If we survived the next few minutes.

  CHAPTER 27

  The vibration of heavy footfalls shook the floor of Zariv’s office, announcing the bots’ imminent arrival.

  “We need to move, now!” Matt repeated. He moved to the doorway, leaning his head out to check the corridor before quickly ducking back inside the office, an instant before a handful of plasma bolts smacked into the surrounding walls. Holding his blaster in one hand, plasma knife in the other, he drew a deep breath, preparing for war.

  I spared one last mournful glance toward Nyree’s still form before we spilled out into the corridor. A half-dozen bots had just rounded the far corner, already securing a bead on us. Their blank faces showed no emotion, just cold mechanical purpose.

  “Rocket punch!” Tyler cried, sending his fist down the passageway amidst the energy from Matt’s blaster. The titanium battering ram slammed into the lead bot, lifting it off the floor and knocking it back, Matt’s bolt flying by under it. Both the bot and Matt’s bolt slammed into the wall. Amidst the cloud of exploding plaster, Tee’s fist slowed and snapped back toward him like it was on a bungee cord. It grazed another bot’s head, almost knocking it off its feet, the stumble disrupting its aim.

  Ally stood behind them, blaster in hand but her haunted gaze seemed endlessly deep as she wrestled with taking Zariv’s life. My heart ached for her, and I feared for her safety as well. If she couldn’t…wouldn’t fight, how would she get out alive?

  How would any of us get out alive?

  “Come on!” Matt growled, a plasma bolt striking him squarely in the back as he shoved us away from the bots. The bolt burned through his outer clothing, his underlay absorbing it. But that didn’t mean the bolts that continued peppering us like horizontal rain weren’t painful. Each one felt like a hard poke followed by a flash of heat that scorched cloth and melted the metamaterials of our lightweight body armor.

  I swung my blaster toward the guards, joining Matt in returning fire. With another loud “Rocket punch,” Tee threw his fist forward again. It knocked down another bot, while Matt managed to bring a fourth down with a well-aimed headshot, exactly where Ally had already revealed their weakness. My blaster fire didn’t do much more than sizzle harmlessly against thicker parts of their armor or zip past their heads. Meanwhile, the first two robot guards Tee had downed were returning to their feet, about to add their firepower into the mix.

  “Where are we going?” Tyler shouted over the thumps, whines, hisses, and thuds of the fight.

  “The stairs are next to the elevator,” Matt replied. “We need to get there.”

  Tee’s fist returned to his arm. He caught it cleanly and cast it out again. The second time it slammed the same robot, the force breached its chest armor, crushing something important beneath. With little warning, the bot sparked.

  And exploded.

  The shockwave of the unexpected blast bowled us over, a wave of heat passing overhead. The detonation tore the other bots and the side of the building apart, shaking the entire structure and sending dust and debris billowing everywhere. It hit us like a dirty blizzard, leaving me coughing as I pushed myself upright, looking back through the haze at the gaping hole the explosion left behind.

  “Is everyone okay?” Matt asked.

  “I’m okay,” Ally said.

  “Yeah,” I replied.

  “My fist!” Tyler cried. I looked over at him, seeing that it had yet to return.

  “We can’t stay and wait for it,” Matt said. “That shuttle we spotted will be here any second.”

  “I can’t leave without⁠—“

  “Now, T-Bone!” Matt shouted, his drill sergeant tone enough to get Tee moving.

  “Maybe the Warden will give you a new one,” I said as we sprinted down the hallway, returning to the scene of our fight against the orcs. Matt immediately retrieved the rifles from the closest two, tossing one to me.

  “Pass Tee your blaster,” he said as I caught the long gun. I held it out, feeling bad for him as he accepted it. Not only had the rocket fist not returned, his stump remained an empty, metal-clad mechanism,

  Matt reached the stairway door just as the elevator adjacent to the stairwell sounded its imminent arrival. “Go, go, go!” he barked, shoving the door to the stairs open and waving us through it. It closed behind us just as the doors to the elevator opened, and another unit of bots moved out onto the floor.

