The Bloodless (24 page)

              “Great, let’s get out of here before they notice us and try to kill us,” suggested Pillar, taking a step in the opposite direction.

              “Let’s get a closer look, come on,” said Crowder. He took off towards the warehouse before Pillar could reply. She groaned and reluctantly followed him towards the building. “Why are you so afraid of fighting when you have that massive gun attached to you?” asked Crowder when they stopped behind a large thicket of bushes ninety feet from the window.

              “I’m not afraid, I just don’t like unnecessarily putting myself in danger,” Pillar explained. “If I can avoid it, I will. If not, well then we fight. This right here, this is avoidable.” Crowder hushed her. “What the fuck, you asked me a question,” she whispered angrily.

              “No,” he whispered back, “look in the window there.” Pillar looked at the building and saw two figures standing in the window, seemingly with their backs facing outside. The figures remained motionless for quite some time. “What the hell are they doing?” Crowder asked as quietly as possible.

              “Not sure,” Pillar whispered back, “but if I didn’t know any better it would look like they were setting a diversion.” And perhaps they were because at that precise moment a scabbed, gnarled hand came from behind Crowder, wrapped around his neck and lifted him into the air. The life was being choked out of him at a rapid pace. Luckily Pillar was quick to act. She removed her side arm from its holster and placed the tip of the barrel under Crowder’s assailant’s battle worn, chiseled chin. She pulled the trigger without hesitation, scattering skull guts into the veiled night air.

              Crowder fell back down to the ground, gasping for air. He didn’t stay down long, however, as there were noises erupting from the warehouse. Bodies were flowing out through the giant double doors, maybe ten or so and heading straight for their position. “Bloodless scum,” Pillar screamed at them. When there was no answer and the bodies kept advancing, Crowder and Pillar opened fire into their ranks. As usual, bullets struck bodies repeatedly but none fell.              

When the attackers were about forty-five feet from them, Pillar discarded her spent hand gun and pulled around her Gatling gun, unlocked it and wrenched on the trigger. The big fucking gun whirred to life and bullets projectile vomited from the custom short barrel, tearing the majority of their attackers into fine bits of guts, hair, and bone. A few Bloodless still came at them, however, and when she turned her gun on them it suddenly stopped firing and a large *CLANK* issued from the ammo chamber.

              “Fuck,” Pillar screamed, “I forgot to fucking test it!”

              “What’s wrong with it?!” yelled Crowder as he reloaded another magazine into his AP-84 assault rifle. He sprayed a generous helping of bullets at the remaining Bloodless as they continued to come at them. One of his bursts sent a few bullets screaming through one of the ugly bastard’s dome re-killing it on the spot and tripping up a nearby comrade.

              “It’s fucking jammed!” Pillar banged on the gun a couple times but to no avail.

              “I’m out of ammo! We’re going to have to go hand to hand!”

              “No way,” Pillar tried to protest but it was too late, the remaining two Bloodless jumped on them and the scrum was on. Bloodless, being extremely physically powerful, easily overcame both of them. The one wrestling with Crowder slammed its fists on him, drawing blood from all over his face. After a few more blows it managed to knock Crowder unconscious.

              Pillar continued to struggle with her assailant but was no match for it. She was overpowered and the Bloodless disarmed her and then grabbed her by the hair and started to drag her away, caveman style. The Bloodless attacking Crowder lifted him over its shoulder as if taking him hostage. They only made it a few steps before the one dragging Pillar dropped to the ground, a large hole on the side of its head. The other one followed soon after, the same exact wound with similar placement in its head.

              Once she was released, Pillar jumped to her feet and looked around the area for their savior, but couldn’t see a single part of a human being. “Who’s there,” she called out. There was no immediate response but at that same time Crowder stirred and slowly sat up. He looked around and saw one of the Bloodless sprawled motionless on the ground. Pillar ran and picked her gun up off the ground.

              “What the hell happened?” he asked.

              “I don’t know,” Pillar said. She yelled again, “Is anyone there? Show yourself!” It was at this that a small group of people dressed head to toe in midnight camouflage emerged from the surrounding woods. Pillar swung her gun back around and pointed it right at them but they didn’t flinch. “Don’t fucking move,” she screamed.

              “Your gun is jammed, we heard you earlier,” one of them said, speaking with a Russian accent.

