Chapter Forty-One
“They will begin the assault any moment, Gabriela.” Angela took Gabriela by the shoulder and led her quickly to the back of the compound. Crates of equipment and supplies filled the large building. Most of the things Gabriela saw strewn about were alien to her.
“What would you do if they hadn't found us?” Her hand brushed over the weapons laying on a crate.
“Fight,” Angela explained. “Assault the Bioloxys facility. Free as many children as we could, take whatever information they had on their mainframes.”
“Terrorism then.”
“War, Gabriela, but I suppose there isn’t much of a difference, except one has the blessing of the powers that be.”
“You plan to kill innocent people.” Gabriela corrected her.
“We don’t have time for this.”
“Then make time.” Gabreila shook Angela’s hand from her shoulder and turned to look at her.
“Do you believe they are really innocent?” Angela sighed
“Yes.Those people are only doing their jobs.”
“During the European war, I led an assault on a munitions facility in Kostents, a small town in Bulgaria. We used drones to bomb the buildings, before we were ordered to move into the ruined buildings and clear them out. It was held as a strategic success, even though there were no soldiers inside; just men and women doing their jobs.”
“This is not the same.”
“The bullets that were manufactured in that facility killed many of my friends, and many more innocent people.” Angela pointed up above them, toward the Bioloxys facility. “Inside that building they take more than lives. They take our future. They grow people who will one day grow to pull the trigger and take unimaginable amounts of lives. The innocent workers are no different than the workers in Kostents.”
“I can’t let this happen.” Gabriel took a step away from the woman.
“It’s already started, Gabriela. There is nothing you, or I, can do to stop it. Any Moment Cy-Tech is going to begin their assault, and we will fight back. All those people you saw outside are going to die. Not by our hands, but by Cy-Tech’s. They are willing to do anything to stop us. Think about that before you decide to lecture me about the morals of war.” The woman hissed as she loomed over her.
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Gabriela swallowed the knot that was forming in her throat. “I am not one of you soldiers.”
“You are now.” Angela turned Gabriela around effortlessly and gave her shove forward. “I never wanted to be a soldier either, but it was never my choice, and it is not your choice.”
“Is anything my choice?” Gabreila looked over her shoulder.
“To live, or to die. Those are your only choices. Which one are you going to choose?”
Angela stood and waited for her answer. Gabreila shouldered the carbine and started walking, Angela’s heavy footsteps rang out as she followed her.
The back of the facility loaded and unload trucks full of goods that were brought to the warehouse. Angela helped her put on body armor, double checking it before she handed Gabriela magazines for her rifle. Gabriela tucked her meta deck away in an empty pocket on the armor.
“Here.” Angela handed Gabreila a helmet cuff after she was done strapping the magazines in their designated pockets.
Gabriela turned the cuff over in her hands. It was a standard cuff for a motorbike. It was even certified by The UN Safety Board. “What is this for?”
Angel answered her by pulling a tarp away, revealing an electric Hypersport cycle, its dull red paint gleaned in the fluorescent lights. “She's beautiful, isn't she? Zero to one hundred kilometers in three point five seconds. Can easily handle one hundred and eighty kilometers an hour. Best of all? It’s jailbroken. Can’t be hacked or traced.”
Gabreila took a step back and let out a nervous laugh. “I can’t ride that thing.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“No, I mean I have never ridden a bike like that.”
“I will pilot it for you.” Soma’s voice came suddenly out of nowhere.
“Did you deal with the net breakers?” Angela asked.
“Yes. I went so deep into the ether, Angela. Farther than I have ever been. What I saw. . .” Soma’s voice trailed off. The sound of awe and wonder practically dripped from his voice.
“Will have to wait. We need to get her out of here, and now.”
Gabriela jumped when the first gun shot was heard. It was followed by the roar of gun fire, the sound cascading around them.
“Get on the bike. Now!” Angela ordered “Soma, wait for us to draw them in.”
Gabriela slipped the cuff around her neck, and pushed the button under her chin. The cuff unfolded. Polycarbonate plates slid into place, forming the helmet around her head. The helmet linked with the bike, displaying information on the HUD on her faceplate.
Gabriela threw her leg over the bike and mounted it.
“Try not to fight the steering,” Soma warened. “Keep your upper body as upright as possible while you lean forward, leaning your lower body with the bike.”
“I can’t do this.” Gabriela blinked away tears. Everything she had gone through, all the damage and pain that was inflicted on her, was finally becoming too much for her.
“Yes you can. We can get out of here. Both of us. You just have to trust me, Gabriela.”
“I trust you.” She whispered.
The bike hummed to life. Gabriela looked at Angela one last time.
“God's speed.” The woman said to her just as the bike sped forwards.