CRUOR
ADAM
Derek shook Adam awake. Adam had never expected to go to sleep at reasonable hours at college, but when zombies could attack at any moment, they didn't really have the luxury of staying up too late. They got whatever rest they could.
Adam glanced at the clock. One in the morning. Dammit, it was a Thursday, too. He had classes early. Well, I guess I'll have to skip them, he thought.
He jumped out of bed, dressed himself in a small set of tactical armor—basically just black cloth with plastic plates woven in—and grabbed his gun case. He belted everything in their now-familiar positions: Pistol on his right hip, SMG on his left, shotgun over his right shoulder and the rifle over his left.
The others were ready before him, of course. Akane was wearing the new black gi Ling had given her, but she wasn't wearing Flynn's earrings. Adam figured that wasn't all that surprising, but she had seemed so excited when she first got them. Whatever.
They collected Laura in the lobby, and met the retinue out front. It seemed as though Necessarius was using Laura's changeling as an early warning system, so they were ready for them. At least that was a way to use the kid without actually throwing him into combat.
Kat was conspicuous by her absence, and no one talked much. Usually Adam ended up striking up a conversation with George, but he was too subdued. He hadn't been very close with Kat, Adam knew, but it was still hard when someone was just ripped out of your life like that.
Adam didn't say anything stupid like “she'll be fine,” or “we'll find a cure.” She might be and they might find one, but right now they were just empty platitudes.
Their destination wasn't that far, so at least the silence didn't stretch for more than a couple minutes. Before it had any real chance to get awkward, they were already there, piling out of the van at the Necessarian redoubt.
“Where is everyone?” Kelly asked, glancing around. Alex followed, fumbling for their night vision goggles.
Jarasax frowned. “I don't know. MC said they were here. Something's not right.”
Adam agreed. Even disregarding MC, there was obviously a redoubt here, built recently. It wasn't anything fancy, just a bunch of upended tables arranged outward in the hopes it would keep the screamers out, but that isn't something that people just left in the middle of the street.
But there was no one around. No 'sarians, no civilians, and no screamers. Adam couldn't even hear them.
Adam nudged Derek. “Where are they? Can you tell?”
“Up ahead,” he said. Listening closely, Adam could hear a dull drone coming from that direction. “I have a bad feeling. It's a big group.” He gestured Akane and Ling forward, and they headed off at a fast pace, with only the slightest hesitation on Ling's part. In the darkness, they fell out of sight very quickly.
“Let's get up in the buildings,” Kelly said. “Travel by rooftop.” Domina's structures were so close together that it was actually a viable option to jump from roof to roof. Hell, half the time there were ziplines already set up for the bigger gaps.
They went for the structure to the left, a vertical mall of stores, leaving Derek on the ground with Akane and Ling. They had to pick the lock since none of the windows were broken, and Kelly didn't want to risk any screamers hearing them. It only took a moment, though. Alex was pretty good at this part of the job, even if they never got to show off.
The ground floor was just clothing, mostly winter stuff, and the second floor was their storeroom. They could have used the customer elevator, but no one felt comfortable with that, so they used the stairs in the back, peeking at each floor in case there was anything useful.
There wasn't. There were a few electronics stores, but most were more clothing. Every other floor was another storeroom, and they did see some useful things in those, but nothing worth grabbing.
It was a tall building, but they finally managed to come out on the roof. Adam's legs were sore, but not aching. Weeks of running and fighting for your life toughened you up pretty fast.
They made good progress over the rooftops. As expected, there were various planks, ziplines, and ladders that made the whole thing easier. Laura had a bit of trouble on some of the more difficult jumps, but she was hardly helpless.
Eventually they reached the last building, overlooking the square where the screamers were. It was about thirty stories, so with the darkness it was hard to tell what was going on below, but Adam could see a massive crowd writhing around. Screams wafted up from below, that same emotionless sound they had all come to dread.
Laura glanced down, then stepped back from the edge and pulled out her phone. The rooftop was relatively uncluttered, just a couple air conditioning units and a short wall to keep maintenance men from falling. She leaned against one of the boxy metal units, more tired than the rest of them.
