For a moment, I go utterly still. My stomach sinks. The number’s too-bright eyes go to each one of us, expression dead. Female, possibly, though from appearance it’s difficult to tell. Bat hisses. Beside me, Yvonne’s breath hitches with much more terror than I’m used to from her.
She’s not afraid of cyborgs.
I glance at her. Eyes wide, her gaze catches mine for a split second.
She’s not afraid of cyborgs unless they’re ForceZero.
“What the hell…?” Lee says.
The number draws it’s gun.
Jumping in front of Anya, I have mine in my hand before even Zane with his twitchy paranoia can draw. Aiming for its hand, its gun explodes in a shower of sparks. A stray shot from its gun whizzes by, heat blasting the side of my face, ricocheting off the walls of the tight hallway. Anya screams. Someone swears. Lee hits the ground in an attempt to duck out of the way.
It’s already going for the other weapon on it’s belt, and I plant a shot dead in the middle of its forehead.
It jerks, stumbling, and regains its footing.
Shit.
Shit.
That should’ve killed it.
“Run!” I yell, shoving Yvonne hard behind me, backing up, shooting half a dozen times in rapid succession in different parts of the body, trying to find a weak spot.
From the corner of my eye, I see Zane grab Anya like an oversized sack of vegetables and sprint down the hallway, taking a hard left and getting the girl out of danger. Lalia shoots too as she backs down the hallway, and Yvonne takes off after her sister, trying to get a good look behind her as she runs.
“You hit?” I ask Lee, dragging him up as he stumbles to his feet.
Lalia takes off down the hallway and I follow, dragging Lee with one hand and shooting behind me with the other. The creature is barely knocked down by the blasts, and this is my largest pistol. I shoot it’s other weapon just to try to slow it down. I’m entirely certain it has more hidden under it’s clothes.
“No!” Lee hollers over the ring of the shots. “What the hell is that thing!”
“The type of cyborg you should actually be afraid of!”
Something explodes the wall just over our heads. I slip on the shiny surface of the floor going around the corner, but shove Lee down and scramble around the safety of the wall. Zane has deposited Anya in the hallway and is sprinting back, both pistols drawn.
“Just run!” I scream at him, getting a disoriented Lee to his feet and keeping a hand under his arm as we sprint down the hallway. “I don’t know how to kill it! Just go, go, go!”
At least he listens. Skidding to a stop, he heads back and ducks his shoulder under Anya, picking her up without putting away his weapons while she clings to him like a barnacle. Yvonne has her gun but looks like she has no idea if she’s supposed to use it.
“Where do we go?” I ask Lee. “I don’t think I slowed it down!”
“Take a right,” he calls to Zane, and I’m glad the humans listen to him. I skid around the corner after them. Lee seems to have regained his balance and trucks alongside me at a faster pace than I’d imagine for a human of his age. Homicidal cyborg after us will do that.
“Kel!” he screams into his comm. “There’s a rogue cyborg in the ship. I repeat, there’s a rogue cyborg in the damn ship! Get the big guns and prep to shut down the control room, we’re heading your way now!”
Kel might’ve been behind this, though I doubt she had any idea she was inviting a killing machine into the ship that’s perfectly happy to shoot at me while Lee is standing three inches away.
When humans expect me to be the height of scary cyborg, they have no idea what’s coming.
If this thing hurts a single one of my humans, I’m going to kill Kel myself.
“Bat, protect Anya,” I say, prying him off my shoulder and tossing him in the direction of the humans sprinting ahead of us.
“Bad idea Aaron!” he screeches.
“I know! Lee, I need a big gun. Really big gun.”
Puffing, Lee asks, “What?”
I skid to a stop and head back the opposite direction. “Big gun! Hangar! Go!”
“Aaron!” Yvonne’s voice shrieks, echoing, but I’m already sprinting back down then hallway at top speed, faster than she could ever catch. Digging my knife out of my pocket, I try not to think about what an awful idea this is, I listen to the sound of another figure running, on a collision course. They sound slightly off, slightly injured, not nearly enough to take it down, but enough I hope it’s enough to distract it, throw it off it’s game.
