Chapter 32
We were eating supper before getting ready for the mission when Andra’s alarms sounded.
“They’re raiding this building!” she yelled and shot Talon and me a look filled with fear. “They must’ve tracked you through the drone feeds because it looks like they brought everything they’ve got.”
“Great,” I muttered.
“Time to move, people,” Talon said, checking both blasters in his belt.
“They’re early!”
I couldn’t tell who yelled that last bit—I was too busy fastening my own belt and holstering my blaster and stun stick.
“They have brought twelve patrol cars and four vans, and all drones in Dreswick are being redirected to this block,” Byte said through Andra’s computer speakers.
“Sounds like they’re planning on making a lot of arrests with that many vans,” Nina said. “I’d rather not be one of them.” She’d been wearing her weapons since I met her and stood, waiting at the door. “Is this the only way in or out?”
She nodded. “Unfortunately. That’s why it’s my backup place.”
“What’s the plan?” Dale asked.
“Same as before, the timetable’s bumped up,” Talon said as he rushed to the door. “We head to the garage.”
“It appears the vans aren’t empty,” Byte said. “They’re unloading, uh, residents.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Andra’s computer screens displayed video feeds of the scene outside.
Emerging from the vans were pale-skinned crawlers with metal devices glued to their heads.
Many still had blood trickling down from where the implements had been attached.
Wires protruded from each device and plugged into various parts of the person’s head, with blood trickling from each of those insertion points.
Their eyes looked dull, and they moved in unison.
“Cripes, they’ve already started turning them,” I said
“Those aren’t amps,” Woni said.
“It looks like they decided to go with a backup plan,” Mitch said.
“Or it’s a prototype control chip until they can figure out how to do it in their amps,” Andra said. “The good thing is that they probably don’t have any enhancements—those devices maybe just control them.”
“Probably? Maybe?” Woni countered. “That doesn’t exactly sound reassuring.”
“Hopefully,” Andra clarified.
“All that matters is that they’re trouble for us.” Talon opened the door. “We go now .”
“But we need to grab our uniforms,” Woni said.
“No time,” he said and left.
Andra tapped something into her computer and then all the screens turned into a countdown timer. I’d seen that exact counter before in Kynan Kade’s offices, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near this place when it blew. Then she grabbed a data stick and held it up. “I’m ready.”
I ran into the hallway and joined Talon’s side. Andra pulled the fire alarm—a common practice to alert the residents of fires… and raids.
One resident peeked through a partially opened door. “What’s going on?”
“Raid!” Andra called out. She had cameras and alarms—none of the other residents would have that, and they’d be caught unaware unless their window opened to the street. That was the thing about raids. The enforcers came in quiet to give their prey less chance to escape.
The rest of our group had made it into the hall, and Andra pulled her door shut, then locked it behind her.
We ran to the stairwell, which quickly filled with other residents—those who were choosing to run rather than hide.
The hallways were too congested, but the same congestion that could slow our departure would also help conceal our escape.
The stairs were wide enough that three people, shoulder to shoulder, could take them. Most buildings in Dreswick didn’t have elevators, and this building was no exception. The stairs had been built to make moving easier, or in this case, escaping.
The downside with living on a higher floor was that there were only two sets of stairs in the building, and only one set led down to the underground garage which was primarily used for access to all the building’s utilities.
It had a ramp so that utility vehicles could enter and exit.
So, even though it was called a garage, it really wasn’t one since only about twenty percent of Dreswick residents had vehicles.
Someone screamed in the stairwell several floors below, and the sounds of attack erupted.
We all paused momentarily.
“Byte, give me some eyes,” I said.
They’re not using drones inside, and I’m out of range to connect to any amps.
Drones were always sent in first during raids. That they weren’t this time meant that the enforcers knew we were able to hack their feeds, and they wanted us blind.
I glanced at Talon and Andra, and shook my head.
“Guess that means we’re not getting out squeaky clean.
” Talon unholstered his blasters, and we all did the same.
It wasn’t that he was our leader—our group of leftovers didn’t have one of those—it was that he’d been through a lot more fights than all of us put together, and it showed.
If his instinct steered him to do something, I was sure as hell going to trust it.
We continued down the stairs to escape. We made it down another flight when we started coming against residents running up the stairs.
“That can’t be good,” I heard Talon say, but he didn’t slow.
I was impressed he kept the lead. For being someone not believing in the cause, he sure put his life on the line a lot for it.
Then again, I wasn’t much of a believer myself.
I was here for retribution, plain and simple…
and I was damned well going to make sure no one else’s buddy or mother suffered like mine had at the hands of bullies, regardless of whether they wore an enforcer’s uniform or a lab coat.
By the time we reached the next lower level, we came up against trouble.
I’d expected enforcers, but evidently, they’d decided to let their new slaves handle the first wave of the assault and do the dirty work for them.
Several corrupted crawlers had entered the stairwell at the ground level.
Two men had managed to close the door and were holding it against more trying to break through.
Behind them, the “hijacked” were swinging stun sticks at them, trying to hit them, but the guys’ buddies were fending them off with metal pipes.
The tip of a stun stick came into contact with a pipe, and the man holding it suddenly went rigid as he was electrocuted.
Talon didn’t hesitate. He fired and hit the hijacked one in the head since they were all wearing body armor.
I hesitated for only a split-second before firing and taking out the nearest hijacked man to us.
With three left in the stairwell, Talon fired two more shots, and I fired one to clear the space.
The men who’d been fighting helped their friends holding the door, but it was already opening inch by inch.
We didn’t wait. We continued down to the basement level.
