Husk

Chapter 11 - Interceptor

Chapter 11

The elevator door opened. A group of soldiers came out. They were dressed head to toe in black body armor. No insignia. You couldn't even see their eyes past their gritty metal facemasks. They were holding those same damn prototype rifles I saw flashing in my head in the desert. They were out to kill. Permanent death. It wasn't going to matter anymore if someone had an implant. They were here to destroy us and any trace of us. This was the future of warfare. Life wasn't going to be a game anymore where you die you wake up and you die again. This time we were playing for keeps. Azra and I ran towards the stairs as fast as we could. We had no idea what would be waiting for us behind the next door. Archer opened up another secret drawer on the wall. Inside he pulled out a shotgun. I watched as he dropped down to the ground balanced it on his knee and started to cover us.

The soldiers were too busy loading my oldest friend with bullets that they stopped paying attention to us just long enough we could get away. We were on the stairs. I think I counted twelve soldiers behind us. Two squads of six. They obviously weren't going to blow up the building. Too many husks, there was too much collateral damage for them here. We were only two runaways anyway. I was beginning to feel sick again. I felt tired of being chased. Tired of not being able to fight back. I couldn't understand why I would plan an escape but no way to fight back. I wanted to stop questioning myself. We continued up the stairs we were on floor seventeen... only seven flights of stairs till we hit the roof.

The soldiers were back on us in less than a minute. I could feel my ribs touching each other, the brittle bones breaking more and more. I still had cement in my elbows from the chase with the stalker earlier that day embedded in my elbows. If I even touched the stair railing or wall I felt my arms burn. The same feeling I felt on the bridge. I could remember what it felt like being shot. My father said one day we would be immortal. I wish he knew what I knew now.

We were almost there just one more flight of stairs. I pushed Azra in front of me. If she can make it then I will at least die happy knowing I saved her. We're almost at the door. I take out my 9mm. It's time to start shooting back or game over. I unload my entire clip. I aim for their weapons. If I can at least take out one or two rifles our odds will increase. I fire. I clip one but I'm not sure if I made a difference. I see the blast hit the wall... its only a foot from me. I think to myself maybe I screwed up his aim. I feel the heat rise off it. I imagine that could be my face. I think about how when Cross shot me in the eye and I was still very much alive and screaming. It's amazing how no one cared. Everyone in that building, on that block must have heard me screaming. It hits me there are always people screaming. I was just blind and deaf to it before.

The blast makes me notice another thing. There is a fire axe next to the door. I bust the glass. I feel it cut my hand. It tickles compared to everything else my body is feeling. I can't believe I haven't even killed one of these bastards yet. Together Azra and I push through the door to the roof. The sun is melting into the landscape. I feel like we can see the curvature of the Earth up here. Forever around us buildings scrap the sky. I feel like this is the first time I've ever seen the world. We slam the door behind us. I use the fire axe to bridge the door shut knowing it won't hold them for long.

The interceptor was right there in front of us. It was painted red and white. It looked like the phoenix we saw at the zoo years ago. We quickly make our way up to it. "How are you supposed to know how to fly this thing?" I ask Azra. She reminds me her dad was a pilot. That he used to take her up in the cockpit with her and she would watch... the more she watched the more she learned. With the touch of my finger we open the glass door. I pray that it's bulletproof. Then I see it. I was a step ahead of myself again. In my seat sits a rifle. The same rifle Cross threw to me that made me feel like a god so many years ago. I help Azra into the pilots seat and then grab my rifle and steady myself behind her. I watch as the soldiers blow the door open splitting the axe like it's plastic instead of steel.

One by one I take aim and watch them fall. I think to myself how these are going to be the last lives I ever take, after this I'm done. I am never killing again. I'd rather be reset. I'd rather die.

I don't even waste an entire clip. I watch in horror as they climb over the bodies of the fallen; each one thinking they will get the kill shot wake up and get a medal. They have no idea how high the stakes are. Finally they all fall. Everything is silent aside from the electric motor of the interceptor warming up.

I think about Rex, I think about how he jumped in front of me to try and protect me from the incoming car. I smile thinking about how I have done the same here and now for Azra.

We begin our takeoff. I drop the rifle to the ground and close the cockpit. I am encased inside the glass hull of the interceptor praying this won't end up being our coffin. We lift straight into the air. Straight up. I remember this feeling. I look in front of me and I can see Azra's reflection in the window as she plugs in the coordinates Archer gave us. I can see her smiling. I can see her eyes taking everything in. I sit back in my seat as we begin to move forward high above the metal world below us.

In five minutes we are coming over a desert. I can't believe it. We haven't gone that far but I recognize the landmarks. I was never in the Middle East... I was playing soldier in my own back yard. The severed was nothing more then another resistance fighting the giant metal city. We could see the city span for miles... all across the horizon. I had never thought about what it looked like. I think about the parks, the flat lands inside, the lakes, rivers, all fake. I think about how all of it was designed to give the illusion of freedom. I think about the city stretching across the middle of the entire continent with desert on both sides.

Another five minutes pass... We are miles away from the city now. It is nothing more then a point on the horizon. I can't believe everything I had ever known was there.

It was nothing but a speck on the horizon surrounded by desert and then it was nothing..

A white light shined far behind us. Then another until the entire horizon shined like diamonds. I couldn't believe it.

I was ahead of myself again.