes any sense. The path goes straight down without stopping.”
“Okay…” Cindra said, her voice trailing off as she tried to digest this. “So what…?”
“You still have that rope, right? The one we used to climb down here in the first place?” I asked Semra.
“Yeah,” she said, her hand instinctively moving to her tool belt. “But I don’t see how that would work. We’d need the others to hold on to the other end, and… well, that probably wouldn’t work out so well given how slippery it is. Plus, I can’t even see the bottom.”
“I can’t see much of anything,” I said darkly. “But you’re probably right. It’s too dangerous.”
“So, what do we do now?” Kinley asked, throwing her arms up in the air in desperation.
My eyes darted around, trying to figure out a way to get down there. But there was nothing in sight except for myself, the other binders, the foxgirls, and the drones. And the giant pit in the ground, of course.