I’m not sure I can kill it with a hand-pistol and small electric knife, but it’ll follow me instead of the humans, and I can sprint like a bat out of hell.
I pass unfamiliar doorways and hallways, closer and closer to the intersection of the hallway dead ahead. In the dead dark of the downed power, something glows faintly in the approaching hallway. Does it have a flashlight? Or were it’s eyes indeed glowing as I’d suspected. I push my legs faster. Faster. Beating it to the intersection.
It rounds the corner.
I slam straight into it at full speed, ramming the knife in my fist straight up into it’s jaw.
It’s like hitting a metal wall. Every single synthetic bone in my body seems to drag against my muscles. My head rings, vision dipping in and out, ears cracking in complaint at the full-body trauma.
I’m gonna have some hellish bruises. The thought drifts through my mind absently before the rest of the panic of the situation has time to catch up.
It evidently wasn’t expecting to be bulldozed, as it slams back into the opposite wall, the only pitiful cushion between me and the metal hallway. Air leaves my lungs in one giant whoosh. Heat from the electric knife nearly burns my fingers as I partially loose my grip. Readjusting, I dig the blade deeper into the thing’s jaw, I yank sideways, hopefully severing something important. Or something distracting enough I can go for the back of the neck.
It doesn’t take down the number quite in the way I was looking for. If anything, my full-speed tackle seems a momentary distraction. Two needle like fingers dig into the back of my neck.
Oh no.
Swiping my knife right across it’s face, hoping to hit an eye, I fling myself away from the number before it can get an unbreakable grip on me, I scramble to my feet and head to the right, away from the hallway the humans went. Glancing back, I watch it staring at me. I stop. Stare at it. There are two more hallways to my right and left, and the one to my back I was running down. Lots of ways to escape.
It stumbles to it’s feet, looking down the hallway where the humans went. Back to me. Down the hallway. To me. Trying to decide who to follow.
Follow me, I think, against my better judgement. Just follow me. Do it.
It looks at me. A shock of long, pale hair has come undone from it’s hood. Bloody from where I cut it across one eye. It’s tall and slender, alien, everything about it not a soldier, but a predator. Distinct terror rolls down my spine making eye-contact with it for any length of time.
Captain might’ve gone too far with ForceZero. That one back on Amethyst with no heat signature might’ve been the easier target. This one feels…wrong.
Even from this distance, it’s remaining good eye drifts over my shoulder. Cocks its head. Grins at me.
Grins at me.
There’s not a single human thing to that expression. This is not me smiling to make my face a grimace to deter humans. For the first time, I’m the one truly being hunted.
Is this how humans feel when I chase them down?
Something tingles the back of my neck. Behind me.
There’s something behind me.
Carefully, unwilling to take my eyes off the monster, I glance behind me.
Another figure turns the corner.
Oh no.
Oh hell no.
I only saw one leave the shiny black ship, but that doesn’t mean another wasn’t waiting inside. My breathing picks up, heartbeat behind my ears.
Amerov numbers always travel in pairs.
I don’t know where the partner of the one on Amethyst was, but we were lucky not to run into it. Or maybe it didn’t take a partner, and Captain learned his lesson about sending only one ForceZero number at a time.
The figure at the end of the hallway watches me. It’s bigger than the other one, less wiry and more muscle. To my left, the injured one shifts, and I start, glancing back at it. With the bloody grin still in place, it take off down the hallway.
After the humans.
“Hey!” I scream, much too late for anything. I glance back to my right, at the other one creeping forward like a hunting cat.
It bolts toward me. Faster. It’s faster than me. I can tell within a few steps. From somewhere within it’s dark drape of a coat, a wicked-looking gun appears in its hand.
It’s not going to help the humans if I lead this thing back to them. At least the other is injured, and they’re all decent shots at a bare minimum.
I bolt down the hallway in front of me, it’s near-silent footsteps already catching up.
