Thunder

Chapter Fifteen - 1

Z9 stepped through into the small exit room. There was nobody there, not even anyone from C.A.T looking to escape through the tunnels. She closed the vault-like door behind her, hearing it click into place again and the hiss of gas confirmed to her it sealing once more. She briefly remembered that there was a separate code to open the door from the inside, but couldn't remember what it was. She was locked inside. It was all or nothing. She exhaled slowly. Time to dance.

She pushed open the door into a side-corridor down on the level of the Mark research labs. The lights were swinging slowly, and a massive shake like that of an earthquake rocked the building. Z9 saw her gun hands shake with the shudder. She flicked it around and saw nobody. She looked up to the sign and saw where she was. Not far from where Mark23's room was. She headed in that direction first, keeping to the shadows.

Down here it was silent. All of the action was apparently taking place upstairs. She didn't know how so many had managed to infiltrate into the building, and sickeningly reasoned that some of the people working in the building must have been secretly working for Evangra all along. She spat on the floor to get the taste of resentment from touching her lips.

She moved into the main hangar area. There was nobody there. On her left she could see Mark23's wall of energy down. He wasn't home, having apparently escaped with all of the others. She moved out into the main, colosseum of a room, hands steady. The stitch had faded now, but she suspected that it would return at some point. She didn't like that idea.

As she was heading for the main stairwell, the door at the top opened. It was hidden around a corner, the stairs taking a ninety degree right on their way down. Z9 rushed to hide behind the first section and flattened her back against the wall. The shadows of two men of great bulk descended, followed by the men themselves. They weren't wearing anything of any relation to Celestria; instead wearing no kind of armour at all. They were clothed only in their own belongings, a shirt on one and a sweater jacket on the other. Their shoes, though they had obviously initially been white, were thick with dust and splattered with blood.

Z9 watched them pass her into the main hall, one holding a large gun, an XF-23 Gamma. Machine gun, rapid fire.

They looked around, obviously having been sent down to check if anyone had come down into the room to try and hide, or escape via some means.

'Nobody here,' said the one in the shirt. He had a large knife by his side, a serrated, saw-like blade gilding its steely edge.

'Hold it,' the one with the gun said, throwing up his hand in a fist. The two stood there, not five meters from Z9. She raised her gun slowly, trying to creep closer to her targets.

The one in the jacket with the gun brought it up; ready to fire onto anyone that came near. Z9 saw him move his head slightly, like a dog cocking its head to the side to try and listen for the smallest of sounds. She saw his finger tighten on the trigger. Shirt-man's grip on his knife was no longer loose or casual. She saw that around his left arm, his non-knife arm, a large strip of black cloth was wrapped around it, shaped and bulging with his biceps. It looked more like a victory belt than anything else.

Z9 crept gingerly closer. Her feet were poised to spring. She checked the hammer, saw that it was down. It was now four meters. She pressed her luck a little further.

Jacket-man threw himself wide, swinging around and firing at her. Z9 threw herself to the ground, squeezing off a shot at shirt-man. It went wide and blew up a light in the ceiling. Z9 slid along the ground, shots biting into the floor millimetres from her. She stopped by jacket-man's feet and she grabbed them and pulled. He went over, the gun falling from his hands and skittering along the floor. Shirt-man went in for the kill with the knife but Z9 quickly fired at his hand. It hit the knife and the blade went sailing high. Shirt man came down all the same and knocked the gun from Z9's hand.

Jacket-man threw Z9 off him and crawled over to get on top of him. Z9 lashed out with her foot, it collecting the side of him and sending him, jacket and all, into the shirt-man who was likewise about to clamber onto the agent. Z9 got to her feet and tried to go for one of the three weapons now lying abandoned on the ground. Jacket-man was on her before she could get there however, sending in a barrage of punches to the face. She bared her arms and pushed his away, sending a punch of her own through his defences and into his stomach. He doubled up in pain.

Shirt-man came in for his attack without letting Z9 have time to recover. He threw a slam down on Z9's neck which just barely missed and caused shockwaves of pain to ripple through her shoulder. She lashed out with a kick but the bastard spun around behind her, throwing an elbow into her back and sending her sprawling.

Once down she instantly flipped onto her back, instincts telling her to see what was coming. Shirt-man leapt on her like a horny dog, his teeth bared and trying to bite down on her neck as jacket-man was rising once again to try and join in the party. Z9 balled her fist and came up with a crunch into shirt-man's temple. When he didn't let off, she came at him again, and then a third time with the other hand until blood spluttered from his mouth and into Z9's eyes. He fell off her, and jacket-man took his place.

His thumbs went for Z9's eyes. She reached out and took a hold of his wrists, trying with all her might to push him back. She could see them coming ever closer, and all the while she could hear shirt-man coughing up blood and getting to his feet. She closed her eyes in a futile attempt to keep the thumbs from her globes. She scrabbled with her legs but couldn't find purchase.

The scraping of metal.

She hooked her legs around jacket-man and tossed him to her left just as shirt-man came down with the knife. Blood erupted from jacket-man's shoulder as the blade dug deep, and as Z9 untangled herself from the body she felt the pressure fall away from her, jacket-man pulling his hands to the knife to try and free it. Shirt-man instinctively pulled down, ripping through the flesh of jacket-man's arm and slicing veins, arteries, muscle, tendons, the entire works of an arm. The scream of pain was almost like that of a being of another dimension from beyond the wall of sleep.

Z9 crawled to her feet, and as jacket-man rolled on the floor in agony, shirt-man, now once again with his favourite toy in hand, came rushing at her, leaping over his wounded companion. She blocked a slice downwards with her elbow, throwing her arm wide to get the knife from her. Shirt-man let loose with a kick from the side but Z9 grabbed it. Taking her other arm around the man's wrist, she picked him up and threw him onto his friend with all her strength. The two bodies collided and the knife clattered down once again.

She let go of the man and swiftly picked up the knife. She came down on shirt-man, plunging the blade deep through his shirt and into his heart. He tried to scream but it was cut short by the gargling blood.

Underneath him jacket-man bucked. Z9 went onto her ass and the dying shirt-man went over. With an almighty roar of anger and pent-up fury, jacket-man came at her. He leapt, both feet off the ground, intending to jump onto Z9 and crush some of her internal organs, perhaps take out a rib or two at the same time. As she twisted to avoid the blow she brought the knife up and it went straight through the man's face to the hilt.

Jacket-man hit the ground and his body convulsed. He tried to scream but shock had taken over. His hands fumbled for the knife, trying to pull it out, but the blow to his brain from the serration had done its work; he was beginning to lose muscle-function. Z9 got up and, taking the hilt, pulled out the blade and dragged it to the left. She felt muscle and fragments of skull crunch, and the knife held tiny pieces of grey matter in between its teeth once completely out.

She stood panting for a second between two mutilated corpses. She went over to the Gamma and picked it up, picketing the strap that was around shirt-man's arm, now with blood slickening it. She made a strap for the gun and threw it over her shoulder. She sheathed the knife and picked up her gun. Without looking back she climbed up the stairs and out into the main building.