New Elysium: Breakout

My Turn (20)

"No, I'm sorry," he whispered, his eyes going blank.

He inhaled.

Tasting the stale air in the tent, the stink of human sweat reminded Red of the Helion 7 prison complex. It was the smell of fear, adrenaline coursing through the body causing a reaction he was built to sense and react to. It was also the first indication that shit was about to go down.

The other indication was simply they'd removed Ember from the equation, and the panic he felt from her loss spurred on a sudden need to get her back at any cost.

He waited tensed, his body like a coiled spring, they waited, there wasn't fear now. Only the sureness that they had the upper hand. Some part of him knew that this wasn't what Ember would have wanted, another part of him said she could be a little more selfish every once in a while.

The path he needed to take to take down as many guards in the faster manner he could was laid out in front of him in nanoseconds. All he had to do was act. The FADR blew through his system giving a boost far superior to any normal adrenaline rush would have. His vision was tinged with red, he'd forgotten about that. The training academy had nicknamed FADR "berserker juice" for good reason.

Red inhaled again, energy surged through every fiber in that one breath.

Time slowed around him and for a few moments, everyone else seemed to move in slow motion.

Red's open palm was crunching through the first guard's nose faster than he could raise his gun. Blood, bone, and spittle flew across the room, splattering Andrea, who was slowly turning her head in surprise, opening her mouth in protest, as he moved past her.

Red didn't have to see the guard to know he wasn't going to get up again. The man never knew what hit him.

Red felt a brief moment of amusement as the other guard's gun slowly tipped up in his direction. Part of him wanted to let him get there, have some hope before he crushed it. That part struggled to claw its way outside of him and make these people suffer.

The barrel swung violently up towards the ceiling as Red snapped it back up with his palm, a hole forming in the tent when the trigger was pulled. He followed through his elbow popped into the man's lower jaw, dislocating it as Red spun into him, dropping the second man, simultaneously covering himself with blood. He watched as the man dropped to the floor his arms of their own accord tossing the long-barreled plasma rifle up into the air and Red stepped into it as if he'd just been handed his first hunting rifle from the adoring father he'd never had.

Dropping to his knee he spun towards the third guard lifting the barrel into his line of sight. The remaining guard already had his gun pointed at Red and he was slowly bearing down on the trigger. Red leaned to the left slightly as he watched the finger pull the trigger back. He felt the stinging singe into his skin as the plasma burst traveling at over 1500 meters per second left a red line across his upper arm.

He didn't even flinch, instead, his eyes flicked at Andrea who was just now starting to grasp what was happening around her, her jaw hanging open, two hands slowly going to cover her gaping mouth. Before she could give any kind of order Red pulled the trigger, feeling the burst as the rifle pushed back against his shoulder and watching as a small red hole opened up into the man's forehead and red gore splattered out of the back. The burst would have burned out half of his brain before he hit the ground. The guard dropped without a sound.

Red exhaled.

Dag was already free, the surprise in the room was palpable as the rest of the "guards" froze. The false adrenaline rush Red was feeling would wear off soon, but it would last long enough for his purposes. He hadn't used the systems inside of him in years. There had been no need after his first few months in Helion. No one messed with him anymore. He felt like he could burst as he snatched the governor from her cushion in one fluid motion hugging her none too gently to his chest. Her hand grasped his arm as she tried pulling away, but he was like iron, not caring if she was hurt, and past the point of decency. He pointed the gun at the last guard standing. Andrea finally let out a scream she'd been building up. The world sped up again.