James Decker - Fallout

Something whipped through the air near my face and knocked my leg out from under me. I spilled onto the floor, but managed to grab the gun. I rolled over, and took aim at the back of Qian’s skull.

Dao-Ming screamed, her face turning bloodred and shiny as her right leg came off at the knee. I fired, over and over, as fast as I could pull the trigger as blood began to jet from the stump. Pain bored through the mite cluster as the bullets punched into Qian, but while her wounds forced her to let go of the others, I could see they weren’t going to stop her, not this time.

I heard the whip of one of her arms slash through the air and then felt it snake around the length of my arm. It squeezed, and I cried out, the gun falling to the floor.

That snapped Nix out of it. He turned, almost as if he’d noticed the things happening around him for the first time. He looked at Dao-Ming, still screaming as she stared at her missing leg, then me, seconds away from joining her, and he moved.

He sprang, and I heard something slash through the air. Qian loosened her grip on my arm and I fell back as the air warped in front of me. Two haan hands appeared from out of nowhere, each severed at the elbow. One hand still gripped my wrist while the other clutched my forearm, but the strength had gone from them. I shook them away and they fell to the floor before each blinked out of existence with a loud bang.

Shuang rolled away and climbed to her feet as Qian turned her attention on Nix, who had begun to shake. Waves of signal began to pour off of him as the conflict he felt inside peaked, and as the shaking grew worse I felt him tip over the edge.

A rage washed over me through the cluster that left me cold. Nix’s back sprang apart, torn in two to expose the glassy spine underneath for a second before whatever controlled my interpretation of him filled in the blanks and presented him with much wider shoulders. His arms split down their center, turning rubbery and uncoiling before each half flickered and resolved into a completely separate arm. Two additional arms unfolded from out of nowhere, as his legs split apart.

“What are you doing?” Qian asked, and I felt genuine shock from her. Not because Nix had the ability to do what he’d done but that he’d broken some hard-wired taboo.

Nix’s body grew, becoming a shivering mass of limbs, hands, and fingers that loomed over Qian. He grabbed her, the forest of hands clamping down on whatever part of her they could reach. Qian let out a burst of shock and pain as her flesh tore free in a spray of blood. Whatever controlled Nix’s appearance adjusted and his body reverted to normal, but the hands were still there, crushing and tearing Qian’s body in an uncontrolled fury. Parts of her flew back behind Nix, tumbling across the floor before blinking away while Qian struggled to fend him off.

A bright point of light appeared on the wall behind us, growing to allow a shaft of sunlight to shine through. I turned and saw Dao-Ming on one side next to a splash of vomit, still pointing the remote at the gate she’d opened. This one connected to an endpoint she must have set somewhere in the city, an alley, it looked like. She looked to me, her face ashen, and her mouth moved but nothing came out.

“Go!” I yelled to the others, who stared at the spectacle, stunned. “Now! Go!”

Dao-Ming’s eyes rolled as Vamp scooped her up and began to head toward the gate. Shuang darted through ahead of them, and then I followed, the battle still raging behind me.

I stepped through, silence swallowing the racket of the struggle and replacing it with a blanket of street noise. Vamp laid Dao-Ming down on the blacktop, her face ashen and her eyes swimming. Shuang joined him as he removed his belt and pulled it tight around the stump.

“She’s bleeding out,” Vamp said. I hovered behind them, with no idea what to do. Before I could shake myself out of it, Nix appeared in the alley and the portal collapsed behind him. He approached Dao-Ming, and gently pushed both Vamp and Shuang aside.

Kneeling in front of her, he removed the makeshift tourniquet and put his hands on the stump of her leg. The bleeding slowed, and then stopped altogether.

“What did you do?” I asked, stepping in behind him.

“I’ve knitted the flesh,” he said. “It’s stopped the bleeding, but if she doesn’t get medical attention soon, she will die.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Shuang said. Vamp protested.

“No, I’ll—”

“You stay with Sam,” she told him. Before he could protest again, she pushed him away. “Someone needs to call an EMT and stay with her.”

I hung back and redialed, punching up Dragan’s number. On the second ring, he answered.

“Sam,” he said. “Thank God. Where are you? Where’s Alexei?”

“Alexei called me not long ago. He’s headed for Xinzhongzi.”

“Xinzhongzi? Why?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, glancing at Dao-Ming. “The bottom line is I think he’s going after Gohan, and he’s in trouble. Can you get there?”

“The protests are going to make that difficult,” he said. “But I’ll manage it.”

“Get a few guys you know you can trust and get ready to meet us there.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going in after him, but I’m going to need help getting back out I think.”

“Sam, you’ll never get in to Xinzhongzi. The place is locked down; you’ll get arrested the second you show your face there.”

“I’ll get in.”

“Sam—”

“Just trust me. Get ready, and wait for my call. Please. I have to go.”

I hung up before he could answer, and turned to Vamp and Nix.

“I have to go after Alexei,” I told them. “I can’t leave him there.”

“You’ll need help,” Vamp said.

I felt like I should try to talk him out of it, but the truth was that I didn’t want to. I kissed his cheek, and then brought up the number Gohan had included in his fancy little invitation.

“Who are you calling now?” Vamp asked. I held up my hand to shush him.

The phone rang twice before someone picked up.

“Hello, Xiao-Xing Shao. I was hoping you’d call, though I confess, I didn’t think you would.”

“Shut up. You still want me?”

“I would love to have you join me in Xinzhongzi.”

“Okay then, you win. I’ll come.”

“I understand I am not your favorite person right now,” he said calmly. “May I ask what changed your mind?”

“Honestly? I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

“I see.”

“I need to get off the radar, and I figure that inside Xinzhongzi should fit the bill.”

“I agree.”

“I need you to take two others, as well. One human, one haan.”

“Done.”

I’d expected him to balk at that, but he didn’t, not even for a second.

“And I want you to tell me why you’re so hot to get me over there in the first place.”

“When we meet.”

“Now.”

“When we meet.”

I gritted my teeth.

“Fine.”

“I am sending you an address,” he said. “There is a private metro access there. I will have someone waiting for you.”

“Thanks. We’re on our way.”

“Excellent, and let me tell you just how pleased I am that—”

I hung up.

“We’re in,” I told them.

“In where?” Vamp asked.

“Xinzhongzi. We’re getting Alexei. Then we’re getting out of Hangfei.”

Gohan marked out a specific route for us to take, and we arrived at the first marker to find four robed gonzos waiting for us. The one woman in the group approached. She took my arm and herded me and the others into the middle of them.

“Keep your heads down,” she said.