She tapped her phone, contacting the others. “Derek, what's it look like down there?”
The rest of the group could hear heavy breathing through the speaker phone. It took him a moment to respond. “Not good. There are maybe a thousand screamers here. I haven't seen them use their powers, but I think they already infected everyone in the area. I can't see any survivors.”
“What about the 'sarians?” Adam asked. He noted out of the corner of his eye that Kelly was looking down on the crowd with a pair of binoculars. With her nighteyes, she'd be able to see more than the rest of them.
“I see a few,” he said. “All infected. They're kinda just... milling around. They aren't as destructive as most of the other screamers. I don't know why.”
“Probably because there's no one for them to fight,” Laura said. “Do you see any singers? If the Composer was smart, that might be why they all got infected so fast.”
“No, no, I don't see any.”
“One second, Derek.” Adam turned to Kelly. “How about you?”
She lowered the binoculars and scratched the device on her left arm, shaking her head. “No, me neither.” She frowned. “I don't like this. It doesn't make any sense.”
“We need to know their power,” Jarasax said. “But the second Derek's team strikes, the zombies will be on them like maggots on a corpse. They can't hold them all off.”
“If their power is geared completely towards infection, we should be fine,” Ling said from over the phone.
Alex shook their head. “Not something we want to test. That's still a lot of zombies.”
George shifted the weight of his minigun, frowning. “Hey... if they're not attacking at all...” He trailed off.
“Yes?” Adam said. George kept his mouth shut unless he actually had a good idea. He wouldn't have spoken up unless he had something to contribute.
He shook his head. “I'm just wondering—if they're all infected, and they're not attacking, that means that there are no civilians left to get hurt, and no one to shoot down a chopper.”
Laura brightened. “Of course. Have Necessarius airdrop some knockout gas. That'll do the trick.”
Adam threw up his hands. “Why didn't we do that before? Not all of them had ranged attacks.”
She shrugged. “Most did, but more importantly, screamers have a higher resistance to that sort of thing than civilians. The rage adrenaline acts sort of like Buffout or another chem, though not as extreme. The sleeping gas takes longer to take effect, and it won't last as long. The civvies would get torn to shreds in the meantime.”
Adam snorted. “Seems like an acceptable price to pay, considering the losses we've been taking.”
“There is a difference between failing to protect civilians and signing their death warrant yourself,” Derek said from the phone. “This was never an option until now.”
“Besides,” Laura said, “the biters were the only ones without a ranged attack. They sent a helicopter near the burners, and it got shot down.” She scratched her chin. “Of course, we'll need backup. The gas will only work for about an hour. MC? You listening?”
MC's voice chirped from the phone. “Yeah, yeah. You said there were about a thousand, all confined to the one square?”
Adam blinked. They hadn't said that. But it was true regardless, so Laura confirmed it. “Yes.”
“Good. I'll have a chopper and a company of peacekeepers down there in a sec. You might want to figure out the screamers' power first, though. Don't want them walking into it completely blind.”
“Agreed,” Laura said tersely. “But we'll still need to wait for reinforcements. Derek, you on board?”
“Yeah, of course. Just give us a minute to get in position.”
It was a small thing, but those were always the ones that gave you pause. Kelly had started looking down on the horde again, and she spoke. She didn't say “crap,” or “uh-oh” or any of a thousand other things that would have immediately clued the others in on the danger.
She just said “Huh,” in a curious tone of voice. Like she had seen something unexpected and unimportant.
That got Adam's attention pretty quickly, though he wasn't sure why. He walked to her side with a frown.
“What's up?”
She shook her head, not putting down the binoculars. “I'm not sure. It's... interesting, but I don't quite know what to make of it.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Out with it.”
She shrugged sheepishly. “Well... the screamers are bleeding.”
Adam blinked.
“It took me a while to notice. At first I thought they were just covered in blood from their victims. But every single one I've seen has been bleeding, usually from the hand. It's curious.”
Adam flipped out his phone and speed-dialed Derek. He picked up quickly.
“Their power has something to do with blood,” Adam told him. “Hell if I know what, but Kelly noticed that they're all bleeding. Be careful down there.”
