James Knapp - Element Zero

“What the hell?” he said under his breath. Ramirez had put down the radio and was coming over.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“No problem, sir,” Singh said. Ramirez looked down at Vika, then back to me. He had that look on his face he always had when his cock was in a knot.

“Flax, we have orders to take you back to base,” he said.

“Why?”

“That’s need to know.” He held out one hand. “Hand over your weapon.”

Over his shoulder, I saw the rest of the squad step in like they were expecting trouble.

“Ramirez, what the hell?” He glared at me, and his eyes got that same weird look Singh’s had. I felt dizzy for a second, then it passed.

“I said, ‘Hand over your weapon,’ Flax,” he said. “Do it. Now.”

“Son of a bitch,” I said. He stared back with his fucked-up eyes.

“You’re with them,” I said. I looked to Singh, but his eyes were the same. “Both of you.”

They looked at each other, and I knew it was true. They were just like that red-haired bitch, and that other one that rigged me with a bomb and then mind-fucked me. Both of them were in on it. This whole time, they were all in on it.

“Just relax,” Ramirez said, and I felt the tension ease out of my body. “Just stand there. Don’t move. If you try to move, you will find you can’t.”

I tried to answer, but nothing came out. I tried to open my mouth, but I couldn’t. Ramirez spoke into his radio.

“We’ve got her,” he said. Then he nodded.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vika. She stared straight ahead, still as a statue, like me.

“Everything is still set up and ready to go,” he said to Singh.

“Can they do it without killing her?” he asked.

“Maybe.”

Slowly, I reached down and took my weapon from its holster. Ramirez snapped his fingers.

“Hey! I told you not to move.”

All of a sudden, the wire lit up red and alerts started flashing on the HUD. From the reactions around me, everyone saw them.

“Sir?” someone asked, but Ramirez held up his hand, orange light flickering in his eyes. Something big had just gone down. Everyone was distracted. I handed the gun to the kid, and she took it.

“Holy shit,” Singh whispered. He was staring into space, reading something off his JZI, and he looked scared.

I skimmed the stream of alerts that were pouring in as I took a step back, away from the others. I saw a satellite map of the city that showed part of the coastline. Words jumped out at me: “point of impact” and “blast zone.” A red marker flashed on the map.

“Jesus, he launched,” Singh said. “The crazy son of a bitch launched…. ”

Something boomed overhead and everyone looked up. High above, against the gray blanket of clouds, a small, dark shape had appeared. A distant shriek swelled as it moved quickly across the sky, leaving a thin contrail behind it.

Run, I told Vika.

“Hey!”

A gun went off near my face and I heard glass explode behind me. I chanced a look back in time to see the kid scoot into an alley. The guy that fired had moved in next to Singh. I grabbed his wrist and twisted hard enough to bring him to his knees. He grunted as I peeled his fingers off the pistol and took it before kicking him down onto the pavement.

“She’s not under!” Singh yelled. Ramirez grabbed my collar, his eyes black. The dizzy feeling hit me again.

“Go to sleep,” he said. “Now.”

Before he could do anything else, I landed a punch right on his ear. He staggered off to one side, drawing his weapon.

“Goddamn it, grab her!”

“How long until impact?”

“Less than ninety seconds!”

“Where? Where?”

I stuck the gun in the face of the soldier closest to me.

“Next one that moves gets his fucking head blown off!” I barked, as two more took aim at me. “Get those guns off me or I will fucking shoot him!”

“Stand down!” Ramirez ordered. “We need her alive!”

They lowered their guns. The guy I had covered glared back at me as the whistle from overhead dropped lower and lower in pitch. It was one of the ICBMs. Fawkes had just dropped one of the twelve nukes.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” someone yelled, and Ramirez turned on them.

“Get it together, people!” he barked. “We’re fine where we are! We have our orders, and I expect you to follow them!”

“You’re not taking me,” I told him.

“You’re making a big mistake, Flax. Singh, get her under control. Now.”

“What the hell is this?” Singh whispered. He looked twitchy. “It’s not working…. Why isn’t she under?”

The rest of the squad stood there, guns out, not sure what to do. Ramirez looked pissed.

“You’re not getting out of here,” he said. He took a step toward me, and I went to hit him again, but when I moved the gun away, a pair of beefy arms grabbed me from behind. They pinned me and squeezed.

“Hold her!”

“You motherfuckers!” I yelled. I stomped Ramirez on the shin with one boot. His face went dark and he grunted.

“Hold her still, goddamn it!”

I got one foot behind the guy who’d grabbed me, then hooked his leg and flipped him. He let go when he started to fall, and I spun around. When he hit the blacktop, I put the heel of my boot down on his face.

Blood squirted from his squashed nose and he stayed down, but two more were right behind him and every time my heart beat, the pressure in my skull got worse. They were all around me and I should have turned on the next-closest one, but I didn’t. I dropped to my knees over the guy I just took out and bashed his head into the pavement. Before I knew what I was doing, I felt my mouth open wide and warm spit leaked out.

Do it …

His skin was hot under my hand. I could feel the blood pumping under my palm, and something in me wanted to feel that meat between my teeth, even when the gun pressed against the back of my head.

Do it …

What the fuck? What the fuck is happening to me?

“Don’t shoot! We need her!” Singh yelled. I turned around in time for something to cream me right in the forehead. I saw stars, and my legs went out from under me.

“Watch the head, goddamn it!”

My knees hit the blacktop. I tried to get back up, but my legs wouldn’t do it. Everything spun around me, and I felt blood run out of my nose.

Before I went down, someone caught me. Arms held me and lowered me onto my back.

“You’re okay,” I heard Singh say in my ear as the lights went out. “Don’t worry.”

“I’ll take care of you.”

The last thing I heard was the faint roar of the missile, turning from a shriek to a low rumble as it fell down toward the earth.

The sounds of gunfire and screams faded behind me. I spotted a stairwell door at the end of the hall and headed for it. To my left, windows looked over the tarmac, off to the distant skyline. As I moved down the corridor, I saw a door slam open outside and a group of men and women came running out. They made a break for the far-off perimeter, but before they made it a hundred yards, there was a bright flash from the sky. A beam of energy rippled down through the clouds and washed over them. In an instant, the tarmac melted underneath them and they were gone in a cloud of smoke. The thick glass buckled in the heat and cracked down the center with a thud as wet ash and tar rained against it. Wind whistled through as I turned the corner and headed away. I needed to get out of sight, and soon.

There was no way for me to know where Fawkes was. I could no longer locate any of them, and it surprised me how lost that made me feel. I’d come to rely on that command network, and without it I felt a little bit blind. I had to watch and listen more carefully. By now Fawkes was rallying them against me. My former allies were now my enemies, and that sense of connection I’d felt to them was gone, leaving a void behind it.