  We crouched down on either side of the door, waiting, hoping none of them would open the door to check out the stairwell. If they did, we’d have a serious close-range firefight on our hands. Matt took precautions against that very thing happening. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and drew his knife. Tyler and I aimed at the doorway. Huddled in the corner, hiding her head under her arms, Ally remained too stricken to be useful.

  Every second felt like an hour, each one ticking by as we waited for one of the bots to check the stairs. If we were lucky, they would think we’d died in the blast, the threat to them eliminated. We deserved a bit of luck at this point.

  Finally, Matt relaxed, lowering his knife as the bots’ heavy footfalls signaled they were on their way to Zariv’s office. Tyler lowered his blaster, sad and angry at the loss of his fist. Ally sagged against the wall. I moved over to her, leaning my shoulder into hers. “We’ll get through this.” She lifted her head and offered a trembling smile and a limited nod.

  “We can’t stay here,” Matt said, sheathing his knife and pulling his rifle off his shoulder before pushing himself to his feet and starting down the stairs.

  I stood and helped Ally to her feet. Tee looked forlornly back at the door before we joined Matt, pounding down ten flights of concrete stairs, our footsteps echoing all the way to the lobby access door. It was only a stroke of luck that we made it there without encountering additional bots. Maybe they did think we had died in the blast.

  Matt held up a hand, signaling us to halt at the lobby door. Breathing hard, we lined up, chest-to-back. Waiting. After a few seconds, Matt eased the door open a crack.

  “Damn!” He eased it shut again. “They’re right on the other side, no more than twenty feet away. They’re facing away from us, waiting for the elevator, but that’s our only edge.”

  “How many?” I asked, my mind racing. There had to be a way out of this mess.

  “At least a dozen.” Matt grimaced and shook his head. “Bad odds, even with the element of surprise.”

  “Are there any other doors nearby?” I asked. “Maybe if we’re quiet enough, we can slip away.”

  Matt snuck his head back out the door before snatching it back again. “Good thinking, Noah. There’s a door at the corner, about ten feet to our right. Probably unsecured, but I can’t tell for sure. We have to take the chance. I’ll lay down cover fire while you make a break for it.” We all nodded. “Ready?” Again, we all nodded in unison.

  I was at Matt’s back; it was up to me to take point, with Ally at my back and Tee bringing up the rear.

  Matt tugged the stairwell door open far enough for me to slip through. He sent Ally out right behind me, then Tee. Matt eased out, slowly backpedaling behind us, his gun at the ready. I took one last glance back at the bots as we kept moving, and then I turned my attention to the door, praying it was unlocked. At first, I thought we were going to make it without being seen, but when Matt opened fire, I knew our luck had run out.

  Not waiting to grab the door handle to find out whether or not it was locked, I fired at it, the plasma sparking against the metal as it blew the handle apart. I didn’t waste time looking back to see if the bots’ plasma blasts had taken any of the others out. Hoping they’d make it out behind me, I threw my shoulder into the door, shoving it wide open, and burst out into a long, wide corridor littered with carts full of laundry, soap boxes, and empty cargo pallets. The door at the far end of the passageway hung open, revealing a warehouse and loading dock beyond.

  “Hurry!” I shouted at the others, risking a glance back as I raced toward the exit. Ally was no more than two steps behind me. Tee had almost caught up to her, and I saw Matt clear the open door, his shoulder scorched black and bloody where a bolt had chewed through his underlay. I had to swallow the fear and nausea that roiled through me. Right now, escape was the only thing that mattered.

  Tyler paused, letting Matt race past him before firing bolt after bolt at the pursuing bots. His barrage slowed them down long enough for all four of us to make it out onto the loading dock. The area was busy with loader bots transferring pallets off a large transport. They reacted once they saw us. Dropping their goods, they lumbered toward us, too slow, their long flat arms not conducive to grabbing hold of us. We dodged around them and sprinted across the warehouse floor toward the loading docks.

  The bots from the lobby poured into the warehouse, their plasma bolts sizzling into the floor at our heels. Both Tee and Matt returned fire until they had to choose between getting hit or running faster.

