Mai woke up, briefly forgetting that they’d holed up in a sewer control room. Stretching, she looked over to see Johnny sat in a comfortable-looking desk chair.
“Any food left? How about water?” She croaked. She hadn’t been this thirsty or hungry before. It felt as though her stomach was gnawing at her spine, whilst every word spoken was a battle to get her furry-feeling tongue to work.
“Not much. All the water’s gone as well. I’m not at the stage where I’m going to want to eat a human. But we need to get out of here. What’s your BIO-MASS at?” Johnny’s shoulders were rounded as he spoke, and he constantly rubbed at his face, moving his mouth as if his jaw hurt.
“I’ve got ten per cent,” it was lower than she preferred to have it, yet was better than the zero it had been before. She could still make a weapon and some ammunition, but if she did that, she wouldn’t have enough nanites to heal herself more than removing a couple of scratches if they got into trouble.
“Not enough. We’re going to have to go up. There’s going to be a supply drop later today. Notification came through whilst you were sleeping. It’s going to be helluva dangerous, but we don’t have a choice.”
Mai nodded and immediately wished she hadn’t as her brain felt as though it was trying to climb through her forehead.
“Good to go?”
She could hardly say no. Instead she offered a hand for him to pull her to her feet. Even grasping his hand to be pulled up was an effort.
“How long we got?” She didn’t feel able to speak in longer sentences.
“Couple of hours. There’s a load of drops happening. The nearest is a couple hundred levels above us. We need to climb three and then there’s an elevator we can take all the way up.”
“Too dangerous, we’ll get off three levels below and then try and climb up.”
“Well, ladies first,” he gestured to the ladder. Too tired to say anything, Mai set her foot on the first rung. Paused. Took a deep breath.
“Thanks again for saving me earlier,” it was all she could summon the energy to say as she placed a leaden foot on the first rung.
“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” he smiled and waved for her to start climbing.
***
“If I never see a fucking ladder again it’ll be too soon,” groaned Johnny as he shook his arms out. Mai just lay on the floor as she sucked huge breaths in.
“We’ve got to get moving. You’re too slow. Pick up the pace eh?” He nudged her with his toe. His tone was light, but she could hear the concern in his voice.
“Yeah. Okay. Good to go.”
“Elevator’s this way.” He took hold of her hand and pulled her to her feet with a grunt. “Seriously Mai, pick up the pace. We get to the supplies we have a fighting chance of surviving.”
Stumbling after him, it was only after she’d taken a few paces that she realised they were back into the city proper. After the oftentimes claustrophobic tunnels of the sewers it was shocking to be in such a wide open space. And the air, she breathed deeply, taking in all the smells of the city and none of the sewer. It was as if she was truly breathing real air for the first time and she drank it in, inhaling so deeply it felt as though her chest would burst.
She couldn’t tell what mile they were in and her thoughts were too fuzzy to remember, but there was a decent number of people on the pedway. Looking around, she tried to spot a level indicator, but couldn’t spot one. Shrugging, she pushed it to the back of her mind. What really mattered was that they weren’t in the sewers and they were soon going to be getting supplies.
“Can’t we go to a shop?”
“I’ve not got any money. You?”
She shook her head and stumbled, catching hold of a passing man. He cried out in alarm, raising both hands to show he wasn’t a threat.
“Please don’t hurt me,” he begged, tears streaming down his face.
“I won’t. Just need to … catch my breath.”
“Sorry mister,” Johnny took hold of her arm gently, “We’ve had a rough day.”
“No harm. Buddha’s blessing cullers.”
As soon as she let go the man was off, practically running in his haste to get away from the two cullers.
“I’m going to activate my STREET SMARTS,” she said. “Make sure we’re not ambushed or anything.”
“Good idea. I’ve got mine running too.”
She’d forgotten that he’d run a gang. His STREET SMARTS would be streets ahead of hers. Smiling at the crappy pun she let him help her to the elevator.
“Announcement said that the supplies are going to be on level 5-376.”
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“So we get off on 5-373 and work out a way of making our way up. Maybe by the time we get there everyone going for it will have killed each other.”
“We can but hope. Lift’s full!” He shouted at the people both in the elevator and waiting to get in.
A large man turned to argue but closed his mouth with a snap when he saw the two cullers, Johnny now sporting an evil-looking axe hand. Having ‘Culler’ before his name was most likely another reason.
The crowd parted, those in the elevator fighting to get out before the cullers entered.
“You’re an evil shit,” she chuckled.
“Hey, anything to keep us alive,” he laughed.
Pushing her up against the wall he selected 5-373.
“Game face on Mai. No pissing about. Total focus. Okay?” His cold eyes stared at her intently.
“You got it,” she replied, steeling herself for whatever might be waiting for them.
“Easiest way up is over the pedway barrier and then just shimmy up the side of this hab-block.”
Easy was relative. They were five miles up. Looking over the handrail she could just about make out a pedway crossing between the block they were in and the block opposite. That pedway was easily half a mile below them.
“Long way to fall,” she sighed. Her head spun slightly at the sight. She and her sister had been core dwellers, meaning that they rarely got to see the full height of the building they were in.
