War Dance

ONE - Z9: 3

The main street was the mark's first hope. Put enough bodies in the way and hopefully there won't be a hole in the back of your head because it'll be in someone else's. When he failed to throw off his double tails, he dived into the gaping maw of a multi-storey kar park and sprinted up its tongue.

Z9 was almost level with the Red Rose member. By the time they were inside the building she was only a few steps behind. Red Rose turned and brought his gun up. Z9 dropped and rolled underneath the shot. Came up sharp, pushed his arm up and away, sending a second blast into the ceiling. Metal burned and sparks dropped onto them, singing their hair as they twisted away, locked together.

Z9 twisted Red Rose's arms in a lock. 'Your boss gonna be happy if you lose him?' she snarled in his ear.

Red Rose looked down the kar park. The mark leapt onto the hood of a boxy little vehicle and jumped through the gap into the next floor up. As his feet tucked over the lip, Red Rose nodded. 'Fine.'

Z9 released him. They jumped for their own kars and bolted over into the next floor.

The mark watched them from the other end of the kar park. The road to the next floor was past them as it spiralled up. His eyes darted one way and the other. Turned and made for the staircase behind him. Z9 and Red Rose bolted after him.

Through the door. Take the stairs. One flight, two flights, running all the way to the top. Thighs start burning four flights up, breath gets harder after six. Then without a pause it's a bolt for the door and out onto the rooftop floor.

Z9 splashed through the puddles after the mark, a thousand water droplets flung up like shattered glass, catching the light of a thousand city lights. She couldn't let him get any further away. He was headed for the road up and onto the highway, where it would be almost certain death even with careful drivers, which nobody was, even more so with regular working hours finishing. So she dug deep to some reserve of energy kept squirrelled away after years of training for just such a moment. She gained yards on Red Rose with every passing second. Started to gain on the mark. Not enough.

The mark dodged to the right of a kar coming down the ramp off the road to the kar park. The horn blared as Z9 leapt over the bonnet and off the other side. Hit the ground and stumbled. Grazed her palm on the black tiles of the road. Lost a few lengths to the mark. Swore so loudly Carmen remarked on it in her ear. Kept to the inside wall as the road spiralled up to the highway. Nothing else for it. Just run.

'Local police have been informed. Backup is coming.'

'Tell them to snag... the Red Rose guy... I'm... after the mark.'

'Copy that.'

Running up the road, the mark didn't turn around once. His focus was on getting away, not on shooting his two pursuers. He had a hand to his ear, and though he couldn't be heard over the rain and the closing traffic, his lips were clearly moving. Z9 pushed harder. If he was through the traffic to the other side of the highway, he was gone.

She was two steps behind when they emerged off the spiral ramp onto the highway, a ribbon of black tiles cut through with a blue grid that snaked like a tightrope through steel spears reaching for the dark heavens. Bright eyes of headlights jabbed at the way ahead, drivers wanting to get home for a drink, trying to escape a bad relationship, not knowing where they were going but simply needing the monotony of movement at break-neck speed on the knife edge of Celestria's roads. They were oblivious to anyone about to cut perpendicular across the road. Who wouldn't be?

The mark pitched right, against the flow of oncoming traffic so he could see what was about to hit him. From behind, still on the ramp, a gunshot sliced the rain, taking a chunk out of the barrier. Red Rose, stitched and slower, wanted in on the action.

A screech of tyres and Z9 looked up. A blood red kar slid to a halt in front of them. An arm punched out of an open window, gun in hand, aimed at her.

She hit the ground and the gunshot went over her head. Red Rose fell back as the blast winged him, screamed, and hit the road. A Zoomus had to slam on the brakes to avoid churning him up underneath the mag-lev.

The back door of the red kar opened and the mark clambered inside. The gun was still trained on Z9. Barrier to one side, the open road to the other. Pinned down, nowhere to go.

Then a blur out of the corner of her eye.

The central energy barrier cutting the two sides of the highway off from one another exploded into electric plasma. A kar shot across the road, slammed an oncoming vehicle, and the two hit the mark's kar. Metal crunched, sparks flew. People screamed. The gunshot went wide.

Z9 got up and sprinted the gap to the mark's getaway. Buckled and dented, it put itself into reverse to slide out of the three kar pile-up that others behind had somehow managed to avoid. Wouldn't be avoiding it for long. There was a gap now opening up where some idiot not watching closely would slide down, right against the barrier, right into Z9.

She hooked an arm into the closing kar door. It slammed on her and she felt something buckle, a crunch of bone. Searing pain that she tried to block out with adrenaline. Whacked the door open regardless, clambered in, and socked a man in the face.

The gunman at the front, disoriented and with blood pouring from the left side of his head, tried to turn in his seat to aim at the intruder but Z9 kicked the headrest and shocked the seat forward. His face slammed into the dash and his nose broke. Blood spurted into his eyes. He screamed.

Z9 pushed her palm into the mark's face, trying to lean across and get at the man on the far side. The kar had stopped reversing and now shifted into first gear. They slid backward into the seats as the engine engaged and surged forward, trying to clear the roadblock.

The man on the far side raised his gun and aimed for Z9. She was sprawled across three men with a gun at her face. Not much to do. Nowhere to go.

Then a ram from the left side sent the kar into a pirouette. The vehicle that had raced across the highway from the other side had hit reverse and booted the side of them as it was going past. Their kar spun and stalled at a jaunty angle. Roadblock across the way.

Z9 looked out through the rear window. Headlights approaching like the stars blurring her vision. She prayed, rolled off the men and onto the floor between the front seats and the rears. The shot the mark's friend was lining up hit the window. Glass shattered.

It was nothing compared to what came next.

A building contractor, arguing with his daughter over whether she could or could not see the boy she liked that evening, was temporarily distracted. He turned his head, chastised her for coming back far too late last night. She wasn't listening. Her eyes went wide. She screamed and pointed ahead of them. Watch out!

The contractor tried to brake, but there wasn't much he could do.

The front of his kar hit the mark's so hard that the rear end split off, shearing down a fault line like tearing paper. The three men, the mark and his two buddies, were ripped free, one of the buddies spilling out onto the road, blood and glass and torn flesh everywhere. The section burst into flames in an instant.

The front half, ripped away almost exactly in line with where Z9 was lying, was smashed further down the road. It slammed up against the mid road energy barrier and slid down the way, blue lightning showing their route down. Grinding metal screeched and noxious fumes filled the air.

When it finally came to a halt a hundred feet from where it had started, Z9 was conscious through a tiny slit in her vision. She heard nothing but a high-pitched ringing. Before she blacked out completely she saw red and blue flashing lights blurred, more a feeling than a sight. Whether someone shot her before they got there was none of her concern. She didn't care anymore. It was too much.

She surrendered to the darkness.