Murder Drones: Born from ashes

Chapter 9 : In the Eye of the Storm

Uzi's mouth was covered by Ruger. Multiple mercenaries sat on the floor, a cowardly Kale gingerly adjusted dials on the sides of his head.

"Jesus Christ Uzi, where do you think you're going? Forget capturing the patient zero bomber, the whole place is a breeding ground. We're taking their oil and retreating!"

Uzi chambered a round into her rifle and cocked her eyebrow towards her commander. She forgot about the mission hours ago. "says who?"

"The Directors."

The Directors were something Uzi still hasn't figured out yet. It must have been some conglomerate of drones who lived miles underground, using the radar units as their conduit of influence. The Directors controlled the uniforms, weapons, tactics, and trading. During Stacy's speech in boot camp, their authority went unquestioned after their first involvement in an operation. Their faces were unknown. Noone knew if they were even real or if it was another piece of propaganda.

Kale looked through the cracks, adjusting the dials and antenna on his head. A little green dot showed on his visor. A soldier had been sent down one of the tunnels to investigate a possible escape route, they were about to get their answer.

"He's coming back!"

The soldier returned from the darkness. He tried to mouth something, but all that came out were a series of beeps. It wasn't Morse code, the beeps were cutting and sputtering madness. Uzi and Ruger approached the drone as he threw himself against the wall, holding his hand up. Ruger turned on the flashlight on his shoulder. The drone's left side of his face was gone, along with his visor, revealing a metal like skull with a series of fiber optic receivers. His synthetic organs spilled from his exposed chest. His free now skeletal hand pushed against a gray lung shaped part, a drones oil supply which squirted oil into Uzi's visor. The trooper whipped his hand off his bleeding wound towards the hallway and began beeping morse code. What happened next was a blur. A series of crazed shouts, being thrown around followed by them slamming the door shut.

The metal cart of chemicals only halted back the bomber drone for a few seconds. This was patient zero, knowing the stages of infection, the important signs were the rapid decay of attached limbs, forcing the drone into a vicious loop of splicing themselves with thousands of parts until the virus finds one suitable for itself. The bomber drones that go under the radar enough to become a strander are drafted into a spy division. These spies enter settlements and slowly infect every resident. Uzi and Ruger pushed against the unrelenting force. Stacy readied her shotgun at the door. A barrel tumbled from the cart as two claws emerged. Uzi pushed her limbs to the limit.

The soldiers all took their positions. A dozen rifles and pistols aimed at the small window.

"Wait for him to stick something else! Almost-!"

A tail lashed through the crack and whipped wildly. Ruger lost his grip and fell back, leaving the tail flying towards one drone...

A sudden shock followed by pure agony went through her head. Her vision became a mix of colored fragments and darkness. Her right vision was gone. Uzi looks to her left to see the bomber drone be torn down by a hail of gunfire. The drones charged in after their hunter into the hallway. A blur went by in her peripheral vision. Uzi gave pursuit, it had to be V.

She ran from the group and darted through the city.

"Come back!" screamed Stacy, but all that mattered was V, it wasn't like she had anything to lose. Uzi climbed up the mountain of shells and body parts. Stacy grabbed her leg and pleaded for her to stop, but all she got was a kick to the face. Stacy's fall was never seen, only the clattering of corpses signified a landing. Ignoring her commander's orders, feverishly attempting to get an aim at the fleeing murder drone, a quick calculation put her feet right where she needed to maintain equilibrium. It was too late, she had gone too far, only a twinkle of yellow light within the storm was left, it was all for nothing.

"No..." Stacy muttered, beginning to break down. The clacking and scraping of serrated claws denied her whimpers to be heard. A group of bomber drones emerged from the shadows. Uzi slid down the hill of bodies as the swarm slowly approached the soldier that had lost all hope. She dragged Stacy, a broken drone no one could repair. The chugging of the van's engine echoed through the hallways, oil darkened the walls the further they traveled. A series of yellow lights appeared in the corners of the hallway. Stacy aimed down her rifle, her eyes filled with wrath only to be whittled into fear. Uzi dropped Stacy to take out her Javelin again. A worker drone is capable of running a single simulations in a second. Despite every thing telling her not to, Uzi fired her rocket at the bomber drones rushing at them. An ear splitting crack followed by the smoke and fire was the only evidence of her firing. Pieces of debris and remains flew at them along with the sonic boom, one shard of metal careened right into her already broken visor. Not being able to visualize impact did not make the pain any better.

Her mind was spinning, dragging Stacy by her tattered hood. If Uzi were to see herself then, she would have mistaken herself for a crazed psycho. The two came into an opening, the wrath of the cold wind no longer cut their joints like knives. Amidst the fog that began to dissipate from the storm long passed. The red lights of the van shone, their ticket out of the nightmare, only a few steps further. Stacy felt someone lift her legs, locking her eyes with Nermel who appeared from nowhere. One last bomber drone careened towards them. Nermel dropped Stacy's legs and whipped out his machete. The bomber drone halted with a look of fear as Nermel made a swift leap, splitting its core within seconds.

The engine sputtered to life and the red lights began to move further and further from them. Uzi attempted to flag them down, whipping out her Javelin from her duffle bag to try and draw attention to her. Nermel picked the two drones off the ground before any rocket was fired. He was fast, even for a self proclaimed 8 year old combat drone. They ran faster and faster as the Sun showed itself on the horizon. Uzi flipped the back door open, allowing it to swing and catch the severely wounded Ruger and Kale off guard. Nermel frantically threw himself into the van, dragging the two girls as if they were secondary to getting himself out of the Sun.

Drones and thousands of equipment filled the van, they were all cargo after all. Armless, legless, headless, or disemboweled were the best ways to describe the ones receiving low quality repairs. with no adequate mechanical equipment like the ones in the Bunker, Uzi's profession as an engineer shined. She made quick work of cauterizing opened oil distributor tubes, their guts. Kale and Ruger denied her help, disgusted by her reckless and violent attitude that put them in their crippled states. Another drone left one of the back doors open, letting light reach into the van. The amber glow filled the exposed interior of the van. Engulfing the mercenaries with a sense of hope that would last until sundown.