James Decker - The Burn Zone

“You won’t detonate those weapons because you wouldn’t dare,” she said, glaring at him. “Your leaders want the defense shield we can provide, and the promise of more power to come, and they wouldn’t allow it.”

“They aren’t here, Sillith. I am. I am empowered to give the order.”

“You only think you have power because we let you believe it. We stay in your settlements and let you stand guard outside so that you will feel superior, but you aren’t. This isn’t your world.”

“This is our world!”

“This was never your world!”

“It was always ours!” Hwong snapped, barking his words out suddenly in a spray of spit. “Our world! Our planet! You are refugees at best! Any benefits you get, any privileges you get are all at my discretion. Do you understand me? You continue to exist at all here because I let you! Me! No one else! Do you understand me, Sillith?”

“I am warning you,” she said, lowering her voice. “If you attempt to go back on our deal—”

Hwong glanced back and signaled Ligong. “Kill her.”

The gunfire that erupted was immediate, and pounded through my ears even as I plugged them with my fingers. I could feel the rapid-fire reports rattle through my chest as shell casings spat through the air all around me, and I crouched to try and stay out of the line of fire.

Vamp and Nix hit the deck next to me, Vamp shielding me uselessly with one arm as bullets sparked off the shelving in front of us. Sillith had disappeared from the spot where she’d stood, but my eyes caught a flash from the shadows above and I looked up to see a pair of flame red eyes where her body hung at the peak of its leap.

“There!” a voice boomed. Lasers traced conflicting paths through the hazy air as the soldiers attempted to retarget her. Nix slithered an arm around my waist, and I was jerked away from the soldiers with Vamp in tow as Sillith plummeted down through a cloud of steam.

She landed so hard I felt it through the floor, and when I looked back I saw the soldier between us jerk in surprise as his rifle flew from his hands. The weapon went soaring through the air, end over end, as she lashed out toward him. His body seized, and he let out a scream as his arm came free in a spray of blood. Before I could see what happened, he was falling to the floor in three big pieces as, at the same second, the two soldiers next to him had their weapons ripped away from them.

From the ceiling above, constructs were being shaken loose and dropping down like pedaling, squirming rain. I turned away, swatting a small, crawling machine from off my shoulder where it landed as I bolted through the fray. Soldiers were regrouping, adjusting to account for Smith’s sudden new location. Bullets whizzed by over our heads as we approached a cluster of crouched soldiers who had begun firing a heavy volley at something behind us.

Lights like hot coals appeared in the murk of the vats, and I realized they were eyes. One of the clones broke the surface in a shower of fluid and grabbed the soldier standing nearby. He screamed, but before he could even turn around, something struck his back and his chest exploded outward. The remaining four clones erupted from their vats as his body fell to the floor, clambering over the sides as the soldiers fired.

The curtains of wire filaments that extended up toward the ceiling high above us were undulating now, rippling, as more and more movement began to fill the room. Nix led us past one of the shelves as a burst of gunfire managed to punch through the neck and face of one of the clones. There was another doorway on the far side of the room, and Nix was signaling, pointing toward it.

A torso, trailing ragged shirttails in the place of legs, went arcing over our heads and crashed into the shelves farther down. As we made a run for it, I glanced back to see Hwong faced off against Sillith. He took aim with the rail pistol, but before he could fire, it was torn out of his hand. Sillith slammed one palm into his chest and he staggered back, nearly falling to the floor before righting himself. He sucked in air with obvious effort, his face dark and his normally cool expression twisted in pain. The fibers of his light combat armor flexed as he unsheathed a wicked-looking knife from his belt and angled it toward her.

She went for him and he ducked, whipping around in a circle and slamming the point of the knife into her side. Before she could grab him, he’d pulled it free and spun around behind her. He lunged again and buried the blade deep into her opposite side.

He was clearly expecting her to be crippled if not dead, but Sillith didn’t appear fazed at all. Hwong wrenched the knife free and skated back, preparing to strike again, when suddenly his body seized as if he’d been grabbed by invisible hands. The armor plating creaked, and his eyes bugged out.

“Shoot the fucking thi—” he grunted through his teeth.

His arms shot out by his sides to form a cross. Then the armor plates cracked and sprang away as they both rolled suddenly, hands spinning 360 degrees and the shoulders twisting out of their sockets. Under the suit the material of his shirt tore away along with rubbery strips of skin until the two limbs were pulled free. They hung in midair for a second, and then thumped down onto the floor next to him.

Before he could even scream his feet launched up off the floor. Armor cracked apart like an insect’s shell as his legs were splayed, splitting him down the center. I turned away at the last second, covering my mouth as I heard the guts splash down onto the floor.

The mites tingled with sadistic delight as Sillith took a moment to admire what she had just done. I felt her satisfaction drum down into the pleasure centers of my brain not only for squashing a human but also for silencing Hwong, who she hated even more intensely than most.

Why does she hate us so much? I’d felt arrogance, annoyance, and frustration from the haan… even contempt at times, but never hatred and never anything approaching this level. Something deep inside Sillith made her hate us and everything we stood for in a way that I couldn’t even begin to understand.

She was still soothing that hatred, letting the sight of Hwong’s mutilated body slake it even if it was only for a minute, when Ligong took aim with her rail gun from across the room and fired.

She almost got her too, but Sillith spotted her at the last second and the shot went wide. She never got a second shot off. Sillith lashed out, and the fog between them was disturbed by something I couldn’t see. The gun leapt from Ligong’s hands and spun away, punching through the curtain of filaments like a rock through a spider’s web before clattering across the concrete to strike the wall next to the doorway ahead. Ligong flew forward, across the room to Sillith’s waiting hand, which clamped down on the chest plate of her combat armor.

The armor whined as Ligong attempted to wrestle free, but before she could the collar of the suit broke free with a crunch and one half spun across the floor. The chest plate was peeled free then by some invisible hand as she was forced to her knees, and Sillith’s right fist reared back behind her.

“Screw you, you fuck—” Ligong spat as Sillith let her fist fly.

It punched straight through Ligong’s breastbone, forming a deep pocket in the middle of her chest. The life went out of her face, one eyelid drooping as her struggles stopped cold, and her arms fell by her sides like hanging lead sashes.

Sillith shoved her away like a piece of garbage, and the body tumbled back into the fray still going on around them. Then, without warning, she turned and ran. Steam swirled in a wake behind her as she darted through the doorway on the other side of the room.