Burn Code

Seventeen

I woke to his hands wrapped around my throat and the entirety of his body weight in the knee on my sternum. Frantic, I pushed and clawed at his arms.

He cursed at me as he squeezed harder, his face red with effort. I wove my hands around his forearms and tried to twist him loose. Uselessly I bucked beneath him, legs flailing. He bore down with his leg and something cracked in my chest.

The code! My brain screamed at me.

A small error blinked in my optics — my TPU had gone offline.

Struggling to get air, I accessed the backup relay. I willed to to respond faster as it sluggishly came online.

Reboot, reboot! Goddammit, reboot!

The error blipped out and for one long, agonizing moment, I was sure it was over. Choked to death on the floor of an abandoned warehouse by the man I was trying to stop.

My optics flashed and I dreaded the continued pause. Flailing again, I punched at Grendel’s arms, digging my nails into his flesh, trying to deliver pain.

Finally a broken bar symbol twirled dead center in my vision. In triumph, I found a shred of hope as my TPU recharged to maximum strength.

I swiped for his face and caught his cheek with my fingertips before gouging in my nails. He jerked back with a growl, pulling out of my reach.

The brief touch was enough to pass my script.

The worm registered in my optics. I sent the spike command as my own vision began to tunnel from the building pressure and lack of air.

A cry rose to his throat and his hands loosened a fraction. I relayed another spike.

Grendel screwed his eyes shut as he twitched. The growl became a garbled scream and his grip eased again. He kept his hands around my throat as long as possible before finally letting go to claw at his face.

I flailed again and connected against muscle with a knee. Spiking once more, I rolled out from under him and crawled coughing across the concrete.

It was misery to breathe. I sucked in air, but every gasp hurt. Something crunched each time I did. Finding my feet, I stumbled towards where I had lost the taser.

Between the worm repressing his ability to reset his optics and the over voltage, he was trapped between flailing wildly and swearing in agony. The spikes would render him blind as they fried his corneas and burned through his optic nerves.

Irony. He had done the same to someone else.

Pulling out the handcuffs, I held them in a fist and yanked off my jacket. The vest constricted my chest and I tugged on it, trying to make more room to breathe. I scooped up the taser and stumbled towards Grendel.

Standing near, I unloaded the stun prongs into the man at my feet. For five seconds he was locked in rigor and his scream became even louder.

“Shut up you, bastard.” My voice was gravel out of a throat that felt like I had swallowed a glassful of sand.

He had no energy to fight me as I flipped him onto his stomach and locked the dead officer’s handcuffs around his wrists. Grendel moaned from the ground and spat a very filthy epithet. I kicked him in the ribs after I struggled to my feet.

A weak laugh came from the floor as he mumbled against the concrete.

“Watch your boyfriend burn.”

Paul immediately gasped and jerked in the chair.

“No!”

Despite it all, Grendel was still connected to Paul’s relays.