“We will,” he promised, and hung up.
Somehow, Adam wasn't reassured.
Adam walked back to the others and spoke to Laura. “We think their ability is blood-based. What's your research say about that?” Laura and Doctor Clarke—mostly Clarke—had been studying the powers as much as possible. She had explained that progress was frustratingly slow, since the screamers obviously wouldn't cooperate, and the sane people with powers were too busy to help.
She shook her head. “It's hard to say. We've identified a few interesting things, but nothing that will really help here.”
Adam leaned against the air conditioner. It wasn't like I had anything else to do. “What kind of interesting things?”
She warmed to the subject. This was probably a perfect time to ask. Keep her mind off Kat's absence, and more specifically her inability to fix it.
“Well, it seems powers are both more and less specific than you'd think. Take Ling's power, for instance. What would you call it?”
Adam shrugged. “The power to control earth?”
She grinned. “Yes, but it's more than that. You see, she's actually telekinetic.”
“Meaning... she can move objects with her mind.”
“Yes, exactly. That's her power. But it seems like everyone—or the kineticists, anyway, since they're our largest sample group—have a talent as well. A subset of their power.”
Adam slowly got it. “Ling's is to move earth.”
“And the burners' is to move fire,” she said, excited. Adam had never seen her animated like this before. “We don't have any conclusive list of powers yet, of course, but it seems like the first one we encountered was actually a pyrogenic, rather than a kineticist. She could create it, but not control it.”
Jarasax put his phone away. “Alpha Company is here, and is advancing on the southern flank.”
“Good,” Laura said with a nod, jumping back on track. “Tell them to lay down some suppressing fire, get the screamers' attention, while Derek's team does recon.” Jarasax nodded and pulled out his phone again to relay the orders.
Something didn't feel right.
Sax's phone chirped. “This is Alpha leader.” Sax had put it on speaker. “All platoons are moving forward now.”
Adam was missing something important.
“We are in visual range of the enemy. Advancing. They don't seem to have spotted us.”
Something about what Laura had said...
“Engaging now.” There was a brief pause. “They seem to be returning fire...”
That was enough. He finally figured it out.
Adam grabbed Jarasax's phone frantically. “Alpha leader, fall back now! I repeat, fall back now!”
Sax tried to grab his phone back. “What the hell, Adam?” The rest of the retinue were staring at him too, though George was moving towards the edge with his minigun. He was confused, but he was better at trusting his instincts.
“Negative, sir,” Alpha leader said. “Enemy fire is minimal. We can handle it.”
“It's not fire! It's blood! That's how they infected everyone! They're shooting infected blood!”
The only response from his end was screaming. A tuneless, emotionless scream of pure noise.
Then the line went dead.
Adam cursed and tossed the phone back to Jarasax. “They're lost,” he said tiredly. He brushed his hair back from his sweat-stained forehead. “Derek, you hear all that?”
“Yes, and we can still save them—”
There were sounds of a scuffle from his end of the line.
Laura immediately jumped up, her hand on her necklace. “Derek, respond. What's wrong?”
Ling's voice replied instead. “He's trying to run into a horde of zombies. Akane's trying to stop him. One sec.”
Adam cursed. “Derek, Alpha Company is gone. We'll collect them when we gas the rest of the screamers.”
There was muffled cursing from the line, then Adam heard his voice in the background. “No... I... get off me—”
Stolen novel; please report.
A moment passed.
“Derek is out cold,” Ling said. “We have to run. There's no way we can fight while protecting him.”
Laura muttered something unprintable. “Fine. We'll take it from here.” She hung up the phone and looked at the rest of them, a determined expression on her face. “We're going to have to be careful. One drop and you'll turn. But we should be safe up here.”
“Wait,” George said. “I'm still confused. What's their power?”
“Something to do with blood,” Adam said. “Either controlling it or creating it and shooting it like a squirt gun, it doesn't matter.”
“Probably the former,” Laura said. “If it was the latter, it might not be infectious.”
“Whatever. When's that chopper getting here?”