              “I unjammed it before that bastard assaulted me,” Pillar explained, pointing at the twice-killed body next to her. They stopped upon hearing this latest development. There were only four of them but they had a look that implied that four was enough to take down a large group of even the toughest Bloodless. “Now,” she continued heatedly, “who the FUCK are you?”

              “I don’t believe you,” the lady with the Russian accent said and she took another step towards Pillar. Pillar pointed her gun at the warehouse and unloaded a short but furious hail of bullets into the side of the building. The unknown lady stopped in her tracks. She retreated back into formation with her companions.

              The four of them exchanged looks. Varied would be an appropriate adjective to describe this small group of people. Their leader, the lady with the accent, was a tall woman, the only woman of the group. She was slender with a chiseled face that was accented by vertical scars below each of her eyes. The man to her immediate left was a squat man with a thick brown beard but contrasting dark gray hair. He had an eye patch over his left eye and the other eye was a dazzling blue, almost like it was manufactured.

To his left was another man, he was of average build and had a long range rifle that was similar in build and design to Saturn’s. He seemed the most human of all of them as he had a peaceful twinkle in his eye. The man to the woman’s right was the exact opposite as he had an almost artificial look to him, features that were a little too perfect to have been natural. He was tall, muscular, dark hair, dark eyes and he did not have a visible weapon on him. He held his gaze on Pillar as she continued to point her Big Guy at them.

              “Us?” the woman asked. “We are guardian angel. We saved your life, are you not pleased?”

              “Of course we are,” Crowder said getting to his feet. He placed a hand on Pillar’s shoulder but she continued to point her weapon at them, “What are you doing here?”

              “Same reason everyone else is here, to take down big, evil corporation that is killing innocent people,” she explained.

              “Listen,” Pillar started, angrier than ever as she was not getting the answers she wanted, “if you don’t tell us who you really are, I’m going to reduce all four of you into unrecognizable puddles of organic human matter.”

              “Well,” the woman said as calm as though she was having a light conversation with an old friend, “that will be difficult since my friend here,” she indicated the man to her right, “is android. He is not exactly, as you say, organic.”

              “You know what I mean, dammit!”

              “Right, of course,” she said with a smile. “My name is Natalia and these are my comrades Lukas, Ares, and Blink,” she said moving from left to right for the introductions.

              “What did you mean when you said ‘everyone?’” asked Crowder.

              “I do not understand,” responded Natalia.

              “You said you’re here for the same thing everyone else is here for. Who is everyone else?”

              “What do you mean?” asked Natalia, still confused. “Everyone who is fighting to end this genocide? There are many of us.” Crowder looked over at Pillar who had softened her attitude slightly at this information but kept her gun pointed at the others. “You did not think you were only ones, did you?” she added.

              “We kind of did, yeah,” said Crowder, “at least that’s what we were led to believe.”

              Natalia chuckled, “Friend, people will not just stand by as fellow man is ruthlessly slaughtered. Your actions are brave, your intentions noble, but you lack awareness.”

              “So are you Armed Forces then?” asked Pillar, finally lowering her gun.

              “No,” said Natalia simply. “Private citizens, like yourselves,” she added.

              “How do you know we’re not Army,” said Pillar annoyed.

              “Army ain’t that sloppy,” said the squat man.

              “Enough Ares,” Natalia said quickly before Pillar could retort. “What he means is soldiers move and act in certain way, you made no such movements.” One of the Bloodless began to stir, Crowder and Pillar jumped but the rest remained still and calm. Natalia walked over to the creature and unholstered a very large handgun. She then expelled two deafening shots into its cranium, spreading bits and pieces all over the ground. She smiled then held a finger to her lips.

              “How long have you guys been out here?” Crowder asked.

              Natalia continued to look down at the Bloodless at her feet and when she didn’t answer, Lukas spoke up, “’Bout a month now, I think.”

              “Yes, it has been precisely four weeks, two days, and fourteen hours since we passed over the quarantine border,” the android ostensibly named Blink said in a smooth but dry yet very human-like voice.

              This time it was Pillar’s turn to laugh. “What’s so funny buttercup?” Ares asked patronizingly.

              “We’ve been out here damn near eight months now, y’all are a bit tardy to the party.”