  Sunlight welcomed our frantic exit as we spilled out onto a loading dock. Overhead, the stern of the military shuttle was just disappearing from view, their skids down for a landing on the warehouse roof. They didn’t know yet that we were on the ground, Zariv’s campus wall looming only a few blocks away.

  “We can cut back through the garden,” Matt said, pointing to our left. “The way there looks relatively clear.”

  I could see the secondary wall and the exit in that direction, but it was further away than the outer wall and a secondary gate at the back of the compound. “We should take that way out,” I said, gesturing to it. “It’s closer and there are only two guards, plus the gate’s open.”

  Matt nodded. “Lead the way,”

  We ran full-speed away from the back of Zariv’s warehouse. Ally—she’d finally recovered from her malaise—easily taking out the two guard bots at the gate now that she knew their vulnerable spot. One well placed head shot each easily took them down.

  Once outside the gate, we cut to the left to circumvent the bots along the main road, spotting an alley in the process. We were almost there when plasma rain once again started falling on us. All but one of the bolts sizzled harmlessly past us, blasting holes in surrounding walls and pavement. One bolt grazed me in the back of the calf, puncturing my underlay. I cried out and stumbled as my skin sizzled with burning pain. I scraped up my hands for good measure when I dropped my rifle and caught my fall. Ally was there at once, hand under my arm, helping me up. I left the rifle behind, unwilling to take additional time recovering it.

  Diving into the alley, we continued our bull rush, desperate to reach the far end before the pursuing bots once again got within firing range. Every step was agonizing for me. Even with Ally pulling me along, she and I could barely keep up. Suddenly, three bots stepped around the corner directly in front of us. Without my rifle, I reacted instinctively, taking a stutter-step. Matt and Ally darted around me. Between her two kill shots and Matt’s fantastic aim, the bots went down in a hurry, only to be replaced as a dozen more charged around the corner, quickly cutting us off.

  Behind us, the bots from the lobby did the same, boxing us in.

  “Damn it!” I snapped, knowing I was responsible for sending us in the wrong direction.

  “Next time, maybe we should take the scenic route,” Tyler quipped.

  CHAPTER 28

  Curiously, the bots at both ends of the alley aimed their rifles at us but didn’t fire. Maybe they knew they had us dead to rights, or maybe their programming didn’t allow them to commit cold-blooded murder. Either way, we were sunk.

  “I’m sorry, guys,” I said. “I led us into this trap.”

  “Going through the garden could have been just as chancy,” Matt replied. “Maybe even worse.”

  “What do we do now?” Ally asked.

  “Surrender, unfortunately,” Matt answered.

  “You will drop your weapons,” one of the bots said, stepping out from the group ahead of us. “Resistance is futile.”

  “Wow, that’s original,” Tee quipped.

  Matt threw his rifle to the ground in disgust. Ally and Tee did the same. Four of the guard bots started forward to collect us.

  “Hey, guys,” Tyler said. “I feel weird.”

  “It’s probably your stomach,” Matt replied.

  “Not this time,” he answered. “I⁠—“

  We all froze, including the bots, as a sharp clang reverberated through the alley. “What the—?” Ally started to say.

  The bots in front of us whirled around, facing the opposite direction, as if another threat was coming from that direction, while the four bots behind us rushed toward us.

  “Uh, guys,” Tyler said, sporting a wide grin. “Get ready!”

  “Ready for what?” I asked.

  “It found me!” he cried, just as a silver blur shot around the corner in front of us, ripping off a bot’s head as it zoomed down the alley toward us.

  “Woohoo!” Tyler shouted as the rocket fist snapped back onto his wrist with enough force he braced himself to catch it. ”Rocket punch!” he shouted, immediately sending it back out. That was Matt’s cue to pull his plasma knife and lunge at the bots in front of him. Ally scooped up her blaster, and I went for Matt’s rifle.

  Tee’s fist crushed in one bot’s head as if it were made of nothing more than tin foil while Matt drove his blade into the third’s face, sinking it deep enough to sever whatever connection it needed to continue operating. Both bots crumpled to the ground. Reversing his grip on the knife, Matt turned and jammed the plasma blade straight through another bot’s head.