She wiggled her hand from side-to-side. “Eh, twenty minutes. We can just wait. It's dark, and the helicopter is remote-piloted. They won't sense any blood on it, and probably wouldn't be able to reach it if they did.”
Adam frowned. “Wait, back up. What do you mean sense any blood?”
“Oh, didn't I mention that?” She shrugged. “Yeah, from some of the things Loga and Ling said, it's become clear that kineticists can sense things they can control. That's why using a helicopter against the burners was right out; they could sense the heat of the engine, and make it explode. Well, they did do it.”
Adam stared at her. “So these bleeders can sense us?”
Her mouth gaped in surprise for a moment, but then she blinked, and smiled again. “Yes, of course, but we're out of their range. If they could sense us, they would have attacked already. They're not smart enough to wait.”
George readied his minigun. “Didn't you say something about the screamers having both aggressive and defensive types?”
Laura nodded. “Correct. And these are clearly aggressive.”
“But they can switch, right?”
“Yes. Only from defensive to aggressive, but yes.”
“What if they were defensive before?”
Laura frowned. “What do you mean?”
“What if they were defensive, and ignoring us on purpose?”
She stared at him.
“Would an entire company of peacekeepers be enough to make that switch?”
Kelly, still looking down the side of the building, was the one who answered. “Apparently so. Or maybe they just want to say hi.” She stepped back from the edge and readied her pistol, a Necessarian model that Adam couldn't identify. “Either way, they're coming.”
Adam looked around the roof and found a few tall air conditioning units arranged in a square, with only one space open so mechanics could get in for maintenance. He pointed to it. “That should help us hold them off. Force them to bottleneck themselves.”
“Unless they climb,” Alex said.
Adam grinned, trying to look more confident than he felt. “Aggressive ones are stupider, remember? Hopefully they'll go straight for the obvious route.”
“You're betting all our lives on that hope,” Kelly said.
Alex rolled their entire body in exasperation. “Ugh. Do you have a better idea? No? Then come on.”
It was a tight fit for all six of them, but they managed to get George's minigun pointed at the opening, which was pretty much all they needed. They waited anxiously for a few minutes, not even sure if they were coming.
Then Adam heard the screaming.
Quiet at first, but it built, that emotionless cry coming from every direction at once, as the zombies got closer and closer.
“Remember,” Laura said, “try not to kill them if possible.”
Adam shook his head as he pulled out his Sica. Anything bigger than a pistol would just get in his way in this enclosed space. “No way. We're going to have enough problems if we're willing to kill.”
“Plus, they can control their blood,” Kelly said.
Alex nodded. “Exactly. If they're wounded but alive, they might be more of a danger than if they were uninjured. Killing is the only option.”
“Silver and...” Laura took a deep breath. “Fine. But when the helicopter drops the sleeping gas, we're capturing as many as possible.”
“Hopefully they send another company, too,” Adam said. MC hadn't said anything, but Necessarius wasn't stupid enough to think nine people—eight, with Derek unconscious—could tie up a thousand people in an hour. They probably had troops on the way.
Probably.
The first screamer poked his head into their makeshift fort, and Sax blew him away before anyone could move. George had his minigun ready, but he was saving it for large groups, like always.
Two more came. Adam got the girl on the left in the head, and someone else got the man on the right with a double-tap to the chest. A half-dozen more tried to get through at once, tripping over each other in the process, and George tore them apart with the minigun. The roar nearly deafened them.
They were doing well, but they couldn't keep this up for long. And without Derek's shields, if the screamers got a chance to use their abilities, they were pretty much dead.
Another one jumped over the corpses of his comrades. Adam shot him in the leg, and as he stumbled, Kelly got him in the head. More came, more died. It got tedious very quickly. Luckily, the screamers didn't seem to know what to do with their ability in an enclosed space, so Adam and the others didn't have any real trouble.
To his surprise, though, the flow of zombies stopped after only about a dozen more tried to force their way through the gap. They stood there for a few minutes waiting for more, but none came, and the screaming had faded again.
“That can't be all of them,” Adam said.
Laura took out her phone. “Ling? You guys all right? The screamers stopped attacking us up here.”