              Natalia turned around and was looking very interested as she looked at Pillar. “Eight months you say? Hmm.”

              “What?” asked Pillar.

              “Oh, nothing, just interesting bit of information is all,” said Natalia, shifting her level of interest back to neutral.

              “Riiight,” said Crowder, a little confused. “Pillar, we should keep moving. Thank you for saving us, we obviously appreciate it. Let us know how we can pay you back and we’ll do what we can.”

              “Just be sure to return favor if situation were to arise,” said Natalia.

              “Consider it done,” Crowder responded before Pillar could get anything out. With a last nod from Lukas, a friendly smile from Blink, and an arrogant smile from Ares, Natalia and her squad set off back into the woods.

              “Okay, that was weird,” said Pillar once they were out of sight.

              “Tell me about it,” said Crowder. “Do you think she was telling the truth when she said there are a lot of people fighting?”

              “Could be true,” Pillar said as she returned her gun to its resting position on her back. “To me, though, it sounds like this is a new wave of people, like they just recently decided to come here.”

              They started back on their path towards Abiyah. “Sounds like a bunch of people have no idea what they’re getting themselves into,” Crowder said when they returned to the road. Pillar nodded in agreement. “This is something we’ll obviously have to tell Daniel about. This is big news if it’s true.”

              The rest of their return journey was spent mostly in silence, a couple exchanges about rest and bathroom breaks came up here and there but nothing significant. Unbeknownst to Crowder and Pillar, however, a small insect-like object was shadowing their every move all the way back to headquarters. The only indication as to the owner of the bug was a small bright red star etched into its side.

              “You know,” Crowder said as they walked into the darkness, “you’re not as bad they say.”

              Pillar didn’t respond, she simply stuck her middle finger in Crowder’s face.

CHAPTER 12

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
 

              “Fox,” I shouted into my communicator again, “what’s the count!”

              Finally he came back, “There is no specific count, but the losses are total.”

             
Holy shit
, I thought to myself. I couldn’t even fathom how that was possible. How could we lose that many people on a single mission? I didn’t exactly want their help to begin with but I didn’t want them all to die. Were we really that outnumbered? “All right,” I said into my communicator trying to feign calm, “everyone meet at rendezvous point Charlie. We’ll regroup and get our asses out of here.”

              “We can’t leave man,” Burns said. “We gotta get them outta there!”

              “It’s a lost cause Burns!” I yelled back. “They’re gone! Fall back to Rendezvous Charlie. Go!” Six affirmatives came back over the communicator and I headed off to meet the group. Charlie was located at the warehouse where Pillar and Crowder ran into the small mercenary group. The loss that Fox referred to, however, was due in large part to the group claiming to be U.S. Marines. They got cocky and as they learned at great personal expense that day, Bloodless don’t tolerate arrogance.

              Forty-eight hours previous to the debacle my hopes and confidence had been buoyed considerably by the emergence of new allies that truly made me feel like we stood a chance, finally, something I had never felt at any point in time. Let’s be honest, I never expected us to do much damage to our objectives. In fact, I didn’t even think we’d pull off the second substation. I was fairly certain we would die in the attempt but I had hoped that there would be people who would continue our work. Then suddenly there were people who would actually help us achieve our goals, it was a magical, if only short lived time.

              My teams were just returning, quite punctually might I add, from their assigned missions. Buggs was the first to return and he didn’t report any problems completing his task, but he did seem to have a slight limp which seemed to be new. I would never find out, however, as he would never divulge anything like that. He did update our maps with pivotal information about Hunter routes and stake out points. Hunters didn’t just wander, they camped and as their names indicated, they hunted.

              After talking to Buggs for a couple minutes I saw Burns and Saturn approaching. I was most excited to talk with them as they had encountered a group claiming to be with the Armed Forces. I finished up with Buggs as they arrived. I didn’t notice the large crates they dragged behind them but they came into view as Burns and Saturn came nearer. “What the hell are those?” I asked when they stopped. Neither of them responded right away. Burns smiled hugely at me and Saturn turned around and lovingly caressed one of the crates. “Well,” I said when they continued to not answer my question.

              “These,” Burns began, “are our new allies.” Burns opened his crate and turned it so I could see the contents. I gasped audibly when I saw the weapon that was stored in this stainless steel case because it was a glorious sight. I didn’t immediately know exactly what I was looking at but it was shiny and new-looking.