Her balcony looked out into one of the many snickleways inside the building. Although they were still twenty levels or so above what she used to think of ground level, it still didn’t match the yawning chasm she stood over now. It dawned on her, again, just how much her life had changed.
“So don’t bloody fall. I’ve found a climbing suit which will only cost five per cent. It’s buried bloody deep in ‘Sports Utility Clothing. Called, Arachnid Suit. Search for it and get climbing. We’ve got less than ten minutes before the drop comes.”
“Roger that.” Her body hurt more than she was ready to deal with. She wasn’t sure what Johnny’s healing had or hadn’t done for her, she hadn’t had time to check it out, but it felt as though it had resented every second helping her.
Doing a keyword search, she found the suit in the blink of an eye and selected it. Waving aside the different colour options, she plumped for the default choice. It was snug, so tight it left nothing to the imagination.
As she approached the wall, spikes appeared all over her palms and, from the feel of it, the soles of her boots. They were tiny and she tested them out by placing her palm flat on the rail and pulling towards herself. Her hand didn’t budge an iota. She wondered for a brief second if this was a better choice than her earlier selection of growing spurs for climbing.
“Climb,” Johnny placed a foot onto the pedway and stood, placing his palms on the wall above the pedway. “Next level’s sealed. Just windows and such. Not far, we can rest at the next pedway.”
Mai gulped as she took hold of the rail and put her foot onto it. It was only as wide as a hand length. Absolutely fine if it was laid on the ground and she was walking along it. But up here it might as well have been as thin as a twig.
Johnny grunted as he started to climb, pulling himself up by his hands until he was able to get a toe-hold on the wall.
Teetering on the rail and trying desperately not to think about the fall behind her, Mai joined him.
“Not so bad once you get your feet working,” panted Johnny.
“Right. Yeah. No. It’s still knackering,” she wheezed.
“Seriously Mai. You’ve got to suck it up. I’m depending on you,” gone was the warmth which he usually had when speaking to her. “I want to live dammit.”
“Sorry, I’ll be right as rain when we get those supplies.”
Johnny said nothing, just kept climbing. She followed. He was right. It did get easier once all four limbs were in contact with the surface and she found she could easily rest without having to worry about slipping. The suit was far easier to use than the spurs she’d had when climbing down the pipe. The only downside she could think of was the cost, as the suit was more. She would have to think on that, later. Much later, when she had a chance. If she ever got a chance.
They reached the end ten gruelling minutes later, right as kill markers started to appear on the minimap. “How much BIO-MASS you got?” Johnny panted. “I’m at forty-five per cent.”
“Five. Enough to create blades with a little left for healing. Or just enough to create an SMG with a short magazine.”
“Dammit. Okay. I’ll go with the guns. You go with blades.”
They were just below the pedway leading into the level they needed, and the sounds of battle could be heard. Screams, shouts, explosions, and the rattle of gunfire.
“I’m going to pop a camera over.” He let go of the wall with one hand and changed it into a snake cam. Feeding it over the rail of the pedway he fell silent.
Mai was happy to not have to speak. Her health was still too low, but she didn’t have enough nanites to both fully heal herself and make herself combat effective. She didn’t fancy healing herself for such a small amount just to have the nanites carve chunks out of her when she made weapons.
“Okay. Coast’s clear. Doesn’t seem to be anything going on. Pop over the rail and head to the pillar you’ll see about five paces to your left. Get your blades up when you’re in cover.”
“Got it.”
They moved at Johnny’s nod, scaling the wall, and slipping onto the pedway in near silence.
Bodies lay all around and Mai’s brow furrowed in confusion as the number of bodies didn’t match the number of kill markers on her map.
“Civilians. Must have been caught in the cross fire. People are getting desperate,” Johnny commed from his position to her right. There was a burst of gunfire and another kill notification popped up.
“Man, they’re really going for it. Okay to move?”
She gave a thumbs up and at his nod ran for the next pillar in front of her. As soon as she was in position he moved up in a similar fashion.
“See anything you can use?” He was kneeling down behind his pillar, carefully searching what looked like a dead culler.
None of the bodies near her were close enough to risk leaning out to search.
“Nothing I can see. They’re too far from me.”
“Okay, this one’s got nothing. I’ll move first this time.”
“Go,” she ordered. He went, sprinting and then sliding into cover by the next pillar. “Oh, you’re so smooth and heroic,” she teased.
“Yeah. Natural-born hero. Your turn.”
She didn’t bother with anything fancy. Just ran as fast as she could. Dropping into cover she saw that she was close enough to a body to risk leaning out and pulling it closer.
“I’m going to search this one.”
She’d wisely decided to only have the one weapon hand, leaving the other free and saving some BIO-MASS for when she really needed it.
Lowering herself as far down as possible without actually lying on the floor she reached out and snagged the body’s ankle. Leaning back she used her body weight to both drop back into cover and pull the body closer.
“Thank the gods I didn’t choose someone bigger,” she panted to Johnny’s clear amusement.
Pulling it even closer she started to search what she could now see was a culler. Then she looked at her minimap. Why wasn’t there a kill marker right in front of her?