Ling sounded exasperated on the other end of the line. “Yeah, probably because we've got the entire horde behind us. Can't talk. Bye.” She hung up before we could say anything else.
Adam cursed. “We need the screamers in one place. How big an area can the gas hit?”
Laura thought for a moment, then frowned. “No idea. I should have looked it up...”
“The bombs can be spread as far as a full square mile,” Alex said. “Though with screamers, I'm not sure the gas would be dense enough at that point to affect them.” They chewed their lip and adjusted the night vision goggles on their face. “As long as they stay on one street or intersection, it should be fine.”
“Okay, I'll tell Akane,” Laura said, typing out a text. “We should also keep them out of the buildings, so that they can't avoid the gas.”
Adam paused before answering, thinking of the full implications of that statement. “So that means it would be best if we were down on ground level.”
“Yes.”
“Among the screamers.”
Laura paused. “...yes.”
“Who can infect us very, very easily.”
Laura touched her necklace. “Well... yes, unfortunately. We don't have much of a choice.”
“There's a sloped 'scraper nearby,” Kelly said, pointing out into the darkness. The moon was still a little more than half full, so Adam could see a large skyscraper with one of the faces sloping upwards away from them at a steep incline, forming a very large and dangerous slide.
Adam scratched his chin. “I see your point. If we're up there, the bleeders will come up the slope at an angle we can shoot them.”
“They'll die from the fall,” Laura said, apparently already assuming that they wouldn't be going for kill shots.
“Probably,” Adam said. “But maybe not. They're hardy, you said so yourself.”
She frowned. “Not that hardy.”
Alex sighed. “Look Laura, this plan gives not just us a better chance to survive, but the screamers as well. I know... I know we all want a cure.” It was the first time anyone had actually come close to speaking about Kat. “And we might even find one. But right now we have to worry about ourselves.”
Laura looked at the rest of them, sighed, and nodded once.
“Good,” Kelly said decisively, putting away her binoculars. “Let's go. We need to find a way to cross that intersection full of screamers.”
Adam peered across. “The building right across from us is lower. We might be able to rig up a zipline or something.”
Laura buried her face in her hands. “Not again.” She looked up. “Derek and I did that with the burners. It wasn't fun, and it wasn't quick.”
Adam cocked his head. “A zipline wasn't quick?”
“He made a rope, and we headed across hand over hand. If we can find an actual zipline, then I'm all for it, but I don't think we'll have much luck.”
“Oh, you'd be surprised,” Alex said with a grin. “There's a hiking store just three floors down. I'm sure they have something we could use.”
It turned out they were right, and Adam came back in ten minutes with a zipline and a spike to attach it to. The spike then went in his shotgun, to be shot across the urban gorge. The box said the spike was designed to work with the Saint George specifically, but he was still a bit leery. One of the first things he learned about guns was that sticking things down the barrel and expecting them to work right was asking for trouble.
Turned out he was overreacting. He shot it across\, and it buried itself in the roof of the target building. They tied it off on their side, tested the weight, and got out the zipline handles they had with them. Again, these things were pretty common in Domina, so carrying the handles was just the result of being even slightly prepared.
“I'll go first,” George said, lumbering up. As a giant, he outweighed the rest of them by a hundred pounds, so if the line could hold him, it could hold anyone.
Before he went, he locked his minigun's safety and clipped it to the line, then let go. It zipped across quickly and smoothly, before they heard it thump into place on the other roof. The first time Adam had seen him do that, he had been worried, but apparently the GE XM134 was a sturdy model.
“Seems good,” George said with a grunt. He prepared the handle, took a deep breath, and leaped into the void.
The air conditioner they had attached their end of the line to groaned dangerously, but it held. He reached the other side, rolled once, then stood and gave them a thumbs-up.
The rest of them followed. Kelly went last, because despite the clear moonlight, she still had the best nightvision, and would be able to spot anything sneaking up on her. In the end it didn't matter of course, and she made it across safely.
Laura's phone rang just before Kelly started across, five simple beeps—MC's ring tone. She picked it up immediately. “What's wrong?” She paused, listening. She must have taken it off speaker at some point. “Okay, we'll let you know when we have them in position. Drop some gas masks for us, too.” She hung up.