Behind us, the door opened, and screams and shouts followed.
I had thought that we’d be in the clear once we got past the ground level.
I was wrong. Dozens of hijacked were sprinting down the ramp toward us, cutting us off from our five AVs parked along the far wall.
Members of our group began shooting, but shots deflected off their body armor.
Only one fell in the first wave. I tried for head shots, but it was too hard when we were still running.
By then, they’d fully blocked us off from our escape route.
We couldn’t run outside where enforcers with blasters and armed drones waited.
And the stairs would only trap us. That left taking on this group with the only way possible—we had to shoot them all in the head.
Bile rose as I stopped to steady my aim.
They rushed us, and I began firing, one shot to one head at a time.
Talon did the same. The others did to some extent, though several were burning their blaster charges by shooting at center mass.
A few weren’t firing, and I couldn’t blame them.
For every shot I took, their face became a ghost in my mind.
At least this group was all adults, but I was killing men and women alike.
I took out nine by the time they reached us.
I fired until one closed in too tight with his stun stick, and I had to lower my blaster to deflect the charge with my other arm.
Once I did, I raised my blaster and fired upward under his jaw.
He collapsed immediately, never showing any sign of shock or pain, and I hoped—prayed—that they were already brain-dead because I wasn’t sure I could ever get over killing innocents if there was a way to save these poor souls.
I took out three more in close range before my blaster gave four beeps in quick succession indicating the battery had been depleted.
I dropped the weapon and pulled out my stun stick.
As I did, another hijacked rushed me. I grabbed her stick to keep the tip from connecting with my chest, and I pressed mine to her stomach.
Her body went rigid, but when I pulled away, she came at me, unfazed.
With no blaster and the stun stick relatively worthless in this type of fight, I grabbed the one weapon I really didn’t want to have to use—a knife. Using the skills Byte had given me, I tore through the hijacked, tearing their throats and stabbing in their sides where the armor didn’t cover.
Andra had been right about these hijacked not having enhancements—they were being controlled, but none had fighting skills that gave them a chance.
I didn’t pay attention to my group—I had to assume they were holding their own—as I was busy trying not to get killed.
The numbers were dwindling, but these people never surrendered.
More were coming down the ramp, and we only had about twenty seconds before they reached us.
I moved as fast as I could, finding a rhythm that made the fight feel more like a bloody dance than a massacre. But I faltered just before killing one thin, older man.
“Jacob?” I asked, panting.
He showed no recognition. He raised his stun stick, and I clenched my jaw as I reached forward and cut his throat.
Like the others, he didn’t press a hand to stanch the bleeding.
Instead, he just continued forward until blood loss caused him to fall.
I grabbed him before he hit the ground and set the graffiti artist gently down.
I noticed Andra not far away, holding a stun stick against the neck of a hijacked man.
And I rolled Jacob onto his stomach so she wouldn’t see him.
With the current wave down, I started toward the AVs, where the rest of our group was convening.
Woni lay on the ground nearby, electrocuted. I picked up her blaster and ran.
Behind the hijacked running toward us were enforcers, and they were raising their blasters.
“Get in!” Talon said.
“Where’s Woni?” Mitch asked.
“She’s not coming,” I said.
Mitch paled, and I suspected they had been close.
We climbed into the five AVs.
The first blaster shot deflected off the nondescript tan sedan that Andra, Talon, Vera, and I had climbed into.
“Byte, tell me you’ve got control!” I rushed out.
“Yes, I am driving all five vehicles. Fasten your seatbelts. It’ll be a bumpy ride,” Byte announced through the AV’s speakers.
I did, and I assumed she was talking to the rest of the group in the other cars.
The sleek black AV—Viktor Garris’s car—was our pilot car.
It had a reinforced hull that would ram through things the other vehicles could not.
We were second behind it, with the other three cars falling in line behind us.
We ran over bodies, tossing us around as Byte was speeding.
The hijacked in front of us didn’t get out of the way, but the enforcers did.
The black car plowed through the hijacked, and I wanted to turn away.
As we sped up the ramp, we burst out of the garage with enough speed that the AVs were airborne for several feet before hitting the pavement with hard screeches.
Drones fired from above and enforcers shot at us from ground level.
Byte weaved around the parked patrol vehicles and vans before accelerating on the straight street.
Behind us, enforcers ran to get into their AVs.
Above us, drones kept up, firing. Their blasters were designed for humans, not vehicles, so their lasers didn’t penetrate the vehicle’s hull.
We were yanked around as Byte took corners so tight that I swore we’d flip over.
But she knew the exact characteristics of every vehicle, and as soon as we reached the AVway—the only road that connected Dreswick and Aberdeen—Byte accelerated the cars to their maximum speeds, and the drones fell behind.
The enforcers would follow, but they would be no faster.
We all seemed to take a collective breath.
“Well, wasn’t that fun,” Talon said dryly, then added, “Andra, I’m adding hazard-pay onto my rate.”
“Just keep us alive, and I’ll give you whatever you want,” she said.
Byte then announced, “The highway is clear aside from the usual commercial transportation. However, it’s safe to assume the enforcers will be waiting for us at the entrance to Aberdeen as there are no turn-offs on this route.”
Andra pulled out tech glasses from her backpack. “You get us through whatever blockade they’ve got, and I’ll find us a place where we can park and hide.”
“The pilot car is not reinforced enough to handle a blockade,” Byte said.
I thought of the blockade we were heading towards, then it hit me. “Hey, Byte, ask Ron and Frankie if they brought their explosives with them. I’ve got an idea.”