  “Kill shot,” Ally cried, still in the process of getting up. Despite the odd angle she had to shoot from, her blast somehow found the weak spot in a bot’s faceplate. Just as Tee’s fist returned to him, the bots behind us swung around and opened fire on what turned out to be our robot carriage.

  The horse took the corner into the alley at almost full speed, trampling one of the bots. Behind it, the carriage fishtailed, swinging so wildly around the corner that it took out three more bots as it charged full-tilt toward us. The driver pulled back on the reins just in time, the horse’s metal hooves shedding sparks as it slid to a crazy stop in front of us.

  ”Need a lift?” the driver hollered.

  The familiar voice emanating from the robot driver’s mouth drew astonished stares. Tyler recovered first, barking a giddy laugh. “Lantz, you crazy bastard! Is that you?”

  "In the flesh! Well, in the software. Hop in! There’s no time to waste."

  More bots poured into the alley’s mouth, emphasizing the truth of his statement. We piled into the carriage as fast as we could, Tee still closing the door behind us as the driver whipped the reins across the horse’s back. The horse snorted as it reared high in the air. “Hannngg tight,” it neighed, coming down prancing on all fours. “Things are about to get rough!” The horse took off, its metal hooves digging deep furrows into the asphalt.

  Tyler clung to his seat, face alight now that his rocket fist had returned to him. “Dude, that’s so freaking cool!” he laughed. “You can even make the horse talk!”

  Lantz's chuckle emerged like a whinny from the robo-steed. "Just trying to play the part!”

  We shot from the alley into a not-quite-empty street, nearly colliding with a transport before Lantz turned us down a second narrow alley, the transport turning around to pursue us.

  Lantz’s control allowed maneuvers impossible for an onboard driver. Still, we barely maintained our lead as a pair of armored transports barrelled out from both ends of a cross-street. Lantz veered wildly onto the sidewalk to avoid a crash, the jolt tossing me hard against Tee. He yelped something unflattering about my bony elbows before we were thrown in the opposite direction by another sharp turn.

  “They’re gaining on us, Lantz!” Matt shouted, his neck craned to monitor our pursuit.

  Lantz just laughed, his mechanized amusement at odds with our desperate situation. “I’ll shake them!”

  I risked a glance behind us, gut twisting when I saw Zariv’s transport closing rapidly, thanks to its powerful engine. Worse, it had some type of artillery mounted to the roof, a bot standing behind it, getting a bead on us. We were out of time.

  “Lantz, go left!” I screamed, wondering if those would be the last words I ever spoke.

  With a thunderous report, the weapon fired.

  Lantz made a hard right, and the shell streaked just wide of us, slamming into the pavement directly next to the horse. The explosion shook the carriage but failed to turn us over. Lantz whipped the carriage around the next corner, bolting in the opposite direction of the shipyard.

  “Wrong way!” Matt shouted, his expression reflecting pain from his wound every time the carriage skidded around a turn.

  “The only wrong way is the one that goes toward the bots,” Lantz countered. “Hold on!” He made a hard left, picking up speed down a smaller side street flanked by taller offices that looked abandoned. “Oh…crap.”

  I looked out the side window, only able to see the port wing of the military shuttle hovering a few hundred feet in front of us. A blinding flash of light preceded a sharp crack and then searing heat as a missile obliterated the robo-horse and lifted the front of the carriage up and over, sending us airborne. We bounced around like marbles inside the carriage as it flipped twice, losing the driver and wheels before crunching on impact with the street.

  Surrounded by smoke and smoldering debris, we landed upside down, the carriage roof collapsing under us. The last thing I remembered before my head hit the roof and I momentarily blacked out was a jagged piece of the undercarriage spearing the foot well between Ally and me. Too close for comfort.

  Dazed, I opened my eyes, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of me, the sounds of echoing shouts quickly dragging me all the way back to my senses. “Are you guys alright?” I asked, not getting an answer from anyone. I carefully pushed myself up on my hands and knees. My body ached all over, but somehow I had avoided serious injury in a crash. Again.