“That was MC,” she said somewhat unnecessarily. “The helicopter will be here in a couple minutes, but Akane says the screamers are too far out of position. So we need to lure them back. And...” There was a thump from the center of the roof, and Adam saw that a black bag had apparently fallen from the sky. “I guess they're here. Well, those are gas masks, so we don't get knocked out with the screamers.”
“Did she say anything about more troops?” Adam asked as he grabbed one of the masks. He didn't put it on yet, though, just clipped it to his belt.
“Yeah, they're with the prison trucks, about a mile out. They'll come in once the place is gassed.”
Well, that was a better plan than last time. “We still need to get to that other building,” he said, pointing at the sloped structure next door. It was only about twenty feet away, but it was also a sheer wall with no windows or balconies. Adam couldn't tell what it was supposed to be for.
“That won't be a problem at all,” Kelly said. “Just get inside and take the elevator to the top.”
Adam stared at her. “Somehow, I don't think it's going to be that easy.”
She shrugged.
Well, they didn't have a better option, or any real reason not to take this one, so they rappelled down to the street below. A few screamers spotted them, but Adam killed them with his Caedes.
“That will draw their attention,” he said. “Alex, how are you coming on the door?”
When he looked over, the wide metal service doors were already open, with everyone else already piling through. Alex grinned at him.
“No need to show off,” Adam muttered under his breath. The angel just laughed and followed the rest of them inside.
Them barred the doors behind them, and made sure to block the stairs leading up as well. The last thing they needed was screamers attacking their backs.
They had to take the freight elevator up due to their combined weight, but otherwise the sixty floor ride was uneventful. They took the time to call Akane and Ling again, to get a status update and make sure they didn't think something was wrong. They had managed to throw off pursuit, which was perfect. The screamers were still scattered, but they'd come running soon enough.
The roof was completely bare, except for a trapdoor to the stairs. It was really disconcerting. With the slope, they only had about ten feet of roof in that direction, and Adam didn't have any illusions that he'd somehow be able to catch himself if he fell.
He took a deep breath. Nothing else to do but play out the plan.
“You ready, Alex?”
They nodded and put their gloves on, the ones with the magnifying glasses in the palms. A moment later they took off their night vision goggles. They were completely nightblind without them, but that wouldn't be an issue long. “Ready.”
They all lined up on the edge, weapons out. Adam had chosen his Athena. He hadn't really had much chance to use it outside the shooting range, so this was going to be a good opportunity for him to practice. Jarasax and George would handle the bulk of the horde, while Kelly and Laura shot anything that got past them.
“All right,” Laura said. “Everyone else ready?”
They all chimed off, one by one.
She nodded. “Good. Alex, light the beacon.”
Alex stepped forward, held out their hands, and activated the patches of dayskin on their palms. Twin beams of light, too bright to look at, shone out like spotlights. After a moment, they centered them on their van, where a large number of the bleeders had clustered. They slowly began to walk the beams towards themselves.
It worked perfectly, the zombies following the unexpected patch of daylight like a cat following a laser pointer.
“They're almost in position,” they said calmly. “We might not even need to fight. Just drop the gas on them straight.”
Of course, they spoke too soon.
While the bulk of the horde was still clustered around the end of the beam, others were already scaling the slope of their redoubt like rats, trying to get to the source of the light.
They climbed fast, despite the steep incline, and they were about half way up before Adam even knew what was going on. But, he was ready, so he sighted through his scope and targeted one of the screamers. Laura wanted them to shoot them in the legs, in the hopes that they'd survive to be cured later. But...
But they were too dangerous.
Adam adjusted his aim slightly and shot the first one dead center, in the chest. Her scream changed briefly to a screech of pain, and she fell backwards, tumbling like a rag doll back down the slope and to the street below, still covered in a writhing carpet of zombies.
Laura noticed immediately. “Adam, what the hell—”
“Talk later,” he snapped. He got another screamer in the chest, which managed to trip up another behind it as it fell. Behind him, Laura cursed, but started shooting as well.