              “What is it?” I asked running a hand over the weapon. Burns pointed at some lettering on the handle that read BALG. “What’s Balg?”

              “Big Ass Laser Gun,” Burns said with a massive smile on his face. It certainly was a big gun and it looked like Burns would be the only one who would have the strength to carry and actually fire it.

              “Laser gun,” I said confused. “I didn’t think those things had gone into production, on any level. Are they prototypes?”

              “Yes and no,” said Saturn who also was smiling broadly. “It’s the first model to have sustained firing capabilities. Before this, these weapons were one and dones because of the massive power that needed to be generated to fire one shell. So it’s the first in its line but a finished product.”

              “So some company named their most advanced weapon Big Ass Laser Gun?”

              “Naw,” said Burns with a chuckle, “that decal is custom and I’m not really sure what it actually means, that’s just what I like to think it stands for. The actual model is HFLS-X01,” Burns pointed to small lettering under the barrel. “No idea what that stands for but I’m sure if Crist were here she’d be able to tell us all about it. Daniel,” Burns said now giving me a significant look, “we just scored a game changer, man! We just need to get some batteries to power them.”

              “What do you have?” I asked Saturn pointing to her case.

              She smiled hugely and opened the case for me. “She’s a beaut, ain’t she?”

              Indeed it was a beautiful weapon. Matte black finish with chrome accents along the extended barrel and stock, most prominently along the heel. The scope wasn’t attached but it rested in the foam just above the gun itself. “Is this,” I started.

              “Yup,” Saturn said before I could finish. “That’s my new sniper rifle, but instead of bullets it fires a concentrated beam of light.”

              “A laser sniper rifle?” I asked astounded.

              “Exactly,” exclaimed Saturn. She picked the gun up with what appeared to be some difficulty and held it up for me to view. There were no decals on this one, just clean and sleek looking. As Saturn held it, she couldn’t seem to contain her overall giddiness. All the excitement at the new and formidable additions to our arsenal nearly drove the curiosity of their encounter with supposed members of the Armed Forces out of my mind.

              “Okay,” I said after giving the gun a once over, “tell me about this group you ran into.”

              Burns and Saturn then went into a quick story of their encounter with these men, and apparently some women, that had just appeared on the scene. I wanted as much information on them as possible because to be honest, I didn’t think it sounded all that logical. We had been at our mission for quite some time and I never even got a hint that others would be joining our fight. To be fair, though, I am not exactly an oasis of information. Not many people even knew WE were out fighting and trying to take down The Bloodless.

              “Did they look like military?” I asked Burns after he finished.

              “It’s hard to say,” replied Burns. “Some of ‘em looked like they coulda been at some point or for a short stay, but if anything they looked mostly like militia.”

              “How do you know?” I asked.

              “Just the way they moved,” said Saturn. “They didn’t move like any soldiers I’ve ever seen and I certainly don’t move like they did. They were very brash with their movements, like they didn’t really plan ahead.”

              “Well I’m sure we’ll find out for sure in due time,” I said looking at my watch. “So you gave them Abiyah’s coordinates?” Burns nodded. “The open lot east of here?” He nodded again. “Good. We’ll have to figure out a plan for their arrival.”

              “I think a little test ought to be involved,” Fox said suddenly. Unbeknownst to everyone, Fox had walked up behind us.

              “What do you mean?” I asked.

              “Just a test, one that will show us their true character and intentions.”

              “You got something in mind?”

              “Oh, I may have a few ideas. I’ll set it up.”

              I wasn’t really sure what Fox had in mind but I knew I could trust him to come up with something good. While we waited for the others to return from their mission Burns and Saturn showed me a few more aspects of their weapons. Truth be told, I wasn’t nearly as excited as they were about them. Sure, these were huge finds and would absolutely help increase our survival rate. On the other side of things however, these guns weren’t going to do the missions for us. We still had to lay our lives on the line to get this done, so I couldn’t get that excited. The guns were neat though, I’ll give them that.

              After some time, Crowder and Pillar were spotted by Buggs as they came into view just on the horizon. The day was getting late as the sun began to bow lower and lower in the sky. The approached from the south and as far as I could tell they weren’t dragging any large crates behind them and they looked no worse for the wear. It wasn’t until they were a little closer that I noticed a few new bumps and bruises on their persons.