For a moment, I go utterly still. My stomach sinks. The number’s too-bright eyes go to each one of us, expression dead. Female, possibly, though from appearance it’s difficult to tell. Bat hisses. Beside me, Yvonne’s breath hitches with much more terror than I’m used to from her.
She’s not afraid of cyborgs.
I glance at her. Eyes wide, her gaze catches mine for a split second.
She’s not afraid of cyborgs unless they’re ForceZero.
“What the hell…?” Lee says.
The number draws it’s gun.
Jumping in front of Anya, I have mine in my hand before even Zane with his twitchy paranoia can draw. Aiming for its hand, its gun explodes in a shower of sparks. A stray shot from its gun whizzes by, heat blasting the side of my face, ricocheting off the walls of the tight hallway. Anya screams. Someone swears. Lee hits the ground in an attempt to duck out of the way.
It’s already going for the other weapon on it’s belt, and I plant a shot dead in the middle of its forehead.
It jerks, stumbling, and regains its footing.
Shit.
Shit.
That should’ve killed it.
“Run!” I yell, shoving Yvonne hard behind me, backing up, shooting half a dozen times in rapid succession in different parts of the body, trying to find a weak spot.
From the corner of my eye, I see Zane grab Anya like an oversized sack of vegetables and sprint down the hallway, taking a hard left and getting the girl out of danger. Lalia shoots too as she backs down the hallway, and Yvonne takes off after her sister, trying to get a good look behind her as she runs.
“You hit?” I ask Lee, dragging him up as he stumbles to his feet.
Lalia takes off down the hallway and I follow, dragging Lee with one hand and shooting behind me with the other. The creature is barely knocked down by the blasts, and this is my largest pistol. I shoot it’s other weapon just to try to slow it down. I’m entirely certain it has more hidden under it’s clothes.
“No!” Lee hollers over the ring of the shots. “What the hell is that thing!”
“The type of cyborg you should actually be afraid of!”
Something explodes the wall just over our heads. I slip on the shiny surface of the floor going around the corner, but shove Lee down and scramble around the safety of the wall. Zane has deposited Anya in the hallway and is sprinting back, both pistols drawn.
“Just run!” I scream at him, getting a disoriented Lee to his feet and keeping a hand under his arm as we sprint down the hallway. “I don’t know how to kill it! Just go, go, go!”
At least he listens. Skidding to a stop, he heads back and ducks his shoulder under Anya, picking her up without putting away his weapons while she clings to him like a barnacle. Yvonne has her gun but looks like she has no idea if she’s supposed to use it.
“Where do we go?” I ask Lee. “I don’t think I slowed it down!”
“Take a right,” he calls to Zane, and I’m glad the humans listen to him. I skid around the corner after them. Lee seems to have regained his balance and trucks alongside me at a faster pace than I’d imagine for a human of his age. Homicidal cyborg after us will do that.
“Kel!” he screams into his comm. “There’s a rogue cyborg in the ship. I repeat, there’s a rogue cyborg in the damn ship! Get the big guns and prep to shut down the control room, we’re heading your way now!”
Kel might’ve been behind this, though I doubt she had any idea she was inviting a killing machine into the ship that’s perfectly happy to shoot at me while Lee is standing three inches away.
When humans expect me to be the height of scary cyborg, they have no idea what’s coming.
If this thing hurts a single one of my humans, I’m going to kill Kel myself.
“Bat, protect Anya,” I say, prying him off my shoulder and tossing him in the direction of the humans sprinting ahead of us.
“Bad idea Aaron!” he screeches.
“I know! Lee, I need a big gun. Really big gun.”
Puffing, Lee asks, “What?”
I skid to a stop and head back the opposite direction. “Big gun! Hangar! Go!”
“Aaron!” Yvonne’s voice shrieks, echoing, but I’m already sprinting back down then hallway at top speed, faster than she could ever catch. Digging my knife out of my pocket, I try not to think about what an awful idea this is, I listen to the sound of another figure running, on a collision course. They sound slightly off, slightly injured, not nearly enough to take it down, but enough I hope it’s enough to distract it, throw it off it’s game.