“Get your masks ready,” Alex said, as Adam shot another screamer. “They're dropping the gas any second now.”
Adam put his mask on, as did everyone but Alex, who couldn't spare a hand. But Adam had a thought. Luckily, the masks had a simple speaker so he could still talk. “Wait, if they're dropping it down there, why do we even need masks?”
“The gas they're using is heavier than air,” Laura said, her voice tinny and mechanical. “They'll spray it from high up, and it will float down to cover everything.” She shrugged. “We're probably still safe, but best to be sure.”
Adam still couldn't see the chopper anywhere. There weren't very many clouds, but he was a little bit busy to be looking around the sky for anything. He just kept shooting, felling screamer after screamer. It was only when he stopped to reload that he noticed a fine mist, dappled with moonlight, falling from the sky.
The gas really looked quite beautiful, like a silver blanket slowly covering the streets below us. Alex's beams looked even more like searchlights than before, shining into the fog and highlighting it, rather than cutting through it.
Then the lights flickered and died, and Adam remembered that the angel wasn't wearing a gas mask.
Before anyone could do anything, Alex tumbled forward, rolling down the steep slope to a horrible death sixty floors below.
Adam cursed and holstered his Athena. He didn't have any choice. He jumped after them.
Of course, he went feet first, sliding on his rear, so he had a great deal more control over his descent than they did. He managed to increase his speed enough so that he caught up with Alex. He grabbed their arm and pulled them close, using his body like one of those emergency sleds they had at ski resorts.
Except without safety straps.
Or brakes.
And they were both going to die.
While Adam clutched Alex to his chest with his left hand, he used his right to get the large combat knife off his hip and stabbed it into the slope of the building.
The walls of the structure—including the crazy ramp they were on—were made of relatively weak materials like plaster, rather than concrete or even sheetrock. This unquestionably saved their lives, at least for a moment. If it was anything else, Adam probably wouldn't have even been able to stab the knife in.
But luck was with him, and he did manage to create a crude brake. His arm was wrenched behind him at an angle it was not supposed to go, and he felt a long, sharp pain, which probably came from a dislocated shoulder. He screamed in agony, and the knife began to cut a long line through the slope. The same weak materials that allowed him to stab the blade in in the first place also kept him from creating a functional anchor.
Eventually, maybe a dozen feet from the end of the slope, the knife caught on something unyielding, and they stopped with another jolt. Adam felt like his arm was going to pop off, and he cried out again. He was having trouble breathing with the mask on, but he didn't dare remove it. The sleeping gas was so thick at this level that he could barely see a foot in front of his face.
He could see over the edge where the slope ended. Unfortunately, it didn't reach down to the street. There was a long, sheer drop of five or ten floors between me and the ground. The screamers could scale it easily, and Adam might have even been able to manage it in better circumstances, but he couldn't do it with a dislocated shoulder and an unconscious angel in his arm.
But now that he had a chance to pay attention, he listened closely—mostly in an attempt to keep his mind off the sharp, agonizing grinding sensation at his shoulder—and realized that he couldn't hear any screamers any more.
“Adam! Respond! You all right?”
It was Kelly's voice, coming from inside his mask. MC must have suborned the radio or something. A lot of Domina tech was designed to let her take over in an emergency.
“Uh—ow—yeah, mostly.” Talking hurt. Well, everything hurt. “I'm stuck about a hundred feet from the ground. Alex is still with me.” Mostly because his arm had tightened like a vise as he fell. He was pretty sure he had broken some of their ribs. “I'm not sure how long I can stay here. Can MC send the chopper?”
“No can do,” MC said. “It's a drone. Full auto, no place for passengers. But there are kemos in the 'sarian group that's cleaning up the bleeders. Hang tight, a couple will climb up to you in a minute.”
“Okay, I can hang on for a little while longer. But make it quick.” Adam had a thought. “And tell the cleaners to be careful. The screamers should be bleeding, and I don't think they have to be conscious to be infectious.”
“Don't worry,” she said. “They know, and they've got full body gloves on. Just save up your strength. You're done for today.”