A Forgotten Power

Chapter 02: Natives of Decay

Alexis quickened her pace, rushing to finish. The bones were dusty and old, but the exterior surfaces of her gloves were composed of an adaptive nanoweave. Based upon the pressure her fingers exerted on the inside of the glove, the weave adjusted in order to maximize grip strength and prevent anything from slipping out of her hands. Similarly, when pressure on the interior of the glove lessened, the fibers released so as to prevent objects needing to be released from sticking permanently to her hand.

Having kept an eye on the movements of the locals, Alexis had thought she'd enough time to collect a few more specimens, but new blips began to appear, and they were far closer. She realized some of the denizens of the destroyed city must've been stationary inside the ruined buildings and only now were their movements allowing them to be detected by her sensors.

Abandoning the intent of taking anything else, she raced back toward the pod, dumping the last of her collection in the storage chamber and closing it. A burst of brown tinted air erupted from the flight pod as the interior atmosphere of the storage chamber was purified and the toxins vented.

A metal lid in the street moved aside, years of accumulated dirt spilling off in a billowing cloud of lifeless grey. Knowing she wouldn't have time to power up her craft before whatever was emerging in the street reached her, Alexis drew out the laser pistols holstered on either side of her waist. The old sewer lid landed on the broken street with a resounding clang. The shape that emerged had been human once but no longer.

Ribbons of muscle tissue covered the misshapen skeleton in uneven patterns, making the left arm and shoulder much larger and bulkier than those on the right. Spurs of bone jutted forward from its exposed ribcage. The fingers on its right hand were nearly as long as its forearm, giving the mutant an extended reach. Only a few wisps of long hair remained on its lumpy scalp, hanging limply like seaweed on an ancient shipwreck. The eyes of the creature were pale yellow and glowed slightly in the toxic fog.

Alexis clenched her jaw as she opened fire with both pistols. Bolts of bright blue light filled the air and impacted in bursts of white hot sparks. It took more than ten shots to put the brute down, each one staggering it back but refusing to be enough to finish it off. Finally, the mutant collapsed, and Alexis added several more shots to be certain it was dead.

Efforts had been made during the earlier years to cure the mutants, but all of them had ended in failure. No hope existed for those warped by the outside world. Even the criminals exiled from the city would eventually suffer the same fate, their bodies twisted beyond recognition as their minds descended into madness. A quick death was the only mercy she could offer them.

Despite her initial success, the delay it caused had been enough for the other residents to close into range. They charged her position with stealthy steps and silent determination. Unlike the mutant she'd dispatched, these swift attackers were not transformed yet. Bio-raiders attacked anyone and everyone, carving up any available biological tissue they could use to enhance or repair their own failing bodies and prevent the mutation from taking them for as long as possible. They worked with a collective purpose during attacks, but would quickly turn against each other once a kill had been secured as all of them were in a race against the inevitable.

As they emerged from the fog, Alexis got a view of them. Many of the bio-raiders were attired differently, leftovers from the people they'd once been, but a common theme was shared by all. Hooded robes cloaked them in darkness while enhanced optical goggles over their eyes glinted slightly red in the shadow of their hoods, making their sudden appearance from the fog the stuff of nightmares. Gleaming blades were carried in both hands as more sophisticated weaponry and equipment didn't last long in the hostile environment and technologically deficient realm outside the dome.

Alexis fired repeatedly, moving around her flight pod to keep some kind of barrier between her and the incoming raiders. She knew of some people in the city who'd had artificial muscle implants linked with their optical relays, allowing instant coordination between where they looked and where they aimed their weapons, but she'd spent enough time outside the atmospheric field to not need it. Every shot she fired found its mark, kicking over backwards a raider in an explosion of sparks, the toxic clouds closing over their remains and vanishing them from sight.

The charge on her lasers went empty, and she put the expended guns away. Reaching behind her back for a pair of crossed holsters, Alexis drew out two plasma pistols. Firing spherical charges of superheated plasma, the pistols lit the surrounding area with bright red light. Bio-raiders hit by the plasma were set on fire around the point of impact, but none of them could feel it as they were instantly killed.

As the numbers of raiders began to diminish, the intensity of their attack waned. Many of them simply halted their charge and drifted back into the fog. The blips on Alexis' map display showed they hadn't departed, waiting silent and still beyond her visual range. New marker blips began to appear on her goggles' optic lenses, and Alexis knew why the attacks had stopped. The raiders were waiting for reinforcements before continuing.

Alexis climbed into the flight pod, resting her plasma pistols on the control console where she could reach them if necessary. Powering up the ship, she kept a nervous eye on the approaching blips, nearly twice the number of the first group, hoping she would be gone before they arrived.