              “You two okay?” I asked as they walked through the gate.

              “I’ve been better,” said Pillar who was wearing her usual grumpy face.

              “I didn’t hear from you two the whole time. I thought I asked for regular updates,” I said, sounding like a disobeyed parent.

              “Sorry,” said Crowder, “but we have a lot to report now.” And without preamble Crowder went right into a breathless retelling of their encounters. He talked about how they were constantly followed by the probes and then about the warehouse assault and their run in with some mercenary group.

              “Wait,” I interrupted him when he got to the part about the mercs, “you ran into other people trying to take down the Bloodless?”

              “Yeah. Why, what’s up?” Crowder asked when he saw the looks on our faces.

              “We ran into a group claimin’ to be Armed Forces,” answered Burns.

              “Really,” said Crowder. “Well these four definitely weren’t military, at least not in this country. Their leader was Russian but you can never tell with those people.”

              “Yeah, don’t forget about the android,” Pillar interjected nonchalantly.

              “Android?” Fox asked, his curiosity was obviously piqued. Androids, while not unheard of, were still very uncommon at the time. They hadn’t yet gone into large scale production yet, although there was talk about doing just that.

              “Yeah,” Crowder said nodding, “some android they called Blink.”

              “Do you know him?” I asked Fox when he didn’t immediately reply.

              “It sounds familiar but I don’t think so,” he said looking uncertain.

              “Okay,” I said trying to move the conversation along, “do you think any of this is connected?”

              No one answered right away, we all were thinking hard. After some time Fox finally spoke up, “At first glance I would venture to guess that these are two completely isolated incidents, though a very big coincidence. My overall assumption is that these two encounters are related, though not directly in the sense that they are working together but rather working towards the same goal unbeknownst to either group. If this is the case I think it is safe to conclude that the possibility of more groups is plausible. We will just have to play it by ear, I think.”

              “Couldn’t have said it any better,” I said. I walked over to my work bench and pocketed the maps that were strewn over it, as well as a few notes.

              “Daniel,” Burns said looking at his time monitor, “those guys should be arriving soon.”

              “Perfect,” I holstered my sidearm and stood in front of the group. “Maybe we can get some information out of them. Remember, there is no such thing as too much information around here. Let’s go.” With that we set off as a group towards the open lot in the middle of Abiyah where at least one group was likely to show up. Burns gave Brantley, the leader of the AF group they ran into, coordinates that would lead him to this lot and we wanted to get there to see if he would be true to his word and arrive by himself.

              We arrived at the open lot and set up camp around the perimeter and since we knew the area really well we were able to hide ourselves completely. We sat and waited for what seemed like over an hour, but when it’s dead silent and life has ceased to exist as far as the eye can see, time seems to slow down. Finally we saw them approaching, a small contingent, still more than one, was headed in our direction.

              “That fucker,” Burns whispered over the communicators.

              Brantley and his soldiers arrived exactly on the spot Burns gave them and looked around. “Fox, we’re on your mark,” I said, “let us know when to engage.”

              “Hang on,” he responded. A few moments passed. “Okay, clear to engage.”

              I was a little confused because I was under the assumption that Fox was going to do something but I didn’t see if he did or not. Nevertheless, Burns pulled a lever and activated the defenses we had installed at that spot and enclosed the group in a small cage that forced them into close quarters. We all charged out from our spaces, our guns pointing into the cage.

              “What the hell are you doing,” Brantley yelled from somewhere in the middle of the group.

              Burns charged up and kicked the cage, rattling it pretty hard. “I told you to come alone,” Burns yelled back. “This don’t look alone to me!”

              “It’s not like you trusted me anyway, so what’s the big deal?”

              Fox walked up to Burns and put a hand on his shoulder, “It is okay Burns there is no need to worry. They will not be doing anything dumb.” Burns hesitated slightly but hit the release button on a remote he held in his hand sending the cage back down. “Now,” Fox started before anybody could do anything, “it would behoove all of you to know that your movements, while not restricted, are going to be very closely monitored. I have taken the liberty to place a small sensor somewhere on your person. If any of you act aggressively in any way towards any of us, you will be disintegrated.”