Matthew Costello - Rage

Raine took out his knife again and used it to pry open the metal siding of the computer. It popped free, exposing the terminal’s insides.

Marshall leaned forward and stared at the array of boards and wires.

“All of this is our tech here,” he said to himself. “Early twenty-first century. Meant for the future.”

Raine stood by the captain’s side as he continued to mutter. “God, I wish Lassard was here. Need to just get it linked so the terminal can read the drive. Then-maybe-we can upload it.”

The voices from above were getting louder.

Loosum leaned close to Raine and whispered, “I’m going to go stand by the stairs.” She gave the shotgun a shake. “In case we get company.”

Raine nodded.

“All right. Just need a fucking USB port. Buried in here. There. See one. Okay, that should do it.”

He watched Marshall pull out a wire and attach it to the drive. Then his eyes moved toward the terminal’s monitor as it registered the attached drive.

“When it copies the data, it will go right on the main servers drive, then all through the system. If Lassard did his work well, it will act like a Trojan Horse.”

“A virus?” Raine said. “Nasty. Good goddamn thing Cross doesn’t have his hands on the best computer scientists that were buried. Not yet, anyway.”

Marshall turned and gave Raine a smile, some light coming back into his eyes. “They’re still to come. And now-maybe, with luck-we’ll get them.”

He hit some keys on the computer keyboard. A screen asked for approval of a data upload. Another click. No viruses found.

Lassard had created a clean program. And after a few seconds a welcome notice on the monitor:

Data Uploaded.

Marshall backed away. “That’s it. Christ, that’s it.”

Noise from the stairs.

Loosum hissing at them.

“Here comes… someone…”

Marshall nodded at Raine, and they went to the stairs.

From the steps of the heavy boots on the stairs, there had to be at least three Enforcers.

Had the power come back on from the backups? Or maybe they had the main feed already up and running?

Going to be fun getting the hell out of here, Raine thought.

“On-” Marshall coughed, the sound too loud “Shit. On my go.”

The boots started to hurry, hearing the voices.

The Enforcers came to the turn in the stairwell, and now the three could be seen racing down, guns at the ready.

But sitting ducks for Raine and his companions.

They all fired and the Enforcers went tumbling down the stairs like wooden targets.

“You okay, Captain?”

“Just get moving, Raine.”

They began to hurry up the stairs, climbing over the soldiers.

When they reached an upper area, a half-dozen Enforcers were already taking position, firing at the opening that led out of the stairway.

“No fucking way,” Loosum said as she kept leaning out and firing the shotgun.

They had no choice, though. Raine saw that they had to keep their cover, buried as they were under the Enforcers’ fire.

Probably the only reason they hadn’t tossed an incendiary was because they were under orders to keep Marshall alive.

But how long before their resolve to obey that order vanished?

Raine reached into his pack, ignoring the ping of bullets bouncing all around them.

He pulled out a dart.

“What the hell is that?” Marshall said.

“New toy, from Kvasir.” He grinned. “Give me as much cover as you can.”

Loosum and Marshall both started firing full out at the barracks room already filled with gun smoke.

Now or never.

He stood up and saw one Enforcer with a bit too much of his body exposed. He threw the dart.

And missed.

He quickly ducked down, reaching into his pack and yelling at the other two, “Keep firing!”

They kept up their covering fire, and once he had another dart, he let it fly.

This time it hit the Enforcer, who immediately stood up.

He made a gesture with his hands as if to remove the dart but then started stumbling around, the nanotrites’ overload coursing through him.

“Wow,” Loosum said. “That’s something. Nice throw, by the way.”

“Taught by the best,” Raine said.

He fingered the dart controller, and now his pet Enforcer moved back and forth, soaking up shots meant for the three of them, Raine using him like a human shield.

Waiting until the guy was ready to blow.

“Stay down,” he said to Marshall and Loosum.

They pulled back, and a second later he heard the massive explosion as the Enforcer exploded.

The bullets stopped.

The way to the outside was open.

He caught Marshall looking at him. Marshall was the captain. But for now, that look between them said that this was all his operation.

And Raine just hoped he didn’t fuck it all up.

Raine led Marshall outside, Loosum just behind, swinging right and left with her gun as though she had done a bunch of tours of duty in the hellish sandpits of the Middle East.

Raine looked up.

And he saw only a few Enforcers looking in the direction of the carrier, probably the still-suspected location of the attack. And why would they look back here, with a small army of Enforcers in the barracks?

That army the three of them had just eliminated.

But then one turned, and he saw the other two react.

“Never any wood to knock on,” he muttered.

Loosum shrugged, not understanding. “I got the one on the left.”

“I’ll take the right,” Raine said.

He started firing, and while Loosum’s target went down immediately, Raine’s shots went wide.

But Marshall, though he looked hardly able to stand, had taken a shot, and now there was just one Enforcer. Loosum took him out.

We’re off the plan now, Raine thought. “We have to get to the gorge.”

It was the only way he knew out of here. He saw Loosum look at him, perhaps weighing whether she should follow her own instincts or listen to this newcomer from the past.

Marshall spoke up.

“They’ll have Enforcers all over the carrier. Protecting the main way in or out. Raine’s right. The gorge is the only way. We have to hurry.” He took a breath. “We’ve got a narrow window.”

Raine looked at him as they kept moving. “You mean before they have their fences all armed, the turret weapons?”

Marshall looked at him.

“No. Something worse. Mutants.”

Raine thought: So what, mutants? He had dealt with them before. Though why the hell they would be inside the Capital…

That didn’t make any sense at all.

Loosum spoke, breaking him out of that train of thought.

“God. What the hell-”

The words were like a spear of ice hitting Raine’s brain.

Before he even looked up, Loosum’s voice had signaled that something was really bad.

When he did look up, he saw a line of attackers, moving together, in formation, armed, a wall of them. Some of them already firing.

Not Enforcers.

Not people recruited from the Wasteland and given a high-tech weapon and armored suit.

No-these attackers didn’t need any armor.

Because they just didn’t go down too easy.

The three of them started firing even as they backed away from the advancing line as fast as they could.

Marshall tried to make it on his own, but when he stumbled and fell a few times, Raine had no choice but give him an arm as he fired haphazardly. “Christ,” Raine shouted, “how can they be mutants?”

“They’re experiments,” Marshall said. “What they were doing in the Dead City… they completed here.”

Raine didn’t need Marshall to explain what that was. It was right before his eyes. Mutants, controlled, weaponized. Ready to do the bidding of the Authority.