I’m not sure I can kill it with a hand-pistol and small electric knife, but it’ll follow me instead of the humans, and I can sprint like a bat out of hell.
I pass unfamiliar doorways and hallways, closer and closer to the intersection of the hallway dead ahead. In the dead dark of the downed power, something glows faintly in the approaching hallway. Does it have a flashlight? Or were it’s eyes indeed glowing as I’d suspected. I push my legs faster. Faster. Beating it to the intersection.
It rounds the corner.
I slam straight into it at full speed, ramming the knife in my fist straight up into it’s jaw.
It’s like hitting a metal wall. Every single synthetic bone in my body seems to drag against my muscles. My head rings, vision dipping in and out, ears cracking in complaint at the full-body trauma.
I’m gonna have some hellish bruises. The thought drifts through my mind absently before the rest of the panic of the situation has time to catch up.
It evidently wasn’t expecting to be bulldozed, as it slams back into the opposite wall, the only pitiful cushion between me and the metal hallway. Air leaves my lungs in one giant whoosh. Heat from the electric knife nearly burns my fingers as I partially loose my grip. Readjusting, I dig the blade deeper into the thing’s jaw, I yank sideways, hopefully severing something important. Or something distracting enough I can go for the back of the neck.
It doesn’t take down the number quite in the way I was looking for. If anything, my full-speed tackle seems a momentary distraction. Two needle like fingers dig into the back of my neck.
Oh no.
Swiping my knife right across it’s face, hoping to hit an eye, I fling myself away from the number before it can get an unbreakable grip on me, I scramble to my feet and head to the right, away from the hallway the humans went. Glancing back, I watch it staring at me. I stop. Stare at it. There are two more hallways to my right and left, and the one to my back I was running down. Lots of ways to escape.
It stumbles to it’s feet, looking down the hallway where the humans went. Back to me. Down the hallway. To me. Trying to decide who to follow.
Follow me, I think, against my better judgement. Just follow me. Do it.
It looks at me. A shock of long, pale hair has come undone from it’s hood. Bloody from where I cut it across one eye. It’s tall and slender, alien, everything about it not a soldier, but a predator. Distinct terror rolls down my spine making eye-contact with it for any length of time.
Captain might’ve gone too far with ForceZero. That one back on Amethyst with no heat signature might’ve been the easier target. This one feels…wrong.
Even from this distance, it’s remaining good eye drifts over my shoulder. Cocks its head. Grins at me.
Grins at me.
There’s not a single human thing to that expression. This is not me smiling to make my face a grimace to deter humans. For the first time, I’m the one truly being hunted.
Is this how humans feel when I chase them down?
Something tingles the back of my neck. Behind me.
There’s something behind me.
Carefully, unwilling to take my eyes off the monster, I glance behind me.
Another figure turns the corner.
Oh no.
Oh hell no.
I only saw one leave the shiny black ship, but that doesn’t mean another wasn’t waiting inside. My breathing picks up, heartbeat behind my ears.
Amerov numbers always travel in pairs.
I don’t know where the partner of the one on Amethyst was, but we were lucky not to run into it. Or maybe it didn’t take a partner, and Captain learned his lesson about sending only one ForceZero number at a time.
The figure at the end of the hallway watches me. It’s bigger than the other one, less wiry and more muscle. To my left, the injured one shifts, and I start, glancing back at it. With the bloody grin still in place, it take off down the hallway.
After the humans.
“Hey!” I scream, much too late for anything. I glance back to my right, at the other one creeping forward like a hunting cat.
It bolts toward me. Faster. It’s faster than me. I can tell within a few steps. From somewhere within it’s dark drape of a coat, a wicked-looking gun appears in its hand.
It’s not going to help the humans if I lead this thing back to them. At least the other is injured, and they’re all decent shots at a bare minimum.
I bolt down the hallway in front of me, it’s near-silent footsteps already catching up.
